Techmeme
March 26, 2014, 10:15 AM

Top News

Facebook / PR Newswire:
Facebook to acquire Oculus VR for approximately $2 billion  —  Facebook to Acquire Oculus  —  Acquisition positions Facebook to accelerate Oculus' growth in gaming, communications and new social experiences  —  Facebook today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Oculus VR …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Zuckerberg: Microsoft and Sony are no match for Facebook and Oculus  —  Mark Zuckerberg.  (Photo by Robert Scoble via Flickr.)  —  The jaw-dropper of the day in the tech industry, you've probably heard, was Facebook's announcement that it will spend $2 billion to acquire Oculus, the maker of the virtual-reality headset Oculus Rift.
Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook:
Oculus will operate independently within Facebook, focusing first on gaming, and later becoming a new communication platform  —  I'm excited to announce that we've agreed to acquire Oculus VR, the leader in virtual reality technology.  —  Our mission is to make the world more open and connected.
Markus Persson / notch.net:
Mojang's talks with Oculus to bring Minecraft to its VR canceled, Notch doesn't trust Facebook  —  Virtual Reality is going to change the world  —  It's amazing.  You strap on some gear, and then you're inside whatever world you want.  It showed up in books, it showed up in movies, and everyone dreamed about it.
Kim-Mai Cutler / TechCrunch:
Facebook's $2B Oculus Deal Happened Over The Last Five Days  —  Facebook's deal to buy Oculus VR for $2 billion happened relatively quickly and the negotiations were hammered out over the last five days during the industry's Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, according to sources familiar with the deal.
Wall Street Journal:
Kickstarter provided Oculus with a smart option for funding: $2.4M raised for 0% equity  —  Aug. 1, 2012: When Oculus Asked for Donations  —  On Aug. 1, 2012, a fledgling company called Oculus took to crowdfunding site Kickstarter to raise money to get its virtual reality headset off the ground.
Daisuke Wakabayashi / Wall Street Journal:
Ahead of Samsung patent case, Apple engineer recalls the marathon to create the iPhone  —  Jobs gave the engineer an ultimatum: Lay out a vision for the iPhone fast or lose the job  —  In February 2005, Apple Inc. 's then chief executive, Steve Jobs, gave senior software engineer Greg Christie an ultimatum.
Hassan Hosseini / RightScale Blog:
Google Slashes Cloud Prices: Google vs AWS Price Comparison  —  Today Google threw down the gauntlet to challenge AWS public cloud supremacy by announcing significant price reductions across its Google Cloud Platform.  The eye-opening price cuts covered compute (32-percent reduction), storage …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google Launches Managed Virtual Machines, Gives Developers A Middle Ground Between Compute And App Engine  —  Google is launching Managed Virtual Machines today, a new service on its Cloud Platform that gives developers the best new option for hosting their applications in the cloud.
Liz Gannes / Re/code:
Google General Counsel to Arrington Allegation: We Don't Snoop on Gmail to Find Leakers  —  In an unusual move, Google is responding directly to former TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington's allegation that it accessed his Gmail account to root out his source for a major story.
More: publicNotepadTweets: @dangillmor
Hurriyet Daily News:
Turkish court orders stay of execution on government's Twitter ban  —  Ankara court grants stay of execution for government's Twitter ban  —  An Ankara administrative court has issued a stay of execution on an executive decision adopted by Turkey's telecommunication's authority (TB) …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
TechCrunch's Picks: The Top 8 Startups From Y Combinator W14 Demo Day  —  While today saw Paul Graham physically pass the reins to new Y Combinator president Sam Altman, the bigger buzz at Demo Day was about how most investors thought this was the best YC class yet.
Joey Parker / MTV Act:
Apple plans to add more diversity to Emoji character set  —  What Does Apple Think About The Lack Of Diversity In Emojis?  We Have Their Response.  —  When you browse through the emojis on your phone, there are very few non-Caucasian ones to choose from.  I mean, they have a water buffalo but no representation of people of color?
Instagram Blog:
Instagram now has 200M active monthly users, 20B total photos shared  —  Instagram Today: 200 Million Strong  —  Today, we're excited to share that the Instagram community has grown to more than 200 million Instagrammers capturing and sharing their lives every month.
Dan Jones / Light Reading:
Sprint's Hesse: HD Voice Goes Nationwide in July  —  BOSTON — Oracle Industry Connect — Sprint CEO Dan Hesse revealed in his keynote here Tuesday that the operator is ready to launch its HD Voice service across the US in July.  —  HD Voice increases the clarity of a voice call across seven octaves …
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Google Takedown Notices Surge 711,887 Percent in Four Years  —  Signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1998, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) aimed to ready copyright law for the digital age.  —  The law heightened punishment for copyright infringement over the Internet and criminalized circumvention of DRM.
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