Techmeme
November 25, 2013, 10:55 AM

Top News

AllThingsD:
Apple Confirms Acquisition of 3-D Sensor Startup PrimeSense  —  Apple has completed its acquisition of PrimeSense, the Israel-based company focused on 3-D sensor technology, for a price sources said was around $360 million.  —  Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet confirmed the PrimeSense deal …
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Clinging to Outlook, Only 25 Percent of Yahoo Employees Willing to Eat Mail “Dogfood” (Best Memo Ever!)  —  As most know, I love a good internal memo from inside Yahoo and here's a doozy related to a rather controversial topic of late: How badly the new version of Yahoo Mail has been received by consumers.
Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:
Uber Strikes Deal To Lower The Cost Of Car Ownership For Drivers  —  On-demand transportation service Uber is trying to get new drivers on the road, while also improving the experience for those who are already on its platform.  To do that, it's partnered with a couple of auto manufacturers …
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
BlackBerry ousts COO and CMO, replaces CFO  —  The high-level shakeups aren't over at BlackBerry just because the company has a new CEO.  The company has just let go of Chief Operating Officer Kristian Tear (pictured at left) and Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben (right), both of whom had assumed their roles roughly one year ago.
Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:
Samsung unveils the 5.25-inch Galaxy Grand 2, featuring a quad-core 1.2GHz processor and 1.5GB RAM  —  Samsung has just taken the wraps off its Galaxy Grand 2, yet another large-screen smartphone typically known as a phablet.  —  The Galaxy Grand 2′s screen size has been upped a notch …
Gregory Ferenstein / TechCrunch:
Big Insurance Can Now Bypass Obamacare Website, Tech Companies Still Waiting  —  As the federal government struggles to regain hope that it can get enough consumers to buy health insurance, it is piloting an option for consumers to purchase insurance outside of state websites.
Alexandra Wolfe / Wall Street Journal:
Yuri Milner on Twitter, Facebook, Russia and Science  —  As a young dropout from a Ph.D. program in physics, Yuri Milner had no special ambitions to start a technology company in his native Russia.  He worked in finance for a few years before coming across a 1999 report by Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker …
Rebecca Grant / VentureBeat:
Waze debuts new feature where celebrities give you driving directions  —  Now you can have a celebrity give you driving directions.  —  Waze is partnering with Universal Pictures to roll out a celebrity voice navigation feature.  The first celebrity to guide you from point A to point B is comedian and actor Kevin Hart.
Matt Turck / TechCrunch:
The Battle For The Connected Home Is Heating Up  —  Editor's note: Matt Turck is a managing director of FirstMark Capital.  Follow him on Twitter at @mattturck.  —  Almost 15 years ago, a friend of mine at McKinsey spent a few nights writing a document called “The Battle for the Home”.
More: Monday Note.  Tweets: @tefdigital and @freegorifero
Jeremy Reimer / Ars Technica:
Half an operating system: The triumph and tragedy of OS/2  —  It was a cloudy Seattle day in late 1980, and Bill Gates, the young chairman of a tiny company called Microsoft, had an appointment with IBM that would shape the destiny of the industry for decades to come.
Jeff Elder / Wall Street Journal:
Inside a Twitter Robot Factory  —  Fake Activity, Often Bought for Publicity Purposes, Influences Trending Topics  —  One day earlier this month, Jim Vidmar bought 1,000 fake Twitter accounts for $58 from an online vendor in Pakistan.  —  He then programmed the accounts to “follow” …
Nathaniel Popper / DealBook:
In Bitcoin's Orbit: Rival Virtual Currencies Vie for Acceptance  —  For many people, bitcoin seems like something from the day after tomorrow.  —  For Lawrence Blankenship, it's already a thing of the past.  —  A software engineer from Springfield, Mo., Mr. Blankenship is putting his money on PeerCoin …
More: New York Times.  Tweets: @owlese

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Jason Schreier / Kotaku:
Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch: