Techmeme
December 11, 2013, 8:05 PM

Top News

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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
Mary Jo Foley / Fortune:
Steve Ballmer and Microsoft's top executives reflect on his legacy  —  For Steve Ballmer, a lasting touch on Microsoft  —  As the world prepares for Microsoft to announce a new chief executive, we ask the company's top executives—including the man himself—to take a look at the legacy Steve Ballmer leaves on the technology company.
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 …
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 …
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.
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 CallerTweets: @ghostrobo
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.
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 …
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) …
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
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.
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.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Monetization meets analytics as PlayHaven merges with Kontagent  —  Kontagent and PlayHaven combined.  —  In a sign of consolidation for the middlemen of the game business, mobile monetization firm PlayHaven is merging today with analytics firm Kontagent.  —  Analytics and mobile monetization …
More: TechCrunch, Kontagent and AllThingsDTweets: @brunofonziThanks:@dj
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Why Nokia Is Building an Android Phone and Why Microsoft Might Not Kill It  —  So, is Nokia really working on an Android-based phone, and would Microsoft really go ahead with such a device?  —  The answer to the first one is definitely yes.  And, surprisingly, the answer to the second question may be yes, as well.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google Sheets Gets Offline Editing, Speed Boost And Filter Views  —  Google today is launching a major update to Sheets, its Google Drive spreadsheet app that's part of Google Drive productivity suite.  With this new version, Sheets joins the rest of Google's productivity apps in letting users create …
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Google launches Chrome apps and the Chrome App Launcher for all Mac users  —  Google today announced Chrome apps are now available on OS X, in addition to Windows and Chrome OS.  Mac users will also now get the Chrome App Launcher in their Dock when they download their first Chrome app.
Mayumi Negishi / Wall Street Journal:
Japan Tops World In Mobile Apps Revenue  —  Data Tracker Says Japan Spends 10% More Than U.S. on Apps … TOKYO—Japan overtook the U.S. to become the world's No. 1 country in app store revenue, thanks to an explosion in growth of smartphone and tablet games.

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Earlier Picks

Jon Fingas / Engadget: