Techmeme
May 3, 2013, 8:35 AM

Top News

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:
Is Google Getting Serious About Gaming?  Noah Falstein Hired As Chief Game Designer  —  Well, what do we have here?  Somewhat under the radar, Google has hired the computer games veteran Noah Falstein to the position of Chief Game Designer.  Yes, that's right, the search giant …
Peter Burrows / Bloomberg:
Apple Avoids $9.2 Billion in Taxes With Debt Deal  —  Apple Inc. (AAPL) avoided as much as $9.2 billion in taxes by financing part of a $55 billion stock buyback with debt rather than offshore cash that would have been billed by the U.S. government, Moody's Investment Services estimates.
More: Inquirer, Gizmodo, CNET and TUAW
Dick Craddock / The Microsoft Office Blog:
Outlook.com: 400 million active accounts, Hotmail upgrade complete and more features on the way  —  When we launched the preview of Outlook.com, our goal was to build the best email service in the world, capable of scaling to over a billion active customers.
Brian Heater / Engadget:
Google Play comes to Barnes & Noble's Nook HD and HD+, we go hands-on (video)  —  Barnes & Noble's refusal to open its ecosystem has long been one of our principle complaints about the company's tablet offerings.  The Nook HD and HD+ are extremely nice pieces of hardware that have been held …
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Take that, Apple TV: Smart TVs twice as popular as dedicated streaming boxes  —  14 percent of all broadband households owned an Apple TV, a Roku box or another kind of dedicated streaming device in 2012, but 25 percent owned a smart TV with an embedded app platform, according …
Adrian Chen / Gawker:
Massive Bitcoin Business Partnership Devolves Into $75 Million Lawsuit  —  Bitcoin, the virtual currency libertarian geeks expect us all to use to pay for pizza in the future, has had a rough few weeks.  A series of booms and busts have sent shivers down the spines of Bitcoin enthusiasts.
Marcus Wohlsen / Wired:
Guys Like This Could Kill Google Glass Before It Ever Gets Off the Ground  —  The Segway.  The Bluetooth headset.  The pocket protector.  —  What do these three technologies have in common?  They all pretty much work as promised.  They all seem like good ideas on paper.  And they're all too dorky to live.
More: Yahoo! News and ZDNet
Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:
David Alexander / Reuters:
Samsung, BlackBerry devices cleared for use on U.S. defense networks  —  (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Thursday cleared BlackBerry and Samsung mobile devices for use on Defense Department networks, a step toward opening up the military to a wide variety of technology equipment makers while still ensuring communications security.
Martin Bryant / The Next Web:
Horace Dediu on the bad habits of Apple analysts and why Tim Cook shouldn't be fired  —  “I have few average days,” says Horace Dediu, one of the most well-respected watchers of the mobile industry, and Apple in particular, when asked about how he fills his time while running the Asymco blog and consultancy.
More: Fortune.  Tweets: @panzer
Shanaz Musafer / BBC:
Digital doorkeys and more: Meet New York's latest start-ups  —  Opening doors with the push of a button: Traditional doorkeys may be a thing of the past  —  That's a problem that the founders of Kisi hope they have solved, by coming up with a way of using your smartphone to open your front door.
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Google reveals Shawnee, Kansas, will be the fourth city to get its Fiber Internet service  —  Google on Thursday announced that Shawnee, Kansas will be the fourth city to receive the company's Fiber Internet service.  Shawnee is located just south-west of Kansas City, meaning the technology …
Mike Beasley / 9to5Mac:
Apple releases iOS 6.1.4 for iPhone 5 with updated speakerphone profile  —  Apple has just released a new iOS .1.4 software update for the iPhone 5 that includes an updated speakerphone profile.  That's really it as far as public updates but Apple often updates some stuff behind the scenes including some bug fixes and security updates.
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
Warner Brothers sued for unauthorized use of Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat  —  Warner Brothers is facing a federal lawsuit for using two feline-themed Internet memes in a video game without their creators' permission.  The authors of “Keyboard Cat” and “Nyan Cat” have sued the media giant arguing …
Nathaniel Rich / New York Times:
Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's Start-Up Machine  —  Michelle Crosby, an energetic 37-year-old lawyer in Boise, Idaho, applied for a loan last November from a local bank, Western Capital.  She proposed to use the money, $10,000, to help start a new business, Wevorce, which could be described …
Tweets: @hunterwalk
9to5Mac:
Apple counts down to 50 billion app downloads with all-time best sellers, $10,000 gift card  —  Apple's doing another iTunes countdown, this time to the 50 billionth app downloaded.  Along with the chance to win a $10,000 iTunes gift card, Apple also greets you with the all time most downloaded free and paid apps.
Erin Griffith / PandoDaily:
Yahoo nearing deal to buy travel rewards startup Milewise, according to sources  —  Yahoo is poised to acquire New York travel startup Milewise, according to people familiar with the deal.  The deal is set to close this week, they said.  Milewise was founded in 2010 to help consumers figure …
Mat Smith / Engadget:
‘Introverted’ Evernote pairs with messaging app Kakao Talk (and its 90 million users)  —  It's not all WhatsApp and LINE.  If you're in Korea, then your messaging app of choice is most likely to be Kakao Talk, and Evernote hopes that allying with the app will expand its remit and boost its presence in Asia.

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Josh Constine / TechCrunch: