Techmeme
August 8, 2014, 9:35 AM

Top News

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.
Reuters:
China refutes claim of government ban on Apple purchases  —  (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) products such as laptops and tablets are not banned from Chinese government procurement lists, according to the country's chief procurement center, refuting a report claiming Apple was blacklisted on national security concerns.
More: iMore and 9to5Mac
Mat Honan / Wired:
Stewart Butterfield set out to build a game and failed; instead, he created Flickr and Slack  —  The Most Fascinating Profile You'll Ever Read About a Guy and His Boring Startup  —  Stewart is hungry.  He's munching on potatoes smothered in chicken fat drippings, sitting by a long metal table …
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: Gizmodo and UbergizmoThanks:@epro
Eric Johnson / Re/code:
Exclusive: Twitter-Mining News App SmartNews Raises $36 Million from Atomico and Gree  —  Japanese newsreading app SmartNews has raised $36 million in new funding, in a round led by growth-stage investment firm Atomico and mobile-social gaming company Gree.  —  The app is available on both iOS …
Tom Dotan / The Information:
Facebook in Talks with Hollywood on ‘Oculus Experiences’  —  The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset's first target market might have been video games—an obvious area of interest for new parent company Facebook.  But it may soon go Hollywood too.  —  In recent weeks, Facebook representatives …
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.
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 …
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.
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 …

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More News

Kashmir Hill / Forbes:

Earlier Picks

Nick Summers / The Next Web:
Alex Knapp / Forbes:
Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: