Techmeme: Lady Gaga's Backplane Pivots To Let You Build And Monetize Your Own Social Network (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

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June 10, 2014, 9:25 PM

Top News

Deepa Seetharaman / Reuters:

Exclusive: Amazon.com plans local services marketplace this year - sources — (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc later this year plans to launch a marketplace for local services, a broad term that encompasses anything from babysitters to handymen to birthday clowns, beginning with a single market, several people familiar with the matter said.

More: Ars Technica, Forbes, TechCrunch, TechSpot, VentureBeat, Engadget, Gizmodo, Ubergizmo, The Verge and WebProNews

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Google Pays $500M for Satellite Maker Skybox, for Photos and Eventually Internet Access — Google said on Tuesday it had bought Skybox Imaging, a company that provides high-resolution photos using satellites, for $500 million in cash. — Google explained the deal as such …

Ann-Christine Diaz / AdAge:

Apple is urgently building an internal ad agency of 1000 people, poaching industry executives, pitting internal creative against external agencies — For Apple, Marketing Is a Whole New Game — Here's What the Company's Doing to Regain Its Edge — By Ann-Christine Diaz, Maureen Morrison.

More: Engadget, Ubergizmo, bizjournals, MacRumors, iPhone in Canada Blog, 9to5Mac, Gigaom, Cult of Mac, iPhone Hacks, Business Insider, VentureBeat, The Verge, AppleInsider, iDownloadBlog.com, BGR, iMore, iPhone, Re/code, iLounge, MacNN and App Advice. Tweets: @fromedome

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

Honeywell takes on Nest with $279 Lyric smart thermostat, available in Lowe's stores by August — The heat is on: Honeywell is finally ready to challenge the Nest thermostat — The Lyric thermostat builds on Nest's iconic design — The idea of a connected home …

More: The Next Web, TechHive, PR Newswire, Gigaom, iPhone in Canada Blog, TIME, Electronista, 9to5Mac, PandoDaily, Technologizer, Phandroid, BetaNews, VatorNews, VentureBeat, Engadget, Gizmodo, Connectedly, Wall Street Journal, SlashGear, SlashGear and BGR

Tweets: @ryan and @ryan

Liz Stinson / Wired:

Preorders open for Ringly, a $145-180 Bluetooth ring that vibrates and blinks with phone notifications — This Jewelry Lights Up and Buzzes When Your Phone Needs You — We've all done it: You're at a restaurant, enjoying a nice moment with a friend when all of a sudden you hear your phone buzz.

More: MacRumors, VentureBeat, Business Insider, Digital Trends, Wall Street Journal, PandoDaily, TechCrunch, CNET News, Thisisgoingtobebig.com, Crowdfund Insider, Electronista, Ubergizmo, Entrepreneur and tech.co. Tweets: @fmanjoo

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Pinterest hires veteran Apple executives Michael Lopp and Bob Baxley to lead engineering and product design — Pinterest Hires Long-Time Apple Execs to Lead Engineering and Product Design — You might think that with its $5 billion valuation, Pinterest would have its senior management largely set.

More: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Gigaom, Engadget, bizjournals and internetretailer.com

Tweets: @twatson, @bbaxley and @rands

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Lady Gaga's Backplane Pivots To Let You Build And Monetize Your Own Social Network — Why should Facebook or Ning earn the money if you bring the audience? Backplane wants to put that cash in your pocket. That's why it's pivoting from building social networks for big brands and celebrities …

Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:

Index Ventures Raises New $550M Early-Stage Fund For Europe, The US And Israel — Index Ventures has announced a new early-stage, €400 million ($550 million) fund aimed at tech startups in Europe, US and Israel. This is its seventh early-stage fund and part of a total €3 billion …

More: The Next Web, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, Techworld.com, Bloomberg, Financial Times, New York Times and Business news

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Dropbox For Business Acquires MobileSpan To Make Bring-Your-Own-Device More Secure — Dropbox has just acquired MobileSpan, a startup that helps enterprise employees access corporate firewalled content securely. MobileSpan will shut down at the end of 2014, and active development will cease immediately.

More: MobileSpan, Gigaom, VentureBeat, ZDNet and CITEworld Matt Weinberger. Tweets: @joshconstine

Hunter Walk:

Money Doesn't Talk. Why Most Startups Aren't Announcing Their Seed Financings — Most of the startups we've backed at Homebrew don't rush to announce their funding. Not because they're all operating in stealth or pre-product - in fact some already are earning $1m+ in revenue per annum.

Tweets: @fabianhansmann, @adrianblake, @bobbyisaacson and @romainlavault

David Kravets / Ars Technica:

Google's university book scanning can move ahead without authors' OK — A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the right of universities, in conjunction with Google, to scan millions of library books without the authors' permission. — The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals …

More: Associated Press, Gigaom and Techdirt. See also Mediagazer

Dan Frakes / Macworld:

Longtime Apple-accessory distributor Dr. Bott files for bankruptcy — Online retailer and distributor Dr. Bott, a fixture in the Apple-accessory market since the late 1990s, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in its home state of Oregon, according to public records and information provided to Macworld.

More: The Mac Observer

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

How a credulous media repeated dubious claims of a Turing Test milestone — No, A ‘Supercomputer’ Did NOT Pass The Turing Test For The First Time And Everyone Should Know Better — So, this weekend's news in the tech world was flooded with a “story” about how a “chatbot” passed the Turing Test for …

More: Wired, The Daily Beast, Wall Street Journal, Telegraph, Computerworld, Neowin, Slate, Business Insider, New Yorker, Washington Post, New Scientist, NPR, The Atlantic Online, Guardian, InvestorPlace and The Tech Report

Tweets: @ksigler and @donttrythis

See also Mediagazer

David Pierce / The Verge:

Samsung Chromebook 2 review: excellent portability & battery, processor struggles to multitask — Samsung Chromebook 2 review — Still waiting for the truly great, truly beautiful, truly portable Chromebook — Two years ago, Samsung made the first great Chromebook.

More: Softpedia News and Computerworld

Jen Yamato / Deadline.com:

Alamo Drafthouse Bans Google Glass In Movie Theaters — Google Glass wearers have one fewer place to sport their wearable devices. Alamo Drafthouse CEO Tim League made his company's policy official today, announcing that the cinema chain will ban use of Google Glass once house lights dim and trailers begin.

More: PandoDaily, VentureBeat, TorrentFreak, Ars Technica, eWeek, Engadget, CNET News, SlashGear, Business Insider, Ubergizmo, Softpedia News, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Electronista and 9to5Google. Tweets: @timalamo

Stephen Shankland / CNET News:

Google demotes Chrome feature that would hide full Web addresses — Those who want their browser to show Web sites' full addresses gain a victory as Google opts to put the “origin chip” idea on the back burner. — The actions Google takes with its Chrome browser cast a long shadow.

More: Daring Fireball and 9to5Google. Tweets: @digiphile

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

About.me Raises $11M To Rival Facebook For Simple Online Identity — About.me, the second-time around startup that lets you create a simple page about yourself online that others can use to find out a bit more about you, is today announcing another round funding, its second since getting spun …

More: Re/code, VentureBeat, tech.co, PE Hub Blog, True Ventures and Feld Thoughts. Thanks:@drew

JP Mangalindan / Fortune:

eBay: We're not killing our same-day delivery service — But plans of expanding to 25 cities by end of the year have been shelved. The rumors about eBay Now's demise are greatly exaggerated. “There are no plans to shut down our same-day delivery offering for eBay Now,” eBay Senior Vice President Christopher Payne told Fortune.

More: VentureBeat and SiliconBeat. Thanks:@jpmanga

Larry Dignan / ZDNet:

Oracle preps Database 12c in-memory option: Can it fend off rivals? — Summary: If Oracle can stop rivals in their tracks on the real-time analytics front, the company's database — under fire from open source alternatives — will keep customers for multiple investment cycles.

More: eWeek, Bloomberg, Computerworld, New York Times, Oracle, Gigaom, VentureBeat, InformationWeek, The Register, V3.co.uk and Reuters

Jon Fingas / Engadget:

Formlabs' second-gen pro 3D printer is 50 percent faster — Formlabs' Form1 was a top dog among 3D printers when it first shipped, but others have stepped up their game in the past year. It's about time for an upgrade, don't you think? Appropriately, the company has just unveiled the Form1+ …

More: formlabs.com, Gigaom, PC Magazine, Maximum PC, TCT, PR Newswire, 3DPrint.com, Computerworld and Cool Hunting

Nathan Olivarez-Giles / Wall Street Journal:

Consumer version of Myo armband for gesture control shown at E3, ships in September for $149 — Myo Motion-Sensing Armband: First Look at the Wearable's Finished Design — The promise of virtual reality is true immersion—the idea that we'll be able to step into a whole new digital world and feel like it's actually real.

Thanks:@wjrothman

Dan Rayburn / StreamingMediaBlog.com:

New Data Questions Netflix's Assertion That ISPs Are At Fault For Poor Quality — In the Netflix versus ISPs peering dispute, there are a lot of opinions and debate around who's at fault for letting some peering points degrade and who should be responsible for upgrading them.

Thanks:@danrayburn

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Placed Raises $10 Million Series B For Mobile-Powered Location Analytics — Location-based analytics provider Placed, which operates an opt-in mobile surveying panel that now reaches over 175,000 people, is announcing $10 million in Series B funding in a round led by Two Sigma Ventures, the VC arm of Two Sigma Investments.

More: Xconomy, PE Hub Blog, AdExchanger, VentureBeat, GeekWire, Gigaom and ScreenwerkScreenwerk

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