Techmeme: Facebook launches Slingshot, its latest ephemeral messaging app to rival Snapchat (Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web)

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June 17, 2014, 1:50 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, BGR, Gigaom, Re/code, VentureBeat, BGR, Marketing Land, GeekWire, StrictlyVC, 9to5Google, Ars Technica, LAPTOP Magazine, PC Magazine, USA Today, Digital Trends, ZDNet, I4U News, The Verge, The Next Web, Technologizer, Reuters, AndroidOS.in and Business Insider

Tweets: @johnlegere 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: The Verge, Business Insider, CNNMoney.com, Re/code and ITworld.com

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

More: TechCrunch

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 …

Roberto Baldwin / The Next Web:

Facebook launches Slingshot, its latest ephemeral messaging app to rival Snapchat — Earlier this month Facebook accidentally pushed it's latest app, Slingshot live in Malaysia. Well it's back and this time the ephemeral messaging app with a focus on trading photos and videos is here to stay.

More: New York Times, CNET, Gizmodo, 9to5Mac, Gigaom and Re/code

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook's Slingshot Challenges Snapchat With ‘Reply To Unlock’

More: Engadget, Joey Flynn and Slingshot Blog

Tweets: @mikeisaac and @panzer

Thanks:@kylebrussell

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Facebook Slingshot is much more than a Snapchat clone

More: SlashGear and MacStories

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: TheStreet.com, Business Insider, 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: VentureBeat, InfoWorld, Gigaom, Computerworld, The Hill, NPR, Business Insider, TechCrunch, BGR and The Verge. Tweets: @darth

See also Mediagazer

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

Tweets: @privacyint and @davidtpegg

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 Next Web, Business Insider, 9to5Mac, TIME and SlashGear

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.

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.

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: @marymwisniewski and @marginalutility

Tasneem Raja / Mother Jones:

On the importance of schools fostering “computational thinking” at a young age — Is Coding the New Literacy? … Detail from “On the Mode of Communication of Cholera,” 1854 … Upending our notions of what it means to interface with computers could help democratize …

More: NPR. Tweets: @amandataub

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

Leslie Horn / Gizmodo:

SoundCloud, with 300M users, focuses on monetization, considers licensing deals, pre-roll ads — How SoundCloud Changed Music Forever — Some of the best ideas are also the simplest. And there are few things more simple than SoundCloud, which in its seven year existence has sneakily become one of the best things online.

Tweets: @waxpancake

New York Times:

Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product Philosophy — When Steven P. Jobs led Apple, he created a core principle for the company's designers and engineers: stay fully focused on making great products. — That philosophy continues to guide Apple, even under its new chief executive …

More: Macworld, AppleTell, I4U News, Guardian, Ubergizmo, App Advice, TechnoBuffalo and eWeek

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

The history of Android — Android's home screen over the years. — Android has been with us in one form or another for more than six years. During that time, we've seen an absolutely breathtaking rate of change unlike any other development cycle that has ever existed.

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

Cisco to Pay $175 Million for Sweden's Tail-f Systems — Networking giant Cisco Systems said today it will pay $175 million to buy Tail-f Systems, a privately held company based in Sweden that makes systems for managing networks. — The deal marks only Cisco's second acquisition this year.

More: eWeek, Gigaom, Multichannel News, InfoWorld, Cisco Blog and FierceTelecom News

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