Techmeme: Verizon to launch VoLTE in Q4, but delays first LTE-only phones to 2016 (Phil Goldstein/FierceWireless)

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August 12, 2014, 10:45 PM

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Chris Ziegler / The Verge:

Samsung may unveil VR headset at September 3 event; image shows similarities to Google's Cardboard — This is Samsung's VR headset — Samsung will be showing its rumored virtual reality headset at its upcoming product event in early September, The Verge has learned, where the company widely expected to announce the Galaxy Note 4.

More: Road to Virtual Reality, AppleInsider, Gigaom, 9to5Google, Examiner, Phones Review, Engadget, Gizmodo, Phandroid, TechnoBuffalo, Pocketnow, Road to Virtual Reality, Android Police, TechnoBuffalo, Droid Life, Android and Me, Android Central, Pocket-lint and SlashGear

Steven Levy / Wired:

Ex-Siri engineers promise consumer-friendly digital assistant “Viv” that can teach itself — Forget Siri: This Radical New AI Teaches Itself and Reads Your Mind — Viv was named after the Latin root meaning live. Its San Jose, California, offices are decorated with tsotchkes bearing …

More: The Verge, iMore, Business Insider, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, TechnoBuffalo, CITEworld, iMagazin, MacRumors, iPhone in Canada Blog, Tech Times, Cult of Mac, AppleInsider, The Next Web, BGR, SlashGear, MacDailyNews, 9to5Mac and Engadget

Tweets: @jyarow, @marcello3d and @wired

Thanks:@johnrobertreed

Phil Goldstein / FierceWireless:

Verizon to launch VoLTE in Q4, but delays first LTE-only phones to 2016 — Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) intends to launch Voice over LTE service in the fourth quarter of this year, and the carrier plans to use the technology to introduce new, high-definition telepresence services, according to Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo.

More: Engadget, 9to5Mac, CNET, Droid Life, SlashGear, PhoneNews.com, Android Authority, DailyTech and AndroidHeadlines.com

Ina Fried / Re/code:

Apple's Diversity Report: 70 percent Male, 55 percent White in U.S. — Apple is the latest company to release a report on the diversity of its workforce, saying Tuesday that its numbers represent a work in progress to the diversity it hopes to achieve over time. — Currently seven in 10 of its workers globally are male.

Mike Isaac / New York Times:

Uber says Lyft cancelled 12.9K Uber rides, and Lyft investors pressured Uber to buy Lyft — Accusations Fly Between Uber and Lyft — All is fair, they say, in love and war. And Uber and Lyft, two smartphone-based car services, are most certainly at war.

More: TechCrunch, The Register, Wall Street Journal, NPR, PandoDaily, VentureBeat, TechnoBuffalo, Valleywag, blog.chron.com, Mashable, Engadget, GeekWire, Los Angeles Times, TechSpot, VatorNews and Gigaom

Tweets: @sarahfrier, @mims, @jbruin, @ncroal, @caseynewton, @mikeisaac and @sameerpatel

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Uber is launching an API to enable “Request A Ride” buttons in more apps — Uber Is About To Launch An API — Uber wins when you hit the “Request A Ride” button, so shouldn't it try to put that button everywhere? It seemed like a smart plan, so I did some digging …

More: Gigaom and The Next Web. Tweets: @niallharbison, @panzer and @joshconstine

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

OnePlus asks women to participate in degrading contest to get a smartphone — The startup OnePlus recently launched its first smartphone, the One, and to deal with production issues it's been letting people buy them by invitation only, slowly offering them to more people as more are produced.

More: OnePlus, OnePlus, Android Central, TechCrunch, Phandroid, Business Insider, Daily Dot, Jezebel, SlashGear, Droid Life, CNET, Pocketnow, Android Authority, Gizmodo, Gizchina.com, BGR and Android and Me

Tweets: @cyanogeninc, @mmasnick, @ginatrapani, @kevin_church, @andrewcrow, @mkbhd, @dcseifert, @morganwano, @roflkops, @epro and @reybango

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft will offer a $499 Call of Duty Xbox One bundle with 1TB of storage, but no Kinect — New Xbox One bundles include two new designs and more storage — Microsoft is preparing two new Xbox One bundles ready for the holiday season. A white Xbox One console, previously reserved …

More: Engadget, Engadget, Geek.com, IGN, Softpedia News, CNET, Gotta Be Mobile, gameinformer.com, BGR, WinBeta, Digital Trends, Softpedia News and The Next Web

Nick Summers / The Next Web:

Xbox One to offer TV streaming on SmartGlass, video playback via USB and DLNA network streaming

More: Xbox Wire, Xbox Live's Major Nelson, The Verge, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, TechnoBuffalo, eWeek, Consumerist, TechSpot, TechCrunch, WinBeta, Softpedia News, Windows Phone Central and Gigaom

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Acquires ‘Pandora For Places’ App Zofari — Another acquisition for Yahoo, this one focused on improving the company's local search capabilities: it has bought Zofari, a local recommendation app that uses machine learning, natural language processing and third-party data from sources …

More: Zofari, VatorNews, Electronista, CNET, VentureBeat, opptrends and The Next Web

Tweets: @jyarow and @hunterwalk

Ina Fried / Re/code:

HTC builds separate business unit to make software for more than just HTC phones, launching Zoe video app for Android this week — HTC Builds Software Business Amid Tough Phone Market — Despite building some of the sexiest smartphones this side of Apple, HTC's hardware and financial challenges have been well documented.

More: The Verge, Ausdroid, Pocket-lint, SlashGear, Android Authority and Phandroid

Jillian D'Onfro / Business Insider:

Internal documents from LinkedIn explain how the Bizo acquisition could lead to a $US1B B2B marketing platform by 2017 — Leaked: Here's How LinkedIn Plans To Have A New Billion-Dollar Business In 3 Years — LinkedIn plans to break into the $50 billion business-to-business marketing space …

More: PandoDaily

Sebastian Anthony / ExtremeTech:

Reversible USB Type-C connector finalized: Devices, cables, and adapters coming soon — The USB Promoter Group has announced that the greatest invention in the known universe — the reversible Type-C USB connector — is finally ready for mass production. The USB Implementers Forum …

More: PC World, Gigaom, Ars Technica, 9to5Google, Android Central, iClarified, WinBeta, Cult of Mac, Techgage and Liliputing

Tweets: @rauschma and @olebegemann

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple Stores to start offering iPhones via carrier financing on Aug. 20th — A significant number of Apple Stores in the United States will likely begin offering iPhone sales via the latest carrier financing programs later this month, according to several sources.

More: SlashGear

Nick Summers / The Next Web:

Sony has sold 10 million PlayStation 4 consoles worldwide — Sony is on a roll. During its press conference at Gamescom 2014, the company announced it has now sold 10 million PlayStation 4 consoles worldwide. — To be clear, this is the number of consoles that have been bought by consumers …

More: PlayStation.Blog, BGR, The Verge, GeekWire, Engadget, Reuters, Ars Technica, Re/code and BetaNews

Tweets: @siracusa and @tomwarren

Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:

“Share Play” will let friends remotely play your PS4 games with you, without owning copies

More: PlayStation.Blog, Digital Trends, Polygon and The Verge

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

iOS drops to 67% enterprise share in Q2 2014, Android grows to 32%, and Windows Phone stays flat at 1% — Apple's iOS still rules the enterprise space, even after having fallen 5 percentage points to 67 percent of total device activations in Q2 2014. Android device activations increased …

More: Good Technology, Android Authority, Marketing Land, AppleInsider, iPhone in Canada Blog, GeekWire, Gigaom, 9to5Mac, 9to5Google and ZDNet

Zachary M. Seward / Quartz:

Twitter admits that as many as 23 million of its active users are automated — This piece has been updated to clarify the kinds of accounts in question. — Twitter raised eyebrows last month when it suggested that many of its active users aren't actually human. Now we know how many.

More: Gigaom, CNET, Businessweek, TechnoBuffalo, Yahoo Tech, TIME, Tech2, Daily Dot, Valleywag, Tech Times, International Business Times, WebProNews, Neowin, InvestorPlace and Daily Mail

Tweets: @peterwsinger and @amir

Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:

Mobile publishing startup Onswipe acquired by Beanstock, service will live on — TechStars alum and former Bloomberg reality TV headliner Onswipe today addressed acquisition rumors, confirming its sale to publisher-centric ad tech company Beanstock Media in a stock and cash deal.

More: TechCrunch, The Digital Reader, Onswipe Sage and Business Wire

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