Techmeme
August 2, 2013, 10:25 AM

Top News

Roger Cheng / CNET:
Moto X: The first true anti-iPhone  —  analysis Google and Motorola Mobility's experiment will determine if choice and customization trump a tightly controlled experience and high-end specifications in the minds of consumers.  —  Motorola's Moto X.  —  The iPhone 5 may have found its polar opposite in Moto X.
Steven Levy / Wired:
The Inside Story of the Moto X: The Reason Google Bought Motorola  —  THE PHONE THAT REVEALS WHY GOOGLE BOUGHT MOTOROLA  —  lmost exactly two years ago, Google announced its purchase of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.  It was the company's biggest deal ever, far exceeding previous big buys …
Marguerite Reardon / CNET:
Motorola CEO: Don't worry, cheaper Moto X in the works  —  Motorola will have a less expensive Moto X for the U.S. prepaid market and developing markets within a few months, the company said Thursday after the Moto X launch event in New York.  —  A cheaper version of the Moto X will be introduced …
Wall Street Journal:
Google Leans on Motorola With Moto X, Hardware Push  —  As Google Inc. GOOG +1.86% pushes deeper into hardware, the Internet search giant is pulling Motorola Mobility closer even as it tries to assure device partners that the phone maker won't have an unfair advantage.
Zach Honig / Engadget:
jessica lessin:
Exclusive: Apple Recently Acquired Low-Energy Chipmaker Passif  —  As the smartphone wars heat up, Apple has acquired a key technology in the arms race.  —  The company in recent months purchased Silicon Valley-based wireless chip developer, Passif Semiconductor, according to people briefed on the deal.
Jonny Evans / Computerworld:
Wearables and payments: What Apple might get from its Passif Semi purchase  —  Apple [AAPL] has acquired small semiconductor company, Passif Semiconductor — reading that company's published patents suggests Cupertino may be looking to use Passif's technologies in future wearable and contactless payment solutions.
Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
Michael Dell and Silver Lake Reach Last-Minute Buyout Deal  —  Michael Dell and the private equity firm Silver Lake have raised their offer to take the company public to $13.75 a share with a 13-cent per share special dividend.  —  The new deal, reached after a night of furious negotiations …
More: CNET, Engadget, ZDNet and Bloomberg.  Tweets: @davidfaber
Wall Street Journal:
FBI Taps Hacker Tactics to Spy on Suspects  —  Law-Enforcement Officials Expand Use of Tools Such as Spyware as People Under Investigation ‘Go Dark,’ Evading Wiretaps  —  Law-enforcement officials in the U.S. are expanding the use of tools routinely used by computer hackers to gather information …
Heather Kelly / CNN:
SIM card hack inspires quick fix by carriers  —  Las Vegas (CNN) — Major wireless carriers have fixed a bug that could have allowed criminals to hack into hundreds of millions of cell phones, says a security expert who exposed the flaw.  —  Cryptographer Karsten Nohl of Security Research Labs …
John Herrman / BuzzFeed:
Is Tumblr Shrinking?  —  Yahoo bought Tumblr because Tumblr has millions of young users.  But are they sticking around?  —  David Karp, founder and CEO of Tumblr, photographs the Nasdaq screen in Times Square after ringing the opening bell, Thursday, July 11, 2013, in New York.  —  Via: Mark Lennihan / AP
Jeremiah Rice / Android Police:
PSA: The Latest Chromecast Over-The-Air Update (12840) Patches The Bootloader Exploit Used To Obtain Root  —  The Chromecast runs a modified version of Android, so of course modders are all over it like white on rice.  The folks at GTVHacker already gave us a working bootloader hack and root access …
Lucas Shaw / The Wrap:
YouTube to Open Production Studio in New York Next Year  —  That complements a 41,000-square foot studio in Los Angeles  —  YouTube will open a production studio in New York next year, the company announced at VidCon on Thursday.  The company complements similar facilities in London …
Jordan Golson / MacRumors:
Apple Notifying Former MobileMe Customers of Impending iCloud Storage Downgrade  —  In 2011, when iCloud replaced MobileMe, Apple gave paying MobileMe customers an additional 20GB of iCloud storage as a thank you for their purchase.  That storage was to be discontinued in September of 2012 …
Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:
LinkedIn Beats Again as Revenue Jumps to $364 Million  —  Another earnings season, another beat from the Internet company that can seemingly do no financial wrong.  —  LinkedIn reported second-quarter earnings results on Thursday, with earnings per share of 38 cents on revenue of $364 million.

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:
Pro Tips: 4 tips to overcome data problems in your CRM  —  Most CRM data problems don't look like problems.  At a glance, your CRM looks fine: records exist, fields are filled, and reports run.
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:
Meta's Muse Revival, Frontier AI Under Threat, The Rise Of Dopamine Sites
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.
Sources:
Satya Nadella on Microsoft's agent bet and AI's trust problem
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Meta's New $1300 Glasses and the Fight to Control AI
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.
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.
Invest Like the Best:
Gabe Stengel - Building Investing Superintelligence
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Grit:
Inside the AI Startup Making Customer Support 65% Cheaper
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:25 AM ET, August 2, 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

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks