Techmeme: Google Play is growing faster, but Apple's App Store brings in way more money: Distimo (Andrii Degeler/The Next Web)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

December 20, 2012, 3:30 PM

Top News

Aoife White / Bloomberg:

Samsung Faces EU Antitrust Complaint Over Apple Patent Clash — Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) faces a European Union antitrust complaint over its use of standard- essential patents in legal disputes with Apple Inc. (AAPL), the European Union competition commissioner said.

More: Reuters, PC World, AllThingsD, FOSS Patents, 9to5Mac, ZDNet, CNET, SlashGear, iDownloadBlog.com, Hillicon Valley, Patently Apple, BGR and Electronista

Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:

EU will charge Samsung ‘very soon’ in Apple antitrust case

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Facebook testing service to let strangers pay to message you — Facebook today announced refinements to its Messaging filters, as well as a test for a very small portion of American users to determine if people will pay to get in touch with those they aren't Facebook friends with.

More: Facebook Newsroom, AllThingsD, GigaOM, CNET, Business Insider, Forbes, digitaltrends.com, AllFacebook, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and The Next Web

Tweets: @mathewi, @stevekovach, @mathewi, @semil and @dangillmor

Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:

Kleiner Partners' View Of the Future of Tech — Venture capitalists John Doerr and Ted Schlein of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have had a front-row seat at Silicon Valley's recent Web froth and its fallout. — Their venture firm in the past decade made a big bet on clean technology.

More: Venture Capital Dispatch

Ken Yeung / The Next Web:

Path boosts social discovery for its 5 million users with the addition of Search and Nearby features — Path is releasing an update to its iOS and Android applications. Starting today, users are going to notice Path Search, a new feature that the company says will help make it easier …

More: PandoDaily, CNET, TechCrunch, The Verge, Digits, GigaOM, Engadget, Wired, TIME, Xconomy, WebProNews and Tnooz

Andrii Degeler / The Next Web:

Google Play is growing faster, but Apple's App Store brings in way more money: Distimo — App analytics firm Distimo has published a new report looking at how Google Play and Apple's App Store have fared in 2012. It finds that while the former is growing rapidly, the latter still beats it more than four-fold in terms of revenues.

More: PC Magazine, Inside Mobile Apps, TechCrunch, iPhone Hacks, InvestorPlace, Ubergizmo, CNET, VentureBeat, Silicon Republic and iDownloadBlog.com

Jessica E. Lessin / Wall Street Journal:

Home-Automation Startup R2 Studios in Acquisition Talks — A secretive startup founded by the man who popularized the Slingbox has been in talks with companies considering buying it, people close to the company say, with Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Apple Inc. cited as participants.

More: 9to5Mac. Tweets: @jessicalessin

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

Siri's reliance on Google cut in half with iOS 6 — Tests with Apple's voice-driven personal assistant, Siri, have found that the service turns to Google for an answer in iOS 6 half as much as it did in iOS 5. — When investment firm Piper Jaffray initially tested Siri in June …

More: Search Engine Land, Fortune, Business Insider, Tech Trader Daily, iPhone Hacks, Business Insider and iDownloadBlog.com

Don Melton:

When I first heard the name “Safari” — Ten years ago this month, my secret Web browser team at Apple became the “Safari” team — less than 30 days before we debuted the product on January 7, 2003. — To this day, I don't know who suggested the name “Safari.”

More: 9to5Mac, Ars Technica, BGR, Redmond Pie, PhoneArena, iPhone Hacks, WebProNews, Macgasm, iDownloadBlog.com and iClarified

Tweets: @carterrabasa, @h1brd, @beverloo and @wooster

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Facebook starts rolling out new privacy settings, making it easier to control what data is public — Facebook announced plans to make its privacy control settings easier to find this month, and now a series of new menus and notifications has begun to roll out to users of the social network, initially in New Zealand.

More: SiliconANGLE, CNET, AllFacebook, Mashable! and WebProNews

Dana Wollman / Engadget:

Rockmelt social browser comes to iPhone, Android version still in development — When we heard Rockmelt was going to announce some news about its social browser becoming available to lots more people, we assumed that meant the Android version was finally ready. Not quite: turns out the company was just referring iPhone users.

More: TechCrunch, Forbes, CNET, PandoDaily, AllThingsD, iDownloadBlog.com, TUAW and Mashable!

Myriam Joire / Engadget:

Flipboard lands on Android tablets, now supports Nexus 10 — It's no secret that we're big fans of Flipboard here at Engadget, but there's one thing we've been longing for: a tablet-optimized Android version. Until now, running the app on the Nexus 10 (by sideloading the APK) or even the Nexus 7 …

More: Flipboard, Inside Flipboard, ZDNet, PC Magazine, GigaOM, 9to5Google, Gotta Be Mobile, TechCrunch, CNET, Gizmodo, The Next Web, AllThingsD, The Verge, SlashGear, Know Your Cell, Mashable! and WebProNews

Jessica Dolcourt / CNET:

Samsung preps 5.5-inch flexible phone screen for CES demo — In January, Samsung's mobile display spin-off will bring us a step closer to bendable smartphones. Now that's twisted. — You won't have to bend over backward to see Samsung's latest effort in flexible smartphone screens.

More: Engadget, Business Insider, DailyTech, newlaunches.com, Neowin, Gotta Be Mobile, PhoneArena, MobileSyrup.com and SlashGear

Jamillah Knowles / The Next Web:

T-Mobile opens up pre-paid 4G access to its members in 14 markets via Solavei, on a band perfect for the iPhone — The low-cost contract-free service provider Solavei has announced that its users can now access up to 4G coverage on unlocked GSM iPhones in 37 new markets with the 1900MHz band.

More: Business Wire, Issues & Insights Blog, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, GeekWire, The Verge, GigaOM, Gotta Be Mobile and Ubergizmo

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Snapguide Comes To The iPad Because The Future Of The How-To Is On The Tablet — I wouldn't have an iPad if I didn't have to do two things: Do interviews and cook. The first I have to do for work but the second I do for fun. Which is why I think that Snapguide's bold and stylish move …

More: GigaOM, Snapguide, Macgasm and Mashable!

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Twitter Shuffles Top Brass With New COO and CFO Appointments — In move that shuffles some of the highest ranking members of the microblogging start-up's executive team, Ali Rowghani has been named chief operating officer of Twitter, according to a change in his Twitter profile …

More: SiliconANGLE, Fortune, CNET, GigaOM, TPM IdeaLab, VatorNews, FierceMobileContent News, memeburn, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Mashable!, Digits, TechCrunch and Corporate Intelligence. Tweets: @dickc

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Google Sweetened Motorola Deal With Arris By Promising To Cap Liability In TiVo's Billion Dollar+ Patent Claim — During the analyst conference call discussing telecom manufacturer Arris' just-announced acquisition of Motorola Home, one of the big topics (to Arris CEO Bob Stanzione's apparent exasperation) …

More: PC Magazine, ARRIS, CNET, SlashGear, Bloomberg, BGR, dailywireless.org, PhoneArena, Softpedia News, ZDNet, The Register, Datamation.com, The Verge and WebProNews

David Meyer / GigaOM:

Deutsche Telekom CEO Obermann to step down, CFO to take over — The head of Deutsche Telekom, Rene Obermann, is to step down in a year's time. He apparently requested that the board set a termination date for his contract of 31 December 2013, and his successor has been chosen.

More: Deutsche Telekom, ZDNet, TechCrunch, Engadget, BGR, The Verge, The Next Web, iDownloadBlog.com, FierceWireless, PhoneArena, Bloomberg and Associated Press

Don Reisinger / CNET:

Verizon responds to AT&T, adds 29 LTE markets — Verizon customers in Selma, Al. and Port Angeles, Wa. are among the cities getting access to the company's 4G LTE network. — Verizon has added 29 new LTE markets to its service. — The company announced today that Selma, Al. and Port Angeles …

More: Verizon Wireless, PC Magazine, PandoDaily, PadGadget, SlashGear, App Advice, iDownloadBlog.com and Electronista

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

4 Out of 10 Americans Have Connected Internet to TV — Still waiting for the Internet and TV to converge? It may have already happened. — Four out of 10 Americans have connected their TV to the Internet, according to a new Forrester study. If you're just talking about the whippersnappers …

Mark Milian / Bloomberg Tech Blog:

‘Cut the Rope’ Creator to Debut First New Game Franchise Since Its Big Hit — Two screen shots from “Pudding Monsters,” the first new franchise for ZeptoLab since striking gold with “Cut the Rope.” — More than two years after ZeptoLab released the mega-hit mobile game “Cut the Rope,” …

More: Mashable!, everythingiCafe, iPhone, AppShopper.com, MacRumors and The Verge

Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:

Google's Head of Shopping Says Company Has No Plans to Become a Retailer — If you've visited Google Shopping recently, you might confuse the search giant for a retailer. — Google Google's VP of Shopping Sameer Samat — At the top of the Shopping page, a photo shows a snowboarder floating …

More: The Verge, Search Engine Land, BGR and SlashGear

Colleen Taylor / TechCrunch:

Study: More Than 1,000 Seed-Funded Startups Are Destined To Be ‘Orphaned’ At The Series A Stage — There is a lot of buzz about an ongoing “Series A crunch” for tech startups, but it's ideal to have real data to accompany all the anecdotal stories. So we were glad to see that today …

More: CB Insights, VentureBeat, VatorNews, GeekWire, PandoDaily and NextBigWhat. Tweets: @fdestin

Hugo Martin / Los Angeles Times:

Boeing uses potatoes to simulate humans in test of Wi-Fi signals — Boeing has tested onboard internet signals with potatoes instead of passengers. (Associated Press / December 19, 2012) — Boeing, the Seattle-based company that has built some of the world's most sophisticated aircraft …

More: Boeing.com Feature Stories, The Verge, Engadget, AllThingsD, PR Newswire, CNN, The Register, Pocket-lint and PC Magazine

Deepak Dhingra / Engadget:

Dragon Mobile Assistant beta for Android updated, lets your voice launch apps and music — Nuance has refreshed its Dragon Mobile Assistant for Android to let you do more stuff using speech alone. The beta app now allows you to set alarms, launch apps and play music, in addition …

More: GigaOM, The Next Web and Lifehacker

Ron / WinBeta:

Microsoft drops importing/exporting support for .xls and .doc in Outlook 2013 — In a new Outlook blog post, Microsoft mentions a few features and components that are being dropped from Outlook 2013. Of the features, Microsoft mentions that Outlook 2013 will no longer support importing …

More: The Register, gHacks Technology News and Neowin

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:

Fast, affordable law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!

F5:

Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit — Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23. Register now to save your spot.

Zoho:

Website traffic analytics: How to read your data and take action — Traffic is up. Sessions look healthy. The dashboard is full of green arrows and yet — conversions are flat, revenue targets are slipping, and the leads coming through aren't closing.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:

Father of the iPod and iPhone on building taste, judgment, and creativity in the AI era | Tony Fadell

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

Big Technology Podcast:

Will Apple (Finally) Get AI Right At WWDC?, Anthropic's Worry, Microsoft vs. OpenAI

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Hard Fork:

Hot I.P.O Summer + What Is A.I. Doing to Math? + HatGPT

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

The Upstarts Podcast:

Vanta's Christina Cacioppo: The Underdog Turning 'Nonsense' Compliance Into A $4.2B Security Standout

Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.

Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.

Great Chat:

Who are the billboards for?

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:30 PM ET, December 20, 2012.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.