Techmeme: Qualcomm's New Snapdragon Chips Will Power TVs and Cars, Not Your Phone (Jamie Condliffe/Gizmodo)

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January 6, 2014, 6:15 PM

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J.J. Colao / Forbes:

The Inside Story Of Snapchat: The World's Hottest App Or A $3 Billion Disappearing Act? — THIRTEEN MONTHS AGO Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, the richest twentysomething in history, reached out to Snapchat's Evan Spiegel, who oversees a revenue-less app that makes photos disappear, with an invitation …

More: Betabeat, Business Insider and Mashable

Tweets: @evanspiegel, @tim, @evanspiegel and @kate_pierce

Kate Tummarello / TheHill:

Snapchat hires lobbyists for the first time — The social network Snapchat has hired lobbyists in Washington for the first time. — Snapchat — which allows users to send photos and videos that disappear after a certain amount of time — has hired the powerhouse K Street firm Heather Podesta + Partners …

More: Re/code. Tweets: @nicoleperlroth and @jwherrman. Thanks:@lutherlowe

Bruce Schneier / Wired:

The Internet of Things Is Wildly Insecure — And Often Unpatchable — We're at a crisis point now with regard to the security of embedded systems, where computing is embedded into the hardware itself — as with the Internet of Things. These embedded computers are riddled with vulnerabilities, and there's no good way to patch them.

Tweets: @kashhill

Eric Limer / Gizmodo:

Asus ZenFones: An Android Army with Intel Inside — After years of bringing you the horror/glory that is the PadFone and FonePad, Asus is branching out on its fone offerings and introducing not one, not two, but three flavors of “ZenFone,” Android handsets with ultrabook lineage.

More: The Verge, LAPTOP Magazine, Engadget, Softpedia News and AnandTech. Tweets: @tomwarren

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Asus' transforming PadFone X is coming to the US on AT&T

More: Ars Technica, Digits, CNET, LAPTOP Magazine, Engadget, GeekWire, 9to5Google, Gigaom, BGR, Gizmodo, PhoneArena, Softpedia News, IntoMobile, Android Central and AndroidGuys. Tweets: @dcseifert

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Pebble Reveals The Pebble Steel For $249 Shipping Jan. 28; App Store Coming Soon — Smartwatch pioneer Pebble is introducing something everyone has been waiting for at CES this year: new hardware. But the hardware isn't so new that it throws the baby out with the bath water …

More: Pebble, Re/code, The Next Web, Inquirer, The Verge, Ars Technica, ReadWrite, Digits, ZDNet, AppleInsider, CNET, Gigaom, VentureBeat, Fortune, Business Insider, Engadget, WebProNews, TIME, Gizmodo, iClarified and TechRepublic

Tim Stevens / CNET:

Pebble Steel declassified: Raising the smartwatch design bar without breaking the mold

More: MacRumors and MacStories. Thanks:@tim_stevens

Russell Brandom / The Verge:

Sponsored Data: AT&T will now let companies buy out your data charges for specific videos and apps — Today at CES, AT&T announced a new service called Sponsored Data, offering a way for companies to pick up the tab for 4G data usage whenever particular products or services are being used.

More: Public Knowledge, Gigaom, Free Press, BGR, Digits, AppleInsider, PR Newswire, The Switch, Examiner, Re/code, iMore, VentureBeat, Reuters, GeekWire, LAPTOP Magazine, WebProNews, MacRumors, Gizmodo, NYT Bits, TechnoBuffalo and Gotta Be Mobile

Tweets: @joshuatopolsky, @dannysullivan, @russellbrandom, @reckless and @om

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

AT&T's Sponsored Data is bad for the internet, the economy, and you

More: Gotta Be Mobile

Mat Smith / Engadget:

Samsung's new Galaxy Tab Pro series comes in 12-, 10- and 8-inch sizes, but looks a little too familiar (hands-on) — Not stopping with its new productivity-centered Galaxy Note Pro, Samsung has three more tablets to launch this year. Say hello to the Galaxy Tab Pro, in 12.2-, 10.1- and 8.4-inch screen sizes.

More: VentureBeat, Inquirer, LAPTOP Magazine, Gizmodo, NEWS.com.au, Re/code, NYT Bits, BGR, Gigaom, The Verge, Softpedia News, Business Insider, IntoMobile and Gotta Be Mobile

Bloomberg:

Apple promises to diversify its board after shareholder pressure — Apple Facing Criticism About Diversity Changes Bylaws — Apple Inc., facing behind-the-scenes pressure from some shareholders to add more female directors and executives, has taken a step to address the criticism and diversify its board.

More: Business Insider, Ars Technica, MacRumors, AppleInsider and iPhone in Canada Blog

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Pinterest Acquires Image Recognition And Visual Search Startup VisualGraph — Pinterest has just acquired two-man startup VisualGraph, which creates machine vision, image recognition, and visual search technologies. The company's founder Kevin Jing and his partner David Liu are joining the Pinterest engineering team today.

More: Search Engine Land, ReadWrite, Gigaom, Computerworld, CNET, VentureBeat, ZDNet and The Next Web

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney.com:

Mashable raises $13 million to launch expansion effort — Nearly a decade into its existence, the news Web site Mashable is taking on outside investors for the first time. — The site plans to announce on Monday that it has raised $13.3 million in an equity investment round led by Updata Partners.

More: PRWeb, VatorNews, Mashable and TechCrunch

Tweets: @pkafka, @blam, @taylorlorenz, @brianstelter, @benpopper, @lazerow and @pkafka

See also Mediagazer

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Microsoft reportedly considers letting consumers pick a device and then its OS: Windows Phone or Android — We've already heard rumors that Microsoft has courted smartphone OEMs to offer dual-boot options for Windows Phone and Android, as well as looked at cutting the licensing fees that it normally charges device makers.

More: The Information, ZDNet, CNET, BGR, Windows Phone Central, WMPoweruser, PhoneArena, GeekWire and WinBeta. Tweets: @benedictevans

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Palo Alto Networks Buys Cyber Security Startup Founded By Former NSA Engineers, Morta — In its first acquisition, security company Palo Alto Networks is acquiring stealthy cyber security startup Morta Security. Financial details were not disclosed about the transaction …

More: VentureBeat, Venture Capital Dispatch, NYT Bits and Tech Trader Daily

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

inMarket Rolls Out iBeacons To 200 Safeway, Giant Eagle Grocery Stores To Reach Shoppers When It Matters — Today inMarket is beginning a huge rollout of iBeacons to grocery stores including Safeway and Giant Eagle locations in Seattle, San Francisco and Cleveland.

More: PC Magazine, Associated Press, ZDNet, iDownloadBlog.com, Engadget, dailywireless.org, 9to5Mac, VentureBeat and TUAW

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

Rebooting webOS: how LG rethought the smart TV — Four years after it was first introduced, webOS comes back to CES in a radically different form — Things never went very well for webOS. Between its blockbuster launch at CES in 2009 and its relaunch on LG's smart TVs today lies a history …

More: Engadget, The Verge, PandoDaily, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, BBC, The Verge, NDTV Gadgets, It's a Gadget and BGR. Tweets: @fmanjoo

Ashlee Vance / Businessweek:

Google Teams With GM, Honda, and Audi to Bring Android to Cars — That kid—the one in the back of the SUV with the iPad—is the automotive industry's worst enemy. He's also the reason some of the world's biggest automakers are working with Google to bring its Android software into vehicle infotainment systems.

More: Open Automotive Alliance, The Verge, BBC, Ars Technica, NVIDIA, AppleInsider, Examiner, Forbes, Gigaom, Evolver.fm, the build, ITworld.com, VentureBeat, AndroidHeadlines.com, BetaNews, MacDailyNews, Inquirer and IntoMobile

Katie Roof / Fox Business:

Source: AOL Tried to Buy Business Insider for $100M+ — AOL Inc. (AOL) offered to purchase BusinessInsider.com, a popular business and technology news website, for more than $100 million but talks ultimately broke down when the two sides couldn't agree on price, the FOX Business Network has learned.

Tweets: @katie_roof and @cgasparino. See also Mediagazer

Brian Heater / Engadget:

Intel unveils RealSense hardware and software line, including 3D camera module — The takeaway at today's Intel press event? At this early stage (you know, before the event actually starts), all signs point to the RealSense product line - a number of hardware and software products that …

More: VentureBeat, The Verge, Gizmodo, ZDNet, Tech Trader Daily, PC World, Forbes, Gotta Be Mobile, dailywireless.org and Pocket-lint. Tweets: @willsmith

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

The Pirate Bay plans own P2P network accessed via browser-like client to circumvent censorship — How The Pirate Bay Plans to Beat Censorship For Good — Over the past few years The Pirate Bay has had to deal with its fair share of censorship, mostly through court-ordered blockades.

More: Guardian, Geek.com and The Verge

Richard Lai / Engadget:

Huawei's big Ascend Mate 2 4G can charge up your iPhone, coming to the US — Given the recent leak, Huawei's announcement of the Ascend Mate 2 4G should be no surprise to anyone. The device is essentially an LTE Cat 4 (read: 150Mbps!) refresh of its predecessor, packing a similar 6.1-inch 720p IPS panel …

More: ZDNet, Gigaom, LAPTOP Magazine, TechCrunch, BGR, Inquirer, Softpedia News, CNET, The Verge, Gizmodo, Electronista and AnandTech. Tweets: @benbajarin

Evelyn M. Rusli / Wall Street Journal:

How Mark Zuckerberg turned around Facebook by prioritizing mobile ad revenues — Profitable Learning Curve for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg — In Taking Facebook Public, Reshaping It Around Mobile Phones, Chief Gained Focus on Bottom Line … MENLO PARK, Calif.— Mark Zuckerberg needed help.

More: NEWS.com.au, Business Insider, Boz - Facebook, Quartz, Valleywag and Internet2Go

Alex Colon / Gigaom:

Corning's antimicrobial Gorilla Glass can kill bacteria on your smartphone — It's no secret that smartphones are gross. More than 59 percent of phone users have confessed to using their device in the bathroom, and those are just the people willing to admit as much to a survey.

More: CORNING® GORILLA® GLASS, The Register, AppleInsider, CNET, MacRumors, m.blog.laptopmag.com, Gotta Be Mobile and iClarified

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

Vizio updates its Thin + Light laptop and all-in-one with Haswell processors, Iris Pro graphics — It's now been exactly two years since Vizio announced it was making the bold move of entering the PC marketplace with its Thin + Light laptops and all-in-one desktop computers.

More: LAPTOP Magazine, Windows Phone Central and Engadget

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

The Asus Transformer Book Duet hybrid can instantly switch between Windows and Android — Back at Computex in June, Asus introduced its Transformer Book Trio — a computer that could function as both a laptop and tablet and dual-booted between Windows 8 and Android.

More: LAPTOP Magazine, Engadget, Gizmodo, ZDNet, 9to5Google, PC World, CNET, Gizmodo, LAPTOP Magazine, Gotta Be Mobile, Softpedia News and Electronista

Rich McCormick / The Verge:

T-Mobile to buy unused Verizon spectrum in deal worth over $3 billion — T-Mobile has agreed to buy 700 MHz A-block spectrum from Verizon Wireless for $2.365 billion. The sale will also see T-Mobile transfer certain AWS and PCS spectrum licenses with a value of around $950 million to Verizon …

More: Business Wire, Gigaom, Ars Technica, Computerworld, Softpedia News, The Switch, Fortune, GeekWire, Gotta Be Mobile, PhoneNews.com, Wall Street Journal, Engadget and iMore

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