Techmeme: Amazon is raising the price of Prime to $99/year, adds same-day Prime Fresh delivery for $299/year (Laura Hazard Owen/Gigaom)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

March 13, 2014, 3:15 PM

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: BGR, TechCrunch, CNET, DailyTech, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, Gizmodo, Nextgov, Financial Post, The Verge, Gotta Be Mobile, Mashable and Electronista

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

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple developing Preview and TextEdit apps for iOS to view files stored in iCloud by OS X versions — iOS 8: Apple works to further push iCloud as the future of the file system — When Apple introduced both iOS and iCloud, its goal was to eliminate the classic file system found in Mac OS X …

More: eWeek, MacRumors, The Verge, TechCrunch, Engadget, BGR, iPhone Hacks, iMore, App Advice, iPhone in Canada Blog, Gotta Be Mobile, Softpedia News, MacDailyNews, Business Insider, TechnoBuffalo, AppleTell, SlashGear, iLounge, Redmond Pie, iDownloadBlog.com, MacNN, ReadWrite, Gigaom and Pocketnow

Tweets: @irace and @benjaminzamayo

Thanks:@llsethj

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: Wall Street Journal, The Technology Chronicles, VatorNews, Re/code, VentureBeat and TechCrunch

Tweets: @rafat and @danprimack

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: VatorNews, SiliconBeat, TechCrunch, PE Hub Blog, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, VentureBeat and WebProNews

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):

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 …

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Google:

Google drops price of all monthly Google Drive plans to $2/100GB, $10/1TB, $100/10TB — Google announced today on its blog that it's lowering the monthly pricing plans it offers for users buying extra storage on Google Drive. Google attributes the changes to “recent infrastructure improvements” …

More: The Official Google Blog, Re/code, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, The Verge, Engadget and Technology Personalized

Tweets: @benedictevans and @dannysullivan

Bloomberg:

Facebook unveils 15-second video ads selling for $1M-$2.5M a day, targets TV marketing budgets — Facebook Unveils Video Ads to Court TV's Market — Facebook Inc. (FB) is releasing its long-awaited video-advertising product today, as the world's largest social network moves to diversify …

More: Facebook for Business, Re/code, The Next Web, AllFacebook, Ars Technica, Gigaom, TechCrunch, Business Insider, Variety, Ace Metrix and Mashable. See also Mediagazer

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, iDownloadBlog.com, TechSpot, Cult of Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Loop, MobileBurn.com, MacDailyNews and SiliconANGLE. Tweets: @iankennedy. Thanks:@srikardr

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: GeekWire, Consumerist, CNET, Shiny Shiny, Gotta Be Mobile, Engadget and Businessweek

Ina Fried / Re/code:

Lookout Hands CEO Reins to Jim Dolce; Founder John Hering Shifts to Executive Chairman — Having just turned 30, John Hering is hardly ripe for retirement. — But the founder of mobile security firm Lookout does think the time is right for his company to bring in a more experienced hand to lead the business.

More: VentureBeat, New York Times, Bloomberg and Reuters

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Google removes underlined links, says goodbye to 1996 — Google started life as a research project in 1996 to crawl the internet and create a search engine. 18 years later, Google is now removing the last of the design left over from that era. Starting today, the '90s-style underlined links …

More: Gizmodo, Search Engine Land, Los Angeles Times, Jon Wiley, 9to5Google, Ars Technica, PC World, Search Engine Land and Search Engine Roundtable

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Banjo Raises $16M To Grow Its Experiential Real-Time News And Events Platform — Startup Banjo has raised a new $16 million Series B round of funding, bringing its total raised to date to $21 million. The round was led by Balderton Capital, and included participation from BlueRun Ventures and Vegas Tech Fund, among others.

More: Wall Street Journal, PE Hub Blog and Re/code

Luke Johnson / Trusted Reviews:

Huawei to release dual OS Android-Windows Phone handset in the US in Q2 — Huawei: We are still committed to Windows Phone but dual OS is better — More Huawei Windows Phone handsets are incoming — With the Windows Phone platform continuing to increase its market share …

More: The Verge, CNET, PC World, BGR, DailyTech, Gizmodo, Phandroid, WinBeta, Softpedia News, WMPoweruser and Engadget

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:

Layoffs Hit eBay's Magento Division; Product Chief Exits — EBay has laid off dozens of people in its Magento e-commerce software division, two people familiar with the moves told Re/code. The total number of affected jobs is near 50, one of these people said.

eMarketer and Newsroom Posts:

Desktop Search to Decline $1.4 Billion as Google Users Shift to Mobile — Overall desktop ad spending set to decline in 2014 while mobile grows 83.0% — Desktop search in the US is poised for a significant decline this year as paid clicks on Google shift toward mobile devices, according to new figures from eMarketer.

More: Wall Street Journal, Search Engine Land, Tech News Plus and MarketingVox News & Trends

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, Gigaom, Los Angeles Times, AppleInsider, POPSUGAR, PC Magazine, ReelSEO Video Marketing, MacNN, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Cult of Mac, PadGadget, TechnoBuffalo, everythingiCafe, Apple Gazette, iDownloadBlog.com, TechCrunch, MacRumors, SlashGear and App Advice

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 …

More: Softpedia News, SlashGear and TechnoBuffalo. Tweets: @theinformation

Kevin C. Tofel / Gigaom:

T-Mobile plans to upgrade its 2G EDGE footprint to 4G LTE by mid-2015 — You should be able to bid a final goodbye to that dreaded “E” icon on your T-Mobile handset within the next 15 months. — Celebrating the one-year anniversary of it's LTE network launch on Thursday …

More: CNET, Engadget, CNET, BGR, dailywireless.org, iMore, IntoMobile and WebProNews

Dan Primack / Fortune:

Maiden Lane raises debut $20M+ fund, with plans to invest half of it in AngelList syndicates — Exclusive: Maiden Lane launches to back AngelList syndicates — A new firm called Maiden Lane has raised more than $20 million to invest in AngelList syndicates and deals.

Tweets: @ztracer

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, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and Gigaom

Jennifer Baker / PC World:

Europe embraces common charger rules to end mobile compatibility nightmare — European Union politicians have vowed to end the “nightmare” of non-compatible phone chargers. — The European Parliament on Thursday gave its approval to introduce new common charger for rules for mobile phones …

More: The Next Web and PC Advisor

Rip Empson / TechCrunch:

Fresh From IPO, Wix Acquires Israeli Startup Appixia To Bring Native Mobile Commerce Support To 42M Users — Wix emerged in 2006 as part of a new generation of startups on a mission to do for website creation what Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr have done for bloggers and content creators.

More: Inside Mobile Apps, ZDNet and GeekTime

ZDNet:

Microsoft and Nook redo their agreement; no Microsoft e-reader in the works — Summary: It looks like the Nook Windows 8 app may be superseded by a Microsoft reading app. But the planned Nook Windows Phone app is seemingly tabled. — On March 10, Microsoft and Nook Media updated …

More: GeekWire, LiveSide.net, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, 24/7 Wall St., SlashGear, Windows Phone Central, Fox Business and InvestorPlace. See also Mediagazer

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:

Fast, affordable law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!

F5:

Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit — Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23. Register now to save your spot.

Zoho:

Say hello to Zia Answer Bot: Your organization's knowledge, on-demand in every Zoho Lens session. — Imagine your technician is halfway through a live remote assistance session.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

Are AI Glasses Over?, Big Technology Audience Questions, Alex Stamos on AI Cybersecurity

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

The Upstarts Podcast:

Mutiny's Jaleh Rezaei: Walking Away From Millions In Software To Grow Even Faster With Sales AI

Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.

Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.

Hard Fork:

'Hard Fork' Live, Part 3: Differing Visions of an A.I. Future

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

Access:

The billionaire paying AI researchers to stay out of Big Tech

A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.

Subscribe to Access.

The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:

The Race to the Middle

Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.

Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:15 PM ET, March 13, 2014.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.