Techmeme: UPS researching its own delivery drones to compete with Amazon's Prime Air (Ben Popper/The Verge)

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December 3, 2013, 6:15 PM

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Ben Popper / The Verge:

UPS researching its own delivery drones to compete with Amazon's Prime Air — Flying parcel-carriers are the next logical frontier for delivery companies — Amazon made headlines Sunday night when it announced it was working on small drones that could someday deliver customers packages in half an hour or less.

More: ABC News, VentureBeat, VatorNews, Examiner, GeekWire, Los Angeles Times, Nextgov, TechCrunch, TechnoBuffalo, Geek.com, Salon, stratechery, Digital Trends, Gotta Be Mobile, Engadget, Quartz, Business Insider, Gizmodo and WebProNews

Tweets: @karlbode, @kevinroose and @samfbiddle

Marcus Wohlsen / Wired:

Amazon's warehouses are currently too far from customers to make same-day drone delivery feasible — Even if the Feds Let Them Fly, Amazon's Delivery Drones Are Still Nonsense — Amazon took over the 24-hour news cycle last night with the unveiling of Prime Air, an aerial drone …

More: BGR, Bloomberg, Network World, AnandTech, Forbes, All Points Blog, Wired.co.uk, CBS San Francisco, USA Today, The Register and PhoneArena. Tweets: @benedictevans

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Google is building Chrome apps support for Android and iOS, beta release coming as soon as January 2014 — Google is working on bringing Chrome packaged apps from the desktop to the mobile world. The company is currently building a toolkit to help developers create Chrome apps for Android and iOS …

More: 9to5Google, 9to5Mac and PhoneArena

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Chrome Beta Gets New Tools For Mobile Development With Better Viewport Emulation, Screencast-Enabled Remote Debugging — With the launch of the latest Chrome beta this morning, Google introduced a number of new tools for mobile developers that should make it a bit easier for them to test their mobile web apps right from the desktop.

More: Chromium Blog, Gigaom, Engadget and The Next Web

Stuart Dredge / Guardian:

Spotify opens up analytics in effort to prove its worth to doubting musicians — Streaming music firm opens Spotify Artists website and claims when it reaches 40m subscribers, even ‘niche indie albums’ will earn $17k a month — Streaming music service Spotify is hoping to win …

More: Spotify for Artists, ReadWrite, Digits, Ars Technica, Salon, Music Ally, SFWeekly, TechSpot, Electronista, PandoDaily, Inquirer, Music Week, Telegraph, The Independent, The Verge, I4U News, Evolver.fm, TechRadar.com, hypebot, Engadget, The Next Web, SiliconBeat, SlashGear, Gigaom, Digital Music News and TechCrunch

Tweets: @bwerde and @tobias_nielsen

Thanks:@stuartdredge. See also Mediagazer

Washington Post:

Officials estimate a third of people enrolled through HealthCare.gov affected by system errors — Health-care enrollment on Web plagued by bugs — The enrollment records for a significant portion of the Americans who have chosen health plans through the online federal insurance marketplace …

More: ABC News, The Week, ThinkProgress, The Wire and PandoDaily

Tweets: @shawnanbcnews, @sarahkliff, @sarahkliff and @washingtonpost

Gautham Nagesh / Wall Street Journal:

The Agency Running HealthCare.gov Mostly Kept to Itself as Warning Signs Grew About the Website

Tweets: @stefaniei

Ken Yeung / The Next Web:

Square acquires Viewfinder so sellers can create ‘personal, human experiences’ for their customers — Square has acquired Viewfinder, a company specializing in helping you “organize, share, and relive memories” with friends and loved ones. The move will see Viewfinder eventually shut …

More: Square Engineering Blog, PC Magazine, VatorNews, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Engadget, CNET, Gigaom, WebProNews and AllThingsD

Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:

Future iPhones may unlock, hide messages based on a user's face — Apple on Tuesday was granted a patent that uses facial recognition technology to control a computing device, like an iPhone, iPad or Mac, allowing for a more secure and productive operating environment. — Source: USPTO

More: TechCrunch, BGR, 9to5Mac, CNET, TechnoBuffalo, Gigaom, MacRumors, SlashGear, VentureBeat, PhoneArena, Redmond Pie, Telegraph, iPhone in Canada Blog, Phones Review, TUAW, bizjournals and MacNN

Dan Seifert / The Verge:

VSCO Cam brings its simple interface and powerful photo-editing tools to Android — Free app gives users yet another way to tweak and share their photos — After an extended beta test period, VSCO Cam for Android is now available to download from the Google Play Store.

More: Engadget, Computerworld, VSCO, Android Community, Gizmodo, Ubergizmo, Droid Life, The Zinx, Softpedia News, The Next Web, Phandroid and SlashGear

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Intel Makes Another Acquisition: Hacker League, A Platform For Hackathons, Is Now A Part Of Mashery — Intel's acquisition spree continues apace, with the latest being made to augment one of its other recent acquisitions. It is buying Hacker League, a popular platform for managing hackathons …

More: PandoDaily, Digits, ZDNet, The Next Web and ProgrammableWeb. Tweets: @swiftalphaone

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Netflix Changes Binge Release Strategy for DreamWorks Turbo Show — When Netflix started its big push into original TV shows this year, it played up its binge-friendly strategy: Each time the streaming service debuted a new show, like “House of Cards”, it released a season's worth of episodes in one day.

More: The Next Web, News Release Archive, CNNMoney.com, Engadget, The Verge and GeekWire

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft's ‘Project Spark’ beta arrives on Windows 8.1, lets you create an Xbox One game — Microsoft is launching a beta version of Project Spark today, its game maker project for Windows 8.1, Xbox 360, and the new Xbox One console. Project Spark is essentially a tool to allow developers …

More: TechCrunch, Tech Trader Daily, TechSpot, CITEworld, WebProNews, WinBeta, TechNewsWorld and Softpedia News

Matthew Green / A Few Thoughts …:

How does the NSA break SSL? — A few weeks ago I wrote a long post about the NSA's ‘BULLRUN’ project to subvert modern encryption standards. I had intended to come back to this at some point, since I didn't have time to discuss the issues in detail. But then things got in the way.

Tweets: @dennisf, @csoghoian and @glynmoody

Kevin C. Tofel / Gigaom:

Motorola apologizes for Moto X Cyber Monday snafus, extends deal — Claiming it wasn't ready for the high volume of orders on discounted Moto X handsets on Monday morning, Motorola apologized later that same evening for the hours of customer frustration. A blog post from Motorola CEO Dennis …

More: The Official Motorola Blog, AllThingsD, Associated Press, Computerworld, PC Magazine, CNET, Droid Life, Unwired View, TechnoBuffalo, iPhone, Pocketables, MobileBurn.com, 9to5Google, Los Angeles Times, Yahoo! News, The Next Web, PhoneNews.com and Android Beat

Rob Wile / Business Insider:

Stockholm-based KnCMiner sells $8 million worth of bitcoin mining hardware in 24 hours — Bitcoin Developer Sells $8 Million Worth Of Hardware In 24 Hours, As Mining Technology Arms Race Goes Insane — Stockholm-based KnCMiner sold $8 million worth of their new $10,000-a-pop bitcoin miners …

More: ReadWrite, Geeky Gadgets and TechSpot

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

E La Carte Scores Deal With Applebee's, Bringing 100,000 Tableside Tablets To All U.S. Locations By Year-End 2014 — Applebee's, the largest casual dining chain in the U.S., has signed a deal with restaurant tablet hardware and software provider E la Carte, which will see it introducing 100 …

More: USA Today, Examiner, Y Combinator Posthaven, TIME, Engadget and Business Insider. Tweets: @scottkirsner

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

Hotfile settles copyright case, agrees to $80 million in damages — Six days before movie studios were set to begin a jury trial over alleged copyright violations by the “cyberlocker” site Hotfile, the case has settled. Hotfile has agreed to pay $80 million and to stop operating …

More: TorrentFreak, Gigaom, The Verge and Variety

Kit Chellel / Bloomberg:

Nokia Gets Ruling Blocking Sales of HTC's One Mini Phone in U.K. — A London judge said HTC Corp. (2498) couldn't sell its One Mini phone in the U.K. from Dec. 6 after it was found to have infringed patents owned by Nokia Oyj. (NOK1V) — While Judge Richard Arnold also ruled that HTC's …

More: FOSS Patents, Engadget, BGR, Pocket-lint, The Next Web, pocketnow.com, Android Central, CNET, BGR, Phandroid, Geeky Gadgets, Inquirer, Pocketables, Android Beat, PhoneArena, Phones Review, Electronista, Gigaom, Softpedia News and WMPoweruser. Tweets: @marypcbuk

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

PayPal launches a digital gift store, featuring Apple as its sole launch partner — A week after adding support for prepaid gift cards, payments giant PayPal has launched its own digital gift store to allow US -based customers to buy gift cards for friends and family using its service.

More: The Official PayPal, Engadget, Electronista, App Advice, iPhone, iDownloadBlog.com, Gotta Be Mobile, 9to5Mac, Geeky Gadgets, Inquirer, MacStories and Softpedia News

Agam Shah / PC World:

HP Slate tablets running Android Jellybean hit the market — Hewlett-Packard's latest Android tablets with multiple screen sizes are available through the company's website. — HP Slate 7 Extreme — The tablets run Android 4.2, code-named Jellybean, and are listed at the company's tablet page.

More: PC Magazine, Ars Technica, Electronista, Gotta Be Mobile, IntoMobile, GadgeTell, Android Community, Android Authority, Digital Trends, Engadget, Android Police, Unwired View and Phandroid

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Firehose Provider DataSift Raises $42M Led By Insight Venture Partners For Global and Non-Social Ambitions — DataSift, a social data platform that provides brands and enterprises with access to content from the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and dozens of other social networks …

More: VatorNews, VentureBeat, Digits, Telegraph, Bloomberg, Gigaom, Tech Europe, CloudAve, PE Hub Blog, Mashable, BetaNews and The VAR Guy. Thanks:@ingridlunden

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Twitter Considered Buying Topsy, Too — Here's Why It Didn't Happen — Apple just spent a bunch of money on social analytics company Topsy. And while everyone seems to have some good guesses on what Apple wants from Topsy, no one seems to know for sure. — But before Apple …

More: GeekWire and Business Insider. Tweets: @mikeisaac

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