Techmeme: Nuance to create a universal voice assistant, bridging phones, TVs and cars (Kevin Fitchard/GigaOM)

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January 7, 2013, 4:30 PM

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Apple:

App Store Tops 40 Billion Downloads with Almost Half in 2012 — Apple® today announced that customers have downloaded over 40 billion apps*, with nearly 20 billion in 2012 alone. The App Store has over 500 million active accounts and had a record-breaking December with over two billion downloads during the month.

Matthew Lynley / Digits:

Apple Has Paid Out More Than $7 Billion To Developers — Apple announced today that more than 40 billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store for the iPhone and iPad — which has led to more than $7 billion in payments to developers. — That's still a fraction of Apple's revenue …

More: DailyFinance.com, The Next Web and Associated Press

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Vizio gets back in the phone game with 5-inch 1080p and 4.7-inch 720p handsets... for China — Two of the hottest phones at CES, but you can't have one — Two years ago, Vizio came to CES and announced the Vizio Phone, a skinned Android phone that quietly died at the hands of American carrier politics.

More: digitaltrends.com, LAPTOP Magazine, Pocketnow, GadgeTell and Tech in Asia

Jamie Condliffe / Gizmodo:

Can Vizio's New Android Tablets Compete with Nexus?

More: The Verge, The Verge, VentureBeat, 9to5Google, IntoMobile, PhoneArena, Softpedia News, PhoneArena, Android and Me, Droid Life, Mobile Magazine, GadgeTell and Techie Buzz

Mat Honan / Wired:

CES Is the World's Greatest Hardware Show Stuck in a Software Era — LAS VEGAS — Thousands of companies will roll out millions of products at CES this week. Lights will blink. Glass will shimmer. Screens will illuminate and speakers will reverberate.

More: Guardian and Quartz. Tweets: @zpower, @intlces, @joshsternberg and @gartenberg

Matt Buchanan / BuzzFeed:

Why We're Not At The Biggest Tech Show In The World

More: The Verge and InvestorPlace. Tweets: @joshuatopolsky

Ben Gilbert / Engadget:

NVIDIA unveils Project Shield, a Tegra 4-powered Android gaming handheld — A video shown on-stage during NVIDIA's press conference just unveiled “Project Shield,” a gaming controller / portable console running the just announced Tegra 4. The controller looks an awful lot like a PlayStation 3 DualShock 3 …

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

Nvidia's Project Shield: five years in the making, five years too late?

Kevin Fitchard / GigaOM:

Nuance to create a universal voice assistant, bridging phones, TVs and cars — Nuance Communications is sticking its voice recognition technology into a lot of products, from its own smartphone and PC personal assistants to connected TV and cars. Though all of those devices share …

More: Boston Herald, Engadget, Forbes and BostInno

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

New Swype keyboard for Android crowd-sources your autocorrections

More: GeekWire, Engadget, MobileSyrup.com, The Next Web and Gizmodo

Alex Fitzpatrick / Mashable!:

Congressman Demands Investigation of Google FTC Probe Leaks — Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, demanded an investigation of the Federal Trade Commission's role in sharing private information about the Commission's Google probe …

More: Ars Technica and Hillicon Valley

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

Microsoft Contends FTC-Google Deal Kills Pending Motorola Patent Cases

More: Reuters and FOSS Patents

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:

Apple Can't Afford Buyer's Remorse With Next Retail Hire — John Browett, the Dixons exec tapped to oversee Apple's retail operations last January, was Tim Cook's first big hire after taking up the CEO reins at the company. Nine months later, he would be among Cook's first big fires …

More: Daring Fireball and MacRumors

Om Malik / GigaOM:

My conversation with ex-Facebook CTO and Quora co-founder Adam D'Angelo — To say that I have had a contentious relationship with former Facebook chief technology officer Adam D'Angelo's three-year-old startup Quora would be an understatement. I've had my reasons for disagreeing with some of its policies relating to the content.

Reuters:

Year-end Wii U sales steady, says Nintendo chief — (Reuters) - Nintendo Co Ltd's year-end sales of its Wii U games console were steady, though not as strong as when its Wii predecessor was first launched, the Japanese game maker's top executive told Reuters on Monday.

More: GamesIndustry International, digitaltrends.com, CNET, Engadget, VentureBeat, DailyTech and VG247

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:

At Disney Parks, a Bracelet Meant to Build Loyalty (and Sales) — ORLANDO, Fla. — Imagine Walt Disney World with no entry turnstiles. Cash? Passé: Visitors would wear rubber bracelets encoded with credit card information, snapping up corn dogs and Mickey Mouse ears with a tap of the wrist.

More: VentureBeat and InvestorPlace

Brad Molen / Engadget:

Alcatel intros the One Touch Idol Ultra, the 'world's slimmest phone' at 6.45mm (hands-on video) — Yes, there's a bit of a contest going on among smartphone manufacturers to determine which one has the thinnest device. As proof that Alcatel can play that game, too, the company has just jumped …

More: BGR, Engadget, Inquirer, Electronista, Phones Review, Pocketnow, TechRadar.com, IntoMobile, The Verge and LAPTOP Magazine

Steve Stecklow / Reuters:

Exclusive: U.S. nuclear lab removes Chinese tech over security fears — (Reuters) - A leading U.S. nuclear weapons laboratory recently discovered its computer systems contained some Chinese-made network switches and replaced at least two components because of national security concerns, a document shows.

More: VentureBeat, Engadget and The Verge

Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:

Nokia Boss: “Today we are with Microsoft, but anything is possible” — Gizmodo es Español reports on some surprising words by Nokia big chief Stephen Elop. Asked about a potential Android phone in Nokia's near future, Elop said that “anything is possible”:

More: Business Insider, LAPTOP Magazine, BGR, PhoneArena, Pocketnow, WMPoweruser, My Nokia Blog and Communities Dominate Brands

Tim Stevens / Engadget:

Lexus' autonomous Advanced Active Safety Research Vehicle and why we're not ready for self-driving cars — Self-driving cars aren't just the future, they're the present. Sort of. They're out there, but you can't buy one just yet. Google of course has made waves with its driverless car …

More: The Verge, Ars Technica, LAPTOP Magazine and Gizmodo

Associated Press:

Google executive chairman arrives in North Korea — PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Google's chairman wants a first-hand look at North Korea's economy and social media during his private visit Monday to the communist nation, his delegation said, despite misgivings in Washington over the timing of the trip.

More: New York Times, Reuters, Marketing Land, The Verge, Bill Richardson, Quartz, WebProNews, Betabeat, PC Magazine, Gizmodo, Bloomberg, WebProNews, CNNMoney.com and Telegraph

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Yahoo Mail users hit by widespread hacking, XSS exploit seemingly to blame (Update: Yahoo is investigating) — Late last night reports started coming in suggesting that Yahoo Mail users have had their accounts hacked. While “hacked” is a very broad term nowadays, it does appear …

More: Electronista

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Disruptive Web Security Startup Shape Security Nabs $20M From Venrock, Google Ventures, Kleiner, Eric Schmidt — Shape Security, a company that wants to disrupt web security technology, has raised $20 million in Series B financing round led by Venrock, with participation …

More: PandoDaily, PE Hub Blog and Business Insider

Joanna Stern / ABCNEWS:

Acer Iconia B1: How Much Tablet Does $130 Buy You? — LAS VEGAS — “This is a product for new users.” That's how Acer President Jim Wong described the company's new $130 Acer Iconia B1 tablet, which will be sold in some areas of the world for as low as $99.

More: AllThingsD, Gizmodo, AllThingsD, GadgeTell, The Verge, Droid Life, IntoMobile and AndroidOS.in

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:

The AP Has Started Selling Its Twitter Feed — America's most venerable newswire is experimenting with new ways to make money. And they're going around Twitter to do it, too. — During the Consumer Electronics Show, the Associated Press's 1.5 million followers will see tweets about Samsung's new products.

More: ap.org, The Verge, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, blogs.ft.com, WebProNews, AllTwitter, CNET and Mashable!. See also Mediagazer

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Roku Now Has 700 Channels, Including Time Warner Cable; Also Has 14 TV Manufacturers Compatible With Its Streaming Stick — Roku is announcing at CES today a significant milestone both in the amount of content and the number of devices that are compatible with its USB-sized streaming stick.

More: The Verge, The Official Roku Blog, The Official Roku Blog, Engadget, AllThingsD, ZDNet, The Next Web, Examiner and The Verge. See also Mediagazer

Chris Ziegler / The Verge:

AT&T Screen Pack could be U-verse's $5 Netflix competitor — AT&T announced Screen Pack today, a $5 per month add-on for subscribers of its U-verse TV service that offers access to a streaming library of movies “all without having to rent DVDs.” If that sounds familiar, that's because it's is …

More: TechCrunch, AllThingsD, Engadget, Gizmodo, Mashable! and ces.cnet.com

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Netflix Inks Exclusive U.S. Online Rights To Warner Bros 2012-13 Drama Shows Including Revolution, The Following And The West Wing — The latest skirmish in the ongoing battle between pay-TV and over-the-top providers to woo customers by building the most alluring content ecosystems has been won …

More: PR Newswire, VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, The Next Web, Deadline.com, AllThingsD, 24/7 Wall St., Associated Press, iDownloadBlog.com and Hollywood Reporter. See also Mediagazer

Tamar Lewin / New York Times:

Massive Open Online Courses Prove Popular, if Not Lucrative Yet — MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — In August, four months after Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng started the online education company Coursera, its free college courses had drawn in a million users, a faster launching than either Facebook or Twitter.

More: Quartz, BostInno and The Laboratorium

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