Techmeme: Yahoo launches Games Network platform for developers, new Classic Games site for Android, iOS, and the Web (Emil Protalinski/The Next Web)

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March 19, 2014, 10:55 PM

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Ryan Mac / Forbes:

Accel Partners Raises Two New Funds Totaling Over $1 Billion To Find The Next Facebook — Accel Partners, a leading venture capital and growth equity firm, has raised two new funds totaling $1.475 billion. — The Palo Alto, Calif.-based firm has put together the $475 million Accel 12 fund …

Dan Primack / Fortune:

Exclusive: Jim Breyer reducing role at Accel Partners

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!

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: IntoMobile, iPhone in Canada Blog, 9to5Mac, iPhone Hacks, MobilePaymentsToday.com News, Engadget, Gigaom Research, iMore, 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, Quartz, The Verge, TechCrunch, CNET, Co.Design, 9to5Mac, VentureBeat, TechnoBuffalo and Gigaom

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

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. Tweets: @jyarow

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: CNET, GeekWire, The Verge, bizjournals and WinBeta

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

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

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 …

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, DailyTech, WebProNews, DSLreports, Softpedia News, SlashGear, Electronista, Engadget and Deadline.com

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

MP3Tunes Founder Michael Robertson Found Liable for Copyright Infringement — A jury finds that the once-popular website willfully blinded itself to thousands of songs being stolen. — On Wednesday, a jury in a New York federal courtroom found MP3Tunes founder Michael Robertson liable …

More: Reuters and Bloomberg

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

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

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Yahoo launches Games Network platform for developers, new Classic Games site for Android, iOS, and the Web — Yahoo today announced a renewed push into games with the launch of its Yahoo Games Network platform and its Yahoo Classic Games site. The company says it already has more improvements …

More: Yahoo, Re/code, iDownloadBlog.com and App Advice

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, Engadget, Gigaom, Mashable and SlashGear

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: Google and Android Community

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, CNET, VG247, VentureBeat, Electronista, iDownloadBlog.com, TechSpot, iPhone in Canada Blog, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Gamasutra and Joystiq. Tweets: @comex

Daisuke Wakabayashi / Wall Street Journal:

US VCs invested $848M in consumer electronics hardware startups in 2013, up from $442M in 2012 — Venture Money Flows Into Hardware Startups — From Jawbone to Roku, U.S. Investors Pump $848 Million Into Consumer-Electronics Makers — A hardware startup is still hard, but it is getting a little easier.

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