Techmeme: After Quietly Acquiring SnapSaves, Groupon Launches Snap, Paying You To Shop (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

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October 2, 2014, 12:15 PM

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Sébastien Page / iDownloadBlog.com:

Apple launches tool to check Activation Lock status; lets you see if an iPhone/iPad is stolen — Apple releases tool to check the Activation Lock status of iOS devices — Apple recently released a tool that lets anyone check the Activation Lock status of iOS devices.

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Google threatened with $100M lawsuit for failure to remove nude images of hacked celebrities — Celebrities Threaten “Despicable” Google for “Facilitating” Hacked Nude Photos — In a letter that rips Google for acting “like the NFL” and turning a blind eye, a lawyer representing celebrities warns of consequences

More: Emily Smith, Hollywood Reporter, Gigaom, Guardian, Fortune, BGR, Business Insider, WebProNews, Electronista and Marketing Pilgrim. See also Mediagazer

iClarified:

iPhone 6+ with 802.11ac shows substantial speed improvements over iPhone 5s's 802.11n — iPhone Wi-Fi Speed Test: 802.11ac iPhone 6 Plus vs. 802.11n iPhone 5s [Video] — We've posted a new video test comparing the Wi-Fi speeds of the 802.11ac iPhone 6 Plus versus the 802.11n iPhone 5s.

More: MacRumors, Patently Apple, TUAW and CNET

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

LG is working on a webOS SmartWatch — “LG SmartWatch gets more powerful with the new Web-centric platform” — The world's favorite abortive mobile operating system, webOS, refuses to go away quietly. After being open-sourced by HP and then sold off to LG, webOS is now apparently returning …

More: Inquirer, PC World, CNET, Gigaom, Re/code, Electronista, Gizmodo, Android Police, Phandroid, TechnoBuffalo, The Next Web, DailyTech, Engadget, MobileSyrup.com, Ubergizmo, SlashGear, Pocketnow and Android Central

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:

Pioneer finally brings CarPlay equipment to mass market, Spotify app update adds CarPlay support — The CarPlay situation has been murky. Since being announced in the spring, most manufacturers have been quiet on when CarPlay equipment will actually be available to purchase.

More: The Verge, Macworld, ZDNet, AppleInsider, Gigaom, Engadget, MacRumors, TUAW, iMore, The Next Web, Electronista, iDownloadBlog.com and SlashGear

Dave Maass / Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Local police in US giving families free ComputerCop keylogging software in “Internet Safety” initiative — ComputerCOP: The Dubious ‘Internet Safety Software’ That Hundreds of Police Agencies Have Distributed to Families — ComputerCOP in Maricopa County, Arizona

More: Wired, Techdirt, Washington Post, Engadget, Geek.com, U-T San Diego stories, TechPresident, Help Net Security, CNET, Ars Technica and ReadWrite

Paul Graham:

Startups are very counterintuitive, and you can't always trust your instincts — Before the Startup — (This essay is derived from a guest lecture in Sam Altman's startup class at Stanford. It's intended for college students, but much of it is applicable to potential founders at other ages.)

More: AVC and Beyond Search. Tweets: @mattrosoff, @farzad_md, @psturrock, @tomiogeron, @dtunkelang, @mirrorobin, @chr1sa, @robwalling, @pejmannozad, @cdixon, @foundersatwork, @ericries, @sea, @flyosity, @cdixon and @stevecheney

Ellen Huet / Forbes:

After a hammer attack on a rider, some lawyers believe Uber could be liable, despite its ToS — Uber Rider Might Lose An Eye From Driver's Hammer Attack. Could Uber Be Held Liable? — Roberto Chicas, a 35-year-old San Francisco bartender, climbed into an UberX car around 2 a.m. last week and expected to get home safely.

More: Washington Post and Valleywag. Tweets: @ellenhuet, @xor, @kashhill and @ellenhuet

Nick Statt / CNET:

Microsoft may have named it Windows 10 to maintain compatibility with app software from '90s — Is this why Microsoft named it Windows 10? — Seemingly everyone on the Net has a theory as to why Microsoft skipped the name “Windows 9” and jumped to 10. Here's one explanation that actually makes sense.

More: PC World, Gizmodo, Inquirer, VentureBreak, TechSpot, Engadget, InfoQ, Neowin, WinBeta, Ubergizmo, Tim Anderson's ITWriting and Gizmodo UK

Tweets: @stevesi and @anildash

Mark Hearn / 9to5Google:

Google's Sundar Pichai: Drive at 240m active users, Chromebooks approaching 50% US EDU market (Video) — During its Atmosphere Live event, Google's Sundar Pichai announced that the company's Drive cloud storage platform has over 240 million active users, up 190 from million since June.

More: The Next Web. Thanks:@jordankahn

Tim Moynihan / Wired:

Windows 10: A step back for the interface but a leap forward in strategy — Ambitious Windows 10 Is an Attack Disguised as a Retreat — From the early looks of Windows 10, it's a long-overdue concession to the fact that Windows users prefer the way things used to be.

More: Blogging Windows, MSDN Blogs, Gigaom, The Verge, Tech Times, TechCrunch, Geek.com, Shelly Palmer, destructoid, WinBeta, WebProNews, MobileSyrup.com and Business Insider

Tweets: @wired and @stevecla

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

Marc Newson says his role at Apple is only part-time for a specific project — In an interview with dezeen.com, designer and new Apple employee Marc Newson spoke about his latest project with Heineken while providing a little bit more insight into his new role at Apple.

More: Dezeen, MacRumors, TechnoBuffalo, Business Insider, iMore, MacNN, MacDailyNews, Cult of Mac, Business Insider, AppleInsider and App Advice. Tweets: @markgurman

Ian Kar / Bank Innovation:

Sources: Apple Pay to be included in iOS 8.1, scheduled to be released October 20 — Apple Pay to Be Included in iOS 8.1, Sources Confirm — Based on multiple sources close to Apple, Bank Innovation has learned that iOS 8.1 will include Apple Pay, and the current expected timetable for the public release is schedule for October 20.

More: Macworld, BGR, PC Magazine, Telegraph, The Mac Observer, O'Grady's PowerPage, Mashable, 9to5Mac, Phones Review, Gotta Be Mobile, The VAR Guy, bgr.in, Ubergizmo, Pocketnow and TechnoBuffalo

Tweets: @kimzetter and @counternotions

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Kickstarter Founder's Next Project Will Crowdfund Nonprofits With a Dollar a Day — Perry Chen, co-founder and former CEO of the seminal crowdfunding site Kickstarter, has dreamed up another way to mobilize people to make something happen. — His new project, Dollar a Day …

More: Gigaom, Shelly Palmer, TechCrunch, Crowdfund Insider, Digital Trends, Boing Boing, Laughing Squid and Yahoo Tech. Tweets: @bryce

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Big Data Analytics Go Large: GoodData Gets $25.7M Led By Intel, Eyes Up 2016 IPO — GoodData, a cloud-based big data analytics firm, is rising higher into the clouds itself. Today it is announcing a $25.7 million round of funding led by Intel Capital, with participation …

More: VentureBeat, SiliconANGLE, pevc.dowjones.com, Forbes and PE Hub Blog. Thanks:@mayarahkonen

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

After Quietly Acquiring SnapSaves, Groupon Launches Snap, Paying You To Shop — Groupon continues apace with its plans to evolve from an online daily deals giant into a wider e-commerce player, with an emphasis on mobile and local purchases. Today the company is launching a new app called Snap …

More: GeekWire, AppleInsider, The Next Web, Re/code and WebProNews

Stuart Dredge / Guardian:

Angry Birds maker Rovio lays off 130 staff and tries to ‘reignite growth’ — Layoffs affect 16% of Finnish firm's workforce as it focuses on its games, media and consumer products businesses — Angry Birds still has 200m active players, but its growth has been slower than expected

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Chegg Buys Internships.com for $11 Million in Cash and Stock — Chegg said today it has bought Internships.com for $10 million in cash and $1 million in stock of the education hub website. “With this acquisition, Chegg is poised to disrupt the highly inefficient and fragmented $5 billion …

More: Chegg

Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:

Yelp, TripAdvisor, others, launch “Focus on the User” campaign against Google search results — Focus On User Group Uses Google Algorithm To Attack Map Pack — Yesterday a new anti-Google consortium called “Focus on the User” launched a website that cleverly uses Google's own words …

More: Techdirt, Business Insider and Financial Times. Tweets: @sengineland. Thanks:@jeremys

Kevin Fitchard / Gigaom:

At the 11th hour, Verizon decides to cancel its controversial throttling plans — Verizon's “network optimization” policy would have restricted speeds for its heaviest unlimited data users when the LTE network was congested. But Big Red is now nixing the controversial plan.

More: The Verge, Ars Technica, CNET, O'Grady's PowerPage, TechSpot, GamePolitics blogs, Phandroid, ReadWrite, Ubergizmo, Electronista, AppleInsider, 9to5Google, Android Central, MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com, DailyTech, SlashGear and Gizmodo

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