Techmeme: Twitch rolls out a private-message system called Whisper (Jessica Conditt/Engadget)

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June 10, 2015, 10:40 PM

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Xiaoyun Zhang / The Twitter Blog:

Twitter simplifies blocking multiple accounts by letting users share and import block lists — Sharing block lists to help make Twitter safer — Today we're making it possible to share block lists on twitter.com. This new, advanced feature makes blocking multiple accounts easy, fast and community driven.

More: Ars Technica, BGR, Block Together, Engadget, CNET, Neowin, The Next Web, AndroidGuys, Macworld, ClickZ, SlashGear, Mashable, PCWorld, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Windows Central, TechCrunch, WebProNews, International Business Times, PC Magazine, Fortune, The Daily Dot and The Verge

Tweets: @hunterwalk and @alexjamesfitz

Spotify Blog:

Spotify hits 20M paid subscribers, 75M total active users, has paid $3B in artist royalties — 20 Million Reasons to Say Thanks — What a difference a year makes! At the end of May 2014, we reached 10 million paying subscribers and 40 million active users.

Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:

Spotify raises $526M from wide range of global investors, source says at a $8.53B valuation

More: Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The Verge, 500ish Words, Wired, The Memo, ABC News, Macworld, ZDNet, USA Today, VatorNews, Business Wire, Light Reading, SiliconBeat, A personal view …, AppleInsider and Tech Times. See also Mediagazer

Steve Lohr / New York Times:

Google creates and funds Sidewalk Labs, a startup developing and incubating tech to improve urban life, headed by former deputy mayor of NYC Daniel L. Doctoroff — Sidewalk Labs, a Start-Up Created by Google, Has Bold Aims to Improve City Living — Google's ambitions and investments …

More: Larry Page, VentureBeat, The Verge, Business Insider, The Next Web, 9to5Google, Engadget, Business Insider, Forbes and Bloomberg Business. Tweets: @amir

Ian Sherr / CNET:

Video game console maker Ouya in talks to be acquired by Razer — Video game console maker Ouya is in negotiations to sell itself, possibly to Razer — The company, whose app store was pitched as the go-to place for small and independent developers, is negotiating for all employees to remain with the company after the sale.

More: TechCrunch, SlashGear, Polygon, MacNN, VentureBeat, Ubergizmo, Pocket-lint, Android Central, KitGuru, TechSpot, Android Police, Ausdroid, Engadget and AndroidGuys. Thanks:@nickstatt

Jeff Elder / Wall Street Journal:

Jawbone sues Fitbit over patent infringement, its second suit against Fitbit in two weeks — Jawbone Hits Fitbit With Second Lawsuit in Two Weeks — Fitness trackers from Jawbone and Fitbit are made to count heartbeats. They may soon be put to use counting lawsuits between the two rivals.

More: BuzzFeed, ABC News, VentureBeat, Computerworld, Engadget, Ubergizmo and The Verge

Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:

iOS 9 code hints 1080p, 240fps, flash coming to iPhone FaceTime cameras — Code found in the first iOS 9 developer betas reveals that Apple is planning to support some significant camera features and upgrades with the new software version. Presumably planned for the next iPhone hardware version …

More: BGR, MacRumors, The Verge, Forbes, MacNN, PhoneDog.com, iDownloadBlog.com, TechnoBuffalo and Neowin. Thanks:@chancehmiller

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook's Messenger platform gets its first game with Doodle Draw, a Draw Something clone — Facebook's Messenger Platform Gets Its First Game — Facebook Messenger's quest to own all the ways you connect with friends is now expanding to games. Today I spotted “Doodle Draw Game” …

More: Digital Trends, AndroidGuys, SocialTimes, International Business Times, Tech Times, Redmond Pie, SiliconBeat, Wall Street Journal, Android Community, Ubergizmo, Mashable, WebProNews, Engadget, SlashGear and InvestorPlace

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Messenger hits 1B downloads on Google play, joining Facebook and WhatsApp, and Google's Gmail, YouTube, Search, and Maps

More: David Marcus, Seeking Alpha, 9to5Google, Mashable, AndroidGuys, PC Magazine, Tech Times, SiliconANGLE, BetaNews and SocialTimes. Thanks:@sarahaasullivan

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

Apple's failure to develop exciting apps and services that users prefer over third party efforts may threaten its ecosystem — Apple's Junk Drawer Problem — A sampling of BuzzFeed Tech's Apple junk drawers. — Michelle Rial/BuzzFeed — There's a folder on the homescreen of my iPhone affectionately labeled “Apple Crap.”

More: BGR and Talking New Media. Tweets: @pkafka and @stevesi

Rob Gillies / Associated Press:

iPhone launch, failed Storm, and loss of Verizon contract were devastating for BlackBerry says former co-CEO Jim Balsillie — Ex-BlackBerry Co-CEO talks publicly for the first time — TORONTO (AP) — Former BlackBerry co-chief executive Jim Balsillie said Tuesday that Apple's introduction …

More: Digital Trends, 9to5Mac, International Business Times, The Mac Observer and Fortune. Tweets: @rogerwcheng

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

State sponsored sophisticated attack Duqu 2.0 penetrated Kaspersky network, tapped Iran nuke talks — Stepson of Stuxnet stalked Kaspersky for months, tapped Iran nuke talks — Hacker group used a “zero-day trampoline” to scale Kaspersky defenses. — Not long after blowing the lid off …

More: Wired, Securelist, Wall Street Journal, Kaspersky Lab. The Power …, Kaspersky Lab US, Forbes, CrySyS Blog, Washington Post, RT, Engadget, PandoDaily, BetaNews, The Register, TechWeekEurope UK, SlashGear, eWeek and SecurityWeek

Tweets: @e_kaspersky and @ramez

Shira Ovide / Wall Street Journal:

Payroll giant ADP sues Zenefits for defamation after it cut off clients' access to the startup's service over security concerns — ADP Sues Zenefits for Defamation — A conflict between one of the biggest providers of corporate payroll services and one of the world's most highly valued startups spilled into court on Tuesday.

More: ZENEFITS, PandoDaily, Ars Technica, TechCrunch, SiliconBeat and ZDNet

Tweets: @brianssommer and @ryanchris

Chris Welch / The Verge:

iOS 9 extends Continuity to cellular connections; T-Mobile first to offer feature — iOS 9 brings more flexibility to Apple's great Continuity feature — Continuity is one of the best things about going all in on Apple hardware. With it, you can easily send and receive calls or text messages …

More: TmoNews, 9to5Mac, ZDNet, iMore, The Next Web, MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com, AppleInsider and PhoneDog.com

Jessica Conditt / Engadget:

Twitch rolls out a private-message system called Whisper — Psst. We heard something about Twitch that you might enjoy. Lean in. A little closer. A little closer. Perfect: You can now send private messages to friends on Twitch, even if your buddies are watching different streams than you at the time.

More: The Official Twitch Blog, The Next Web, SlashGear and Ubergizmo

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Challenges Pinterest With News Feed Buy Button For Shopify Merchants — Facebook wants its ads to sell you stuff directly so you never have to click away to another app or site. Until now, Facebook was testing a Buy Button that does that with just a few selected test merchants …

More: Shopify's Ecommerce Blog, International Business Times, VatorNews, Marketing Land, WebProNews, PCWorld, Re/code, The Verge and internetretailer.com

Tweets: @joshconstine and @mdudas

Sam Biddle / Gawker:

FBI: Almost 600 iCloud accounts were breached by Celebgate hackers last year; agency raided two addresses in Chicago in connection to the hack — Feds Seized Chicago Man's Computers in Celeb Nude Leak Investigation — Last summer, stolen photos of dozens of famous women flooded the internet …

More: Chicago Sun Times, Fortune, SlashGear, Geek.com, TechSpot, Los Angeles Times, International Business Times, CBS Chicago and The Register. Tweets: @csoghoian

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

Google on iOS and Android can now use geolocation to answer “When does this restaurant open?” or “How long is this river?” — [WATCH] Google's Amazing Location-Aware Search Finds Answers About Nearby Places — How tall is that tower in front of you?

More: Android Police, VentureBeat, Digital Trends, xda-developers, Liliputing, Pocketnow, TechnoBuffalo, 9to5Google, BGR and Android and Me

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:

iOS 9 lets app developers make ad blockers for Safari — Ad blocking extensions have been possible on Safari for Mac for a long time, but plugin architecture for Safari on iOS is much more limited. With iOS 9, Apple has added a special case of extension for ad blockers.

More: Nieman Lab, The Register, Engadget, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, The Next Web, ZDNet, Ubergizmo, Sci-Tech Today, Marketing Land, iClarified, InvestorPlace, Wall Street Journal, Cult of Mac, SlashGear and MediaPost. See also Mediagazer

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