Techmeme
November 19, 2013, 7:15 PM

Top News

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
In final shareholder speech, Ballmer defends Bing and Xbox as key parts of Microsoft  —  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer just finished speaking at the company's annual shareholder meeting — his final one as the company's leader — and while he didn't directly address calls for the company …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Nokia shareholders approve Microsoft deal  —  Nokia shareholders have approved a deal allowing Microsoft to purchase the Finnish smartphone maker's Devices and Services unit.  99.7 percent of shareholders who participated in the vote agreed with the Microsoft sale, representing around four-fifths …
John Herrman / BuzzFeed:
The Great Snapchat Mirage  —  We don't know a single useful number about the hottest company in tech .  Why Snapchat may be much smaller than it sounds.  —  Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images  —  Every few months, since late 2012, Snapchat has released a new number to the public.
Lance Whitney / CNET:
Brian X. Chen / NYT Bits:
Carriers Reject a ‘Kill Switch’ For Preventing Cellphone Theft  —  Lawmakers in San Francisco and New York are pushing cellphone makers to adopt a so-called kill switch that would allow users to deactivate their phone remotely, discouraging criminals from stealing phones.  But the cellphone carriers are not on board.
Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:
Twitter backtracks and removes option to let users receive direct messages from any follower  —  Last month, Twitter quietly rolled out a new feature to give users the choice to receive private messages from any of their followers, but that option has now been removed.
Dan Primack / Fortune:
Exclusive: Tim Draper leaving DFJ  —  Venture capitalist Tim Draper is moving on from the Silicon Valley firm he created 28 years ago.  —  FORTUNE — Tim Draper is leaving Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm he founded in 1985.
More: AllThingsD and bizjournalsTweets: @megan
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Music Streaming Startup Rdio Lays Off Staff To 'Improve Cost Structure And Ensure A Scalable Business"  —  The music streaming business can be tough, with market leaders like Spotify growing like weeds but still loss-making.  Today, some bad news from competitor Rdio, the music streaming service startup …
Colleen Taylor / TechCrunch:
Hightail, The File-Sharing Service Formerly Called YouSendIt, Lands $34 Million In New Funding  —  Hightail, the file-sharing service formerly known as YouSendIt, is announcing today that it has raised $34 million in new funding.  The round, which serves as Hightail's Series E, was led by hard drive maker Western Digital.
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Twitter for Android and iOS get search filters, toggle between top and all tweets, trends and events timeline  —  Twitter today updated its apps for Android and iOS with a slew of new features, focusing in particular on search and discovery.  You can download the new version now directly from Google Play and Apple's App Store.
Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:
Samsung ships 800,000 Galaxy Gear smartwatches to retailers in two months  —  Samsung defies critics, sells 800,000 Galaxy Gear smartwatches in two months  —  Despite very negative reviews from almost everyone that cared to touch one, Samsung has sold 800,000 Galaxy Gear smartwatches in two months.
Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:
Google releases ‘sneak peek’ of Glass app development kit  —  Back at SXSW, Google announced the Glass Mirror API — the first step in allowing developers to build apps, or “Glassware” for its wearable computing device.  Now, developers will have a whole new set of tools at their disposal: the long-awaited Glass Development Kit (GDK).
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Google Wallet Creators Raise $7M From Eric Schmidt, Khosla To Bring Personalization And Analytics To In-Store Commerce  —  While Amazon has been at the forefront of providing a personalized experience in online commerce, in-store retailers are still behind in using data in compelling ways …
Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:
FiftyThree, Maker Of Creativity App Paper, Gets Into Hardware With Launch Of Its ‘Pencil’ Stylus  —  FiftyThree, the company behind the wildly popular iPad creativity app Paper, is making its first foray into hardware with the launch of a new stylus it's creatively named “Pencil.”
Derek Khanna / Slate:
Obama's Secret Attempt to Ban Cellphone Unlocking, While Claiming to Support It  —  Last week, WikiLeaks made public a portion of a treaty that the White House has been secretly negotiating with other nations and 600 special interest lobbyists.  The draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty …
Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:
FreedomPop expanding free wireless plan to all Sprint smartphones, iPhones included  —  FreedomPop, the wireless service provider offering free and cheap no-contract plans on Sprint's network, today announced it's now allowing customers to bring their old Sprint phones to activate on its $0/month wireless plans.
Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:
Quora Will Push Its Most Link-Baity Content to BuzzFeed (Though It Would Never Call It That)  —  On Quora, answers to the question “What are the most surreal places one can ever visit?” are a fantastical mix of caves and mountains and formations and reefs.  The page has more than half a million views.

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Russ Frushtick / Polygon:
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