Techmeme
April 16, 2014, 8:45 AM

Top News

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 …
Ina Fried / Re/code:
Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and Carriers Back Anti-Theft Measures for Smartphones  —  With several states and municipalities considering various mandatory “kill-switch” laws for mobile devices, the wireless industry announced a voluntary commitment to include new anti-theft technology on phones starting next year.
Wall Street Journal:
Mt. Gox gives up plan to rebuild under bankruptcy protection, files for liquidation  —  Mt. Gox Files for Liquidation  —  Defunct Bitcoin Exchange Gives Up On Plan to Rebuild  —  Defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has given up its plan to rebuild under bankruptcy protection and has asked …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Building blocks: how Project Ara is reinventing the smartphone  —  A handful of Google engineers and designers are building a phone the DARPA way  —  In a spare, drab office park in Sunnyvale, California, a bunch of two-by-fours and foamboard have been nailed together into a makeshift model of a shipping container.
Jon Gertner / Fast Company:
Inside Google X: lab reveals it experimented with space elevators and hoverboards  —  The Truth About Google X: An Exclusive Look Behind The Secretive Lab's Closed Doors  —  Astro Teller is sharing a story about something bad.  Or maybe it's something good.  At Google X, it's sometimes hard to know the difference.
Reuters:
New CEO Nadella pushes data culture at Microsoft  —  (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp needs a “data culture” to thrive in the new computing environment, according to chief executive Satya Nadella, in his third public appearance in three weeks putting his imprint on the software company.
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Play Still Tops iOS App Store Downloads, And Now Narrowing Revenue Gap, Too  —  Android's position as the most dominant smartphone platform worldwide is also having an impact on mobile app download growth, and now, increasing revenue.  Google's app marketplace, Google Play …
Kara Swisher / Re/code:
Yahoo's Q1 Earnings as Meh as Expected, But China's Alibaba Doing Great!  —  Yahoo pretty much came in on target in the first quarter with what Wall Street had been expecting, earning 38 cents a share on $1.087 billion in revenue.  Minus traffic acquisition costs, that meant a pretty weak one percent increase in revenue.
Erin Griffith / Fortune:
Exclusive: Automattic seeking to raise more than $100 million  —  The round will value the company behind WordPress.com at north of $1 billion.  —  FORTUNE — Automattic, the company that runs blogging platforms WordPress.com and WordPress VIP, is out raising between $100 million and $150 million …
Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:
Netgear adds BitTorrent Sync to its network-attached storage drives  —  Now this is smart: BitTorrent Inc. has teamed up with Netgear to take its P2P-powered Dropbox competitor BitTorrent Sync to the next level.  Owners of a ReadyNAS device can now install apps for Sync directly on that device …
Zach Epstein / BGR:
Amazon's 4.7-inch 720p smartphone to have glasses-free 3D UI, four head-tracking infrared cameras  —  This is Amazon's smartphone  —  BGR gives the world an exclusive first look at the unannounced smartphone Amazon is set to debut in the coming months  —  After years of development …
Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:
Pioneer says CarPlay firmware update for existing 2014 in-dash systems coming this summer  —  Following reports yesterday that car electronics manufacturer Alpine was planning to launch aftermarket CarPlay units in the fall, Pioneer issued a press release today confirming a firmware update for existing in-dash systems.

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More News

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Jack Purcher / Patent Bolt:
Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code: