Techmeme
July 8, 2014, 9:20 PM

Top News

David Streitfeld / New York Times:
Amazon offers some Hachette authors 100% of ebook sales while dispute is ongoing  —  Amazon Tries to Woo Authors in Hachette Dispute  —  Amazon, awash in negative publicity in its confrontation with Hachette over e-book terms, is seeking to break the standoff by appealing directly to the publisher's authors.
Faryaab S. / SamMobile:
Gear VR, Samsung's virtual reality headset, to launch at IFA 2014 early September  —  Exclusive: Samsung's virtual reality headset will be called Gear VR, launch at IFA 2014  —  A month ago, Engadget exclusively reported on Samsung's upcoming VR device, which is being developed in collaboration with Facebook's Oculus Rift.
Horace Dediu / asymco.com:
As US smartphone penetration crosses 70%, trends suggest iPhone will fare well among late adopters  —  Late late majority  —  Seven years after the iPhone was launched, 70% of the US population is using smartphones.  Smartphones existed before the iPhone so the category is older …
Ben Thompson / stratechery:
Samsung's basic problem: no software-based differentiation, competing on price is not enough  —  Smartphone Truths and Samsung's Inevitable Decline  —  For me, anyway, the most surprising thing about Samsung's disappointing earnings was just how surprised many folks seemed to be.
Se Young Lee / Reuters:
Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:
Bye Google Maps: Apple brings its Maps to the web for Find my iPhone  —  Update: Apple appears to be testing or slowly rolling out the feature as some users report still seeing Google Maps.  Apple Maps are live on the iCloud.com beta site and available for some users on the main iCloud.com site as well.
Ben Popper / The Verge:
Uber agrees to new national policy that will limit surge pricing during emergencies  —  The taxi app falls in line with state laws that consider dynamic pricing during storms to be illegal price gouging  —  Uber is well known for using a dynamic model it calls surge pricing that adjusts the cost of a fare based on supply and demand.
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Russia accuses US of “kidnapping” after arrest of suspected credit card hacker Roman Seleznev  —  Feds Charge Carding Kingpin in Retail Hacks  —  The U.S. Justice Department on Monday announced the arrest of a Russian hacker accused of running a network of online crime shops …
Stan Higgins / CoinDesk:
Mt. Gox CEO to Auction Bitcoins.com, Share Proceeds with Creditors  —  The domain name Bitcoins.com, owned by Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles, is set to be sold off through US-based auction house Heritage Auctions on 24th July.  —  The sale of the domain name is part of Heritage's 2014 Domain …
Jessica E. Lessin / The Information:
Senior Apple Maps app and Mapkit engineer Chris Blumenberg leaves for Uber  —  Apple Maps Engineer Moving to Uber  —  Uber has poached Chris Blumenberg, a senior engineering manager who worked on Apple Maps, according to three people familiar with the move.
David Meyer / Gigaom:
Manything's iOS video monitoring app can now plug into Nest and Hue via IFTTT  —  The British startup Manything now has a channel on IFTTT — the first channel on the plug-web-services-together platform that's devoted to video surveillance.  This means Manything users can connect the service …
More: The Next Web, CNET and iMoreTweets: @thenextweb
Amir Mizroch / Wall Street Journal:
Catalonia Fines Airbnb, Threatens to Block Locals From Using Site  —  MADRID—Tapas, shopping, beaches, the famous Gaudi architecture: Catalonia, and in particular its capital Barcelona, has a lot to entice tourists with.  But a chance to live like a local and rent a room through Airbnb may soon no longer be one of them.

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More News

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Earlier Picks

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