Techmeme: Creators of ‘Room’ say Facebook copied their chatroom app, threaten legal action (Jordan Kahn/9to5Mac)

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October 24, 2014, 3:45 PM

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Tiina Jaatinen / Conversations:

Nokia Lumia to become Microsoft Lumia; Nokia branding to continue on entry-level phones — Say hello to Microsoft Lumia — When we announced that the Nokia Devices & Services business would become part of Microsoft, we also shared that Lumia, our smartphone brand, would become part of the Microsoft family.

Hannah Karp / Wall Street Journal:

Apple's music sales down 13% this year; Beats Music to relaunch as part of iTunes in 2015 — Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales — Dive of at Least 13% in Download Sales Underscores Music Industry's Fragile Recovery

More: Wsj.com, The Verge, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, MacRumors, AppleInsider, iMore, Business Insider, The Next Web, 9to5Mac, iLounge, MacDailyNews, SlashGear and Seeking Alpha. Tweets: @joshconstine

John Markoff / New York Times:

Google VP Alan Eustace breaks Felix Baumgartner's world record for highest-altitude jump — Alan Eustace Jumps From Stratosphere, Breaking Felix Baumgartner's World Record — Credit: J. Martin Harris Photography/PSDC — ROSWELL, N.M. — A well-known computer scientist parachuted …

More: 9to5Google, Engadget, Business Insider, The Verge, Gizmodo, Re/code and SlashGear

Tweets: @mattnorlander, @levie, @b_fung, @mhelft, @msquinn, @parislemon and @timoreilly

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Deezer Buys Stitcher, Adds 35K Talk Radio Shows And Podcasts To Its Music Platform — Deezer, the Paris-based music streaming service that competes against the likes of Spotify and Rdio, is switching up its game in the battle for more differentiation, more users and a higher profile in the U.S …

Kelly Hodgkins / MacRumors:

AT&T Locking Apple Interchangeable SIMs in iPad Air 2 and Retina Mini 3 — Apple's new Apple SIM card in the iPad Air 2 and the Retina iPad mini 3 is designed to be universal, usable across a variety of wireless carriers in the US and UK, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and UK's EE.

More: Official Apple Support, Re/code, The Verge, TechCrunch, iMore, Ars Technica, Daring Fireball and SlashGear

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon Quietly Launches A Functional App Store Within Its Main Android Application — Until recently, if you wanted to install an application from Amazon's own Appstore onto your Android device, you would have to install the Amazon Appstore app separately. And this is a bit of a hassle …

More: The Verge, The Next Web and SlashGear. Thanks:@johnnotjon

Agam Shah / PC World:

Google to build Play-like hardware store for Project Ara

More: Gotta Be Mobile, Gizmodo, Upstart Business Journal, BGR, Fudzilla, PhoneDog, TechRadar.com, GSMArena.com, MobileSyrup.com, TechnoBuffalo, Pocket-lint, Phandroid, Engadget, Ubergizmo, PhoneDog.com and Android and Me

Brad Stone / Businessweek:

Only employees, not Wall Street, can pressure Bezos to slow spending on new Amazon initiatives — Amazon Employees, Not Investors, Will Have to Pressure Jeff Bezos to Slow Down — Thursday's quarterly earnings report from Amazon spooked Wall Street. The 95 cents per share loss …

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:

Amazon Takes $170 Million Writedown on Weak Fire Phone Sales

More: 9to5Google, ABC News, CNET, Gigaom Research, CNET, Wall Street Journal, TechnoBuffalo, VentureBeat, The Next Web, ITProPortal, BetaNews, GeekWire, Neowin, Ubergizmo, The Register, Quartz, ReadWrite, AdExchanger, TechCrunch, SlashGear, Business Insider, Engadget, Android Central, Amazon.com and CNBC

Tweets: @delrey and @asadotzler

John Cook / GeekWire:

Amazon posts $437 million loss, worse than Wall Street feared

More: Re/code, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Re/code, ZDNet, BuzzFeed, ZDNet, Electronista, Gigaom, Bloomberg, Reuters, WebProNews, The Verge and internetretailer.com. See also Mediagazer

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Google adds information about video games to Knowledge Graph in search results — Google search finally adds information about video games — Google has expanded its search engine with the ability to recognize video games. If your query references a game, a new Knowledge Graph panel …

More: Search Engine Land, Android Police, Canadianreviewer.com, 9to5Google, AndroidHeadlines.com, Google and GamePolitics blogs

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Nest Acquires Home Automation Hub Revolv, but Will Stop Selling It — Nest today said it had acquired Revolv, the smart home automation devicemaker, for its developer platform. — The deal closed this morning with undisclosed terms. It wasn't about adding the Revolv home automation hub …

More: Revolv, VentureBeat, The Next Web, The Verge and Droid Life. Tweets: @mikeisaac

Scott Gilbertson / Ars Technica:

Ten years of Ubuntu: How Linux's beloved newcomer became its criticized king — It may not be Superman, but Ubuntu has done wonders for Linux. — Nicolás Demarchi — In October of 2004, a new Linux distro appeared on the scene with a curious name—Ubuntu.

More: The Register and Mike Linksvayer

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

Creators of ‘Room’ say Facebook copied their chatroom app, threaten legal action — Facebook's new ‘Rooms’ app Room Inc's ‘Room’ app — Following the launch of Facebook's new “Rooms” app for iPhone, the company behind a similar piece of software called “Room” …

More: Rooms

BuzzFeed:

NSA's director of SIGINT leaves position after reports of a potential conflict of interest — Exclusive: Shakeup At NSA After BuzzFeed News Reports On Potential Conflict Of Interest — Top National Security Agency official Teresa Shea is leaving her position after BuzzFeed News reported on her and her husband's financial interests.

Tweets: @schoofsfeed and @20committee

Sam Gutelle / Tubefilter:

Tumblr Updates Video Player With Auto Play, Vine-Like Loops, And More — Recently, rumors have circulated about Yahoo's plan to turn Tumblr into a potential YouTube competitor. For that to happen, Tumblr's in-house video player need to be on par with its rivals, and the blogging site seems to understand that.

More: Tumblr Staff, The Verge, New Media Rockstars, Mashable, Fortune, Variety and The Next Web. Tweets: @joshconstine

Todd Shields / Bloomberg:

U.S. TV Airwaves Auction for Smartphones Delayed to 2016 — The Federal Communications Commission delayed to early 2016 an auction of U.S. airwaves surrendered by television stations that's intended to help feed the growing number of smartphones and tablets.

More: FCC.gov, Re/code, Reuters, Broadcasting & Cable, FierceWireless, Wall Street Journal, Seeking Alpha, Benzinga and TmoNews

Roger Cheng / CNET:

Sprint's iPhone for Life plan now offers annual upgrades and adds iPhone 5S option — Sprint's iPhone for life program to offer annual upgrades — The carrier ups the ante again with its iPhone-leasing program that starts at $30 a month and allows customers to swap in a new device each year.

More: iMore, Wireless Week, 9to5Mac, PhoneDog.com, App Advice and Electronista. Thanks:@rogerwcheng

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