Techmeme: Vuze 360-degree 3D 4K VR camera available for pre-order for $799, ships in October (Ross Miller/The Verge)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

May 12, 2016, 1:00 PM

Top News

Rajan Patel / Official Google Blog:

Google unveils GBoard in US, an iOS keyboard app that lets you search the web, find GIFs, emojis, places, and more from the keyboard — iPhone users—this one's for you. Meet Gboard, a new app for your iPhone that lets you search and send information, GIFs, emojis and more, right from your keyboard.

Mark Bergen / Recode:

Sources: Google's answer to Amazon Echo is code-named “Chirp” and expected to launch this year — ‘Okay, Google,’ your turn. — A product team at Google is working on a hardware device that would integrate Google's search and voice assistant technology, akin to the Amazon Echo, Recode has learned.

Neil Cybart / Above Avalon:

Apple's R&D spend is $10B+, 6.8% of revenue in 2016, up from 2.6% of revenue in 2013, hinting at major new products, pivot from iPhone-dependent business model — People are focusing on the wrong thing when analyzing Apple's path forward in the face of slowing iPhone sales.

More: ZDNet, iMore, MacRumors, Fortune, iPhone Hacks, Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Silicon Republic and BGR

Tweets: @gartenberg, @ldignan and @ericjackson

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:

A look at Snapchat's secretive culture and the controlling leadership style of CEO Evan Spiegel — It's Evan Spiegel's world — we're all just snapping in it — Before Evan Spiegel was Evan Spiegel, there were times he wanted to fit in. — Like in June 2012, when Spiegel walked across …

Tweets: @edmundlee, @bbhlabs, @mylesudland and @hannahkuchler. Thanks:@waqasaday

Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:

What's at stake in Google and Oracle's $9.3B fair use fight over Java APIs — Gather round tech folks, it's time for an epic rematch between two industry giants. At stake is not just billions of dollars in copyright claims, but also a controversial legal concept that could roil the entire software industry.

Jack Nicas / Wall Street Journal:

Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Schwartz and Andy Rubin testify at outset of second Oracle v. Google trial

More: Ars Technica, Phandroid, Business Insider, Courthouse News Service and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Apple denies report that it will end iTunes music downloads within the next few years — The future of music is streaming, not downloads. — But that doesn't mean Apple, the company that essentially invented the market for music download sales, is going to stop selling downloads anytime soon.

Chris O'Brien / VentureBeat:

Kantar: Android marketshare in Q1 grew 7.3% YoY in US, 7.1% in top five European markets, and 6% in China; Galaxy S7 said to be selling well in the US — As if Apple wasn't facing enough headwind this year, now comes word that Android smartphones are making big market share gains around the world.

More: Kantar Worldpanel, Tech Insider, Phandroid, Pocketnow, SlashGear, ZDNet, PYMNTS.com, ZDNet, CNET, ITWire.com, WinBeta, Windows Central, MSPoweruser, PhoneArena, Neowin and Softpedia News

Alex Webb / Bloomberg:

Apple's average app review time has fallen from 8.8 days a year ago to 1.95 days in the past two weeks — Average approval times reduced to two days from about nine — Apple is trying to keep developers loyal to iOS projects — Apple Inc. has cut the approval time for new submissions …

More: AppleInsider, MacStories, Cult of Mac and Average App Store Review Times

Tweets: @tapbot_paul, @drbarnard, @tapbot_paul, @petrfodor, @danlev and @zentraedi

James Vincent / The Verge:

Western Digital officially completes acquisition of SanDisk for around $16B — Western Digital has now officially purchased flash memory manufacturer SanDisk after regulator approval was passed earlier this week. The agreement between the two storage companies was originally announced last October in a deal worth nearly $19 billion.

More: wdc.com, Digital Trends, Seeking Alpha, pcgamer, Benzinga, insideHPC and Engadget

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Tencent-backed music-streaming service China Music Corp. plans US IPO as soon as this year, could raise $300M-$600M — China Music Corp. could raise $300 million to $600 million — HONG KONG—A music-streaming service backed by Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd …

More: hypebot, Digital Music News and Music Ally

Ross Miller / The Verge:

Vuze 360-degree 3D 4K VR camera available for pre-order for $799, ships in October — With few exceptions, the traditional camera market has a product for pretty much every price imaginable. Virtual reality cameras, on the other hand, tend to be either a few hundred dollars (e.g. …

More: Engadget, Business Insider, TechCrunch, Digital Trends, VentureBeat, SiliconANGLE, Tech Times and VRFocus

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook now lets you upload panoramas along with photos from 360 cameras for viewing as 360 Photos in News Feed and on Gear VR headsets; Gear VR hits 1M users — Those panoramas trapped on your phone will finally get a better viewing experience, both on News Feed and the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR.

More: Digital Trends, UploadVR, Engadget, Phandroid, The Verge, Fone Arena, Tech Times, The Tech Report, BGR, Mashable, Oculus, SiliconANGLE, SlashGear, Android Authority, VRFocus, ZDNet, Android Central, Digital Trends, Ubergizmo, The Verge, SlashGear, SocialTimes, VentureBeat, VRFocus, Road to VR, Wired, The Next Web, BuzzFeed, CNET and Engadget

Tweets: @kentbye, @dshankar and @natgeo

Thanks:@lucas_matney

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Shopify:

Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle — Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify. Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.

Zoho:

Top shortcuts to work your way through Zoho Cliq — The debate between mouse and keyboard users has been around for years. Whether it's about efficiency, speed, or productivity, there's always this question …

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Decoder with Nilay Patel:

Square's product chief on the death of the penny and the future of money

A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.

Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.

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.

Subscribe to Grit.

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.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

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.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

"Hollywood is Truly Freaked Out." Inside the Netflix/WBD Deal with Lucas Shaw

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.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

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.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:00 PM ET, May 12, 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.