Techmeme
July 2, 2014, 8:55 AM

Top News

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Google acquires music streaming service Songza for undisclosed amount, will keep product intact for now  —  Google Buys Songza  —  Google has acquired music streaming service Songza after weeks of speculation around a potential buyout.  —  Songza uses information about the user and context …
Ben Sisario / New York Times:
Source: Google paid more than $39M for Songza  —  Google Buys Songza, a Playlist Service for Any Occasion  —  In a sign of growing consolidation in the digital music business, Google announced on Tuesday that it had bought Songza, a three-year-old app that competes with Pandora and others …
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
BlaBlaCar Raises A Massive $100 Million Round To Create A Global Long Distance Ride-Sharing Network  —  In what is the largest VC round in a French startup of all time, BlaBlaCar just raised a $100 million round led by Index Ventures, with existing investors Accel Partners, ISAI and Lead Edge Capital also participating in the round.
Husain Sumra / MacRumors:
Apple Launches $49 Mac Pro Security Lock Adapter in Online Store  —  Apple today launched a new $49 Mac Pro Security Lock Adapter in its online store, offering users of the new Mac Pro a way to easily secure their machines using existing Kensington locks.  Previously, users had to resort …
Cindy Cohn / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Flawed Oversight Board Report Endorses General Warrants  —  The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) issued a legally flawed and factually incomplete report late Tuesday that endorses Section 702 surveillance.  Hiding behind the “complexity” of the technology …
More: InquirerTweets: @matt_cagle
Ian Austen / New York Times:
Canadian antispam law goes into effect, resulting in a flurry of ‘please opt in’ emails  —  Canadian Antispam Law Whips Up a Storm of Last-Minute Messages  —  OTTAWA — The email has all the markings of malicious spam: an overwrought subject line screaming “Urgent Action Required …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
An Upper Limit For Apps?  New Data Suggests Consumers Only Use Around Two Dozen Apps Per Month  —  There are now well over a million mobile applications in both Google Play and the iTunes App Store alike, and growth of those app marketplaces shows no sign of slowing down.
More: 9to5Mac and TIME
Amy Schatz / Re/code:
FTC says T-Mobile made hundreds of millions on crammed text message charges; T-Mobile says accusations are “unfounded and without merit”  —  FTC Alleges T-Mobile Made Millions From Allegedly Bogus Text Message Charges  —  T-Mobile made hundreds of millions of dollars …
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
Former Time editor-at-large Harry McCracken joins Fast Company as technology editor  —  Hey, I'm Joining Fast Company!  —  Just over a month ago, I resigned from my job at TIME and rebooted this website.  I wrote at the time that I didn't expect to do Technologizer full-time indefinitely …
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Developer preview test for Android L's Project Volta shows promise, 2 hours or 35% more battery life on Nexus 5  —  Examining Project Volta: We put Android L through our battery test  —  For each Android release, Google likes to have a “Project” that picks an area of weakness and focuses on tuning the whole OS to fix it.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
VAIO computers return after Sony sells the brand  —  The new VAIO Corporation is here  —  The iconic VAIO PC brand has been resurrected today, following Sony's sale of the struggling business to investment fund Japan Industrial Partners.  At the time, Sony said it planned to concentrate …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Dropbox Buys E-Commerce A/B Testing Service Predictive Edge, Shuts It Down  —  Dropbox has made another acquisition: Predictive Edge, a company that had built a way to personalise e-commerce offerings, along with dynamic pricing, for marketers to send out to users and run A/B tests around them.
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Custom Analytics Startup Keen IO Raises $11.3M Round From Sequoia And Others  —  Keen IO, a startup that helps developers build their own analytics products, is announcing that it has raised $11.3 million in Series A funding.  —  Co-founder and CEO Kyle Wild told me that when the company started talking …
Nellie Bowles / Re/code:
Hinge, a Transparent Dating App, Raises $4.5 Million  —  Hinge, a transparent, totally not anonymous dating app (you use your full name, and it pulls photos from Facebook), just received $4.5 million in venture funding from Founders Fund, Lowercase Capital and others.
Kevin C. Tofel / Gigaom:
Lumia 635 with LTE comes to US through T-Mobile, Metro PCS for as little as $99  —  Microsoft's newest Lumia smartphone with LTE arrives in the U.S. later this month.  The Lumia 635 can be had from T-Mobile for zero down and $7 a month while MetroPCS customers get special promotional pricing of $99 for the Windows Phone 8.1 handset.

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Earlier Picks

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:
Richard Padilla / MacRumors:
Mike Kaplinskiy / Vine blog:
Matt Thomlinson / TechNet Blogs: