Techmeme: Amazon AppStream is now open to all developers to build complex apps running from the cloud (Kaylene Hong/The Next Web)

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March 13, 2014, 10:55 AM

Top News

Businessweek:

Target could have stopped theft of 40M credit card numbers after security alarms, but didn't — Missed Alarms and 40 Million Stolen Credit Card Numbers: How Target Blew It — The biggest retail hack in U.S. history wasn't particularly inventive, nor did it appear destined for success.

More: Gizmodo, The Verge, Business Insider, Reuters and Mashable

Tweets: @kashhill, @jimaley, @tyrangiel, @tyrangiel and @bw

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:

Amazon is raising the price of Prime to $99/year, adds same-day Prime Fresh delivery for $299/year — Amazon Prime customers, who have been paying $79 per year for unlimited two-day shipping and other perks, will pay $99 per year when their membership renews. Here's the text I saw on my Prime page this morning (h/t @sarahw):

More: CNET, Business Insider, The Verge, GeekWire, BetaNews, The Switch, Ars Technica, Examiner, Re/code, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, ZDNet, ReadWrite, BGR, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, The Next Web, Engadget, Quartz, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, WebProNews, Bloomberg and Gotta Be Mobile. Tweets: @om

Javed Anwer / Times of India:

Sources: Microsoft makes Windows Phone OS free for two Indian phone makers — MS offers Windows Phone OS free to Indian players — NEW DELHI: Desperate times call for desperate measures. With Windows Phone failing to make a significant dent in the market share of Google's Android …

More: Trusted Reviews, The Verge, Tech Trader Daily, Computerworld, The Verge, PandoDaily, Gigaom, CNET, ZDNet, Business Insider, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, BGR, ExtremeTech, IntoMobile, TechSpot, Gigaom Research, Technology Personalized, WMPoweruser, Softpedia News, Ubergizmo and Tech2. Tweets: @javed_del. Thanks:@sidharthdassani

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Just a Month After Google Capital Funding, Renaissance Learning Sells for $1.1B — Google Capital valued Renaissance Learning at $1 billion when it put $40 million into the educational assessment company in mid-February. Just a month later, Renaissance Learning is worth $1.1 billion …

More: VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, TechCrunch and PE Hub Blog

Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:

United Airlines introducing iOS-exclusive in-flight movie service in April — United Airline to Intro In-Flight Movie Service Starting in April Exclusively for Apple iDevices — Starting this April, United Airlines will roll out a new personal device entertainment system onboard select aircraft …

More: 9to5Mac, PC Magazine, AppleInsider, TechnoBuffalo, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, everythingiCafe, Apple Gazette, MacNN, iDownloadBlog.com, Cult of Mac, TechCrunch, MacRumors, SlashGear and App Advice

Dan Primack / Fortune:

Event ticketing platform Eventbrite has raised around $50M in new funding at a valuation of over $1B — Exclusive: Eventbrite joins $1 billion club — Popular event ticketing company raises around $50 million in new round of funding at a big valuation. — FORTUNE — Event ticketing …

More: VentureBeat and TechCrunch. Tweets: @rafat and @danprimack

Mark Milian / Bloomberg:

Masayoshi Son on how Softbank scored the deal to become iPhone's exclusive carrier in Japan — How Steve Jobs Got the iPhone Into Japan — The iPhone, it's safe to say, is big in Japan. Toward the end of last year, three out of every four smartphones sold in Japan were iPhones …

More: AppleInsider, The Loop, MobileBurn.com, iDownloadBlog.com and SiliconANGLE. Thanks:@srikardr

Amir Efrati / The Information:

Amazon Eyed Overseas Markets in Smartphone Talks — As Amazon prepares to launch its long-awaited smartphone, opportunities in non-U.S. markets loom large. — Amazon executives last spring held talks with possible hardware partners that included detailed discussions on strategies for China …

Tweets: @theinformation

Bloomberg:

Starbucks Plans to Test Mobile Ordering This Year — Starbucks Corp. (SBUX), the world's largest coffee-shop operator, will test a smartphone service this year that lets customers order items ahead of time at some U.S. cafes, part of a push to promote its mobile application.

More: CNET, Engadget and Businessweek

Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:

Amazon AppStream is now open to all developers to build complex apps running from the cloud — Last year, Amazon Web Services unveiled a new service, AppStream, which would run high-resource apps including “3D games and interactive HD applications” from the cloud.

More: Amazon Web Services Blog, Inquirer, Gigaom, ZDNet, VentureBeat and WebProNews

Wall Street Journal:

Microsoft Quietly Pulls Xbox Two-Year Contract Plans — Microsoft Corp. has quietly stopped selling its last-generation videogame machines at a lower price with a monthly service contract, a model borrowed from the cellphone industry. — The Redmond, Wash., company nearly …

Tweets: @wsjd and @iansherr

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

ER doctors use Google Glass and QR codes to identify patients — Dr. Steve Horng at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. — John Halamka — A tech-savvy hospital in Boston developed a custom information-retrieval system for Google Glass, which lets ER doctors scan a QR code …

More: SiliconANGLE, Life as a Healthcare CIO, Mashable, CNET, VentureBeat, Gigaom, Digital Trends and 9to5Google. Tweets: @mikeloukides

Benedict Evans:

Report: In China, smartphones over $500 are 27% of total active base, 80% of those are iPhones — 700m smartphones & tablets in China — Umeng's 2013 report has just come out, and it's full of fascinating data. (Umeng is an app analytics firm, much like Flurry, and has its code in a very large share of apps in use in China.)

More: TechCrunch, The Next Web and TechCrunch

Tweets: @danielbru and @benbajarin

Husain Sumra / MacRumors:

Apple TV Update 6.1 Allows AirPlay Discoverability Over Bluetooth — When the Apple TV was updated to version 6.1 earlier this week, it was initially thought that there were minimal changes outside of the ability to hide icons in the main menu. However, a new report from AFP548 …

More: AFP548, Daring Fireball, SiliconANGLE, Softpedia News, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacNN, App Advice, AppleInsider and iDownloadBlog.com. Tweets: @applespotlight

Tom Warren / The Verge:

VLC now available for Windows 8, no support for Surface 2 yet — A Windows 8-style version of VLC is finally here. After months of delays, the Kickstarter-funded project has reached its beta goal and is available to download from the Windows Store. While Windows 8 includes a built-in video player …

More: PC World, Softpedia News, TechSpot, The Windows Blog, gHacks Technology News, Engadget, Tech2, WinBeta and Redmond Pie

Michael Carney / PandoDaily:

IPO-bound MuleSoft raises $50M and doubles its valuation to $800M as SaaS adoption explodes — Want a recipe for startup success? Identify a category defining trend early - like mobile or the cloud - and then anticipate and solve one of the new problems that trend will create.

More: Wall Street Journal, Gigaom, VentureBeat and TechCrunch

John Reynolds / Guardian:

60% of UK's video, video games and music sales now come from the internet — Netflix and Spotify help drive UK home entertainment revenues to £5.3bn — New figures show that three-fifths of Britain's video, video games and music sales are now derived from the internet

More: Gigaom

Shalini Ramachandran / Wall Street Journal:

Bright House cable network to build ultrafast gigabit residential broadband in Tampa, Florida — Bright House to Build Ultrafast Broadband Network — Bright House Networks, part of the Newhouse family's media empire, said it will build an ultrafast gigabit broadband network in Tampa …

More: Engadget. Tweets: @shaliniwsj

Bien Perez / South China Morning Post:

Chinese online games firm ChangYou to invest US$600m in mobile push — ChangYou.com, a leading mainland developer and operator of online games, will roll out a US$600 million mobile gaming development initiative that represents one of the largest investments in its industry.

More: VentureBeat, www.pocketgamer.biz and GamesIndustry International

Neil Long / Edge Online:

Sony's VR tech will be revealed at GDC - and it represents virtual reality gaming's greatest hope — A new VR headset for PS4 is expected to be announced next week, according to developer sources. — Sony will reveal its Oculus Rift-beating VR headset at GDC next week, according to developers familiar with the tech.

More: Electronista, SlashGear, Engadget, TechnoBuffalo, Forbes, Joystiq, Gamasutra, destructoid and VG247

Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:

At upcoming trial, Apple wants Samsung to pay $40 per device for only five software patents — I have sometimes, maybe even quite often, but not always agreed with Apple. And I have disagreed with Apple on more occasions than parts of the Android and open source communities have acknowledged.

More: Ars Technica, The Switch, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Geek.com and TechEye

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