Techmeme: Source: Microsoft will announce $2.5B deal to buy Minecraft maker Mojang on Monday (Bill Rigby/Reuters)

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September 14, 2014, 12:45 PM

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Bill Rigby / Reuters:

Source: Microsoft will announce $2.5B deal to buy Minecraft maker Mojang on Monday — Microsoft needs Minecraft to boost mobile ambitions — (Reuters) - Microsoft's impending purchase of Mojang, the Swedish developer with 100 million players of its open world Minecraft game …

More: Digital Trends, The Register, Haywire, The Verge, Tech Times, WMPoweruser, GeekWire, PC Magazine, TechCrunch, TechnoBuffalo, LiveSide.net, Joystiq, Neowin, Gizmodo, Windows Phone Central, WinBeta, App Advice, Blue's News and MCV: Home Stream

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Product Hunt Raises $6 Million From A16Z — Product Hunt, the aggregation site that many people consider a direct competitor to TechCrunch and other tech blogs due to its ability to surface new tech products and startups, has raised a hefty series A, we're hearing.

More: Medium. Tweets: @startupljackson and @joshconstine

Spiegel Online:

Seeking to map the entire internet, NSA and GHCQ have broken into Deutsche Telekom networks — The NSA Breach of Telekom and Other German Firms — According to top-secret documents from the NSA and the British agency GCHQ, the intelligence agencies are seeking to map the entire Internet, including end-user devices.

More: The Register, VentureBeat, The Intercept and Reuters

Mat Honan / Wired:

A requiem for the click wheel iPod, discontinued after almost 13 years — On Death and iPods: A Requiem — Have you ever loved a car? Maybe it was an old truck you drove for hundreds of thousands of miles, or maybe it was your very first car: where you had your very first beer and your very first kiss.

More: Vox, CNET, iMore, Washington Post, ParisLemon, ZDNet, Mashable and The Verge

Tweets: @tfadell, @monteiro, @seanludwig and @tcarmody

Nick Bilton / New York Times:

Steve Jobs and several other tech execs have imposed time limits on their kids' use of gadgets — Steve Jobs Was a Low-Tech Parent — When Steve Jobs was running Apple, he was known to call journalists to either pat them on the back for a recent article or, more often than not, explain how they got it wrong.

More: Business Insider, iPhone Hacks, ITProPortal and Bijan Sabet

Tweets: @zeynep, @nickbilton and @glennf

Josh Lowensohn / The Verge:

Tim Cook on Charlie Rose: no plans for social networking; Apple's top competitor is Google — Tim Cook says Apple could have made a bigger iPhone ‘years ago’ — Apple CEO tells Charlie Rose the company's been patient — Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company could have made a larger iPhone long ago …

More: Gizmodo, ZDNet, Re/code, Wall Street Journal, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, 9to5Mac, iMore, DisplayBlog, GeekWire, TechnoBuffalo, The Verge, NBC News, The Register, Telegraph, The Next Web, Cult of Mac, Engadget, CNET, App Advice, Softpedia News, Ubergizmo, MobileSyrup.com, Gizmodo, MacRumors, iMore, Business Insider, Business Insider and Quartz

Tweets: @tim, @tim, @tim and @mdudas

See also Mediagazer

Timothy B. Lee / Vox:

Since Supreme Court's Alice decision, 11 lower court rulings have invalidated software patents — Software patents are crumbling, thanks to the Supreme Court — The Supreme Court's June ruling on the patentability of software — its first in 33 years — raised as many questions at it answered.

More: Patently-O, Techdirt and IPWatchdog.com. Tweets: @skupor

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Facebook is under fire from gay and transgender users who are being forced to use real names — There have been multiple reports that Facebook is forcing gay and transgender users to use their legal names instead of their online personas or chosen names, as part of a crackdown on pseudonyms, despite the danger this poses to some users

More: The Daily Dot, ReadWrite, Michael Williams, Slate, The Daily Dot, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Ars Technica, Tech Times, BBC, International Business Times, BetaNews, The Register, Business Insider, ZDNet, SFist, The Raw Story and The Technology Chronicles. Tweets: @diggtech

Joon Ian Wong / CoinDesk:

The ATM and the Battle for Bitcoin's Physical Interface — Two years ago, Zach Harvey and his brother, Josh, were saddled with a failing guitar shop selling vintage and handmade pieces in New Hampshire. The guitar venture had once been a roaring success, but that had been in Tel Aviv …

Tweets: @coindesk

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / Mashable:

Russian social network VKontakte starts shutting down accounts that promote ISIS — Russia's ‘Facebook’ Cracking Down on ISIS Accounts — The Islamic State may soon be running out of social networks — When Twitter ramped up its crackdown on several accounts in the wake of the brutal beheading …

More: Vocativ and Fast Company

Signe Brewster / Gigaom:

Airware partners with NASA to develop drone air traffic control system — The San Francisco startup develops hardware and software that help drones avoid collisions and safely return to their operators. — News broke last week that NASA is building an air traffic control system …

More: The Independent, CNET and MIT News Office

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Apple Pay Details: Apple Gets 0.15% Cut of Purchases, Higher Rates for Bluetooth Payments — Apple's ambitious new mobile payment initiative, Apple Pay, was announced on Tuesday during the company's iPhone event. Many questions still linger about the service, but information is beginning …

More: Credit Slips, Om Malik, Financial Times, The Register, TUAW, eWeek, App Advice, MacNN, 9to5Mac, Cult of Mac, BGR, SlashGear, Pocketnow, iDownloadBlog.com, AppleInsider, iMore and New York Times. Tweets: @mdudas

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