Techmeme: Dropbox acquires reading platform Readmill, will close it on 1 July (Nick Summers/The Next Web)

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March 28, 2014, 4:25 PM

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Brad Smith / Microsoft on the Issues:

Microsoft changes stance, won't inspect customer data in stolen IP cases, referring instead to law enforcement — We're listening: Additional steps to protect your privacy — General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft

More: PC Magazine, Computerworld, Ars Technica, GeekWire, Engadget, Re/code, The Verge, Gigaom, TechCrunch, The Next Web, LiveSide.net, Business Insider, WinBeta and SlashGear

Tweets: @pmarca, @bobmcmillan, @justinbrookman, @freedomofpress, @csoghoian, @trevortimm, @dannysullivan, @fxshaw, @parislemon and @caseynewton

Russell Holly / Geek.com:

Google mandates ‘Powered by Android’ branding on new devices — HTC and Samsung have something new popping up on their smartphones every time you boot them up, and apparently the feature was mandated by Google. — Android is not a household brand. Google is but, despite having …

More: Android Police, Engadget, The Verge, 9to5Google, TechCrunch, MobileBurn.com, TechnoBuffalo, Gigaom Research, Electronista, BGR, SlashGear, MobileSyrup.com, Phandroid and Android Authority. Tweets: @dannysullivan

Dan Primack / Fortune:

Y Combinator's new investment vehicle may not include any VC firms as limited partners — Y Combinator's YC VC may lose the actual VCs — Influential startup program Y Combinator is making a major change. — FORTUNE — For several years, a group of venture capital firms has committed …

More: VentureBeat. Tweets: @hunterwalk

Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella points to Office for iPad's early App Store success — Sure, you could argue that Microsoft's shiny new Office apps for iPad are only ranking so well because they're freemium apps since they're listed for free but require a subscription to fully function …

More: Wall Street Journal, PC Magazine, Gigaom, VentureBeat and TechCrunch

Lance Ulanoff / Mashable:

Microsoft Office for iPad review: rich apps, strong cloud ties, but no way to print documents

More: ZDNet, SuperSite for Windows, InfoWorld, TechCrunch and Pocket-lint. Tweets: @marksweeney

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Office for iPhone and Android phones is now completely free, Android tablet version coming ‘in the future’

More: Inquirer, TechSpot, The Guardian, BGR, PC World, Android Authority, ITWire.com, Android Community and The Droid Guy

Ina Fried / Re/code:

Microsoft Is Selling Office 365 Within iPad Apps, and Apple Is Getting Its 30 Percent Cut

More: Computerworld, GeekWire, MacNN, BGR, iDownloadBlog.com, FierceWireless, App Advice, Gearburn, Softpedia News, Ubergizmo, SiliconBeat, TUAW, iLounge, Pixel Envy, iPhone in Canada Blog, Wired and WinBeta

Tweets: @tim_cook, @satyanadella and @fmanjoo

Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:

Apple planning expansion at Arizona sapphire plant to boost output — Apple and sapphire manufacturing partner GT Advanced Technologies are looking to expand operations at the companies' Mesa, Ariz., facility, possibly to accommodate higher yields for an as-yet-unknown component, AppleInsider has learned.

More: MacRumors, TechnoBuffalo, Pocketnow, PFhub.com ™, iPhone in Canada Blog, Softpedia News, iDownloadBlog.com, TechCrunch, Gigaom, BGR, Electronista and App Advice. Thanks:@tipappleinsider

Euan Rocha / Reuters:

New Blackberry phones to cater to keyboard enthusiasts, BBM for desktop getting “serious look” — New BlackBerry phones to cater to keyboard aficionados: CEO — (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd plans to introduce high-end smartphones that cater to keyboard aficionados in the coming 18 months …

More: The Verge, CrackBerry.com, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, TechnoBuffalo, Gigaom, HotHardware.com News, Softpedia News and BGR. Tweets: @blackberrynews

Brad Reed / BGR:

BlackBerry Q4 loss much narrower than expected but revenue sinks below $1 billion

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

DVD and CD ripping for personal use to be legalized in UK from June — UK Govt: DVD and CD Ripping Will Be Legalized This Summer — To most consumers it is common sense that they can make a backup copy of media they own, but in the UK this is currently illegal.

More: Techdirt, Electronista, BetaNews, SlashGear, I4U News and Geeky Gadgets. See also Mediagazer

Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:

Valve's Michael Abrash Joins Oculus As Chief Scientist — After Facebook's acquisition of Oculus, many were worried that Oculus' top talent — many of whom are industry pioneers — would leave out of spite. Seems quite the opposite is happening. — Michael Abrash — the man largely responsible …

More: Oculus VR, VentureBeat, Re/code, The Verge, The Next Web, GeekWire, VG247 and Blue's News

Tweets: @danstapleton, @scottlowe and @cdixon

Kelly Hodgkins / MacRumors:

Swiss Watchmakers Rebuff Apple's Partnership and Hiring Advances — Apple allegedly is trying to tap Swiss watchmakers for their technical and metallurgy expertise as the company works to brings its rumored iWatch to the market, reports the Financial Times.

More: Financial Times, iMore, AppleInsider, BGR, everythingiCafe, TechnoBuffalo, iDownloadBlog.com, SlashGear, iPhone in Canada Blog and Electronista

Quentin Hardy / New York Times:

Crittercism study: Google cloud services have fastest response, iOS 7.1 apps are most stable — Smartphones, the Disappointing Miracle — Smartphone users are frustrated and deprived by bad service, including slow application load times and frequent service crashes.

More: Fortune, Android Central, Gigaom, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Gearburn, TechSpot, iPhone in Canada Blog, Android Community, TechnoBuffalo, Ubergizmo, MobileSyrup.com, FierceMobileIT News and BroadwayWorld.com

Nick Summers / The Next Web:

Dropbox acquires reading platform Readmill, will close it on 1 July — Readmill has been acquired by Dropbox and is now in the process of closing its reading platform. In a blog post, the Berlin-based startup said it was joining Dropbox to work on “new ways to read together” …

More: Readmill, TechCrunch, App Advice and Digital Book World. Tweets: @mathewi. See also Mediagazer

Brad Linder / Liliputing:

Sony 13 inch Digital Paper E Ink slate coming to America... for $1100 — Sony introduced a 13 inch slate for reading and writing on documents last year. The company calls it Digital Paper, and it's kind of a Kindle on crack with a big high-resolution, high-contrast display and a pen for taking notes or scribbling doodles.

More: Engadget, TechCrunch, Press Articles, Gizmodo, ExtremeTech, HEXUS.net Latest Content, SlashGear, TechSpot, Geeky Gadgets, Ubergizmo, Pulse 2.0 and EBOOK MAGAZINE. Tweets: @monkbent

Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica:

Mozilla employees ask new CEO Brendan Eich to step down for his support of anti-gay initiative — Mozilla employees tell Brendan Eich he needs to “step down” — This morning, a number of Mozilla employees took to Twitter with a united, nearly simultaneous message to new Mozilla Foundation CEO Brendan Eich: “Step down.”

More: Telegraph, Computerworld, Uncrunched, SiliconBeat, Los Angeles Times, Guardian, ReadWrite, The Next Web and bizjournals

Tweets: @chmcavoy, @bevangelist, @sydneymoyer, @iamjessklein, @varelidi, @davewiner and @soletelee

Kevin Fitchard / Gigaom:

Cloud-managed Wi-Fi firm Aerohive goes public, raising $75M — Enterprise Wi-Fi vendor Aerohive Networks debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday under the ticker HIVE after pricing its shares at $10 last night. The company raised its original target of $75 million through the initial public offering.

More: bizjournals, MarketWatch and silicontap.com

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:

Roku CEO: Apple TV is a money-loser — Roku has long argued that bigger rivals end up helping Roku when they release streaming-video boxes. CEO Anthony Wood allows that Apple TV does result in lost money — for Apple.

More: Re/code, Digital Trends, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Macgasm, InvestorPlace, TIME, BGR, Softpedia News, TechnoBuffalo, Ubergizmo, TechEye, SlashGear, Business Insider and AppleInsider. See also Mediagazer

Oliver Haslam / Redmond Pie:

Facebook Messenger v4 For iPhone And Android Released: Groups, Message Forwarding, More — It seems that someone at Facebook likes nice round numbers, because the social network has released Facebook Messenger 4.0 for iPhone and Android. Big new updates are great, except when they're not big at all …

More: Engadget, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Computerworld, MacNN, 9to5Mac, MacStories, NDTV Gadgets, Mashable, Jagran Post News, AllFacebook, Digit - Tech News and TechTree.com

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Huawei on NSA: If foreign spies attacked a US firm, there'd be “outrage” — Chinese tech company still trying to track down NSA infiltration. — It's been a week since revelations that the National Security Agency infiltrated the systems of Huawei, and the Chinese technology company …

More: Wired

John Koetsier / VentureBeat:

Mobile app monetization: Freemium is king, but in-app ads are growing fast — Freemium revenue for mobile apps was up 211 percent last year, according to a new report from mobile analytics company App Annie and IDC. — Clearly, free is working. — While a fairly strong majority …

More: App Annie Blog, Marketing Land, Mobile World Live, Consumer Electronics Net, I4U News, Mobile Entertainment Feed and Marketing Pilgrim

Lorraine Luk / Wall Street Journal:

Hon Hai Profit Rises 13%, Boosted By iPads and iPhones — Taiwan Manufacturer Also Announces New Investment and Fundraising Plans — HONG KONG— Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. , the biggest assembler of Apple Inc. products, said Friday its profit last year rose 13%, helped by an increase in iPad and iPhone sales.

More: iPhone in Canada Blog, PadGadget, 9to5Mac, Bloomberg, Reuters, iDownloadBlog.com and MacNN

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