Techmeme
April 16, 2013, 3:25 PM

Top News

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Facebook's Chat Heads Come to iPhones, iPad With App Update  —  You can't get Facebook Home on iPhone.  But very soon you'll be able to get one of the most buzzed-about features from Facebook's new mobile software set: “Chat Heads” are coming to iOS devices, via a Facebook app update.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Facebook 6.0 for iPad and iPhone: hands-on with Chat Heads, stickers, and more  —  Perhaps you hadn't noticed, but we're in the midst of a fairly remarkable blitz of Facebook releases on mobile.  The company announced Facebook Home and the HTC First and then (in a pattern that's all-too-rare) released both about a week later.
Sean Ludwig / VentureBeat:
Google chairman Eric Schmidt on Facebook Home: ‘I love it’  —  July 9-10, 2013  —  NEW YORK CITY — Facebook Home takes away part of the Android experience in favor of social networking.  But outspoken Google chairman Eric Schmidt said today at the Dive into Mobile conference …
Chris Ziegler / The Verge:
Facebook Home available outside US later today, first update coming ‘second week of May’  —  On stage at AllThingsD's Dive Into Mobile conference today, Cory Ondrejka, head of mobile engineering at Facebook, announced that the first update to Facebook Home for Android will be released in “the second week of May.”
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Google's Next Group of Gadgets Will Blow You Away, Says Eric Schmidt  —  Google chairman Eric Schmidt is spending a lot of time on the road right now — he's got a new book to promote — but he has popped into Google's Motorola unit to see what the phone company is working up.  —  It's amazing stuff, he promises.
Seth Weintraub / 9to5Google:
Google Glass tech specs: 5MP/720P camera, 802.11b/g Wifi 16GB storage (12GB usable), full day battery  —  Along with today's Glass API release, Google now officially announced specs for the Glass Explorer editions.  Notable is the camera which will take 5 Megapixel images or 720P video.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft's Windows 8 Plan B(lue): Bring back the Start button, boot to desktop  —  Summary: Microsoft may be moving toward bringing back the Start Button and allowing users to boot straight to the desktop with its coming Windows 8.1 release later this year.
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Windows Phone Head Myerson: Android “Still Kind of a Mess”  —  In an interview at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference today, the leader of Microsoft's Windows Phone division, Terry Myerson, said that the software giant's mobile effort continued to cast it as a “challenger,” but that Google's Android market was “still kind of a mess.”
Steve Kovach / Business Insider:
Leaked Document Shows AppGratis Used Lure Of App Store Rankings To Attract Cash From Developers  —  AppGratis, the app-discovery app that Apple removed last week for closely mimicking the official App Store, started an online petition yesterday that encourages users to ask Apple to let it return.
More: 9to5Mac and Forrester BlogsThanks:@stevekovach
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
AT&T's Galaxy S 4 page lists April 30th ship date, $199 / $639 price for 16GB  —  We saw AT&T open up a registration page for the Galaxy S 4 almost as soon as Samsung's presentation was over, but now that link is exposing a bit more information.  Several tipsters let us know that for customers …
Alistair Barr / Reuters:
Amazon gains against Apple's iTunes in music downloads  —  (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has grabbed more than a fifth of the market for digital music downloads, helped by the launch of its own tablet computers and aggressive pricing, according to an industry study released on Tuesday.
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple says small number of Apple TVs have WiFi issues, opens replacement program  —  Apple has informed its official retail stores, AppleCare employees, and authorized resellers that a small number of third-generation Apple TV units have WiFi issues.  These issues surround not being able …
NPD Group:
Screen Mirroring Awareness Reaches 40 Percent of Smartphone and Tablet Owners, According to The NPD Group  —  Apple's AirPlay is the most well-known  —  Screen mirroring technologies, which gives consumers the ability to wirelessly project content from smartphones, PCs or tablets directly to a television …
Declan McCullagh / CNET:
IRS chief: We'll rewrite our e-mail search policy  —  Still unclear is whether taxpayers' other private communications, including on Facebook and Twitter, receive the same treatment.  —  Sen. Chuck Grassley asked today whether the IRS obtained a search warrant before reading private Facebook or Twitter messages.
Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
Tweetie and ‘pull-to-refresh’ creator Loren Brichter reportedly working with a Facebook team  —  According to a tweet from Facebook's Mike Matas this morning, the company's new social home screen project has gained itself a hot collaborator.  Matas says that developer and designer Loren Brichter is ‘helping out’ his Facebook Home team.
More: BuzzFeed, Business Insider and TUAWTweets: @mike_matas
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
SoftBank Says Still Hopes to Complete Sprint Deal by July  —  Japan's SoftBank said Tuesday that it still expects to complete its deal by July to acquire a controlling interest in Sprint Nextel.  —  SoftBank's statement comes despite a rival $25.5 billion bid for Sprint coming from Dish Network.

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