Techmeme
February 21, 2014, 10:05 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 …
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.
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?
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …

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