Techmeme: DashCon convention run by Tumblr culture enthusiasts was a disaster this weekend (Gavia Baker-Whitelaw/Daily Dot)

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July 15, 2014, 11:15 AM

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Dina Bass / Bloomberg:

Microsoft likely to announce job cuts this week; may be biggest restructuring in its history — Microsoft Said to Announce Job Cuts as Soon as This Week — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is planning its biggest round of job cuts in five years, as the software maker looks to slim …

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple debuts iTunes Pass in Japan, allows Passbook-based iTunes credit refills at Apple Stores — Apple today has launched an interesting new service for iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore users in Japan with iPhones and iPod touches. The new service, called iTunes Pass (no …

More: AppleInsider, iMore, Gigaom, MacRumors, PC World, Cult of Mac, iLounge, Digital Trends, Electronista, MacDailyNews, MacStories, Engadget, App Advice, Geeky Gadgets, App Advice, iPhone Hacks and The Next Web. Thanks:@markgurman

Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:

USPTO Refuses to Register Apple's “Touch ID” Trademark — Today, the US Patent & Trademark Office published an official letter that was sent to Apple regarding their trademark application for “Touch ID” having been refused by their trademark examiner. Noteworthy is the fact that the letter …

More: 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, MacRumors, iMore, SlashGear, Geeky Gadgets, iPhone Hacks, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Mac Observer, Softpedia News, MacDailyNews, iClarified and TheDomains.com

Stacey Higginbotham / Gigaom:

Nest and Samsung launch Thread, a wireless mesh standard for the smart home — Samsung, ARM, Nest and four other companies have gotten together to build a new radio standard for the smart home. Dubbed Thread, it is a low-power, mesh network protocol that also supports IPv6.

Matt Brian / Engadget:

Novartis to develop Google smart contact lens to track diabetes and correct farsightedness — Google strikes smart contact lens deal to track diabetes and fix farsightedness — With Glass and Android Wear, Google has already invested a lot of time and resources into developing …

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft plans holiday assault on Chromebooks with $199 HP laptop, $249 laptops from Acer and Toshiba — Microsoft launches a price assault on Chromebooks — Microsoft is aiming straight for Google's Chromebooks this holiday season. At the company's partner conference today …

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Microsoft pushes cloud strategy, saying 14% share of total devices calls for a new mindset

More: eWeek, GeekWire, BetaNews, MSDN Blogs, InfoWorld, Softpedia News, WinBeta, WinBeta, CITEworld and ZDNet

Rob Knies / Inside Microsoft Research:

Microsoft to integrate academic data into Bing, hopes to improve Cortana for use in research — Making Cortana the Researcher's Dream Assistant — Cortana, the personal assistant for Windows Phone 8.1, certainly has received plenty of attention since being announced in April.

More: Search Engine Land, VentureBeat, Windows Phone Central, WinBeta, WMPoweruser, Next at Microsoft and MSDN Blogs

Mike Isaac / New York Times:

Data Breaches in New York Hit Record High in 2013, State Attorney General Says — Last year was a record-setting one for the state of New York — and not in a good way. — Public and private institutions in New York experienced more than 900 data breaches in 2013, according to a report released …

More: Tech Times and We Live Security

Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:

Dish Anywhere streaming stays alive, despite Fox's win over Aereo — Appellate court denies Fox's request to impose a preliminary injunction. — A federal appeals court has denied Fox's bid to immediately shut down the Dish Anywhere streaming platform. The United States Court of Appeals …

More: PC Magazine, Gizmodo, Consumerist, Multichannel News, Gigaom, Business Wire and Tech Times

See also Mediagazer

Aldrin Calimlim / App Advice:

PayPal for iOS now lets you carry virtual versions of your loyalty cards — PayPal has just updated its flagship iOS app with a major new feature and a couple of welcome improvements. — In September last year, just ahead of the launch of iOS 7, PayPal for iOS was updated with a new design …

More: 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, Geeky Gadgets, The Next Web and iClarified

Todd Hoff / High Scalability:

Bitly: Lessons Learned Building a Distributed System that Handles 6 Billion Clicks a Month — Have you ever wondered how bitly makes money? A URL shortener can't be that hard to write, right? Sean O'Connor, Lead Application Developer at bitly, answers the how can bitly possibly …

Tweets: @jefclaes and @jewelia

Daniela Hernandez / Wired:

Microsoft says its deep learning project “Adam” is faster than Google Brain in benchmark test — Microsoft Challenges Google's Artificial Brain With ‘Project Adam’ — Microsoft's new artificial intelligence system, Project Adam, can identify images, including photos of a particular breed of dog.

More: Microsoft Research, Next at Microsoft, Daily Dot, ExtremeTech, The Register, Windows Phone Central, Gizmodo, WinBeta and GeekWire. Tweets: @albert_swart

Dan Frommer / Quartz:

The Eric Schmidt email confirming Google's one-hour window to counter Facebook job offers — More fascinating emails continue to trickle out of the Google/Apple/Intel/Adobe wage-conspiracy case in California. In one exchange revealed last week, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt confirmed …

More: 9to5Google, Guardian, Re/code, Softpedia News, CNET and Ars Technica. Tweets: @fromedome

Robin Wauters / Tech.eu:

Seedcamp 2.0: One of Europe's most active seed investment firms raises $30m to scale and help scale — As the tech industry across Europe continues to grow and develop, so is the continent's early-stage investment vehicle par excellence. — Seedcamp, the ‘startup accelerator’ that has been morphing …

More: TechCrunch, Seedcamp, The Next Web and Webrazzi. Tweets: @tech_eu

Orr Hirschauge / Wall Street Journal:

Microsoft in talks to acquire Israeli cybersecurity firm Aorato in deal worth around $200M — Microsoft in Talks to Buy Israeli Cybersecurity Firm Aorato — Deal Said to Be Worth Around $200 Million — Microsoft Corp. is in talks to acquire Israel-based cybersecurity startup Aorato Ltd. …

Tim Culpan / Bloomberg:

HTC Marketing Chief Ho, Engineering Head Liu Said to Quit — HTC Corp. (2498) Chief Marketing Officer Ben Ho and President of Engineering and Operations Fred Liu have resigned from the Taiwanese smartphone maker, according to two people familiar with the matter.

More: The Verge, Engadget, 9to5Google, CNET, Gigaom, Wall Street Journal, Android Authority, Android Beat, Electronista and Android Central

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Snapchat Adds Geofilters For Quick Image Location Tags, And A New Revenue Possibility — Snapchat has added a new feature to its app starting today that will offer special image filters depending on your location. All you need to do to activate them is swipe right from the preview screen …

More: Snapchat, The Verge, 9to5Mac and The Next Web

Gavia Baker-Whitelaw / Daily Dot:

DashCon convention run by Tumblr culture enthusiasts was a disaster this weekend — Over the course of a weekend, DashCon 2014 descended into chaos — It only took a few hours for DashCon 2014 to degenerate into the most catastrophic fan convention in recent memory.

More: Boing Boing, The Beat, CraveOnline, Boise Weekly and Jezebel

Tweets: @dashconchicago, @karaswisher and @heyveronica

Bloomberg:

Japanese messaging app Line applies for IPO on Tokyo Exchange, could value the company at $10B — Line Said to Submit IPO Application to Tokyo Exchange — Line Corp., operator of Japan's most popular mobile messaging service, submitted an application for an initial public offering …

More: VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal, Reuters and The Next Web

Nick Summers / The Next Web:

Google offers first developer boards for its Project Ara modular smartphone — Google hopes to launch its ‘build-it-yourself’ Project Ara smartphone next year and in preparation, the technology giant is accepting applications for its first development boards.

More: Eduardo Ruiz, CNET, BGR, Inquirer, ZDNet, Electronista, Forbes, Android Central, Pocketnow, Engadget, Android Authority, Geeky Gadgets, Pocket-lint and Ubergizmo

Ted Johnson / Variety:

FCC Receives More Than 677,000 Comments on Net Neutrality Proposal — The FCC has collected more than a half million comments on its latest proposal to establish rules of the road for the Internet, with a deadline on Tuesday for weighing in on how or if the agency should adopt regulations …

More: DSLreports, Wall Street Journal and Darren Herman. Tweets: @mattcutts

See also Mediagazer

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

Seattle legalizes Uber, Lyft to operate without caps — Transportation startups like UberX, Lyft, and Sidecar will finally be able to legally operate in Seattle. The City Council today voted 8-1 to approve legislation that provides a new regulatory framework for the San Francisco-based startups …

More: CNET and PandoDaily

Jim Edwards / Business Insider:

Twitter Is Cracking Down On Companies That Provide Stats About Its Users — Twitter has taken the unusual step of shutting off its datapipe to certain companies that have published their own stats on how big Twitter's user base really is, according to two sources.

More: Marketing Land and ITProPortal. Tweets: @mathewi and @qthrul

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