Techmeme: Duolingo Raises $20M Series C Led By Kleiner Perkins To Dominate Online Language Learning (Frederic Lardinois/TechCrunch)

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February 18, 2014, 2:55 PM

Top News

FaryaabS / SamMobile:

Samsung Galaxy S5 to have swipe-style fingerprint sensor in home button for unlocking device, app shortcuts, website logins — Explained: Samsung's implementation of the fingerprint sensor on the upcoming Galaxy S5 — Yes, you heard it right folks! Today, we are finally confirming …

Bloomberg:

Galaxy S5 to have 5.2 inch screen, sharper display, improved battery and camera, may arrive alongside upgraded Galaxy Gear — Samsung's New Galaxy Said to Feature Bigger, Sharper Display — Samsung Electronics Co. (005930)'s new high-end smartphone will have a larger 5.2-inch screen …

More: BGR, USA Today, Gigaom, BGR, VentureBeat, Gotta Be Mobile, Ubergizmo, Droid Life and Business Insider. Tweets: @evleaks

The Intercept:

GCHQ spied on WikiLeaks visitors; NSA discussed targeting WikiLeaks, Pirate Bay, and Anonymous — Snowden Documents Reveal Covert Surveillance and Pressure Tactics Aimed at WikiLeaks and Its Supporters — Top-secret documents from the National Security Agency and its British counterpart reveal …

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Here Comes the Candy Crush IPO! After a $1.9 Billion Year, King Gets Ready to Go Public — Candy Crush isn't just a crazily addictive time-waster: It's also a really, really big business. Now the company behind it wants to go public. King Digital Entertainment, the Irish publisher behind Candy Crush …

More: Adweek, The Register, Wall Street Journal, DealBook, The Next Web, Guardian, PR Newswire, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, The Technology Chronicles, VatorNews, Forbes, VentureBeat, ZDNet, Business Insider, Bloomberg, Gigaom, memeburn, Pulse 2.0, Geeky Gadgets, Digits, The Verge, Reuters, PE Hub Blog and WebProNews

Tweets: @pkafka, @giawire, @jyarow, @pkafka, @sfiegerman, @rafat and @willoremus

Nick Bilton / NYT Bits:

Postmates raises $15M series B funding, passes 10,000 deliveries a week — Postmates Closes New Financing Round and Passes 10,000 Deliveries a Week — Kosmo tried it and failed — dismally. Urban Fetch did, too. But it seems Postmates, a mobile-delivery service that can fetch …

More: TechCrunch, VentureBeat and Re/code

Eli Lake / The Daily Beast:

Spy Chief: We Should've Told You We Track Your Calls — The U.S. government long considered its collection of Americans' call records to be a state secret. Now the Director of National Intelligence admits it would have been better if Washington had acknowledged the surveillance in the first place.

More: Guardian, Salon and Firedoglake

Tweets: @xor, @declanm and @robpegoraro

Kate Kaye / AdAge:

Amazon and Apple struggle with ad growth because they're “slow, cocky and downright stingy” according to media buyers — Why Can't Amazon And Apple Catch a Break on Madison Ave? — Advertising Sales Are a Tough Slog for Both — And for A lot of the Same Reasons — Goodby, Silverstein and Partners

More: BGR, AppleInsider, Computerworld, Business Insider, 9to5Mac, MacNN, App Advice, iPhone in Canada Blog and iDownloadBlog.com

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

AT&T's first transparency report shows 300K government demands for data including 37K for location, 35K from NSA — AT&T reveals number of NSA and location demands in first-ever transparency report — Phone giant AT&T published its first “transparency report” on Tuesday morning …

More: AT&T, The Switch, CNET, The Verge, TheHill, SecurityWeek, Nextgov and Mashable. Tweets: @kashhill

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

Asus router vulnerability allows everyone on the Internet access to data on connected drives — Dear Asus router user: You've been pwned, thanks to easily exploited flaw — An Ars reader by the name of Jerry got a nasty surprise as he was browsing the contents of his external hard drive over the weekend …

More: Krebs on Security, Softpedia News, BetaNews, The Wirecutter and TechSpot. Tweets: @robpegoraro

Tom Krazit / Gigaom:

Some day Silicon Valley will move north. Here's why it should settle in Oakland — Silicon Valley is both a metaphor for the entire tech industry and a real place that is (on a rare good day) an hour south of San Francisco. It's the longtime home to some of the world's most important …

More: The Technology Chronicles and SiliconBeat. Tweets: @tomkrazit

Phil Wahba / Reuters:

First U.S. bitcoin ATMs to open soon in Seattle, Austin — (Reuters) - Robocoin said on Tuesday that later this month it will install the first automated teller machines in the United States that let users buy and sell bitcoin, the latest step into the mainstream for the digital currency.

More: ReadWrite, CNET, The Technology Chronicles, PC World, The Verge, HotHardware.com News, Business Insider, Gigaom, CoinDesk, SlashGear, Softpedia News, Gizmodo and Inquirer

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

IPO-Bound Box Hires Cloud Chief Graham Younger Away From SAP — Cloud storage and collaboration company Box has poached a senior executive from the ranks of software giant SAP. — Graham Younger, who runs SAP's SuccessFactors unit, will join Box as executive VP for worldwide field operations.

More: The Box Blog, Business Insider, ZDNet, Gigaom and Forbes

Michael McWhertor / Polygon:

BioShock developer Irrational Games ‘winding down,’ new studio being formed by Ken Levine — BioShock developer Irrational Games is “winding down” in its current form and all but approximately 15 members of the studio will be laid off, according to an update from co-founder Ken Levine.

More: Irrational Games, The Verge, CNET, Forbes, Digital Trends, Re/code, Engadget, TechCrunch, GamesIndustry International, Gamasutra, Giant Bomb, destructoid, Wired.co.uk, TechnoBuffalo, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Joystiq, Kotaku and VG247

Tweets: @jasonxbergman, @dphrygian, @mitchyd, @agentbizzle and @jimsterling

Yash Maheshwari / UnleashThePhones:

Windows Phone 8.1's rumored swipe keyboard demoed on video — Exclusive: Swipe Keyboard in Windows Phone 8.1 “Blue” [VIDEO] — Although it has only been rumoured to be coming with Windows Phone 8.1 “Blue” release, we now have an exclusive video showcasing the Swipe keyboard in action on Windows Phone 8.1.

More: Re/code, The Verge, GeekWire, Gigaom, CNET, WinBeta, Wpxbox, AmongTech and Softpedia News

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

HTC sets March 25th date for its next flagship phone launch — Here comes the next One — HTC is distributing press invitations for its next big event, scheduled for March 25th, where the company's next flagship smartphone will be revealed. As with the HTC One launch in February of last year …

More: Engadget, VentureBeat, Examiner, LAPTOP Magazine, Android Beat, IntoMobile, Softpedia News, 9to5Google, TechCrunch, iPhone Hacks and BGR

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Nokia teases ‘X’ as it prepares to launch its Android phone — Nokia is preparing to launch its Android phone, codenamed Normandy, and the company is teasing it heavily today. The low-cost handset is expected to be named Nokia X when the Finnish smartphone maker unveils it next week …

More: Nokia Conversations, 9to5Google, AndroidGuys, The Droid Guy, CNET, GadgeTell, Pocketnow, Electronista, Softpedia News, Wpxbox, UnleashThePhones and Android Central. Tweets: @evleaks

Michael Brown / PC World:

Nvidia unveils Maxwell: A supremely power-efficient GPU architecture — The GPU arms race is usually about frames per second: Which video card can churn out triple-A games such as Battlefield 4 at the fastest clip? So when AMD and Nvidia announce a new GPU architecture …

More: CNET, Gizmodo, AnandTech, Computerworld, Softpedia News, ExtremeTech, TIME, PC Magazine and VentureBeat

Bloomberg:

Talks for including Netflix on Time Warner set-top boxes are on hold after Comcast deal announcement — Netflix Talks for Time Warner Cable Carriage Said to Slow — Netflix Inc. (NFLX)'s effort to secure a place for its video-subscription service on Time Warner Cable Inc. set-top boxes …

More: VatorNews, VentureBeat, Business Insider, Gigaom Research, I4U News, iPad, Gizmodo, DSLreports, SlashGear, Ars Technica, The Verge and WebProNews. Tweets: @jason_kint. See also Mediagazer

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft readies a Lync app for Android tablets — Summary: Microsoft plans to release its Lync unified communications app for Android tablets this summer. It also will deliver federated video across Lync and Skype before the end of 2014. — Microsoft plans to release a Lync app …

More: TechCrunch, GeekWire, InfoWorld, The Official Microsoft Blog, The Next Web and Fortune

Tweets: @maryjofoley and @maryjofoley

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

‘AirPlay Recorder’ App Lets Mac Users Save Songs From iTunes Radio — doubleTwist, the company behind the popular multi-platform iTunes-compatible doubleTwist Media Player, today brought its new AirPlay Recorder app to the Mac, allowing iTunes users to capture and save streaming audio for offline use.

More: doubleTwist blog, Guardian, iLounge, App Advice, iMore, Breaking Apple News …, MacNN, Engadget, iDownloadBlog.com and iPhone Hacks

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Duolingo Raises $20M Series C Led By Kleiner Perkins To Dominate Online Language Learning — The popular language learning platform Duolingo today announced that it has closed a $20 million Series C round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. As Duolingo's founder Luis von Ahn told me …

More: Re/code, Fortune, PandoDaily, PE Hub Blog, Android Community and Skift. Thanks:@fredericl

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