Techmeme: Last-minute cancellation of flagship original series raises questions in Hollywood about Hulu's stability (Tom Dotan/The Information)

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April 16, 2014, 10:55 PM

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Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Marissa Mayer's Secret Plan to Get Apple to Dump Google and Default to Yahoo Mobile Search — Wall Street gave Yahoo stock a big boost today — largely due to the stellar quarterly performance of China's Alibaba, in which the Silicon Valley Internet giant has a big stake.

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

Why Yahoo's Not Going To Steal The Search Default For iPhone Away From Google — Apparently Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wants to be the default search for Apple's Safari browser on iPhone and iPad and has been preparing to make a solid pitch. Well, we all want things we can't have …

Tweets: @jyarow

Google:

Google Inc. Announces First Quarter 2014 Results — Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today announced financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. — “We completed another great quarter. Google's revenue was $15.4 billion, up 19% year on year”, said Larry Page, CEO of Google.

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Google Misses in Q1 With Revenue Of $15.42B, EPS Of $6.27 As Its Cost-Per-Click Fell 9% — Following the bell, Google reported its first quarter financial performance, including revenue of $12.20 billion excluding traffic acquisition costs (ex-TAC), $15.42 billion including those costs, and earnings per share of $6.27.

More: The Register, Reuters, AdExchanger, Mercury News, Wall Street Journal, internetretailer.com, Electronista, VentureBeat and WebProNews

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Google Says Buying Nest Bogged Down First-Quarter Earnings — It turns out buying a company for $3.2 billion can suck the wind out of even a $15.4-billion-in-revenue quarter. The Nest acquisition took a toll on Google expenses, explained Google CFO Patrick Pichette on the company's first-quarter earnings call today.

More: New York Times, CNNMoney.com, BuzzFeed, Wall Street Journal, CNET and Wall Street Journal

Adam Satariano / Bloomberg:

Apple is planning to integrate song-identification into iOS 8, in partnership with Shazam — Apple Said to Prepare Song-ID Feature for IPhone Software — Apple Inc. (AAPL) wants to help you name that tune. — The company is planning to unveil a song-discovery feature in an update …

More: The Next Web, The Verge, iMore, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, everythingiCafe, Ubergizmo, CNET and iDownloadBlog.com. Tweets: @sarahfrier

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

Q&A with Zuckerberg about Facebook unbundling, anonymity, acquisitions, and innovation — Can Facebook Innovate? A Conversation With Mark Zuckerberg — For my column this week about Facebook's new approach to creating social apps, I spent some time talking to Mark E. Zuckerberg, the company's co-founder and chief executive.

More: Valleywag, Om Malik, Gigaom, Quartz, TechCrunch, DailyTech, AllFacebook, Search Engine Land, NBC Bay Area, Dice News, Mashable and Lost Remote

Tweets: @joshconstine, @joshconstine and @joshconstine

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

Facebook's future: more single-purpose apps that may not bear the Facebook brand

More: SiliconBeat and Business Insider. Tweets: @mikeisaac and @martinsfp

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

LG G3 launching this summer with 2560 x 1440 screen resolution, golden hue — LG will launch golden G3 with crazy resolution this summer — 2560 x 1440 pixels in your front pocket — A third of the way into 2014, we already have new flagship phones from almost all the big Android handset makers …

More: DailyTech, LAPTOP Magazine, Gizchina.com, TechnoBuffalo, The Droid Guy, Pocketnow, SlashGear, Ubergizmo, 9to5Google, Gotta Be Mobile and Phandroid

The Korea Heald:

LG to design mobile processors manufactured by TSMC, may use own chip in upcoming G3 phone

More: PhoneArena, Pocketnow, Liliputing, Ubergizmo, TechnoBuffalo, The Droid Guy, TechSpot, 9to5Google and BGR

Vinay Shet / Google Online Security Blog:

Google's latest street number recognition algorithm can solve 99% of its own reCAPTCHA puzzles — Street View and reCAPTCHA technology just got smarter — Have you ever wondered how Google Maps knows the exact location of your neighborhood coffee shop? Or of the hotel you're staying at next month?

More: The Atlantic Online, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, The Verge, BetaNews, Gigaom, Ubergizmo, 9to5Google and SlashGear

Carlos Hernández / Google Research Blog:

How the Lens Blur mode in Google's new Camera app simulates shallow depth of field — Lens Blur in the new Google Camera app — One of the biggest advantages of SLR cameras over camera phones is the ability to achieve shallow depth of field effects (also known as bokeh).

More: BetaNews, 9to5Google, TechnoBuffalo, Phandroid, Geek.com, Pocketnow, The Next Web, Lifehacker and dailywireless.org

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Google:

Google's new Android Camera app arrives on Google Play Store

More: Android Police, Android Police, Research at Google, The Verge, Ars Technica, Electronista, Engadget, Android - Google+, Droid Life, Gotta Be Mobile, Gigaom and TechCrunch

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Spotify Starts Shutting Down Its Massive P2P Network — When Spotify launched its first beta in the fall of 2008, we branded it “an alternative to music piracy.” — With the option to stream millions of tracks supported by an occasional ad, or free of ads for a small subscription fee …

More: Gigaom and SlashGear

Tom Dotan / The Information:

Last-minute cancellation of flagship original series raises questions in Hollywood about Hulu's stability — Hollywood Questions Hulu as Video Landscape Shifts — When the owners of the online video site Hulu pulled the company off the auction block for the second time last summer …

More: BGR. Tweets: @amir and @pkafka. See also Mediagazer

Reuters:

Samsung plans to launch Tizen smartphones in Q2 and an Android Wear smartwatch later this year — Samsung executive says Galaxy S5 to outsell S4, sees second quarter rollout for Tizen phone — (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's new Galaxy S5 smartphone should outsell its predecessor …

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Google+ Pages with 1,000+ followers can now create +Post ads, promote Hangouts on Air and automatic posts — Google today expanded its test of +Post ads, a new type of monetization for its social network that lets brands turn Google+ content into display ads.

More: Inside AdWords, Marketing Land, 9to5Google, Marketing Pilgrim, Android Community and WebProNews

Larry Dignan / ZDNet:

IBM's Q1 revenue disappoints, hardware whacked again — Summary: IBM is a work in progress for sure as only the software division delivered any growth. Hardware remains a problem for Big Blue. — IBM's first quarter results highlighted how the company is still at the beginning point …

More: IBM, eWeek, PC World, The Register, Business Insider, Re/code, Bloomberg, Tech Trader Daily, Reuters and TechCrunch

iFixit:

Google Project Tango smartphone prototype teardown — Project Tango Teardown — It's 2014 and the future is now. Google's engineers have been hard at work bringing the virtual to reality with projects like Google Glass, and their newest 3D mapping tech, Project Tango.

More: MacRumors, PhoneArena, Patently Apple, The Droid Guy, PC Magazine, VentureBeat, iDownloadBlog.com, iPhone Hacks, Inquirer and BGR. Tweets: @ifixit

Deborah Gage / Wall Street Journal:

Jasper Raises $50M at $1 Billion-Plus Valuation For Internet Of Things — Jasper has raised $50 million in funding at a valuation of more than $1 billion for software that enables objects of all types—autos, baby pajamas, airplane engines and so on—to communicate in what has lately become known as the Internet of Things.

More: VentureBeat, Gigaom, VatorNews, PE Hub Blog, Marketwired and StrictlyVC

Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:

Study: 37% of the roughly 781M games bought on Steam have not been played once — Introducing Steam Gauge: Ars reveals Steam's most popular games — Right now, I can tell you that about 37 percent of the roughly 781 million games registered to various Steam accounts haven't even been loaded a single time.

More: Kotaku, Engadget, destructoid, Computerworld, The Tech Report, Washington Post, GeekWire and TechSpot

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Online Dating Site Zoosk Files For $100M IPO, With $178M In Revenues And A $2.6M Net Loss In 2013 — Online dating site Zoosk just filed its S-1 registration statement with the SEC, announcing its plans to raise $100 million in an initial public offering. The company, which has offers …

More: U.S. Securities …, Forbes, Re/code, PandoDaily, The Technology Chronicles, Business Insider, VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Tweets: @amir

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Google Launches Chrome Remote Desktop On Android, Allowing Mobile Access To Your PC — Google this morning launched a mobile client application called “Chrome Remote Desktop app for Android” (whew!) which allows for remote access to your Mac or PC from your Android device, whether smartphone or tablet.

More: The Next Web, Google Chrome Blog, MobileSyrup.com, Droid Life, Ubergizmo, Android Community, 9to5Google and IntoMobile

Joe Silver / Ars Technica:

Lavabit held in contempt of court for printing crypto key in tiny font [Updated] — A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a contempt of court ruling against Ladar Levison and his now-defunct encrypted e-mail service provider, Lavabit LLC, for hindering the government's investigation …

More: Wired, The Register, ZDNet, Guardian and CNET

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Microsoft Bing rolls out personalized cards, integrated with Cortana, competing with Google Now and Siri — They're not calling it “Bing Now,” but a new service just announced by Microsoft will feel very familiar to some Google users. “Starting today, we are unveiling a set of personalized cards …

More: Search Blog, The Next Web and Engadget. Thanks:@belril

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