Techmeme: Former staff blames LG's failed webOS acquisition on culture clash, infighting and corporate politics (Janko Roettgers/Gigaom)

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August 29, 2014, 8:30 AM

Top News

Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

Google X unveils Project Wing, its drone delivery program; tested in secret for two years — Inside Google's Secret Drone-Delivery Program — A zipping comes across the sky. — A man named Neil Parfitt is standing in a field on a cattle ranch outside Warwick, Australia.

Bloomberg:

Google X VP Megan Smith is top candidate for US CTO role — Google's Smith Is Top Candidate for U.S. Chief Technology Officer — America is close to getting a new chief technology officer: Megan Smith, a longtime executive at Google Inc. and most recently a vice president at its secret lab, Google X.

More: Fortune, Quartz, Business Insider, CNET, The Hill, bizjournals, bizjournals, ZDNet, Federal Computer Week, Reuters and Nextgov. Tweets: @danprimack

Steven Levy / Wired:

Behind Todd Park's new Silicon Valley-based mission to attract talent to reboot Federal IT, as he departs US CTO role — America's Tech Guru Steps Down—But He's Not Done Rebooting the Government — Todd Park (third from left) with members of his digital team (from left): Haley Van Dyck …

More: White House.gov Blog, Computerworld, Beyond Search, Re/code and Engadget

Tweets: @aneeshchopra, @stevenlevy, @granick, @lukefretwell, @johnolilly, @digiphile and @csoghoian

Thanks:@emilydreyfuss

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Apple builds a hidden structure at Flint Center, site of Mac unveiling, ahead of Sept. 9 event — Apple Building Massive Structure at Flint Center for iPhone 6 Event — Apple today issued invitations for its upcoming iPhone 6 event on September 9, which is also said to include its much-anticipated wearable device.

Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:

Apple announces special event for September 9 with tagline “Wish we could say more” — Apple announces special event for Sept. 9 — Apple on Thursday sent out invitations to a special event being held on Sept. 9, 2014 at 10:00 am. — Typically Apple's events are held either …

More: Bloomberg, Re/code, Bloomberg, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, CNET, GeekWire, Mashable, CNET, Wall Street Journal, josh.io, Ubergizmo, SlashGear, iPhone in Canada Blog, NEWS.com.au, 9to5Mac, Engadget, App Advice, AppleInsider, Business Insider, Washington Post, iLounge, iMore, Financial Times, CNBC, Gigaom, The Next Web, Guardian, Touch Arcade, Forbes, TechCrunch, MacRumors and MacStories

Tweets: @inafried, @monkbent, @mattbuchanan, @tim and @jyarow

Kevin Rawlinson / Guardian:

Apple tells developers they may not sell personal health data to advertisers — The company has tightened its privacy rules in run up to announcements of new technology expected in September — Apple has tightened its privacy rules relating to health apps ahead of next month's product launch …

More: Financial Times, Business Insider, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, Softpedia News, Mashable, TechnoBuffalo, App Advice, Cult of Mac, The Next Web and MacNN

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Former staff blames LG's failed webOS acquisition on culture clash, infighting and corporate politics — A failed experiment: How LG screwed up its webOS acquisition — webOS was supposed to become LG's way forward in the smart TV space, and the team behind it was to bring change to the company.

More: Gizmodo and The Verge. Tweets: @tomkrazit, @benedictevans, @jank0 and @gigaom. Thanks:@laurahazardowen

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

iOS search app “In-App Search” provides deep link results that launch inside apps, supports 33 iPhone apps at launch — In-App Search Is An App That Searches In Your Apps — Are users itching for a better way to search through the information contained within their mobile apps, bypassing the web and traditional search?

More: Guardian, GamesIndustry.biz, Eurogamer.net, Polygon, IGN and SlashGear

Eric Enge / Search Engine Land:

Google drops authorship support, including authors in results, citing poor adoption by webmasters and low value to searchers — It's Over: The Rise & Fall Of Google Authorship For Search Results — After three years the great Google Authorship experiment has come to an end ... at least for now.

More: John Mueller, Tech Times, SocialTimes, Engadget, The Next Web, CNET, VentureBeat, Marketing Land, TechCrunch, TheDomains.com and 9to5Google

Tweets: @ourmaninchicago, @jeremys and @moorehn

Mike Beasley / 9to5Mac:

Apple reportedly working with Dutch company NXP to include NFC in iPhone 6, possibly iWatch — Apple is reportedly planning to include NFC in the iPhone 6 for secure wireless payments using chips sourced from a Dutch company called XNP, the Financial Times reported today.

More: Financial Times, Daring Fireball, MacRumors, ZDNet, AppleInsider, Reuters, App Advice, iDownloadBlog.com and Wired

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Google Launches First Beta Build of 64-Bit Chrome for Mac — Google today announced the launch of the first beta build of 64-bit Chrome for Mac, following the public release of 64-bit Chrome for Windows. — Earlier this month, Google added 64-bit support to Chrome Canary for OS X …

More: Google Chrome Blog, Chromium Blog, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Android Central, SlashGear, Softpedia News and Ubergizmo

Felix Gillette / Businessweek:

An entire Hollywood-like industry has grown around YouTube creators — Hollywood's Big-Money YouTube Hit Factory — When Brian Robbins first told people he was going full time into the YouTube (GOOG) business, his colleagues in Hollywood were incredulous. “My agent, my lawyer, my dad—people thought I was crazy,” he says.

More: SiliconBeat and SocialTimes. Tweets: @mscott and @bw. See also Mediagazer

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Netflix VP of content delivery Ken Florance says the company had to pay Comcast because it was losing customers — The Netflix Case Against Comcast, in One Chart — We've already heard Netflix executives explain why they signed an Internet deal with Comcast, even though they say they didn't want to …

More: Quartz, DisplayBlog, Tubefilter and Softpedia News

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