Techmeme @ 8:00 PM ET, September 25, 2014

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September 25, 2014, 8:00 PM

Top News

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Apple: Bending in iPhone 6 Plus From Normal Use ‘Extremely Rare’, Only 9 Customers Have Complained — Apple has commented on the ongoing complaints about the iPhone 6 Plus bending in user pockets, telling CNBC that the new iPhones include steel/titanium inserts to reinforce stress locations …

More: Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney.com, Ars Technica, Forbes, PC Magazine, AppleInsider, Computerworld, The Next Web, 9to5Mac, TechSpot, Gigaom, Neowin, Washington Post, Engadget, Gizmodo, TIME, iMore, GamesIndustry.biz, The Mac Observer, iPhone Hacks, TechOne3, iDownloadBlog.com, Apfelpage, Cult of Mac and BGR

Tweets: @cnbctech, @cnbctech and @patrickklepek

Josh Lowensohn / The Verge:

A behind-the-scenes look at Apple's iPhone testing facilities — Inside the building where Apple tortures the iPhone 6 — A few blocks away from Apple's bustling campus in Cupertino is a rather nondescript building. Inside is absolutely the last place on earth you'd want to be if you were an iPhone.

More: CNBC, Re/code, Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, Business Insider, AppleInsider, MacRumors, The Next Web, 9to5Mac, Ubergizmo and Mashable

Tweets: @pkedrosky and @sharonprofis

The Huffington Post:

FBI discussed marketing of device encryption settings with Google and Apple; director says he's “very concerned” — FBI Director James Comey ‘Very Concerned’ About New Apple, Google Privacy Features — WASHINGTON — FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that he was …

Gail Sullivan / Washington Post:

Social network Ello, which unlike Facebook does not enforce real names, sees rapid growth amid interest from LGBT community — Social network Ello gets boost after Facebook boots drag queens — “You are not a product,” its manifesto declares. It decries social networks that track and record …

More: Marketing Land, Betabeat, Re/code, Valleywag, Gizmodo, ReadWrite, Gigaom, Telegraph, TechCrunch, Network World, Business Insider, Medium, PC Magazine, MTV, POPSUGAR, MarketWatch, Not Your Ex/Rotic, InvestorPlace, SocialTimes, SFist, BetaBoston, Tech Times, PC Magazine and The Independent

Tweets: @twoscooters, @samfbiddle, @eringriffith, @joshconstine and @papapishu

Andy Baio / ello.co:

With its $435K seed funding, Ello is unlikely to sustain its “ad-free” model, and will need to turn a profit — Building something like Ello costs money. They have a team of at least seven people, and have worked on it for months. That doesn't come cheap.

Tweets: @joshconstine, @exiledsurfer, @scottbeale, @sinequanon, @benjaminjackson, @bryce, @mmasnick and @kimcooper

Stephen Hall / 9to5Google:

Motorola Shamu (Nexus 6/X): 5.92" screen, 2560 x 1440 QHD resolution, 498 PPI display, 3,200 mAh battery — Exclusive: This is ‘Shamu,’ Motorola's upcoming Nexus 6/X — Yes, it looks like a Moto X. But it has a 5.9-inch screen. And lowered volume/lock buttons.

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

New Mac Mini Finally Coming in October Alongside New iPads? — At just under two years since its last update, the Mac mini seems to have become the forgotten part of Apple's Mac lineup, with a number of fans of the small desktop waiting for any word of a potential update.

More: AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, TechnoBuffalo, Redmond Pie and SlashGear

Rachel Whetstone / Google Europe Blog:

News Corp says Google makes a platform for piracy, stifles competition, more; Google responds — Dear Rupert — Last week, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp sent an open letter to the European Commission complaining about Google. We wanted to share our perspective so you can judge the arguments on their merits.

More: CNET, BetaNews, Marketing Land, The Register, Guardian, Financial Times, Channel EYE, City A.M., Bloomberg, Independent.ie, 9to5Google, CNBC, Inquirer, TorrentFreak, Talking New Media, Hollywood Reporter, SlashGear, Fortune and WebProNews

Tweets: @wblau, @bbckamal and @dannysullivan

See also Mediagazer

Dell Cameron / The Daily Dot:

Developer reported iCloud brute-force password hack to Apple in March 2014, months before Celebgate — Apple knew of iCloud security hole 6 months before Celebgate — Apple knew as early as March 2014 of a security hole that left the personal data of iCloud users vulnerable …

More: SFist, Ubergizmo, MacDailyNews, App Advice, iPhone in Canada Blog, TUAW, PandoDaily, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, Cult of Mac, TechSpot, Electronista, BGR, Geeky Gadgets and ITProPortal

Liam Tung / ZDNet:

First attacks using Bash bug discovered in the wild, available patch only a partial fix — First attacks using ‘shellshock’ Bash bug discovered — Summary: Security researchers have found the first malware using the new Bash bug. — Liam Tung — Within a day of the Bash bug dubbed 'shellshock …

More: US-CERT, PC World, Krebs on Security, Digital Trends, Wired, Ars Technica, Cloud Security Alliance Blog, Guardian, BBC, The Daily Dot, ReadWrite, blog.trendmicro.com and Graham Cluley. Tweets: @yinettesys

Robert Graham / Errata Security:

Bash “shellshock” bug is wormable, a quick scan to uncover vulnerable servers has revealed

More: Troy Hunt's Blog, Engadget, The Akamai Blog, Gigaom, Information Security, blog.trendmicro.com, Security Watch, eWeek, CSO Online Dave Lewis, The Register, MacDailyNews, Mashable, PandoDaily, Washington Post, InfoWorld and FierceEnterpriseCommunications …

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:

Hootsuite raises $60M at a $1B valuation, acquires Zeetl to integrate voice calls in social media — Hootsuite Reaches $1 Billion Valuation in Latest Funding Round — Hootsuite, the Vancouver-based startup known for its social media management dashboards, has raised $60 million in new venture funding, CEO Ryan Holmes told Re/code.

More: Hootsuite Media, Hootsuite Social Media …, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Marketing Land, ZDNet, PE Hub Blog, AllFacebook, Techvibes Global News, SiliconANGLE, AllTwitter, GeekWire, VentureBeat and TechCrunch

Aaron Couch / Hollywood Reporter:

Twitter to serve targeted ads for movies, beta testing will begin in the next few months — Twitter to Launch Targeted Ads for Movies (Exclusive) — Studios wanting to advertise an upcoming space epic could target users tweeting about ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and Groot

More: Marketing Land, TIME, AllTwitter, InvestorPlace and Los Angeles Times. Tweets: @tperzyk. See also Mediagazer

NPD Group:

US retail PC sales grew 3% in Back-to-School period led by Macs and Chromebooks, after declining 2.5% last year — Apple and Chrome Boost U.S. Retail PC Back-to-School Sales — U.S. consumer retail PC sales grew almost 3 percent during the 10 week Back-to-School period …

More: BGR, TechSpot, CIO.com, eWeek and 9to5Mac

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:

Facebook Is Partnering With Stripe to Power “Buy” Button — Facebook first began testing a “Buy” button within News Feed in July, and payments startup Stripe has been tasked with powering the technology, Re/code has learned. — The “Buy” button, which allows Facebook users to purchase goods …

Jeff Barr / Amazon Web Services (AWS):

Amazon confirms EC2 reboot due to Xen issues, says less than 10% of instances will be affected — EC2 Maintenance Update — Today I've received a few questions about a maintenance update we're performing late this week through early next week, so I thought it would be useful to provide an update.

More: Forbes, Data Center Knowledge, Gigaom, Network World, The Register and Securosis Highlights

Thorsten Von Eicken / RightScale Blog:

AWS to roll out urgent patch, will reboot the vast majority of EC2 instances beginning Sept 26

More: Ars Technica, CIO.com, ZDNet, SiliconANGLE and Data Center Knowledge

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Netflix subscribers stream more than 90 minutes a day globally, 45 GB of data every month — Binge alert: Subscribers now watch more than 90 minutes of Netflix every single day — Just one more episode: All of your binge watching is adding up, to an average of 93 minutes of Netflix viewing per day …

More: TDG Research, Digital Trends and Seeking Alpha. See also Mediagazer

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

FWD.us president Joe Green pushed out, Todd Schulte becomes acting president — Joe Green Pushed Out at FWD.us — Joe Green, the president of FWD.us, has resigned from the political organization that is backed by a coterie of tech luminaries, most prominently Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

More: FWD.us

Stacey Higginbotham / Gigaom:

Insteon integrates with Microsoft Cortana for voice control in the home — “Insteon, I'm home!” With those words, an Insteon home automation system and a Microsoft Windows Phone 8.1 handset, you could unlock your doors and turn on your lights. — If you have Insteon gear set up in your home …

More: INSTEON, Wearable World News, SlashGear and SYS-CON MEDIA

Lora Kolodny / Wall Street Journal:

FiveStars Raises $26M to Help Small Businesses Do Loyalty Rewards … FiveStars Inc. raised $26 million to help small businesses offer loyalty rewards programs that are on par with those offered by their biggest competitors, like retail giants Starbucks and Whole Foods Market .

More: Gigaom, TechCrunch, VentureBeat and Re/code

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

DHL Paketkopter drone will deliver medications to small North Sea island beginning this week — DHL will do delivery-by-drone, but only for one tiny European island — While Netflix laughs, Amazon petitions and Google runs tests in New Zealand, DHL is about to actually launch drone delivery for its customers — sort of.

More: Reuters, DHL, The Local, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, Daily Mail, timesofmalta.com, Wired.co.uk, The Verge, UPI and Pocket-lint. Tweets: @themattgould

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