Techmeme: Amazon takes its virtual ‘Coins’ currency beyond the Kindle Fire and into the wider Android ecosystem (Paul Sawers/The Next Web)

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February 19, 2014, 1:00 PM

Top News

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

Wheeler unveils new proposed rules for network neutrality, will try to stop “improper blocking” — The FCC announced its response to an explosive court decision that ended “net neutrality” last month: it will not appeal the decision, but scramble to impose new rules.

More: FCC.gov, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Computerworld, Associated Press, ZDNet, PC World, DSLreports, BGR, Gizmodo, Re/code, The Switch, Engadget, NationalJournal.com and Deadline.com

Tweets: @brendansasso, @samgustin and @eggerton

See also Mediagazer

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

The FCC has a plan to save net neutrality, but no one likes it

Tweets: @reckless

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Microsoft SkyDrive becomes OneDrive, gets camera backup for Android, real-time co-authoring, and easier video sharing — Microsoft today officially relaunched SkyDrive as OneDrive, giving its existing users access to their files on the new service by simply logging in at onedrive.com.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

LinkedIn Opens Its Publishing Platform To All Members — To date, LinkedIn has allowed a small, editorially selected group of “Influencers” like Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Barack Obama to publish their thoughts and advice to its network as long-form blog posts.

More: LinkedIn Official Blog, Re/code, NYT Bits, Gigaom, Marketing Land, CNET, USA Today, Digits, The Next Web, Reuters, Business Insider and Softpedia News. Tweets: @jeffweiner. See also Mediagazer

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google Capital Invests $40M In Learning Analytics Firm Renaissance Learning At $1B Valuation — Renaissance Learning, one of the leading cloud-based K-12 assessment and learning analytics companies, today announced that it has raised a $40 million investment from Google Capital.

More: The Official Google Blog, Bloomberg, DealBook, Re/code, Digits, VentureBeat, CNET, Fortune, Reuters, Softpedia News, The Next Web, PE Hub Blog and WebProNews

Digits:

Apple's smartphone market share in China grows to 7%, now back in top 5 smartphone vendors — Apple Gains Some Ground in China Smartphone Market — Apple seems to be gaining some ground in the world's largest smartphone market. — In China, Apple's market share rose slightly …

More: The Next Web, Tech in Asia, Ubergizmo, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, Business Insider, TechCrunch, TUAW, App Advice, ZDNet, Electronista and AppleInsider

Tweets: @juroosawa and @wsj

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget:

Ubuntu phones arriving in 2014 from Meizu and BQ Readers — Canonical is finally poised to enter the mobile market. After years of teases, promises and demos, the company has locked up the first two manufacturers of Ubuntu phones. Meizu and BQ Readers will be releasing handsets …

More: The Next Web, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, The Verge and Softpedia News

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:

Apple bringing iTunes Festival to the US for the first time at SXSW, for five nights in March — Apple has announced that it is bringing the iTunes Festival to the United States for the first time, after being a UK-only event since it began in 2007. The festival will be held at SXSW …

More: Business Wire, Engadget, The Next Web, VentureBeat, iMore, CNET, AppleInsider, MacRumors, The Verge, Gigaom, TechCrunch, The Loop, TechnoBuffalo, Softpedia News, iPad, everythingiCafe, iPhone in Canada Blog, iDownloadBlog.com and Cult of Mac. Tweets: @benjaminzamayo

Josh Ong / The Next Web:

Glove for Android launches in SF and NY to track your mobile usage and recommend the best carrier — If you're unhappy with your current mobile service, the new Glove app for Android wants to find you something better. Launching today in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City …

More: Re/code, TechCrunch, USA Today and Gigaom

Monica Langley / Wall Street Journal:

Inside Target, CEO Gregg Steinhafel Struggles to Contain Giant Cybertheft — How Target Is Working to Manage Crisis After Theft of Credit and Debit Card Numbers From Millions of Customers — When hackers broke into the database of department store Target, it affected an estimated 100 million customers.

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

After Raising $10M From USV, SideCar Pivots To Offer A Ride-sharing Marketplace — Peer-to-peer ride-sharing startup SideCar is releasing a brand new version of its app for both passengers and drivers, which will provide more flexibility for drivers and more choice for passengers.

More: A VC, Sidecar, Gigaom, Re/code, GeekWire, TechHive, CNET, Reuters and Skift. Tweets: @om

Dan Farber / CNET:

Artemis aims to eliminate congestion, dead zones and unreliable connections in cellular networks using pCell technology — Is pCell the Holy Grail of wireless networking? — Serial entrepreneur Steve Perlman claims that his new patented technology can create the wireless network of our dreams.

More: New York Times, Wired, VentureBeat, Businessweek, LAPTOP Magazine, PC Magazine, Re/code, The Verge, IEEE Spectrum Recent … and EE Times

Tweets: @bijan and @al3x

Jesse Hicks / The Verge:

This machine kills trolls: how Wikipedia's robots and cyborgs snuff out vandalism — At midnight on February 13th, 2014, a Wikipedia user named Lightningawesome added to the list of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters a lengthy biography of Lightning Dash, a capricious, lovable filly existing only in fan fiction.

Ilya Khrennikov / Bloomberg:

In Russia, iPhone sales doubled in 2013 to 1.57M, largest carriers now resuming iPhone sales — Apple Drags Russia's Mobile Carriers Kicking and Screaming Into the iPhone Era — After years of wooing, Russian mobile carriers are finally coming around to the iPhone — not that they have much choice.

More: Mobile Marketing Watch, InvestorPlace, iPhone Hacks, MacNN, AppleInsider and Electronista

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Nokia Treasure Tag is a $30 Lumia accessory to help keep valuables safe - goes on sale in April — Nokia is introducing a new way to keep valuables safe on the go using your smartphone. Nokia Treasure Tag is a smart peripheral that syncs with Lumia devices to help keep track of keys …

More: Nokia Conversations, CNET, Gizmodo, The Verge, Gigaom, BetaNews, WinBeta, Electronista, GeekWire, Engadget, Wpxbox, SlashGear, Phones Review, TechCrunch, Digital Trends and Ubergizmo

David Meyer / Gigaom:

Yandex offers apps-and-services bundle to help others build non-Google Android devices — The Android Open Source Project, or AOSP, allows anyone to build a device using the basic Android operating system, without Google's permission. However, that also means forgoing all of the Google services …

More: SiliconANGLE, The Next Web, TechCrunch and Bloomberg

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

Amazon takes its virtual ‘Coins’ currency beyond the Kindle Fire and into the wider Android ecosystem — A little more than a year after Amazon first announced Amazon Coins, the e-commerce giant has revealed that the virtual currency can now be used on any Android device.

More: TechCrunch, Amazon.com, BetaNews, CNET, The Verge, 9to5Google, Engadget, IntoMobile, InvestorPlace and WebProNews

David Meyer / Gigaom:

Silent Circle gets its first telco distributor, as KPN prepares to offer encrypted communications — The Dutch telecoms giant KPN has partnered up with Silent Circle, the U.S. security firm that boasts privacy veterans Phil Zimmermann (pictured above) and Jon Callas among its founders …

More: ZDNet

Nick Summers / Businessweek:

New Tinder Security Flaw Exposed Users' Exact Locations for Months — Internet security researchers in New York say that a flaw in Tinder, the super-popular hookup app, made it possible to find users' precise location for between 40 and 165 days, without any public notice from the company.

More: PR Newswire, Include Security Blog and Valleywag

Alistair Barr / USA Today:

Sources: new Samsung Gear smartwatch to run on Tizen, not Android — Samsung's updated smartwatch to shun Android — SAN FRANCISCO - The new version of Samsung's Gear smartwatch will run on Tizen, not Google's Android operating system, the latest attempt by the South Korean electronics giant …

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Opera Opens Pre-Registration For Its Data-Savings Android App — Last December, Opera announced Max, a free app that would use Opera's servers to compress all the non-encrypted data to your Android device. At the time, it opened up sign-ups for a small private alpha test, but starting today …

More: Examiner, Inquirer, TechHive, DSLreports, The Register, Android Community, The Droid Guy, Android Police and Gigaom

Matt Burns / TechCrunch:

Google Explains How Not To Be A Glasshole — Here are the do's and don'ts of wearing Google Glass. Right from Google. — Apparently — and I know this might be a shocker — you're not supposed to stand in the corner of the room and record people with Google Glass.

Jeremy Wagstaff / Reuters:

Upsetting the app cart: Asian messaging services challenge mobile order — (Reuters) - Asian chat services KakaoTalk, LINE and WeChat threaten to overturn the mobile order of things, usurping the role of Google Inc, Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc and telecoms carriers as gatekeeper to the consumer.

Tweets: @jonrussell and @msab_xry

Jerome Segura / Malwarebytes Unpacked:

Banking trojan ZeusVM retrieves configurations hidden inside image files — Hiding in plain sight: a story about a sneaky banking Trojan — The Zeus/Zbot Trojan is one the most notorious banking Trojans ever created; it's so popular it gave birth to many offshoots and copycats.

More: FireEye Blog, Inquirer and SC Magazine. Tweets: @virusbtn

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