Techmeme
October 18, 2014, 7:15 PM

Top News

Ina Fried / Re/code:
Android Exec Says Google Will Loosen Reins on Watches, TVs and Cars Over Time  —  Google is taking its versatile Android operating system into new places, like cars and watches and TVs.  As part of that process, it's also severely curtailing the degree to which hardware makers can tinker with the core parts of the software.
Judith Newman / New York Times:
How a 13-year-old autistic boy became best friends with Apple's Siri  —  How Apple's Siri Became One Autistic Boy's B.F.F.  —  Just how bad a mother am I?  I wondered, as I watched my 13-year-old son deep in conversation with Siri.  Gus has autism, and Siri, Apple's “intelligent personal assistant” …
Snapchat:
Snapchat will show one ad in “Recent Updates” of US users this weekend, says it would be “totally rude” to put ads in personal communications  —  Advertising on Snapchat  —  This weekend we're placing an advertisement in “Recent Updates” for Snapchatters in the United States.
Paul Sawers / The Next Web:
Flickr launches its first iPad app, exclusively for iOS 8  —  Flickr finally launches for iPad  —  Good news for Flickr users today - the Yahoo-owned photo-storage and sharing app has finally been optimized for iPad, though it will only work for those running iOS 8.
Liam Spradlin / Android Police:
Google stops taking Nexus Player preorders in US Play Store due to lack of FCC certification  —  Google's Nexus Player Hasn't Passed FCC Certification Yet, ‘Out Of Inventory’ On The US Play Store  —  Today was an extremely exciting day for Android fans.  Besides brand new Lollipop preview images coming …
Kim Zetter / Wired:
Cops Need a Warrant to Grab Your Cell Tower Data, Florida Court Rules  —  Americans may have a Florida drug dealer to thank for expanding our right to privacy.  —  Police departments around the country have been collecting phone metadata from telecoms and using a sophisticated spy tool …
Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
FBI director: Tech companies should be required to make devices wiretap-friendly  —  FBI Director James B. Comey on Thursday called for the law to be changed to require technology companies to provide investigators with a way to gain access to encrypted communications, warning that without reform …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
iFixit Tears Down New Retina iMac, Internal Layout Largely the Same as Prior Generation  —  Though the new iMac with 5K Retina display was just released yesterday, iFixit has already acquired and disassembled one of the new machines, giving us a look at what's underneath the iMac's ultra thin display.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Samsung now offering 11.6-inch Chromebook 2 with Intel Celeron processor, 2GB RAM for $250  —  Samsung's Chromebook 2 can now be purchased with Intel inside for $250  —  When Samsung released its Chromebook 2 earlier this year, it shipped with the company's own Exynos 5 Octa chipset.
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Bose headphones and speakers no longer available from Apple Online Store  —  It was reported last week that Apple would soon stop selling Bose headphones and speakers at its Apple Store locations.  Previously, a variety of Bose headphones and speakers were demoed at each Apple Store location and available for purchase there and online.

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.
Zoho:
The quiet power of email marketing to maximize impact for nonprofits  —  A life changed.  A problem solved.  A community strengthened.  A future made a little better than it was yesterday.For nonprofits, that's the metric.
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.
WebBrain:
WebBrain: an open-source AI agent for your browser  —  Read pages, fill forms and automate tasks in Chrome or Firefox.  Use local models or your preferred AI provider.  Get started free.

Featured Podcasts

Sources:
A quiet investor's $10 billion bet on AI, chips, and defense
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.
Cheeky Pint:
The company building America's uranium supply from scratch
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Grit:
The Difference Between 1% Improvements and 10x Growth | Immad Akhund
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
How a 19-year-old intern built the growth engine behind this $2B AI company | Hector Serrano
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:15 PM ET, October 18, 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

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

Earlier Picks

Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal: