Techmeme: Amazon Fire phone review: a unique device, but you're better off waiting for the sequel (Brad Molen/Engadget)

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July 23, 2014, 9:30 AM

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Brad Molen / Engadget:

Amazon Fire phone review: a unique device, but you're better off waiting for the sequel — After producing a long line of e-book readers and tablets (not to mention a set-top box), Amazon has its sights set on the smartphone market. But finding success here won't be easy, even for an established tech giant like Amazon.

More: New York Times, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, Business Insider, Tech Times, Gigaom, Yahoo!, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, SlashGear, 9to5Mac, Mashable, ZDNet, GeekWire, TechCrunch, LAPTOP Magazine and App Advice

Walt Mossberg / Re/code:

Amazon Fire phone: Dynamic Perspective disappointing, Firefly inconsistent, one carrier a drawback, and new features often frustrating

More: Ars Technica and CNET

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:

Preview: A closer look at OS X Yosemite, just in time for the public beta — The first public OS X beta in over a decade brings quite a few changes with it. — It's not difficult to get your hands on pre-release Apple software. For a mere $198 a year ($99 each for OS X and iOS) …

More: Macworld, The Verge, Engadget, TechCrunch, Re/code, 9to5Mac, LAPTOP Magazine, The Loop, Wired, Lifehacker and SlashGear

Shara Tibken / CNET:

Apple to release first public beta of OS X Yosemite on Thursday — Apple users, Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite comes your way Thursday — Apple is set to release the beta version of its new Mac operating system to the public. — Apple unveiled Mac OS X Yosemite in June at its Worldwide Developer Conference.

More: The Verge, Engadget, MacRumors, Macworld, The Next Web, AppleInsider, blog.chron.com and Mashable

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft's enterprise offerings continue to carry the day — Summary: Microsoft still is an enterprise-driven company, even if management wants to do its best to deny that fact. Just look at its fourth quarter fiscal 2014 earnings for proof. — Microsoft execs continue to talk …

More: BetaNews, Inquirer and Brier Dudley's blog

Julie Bort / Business Insider:

Microsoft to merge three versions of Windows into one converged OS for all screen sizes

More: ZDNet, BBC, Digital Trends, The Economic Times, The Verge, Reuters, WebProNews, Ubergizmo, Patently Apple, Wall Street Journal and TWICE. Tweets: @dannysullivan

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

Microsoft mum on Xbox One sales; notes 1.1M ‘Xbox consoles’ shipped in past 3 months

More: VentureBeat and Softpedia News

Shira Ovide / Wall Street Journal:

Microsoft's profit declines 7.1% as it absorbs Nokia's money-losing cellphone business

More: Re/code and Wall Street Journal

Gideon Lewis-Kraus / Wired:

Creator of autocorrect Dean Hachamovitch, and others at Microsoft, discuss its history and evolution — The Fasinatng ... Frustrating ... Fascinating History of Autocorrect — Invoke the word — autocorrect and most people will think immediately of its hiccups—the sort of hysterical …

More: Daring Fireball

Noelle Chun / The Official Motorola Blog:

Now You Can Unlock Your Moto X with a Digital Tattoo — A phone should be as unique as you are—not only in the design of your device, but how you use it. Last year at the All Things D “D11” conference, Regina Dugan talked about new digital tattoo technology that would make it easier to unlock your phone.

More: Business Insider, Gizmodo, Gigaom, Engadget, BGR, Pocketnow, Connectedly, CNET, IntoMobile, BetaNews, TechCrunch and Droid Life

Ina Fried / Re/code:

Tim Cook Says Businesses Could Revive Slowing iPad Sales — Although iPad sales were below analyst projections for a second straight quarter, Apple CEO Tim Cook says that the tablet can continue to grow, particularly if Apple can increase sales to businesses.

More: Reuters, Quartz, MacDailyNews, TUAW, Pocket Gamer.biz, The Network Garden and Wall Street Journal

Daisuke Wakabayashi / Wall Street Journal:

iPhone sales up 12.7% from a year ago driven by demand from Brazil, Russia, India, and China; iPad sales down 9.2%

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple announces Q3 2014 revenue of $37.4b: 35.2m iPhones, 13.2m iPads, 4.4m Macs

More: MacRumors, Re/code, Computerworld, TechCrunch, BGR, Business Insider, eWeek, TUAW and Tech Trader Daily

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Apple Faces Class-Action Lawsuit In California Over Alleged Labor Violations Affecting 20K Employees — While Apple today reported its quarterly earnings, another group seized the moment to push out another bit of Apple-related news. The company is being sued in a class-action suit …

William Shatner:

William Shatner reviews Facebook Mentions, calls it “ill conceived” — Facebook Mentions Versus Facebook Pages Apps — I want to talk and compare an app that most of you don't have access to: Facebook Mentions and compare it to the Pages App that anyone who has a Facebook page can download and use.

More: Gizmodo, Marketing Land, Engadget, SlashGear, Mashable, The Technology Chronicles, The Register, The Next Web, Business Insider, Re/code and TIME

Tweets: @qthrul, @ftrain, @emjbanks, @reichenstein and @glennf

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

LinkedIn Will Acquire Business Marketing Company Bizo For $175M — LinkedIn just announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Bizo, a company that helps advertisers reach businesses and professionals. — LinkedIn says the deal is worth around $175 million — 90 percent cash and 10 percent stock.

More: Marketing Solutions Blog, Bizo, New York Times, SocialTimes, VentureBeat, MarketWatch, Business Insider, ReadWrite, ZDNet, AdExchanger, bizjournals and silicontap.com

Ben Woods / The Next Web:

Microsoft launches $114 Lumia 530 with 4-inch display. Hits Europe next month — Microsoft has today announced a new member of its Lumia range in the form of the low-end Lumia 530, which will arrive from the start of next month in Europe. — Priced at €85 before taxes or local subsidies …

More: Conversations, Re/code, VentureBeat, Digital Trends, BetaNews, BetaNews, Wall Street Journal, TmoNews, Engadget, The Verge, WinBeta, Electronista, SlashGear, Ubergizmo, Wpxbox, Windows Phone Central, Pocketnow, Phones Review and Ubergizmo

Dmitri Sarle / ArcticStartup:

Google Acquires Helsinki Based drawElements for 8 Figures — Yet another exit for the Nordics. The normally slow summer is turning into a shopping spree by the big players as the Helsinki based drawElements is acquired by Google. The exact amount behind the transaction is not disclosed …

More: Inquirer and Tech.eu. Thanks:@dsarle

Chris Morran / Consumerist:

Comcast Memo: Rep From “Painful” Retention Call Was Doing “What We Trained Him To Do” — A week after the posting of the neediest customer-retention call in Comcast history, the fallout continues, with the company's Chief Operating Officer telling Comcast employees in a memo leaked to Consumerist …

More: Ars Technica, blog.chron.com, Boing Boing, Salon, The Verge, Techdirt, DailyTech, BGR, Gawker, FierceCable, CNET, VentureBeat, DSLreports, Gizmodo and TechHive. Tweets: @pmarca

Nathan Donato-Weinstein / bizjournals:

Apple Campus 2 permits show $25M tunnel, $171M underground theater — Eight months after Apple Inc. received final approval from the city of Cupertino to build Apple Campus 2, construction on the Mac maker's new campus is generating the kind of interest usually reserved for a new iPhone launch.

Thanks:@svbiznate

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

Sunrise Raises $6 Million From Balderton And Others To Build The Perfect Calendar — A year and a half after launching its first calendar app, Sunrise is raising a $6 million Series A round from Balderton Capital and existing investors — Bernard Liautaud is joining the board.

More: Sunrise and Venture Capital. Tweets: @ccheever

Chris Kanaracus / PC World:

Teradata acquires assets of Hadapt, Revelytix for big data — Teradata has bought the assets of Revelytix and Hadapt in a bid to grow out its capabilities for the Hadoop big-data processing framework. — Revelytix developed Loom, a metadata management system compatible with a number …

More: ZDNet, Xconomy, VentureBeat, PR Newswire and InformationWeek

Ben Thompson / stratechery:

To focus on services, Microsoft should split in two and make the Windows business a separate company — It's Time to Split Up Microsoft — To understand why so many serious Microsoft observers were encouraged by Satya Nadella's week-ago memo Bold Ambition and Our Core,1 it's useful …

More: Stowe Boyd. Thanks:@pavanrajam

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

‘One more thing’: ex-Google exec says his Chinese employer is no Apple ripoff — “We're not copying Apple's products. End of story.” — A man wearing a black top and denim jeans stands on stage promising to unveil “one more thing.” As much as that might sound like the familiar finale …

More: CNET, Hugo Barra, PandoDaily, iPhone in Canada Blog, Global Nerdy, Daring Fireball, GadgeTell, Gigaom, 9to5Mac, The Next Web, Business Insider, Phandroid, BetaNews and Re/code

Tweets: @sascha_p, @kevinroose, @llsethj, @fromedome and @joshuatopolsky

Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:

Xiaomi announces its first wearable device, a $13 fitness band

More: The Verge, CNET, SlashGear, Engadget, Business Insider, CIO.com, 9to5Google, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and Connectedly

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