Techmeme: Facebook's internet connectivity drones to begin testing next year, to deploy within 2-5 years (Issie Lapowsky/Wired)

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September 24, 2014, 11:40 AM

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Dan Seifert / The Verge:

BlackBerry Passport review: good display and battery life, but inefficient keyboard with clumsy software — BlackBerry Passport review — Getting stuff done or getting in the way? — “BlackBerry is still around?” — I've heard that question quite often the past few weeks, as I've been using the BlackBerry Passport.

More: CrackBerry.com, Inquirer, Laptop Mag, CNET, Gizmodo, Computerworld, Wall Street Journal, DailyTech and Electronista

Bonnie Cha / Re/code:

Blackberry Passport: 4.5in square display, touch physical keyboard, $599 unlocked on AT&T — Blackberry Passport: 4.5in square display, touch-enabled physical keyboard, $599 unlocked on AT&T — To say that BlackBerry has had a rough go of it over the past few years would be an understatement.

Reuters:

Amazon to invest $55M in hardware unit Lab126 to test smart home gadgets and wearables — Exclusive: Amazon tests smart home gadgets, expands hardware lab — (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc will boost staffing at its secretive Silicon Valley-based hardware unit by at least 27 percent …

More: ReadWrite, 9to5Google, GeekWire, Gizmodo, The Verge, Engadget, Shelly Palmer, HotHardware.com News and bizjournals

Lisa Bettany / snap snap snap:

Comparing photos taken with Camera+ using all iPhone versions, from the original to iPhone 6 — How does the iPhone 6 camera compare to previous iPhone cameras? — In the past seven years, each new advancement in iPhone camera technology has made dramatic improvements to image quality.

More: BGR, Gotta Be Mobile, TUAW, Laughing Squid, SlashGear, Gizmodo, AppleTell, iPhone in Canada Blog, iDownloadBlog.com, Ubergizmo and Cult of Mac

Tweets: @bill_gross and @timtrueman

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / ZDNet:

iOS 8 crash rate 78 percent higher than iOS 7 — Summary: iOS 8 is showing higher levels of instability compared to iOS 7, with older devices being more susceptible to crashes than the new iPhone 6. — Adrian Kingsley-Hughes — If you're looking for stability, then iOS 8 might not be the direction you want to be going in.

More: BGR, Bloomberg, TechnoBuffalo, Cult of Mac, InfoWorld, Macworld, Gotta Be Mobile, StreetInsider.com, InformationWeek, Tech Times, ValueWalk, Ubergizmo, ReadWrite, TUAW and Network World

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Karma Rolls Out An LTE Version Of Its Pay-As-You-Go Mobile Hotspot, Pre-Order For $99 — Karma, makers of the small, portable Wi-Fi hotspot that lets you pay-as-you-go, contract free, for the data you use ($14/1 GB), is now accepting pre-orders for its latest device, the Karma Go portable LTE Wi-Fi hotspot.

More: Karma | Blog, CNET, The Next Web, Electronista, SlashGear, Android Police, VentureBeat, Cult of Mac, Gigaom, FierceWireless, The Verge and Engadget

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Business Goals Platform BetterWorks Leaves Stealth With $15.5M Led By KPCB — BetterWorks, a new, cloud-based platform designed to help employees set and reach business goals — and the newest project from gamification pioneer Kris Duggan of Badgeville — is coming out of stealth today …

More: PE Hub Blog and Forbes

Kif Leswing / Gigaom:

Manual for iOS gives photographers DSLR-style control in a well-designed app — Looking for an iPhone camera app with a wealth of manual settings? Check out Manual, which takes advantage of new iOS 8 camera capabilities to give photographers a surprising amount of control.

More: App Advice, Cult of Mac, Business Insider and The Next Web

Margaret Rhodes / Wired:

Stack's Alba smart bulb adapts to sunlight and your household habits to conserve energy — Ex-Tesla and NASA Engineers Make a Light Bulb That's Smarter Than You — Sometime in early 2013, one of the supply chain engineers at Tesla leaned back in his chair and took a look around the Silicon Valley office.

More: Engadget

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

Amazon brings Kindle Unlimited to the UK, an all-you-can-eat book subscription service for £7.99 a month — Two months after Amazon launched its e-book subscription service in the US, the internet giant has quietly introduced the offering to UK readers too.

More: Engadget, Guardian, Digital Book World, TechSpot, Inquirer, App Advice, Electronista and WebProNews

See also Mediagazer

Philip Kollar / Polygon:

Blizzard cancels its next-gen MMO Titan after seven years — Blizzard has officially canceled development on its mysterious next-generation massively multiplayer game Titan. The company confirmed the news to Polygon in a recent interview. — This revelation comes after at least seven years …

More: Associated Press, GamesIndustry.biz, The Verge, TechnoBuffalo, Eurogamer.net, SlashGear, Massively, Ubergizmo and The Register. Tweets: @bradshoemaker

Jackie Dove / The Next Web:

Hands on: Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements hit version 13 with deep upgrades — Every year — like clockwork — Adobe delivers updates to its consumer photo and video apps, Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, and that time has arrived. While the new Elements version 13 seems modest …

More: Engadget, PHOTOSHOP.COM BLOG, MacRumors, iPhone, Digital Photography Review, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac and Inquirer

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Mobile Wallet Laughingstock Clinkle Finally Launches To Let You Pay Friends And Earn “Treats” — After 17 months of jokes about vaporware college payments startup Clinkle, its iOS and Android apps finally launched today at a few colleges. Clinkle lets you pay friends, get a pre-paid Visa …

More: Valleywag, bizjournals, Shelly Palmer, Gigaom, Business Insider, ReadWrite, PYMNTS.com and The Next Web

Tweets: @sammywalrusiv, @delrey, @danprimack, @calebgarling, @stevekovach, @caseynewton, @delrey, @drew, @mr_cso, @ow, @capndesign, @johnpaczkowski, @mikeisaac, @sarahnemerson, @rrhoover, @rrhoover and @flyosity

Issie Lapowsky / Wired:

Facebook's internet connectivity drones to begin testing next year, to deploy within 2-5 years — Facebook Lays Out Its Roadmap for Creating Internet-Connected Drones — A still from an promotional video showing how Facebook and Internet.org will deliver internet access via — aerial drone.

More: Laughing Squid and SlashGear

Stephen Barrett / AnandTech:

ARM unveils feature-rich Cortex-M7 processor for embedded, internet of things, and wearables — Cortex-M7 Launches: Embedded, IoT and Wearables — Introduction — Last week, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting ARM's Austin Texas campus for a meeting with Vice President of CPU Product Marketing Nandan Nayampally.

More: Gigaom, CNET, VentureBeat, EE Times, SemiAccurate, Ubergizmo, The Register, ITworld.com, SYS-CON MEDIA and ZDNet

John Callaham / Android Central:

Samsung Gear S coming to AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile for fall launch — Following up on its reveal in late August, Samsung has now announced that its upcoming Tizen-based smartwatch, the Gear S, will go on sale later this fall at the top four US wireless carriers.

More: PR Newswire, The Verge, 9to5Google, TechHive, Droid Life, HotHardware.com News, Wall Street Journal, Ubergizmo, The Next Web, Mashable, SlashGear, Electronista and SamMobile

Sam Altman / How to Start a Startup:

First lecture of the Stanford course “how to start a startup” with Sam Altman and Dustin Moskovitz now online — Lecture 1: Welcome, and Ideas, Products, Teams and Execution Part I — Why to Start a Startup. Sam Altman , View Sam's Slide Deck. Dustin Moskovitz , View Dustin's Slide Deck.

More: Business Insider. Tweets: @trengriffin

Reuters:

Taiwan government investigates Xiaomi on potential cyber security concerns — (Reuters) - The Taiwanese government is investigating whether Xiaomi Inc, China's leading smartphone company by domestic shipments, is a cyber security threat and will make a decision within three months.

More: Wall Street Journal, Fudzilla and ITProPortal

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Samsung says Galaxy Note 4 will debut in Korea on Sept 26, be on sale in 140 markets by the end October — Samsung has announced that the Galaxy Note 4, the latest version of its popular ‘phablet’ range, will go on sale from September 26, initially in its home country Korea.

More: Samsung Tomorrow, The Korea Times, BetaNews, AppleInsider, 9to5Google, Android Police, ZDNet, Phandroid, Pocketnow, GadgeTell, Ubergizmo, Tech in Asia, SlashGear, SamMobile, Android Central, Neowin and Android Authority. Tweets: @jonrussell

CBC News:

Netflix refuses CRTC demand to hand over subscriber data — Video streaming company not ‘in a position to produce competitively sensitive information’ — Netflix was ordered last week to give confidential subscriber data to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

More: Michael Geist Blog, SlashGear, Financial Post, Globe and Mail, CityNews, Toronto Star and Techdirt

Chris Martin / PC Advisor:

Samsung exits laptop market in Europe “for now” after decline in PC market — Exclusive: Samsung exits laptop market including Chromebooks — Following in the path of Sony and its Vaio PCs, Samsung has decided to exit the laptop market stopping sales of Ativ Windows …

More: ZDNet, Guardian, ITProPortal and CNET

Steven Musil / CNET:

Bitcoin-mining company Butterfly Labs shut down by FTC — Company marketed specialized computers designed to produce the cryptocurrency but delivered useless machines, according to an FTC complaint. — A bitcoin-related company that allegedly engaged in deceptive marketing …

More: Federal Trade Commission, Ars Technica, Tech Times, Guardian, ZDNet, Forbes, SlashGear, NEWSBTC and The Register

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Robinhood Raises $13M To Democratize Stock Market With Zero-Commission Trading App — Half a million people have already signed up for Robinhood's unlaunched zero-fee stock trading service. Now the startup has raised $13 million to hire talent to make its app totally secure …

More: Index Ventures, CNNMoney.com and Trends

Jessica E. Lessin / The Information:

Former Apple retail chief and ex-J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson to launch on-demand delivery service for gadgets — Former Apple Exec, J.C. Penney CEO to Launch Delivery Startup — The godfather of Apple's retail stores is trying to reinvent shopping again, this time by getting rid of stores.

More: Digital Trends, SlashGear and iDownloadBlog.com

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