Techmeme: Marketing Chief Kathy Savitt's Star Rises at Yahoo (Douglas MacMillan/Wall Street Journal)

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February 27, 2014, 7:50 AM

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Harry McCracken / TIME:

Project Ara: Inside Google's Bold Gambit to Make Smartphones Modular — The two-year quest to create the ultimate customizable phone, inside and out. — On January 29, Google announced that it had agreed to sell Motorola, its phone-manufacturing business, to Chinese electronics giant Lenovo.

More: SiliconANGLE, Google ATAP, Digital Trends, CNET, Gizmodo, Android Beat, SlashGear, The Register, Electronista, Yahoo Tech, The Next Web, ZDNet, Android Central, bit-tech.net and MobileSyrup.com

Tweets: @tim and @jordannovet

Thanks:@mariedomingo

Bertel King, Jr / Android Police:

Google Announces Project Ara Developers' Conference, Taking Place Online Via Live Webstream April 15-16th

More: The Verge, The Next Web, 9to5Google and TechCrunch. Tweets: @projectara

Fred Wilson / AVC:

A Letter To Senator Manchin — Senator Joe Manchin wrote a public letter to financial regulators asking them to “take appropriate action to limit the abilities of this highly unstable currency.” The letter in its entirety is here. — What follows is a letter from me to the Senator.

More: ITworld.com, Engadget and Ars Technica

Andy Greenberg / Forbes:

Senator Calls For Bitcoin Ban In Letter To Financial Regulators — Since Senator Charles Schumer first called on law enforcement nearly three years ago to shut down the Silk Road and cited the black market's use of Bitcoin for anonymous transactions, the cryptocurrency community has been waiting for the other shoe to drop.

More: Joe Manchin, CNET, Business Insider, SiliconANGLE, The Verge, Techdirt, Digital Trends, The Switch, Mashable, CoinDesk, newsBTC, MarketWatch and Business Insider

Tweets: @sen_joemanchin and @kashhill

Sean Hollister / The Verge:

How Google is turning Mountain View into a company town — Welcome to Googletown — Here's how a city becomes company property — Some days it feels like Google is taking over the world. For the residents of Mountain View, California, that feeling is personal.

More: bizjournals. Tweets: @om, @caseynewton, @mattlynley and @starfire2258. Thanks:@srikardr

Jason Green / Mercury News:

Mountain View: City Council inks deal with Google for new Wi-Fi network

More: dailywireless.org, 9to5Google and bizjournals

Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:

Apple retires Snow Leopard from support, leaves 1 in 5 Macs vulnerable to attacks — Twice now that Apple's bypassed Snow Leopard when it patched newer editions — Apple on Tuesday made it clear that it will no longer patch OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, when it again declined to offer …

Tweets: @r0h1n

Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:

Marketing Chief Kathy Savitt's Star Rises at Yahoo — A management shake-up at Yahoo Inc. has conferred more power on Kathy Savitt, a marketing executive who has quickly risen to become one of Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's most prominent and trusted lieutenants.

More: bizjournals and GeekWire. Tweets: @wsjd

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

The Fingerprint Scanner On The Samsung Galaxy S5 Will Be Accessible By Developers — Samsung's Galaxy S5 includes a fingerprint scanner embedded in the home button, and that hardware will be made available to third-party devs, the company announced today at a developer-focused event during MWC this year.

More: TechnoBuffalo, Network World and Daring Fireball

Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:

Samsung releases Galaxy S5, Gear 2, Gear Fit SDK kits for developers

More: Samsung Mobile Press, Softpedia News, TechCrunch, internetretailer.com, Engadget, 9to5Google, I4U News, SlashGear, Samsung Tomorrow and CNET. Thanks:@zdnetcharlie

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Apple Details Touch ID And The A7′s Secure Enclave In Updated iOS Security Document — Apple has shared some information around how Touch ID and its Secure Enclave keeps information private in an updated security document newly posted to its iPhone in Business microsite.

More: Gizmodo, Engadget, App Advice, iPhone in Canada Blog, iMore, AppleInsider, MacRumors, 9to5Mac and TechnoBuffalo

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Boeing's secret ‘Black’ spy phone will detect tampering, self-destruct if cracked open — Nearly two years after word leaked about Boeing's plans to build a secure Android phone, the aerospace giant and defense contractor has quietly filed documents with the FCC for what it's calling the “Black” phone.

More: ZDNet, BGR, Myce.com, The Next Web, Reuters, CNET, The Verge, Electronista, Ars Technica, Engadget, Gearburn, We Live Security, Android Central, Quartz, AndroidSPIN, Gizmodo and SlashGear. Thanks:@johnhcook

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

Hands-on with Samsung's Tizen OS: An impressively capable Android clone — BARCELONA, SPAIN—Samsung has such a large presence at Mobile World Congress that it doesn't just have one giant booth; there are also several smaller ones scattered around the show halls.

Tweets: @danieleran

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Apple Launches Big Improvements For iOS Management Tools For Enterprise And Education — Apple has been busy in the IT department. Today, it released a slew of improvements and alterations to its large-scale deployment tools for education and enterprise customers.

More: 9to5Mac, App Advice, iDownloadBlog.com …, iPhone Hacks, AppleInsider and MacRumors

Sam Byford / The Verge:

Nintendo ending DS and Wii online multiplayer in May — Nintendo has announced that it will end support for its online multiplayer service on the DS and Wii. Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection will shut down on May 20th, meaning that games will no longer work online; offline features, however, will continue to work.

More: Country Selector at Nintendo, Engadget, Nintendo.com.au, Wired.co.uk, SlashGear, VG247 and destructoid

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Integration complete: New Skype users can now sign up with a Microsoft account — In addition to including Microsoft account support in its Windows Phone app, Skype today also started letting new users signing up on Skype.com to register with a Microsoft account (in addition to a Facebook account).

More: Skype BlogsSkype Blogs, Windows Phone, SlashGear and Engadget

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Following developer requests, Google delays blocking extensions not in the Chrome Web Store until May 1 — Google today announced it won't be blocking local Chrome for Windows extensions until May 1. The timing change is being made after some developers requested more time to get their extensions in the Chrome Web Store.

More: Chromium Blog, gHacks Technology News, Techdows and ZDNet

Matt Warman / Telegraph:

Google never offered to acquire WhatsApp, says SVP Sundar Pichai — Google did not bid for WhatsApp — Claims that Facebook outbid Google in its $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp are untrue, a top executive has said. — Google did not bid for WhatsApp, the company revealed yesterday.

More: SiliconANGLE, UnleashThePhones, TechSpot, Los Angeles Times, WebProNews, Lastest ITProPortal news, 9to5Google, iPhone in Canada Blog, PandoDaily, SlashGear, AndroidHeadlines.com, The Next Web, Engadget, SiliconBeat and Valleywag

Tweets: @sarahintampa, @amir and @mikeisaac

Derrick Harris / Gigaom:

IBM is challenging developers to insert Watson into mobile apps — At the Mobile World Congress event today, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty laid down the gauntlet for mobile developers. Over the next three months, IBM will host its Watson Mobile Developer Challenge to find the best ideas for mobile apps …

More: IBM, eWeek, InfoWorld, San Francisco Chronicle, Wireless Week, CRN, Smarter Computing Blog, CNET, PC Magazine, thedrum.com, AdAge, ZDNet, InfoWorld, Re/code and Tech Trader Daily

Tweets: @manojsaxena and @umichhi

CoinDesk:

Exclusive: State of Bitcoin 2014 Report Analyses Emerging Trends — Today CoinDesk is pleased to release its first ever ‘State of Bitcoin’ report. — This report is not intended to be another guide to answer the question ‘what is bitcoin?’, which we cover in detail elsewhere on our site.

Tweets: @laurenlyster and @coindesk

Sharif Sakr / Engadget:

Wacom lets people share handwritten notes across devices and platforms — Wacom has been pushing into the world of mobile for a while, and its efforts have just culminated in a pretty bold move: A single, cross-platform standard for sharing handwritten notes and sketches between users …

More: TechCrunch, CNET, PR Newswire and ITworld.com

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

A Closer Look At Blackphone, The Android Smartphone That Simplifies Privacy — One of the more interesting devices here at Mobile World Congress is Blackphone: a pro-privacy handset being developed by Spanish startup Geeksphone, in partnership with U.S. security company Silent Circle using a …

Thanks:@riptari

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

“Google Now Launcher” hits Play Store, brings Google homescreen to GPE & Nexus devices — When KitKat launched, Google made the odd decision to make one of the headline features, a brand-new launcher, exclusive to the Nexus 5. The new launcher was actually a merging of the standard home screen with the Google Search app.

More: Engadget, BGR, Softpedia News, Android - Google+, The Next Web, Marketing Land, 9to5Google, TechCrunch, The Verge, IntoMobile, Android Central and Droid Life. Tweets: @android

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