Techmeme: Google Play Movies & TV for iOS now lets you download and play videos offline (Emil Protalinski/The Next Web)

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September 8, 2014, 6:05 PM

Top News

Ian Kar / Bank Innovation:

Apple pilot to develop partnerships with merchants may be related to a loyalty/rewards program — Apple to Launch Pilot Program For Merchant Partnership — Apple will be launching a pilot program to develop partnerships with merchants, including retailers, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the program.

More: Cult of Mac, iMore, AppleInsider, MacRumors, SlashGear, App Advice, iDownloadBlog.com, MacDailyNews, The Mac Observer, Electronista and iPhone in Canada Blog. Thanks:@iankar_

Ian Kar / Bank Innovation:

iPhone and “iWatch” NFC payments to use tokenization technology, prefered by banks for its security benefits — Apple to Use NFC, Tokenization in Payments, Sources Say — Apple will be utilizing near field communication (NFC) technology and tokenization technology in the new iPhone 6 …

More: stratechery, BGR, CNET, AppleInsider, Macworld, Fortune, Geeky Gadgets, DailyTech, Cult of Mac, MacDailyNews, 9to5Mac, Network World and Business Insider

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

5.5" ‘iPhone 6’ said to launch in limited quantities on Sept. 19 alongside 4.7" model — Apple fans clamoring for the anticipated 5.5-inch version of Apple's “iPhone 6” may not have to wait long, as a new report claims that the “phablet” model will launch alongside the 4.7-inch version on Sept. 19 …

More: G 4 Games, MacRumors, Fortune, 9to5Mac, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, BGR, SlashGear, Gotta Be Mobile, InvestorPlace, TechnoBuffalo, App Advice, iDownloadBlog.com, Cult of Mac and Ubergizmo

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

5.5-inch iPhone 6 may run landscape apps with more productive iPad-like interface — While the 4.7-inch version of the upcoming iPhone 6 will seemingly function as a large version of the current iPhone interface, it appears that the larger model with a 5.5-inch display could run software …

More: Gizmodo, BGR, Pocketnow, Fortune, Engadget, Gotta Be Mobile, AppleTell, iPhone in Canada Blog, Mobile Magazine, ITProPortal, Wall Street Journal, TechnoBuffalo, TUAW, Geeky Gadgets, Business Insider and Ubergizmo

Tweets: @stevesi, @stroughtonsmith and @elkmovie

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Twitter Announces Its First Commerce Product — A “Buy” Button On Mobile — After months of reports and rumors, Twitter is announcing its first commerce product. — The company first signaled its interest in this area last year, when it hired former Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard to lead its commerce team.

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

Apple Now Sending Alert Emails When iCloud Accounts Accessed via Web — In an interview last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that Apple would be beefing up iCloud security measures in response to the recent disclosure of compromised celebrity accounts. Among the additional security features …

More: Associated Press, AppleInsider, Inquirer, SlashGear, Gizmodo, Mashable, TechnoBuffalo, The Next Web, CIO.com, 9to5Mac, DisplayBlog, The Verge, iDownloadBlog.com, Cult of Mac and iMore

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Amazon cuts Fire phone price to $0.99 in the US, opens Germany and UK pre-orders; will ship September 30 — Amazon today announced it is cutting the Fire phone's price in the US to $0.99 with a two-year contract. That's not too bad given that one year of Prime is still included in the package.

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

As Jawbone Opens API for Up Health Tracker, It Is Also Seeking $100 Million in Additional Funding — San Francisco consumer electronics device maker Jawbone will announce this week that it will be opening up access to its Up app software that will allow it to be used on other smartphones, watches and wearables.

More: VentureBeat, Engadget, Wearable World News, WMPoweruser, Connectedly and MobileSyrup.com

Kim-Mai Cutler / TechCrunch:

Paypal's Braintree announces One Touch payments and Bitcoin integration for developers — PayPal's Braintree Embraces Bitcoin, One-Touch Payments — Nearly a year after PayPal acquired it in an all-cash $800 million deal, online and mobile payments platform Braintree is unveiling one-touch payments and is integrating Bitcoin.

More: Blogtree, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Ars Technica, Re/code, Engadget, Bloomberg, The Coinbase Blog and PayPal Forward. Tweets: @mdudas

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

The insane TiVo Mega costs $5,000, can record three years of TV, and looks like a rack server — Running out of room on your DVR sucks, no doubt. Is it enough of a problem for you to throw $5,000 at it? For most people, the answer is no, but in case it's a real issue you need to remedy …

More: Gizmodo, SlashGear, ULTRAVISUAL, Wall Street Journal, Ars Technica, Engadget, Connectedly, Geek.com, Geeky Gadgets, DailyTech, Electronista and Softpedia News

Bloomberg:

Facebook's Value Tops $200 Billion on Mobile-Ad Optimism — Facebook Inc. (FB)'s market value exceeded $200 billion to put it among the world's biggest corporations, as investors bet on the company to capitalize on the future of mobile advertising. — Facebook shares rose .8 percent …

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Bill Gross launches Idea Market to match startup ideas with prospective founders and investors — With Idea Market, Bill Gross Will Fund You to Bring His Ideas to Life — It requires no stretch of the imagination to say that Bill Gross is an idea guy. He came up with seminal Internet innovations …

More: Gigaom, PandoDaily, Fortune and Forbes

Dave Hoch / Lead-Gen Blog:

iPhone 5 is still the most popular Apple smartphone, iPad 2 the most used tablet — iPhone 5 and iPad 2 Still Dominate As Apple Prepares for Announcement — Tomorrow, Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 6. With anticipation building for the announcement, one question looms large: will we get two new iPhones, or one?

More: MacRumors, iPhone in Canada Blog, PadGadget, Quartz, Business Insider and iMore

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft starts rolling out Delve, its ‘Flipboard for Office 365’ — Summary: Microsoft is kicking off its multi-month staged rollout of Delve, a new Office 365 search and presentation application. — Starting Monday, Microsoft is beginning to roll out Office Delve …

More: Office Blogs, Computerworld, VentureBeat, PC World and The Next Web

Re/code:

Reddit raising over $50M for less than 10% of the company, at a valuation upwards of $500M — Reddit Raising a Big Round, and Some Y Combinator Players Are in the Mix — Reddit, the social news site with a big Web footprint, is raising a big funding round — with help from some of the people …

More: StrictlyVC, New York Times, PandoDaily, The Awl, Valleywag, Mashable, Forbes, CNET and VentureBeat. Tweets: @danprimack. See also Mediagazer

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

Home Depot Hit By Same Malware as Target — The apparent credit and debit card breach uncovered last week at Home Depot was aided in part by a new variant of the same malicious software program that stole card account data from cash registers at Target last December, according to sources close to the investigation.

More: The Next Web, ZDNet, TechCrunch, PR Newswire, CNET, Gizmodo, Ubergizmo, Lifehacker, SlashGear and Neowin

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Uber CEO says company is creating 50K jobs a month, shouldn't be as ruthless now that it's big — Uber CEO Thinks It Needs To Be Kinder And Gentler Now That It's On Top — Uber CEO Travis Kalanick says he and his company get a bad rap for being aggressive because he learned to be fierce while running his last scrappy startup.

More: Wall Street Journal, The Technology Chronicles, CNET, Fortune, ReadWrite, Gigaom, Re/code, Engadget, Forbes, GeekWire and The Next Web

Tweets: @qthrul, @arrington and @ashleymayer

Ben Woods / The Next Web:

Microsoft fully revamps its MSN portal, Bing mobile apps to be rebranded MSN too — Microsoft has fully overhauled its MSN portal to make it more deeply integrated with its other services. Alongside this, it will also be introducing a rebrand of its Bing mobile apps for Windows Phone, iOS and Android.

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Google Play Movies & TV for iOS now lets you download and play videos offline — Google today updated its Google Play Movies & TV app for iOS with offline playback. You can download the new version now directly from Apple's App Store. — The addition means you can now download movies …

More: 9to5Mac, The Verge, iMore and Gizmodo

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:

Spotify To Let Free Users Get 30 Minutes Uninterrupted Listening In Return For Watching Video Ads — Spotify for Brands, the advertising side of the music streaming service (and one of the ways it generates revenue outside of paid subscriptions), is rolling out two new video ad units that will be seen by non-paying Spotify users.

More: AdAge, Spotify Blog, The Next Web, Engadget, Gizmodo, The Verge, ClickZ, CNET, Softpedia News, 9to5Google, BetaNews, iMore, Cult of Mac, Electronista, iDownloadBlog.com, TechHive, Ubergizmo, Business Insider and App Advice. Thanks:@sohear. See also Mediagazer

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

Tool to kick Glass users off Wi-Fi becomes Cyborg Unplug, a $50-$85 anti-surveillance appliance — For Sale Soon: The World's First Google Glass Detector — Earlier this summer, Berlin-based artist and coder Julian Oliver released Glasshole.sh, a simple and free piece of software designed …

More: The Verge

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