Techmeme
January 14, 2014, 9:25 AM

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 …
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.
Katie Fehrenbacher / Gigaom:
The winners and losers in Google's acquisition of Nest  —  The designer who helped create the iPhone at Apple is now officially going to be part of Apple's arch rival: Google.  That's right, on Monday afternoon Google and Nest announced that the search engine giant plans to spend $3.2 billion acquiring …
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.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Google's Nest acquisition is about having the ability to do consumer hardware right  —  On Google's Acquisition of Nest  —  Tony Fadell, in an interview today with Om Malik, on why Nest sold to Google: … Consider Fadell's record with the iPod at Apple.
More: PandoDaily
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
AOL Sells Winamp And Shoutcast For $5-10M To Radionomy, Takes 12% Stake In Belgian Digital Audio Company  —  Returning from the brink of death, music services Winamp and Shoutcast are now officially with a new owner: Digital audio business Radionomy has acquired the both media player and radio platform from AOL.
Robin Wauters / Tech.eu:
Confirmed: Winamp and SHOUTcast acquired by Belgian online radio firm Radionomy; AOL takes stake  —  It's a done deal: after earlier rumours, Belgian Internet radio startup Radionomy has confirmed that it has acquired once-popular media player Winamp and streaming software platform SHOUTcast from AOL.
Diane Bartz / Reuters:
U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear shopping cart case between Newegg and patent troll Soverain  —  U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear Internet shopping patent case  —  (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would not take on an Internet technology patent case that pitted …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Yandex Adds Facebook Posts And Big Data To Its Search Results In Russia, Other Home Markets  —  Yandex and Facebook had a notable run-in last year when a team of developers from the Russian search giant created a social search app called Wonder, which Facebook promptly blocked, leading to it shutting down.
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 …
Devon Maloney / Wired:
The Hacker Who Cracked the Code in Iron Man and The Social Network  —  British programmer John Graham-Cumming recently noticed something unusual as he watched the movie Elysium: a piece of code that he recognized, flashing across the monitors as the film's characters interacted with a futuristic computer.
More: Co.Labs
Nick Hide / CNET:
Moto X hits UK and Europe in February for £380, 429 euros  —  Motorola is bringing its flagship Android phone to Britain, France and Germany next month.  —  LONDON — Motorola is bringing its flagship Android phone to Europe.  The Moto X will go on sale in the UK …
Kyle VanHemert / Wired:
Why Her Will Dominate UI Design Even More Than Minority Report  —  A few weeks into the making of Her, Spike Jonze's new flick about romance in the age of artificial intelligence, the director had something of a breakthrough.  After poring over the work of Ray Kurzweil and other futurists trying …
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Motorola Assist now lets you receive and reply to text messages completely hands-free with your voice  —  Motorola today updated its Motorola Assistant app with new hands-free texting features.  You can download the new version now directly from Google Play.  —  The full changelog is as follows:

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