Techmeme
February 6, 2014, 10:10 AM

Top News

TechCrunch:
Amazon Acquires Video Gaming Studio Double Helix Games  —  Amazon has acquired a gaming studio called Double Helix Games, TechCrunch has learned, and Amazon now confirms.  The deal was for both talent and IP, we understand.  Financial terms have not been disclosed.
Robert McMillan / Wired:
Apple pulls popular Bitcoin wallet app Blockchain from App Store, used by over a million people  —  Apple Yanks World's Most Popular Bitcoin Wallet From App Store  —  Apple has removed the world's most popular bitcoin wallet from its App Store.  —  Late Wednesday, the tech giant yanked …
Mat Smith / Engadget:
Sony to exit VAIO PC business, spin off TV business, cut 5000 jobs worldwide  —  Sony sells its VAIO PC business, makes TV arm its own subsidiary  —  Sony said it was “addressing various options” as recently as yesterday when it came to its VAIO PC and laptop arm, and while announcing …
Bloomberg:
HTC Sees New Devices and Fresh Marketing Push Driving Turnaround  —  HTC Corp. (2498) said an updated version of the One smartphone, its first wearable device and a renewed focus on marketing will help turn around the company this year after two straight annual declines in revenue.
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Indie smash hit ‘Flappy Bird’ racks up $50K per day in ad revenue  —  The enigmatic and oppressively difficult mobile game Flappy Bird has turned into quite the cash cow for Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen.  In an interview with The Verge, Nguyen revealed that the game …
Raffi Krikorian / The Twitter Blog:
Twitter Data Grants: Pilot project giving a few research institutions access to public and historical Twitter data  —  Introducing Twitter Data Grants  —  Today we're introducing a pilot project we're calling Twitter Data Grants, through which we'll give a handful of research institutions access to our public and historical data.
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Twitter Crushes With Q4 Revenue Of $242.7M, But Shows Slow User Growth To 241M Actives  —  After the bell this afternoon, Twitter reported its maiden earnings as a public company, with fourth-quarter revenue of $242.7 million and earnings per share of $0.02 (non-GAAP).
Abhijeet M. / SamMobile:
EXCLUSIVE: A look at Samsung's updated S Voice app  —  Samsung adds a multitude of features and services on top of what Google already provides with Android, and we recently offered our readers an exclusive look on updated versions of two of those apps - S Health and WatchON.
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Target Hackers Broke in Via HVAC Company  —  Last week, Target told reporters at The Wall Street Journal and Reuters that the initial intrusion into its systems was traced back to network credentials that were stolen from a third party vendor.  Sources now tell KrebsOnSecurity that the vendor …
Seth Rosenblatt / CNET:
Take a trip down memory lane to Google's first data center  —  Before Urs Hölzle became Google's first chief engineer, he took a tour of the company's server room at the Exodus data center in Santa Clara, Calif. Not yet a Google employee, Hölzle was taken there by Google co-founder Larry Page …
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
AOL's Q4 Revenue Grows To $679M But Earnings Per Share of $0.43 Fall Short Of Estimates  —  AOL came in ahead of analyst estimates on revenue but not earnings in its in its fourth quarter of 2013, reporting $679 million in revenue and diluted earnings per share of 43 cents.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix Now Pulls In Almost as Much Revenue as HBO — But HBO Is Far More Profitable  —  Reed Hastings has positioned Netflix as an “Internet TV network,” with HBO among its chief competitors.  —  And now Netflix is almost as big as HBO — at least in terms of topline revenue.
Liz Gannes / Re/code:
Google Confirms Susan Wojcicki Is New YouTube Head  —  Susan Wojcicki is Google's new SVP of YouTube, Google confirmed today.  We wrote about the shift last night.  —  Google CEO Larry Page said in an emailed statement, “Salar and the whole YouTube team have built something amazing.
Jaikumar Vijayan / Computerworld:
Possible Belarus connection prompts probe of Healthcare.gov  —  U.S. intelligence community releases, then withdraws, report about programmers in Belarus doing work on Healthcare.gov  —  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched a security probe of Healthcare …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Mozilla And EverythingMe Preview “Firefox Launcher”, An Android Homescreen That Fights App Overload  —  Mozilla wants to help you find new apps and rediscover those you downloaded but forgot.  So today it previewed Firefox Launcher for Android, a homescreen replacement powered …
Harry McCracken / TIME:
Amazon's iPhone App Uses Image Recognition to “See” Real-World Products You Want to Buy  —  Among the many things that make Amazon one of the most successful merchants in the history of merchandising is the zeal with which it removes every possible obstacle that might stand in the way of you buying something.

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Marco Kaye / McSweeney's Internet Tendency:

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