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February 3, 2016, 12:50 PM
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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 …
Greg Bensinger / Wall Street Journal:
Amazon plans to open “300 to 400” brick-and-mortar bookstores, according to CEO of mall operator General Growth Properties  —  Amazon Plans Hundreds of Brick-and-Mortar Bookstores, Mall CEO Says  —  The Seattle company plans as many as 400 bookstores, according to the chief executive of General Growth Properties
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 …
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
eBay tells security firm it has no plans to fix bug that lets attackers bypass restrictions on auction pages and run custom JavaScript  —  eBay has no plans to fix “severe” bug that allows malware distribution  —  Clever “JSF**K” technique allows hackers to bypass eBay block of JavaScript.
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:
Torrents Time lets anyone launch their own web version of Popcorn Time  —  Popcorn Time, an app for streaming video torrents, just got a new web version: Popcorn Time Online.  Unlike other attempts to bring Popcorn Time into the browser, this one is powered by a tool called Torrents Time …
Ken Yeung / VentureBeat:
Yahoo announces 15% staff cut, will close 5 overseas offices as part of “aggressive strategic plan”, $1.27B in quarterly revenue, up 1.5% YoY, beating estimates  —  Yahoo to lay off 15% of its workforce as part of ‘aggressive strategic plan’  —  Yahoo (YHOO) announced plans today …
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Source: iPhone 7 will be similar in design to iPhone 6, but will have a flush rear camera, and no antenna bands on back  —  First Details on iPhone 7 Design: Flush Rear Camera, No Antenna Bands Across the Back  —  Apple's iPhone 7 isn't expected to launch until the usual September timeframe …
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 …
Husain Sumra / MacRumors:
Apple Acquired Firmware Security Company LegbaCore Last November  —  Apple acquired firmware security company LegbaCore in November 2015, according to security researcher Trammell Hudson, who revealed the acquisition in his presentation at the 32C3 conference in December.

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:50 PM ET, February 3, 2016.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost

Sam Roberts / New York Times:
Arthur L. Carter, who started a Connecticut newspaper in 1981, bought and sold The Nation, and founded the New York Observer in 1987, has died at 93

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney's Zootopia 2 surpasses $1B at the global box office, the fastest PG-rated film to do so after just 17 days in release

More News

Matt Day / The Seattle Times:
Microsoft recalls AC power cords for Surface Pro devices sold before March 15, 2015

Earlier Picks

TechCrunch:
Twitter now lets logged out mobile visitors see full conversations, not just individual tweets, brings the redesigned homepage to 23 new countries
Brendan Klinkenberg / BuzzFeed:
Sources: YouTube working toward live 360-degree video broadcasting, meeting with camera manufacturers
Travis Kalanick / Uber Global:
Uber announces major rebranding with icons designed to reflect regional colors and patterns, as well as a new logotype
Pavel Alpeyev / Bloomberg Business:
Nintendo quarterly profit down 36% as Wii U and 3DS sales drop; first smartphone game on track for March release
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