For publishers, are messaging (or “chat”) apps emerging as the next great distribution channel? That might be a stretch, but BBC News did just launch an account on instant messaging app Line. “BBC’s Line account is its first international news channel inside a chat app, ‘partly to try and make an assessment of whether there is value in a global news proposition,’” Trushar Barot, apps editor, BBC World Service and Global News, tells Journalism.co.uk.          

Trying to expand its presence in developing markets, Google just released the first Android One-branded smartphones in India. At once budget-priced and “high quality,” according to BBC News, “The handsets provide a minimum set of features determined by Google, which has sourced several of the components to help cut manufacturing costs.” Google also enlisted a local network to bring down the cost of downloading Android updates and apps. 

Marketers had better be preparing their messages for the coming age of the “glance. The quick-hit stream of Twitter or the Facebook News Feed is giving way to a largely agnostic, mostly opt-in ‘notification layer’ on top of the phone screen,” according to Nieman Lab’s Dan Shanoff. “Yet even that notification layer feels larded in the context of the single-most-interesting media-industry detail from [this week’s] Apple presentation: We are about to enter the era of ‘glance journalism.’ ” 

Early indicators suggest that Apple’s golden goose -- i.e., its smartphone business -- is healthier than ever. “Demand for the new iPhones is higher than that seen in either of the past two years,” Re/Code reports, citing comments from AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel. “In particular, Apple and all the major carriers appear to have sold through their preorder allotments of the larger iPhone 6 Plus with all quoting longer ship times for that model.” 

Perhaps opening a new window for advertisers, Microsoft reportedly testing a cloud-based service that would let consumers play Xbox One games right in their Web browsers. Sources tell Neowin that “this is going to be [Microsoft’s] next killer gaming feature.” Lag time has historically made cloud-based gaming a less than seamless experience for users, but Microsoft apparently think it’s got the technology in place to correct this problem. Can ads be far behind? 

Tinder is reportedly seeking additional financing, which would value the mobile dating app somewhere between $750 million and $1 billion. The effort, however, “could still fall through due to complications around ownership structure of the company,” TechCrunch reports. “Silicon Valley investors have been circling the fast-growing, 2-year-old company for a while now, but their ability to invest has been hampered by Tinder’s relationship with Barry Diller’s IAC.” 

In essence, Twitch is one big native advertising platform for gaming brands, says CEO Emmett Shear. “Although [Twitch’s] viewers may not think they’re watching ads, [Shear] said game developers and publishers are warming to the idea of livestreamed games as native advertising,” Re/Code reports. “Those game creators, of course, want to sell more copies of their games, and Twitch is working with them to get better at driving viewers to ‘buy’ links.”

Tinder and parent company IAC have reportedly settled the sexual harassment lawsuit that was obviously weighing on the app maker. A law firm representing Tinder co-founder and former executive Whitney Wolfe tells Buzzfeed that all parties have put the suit in the past. No word on how much the settlement cost Tinder and IAC. “Wolfe’s complaint … alleged Tinder co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Sean Rad and co-founder Justin Mateen subjected Wolfe to ‘horrendously sexist, racist, and otherwise inappropriate comments, emails, and text messages,’ before ultimately firing her.” 

Amazon’s decision to basically giveaway its smartphones (for 99 cents) tells The New York Times a few things. First, the company always planned to make money off the devices by turning them into direct channels to its ecommerce business. “The price cut gets the Fire phone closer to the company’s classic model of giving away hardware in the expectation that users will order enough from Amazon to make it worthwhile,” it writes. Second, the plan isn't working. “The Amazon Fire is threatening to become the Amazon Fizzle.”   

Flipboard just bought Ultravisual -- an app maker that specializes in high-quality photo and video creation and collaboration software for iOS devices. “Ultravisual is often compared to Facebook’s Instagram, with perhaps a little of Tumblr mixed in,” Re/Code reports. Yet, Mike McCue, Flipboard cofounder and CEO said deal was mostly a talent acquisition, according to Re/Code. Flipboard claims about 100 million users, who, to date, have created north of 10 million online magazines using its software.