Techmeme: Microsoft, Past and Future (John Gruber/Daring Fireball)

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February 5, 2014, 8:20 AM

Top News

Microsoft Corporation:

Microsoft Board Names Satya Nadella as CEO — Bill Gates steps up to new role as Technology Advisor; John Thompson assumes role as Chairman of Board of Directors. — Microsoft Corp. today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Satya Nadella as Chief Executive Officer and member …

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

Microsoft, Past and Future — In broad strokes, here is my view of Microsoft's history. — In the beginning, Bill Gates stated the company's goal: “A computer on every desk and in every home.” That was crazy. The PC revolution was well underway, but the grand total of PCs sold …

More: Om Malik. Tweets: @reckless, @gassee and @ryanlawler. Thanks:@pavanrajam

Cade Metz / Wired:

Why Microsoft Got It Right With New CEO Satya Nadella — Though Bill Gates is stepping down as chairman of the board at Microsoft, we're about to see a company that looks more like Gates rather than less. — This morning, in addition to announcing that Gates, the company's co-founder and spiritual leader …

More: TIME and Daring Fireball

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

With Nadella's Appointment, The “Search CEOs” Now Run Google, Yahoo & Microsoft

More: Search Engine Watch. Tweets: @bill_gross and @pmarca

NBC News:

Secret British spy unit mounted cyberattacks against Anonymous and LulzSec, Snowden docs show — War on Anonymous: British Spies Attacked Hackers, Snowden Docs Show — A secret British spy unit created to mount cyber attacks on Britain's enemies has waged war on the hacktivists of Anonymous and LulzSec, according to documen...

More: Gizmodo, ZDNet, The Verge, SiliconANGLE, Gigaom, Gizmodo UK, Geeky Gadgets, Errata Security, Graham Cluley, The Next Web and Your Anon News

Tweets: @ioerror, @ggreenwald, @doublejake, @ggreenwald, @thegrugq, @projpm, @trevortimm, @wiredopinion, @0xabad1dea, @ggreenwald, @justsikko and @mikko

Jason Fried / 37signals.com:

37signals renames as Basecamp, will focus solely on that product, may spin off or sell Campfire and Highrise — Two big announcements. — This year marks 37signals' 15th year in business. And today is Basecamp's 10th birthday. We have a lot to celebrate, and two exciting announcements to share.

More: The Next Web, tech.co, App Advice and Windows Phone Central

Tweets: @whitneyhess, @iamashley and @dancow

Re/code:

Long-Time Google Ads Exec Susan Wojcicki is YouTube's New Boss — Susan Wojcicki, SVP of advertising for Google, will lead its YouTube unit, sources said. — The news was first reported as likely by The Information late Tuesday night. — Wojcicki was employee No. 16 at Google …

More: The Information, 9to5Google, Business Insider and Softpedia News

Tweets: @om and @kevinyen

See also Mediagazer

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

Apple hires sleep research expert Roy J.E.M Raymann from Philips for iWatch team — Joining a longlist of Apple executives and new hires thought to be working on Apple's highly anticipated iWatch project, the company has recently picked up Roy J.E.M Raymann from Philips Research …

More: SiliconANGLE, AppleInsider, Gearburn, PhoneArena, Ubergizmo, iMore, The Mac Observer, SlashGear, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacRumors, App Advice, iDownloadBlog.com and iClarified. Thanks:@llsethj

Bloomberg:

Google Clinches EU Antitrust Pact With Pledge Over Rivals' Links — Google Inc., the owner of the world's largest search engine, reached a settlement to end the European Union's three-year antitrust probe after it made an improved offer to display results from rival search services.

More: ZDNet, Digits, TechCrunch, CNET, EU Press Room, 9to5Google, Inquirer, New York Times, Engadget, The Register, InfoWorld, The Verge, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and Cult of Mac

Scott Hurff:

More screen space for story navigation could eliminate Facebook Paper's uncomfortable swipes — Facebook Paper's gestural hell — Facebook's release of Paper yesterday on the App Store breaks a string of uninspired releases outside of Instagram, and has many believing it's a glimpse into the future of mobile interaction.

Tweets: @inspireux, @pumpkin and @lukew

Nikkei Asian Review:

Sony looking to sell PC business to investment fund — TOKYO — Sony is in talks to unload its sluggish personal computer operations to investment fund Japan Industrial Partners, part of a business overhaul designed to shift focus to smartphones, The Nikkei learned Tuesday.

More: Engadget, Reuters, BGR, ZDNet, Guardian, The Next Web, Reuters, Bloomberg, TechWeekEurope UK, The Verge, Windows Phone Central, Wall Street Journal, TrustedReviews, CNET, EE Times, Ubergizmo, TechnoBuffalo, SlashGear and Electronista

Seth Fiegerman / Mashable:

‘It Was Just the Dumbest Luck’ — Facebook's First Employees Look Back — Dustin Moskovitz thought he might go to business school. Or graduate school. Maybe he would work in technology. Mostly he just wanted to graduate. — It was early 2004 and Moskovitz was in his second year at Harvard …

Thanks:@sfiegerman

Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:

DARPA publishes all its open source code in one place — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, sponsors a lot of technology through grants to universities and private labs, with projects running the gamut from robots to electroencephalography caps, to software and new programming languages.

More: darpa.mil, Gizmodo, Wired, Engadget, SlashGear and Network World

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:

Meet the Asus Chromebox, a $179 fanless mini-desktop — Asus' new Chromebox is a nice step up from Samsung's model. — Asus — Google's Chrome OS continues to show up on more and more devices, and while the majority of them are laptops, it looks like desktop users are going to have quite a few options as well.

More: AnandTech, Computerworld, Electronista, ZDNet, BetaNews, Pocket-lint, The Register, TechSpot, Softpedia News, The Verge and Gigaom

Emily Glazer / Wall Street Journal:

RadioShack to Close About 500 Stores Within Months—Sources — Electronics Retailer, Advisers Continue to Work on Restructuring — RadioShack Corp. is planning to close around 500 stores in the coming months as the electronics retailer continues working with advisers to restructure the company …

More: Gigaom Research, Business Insider, TechSpot, The Verge, BuzzFeed and Reuters

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Orchestrate Replaces Multiple NoSQL Databases With A Single API — The days when developers built their applications on a single database are long over. Many services today use a variety of databases - and especially NoSQL databases - to power the different aspects of their applications.

More: Gigaom, Wired, Forbes, Silicon Florist and The Register. Thanks:@turoczy

Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:

Experts refute Verizon's claim that NSA can't grab non-U.S. data — Summary: What Verizon says and does appears to be in conflict, according to privacy specialists, legal experts, and academics, who argue the U.S. government can demand foreign data held by American telecom and technology companies.

More: Verizon Public Policy. Tweets: @jamesrbuk. Thanks:@zackwhittaker

Ryan Huang / ZDNet:

HTC to redesign phones after losing Nokia patent suit — Summary: Some handsets will be modified to sidestep a German court ruling, in order to minimize disruption to customers while it appeals against the decision. — HTC will redesign some of its smartphones after losing a court ruling …

More: focustaiwan.tw, Pocketnow, BGR and Phandroid

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

New Google Chrome feature warns users when browser has been hijacked — Google engineers have added a new feature to the Chrome browser that automatically warns users when browsing settings have been altered by malicious software. — The new protection was unveiled in a blog post published Friday …

More: ZDNet, SlashGear, Google Chrome Blog and Threatpost

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

comScore: Apple ends 2013 with 41.8% US smartphone share, Samsung hits 26.1%; Android back to losing share — In the US, Apple's dominance as the top smartphone OEM hit a new high at the end of last year: 41.8 percent. Samsung gained share faster than its main competitor for six months straight …

More: comScore, Inc., Inquirer, Electronista, Android Central, Marketing Land, TechnoBuffalo, NYT Bits, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacRumors, iClarified, WMPoweruser, ZDNet and CNET

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Firefox 27 arrives with simultaneous Social API services, SPDY 3.1 support, and more languages on Android — Mozilla today officially launched Firefox 27 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Additions include Simultaneous Social API notifications, SPDY 3.1 support, and more languages on Android.

More: TechCrunch, TechSpot, The Mozilla Blog, CNET, Softpedia News, ZDNet and eWeek

TechCrunch:

Flipagram Raising $50-$60M At A $300M Valuation From Sequoia — Buzzy mobile video app Flipagram is raising $50 to $60 million in funding at a $300 million valuation. We're hearing from sources that Sequoia is in the round. — The WSJ reported recently that Flipagram …

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