Techmeme: Hangouts Now Works Without Google+ Account, Becomes Part Of Google Apps For Business And Gets SLA (Frederic Lardinois/TechCrunch)

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July 30, 2014, 1:10 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:

Snapchat Said in Funding Talks With Alibaba at $10 Billion — Snapchat Inc., the company that makes a mobile application for disappearing photo messages, is in talks with investors including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) for a round of financing that may value the company at $10 billion, people with knowledge of the situation said.

More: USA Today, VentureBeat, Guardian, TechCrunch, Engadget, Business Insider, Valleywag, Mashable and WebProNews

Tweets: @bloombergtv, @monkbent and @nichcarlson

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Hangouts Now Works Without Google+ Account, Becomes Part Of Google Apps For Business And Gets SLA — Say what you want about Google+, but it incubated two great products at Google: Hangouts for video meetings and Google+ Photos. While Photos is still deeply integrated with the social network …

More: Google Enterprise Blog, Gigaom, The Next Web, ZDNet, 9to5Google, Re/code, PC World, Gizmodo and Mashable

Derrick Harris / Gigaom:

Twitter acquires deep learning startup Madbits — Twitter has acquired Madbits, a deep-learning-based computer vision startup founded by proteges of Facebook AI director Yann LeCun. It's the latest in a spate of deep learning and computer vision acquisitions that also includes Google, Yahoo, Dropbox and Pinterest.

More: Madbits, VentureBeat, Re/code, Guardian, Marketing Land, Computerworld, Beyond Search, TechCrunch, ZDNet, memeburn, WebProNews and The Next Web

Joe Belfiore / Windows Phone Blog:

Windows Phone 8.1 Update expands Cortana to new countries, adds “Live” folders on start screen, and more — Windows Phone 8.1 Update brings Cortana to new markets + new features — Back in April, you heard me talk about how we believe Windows Phone 8.1 is the world's …

Jay Yarow / Business Insider:

Q&A WITH TWITTER CEO DICK COSTOLO: Why Twitter Was Able To Blow Away Expectations This Quarter — Twitter delivered its first boffo earnings report as a public company for the second quarter. — It crushed expectations on revenue, EPS, and most importantly, monthly active users.

More: SiliconBeat and Re/code. Tweets: @bijan and @andybeal. See also Mediagazer

Garett Sloane / Adweek:

Twitter Is Considering Any Change that Will Convert Visitors to Logged-In Users Even filtering tweets

Tweets: @mathewi

Maria Kiselyova / Reuters:

Russia wants access to Apple and SAP source code to see if their products are used for spying — Russia wants Apple, SAP to cooperate against foreign spying — * Apple, SAP guard their source code closely — * Russian, Western relations strained over Ukraine

More: AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, iMore, iLounge, Patently Apple, ITAR-TASS, The Moscow Times and App Advice

Kim Zetter / Wired:

Report estimates damages of NSA surveillance to US business, foreign policy, global security

More: Techdirt, Bloomberg, The Hill, Softpedia News, Motherboard and Boing Boing. Tweets: @wired

Kevin Fitchard / Gigaom:

Virgin Mobile intros a blank-slate smartphone plan you can customize any way you like — Virgin Mobile's new prepaid plan can be anything you want it to be from a bare-bones emergency calling service to a custom unlimited Facebook plan. — Next month, Virgin Mobile USA will offer a new …

More: Press Release, Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, Engadget, eWeek, BGR, The Verge, iMore, CNET, USA Today, LAPTOP Magazine and Re/code

Eric Jackson / Forbes:

After several costly errors by CEO Marissa Mayer, Yahoo could use another activist investor — How Do You Solve A Problem Like Marissa? — [Disclosure: Author was long YHOO at time of writing.] — There's been a sharp response to the post I wrote last Wednesday in Forbes outlining …

More: Business Insider. Tweets: @mdudas and @forbes. Thanks:@techtipster1

Jon Fingas / Engadget:

FreedomPop's free data and voice are now available on tablets — Many people can't really justify buying a cellular-equipped tablet — why pay for more data when your phone probably does the trick? FreedomPop is undoubtedly aware of that thriftiness, as it just started offering its namesake free service on tablets.

More: 9to5Mac, Gigaom, Gizmodo, CNET, TechHive, 9to5Google, The Next Web, Re/code, Android Police, iDownloadBlog.com, Gotta Be Mobile, App Advice, TWICE and Cult of Mac

Marcus Wohlsen / Wired:

Square prepares new reader with support for forthcoming cards with embedded computer chips — Square Bets Big on Next-Gen Credit Card Tech — Square first came to fame with a credit card reader you could plug into your iPhone jack. But next year, the company's signature device …

More: The Verge, Square, TechCrunch, New York Times, 9to5Mac, Gizmodo, The Next Web and Android Central. Thanks:@emilydreyfuss

Michael Carney / PandoDaily:

EXCLUSIVE: Payments giant First Data acquires Gyft in an effort to bring digital gift cards to the masses — Gyft, a Redwood City-based virtual gift card provider has been acquired by payment giant First Data, Pando has learned. The terms of the transaction were undisclosed …

More: Gyft and TechCrunch

Brad Smith / Wall Street Journal:

Microsoft's general counsel on how the government wants the right to access emails stored abroad — We're Fighting the Feds Over Your Email — Governments want the right to see email stored anywhere in the world. Microsoft says not so fast. — On Thursday Microsoft will oppose …

More: WinBeta, Business Insider and emptywheel. Thanks:@techtipster1

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

Amazon To Invest $2B In Its India Marketplace As Competition With Flipkart Intensifies — Just one day after Flipkart disclosed that it had raised as massive $1 billion round, Amazon has upped the ante by announcing that it will invest $2 billion in its Indian marketplace, which it launched about a year ago.

More: The Next Web, New York Times, GeekWire, Gigaom, Computerworld, Wall Street Journal, MediaNama, OStatic blogs, NextBigWhat and Associated Press

Andy Fixmer / Mashable:

Netflix Signs Peering Deal With AT&T to Reduce Buffering — This story has been updated to include a statement from AT&T confirming the peering deal. — Netflix has reached an agreement with AT&T to give its streaming service direct access to AT&T's network, with the goal of reducing buffering …

More: TechHive, Softpedia News, TechSpot, Digital Trends, Washington Post, TechCrunch, The Register, Electronista, Ars Technica, SlashGear, CNET, Reuters, Gizmodo, DSLreports, The Verge, Gigaom, Engadget and Re/code. Thanks:@toddwasserman. See also Mediagazer

Shane Harris / Foreign Policy:

Ex-NSA head Keith Alexander says his new company IronNet Cybersecurity invented unique technology to detect hackers, will file at least nine patents — The NSA's Cyber-King Goes Corporate — Here's why Keith Alexander thinks he's worth a million dollars a month. — GOOGLE +

More: Techdirt, Washington Post, TechPresident, Ars Technica, emptywheel, The Verge, VICE and Boing Boing

Tweets: @dangillmor, @csoghoian, @dbgrady and @ashk4n

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