Techmeme: Archos debuting two 4G smartphones at CES, priced at $200 and $250 (Brian Heater/Engadget)

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January 3, 2014, 7:25 AM

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Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Go Ahead, CES 2014 - Prove There's Tech I Want To Wear — Wearables is a word that can make one weary in the sphere of online tech journalism. It's been a buzzword for at least a year now, and many are predicting 2014 could be its breakout year. Tech you wear isn't new …

More: Inquirer, Guardian, The Next Web and Gigaom. Tweets: @intlces

Jon Phillips / PC World:

Wearable tech at CES 2014: Prepare your body parts for an onslaught of options — Wearable technology. It's an exploding product category in desperate need of a category-defining product. And now, with the Consumer Electronics Show upon us, we get to see whether some company, any company …

Washington Post:

NSA seeks to build quantum computer that could crack most types of encryption — In room-size metal boxes, secure against electromagnetic leaks, the National Security Agency is racing to build a computer that could break nearly every kind of encryption used to protect banking, medical, business and government records around the world.

More: Reuters, Techdirt, BBC, TechEye, Gizmodo, Washington Post, Gigaom, Ars Technica, Softpedia News, PC Advisor, Techie News, Washington Post, The Switch, The Next Web, SlashGear, LeakSource, The Verge, Mashable, TheHill, TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE and RT

Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

How Netflix uses the 76,897 micro-genres it assigns to videos — How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood — If you use Netflix, you've probably wondered about the specific genres that it suggests to you. Some of them just seem so specific that it's absurd. Emotional Fight-the-System Documentaries?

More: /Film, Deadline.com, WebProNews, The Verge, Gizmodo and FlowingData

Tweets: @npetit, @tinysubversions, @errorjustin, @mollyesque, @sriramk, @joshconstine, @anthony_vdh, @mcholtman, @theatlantic, @jukevox and @fmanjoo

See also Mediagazer

Jennifer Van Grove / CNET:

Facebook faces suit for allegedly intercepting private messages — Facebook is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly violating its members' right to privacy. The social network is being sued by members who claim that the company intercepts private messages, without consent, to mine the data for its own profit.

More: Bloomberg, BBC, NEWS.com.au, Businessweek, Los Angeles Times, Inquirer, ZDNet, InfoWorld, ResearchBuzz, Graham Cluley, Softpedia News, SiliconANGLE, The Register, The Next Web, SlashGear, Gigaom, Techie News and Re/code

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

PopCap CEO to retire, cofounder will take over the Plants vs. Zombies studio (exclusive) — John Vechey, cofounder of PopCap, is its new chief. — Dave Roberts, chief executive of Electronic Arts' PopCap Games division, is retiring from the game studio that he joined almost nine years ago.

More: Softpedia News, The Seattle Times, GeekWire, gameinformer.com, Joystiq, Polygon, Re/code, Gamasutra, MCV: Home Stream and GamesIndustry International

Michael Carney / PandoDaily:

With $130M of bitcoin wealth and plans to sell, the FBI could rattle the virtual currency cage — Like any marketplace, the value of bitcoin is driven in large part by supply and demand. New bitcoin is added to the system at a mathematically controlled rate, but buying and selling activity varies wildly …

Tweets: @jlllow and @pandodaily

Mike Isaac / Re/code:

Twitter SVP Chris Fry Breaks Down How His Engineering Org Works — You could say Chris Fry has a pretty big job. — As Twitter's senior vice president of engineering, he's the guy who makes sure the trains — or rather, tweets — run on time. He's responsible for managing …

Tweets: @dougw and @rsarver

Brian Heater / Engadget:

Archos debuting two 4G smartphones at CES, priced at $200 and $250 — It's not all smartwatches and weather stations for Archos this year at CES. The company may be diversifying its portfolio a bit at the show, but it's still got its hands in some tried and true categories.

More: BetaNews, GSM Insider and The Next Web

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Snapchat Says It's Improving Its App, Service To Prevent Future User Data Leaks — Snapchat has released an official post about the recent leak of 4.6M usernames and phone numbers from its servers. The post blames what it says was ‘abuse’ of its API on the leak, but acknowledges …

Steve Dent / Engadget:

ASUS user manual confirms VivoTab Note 8 Windows tablet — ASUS has just verified that a VivoTab Note 8 slate is imminent after it published the manual on its own site. It confirms what we saw earlier at the FCC and via other leaks: the Windows 8.1 device will be powered …

More: Laptoping, Softpedia News, PC World, GadgetGuide4U, Electronista, LAPTOP Magazine, SlashGear and WinBeta

Kevin C. Tofel / Gigaom:

Why are phones continuing to get bigger? (Hint: Think post-PC) — It wasn't that long ago when a 4-inch phone was considered big. These days, however, 5-inch handsets are approaching the norm for many and most the latest and greatest pieces of mobile hardware have even larger screens, with some crossing the 6-inch mark.

More: textually.org

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Moto G coming to Verizon Wireless on January 9th for $99.99 off-contract — Verizon Wireless prepaid customers will be able to order the Moto G starting January 9th for $99.99. Motorola's budget handset will be available first online and will appear at the carrier's retail stores “in the coming weeks.”

More: Verizon Wireless Promotions, IntoMobile, TechnoBuffalo, Softpedia News, PhoneNews.com, AndroidHeadlines.com and Gotta Be Mobile

Primavera De Filippi / Wired:

The benefits of mesh networks: cost, elasticity and social impact — It's Time to Take Mesh Networks Seriously (And Not Just for the Reasons You Think) — The internet is weak, yet we keep ignoring this fact. So we see the same thing over and over again, whether it's because of natural disasters …

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

AT&T to offer $200 credit to T-Mobile switchers, in preemptive jab at rival — T-Mobile CEO John Legere. (T-Mobile Photo) — AT&T plans to offer a credit to T-Mobile customers who switch to AT&T — jabbing at its smaller rival and attempting to get out ahead of T-Mobile's rumored plans …

More: TechnoBuffalo, ZDNet, PC Magazine and DSLreports. Tweets: @johnlegere. Thanks:@johnhcook

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