Techmeme: Android users can now say ‘Ok Google’ to send messages via WhatsApp, WeChat, NextPlus, Telegram, and Viber (Emil Protalinski/VentureBeat)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News Contact Editors

July 28, 2015, 1:10 PM

Top News

Roger Cheng / CNET:

Motorola unveils $399 Motorola X Style with Universal LTE in US, $299 Moto X Play globally, and an upgraded, waterproof, and customizable $179 Moto G — Motorola doubles down on Moto X with Style, Play, updates Moto G — The Moto X Style will be known as the Pure Edition in the US, and will be sold directly to consumers.

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Moto G hands-on: Motorola's most popular phone gets a premium upgrade

More: Times of India, Gizmodo, The Verge, BGR, The Hindu, Gotta Be Mobile and EE Times

Dan Seifert / The Verge:

Hands on with Motorola's new Moto X Style: fast 21MP camera, sleek feel despite large 5.7-inch display

More: Engadget, Engadget, 9to5Google, Android Police and Gizmodo

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Moto X Style to be rebranded as Moto X Pure in the US, to be sold unlocked for $399 this fall

Noah Kulwin / Re/code:

Two Weeks After Content Policy Update, Reddit's Head of Community, Jessica Moreno, Has Left the Company — Reddit's head of community, Jessica Moreno, has left the company. She is the fourth senior female employee to exit in less than a month. — Moreno and her husband …

More: CNET, Forbes and Business Insider

Tweets: @mikeisaac and @dhh

See also Mediagazer

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Amazon Takes On Product Hunt, Shopify With Launchpad, An All-In-One Marketing And Sales Portal — Product Hunt has made a splash as a new place for startups to market new products, Shopify offers a way for them to easily start selling their products online, and Shyp takes the pain …

More: VentureBeat, GeekWire, The Verge, CNET, ZDNet, The Next Web, Amazon.com, Consumerist and TWICE

Cam Bunton / 9to5Mac:

T-Mobile adds free Apple Music cellular streaming, offers free next-gen iPhone upgrades to iPhone 6 buyers — Summer for T-Mobile this year has meant announcing a series of promotions and plans dubbed #UncarrierAmped. Today, the company launched the latest, and last of these moves.

More: T-Mobile Newsroom, CNET, The Next Web, MacRumors, GeekWire, The Verge, The Verge, iMore, Gotta Be Mobile and iLounge. Tweets: @apollozac

Bogdan Petrovan / Android Authority:

OnePlus 2 announced: available Aug. 11, starts at $329 before taxes, with 5.5" 1080p display, Snapdragon 810, 13MP f/2.0 rear camera, USB-C, fingerprint sensor — OnePlus 2 officially announced: everything you need to know — OnePlus 2 officially announced: everything you need to know by …

More: ZDNet, 9to5Google, AnandTech, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, CNET, Android Central, Ars Technica, Inquirer, USA Today, International Business Times, Android Police, Android Central, Android Police, Engadget, SlashGear and Fone Arena

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

Hands-on with OnePlus 2: Impressive specs for the price with thoughtful software additions, fingerprint unlock sensor works as advertised — The OnePlus 2 pushes the boundaries of how cheap a flagship phone can be — There are more options than ever for getting a good, cheap smartphone, and last year's OnePlus One was a standout.

More: Android Police, Re/code, Fortune, Pocketnow, Wired, Android Beat, TechNode, Android Authority and 9to5Google

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:

Visa Invests in Stripe at $5 Billion Valuation and Strikes Commercial Deal, Too — Credit card companies think they have found an ally in the increasingly competitive world of online payments. Its name is Stripe. — Visa has inked a commercial agreement with the payments startup …

More: New York Times, GeekWire, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, PE Hub Blog, Fortune, Business Insider, TechCrunch and Silicon Republic

Tweets: @mikeisaac, @collision and @mdudas

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Android users can now say ‘Ok Google’ to send messages via WhatsApp, WeChat, NextPlus, Telegram, and Viber — In April, Google launched custom voice actions on Android, allowing users to control select third-party apps simply by starting with the “Ok Google” command.

More: Inside Search, The Next Web, Android Authority, Android Police, The Verge, SlashGear, PhoneDog.com, KRWG News22, Android Beat and Android Central

Julia Fioretti / Reuters:

German regulator orders Facebook to allow pseudonyms — Facebook may not prevent its users from using fake names, a German privacy watchdog said on Tuesday, in the latest privacy setback for the U.S. company in Europe. — The Hamburg data protection authority, which is responsible …

More: The Next Web

Gus Lubin / techinsider.io:

Business Insider launches new tech site, Tech Insider, with original reporting by 30+ journalists on tech, science, innovation, culture — Welcome to Tech Insider! — There has never been a better time to be alive. — Contrary to what you might have heard, people are healthier, safer, happier, and smarter than ever.

More: Wall Street Journal and VentureBeat. Tweets: @stevekovach. See also Mediagazer

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft to open its New York City flagship store this fall — Microsoft's first New York City flagship retail store will be opening this fall on Fifth Avenue. — Microsoft is going to open its flagship Microsoft Store in New York City on Fifth Avenue this fall.

More: Ubergizmo, Neowin, WebProNews, Microsoft News and Windows Central. Tweets: @gokanozcifci

Mehedi Hassan / Microsoft News:

Microsoft Arrow Launcher for Android currently in private beta, APK leaks online — This is Microsoft's Arrow Launcher for Android (download APK) — Microsoft is currently working on a new Android app, and it's an Android launcher. The company's latest app is Arrow Launcher and it is currently …

More: TIME, The Verge, Geek.com, Engadget, Pocketnow, Neowin, Android Community, TechnoBuffalo, PCWorld, SlashGear and Lifehacker. Thanks:@mehedih_

Samuel Gibbs / Guardian:

Musk, Wozniak and Hawking urge ban on warfare AI and autonomous weapons — More than 1,000 experts and leading robotics researchers sign open letter warning of military artificial intelligence arms race — Over 1,000 high-profile artificial intelligence experts and leading researchers …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:

Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.

Cape:

Most carriers track everything. Cape doesn't. — Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more. Switch today and get 29% off for life.

Zoho:

Introducing Zoho connected apps for Google Gemini — Note: Now available to organizations in the Indian data center. Support for other Zoho data centers will be available soon.AI assistants have gotten remarkably …

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Channels with Peter Kafka:

The Weird, Big Business of Microdramas

Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

Big Technology Podcast:

How AI Should Handle News, Politics, Medicine, and Mental Health — With Campbell Brown

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.

Training Data:

Parallel's Parag Agrawal: Building a New Web for AI Agents

Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.

Subscribe to Training Data.

Invest Like the Best:

Neil Movva - Making AI 10x Cheaper

The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.

Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.

Grit:

Data Centers in Orbit by 2028: Baiju Bhatt on His Plans After Robinhood

Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.

Subscribe to Grit.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:10 PM ET, July 28, 2015.

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.