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January 13, 2014, 9:50 PM

Top News

Google:

Google to acquire Tony Fadell's smart home startup Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in cash — Google to Acquire Nest — Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to buy Nest Labs, Inc. for $3.2 billion in cash. — Nest's mission is to reinvent unloved …

More: TechCrunch, Fortune, The Verge, TechCrunch, Ars Technica, Mercury News, Gizmodo, NYT Bits, Digits, CNET, Gigaom, CNET, eWeek, San Francisco Chronicle, Engadget, New York Times, Valleywag, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Gizmodo, John Battelle's Search Blog, Forbes, The Register, Guardian, PandoDaily, Computerworld, The Technology Chronicles, Quartz, ReadWrite, Business Insider, Betabeat, CNNMoney.com, Los Angeles Times, Marketing Land, The Switch, NEWS.com.au, bizjournals, CITEworld, Business Insider, SlashGear, Businessweek, AppleInsider, iMore, ZDNet, the rajam report, Mercury News, Larry Page, Geek Beat Technology News, Android Central, Mashable, The Next Web, Martin Varsavsky, Wired, VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, Gotta Be Mobile, The Daily Beast, Ubergizmo, pocketnow.com, Geek.com, TUAW, Phandroid, memeburn, Cult of Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, Macgasm, Windows Phone Central, Apple News aus Cupertino, AndroidHeadlines.com, IntoMobile, Daily Dot, TechHive and BGR

Tweets: @nest, @sundarpichai, @ryanlawler, @pkafka, @dcurtis, @mikeisaac, @peterrojas, @ihnatko, @levie, @cdixon, @danprimack, @danprimack, @cdixon, @dannysullivan, @nickbilton, @samir, @ryan, @getwired, @jwherrman, @fmanjoo, @fromedome, @hunterwalk, @panzer, @markgurman, @carnage4life, @mattbuchanan, @piercedavid, @pakman, @qthrul, @rabois, @jank0, @zpower, @om, @samfbiddle and @markmilian

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Google was the only serious bidder for Nest, Apple not in the mix — Google Acquires Smart-Home Device Maker Nest for $3.2 Billion — Google has acquired Nest Labs, the company founded by Apple iPod creator Tony Fadell, for $3.2 billion. The smart-home startup makes an innovative digital thermostat, as well as a smoke detector.

More: Gigaom, Gigaom Research, ZDNet, Business Insider, Digits, Computerworld, CNET, Forbes, GeekWire, MacRumors, The Mac Observer and bizjournals

Tony Fadell / Nest:

Nest CEO: Nest will retain its own distinct brand identity, Google is a rocket ship for growth — Welcome home. — This is a momentous day for me, for Matt and for all of the Nest family. This afternoon, we announced that we will be acquired by Google.

More: Re/code, Gigaom, The Information, ParisLemon, Forbes, Salon, Droid Life and Tested

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Nest Says Customer Data From Devices Will Only Be Used For Nest Products And Services — Nest says that it's not going to just hand over its customer data to Google willy-nilly post-acquisition - in a blog post sent to TechCrunch penned by Nest founder Tony Fadell, a question and answer section at the end contains the following:

More: Nest, The Verge, Gigaom and Daring Fireball

Tweets: @mattrosoff, @fmanjoo, @reckless, @caseyjohnston, @mattrosoff and @dannysullivan

Thanks:@mjburnsy

@twitter:

We're now rolling out a refreshed http://twitter.com reflecting the look & feel of our iOS & Android apps. pic.twitter.com/Mb6qjjP8Dm

More: The Next Web, BetaNews, TechCrunch, The Verge, Engadget, iPhone Hacks, Marketing Land, Android Beat and SlashGear

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Facebook acquires link-sharing service Branch for around $15 million — Link-sharing service Branch and subsidiary Potluck have agreed to be acquired by Facebook for around $15 million, sources familiar with the deal told The Verge. Branch CEO Josh Miller broke the news in a Facebook post this morning, but didn't disclose a price.

More: PandoDaily, TechCrunch, Slate, TechSpot, Nieman Journalism Lab, Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, Nibletz, Softpedia News, Computerworld, ReadWrite, PC Magazine, Daily Dot, SlashGear, SiliconBeat, iMore, ClickZ, VatorNews, DealBook, CNET, Betabeat, ZDNet, and Valleywag

Tweets: @pkafka, @om, @joshm and @pkafka

Simon Khalaf / Flurry:

Mobile Use Grows 115% in 2013, Propelled by Messaging Apps — In November 2013, Benedict Evans, a well-respected and widely followed analyst, shared an updated version of his famous slide deck called “Mobile is Eating the World”. This deck quickly made the rounds on social media …

More: BGR, Forbes, Electronista, The Next Web, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacDailyNews, AppleInsider, VentureBeat, PadGadget, TechCrunch and TelecompetitorTelecompetitor

Nate Raymond / Reuters:

Apple loses bid to block antitrust monitorship — (Reuters) - Apple Inc lost a bid on Monday to block an antitrust monitor appointed after a judge's finding that the company conspired to fix e-book prices. — At a hearing, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan denied Apple's request …

More: Gigaom, GeekWire, AppleInsider, MacRumors, BGR, The Verge, The Mac Observer, iPhone in Canada Blog, iPhone Hacks, Electronista and 9to5Mac

Matt Mullenweg:

In role swap, Matt Mullenweg becomes Automattic's CEO, Toni Schneider to focus on new products — Toni Schneider & Automattic CEO — Eight years and one day ago I blogged about Toni Schneider joining Automattic as CEO, as I said then: … Fast-forward roughly two thousand, nine hundred …

More: Toni.org, TechCrunch, Om Malik, Post Status, SiliconANGLE, ZDNet and VentureBeat

Tweets: @hunterwalk, @dangillmor and @jeffjarvis

See also Mediagazer

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

‘High-profile’ Google+ users will get better default email settings — A few days ago, Google rolled out a potentially invasive new feature — if you have both a Gmail address and Google+ account, other Google+ and Gmail users will soon be able to send messages right into your inbox, even if you never gave them your email address.

More: Gigaom, AndroidHeadlines.com, BGR and hypebot

Tweets: @dannysullivan, @nateingraham and @tomwarren

Steven Levy / Wired:

I Spent Two Hours Talking With the NSA's Bigwigs. Here's What Has Them Mad — My expectations were low when I asked the National Security Agency to cooperate with my story on the impact of Edward Snowden's leaks on the tech industry. During the 1990s, I had been working on a book, Crypto …

Tweets: @samoltman, @dannyyadron, @abrams and @jwherrman

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

A first look at the Beats Music website, with plenty of leaked screenshots — Beats Music is scheduled to launch its subscription service by January 21, but over the weekend, I stumbled across a beta version of the website that already let me sign up and snoop around.

More: Businessweek, PadGadget and TechSpot

Klint Finley / Wired:

Out in the Open: An NSA-Proof Twitter, Built With Code From Bitcoin and BitTorrent — When mass political protests erupted throughout Brazil in June, Miguel Freitas did what countless others did: He followed the news on Twitter. Tweets revealed information he couldn't get anywhere else, including the mainstream media.

More: Daily Dot. Tweets: @trevortimm

Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:

Sprint's ‘One Up’ early upgrade plan axed after just four months — Sprint's One Up early upgrade plan is no more. With the announcement of the plan last September, Sprint joined T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon in offering a way for customers to upgrade their handset mid-contract.

More: VentureBeat, CNET, Gigaom, Electronista, BGR, PC Magazine, Gotta Be Mobile, App Advice, TechnoBuffalo, PhoneNews.com, IntoMobile, SlashGear, WebProNews and Android Central

Rich McCormick / The Verge:

Nokia's Android phone appears in prototype form — Images of Nokia's Android phone — code-named Normandy — were published in November, showing what purported to be a low-cost smartphone that would run with a custom implementation of Android. Now another picture of the phone has appeared on Twitter …

More: TechMesto, Gigaom, BGR, Computerworld, Ars Technica, AndroidGuys, SlashGear, pocketnow.com, Examiner, TechnoBuffalo, LAPTOP Magazine, Gotta Be Mobile, TechSpot, GadgeTell, WinBeta, Android Beat and Android and Me

Tweets: @seamissu and @tomwarren

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft, GoDaddy partner on Office 365 plans for small businesses — Summary: GoDaddy will be offering its small-business customers a choice of three Mirosoft Office 365 plans, including one for $12.49 a month that includes desktop versions of Office. — Microsoft and GoDaddy are extending …

More: Microsoft Corporation, The Microsoft Office Blog, Re/code, GeekWire, Engadget, WebProNews, Softpedia News, TechCrunch, The Verge and The Next Web

Ken Yeung / The Next Web:

PayPal makes buying products faster with its new in-context checkout process, available by June — PayPal is getting back to its roots to focus on improving its core feature: the checkout process. — The payment processing company today announced that it is releasing an updated experience to its online checkout system.

More: The Official PayPal, CNET, Engadget, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, ZDNet, Electronista and ReadWrite

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

App Monetization To Get Tougher Still, With Gartner Predicting 94.5% Of Downloads Will Be Free By 2017 — The business of making money from apps is going to get tougher still, with analyst Gartner predicting that through to 2018 less than 0.01% of consumer mobile apps will be considered a financial success by their developers.

More: Gartner, Business Insider, PC Magazine, Inside Mobile Apps and WebProNews

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