Techmeme: 4G data: The USA is second-slowest while Australia is fastest (Ben Woods/The Next Web)

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February 21, 2014, 10:10 AM

Top News

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Sources say Amazon readying an Android-based Web TV box competing with Apple TV and Roku, for March rollout — Amazon Gets Its TV Box Ready, Again — Amazon is gearing up to take on Apple and Roku, again. — Industry sources say Amazon is getting ready to launch a Web TV box …

More: AppleInsider, MacRumors, BGR, CNET, The Register, 9to5Google, 9to5Mac, Business Insider, TechCrunch, The Verge, Gizmodo, Forbes, PC Pro, WebProNews, Geeky Gadgets, everythingiCafe and App Advice

Mike Isaac / Re/code:

Facebook's WhatsApp Deal Could Jumpstart Internet.org Plans — What's cooler than $19 billion? How about changing the world? … Mark Zuckerberg took a step closer to realizing a dream to bring the Internet to everyone on the planet with Facebook's $19 billion acquisition of mobile messaging service WhatsApp on Wednesday.

More: New Yorker, ParisLemon, Valleywag, NYT Bits and Business Insider. Tweets: @jonrussell. See also Mediagazer

Evelyn M. Rusli / Wall Street Journal:

WhatsApp: the Bomb That Shook Silicon Valley — On Wednesday afternoon, in a modern office building in San Francisco, entrepreneur Daniel Raffel saw a news alert cross his phone: Facebook Inc. had just paid $19 billion for messaging startup WhatsApp. — The founder of mobile app Snapguide …

More: The Next Web and Fortune. Tweets: @borthwick, @wsjd, @jonrussell, @elie_h and @monkbent

Wall Street Journal:

Koum and Zuckerberg differ sharply in their approaches to advertising and privacy

More: BuzzFeed. Tweets: @dmac1

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Google Acquires Spider.io To Help Spot And Stop Online Ad Fraud — London-based Spider.io has been acquired by Google, the company's DoubleClick advertising blog announced today (via Re/Code). Spider.io is a startup that specialized in weeding out fraudulent clicks around online ads.

More: DoubleClick Advertiser Blog, Re/code, 9to5Google, Digits, Marketing Land, AdExchanger, PC World, CNET, Business Insider, ZDNet, The Next Web, Gigaom, WebProNews, Softpedia News, Marketing Pilgrim, Mashable and Financial Times

Matt Brian / Engadget:

New Google WiFi app could automatically log you into Starbucks and other private hotspots — Google is working on a new WiFi app that could take a lot of the drudgery out of accessing wireless hotspots. According to our sources, the search giant has built Android and iOS versions of an app …

More: Light Reading, Skift, Droid Life, Android Community, TechnoBuffalo, Phandroid, Softpedia News, BGR, Electronista, App Advice, iPhone Hacks, iDownloadBlog.com …, everythingiCafe and 9to5Google

Adam Bryant / New York Times:

Satya Nadella, Chief of Microsoft, on His New Role — This interview with Satya Nadella, the new chief executive of Microsoft, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant. — Q. What leadership lessons have you learned from your predecessor, Steve Ballmer?

More: Inquirer, InvestorPlace, The Verge, Gigaom, Digits, Business Insider, WinBeta and Quartz

Tweets: @deantak, @marypcbuk, @nytcorneroffice, @trengriffin and @benthepcguy

Thanks:@petewootton

Brad Stone / Businessweek:

Invasion of the Taxi Snatchers: Uber Leads an Industry's Disruption — Ray Markovich started driving a taxi in Chicago three years ago after shuttering his struggling wireless phone store. Driving a cab wasn't particularly gratifying or lucrative—he had to pay $400 a week just to lease his 2011 white Ford Escape.

More: The Switch. Tweets: @valleyhack, @bw, @erickecage, @nytimesbits and @jamesappell

Ben Woods / The Next Web:

4G data: The USA is second-slowest while Australia is fastest — OpenSignal has released a report today looking at the state of LTE coverage and speeds around the world, revealing that, contrary to what you might expect, not all LTE networks perform comparably.

More: ZDNet, OpenSignal, Guardian, TheFonecast.com, Gizmodo Australia, Sydney Morning Herald, AndroidHeadlines.com, Quartz, Android Community, TmoNews, Gizmodo and FierceWireless

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google Launches Project Tango Smartphone To Experiment With Computer Vision And 3D Sensors — Google today announced Project Tango, an Android-based prototype 5″ phone and developer kit with advanced 3D sensors out of its Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) hardware skunkworks group.

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Inside The Revolutionary 3D Vision Chip At The Heart Of Google's Project Tango Phone

More: Movidius, The Next Web, MacRumors and eWeek. Thanks:@_trendspotter

Tom Warren / The Verge:

More Cortana details: Siri/Google Now-like virtual assistant to replace Bing search feature in Windows Phone 8.1 — Apple has Siri, and Microsoft is about to get Cortana — Microsoft has been in a state of “shut up and ship” with Windows Phone for more than a year now.

More: PC World, InfoWorld, GeekWire, Electronista, BGR, Engadget, Gizmodo, TechnoBuffalo, SlashGear, TechCrunch and WebProNews. Tweets: @chrismessina

Timothy J. Seppala / Engadget:

Microsoft is hand-picking users to test Xbox One's next software update — BY TIMOTHY J. SEPPALA @TIMSEPPALA FEB 20TH 2014 10:53PM — Ahead of Xbox One's second spring update Microsoft is inviting a handful of gamers to test the patch's mutiplayer features.

More: Xbox Wire, CNET, SlashGear, destructoid, The Verge, Windows Phone Central, BGR, Joystiq, TechHive and DualShockers

Greg Bensinger / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon in talks with brand retailers like Neiman Marcus and Abercrombie to feature their listings as it contemplates Prime rate hike — Amazon Tempts the Anti-Amazons — Offer to Showcase Goods Comes Amid Plan to Boost Price of Prime — Amazon.com Inc. is in talks to bring listings for J. Crew khakis …

More: Pocket-lint and Digits. Tweets: @wsj and @wsjd

Wall Street Journal:

Korea's dominant text messaging service Kakao preparing for IPO at $2B valuation — Kakao Close to Signing Morgan Stanley, Samsung Securities as IPO Advisers — Offering Possibly Poised to Value Text-Messaging Company at More Than $2 Billion — Kakao Corp. is close to signing Morgan Stanley …

More: VentureBeat. Tweets: @wsjd

Carl Franzen / The Verge:

Steve Jobs will appear on a US postage stamp in 2015 — Many of his creations reduced the need to send physical mail, but late Apple founder Steve Jobs will still get a fitting tribute from the US Postal Service: his likeness will appear on a postage stamp beginning in 2015, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post.

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

Apple's iPhone led 2013 US consumer smartphone sales with 45% share - NPD — With more than 120 million smartphones sold in the U.S. in 2013, Apple's iPhone accounted for nearly half of those, taking a 45 percent share in its home market last year, new data released by the NPD Group on Thursday reveals.

More: Investor's Business Daily, App Advice, MacNN, Patently Apple, PC Magazine and Morning News USA

Pankaj Mishra / TechCrunch:

With $8M In Fresh Funding, Ezetap Is More Than Just A Square For Emerging Markets — There are almost 900 million active cell-phone users in India now, and from newer startups to some of the biggest companies in the world, everybody is chasing the next mobile disruption that could potentially result …

More: MediaNama and Tech in Asia

Salvador Rodriguez / Los Angeles Times:

Google creates ‘near-real-time’ deforestation tracking tool — Google and several partners have launched Global Forest Watch, a website that makes it possible for users to track global deforestation. — Google is bringing awareness to global deforestation with a new website that lets users …

More: Google LatLong, SiliconANGLE, Boing Boing, Engadget and BetaNews

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:

“Twitch Plays Pokémon” is so big, it's overloading Twitch's servers — Twitch Plays Pokémon fights a Haunter. Kind of. — We're a little over a week into the phenomenon that is Twitch Plays Pokémon (TPP), and the “social experiment” is still going strong—so strong …

More: Business Insider, The Official Twitch Blog, Gearburn, GamePolitics blogs, Wired.co.uk, Gamasutra, VG247, Polygon, Kotaku, MCV: Home Stream, destructoid and USA Today

Reuters:

Nokia considers buying Juniper to expand network unit: report — (Reuters) - Finland's Nokia is considering buying U.S.-based Juniper Networks to merge into its telecommunications network gear business, German's Manager Magazin Online reported, citing unidentified sources.

More: SiliconANGLE, eWeek, Tech Trader Daily, Bloomberg and Business Insider. Tweets: @forthebest

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Former Motionloft CEO Jon Mills Arrested By The FBI — Jon Mills, the founder and former CEO of real-world analytics startup Motionloft, has been arrested by the FBI, the bureau has confirmed. The arrest follows allegations that Mills lied to investors about an acquisition of his company …

More: Valleywag and News, The San Francisco …. Tweets: @ryanlawler, @benparr, @bensign and @caseynewton

Eric Blattberg / VentureBeat:

Crowdtilt launches free, open source crowdfunding solution — and it supports Bitcoin — Source: Photo Illustration: Eric Blattberg / VentureBeat — If you want your crowdfunding campaign to accept Bitcoin, Crowdtilt has you covered. — The crowdfunding company today launched CrowdtiltOpen …

More: TechCrunch, Crowdfund Insider, BroadwayWorld.com, Category feed and Y Combinator Posthaven. Tweets: @pmarca

Jon Southurst / CoinDesk:

Bitcoin Price Hits $135 on Mt. Gox Following Office Move and Verification Demand — Updates and rumors related to Mt. Gox this week include: a possible company relocation, a requirement for users to hold verified accounts to withdraw bitcoins and a fall in Gox's listed price of bitcoin.

More: SiliconANGLE, TheDomains.com, TechCrunch, Investing.com, ValueWalk, PFhub.com ™, newsBTC, MoneyBeat, Computerworld, International Business Times, Business Insider and Bitcoin Magazine. Tweets: @coindesk

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