Techmeme
July 16, 2014, 5:40 PM

Top News

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:
Amazon is testing “Kindle Unlimited,” an ebook subscription service for $9.99/month  —  Amazon is testing an ebook and audiobook subscription service called “Kindle Unlimited” that offers “unlimited access to over 600,000 titles and thousands of audiobooks on any device for just $9.99 a month.”
Reuters:
Apple agrees conditionally to a $450M settlement in e-book price-fixing case; $400M could go to consumers  —  Apple agrees to conditional $450 million e-books antitrust accord  —  (Reuters) - Apple Inc has agreed to pay $450 million to resolve U.S. state and consumer claims …
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
In IBM and Apple's wake, what will team Android do?  —  Summary: The biggest challenge for team Android is that Google and Samsung, two partners with enterprise ambitions, will have to herd cats to reach corporations to counter Apple and IBM.  —  Google, Samsung and team Android may have to form …
New York Times:
Time Warner rejected $80B takeover bid by Murdoch's 21st Century Fox last month, no longer in discussions  —  Rupert Murdoch Said to Have Made Offer for Time Warner  —  Twenty-First Century Fox, the media empire run by Rupert Murdoch, made an $80 billion takeover bid in recent weeks …
Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:
Airbnb unveils its new identity, launches redesigned mobile app and website  —  Airbnb unveiled a complete brand and product redesign today at an exclusive event for top hosts and guests.  —  Airbnb calls its new logo a “multi-state moving identity,” and a “3D modular symbol” that's …
Mark Harris / Guardian:
FBI warns driverless cars could be used as ‘lethal weapons’  —  Internal report sees benefits for road safety, but warns that autonomy will create greater potential for criminal ‘multitasking’  —  The FBI believes that the driverless car is a “game changing” vehicle could revolutionise high …
Rachel King / ZDNet:
eBay's Q2 earnings beat estimates despite analyst fears over security breach  —  Summary: However, eBay followed up with softer sales and earnings guidance ranges for the current quarter.  —  A major cyber attack on eBay back in May was widely expected by analysts to play …
Ben Woods / The Next Web:
BlackBerry Assistant officially introduced as part of BlackBerry 10.3, Siri et al likely not worried  —  Canadian handset maker BlackBerry has officially introduced its virtual assistant for the BlackBerry 10.3 OS, and it's called simply ‘BlackBerry Assistant’.
Benjamin Wallace / New York Magazine:
Kara Swisher Is Silicon Valley's Most Feared and Well-Liked Journalist.  How Does That Work?  —  The combination of access and toughness has made her a preeminent arbiter of status.  —  The technology journalist Kara Swisher likes to call herself Sherlock Homo, but on a spring evening in Austin …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google Starts Selling Its Aerial Imagery To Maps For Business Users  —  Google Maps for Business is a service for enterprises and government organizations that need to visualize their assets on a map.  Today, the company has announced that customers can now purchase Google's aerial imagery directly …
David Pierce / The Verge:
Jawbone's new Up app makes healthy eating a whole lot easier  —  Jawbone finally gets food tracking right  —  Jawbone's Up bracelet has become perhaps the industry's most versatile fitness tracker, thanks to powerful sleep and activity monitoring.  For its next act, Jawbone is turning …
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Samsung In Talks To Scoop Up SmartThings For Around $200 Million  —  Google has Nest, Apple has HomeKit and Samsung has...SmartThings, we're hearing.  The deal was completed for around $200 million dollars, though it might have been less according to one source.  —  (Update: The deal is not done yet, says another.)

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26  —  Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Zoho:
The best time to become a Zoho Partner  —  The business world is not only changing but it is being rebuilt.  Customers want connected ecosystems that will help them automate, unify their data, and do more with less.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Great Chat:
So what happens after AGI?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:40 PM ET, July 16, 2014.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Se Young Lee / Reuters:

Earlier Picks

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: