Techmeme: White House pulls plug on controversial Patent Office nominee after tech sector backlash (Jeff John Roberts/Gigaom)

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July 9, 2014, 7:35 PM

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Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Google, Canon, Dropbox and Others Pool Patents to Ward Off Trolls — A coalition of technology companies large and small has created a sort of arms-control treaty to prevent future abuses of their intellectual property. — Among Google, Canon, SAP, Newegg, Dropbox and Asana, there are nearly 300,000 patent assets on the line.

More: Computerworld, Ars Technica, Engadget, Bloomberg, 9to5Google, ZDNet and SlashGear

Tony Romm / Politico:

Apple noted to the FTC in January that Google Play also allowed kids to make unauthorized in-app purchases — Apps and kids: Google may be next in FTC crosshairs — Apple leaped into action after the Federal Trade Commission cracked down on iPhone and iPad apps that let kids spend their parents' money without permission.

More: Ars Technica, Gigaom, CNET, SiliconBeat, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Daily Caller, MacRumors, MobileBurn.com, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, MacDailyNews, InvestorPlace, Cult of Mac and Electronista. Tweets: @tonyromm. Thanks:@ericengleman

First Look Media:

NSA and FBI covertly monitored emails of several Muslim-Americans, including a political candidate and civil rights activists — Meet the Muslim-American Leaders the FBI and NSA Have Been Spying On — The National Security Agency and FBI have covertly monitored the emails of prominent Muslim-Americans …

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

Dish tells FCC to block Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal — Satellite broadcaster Dish Network wants the government to block Comcast Corp.'s proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable. In meetings with top Federal Communications Commission officials earlier this week, Dish said a combination …

More: Fortune, Re/code, Re/code, Reuters, BGR, DSLreports, SlashGear, MarketWatch, Bloomberg and Broadcasting & Cable

Tweets: @amir and @jbflint

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Leaked Documents Show How Yelp Thinks It's Getting Screwed By Google — Documents leaked to TechCrunch from inside Yelp allege that Google is manipulating its search results to favor Google+ content over Yelp content. The materials accuse Google of blatantly highlighting its own products …

More: SlashGear

James Kanter / New York Times:

Yelp Joins Critics of European Union Settlement With Google

More: Gigaom, eWeek, Search Engine Land, ZDNet, TechCrunch, WebProNews and The Register

Guardian:

DARPA finances research on social media platforms like Twitter, Pinterest, Kickstarter, others to understand how ideas spread and how to influence them — US military studied how to influence Twitter users in Darpa-funded research — The activities of users of Twitter and other social media services …

More: TIME, Wired.co.uk, PC World, The Next Web, Electronista, SiliconBeat, Mashable, VentureBeat and Engadget

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

High school interns hired by Silicon Valley's tech giants can make more than US average income — Silicon Valley's Talent Grab Spawns High-School Interns — Facebook Inc. (FB) rolled out the red carpet for Michael Sayman when the social network hired him for a job that started last month …

More: TechSpot, BetaBoston, Daily Dot, Valleywag, Business Insider, The Register, The Technology Chronicles, Techvibes Global News, CNET and Engadget

Tweets: @adamdangelo, @cdixon, @mark_beech and @sarahfrier

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

White House pulls plug on controversial Patent Office nominee after tech sector backlash — The Obama Administration has changed its mind over a plan to name pharmaceutical executive Phil Johnson as head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, according to multiple sources.

More: Wall Street Journal. Tweets: @xor, @iam_magazine and @jeffjohnroberts

David Shamah / The Times of Israel:

“Red Alert: Israel” app now using Yo to deliver rocket attack alerts — Red Alert app offers a Yo! update on missile attacks — A mobile platform developed by two Israeli volunteers spreads the word on Israeli communities in danger- in real time

More: Digital Trends, ABC News, The Verge, The Independent, Valleywag and Fast Company. Tweets: @barryshrage. See also Mediagazer

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Google Adds Android Smartphone And Tablet Screen Mirroring To Chromecast — Google has released a feature for Chromecast announced at Google I/O this year - Android device screen mirroring. The update today brings the much-desired feature to all Chromecast-capable devices and makes Google Cast …

More: Google Chrome Blog, CNET, The Next Web, Electronista, Gigaom, Phandroid, Geek.com, Mashable, Gizmodo, 9to5Google, Engadget and TechHive

Alistair Barr / Wall Street Journal:

Google Cloud now offering 2TB of free storage for a year to compete with Amazon and Microsoft — With Google Offer, Cloud Storage Gets Closer to Free — Google Wednesday fired another shot in the price wars for cloud-computing services, offering businesses more free storage in an effort …

More: eWeek and 9to5Google

Sebastian Anthony / ExtremeTech:

10Gbps over a copper telephone line: A new world record set by Bell Labs — The telecommunications masters at Bell Labs have managed to deliver a world record connection speed of 10Gbps (10,000Mbps) over copper wires. Dubbed XG.fast, the new technology could be used to massively extend …

More: Alcatel-Lucent, eWeek, The Register, Ars Technica, DSLreports, Wireless Week, ITWire.com, ITProPortal, Cable UK Blogs, BBC, Light Reading, TelecompetitorTelecompetitor, Turnstyle and Geek.com

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

PayPal Makes Good On Its Braintree Acquisition With Launch Of New Developer Tools, The Braintree v.zero SDK — Payments gateway Braintree is making its first significant product announcement since its acquisition by PayPal last year, with the launch of a jointly developed Braintree SDK (software development kit) for developers.

More: Blogtree, VentureBeat, VatorNews, ReadWrite, PandoDaily, Gigaom and The Next Web. Tweets: @mdudas

Richard Nieva / CNET:

Google Glass creator: Glass not only answer to life after smartphones — Babak Parviz, a Google X director who led development of the product, talks about the beginnings of Glass, and where he hopes it will go. — SAN FRANCISCO — It seems like everyone's got an opinion on Google Glass …

More: TechCrunch, 9to5Google, Business Insider and WebProNews

Wall Street Journal:

EU Begins Questioning Facebook Rivals Over WhatsApp Deal — Formal Review Could Be Test Case For Competition Law Application in Social Media — European Union antitrust officials have started questioning rival firms about Facebook Inc. 's proposed $19 billion acquisition of messaging service WhatsApp …

Don Reisinger / CNET:

Samsung is only firm buying subsidiary's mobile-display tech — Samsung Display's AMOLED technology is often found in parent company Samsung's products, but according to the CEO, Samsung's rivals aren't interested. — Samsung's Galaxy S5 — Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft readies three new Office 365 plans for small and mid-size businesses — Summary: Microsoft is introducing three new Office 365 plans for small and midsize business users this October. Here's what's coming. — One of the primary markets where Microsoft goes head-to-head with Google …

More: Office Blogs, Techie Buzz, Computerworld, WinBeta, theWHIR.com, TechCrunch and WebProNews

Simon Khalaf / Flurry Insights:

Users of Xiaomi devices in China spent 7% more time in apps than iPhone users in January — Xiaomi Brings Apple's Magic to China's Young Business Professionals (...and to Android) — Over the past 5 years, Apple and Google have maintained a healthy duopoly in the smartphone market.

More: The Next Web, Tnooz, iPhone Hacks, 9to5Mac, Business Insider, CNET and TechCrunch

Tweets: @rolfewinkler and @sammywalrusiv

Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:

LG's new KizON wristband is a wearable for kids that lets parents track their location — LG is going all out to make its presence felt in the wearables space — after its Android Wear-based G Watch went on sale across the world yesterday, it has unveiled today a new wearable device for kids, the KizON wristband.

More: LG Newsroom, 9to5Google, SlashGear, Wearable World News, HotHardware.com News, IntoMobile, Mobile Magazine, Ausdroid, TechHive, GSMArena Blog, Electronista, CNET and Re/code. Tweets: @matemaz

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Texas lawyer sues Tor for providing tools used by revenge porn site — Encryption service Tor has been caught up in a Texas revenge porn lawsuit. Yesterday, attorney Jason Lee Van Dyke linked to a lawsuit filing against Pink Meth, a nude photos site accessible only to users of the encryption software.

More: Techdirt, PandoDaily and Daily Dot

BBC:

Apple suffers Siri patent case defeat in China — Apple has failed in its attempt to get a Chinese company's voice-recognition patent ruled invalid. — The verdict threatens Apple's ability to offer its voice-controlled virtual assistant, Siri, in the country.

More: Reuters, Wall Street Journal, The Register, Xinhua News Agency, ITProPortal, Tech Times, Forbes, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Electronista, Cult of Mac, SlashGear, Fortune and ZDNet

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

Adidas wants to put a personal trainer on your wrist with the Fit Smart — Nike might be planning to abandon its Fuelband hardware, but Adidas is taking the opposite path with the introduction of its new Fit Smart fitness tracking device. It's a wrist-worn tracker that looks similar …

More: Gigaom, New York Times, Pocket-lint, Pocket-lint, Pocket-lint, Electronista, Engadget and Wearables Arena. Tweets: @justin_numi

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft brings video editing to Windows Phone 8.1 with Video Tuner — Windows Phone has always been missing good video editing tools, and Microsoft thinks it now has the answer. Available today, Video Tuner is the latest in a series of additional apps developed by the Nokia part of Microsoft.

More: Windows Phone, The Next Web, SiliconANGLE, Neowin, PC World, Gigaom, Ubergizmo, SlashGear and Softpedia News. Tweets: @dujkan

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

Microsoft drops case that severed DNS hosting for millions of No-IP nodes — Microsoft has formally settled legal differences with No-IP, the dynamic domain name host that was kneecapped by a botnet takedown that recently knocked out service to millions of legitimate hostnames.

More: PC World, The Register and No-IP Blog

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