Techmeme: Newton is the first MIPS-based mini-computer for wearables (Agam Shah/PC World)

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April 2, 2014, 1:35 PM

Top News

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana, Action Center, customizable lockscreens — At its Build 2014 conference today, Microsoft unveiled Windows Phone 8.1. Among the new features is a personal digital assistant named Cortana, a new Action Center …

More: Engadget, VentureBeat, ReadWrite, Ars Technica, BetaNews, BGR, Gizmodo, The Verge, LAPTOP Magazine, Engadget, TechCrunch, BGR, Softpedia News, Gotta Be Mobile, Electronista and Windows Phone Central

Tweets: @thurrott, @thurrott, @tim_stevens, @willsmith and @tim_stevens

The Verge:

Live from Microsoft's Build 2014 keynote — In San Francisco, at 8:30AM PT on Wednesday, April 2nd, Microsoft will kick off its Build developer conference for 2014. Microsoft's new CEO Satya Nadella is expected to take the stage and unveil Windows Phone 8.1, a big update to Microsoft's mobile OS.

More: TechCrunch, Marketing Land, BGR, The Verge, CNET, Re/code, Ars Technica, Gigaom, Windows Phone Central, WinBeta and Engadget

Tweets: @tomwarren and @microsoft

Dana Wollman / Engadget:

Windows 8.1 update aims to win over mouse-and-keyboard users, arrives April 8th as an automatic download — The whole point of Windows 8 was to make Microsoft's aging OS easier to use on touchscreen devices. Mission accomplished, we'd say (more or less). But now the folks in Redmond …

More: Gizmodo, BGR, The Next Web, TechCrunch and Electronista

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Microsoft announces universal Windows apps, which work across PCs, phones, tablets and Xbox One — At its Build 2014 conference today, Microsoft announced universal Windows apps, which work across PCs, phones, tablets and even the Xbox One. In other words, the Windows runtime in Windows 8.1 Update 1 …

More: Gizmodo, The Verge, BGR and SlashGear. Tweets: @maryjofoley

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Microsoft Demos Its Touch-Focused Office Suite For Windows — This morning at its Build developer conference in San Francisco, Microsoft showed off the coming touch-friendly build of its Office suite coming for the Windows platform. The software, Microsoft assured us, is not done.

More: The Verge, Engadget and Softpedia News

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Microsoft Announces Its Cortana Personal Assistant For Windows Phone 8.1, Powered By Bing — At its Build developer event in San Francisco today, Microsoft announced the launch of its oft-rumored voice-driven Cortana personal assistant. Cortana, which seems to have some of Siri's humor, gets its knowledge from Microsoft's Bing.

More: Search Engine Land, The Next Web, ReadWrite, VentureBeat, Softpedia News and Technology Personalized

Amazon.com:

Amazon Fire TV ships today with Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, YouTube, WatchESPN, and more — Introducing Amazon Fire TV: The Easiest Way to Watch Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, and More on Your Big-Screen TV — Powerful performance with 3x the processing power …

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget:

Amazon launches Fire TV, an Android-powered streaming and gaming set-top box for $99 — We've been waiting for it for quite sometime, but now Amazon is finally ready to make its play for the living room. Fire TV is not a barebones device like the Chromecast, it's a powerful Android-driven platform …

More: AppleInsider, TechCrunch, The Switch, Inquirer, iMore, BetaNews, DSLreports, Techvibes Global News, Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, TUAW, Dan Rayburn, IntoMobile, Gotta Be Mobile and internetretailer.com. See also Mediagazer

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Amazon's Fire TV billed as low-cost game console for titles like Minecraft and Asphalt 8, separate controller available for $40 — Amazon's FireTV set top box is also a gaming console — Amazon's FireTV set-top box will also act as a home console. The FireTV is billed not as a competitor …

More: The Verge, Forbes, Engadget and Amazon.com

Tweets: @stephentotilo and @jasonschreier

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

Amazon Fire TV hands-on: Prime comes to your living room — Amazon has just unveiled Fire TV, its first attempt at a set-top box for streaming movies, television shows, photos, games, and more straight to your TV. The Fire TV is all black and consists of a small, square box that connects …

More: Engadget, iPhone in Canada Blog and App Advice. Tweets: @reckless

Yuichiro Kanematsu / Nikkei:

Report: Apple in talks to buy 55% stake in Renesas SP display chip design unit for $479M — Apple looking to buy Japanese chipmaker — SILICON VALLEY — Apple is in talks with Japan's Renesas Electronics to take over a unit that designs chips for smartphone displays …

More: SiliconANGLE, Gigaom, Gotta Be Mobile, ZDNet, Geek.com, SlashGear, Inquirer, I4U News, Softpedia News, ITworld.com, Bloomberg, AppleInsider, Reuters, Reuters, Business Insider, Mashable, Wall Street Journal and TechnoBuffalo

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Lyft Raises $250 Million From Coatue, Alibaba, And Third Point To Expand Internationally — Lyft has officially closed a huge, $250 million round of funding that it will use to aggressively expand its on-demand ride-sharing service in the U.S. and internationally.

More: Wall Street Journal, The Verge, PandoDaily, VentureBeat, Los Angeles Times, Re/code, The Next Web, GeekWire, Bloomberg, Fortune and Forbes

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget:

Spotify's new design is cleaner, darker and puts the focus on content — If you're using Spotify on the web, desktop or iOS you should notice a pretty massive change starting today. (The new look should be coming to Android “near future.") The company is launching its most dramatic overhaul since its launch in 2008.

More: The Next Web, BetaNews, TechCrunch, Guardian, Spotify Press, PC Magazine, The Verge, Softpedia News, Electronista, Geeky Gadgets, CNET, iDownloadBlog.com, MacRumors, Gizmodo, NEWS.com.au, Geek News Central, App Advice, iPhone, Inquirer and Pocketnow. Tweets: @zseward. See also Mediagazer

Kevin Poulsen / Wired:

Google Takes Wi-Fi Snooping Scandal to the Supreme Court — The biggest U.S. internet wiretapping program outside the NSA may be headed to the Supreme Court. — Google is asking the high court to rule on the legality of the company's past sniffing of unencrypted Wi-Fi traffic …

More: PC World, DSLreports, Fox News, Marketing Land, PandoDaily, SiliconBeat, The Switch, Ars Technica, bizjournals and TechEye

Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:

Ubuntu to shut down Dropbox competitor Ubuntu One as storage wars heat up — Canonical, owner of the popular Linux operating system Ubuntu, today announced that it is shutting down its file-storing service Ubuntu One. — Aside from being a distraction, Canonical says the service is being shut down because …

More: Canonical Blog, BetaNews, Gigaom, TechCrunch, Inquirer, The Next Web, Liliputing and Softpedia News. Thanks:@harrisonweber

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Box wants to let businesses control cloud encryption keys “this year” — Box CEO Aaron Levie told Ars last September that the cloud storage company is trying to build a service that would let customers store data in Box data centers but would keep encryption keys in-house.

More: ZDNet

Charles Arthur / Guardian:

Wearables: one-third of consumers abandoning devices — Hundreds of Galaxy Gear smartwatches are listed on eBay barely six months after launch. Why isn't the wearable tech market taking off? — The advert was blunt: a second-hand Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch for sale, priced at “£100 ONO”.

More: Fox News, 9to5Mac, Venture Chronicles, Gigaom Research and BGR. Tweets: @kevinpauldowney

Tom Hals / Reuters:

Judge orders Mt Gox CEO to U.S. for questions on failed bitcoin exchange — (Reuters) - The chief executive of Japan's Mt. Gox, once the world's leading bitcoin exchange, was ordered to the United States to answer questions related to its U.S. bankruptcy case, filed after the company lost $400 million of customers' digital currency.

More: The Technology Chronicles, CoinDesk, Softpedia News, CryptoCoinsNews, TechSpot, Bloomberg, The Register and InfoWorld

Ben Woods / The Next Web:

Nest's smart Thermostat is now available to buy in the UK, priced from £179 — Nest, the company looking to reinvent dull-but-worthy household items such as the smoke detector, has announced that its Nest Thermostat is now finally available to buy in the UK.

More: Nest, The Verge, BGR, New York Times, iMore, Geeky Gadgets, Inquirer, SlashGear, Engadget, Electronista, BBC, Cult of Mac, TechCrunch, Android Central, Telegraph, App Advice and TechWeekEurope UK

Greg Bensinger / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon Will Now Allow Returns Using Lockers — Amazon.com has quietly rolled out a new service to let customers return unwanted merchandise using large metal lockers it has installed for deliveries in garages, convenience and grocery stores in major metropolitan areas.

More: GeekWire, Geek.com, Gizmodo, Geeky Gadgets, SlashGear and Engadget

Agam Shah / PC World:

Newton is the first MIPS-based mini-computer for wearables — A Chinese company has released a computer about the size of an SD card that can run a full version of Android and should make it easier to build wearable devices. — Called the Newton, the computer was developed …

More: Imagination Blog, eWeek, Engadget and Forbes

Stacey Higginbotham / Gigaom:

Google launches Andromeda, a software defined network underlying its cloud — For everyone saying that software-defined networking is a pipe dream, Google is about to prove you wrong. The search engine giant and cloud provider said it has made its Andromeda software-defined network platform available …

More: Google Cloud Platform Blog

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

Reversible USB 3.1 Type-C connector shown in renderings, will be finalized in July — This is the reversible USB cable that will end your frustrations — The most abundant connector standard in technology, the Universal Serial Bus, is getting ready for its most revolutionary change yet …

More: Ars Technica, CNET, The Next Web, Computerworld, LAPTOP Magazine, Digital Trends, 9to5Mac, iMore, TechCrunch, Softpedia News, Gotta Be Mobile, iDownloadBlog.com, Electronista and The Tech Report. Thanks:@srikardr

Will Connors / Wall Street Journal:

BlackBerry Ends Licensing Agreement With T-Mobile — Blackberry Says Strategies Are Not Complementary — TORONTO— BlackBerry Ltd. said late Tuesday that it is ending its licensing agreement with T-Mobile Inc. when it expires later this month, a surprise move that comes two months …

Cotton Delo / AdAge:

Social-Marketing Startups Spredfast and Mass Relevance Merge — More Consolidation in Ecoystem of Companies Helping Marketers Use Facebook and Twitter — How Advertising Performs in a Social Media World — More consolidation is happening in the ecosystem of companies …

Tweets: @pkafka

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