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2013 Was a Good Year for Chromebooks - John Paczkowski - Mobile - AllThingsD - This according to NPD Group, who said this week that sales of laptops running Google’s Chrome OS accounted for 21 percent of all commercial preconfigured notebook sales through November 2013. I read somewhere that Google shouldn't have more than one OS strategy. And why not? Should Ford make only one model of car?

'Hyperdata,' 'growth hacker,' & other awful buzzwords that will rule in 2014 | VentureBeat | Business | by Christina Farr - Growth hackers are highly proficient at using the latest analytics tools, and most can write a bit of code, at least for the purposes of throwing queries at databases. Your growth hacker just invested a large part of your IT budget in worthless.js. You know, code written by hobbyists that may or may not run in the future.

Can Korea’s new culture of business creativity rival Silicon Valley? | VentureBeat | Entrepreneur | by J. O'Dell - It may be time to say goodbye to a well-trodden cliche. Young entrepreneurs are proving that Korea can do more than copy. The number of tech startups has surged by 80 per cent since 2011. The number of accelerators went from one to more than 50. It's fascinating to watch North and South Korea, side by side, and how important a stable government is to bringing out the creative side of people.

Cyanogen Raises Another $23 Million to Build a More Open Android - Ina Fried - Mobile - AllThingsD - It is “100% compatible with all Android applications, yet brings fabulous new capabilities to Android such as enhanced security, performance, device support, and personalization.” This is super cool. Android has become the hydra that will be impossible to kill.

Google just killed $150M in Android developer payments (and it's a good thing) | VentureBeat | Mobile | by John Koetsier - It may be tough for some developers initially, but ultimately, it’s all good for users, and it’s all good for Android. A better user experience will lead to more usage, and more apps, and more trust. End of spammy.

Apple's 64-bit A7 SoC 'set off panic' for chipmakers - In a report from Dan Lyons' blog HubSpot, an unnamed source at chipmaking giant Qualcomm said Apple's A7 "hit us in the gut," referring to the silicon's support for 64-bit processing. More great pull quotes than you can expect from a single article.

Apple, Inc. stock IPO created 300 millionaires 33 years ago today - By the end of the day, Apple's market capitalization had reached $1.778 billion. Thirty three years later, the company has appreciated by over 15,497 percent, reaching a market cap of more than $504 billion. And in so doing, slowly creating 300 fifteenthousandmillionaires.

The Amazon Kindle Numbers That Jeff Bezos Must Really Care About - Jason Del Rey - News - AllThingsD - First, at a high level, CIRP estimates that 20.5 million Kindles — e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets combined — are currently in use in the U.S., and that 40 percent of Amazon.com’s customers own one of the devices. The Kindle Fire HD is a nice device. At $139, it's a steal.

Apple's iPhone 5s, 5c available on Straight Talk & NET10 starting Friday - Both the iPhone 5s and 5c will be available in a 16-gigabyte configuration for $649 and $549, respectively, a $50 discount from the devices' standard retail pricing. Or, you could get a MacBook Air and use Google Hangouts for all your telephone calling needs.

Mobile OS Wars: Samsung Introduces Tizen - What is Tizen? Tizen is a fully featured operating system developed by Samsung, and it’s designed to run on Samsung Galaxy S4 phones, as well as TVs and other connected devices from the Korean company. Never underestimate the small beginnings of something.