Techmeme: Kick the Can — Yahoo Mail Is a Consumer Disaster, but Company's Response Is Even Worse (Kara Swisher/AllThingsD)

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December 11, 2013, 11:55 PM

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Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Kick the Can — Yahoo Mail Is a Consumer Disaster, but Company's Response Is Even Worse — On Friday, November 8, Jeff Bonforte, the well-regarded techie who is now in charge of Yahoo Mail and all its communications products after the Silicon Valley Internet giant bought his startup Xobni …

More: Yahoo Mail, ZDNet, help.yahoo.com, Tech Trader Daily, WebProNews, ITworld.com and Fortune

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Trouble At Yahoo: Partial Webmail Outage Continues, While Surprise Small Business Websites Shutdowns Anger Customers — Normally a report of a web services outage goes like this: web service goes down, reporter writes post, hits publish, web service comes right back up.

More: Los Angeles Times, Techzim, ZDNet, VCPOST, KUSA-TV, Consumerist, Gigaom and Softpedia News

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

Apple Adds ABC, Bloomberg, Crackle, and KORTV Channels to Apple TV — Apple today added yet another set of channels to its Apple TV set-top box, including a “Watch ABC” channel to allow subscribers to certain cable services to watch content from their local ABC affiliate through Apple TV.

More: 9to5Mac, The Verge, Macworld, TechnoBuffalo, SlashGear, AppleInsider, iLounge, iDownloadBlog.com and App Advice

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

Behind the scenes look at Apple TV app development w/ the new Bloomberg channel

More: CNET, iMore, AllThingsD, Gigaom, Gotta Be Mobile and TUAW. Thanks:@benjaminzamayo. See also Mediagazer

PandoDaily:

John Doerr's last stand: Can a dramatic shakeup save Kleiner Perkins? — Jesus Christ, Kleiner Perkins just can't catch a break. — The latest news - in a year-long deluge of mea culpas, nasty lawsuits, and admissions of strategic missteps - is that the firm is retrenching …

Tweets: @katiefehren, @jason_pontin, @alexia and @sarahcuda

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Kleiner Perkins Names Bing Gordon As Chief Product Officer; Debuts Founder Education Program ProductWorks

More: Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, PandoDaily, Gigaom and Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Snapchat Raises $50 Million In Series C From Coatue Management — Amid rumors of a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook and a potential $200 million funding round, turns out that ephemeral messaging sensation Snapchat has actually raised $50 million in Series C funding.

More: Fortune, ZDNet, San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes, StartupBook, Business Insider, Business Insider, The Technology Chronicles and Digits

Tweets: @danprimack, @j_hutch, @joshconstine, @danprimack and @jwherrman

Thanks:@ryanlawler

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft considers free versions of Windows Phone and Windows RT to battle Android — Redmond wants to counter Mountain View — Microsoft is considering making Windows Phone and Windows RT available free of charge to device makers. Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans have revealed …

Miyoung Kim / Reuters:

Apple scores legal victory over Samsung in South Korea — (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Thursday lost its bid to ban sales of Apple Inc's older iPhone and iPad in South Korea, as a court dismissed a lawsuit claiming the U.S. firm had infringed three of Samsung's mobile patents.

More: The Next Web, Engadget, ABC News, AppleInsider, Electronista and FOSS Patents

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

What might a new Windows Start Menu look like? — If Microsoft does end up reintroducing a Start Menu to a future release of Windows, as sources are hinting, does it necessarily mean that menu will be identical to what exists now? And if it's not, does that defeat the purpose? win7startmenu Your best friend or worst nightmare?

More: BGR. Tweets: @maryjofoley

Colin Campbell / Polygon:

YouTube defends copyright crackdown — Google today responded to widespread outrage at its recent crackdown on game videos on YouTube. — In recent days the company has sent out thousands of copyright infringement notices to video producers of game walk-throughs and Let's Plays.

More: Forbes and The Daily Caller. Tweets: @davidsgallant and @ghostrobo. See also Mediagazer

Stephen Totilo / Kotaku:

YouTube Channels Crippled By Copyright Claims

More: ComputerAndVideoGames.com, gameinformer.com, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Geek News Central, Polygon, BGR, Tubefilter, MCV: Home Stream, Plagiarism Today and Joystiq. See also Mediagazer

Bryan Bishop / The Verge:

Twitter becomes a better TV remote control as ABC, AMC, and Fox sign up for See It — It's been obvious for some time that Twitter sees television as a major way in which it can participate in, drive, and profit from the broader cultural conversation. It's about to become an even more useful tool …

More: Comcast and Engadget. See also Mediagazer

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Google Releases Its Find My iPhone-Style Android Device Manager App In The Play Store — Google launched Android Device Manager back in August, but it curiously made the tool web-only, eschewing a native Android app and causing a lot of confusion in doing so.

More: Android Developers Blog, Guardian, VentureBeat, The Next Web, 9to5Google, The Verge, IntoMobile, Gotta Be Mobile, Engadget, Engadget, TechHive and Gigaom

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Puts Its Web Feed In Motion With Auto-Playing Videos — The News Feed is about to get a lot more lively. Just days after pushing its auto-play feature for videos to all mobile users, today we spotted auto-playing videos on Facebook.com, and the company confirms to me …

More: TUAW, The Verge, Engadget, Gigaom, ValueWalk and iDownloadBlog.com. Tweets: @chrismessina. Thanks:@jeffwidman

Marguerite Reardon / CNET:

AT&T chief: We can't keep doing big subsidies on phones — AT&T's top executive says the era of big subsidies for devices is coming to an end, as wireless operators can no longer afford to fund a constant smartphone upgrade cycle. — Speaking at an investor conference in New York City on Tuesday …

More: TechCrunch, Forbes, Macworld, Geek.com, iDownloadBlog.com, TUAW, ValueWalk, Android Community, PadGadget, Los Angeles Times, AppleInsider, TechnoBuffalo, App Advice and 9to5Google. Tweets: @benedictevans

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Spotify Goes Freemium On Tablets, Launches Free Shuffle Product On Smartphones — For the first time since launching, Spotify now offers free access to the streaming music service from tablets only, on iOS and Android. Meanwhile, users on smartphones can use Spotify Shuffle …

More: Spotify Blog, The Verge, PandoDaily, AllThingsD, The Verge, AppleInsider, The Next Web, Betabeat, 9to5Mac, Engadget, Gotta Be Mobile, Guardian and TechnoBuffalo. See also Mediagazer

Ed Bott / ZDNet:

Microsoft introduces online tool for Gmail switchers — Summary: A year after its rebranding of Hotmail as Outlook.com, Microsoft is taking aim at Gmail users with a new online service that simplifies the process of switching. — Microsoft rebooted its aging Hotmail franchise a year ago …

More: The Microsoft Office Blog, Engadget, Computerworld, WinBeta, Gotta Be Mobile, SlashGear, Gizmodo and Lifehacker

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Web Video Startup Ooyala Raises $43 Million — We saw a smattering of ad tech IPOs this year, and there are a bunch of companies that are supposedly lined up for next year. — Here's one you likely won't see going public in 2014 — at least not in the beginning of the year: Ooyala, the Web video startup.

More: VentureBeat, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, PE Hub Blog, Variety and Mashable. See also Mediagazer

Richard Lai / Engadget:

ASUS CEO: The PadFone is coming to America — ASUS has big ambitions with its PadFones, a unique phone-to-tablet convertible concept that was first introduced back at Computex 2011. While these devices are barely nibbling on the global mobile market (let alone entering the US) …

More: Android Central, Gotta Be Mobile, TechSpot, Unwired View, The Droid Guy, Gigaom, Android Police, 9to5Google, CNET, Android and Me, TechnoBuffalo, TechHive, Digital Trends and Inquirer

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Facebook to Join S&P 500 and 100 Indices — Facebook has just ascended to one of the most closely watched measures of the global market for stocks, the Standard & Poor's 500 index. — According to a statement from S&P Dow Jones Indices, a division of McGraw Hill Financial, Facebook will also join the S&P 100.

More: Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC, Reuters, CNNMoney.com, USA Today and Bloomberg

Katherine Rosman / Wall Street Journal:

Twitter plants “Mirror” tablets at VIP events for celebrities to tweet selfies — Twitter Mirror: Celebrities' New Publicity Machine — Cellphones, Paparazzi Won't Do; Twitter Pushes Star Entertainers, Athletes to Take More Photos … It's no simple job to manufacture authentic, spontaneous celebrity photos.

More: The Verge

Jordan Golson / MacRumors:

Southwest Airlines Offering In-Flight iMessaging for $2 Per Day — Southwest Airlines is offering passengers the ability to send and receive iMessages from their iOS devices in-flight for $2 per day. In-flight Wi-Fi access for all applications is available for $8 per device per day.

More: Nuts About Southwest, Gizmodo, CNET, The Verge, iMore, Wall Street Journal, Gotta Be Mobile, iPhone Hacks, SlashGear, Ubergizmo and Macgasm

Alex Dobie / Android Central:

Stock Android ‘Gallery’ app is no more on the new Google Play edition devices — GPe Sony Z Ultra and LG G Pad 8.3 ditch ‘Gallery’ in favor of G+ ‘Photos’ app — We suspected it was coming ever since we powered on the Nexus 5 to find both “Gallery” and “Photos” occupying the app drawer.

More: Pocketables, The Droid Guy and pocketnow.com

Stacey Higginbotham / Gigaom:

AT&T's gigabit service is $70 if you let it spy on your searches — AT&T said Wednesday that it has started service in four Austin neighborhoods with an offer to bring its GigaPower fiber-to-the-home service for $70 a month — but with a pretty big catch. — If you want to pay the lower rate …

More: AT&T, Ars Technica, The Switch, The Verge, BGR, DSLreports, CNET, DSLreports, Daily Dot, Consumerist, TelecompetitorTelecompetitor and Engadget. Tweets: @evelynrusli. Thanks:@om

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

AT&T accused of violating privacy law with sale of phone records to CIA — Consumer advocates have asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to declare that AT&T violated a privacy rule in the Communications Act by selling phone records to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

More: Free Press, Policy Blog and The Hill. See also Mediagazer

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