Techmeme: Groupon founder Andrew Mason launches Detour, an iPhone app for location-aware walking tours in cities, starting with San Francisco (Jessica Plautz/Mashable)

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February 4, 2015, 5:20 AM

Top News

AppleInsider:

Apple is reportedly testing camera-equipped minivans in the Bay Area, possibly for a Street View-like mapping system — Apple testing mysterious camera-equipped vehicles in the Bay Area — A number of minivans with what appears to be camera equipment and a LiDAR sensor mounted to the roof …

More: CLAYCORD.com, CBS San Francisco, MacRumors, Business Insider, Ubergizmo, SlashGear and 9to5Mac

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:

Twitter is testing a new landing page featuring curated tweets for people without accounts — Another Twitter Update! This One's a New Homepage, Designed to Lure New Users. — Twitter is experimenting with yet another new product tweak — a homepage designed for people who visit Twitter but don't have their own account.

More: Mashable. Tweets: @sacca

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

With an Eye on Wall Street, Twitter Starts Selling Twitter Ads Outside of Twitter

Brian Ries / Mashable:

Obama administration publishes 2016 fiscal budget proposal on Github and Medium — How the White House found a publishing ally in Medium — The White House published President Obama's 2016 fiscal budget on Monday using a medium that's become increasingly popular among its advisors …

More: White House.gov Blog, VentureBeat, GitHub and US News. Thanks:@themadhacker

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Alan Eustace, Google's SVP Of Knowledge, Is Leaving The Company — Another management change is underway at Google: TechCrunch has learned that Alan Eustace, a longtime Google employee and its SVP of Knowledge — and also the current world-record holder for making the highest-altitude free-fall jump — is leaving the company.

More: Bloomberg Business, Business Insider, SlashGear, 9to5Google, Search Engine Land, bizjournals and Re/code. Tweets: @sacca

Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica:

Pono Player review: FLAC does not sound noticeably better than high-quality MP3 audio, poor portability, sluggish touchscreen — Pono Player review: A tall, refreshing drink of snake oil — We give Neil Young's high-res music player a spin and do a few cochlea kegels.

More: Yahoo Tech and MacDailyNews

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Amazon launches Kindle Convert in the US, a $19 Windows app for scanning, turning paper books into e-books — Amazon's Kindle Convert Can Turn Your Paper Library Into E-Books — If you've been hanging on to those paper books because the idea of having to repurchase them all as Kindle titles is daunting …

More: Uncrunched, The eBook Reader Blog, Ubergizmo, Pocketnow, Macworld and Engadget. See also Mediagazer

Jessica Plautz / Mashable:

Groupon founder Andrew Mason launches Detour, an iPhone app for location-aware walking tours in cities, starting with San Francisco — Groupon's ex-CEO launches audio tour app in San Francisco — Audio tours, often associated with museum field trips, are taking to the streets.

More: The Detour Blog, TechCrunch, Wired, Upstart Business Journal, Fast Company, Inc.com, Chicago Business, Business Insider and The Verge

Abhimanyu Ghoshal / The Next Web:

Microsoft launches Picturesque, its second free lock screen replacement app for Android — Microsoft quietly launches a free lock screen replacement app for Android — Things are busy at Microsoft Garage, where the company's employees share experimental projects they've been working on.

More: CNET, Android Police, Android Central, PhoneDog.com, Phandroid, NDTV Gadgets, 9to5Google, Neowin, Android Authority, Engadget, Quartz, Ubergizmo, Gigaom, Business Insider, Lifehacker, VentureBeat and PC World

Brad Sams / Neowin:

Microsoft pushes the open source door a little wider with .NET CoreCLR — Microsoft has been pushing the open source message for many months now, and today the company announced a few updates to this initiative. The Redmond-based company has taken the next step in completely open-sourcing …

More: MSDN Blogs, ZDNet, Channel 9, The Register, SD Times, WinBeta and Phoronix

Paul Bischoff / Tech in Asia:

Alibaba is testing drone delivery in China with a 3-day pilot program — Alibaba is now in the testing phases of delivering packages by drone, according to a post on Taobao's website (h/t 36kr). Bringing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' dream into reality, Alibaba's major online marketplace Taobao …

More: TechCrunch and Gizmodo

Ina Fried / Re/code:

ARM says next-generation A72 chip can triple the performance of today's chips, or match performance while using 75% less power — ARM Says Next-Gen A72 Chip Paves Way for Thinner, More Power-Efficient Phones — ARM, the British company whose chip designs are at the core of nearly …

More: PC World, Ars Technica, The Verge, Reuters, Bloomberg Business, eWeek, Android Authority, CNET, MobileSyrup.com, ZDNet and The Register

Alastair Stevenson / V3.co.uk:

Samsung and Good Technology launch container and secure app ecosystem for Knox platform — Samsung secures Android apps with Good for Knox upgrade — Samsung and Good Technology have launched a joint mobile security suite for enterprise Android users nearly a year after first announcing plans for the service.

More: Samsung Mobile Press, Computer Business Review, Android Authority, Computerworld, SamMobile, Android Central, SamMobile and ZDNet

Larry Dignan / ZDNet:

SAP revamps Business Suite with new UI, HANA analytics — SAP says its Business Suite 4 on HANA has been “reinvented for the digital age.” Adoption of the suite, which includes a new UI, is likely to be critical to SAP's 2020 outlook.

More: Computerworld, Computerworld UK, TechRadar.com, Bloomberg Business, mobileenterprise.edgl.com, TechWeekEurope UK, Benzinga, ChannelBiz UK, iTnews, New York Times, eWeek, The Register, EnterpriseTech, Seeking Alpha and Reuters

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

AT&T previews lawsuit it plans to file against FCC over net neutrality — AT&T says Title II proponents “are only deceiving themselves.” — AT&T seems resigned to the near-certainty that the Federal Communications Commission will reclassify broadband as a common carrier service in order to enforce net neutrality rules.

More: AT&T Public Policy Blog, VentureBeat, ABC News, USA Today, Electronista, Network World, SlashGear and BGR

Carlos Bohórquez Marín / The Yammer Blog:

Microsoft's updated Yammer comes with Android Wear support and Handoff for iOS and Yosemite — Take Your Team To The Next Level With Yammer On Mobile Devices — In recent years, we've all experienced the unprecedented migration of life and work to mobile devices.

More: VentureBeat, WinBeta, Android Police, SlashGear, Android Central and iMore

Joseph Paul / Indianapolis Star:

First-ever staffed Amazon store opens at Purdue University — Last semester, Zach Jordan spent around $400 renting textbooks for his classes at Purdue University. — This semester, the freshman mechanical engineering major decided to rent his books from Amazon and pick them up at the Web giant's …

More: Amazon.com, SlashGear, TechnoBuffalo, The Next Web, TechCrunch, PC Magazine and Engadget. Thanks:@benvblanco

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