Techmeme
December 12, 2013, 1:45 AM

Top News

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Snapchat Raises $50 Million In Series C From Coatue Management  —  Amid rumors of a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook and a potential $200 million funding round, turns out that ephemeral messaging sensation Snapchat has actually raised $50 million in Series C funding.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
What might a new Windows Start Menu look like?  —  If Microsoft does end up reintroducing a Start Menu to a future release of Windows, as sources are hinting, does it necessarily mean that menu will be identical to what exists now?  And if it's not, does that defeat the purpose? win7startmenu Your best friend or worst nightmare?
More: BGR and Softpedia NewsTweets: @maryjofoley
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft considers free versions of Windows Phone and Windows RT to battle Android  —  Redmond wants to counter Mountain View  —  Microsoft is considering making Windows Phone and Windows RT available free of charge to device makers.  Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans have revealed …
Colin Campbell / Polygon:
YouTube defends copyright crackdown  —  Google today responded to widespread outrage at its recent crackdown on game videos on YouTube.  —  In recent days the company has sent out thousands of copyright infringement notices to video producers of game walk-throughs and Let's Plays.
Chris Ziegler / The Verge:
Qualcomm Toq review: price, bizarre design decisions hamper the best smartwatch display yet  —  Qualcomm Toq review: a brief glimpse at the future of smartwatches  —  There's a difference between great technology and great products  —  The perfect smartwatch is deceptively simple: give it a great, always-on, glanceable display.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook Puts Its Web Feed In Motion With Auto-Playing Videos  —  The News Feed is about to get a lot more lively.  Just days after pushing its auto-play feature for videos to all mobile users, today we spotted auto-playing videos on Facebook.com, and the company confirms to me …
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Google Releases Its Find My iPhone-Style Android Device Manager App In The Play Store  —  Google launched Android Device Manager back in August, but it curiously made the tool web-only, eschewing a native Android app and causing a lot of confusion in doing so.
Bryan Bishop / The Verge:
Twitter becomes a better TV remote control as ABC, AMC, and Fox sign up for See It  —  It's been obvious for some time that Twitter sees television as a major way in which it can participate in, drive, and profit from the broader cultural conversation.  It's about to become an even more useful tool …
Alex Dobie / Android Central:
Stock Android ‘Gallery’ app is no more on the new Google Play edition devices  —  GPe Sony Z Ultra and LG G Pad 8.3 ditch ‘Gallery’ in favor of G+ ‘Photos’ app  —  We suspected it was coming ever since we powered on the Nexus 5 to find both “Gallery” and “Photos” occupying the app drawer.
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
AmazonFresh Launches In San Francisco  —  As we previously reported, Amazon has launched its grocery-delivery service in San Francisco today.  —  The service was previously available in Seattle and Los Angeles, but has now extended to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Web Video Startup Ooyala Raises $43 Million  —  We saw a smattering of ad tech IPOs this year, and there are a bunch of companies that are supposedly lined up for next year.  —  Here's one you likely won't see going public in 2014 — at least not in the beginning of the year: Ooyala, the Web video startup.
Richard Lai / Engadget:
ASUS CEO: The PadFone is coming to America  —  ASUS has big ambitions with its PadFones, a unique phone-to-tablet convertible concept that was first introduced back at Computex 2011.  While these devices are barely nibbling on the global mobile market (let alone entering the US) …
Katherine Rosman / Wall Street Journal:
Twitter plants “Mirror” tablets at VIP events for celebrities to tweet selfies  —  Twitter Mirror: Celebrities' New Publicity Machine  —  Cellphones, Paparazzi Won't Do; Twitter Pushes Star Entertainers, Athletes to Take More Photos … It's no simple job to manufacture authentic, spontaneous celebrity photos.
More: The Verge
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Spotify Goes Freemium On Tablets, Launches Free Shuffle Product On Smartphones  —  For the first time since launching, Spotify now offers free access to the streaming music service from tablets only, on iOS and Android.  Meanwhile, users on smartphones can use Spotify Shuffle …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
AT&T accused of violating privacy law with sale of phone records to CIA  —  Consumer advocates have asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to declare that AT&T violated a privacy rule in the Communications Act by selling phone records to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

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More News

Stuart Dredge / Guardian:

Earlier Picks

Stacey Higginbotham / Gigaom:
Bloomberg: