Techmeme
November 13, 2013, 3:00 PM

Top News

Digits:
Snapchat Spurned $3 Billion Acquisition Offer from Facebook  —  Snapchat, a rapidly growing messaging service, recently spurned an all-cash acquisition offer from Facebook for $3 billion or more, according to people briefed on the matter.  —  The offer, and rebuff, came as Snapchat …
Adam Satariano / Bloomberg:
Apple's $10.5B on Robots to Lasers Shores Up Supply Chain  —  Apple Inc. is putting a record $10.5 billion to work in new technology — from assembly robots to milling machines — that consumers will never see.  —  To get a jump on rivals like Samsung Electronics Co. and lay the groundwork for new products …
Polygon:
PlayStation 4 review: focus on gaming is undermined by lack of compelling software at launch  —  PlayStation 4 Review  —  In the seven years since the introduction of the PlayStation 3, we've seen our gaming consoles transform into living room hubs through constant evolution and software updates.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Motorola Makes The Moto G Official, A “Premium” Phone Starting At $179 Unlocked  —  On-Demand Photography Marketplace Scoopshot Snaps $3.9 Million Series A  —  Motorola held a special event today to reveal its new Moto G, a spiritual sibling to the Moto X and a way for the Google-owned smartphone maker …
iFixit:
iPad Mini Retina Display Teardown  —  Lots of new tech ensures the iPad Mini Retina Display is a worthy successor to both the iPad Air and last year's iPad Mini—but will it carry the familial low repairability?  Follow along as we reveal the inner workings of this compact new Retina device.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Microsoft's Visual Studio 2013 Launches With New Online Tools, Previews Browser-Based Code Editor  —  Microsoft today launched the latest version of its Visual Studio tools for developers at an event in New York City.  The new version includes a number of user interface improvements …
Roger Cheng / CNET:
Verizon admits network faces traffic pressure in big cities  —  The wireless carrier is pouring money into the problem, and a top executive says the issues will dissipate by the end of the year.—Verizon Wireless is feeling the crush of all of those LTE-enabled devices on its network.
Bryan Bishop / The Verge:
Netflix introduces one unified TV interface to rule them all  —  The streaming video giant turns into a TV channel programmed just for you  —  Watch Netflix instant streaming on your television and you know what content you'll get — but you likely won't know how you'll find it.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Dropbox Hits 200M Users, Unveils New “For Business” Client Combining Work And Personal Files  —  A Pin On Pinterest Is Worth 25% More In Sales Than Last Year, Can Drive Visits & Orders For Months  —  CEO Drew Houston today announced that Dropbox has hit 200 million users, up from 175 million in July.
Jim Edwards / Business Insider:
Google Is Now Bigger Than Both The Magazine And Newspaper Industries  —  Google has become so big that sometimes it's difficult to understand just how big it is.  It's on course to do $60 billion in revenue this year, almost all of that from advertising.  But how big is that in terms of the media it competes against for ad dollars?
Jason Del Rey / AllThingsD:
LivingSocial Is Still Down, More Than 20 Hours Later (Updated)  —  More than 20 hours after its website and mobile apps stopped working, LivingSocial properties are still down in the U.S.  —  The deals site and its mobile apps have been down since at least 2:45 pm ET on Tuesday.
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Foursquare's Longtime Head of Product Leaves, Midway Through a Huge Product Rollout  —  Foursquare is saying goodbye to its product head, a longtime employee whose ties to CEO Dennis Crowley go back many years.  —  Yesterday, Crowley told employees that Alex Rainert, who was the mobile discovery app's 10th hire, is leaving.

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.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: MessageWhiz SMS for Zoho CRM  —  App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …
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:
Big Tech's Insane Hidden AI Spending, Ranking Anthropic vs. OpenAI, AI For Travel Debate
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.
Hard Fork:
OpenAI's Two-Week Pause + Jill Lepore on the Threat of the "Artificial State" + Train of Thought
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
The $12.5 Billion Lakers, the NFL's TV Fight, and Sports Media's Big Split
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.
Training Data:
Rich Sutton and Khurram Javed: Why AI Models Stop Learning, and How to Start It Again
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
Ben Thompson on Big Tech, China, and the AI Boom Running Out of Money
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:00 PM ET, November 13, 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

Earlier Picks

Tom Warren / The Verge: