Techmeme: Nest and Samsung launch Thread, a wireless mesh standard for the smart home (Stacey Higginbotham/Gigaom)

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July 15, 2014, 2:15 PM

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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, CNET, iMore, MacRumors, Gigaom, iPhone in Canada Blog, Redmond Pie, iLounge, Engadget, App Advice, Cult of Mac, Geeky Gadgets, MacDailyNews, App Advice, iPhone Hacks, Digital Trends, The Next Web, Electronista and MacStories. Thanks:@markgurman

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.

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft won't let you set Google as default search on some new Lumias — Microsoft has disabled an option to set Google as the default search engine on some of its latest Lumia Windows Phones. The option is currently supported on the majority of Nokia's Lumia devices …

More: 9to5Google, TechCrunch, CNET, Engadget, Geek.com, SlashGear, Softpedia News, Windows Phone Central, BetaNews, Ubergizmo, WMPoweruser, Gizmodo, WinBeta and Geeky Gadgets

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

FCC's awful website crashes on last day for initial net neutrality comments — If you can get the FCC comment site to work, this is what it looks like. — Today is the last day to file initial comments on the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality proposal …

More: PC World, DSLreports, Techdirt and TechCrunch

Ted Johnson / Variety:

FCC Receives More Than 677,000 Comments on Net Neutrality Proposal

More: DSLreports and Wall Street Journal

Tweets: @eshap and @mattcutts

See also Mediagazer

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 …

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

Google reveals Project Zero, a security team to find and report serious flaws in any software — Meet ‘Project Zero,’ Google's Secret Team of Bug-Hunting Hackers — Hacking wunderkind George Hotz's latest gig: An intern on Google's elite hacking team. Tribune Review, Andrew Russell/AP

More: Google Online Security Blog, Gigaom, BetaNews, Help Net Security, The Next Web, 9to5Google, ZDNet, Business Insider and Softpedia News. Tweets: @mattcutts. Thanks:@a_greenberg

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, Pocketnow, TUAW, iMore, App Advice, iPhone Hacks, Geeky Gadgets, SlashGear and MacNN

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: Engadget, The Verge, 9to5Google, CNET, Gigaom, DailyTech, MobileBurn.com, Android Authority, Android Beat, Electronista and Wall Street Journal

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:

LivingSocial Hires eBay's Gautam Thakar as New CEO — LivingSocial has hired eBay's Gautam Thaker as its new CEO, replacing co-founder Tim O'Shaughnessy as the once fast-growing deals company attempts to create a new plan for growth. Thaker most recently was general manager of eBay Advertising and CEO of eBay's Shopping.com site.

More: GeekWire and TechCrunch

Casey Johnston / Ars Technica:

Call to cancel Comcast service turns into absurd interrogation; Comcast calls rep's behavior “unacceptable” — Call to cancel Comcast service descends into desperate, hysterical fireworks — A Comcast customer service representative tried to retain a customer over the weekend …

More: SoundCloud, The Awl, Boing Boing, Comcast, Mashable, The Hill, NPR, Gawker, Techdirt, The Technology Chronicles, PandoDaily, TechHive, Motherboard, Laughing Squid, Technologizer, Business Insider, Tech Times, Consumerist, TIME, Neowin, WebProNews, Gizmodo, Forbes, blog.chron.com and Washington Post

Tweets: @ryan, @comcast, @fmanjoo, @harrymccracken, @caseyjohnston, @darth, @ryan, @pkafka, @om, @mikeisaac and @ryan

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Windows Phone 8.1 now rolling out to Lumia devices with new Cyan update — Microsoft is starting to distribute Windows Phone 8.1 to existing Lumia devices this week. The Lumia Cyan update provides the full Windows Phone 8.1 software, alongside some tweaks and customizations specifically for Lumia handsets.

More: Nokia Conversations, PC World, Inquirer, Gigaom, ZDNet, BetaNews, Engadget, The Next Web, Pocketnow and WMPoweruser. Tweets: @tomwarren

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 and Next at Microsoft

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Box Plans Deep Office 365 Integration As It Removes Storage Caps For Business Customers — This morning Box announced that it will integrate its cloud storage solution into Microsoft's popular Office 365 productivity suite. The company also indicated that its ‘Business’ SKU will no longer …

More: Gigaom, The Box Blog, SiliconBeat, VentureBeat, CNET, Computerworld, CITEworld, The Next Web and BuzzFeed

Tweets: @levie and @levie

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: Wall Street Journal, Re/code, VatorNews, Reuters, VentureBeat and The Next Web

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

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: Project Ara, Eduardo Ruiz, Ars Technica, TechCrunch, Gigaom, CNET, Electronista, SlashGear, BGR, Engadget, Geeky Gadgets, Android Authority, Pocket-lint, Ubergizmo, ZDNet and Inquirer

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Mozilla releases mozjpeg 2.0 as Facebook tests and backs the JPEG encoder with $60,000 donation — Mozilla today announced the release of mozjpeg version 2.0. The JPEG encoder is now capable of reducing the size of both baseline and progressive JPEGs by 5 percent on average …

More: Mozilla Research, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Ars Technica and CNET

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, Multichannel News, Gigaom, USA Today, Android Authority, Tech Times, Consumerist and StreetInsider.com

See also Mediagazer

Anna Prior / Wall Street Journal:

H-P Chairman Whitworth to Step Down to Focus on Health — Executive Is Co-Founder of Relational Investors — Hewlett-Packard Co. said interim Chairman Ralph Whitworth has resigned from the company's board to focus on his health. — The Silicon Valley giant said Tuesday that the resignation …

More: hp.com, Re/code, Gigaom, Fortune, New York Times, Associated Press, Bloomberg and Business Insider

Tweets: @ahess247 and @pmarca

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: Eric T. Schneiderman and Tech Times

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, PC Magazine, VentureBeat, PandoDaily and The Next Web. Tweets: @tim

Roberto Baldwin / The Next Web:

Twitter's Crashlytics Answers gives developers real-time engagement metrics for their apps — Dual-platform crash-reporting tool Crashlytics has announced Answers, an analytics tool for iOS and Android apps that have been deployed or are in beta. The new feature helps developers measure growth, engagement and retention.

More: TechCrunch and Crashlytics Blog. Tweets: @marshallk

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