Techmeme
January 6, 2014, 9:20 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 …
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 and Gotta Be MobileTweets: @rudy
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
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 …
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
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
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.
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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 …
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.

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