Techmeme
January 8, 2013, 2:55 PM

Top News

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, Google CIO To Unveil Free WiFi In NYC's Chelsea Neighborhood  —  Google has slowly been building up its service provider cred, with an ambitious fiber project in Kansas City and free WiFi initiatives through a partnership with Boingo.
Svbtle Blog:
Svbtle funding  —  Just a quick update: we've recently raised a round of financing from great investors like CrunchFund, Betaworks, Y Combinator, and more, including some fantastic angels.  Now we have the resources and absolute focus that will allow us to build not only a great collection of people …
More: TechCrunchTweets: @jonrussell
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Target will now price-match Amazon, other retailers year-round  —  Matching Amazon's pricing during the holidays is one thing, but Target today announced it plans to continue the practice on a year-round basis.  The extended policy will apply to competitors other than the internet retailer …
David Pierce / The Verge:
Panasonic shows off 20-inch Windows 8 tablet with insane 4K resolution  —  4K's unquestionably the buzzword of CES 2013, but it's typically used in conjunction with “TV.”  Panasonic's taking it a different direction, though, using its keynote at the show to introduce a 20-inch Windows 8 tablet with 4K resolution.
Matt Brian / The Next Web:
AT&T sold a record 10m smartphones in Q4 2012, helped by best-ever sales of Android and Apple devices  —  US operator AT&T announced today a new for sales of smartphones by the company, after it saw sales top the 10 million unit market for the first time in its history in the fourth quarter of 2012 …
Michael McWhertor / Polygon:
Valve and Xi3's ‘Steam Box’ codenamed Piston, early specs detailed at CES  —  The “Steam Box” modular computer announced by hardware maker Xi3 and Valve at CES is codenamed “Piston” and is modeled after the PC maker's X7A line of pint-sized computers, Xi3 reps tell Polygon.
NPD DisplaySearch:
Tablet PC Market Forecast to Surpass Notebooks in 2013, NPD DisplaySearch Reports  —  Tablet PC shipments are expected to reach more than 240 million units worldwide in 2013, easily exceeding the 207 million notebook PCs that are projected to ship, according to NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report.
Jason Clampet / Skift:
Airbnb's growing pains mirrored in New York City, where half its listings are illegal rentals  —  Apartment rental site Airbnb's revolutionary simplicity has made it easy for tens of thousands of people to both list and discover lodging options in private residences and book them easily, quickly, and safely.
More: SocialTimes and GOOD.is
Los Angeles Times:
Is Facebook worth it?  Film execs confide they may cut movie ads  —  Some movie executives are increasingly skeptical that Facebook ads and promotional campaigns that ask users to ‘like’ a movie can deliver big box-office returns.  —  Major studios are taking a hard look at the cost of winning friends on Facebook.
Ben Gilbert / Engadget:
Hands-on with Razer's Edge, a $999 gaming tablet / home console  —  The PC ecosystem is no longer as simple as it once was — first there were desktops, then laptops, then tablets, then all-in-ones.  Buying a PC now is more nebulous than it ever was.  You could build your very own rig …
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Exclusive: A first look at Netflix's test of personalized profiles  —  Netflix recently started to test personalized profiles with a limited subset of its subscribers, allowing them to create a separate profile for each member of their family.  The company has talked about eventually doing …
Matt Brian / The Next Web:
Apple CEO Tim Cook meets high-level officials, US ambassador on visit to China  —  While Google chairman Eric Schmidt is enjoying a much-criticised visit to North Korea, Apple is coordinating an Asia visit of its own, after its CEO Tim Cook met with China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology …
David Zax / Fast Company:
This 15-Year-Old Built An App To Help His High School Debate Team.  It Could Do Much More Than That  —  Tanay Tandon, high school sophomore, put out a Flipboard-like app last week called Clipped.  What's it like to be a teen prodigy hacker juggling the demands of high school?
Om Malik / GigaOM:
The new guard: Look at who is buying technology companies now  —  A few days ago, I pointed out the inevitability of the Internet and how it was going to play an increasing role in the companies that have traditionally not been classified as technology companies.
Omar Shahine / The Windows Blog:
Improved sharing & new HTML5 features for SkyDrive.com  —  We're ringing in the new year with a few improvements to SkyDrive.com.  You now have a single, unified view into how each of your files is shared so you can more easily control who has access to your files.
Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:
Mozilla's Firefox OS demoed, coming to emerging markets later this year (hands-on)  —  Mozilla is at CES showing off its upcoming Firefox mobile OS on a prototype device.  It's come a long way since we saw it as “Boot to Gecko” back at MWC last February, and now looks a bit …
Michael Stroh / The Windows Blog:
Verizon, Sprint to offer new Windows Phone 8 models  —  There were two big Windows Phone-related announcements today at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas.  —  First, Samsung said that the ATIV Odyssey will go on sale at Verizon Wireless in the “coming weeks.”
Shalini Ramachandran / Digits:
McGraw-Hill to Debut Adaptive E-Book for Students  —  Who ever said the best way to read a textbook was from the start to finish?  —  At the Consumer Electronics Show Monday night McGraw-Hill Education , a division of the McGraw-Hill Companies, will demonstrate its new adaptive e-book for students dubbed …
Kevin Fitchard / GigaOM:
FreedomPop, textPlus team up to offer freemium voice, SMS service  —  FreedomPop is delivering on its promise to become a voice as well as mobile data provider.  At CES 2013, it revealed it's partnering with IP voice and messaging startup textPlus, bundling the latter's freemium text and calling app with its freemium broadband service.
More: ReadWrite and Engadget
John Shiffman / Reuters:
Chinese man pleads guilty in $100 million stolen software sting  —  (Reuters) - In a case U.S. officials say is the first of its kind, a Chinese businessman pleaded guilty Monday to selling stolen American software used in defense, space technology and engineering - programs prosecutors …

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