Techmeme: SwiftKey Ditches Paid App, Goes Free With Launch of New Themes Store (Bonnie Cha/Re/code)

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June 11, 2014, 11:10 AM

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Bonnie Cha / Re/code:

SwiftKey Ditches Paid App, Goes Free With Launch of New Themes Store — SwiftKey, the popular predictive keyboard for Android, is going free today — and not just for a limited time. — The change is part of an update rolling out to the app now, which also includes the launch …

Lisa Fleisher / Wall Street Journal:

Taxi Drivers Plan Big Protests in Europe Against Uber — Planned Demonstrations in London, Madrid, France, Berlin Highlight Challenges Facing Uber and Its Peers — LONDON—Taxi drivers planned to turn a handful of European city centers into giant parking lots Wednesday …

Electronista:

Evernote, Feedly servers affected, hit with denial of service attacks — Evernote recovers from multi-hour DDoS attack, Feedly continues to suffer — Two prominent web properties have come under fire from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in the last 24 hours.

More: Building Feedly, Graham Cluley, The Next Web, Forbes, Gigaom, TechCrunch, Inquirer, The Digital Reader, BetaNews, The Verge, BBC, InfoWorld, BBC, WebProNews, The Register, Schneier on Security and Ubergizmo

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Lowercase Capital Is Raising A New $25M Fund, Led By Matt Mazzeo — Lowercase Capital is raising another $25 million, we're hearing. This is notable for a couple of reasons: Due to its Uber investment, Lowercase Capital's very first fund — a modest $8.5 million raised in 2010 …

Tweets: @badboyboyce and @sir

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

Robinson Meyer / The Atlantic Online:

Google's Skybox acquisition helps extend global internet access, enables cloud service for data about Earth — Google Owns a Satellite Now — To understand the behemoth's $500 million purchase of Skybox Imaging, don't look to the sky. The clouds will do just fine.

Tweets: @theatlantictech. Thanks:@alexismadrigal

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Google Pays $500M for Satellite Maker Skybox, for Photos and Eventually Internet Access

Tom Wheeler / Official FCC Blog:

Wheeler: state laws hurt broadband access in places like Chattanooga; FCC could preempt rules — Removing Barriers to Competitive Community Broadband — If any city understands the power of networks to drive economic growth, it's Chattanooga, Tennessee.

More: DSLreports, Gigaom, Ars Technica and NationalJournal.com. See also Mediagazer

Caitlin McGarry / TechHive:

New social network Fatdoor uses robots to connect neighbors (yes, really) — Fatdoor is the kind of neighborhood social network that would work perfectly in a small, tech-friendly town like Palo Alto, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Founder Raj Abhyanker envisions a day when neighbors …

More: Businessweek, Fast Company and The Verge. Thanks:@sfsooz

Phil Milford / Bloomberg:

Facebook, Zuckerberg Sued Over Directors' Compensation — Facebook Inc. (FB:US) and Chairman Mark Zuckerberg's program of letting company directors set their own pay, capped at stock currently worth $145 million per person, wastes corporate assets, an investor said in a lawsuit.

More: bizjournals, Tech Insider, CNBC, Valleywag and AllFacebook

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:

Microsoft fights U.S. search warrant for customer e-mails held in overseas server — Microsoft, one of the world's largest e-mail providers, is resisting a government search warrant to compel the firm to turn over customer data held in a server located overseas.

More: New York Times, Wall Street Journal and WinBeta. Tweets: @bradsmi

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, Pulse 2.0, Forbes, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Techworld.com, New York Times, Guardian, Business news, VentureBeat, PE Hub Blog, Bloomberg and CNET News

Reuters:

Synaptics to buy iPhone display chipmaker for $475 million — (Reuters) - Touchscreen chipmaker Synaptics Inc (SYNA.O) said it would buy the sole supplier of display chips for the iPhone for $475 million, potentially winning back Apple Inc (AAPL.O) as a customer.

More: Mercury News, ZDNet, Dow Jones Newswires, Bloomberg, 9to5Mac and Wall Street Journal

Dara Kerr / CNET News:

FAA approves first commercial use of drones over land — BP energy corporation and drone maker AeroVironment are given the OK to fly an unmanned Puma aircraft over Alaska to survey pipelines, roads, and equipment. — AeroVironment's Puma drone being hand-launched in Alaska. — AeroVironment

More: faa.gov, avinc.com, TechSpot, Softpedia News, Gigaom and BBC

Katy Stech / Wall Street Journal:

CoinLab Agrees to Support Mt. Gox's U.S. Bankruptcy Efforts — Move Marks Change of Course for CoinLab, Which Won't Oppose Bankruptcy Protection for Mt. Gox — Bitcoin company CoinLab Inc. has thrown its support behind Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox's U.S. bankruptcy case …

More: newsBTC and CoinDesk

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

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.

More: Wall Street Journal. Tweets: @fabianhansmann, @adrianblake, @bobbyisaacson and @romainlavault

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 …

More: hypebot. Tweets: @mcmichelsen

Sam Gustin / Motherboard:

The FCC Was Hacked After John Oliver Called for Net Neutrality Trolls — When HBO host John Oliver called for Internet trolls to deluge the Federal Communications Commission with comments about net neutrality, he may not have expected for the FCC's site to get shut down.

More: Engadget, The Verge and Search Engine Watch. Tweets: @digiphile

Chance Miller / 9to5Google:

Entirely new 1Password for Android app now available with redesigned interface, totally free until August 1 — After teasing the redesign earlier this year, 1Password has finally launched a much-needed update to its Android app. Prior to this update, 1Password on Android was hideous, to say the least.

More: Agile Blog, PC World, The Verge, PhoneDog, Lifehacker, Droid Life, Android Central and Business Insider

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: iPhone and The Mac Observer

Paul Carsten / Reuters:

Alibaba to buy out UCWeb in China's biggest internet merger — (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd will fully acquire mobile browser firm UCWeb in the biggest merger in Chinese internet history, upping the stakes in its battle with arch-rivals Tencent and Baidu.

More: PC World, TechCrunch, TechNode, Forbes, VentureBeat, The Next Web, TechCrunch and MediaNama

RTÉ:

European Commission to investigate Irish tax arrangements with Apple — Ireland has been accused of creating a system that allowed Apple to sidestep large tax payments worldwide — The European Commission is to open a formal investigation into Apple's tax arrangements with Ireland.

More: The Verge, EU Press Room, BGR, Fortune, Reuters, Engadget, iMore, Inquirer, Gigaom, Reuters, 9to5Mac, The Register, The Next Web, iPhone in Canada Blog, Re/code, AppleInsider, ZDNet and Electronista

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