Techmeme
May 23, 2014, 5:50 PM

Top News

David Streitfeld / New York Times:
Amazon escalates battle with Hachette, refuses coming book orders, lists some as unavailable  —  Amazon Escalates Its Battle Against Hachette  —  Amazon, under fire in much of the literary community for energetically discouraging customers from buying books from the publisher Hachette, has abruptly escalated the battle.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Google Close To Snapping Up Satellite Startup Skybox Imaging For $1B+, Say Sources  —  Google made a play for the skies in April when it swept in and acquired Titan Aerospace amid reports that the drone maker was being pursued by Facebook.  But Google's interest in hardware companies …
Wall Street Journal:
Samsung plans summer launch for standalone smartwatch that can work as a phone, take photos  —  Samsung Plans to Introduce a Stand-Alone Smartwatch  —  Electronics Maker's Watch Will Make Calls Without Being Tethered to a Smartphone; Expected in Summer Months
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:
Google Rated Top Employer for Pay and Benefits by Glassdoor  —  Google and three other Silicon Valley companies recently settled a lawsuit alleging that they agreed not to recruit each other's employees.  Maybe Google didn't need to worry about poaching.  —  The search giant ranked …
John Biggs / TechCrunch:
Source: 70% chance Apple's Beats deal is happening, it's a Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine acquihire  —  Apple's Beats Deal Is Happening, And It's A Dre Acquihire  —  A well-placed source has confirmed rumors that Apple's acquisition of Beats “is happening” but was close to falling apart multiple times.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
After Supreme Court's ruling against CAFC rules, Newegg can seek legal fees from patent troll  —  Newegg Given The Go Ahead To Pursue ‘Douche Bag’ Patent Troll For Fees  —  A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court smacked down the Federal Circuit (CAFC) for its made up rules that made it almost impossible …
More: Newegg UnscrambledTweets: @glynmoody
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
YouTube is building a mobile app for creators, a feature to let fans donate funds, and crowdsourced subtitles  —  YouTube today announced a new initiative called Creator Preview, a video series in which the Google-owned company shares what features it is working on for creators.
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Microsoft announces Windows 8.1 with Bing to help partners sell lower-cost devices, will debut at Computex  —  Microsoft today confirmed the rumors of a new edition of its latest operating system by unveiling Windows 8.1 with Bing.  The company says the main purpose is to allow its hardware partners …
Reuters:
eBay discovered breach in early May, didn't initially believe customer data was compromised  —  Exclusive: EBay did not initially realize customer data compromised in breach - executive  —  An eBay logo is projected onto white boxes in this illustration picture taken in Warsaw, January 21, 2014.
Tweets: @techwriterjim
Wall Street Journal:
Google's Project Tango developing 7-inch tablet that can capture 3D images of objects  —  Google Developing Tablet With Advanced Vision Capabilities  —  Tech Company Plans To Produce About 4,000 Prototype Tablets Beginning Next Month  —  Google Inc. is developing a new …
David Chartier / Agile Blog:
1Password 4 for Android arrives on June 10th, free until August 1st  —  1Password 4 for Android is coming  —  We've been busy.  Not just busy—busy.  A while ago we decided that we could rebuild 1Password Reader for Android.  We have the technology.  We have the capability to build …
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
South African E-Commerce Giant Takealot Raises $100M From Tiger Global  —  Takealot, a South African e-commerce site, has raised a whopping $100 million from Tiger Global Management.  —  The company is still relatively young, launching in 2011, post the acquisition of an existing e-commerce …

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More News

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Earlier Picks

Vindu Goel / New York Times:
Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom: