Techmeme: Meet Former XBox Boss Don Mattrick, Who Just Left Microsoft To Turn Around Zynga (Nicole Laporte/Fast Company)

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July 2, 2013, 5:30 PM

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John McDermott / AdAge:

Motorola Debuts its First Ad for Upcoming Moto X Smartphone — A Made-In-America Claim But No Images of the Phone — Motorola has set a patriotic tone for its Moto X smartphone campaign, the company's first since being acquired by Google last summer. — “What we are doing which is very different …

More: The Verge, ReadWrite, VentureBeat, ZDNet, BGR, Ars Technica, CNET, Business Insider, MobileSyrup.com, SlashGear, Pocket-lint, Gotta Be Mobile, AndroidGuys and IntoMobile. Tweets: @reckless

Chance Miller / 9to5Google:

Motorola shows off first ad for Moto X Phone, teases a phone “designed by you”

More: AllThingsD and Business Insider

Adam Satariano / Bloomberg:

Apple Said to Near Time Warner Cable Deal for TV Programs — Apple Inc. (AAPL) is nearing a deal with Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) to give subscribers of the cable television service access to channels via Apple TV, people with knowledge of the negotiations said.

More: Tech Trader Daily, MacRumors, Engadget, The Verge, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, Business Insider, GigaOM, Pocket-lint and iDownloadBlog.com. See also Mediagazer

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Yahoo Buys Qwiki for About $50 Million (Like ATD Said) — As AllThingsD.com reported two weeks ago that it was likely to do, Yahoo said it has bought Qwiki, the New York startup that makes an Apple iPhone app that allow users to turn photos, music and videos into short movies automatically.

More: Qwiki, Yahoo!, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Engadget, Business Insider, GigaOM, Mashable and WebProNews. Tweets: @marshallk. See also Mediagazer

Nicole Laporte / Fast Company:

Meet Former XBox Boss Don Mattrick, Who Just Left Microsoft To Turn Around Zynga — News that Don Mattrick is leaving Microsoft as president of the company's Interactive Entertainment unit to run Zynga was a shock when it broke on Monday—to Microsoft, in particular.

More: CNET, A VC, Digits, Business Insider, Forbes, VG247, Polygon, WebProNews, GeekWire, The Verge, Softpedia News and gameinformer.com. Tweets: @wyp100

Evelyn M. Rusli / Digits:

Sources: Zynga's New CEO Will Be Paid 95% in Stock

More: SiliconBeat, Tech Trader Daily, AllThingsD, The Cody Word, VentureBeat, Forbes, DailyFinance.com, MoneyBeat, Business Insider, Mercury News and Inquirer

Matthew Lynley / BuzzFeed:

Zynga's New CEO Won't Succeed Unless Its Old CEO Can Give Up Control

More: GigaOM and The Next Web. Thanks:@mattlynley

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Pebble Smartwatch Is Coming To Best Buy July 7 For $149.95 — Pebble is selling its smartwatch via Best buy stores soon, with the device going on sale at the major U.S.-based electronics retailer on July 7 for $149.95. The e-ink display for the Pebble and Bluetooth connection it sports allow …

Tom Warren / The Verge:

The Bing challenge: with iOS 7 and Windows 8.1, search could be Microsoft's new platform — Redmond opens up to developers to take on Google — Earlier this year, the head of Microsoft's search team, Qi Lu, unveiled a new approach for Bing: the concept of a broad search platform that could feed …

More: Forbes, PadGadget, Computerworld and GeekWire

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

Pixate Raises $3.8M Series A From Accel Partners To Bring CSS Styling To Android And Mac App Development — Pixate has closed a $3.8 million Series A round from venture capital firm Accel Partners. The Palo Alto-based plans to expand its engineering and support teams in order to build Android …

More: Pixate, VentureBeat, Y Combinator Posthaven, silicontap.com, ZDNet and PandoDaily

Dan Primack / Fortune:

Exclusive: Homebrew closes debut fund — Quick fundraise for former Google and Twitter execs. — FORTUNE — Homebrew, a new venture capital firm founded by former Google and Twitter project managers, has quietly closed its debut fund with $35 million. — The San Francisco-based firm …

More: The Next Web and ZDNet

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple expands ‘iWatch’ trademark filing world tour to Mexico, Taiwan, Turkey, Colombia — In addition to filing a trademark for the name “iWatch” in Russia and Japan, Apple has requested a trademark for “iWatch” with Mexico's Institute of Industrial Property.

Ben Gilbert / Engadget:

Spotify Discover functionality now available on iOS app, ‘coming soon’ to other platforms — Spotify's Discover area isn't quite as ubiquitous as we'd hoped by this point, primarily serving computer-based Spotify users. But today that trend begins to change, with Spotify's iOS app getting an update …

More: TechCrunch, The Verge, CNET, TechHive, Softpedia News, WebProNews, Macgasm, Inquirer, Softpedia News, AppleInsider, iMore, SlashGear and Evolver.fm

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple launches 2013 Back to School promo: $100 App Store card with Macs, $50 card with iPhone/iPad — As we reported would occur, Apple has just launched its annual Back to School promotion for students. The program launched in January for students in Australia, and today …

More: Gizmodo, iMore, Computerworld, GeekWire, Macworld, MobileSyrup.com, CNET, SlashGear, PhoneArena, Gotta Be Mobile, MobilesPie, Ars Technica, AppleInsider and App Advice

Chris Welch / The Verge:

.NYC: New York will be ‘first city in the country’ with its own top-level domain — If you run a New York City-based business or happen to live in one of the five boroughs, you'll soon be able to secure your own domain ending in .nyc. The news was just announced via Mayor Bloomberg's …

More: The Next Web, GigaOM, VentureBeat, PC Magazine, Engadget, Betabeat, Mashable and Valleywag. Tweets: @nycmayorsoffice

Spiegel Online:

How the NSA Targets Germany and Europe — Top secret documents detail the mass scope of efforts by the United States to spy on Germany and Europe. Each month, the NSA monitors a half a billion communications and EU buildings are bugged. The scandal poses a threat to trans-Atlantic relations.

More: EU Press Room

Ashkan Soltani / MIT Technology Review:

Technology, Not Law, Limits Mass Surveillance

Nick Summers / The Next Web:

Opera's redesigned, Chromium-based browser for Windows and Mac exits beta with new Speed Dial tool — Opera launched a new version of its Internet browser for Windows PC and Mac users today, with a cleaner design, a new ‘Speed Dial’ tool for finding favorite sites and faster webpage loading.

More: My Opera, TechCrunch, Opera Software, CNET, PC World, TUAW, Softpedia News, gHacks Technology News, ExtremeTech, Macgasm, GigaOM, ArcticStartup, iDownloadBlog.com, VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, Electronista, BetaNews, Engadget and WebProNews

Megan Rose Dickey / Business Insider:

Ousted Groupon CEO Andrew Mason Released A New Album Today — Here Are The Secret Meanings Behind Each Song — Ousted Groupon CEO Andrew Mason just released his first full-length album, “Hardly Workin'.” — The seven-track album is available on for purchase on iTunes and is streaming on Spotify.

More: Andrew Mason, Mashable, Forbes, Guardian, PC Magazine, The Verge, TechCrunch, Digits, VentureBeat, New York Magazine, WebProNews, Quartz, DealBook and The Atlantic Wire

Tweets: @joshuatopolsky and @levie

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

HTC One S no longer receiving updates only 15 months after release — Though the HTC One S is still a young phone at just over a year old, its update cycle has come to an end. HTC tells us that the One S will no longer be receiving updates, keeping it on Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean at the latest.

More: Engadget, 9to5Google, Ars Technica, the::unwired, Pocketnow, Gotta Be Mobile, Android Police and Droid Life

Katie Fehrenbacher / GigaOM:

Apple is planning a solar panel farm for its data center in Reno — Apple, working with Nevada utility NV Energy, is planning to build another solar panel farm next to a data center, and this time it's for its new data center in Reno, Nevada. Apple has already been building two solar panel farms next …

More: TechSpot, SlashGear, TechnoBuffalo, Data Center Knowledge, InvestorPlace, Boing Boing, Digital Trends, GeekWire, Engadget, App Advice, 9to5Mac, Engadget, iDownloadBlog.com and Softpedia News

Marcus Wohlsen / Wired:

Email Is Crushing Twitter, Facebook for Selling Stuff Online — In 2013, no company can expect to be taken seriously if it's not on Facebook or Twitter. An endless stream (no pun intended) of advice from marketing consultants warns businesses that they need to “get” social or risk becoming …

More: Marketing Land, Custora Blog, Marketing Pilgrim and Business Insider

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Windows 8 reaches 100,000 apps milestone in just over seven months — While Microsoft didn't quite hit 100,000 in time for its Build developers conference last week, the software giant is announcing its latest milestone for Windows 8 today. The Windows Store has just passed the 100,000 mark …

More: ZDNet, SiliconANGLE, Ubergizmo, WMPoweruser, WinBeta, PC World, Phones Review and Electronista. Tweets: @windevs

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