Techmeme: XRay: A New Tool for Tracking the Use of Personal Data on the Web (Steve Lohr/New York Times)

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August 18, 2014, 2:10 PM

Top News

David Gelles / New York Times:

Tech M&A deals increasingly conducted by corporate development teams with less input from investment banks — In Silicon Valley, Mergers Must Meet the Toothbrush Test — MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — When deciding whether Google should spend millions or even billions of dollars in acquiring a new company …

More: Quartz and Business Insider. Tweets: @owlese, @erigonatti, @jeffrey_cane, @sobendito, @nytimesbusiness and @epicureandeal

Seth Fiegerman / Mashable:

Washington Post has had Amazon ‘Buy It Now’ buttons for 5 years on the side of articles, mistakenly put them in text during redesign — Washington Post Stories Briefly Feature Amazon ‘Buy It Now’ Buttons — For a few hours this weekend, it looked like Jeff Bezos had finally showed his hand with The Washington Post.

More: GeekWire, Marketing Land, PandoDaily, Digiday, WebProNews, PC Magazine and PandoDaily. See also Mediagazer

Mayumi Negishi / Wall Street Journal:

SoftBank picks Sharp as partner for low-cost smartphones, will launch Aquos Crystal on Sprint — SoftBank Picks Sharp as Partner for Low-Cost Smartphones — SoftBank Hopes Aquos Crystal Will Help Differentiate It and Sprint From Rivals — TOKYO— SoftBank Corp. and its U.S. unit …

More: PhoneArena, PC Magazine, The Verge, Gigaom, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, 9to5Google, Phandroid, Geeky Gadgets, Compare Mobile Phones …, TabTec, FierceWireless, PhoneNews.com, AndroidOS.in, Ubergizmo, Android Police, Pocket-lint and AndroidHeadlines.com

Ben Popper / The Verge:

Nextdoor now adopted by one in four neighborhoods in the US — The anti-Facebook: one in four American neighborhoods are now using this private social network — Neighborhood gossip and community policing thrive on Nextdoor — It was early in the morning when the flooding hit The Knolls …

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

Chinese Hackers Stole Info on 4.5 Million U.S. Hospital Patients — If you've been to a hospital in a small town or anywhere in the southeastern portion of the United States in the last few years, it's worth keeping an eye on your personal information. — Community Health Systems …

More: Reuters, PandoDaily, Business Insider, Thomson IR, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, PC World, VatorNews, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Tennessean.com, Knoxville News-Sentinel, bizjournals, Becker's Hospital Review, Healthcare Dive and HealthITSecurity.com

Amir Efrati / The Information:

Google is working to overhaul Web services so it can legally offer them to kids; new features include dashboard for parents, child-safe YouTube, more — Google Seeks New Customers: Kids — Google has been working to overhaul its Web services so it can legally allow children to use them …

More: Engadget, Gigaom, 9to5Google, The Verge and Android Authority. Tweets: @theinformation

Carole Cadwalladr / Guardian:

Kim Dotcom: from playboy entrepreneur to political firebrand — He was the flamboyant founder of the popular Megaupload site. But when the US got New Zealand police to arrest him on charges of internet piracy, Kim Dotcom began a remarkable fightback — There are no hot-tubs. No super-yachts.

Tweets: @markamesexiled and @hkanji

Kyle VanHemert / Wired:

The Engineer of the Original Apple Mouse Talks About His Remarkable Career — Jim Yurchenco was responsible for squeezing the guts inside the impossibly slim Palm V. He helped build the mouse for the Apple Lisa, which was significant in that it was the first mouse ever used by regular people.

More: 9to5Mac. Tweets: @ideoorg and @ideo. Thanks:@srikardr

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:

Rumor suggests Apple is working on its own reversible USB cable — A strange new type of USB cable that aims to solve an age-old problem. — Dianxinshouji.com.cn — If reader reaction is any indication, most of you are looking forward to the new reversible USB Type-C connector spec that was finalized earlier this week.

More: MacRumors, The Verge, TechCrunch, Electronista, TUAW, Guardian, SlashGear, MacDailyNews and MacRumors

Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:

Xbox One August update starts rolling out today, bringing new activity feed and mobile purchases — Microsoft promised a series of new features would land in its next Xbox One system update, and now users can finally get their hands on a newly-revamped activity feed and mobile purchases, among others.

More: Xbox Live's Major Nelson, BetaNews, Engadget, Inquirer, The Verge, CNET, Tech Times, Ubergizmo, The Fire Hose, SlashGear, VG247, Windows Phone Central and Eurogamer.net

Alex Konrad / Forbes:

AppNexus raises $60M at $1.2B valuation, is now profitable — Now Profitable, AppNexus Scores $1.2 Billion Valuation For New York Ad Tech Scene — The New York ad tech community has a billion-dollar company at last, and it's Brian O'Kelley's AppNexus after all.

More: Business Insider, Wall Street Journal and AdAge

Rich Trenholm / CNET:

LG flaunts curved 21:9 monitor, plus a display for gamers — LG will show off next month a curved 21:9 monitor, a 4K display for video pros, and a fast-moving monitor for gamers. — LG is flaunting its curves with its eye-popping new 21:9 Curved UltraWide Monitor.

More: LG Blog, iMore, 9to5Mac and PC World

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