Techmeme: Windows Phone 8.1 Update expands Cortana to new countries, adds “Live” folders on start screen, and more (Joe Belfiore/Windows Phone Blog)

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July 30, 2014, 10:35 AM

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Joe Belfiore / Windows Phone Blog:

Windows Phone 8.1 Update expands Cortana to new countries, adds “Live” folders on start screen, and more — Windows Phone 8.1 Update brings Cortana to new markets + new features — Back in April, you heard me talk about how we believe Windows Phone 8.1 is the world's …

Derrick Harris / Gigaom:

Twitter acquires deep learning startup Madbits — Twitter has acquired Madbits, a deep-learning-based computer vision startup founded by proteges of Facebook AI director Yann LeCun. It's the latest in a spate of deep learning and computer vision acquisitions that also includes Google, Yahoo, Dropbox and Pinterest.

More: Madbits, Guardian, Marketing Land, Computerworld, Beyond Search, The Next Web, TechCrunch, ZDNet, memeburn and WebProNews

Andy Fixmer / Mashable:

Netflix Signs Peering Deal With AT&T to Reduce Buffering — This story has been updated to include a statement from AT&T confirming the peering deal. — Netflix has reached an agreement with AT&T to give its streaming service direct access to AT&T's network, with the goal of reducing buffering …

More: TechHive, Washington Post, Softpedia News, Digital Trends, TechSpot, TechCrunch, Electronista, The Register, SlashGear, Ars Technica, CNET, Reuters, Gizmodo, Gigaom, DSLreports, The Verge, Engadget and Re/code. Thanks:@toddwasserman. See also Mediagazer

Jay Yarow / Business Insider:

Q&A WITH TWITTER CEO DICK COSTOLO: Why Twitter Was Able To Blow Away Expectations This Quarter — Twitter delivered its first boffo earnings report as a public company for the second quarter. — It crushed expectations on revenue, EPS, and most importantly, monthly active users.

Tweets: @andybeal and @bijan

Garett Sloane / Adweek:

Twitter Is Considering Any Change that Will Convert Visitors to Logged-In Users Even filtering tweets

Tweets: @mathewi

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Twitter Q2 user growth: average of 271M MAUs, up 24% year-over-year; 211M mobile MAUs, making up 78% of all active users

More: Inquirer, Softpedia News, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Electronista, ReadWrite, PC World and Guardian. See also Mediagazer

Bloomberg:

Snapchat Said in Funding Talks With Alibaba at $10 Billion Value — Snapchat Inc., the company that makes a mobile application for disappearing photo messages, is in talks with investors including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) for a round of financing that may value the company at $10 billion …

Tweets: @bloombergtv and @nichcarlson

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Instagram launches Bolt, its one-touch photo and video messaging app, in Singapore, South Africa, and New Zealand — Instagram Launches One-Touch Photo And Video Messaging App Bolt Outside The US — Instagram is taking on Snapchat by turning your best friends' faces into the shutter button …

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

Amazon To Invest $2B In Its India Marketplace As Competition With Flipkart Intensifies — Just one day after Flipkart disclosed that it had raised as massive $1 billion round, Amazon has upped the ante by announcing that it will invest $2 billion in its Indian marketplace, which it launched about a year ago.

More: The Next Web, Gigaom, Computerworld, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NextBigWhat, MediaNama and Associated Press

Eric Jackson / Forbes:

After several costly errors by CEO Marissa Mayer, Yahoo could use another activist investor — How Do You Solve A Problem Like Marissa? — [Disclosure: Author was long YHOO at time of writing.] — There's been a sharp response to the post I wrote last Wednesday in Forbes outlining …

Tweets: @mdudas and @forbes. Thanks:@techtipster1

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Is Shutting Down Gifts To Focus On Its Buy Button And Commerce Platform — Facebook wants to help other businesses sell things, so it's done selling its own. Facebook Gifts will shut down on August 12th and stop selling gift cards for businesses like Starbucks and iTunes.

More: Re/code, CNET, ReadWrite, Bloomberg and Engadget. Tweets: @joshconstine

Bloomberg:

Ford switching 3,300 workers from BlackBerry to iPhone this year — Ford Switching Employees to IPhones From BlackBerries — Ford Motor Co. (F) is deploying iPhones for corporate use to employees worldwide, scoring a win for Apple Inc. (AAPL) as it seeks to lure more corporate customers.

More: CNET, TechnoBuffalo, Neowin, Ubergizmo, Digital Trends, The Mac Observer, Electronista, iPhone in Canada Blog, Cult of Mac, ZDNet, AppleInsider, DailyTech, MacRumors, Tech Trader Daily, 9to5Mac, Financial Post, TechCrunch, SlashGear and iMore

Kevin Fitchard / Gigaom:

Virgin Mobile intros a blank-slate smartphone plan you can customize any way you like — Virgin Mobile's new prepaid plan can be anything you want it to be from a bare-bones emergency calling service to a custom unlimited Facebook plan. — Next month, Virgin Mobile USA will offer a new …

More: Wall Street Journal, The Verge, CNET, USA Today, LAPTOP Magazine and Re/code

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Apple's Smartphone Market Share Slips as Huawei, Lenovo Make Gains — Apple's growth in the overall worldwide smartphone market continues to slow as it loses ground to smaller Chinese vendors releasing more affordable devices, even as the smartphone market itself grows substantially.

More: IDC, BetaNews, Marketing Land, Inquirer, The Verge, Tech Trader Daily, Digital Trends, DailyTech, Android Central, Trakin' the india …, Electronista, Bloomberg, The Next Web, Engadget, ZDNet, MobileBurn.com, ABC News, 9to5Mac and AppleInsider

Jonathan Vanian / Gigaom:

AT&T, IBM Research and ACS create faster way to distribute bandwidth in the cloud — The new SDN prototype, developed as part of the U.S. Government's DARPA CORONET program, is basically a powerful resource management system that can coordinate data flow and hand out more bandwidth when needed.

More: rdmag.com, Bloomberg, FedScoop, Light Reading, ZDNet, The Register and eWeek

Roger Cheng / CNET:

Sprint stems customer bleeding in return to Q1 profit — Sprint's core wireless brand and prepaid service continued to lose customers as a result of its network upgrade. — Sprint CEO Dan Hesse speaking at an event in Chicago in June. — Sprint returned to a profit in the fiscal first quarter …

More: Sprint, iMore, Re/code, Phandroid, Reuters, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. Thanks:@rogerwcheng

Shane Harris / Foreign Policy:

Ex-NSA head Keith Alexander says his new company IronNet Cybersecurity invented unique technology to detect hackers, will file at least nine patents — The NSA's Cyber-King Goes Corporate — Here's why Keith Alexander thinks he's worth a million dollars a month. — GOOGLE +

More: Washington Post, Ars Technica, emptywheel, The Verge and VICE

Tweets: @dangillmor, @dbgrady, @ashk4n and @csoghoian

Gautham Nagesh / Wall Street Journal:

Consumers OK with Data Limits on Wireless, But Not Wired Broadband — GAO Finds That Internet Users Were Confused About How Much Data They Use — WASHINGTON—Consumers are OK with caps on how much data they can download on their wireless devices every month, but are much more concerned …

More: Ars Technica, BGR, Re/code, blog.chron.com, Reuters, Broadcasting & Cable, Gigaom, Computerworld and Washington Post

Nick Summers / The Next Web:

Microsoft's OneNote for Mac and iOS apps now let you insert Office docs, reorganize notes, and more — Microsoft wants everyone to use its productivity software, regardless of the hardware or operating system they use most frequently. Today it's catering to Apple enthusiasts …

More: Office Blogs, SlashGear, AppleInsider, Digital Trends, iPhone in Canada Blog, Mashable, PC Magazine, Lifehacker, ZDNet and iMore. Tweets: @fxshaw

Brad Smith / Wall Street Journal:

Microsoft's general counsel on how the government wants the right to access emails stored abroad — We're Fighting the Feds Over Your Email — Governments want the right to see email stored anywhere in the world. Microsoft says not so fast. — On Thursday Microsoft will oppose …

More: emptywheel and Business Insider. Thanks:@techtipster1

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