Techmeme: Barnes & Noble Fired Its Nook Hardware Engineering Staff (Jay Yarow/Business Insider)

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February 10, 2014, 8:05 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:

Nokia Prepares to Release Android Phone Ahead of Sale to Microsoft — Finnish Smartphone Maker Readies Device for Barcelona Exhibit — Nokia Corp. plans to release this month a smartphone that runs a version of Google Inc. 's Android mobile software, according to people familiar with the matter …

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

New Apple TV hardware references already appearing in iOS 7 builds — We reported last fall that a revamped Apple TV set-top-box is in the works, and then we learned earlier this year that the new box would likely be introduced in the first half of 2014. Sources said at the time that the new model …

More: VentureBeat, NEWS.com.au, AppleTell, AppleInsider, BGR, MacRumors, iMore, Apple Bitch, iDownloadBlog.com, TechnoBuffalo, Touch Arcade, iPhone in Canada Blog and Business Insider

Reuters:

Chastened HTC turns to cheaper smartphones in search for profit — (Reuters) - Smarting from growing losses, Taiwanese phone maker HTC Corp says it will expand its range of cheaper products as it fixes off-target marketing for its premium smartphones. — The company that has long prided itself …

Jay Yarow / Business Insider:

Barnes & Noble Fired Its Nook Hardware Engineering Staff — Barnes & Noble laid off its Nook hardware engineers, according to a source that tipped Business Insider. — The engineers were let go last Thursday, according to our source. This follows Barnes & Noble dismissing the VP of Hardware, Bill Saperstein in January.

More: VatorNews, eWeek, TechCrunch, TechSpot, Pocket-lint, New York Times, The Verge, GeekWire, Ubergizmo, SlashGear, Ars Technica and Deadline.com. See also Mediagazer

Nermin Hajdarbegovic / CoinDesk:

Price Drops as Mt. Gox Blames Bitcoin Flaw for Withdrawal Delays — Mt. Gox has issued a statement in an effort to address concerns raised by users after it suspended bitcoin withdrawals late last week. The exchange insists it is working hard to address a technical issue that has made it impossible for users to make transfers.

More: cryptocoinsnews, joepie91's Ramblings, CNBC, MoneyBeat, On Bitcoin, cryptocoinsnews, MarketWatch, PandoDaily, InfoWorld, CNNMoney.com, Bloomberg, Motherboard, Mashable, Inquirer, Computerworld, SlashGear, Softpedia News and The Next Web

Tweets: @ryantate, @oleganza and @bobmcmillan

Gavin Andresen / Bitcoin Foundation:

Contrary to Mt. Gox's Statement, Bitcoin is not at fault

More: The Register, TechCrunch, InfoWorld, CoinDesk, Blockchain.info Team Blog, Network World, ExtremeTech, SiliconANGLE and Nextgov

Rob Wile / Business Insider:

Bitcoin Developer: Yes, There's A Flaw In Bitcoin But It Shouldn't Have Brought Down MtGox

More: MtGox, Business Insider, The Verge and SiliconANGLE

Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:

BlackBerry BBM boss gone as company looks to strengthen enterprise business — BGR has learned from multiple sources that Executive Vice President Andrew Bocking is no longer with the company. What is unconfirmed, however, is whether Bocking was fired or decided to leave on his own accord.

More: Gigaom, CNET, The Register, Re/code, TechCrunch, TechnoBuffalo, CrackBerry.com, Pocket-lint, PhoneArena, SlashGear and Gigaom Research

SecureMac:

New Apple Mac Trojan Called OSX/CoinThief Discovered — SecureMac has discovered a new Trojan Horse called OSX/CoinThief.A, which targets Mac OS X and spies on web traffic to steal Bitcoins. This malware has been found in the wild, and there are multiple user reports of stolen Bitcoins.

More: ReadWrite, Digital Trends, Electronista, Inquirer, SecurityWeek, MacMegasite, iPhone in Canada Blog, CoinDesk, Softpedia News and ZDNet. Tweets: @__apf__

Ryan Knutson / Wall Street Journal:

Sprint Rethinks Acquiring T-Mobile After Public Antitrust Opposition — Justice Department, FCC Officials Expressed Strong Opposition to a Deal — Sprint Corp. officials are regrouping to decide whether trying to acquire smaller rival T-Mobile US Inc. makes sense after antitrust officials …

More: eWeek, BGR, The Verge, ZDNet, VentureBeat, Digital Trends, GeekWire, Tech Trader Daily, CNET and App Advice. Tweets: @ldignan

Melanie Hicken / CNNMoney.com:

Facebook's Zuckerberg tops list of America's 50 biggest donors — From Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to a “secret millionaire,” the country's 50 biggest donors were far more generous last year. — This crew donated a total of $7.7 billion in 2013, 4% more than in 2012, according to a new report from The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Paul Thurrott / SuperSite for Windows:

Windows 8.1 Update 1 accommodates too many needs, proves design by committee never works — What the Heck is Happening to Windows? — Is it better to burn out than fade away? — When critics described Windows 8.1 as a step backwards, I disagreed: Responding to customer complaints is never wrong …

More: SiliconANGLE, InfoWorld, BGR, BetaNews, WinBeta, Global Nerdy and Softpedia News. Tweets: @thurrott

Nellie Bowles / Re/code:

The 2,500-Person Tech Mixer That Was Not a Party — Andrew Vecchio, the co-founder and CEO of Startup and Tech Mixer, wanted to make it absolutely clear that his Friday night event — with 2,500 attendees, a bouncy blowup game of Twister, and a mechanical bull in downtown San Francisco's W Hotel — was not a party.

More: Valleywag. Tweets: @joshconstine, @mat, @iqpierce and @monkbent

John Hsu / LiveSide.net:

Exclusive: OneDrive to offer bonus free storage for friends referral and camera roll backup — In case you missed it, yesterday we exclusively reported that OneDrive is getting a new “co-owned folders” feature. But the good news doesn't stop here, as we have received more exclusive information regarding what's to come with OneDrive.

More: TechCrunch, The Verge, Network World, WinBeta and Gotta Be Mobile

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Microsoft beats Google by adding Bitcoin currency conversion to Bing — Microsoft today added Bitcoin currency conversion to Bing, which supports over 50 currencies in its index. Conversion is as simple as typing in “x btc to currency” or “x currency to btc.” The data is provided by digital wallet company Coinbase:

More: Search Blog, The Coinbase Blog, Re/code, Search Engine Land, The Verge, TheHill, Engadget, GeekWire, WebProNews, CoinDesk, ITworld.com and WinBeta

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Microsoft's Power BI For Office 365 Comes Out Of Preview, Simplifies Data Analysis And Visualizations — After more than half a year in limited preview, Microsoft today launched Power BI for Office 365, its Business Intelligence for Office 365 Enterprise subscribers.

More: The Official Microsoft Blog, The Next Web, Computerworld, Office Blogs, The Next Web, PC Magazine, MSDN Blogs, ZDNet and CITEworld

Ed Bott / ZDNet:

HP to begin charging for firmware updates and service packs for servers — Summary: HP server customers are about to get an unwelcome surprise when they need to update firmware or apply a service pack. Effective later this month, those downloads, which often fix critical bugs …

More: Technical Support …, Computerworld, eWeek and Inquirer. Tweets: @edbott

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Team Behind Facebook For Feature Phones Launches Chaatz, A Mobile Messaging App Aimed At Emerging Markets — A team with extensive experience working with the OEMs, carriers, and platform makers in the mobile industry, and who was most recently tasked with the creation of the Facebook mobile experience …

More: Computerworld

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

Facebook Changed How The News Feed Works — And Huge Website Upworthy Suddenly Shrank In Half — In November, viral-content-for-a-cause site Upworthy posted insane traffic numbers, reaching almost 90 million people around the world, according to Quantcast. — Then, in December …

Tweets: @cschweitz, @jbrodkin, @dannysullivan, @jayrosen_nyu, @ibogost and @rafat. See also Mediagazer

The Intercept:

The NSA's Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program — The National Security Agency is using complex analysis of electronic surveillance, rather than human intelligence, as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes - an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people.

More: Techdirt, Rational Irrationality, The Next Web, Computerworld, The Daily Caller, Gizmodo and dailywireless.org. Tweets: @kdnuggets. See also Mediagazer

Edgar Alvarez / Engadget:

Microsoft starts selling ASUS' VivoTab Note 8 for $329 — ASUS, like many other companies, took to CES 2014 to introduce a number of new products. Among these was the often-leaked VivoTab Note 8, an 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet with support for Wacom pen input.

More: Electronista, The Tech Report, HotHardware.com News, TechSpot, Pocketnow, Gigaom, WinBeta, GadgeTell, BetaNews and SlashGear

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