Techmeme
April 11, 2013, 10:25 AM

Top News

Sarah Frier / Businessweek:
Foursquare Gets $41 Million Investment, Time to Grow  —  When Dennis Crowley debuted Foursquare, his location-based social media app, at South by Southwest in 2009, he got rave reviews.  The tech blog Mashable called Foursquare the “breakout mobile app” of the event.  VentureBeat called it “the next Twitter.”
Fred Wilson / A VC:
Late Stage Convertible Debt  —  I've written about convertible debt a few times on this blog, most notably here and here.  My general take on convertible debt is that its very good for the founders and not very good for the investors in seed and early stage investments and a much better solution …
Ian Sherr / Wall Street Journal:
Computer Sales in Free Fall  —  Worldwide shipments of personal computers fell 13.9% in the first quarter, according to market researcher IDC, in the biggest decline since the firm began issuing quarterly numbers in 1994.  —  The grim estimate of 76.3 million units shipped is the latest sign …
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft Plans 7-inch Tablet  —  The personal-computer business is at a crossroads, and Microsoft Corp. isn't sitting still.  —  The software giant is developing a new lineup of its Surface tablets, including a 7-inch version expected to go into mass production later this year, said people familiar with the company's plans.
Sue Marek / FierceWireless:
Verizon CEO: 50% of our wireless traffic is video  —  LAS VEGAS—Video accounts for 50 percent of Verizon Wireless' (NYSE:VZ) network traffic today and by 2017 the carrier estimates video will make up two-thirds of all traffic over the network.  Speaking at the National Association …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Exclusive: Microsoft's next Xbox will take over your TV, interact with your cable box  —  The fight for the living room continues  —  Microsoft is investing in TV in a big way with its next Xbox console as part of a fight for the living room.  Multiple sources familiar with the company's Xbox plans …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Confirmed: Facebook Has Acquired Osmeta, A Stealth Mobile Software Startup  —  While Facebook is building out a bolder role in mobile in the form of Facebook Home, it looks like it is also continuing to make acquisitions that will help bolster that strategy overall.
More: VentureBeat and ZDNet
Help Net Security:
Hijacking airplanes with an Android phone  —  An extremely well attended talk by Hugo Teso, a security consultant at n.runs AG in Germany, about the completely realistic scenario of plane hijacking via a simple Android app has galvanized the crowd attending the Hack In The Box Conference in Amsterdam today.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft's Office for iOS, Android: Not until fall 2014?  —  Summary: An alleged roadmap for Microsoft's two-year wave of coming Office updates implies Office for iOS and Android may be further away than many industry watchers thought.  —  An alleged roadmap for Microsoft's coming ‘Gemini’ wave …
Jessica Roy / Betabeat:
Twitter Links Appear to Be Down (So You Probably Can't Click This) UPDATE: We're Back  —  Links on Twitter are currently broken.  When you click a link on Twitter, it takes you to a page that says “Something is technically wrong.”  It may have to do with Twitter's link shortener, t.co …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Glass Explorer Edition To Ship Within The Next Month, Google Confirms  —  Today during Google Venture's “Glass Collective” event, Google told us that it hopes to get the Glass hardware into the hands of developers “within the next month.”  The exact date for when Google plans to ship …
Drew Olanoff / TechCrunch:
Mat Smith / Engadget:
Samsung Galaxy Mega is official and comes in 6.3- and 5.8-inch sizes  —  We knew Samsung was planning more devices, but we didn't expect the arrival of two Galaxy Mega smartphones .  The 6.3-inch model has a ‘HD display’ (we're chasing the precise resolution) alongside a dual-core 1.7GHz processor …
Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:
Apple job listing confirms Apple is investigating using flexible displays in future products  —  Update: Apple appears to have removed the job listing, but we grabbed a screenshot above and below.  —  We know that Apple has been investigating various methods of incorporating flexible displays …
John Koetsier / VentureBeat:
Adam Orth, Microsoft game exec who insulted fans on Twitter, has left the company (updated)  —  [This story has been updated with additional reporting]  —  Microsoft game director Adam Orth, who insulted fans on Twitter when they voiced concerns about rumors the next Xbox will require …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
The 90-day recognition cliff: Why praise programs fade, and what keeps them alive  —  Recognition programs often start with enthusiasm.  Employees participate, managers share shoutouts, and teams have a new way to celebrate achievements.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
SAP CEO: AI Won't Kill Software, But It Will Change Your Job — With Christian Klein
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:
David Ellison's Paramount-Warner Empire & The Fight That Comes Next
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.
Sources:
Factory CEO on why AGI is already here
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Invest Like the Best:
Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
The grief, loneliness, and burnout sweeping through the tech industry right now | Molly Graham
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.
Great Chat:
Doomers at Dreamforce
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:25 AM ET, April 11, 2013.

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.

More News

Earlier Picks