Techmeme: Don't Diss Cheap Smartphones. They're About to Change Everything (Mat Honan/Wired)

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May 18, 2014, 12:40 PM

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Mat Honan / Wired:

Don't Diss Cheap Smartphones. They're About to Change Everything — We see a lot of phones here at WIRED. Right now, for example, we've got the HTC One M8, Samsung Galaxy S5, Sony Xperia Z2, Nokia Lumia Icon, iPhone 5s and all sorts of other flagship devices.

More: The Verge. Tweets: @sandervdwaal, @jonrussell, @james_gross, @owenscott22, @garrytan, @mparekh and @starfire2258

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:

Moto E review: a solid smartphone for $129, with storage size and camera the biggest drawbacks — Review: Motorola's $129 Moto E is good and cheap (but mostly good) — Motorola's $129 Moto E isn't the cheapest phone there is, but it might be the nicest cheap phone there is.

More: NDTV Gadgets, Forbes, TheStreet.com, PC Magazine, Wall Street Journal, LAPTOP Mag, Business Insider, Phones Review and USA Today. Thanks:@andrewwrites

Dante D'Orazio / The Verge:

Facebook is reportedly building a new Snapchat competitor — Facebook is taking Snapchat very seriously after its failed attempt to purchase the video and picture messaging app for $3 billion last year. Mark Zuckerberg is personally supervising an internal effort to build a competing …

More: Financial Times, iMore, Gizmodo, Engadget, Business Insider, iPhone in Canada Blog, CNET News and Tech News Plus

Derek Kessler / Windows Phone Central:

Updated: WhatsApp removed from Windows Phone Store, will return after fixes — WhatsApp, broken on Windows Phone 8.1 and with no immediate fix promised, has vanished from the Windows Phone Store. Searches for the app on devices running both Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 turn up “We couldn't find a match.

More: Neowin, WinBeta, Softpedia News, Phones Review, PhoneArena and Pocketnow

BuzzFeed:

AT&T Set To Announce DirecTV Acquisition Sunday — “The deal is done.” — AT&T is on track to announce its acquisition of the satellite company DirectTV this Sunday, before markets open Monday and sooner than many observers anticipated, a source familiar with DirecTV's plans told BuzzFeed.

More: CNNMoney.com, Reuters, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, New York Times, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Washington Post, Pulse 2.0, SlashGear, iClarified, Electronista and TechnoBuffalo. Tweets: @stevekovach

Seth Fiegerman / Mashable:

The Slow Evolution of Apple's Online Store — Steve Jobs glanced at the sheet of paper with Apple's future on it and promptly flicked it away onto the table. Then he uttered one of his trademark criticisms to Eddy Cue, the manager who had handed it to him. — “This sucks,” Jobs said.

Tweets: @ifostore, @mashable, @markgurman, @sfiegerman, @timwilsononline, @jillkrasny and @david_perell. Thanks:@sfiegerman

Daily Dot:

Major ISPs and other net neutrality opponents outspend proponents 3:1 in lobbying efforts — These companies spend the most money to kill net neutrality — With the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) decision to move forward with a controversial proposal that threatens net neutrality …

More: Ars Technica, The Register, The Verge and The Technology Chronicles. Thanks:@srikardr

Gabe Friedman / Currency:

The Biggest Filer of Copyright Lawsuits? This Erotica Web Site — In 2006, Colette Pelissier was selling houses in Southern California, and her boyfriend, Brigham Field, was working as a photographer of nude models. Colette wanted to leave the real-estate business, so she convinced her boyfriend to start making adult films.

More: Gizmodo

Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

Google's self-driving cars rely on highly-detailed pre-loaded digital street maps — The Trick That Makes Google's Self-Driving Cars Work — Google is engaging in unprecedented, massive, ongoing data collection to transform intractable problems into solvable chores.

More: Search Engine Land, VentureBeat and Business Insider

Tweets: @gsterling, @michael_saylor, @fdestin and @jasonrobertc

Salvador Rodriguez / Los Angeles Times:

Google looks to prescription eyewear market, partners with LA-area optometrists to demo Glass — Google Glass goes after prescription eyewear market — Google Glass has an image problem. — Since its debut two years ago, the perception of the wraparound eye-level device has devolved …

Thanks:@sal19

Ina Fried / Re/code:

Post-Merger, AT&T Takes Cricket Brand Nationwide With New Devices, Rate Plans and Network Technology — Two months after finalizing its purchase of low-cost brand Cricket, AT&T is relaunching the service as a combination of that brand and AT&T's own prepaid service, Aio Wireless.

More: The Verge, Cricket Wireless, CNET News, iMore and CNET News

Kevin Roose / New York Magazine:

Pinterest's “Promoted Pins” demand a premium as marketers seek to target highly engaged women — Pinterest Is Sneaking Up on Twitter, Facebook, and Google — So why doesn't it get any respect? — As social networks go, Pinterest doesn't get a whole lot of respect.

More: Business Insider and WebProNews. Tweets: @nymag

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