Techmeme: Google Play Games gets gifts, multiplayer invites, cross-platform Android and iOS multiplayer support (Emil Protalinski/The Next Web)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News Contact Editors

March 17, 2014, 6:05 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

This is Healthbook, Apple's major first step into health & fitness tracking — Seven years out from the original iPhone's introduction, and four years past the iPad's launch, Apple has found its next market ripe for reinvention: the mobile healthcare and fitness-tracking industry.

Jan Koum / WhatsApp Blog:

WhatsApp founder: Facebook “partnership” won't change values, not collecting new data on users — Setting the record straight — Since announcing our upcoming partnership with Facebook, we've been truly humbled by how much attention our story has received.

More: The Switch, The Verge, VatorNews, Forbes, N4BB, Business Insider, Consumerist, SlashGear, WebProNews, CrackBerry.com and Android Central

Tweets: @kaepora and @kaepora

Matt Brian / Engadget:

Apple reportedly launching a cheaper 8GB iPhone 5c on March 18th (updated) — Apple doesn't talk about how many iPhone 5c devices it sells, but the rumors are that it's not doing as well as its two siblings. According to leaked documents from O2 Germany, Cupertino is looking to boost …

Steven Millward / Tech in Asia:

iPhone 5c reportedly accounts for 2% of active iOS devices in China, compared to 12% for iPhone 5s, and 15% for iPhone 5

More: Cult of Mac, Benedict Evans, App Advice, CNET and BGR

John Arlidge / TIME:

Apple Designer Jonathan Ive Talks About Steve Jobs and New Products — Apple's design chief helped transform computing, phones and music. The company's secrecy and Ive's modesty mean he has never given an in-depth interview—until now. John Arlidge 5:45 AM ET 'Hello.

More: The Sunday Times, 9to5Mac, Guardian, Computerworld, The Verge, MacRumors, Engadget, TUAW, iPhone, TechnoBuffalo, iMore, T3 News, PadGadget, Tech Trader Daily, Gizmodo, Business Insider, Softpedia News, Cult of Mac, TechCrunch, SiliconBeat and iDownloadBlog.com

Tweets: @pkedrosky, @time, @hamburger and @danprimack

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Amazon's Set Top Box Will Be A Dongle Like Chromecast, Could Feature OnLive-Style Streaming — Amazon is readying a game console/set top box of its own, and we've learned from multiple sources familiar with the device that the Lab126-produced gadget will have a form factor similar to the Chromecast …

More: Digital Trends, BGR, Engadget, TechSpot, Electronista, TechnoBuffalo, Liliputing and SlashGear. Tweets: @zseward

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Microsoft launches free OneNote for Mac, freemium OneNote for Windows, and OneNote cloud API for apps — Microsoft today revealed three major announcements regarding its OneNote offering: a free version of OneNote for Mac, a freemium version of OneNote for Windows, and a new cloud API …

TechCrunch:

Microsoft's Free OneNote Hints At Its Larger Strategy

More: The Register, SuperSite for Windows and Computerworld

Chris O'Brien / Los Angeles Times:

Dorian S. Nakamoto hires lawyer to ‘clear his name’ of bitcoin claim — Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto insists he is not the creator of bitcoin. (Jonathan Alcorn / Bloomberg / March 13, 2014) — Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto of Temple City, the man recently named by Newsweek as the mysterious creator of bitcoin …

More: Newsweek, Quartz, Digital Trends, The Verge, Gawker, Salon, The Next Web, New York Magazine, Guardian, ReadWrite, Consumerist, Ars Technica, Mashable and Boing Boing

Tweets: @mikko and @b_fung

Thanks:@obrien. See also Mediagazer

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto Releases Official Statement “Unconditionally” Denying Newsweek's Bitcoin Story

More: TechCrunch, Los Angeles Times, Engadget, New York Times, CNET, The Switch, Inquirer, Gigaom, Daily Dot, CoinDesk, Fox News, Betabeat, Poynter, VentureBeat, The Register, Wall Street Journal, Gawker, Re/code, Softpedia News, Business Insider, SlashGear and Forbes

Tweets: @felixsalmon and @felixsalmon

Austin Carr / Fast Company:

Airbnb hopes to offer services for “the entire trip”, including transport, cleaning, and more — Inside Airbnb's Grand Hotel Plans — HOW BRIAN CHESKY, THE MILLENNIAL IMPRESARIO BEHIND RED-HOT AIRBNB, TEAMED UP WITH CHIP CONLEY, THE HOTEL INDUSTRY'S LAST BLACK-SHEEP INNOVATOR …

More: TechCrunch and Business Insider. Tweets: @thenickfrost, @rafat, @austincarr and @dmac1. Thanks:@_trendspotter

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft Office for iPad will be unveiled this month — Satya Nadella is planning to host his first press event as Microsoft CEO next week. The software maker has been inviting members of the media to a special cloud- and mobile-focused event in San Francisco on March 27th.

More: Re/code, ZDNet, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch and Pocket-lint

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Paper Does Its First Content Collaboration With Exclusives From TED — In hopes of luring in fresh audiences, Facebook Paper announced its first experiment in working with an outside group to populate the Ideas section of its stylized content reader standalone app.

More: The Next Web, TechHive, Inside Facebook, VentureBeat, and Re/code

Dana Wollman / Engadget:

Microsoft intros an LTE version of the Surface 2, arrives tomorrow for $679 — As hard as it is to believe, Microsoft has until now never put out a 3G/4G Surface tablet. But we knew one would come eventually: the company said it was working on an LTE-enabled Surface 2 and indeed, the thing recently surfaced (har) in FCC documents.

More: Surface Blog, The Next Web, ZDNet, SuperSite for Windows, Computerworld, GeekWire, LAPTOP Magazine, Examiner, WinBeta, TIME, TechCrunch, The Verge, BetaNews and Softpedia News

Washington Post:

Government computers running Windows XP will be vulnerable to hackers after April 8 — The deadline for installing secure operating systems on federal government computers will pass next month with the job incomplete, leaving hundreds of thousands of machines running outdated software and unusually vulnerable to hackers.

More: Techdirt and Digital Trends. Tweets: @csoghoian

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Google Play Games gets gifts, multiplayer invites, cross-platform Android and iOS multiplayer support — At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) today, Google announced a slew of improvements for Google Play Games, its cross-platform game service and SDK for Android, iOS, and the Web.

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

danah boyd on her new book, human nature in the age of Snapchat, and the Facebook “anomaly” — Researcher danah boyd talks about teens, identity, and the future of digital communication — Researcher danah boyd talks about teens, identity, and the future of digital communication

Tweets: @mcuban. Thanks:@_trendspotter

Chris Wanstrath / GitHub:

GitHub begins full investigation, puts founder on leave after Julie Horvath's departure — Update on Julie Horvath's Departure — This weekend, GitHub employee Julie Horvath spoke publicly about negative experiences she had at GitHub that contributed to her resignation.

Brad Molen / Engadget:

Samsung's new Gear watches are now open to third-party support — Among the many frustrations we had with Samsung's first smartwatch, the Galaxy Gear, was the limited number of apps available for it. While the company offered premium access to select partners, it never came …

More: Samsung Mobile Press, TechHive, Ars Technica, Android Central, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, ZDNet, The Next Web, Electronista and SamMobile

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

LINE's Cheap Voice Service, LINE Call, Now Live For Android Users Of The Messaging App In 8 Markets — In the ongoing battle for more users and differentiation between messaging apps, today Japan's LINE has launched its newest feature: a flat-rate voice calling service called LINE Call.

More: Tech in Asia, Engadget, Electronista and Android Beat. Thanks:@_trendspotter

Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:

IBM denies assisting NSA in customer spying — Summary: IBM has categorically denied any involvement with the U.S. National Security Agency's spying spree, and insists it has never handed over client data in the name of surveillance. — Charlie Osborne — IBM has denied any involvement …

More: A Smarter Planet Blog, CNET, Help Net Security, SC Magazine, Softpedia News, SecurityWeek, Inquirer and The Register

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:

App Spotlight: MessageWhiz SMS for Zoho CRM — App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools. Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …

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:

Big Tech's Insane Hidden AI Spending, Ranking Anthropic vs. OpenAI, AI For Travel Debate

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:

OpenAI's Two-Week Pause + Jill Lepore on the Threat of the "Artificial State" + Train of Thought

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 $12.5 Billion Lakers, the NFL's TV Fight, and Sports Media's Big Split

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:

Rich Sutton and Khurram Javed: Why AI Models Stop Learning, and How to Start It Again

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:

Ben Thompson on Big Tech, China, and the AI Boom Running Out of Money

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 6:05 PM ET, March 17, 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.