Techmeme: Microsoft to offer Xbox Live Gold refunds once requirement is dropped for entertainment apps (Nick Summers/The Next Web)

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May 14, 2014, 5:00 PM

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Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

iPhone 6 with larger, sharper 1704 x 960 resolution screen in testing — Apple is preparing to release a new iPhone with a larger screen later this year, and while multiple reports have indicated that the screen will be larger, the exact dimensions of the screen and its resolution have so far been guesswork.

Kim Zetter / Wired:

Greenwald expands on NSA reporting with new book ‘No Place to Hide’ and 50+ new documents — Glenn Greenwald's Pulse-Pounding Tale of Breaking the Snowden Leaks — In June 2013, Edward Snowden was sitting in his room at the Mira hotel in Hong Kong, watching the world react …

More: FRONTLINE, Ars Technica, dissenter.firedoglake.com, Los Angeles Times, The Verge, ABC, The Verge and Daily Dot. Tweets: @ggreenwald. See also Mediagazer

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

NSA Docs Detail Efforts To Collect Data From Microsoft's Skype, SkyDrive, And Outlook.com — Last July, Glenn Greenwald published a set of claims regarding a number of Microsoft services that were, especially at the time, unsettling: That Microsoft had helped the NSA “circumvent its encryption” …

Michael Cieply / New York Times:

Sony Pictures buys film rights to Glenn Greenwald's book on Snowden and the NSA revelations

More: CNET News and WebProNews. See also Mediagazer

Adam Pash:

Switching from iPhone to Android loses incoming iMessages, senders still get delivery receipt — iMessage purgatory — I recently switched from an iPhone to Android, and discovered shortly thereafter that my phone number was still associated with iMessage, meaning that any time someone …

More: 9to5Mac, ReadWrite, MacRumors, iPhone Hacks, Ubergizmo, TUAW, VentureBeat, iPhone in Canada Blog, Business Insider, SlashGear, Redmond Pie, Gigaom, PandoDaily, iLounge, App Advice and MacNN

Tweets: @benbajarin, @dhh, @brendan_gill, @jasonh and @adampash

Cory Doctorow / Guardian:

Firefox's adoption of closed-source DRM breaks my heart — I understand the pressure to support commercial video - but the browser makers can do more to defend free and open software — Future versions of the open-source Firefox browser will include closed-source digital rights management …

More: Techdirt and VentureBeat. Tweets: @lmorchard and @brendaneich

Stephen Shankland / CNET:

Mozilla reluctantly bows to industry pressure, adopts DRM tech required to watch Netflix video

More: The Mozilla Blog, Mozilla Hacks, The Register, Engadget and TechCrunch. Tweets: @dangillmor. See also Mediagazer

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Surface Pro 3 might join Microsoft's Surface mini unveiling next week — Microsoft is holding a Surface press event in New York City next week, but the company may have accidentally revealed one of the announcements. In a support article published yesterday, Microsoft says a fresh update for Windows 8.1 …

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook For iOS Tries Popping Up Cards Of Related Content To Browse After You Post — Facebook is taking a swing at suggesting contextual content to keep you surfing after you share. A new test on iOS surfaces related content cards including photos of restaurants you say you're at …

More: The Verge, Gigaom, Inside Facebook, iMore, Mashable, App Advice and TIME

Alistair Barr / Wall Street Journal:

Google's not sure how to bring its self-driving-car to market, talks regularly to auto makers — Google Talking to Auto Makers About Self-Driving Car — Google is talking to auto makers about how to bring its self-driving-car technology to market, executives said Tuesday.

More: CNN, VentureBeat, SiliconBeat, New York Times, Bloomberg, Financial Times and detroitnews.com

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Here's What It's Like to Go for a Ride in Google's Robot Car

More: TechHive, CNET News, TIME, TechCrunch, The Verge and Reuters. Tweets: @inafried

Miguel Helft / Fortune:

Square expects to start turning a profit in about a year, has secured $225M line of credit — Square's status? It's complicated — Exclusive: Internal documents show that the innovative payments company expects losses through mid-2015. But then it predicts a turnaround.

More: Business Insider, Mashable, PSFK and NFC World+

Tweets: @sequoia_capital, @evelynrusli, @evelynrusli, @djtgallagher, @danprimack, @kylezink, @evelynrusli and @mattlynley

Andreessen Horowitz:

SaaS company valuations should be based on customer acquisition cost and lifetime value, not revenue and EPS — Understanding SaaS: Why the Pundits Have It Wrong — Tune into any cable network stock market channel and the airwaves resonate with one consistent theme: SaaS companies are simply too expensive.

Tweets: @shiraovide, @stevesi, @monkbent, @cdixon and @rsarver

Nick Summers / The Next Web:

Microsoft to offer Xbox Live Gold refunds once requirement is dropped for entertainment apps — If you have an Xbox Live Gold subscription only to access media apps such as Netflix and Hulu, Microsoft's recent decision to remove the digital requirement may have left you feeling short-changed.

More: eWeek, Ars Technica, Computerworld, Re/code, GamesIndustry International, Cramgaming.com, Softpedia News, Windows Phone Central, Neowin, WebProNews, SlashGear, Eurogamer.net, WinBeta and destructoid

Chris Kohler / Wired:

Microsoft Had No Choice but to Yank Kinect From Xbox One

More: Polygon, ReadWrite, ParisLemon, Cramgaming.com, VideoGamer.com, Expert Reviews, Technabob, AfterDawn.com, Geeky Gadgets, Ubergizmo, VG247, Guardian and Techdirt

Rich McCormick / The Verge:

Samsung offers ‘deep apology’ and compensation to workers who've contracted incurable diseases — Recent documentary uncovered 56 cases of leukemia — South Korean electronics giant Samsung has officially apologized over the illnesses and deaths of some of its factory workers.

More: Engadget, BGR, 9to5Google, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Computerworld, The Register, AppleInsider, Electronista, CNET News, ITProPortal and Android Central

Ben Popper / The Verge:

Depending on its needs, Verizon flip-flops on how its infrastructure should be regulated — Game of phones: how Verizon is playing the FCC and its customers — Tomorrow, the FCC starts deciding the future of the internet. It's an emotional, controversial, drawn-out battle that has been building …

More: Broadband for America blogs. Tweets: @acedtect, @byersalex and @jank0

Stig Øyvann / ZDNet:

Apple's ‘convoluted and unclear’ iCloud agreements break Norwegian law, says watchdog — Summary: Norway's Consumer Council has filed a complaint about iCloud 8,600 word EULA. — The Norwegian Consumer Council has filed a complaint over the terms and conditions of Apple's iCloud service …

More: forbrukerradet.no, MacRumors, EurActiv, iPhone in Canada Blog, Electronista, Gigaom, iMore and InvestorPlace

FaryaabS / SamMobile:

Hands-on with a test build of the Tizen operating system for the original Galaxy Gear — Exclusive: Samsung Galaxy Gear Tizen Preview — Earlier this year, there was speculation about Samsung launching new version of its Galaxy Gear along with the Samsung Galaxy S5 at the UNPACKED 2014 Episode 1 event in Barcelona, Spain.

More: Gigaom, The Droid Guy, xda-developers, Ubergizmo, Connectedly and Android Police

Don Clark / Wall Street Journal:

Autodesk Moves to Make Its Own 3-D Printer — Autodesk is known for programs that help people make things. Now the San Francisco company plans to make something itself-a 3-D printer and software to go with it, hoping to spur a hot market to move even faster.

More: The Next Web, In The Fold, ZDNet, SlashGear and Electronista

John Koetsier / VentureBeat:

Adobe's marketing cloud goes real-time, adds app store, boosts search ads 25% — How can big data and smart analytics ignite growth for your company? Find out at DataBeat, May 19-20 in San Francisco, from top data scientists, analysts, investors, and entrepreneurs. There are less than 50 tickets left!

More: Marketing Land, ValueWalk, Forbes, MediaPost, internetretailer.com, ZDNet and Inside Facebook

Takashi Amano / Bloomberg:

iPhone market share in Japan is 36.6% in year ending March, up from 25.5% a year earlier — Apple Boosts Japanese Market Share After NTT Docomo Sells IPhone — Apple Inc. (AAPL) boosted its share of the Japan mobile-phone market to more than a third after the country's largest wireless carrier started selling the iPhone.

More: ParisLemon, Android Authority, AppleInsider, Cult of Mac, 9to5Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, Electronista, AfterDawn.com, Geeky Gadgets, Geeky Gadgets, App Advice, Daring Fireball and MacRumors

Barb Darrow / Gigaom:

Acxiom snaps up LiveRamp and its data onboarding smarts for $310M — Acxiom is not some shiny Silicon Valley startup. In fact, it's over 40 years old. The company, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, also happens to be a pioneer in collecting data — and converting that data into big bucks …

More: Wall Street Journal, AdAge, AdExchanger and ECPM BLOG

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Image Is Everything: Snapchat Tops WhatsApp As Biggest U.S. Messaging App By Volume — Snapchat may be getting a rap on the knuckles right now from regulators over how it handles user privacy, but the ephemeral messaging app is still a hot commodity. According to a report out today …

More: Sandvine, Re/code, DSLreports, BGR, TorrentFreak, Gigaom and Glass. See also Mediagazer

Spencer E. Ante / Wall Street Journal:

Red Hat refuses to support commercial Linux customers if they use rival versions of OpenStack — Red Hat Plays Hardball on OpenStack Software — Rivals Fear That Software Maker Is Using Linux Dominance to Block Use of Alternative Cloud Software — Software maker Red Hat Inc …

More: Gigaom and internetnews.com

Steve Lohr / New York Times:

Consumer Watchdog objects to Eric Schmidt's appointment to NY's “Smart Schools” advisory group, citing “unlawful conflicts of interest” — Eric Schmidt Has an Interest. Is It a Conflict? — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York last month appointed a three-person commission …

Yuri Kageyama / Associated Press:

Sony Sinks to $1.3B Quarterly Loss on PC Expenses — Sony Corp. sank to a 138 billion yen ($1.3 billion) quarterly loss, hit by costs from selling its personal computer business and is forecasting more red ink as it struggles to execute a long-promised turnaround.

More: The Verge, Bloomberg, Engadget, Wall Street Journal, Ars Technica, Android Central, MobileSyrup.com, AfterDawn.com, Businessweek, CNET News, Associated Press, Reuters and BBC

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