Techmeme: Dark net e-commerce is growing with more listings on Silk Road 2.0 and others than ever before (Economist)

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November 3, 2014, 6:05 AM

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Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Source: internal Apple message narrows Apple Watch launch date to “spring” 2015; customers will be able to try on different models in stores — Apple Retail SVP Angela Ahrendts: Apple Watch launching in “Spring” — The Apple Watch's launch is scheduled to occur in the “spring …

More: Gizmodo, Business Insider, Forbes, Ubergizmo, Wearables Arena, iDownloadBlog.com, iPhone Hacks, SlashGear, VentureBreak, iPhone in Canada Blog, iMore, App Advice, MacRumors and Mashable

Tweets: @llsethj and @markgurman

Kevin Roose / New York Magazine:

Why podcasts are back: shows are better and cheaper, playing smartphone audio in a car is easy — What's Behind the Great Podcast Renaissance? — The mid-aughts audio scene is making a big comeback. — Shares — In 2001, Steve Jobs announced the original iPod …

More: AVC and Conversation Agent. Tweets: @pkedrosky, @davewiner, @npraudie, @stevesi, @geoffgolberg, @borthwick, @davidleeking and @jason. See also Mediagazer

Danny Crichton / TechCrunch:

As the biggest winners get bigger, VCs accelerate their valuations of companies like Slack — Fundraising Acceleration Is The New VC Investment Thesis — There was a quite a jolt on Friday from the news that Slack, a company whose eponymous enterprise communications platform …

Tweets: @stewart, @joel_withrow and @mims

Micah Lee / The Intercept:

How Micah Lee securely connected Edward Snowden with Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald — Ed Snowden Taught Me To Smuggle Secrets Past Incredible Danger. Now I Teach You. — Late on the evening of January 11, 2013, someone sent me an interesting email.

Tweets: @lorenzofb, @maassp, @jilliancyork, @matthew_d_green and @a_greenberg. See also Mediagazer

Economist:

Dark net e-commerce is growing with more listings on Silk Road 2.0 and others than ever before — The Amazons of the dark net — Business is thriving on the anonymous internet, despite the efforts of law enforcers — THE first ever e-commerce transaction, conducted by students …

Tweets: @misterburton, @ryanxcharles and @declanm

Liam Spradlin / Android Police:

Gmail 5.0 With Exchange Support And Material Design Has Landed — The day is finally upon us - the Gmail 5.0 APK has landed, and we have it for your (production-signed) downloading pleasure. — As we've expected since we first saw the app more than a week ago, the new Gmail is very... “material.”

More: BGR, PC World, Ubergizmo, SlashGear, Gigaom, Android and Me, TechnoBuffalo, Engadget, Android Central and 9to5Google

Kristen Schweizer / Bloomberg:

Publicis Buys Sapient for $3.7 Billion in Digital Ad Push — Publicis Groupe SA (PUB), agreed to pay $3.7 billion for Sapient (SAPE) Corp., pushing the third-largest advertising company deeper into digital offerings and the U.S. as it moves past the distraction of a failed merger with Omnicom Group Inc.

More: TechCrunch, Business Insider, BBC, Reuters and Wall Street Journal

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Microsoft stops selling consumer versions of Windows 7 to computer makers — Microsoft today stopped providing Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, and Windows 7 Ultimate licenses to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including its PC partners and systems builders.

More: Forbes, TechRadar.com, Deccan Chronicle, InformationWeek, Ars Technica, Windows Phone Central and TechnoBuffalo

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Windows 8 and 8.1 finally pass 15% market share, Windows XP drops below 20% mark

More: The Register, BetaNews, Ubergizmo, PCMag UK, CNET and WinBeta. Thanks:@epro

Stuart Elliott / New York Times:

CNET's print magazine to debut on Monday, part of an effort to become a multiplatform brand — Technology Website CNET to Jump From Screen to Page — A LEADING technology website, CNET, is expanding into a platform that its users praise as portable, accessible and affordable.

Tweets: @harrymccracken, @inafried, @danackerman and @caro

Wall Street Journal:

New EU Commissioner for Digital Economy is considering “Google-tax”, EU-wide data protection agency, was strong Google antitrust settlement opponent — New EU Digital Chief Floats Tough Anti-Google Regulations — Incoming European Commissioner for the Digital Economy …

Tweets: @wagner_digital and @wsjd

Benedict Evans:

With Pay, Apple partners with and simultaneously destabilizes payment incumbents like Chase — Apple Pay, partnerships and software as disruption — With Apple Pay just launched and some sort of TV product floating on the horizon, it strikes me that there are three ways to think about how Apple changes industries.

Tweets: @yougo, @startupljackson and @benbajarin

Don Clark / Wall Street Journal:

Japan's MegaChips acquires SiTime for $200M, a sign VCs can make money on chip startups — Chip Deal Provides a Ray of Hope for Silicon Startups — Venture capitalists have a well-known aversion to putting money in chip startups. The fear is frequently traced to the heavy cost …

Tweets: @donal888

Liam Spradlin / Android Police:

Google's Copresence Looks Like A Contactless, Cross-Platform Version Of Android Beam — Several months ago, we discussed something called Nearby, a project that - at the time - seemed to be Google's effort to let “people, places, and things” know when a user is, well, nearby.

More: TechCrunch, Electronista, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, Engadget, The Verge, TechnoBuffalo, MobileSyrup.com, Digital Trends, Gigaom, Techaeris, Ubergizmo, AndroidHeadlines.com, Phandroid, BGR, AndroidGuys, 9to5Mac and SlashGear

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