Techmeme: Nest Gives the Lowly Smoke Detector a Brain

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October 8, 2013, 5:10 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:

Samsung Loses Bid for Presidential Veto of Apple-Won Import Ban — Samsung Electronics Co. must stop importing certain models of its smartphones and tablet computers after President Barack Obama's administration let stand a ban won by Apple Inc. in a patent-infringement dispute.

More: The Verge, Examiner, Computerworld, BGR, Cult of Mac, AllThingsD, Washington Post, ZDNet, MacRumors, AppleInsider, TUAW, PhoneArena, 9to5Google, App Advice, Business Insider, iPhone in Canada Blog, SlashGear, Patently Apple, Engadget, GigaOM, iClarified and Electronista. Tweets: @dangillmor

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

Older Samsung phones banned from US as trade order goes into effect

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Office for iPad will debut after Microsoft's touch-friendly Windows version — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has revealed that the company is planning to bring Office to the iPad with a touch user interface. Speaking at a Gartner event in Florida today, Ballmer said “iPad will be picked up when there's a touch first user interface.”

Steven Levy / Wired:

Nest Gives the Lowly Smoke Detector a Brain — And a Voice — One day in June, about 20 engineers and managers at the startup company Nest went on a field trip. They didn't need to pack a lunch. Their destination: a storage closet near the bathrooms at their new headquarters in Palo Alto.

More: Nest, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, Daring Fireball, 9to5Mac, ABC News, StrictlyVC, CNET, iLounge, Reuters, NYT Bits, stratechery, Gotta Be Mobile and Business Insider

Tweets: @stevenlevy, @tfadell, @dangillmor and @jess

Ken Yeung / The Next Web:

Nest unveils its $129 Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector, available from November — Connected home provider Nest is expanding its offering as launches a new product designed to redefine what you come to expect out of appliances in your domicile. On sale this November …

More: The Verge, GeekWire, GigaOM, ZDNet, BetaNews, AllThingsD, Associated Press, AppleInsider, Ars Technica, TechHive, MacRumors, iMore, Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Wired.co.uk, TUAW and Fortune

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:

Apple Will Hold Fall iPad Event on October 22 — Apple has a couple more new products to announce before the year is out, and it plans to unveil them in a few weeks time. — People familiar with Apple's plans tell AllThingsD that the company will hold its next invitation-only event on Tuesday, October 22.

More: MacRumors, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, Engadget, TechCrunch, BGR, 9to5Mac, The Verge, The Next Web, Network World and iDownloadBlog.com. Tweets: @markgurman

Sarah Silbert / Engadget:

Google announces HP Chromebook 11 for $279, we go hands-on — Today Google announced some new hardware: the HP Chromebook 11. Priced at $279, this 11-incher is available today, and we've already spent had a change to get our hands on several units. — The laptop is sleek and attractive …

More: The Next Bench Blog, The Official Google Blog, The Verge, GeekWire, TechCrunch, ZDNet, Softpedia News, Ars Technica, Ars Technica, Technology Personalized, The Next Web, Android Beat, Electronista, CNET, LAPTOP Magazine and GigaOM. Tweets: @stshank

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Amazon's ‘Login and Pay with Amazon’ Service Challenges PayPal For The Web's Payment Business — Amazon launched a service called Login and Pay with Amazon today at Money 2020 that lets partner sites enable a payments button that will compete with PayPal and credit cards for customer checkout.

More: Amazon.com, Engadget, Examiner, BetaNews, BGR, GeekWire, The Verge, Gizmodo, ZDNet and The Next Web

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Yahoo Redux: HP Says “All Hands on Deck” Needed, Requiring Most Employees to Work at the Office (Memo) — Computing and technology services giant Hewlett-Packard, which appears to be taking a page from Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, has quietly begun enacting a policy requiring employees to work from the office and not from home.

More: SiliconBeat, Dice News, NYT Bits, Signal vs. Noise, bizjournals and Business Insider

Wall Street Journal:

Samsung eyes software acquisitions, has evaluated several gaming and mapping startups — A Weak Spot for Samsung? — South Korean Giant Weighs Software Deals to Better Compete With Apple, Google — Samsung Electronics Co. is stepping up its hunt for acquisitions and building …

More: BGR, SlashGear, MobileBurn.com, The Verge and AndroidGuys. Tweets: @scottmaustin

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Mail Gets Cross-Platform Themes, 1TB of Storage, ‘Mail Plus’ Features For All And Better ‘Conversations’ — Yahoo is updating its Mail app across all platforms with a fresh design that includes syncing themes, a new compose experience, collapsible toolbar and better handling of threaded conversations.

More: Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, The Verge, Softpedia News, iPhone, Gizmodo, Mashable, iDownloadBlog.com, Engadget, 9to5Mac and Electronista

Luke Reimer / Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog:

Coming Soon: A Simple, Easy to Use Cloud Service for Managing Users and Apps on iOS, Android, and BlackBerry Devices — Here at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2013, we are very excited to announce an upcoming BlackBerry cloud service that will bring trusted and simple enterprise mobility management to a new level of convenience.

More: BGR, Engadget, 9to5Mac, Yahoo! News, GadgetGuide4U, iDownloadBlog.com and TechSpot

Artem Russakovskii / Android Police:

All But Confirmed - Google Hangouts 1.3 Screenshots Suggest SMS/MMS Integration; Video Sharing Capabilities Coming Too — Several days ago, I started a series of rumor posts on my personal Google+ account discussing some Android rumors I felt were interesting enough to share …

More: VentureBeat, Google Plus Daily, TechCrunch, Gotta Be Mobile, Gizmodo, iDownloadBlog.com, IntoMobile, CNET, The Droid Guy, 9to5Google, Ars Technica, TechHive, Phones Review, GigaOM, Engadget, AndroidHeadlines.com and Droid Life

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:

Silk Road Dealers Are Getting Arrested All Around The World — Arresting the site's owner was just stage one. — Ross William Ulbricht, known online as Dread Pirate Roberts, is shown in this courtroom sketch appearing before Federal Judge Joseph Spero in U.S. Federal Court in San Francisco, California, on Oct. 4, 2013.

More: BBC, Krebs on Security, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, SiliconANGLE, Telegraph, Gawker and GigaOM

Eduard Kovacs / Softpedia News:

Avira Confirms Network Solutions Has Been Hacked — Palestinian hackers of KDSM Team have managed to deface several high-profile websites, including the ones of AVG, Avira and WhatsApp. Moments ago, Avira representatives have confirmed for Softpedia that this is a case of DNS hijacking.

More: CNET, Graham Cluley, The Register, Guardian, Help Net Security and BetaNews

Siobhan Gorman / Wall Street Journal:

Meltdowns Hobble NSA Data Center — Investigators Stumped by What's Causing Power Surges That Destroy Equipment — Chronic electrical surges at the massive new data-storage facility central to the National Security Agency's spying operation have destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth …

More: Techdirt, DSLreports, Forbes, The Register, Guardian, Associated Press, The Verge, TechCrunch, Business Insider, NEWS.com.au, Wired, Web Host Industry Review, The Switch, BBC and Gizmodo

Tweets: @kashhill and @timaeppel

Ms. Smith / Network World:

Microsoft finally patches gaping IE exploit with Patch Tuesday update — It's that time again, so happy patching! — For the last decade, admins have awaited Microsoft Patch Tuesday with dread - or perhaps delight, but that seems highly doubtful. There's no time to delay when it comes …

More: TechNet Blogs, Security TechCenter, eWeek, Krebs on Security, The Next Web, ZDNet, SecurityWeek and TechNet Blogs

New Yorker:

How Lavabit Melted Down — On August 8th, Lavabit, newly famous for being the secure e-mail service used by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, went dark. Its owner and operator, Ladar Levison, replaced its home page with a message: “I cannot share my experiences …

More: TechPresident, GigaOM and The Verge. Tweets: @cmdrtaco

Jason Del Rey / AllThingsD:

PayPal Unveils Yet Another Way to Pay in Stores. Now It Has to Get People to Use It. — Another day, another announcement of a product aimed at getting shoppers to buy stuff in retail stores using an app on their phone instead of a physical credit card or cash.

More: The Official PayPal, GigaOM, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Digits, WebProNews, Mashable, CNET, Engadget, Payments News and The Verge

Kyle VanHemert / Wired:

Early Apple designer and Frog Design founder Hartmut Esslinger on 4 areas ripe for innovation — The Godfather of Apple Design Spots 4 Looming Tech Trends — Before there was Jony Ive, there was Hartmut Esslinger. The founder of the influential design consultancy Frog started working …

Rachel King / ZDNet:

Intel's Internet of Things roadmap led by low-power chips — Summary: Intel has published a new roadmap for low-power processors embedded with software from McAfee and Wind River. — SAN FRANCISCO—Intel tapped into some of the bigger brands under its umbrella for a number …

More: Digits, GigaOM, Intel Newsroom, The Register, eWeek, PC World and Business Insider

John Cook / GeekWire:

Zulily files for $100M IPO — reveals $331M in 2012 revenue, 2.2M active customers — Fast-growing Zulily is looking to take the IPO plunge. — The Seattle company, which sells clothes, toys and accessories for babies, kids and moms, today filed to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering.

More: Wall Street Journal, AllThingsD and TechCrunch. Thanks:@toddbishop

Ki Mae Heussner / GigaOM:

Basis bags $12M for health-tracking watch amid growing competition in wearable tech — Seven months after announcing an $11.5 million Series B round of funding, Basis Science is filling its coffers once again. On Tuesday, the startup behind the Basis health-tracking wristwatch …

More: AllThingsD, VentureBeat and TechCrunch

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Nexus 7 (2013) Case now available in the US with a microsuede cover, built-in stand, and four colors for $49.99 — Google today released the Nexus 7 Case (2013) in the US. You can grab it now for $49.99 on Google Play. — Google describes the case as custom-molded with a microsuede cover and built-in stand.

More: CNET, Engadget, 9to5Google, IntoMobile and Droid Life

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Facebook Continues To Simplify Ad Buying With New ‘Objective-Based’ Interface — When Facebook announced in June that it planned to eliminate half its ad units, it also outlined a broader vision for simplification, where the company could guide advertisers through the ad-buying process based …

More: Facebook for Business, The Next Web, VatorNews, AllFacebook, Inside Facebook, Marketing Land, HubSpot's Inbound …, internetretailer.com and WebProNews

Mark Gurman / 9to5Google:

First image of Samsung's upcoming Galaxy phone with curved display leaks out — Prominent leaker @evleaks has published the first photo of Samsung's upcoming Galaxy phone with a curved screen. Recent rumors have pegged an announcement of this new phone to occur in the coming days, or perhaps as soon as later this week.

More: Gizmodo, Engadget and TechCrunch. Tweets: @evleaks

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