Techmeme: Microsoft experimenting with free version of Windows 8.1 (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News Contact Editors

February 28, 2014, 10:15 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft experimenting with free version of Windows 8.1 — Microsoft is currently experimenting with a free version of Windows 8.1 that could boost the number of people using the operating system. Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans have revealed to The Verge that the company is building …

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Apple's TV Hobby Is Now a Billion-Dollar Business — Apple has yet to introduce its “real” version of Apple TV, whatever that actually is. — But the $99 box it is selling is doing pretty well: Tim Cook just told Apple shareholders that the company generated more than $1 billion …

More: 9to5Mac, Reuters, 9to5Mac, Los Angeles Times, Computerworld, Mercury News, MacRumors, Business Insider, TechCrunch, Quartz, BetaNews, Gigaom, SlashGear, iMore, AppleInsider, GeekWire, Mashable and The Loop

Tweets: @asymco, @pkafka and @macrumors

See also Mediagazer

Bryan Chaffin / The Mac Observer:

Tim Cook Soundly Rejects Politics of the NCPPR, Suggests Group Sell Apple's Stock

More: CNET, National Center …, Gizmodo, Business Insider, The Register, MacRumors, Mashable and Daring Fireball

Tweets: @kbaxter and @williampietri

Katie Roof / Fox Business:

Square IPO Postponed Indefinitely — Square, the mobile payments startup created by Twitter (TWTR) founder Jack Dorsey, has postponed its IPO indefinitely, FOX Business has learned. People with knowledge of Square's finances have indicated that the company is not ready to go public this year.

More: Business Insider and The Technology Chronicles. Tweets: @rakeshlobster, @peterjhebert, @gilluria, @jyarow and @davegirouard. Thanks:@justinkahnmusic

Wall Street Journal:

Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy protection with $63.6M in outstanding debt; loses 750K customers' bitcoins, 100K of its own, worth in total $473M — Mt. Gox Files for Bankruptcy Protection — A lawyer for Mt. Gox announced at a news conference at the Tokyo District Court that the embattled bitcoin exchange …

Pete Rizzo / CoinDesk:

Alleged Mt. Gox Victim Files Class Action Lawsuit, Now His Lawyers Speak Out

More: Ars Technica, Reuters, Bloomberg, InfoWorld, SlashGear, theWHIR.com and Engadget. Tweets: @clipperchip

Kana Inagaki / Wall Street Journal:

Struggling Sony Plans Sale of Old Tokyo Headquarters — Sony is now looking to sell its former headquarters and surrounding buildings in central Tokyo in its continuing struggle to stem losses from its consumer electronics business, according to a person familiar with the plan.

More: TechCrunch, Electronista, SlashGear, CNET, Softpedia News, Engadget and GamesIndustry International

Bonnie Cha / Re/code:

Dude, Where's My Phone? Lenovo, Ashton Kutcher to Launch Line of Phones This Year. — Yes, you read that right. — The star of “Two and Half Men” and “Jobs” is designing a line of special edition phones for Lenovo to be launched later this year, according to Lenovo Chief Marketing Officer David Roman.

More: 9to5Google, BGR, Examiner, TechnoBuffalo, Pocketnow, Betabeat, Ubergizmo, VentureBeat, The Verge, Engadget, Digital Trends, SlashGear, WebProNews, Android Central and Electronista

Tweets: @snackfight and @evelynrusli

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

Apple will soon charge for out-of-warranty chat support, schedule repairs via new web payment system — Apple is about to begin charging users outside of their warranty for online chat support using a new web payment system it recently developed. Sources familiar with the project say Apple …

More: AppleInsider, MacNN, iPhone Hacks, MacRumors, Ubergizmo and iPhone in Canada Blog. Thanks:@justinkahnmusic

Daniel Eran Dilger / AppleInsider:

Apple is preparing to release update to fix TouchID fingerprint recognition issues — Apple preparing software update to enhance functionality of iPhone 5s Touch ID — Apple is preparing to release a free software update designed to improve the fingerprint recognition experience of Touch ID …

More: BGR, Ubergizmo, Redmond Pie, InvestorPlace, TechnoBuffalo, iPhone in Canada Blog, VentureBeat, Pocketnow, iDownloadBlog.com …, iLounge, Gotta Be Mobile, MacRumors, SlashGear, MacNN and App Advice

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google Adds Full Restaurant Menus To Its Search Results Pages — Here is a small but nifty update to Google Search: if you ask it to find a restaurant menu for you, it will now often just show you the menu right on the search results page. Try this for a search like “show me the menu for fogo de chao” …

More: Google, Search Engine Land, Engadget, GeekWire, CNET, The Verge, Pocketnow and WebProNews

Financial Times:

Apple to introduce in-car system with Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo next week — Apple software to drive smart Ferrari — First the mobile phone, now the car. Having revolutionised personal communication Apple now wants to change the way we drive. The technology group will next week launch …

More: Engadget, The Verge, The Next Web, AppleInsider, MacRumors, Cult of Mac, MobileSyrup.com and iPhone in Canada Blog

Dara Kerr / CNET:

IBM laying off up to 25 percent of ‘hardware’ division — IBM has confirmed that it's laying off a portion of its workforce in order to focus on new priority areas, like the cloud, analytics, and cognitive computing. This means certain divisions of the company must see cuts.

More: Gigaom, Wonkblog, SiliconANGLE, TechnologyAdvice, TheStreet.com, Bloomberg, Burlington Free Press, Computerworld and EE Times. Tweets: @qthrul

Spencer E. Ante / Wall Street Journal:

Fab's CFO and Chief People Officer Are Latest Exits — The executive departures at troubled design e-commerce company Fab keep coming. Fab's chief financial officer David Lapter and chief people officer Allison Rutledge-Parisi are leaving the company.

More: Re/code and Business Insider

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

GrubHub Publicly Files For $100M IPO, Saw $1.3B In Food Sales In 2013 From 3.4M Active Users — GrubHub, which has changed its name from the awkward ‘GrubHub Seamless’ it used since the two food delivery companies merged last year, has publicly filed for its IPO with the SEC today.

More: MediaRoom, PandoDaily, Re/code, TechnoBuffalo, New York Times, Chicago Business, VentureBeat, Valleywag, VatorNews, Business Insider, The Next Web and Eater National

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:

Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.

Cape:

Most carriers track everything. Cape doesn't. — Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more. Switch today and get 29% off for life.

Zoho:

The hidden tax of making employees search, switch, and repeat — Employees lose more time to digital friction than organizations often realize. Searching for information, switching between tools …

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

Software's Epic Comeback, Meta's AI Layoffs Blunder, South Korea Stock Market Chaos

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Hard Fork:

Meta Shifts the Blame + Do Data Center Bans Work? + The Final HatGPT

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

The Weird, Big Business of Microdramas

Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

Training Data:

Parallel's Parag Agrawal: Building a New Web for AI Agents

Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.

Subscribe to Training Data.

Invest Like the Best:

Neil Movva - Making AI 10x Cheaper

The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.

Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:15 PM ET, February 28, 2014.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.