Techmeme
August 7, 2014, 10:40 PM

Top News

Louis Gray / Google Developers Blog:
Google Fit Preview SDK now available  —  At Google I/O we announced Google Fit: an open platform for developers to more easily build fitness apps.  Today we're making a preview SDK available to developers so that you can start to build.  —  Google Fit provides a single set of APIs for apps …
Joel Stein / Businessweek:
Silicon Valley Tech Entrepreneurs: Behind the Stereotype  —  Sam Altman sits behind his desk with his knees pulled up to his chest, eating dried apricots.  He's 29, but even the most laissez-faire bartender would card him.  His hand is forever grabbing his hair while he thinks, making it stick up in Einsteinian tufts.
Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:
Apple gives newly acquired Beats by Dre dedicated accessories section on online store  —  Following officially getting regulatory approval to complete its purchase of Beats, Apple today added a new section to its online store highlighting Beats by Dr. Dre products.
Reed Hastings / Facebook:
Netflix passed HBO in subscriber revenue last quarter, still behind on profits  —  Minor milestone: last quarter we passed HBO is subscriber revenue ($1.146B vs $1.141B).  They still kick our ass in profits and Emmy's, but we are making progress.  HBO rocks, and we are honored to be in the same league.
Alexandra Alter / New York Times:
Google partners with Barnes & Noble for same-day book deliveries from stores in West LA, SF Bay Area, and Manhattan  —  Google and Barnes & Noble Unite to Take on Amazon  —  Google and Barnes & Noble are joining forces to tackle their mutual rival Amazon, zeroing in on a service …
Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:
Apple details ‘Siri for Mac’ desktop virtual assistant in new patent application  —  While Apple's Siri has been an iOS staple since 2011, the tech has yet to make the jump to OS X. An exhaustive new patent filing, however, details a system very similar to the iOS virtual assistant that can perform dictation …
Paul Carsten / Reuters:
China to force real-name registrations on public accounts of instant messaging apps; blocks KakaoTalk and Line  —  China imposes new restrictions on instant messaging tools: Xinhua  —  (Reuters) - China will force real-name registrations on users of instant messaging tools …
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Facebook bans incentivizing users to Like Pages, gives developers until November 5 to update apps  —  In addition to releasing Graph API version 2.1 today, Facebook also announced two important changes to its Platform Policies under games and proper use.  Developers have 90 days (until November 5, 2014) to comply with the new rules.
More: Facebook Developers.  Thanks:@epro
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
VSCO releases Cam 3.0 for Android, bringing it on par with iPhone app with access to VSCO Grid  —  Android's best photography app now lets you follow your friends  —  VSCO Cam 3.0 for Android gains proper support for the VSCO Grid, performance improvements
Shara Tibken / CNET:
Samsung, Barnes & Noble to hold Nook event Aug. 20  —  The presentation will detail the companies' efforts in tablets, including their first device — the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook — which they discussed in June.  —  Samsung and Barnes & Noble's Nook business sent an invite for an event later this month.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook Buys Secure Server Technology Provider PrivateCore  —  Facebook announced this morning it has acquired PrivateCore, a Palo Alto-based secure server technology company.  The deal does not appear to be solely an acqui-hire, as Facebook says that it plans to deploy PrivateCore's technology …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
SubQ Snap 1.1: the first long-context decision model for real enterprise work  —  Tied for #1 on the AA Decision Index, Snap is a multimodal model with a 384k-token context window for fast reasoning and agentic decisions.
Command Line:
GitHub Universe 2026: Highlights from the developer's developer conference  —  Copilot Fusion was the belle of the ball, but the hero at the heart of the two-day event was the developer community.
Zoho:
Introducing the new Zoho Analytics: Agentic analytics for every business  —  We're excited to announce the launch of the new Zoho Analytics!  This release marks a major shift for the product …
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:
Big Tech's Ugly Week, Getting Rich At Anthropic, AI Costs Plunge
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.
Machine Gods:
OpenAI's Latest Discoveries Spark a Backlash + Help! My Kid Hates AI
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
The Upstarts Podcast:
The Accidental YC Founder Solving AI's GPU Crisis | SF Compute's Evan Conrad
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.
Cheeky Pint:
Why Sam Altman is against a single superintelligence
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Great Chat:
The case for AI optimism
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.
Sources:
Tobi Lütke on the AI agent revolution and future of Shopify
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:40 PM ET, August 7, 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

Alex Knapp / Forbes:
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:

Earlier Picks

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post: