Techmeme: Facebook Messenger no longer requires a Facebook account to sign up, just a first name, last name, and phone number in the US, Canada, Peru, Venezuela (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

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June 24, 2015, 5:35 PM

Top News

Billboard:

Apple Music signs thousands of independent labels after changing royalty structure during trial period — Apple Music Signs Beggars Group, Merlin: Sources — Beggars comprises the imprints 4AD, XL, Matador and Rough Trade and has had a hand in the careers of Adele, Radiohead and Arcade Fire …

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Messenger no longer requires a Facebook account to sign up, just a first name, last name, and phone number in the US, Canada, Peru, Venezuela — Messenger No Longer Requires A Facebook Account — Facebook wants even the people who hate Facebook to use Messenger …

Matt Galligan / Medium:

Circa is shutting down indefinitely after failure to monetize and close funding deals; CEO Matt Galligan says firm is working on deal involving underlying tech — Farewell to Circa News — It's with great disappointment that we let you know that Circa News has been put on indefinite hiatus.

Amir Efrati / The Information:

Apple to block apps like Twitter from scanning users' iPhones and iPads to see which other apps are installed — Apple Moves to Block iPhone App-Scanning — In order to decide what ad to show to a person, Facebook and Twitter have sometimes drawn on data about other apps that are already installed on that person's phone.

More: MacRumors, Business Insider, AppleInsider, MacNN, iDownloadBlog.com, InvestorPlace, iPhone Hacks and iPhone in Canada Blog. Tweets: @amir

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Slack hits 1.1M daily users, 900K third-party integration installs, and 300K paying customers as Twitter's April Underwood joins as head of platform — As Slack Hits 1M Daily Users And 900K Integration Installs, It Hires April Underwood As Head Of Platform

More: The Verge, BuzzFeed, ZDNet, Quartz, BetaKit, Fast Company, Fortune, VentureBeat, The Next Web and Forbes

Tweets: @aunder, @mattnavarra, @ow, @tomwarren and @vindugoel

Wall Street Journal:

GoFundMe to be acquired by investor group led by Accel and Technology Crossover, at a valuation source says is around $600M — GoFundMe Founders to Reap a Fortune in Buyout — The two founders of crowdfunding site GoFundMe are relinquishing control and reaping a fortune by selling …

More: Business Insider, Xconomy and TechCrunch

Vidya Nagarajan / Official Google for Work Blog:

Google releases new $1,999 Chromebox for meetings bundle targeted at larger conference rooms with support for up to 20 people — Chromebox, now bringing face-to-face meetings to bigger spaces — When we launched Chromebox for meetings last year, we wanted to help teams meet face to face …

More: VentureBeat, The Next Web, ZDNet, 9to5Google, Mashable, AndroidHeadlines.com, Android Central and WebProNews

Sascha Segan / PC Magazine:

Mobile data speed tests in 30 cities across US show Verizon Wireless has best speed and coverage — Fastest Mobile Networks 2015 — We hit 30 U.S. cities to test mobile data speeds on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless, and found the most competitive wireless landscape in six years.

More: DSLreports, blog.chron.com, Fortune, Washington Post, WebProNews, Fox News and TechSpot. Tweets: @verizonnews

Federico Viticci / MacStories:

iOS 9's Safari View Controller lets developers replace custom in-app web views with a Safari-based browser that can access Safari's cookies and autofill — iOS 9 and Safari View Controller: The Future of Web Views — For a long time, iOS apps have been able to open links as web views.

Tweets: @davidkaneda, @pierrevalade, @mgsiegler, @joshelman and @rsarver

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:

UK Apple Pay won't require PIN but £20 contactless transaction limit does apply ... for now — Apple Pay is going international starting with the United Kingdom next month. The precise nature of how Apple Pay will work in the UK has been murky, with banks saying different things.

More: Official Apple Support, Telegraph, Cult of Mac, The Mac Observer, Engadget, Computerworld, TechnoBuffalo, MacRumors, iMore, Wired.co.uk, iPhone Hacks and iLounge

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Microsoft launches Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps for phones running Android 4.4 or higher — Microsoft releases Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Android phones out of preview — Microsoft today launched Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Android phones. Previously in preview …

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:

VenueNext, which creates apps for stadiums, raises $9M from investors including Twitter Ventures — Twitter Invests in VenueNext, Which Builds Apps for Arenas and Stadiums — Hey, can you tweet me some nachos? — This may someday be a legitimate request for stadium-goers given Twitter's latest investment, VenueNext.

More: Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Mobile Sports Report, silicontap.com, PE Hub Blog and SportTechie

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