Techmeme: NomadPlus Transforms an Apple Charger Into a Portable Battery (Juli Clover/MacRumors)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News Contact Editors

July 31, 2014, 5:15 AM

Top News

Chris Duckett / ZDNet:

Samsung mobile profit down by a third in 2Q 2014 — Summary: A decline in profitability of Samsung's IT and mobile communications division has pulled overall profit for the Korean conglomerate lower. — Chris Duckett — Samsung has announced an overall 15 percent fall in operating profit …

More: Samsung Tomorrow, Engadget, PC World, The Verge, Re/code, Bloomberg, Ars Technica, ABC News, Telegraph, BBC and Electronista. Tweets: @asymco

Min-Jeong Lee / Wall Street Journal:

Samsung VP: two new smartphones coming within six months, one with a “large screen”, the other with “new materials”

Walt Mossberg / Re/code:

Exclusive Interview: Best Buy CEO Says Tablet Sales Are “Crashing,” Hope for PCs — Re/code has landed in Minneapolis to talk to the folks at Best Buy — the last standing nationwide big-box, bricks-and-mortar consumer electronics retailer, with over 1,000 main stores and hundreds of smaller mobile device stores.

More: SlashGear, Ubergizmo, Digital Trends, Electronista, TechSpot, TechnoBuffalo, Good E-Reader, PC World and BGR

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Heads rolling at Beats as Apple eliminating redundant positions, Ian Rogers & Trent Reznor to stay on — As Apple's acquisition of Beats Electronics and Beats Music nears completion this financial quarter, the Cupertino and Santa Monica, California-based companies have begun work …

More: iMore, MacDailyNews, Cult of Mac, VentureBeat, InvestorPlace, TechnoBuffalo, iPhone in Canada Blog, Business Insider, Electronista and App Advice

Tweets: @9to5mac and @monkbent

See also Mediagazer

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Internet.Org's App With Free Access To Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, Local Info Launches In Zambia — 85% of the 5 billion people without Internet simply can't afford data plans. So Facebook's accessibility initiative Internet.org today launches its Android and web app for the developing world …

More: Facebook Newsroom, Re/code, The Verge, Mercury News, BBC, Wall Street Journal, The Next Web, Bloomberg, Wired, Techzim, Emirates 24/7, Webrazzi and Mark Zuckerberg

Tweets: @joshconstine and @thomasbcn

Thanks:@joshconstine

Reuters:

European regulators training sights on Google's mobile software — (Reuters) - European regulators are preparing what could be a stern challenge to Google Inc's (GOOGL.O) (GOOG.O) mobile software business in the coming months after a nearly four-year investigation into the company's Web …

More: TechCrunch, CNET and 9to5Google

Bloomberg:

Snapchat Said in Funding Talks With Alibaba at $10 Billion — 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, people with knowledge of the situation said.

Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:

64-Bit Chrome for Windows, Now in Beta — 2 months after the Dev/Canary channels, the 64-bit version of Chrome for Windows is now available in the beta channel. It's still limited to Windows 7 and Windows 8+ and you obviously need a 64-bit operating system.

More: Google Chrome Releases, 9to5Google, Ubergizmo, Web Browser, PC World and Android Central

Ryan Knutson / Wall Street Journal:

Virgin Mobile intros customizable prepaid smartphone plans with options for unlimited data on certain services like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest — Sprint Will Sell a $12 Wireless Plan that Only Connects to Facebook or Twitter — For about $12, Sprint will soon let subscribers buy …

More: Gigaom, Sprint, Electronista, TechHive, Light Reading, Gizmodo, Mashable, TIME and Gigaom

Tweets: @wolfpuptk, @dannysullivan, @chimeracoder, @wsj, @iansteadman and @qthrul

Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:

1Password debuts extension for third party apps on iOS 8 — The popular password and security management app 1Password has already previewed its iOS 8 extension and Touch ID support for unlocking and accessing its content outside of its iOS app, and today AgileBits has announced …

More: Agile Blog, GitHub, Engadget, The Verge, PC Pro, SyrupCast, Redmond Pie, Macgasm, iMore, App Advice and TechCrunch

Josh Ong / The Next Web:

Google releases the source code for its I/O 2014 app as a template for developers — Google today published the source code for its I/O 2014 app in hopes of teaching developers some of its best practices for Android apps. — While you may have used the I/O 2014 app to plan your schedule at the conference …

More: Android Developers Blog, 9to5Google and Android Central

Carolyn Said / San Francisco Chronicle:

Medical marijuana delivery service Eaze launches in SF, hoping to be the “Uber of pot” — Medical marijuana users link to delivery services with Eaze — Deliveries will be free for patients, with driver fees and Eaze paid by dispensaries in exchange for gaining new business.

More: NDTV Gadgets, SFWeekly, Chinatopix, Betabeat, Business Wire, San Francisco magazine, bizjournals and Mashable. Tweets: @csaid

Agam Shah / PC World:

AMD announces dev kit with 64-bit ARM-based server chips for $2,999; paves way for x86 coexistence — AMD's new 64-bit ARM board points way to x86 coexistence — Advanced Micro Devices is moving closer to a motherboard design that will accept both x86 and ARM chips with the shipment of its first 64-bit ARM board.

More: AMD, Red Hat News & Press Release, Softpedia News, The Register, News & Product Reviews …, Liliputing, The Tech Report and ZDNet

Brooke Crothers / CNET:

DisplayMate: Surface Pro 3 has one of the best, most accurate displays available on any mobile platform and OS — Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 wins plaudits for display, says researcher — Microsoft's newest 12-inch tablet has one of the best displays of any tablet out there, according to DisplayMate Technologies.

More: DisplayMate, PC World, Maximum PC, Ubergizmo, WinBeta, Windows Phone Central, Gizmodo, Forbes, ZDNet and The Fire Hose

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

NomadPlus Transforms an Apple Charger Into a Portable Battery — Nomad, the company behind the pocket-sized NomadKey iPhone cable, today debuted the NomadPlus, a product that transforms an Apple charger into a portable battery pack. — While there are hundreds of different portable battery options …

More: Engadget, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, iPhone in Canada Blog, SlashGear, GadgeTell and Ubergizmo

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Popcorn Time Adds Apple TV Support, iOS App Coming Soon — The Popcorn Time phenomenon is one of the biggest piracy stories of the year thus far. — The software became an instant hit by offering BitTorrent-powered streaming in an easy-to-use Netflix-style interface.

More: Business Insider, BGR, iPhone in Canada Blog, Softpedia News and Cult of Mac. See also Mediagazer

Ryan Whitwam / Android Police:

Samsung's Milk Music Update Adds $3.99 Premium Subscription Option — Samsung pitched Milk Music this spring as a totally free music service exclusive to its devices, but slipped in at the end that it might not be free forever. You can still stream tunes for free without ads …

More: The Verge, Engadget, The Next Web and Android Central

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Yelp Swings To Profitability In Strong Q2 With $88.8M In Revenue, EPS Of $0.04 — Today after the bell Yelp reported its second-quarter financial performance, including revenue of $88.79 million, and a profit of $0.04 per share. The company had net income of $2.7 million in the period, up from a $878,000 loss in the year-ago quarter.

More: Yelp, Marketing Land, Re/code, WebProNews, TheStreet.com, 24/7 Wall St., Tech Trader Daily, Business Insider, ScreenwerkScreenwerk and Fortune

Maria Kiselyova / Reuters:

Russia wants access to Apple and SAP source code to see if their products are used for spying — Russia wants Apple, SAP to cooperate against foreign spying — (Reuters) - Russia has proposed that Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and SAP (SAPG.DE) hand the government access to their source code …

More: Neowin, The Moscow Times, AppleInsider, Redmond Pie, Softpedia News, Engadget, DailyTech, ITAR-TASS and iLounge

Sam Gustin / Motherboard:

FCC Chairman: Verizon Uses a ‘Disturbing’ Loophole to Throttle Unlimited Data — Federal Communication Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is “deeply troubled” about Verizon Wireless's recently-announced plan to begin slowing down data speeds for some customers, he wrote in a strongly-worded letter to the company's CEO on Wednesday.

More: Verizon Wireless, Re/code, Ars Technica, Mashable, AppleInsider, Associated Press, The Verge, Tech Times, MediaPost, Consumerist, MacRumors, Washington Post, Droid Life, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, PhoneDog, 9to5Mac, TechHive, TechnoBuffalo and WebProNews

Tweets: @dannysullivan and @howardlindzon

Thanks:@samgustin

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Interim No More: Rob Glaser Named Permanent CEO of RealNetworks — Rob Glaser, who founded RealNetworks in 1994 and served as its CEO until 2010, has been named permanent CEO of the Seattle-based digital media company. He has been interim CEO for the last two years, trying to turn around RealNetworks …

More: GeekWire and FierceOnlineVideo News

Diane Bartz / Reuters:

Senate report claims unauthorized wireless cramming charges cost consumers hundreds of millions — U.S. cellphone users frequent victims of ‘cramming’: Senate study — (Reuters) - U.S. mobile phone users have likely paid hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized charges “crammed” …

More: The Verge, CNET, Broadcasting & Cable, Slate, Businessweek, Computerworld, The Hill, Roll Call and Washington Post

Mike Futter / Game Informer:

Sony: EA Access Doesn't ‘Represent Good Value To The PlayStation Gamer’ — Following EA's announcement of the company's new subscription program, Access, we were curious about it being tied only to Xbox One. We reached out to Sony for clarification, and it seems like PlayStation 4 owners shouldn't hold their breath for the program.

More: BGR, Engadget, Consumerist, VG247, TechSpot, Tech Times, Electronista, Forbes, Polygon, Eurogamer.net, Ars Technica, Digital Trends, WinBeta, PC Magazine, Softpedia News, Kotaku, ExtremeTech, Pocket-lint and DailyTech

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:

Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.

Zoho:

What's new in Zoho Tables with Apple's latest OS updates — Your work shouldn't slow you down when you're on the move.With our latest updates for iOS 27, we're bringing more of Apple Intelligence …

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Soxton:

Fast, affordable law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Sources:

OpenAI's Dots lead on the future of ChatGPT

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.

Great Chat:

What does the tech industry owe San Francisco?

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Uncapped with Jack Altman:

David George from a16z

Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.

Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.

Big Technology Podcast:

SAP CEO: AI Won't Kill Software, But It Will Change Your Job — With Christian Klein

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.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

David Ellison's Paramount-Warner Empire & The Fight That Comes Next

Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

Invest Like the Best:

Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent

The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.

Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:15 AM ET, July 31, 2014.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.