Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Dies At 55  —  Nintendo has just issued a short statement announcing that president Satoru Iwata has passed away at the age of 55.  —  The statement reads: … Iwata was forced to skip last year's E3 due to his poor health, and shortly afterwards underwent surgery to remove the bile duct growth.

Comcast announces Stream, a $15/month web TV add-on for its internet subscribers with broadcast networks and HBO, available in select markets later this year  —  Comcast Offers Its Alternative to Cable TV, Using the Web  —  Comcast, the country's largest cable operator …

Microsoft plans multi-million Windows 10 ad and marketing campaign, fan-focused launch  —  Microsoft plans a fan-focused Windows 10 launch kick-off  —  Microsoft's multi-million-dollar Windows 10 ad and marketing campaign will be focused on ‘upgrading the world’ to the coming operating system release.

Two major pharmaceutical companies, GlaxoSmithKline and Purdue Pharma, are considering Apple's ResearchKit for drug R&D  —  Big Pharma Eyes iPhone For Drug R&D  —  Pharmaceutical giants like GlaxoSmithKline and Purdue Pharma are considering Apple's ResearchKit platform for gathering medical research data.

Wealthfront markets itself as the anti-Wall Street, but still charges a 0.25% compound fee, far worse than Vanguard VTI's 0.05% fee  —  Silicon Valley Tech at Wall Street Prices  —  Somewhere in the Bay Area, a developer teeters on the edge of insanity.  —  For the last 60 hours …

Development of anti-surveillance device ProxyHam and its DEF Con talk mysteriously cancelled, existing units destroyed  —  Privacy talk at DEF CON canceled under questionable circumstances  —  Anti-surveillance tool ProxyHam will never see the light of day

Many Obama campaign and administration alumni are moving to Silicon Valley to join tech firms  —  The city on the hill(s) for Obama alums  —  San Francisco and its tech firms are a prime destination for aides leaving the administration.  —  Getty  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Sipping a cup of cold-pressed coffee.

Microsoft to expand Surface distributor count from ‘couple hundred’ to a few thousand  —  Microsoft is opening up its Surface distribution channel to help prime the pump for its Surface tablets ahead of the start of the Windows 10 rollout.  —  Microsoft is continuing to gradually expand …

CircleUp Raises $22M To Invest In Consumer Brands On Its Crowdfunding Platform  —  As crowdfunding sites like Tilt and GoFundMe and lending site Funding Circle raise large rounds to take their businesses to the next level, a startup that sits in the same area of web-based fundraising is trying a new approach.

China's Tianhe-2 Supercomputer Is Still the World's Most Powerful  —  Sorry, America, but the most powerful computer on the face of the planet still resides in China.  —  That's the pronouncement of researchers who assembled the twice-a-year Top500 list of the world's top supercomputers …

Facebook's security chief Alex Stamos says it's time for Adobe to announce the end-of-life date for Flash  —  Facebook's security chief calls for Adobe Flash to be killed off  —  Poor old Adobe Flash.  Hardly anybody seems to love it.  —  And this isn't a new phenomenon.

Reddit is fatally broken, should rebuild by hiring or contracting top 100+ moderators to align mod motivations with the company, kill controversial subreddits  —  The Death of Reddit  —  [edit July 12: when you're done here, I wrote a followup for you: Fixing or Replacing Reddit, some quick thoughts — take a look! chuq]