Techmeme
August 8, 2014, 12:45 AM

Top News

Mat Honan / Wired:
Stewart Butterfield set out to build a game and failed; instead, he created Flickr and Slack  —  The Most Fascinating Profile You'll Ever Read About a Guy and His Boring Startup  —  Stewart is hungry.  He's munching on potatoes smothered in chicken fat drippings, sitting by a long metal table …
Louis Gray / Google Developers Blog:
Google Fit Preview SDK now available  —  At Google I/O we announced Google Fit: an open platform for developers to more easily build fitness apps.  Today we're making a preview SDK available to developers so that you can start to build.  —  Google Fit provides a single set of APIs for apps …
Joel Stein / Businessweek:
Silicon Valley Tech Entrepreneurs: Behind the Stereotype  —  Sam Altman sits behind his desk with his knees pulled up to his chest, eating dried apricots.  He's 29, but even the most laissez-faire bartender would card him.  His hand is forever grabbing his hair while he thinks, making it stick up in Einsteinian tufts.
Reed Hastings / Facebook:
Netflix passed HBO in subscriber revenue last quarter, still behind on profits  —  Minor milestone: last quarter we passed HBO is subscriber revenue ($1.146B vs $1.141B).  They still kick our ass in profits and Emmy's, but we are making progress.  HBO rocks, and we are honored to be in the same league.
Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:
Apple details ‘Siri for Mac’ desktop virtual assistant in new patent application  —  While Apple's Siri has been an iOS staple since 2011, the tech has yet to make the jump to OS X. An exhaustive new patent filing, however, details a system very similar to the iOS virtual assistant that can perform dictation …
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
U.S. patent office rejects Apple's autocomplete patent claim Samsung was found to infringe  —  Apple has just given up its thermonuclear ambitions and practically agreed with Google's 2011 statement that “bad software patent litigation is a wasteful war that no one can win”, but even in the U.S. …
Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:
Apple gives newly acquired Beats by Dre dedicated accessories section on online store  —  Following officially getting regulatory approval to complete its purchase of Beats, Apple today added a new section to its online store highlighting Beats by Dr. Dre products.
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Facebook bans incentivizing users to Like Pages, gives developers until November 5 to update apps  —  In addition to releasing Graph API version 2.1 today, Facebook also announced two important changes to its Platform Policies under games and proper use.  Developers have 90 days (until November 5, 2014) to comply with the new rules.
More: Facebook DevelopersThanks:@epro
Paul Carsten / Reuters:
China to force real-name registrations on public accounts of instant messaging apps; blocks KakaoTalk and Line  —  China imposes new restrictions on instant messaging tools: Xinhua  —  (Reuters) - China will force real-name registrations on users of instant messaging tools …
Shara Tibken / CNET:
Samsung, Barnes & Noble to hold Nook event Aug. 20  —  The presentation will detail the companies' efforts in tablets, including their first device — the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook — which they discussed in June.  —  Samsung and Barnes & Noble's Nook business sent an invite for an event later this month.
Sean Sullivan / Washington Post:
GOP posts a petition supporting Uber, wants your contact info  —  Hey, Uber!  Republicans have your back.  —  Like Uber?  So does the Republican National Committee!  —  So much so that it has posted a a petition in support of the app-based ridesharing service on its Web site.
Eric Johnson / Re/code:
Zynga Misses on Revenue, Lowers Full-Year Guidance  —  Zynga is trying to reinvent itself on mobile — but that reinvention will take some more time, the company said today in its Q2 earnings report.  —  The San Francisco-based gaming company reported bookings of $175 million in the quarter …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook Buys Secure Server Technology Provider PrivateCore  —  Facebook announced this morning it has acquired PrivateCore, a Palo Alto-based secure server technology company.  The deal does not appear to be solely an acqui-hire, as Facebook says that it plans to deploy PrivateCore's technology …

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