Techmeme: Russian giant Mail.ru launches in the US as My.com, with free email and IM apps subsidized by mobile gaming (Martin Bryant/The Next Web)

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November 20, 2013, 12:25 AM

Top News

Polygon:

Xbox One review: impresses with strong launch titles, succeeds as an entertainment hub — Xbox One: The Review — The Xbox 360 that exists in 2013 bears little resemblance to the console that Microsoft launched in 2005. It's so different, in fact, that it helps to think of the company's …

More: The Verge, Ars Technica, TechCrunch, The Next Web, GeekWire, BBC, Gizmodo, Engadget, The Next Web, Business Insider, Kotaku and CNET

Tweets: @tim_stevens and @dannysullivan

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Xbox One SmartGlass lets you snap apps from your phone or tablet — Microsoft has started rolling out an Xbox One version of its SmartGlass app for Windows Phone. While many of the features, including remote control and SmartGlass companions, are the same as the separate and existing SmartGlass …

More: The Verge, PC World, Computerworld, iMore, Windows Phone Central, AppleInsider, MacRumors, Softpedia News, Electronista, TechNet Blogs, Gotta Be Mobile, IntoMobile, Windows Phone Central and Polygon

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

Bing Previews Its Role In Providing Natural Language Voice Search On Xbox One — When Microsoft's next-generation gaming console, the Xbox One, comes out on Friday, it will arrive with Bing built-in to power a range of searches from games to music to television programs — and searches you can do just by speaking to the Xbox.

More: Search Blog, Xbox Wire, BetaNews, WebProNews, Gigaom, The Next Web, WinBeta and The Verge

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:

The Great Snapchat Mirage — We don't know a single useful number about the hottest company in tech . Why Snapchat may be much smaller than it sounds. — Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images — Every few months, since late 2012, Snapchat has released a new number to the public.

Tweets: @jwherrman, @antderosa, @kashhill, @cwarzel, @percival, @amir, @joshconstine, @besvinick, @clairecm, @jwherrman and @jennydeluxe. Thanks:@mattlynley

Lance Whitney / CNET:

Snapchat says it's delivering over 400M snaps daily while Facebook sees 350M photo uploads daily — Snapchat surpasses Facebook in photo uploads — Snapchat users are snapping past their Facebook counterparts when it comes to uploading photos. — A Snapchat represenative told CNET …

More: TechCrunch, Forbes, Digital Trends, TechSpot, Digits, BGR and Mashable

Tweets: @panzer, @fmanjoo, @fmanjoo, @drew and @evelynrusli

TechCrunch:

Reverse Engineering Snapchat's Size Is Impossible...But Here Goes

Tweets: @mattzeitlin and @jwherrman

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

In final shareholder speech, Ballmer defends Bing and Xbox as key parts of Microsoft — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer just finished speaking at the company's annual shareholder meeting — his final one as the company's leader — and while he didn't directly address calls for the company …

More: The Verge, GeekWire, Forbes, Computerworld, NYT Bits, Digits, VentureBeat and BGR. Thanks:@johnhcook

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

“Caretaker” Mulally as CEO Remains Inside Bet at Microsoft, but Will a Dark Horse Emerge? — If you talk to any high-ranking person inside Microsoft these days, a pretty strong scenario is trumping all others for who will take over from outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer.

More: GeekWire, CNET, BGR, CITEworld and Forbes

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Nokia shareholders approve Microsoft deal

More: Unwired View, Windows Phone Central, AllThingsD, TechCrunch, Mashable, eWeek, Tech Trader Daily, TechHive, Yahoo! News, Ars Technica, My Nokia Blog, PhoneArena, LiveSide.net, ZDNet and Neowin. Tweets: @johndstoll

Brian X. Chen / NYT Bits:

Carriers Reject a ‘Kill Switch’ for Preventing Cellphone Theft — Lawmakers in San Francisco and New York are pushing cellphone makers to adopt a so-called kill switch that would allow users to deactivate their phone remotely, discouraging criminals from stealing phones. But the cellphone carriers are not on board.

More: CBS News, The Register, Gizmodo, Gigaom, PC Magazine, TechnoBuffalo, PhoneArena, Engadget, TechCrunch, Computerworld, The Verge, Global Nerdy, Ubergizmo, Business Insider, AppleInsider and Electronista. Tweets: @rachaelmyrow

Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:

Twitter backtracks and removes option to let users receive direct messages from any follower — Last month, Twitter quietly rolled out a new feature to give users the choice to receive private messages from any of their followers, but that option has now been removed.

More: Electronista, Gigaom, Engadget, TechnoBuffalo, AllTwitter, iDownloadBlog.com, Mashable, Cult of Mac, Softpedia News, TechHive, Yahoo! News, iPhone, CNET and WebProNews. Tweets: @mathewi. See also Mediagazer

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Twitter Gets Experimental — And Not Everyone Loves It

More: TechCrunch

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Sony's PlayStation 4 Costs $381 to Build — Only $18 Under Retail Price — In Teardown — When PlayStation 3 was first released by electronics giant Sony in 2006, it was sold at a loss with the hope of making money back on individual games. — That's pretty close to what Sony is doing again with the PS4 …

More: PC World, Co.Design, Ars Technica, TechSpot, Examiner, GamesIndustry International and GamePolitics blogs

Alex Wagner / Android and Me:

Nexus Wireless Charger now available from Google Play Store for $49.99 — Looking to accessorize that shiny new Nexus 5? Google is happy to oblige. The company just added its official Nexus Wireless Charger to the virtual shelves of the Google Play Store.

More: Nexus - Google+, Pocket-lint, Ubergizmo, Engadget, The Verge, 9to5Google, Softpedia News, Gotta Be Mobile and Phandroid

Dan Seifert / The Verge:

Motorola releases Android 4.4 KitKat update for Verizon Moto X

More: The Official Motorola Blog, Softpedia News, Geek.com, TechCrunch, PC Magazine, PhoneArena, Gotta Be Mobile, 9to5Google, Android Police, Droid Life, CNET, Engadget and The Next Web

Tweets: @llsethj and @nerdtalker

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Music Streaming Startup Rdio Lays Off Staff To 'Improve Cost Structure And Ensure A Scalable Business" — The music streaming business can be tough, with market leaders like Spotify growing like weeds but still loss-making. Today, some bad news from competitor Rdio, the music streaming service startup …

More: Digital Music News, The Verge and Gigaom. Tweets: @pkafka. See also Mediagazer

Peter Delevett / Mercury News:

Changes afoot at DFJ: Tim Draper won't be partner in next fund but denies he's leaving — Venture firm DFJ denies report that co-founders Tim Draper and John Fisher are on the way out — Venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson is denying a report by Fortune Magazine that co-founders Tim Draper …

More: Fortune, Digits and AllThingsD

Tweets: @timdraper and @megan

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

Google releases ‘sneak peek’ of Glass app development kit — Back at SXSW, Google announced the Glass Mirror API — the first step in allowing developers to build apps, or “Glassware” for its wearable computing device. Now, developers will have a whole new set of tools at their disposal: the long-awaited Glass Development Kit (GDK).

More: BGR, VatorNews, Marketing Land, Ars Technica, The Register, TechnoBuffalo, IFTTT, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, Wired, Engadget and Glass Almanac

DoctorBeet:

LG Smart TVs logging USB filenames and viewing info to LG servers — Earlier this month I discovered that my new LG Smart TV was displaying ads on the Smart landing screen. — After some investigation, I found a rather creepy corporate video advertising their data collection practices to potential advertisers.

More: Freedom to Tinker, Ars Technica, The Register, The Verge, HotHardware.com News, Network World and Geek.com. Tweets: @troyhunt

Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:

Wikipedia wants PR firm to stop paid editing services, hints at lawsuit — For months, Wikipedia has been battling a company called “Wiki-PR,” which purportedly sells paid editing services on the well-known online encyclopedia. In October 2013, Wikipedia announced it blocked or banned hundreds of editor accounts in response.

More: Wikimedia blog, CNET, The Next Web, Digits, Daily Dot and WebProNews

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

LinkedIn's New Showcase Pages Allow Companies To Highlight Specific Products And Projects — LinkedIn is announcing a new feature called a Showcase Page that will allow businesses on the professional networking site to target the fans of a specific product or brand.

More: Official LinkedIn Blog, VatorNews, The Next Web, AdExchanger, Talent Blog, ClickZ, ZDNet, Computerworld and WebProNews

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Twitter for Android and iOS get search filters, toggle between top and all tweets, trends and events timeline — Twitter today updated its apps for Android and iOS with a slew of new features, focusing in particular on search and discovery. You can download the new version now directly from Google Play and Apple's App Store.

More: Twitter, Computerworld, TechnoBuffalo, The Verge, iMore, App Advice, iPhone Hacks, Engadget, 9to5Mac and 9to5Google. Tweets: @benedictevans. See also Mediagazer

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

Quora Will Push Its Most Link-Baity Content to BuzzFeed (Though It Would Never Call It That) — On Quora, answers to the question “What are the most surreal places one can ever visit?” are a fantastical mix of caves and mountains and formations and reefs. The page has more than half a million views.

More: The Quora Blog

Martin Bryant / The Next Web:

Russian giant Mail.ru launches in the US as My.com, with free email and IM apps subsidized by mobile gaming — We knew that Russian Internet services giant Mail.ru was planning to launch internationally under the name My.com, and today that drive starts with the US launch of email and IM apps …

More: AllThingsD, PC World, VentureBeat, Rachel Metz, Digital Trends, Forbes, PC Magazine, Bloomberg, RIA Novosti, Salon and Bloomberg

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Flickr can now turn your pictures into keepsakes with one-click photo books — Anyone who wants to print out their photographs has no shortage of options, from spending a few cents at the corner drugstore to building a glossy book using Apple's iPhoto software.

More: Flickr Blog, Yahoo, TechCrunch, ReadWrite, Pocket-lint, The Next Web, WebProNews and Electronista. See also Mediagazer

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