Techmeme
February 7, 2014, 5:00 AM

Top News

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple buys sapphire crystal furnaces for AZ plant, capable of producing 100-200M ~5" iPhone displays per year  —  Exclusive: Apple just procured enough Sapphire Crystal furnaces to make 100-200M ~5-inch iPhone displays in Arizona  —  Last year, Apple and GT Advanced struck a deal to open …
Daisuke Wakabayashi / Wall Street Journal:
Apple Repurchases $14B of Own Shares in 2 Weeks  —  CEO Cook Says Company Wanted to Be ‘Aggressive’ and ‘Opportunistic’  —  CUPERTINO, Calif. - Apple Inc. has bought $14 billion of its own shares in the two weeks since reporting financial results that disappointed Wall Street, Chief Executive Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal.
Mike Isaac / Re/code:
LinkedIn to Acquire Job-Seeking Site Bright for $120 Million  —  LinkedIn announced on Thursday it plans to acquire Bright, a data-driven job search startup, for $120 million.  —  The buy is LinkedIn's largest acquisition to date, topping the company's earlier major acquisitions of SlideShare ($119 million) and Pulse ($90 million).
Ina Fried / Re/code:
Google Changes Homepage to Protest Russia's Anti-Gay Law  —  As the Winter Olympics kick off in Sochi, groups ranging from Google to human rights organizations are turning to digital media to protest a law that vastly curtails the free speech rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people throughout Russia.
Robert Graham / Errata Security:
NBC story on visitors to Sochi Olympics getting hacked is misleading  —  That NBC story 100% fraudulent  —  Yesterday (Feb 5 2014) NBC News ran a story claiming that if you bring your mobile phone or laptop to the Sochi Olympics, it'll immediately be hacked the moment you turn it on.
Tony Romm / Politico:
Tech's biggest players hire first NSA lobbyist  —  Apple, Google, Facebook and five other technology giants that have banded together in their calls for surveillance reform officially registered a Washington lobbyist on Thursday.  —  The new hire — tasked to represent a coalition that also includes AOL …
More: TheHillTweets: @govjventura
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:
That Secret App Is Becoming Silicon Valley's New Blind Item  —  “I work at Evernote and we're about to get acquired... Watch this space”  —  That could be the first big acquisition rumor to have found its way onto Secret, the new “anonymish” sharing app launched late last week.  But it won't be the last.
Liam Tung / ZDNet:
IBM lands deal to make DARPA's self-destructing ‘VAPR’ ware  —  Summary: DARPA's VAPR project could allow it to blanket vast areas with monitoring sensors without risking the equipment falling into enemy hands.  —  Liam Tung  —  IBM has won a US government contract to create a model for transient devices that destruct on command.
Brian X. Chen / NYT Bits:
California Bill Would Require Antitheft Technology for Cellphones  —  A smartphone is sleek, compact and valuable, which makes it a perfect target for a thief.  Californian lawmakers want to require cellphone companies to fix that problem.  —  In the last year, officials in San Francisco …
More: PC World and CNET
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Firefox beta brings touch-friendly web browsing to Windows 8  —  After roughly a year of development, Mozilla has at last released a beta of Firefox for Windows 8.  The not-quite-finished browser gives early adopters a full touchscreen interface with finger-friendly elements and gesture support.
Rip Empson / TechCrunch:
Descomplica Lands $5M From Social+Capital, AngelList's First International Syndicate To Become Brazil's Go-To Online Classroom  —  Internet penetration and social media usage are on the rise in every corner of the globe, but few can hold a candle to the level of adoption one finds in Brazil.
Tweets: @leejacobs
Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:
Don't Like Your Facebook “Look Back”?  You'll Be Able To Edit It Soon.  —  For the past 24 hours, my Facebook newsfeed has been predominantly filled with just two things:  —  1) People sharing those cutesy automated “Look Back” videos that Facebook made for most of its users to celebrate the company's 10th anniversary
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Google wants to replace your office's teleconference system with a $999 Chromebox  —  Google's $35 Chromecast dongle made it cheap and easy to show off YouTube videos on your TV.  Now, the company sees another narrow window of opportunity for Chrome: teleconferencing.
Jack Clark / The Register:
FT: IBM has appointed Goldman Sachs to sound out possible buyers for its semiconductor arm  —  Report: IBM to peddle its chip wing  —  Big Blue looks at chip division, then chopping block, then chip division, then ...  IBM is rumored to have retained Goldman Sachs to help it put a price on its semiconductor division.

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Is AI just hype?  —  Find out how top enterprises use Tribe to get real business results.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Zoho:
All new Zoho Workerly 2024  —  Staffing businesses around the world face a unique set of challenges when it comes to managing their temporary workforce.  With a constantly shifting job market and changing staffing needs …
Comprehensive.io:
Browse salary data from 3,000 startups for free  —  Click for FREE, immediate access to real-time compensation benchmarking data.  Paid version helps HR automate comp reviews and communicate total compensation to employees.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Henry Shukman, Lessons from an Authentic Zen Master
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Wed. 03/27 - Hulu Comes To Disney+; WWDC Gets A Date
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:00 AM ET, February 7, 2014.

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.

More News

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:

Earlier Picks

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac: