Techmeme: Oyster brings its ‘Netflix for ebooks’ subscription service to Android, Kindle Fire and Nook HD (Nick Summers/The Next Web)

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June 17, 2014, 4:10 PM

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Thomas Gryta / Wall Street Journal:

AT&T to Exclusively Carry Amazon Smartphone — Amazon Expected to Unveil its Phone on Wednesday in Seattle — AT&T Inc. will be the exclusive carrier for Amazon.com Inc. 's new smartphone, which is expected to be unveiled on Wednesday, according to people familiar with the plans.

More: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, BGR, The Verge, Re/code, BGR, Business Insider, Gigaom, TIME, Droid Life, Geeky Gadgets, Ubergizmo, SlashGear, USA Today, Marketing Land, GeekWire, The Verge, StrictlyVC, I4U News, AndroidOS.in, Reuters and Business Insider

Tweets: @johnlegere, @zpower and @johnlegere

Brad Stone / Businessweek:

Amazon's Lab126 has been working on a 3D smartphone since 2009 — Inside the Secretive R&D Lab Behind the Amazon Phone — Disclosure: Brad Stone is author of The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. The book is published by Little, Brown & Co., a division of the Hachette Book Group …

More: TechCrunch, Gizmodo, ZDNet, BGR, 9to5Google, Business Insider, The Verge, CNNMoney.com, Re/code, Pocketnow, SlashGear, Liliputing and ITworld.com. Tweets: @nytimesbits

Stuart Dredge / Guardian:

YouTube to block indie labels who don't sign up to new music service — Starting internal tests of subscription service but faces accusation of ‘catastrophic error of judgement’ — YouTube has confirmed that it will begin blocking videos from independent labels that have not signed …

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook's Slingshot Challenges Snapchat With ‘Reply To Unlock’ — Facebook wants to break the “1% Rule” of Internet culture that says a tiny fraction of users create the content for everyone else. So after a momentary leak last week, today Facebook officially launches Slingshot for iOS …

More: Slingshot Blog, Facebook, Computerworld, ABC News, Inside Facebook, TechHive, ZDNet, Los Angeles Times, iMore, Engadget, Laughing Squid, Forbes and Joey Flynn

Tweets: @parislemon, @joshconstine, @mikeisaac, @levie, @tim, @mikeisaac and @panzer

Thanks:@kylebrussell

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Facebook Slingshot is much more than a Snapchat clone — A new kind of network that feels more like a feed than a messenger — At first, Facebook's new ephemeral messaging app, Slingshot, feels like yet another Snapchat clone. The free app, available now for iPhone and Android …

More: New York Times, The Next Web, Gizmodo, PC World, VentureBeat, AllFacebook, PC Magazine, CNET, Gizmodo, Gigaom, Re/code, Wired, Wall Street Journal, iPhone in Canada Blog, Technology Personalized, SlashGear, TIME, Android Central and MacStories

Tweets: @benedictevans, @tim, @joshm, @hamburger, @fmanjoo and @jyarow

Joel Rosenblatt / Bloomberg:

Apple Settles E-Books Pricing Case With States, Consumers — Apple Inc. (AAPL) reached a settlement with U.S. states and consumers seeking damages over the company's fixing of electronic book prices, avoiding a trial in which it faced as much as $840 million in claims.

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

Apple admits it will lose e-books conspiracy case, but it still wants to win

Bloomberg:

Oracle close to buying hospitality-industry software provider Micros Systems for more than $5B — Oracle Said to Near Deal to Buy Micros Systems — Oracle Corp. (ORCL) is nearing a deal to buy hospitality-industry software provider Micros Systems Inc. (MCRS) for more than $5 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

More: VentureBeat, eWeek, Computerworld, Tech Trader Daily, Business Insider, TheStreet.com, Reuters, DailyFinance.com and Forbes

Brian Fung / Washington Post:

Democrats unveil legislation forcing the FCC to ban Internet fast lanes — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. gesturing during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) — Democratic lawmakers will unveil a piece …

More: Computerworld, Re/code, The Register, Inquirer, VentureBeat, InfoWorld, Gigaom, The Hill, NPR, Business Insider, TechCrunch, BGR and The Verge. Tweets: @darth

See also Mediagazer

Sakari Suoninen / Reuters:

Nokia ‘paid millions to software blackmailers six years ago’ — (Reuters) - Finnish telecoms equipment company Nokia paid several million euros to criminals who threatened to reveal the source code for part of an operating system used in its smartphones some six years ago, Finnish TV station MTV said on Tuesday.

More: The Verge, Forbes, TechnoBuffalo, Electronista, Pocketnow, WinBeta and Neowin

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Following A Drop In Completed Jobs, Errands Marketplace TaskRabbit Shakes Up Its Business Model — Errands marketplace TaskRabbit is shaking things up today with a change to its business model. The company says it's shifting away from the auction model where contractors bid for tasks posted by end users …

More: The Verge, SiliconBeat, TaskRabbit Blog and The Next Web

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

Nike finally introduces a Fuelband app for Android — Despite rumors of the Nike Fuelband's demise (and a cozy relationship with Apple), the sportswear maker has finally expanded it compatibility by releasing a sync app for Android. Just like the iOS companion app, it communicates …

More: NikeInc.com, LAPTOP Magazine, CNET, Gigaom, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, The Next Web, Softpedia News, SlashGear, Electronista, Pocketnow, Gizmodo and Droid Life

Nick Summers / The Next Web:

Oyster brings its ‘Netflix for ebooks’ subscription service to Android, Kindle Fire and Nook HD — Oyster, often referred to as “the Netflix of ebooks,” is now available for Android devices, Kindle Fire tablets and the Nook HD. It joins the company's existing iOS app …

More: Oyster HQ Blog, TechCrunch, ZDNet, CNET, GeekWire, TechHive, The Verge, Liliputing, Gigaom, App Advice, Mashable and Inquirer

Marcus Wohlsen / Wired:

A Rare Peek Inside Amazon's Massive Wish-Fulfilling Machine — The first thing I saw when I walked into Amazon's Phoenix warehouse was a man riding on a giant tricycle. Behind him, yellow plastic tubs the size of office recycling bins whizzed by on a conveyor belt.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

eBay Launches “eBay Valet,” An iPhone App That Does The Selling For You — eBay today is expanding its lesser-known eBay Sell For Me service to mobile with the launch of a new app called eBay Valet, which promises to let eBay do the selling for you. That is, it takes every step of the selling process …

More: The Next Web

Mike Rispoli / Privacy International:

UK intelligence forced to reveal secret policy for mass surveillance of residents' Facebook and Google use — Britain's top counter-terrorism official has been forced to reveal a secret Government policy justifying the mass surveillance of every Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google user in the UK.

More: New York Times, Gigaom, Computerworld, Guardian, Engadget, TechCrunch, Inquirer, Neowin, The Global Legal Post, PC Pro, The Register, Daily Dot, GloucestershireEcho.co.uk, Mashable, Softpedia News, PandoDaily and The Next Web

Tweets: @matthew_d_green, @privacyint and @davidtpegg

Sara M. Watson / The Atlantic Online:

Why customized ads are so creepy, even when they miss their target — Why customized ads are so creepy, even when they miss their target — “What is it about my data that suggests I might be a good fit for an anorexia study?” That's the question my friend Jean asked me after she saw …

More: Stowe Boyd. Tweets: @marginalutility and @marymwisniewski

Matt Burns / TechCrunch:

Nest Brings Back The Protect At $99, But Waving Is Still Disabled — The Nest Protect is now available following its two-month hiatus after it was pulled for safety concerns. The smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector is now only $99, down from its $129 launch price.

Dylan Tweney / VentureBeat:

Pencil, the $60 iPad stylus, will get pressure-sensitivity with iOS 8 — Above: A new feature for the digital “Pencil” — angling it so you can shade in larger areas. — Pencil, a high-end iPad stylus that looks like a carpenter's pencil, will add pressure-sensing capabilities this fall.

More: FiftyThree News, The Next Web, Engadget, Macworld, MacRumors, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, iPhone in Canada Blog, App Advice, AppleInsider, The Verge, iMore, The Mac Observer, SlashGear and 9to5Mac

Jordan Novet / VentureBeat:

Amazon strikes back, launching speedy solid-state block storage one day after Google — If you're looking for more proof that Google's public cloud is a competitive threat to market leader Amazon Web Services, consider this. — Just a day after Google announced that it would back up its …

More: Amazon Web Services (AWS), The Register, TechCrunch, Network World and Gigaom

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google Cloud Platform Gets SSD Persistent Disks And HTTP Load Balancing

More: Google Cloud Platform Blog

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Snapchat Launches Collaborative Timelines Based On Events — Last year, Snapchat took its first big iterative step with the launch of Stories, which let users string together all of their snaps from the latest 24 hours into a single, fluid narrative. The company has since gone on to add text …

More: Snapchat, The Verge, VentureBeat, PandoDaily, The Next Web, 9to5Mac, Business Insider and TIME

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