Techmeme: With Viacom deal, Amazon looks like a real competitor to Netflix (Ryan Lawler/GigaOm)

February 8, 2012, 11:25 AM

Top News

Path uploads your entire iPhone address book to its servers — [Update] — Dave Morin, the CEO of Path has responded in the comments and I've pasted it below. As an aside - never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this to blow up like this. I hope we can keep calm and continue to discuss this sensibly.

Michael Arrington / Uncrunched:

Hey Path, Just Nuke All The Data — The story of the day is definitely about Path (a CrunchFund portfolio company). The company has been copying address book information to their servers without user knowledge. — The company was apparently already aware of the issue and was taking steps …

More: Business Insider, ZDNet, Stay N Alive, App Advice and TechCrunch

Ewan Spence / Social Media:

Path's Privacy Issues and the UK's Data Protection Act

More: MobileSyrup.com and SlashGear

Brad McCarty / The Next Web:

Path's mistake shows a problem with Apple, Facebook...and us

Amazon.com:

Amazon Announces Increased Prime Instant Video Selection for Kindle Fire and Prime Customers via Digital Video License Agreement with Viacom — Prime Instant Video now offers thousands of TV episodes from MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Spike, VH1, BET, CMT and Logo …

More: TechCrunch, 9to5Google, Engadget, mocoNews, Gizmodo, The Next Web and WebProNews. See also Mediagazer

Ryan Lawler / GigaOm:

With Viacom deal, Amazon looks like a real competitor to Netflix — Amazon continues to ramp up the amount of video content it offers for free to its Amazon Prime subscribers. On Wednesday it announced a deal with Viacom that will bring the number of titles available as part …

Josh Davis / LL Social:

Pinterest is quietly generating revenue by modifying user submitted pins. — If you post a pin to Pinterest, and it links to an ecommerce site that happens to have an affiliate program, Pinterest modifies the link to add their own affiliate tracking code. If someone clicks through the picture …

More: The Verge, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Pulse2 and Bits

Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:

Google Screenwise: New Program Pays You To Give Up Privacy & Surf The Web With Chrome — Google is quietly taking requests from web users who want to get paid to surf the web using the Chrome browser while sharing data with Google. The program is called Screenwise and …

More: 9to5Google, eWeek, The Next Web, gHacks Technology News and memeburn. Tweets: @taylorbuley

Michael C. Oldenburg / The Microsoft Office Blog:

OneNote Mobile for Android is now available worldwide — For all of you who've been asking (and patiently waiting) for a version of OneNote for your Android phones, we have great news: OneNote Mobile for Android is now available! Download it from the Android Market app store today!

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

Apple requires iPhone developers to submit Retina screenshots, may herald end of 3GS era — Apple has issued a notification to iOS developers today, informing the that they need to begin submitting screenshots that are Retina resolution or above, that is 960×480 pixel images.

More: Gotta Be Mobile, Macgasm and CNET

Bloomberg:

Google Said to Plan to Assure That It Will License Motorola Patents Fairly — Google Inc., the largest maker of smartphone software, plans to send a letter to standards organizations reassuring them it will license Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. patents on a fair and reasonable basis …

More: Inquirer, SiliconANGLE, InfoWorld, parislemon, fosspatents.blogspot.in, CNET, Electronista and 9to5Google

Janet I. Tu / Seattle Times:

Motorola wants patent royalties from Xbox, Windows 7

More: SlashGear, T3 News, Android Phone Fans and Electronista

Scott Moritz / Bloomberg:

Sprint Reports Wider-Than-Estimated Loss on Costs for Subsidizing IPhone — Sprint Nextel Corp., the third- largest U.S. wireless carrier, reported a wider fourth-quarter loss after demand for Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPhone boosted costs to subsidize the device.

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:

Facebook's Mobile Plan: Carrier Billing, Analytics For Apps Via Bango Deal? — Last week, we highlighted how Facebook is already using mobile devices for commercial services—enabling people to buy Facebook Credits and charge them directly to their mobile bills.

More: All Facebook, FT Tech Hub, The Next Web, FT, StockMarketWire.com and Business Weekly

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

LinkedIn Is Acquiring Contacts Start-Up Rapportive — Rapportive, which makes a browser plugin that overlays Gmail with contextual information about email contacts, is being acquired by LinkedIn, sources said. — LinkedIn declined to comment, while Rapportive CEO Rahul Vohra ducked our attempts to talk to him.

More: TechCrunch, CNET, ReadWriteWeb and VentureBeat

Evan Blass / pocketnow.com:

LG Miracle Windows Phone Revealed (Image) — LG is preparing a mid-range Windows Phone codenamed LG Miracle — it's actually the same handset we saw in the wild back in December; at the time we speculated that it was another rumored WP7 known as the Fantasy.

More: PhoneArena, IntoMobile, Coolsmartphone, LiveSide.net, Pocket-lint, CNET, Phones Review, BGR, Pocketables, Softpedia News, SlashGear and GadgeTell

Kashmir Hill / The Not-So Private Parts:

Max Schrems: The Austrian Thorn In Facebook's Side — Max Schrems, a 24-year-old law student from Austria, has become one of Facebook's most prominent critics — There are likely many things about Facebook that annoy you. Wouldn't it be nice if you could sit down for six hours …

More: Gizmodo

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Apple seeks industry-wide principles for patent licensing in Europe — Apple has asked the telecom standards body responsible for patent licensing across Europe to lay down a set of basic principles to define how companies license patents, according to a letter written in November that has emerged today.

More: The Register, Engadget, CNET, FOSS Patents, Wall Street Journal, 9to5Mac, Macgasm, AppleInsider, Business Insider, iDownloadBlog.com and Electronista

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

Researchers boost processor performance by getting CPU and GPU to collaborate — Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a technique to take advantage of the “fused architecture” emerging on multicore CPUs that puts central processing units and graphics processing units on the same chip.

More: TechEye, NCSU News, ExtremeTech, Softpedia News, Electronista and Gizmag Emerging …

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Exclusive: Nokia Lumia 800 Microsoft Store bundle launching February 14th for $899 — Microsoft will launch Nokia's Lumia 800 device in the US as a special bundle item priced at $899. That's the word from sources close to Microsoft's Lumia launch plans, who have confirmed the bundle …

More: CNET, Engadget, Newlaunches.com, Softpedia News, Tech Shout!, BGR, Phones Review, SlashPhone, The Next Web, PhoneArena and SlashGear

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

Anonymous exposes e-mails of Syrian presidential aides — Hackers aligned with Anonymous have exposed hundreds of e-mail messages from the webmail server of Syria's Ministry of Presidential Affairs, the support ministry for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

More: CNET, SlashGear, In Flex We Trust, Geek.com, Security, TechSpot, WebProNews, Mashable!, Guardian, Computer Business Review, Gizmodo, PC Magazine and Haaretz

Brian Anthony Hernandez / Mashable!:

Lady Gaga's New Social Network Resembles Pinterest, Reddit [PICS] — LittleMonsters.com — Pop megastar Lady Gaga has pierced her powerful, digitally-willing paws deeper into the online world with the closed beta launch of her new social network. — LittleMonsters.com …

More: Betabeat

Sarah Mitroff / VentureBeat:

Extole turns regular customers into brand ambassadors, raises $10M — Nearly every company has a social presence these days, but personal recommendations are often a more powerful way to boost sales. If you've never heard about a company before, but your friend has, you'll likely trust her opinion over that of a complete stranger.

More: MediaPost, VatorNews and TechCrunch

Kevin Krause / Android Phone Fans:

Adobe: Chrome for Android will not get Flash support — When Google today launched Chrome for Android in beta they did so without support for Adobe Flash. For many users this seemed surprising given the strong push for Flash on Google's mobile OS after Steve Jobs and Apple refused to allow Adobe's platform on their iOS devices.

More: Ars Technica, The Register, Adobe AIR and Adobe … and Techland

Zachary Lutz / Engadget:

LG teases Optimus Vu Android smartphone with 5-inch screen, 4:3 aspect ratio (video) — If you're into high strangeness in the mobile realm, you'd be wise to check out the video of the Optimus Vu that LG just posted — just follow the break. While our Korean translation skills aren't quite up to par …

More: TechCrunch, 9to5Google, BGR, The Verge, MobileSyrup.com, Phone Scoop, PhoneArena, Gizmodo, Gotta Be Mobile, IntoMobile, Pocket-lint, Android Phone Fans, Android Community and Phones Review

Jolie O'Dell / VentureBeat:

Mystery music app TastemakerX nails down a $1.8M funding round pre-launch — It hasn't even launched yet, but TastemakerX has already sealed a reasonable deal to lock in funding from Silicon Valley investors. — Now that's what we call rock n' roll. — The social-mobile-music app raised …

More: VatorNews, Tastemaker X, silicontap.com, AllThingsD and TechCrunch

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

European Apple resellers say lack of inventory is putting them out of business — Apple's network of authorized “Premium Resellers” across Europe have complained that they are no longer a priority since Apple began expanding its own retail locations. — The ongoing struggle was profiled …

Enigmax / TorrentFreak:

Elite Anti-Terror Police Went After Megaupload's Kim Dotcom — Even after taking in the details of today's 3Newz report several times, it is harder than ever to comprehend what happened at the Dotcom mansion last month. — We knew that dozens of police swooped on the location in helicopters and we knew they were armed.

Jamie Keene / The Verge:

Vonage Mobile app for Android and iOS promises to undercut Skype's rates by 30 percent — Vonage is gunning for the mobile VoIP market in a big way with its new Vonage Mobile app for iOS and Android, which it says offers calls that are typically 30 percent cheaper than Skype's rates …

More: Android Market, VentureBeat, VatorNews, 9to5Mac, AndroidGuys, TechCrunch, Softpedia News and AllThingsD

Sponsor Posts

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Inside NuGet for C++ — NuGet support for C++ projects in Visual Studio has arrived in NuGet 2.5! It's been around for about a month now so we figured we'd go talk to one of the developers who helped make it happen, Garrett Serack.

Cloud Foundry:

Static.com Adds Hadoop Support for Cloud Foundry — In this guest post, Jake Farrell, CTO for Static.com, explains how the major shift in the hosting industry towards platforms for high developer productivity …

Rackspace Blog:

An Army Is Forming To Battle Patent Trolls — For the past several months, we've exposed the flaws in the patent system and how they're being exploited by opportunistic patent trolls looking to extort a quick buck …

Hortonworks » Blog:

Hadoop, Hadoop, Hurrah! HDP for Windows is Now GA! — Today we are very excited to announce that Hortonworks Data Platform for Windows (HDP for Windows) is now generally available and ready to support the most demanding production workloads.

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“Yammer sucks” — Not to be mean to Yammer, or anything — it's a very good tool for some use cases — but that's what a customer told me recently (and others feel the same way).

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