Techmeme
May 1, 2014, 9:25 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
AT&T considering acquisition of DirectTV, in deal likely worth at least $40B  —  AT&T Has Approached DirecTV About Possible Acquisition  —  AT&T has approached DirecTV about a possible acquisition of the satellite TV firm, say people familiar with the situation, the latest sign of a possible shakeup in the television industry.
Facebook:
Facebook announces Anonymous Login for third-party apps, granular privacy controls for normal Login  —  f8: Introducing Anonymous Login and an Updated Facebook Login  —  Today at f8, we announced Anonymous Login, a brand new way to log into apps without sharing any personal information from Facebook …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Alex Sherman / Bloomberg:
Sprint Said to Plan T-Mobile Bid After Pushing for Funding  —  Sprint Corp. (S) plans to push forward with a bid for T-Mobile US Inc. after meeting with banks this month to make debt arrangements for that offer, people with knowledge of the situation said.  —  Sprint Chief Financial Officer …
Alistair Barr / Wall Street Journal:
Preliminary analysis of Google Glass teardown estimates cost of components less than $80  —  Google Glass Parts Estimated to Cost Less Than $80  —  Google Glass currently carries a $1,500 price tag, but the components packed tightly inside the device may cost the Internet giant a lot less …
Mark Hachman / PC World:
Windows 8 gains natural-language Smart Search, with hints that Cortana could follow  —  Microsoft said Wednesday that it has added natural-language search to its internal Windows 8 Smart Search.  Users can write out queries as sentences or thoughts, rather than try to puzzle out the correct search term.
Andrew Grush / Android Authority:
Google Search 3.4 updated, Parking Location detects where you've parked your car  —  Google Search now knows where you parked, might sound cooler than it really is  —  Earlier today, Google kicked off Update Wednesday by bringing separate apps for Docs, Sheets and Slides to the Google Play store.
Wall Street Journal:
Box Inc. delays IPO plans amid drop in cloud company stocks  —  Online-storage startup Box is delaying its plans for an initial public offering after a sudden weakening in demand for technology stocks.
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Qualcomm spins off Gimbal Bluetooth beacon business  —  Qualcomm has spun off Gimbal, its location-based services system compatible with Apple's iBeacon, into a standalone company, offering retailers, entertainment venues, and businesses proximity-sensing and geofencing.
More: Reuters and Gigaom.  Thanks:@c_davies
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Snapchat adds ephemeral text messaging and live video chats  —  Real talk: the new Snapchat makes texting fun again  —  More than just photos, Snapchat's new text and video chat feels immediate and intimate  —  By any measure, Snapchat has had a busy year.
Kim Zetter / Wired:
Hackers Can Mess With Traffic Lights to Jam Roads and Reroute Cars  —  The hacker in the Italian Job did it spectacularly.  So did the fire sale team in Live Free or Die Hard.  But can hackers really hijack traffic lights to cause gridlock and redirect cars?
Darren Nix / 42floors:
LinkedIn truncates profiles, pitches upgrades to logged-in visitors, effectively punishing users who register  —  The absurdity of LinkedIn  —  This morning I had a call with someone I hadn't met so I Googled their name and, inevitably, clicked through to their LinkedIn profile.
Tweets: @aaronwall.  Thanks:@jasonfreedman
Andrew Nusca / Fortune:
Avisio raises $8M Series A, aims to use data analytics to better predict quarterly revenue  —  With data analytics, Aviso aims to better predict quarterly revenue  —  With $8 million in funding and the support of prominent enterprise technologists, Aviso seeks to bring intelligence to revenue management.

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Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:
The Accidental YC Founder Solving AI's GPU Crisis | SF Compute's Evan Conrad
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
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Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Benchmark Breakfast #1 | Jack and Ev
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
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Cheeky Pint:
Why Sam Altman is against a single superintelligence
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
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Great Chat:
The case for AI optimism
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Sources:
Tobi Lütke on the AI agent revolution and future of Shopify
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Big Technology Podcast:
This AI Expert Argues We're Underestimating AI's Productivity Impact — With Ethan Mollick
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
 

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Earlier Picks

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Alistair Barr / Wall Street Journal: