Techmeme: Facebook Starts Auto-Enhancing Photos Because Algorithms Are Better At Filters Than You (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

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December 17, 2014, 10:10 AM

Top News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Leaked Sony emails show Snapchat acquired QR scanning company Scan for $50M and AddLive for $30M, negotiated with Vevo for music partnership — Snapchat Plans Music Feature, Acquired QR Scan.me For $50M And Vergence Eyeglass Cam For $15M, — Leaked emails from the Sony Pictures hack …

More: Business Insider, Ubergizmo and The Tech Portal

Tweets: @joshconstine, @joshconstine, @jonrussell and @mikeisaac

Business Insider:

Emails from Sony Hack show Snapchat quietly acquired Google-Glass like startup Vergence Labs for $15M in early 2014 — It Looks Like Snapchat Paid $15 Million To Buy A Google Glass-Like Startup — Snapchat secretly acquired a company working on a Google Glass type of product in March …

More: Business Insider, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, VatorNews, The Verge and Gigaom

Tweets: @joshconstine, @ajs and @mikeisaac

Sam Biddle / Valleywag:

Sony hack confirms Snapchat turned down over $3B from Facebook last year, based on emails between Sony Ent. CEO Michael Lynton and Malcolm Gladwell — Confirmed: Snapchat Turned Down More Than $3 Billion Last Year — One of last year's great moments in undeserved ego was Snapchat rejecting billions …

More: Guardian, Business Insider and SiliconANGLE

Tweets: @samfbiddle, @mikeisaac, @om and @ow

Andrew Binstock / Dr. Dobb's:

Dr. Dobb's to stop producing content at year end due to decline in ad revenue despite 10M+ page views this year — Farewell, Dr. Dobb's — This year, our website will deliver almost 10.3 million page views, which is an unprecedented number for Dr. Dobb's. It's up from 9 million last year and 8 million three years ago.

More: The Register and bit-tech.net. Tweets: @pkellner, @markrussinovich, @mattrosoff, @klintron, @jsundmanus, @jhmcintyre, @bodil, @mattrosoff, @thurrott, @mathewi and @marypcbuk

Tim Higgins / Bloomberg:

Apple Stops Online Sales in Russia Over Ruble Fluctuations — Apple Inc. (AAPL) has halted online sales in Russia due to “extreme” ruble fluctuations, the company said. — “Our online store in Russia is currently unavailable while we review pricing,” Alan Hely, a spokesman for the Cupertino …

Ben Thompson / stratechery:

Wearables, Bitcoin, or messaging may underpin the next consumer computing epoch, after the PC, internet, and mobile — The State of Consumer Technology at the End of 2014 — While the modern computing era in many respects began with the IBM System/360 mainframe and further expanded with the minicomputer …

More: AVC. Tweets: @tuckershouse

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Starts Auto-Enhancing Photos Because Algorithms Are Better At Filters Than You — We're not ace photographers, but we all take photos. Most could use a little help with light and shadow. So rather than making you manually filter them, Facebook tells me it will now auto-enhance …

More: SiliconANGLE, TechSpot, WebProNews, DailyTech, App Advice, Ubergizmo, SlashGear, iDownloadBlog.com, Tech2, AllFacebook, The Next Web, Engadget and Gizmodo

Tweets: @stevesi and @christauziet

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

Chinese Search Engine Baidu Confirms Strategic Investment In Uber, May Add Ride Requests — It's official: Chinese Internet giant Baidu has confirmed that it is Uber's latest investor, as TechCrunch reported last week. — The companies did not disclose the amount of the investment.

More: Bloomberg, Uber Blog, Variety, Business Insider, Forbes, Fortune, The Tech Portal, Tech in Asia and Reuters

Reuters:

Uber faces tough rivals, regulatory glare in China

More: VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal and e27

Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:

Launch Center Pro makers debut Group Text+ and Email+ for iOS — Contrast, the makers of the popular iOS automation app Launch Center Pro, released two new apps today that hope to “speed up tedious tasks on iOS.” Group Text+ and Email+ each include features that make texting (iMessage and SMS) …

More: Gotta Be Mobile, Lifehacker, iPhone Hacks, iPhone in Canada Blog, TUAW, O'Grady's PowerPage and iPhone Hacks

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Google Takes Play Music's Songza-Powered Playlists Abroad, First Stop UK — With catalogues of unlimited music on streaming services so extensive these days that we never quite know what to listen to first, playlists have become one of the key ways that music fans use services like Soundcloud.

More: Engadget, Android Authority, Android Central, 9to5Google and The Next Web

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

Twitter And Foursquare Are Partnering To Improve Location In Tweets — Twitter wants to start surfacing information for users that's relevant and interesting, not just timely. And the company believes adding a location layer to its platform could be part of the solution.

More: Marketing Land, Gizmodo, memeburn, Gigaom, The Verge and Engadget. Tweets: @mathewi

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Google Drive gets Gmail attachment support, Google voice search on Android, uploading from other apps on iOS — Google today rolled out new Google Drive features in Gmail, as well as updated Android and iOS apps. Gmail attachment support is live now, while the Android update is rolling out on Google Play …

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

After Google News shutdown, external traffic to Spanish media sites plummets, according to Chartbeat — External traffic to Spanish news sites plummets after Google move — Credit: Flickr / Pavel P — As expected, Google removed all Spanish publishers from its Google News index on Tuesday …

More: The Verge, 9to5Google, Washington Post, Wired, Beyond Search, Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal, WebProNews, Search Engine Land and Guardian

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Brandwatch buys top influencer analytics firm PeerIndex — Brandwatch, the maker of technology for acquiring social intelligence, has purchased PeerIndex, an analytics firm that finds and measures social influencers. — Above: Giles Palmer, CEO of Brandwatch.

More: TechCrunch, Business Insider, The Next Web and Tech.eu

Vikas SN / MediaNama:

OnePlus sales halted in India after Micromax complaint over Cyanogen exclusivity — OnePlus India sales stopped by Delhi HC after Micromax complains — Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus has been stopped from shipping or selling its smartphones in India, just a fortnight after its launch in the country, reports Mint.

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:

Google to close Freebase June 2015, will migrate data and APIs to Wikidata — Google To Close Freebase, Which Helped Feed Its Knowledge Graph — Google is shutting down Freebase, its open source repository of facts that, in part, helps power the Google Knowledge Graph.

More: Freebase - Google+, Search Engine Roundtable, Gigaom and VentureBeat

Billy Steele / Engadget:

Fitbit says Charge skin irritation issues aren't caused by the device's materials — Fitbit says Charge skin issues aren't caused by its materials — Fitbit is no stranger to customer complaints, especially when it comes to skin issues. After dealing with a wave of criticism …

More: Wearable Tech Insider, TechRadar.com and TODAY

Silke Koltrowitz / Reuters:

TAG Heuer enlists partners in smartwatch plan and may make acquisitions — (Reuters) - TAG Heuer is pushing ahead with plans for a smartwatch to more directly compete with the likes of the Apple Watch and may make acquisitions to help drive the strategy, its head said on Tuesday.

More: Quartz, Geeky Gadgets, MacDailyNews, Ubergizmo, iDownloadBlog.com, MobileSyrup.com, Cult of Mac, Patently Apple, iPhone in Canada Blog, Pocket-lint, The Tech Portal and MacRumors. Tweets: @gbrulte

Josh Lowensohn / The Verge:

Jury finds Apple not liable of harming consumers in iTunes DRM case — Apple cleared in potential $1 billion court case — An eight-person jury has decided that Apple is not on the hook for what could have been more than $1 billion in a trial centering on extra security measures …

Issie Lapowsky / Wired:

Shared office space provider WeWork secures $355M investment at $5B valuation — Believe It: Co-Working Space Startup WeWork Is Now Worth $5B — WeWork, the New York City-based startup that rents office space to entrepreneurs across the country, has just raised a $355 million round of funding.

More: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal, WeWork, The Real Deal New York, Red Herring, StrictlyVC, bizjournals, Haaretz and MarketWatch. Tweets: @alex

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