Techmeme: Sony to shut down Playstation Home virtual social hub in March 2015, after six years (Nathan Grayson/Kotaku)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News Contact Editors

September 28, 2014, 7:20 PM

Top News

Kim Masters / Hollywood Reporter:

Japan's SoftBank reportedly in talks to acquire DreamWorks Animation in a deal valued at $3.4B — Source: DreamWorks Animation in Sale Talks With Japan's SoftBank (Exclusive) — The company, which has seen up-and-down box office numbers of late, would be valued at $3.4 billion, a source tells THR

More: Reuters, CNET, USA Today, PC World, Bloomberg, The Verge, Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat and Engadget. See also Mediagazer

Erin Griffith / Fortune:

Ello plans to charge for features, like a one-time fee of $2 to manage two different accounts — An audacious plan to fix the Internet's original sin — The social networking site Ello is just five weeks old, but damn if it hasnt made an impression. In the past week …

More: New York Times, Mustapha Hamoui's Geek …, PC Magazine, Not Your Ex/Rotic, Marketing Land and Mashable. Tweets: @djspooky

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt: Competition Between Apple and Google is More Brutal Than Ever — Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt and former SVP of products, Jonathan Rosenberg, recently published a new book entitled “How Google Works, which explores topics like corporate culture …

More: Bloomberg, Economist, Business Insider, Financial Times, Guardian, VentureBeat, Re/code, BGR, ZDNet, Cult of Mac, Tech Times, AppleInsider, Business Insider, 9to5Google and Guardian

Tweets: @dujkan and @amir

Michael Crider / Android Police:

AT&T Promotion Doubles Some Mobile Share Value Data Plans (From 30GB Up To 100GB) From Now Until October 31st — Are you and your family so-called “data hounds,” who need much, much more mobile data per month than the average user? Then for God's sake, avoid the limited plans on AT&T and Verizon …

More: Engadget, about.att.com, BGR, MacRumors, CNET, 9to5Mac, Bloomberg, MacNN, VentureBeat, The Verge, DailyTech and PC Magazine

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

Oracle to announce it will offer its database and Java in the cloud, taking on Microsoft Azure — For Larry Ellison's Oracle, the Cloud Beckons — Business software giant Oracle kicks off its massive OpenWorld conference in San Francisco tonight with a keynote address by founder and newly named CTO Larry Ellison.

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

Android Auto developer docs show off more UI, detail 3rd-party apps — An example of a generic interface that Google designs. Developers can customize the colors and icons. — 7 more images in gallery — Google just released a set of Android Auto developer documents to developer.android.com …

More: Android Police and Liliputing

Nathan Grayson / Kotaku:

Sony to shut down Playstation Home virtual social hub in March 2015, after six years — PlayStation Home Finally Closing Down — Goodnight, sweet prince. You were... you, um... well at least you tried. — PlayStation Home, Sony's long-running (though never exactly beloved) …

More: PlayStation Home Update, Engadget, Electronista, The Next Web, GameSpot, Joystiq, VG247, IGN, Eurogamer.net, PC Magazine and Forbes

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

RIAA: revenues from music streaming services have replaced those lost from online sales — Music Download Sales Drop, Replaced by Streaming: RIAA — For a very long time, any report on the state of the music business sounded like this: Digital download sales are rising, but not enough to make up for the drop in CD sales.

More: New York Times, AllAccess.com, Billboard, Billboard and CNET

Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:

The history of the “right to be forgotten”, and a look inside Google's removal process — Google and the Right to Be Forgotten — In Europe, the right to be forgotten trumps the Internet. … “We should support the local farm as well as the local confectioner.” — »

More: ROUGH TYPE. Tweets: @veorq and @kashhill

Casey Johnston / Ars Technica:

Innocuous LGBT sites are often blocked on Wi-Fi provided by businesses like Gogo — In 2014, who decides to ban a gay website from in-flight Wi-Fi? — If you were gay and a recent passenger on American Airlines, you might have used in-flight Wi-Fi provided by Gogo just like any other customer.

Tweets: @arstechnica and @caseyjohnston

Ryan Vlastelica / Reuters:

Instagram reportedly blocked in China amid Hong Kong protests — (Reuters) - Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc (FB.O), has been blocked in China, according to numerous reports, including from Hong Kong-based reporters with the New York Times.

More: The Verge, Engadget, Gizmodo, Business Insider, NBC News and Vox

Reuters:

Alibaba pays $459 million for stake in Chinese hotel tech company — Traders work on the floor as they wait for a final price on the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. initial public offering (IPO) under the ticker “BABA”, at the New York Stock Exchange in New York September 19, 2014.

Tweets: @jbaksht

Nicole Perlroth / New York Times:

Unpaid programmer who maintains Bash may have inadvertently introduced Shellshock bug in 1992 — Security Experts Expect ‘Shellshock’ Software Bug in Bash to Be Significant — Long before the commercial success of the Internet, Brian J. Fox invented one of its most widely used tools.

More: The Register, Inc.com, Tech Times and ABC News

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

Experts: Shellshock is just partially patched, underlying problem with Bash remains unsolved

More: Indistinguishable from Random and Ars Technica

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:

Fast, affordable law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!

Equals:

Stop vibe coding analytics — Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards. Build once, iterate for years.

Zoho:

Zoho Mail MCP: Make your inbox work for you — Maya is the head of operations at a 500-person B2B software company. She's sharp, she's busy, and she starts every morning the same way-with her coffee, laptop, inbox.Not to work.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:

Writer's May Habib: Building AI Tools For Corporate 'Normal People' The Labs Leave Behind

Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.

Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.

The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:

A Nick, Dick, and Paul Buffet!

Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.

Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.

Big Technology Podcast:

Anthropic's Labs Lead On Fable's Capabilities + Building AI-Native Products — With Mike Krieger

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Great Chat:

How much data do we actually want about our bodies?

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Training Data:

Memory and Continual Learning: Engram's Dan Biderman and Jessy Lin

Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.

Subscribe to Training Data.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:20 PM ET, September 28, 2014.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.