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January 6, 2014, 9:05 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: Valleywag, Business Insider, Ubergizmo, Mashable and Betabeat

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

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, @forbes, @evelynrusli and @evanspiegel

Kate Tummarello / TheHill:

Snapchat hires lobbyists for the first time

More: SiliconBeat and 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 …

Tim Stevens / CNET:

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

More: iDownloadBlog.com, MacRumors and MacStories

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: Gotta Be Mobile. Tweets: @rudy

Russell Brandom / The Verge:

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

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

Tweets: @joshuatopolsky and @om

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

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

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, Softpedia News, 9to5Google, Gizmodo, IntoMobile, Android Central, AndroidGuys, Yahoo! News, PhoneArena, Droid Life and Gigaom. Tweets: @dcseifert

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: Engadget, Softpedia News 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: ZDNet, Re/code, PC World, Business Insider and Wall Street Journal

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 and iPhone in Canada Blog

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

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.

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, TechCrunch, 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, @adamostrow, @stacymartinet and @buzzfeedben

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, CNET, ReadWrite, Gigaom, Computerworld and The Next Web

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

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

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

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: The Register, 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: Associated Press, Electronista, Engadget, iPhone Hacks, PC Magazine, dailywireless.org, iDownloadBlog.com, TUAW and ZDNet

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

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Broadcom's 5G Wi-Fi chips will triple bandwidth for wireless home networking — Broadcom 5G WiFi aims to upgrade the wireless networks in your home. — CES 2014 … Broadcom is unveiling new 5G Wi-Fi chips for home networking devices that can triple the typical bandwidth for wireless Internet access in the home.

More: Broadcom, CNET and dailywireless.org

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, Engadget, ZDNet, Gotta Be Mobile, TechHive, 9to5Google, LAPTOP Magazine, CNET 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: Windows Phone Central and LAPTOP Magazine

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