Techmeme
November 20, 2013, 4:20 AM

Top News

Polygon:
Xbox One review: impresses with strong launch titles, succeeds as an entertainment hub  —  Xbox One: The Review  —  The Xbox 360 that exists in 2013 bears little resemblance to the console that Microsoft launched in 2005.  It's so different, in fact, that it helps to think of the company's …
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Overview: Here's how Skype will work on the Xbox One  —  Back in May, Microsoft first announced Skype would be bundled with the Xbox One.  Since then, we've seen glimpses of Skype working on the console, but nothing major as the company was still working hard to nail down as much functionality as possible.
More: Ars Technica and Gigaom
John Herrman / BuzzFeed:
The Great Snapchat Mirage  —  We don't know a single useful number about the hottest company in tech .  Why Snapchat may be much smaller than it sounds.  —  Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images  —  Every few months, since late 2012, Snapchat has released a new number to the public.
TechCrunch:
Reverse Engineering Snapchat's Size Is Impossible...But Here Goes  —  Acquirers and investors fear (missing out on) what they don't understand.  That's one reason Snapchat might not be revealing its user count.  But everyone wants to know.  The problem is that ephemeral messaging isn't like posting to Facebook or texting.
Tweets: @mattzeitlin and @jwherrman
Lance Whitney / CNET:
Brian X. Chen / NYT Bits:
Carriers Reject a ‘Kill Switch’ for Preventing Cellphone Theft  —  Lawmakers in San Francisco and New York are pushing cellphone makers to adopt a so-called kill switch that would allow users to deactivate their phone remotely, discouraging criminals from stealing phones.  But the cellphone carriers are not on board.
Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:
Twitter backtracks and removes option to let users receive direct messages from any follower  —  Last month, Twitter quietly rolled out a new feature to give users the choice to receive private messages from any of their followers, but that option has now been removed.
Alex Wagner / Android and Me:
Nexus Wireless Charger now available from Google Play Store for $49.99  —  Looking to accessorize that shiny new Nexus 5?  Google is happy to oblige.  The company just added its official Nexus Wireless Charger to the virtual shelves of the Google Play Store.
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Xbox One SmartGlass lets you snap apps from your phone or tablet  —  Microsoft has started rolling out an Xbox One version of its SmartGlass app for Windows Phone.  While many of the features, including remote control and SmartGlass companions, are the same as the separate and existing SmartGlass …
Peter Delevett / Mercury News:
Changes afoot at DFJ: Tim Draper won't be partner in next fund but denies he's leaving  —  Venture firm DFJ denies report that co-founders Tim Draper and John Fisher are on the way out  —  Venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson is denying a report by Fortune Magazine that co-founders Tim Draper …
More: Fortune, AllThingsD and Digits.  Tweets: @timdraper
Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:
Wikipedia wants PR firm to stop paid editing services, hints at lawsuit  —  For months, Wikipedia has been battling a company called “Wiki-PR,” which purportedly sells paid editing services on the well-known online encyclopedia.  In October 2013, Wikipedia announced it blocked or banned hundreds of editor accounts in response.
Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:
Google releases ‘sneak peek’ of Glass app development kit  —  Back at SXSW, Google announced the Glass Mirror API — the first step in allowing developers to build apps, or “Glassware” for its wearable computing device.  Now, developers will have a whole new set of tools at their disposal: the long-awaited Glass Development Kit (GDK).
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Twitter for Android and iOS get search filters, toggle between top and all tweets, trends and events timeline  —  Twitter today updated its apps for Android and iOS with a slew of new features, focusing in particular on search and discovery.  You can download the new version now directly from Google Play and Apple's App Store.
DoctorBeet:
LG Smart TVs logging USB filenames and viewing info to LG servers  —  Earlier this month I discovered that my new LG Smart TV was displaying ads on the Smart landing screen.  —  After some investigation, I found a rather creepy corporate video advertising their data collection practices to potential advertisers.

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Introducing Microsoft-Decision-1, our model for fast decision-making  —  Our new model delivers top performance in latency and quality on structured decision tasks to outperform other models.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
Zoho Books now supports CT600 & Final Accounts Filing as an add-on in the FREE plan  —  Managing end-of-year filing for limited companies in the UK is often expensive and multi-layered.
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 & Microsoft's Claude Slowdown, His Agent Leaked His Banking Info, Don't Bully Your AI
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:
Qualcomm's CEO on the coming AI phone supercycle
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.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Bringing Back Mammoths And Building Noah's Ark 2.0 | Colossal's Ben Lamm
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Great Chat:
The launch industrial complex
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Larry Ellison's Media Ambitions & Kevin Roose on AI's Biggest Gamble
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:
Google's AI Infrastructure Chief, Amin Vahdat, on the Physics & Economics of Frontier AI
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:20 AM ET, November 20, 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

Russ Frushtick / Polygon:
Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch: