Techmeme: Waze CEO confirms Google paid $1.15B for the company, hints that investors forced the deal (Jon Russell/The Next Web)

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April 7, 2014, 5:10 PM

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Bloomberg:

Microsoft to launch Xbox original TV shows in June, has six series lined up, with more than a dozen projects in development — Microsoft Goes Hollywood in Amazon-Like Programming Push — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is going Hollywood with a cast including comedians Sarah Silverman and Seth Green …

Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:

Uber launching an on-demand courier service in Manhattan on Tuesday — Uber is launching an on-demand courier service tomorrow (exclusive) — Tomorrow, Uber will launch an on-demand courier service in Manhattan, allowing users to request item pickup and delivery via a smartphone app.

More: TechCrunch, GeekWire, Engadget and Business Insider

Tweets: @reckless, @drew and @ajs

Thanks:@cullenmacdonald

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Twitter Acquires Android Lockscreen App Cover, Moves Deeper Into Mobile Services — A very interesting acquisition announcement from Twitter today: it's buying Cover, an Android lockscreen app that lets you customise what apps you see and when. For now, Cover will remain live in the Play store.

More: Cover, Gigaom, PC Magazine, The Verge, PandoDaily, Re/code, Wall Street Journal, Computerworld, Engadget, 9to5Google, VentureBeat, The Next Web and silicontap.com

Tweets: @caseynewton and @rsarver

Michael Crider / Android Police:

#1 new paid app in Play Store “Virus Shield” has no functionality, later removed by Google — The #1 New Paid App In The Play Store Costs $4, Has Over 10,000 Downloads, A 4.7-Star Rating... And It's A Total Scam [Updated] — Computer security is important, even if the computer in question fits in your hand.

More: BGR, Network World, Gigaom Research, Redmond Pie, The Hacker News, Tech2, We Live Security, Business Insider and GSMArena Blog. Tweets: @edanuff

Chris Dixon:

Mobile app dominance vs. web will hurt long-term innovation, likely make web a niche product — The decline of the mobile web — People are spending more time on mobile vs desktop: — And more of their mobile time using apps, not the web: — This is a worrisome trend for the web.

More: Business Insider. Tweets: @johnolilly

Lucas Mearian / Computerworld:

Seagate releases 6TB hard drive, its fastest yet — Seagate has released its first 6TB hard drive, saying that it was able to reach that capacity without using helium like rival Western Digital. — Seagate has released its first 6TB, enterprise-class hard disk drive …

More: The Register, The Register, eWeek, TechCrunch, BGR, Inquirer, IntoMobile, PC Magazine, BetaNews, Computerworld, ZDNet, Geek.com, Electronista, Electronista, TechSpot, Softpedia News and HotHardware.com News. Tweets: @qthrul

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Waze CEO confirms Google paid $1.15B for the company, hints that investors forced the deal — Google completed its acquisition of Waze last June, but only now has the price tag that it paid for the Israel-headquartered social mapping startup and a hint at why the company sold out been revealed.

More: LinkedIn Pulse, 9to5Google, Softpedia News, bizjournals, Android Community and silicontap.com

David Kravets / Ars Technica:

Supreme Court passes on NSA bulk phone surveillance case — Case will head to appeals court first, but will likely end up with the Supremes. — The Supreme Court declined Monday to resolve the constitutionality of the National Security Agency's bulk telephone metadata surveillance program …

More: SiliconBeat, Computerworld, ZDNet and Daily Dot

Megan Rose Dickey / Business Insider:

How Techmeme Became The Must-Read News Site For Everyone In The Multibillion-Dollar Tech Industry — Over the past 10 years, the technology industry has evolved from photo-sharing websites like Flickr to photo-sharing apps like Instagram. — And, we suppose, there's been a few other changes along the way.

Tweets: @nikcub, @laughingstoic, @dmac1, @tcarmody, @zpower, @jtemple, @mikeisaac, @caseynewton, @hunterwalk, @rafat, @parislemon, @gaberivera and @qthrul. Thanks:@matthewmspace. See also Mediagazer

Anand Lal Shimpi / AnandTech:

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 808/810: 20nm High-End 64-bit SoCs with LTE Category 6/7 Support in 2015 — Today Qualcomm is rounding out its 64-bit family with the Snapdragon 808 and 810. Like the previous 64-bit announcements (Snapdragon 410, 610 and 615), the 808 and 810 leverage ARM's own CPU IP …

More: Qualcomm, Engadget, Reuters, TechSpot, MobileSyrup.com, CNET, Gigaom, AndroidGuys, MobileBurn.com, Re/code, Geek.com, Android Authority, VentureBeat, Technology Personalized, Gizmodo, Xperia Blog, SlashGear and dailywireless.org. Thanks:@srikardr

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

Microsoft targets broadcasters with the new studio-grade Skype TX — Microsoft is extending its reach into the broadcasting realm with a new product called Skype TX, which it calls “studio grade software that delivers high quality audio and video output to seamlessly connect broadcast …

More: Skype, TechCrunch, GeekWire, The Verge, VentureBeat, WinBeta and TechSpot

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

The Micro, A Compact, Consumer-Friendly 3D Printer, Launches On Kickstarter For $199+ — High end 3D printers out in the wild already can print some pretty incredible things but at a high cost and commensurate level of complexity. As with any nascent industry, the market's initial focus …

More: Kickstarter, TechCrunch, Los Angeles Times, Engadget, Gigaom, The Verge and SlashGear

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

StoreDot's Bio-Organic Battery Tech Can Charge From Flat To Full In 30 Seconds — Want to charge your phone from flat to full in 30 seconds? Who doesn't. But don't get too excited yet — Israeli startup StoreDot's bio-organic fast-charging battery tech, which utilizes quantum dot technology, is only a prototype right now.

More: Wall Street Journal, The Next Web, PC Magazine, 9to5Mac, Android Central, textually.org, Daily Dot, Business Insider, Softpedia News, Cult of Mac and Entrepreneur

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Confirmed: Former Apple Exec Andy Miller Out at Leap Motion — Andy Miller, president and chief operating officer at the motion-controller startup Leap Motion, no longer has a day-to-day role there, the company confirmed today. — However, the former Apple iAd chief and co-owner …

More: Fortune

Edgar Alvarez / Engadget:

Broadcast your point of view with Livestream's new Google Glass app — NAB 2014 wouldn't be the same without Livestream, one of the internet's most popular broadcasting services, introducing new hardware or software. As such, Livestream has just announced another way for users to share video on its site …

More: Gigaom, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, HotHardware.com News, 9to5Google, Ubergizmo, The Verge, TechnoBuffalo, Android Community, SlashGear and TechCrunch

Max Chafkin / Fast Company:

The story of Better Place, Shai Agassi's failed electric car startup that raised nearly $1B — A Broken Place: The Spectacular Failure Of The Startup That Was Going To Change The World — “So this is the car.” I'm standing outside a shopping mall somewhere in Tel Aviv, Israel, as Guy Pross shows me his ride.

More: Gigaom

David Sirota / PandoDaily:

Documents show Gogo boasted of helping law enforcement agencies spy on in-flight wifi — We already know that there's almost nowhere on earth you can go to escape the warrantless snooping and panoptic surveillance of the US government. Now it turns out you're not even safe 30,000 feet up in the sky.

Tweets: @csoghoian

Lisa Fleisher / Wall Street Journal:

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen invests $40M in online voting firm Scytl — Microsoft Co-Founder Allen Bets on Online Voting; Funds Scytl — People bank online and do their taxes online. — But not many vote online. — On Monday, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's venture-capital fund …

More: PE Hub Blog, Gigaom and VentureBeat

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Six major movie studios file copyright lawsuit against Megaupload, seek $150k per infringement — Movie Studios Sue Defunct Piracy Site Megaupload, Seeking Millions in Damages — Six major U.S. movie studios have sued Megaupload — which U.S. law enforcement officials shut down in January 2012 …

More: Techdirt, Engadget, Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times and Deadline.com. Tweets: @kimdotcom. See also Mediagazer

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

E-Learning Platform Lynda.com Buys Compilr To Add In-Browser Coding Tools, Price Around $20M — Lynda.com, the online education platform that raised its first and only round of $103 million about a year ago, is today announcing an acquisition that will further Lynda.com's reach with developers …

More: Compilr, ReadWrite, Entrevestor.com, Pacific Coast Business Times and Techvibes Global News

Wall Street Journal:

Yahoo, like Netflix and Amazon, looks to produce full half-hour TV comedies — Yahoo Makes New Push Into Video Production — Internet Company Hunts for Original Web-Series Programming — Yahoo Inc. is raising its ambitions in online video, with plans to acquire the kind of original programming …

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