Techmeme: Microsoft Mission Impossible (Jean-Louis Gassée/Monday Note)

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October 14, 2013, 9:20 AM

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Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Microsoft Announces Update 3 For Windows Phone 8 With Larger Screens, More Live Tiles, Coming This Year — Today Microsoft announced its third update to Windows Phone 8. This is the set of new features and upgrades that will carry the smartphone platform through the holiday sales cycle.

More: The Windows Blog, SuperSite for Windows, GigaOM, The Verge, BGR, ABC News, CNET, The Next Web, NYT Bits, Gizmodo, Engadget, AllThingsD, Softpedia News, Associated Press, Wpxbox, SlashGear, TechNet Blogs and Mashable

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft bypasses carriers to deliver early Windows Phone updates — Microsoft may have only just announced Windows Phone 8 Update 3, but the company plans to start delivering it to developers later today. After over a year in the making, Microsoft is finally launching its Windows Phone Preview for developers.

More: The Windows Blog, ZDNet, Gizmodo, PC World, Engadget, My Nokia Blog, pocketnow.com and WMPoweruser. Tweets: @zpower

Shalini Ramachandran / Wall Street Journal:

Netflix in talks with cable providers to make its service available on set-top boxes — Netflix Pursues Cable-TV Deals — Online Video Service Would Be Available on Set-Top Boxes - Netflix Inc. is in talks with several U.S. pay-television providers including Comcast Corp …

More: GigaOM, The Verge, Digital Trends, WebProNews, Reuters, Pocket-lint, SlashGear, Softpedia News, TechCrunch, Variety, Gizmodo, memeburn, Bloomberg, The Next Web, I4U News, App Advice, CNET, Engadget and Electronista

Tweets: @jessicalessin and @awallenstein

See also Mediagazer

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Facebook Buys Mobile Data Analytics Company Onavo, Reportedly For Up To $200M... And (Finally?) Gets Its Office In Israel — Big news for a Monday/late Sunday night (depending on where you are): Onavo, the Tel Aviv-based mobile analytics company, has just announced that it has been acquired by Facebook.

More: onavo :: blog, AllThingsD, SiliconANGLE, VentureBeat, Business Insider, CNET, ZDNet, Inquirer, BetaNews, Business Insider, GigaOM, NYT Bits, GeekTime, Guardian, Computerworld, Light Reading, Softpedia News, Bloomberg, Engadget, SlashGear, App Advice, The Next Web, Reuters, I4U News, Broadband Traffic Management, No Camels, memeburn and Israel News. Tweets: @christianhern. Thanks:@riptari

Brad Molen / Engadget:

LG G Flex curved smartphone revealed in press renders, will launch next month (update: 6-inch display) — LG has admitted that “bendable and unbreakable” smartphone displays are already in production, and we've heard plenty of rumors about a device known as the G Flex which features the new tech.

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

HTC One max official with 5.9-inch display and fingerprint scanner — HTC's long-rumored One max device has finally become official, and the numerous leaks were right on the money: it's a 5.9-inch enlargement of the HTC One, including the same Snapdragon 600 processor, same 4-megapixel UltraPixel camera, and much of the same design.

More: The Verge, Engadget, The Next Web, GigaOM, CNET, LAPTOP Magazine, BGR, Digital Trends, Gizmodo, Computerworld, Inquirer, TechCrunch, newlaunches.com, Android Beat, The Droid Guy, Softpedia News, pocketnow.com and TechSpot

Jean-Louis Gassée / Monday Note:

Microsoft Mission Impossible — You're Microsoft's new CEO. How do you like staring at the abyss between two mutually exclusive ways of making money? The old business model, Windows and Office licensing, is going away. The Devices and Services future puts you in direct competition …

Tweets: @dsilverman, @counternotions and @gassee

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Life Is but a Stream at Yahoo These Days — But Will It Revive Ad Revenue? — If you look on any major destination content property on Yahoo these days — Finance, Sports, News — you get the picture pretty quickly. — The presentation is a slightly numbing and decidedly robotic experience …

More: DailyFinance.com. Tweets: @delrey. See also Mediagazer

Reuters:

Canadian gov't to push cable providers to unbundle channels — The Canadian government will soon require cable and satellite television providers to make it easier for customers to buy only the channels they want rather than pay for bundles, the country's industry minister said on Sunday.

More: SlashGear, Globe and Mail and Canadian Press

Tweets: @alistairjhogg, @rowast and @rafat

See also Mediagazer

Austin Carr / Fast Company:

Foursquare Opens Ad Platform To 1.5 Million Merchants — AFTER YEARS OF STRUGGLE AND MONTHS OF TESTING, FOURSQUARE IS FINALLY OPENING UP ITS ADVERTISING PLATFORM TO ITS 1.5 MILLION MERCHANTS. — Last year, Foursquare was said to be on the verge of bankruptcy, unable to turn its social media star into a sustainable business.

More: The Verge, CNET, TechCrunch, AllThingsD, Foursquare Blog and Mashable. Tweets: @fastcompany

Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:

Europe won't save you: Why e-mail is probably safer in the US — Last week, a United States federal appellate court unsealed a set of documents pertaining to Lavabit, the e-mail provider of choice for former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

More: The Verge. Tweets: @hakantee

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Waywire, Cory Booker's Attempt to Build a Web Video Startup, Sells to Magnify — Waywire, the video startup best known for its association with politician Cory Booker, is being sold to Magnify, a Web video distributor. — People familiar with the transaction say that Magnify …

More: Business Insider, The Atlantic Wire, TechCrunch and The Next Web

Tweets: @pkafka, @vivianschiller and @hunterwalk

See also Mediagazer

New York Times:

Financial, technical, managerial missteps led to government health portal troubles — From the Start, Signs of Trouble at Health Portal — WASHINGTON — In March, Henry Chao, the chief digital architect for the Obama administration's new online insurance marketplace …

More: InfoWorld, Ars Technica, Business Insider and The Daily Caller

Tweets: @jswatz, @timothys, @jswatz, @jswatz, @craigjcalhoun, @dangillmor and @digiphile

See also Mediagazer

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

Why US government IT fails so hard, so often

More: BuzzFeed. Tweets: @hblodget, @digiphile, @johnmcquaid, @thegarance, @maryjofoley, @about__blank, @bbaiiey and @tomskitomski

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