Techmeme: Smartphone users are unlikely to switch to Amazon's Fire phone, which lacks many popular apps (Christopher Mims/Wall Street Journal)

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June 19, 2014, 2:45 PM

Top News

Baljeet Singh / The Twitter Blog:

Twitter acquires SnappyTV, the service for clipping, editing, and sharing video clips from live broadcasts — SnappyTV is joining the flock — One of the best ways to follow events as they unfold is through real-time videos on Twitter. As we continue to invest in video …

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:

Smartphone users are unlikely to switch to Amazon's Fire phone, which lacks many popular apps — Commentary: Amazon's Fire Phone Is Too Much, Too Late — Please allow me to be the last to tell you that Amazon unveiled a phone, and among the first to tell you why no one will buy it.

More: Re/code and New York Times. Tweets: @mims, @joshconstine, @geoffreyfowler, @miriamgottfried, @tomgara and @mp3michael

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

Why Did Amazon Make a Phone? A Conversation With Jeff Bezos — Shortly after he introduced the new Fire phone on Wednesday, I spoke with Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon's founder and chief executive, about the device and Amazon's goals in the smartphone business. — Here is an edited transcript of our discussion.

More: Business Insider. Tweets: @b_fung, @jyarow, @jyarow and @stevekovach

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Fire Phone compared with iPhone 5S, Galaxy 5S, One, Moto X, and Lumia Icon: unique software running on average hardware

More: eWeek, ZDNet, Mashable, TheStreet.com, Polygon and THE CORNERPLAY

MG Siegler / Medium:

Amazon is first to offer free, unlimited, out-of-the-box photo storage with Fire Phone and the competition will need to follow its lead

More: ParisLemon, Fortune, CNN, VentureBeat, stratechery, Mobile Marketing Watch, TelecompetitorTelecompetitor, Marketing Land and ZDNet

Tweets: @hunterwalk, @hunterwalk and @joestump

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Unlike AT&T, T-Mobile isn't charging companies to circumvent data caps — T-Mobile US last night announced a “Music Freedom” program that will exempt certain music streaming services from counting against the monthly data limits that the so-called “uncarrier” imposes on its customers.

More: Geek Beat and dailywireless.org

Chris Ziegler / The Verge:

T-Mobile is setting a dangerous precedent for wireless net neutrality with its Music Freedom initiative

More: Techdirt, BGR, TIME, Multichannel News, DailyFinance.com, Electronista and Washington Post

Tweets: @bdsams, @fmanjoo, @papadimitriou and @inafried

See also Mediagazer

Ina Fried / Re/code:

T-Mobile Offering Weeklong iPhone “Test Drive” to Lure Customers

More: T-Mobile Newsroom, CNET, GeekWire, DSLreports, InvestorPlace, CNET, Ars Technica, blog.chron.com, BGR, Inside Mobile Apps, Electronista, Gigaom, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, Mashable, LAPTOP Magazine and ZDNet. Tweets: @inafried

Brad Molen / Engadget:

On T-Mobile, you can now stream music without hurting your data plan

More: T-Mobile Newsroom, GeekWire, Re/code, The Verge, VatorNews, 9to5Mac, The Verge, iPhone in Canada Blog, AndroidGuys, Android and Me, SlashGear, TmoNews, Android Community, SlashGear and Droid Life

See also Mediagazer

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

T-Mobile, Rhapsody Launch unRadio Web Radio Music Subscription Service

More: T-Mobile Newsroom, GeekWire, eWeek, iMore, Associated Press, Mashable and AppleInsider. Tweets: @waltmossberg

Joshua Ho / AnandTech:

iOS 8 exposes almost every manual camera control possible, allows third-party apps access to all — Manual Camera Controls in iOS 8 — For the longest time, iOS had almost no camera controls at all. There would be a toggle for HDR, a toggle to switch to the front-facing camera, and a toggle to switch to video recording mode.

More: MacRumors, Gigaom, BGR, Pocketnow, TechnoBuffalo, Geeky Gadgets, MacDailyNews and Ubergizmo

Christie Smythe / Bloomberg:

NY AG: iPhone's activation lock reduces phone thefts; Android and Windows Phone to also have kill switches — Android, Windows Phone Will Have Kill Switches, N.Y. Says — Google Inc. (GOOGL) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) will incorporate a “kill switch” into the next versions …

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Supreme Court rules software patents that cover ‘abstract ideas’ are invalid — Software patents aren't dead, but they just took a blow. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that a series of banking patents didn't cover a concrete software process but an abstract idea …

More: Gigaom, InfoWorld, Vox, New York Times, Fortune, Re/code, Ars Technica, Washington Post, The Hill, Associated Press, NationalJournal.com, GamePolitics blogs and Patently-O

Tweets: @jeffjohnroberts, @b_fung and @spolsky

Josh Lowensohn / The Verge:

The Nokia team Microsoft didn't buy has made an Android launcher — But is it better than what's out there? — Nokia's involvement with Google's Android can only be described as one big “what if.” Ahead of Microsoft's deal to buy it, Nokia was testing Android phones …

More: BGR, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Pocket-lint, Android Authority, AndroidOS.in, Pocketnow, Electronista, Phandroid, Ubergizmo, Android Beat, SlashGear, Pocketnow, Ireland's Technology Blog and Android Central

Joon Ian Wong / CoinDesk:

US Marshals Service leaks list of participants in the auction of 30,000 Silk Road bitcoins — CONFIRMED: List of Possible Silk Road Bitcoin Bidders Leaked by US Marshals — UPDATE (22:25 BST): Updated with comment from Lynzey Donahue, a U.S. Marshals spokeswoman.

More: Ars Technica, TechCrunch, Federal Computer Week, Gigaom, BBC, ITProPortal, PandoDaily, Deep Dot Web, Reuters and Valleywag. Thanks:@jeremybonney

Yuliya Chernova / Wall Street Journal:

Early-Stage VC Greycroft Closes $200M Growth Fund — Greycroft Partners, a New York firm that saw its early investments in Maker Studios, Buddy Media, Huffington Post and Braintree Payments Solutions turn into large payouts, has now closed on its first growth fund at $200 million.

More: VentureBeat, TechCrunch and PE Hub Blog. Tweets: @scottmaustin

Simon Khalaf / Flurry:

Fitness app usage up 62% in past six months from 49% in 2013, 87% faster than total app market growth — Health and Fitness Apps Finally Take Off, Fueled by Fitness Fanatics — Over the past six years, we have seen mobile and its apps disrupt and transform many industries.

More: PandoDaily, Computerworld, TechCrunch and Guardian. Thanks:@flurrymobile

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Saves Developing World's Data Plans With 65% Smaller, 50% More Efficient Android App — Data is expensive and phones have low storage in developing nations like those in Africa, so over the last year, Facebook quietly undertook a massive engineering overhaul of its Android app to make it easier to use around the world.

More: Facebook Code, The Next Web, GeekWire and ZDNet

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

LinkedIn Launches Its First Standalone Job Search App, Privacy Guaranteed — LinkedIn says that today 40% of its 300 million users access the site on mobile devices, so its bid to tap into the wave of users accessing the site via smartphones and tablets continues apace …

More: Official LinkedIn Blog, iMore, Gigaom, 9to5Mac, VentureBeat, PC Magazine, CNET, ZDNet, The Next Web, Geeky Gadgets and WebProNews

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Mozilla to Develop Comments Platform for New York Times and Washington Post — The New York Times and The Washington Post announced on Thursday that they had teamed up with Mozilla to develop a new platform that will allow them to better manage their readers' online comments and contributions.

More: Washington Post, Gigaom, The Verge, OStatic blogs, Poynter and Poynter

See also Mediagazer

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

Sources say Box hopes to complete IPO by July-August; contrary to rumors, has ruled out sale — Box Revives IPO Plans as Cloud Shares Recover — Timing is everything. And cloud storage company Box could not have picked a worse time to go public. — The March 24 public disclosure …

More: SiliconBeat

Jonathan Vanian / Gigaom:

Puppet Labs lands $40M in funding to boost its IT automation work — DevOps-centric Puppet Labs closed a series E $40 million investment round, bringing its total funding to $86 million. The IT automation company plans on using the cash to expand globally and invest in research and development.

More: VentureBeat, Data Center Knowledge, GeekWire, PE Hub Blog and TechCrunch

Josh Ong / The Next Web:

Intel's new messaging app Pocket Avatars uses the camera to find cartoon avatars matching your mood — Intel releases Pocket Avatars, a chat app that maps your facial expressions onto silly characters — When you think of Intel, you normally think of PC chips, but the company …

More: VentureBeat, PC Magazine, Engadget, Gigaom, Reuters, Computerworld and Wall Street Journal

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Codecademy Partners With Google And DonorsChoose To Boost Girls' Interest In Computer Science — Programming education startup Codecademy is announcing a new initiative with a stated goal “to double the number of high school girls studying Computer Science.”

More: Codecademy Blog, The Official Google Blog, The Next Web, Fortune, VentureBeat, Engadget, 9to5Google and BetaNews

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