Techmeme
August 1, 2014, 1:30 PM

Top News

Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Apple officially welcomes Beats to the family as Beats moves online sales to Apple's site  —  Apple has updated its homepage to include a new microsite officially welcoming the Beats Electronics and Beats Music team to the company.  The new site marks the first official mention on Apple.com …
Brad Chacos / PC World:
Surface Pro 3's Core i3 and Core i7 models available today  —  More than two and a half months after the Surface Pro 3's reveal, all of its variants are finally available: On Friday, the Core i3 and Core i5 editions of Microsoft's laptop-replacing tablet hit the streets, following the June 20 launch of the Core i5 versions.
Steve Dent / Engadget:
Take a look at HP's luxury smartwatch  —  Despite their utility, smartwatches remain a geeky niche item thanks to a certain lack of je ne sais quoi.  However, HP is partnering with a retailer called Gilt to build an Android and iOS compatible smartwatch that may finally tick the style box, thanks to US designer Michael Bastian.
Tom Bell / The Portland Press Herald:
Google barge docking in Portland sold, structure on top of it to be scrapped  —  Scrap the mystery: High-tech vision for Google barge crumbles in a heap  —  The barge has been sold and the four-story structure will be dismantled, along with Portland's hope for a new claim to fame.
Reuters:
Chinese employees at Microsoft's Nokia arm protest mass layoffs  —  (Reuters) - “Hundreds” of Chinese employees at Microsoft Corp's Nokia phone business protested on Friday against mass layoffs that the U.S. tech company announced last month, according to an employee present and pictures posted on social media networks.
RT:
Legislative restrictions on popular bloggers come into force in Russia  —  As of August 1 all blogs having 3,000 daily readers or more will have to follow many of the rules that exist in conventional mass media, such as tougher control on published information or the ban on use of explicit language.
eBay Inc.:
eBay employee demographics: globally, 42% female; in US, 61% white, 24% Asian, 7% black, 5% Hispanic  —  Building A Stronger, Better, More Diverse eBay  —  Commerce is global, and so is eBay Inc. Every day, our eBay and PayPal platforms serve tens of millions of merchants and consumers in virtually every country in the world.
Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:
MakerBot buys local distributor, officially launches European operations  —  MakerBot expands European operations  —  Summary: MakerBot has launched MakerBot Europe in order to pave the way for desktop 3D printing beyond the United States.  —  MakerBot is planning to capitalize …
Deepa Seetharaman / Reuters:
Amazon expands its test of offering assembly, installation and repair services to NY, LA  —  Amazon quickens push into tough local services market  —  (Reuters) - Seattle audio and video technician Todd Mueller showed up last year for what might have been a routine job except for one thing: Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) was taking notes.
Louise Radnofsky / Wall Street Journal:
Poorly Managed HealthCare.gov Construction Cost $840 Million, Watchdog Finds  —  Government Accountability Office Says Risks Remain Without Improved Oversight at Health Agency  —  The federal agency in charge of building the HealthCare.gov insurance website suffered from poor management …

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More News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Lizette Chapman / Wall Street Journal:
Mark Scott / New York Times:
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:

Earlier Picks

Paul Thurrott / SuperSite for Windows: