Techmeme
August 4, 2014, 7:15 PM

Top News

Doug Cameron / Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Moves Closer to Formal Rules Barring In-Flight Cellphone Calls  —  Carriers Press for Final Decision to Be Left to Them, Not Transportation Department  —  The U.S. government is getting closer to its final word on whether to allow cellphone calls on airplanes.  And that word appears to be “no.”
Sarah Buhr / TechCrunch:
Square acquires food delivery startup Caviar in reported $90M all stock deal  —  It's Official: Square Acquires Food Delivery Service Caviar  —  Square has acquired curated food delivery service Caviar today, confirming earlier reports that the companies had been in serious talks.
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple hires Angela Ahrendts' confidant & former Nike exec to lead social media efforts  —  Apple is giving its social media department a significant shot in the arm this week.  The Cupertino-based company has hired Musa Tariq, the former social media chief for both Nike and Burberry.
Jim Finkle / Reuters:
IOActive researcher says firmware flaws in communication equipment could leave passenger jets open to attack  —  Hacker says to show passenger jets at risk of cyber attack  —  (Reuters) - Cyber security researcher Ruben Santamarta says he has figured out how to hack the satellite communications equipment …
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Researcher develops proof-of-concept attack that spoofs wireless key fobs to unlock car doors  —  Watch This Wireless Hack Pop a Car's Locks in Minutes  —  Shims and coat hangers are the clumsy tools of last century's car burglars.  Modern-day thieves, if they're as clever as Silvio Cesare …
More: Gizmodo and Daily DotTweets: @stevenlevy and @diggtech
Jim Finkle / Reuters:
Beijing to bar Symantec, Kaspersky anti-virus in procurement: report  —  (Reuters) - China has excluded U.S.-based Symantec Corp (SYMC.O) and Russia's Kaspersky Lab from a list of approved anti-virus software vendors, according to a Chinese media report suggesting Beijing is expanding efforts to limit use of foreign technology.
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
NFL Now app with on-demand highlights and extensive archives coming to Apple TV this month  —  NFL Now app coming to Apple TV this month  —  The NFL will be launching a new NFL Now service later this month, and it will be coming to the Apple TV with a dedicated application …
Abhijeet M. / SamMobile:
4.7" Samsung Galaxy Alpha with 720p display, metal construction, and iPhone-like chamfered edges expected to be announced this month  —  Leaked photos show Samsung Galaxy Alpha in white  —  With the Galaxy Alpha getting closer and closer to an official unveil, quite a few details have leaked about Samsung's upcoming metal-clad phone.
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Instagram starts looking more like Twitter with suggested follows and a curated Explore page  —  Instagram is embracing its inner Twitter  —  With suggested follows, curated content, and perhaps soon trending hashtags, Instagram looks to kick growth into high gear
Eva Dou / Wall Street Journal:
Xiaomi Overtakes Samsung in China Smartphone Market  —  China's “Little Rice” has gotten big.  —  Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker with the diminutive name, became the leading smartphone vendor in China in the second quarter, with its shipments exceeding Samsung 's for the first time …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft rolls out Windows Phone 8.1 update featuring Live Folders and more to developers  —  Microsoft's first Windows Phone 8.1 update is now rolling out  —  Developers get an early look at Live Folders and other new features  —  Microsoft's first update to Windows Phone 8.1 is rolling out to developers today.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Hidden sensors embedded in everyday objects like car seats may be more useful than wearables  —  Sensors And Sensitivity  —  There's only so much practical real estate on the human body for wearables — unless you're willing to revive the over-accessorizing trend of the 1980s.

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.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Pro tips: 5 ways to close WhatsApp leads in Zoho CRM  —  This is a guest post by Orkhan Jafarli, Growth PM at TimelinesAI.More buyers now reach out on WhatsApp before they ever fill out a form.
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.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
What Happens If AI Fails?, Subprime Data Center Crisis, How Bad Can SpaceX Get?
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.
Hard Fork:
OpenAI Models Go Rogue + Kimi K3 Freakout + A.I. Superforecasting
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Scam Held Together With Patriotism and Golden Paint', With Quinn Nelson
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Abridge's Shiv Rao: The Doctor Founder Taking On Microsoft In Healthcare AI
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.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Great Chat:
Too big to laugh: how tech lost its sense of humor
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:15 PM ET, August 4, 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.

More News

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Earlier Picks