Techmeme: To counter competition, Microsoft will charge manufacturers $15 instead of $50 to install Windows on devices under $250 (Bloomberg)

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February 22, 2014, 4:05 PM

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Bloomberg:

To counter competition, Microsoft will charge manufacturers $15 instead of $50 to install Windows on devices under $250 — Microsoft Said to Cut Windows Price 70% to Counter Rivals — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is cutting the price of Windows 8.1 by 70 percent for makers of low-cost computers …

More: The Verge, Digital Trends, PC Magazine, Computerworld, GeekWire, CNET, I4U News, AppleInsider, Geeky Gadgets, ZDNet, DailyTech, MacRumors, LiveSino, Windows Phone Central, SlashGear, Engadget, WinBeta, MacDailyNews, Electronista, 9to5Mac and Microsoft News Tracker

Tweets: @mattrosoff, @tomwarren, @mattrosoff, @parislemon, @tculpan, @dinabass and @tomkrazit

Juro Osawa / Digits:

Q&A: Line Executive on WhatsApp and the Power of Messaging — All eyes are on smartphone messaging apps now that Facebook has announced a deal to pay $19 billion for WhatsApp. — While WhatsApp is a giant and one of the pioneers in smartphone messaging, Asia has been the hub for the evolution …

More: iMore. Tweets: @horwitzjosh, @benbajarin and @jyarow

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

WhatsApp Was Valued At ~$1.5B In Final Round Before Sale — WhatsApp did a great job of being surreptitious about its funding while growing into a messaging monster. But as they say, the truth always comes out. — In this case, the truth is that the company had three rounds of financing, with Sequoia as the sole investor.

More: Digital Trends and Salon. Tweets: @eghosao

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

Crypto weaknesses in WhatsApp “the kind of stuff the NSA would love”

More: PandoDaily, Softpedia News, The Droid Guy, Forbes, Threatpost, Re/code, Wall Street Journal and Wall Street Journal

Kevin Poulsen / Wired:

Behind iPhone's Critical Security Bug, a Single Bad ‘Goto’ — Like everything else on the iPhone, the critical crypto flaw announced in iOS 7 yesterday turns out to be a study in simplicity and elegant design: a single spurious “goto” in one part of Apple's authentication code that accidentally bypasses the rest of it.

More: ImperialViolet, Daring Fireball, iMore, Securosis Highlights, Threatpost, 9to5Mac, Engadget, Nelson's Weblog, Geeky Gadgets, MACé" blog and The Next Web. Tweets: @sdkstl

Chris Williams / The Register:

Apple releases iOS 7.0.6 and 6.1.6 updates with SSL/TLS security fix, OS X still vulnerable

More: MacRumors, Apple, Reuters, MacRumors, VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, ZDNet, AppleInsider, TechnoBuffalo, MobileSyrup.com and Gotta Be Mobile

Tweets: @matthew_d_green, @will_sargent and @csoghoian

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Netflix packets being dropped every day because Verizon wants more money — Verizon wants to be paid by consumers and Cogent, but Cogent refuses to pay. — The battle over who should pay to carry Netflix traffic is heating up again, and one of the main players blames Verizon's greed …

More: Softpedia News, iMore, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, CNNMoney.com and Geek.com

Tweets: @al3x and @binarybits

See also Mediagazer

Stacey Higginbotham / Gigaom:

Direct connection between Comcast and Netflix networks suggests peering agreement reached

More: PC Magazine, gist.github.com, BGR, DSLreports, Ars Technica, Engadget, SlashGear and The Verge

Tweets: @counternotions and @jbsay

Seth Weintraub / 9to5Google:

New Samsung Gear 2 / Neo Smartwatches (Gold is Best!) shown in leaks — We're expecting to see Samsung unveil an update to their Galaxy Gear Smartwatches in Barcelona next week and of course that means electronics leaker @evleaks has them for us this week. It seems that these won't be branded Galaxy and will be called Gear 2 and Neo.

More: Engadget, The Next Web, The Verge, I4U News, Softpedia News, Gizmodo, CNET and MobileSyrup.com

Tweets: @evleaks, @evleaks and @evleaks

Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:

Apple, Samsung confirm failure of settlement effort in early February but keep talking — In January, Apple and Samsung informed Judge Lucy Koh, the federal district judge presiding over two patent infringement cases between them in the Northern District of California, that they were going …

More: Wall Street Journal, Mercury News, Engadget, The Verge, Re/code, PC World, Bloomberg and AppleInsider

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

WhatsApp Is Down, Facebook's New Acquisition Confirms Server Issues — WhatsApp is currently experiencing an outage. Users around the world are reporting that they can't send messages, and WhatsApp just confirmed this problems with a tweet stating “sorry we currently experiencing server issues …

More: The Next Web, GeekTime, Daily Express, WMPoweruser and GadgetGuide4U

Tweets: @wa_status, @telegram and @dannysullivan

Thanks:@joshconstine

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Tests Mobile “Highlights”, A Cheat Sheet To Your Friends' Lives — Facebook said there were just big fixes in its 7.0 iOS update it released yesterday, but actually there's a big new feature it's testing called Highlights. Inside the People tab you'll see Highlights including friends' Life Events …

More: I4U News, Engadget, The Next Web and SlashGear

TechCrunch:

Goldman Sachs gives early assessment of Bitcoin, noting opportunities and potential issues — Goldman Sachs Takes On Bitcoin — The eye of big finance is finally turning towards cryptocurrency. Responding to requests from clients, Goldman Sachs has put out an early assessment of Bitcoin …

More: CoinDesk. Tweets: @tuurdemeester

Loretta Chao / Wall Street Journal:

Twitter, Other Apps Disrupted in Venezuela Amid Protests — The Venezuelan government, besieged by nationwide protests, appears to have stepped up its censorship of Internet services used by demonstrators and sites that have criticized the government response to the unrest, technology firms and researchers said.

More: Global Voices Advocacy, The Republic and SlashGear. See also Mediagazer

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Here's An Actual 3D Indoor Map Of A Room Captured With Google's Project Tango Phone — We broke the news yesterday that Google was producing a prototype 3D sensing smartphone called Project Tango. We also broke down the capabilities of the vision processor inside the device and talked about what it means for the future of phones.

More: Droid Life, UnleashThePhones, Digital Photography Review, IntoMobile, SlashGear, Engadget and The Verge. Tweets: @notpatrick

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