Techmeme
September 24, 2014, 10:15 AM

Top News

Lisa Bettany / snap snap snap:
Comparing photos taken with Camera+ using all iPhone versions, from the original to iPhone 6  —  How does the iPhone 6 camera compare to previous iPhone cameras?  —  In the past seven years, each new advancement in iPhone camera technology has made dramatic improvements to image quality.
Molly Wood / New York Times:
BlackBerry Seeks New Converts With Passport Smartphone  —  There is much to like about BlackBerrys.  Their squat design, in particular, and tippity-tap keyboards are models of efficiency and lend an air of businesslike legitimacy.  —  For those who remain steadfast in your support of BlackBerry, this is the season for you.
Reuters:
Amazon to invest $55M in hardware unit Lab126 to test smart home gadgets and wearables  —  Exclusive: Amazon tests smart home gadgets, expands hardware lab  —  (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc will boost staffing at its secretive Silicon Valley-based hardware unit by at least 27 percent …
Kelly Hodgkins / MacRumors:
Some iPhone 6 Plus Owners Accidentally Bending Their iPhones in Pockets  —  As highlighted in a few reports shared in the MacRumors forums, a small but growing number of iPhone 6 Plus owners have reportedly bent their phones after carrying the devices in their pockets just days after launch.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / ZDNet:
iOS 8 crash rate 78 percent higher than iOS 7  —  Summary: iOS 8 is showing higher levels of instability compared to iOS 7, with older devices being more susceptible to crashes than the new iPhone 6.  —  Adrian Kingsley-Hughes  —  If you're looking for stability, then iOS 8 might not be the direction you want to be going in.
Philip Kollar / Polygon:
Blizzard cancels its next-gen MMO Titan after seven years  —  Blizzard has officially canceled development on its mysterious next-generation massively multiplayer game Titan.  The company confirmed the news to Polygon in a recent interview.  —  This revelation comes after at least seven years …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Mobile Wallet Laughingstock Clinkle Finally Launches To Let You Pay Friends And Earn “Treats”  —  After 17 months of jokes about vaporware college payments startup Clinkle, its iOS and Android apps finally launched today at a few colleges.  Clinkle lets you pay friends, get a pre-paid Visa …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Business Goals Platform BetterWorks Leaves Stealth With $15.5M Led By KPCB  —  BetterWorks, a new, cloud-based platform designed to help employees set and reach business goals — and the newest project from gamification pioneer Kris Duggan of Badgeville — is coming out of stealth today …
More: PE Hub Blog and Forbes
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
PRSS Digital Magazine Platform Acquired By Apple  —  Apple has acquired Dutch digital magazine startup Prss, a platform that makes it easy to create iPad-compatible magazines using tools that don't require any knowledge of code.  The company is essentially a magazine-focused version of iBooks Author …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Karma Rolls Out An LTE Version Of Its Pay-As-You-Go Mobile Hotspot, Pre-Order For $99  —  Karma, makers of the small, portable Wi-Fi hotspot that lets you pay-as-you-go, contract free, for the data you use ($14/1 GB), is now accepting pre-orders for its latest device, the Karma Go portable LTE Wi-Fi hotspot.
Margaret Rhodes / Wired:
Stack's Alba smart bulb adapts to sunlight and your household habits to conserve energy  —  Ex-Tesla and NASA Engineers Make a Light Bulb That's Smarter Than You  —  Sometime in early 2013, one of the supply chain engineers at Tesla leaned back in his chair and took a look around the Silicon Valley office.
More: Engadget
Chris Martin / PC Advisor:
Samsung exits laptop market in Europe “for now” after decline in PC market  —  Exclusive: Samsung exits laptop market including Chromebooks  —  Following in the path of Sony and its Vaio PCs, Samsung has decided to exit the laptop market stopping sales of Ativ Windows …
Jon Russell / The Next Web:
Samsung says Galaxy Note 4 will debut in Korea on Sept 26, be on sale in 140 markets by the end October  —  Samsung has announced that the Galaxy Note 4, the latest version of its popular ‘phablet’ range, will go on sale from September 26, initially in its home country Korea.
Issie Lapowsky / Wired:
Facebook's internet connectivity drones to begin testing next year, to deploy within 2-5 years  —  Facebook Lays Out Its Roadmap for Creating Internet-Connected Drones  —  A still from an promotional video showing how Facebook and Internet.org will deliver internet access via  —  aerial drone.
More: SlashGear
Sam Altman / How to Start a Startup:
First lecture of the Stanford course “how to start a startup” with Sam Altman and Dustin Moskovitz now online  —  Lecture 1: Welcome, and Ideas, Products, Teams and Execution Part I  —  Why to Start a Startup.  Sam Altman , View Sam's Slide Deck.  Dustin Moskovitz , View Dustin's Slide Deck.
Tweets: @trengriffin
Steven Musil / CNET:
Bitcoin-mining company Butterfly Labs shut down by FTC  —  Company marketed specialized computers designed to produce the cryptocurrency but delivered useless machines, according to an FTC complaint.  —  A bitcoin-related company that allegedly engaged in deceptive marketing …
Ryan Smith / AnandTech:
Apple's A8 SoC: GX6450 4-core GPU, enhanced Cyclone CPU cores, 4MB L3 Cache  —  Chipworks Disassembles Apple's A8 SoC: GX6450, 4MB L3 Cache & More  —  One of the more enjoyable rituals with Apple's annual iPhone launch is the decapping, deconstruction, and photographing of the processor die at the heart of Apple's newest SoC.

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Featured Podcasts

Grit:
The Pull to Build: Joubin Mirzadegan on Grit and Starting Roadrunner
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
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Lenny's Podcast:
The 100-person AI lab that became Anthropic and Google's secret weapon | Edwin Chen (Surge AI)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
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Big Technology Podcast:
AI Device Wars Heat Up, RIP Metaverse?, Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
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Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
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Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

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Roberto Baldwin / The Next Web: