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May 12, 2015, 5:55 AM

Top News

Chris Urmson / Backchannel:

Google's self-driving car head says after 1.7M miles, just 11 minor accidents have resulted, none Google's fault — The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car — After 1.7 million miles we've learned a lot—not just about our system but how humans drive, too.

Justin Pritchard / Associated Press:

Of nearly 50 self-driving vehicles tested on public roads in California since September, three Google cars and one Delphi car were involved in minor accidents — AP Exclusive: Self-driving cars getting dinged in California — 3 photos — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Four of the nearly 50 self-driving cars …

More: Slate, The Verge, Gizmodo, Telegraph, Associated Press, Ubergizmo, The Register, Slashdot, PC Magazine, SiliconBeat, Pocket-lint, Consumerist, SlashGear, Fusion, Tech News Today, WebProNews, International Business Times, Re/code and Washington Post. Tweets: @mikeisaac

Periscope / Medium:

Periscope update adds an option to sign up without a Twitter account using your phone number — Six Weeks In — The past six weeks have been unforgettable. Thank you for your global perspective, for your thoughtful feedback, and inspiring ideas. We've shipped three updates since our last blog post …

More: Engadget, TechCrunch, ITProPortal, Fone Arena, The Verge, BetaNews, The Next Web, 9to5Mac and Mashable

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Warner Music Says Streaming Revenue Has Passed Downloads — Here's another sign that the music industry has shifted from selling songs to selling subscriptions: Warner Music Group says that last quarter, streaming music revenue passed revenue from selling downloads.

More: Warner Music Group, Business Insider, AppleInsider, SlashGear, Patently Apple, MacRumors, Ubergizmo, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch and RAIN News

Brendan Klinkenberg / BuzzFeed:

Instagram says it erred in shutting down The Shade Room, a TMZ-style publication that had 700k followers — Instagram Says Shutting Down The Shade Room Was A Mistake — The social photo sharing service says it wrongly removed The Shade Room account, but refuses to elaborate.

Emily Guendelsberger / Philadelphia City Paper:

Reporter goes undercover as Uber driver, makes $9.34/hour, notes orientation video just 13 minutes — I was an undercover Uber driver — Two good-looking young strangers are having an amazing conversation in the backseat of my car. I'm eavesdropping so hard I nearly run a red light.

Tweets: @danieldenvir

Deborah Gage / Wall Street Journal:

Database company MarkLogic announces $102M round led by Wellington Management at a pre-money $1B valuation — Database Vendor MarkLogic Joins Billion-Dollar Club With New Funding … MarkLogic Corp. has joined the ranks of the world's most valuable private companies …

More: VentureBeat, Forbes, SiliconANGLE and Business Insider

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Rackspace Plunges 11% On Lackluster Q2 Guidance — After reporting its earnings, including a profit meet and a small revenue miss, shares of Rackspace are down sharply in after-hours trading. The cloud-focused company's guidance for its current quarter failed to match expectations …

More: ZDNet, Tech Trader Daily, The Register and Fortune

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:

SEC filing shows Twitter paid a total of $86.6M to acquire Periscope and social media talent agency Niche — Twitter Paid Over $86 Million for Periscope and Niche — Twitter spent more than $86 million to acquire livestreaming app Periscope and social media talent agency Niche earlier this year.

More: CNET and International Business Times. Tweets: @sfiegerman

The White House:

White House names Princeton Computer Science professor, tech policy expert, and activist Ed Felten Deputy US Chief Technology Officer — The White House Names Dr. Ed Felten as Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer — We are excited to announce that Dr. Ed Felten is joining the White House Office …

More: Nextgov, Gizmodo, The Hill, VentureBeat, Washington Post and Threatpost

Tweets: @edfelten, @csoghoian, @edfelten44, @gaberivera and @mmasnick

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

NYT Now releases version 2.0, removes $7.99 monthly subscription, will monetize through ads instead — News Digest App “NYT Now” Drops Subscription Pricing, Offers Brand Sponsorships Instead — The New York Times said today it's ditching the paid subscription model for its mobile app NYT Now …

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:

After Several Public Google Maps Hacks, Google Forced To Suspend Map Maker To Prevent More Fake Edits — Google has temporarily suspended Google Map Maker, a service to allow the community to make edits to Google Maps similar to how Wikipedia edits work. The reason the service was suspended …

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