Techmeme: In the wake of Zite's sale, it's time to take a more skeptical look at news personalization by algorithms (Casey Newton/The Verge)

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March 9, 2014, 1:50 PM

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Casey Newton / The Verge:

In the wake of Zite's sale, it's time to take a more skeptical look at news personalization by algorithms — The smarter news apps are, the dumber they get — A curiously hot category with little to show for it — In August 2011, CNN bought the newsreading app Zite for $20 million.

More: Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com. Tweets: @timobrien and @mathewi

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Three years later, Facebook is bringing back its F8 developer conference to San Francisco on April 30 — At SXSW today, Parse co-founder and CEO Ilya Sukhar announced Facebook's F8 conference will be held this year on April 30 at the San Francisco Design Concourse.

More: PC Magazine, Wall Street Journal, CNET, ReadWrite, Facebook Developers, Mashable, The Technology Chronicles, Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and Re/code

Sean Hollister / The Verge:

Future of gaming microconsoles in question as Ouya pivots to become a software platform — The indie game console may already be dead — Last year, I predicted that the rising tide of Android gaming would raise all boats — that indie game consoles like the Ouya, the Shield …

More: Slashdot, Business Wire, Forbes, Eurogamer.net, VentureBeat, Joystiq, Engadget, Polygon, Ars Technica, Re/code, Kotaku and The Next Web

Primavera De Filippi / Wired:

Tomorrow's Apps Will Come From Brilliant (And Risky) Bitcoin Code — For many, bitcoin — the distributed, worldwide, decentralized crypto-currency — is all about money. Or, as recent events show, about who invented it. Yet the actual innovation brought about by bitcoin is not the currency itself …

Tweets: @bitcoinmom

Christopher Mims / Quartz:

Apple's new product process is a giant checklist covering all steps in product's life cycle — Any company can copy the keystone of Apple's design process — It turns out that the key to Apple's creativity, speed, and adaptability is, on its surface, the exact opposite of the kind of free-wheeling creativity one might expect.

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Austin Police Department Warns SXSW Attendees Not To Use Uber — Here's something you might not have noticed if you were partying it up at SXSW and using Uber to get around: Uber is not legal in Austin, and the police department wants you to know that. — In a post on the Austin government page …

More: PC Magazine, AustinTexas.gov, bizjournals, Daily Dot and Gigaom

Tweets: @austin_police, @kashhill and @joshuabaer

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Lyft Funding Official: Documents Filed for New $150 Million Round — Lyft, the ride-sharing app that is locked in an expensive competition with rival Uber, is at least part of the way to its next round of funding. — The company filed a document associated with a Series D round worth $150 million …

More: TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal and VentureBeat

Reuters:

Suspected Russian spyware Turla targets Europe, United States — (Reuters) - A sophisticated piece of spyware has been quietly infecting hundreds of government computers across Europe and the United States in one of the most complex cyber espionage programs uncovered to date.

More: Financial Times, The Register, G Data, Graham Cluley, CIO.com, Tech News Plus, Techworld.com, Tom's Guide, SC Magazine and Slashdot. Tweets: @zandarvts

Wall Street Journal:

SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son Pushes Sprint to Shed ‘Loser’ Mindset in Mobile-Phone Industry — SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son Pushes Sprint to Shed ‘Loser’ Mindset in Mobile-Phone Industry — At a meeting with Sprint Corp. executives in October, the chief executive …

More: DSLreports, Computerworld and BGR

Tweets: @timcohn and @jessicalessin

Ina Fried / Re/code:

AT&T Cuts Cost for Some Single-Line and Two-Line Plans — After cutting the cost of some family plans earlier this year, AT&T is providing lower-price options for customers with just one or two cellphone lines. — AT&T said Saturday it will now offer customers with one or two lines …

More: AT&T, iMore, The Verge, Android Police, PhoneNews.com, ZDNet, MacRumors, CNET and 9to5Mac

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

Aereo's internet TV service in Denver and Salt Lake City shuts down today — Aereo's streams in Denver and Salt Lake City hung on for a while after the US District Court of Utah granted its opponents a preliminary injunction on February 20th, but today they're shutting off.

More: TechHive, PC Magazine, Deadline.com, Softpedia News, Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Salt Lake Tribune

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