Techmeme
August 19, 2014, 5:10 PM

Top News

Microsoft Corporation:
Steve Ballmer steps down as board member at Microsoft  —  As I approach the six month mark of my retirement and your appointment as CEO, I have been reflecting on my life, my ongoing ownership of Microsoft stock, and my involvement with the company.  I have reached some conclusions and wanted to share them with you.
Kara Swisher / Re/code:
Uber Hires Top Obama Adviser David Plouffe as New “Campaign Manager”  —  As Re/code had reported in July, Uber has been zeroing in on the hiring of a high-profile “campaign manager” to head its policy and communications strategy and fight what its CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick has called “an a**hole named Taxi.”
Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal:
HTC One With Windows Phone: Another Great Phone You Won't Buy  —  The Best-Designed Android Phone Is Being Released With Windows Phone 8.1  —  Windows Phone smartphones have gotten quite good, so why doesn't anyone buy them?  Personal Tech columnist Joanna Stern tests the HTC One (M8) with Windows Phone 8.1 to find out.
More: TechCrunch.  Tweets: @whatthebit, @mims and @fmanjoo
Dana Wollman / Engadget:
HTC One M8 with Windows Phone launches exclusively on Verizon today at $99 on-contract  —  HTC's One M8 now available with Windows Phone, but only on Verizon  —  In case you've wondered what a flagship Android phone would look like if it ran Windows Phone, it looks like you'll get your chance to find out.
Kara Swisher / Re/code:
Lyft COO Travis VanderZanden leaves after tensions with founders  —  Lyft COO Out After Tensions With Founders  —  According to sources close to the situation, Lyft COO Travis VanderZanden has left his job, after some level of tension with its founders.  —  Sources close to the situation …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Launches Photo Sphere Camera App On iOS  —  Google has just launched a new photo application for iOS users called Photo Sphere Camera, which allows you to take 360-degree photos, then publish them to Google Maps or other social networks.  The app is an expansion of a feature …
Peter Kafka / Re/code:
YouTube Music Key's differentiating feature: user uploaded content, like concert recordings and remixes  —  YouTube Music's Secret Weapon: Music You Can't Get Anywhere Else  —  You Tube has already said, on the record, that it is launching a music subscription service.
Liam Spradlin / Android Police:
Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:
Uber launches on-demand delivery service “Corner Store” in Washington D.C.  —  Uber launches on-demand product deliveries in Washington D.C.  —  Update 6:19 a.m. PT: Uber confirms that the service will launch today.  —  Uber is set to launch an on-demand product delivery service …
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Mailbox for Mac Beta: fast, offers drafts, yet buggy  —  I burned through my inbox with Mailbox for Mac  —  The king is dead, long live the king  —  Email, right guys?  Some love it.  Some hate it.  Some are trying to replace it.  But the fact is, we all use it.
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Square expands its cash advance service for small businesses after deal with Victory Park Capital  —  Square Expands Its Cash Advance Service  —  Square, the e-commerce start-up, announced on Tuesday that it would broaden the scope of its cash advance program through a multimillion-dollar deal …
Jamie Condliffe / Gizmodo:
Project Tango Tablet Teardown: Everything You Need For Handheld 3D  —  Google's Project Tango tablet is an amazing bit of hardware that made us finally realize that computer vision could be useful for regular people, too.  So now that iFixit has ripped one apart, we're pretty excited to see what lurks within it.
Major Nelson / Xbox Wire:
First of its kind reddit experience launching on Xbox One, New MTV app and Twitch update available soon  —  In June we announced more than 45 new entertainment experiences coming to Xbox One and we continue to deliver on that commitment with additions like ReddX, an app that we are confident …
Jackie Dove / The Next Web:
Blurb branches out to low-cost trade books, e-books and mass distribution via Ingram  —  Since its launch in 2006, Blurb, the independent publishing pioneer of print-on-demand artistic tabletop tomes and illustrated magazines, has been popular with the creative community.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
FunPlus Group sells its game subsidiary to Chinese holding company for $960M  —  FunPlus Group, the creator of mobile-social games like Family Farm, has agreed to sell its game subsidiary to publicly traded Zhongji Holding for $960 million.  —  Above: Dan Fiden
Alistair Barr / Wall Street Journal:
Google Is Planning to Offer Accounts to Kids Under 13  —  Google plans to offer accounts to children under 13 years old for the first time, a move that will take the world's largest Internet search provider into a controversial and operationally complex new market.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Verizon tops rivals in new RootMetrics wireless report, but T-Mobile gains in cities  —  Verizon comes out ahead of rivals AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint in nearly every category of performance — including reliability, data speeds and phone calls — in a new study of the U.S. wireless market by RootMetrics.

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Cloudflare:
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Zoho:
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Todd Spangler / Variety: