Techmeme: Microsoft reportedly considers letting consumers pick a device and then its OS: Windows Phone or Android (Emil Protalinski/The Next Web)

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January 6, 2014, 10:50 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: Valleywag, Mashable, Business Insider, Ubergizmo and Betabeat

Tweets: @evanspiegel, @fmanjoo, @violetblue, @evanspiegel, @tim, @forbes and @kate_pierce

Randall Lane / Forbes:

Snapchat's Evan Spiegel And The Antics Of A 23-Year-Old Novice — Bill Gates, Michael Dell and Mark Zuckerberg have proven that you can be in your early 20s and have the wisdom to run a transformative billion-dollar company. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel seems intent on proving the opposite.

More: CNET. Tweets: @evanspiegel, @evelynrusli, @evelynrusli and @forbes

Kate Tummarello / TheHill:

Snapchat hires lobbyists for the first time

More: SiliconBeat, Re/code and bizjournals

Tweets: @jwherrman and @nicoleperlroth

Thanks:@lutherlowe

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

AT&T's Sponsored Data is bad for the internet, the economy, and you — Another brick in the wall — AT&T today announced a new “Sponsored Data” program that lets developers and brands pay to deliver content to your mobile device outside of your data caps.

More: Gigaom, Gigaom and Gotta Be Mobile

Tweets: @adamludwin, @nytimesbits, @fugueish and @rudy

Russell Brandom / The Verge:

Sponsored Data: AT&T will now let companies buy out your data charges for specific videos and apps

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

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

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 …

Tim Stevens / CNET:

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

More: MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com and MacStories

Joseph Volpe / Engadget:

Sony's waterproof flagship Xperia Z1S coming to USA January 22 for $528 at T-Mobile — Sony Xperia Z1S: a waterproof flagship exclusive to T-Mobile (hands-on) — For the past two years, Sony Mobile could be counted on to introduce new Xperia smartphone lines at CES — the S and Z, specifically.

More: VentureBeat, Inquirer, 9to5Google, GeekWire, The Next Web, The Verge, Engadget, Softpedia News, IntoMobile and Gotta Be Mobile

Roger Cheng / CNET:

Xperia Z1S a lifeline as Sony treads water in US

More: The Verge, Gizmodo, LAPTOP Magazine, Guardian, BGR, Forbes and Pocket-lint. Tweets: @verge

Alex Williams / TechCrunch:

Microsoft Acquires Parature For $100M In Deal To Bolster Knowledge Base For Dynamics CRM Platform — Microsoft has acquired Parature, a customer service SaaS provider, for $100 million, according to sources close to the deal. The Parature acquisition gives Microsoft Dynamics, its CRM platform …

More: Re/code, ZDNet, Business Insider and Wall Street Journal. Tweets: @hebbark

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: Los Angeles Times, iPhone in Canada Blog, iDownloadBlog.com, MacRumors, Business Insider, AppleInsider and MacNN

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.

More: TechCrunch. Tweets: @kashhill

John Coté / San Francisco Chronicle:

S.F. to charge operators of tech commuter buses — (01-06) 13:18 PST SAN FRANCISCO — The operators of employee shuttle buses for Silicon Valley technology and Peninsula biotech firms, which have become a symbol of income disparity in San Francisco, will start paying to use public bus stops, city officials said Monday.

More: CNET, Valleywag and Business Insider

Tweets: @mcbridesg, @markasaurus, @ellenhuet and @bradstone

Jungah Lee / Bloomberg:

Samsung Posts First Profit Decline Since 2011 Amid Apple Battle — Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) posted its first profit decline in nine quarters as Apple Inc. (AAPL:US)'s newest iPhones won high-end handset sales and competition from cheaper makers crimped prices.

More: Reuters, CNET, Reuters and Wall Street Journal

Tweets: @turleymuller and @satariano

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

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.

Ashley Feinberg / Gizmodo:

Netgear's HDMI Dongle Is Your Storage-Friendly Answer to Chromecast — While Google's Chromecast might seem poised become the quintessential universal streaming device, it's taking a hell of a long time to get there. So in the meantime, Netgear's new NeoMediacast dongle is picking …

More: Gigaom, The Verge and CNET

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, Mashable, TechCrunch and VatorNews

Tweets: @pkafka, @blam, @taylorlorenz, @benpopper, @lazerow, @pkafka, @adamostrow, @stacymartinet, @buzzfeedben and @brianstelter

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, TechCrunch, CNET, Windows Phone Central, ZDNet, WMPoweruser, Softpedia News, GeekWire, WinBeta, PhoneArena and BGR. Tweets: @benedictevans

Michelle Maisto / eWeek:

Induct introduces Navia, the first commercial driverless vehicle, a $250k electric shuttle — Induct Now Selling Navia, First Self-Driving Commercial Vehicle — Induct Technology has begun selling the world's first commercially available self-driving vehicle, Navia.

More: Computerworld, LAPTOP Magazine, VentureBeat, Associated Press, Digital Journal and Forbes

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 Incorporated, CNET, Softpedia News, MacRumors, Geek.com, m.blog.laptopmag.com, AppleInsider, iClarified, iDownloadBlog.com, PhoneArena, 9to5Mac, The Register, Gotta Be Mobile, The Verge and Engadget

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

Brian Heater / Engadget:

MakerBot announces Replicator Mini 3D printer: one-touch printing for $1,375 — When MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis hit the CES stage today, he was joined by three tall, somewhat ominous black boxes (along with, strangely, acoustic versions of Goo Goo Dolls and Stone Temple Pilots hits).

More: TechCrunch, Gigaom, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, The Verge and Tech Trader Daily

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announces McAfee brand name will be replaced by Intel Security — At CES 2014 today, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced the McAfee brand name will be phased out and replaced by “Intel Security.” The re-branding will begin immediately, but the transition will take up to a year before it is complete.

More: Re/code, VentureBeat and Ars Technica

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: VatorNews, CNET, Search Engine Land, ReadWrite, Gigaom, Computerworld, ZDNet, VentureBeat, The Next Web and Mashable. Tweets: @joshconstine

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

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