Eric Johnson

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AllThingsD Week in Review: Nokia’s Android Phone, Bitcoin Funding and Facebook the Newspaper

In case you missed anything, here’s a quick roundup of some of the news that powered AllThingsD this week:

  1. Most people think of Facebook as a place to share photos, keep up with friends and family members, or see and share those funny, viral stories and LOLcat pictures. This is not how Facebook thinks of Facebook.
  2. Is Nokia really working on an Android-based phone, and would Microsoft really go ahead with such a device? The answer to the first one is definitely yes. And, surprisingly, the answer to the second question may be yes, as well.
  3. The saga of Yahoo’s problematic latest Mail product continues: The Yahoo in charge of Mail made some fellow employees a bit upset when he suggested that the company would have to “kick the users hard” in a certain body part to get them to leave. Functionality is returning for many after a recent outage, but up to two weeks of mail may be missing. CEO Marissa Mayer has apologized.
  4. Facebook and Twitter let advertisers turn their (free) posts into (paid) “native ads.” Now Google+ is joining the native ad party, too — but there’s a twist.
  5. The independent videogame Minecraft is a global sensation, but it almost went down a very different path. In an excerpt from a new book about the game, we learn how Minecraft’s original creator, Markus Persson, almost took a job at Valve.
  6. In the run-up to CES 2014, Sony is betting heavily on 4K technology to help reestablish its name as the kind of brand that consumers aspire to buy.
  7. Microsoft’s search for its next CEO is in the home stretch, and the possibility of a dark horse candidate emerging from behind the pack is still out there. After talking to many Microsoft insiders, Kara Swisher’s pick for such a contender is VMware CEO Patrick Gelsinger
  8. Bitcoin startups, your time has come. Andreessen Horowitz has opened the door for funding by leading a $25 million Series B investment in San Francisco-based Coinbase.
  9. Twitter has already been experimenting with accounts that notify you of new people to follow or important breaking news. Now the social media company is using push notifications to alert users to other stuff happening in their feeds.
  10. Amazon still doesn’t say exactly how many Kindles it sells. But a different number dug up by one research firm is much more interesting: Kindle owners spend nearly $500 more per year on Amazon than non-owners.

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Another gadget you don’t really need. Will not work once you get it home. New model out in 4 weeks. Battery life is too short to be of any use.

— From the fact sheet for a fake product entitled Useless Plasticbox 1.2 (an actual empty plastic box) placed in L.A.-area Best Buy stores by an artist called Plastic Jesus