Techmeme: Sony's virtual reality headset won't be released this year (Chris Welch/The Verge)

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March 19, 2014, 8:50 PM

Top News

Richard Lai / Engadget:

Oppo Find 7 is the world's first phone that can take 50MP photos (video) — We've seen the teasers and we've seen the leaks, so it's about time to see the real thing. Oppo has finally unveiled the Find 7 in Beijing just now, and as promised, this Android 4.3 device really can take 50-megapixel photos!

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

In-depth with Android Wear, Google's quantum leap of a smartwatch OS — We take a look at how Android Wear works, and even manage to break some stuff. — Yesterday, Google announced Android Wear, its wearable device platform for smartwatches. Android Wear is a shrunken-down …

More: The Verge, LAPTOP Magazine, PandoDaily and Wearable Tech Insider

Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:

Twitter gives up on encrypting direct messages, at least for now — Twitter has shelved a project that would have made it more difficult for the government to intercept users' private messages without a court order, sources tell The Verge, a sudden reversal for a company that has been ahead …

More: Computerworld, Salon, SlashGear, Ubergizmo, ReadWrite, Daily Dot, Business Insider, Android Community, Softpedia News, Gigaom and SC Magazine

Phil Goldstein / FierceWireless:

Huawei backtracks, won't release a dual-OS Android, Windows Phone smartphone — Huawei said it has no plans to release a dual-OS smartphone running Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone and Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android, contradicting earlier statements from a Huawei executive.

More: eWeek, Engadget, Windows Phone Central, Coolsmartphone, TechCrunch, Phandroid, Ubergizmo, Pocketnow, Android Community, Android Police, SlashGear, WMPoweruser and Android Central

Bloomberg:

Burger King to Add Mobile-Phone Payment at U.S. Stores — Burger King Worldwide Inc. (BKW), the second-biggest U.S. burger chain by store count, is introducing an application that will allow customers to pay for Whoppers with their smartphones as it races rivals to woo younger diners.

More: iMore, iPhone in Canada Blog, 9to5Mac, IntoMobile, Gigaom Research, iPhone Hacks, MobilePaymentsToday.com News, Engadget, App Advice and iDownloadBlog.com

Chris Velazco / Engadget:

Quirky and GE cook up a smarter, prettier air conditioner — Quirky is more than just bendy power strips these days — recently, it's been pushing its vision of the connected home thanks to a multi-million dollar partnership with GE. So far their deal has yielded stuff like intelligent egg trays …

More: Gizmodo, Wall Street Journal, AppleInsider, The Verge, Quartz, TechCrunch, CNET, 9to5Mac, Co.Design, VentureBeat, TechnoBuffalo and Gigaom

Diane Bartz / Reuters:

Exclusive: States to probe Comcast plan to buy Time Warner Cable — (Reuters) - Florida and other U.S. states will join the Justice Department in seeking to determine if Comcast's plan to merge with Time Warner Cable is legal under U.S. antitrust law, Florida said in a statement to Reuters.

More: The Verge, CNET, DSLreports, DailyTech, WebProNews, Softpedia News, SlashGear, Electronista, Engadget and Deadline.com

Jay Hathaway / Gawker:

Dong Nguyen says Flappy Bird will return to the App Store, but not soon — Enjoy Your Life While You Can, Because Flappy Bird is Coming Back — The most addictive, dangerous new drug of 2014 is about to come back on the market. Game developer Dong Nguyen has announced that his hit game Flappy Bird …

Caitlin Dewey / Washington Post:

Meet Cloak, the ‘antisocial’ network that helps you avoid people — We have myriad tech-enabled ways to encounter friends (and strangers!) in real life. We can check in on Foursquare. Tag a location on Instagram. Swipe on Tinder. Tweet, from just about anywhere.

More: Engadget, Mashable, BBC, BuzzFeed, Wired.co.uk, CNET, PSFK, Lifehacker, SiliconANGLE, Daily Dot, memeburn, NEWS.com.au and SiliconBeat. Tweets: @fmanjoo

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Google's Larry Page on Internet Privacy: Don't Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater — James Duncan Davidson/Flickr/TedConference — Google CEO Larry Page was hesitant to tell the world about the medical condition that was hurting his ability to speak, but publicly sharing his voice troubles helped …

More: Wall Street Journal, The Verge, Business Insider, Bloomberg, TED Blog, Wired.co.uk and Search Engine Roundtable. Tweets: @om

Ben Gilbert / Engadget:

Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 now available by subscription for $19, headed to OS X and more — Unreal Engine 3 set the standard for games last generation, powering breakout franchises like Gears of War and Mass Effect. We don't know if Unreal Engine 4 will have the same impact …

More: Unreal Engine, TechCrunch, The Verge, TechSpot, CNET, VG247, VentureBeat, Electronista, iDownloadBlog.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Gamasutra and Joystiq. Tweets: @comex

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Want More Privacy In Your App? Wickr Resells Its Encryption, Self-Destructing Tech To Other Apps — Wickr, one of the wave of messaging apps built on the idea of private, encrypted and self-destructing data, has vowed never to make money off its users — with its app remaining free …

More: Re/code, VatorNews and VentureBeat

Sean Hollister / The Verge:

The second Oculus Rift developer kit includes higher resolution panels, peripheral camera for position tracking, ships in July for $350 — World-builders, rejoice: the final Oculus Rift VR dev kit is here — One year ago today, Oculus introduced the first version of its prototype virtual reality headset …

Martin Beck / Marketing Land:

Google Search Can Now Take Photos, Videos, On Your Android Phone — So you want to take a quick photo or video with your Android phone? It just got a bit easier, at least for those who like to tell their phone what to do. — Google updated its Android Search app today …

More: 9to5Google and The Next Web

Christian Nutt / Gamasutra:

Facebook sends 735 million referrals to games every day — Today at GDC, Facebook revealed new statistics around its user base that show that developers who create games for both mobile — using Facebook to drive community engagement — and also deploy them to their website see significant lift in engagement and revenue.

More: Facebook Developers, Gigaom, Mashable and SlashGear

Levi Pulkkinen / Seattle PI:

Ex-Microsoft employee charged with passing journalist trade secrets — Prosecutors: Angry worker sent blogger Windows 8 code, internal documents — Workers removing the products from the stage after the Microsoft Windows 8 and Surface event in New York, Oct. 25, 2012.

More: GeekWire, The Verge, CNET and WinBeta

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Autodesk Buys Creative Market To Square Up To Adobe With A Marketplace For Designers And Makers — It looks like Autodesk has taken one more step forward in its bid to compete more with the likes of Adobe in the business of providing tools to the design community, but also a bigger step into the maker movement.

More: Creative Market, ZDNet, VentureBeat and SeekingAlpha.com

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior Joins Box's Board — Box, the enterprise-focused cloud storage and platform company, named Cisco Systems' CTO and chief strategy officer Padmasree Warrior to its board of directors, taking another step toward an IPO that's expected before the summer.

More: The Box Blog, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, ZDNet and bizjournals

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