Techmeme: Corning's antimicrobial Gorilla Glass can kill bacteria on your smartphone (Alex Colon/Gigaom)

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January 6, 2014, 7:15 PM

Top News

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: Ubergizmo, Betabeat, Business Insider and Mashable

Tweets: @evanspiegel, @forbes, @evanspiegel, @tim 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: @evelynrusli and @evanspiegel

Kate Tummarello / TheHill:

Snapchat hires lobbyists for the first time

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

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, Inquirer, The Verge, Ars Technica, ReadWrite, Digits, ZDNet, WebProNews, AppleInsider, CNET, Gigaom, VentureBeat, Fortune, Business Insider, Engadget, TIME, iClarified, TechRepublic, iPhone in Canada Blog and IntoMobile

Tim Stevens / CNET:

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

More: MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com and MacStories

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, The Register, BetaNews, Free Press, BGR, Gigaom, PR Newswire, Digits, The Switch, AppleInsider, Examiner, Re/code, Reuters, iMore, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, NYT Bits, TechnoBuffalo, GeekWire, Gotta Be Mobile and LAPTOP Magazine

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. Tweets: @rudy

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: LAPTOP Magazine, Computerworld, The Verge, Engadget, Softpedia News and AnandTech

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

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

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

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

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

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: TechCrunch, CNET, Business Insider and Valleywag

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

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, VatorNews and TechCrunch

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

See also Mediagazer

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

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: ZDNet and Wall Street Journal

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, WMPoweruser, Windows Phone Central, PhoneArena, GeekWire and WinBeta. Tweets: @benedictevans

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, PC Magazine, ZDNet, iPhone Hacks, Engadget, iDownloadBlog.com, dailywireless.org and TUAW

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, CNET, The Register, AppleInsider, Geek.com, MacRumors, m.blog.laptopmag.com, Gotta Be Mobile, iClarified and iDownloadBlog.com

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

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

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, Forbes, Gigaom, Examiner, the build, ITworld.com, VentureBeat, AndroidHeadlines.com, BetaNews, MacDailyNews, Evolver.fm and IntoMobile

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

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

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

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

Jeff Cork / Game Informer:

EA Loses Third Wave Of Studio Founders — Chillingo founders Chris Byatte and Joe Wee are leaving the company they founded in 2005, making them the third wave of leaders to depart EA in a week. — We reached out to EA, and were given the following short and sweet statement: “Joe and Chris have left Chillingo and EA.

More: MCV: Home Stream, Gamasutra, IGN, Joystiq, VG247 and GamesIndustry International. Tweets: @benkuchera

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