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January 6, 2014, 9:35 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, @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. 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 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, Techdirt, Free Press, BGR, The Register, PR Newswire, BetaNews, InfoWorld, Re/code, Digits, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, NYT Bits, TechnoBuffalo, Gotta Be Mobile, LAPTOP Magazine, iMore, The Switch, AppleInsider and Examiner

Tweets: @joshuatopolsky and @om

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: MacStories, MacRumors and iDownloadBlog.com

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: The Next Web, Engadget, The Verge, 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

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, AnandTech and Engadget. Tweets: @tomwarren

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

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

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

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

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

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, MacRumors, iPhone in Canada Blog and iDownloadBlog.com

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

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, Business Insider and Valleywag

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

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.

More: PRWeb, Mashable, VatorNews and TechCrunch

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

See also Mediagazer

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, The Register, AppleInsider, m.blog.laptopmag.com, Gotta Be Mobile, iClarified, iDownloadBlog.com, PhoneArena, The Verge and 9to5Mac

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

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, ITworld.com, The Next Web and ZDNet. Tweets: @joshconstine

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: CNET, Reuters, Reuters and Wall Street Journal

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

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

Reuters:

Ex-Motorola CEO Jha appointed chief of GlobalFoundries — (Reuters) - Contract chipmaker GlobalFoundries Inc has appointed former Motorola Mobility chief Sanjay Jha as CEO, as it prepares to invest $9 billion to $10 billion over the next two years on next-generation semiconductor manufacturing.

More: Bloomberg

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: Computerworld, The Register, VentureBeat, Venture Capital Dispatch and NYT Bits

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, dailywireless.org, iDownloadBlog.com, TUAW, ZDNet and PC Magazine

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