Techmeme
February 3, 2016, 4:50 PM

Top News

Harry Shum / The Official Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft acquires SwiftKey, promises to continue developing its Android and iOS apps  —  Microsoft acquires SwiftKey in support of re-inventing productivity ambition  —  I'm pleased to announce that Microsoft has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SwiftKey, whose highly rated …
Financial Times:
Sources: Microsoft paid $250M for SwiftKey, maker of an AI-powered predictive keyboard for smartphones and tablets  —  Microsoft in $250m artificial intelligence keyboards deal  —  Microsoft is paying around $250m to acquire London-based Swiftkey, maker of a predictive keyboard powered …
Jillian D'Onfro / Business Insider:
Google's search chief Amit Singhal retires, to be replaced by AI manager John Giannandrea  —  Google's search chief is retiring  —  Google's search chief, Amit Singhal, is retiring, he announced Wednesday morning.  —  He has been at Google for 15 years and will be leaving the company …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Comcast says gigabit cable Internet service launching in Atlanta, Nashville early this year, with Chicago, Detroit, and Miami in following months  —  Comcast 2Gbps fiber available to 18M homes; gigabit cable coming soon  —  Atlanta and Nashville get gigabit cable first; Chicago, Detroit, and Miami next.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Adblock Fast, a plugin for Samsung's browser, removed from Google Play days after launching because it “interferes” with third-party apps  —  Adblock Fast disappears from Google Play days after launch  —  Over the weekend, Samsung added support for content-blocking plugins …
Lauren Goode / The Verge:
Fitbit launches Alta, a fashionable bracelet-like activity tracker, for $130, shipping in March  —  Fitbit puts fashion first with Alta, its newest activity tracker  —  Fitbit's unveiling of the new, not-exactly-attractive Blaze fitness watch last month was met with mixed reactions and a sinking stock price.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Amazon is adding Alexa to the original Fire TV and Fire TV Stick  —  Amazon brought Alexa to the TV with its second-generation Fire TV set-top box, and now, a few months later, the company is also doing the same for owners of its original box.  Starting today and continuing “over the next few weeks …
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
HTC Cards $101M Loss In Q4 2015, Its Third Successive Quarter In The Red  —  HTC's (financial) struggle is real.  The Taiwanese tech firm endured another rough quarter of business after it posted a NT$3.4 billion ($101 million) net loss for Q4 2015.  Total revenue came in at NT$25.7 billion …

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Matt Day / The Seattle Times:
Husain Sumra / MacRumors:
William Alden / BuzzFeed: