Techmeme
May 1, 2014, 9:50 PM

Top News

The Verge:
Foursquare splitting into two apps: Foursquare for discovery and Swarm for checkins  —  Meet Swarm: Foursquare's ambitious plan to split its app in two  —  To take on Yelp, Foursquare is moving beyond the check-in  —  Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley has spent the last year trying to convince …
Zach Epstein / BGR:
Unmasked: The world's first clear look at Amazon's smartphone  —  Following a series of exclusive reports, BGR has now obtained the first unobscured image of Amazon's debut smartphone  —  Amazon is still more than a month away from unveiling its first own-brand smartphone, but there isn't much mystery that remains.
Ben Gilbert / Engadget:
John Carmack's former employer claims he stole tech for Oculus VR when he left  —  The man who co-created Doom, who co-founded id Tech, and who later left id Tech for Oculus VR, is being accused by his former employer of taking intellectual property with him to Oculus VR.
Eric Johnson / Re/code:
Oculus Allegedly Broke Intellectual Property Agreement, According to ZeniMax  —  Update: A previous version of this story embedded a PDF of the obtained NDA.  That embed has since been removed, at the request of the source who provided it.  —  Game publisher ZeniMax said Thursday morning …
More: The Verge and SlashGear
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
OS X 10.10 emphasis planned for WWDC, iOS 8 features pushed to iOS 8.1, new Apple TV still in the works  —  Apple may be planning to give the next version of the Mac OS X operating system, 10.10, a larger presence than iOS 8 at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference, according to sources with knowledge of the plans.
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Wild Rumor of Apple EarPods with Biometric Sensors Has Roots in Apple's Research  —  A seemingly wild rumor of Apple planning to launch new EarPods headphones with integrated heart rate and blood pressure sensors has been making the rounds today after the claim was posted on anonymous information sharing platform Secret (via Reddit).
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Snapchat adds ephemeral text messaging and live video chats  —  Real talk: the new Snapchat brilliantly mixes video and texting  —  More than just photos, Snapchat's new text and video chat feels immediate and intimate  —  By any measure, Snapchat has had a busy year.
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Microsoft patches IE zero-day flaw, issues special security update for Windows XP despite end of support  —  Microsoft today announced it is releasing an emergency patch for Internet Explorer to fix a zero-day flaw spotted in the wild.  The security hole was found in IE6 through IE11 …
Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:
Uber gears up to launch ‘Uber Family’ service & eyes a new batch of cities (scoop)  —  A source tells us that Uber will soon launch “Uber Family,” a new service that caters to passengers with children.  Only the highest rated Uber drivers will be selected for the new program in New York.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Twitter is experimenting with a mute feature in its mobile apps  —  One of the most-requested features for Twitter's mobile apps may be on the cusp of arriving.  Users of the company's iOS and Android clients are now seeing an option to mute accounts that they follow, preventing another user's tweets …
Liz Gannes / Re/code:
Wikipedia Has a New Boss: Lila Tretikov Named Executive Director of Wikimedia Foundation  —  One of the most important sites on the Internet has a new leader: Lila Tretikov is the new executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia and supports its volunteer corps.
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
MakeSpace, The Dropbox For Physical Storage, Packs Up $8 Million Led By Upfront Ventures  —  NY-based MakeSpace, the Dropbox for physical objects, has today closed an $8 million Series A funding round led by Upfront Ventures, with participation from Founders Fund, OATV, and follow-ons …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
LinkedIn Beats The Street In Q1 On Sales Of $473M, EPS Of $0.38, Raises Outlook  —  Amid a market correction that has seen many tech stocks lose value, LinkedIn, the social network for the working world, today reported Q1 earnings that beat analyst estimates.  Sales came in at $473 million, with EPS of $0.38.

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