Techmeme: Facebook acquires video ad tech startup LiveRail for $400-500M, plans to keep it running (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

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July 2, 2014, 8:05 PM

Top News

R. Jai Krishna / Wall Street Journal:

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg apologizes for poorly communicating controversial News Feed study: “We never meant to upset you” — Sandberg: Facebook Study Was ‘Poorly Communicated’ — Facebook 's psychological experiment on nearly 700,000 unwitting users was communicated “poorly …

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

More experiments on social media users could provide us insights into human behavior

More: Medium and PandoDaily. Tweets: @zeynep and @zeynep

James Ball / Guardian:

EU's right to be forgotten: Guardian articles have been hidden by Google — Publishers must fight back against this indirect challenge to press freedom, which allows articles to be ‘disappeared’. Editorial decisions belong with them, not Google — When you Google someone from within the EU …

More: BBC News, Marketing Land, PC Magazine, Gizmodo, Techdirt, Business Insider, Forbes, BGR, Search Engine Land and Salon

Tweets: @jimmy_wales, @pmarca, @jeffjohnroberts, @alexstamos, @freedomofpress, @marklittlenews and @beschizza

See also Mediagazer

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook acquires video ad tech startup LiveRail for $400-500M, plans to keep it running — Facebook Acquires LiveRail For $400M To $500M To Serve Video Ads Everywhere, Improve Its Own — Facebook has just bought video ad tech startup LiveRail, which connects marketers to publishers …

More: Facebook, LiveRail, Mercury News, VatorNews, Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, PC Magazine, Marketing Land, AllFacebook, CNET, TechnoBuffalo, Gigaom, Re/code, AdExchanger, Inside Facebook, VentureBeat, bizjournals, Beet.TV and Mashable

Tweets: @mikeisaac, @joshconstine and @joshconstine

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

Developer preview test for Android L's Project Volta shows promise, 2 hours or 35% more battery life on Nexus 5 — Examining Project Volta: We put Android L through our battery test — For each Android release, Google likes to have a “Project” that picks an area of weakness and focuses on tuning the whole OS to fix it.

More: Geek.com, Gigaom, Android Beat, TechnoBuffalo, ExtremeTech, Redmond Pie, TechSpot, BGR, Geeky Gadgets and SlashGear

Soma Somasegar / MSDN Blogs:

Microsoft acquires SyntaxTree, creator of UnityVS plugin for Visual Studio — Game developers build the apps that hundreds of millions of users play every day across a wide variety of devices, from Xbox and Windows to iOS, Android and the Web. Games are the most popular application type …

More: Ars Technica, PC World, eWeek, The Next Web, TechCrunch, ZDNet, WinBeta, Neowin and GeekWire. Tweets: @lordned

Kif Leswing / Gigaom:

Google announces the first 100 Project Ara beta testers — It appears Google's ambitious modular phone experiment is moving into the next phase. At Google's I/O developer conference, the Advanced Technology and Projects team was able to boot a Project Ara device in public for the first time …

More: Dan Makoski, 9to5Google, AndroidGuys, The Next Web, Techaeris, Android Central and TechnoBuffalo

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft seeks Office for Android testers as it readies tablet version — Touch-friendly Office Android apps coming before Windows version — Microsoft may have released a basic Office app for Android phones almost a year ago, but the company is now building a suite designed specifically for Android tablets.

More: Computerworld, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Gigaom, Android Authority, Tech Times, 9to5Google, Phandroid, Electronista, PC World, Pocketnow, TechSpot, SlashGear, Ubergizmo, PC Magazine and Engadget

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Does A “Summer Cleaning,” Shuts Down Its Xobni Acquisition, Plus Other Under-Performing Products — Yahoo's spring cleanings have extended into the summer months, the company announced today, detailing a series of product changes and closures, many of which are nearly obsolete, obscure, or just unpopular.

More: Yahoo, Fortune, VentureBeat, PC World, The Next Web, Search Engine Land and WebProNews

Kevin Fitchard / Gigaom:

Qualcomm buys Wilocity to put gigabit wireless connections in smartphones — Qualcomm confirmed on Wednesday that it is buying gigabit wireless specialist Wilocity in a move that puts the mobile chipmaker firmly behind the new WiGig standard. At some point next year, we will start seeing …

More: Re/code, VentureBeat, Tech Trader Daily, PC World, FierceWirelessTech News and SemiAccurate

David Katzmaier / CNET:

Samsung to end plasma TV production this year — Following in the footsteps of Panasonic, Samsung says it will end production of plasma display panels by the end of this year. — The Samsung PNF8500 is the last great plasma TV. — Sarah Tew/CNET — Samsung SDI has announced …

More: Reuters, Slate, Engadget, TechSpot, Tech Times, The Verge and SlashGear

Tweets: @wirecutter and @dkatzmaier

Joon Ian Wong / CoinDesk:

Coinbase Announces High-Security ‘Vault’ Bitcoin Accounts — Called ‘Vault’, the new account was designed in response to demand for a more secure type of wallet from Coinbase's growing customer base of institutions and wealthy individuals, according to company CEO Brian Armstrong, who explained:

More: The Coinbase Blog, TechCrunch and NEWSBTC

Greg Bensinger / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon resists FTC request to tighten in-app purchase policy for children — Amazon Resisting FTC on Policy Change for In-App Purchases — Amazon-FTC Dispute Is Over Limiting Children's Purchases — Amazon.com Inc. is bucking a request from the Federal Trade Commission that it tighten …

More: Ars Technica, Engadget, The Register, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Electronista, USA Today, The Verge, Pocketnow, GeekWire and TIME

Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:

Investor Tim Draper wins auction for 29,655 bitcoins seized from Silk Road, partners with Vaurum to leverage the pool as a liquidity source in emerging markets — Famed investor Tim Draper wins auction of Silk Road's 29,655 bitcoins — Draper to partner with Vaurum, which offers “secure storage solutions” to banks.

More: New York Times, Gigaom, Medium, PC Magazine, The Register, CoinDesk, Reuters, PandoDaily, Gizmodo, Wired, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, TechCrunch and NEWSBTC. Tweets: @adamdraper

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

Nvidia preparing a Shield Tablet successor to its Android game console — The Shield Tablet looks set to be a hybrid 2-in-1 device that will show off the power of the Tegra K1 chip — Best known for designing graphics chips and mobile processors, Nvidia set out on a bold new course …

More: Ars Technica, LAPTOP Magazine, CNET, Phandroid, 9to5Google, Electronista, AndroidGuys, Engadget, Pocketnow and Pocket-lint

Dawn Chmielewski / Re/code:

Samsung shuts down its Video and Media Hub, transfers users' accounts to M-Go — M-Go to Take Over Samsung's Movie Business — Samsung Electronics has discovered that making great screens and delivering great on-screen entertainment require different skills.

More: ZDNet, Variety, FierceOnlineVideo News, Gigaom and Ubergizmo

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft and Canon cross license mobile, imaging patents — Summary: Microsoft and Canon are cross licensing their respective mobile and digital imaging patent portfolios. — Microsoft and Canon announced a cross-licensing patent agreement on July 2 which involves an undisclosed number …

More: Microsoft Corporation, Electronista, Windows Phone Central, Softpedia News, The Register, SlashGear, Tech Times, WinBeta and Pocketnow

Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:

Microsoft, Google form Ethernet consortium for datacenter networks — Summary: Microsoft, Google and other firms have come together to form the 25 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium with the aim of improving cloud datacenter networks. — Charlie Osborne — Five tech giants, including Google and Microsoft …

More: Data Center Knowledge, EnterpriseTech, Inquirer, TechSpot, The Register and eWeek

Paul Thurrott / SuperSite for Windows:

Microsoft to launch fitness wristband, will work with Android, iPhone and Windows Phone — Microsoft + Wearables — Yes, it's real. It's just not a watch — Everyone's doing it, it seems. Samsung jumped in first. Google formalized it on Android just this past week.

More: The Verge, WinBeta, Pocketnow and Connectedly

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:

Samsung Gear Live and LG G Watch review: expensive accessories with promise, but not yet must-haves

More: CNET, BGR and Softpedia News

Juliette Garside / Guardian:

Study: 19% of top 100K most visited websites are blocked by Britain's adult content filters — Internet filters blocking one in five most-popular websites — Jezebel and Guido Fawkes sites among those blocked by at least one mobile or fixed line service provider in UK, campaigners say

More: TorrentFreak, BetaNews, PandoDaily, The Independent, Forbes, Wired.co.uk, Telegraph and Inquirer

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

An Upper Limit For Apps? New Data Suggests Consumers Only Use Around Two Dozen Apps Per Month — There are now well over a million mobile applications in both Google Play and the iTunes App Store alike, and growth of those app marketplaces shows no sign of slowing down.

More: Internet2Go, asymco.com, Business Insider, TUAW, iPhone in Canada Blog, PadGadget, ZDNet and MacDailyNews

Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:

First 10K units of Oculus Rift DK2 should be arriving week of July 14 — With 45,000 Pre-Orders, The New Oculus Rift Will Start Arriving Around July 14th — Back in March, the second generation of Oculus' work-in-progress virtual reality headset went up for pre-order for $350.

More: CNET, BGR, TechHive, Electronista and SlashGear

Mariella Moon / Engadget:

Chumby's smart alarm clock relaunches with 1,000 apps — Remember Chumby? You probably haven't heard much about the snuggly tiny computer/smart alarm clock since its makers' company disbanded, but now it's back from its semi-retired state. Its current owner, Blue Octy LLC …

More: Geeky Gadgets, Liliputing, Connectedly and The Verge

Tweets: @chumby and @gigastacey

Stacey Higginbotham / Gigaom:

Microsoft joins the AllSeen Alliance as it ramps up connected device efforts — The AllSeen Alliance, the organization pushing for the AllJoyn open standard for connected devices, has netted Microsoft as a member. Microsoft joins members such as Haier, Sears, LG, Panasonic …

More: Reuters, ZDNet, PC World, eWeek, Inquirer, Computerworld, DailyFinance.com, ReadWrite and Windows Phone Central

Dan Primack / Fortune:

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers raises $1.2B: $450M for flagship early-stage fund, $750M for digital growth fund — Exclusive: Kleiner Perkins raises $1.2 billion — Kleiner Perkins has no trouble raising a pair of new venture capital funds. Venerable venture capital firm Kleiner …

More: bizjournals and VentureBeat

TechCrunch:

Russia Moves To Ban Online Services That Don't Store Personal Data In Russia — The Russian government has moved one step closer towards a “China-like” approach towards Internet services. — Last night, the Russian State Duma (parliament) passed the first bill requiring that the personal data …

More: Gigaom, The Voice of Russia, News, theWHIR.com, Geek.com, Geeky Gadgets, VentureBeat, Ubergizmo and Neowin

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