Techmeme: Twitter Gives MIT $10 Million to Study the Social Impact of Tech (Joshua Brustein/Businessweek)

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October 2, 2014, 3:05 PM

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John Paczkowski / Re/code:

Apple veteran Steve Dowling chosen as Apple's interim head of PR, succeeding Katie Cotton — Code/red: Apple Taps Interim PR Boss — // HAPPENING TODAY — Rocket Internet's IPO, and it's not going well. — The 55th anniversary of the premiere of “The Twilight Zone.”

More: Macworld, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Business Insider, iMore, iPhone Hacks, MacDailyNews, Cult of Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, iDownloadBlog.com and App Advice

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: Page Six, Hollywood Reporter, CNET, Search Engine Land, SiliconBeat, Techdirt, Fortune, Plagiarism Today, Guardian, Business Insider, Gigaom, BGR, Marketing Pilgrim, Electronista and WebProNews. See also Mediagazer

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

LG website referenced software development kit for an unannounced webOS SmartWatch — 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.

Mark Sullivan / VentureBeat:

Evernote announces a new web client, artificial intelligence, better presentations — SAN FRANCISCO — The connected note taking app company Evernote today announced that it has completely redesigned its web client for simplicity and creativity. — Previously, the web client had been thought …

More: TechCrunch, ZDNet, TechCrunch, The Next Web, The Verge and Engadget

Michal Lev-Ram / Fortune:

Apple expands employee benefits, increasing parental leave and educational reimbursements — Apple unveils new perks to attract talent — Apple employees are getting a few new perks today (and no, it's not free iPhone 6s). — On Thursday morning the companys head of HR, Denise Young Smith …

More: Mercury News, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, Business Insider, MacNN, Cult of Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog and MacDailyNews

Todd Krabach / Facebook Developers:

Facebook officially launches its mobile Like Button for native iOS and Android apps — Mobile Like Button now Available to Everyone — On average, the Like and Share Buttons are viewed across almost 10 million websites daily. At f8 this year, we let developers preview the Like Button on iOS mobile devices.

More: TechCrunch, 9to5Google, VentureBeat, Inside Facebook, The Next Web and WebProNews

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

Tweets: @stevesi and @anildash

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Google Reveals ‘The Physical Web,’ A Project To Make Internet Of Things Interaction App-Less — Google's Scott Jenson, an interaction and UX designer who left the company only to return to the Chrome team last November, has revealed a project underway at the company called The Physical Web to provide …

More: GitHub, Gigaom, The Next Web, VentureBeat and Seeking Alpha

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

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, Digital Trends, MSDN Blogs, Tech Times, TechCrunch, Geek.com, Shelly Palmer, destructoid, WinBeta, MobileSyrup.com and WebProNews

Tweets: @stevecla and @wired

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, PC Magazine, PandoDaily, Techdirt, Errata Security, U-T San Diego stories, Washington Post, Geek.com, Help Net Security, Engadget, TechPresident and CNET

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 and TUAW

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

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Announces Stricter Guidelines For Research And Experiments On Its Users — After a study on whether emotional manipulation in the News Feed could make people sad turned into a PR disaster, Facebook has now set up a formal review process for pre-approving research on its users …

More: Facebook, New York Times, Re/code, The Next Web, Gizmodo, Washington Post, Gigaom, VentureBeat and The Verge

Emily Steel / New York Times:

Netflix will finance four major feature films starring Adam Sandler to appear exclusively on Netflix — With Four New Adam Sandler Films, Netflix Takes Aim at Theaters — Netflix plans to announce on Thursday that it has struck a deal with the comedian Adam Sandler to produce and star …

More: Netflix, The Verge, Variety, CNET, PC World, The Wrap, Hollywood Reporter, NPR, Gigaom, The Verge, Engadget and Forbes. Tweets: @markgurman. See also Mediagazer

Signe Brewster / Gigaom:

Heads up display startup Navdy nabs $6.5 million in seed funding to bring its GPS system to cars — Navdy will use the money to build its staff and prepare to manufacture the GPS and mobile phone notification device for shipment early next year. — Navdy, a San Francisco startup planning …

More: PE Hub Blog, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Crowdfund Insider, Re/code, Entrepreneur and silicontap.com

Joshua Brustein / Businessweek:

Twitter Gives MIT $10 Million to Study the Social Impact of Tech — Twitter is giving $10 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology over the next five years to study patterns of public discourse on the Internet, and potentially to build technology that will make online civic action more effective.

More: MIT News, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, ABC News, Reuters, PC Magazine, AllTwitter, Boing Boing, Computerworld and Gigaom. See also Mediagazer

James Temple / Re/code:

Fertility app maker Glow raises $17M Series B led by Formation 8 — Glow Raises $17 Million, Offers More Evidence That the App Helps Women Conceive — Glow, which develops apps designed to help women manage their reproductive health, has raised $17 million in a Series B round …

More: StrictlyVC, MedCity News, PE Hub Blog, TechCrunch and VentureBeat

Leslie Picker / Bloomberg:

Wayfair begins trading on Nasdaq, surges 24% to $36 per share — Wayfair Gains After Online Furniture Retailer's IPO — Wayfair Inc., the online furniture and home-goods retailer that sells brands such as Joss & Main and Birch Lane, rose in its trading debut after pricing its initial public offering above the marketed range.

More: Wall Street Journal and Reuters

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Kickstarter co-founder Perry Chen launches “Dollar a Day” email newsletter: subscribers donate $1 per day to featured nonprofits — Kickstarter Founder's Next Project Will Crowdfund Nonprofits With a Dollar a Day — Perry Chen, co-founder and former CEO of the seminal …

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

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

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