Techmeme
April 2, 2014, 8:30 PM

Top News

Joe Belfiore / Windows Phone Blog:
Cortana (yes!) and Many, Many Other Great Features coming in Windows Phone 8.1  —  Whew, what a day!  What a week!  I've just gotten off the stage at Build in front of 5,000 of our beloved developers talking about the future of the Windows platform.  And now I'm here to tell YOU about the stuff we've …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
The story of Cortana, Microsoft's Siri killer  —  Technically, Cortana isn't supposed to exist for at least another 500 years, but that's not stopping Microsoft from bringing her to life this week.  While Apple has Siri and Google has Google Now — both digital assistants that run on smartphones …
Jordan Novet / VentureBeat:
Nokia introduces the Lumia 930, 630, & 635, designed for Windows Phone 8.1  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Nokia has just announced its latest phones, the Lumia 930, 630, and 635.  —  The 930 is designed to take advantage of all the new aspects of Windows, wrapped up inside the new Windows Phone 8.1 operating system …
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana, Action Center, customizable lockscreens  —  At its Build 2014 conference today, Microsoft unveiled Windows Phone 8.1.  Among the new features is a personal digital assistant named Cortana, a new Action Center …
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Microsoft announces universal Windows apps, which work across PCs, phones, tablets and Xbox One  —  At its Build 2014 conference today, Microsoft announced universal Windows apps, which work across PCs, phones, tablets and even the Xbox One.  In other words, the Windows runtime in Windows 8.1 Update 1 …
Amazon.com:
Amazon Fire TV ships today with Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, YouTube, WatchESPN, and more  —  Introducing Amazon Fire TV: The Easiest Way to Watch Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, and More on Your Big-Screen TV  —  Powerful performance with 3x the processing power …
Jason Schreier / Kotaku:
Amazon Hires Portal's Kim Swift, Far Cry 2's Clint Hocking  —  Amazon is bolstering up talent in their video game development studio, and they've got two new high-profile snags: Portal designer Kim Swift and Far Cry 2 designer Clint Hocking have both joined Amazon Game Studios, Kotaku has learned.
Terrence O'Brien / Engadget:
Brandon LeBlanc / Windows Experience Blog:
Windows 8.1 Update - important refinements to the Windows experience  —  As Joe mentioned here, today we're announcing two important updates to the Windows platform: Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Update.  With these updates, we continue to refine and improve Windows based on feedback …
Yuichiro Kanematsu / Nikkei:
Report: Apple in talks to buy 55% stake in Renesas SP display chip design unit for $479M  —  Apple looking to buy Japanese chipmaker  —  SILICON VALLEY — Apple is in talks with Japan's Renesas Electronics to take over a unit that designs chips for smartphone displays …
Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:
Ubuntu to shut down Dropbox competitor Ubuntu One as storage wars heat up  —  Canonical, owner of the popular Linux operating system Ubuntu, today announced that it is shutting down its file-storing service Ubuntu One.  —  Aside from being a distraction, Canonical says the service is being shut down because …
Josh Lowensohn / The Verge:
Samsung: Our ‘next big thing’ ads drove Apple's marketing chief ‘crazy’  —  Samsung's “Next Big Thing” advertising campaign, which frequently cracked fun at people standing in line outside of Apple stores for product launches, drove Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller crazy.
Josh Lowensohn / The Verge:
Yahoo now encrypting traffic from its data centers, and plans to encrypt Messenger too  —  Yahoo is one of the many technology companies demanding reforms on US surveillance laws, and now says it's taken additional security measures to protect data it handles.

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