Techmeme: Apple releases iBooks 3.1 with support for iBookstore in Japan, local content & improvements … (Jordan Kahn/9to5Mac)

March 5, 2013, 6:00 PM

Top News

YouTube to launch music streaming service, take on Spotify — Google planning to roll out service to capitalize on the vast power of YouTube. — By Ryan Bradley and Jessi Hempel — FORTUNE — YouTube, the world's largest digital repository of streaming media, will launch a subscription music service later this year.

Rene Ritchie / iMore:

iPhone 5S planned for August, next iPads may debut as soon as April — iMore has learned that Apple is planning the release of the iPhone 5S for this summer, currently for August. Next generation iPads, presumably the iPad 5 and potentially the iPad mini 2, may also debut as soon as this April.

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Google Is Building A Same-Day Amazon Prime Competitor, “Google Shopping Express” — Google is stealthily preparing to launch an Amazon Prime competitor called “Google Shopping Express.” According to one source the service will be $10 or $15 cheaper than Amazon Prime, so $69 or $64 a year …

More: ReadWrite, PC Magazine, The Technology Chronicles, digitaltrends.com, Marketing Land, Computerworld, VatorNews, Wired, CNET, GeekWire, The Verge, DailyTech, Ars Technica, VentureBeat, 9to5Google, WebProNews, Business Insider and memeburn. Tweets: @dannysullivan

BBC:

Valve readies prototype Steam Box video game console — Gabe Newell is being given Bafta's highest accolade at the 2013 awards — Valve expects to offer prototypes of its upcoming video games console for testing within four months time. — The firm's chief executive Gabe Newell revealed …

More: The Verge, Engadget and Polygon

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft's head of Xbox doesn't see Valve as a competitor, happy with curated apps

More: GeekWire, Joystiq, VG247, Neowin and Electronista

Melanie Lee / Reuters:

Google controls too much of China's smartphone sector: ministry — (Reuters) - Google Inc has too much control over China's smartphone industry via its Android mobile operating system and has discriminated against some local firms, the technology ministry said in a white paper.

More: digitaltrends.com, PC Magazine, SiliconANGLE, AppleInsider, The Verge, CNET, dailywireless.org, Geek.com, Engadget, Datamation.com, Web 2.0 Asia Blog, Tech Trader Daily, Marketing Land, TechCrunch, memeburn, Quartz, Neowin, FOSS Patents and 9to5Google

Mathew J. Schwartz / InformationWeek:

Evernote: We're Adding Two-Factor Authentication — After data breach and wide password reset, Evernote accelerates plans to offer additional security to users. — Start The — Evernote, after suffering a data breach that caused the company to reset passwords for all of its 50 million users …

More: PC Magazine, The Verge, The Next Web, Gizmodo, Pocket-lint, AllThingsD and Engadget

Pew Research Center:

Twitter Reaction to Events Often at Odds with Overall Public Opinion — The reaction on Twitter to major political events and policy decisions often differs a great deal from public opinion as measured by surveys. This is the conclusion of a year-long Pew Research Center study that compared …

More: ReadWrite, Mashable!, TechPresident, SocialTimes, Marketing Pilgrim and GigaOM

Bloomberg:

Verizon Is Said to Seek to Resolve Vodafone Relationship — Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) is working to resolve its relationship with Vodafone Group Plc this year, having weighed options that range from ending its wireless venture with its European ally to a full merger of the two phone companies …

More: VentureBeat, Ars Technica, Engadget, CNET, BGR, The Next Web, The Consumerist, FierceWireless, Tech Trader Daily and The Verge

Gerry Shih / Reuters:

Google services should not require real names: Vint Cerf — (Reuters) - In the face of increasing government-led crackdowns on social media, Google Inc (GOOG.O) should not force Internet users to reveal their real names for some services, including its Google+ social network, said Vint Cerf …

More: The Verge, VentureBeat, PC Magazine, Engadget and 9to5Google

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

Tumblr to Introduce Mobile Advertising to Help Achieve Profit — Tumblr Inc., the six-year-old blog network that months ago began letting advertisers pay for prominent placement, expects to make its first annual profit this year after extending the feature to smartphones.

More: AllThingsD, Business Insider, Los Angeles Times, Betabeat, The Verge, VentureBeat, CNET, Mobile Marketing Watch and Marketing Pilgrim. Thanks:@sarahfrier. See also Mediagazer

Danny Sullivan / Marketing Land:

Google Shares How Often The FBI Sends National Security Letters For User Information — How do you talk about requests for user information that legally, you can't talk about. In the case of National Security Letters that Google receives from the US Federal Bureau Of Investigation …

More: The Official Google Blog, Engadget, Computerworld, BetaNews, The Technology Chronicles, CNET, 9to5Google, The Next Web and WebProNews

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple considered calling iPhone the ‘Telepod’, ‘Mobi’, ‘iPad’, or ‘Tripod’, former Apple ad man reveals — At an event at the University of Arizona's Department of Marketing, former Apple advertising lead Ken Segall has shared some additional details into the naming behind Apple's massively popular smartphone.

Reuters:

Venture capital kingpin Kleiner Perkins acknowledges weak results — (Reuters) - Blue-chip venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers expressed frustration with poor fund performance and promised to do better at gatherings for investors last month, according to people familiar with the discussions.

More: GeekWire and bizjournals. Thanks:@gerryshih

Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:

Picasa Web Albums Redirects to Google+ Photos — After replacing Picasa Web with Google+ Photos in the navigation bar and redirecting individual albums to the Google+ interface, now Google redirects picasaweb.google.com to the albums section of Google+ Photos.

More: Engadget, CNET, The Verge, Gizmodo and TechCrunch

Roger Cheng / CNET:

Why the Galaxy S4 won't be shedding its plastic roots — Samsung will likely stick to a design aesthetic that has worked in the past, despite its rivals opting to use metal and other premium-feeling materials. — As great an all-around smartphone as the Galaxy S III is …

More: TechCrunch, Business Insider, Pocketnow and blog.chron.com

Eric Engleman / Bloomberg:

Google Exception in Obama's Cyber Order Questioned as Unwise Gap — Telecommunications companies want President Barack Obama's administration to rethink a decision that may exempt Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Gmail, Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPhone software and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows from an executive order on cybersecurity.

Tweets: @dannysullivan

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

Google Maps for iOS updated with Google Contacts support, local search categories and more — Google Maps for iOS has been updated with a nice set of new features today, including the ability to sign in with Google Contacts to have your saved addresses at your finger tips.

Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:

With a new Atom chip, Intel's smartphone BFF is ZTE — After years of trying to crack the mobile market there are still relatively few smartphones with the “Intel Inside” branding. Last year was a bit of a breakthrough, however, as Intel silicon powered the Motorola Razr i handset.

More: Business Wire, digitaltrends.com, Geek.com and TechEye

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 with LTE coming to Verizon March 7th for $599.99 — Samsung has taken its time rolling out the Galaxy Note 10.1 — originally announced at last year's Mobile World Congress in February, it didn't launch until August, and its LTE-enabled version has so far only been sold outside the US.

More: The Register, LAPTOP Magazine, IntoMobile, The Full Signal, SlashGear, CNET, Electronista, Droid Life and PC Magazine

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft ViralSearch: tracking and identifying popular web content on Twitter — The concept of viral internet content or memes has been played out for a number of years, but Microsoft thinks it has mastered the solution to tracking exactly how web content gets popular.

More: Engadget, VentureBeat and SiliconANGLE

Alex Williams / TechCrunch:

VMware Exits Collaboration Market With Sale of SlideRocket To Clearslide, A Sales Engagement Platform — VMware is exiting the collaboration market with the sale of SlideRocket to Clearslide, which will use the rich slide creation too to buttress its service that offers sales people presentation capabilities …

More: Computerworld, GigaOM and ZDNet

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

Apple releases iBooks 3.1 with support for iBookstore in Japan, local content & improvements for reading Asian language books — Apple released version 3.1 of iBooks today on the App Store and with it comes hundreds of thousands of Japanese books to the iBookstore in Japan.

More: PC Magazine, AllThingsD, Engadget, GigaOM, TUAW, iLounge, Cult of Mac, The Next Web and iClarified. Thanks:@jordankahn

Sponsor Posts

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Cloud Foundry:

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Rackspace Blog:

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