Techmeme: Microsoft soars through the sky — FAA authorizes Surface 2 for pilot use (Brian Fagioli/BetaNews)

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February 11, 2014, 10:45 AM

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Lan Anh Nguyen / Forbes:

Exclusive: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Says App ‘Gone Forever’ Because It Was ‘An Addictive Product’ — The mysterious developer of the world's most popular free app, who drew global attention this past weekend with his sudden decision to remove it, tells Forbes that Flappy Bird is dead.

Lorraine Luk / Digits:

Foxconn Working With Google on Robotics — But few people know the Taiwanese contract manufacturer, also known as Hon Hai Precision industry, has been quietly working with Google. — People familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that Foxconn has been working …

More: VentureBeat, 9to5Google, Gizmodo, AppleInsider, Engadget, The Verge, iDownloadBlog.com, The Next Web and SlashGear

Wall Street Journal:

Nokia Prepares to Release Android Phone Ahead of Sale to Microsoft — Finnish Smartphone Maker Readies Device for Barcelona Exhibit — Nokia Corp. plans to release this month a smartphone that runs a version of Google Inc. 's Android mobile software, according to people familiar with the matter …

Dan Seifert / The Verge:

Sprint's the only major US carrier yet to lose money this quarter, despite record subscribers — Sprint posted its fourth quarter earnings report for 2013 this morning, with highlights including the highest number of subscribers ever for the company. The third-place carrier reports a loss of $1 billion …

More: Gigaom, MacRumors, VentureBeat, Sprint Newsroom, Engadget, DSLreports, CNET, BGR, Wall Street Journal, Phandroid, Electronista and Bloomberg

Robert McMillan / Wired:

Google Takes Over NASA's Hangar One, a Silicon Valley Icon — Google has taken over the lease at the airfield that houses Hangar One — the giant eight-acre aircraft hangar that was built in 1933 to house massive dirigibles and now is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Silicon Valley.

More: NASA, CNET, The Verge, 9to5Google, The Register, PR Newswire, Silicon Valley Business …, TechCrunch, NASA Watch, Mercury News, Re/code and Inside Google

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Netflix performance on Verizon and Comcast has been dropping for months — Comcast streams Netflix at just the right speed for the Slowskys. — Comcast — Netflix's speed rankings show that video streaming performance on Verizon and Comcast has been dropping for the past three to four months.

More: Re/code, Inquirer, Netflix US & Canada Blog, ReelSEO Video Marketing, DSLreports and The Verge

asymco.com:

With estimated gross revenues of $7 billion per quarter, iTunes would be ranked 130 in the Fortune 500 — Fortune 130 … Apple Inc. Form 10-Q. — During the last quarter Apple changed the pricing for iWork and OS X to zero[1]. — I estimate the net effect to have been a reduction …

More: Fortune, iMore, Macworld, 9to5Mac, App Advice and MacDailyNews

Tweets: @benbajarin and @monkbent

Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:

Thousands of tech companies, groups, sites join “The Day We Fight Back” anti-NSA protest on Tuesday — Reddit, Mozilla, Tumblr and more gear up for massive NSA protest tomorrow — Caption: SOPA protests in San Francisco. — Source: Wikipedia — Remember the Internet's reaction to SOPA and PIPA?

More: CNET, PandoDaily, Telegraph, PC Magazine, NBC News, The Verge, Global Voices Advocacy, TorrentFreak, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Guardian, Google Public Policy Blog, Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Voice of Russia, News, Inquirer, Open (minds, finds …, P2P Foundation's blog and SocialTimes. Tweets: @eff. See also Mediagazer

Casey Johnston / Ars Technica:

Virgin Atlantic passengers get Google Glass customer service — Professionals are getting further into Google Glass. A new video shows a firefighter's display while performing a rescue. — Google — Virgin Atlantic staff are getting Google Glass to help them assist customers, according to report from The Next Web.

More: Daily Mail, SITA.aero, Gigaom, Digital Trends, 9to5Google, Gizmodo, Engadget, TechnoBuffalo, The Verge, SlashGear, Android Central and Inquirer. Tweets: @kashhill

Kim Zetter / Wired:

Sophisticated Spy Tool ‘The Mask’ Rages Undetected for 7 Years — PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic - Researchers have uncovered a sophisticated cyber spying operation that has been alive since at least 2007 and uses techniques and code that surpass any nation-state spyware previously spotted in the wild.

More: Securelist / Blog, Kaspersky Lab US, Gigaom, The Switch, The Register, Ars Technica, Lastest ITProPortal news, Wired.co.uk, SlashGear, SC Magazine and Schneier on Security. Tweets: @thedanwells

Brian Fung / Washington Post:

This blogger paid Facebook to promote his page. He got 80,000 bogus Likes instead. — If you manage a Facebook page for a company, interest or organization, then you know there are two main reasons Facebook Likes are important. One is pretty obvious: The number of Likes you receive …

More: YouTube, The Next Web, AGBeat, BestTechie, ITworld, The Daily Caller, Tubefilter, Mashable and Union Square Ventures

Tweets: @stilgherrian, @pug, @nytimesbits, @teresangonzalez, @calebgarling, @counternotions and @narendra

Andy Greenberg / Forbes:

Instagram Bug Would Have Let Hackers Peek At Private Photos For At Least Last Six Months — If at any point before last Tuesday you suddenly found your private Instagram pics embarrassingly exposed to public perusal, Christian Lopez might be able to offer an explanation.

More: insertCoin, Business Insider, Softpedia News and Valleywag

Rebecca Grant / VentureBeat:

And the winners are... Check out the victors from the Crunchies 2013! — It just wouldn't be an award show without drama. The Crunchies Awards attracted the attention of anti-tech protestors this year, who staged a demonstration outside Davies Symphony Hall as the movers-and-shakers …

More: TechCrunch, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, CoinDesk, bizjournals, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, TechCrunch and TechCrunch. Tweets: @howardlindzon

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

New Apple TV hardware references already appearing in iOS 7 builds — We reported last fall that a revamped Apple TV set-top-box is in the works, and then we learned earlier this year that the new box would likely be introduced in the first half of 2014. Sources said at the time that the new model …

More: Softpedia News, Mashable, AppleTell, NEWS.com.au, TechnoBuffalo and AppleInsider

Brian Fagioli / BetaNews:

Microsoft soars through the sky — FAA authorizes Surface 2 for pilot use — Traveling on an airplane used to be quite the archaic experience. Sure, soaring above the clouds is great, but for many, using electronic devices for things like Flappy Bird is much more exciting.

More: Surface Blog, Engadget, Gigaom, ZDNet, WinBeta and SlashGear. Thanks:@brianfagioli

George Packer / New Yorker:

Is Amazon Bad for Books? — Amazon is good for customers. But is it good for books? Amazon is a global superstore, like Walmart. It's also a hardware manufacturer, like Apple, and a utility, like Con Edison, and a video distributor, like Netflix, and a book publisher, like Random House …

More: Forbes, GeekWire, Re/code, Salon and Business Insider

Tweets: @bradstone and @jbarro

See also Mediagazer

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Activists block Microsoft shuttles in Seattle, in anti-gentrification protest — Photo by Sean Maguire, via Twitter. — Several Microsoft Connector shuttles were reportedly blocked for a total of 45 minutes in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood this morning by protesters handing out flyers …

More: CHS Capitol Hill Seattle, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, NYT Bits and CNET

Tweets: @pmarca and @jreichhold

Jordan Novet / VentureBeat:

Netflix moves into deep learning research to improve personalization — Google isn't the only company looking to make lots and lots of computers function more like human brains. — In a blog post published earlier today, Netflix research engineers Alex Chen, Justin Basilico …

More: The Netflix Tech Blog and The Register

Brad Molen / Engadget:

MediaTek's new octa-core processor to compete with Qualcomm over the premium LTE smartphone market — MediaTek, a chipset manufacturer based out of Taiwan, has been making some huge moves lately. Just over two months ago, it came out with the “world's first true octa-core” processor …

More: Ars Technica, Re/code, Gizchina.com, LAPTOP Magazine and CNET

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Future Samsung phones could share what you type with other apps — ‘Context’ would reportedly share typing, sensor data, and app use — Samsung is said to be considering letting app developers know a whole lot more detail about what individual users do with their phones.

More: The Information, The Next Web and Android Beat

Wall Street Journal:

Alibaba Seeks Full Control of AutoNavi for $1.13 Billion — Chinese E-Commerce Firm Seeks 72% of Digital-Mapping Company It Doesn't Already Own — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. deepened its commitment to competing for China's growing legions of mobile users, offering $1.13 billion to acquire …

More: DealBook, Reuters, ABC News, Forbes, ITworld.com, Bloomberg, Digits, Emerging Markets Daily and Bloomberg

Harry McCracken / TIME:

Flickr Turns 10: The Rise, Fall and Revival of a Photo-Sharing Community — If you happened to be at the O'Reilly Emerging Tech Conference in San Diego 10 years ago today, on February 10, 2004, you had the opportunity to witness a meaningful moment in the history of the web …

More: Flickr Blog, The Next Web, TechCrunch and PC Magazine

Tweets: @neb and @tomcoates

Thanks:@mariedomingo

John Hsu / LiveSide.net:

Exclusive: OneDrive to offer bonus free storage for friends referral and camera roll backup — In case you missed it, yesterday we exclusively reported that OneDrive is getting a new “co-owned folders” feature. But the good news doesn't stop here, as we have received more exclusive information regarding what's to come with OneDrive.

More: Electronista, Softpedia News, My Nokia Blog, The Verge and TechCrunch. Tweets: @edbott

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

Facebook Changed How The News Feed Works — And Huge Website Upworthy Suddenly Shrank In Half — In November, viral-content-for-a-cause site Upworthy posted insane traffic numbers, reaching almost 90 million people around the world, according to Quantcast. — Then, in December …

More: SocialTimes, StartupBook and Gawker

Tweets: @rafat, @jbrodkin, @dannysullivan and @ibogost

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