Techmeme: Oculus SDK is now available for Mac OSX (Ben Lang/Road to Virtual Reality)

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August 13, 2014, 1:05 AM

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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: Gigaom, 9to5Google, Phones Review, Pocketnow, Engadget, Road to Virtual Reality, Android Police, TechnoBuffalo, Droid Life, Phandroid, Gizmodo, 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, Gizmodo, TechnoBuffalo, Business Insider, VentureBeat, Tech Times, AppleInsider, CITEworld, iMagazin, MacRumors, The Next Web, iPhone in Canada Blog, Cult of Mac, Engadget, MacDailyNews, 9to5Mac, BGR and SlashGear

Tweets: @jyarow, @wired and @marcello3d

Thanks:@johnrobertreed

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: Phandroid, The Verge, Ubergizmo, Pocketables, Android Beat, TechnoBuffalo, Ausdroid, SlashGear, Android Authority and Pocket-lint

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, Gizmodo, TechnoBuffalo and The Next Web

Tweets: @niallharbison, @panzer and @joshconstine

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

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

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, PhoneNews.com, DailyTech, Android Authority, SlashGear and AndroidHeadlines.com

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: Bloomberg

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

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

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.

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

Tweets: @rauschma and @olebegemann

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google Opens Classroom, Its Learning Management Tool, To All Teachers — Back in May, Google announced the limited preview of Classroom, a tool that aims to make it easier for teachers to stay in touch with their students and to give them assignments and feedback.

More: Google Enterprise Blog, Engadget, The Register, Computerworld, PC Tech Magazine, EdSurge, thejournal.com, Android Police, 9to5Google and The Next Web

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

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, CNET, Electronista, VentureBeat, opptrends and The Next Web

Tweets: @jyarow and @hunterwalk

Ben Thompson / stratechery:

BuzzFeed's valuation reflects how the Internet is narrowing the difference between media and software distribution — Is BuzzFeed a Tech Company? — It's telling that Chris Dixon, in a blog post explaining Andreessen Horowitz's $50 million investment, goes out of his way to explain …

More: Wired, TechCrunch, Medium, Om Malik, The Raw Story and Guardian

Tweets: @tcarmody, @cdixon, @marklittlenews and @monkbent

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