Techmeme: More music in your living room: Rhapsody debuts Xbox app (Taylor Soper/GeekWire)

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December 4, 2012, 3:50 PM

Top News

Matthew Izatt / Gmail Blog:

The Gmail app for iPhone and iPad: version 2.0 — Six months ago, our team set out to completely rebuild the Gmail app for iPhone and iPad to give you you a faster, sleeker, and easier experience on iOS. The result? Version 2.0. With version 2.0 of the app, you'll get a totally new look and feel …

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

Facebook Messenger for Android drops account requirement, taking on SMS and WhatsApp — The race to replace SMS is on — Facebook has entered the race to replace SMS in earnest today, announcing that its messenger app for Android will no longer require a Facebook account to sign up.

More: Facebook Newsroom, Forbes, CNET, BGR, CNET, Los Angeles Times, GigaOM, SlashGear, memeburn and WebProNews. Tweets: @nunomaia

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

If Facebook's Not Buying WhatsApp, It Sure Seems Like It's Building It

More: VatorNews, Mobile Marketing Watch and Inside Facebook

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

Netflix scores US subscription service exclusive to Disney's first-run films in multi-year deal — Today, Walt Disney studios and Netflix entered into a multi-year agreement that makes the online video distributor the only US subscription service with licensing to show first-run live-action and animated films from the studio.

More: PR Newswire, BGR, CNET, VentureBeat, Forbes, DailyFinance.com, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Business Insider, GigaOM, Engadget, Wall Street Journal, Tech Trader Daily, Macgasm, WebProNews and Mashable!. See also Mediagazer

Jay Yarow / Business Insider:

Mary Meeker's Latest Must-Read Presentation On The State Of The Web — Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker is doing a year-end presentation on the state of the web at Stanford tonight. — We have the slides of her presentation here. — As usual, it's a must read for anyone in the industry, or anyone with interest in technology.

More: VentureBeat, The Next Web, AllThingsD and CNET

Tweets: @stevecheney, @benontech and @runchal

See also Mediagazer

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft opens its Socl social-search site to any and all testers — Summary: Microsoft is opening up its Socl social-networking research project. There are still no public plans as to when, how and if Microsoft will take Socl commercial. — On December 4, Microsoft's FuSE team took …

More: Microsoft Fuse Labs Blog, GeekWire, Neowin, WinBeta, TechNet Blogs and WebProNews

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

iTunes Music Store Launches in 56 New Countries, Movies Arrive in Four — Earlier today, we noted that the iTunes Music Store had gone live in Russia and Turkey, but now that changes have propagated throughout iTunes and we've had time to collect reports, it now appears that Apple …

More: Apple, AllThingsD, SiliconANGLE, Mashable!, 9to5Mac, Engadget, everythingiCafe, iDownloadBlog.com, ZDNet, paidContent, Pocketnow, digitaltrends.com and iPhone Hacks

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg Tech Blog:

Apple's ITunes Would Be One of World's Biggest Media Companies

More: TUAW

Douglas Macmillan / Bloomberg:

No VC: Why Techmeme's Gabe Rivera Resists Investors — This is the fifth in a five-part series called “No VC,” which highlights startups that have succeeded without venture capital, the lifeblood of Silicon Valley. — Gabe Rivera often hears from Silicon Valley's elite …

Tweets: @gaberivera, @rafat, @jordandhudson, @mathewi and @jtemple. Thanks:@skaseyfarrar

Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:

US Patent & Trademark Office Grants Apple Registered Trademarks for “Retina” & “Game Center” Icon — On December 4, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office granted Apple two Registered Trademarks. The first trademark covers the word “Retina” representing Apple's brilliant Retina display …

More: CNET and Redmond Pie

Darren Murph / Engadget:

Google I/O 2013 dates announced: starts May 15th, registration to open early next year — Hope your calendar's clear for next May. Google has just announced the dates for I/O 2013, with the event kicking off on May 15th and concluding on May 17th. After setting up shop in San Francisco this June …

More: CNET, The Next Web, BGR, 9to5Google, The Verge, ReadWrite, VentureBeat, Gotta Be Mobile, SlashGear, Droid Life and Mashable!. Tweets: @googleio

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Evernote Expands Its Premium Offerings: Evernote Business Now Live In 7 Countries With Sharing, More Data And A New Searching Algorithm — Evernote, the popular personal information and productivity app that last week announced another $85 million in financing and more than 45 million users …

More: Evernote Blogcast, PC World, CNET, ZDNet, AllThingsD, Social News Daily, Engadget, MacStories, Mashable!, VentureBeat, PandoDaily, The Next Web and CITEworld

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

John McAfee confirms he is in Guatemala after all, and is planning a press conference tomorrow — It was only yesterday that we reported that man-on-the-run fugitive John McAfee was claiming to have falsified the metadata of a photo that placed him in Guatemala.

More: Who is McAfee?, Examiner, Business Insider, SiliconBeat, Guardian, Forbes, Betabeat, SecurityWeek and WebProNews. See also Mediagazer

Jemima Kiss / Guardian:

Soundcloud revamps site as users hit 180 million — The ‘YouTube of audio’ claims to now reach 8% of the world's internet population as mobile audio takes off — If the future of the internet is mobile, things are looking very good for Soundcloud, the Berlin-based sound-sharing site.

More: SoundCloud, The Next Web, ReadWrite, BetaNews, The Next Web, CNET, The Verge, GigaOM, Softpedia News, VentureBeat, Business Insider and SocialTimes. See also Mediagazer

Bloomberg:

Microsoft-Intel Push to Rival Apple in Tablets Sputtering — A push by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Intel Corp. (INTC) to combat Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPad in the $63.2 billion tablet market is getting off to a slow start. — Of more than a dozen tablets Microsoft and Intel touted for the new version …

More: TG Daily, Tech Trader Daily and IntoMobile

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Urban Airship Acquires Tello, Maker Of PassTools For Apple's Passbook, Because Not All Brands Need Fully Featured Apps — A little over a year after Urban Airship's acquisition of location startup SimpleGeo, the company has moved to once again expand its feature set by acquiring venture-backed Tello in an all-stock deal.

More: GigaOM, GeekWire, The Next Web, Urban Airship, TUAW, blog.tello.com, Marketing Land, VentureBeat, ReadWrite and AllThingsD

Bloomberg:

Nokia Is Said to Reach Deal With China Mobile on Lumia 920 — Nokia Oyj (NOK), the Finnish mobile-phone maker trying to win back customers of Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPhone and devices using Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Android, is set to unveil a version of its flagship smartphone for China's largest wireless carrier …

More: Tech Trader Daily and AllThingsD

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Last.fm Founders' Next Track: Lumi, A Site That Uses Your Browsing History To Help You Discover Things On The Web — Felix Miller and Martin Stiksel, two of the co-founders of the music discovery and streaming site Last.fm, went into a kind of startup hibernation two years after selling their early-moving …

More: Digital Media Wire, GigaOm, Softpedia News, AllThingsD, Mashable! and The Next Web

Humayun Khan / BetaKit:

Clarity Adds $1.6M from 500 Startups, Mark Cuban to Be ‘Lifeline for Entrepreneurs’ — BetaKit covered San Francisco and Moncton, NB-based Clarity, which lets anyone get access to entrepreneurial advice over the phone, when it hit 10,000 calls after launching in May 2012.

More: TechCrunch, GigaOM, The Next Web and Mark Evans Tech

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

Nokia selling Espoo headquarters to raise cash, but won't be moving out — Nokia is about to add roughly $220 million to its balance sheet through the sale of its central HQ building in Espoo, Finland. The company will continue to operate within the premises as previously …

More: Nokia, Engadget, TechEye, VentureBeat, CNET, PhoneArena, ZDNet, The Next Web, Gizmodo, IntoMobile, Forbes, Electronista, Mashable!, MobileBurn.com and SlashGear

Colleen Taylor / TechCrunch:

Poshmark Nabs $12M Series B Led By Menlo Ventures To Expand Its Mobile Fashion Marketplace Beyond iOS — Clothing swap meets have been happening for many years, so they are indeed a tried-and-true “industry” of sorts — but can one be worth tens of millions of dollars?

More: VentureBeat, BetaKit, Forbes, GigaOM and AllThingsD

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

More music in your living room: Rhapsody debuts Xbox app — As promised, Seattle-based on-demand music service Rhapsody launched its Xbox Live app today. The service is available for current Rhapsody subscribers and Xbox Live Gold members. — “Many families will be gathering around …

More: The Rhapsody Blog, LiveSide.net, Softpedia News, Neowin and Ubergizmo

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

Apple hiring ‘dozens’ of former Texas Instruments engineers to boost chip-making operations in Israel — Apple has been expanding its workforce in Israel over the past couple of weeks, tapping a pool of former Texas Instruments (TI) employees in the country to build up research and development centers …

More: CNET and Ubergizmo

Barb Darrow / GigaOM:

And whomp, here it is: The Pivotal Initiative brought to you by VMware and EMC — At long last here it is: The long-simmering VMware-EMC spin-off that is. The Pivotal Initiative will focus on bringing resources from the two parent companies to bear on big data and cloud application platforms …

More: VMware Blogs, Inquirer, Business Insider, The Register, Computerworld, VentureBeat, InfoQ and Channelnomics. Tweets: @qthrul

Jonathan Rudenberg:

SMS Vulnerability in Twitter, Facebook and Venmo — Update: Twitter has fixed the issue for users of short codes. Users that use a “long code” should enable the PIN code in their account. — Twitter users with SMS enabled are vulnerable to an attack that allows anyone to post to their account.

More: CNET, Ars Technica and Dennis Fisher

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

Yahoo Acquires Startup OnTheAir — Yahoo has acquired a startup called OnTheAir. — OnTheAir launched in March of this year. — It's been described in the past as a “Skype Meets Google+ Hangouts.” — A Mashable review of the product says this is how it works:

More: TechCrunch. See also Mediagazer

Jamie Yap / ZDNet:

Sharp gets $120M investment from Qualcomm — Summary: Both companies agree to jointly develop and commercialize display panel technology, after Qualcomm agrees to inject US$120 million equity investment into Sharp and become a minority stakeholder. — Jamie Yap

More: Wall Street Journal, Sharp, BetaNews, PR Newswire, CNET, MarketWatch, Bloomberg, The Next Web, Forbes, Computerworld, X-bit labs, Inquirer, TechEye, Electronista, TechSpot, Agence France Presse, SlashGear and BGR India

Mark Hosenball / Reuters:

Swiss spy agency warns U.S., Britain about huge data leak — (Reuters) - Secret information on counter-terrorism shared by foreign governments may have been compromised by a massive data theft by a senior IT technician for the NDB, Switzerland's intelligence service, European national security sources said.

More: The Register, Betabeat, CNET and ZDNet

Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:

Google Ventures leads $10M investment in firm that measures mobile ads — As more consumers use smartphones to help them shop, advertisers are growing worried about how they will reach those customers. Unlike web sites, which allow brands to target specific users, mobile phones …

More: NYT Bits, AdExchanger, Xconomy and TechCrunch

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