Techmeme: Call to cancel Comcast service turns into absurd interrogation; Comcast calls representative's behavior “unacceptable” (Casey Johnston/Ars Technica)

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July 15, 2014, 7:45 PM

Top News

Apple:

Apple and IBM partner to develop iOS enterprise apps and cloud services, tailor AppleCare for enterprise; IBM will sell iPhones and iPads to business clients — Apple and IBM Forge Global Partnership to Transform Enterprise Mobility — Apple® and IBM (NYSE: IBM) …

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

Apple and IBM Team Up to Push iOS in the Enterprise — Apple and IBM today announced a broad partnership to help companies deploy wireless devices and business-specific applications to run on them. — The combination brings together two historical competitors — who decades ago struggled …

More: CNBC, 9to5Mac, ZDNet, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, The Technology Chronicles, PC World, InfoWorld, GeekWire, The Verge, Fortune, Computerworld, Gigaom, Mercury News, BGR, Macworld, Forbes, Softpedia News, Wired, WCCFtech and Boing Boing

Tweets: @fmanjoo, @parislemon, @jyarow and @johnpaczkowski

Google:

Google+ removes all name restrictions, apologizes for “unnecessarily difficult experiences” — When we launched Google+ over three years ago, we had a lot of restrictions on what name you could use on your profile. This helped create a community made up of real people …

More: The Next Web, Gigaom, Techdirt, Marketing Land, ZDNet, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, CNET, Ars Technica, TechnoBuffalo, SlashGear and Phandroid

Tweets: @dannysullivan and @jilliancyork

Google:

Google appoints former Ford CEO Alan Mulally to its board of directors — Google Appoints Alan Mulally to its Board of Directors — MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - JULY 15, 2014 — Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today announced it has appointed Alan Mulally to its Board of Directors.

More: CNET, 9to5Google, Associated Press, Fortune, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Gigaom, GeekWire, Business Insider, Re/code, San Francisco Chronicle, Reuters, The Verge, Engadget, Jalopnik, Forbes and Android Central

Tweets: @theromit and @bfeld

Dina Bass / Bloomberg:

Microsoft likely to announce job cuts this week; may be biggest restructuring in its history — Microsoft Said to Announce Job Cuts as Soon as This Week — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is planning its biggest round of job cuts in five years, as the software maker looks to slim …

More: Business Insider, Slate, Forbes, Arcade Sushi, Network World, USA Today, TechSpot, Tech Trader Daily, The Daily Caller, Guardian, Valleywag, Wall Street Journal, Gigaom, ZDNet, MacDailyNews and PC Magazine. See also Mediagazer

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

Google reveals Project Zero, a security team to find and report serious flaws in any software — Meet ‘Project Zero,’ Google's Secret Team of Bug-Hunting Hackers — Hacking wunderkind George Hotz's latest gig: An intern on Google's elite hacking team. Tribune Review, Andrew Russell/AP

More: Google Online Security Blog, Guardian, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, ZDNet, Help Net Security and 9to5Google. Thanks:@a_greenberg

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Misses In Q2 With Revenue Of $1.04B, EPS Of $0.37 — Today after the bell, Yahoo reported its second-quarter financial performance, including revenue (excluding traffic acquisition costs, or TAC) of $1.04 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.37. Revenue including TAC was $1.08.

More: Yahoo, ZDNet, Guardian, Quartz, Associated Press, Re/code, Tech Trader Daily, WebProNews and ABC News. See also Mediagazer

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Yahoo now required to sell just 140M Alibaba shares in IPO, down from 208M shares

More: TechCrunch, Fortune, Business Insider and Wall Street Journal

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft won't let you set Google as default search on some new Lumias — Microsoft has disabled an option to set Google as the default search engine on some of its latest Lumia Windows Phones. The option is currently supported on the majority of Nokia's Lumia devices …

More: GeekWire, 9to5Google, BGR, MobileBurn.com, Computerworld, Softpedia News, Neowin and CNET

Casey Johnston / Ars Technica:

Call to cancel Comcast service turns into absurd interrogation; Comcast calls representative's behavior “unacceptable” — Call to cancel Comcast service descends into desperate, hysterical fireworks — A Comcast customer service representative tried to retain a customer …

More: SoundCloud, The Awl, Comcast, Gawker, Associated Press, Laughing Squid, PC Magazine, Business Insider, Motherboard, TechNewsWorld, Technologizer, The Register, Neowin, WebProNews and TechHive

Tweets: @ryan, @darth, @ryan, @pkafka, @om and @fmanjoo

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple debuts iTunes Pass in Japan, allows Passbook-based iTunes credit refills at Apple Stores — Apple today has launched an interesting new service for iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore users in Japan with iPhones and iPod touches. The new service, called iTunes Pass (no …

More: iMore, AppleInsider, CNET, Redmond Pie, Gigaom, TechSpot and iPhone in Canada Blog. Thanks:@markgurman

Matt Brian / Engadget:

Novartis to develop Google smart contact lens to track diabetes and correct farsightedness — Google strikes smart contact lens deal to track diabetes and fix farsightedness — With Glass and Android Wear, Google has already invested a lot of time and resources into developing …

More: Novartis, Wall Street Journal, BGR, 9to5Google, Los Angeles Times, The Verge, New York Times, Android Central, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Softpedia News, Fox News, Fortune, PC Magazine and Computerworld

Tim Culpan / Bloomberg:

HTC Marketing Chief Ho, Engineering Head Liu Said to Quit — HTC Corp. (2498) Chief Marketing Officer Ben Ho and President of Engineering and Operations Fred Liu have resigned from the Taiwanese smartphone maker, according to two people familiar with the matter.

More: Engadget, The Verge, DailyTech, 9to5Google and MobileBurn.com

Sam Biddle / Valleywag:

Tim Draper's Six Californias initiative heads for 2016 ballot; source says shady tactics used for signatures — Tech VC Says His Plan to Break California Apart Is Moving Forward — Tim Draper, legendary venture capitalist, has a plan to cement Silicon Valley's status as the most-hated locale in America: make it its own state.

More: TechCrunch, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Sacramento Bee, Mercury News, bizjournals, Network World, LAist and ValueWalk

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

FCC extends net neutrality comment deadline after ‘overwhelming’ traffic — The Federal Communications Commission has been calling on the public to provide comments on its controversial net neutrality proposal, and it said today that it would actually be extending the length of the comment period …

More: Washington Post, Ars Technica, CNET, PandoDaily, Comcast, The Register, TIME, ZDNet, TechHive, Electronista, Gizmodo, SiliconBeat, VentureBeat, Variety, The Next Web, iMore and Techdirt. Tweets: @gigibsohnfcc. See also Mediagazer

Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:

Oculus Spots People Selling Rift Pre-Orders, Cancels Their Shipments — The second version of the Oculus Rift VR headset is expected to start arriving this week, but actually getting your hands on one is going to be tough. Over 45,000 units had been pre-ordered as of the first of this month …

More: TechRadar.com, Eurogamer.net, Arcade Sushi, CraveOnline, Tech Times and Polygon

Stacey Higginbotham / Gigaom:

Nest and Samsung launch Thread, a wireless mesh standard for the smart home — Samsung, ARM, Nest and four other companies have gotten together to build a new radio standard for the smart home. Dubbed Thread, it is a low-power, mesh network protocol that also supports IPv6.

More: Thread Group, New York Times, TechSpot, PC World, Re/code, USA Today, Wired, Connectedly, ZDNet, EE Times and The Register

Ina Fried / Re/code:

Intel Beats Estimates, Raises Forecast on Improved PC Market — Chipmaker Intel said on Tuesday that an improved PC market helped it to deliver quarterly earnings that exceeded its initial estimates. The company also hiked its full-year sales outlook. — Intel reported second-quarter earnings …

More: Re/code, Intel, VentureBeat, Computerworld, CNET, New York Times, The Verge, Mercury News, TechCrunch, ZDNet, Quartz, Tech Trader Daily, VentureBeat, Business Insider and Liliputing

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

LivingSocial Poaches eBay Exec Gautam Thakar To Be Its New CEO — LivingSocial is today announcing a new CEO and president, putting to rest a question mark that has hovered over the daily deals business for the last several months. Gautam Thakar, an eBay executive who had been CEO …

More: LivingSocial, Re/code, VentureBeat, ZDNet and GeekWire

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Windows Phone 8.1 now rolling out to Lumia devices with new Cyan update — Microsoft is starting to distribute Windows Phone 8.1 to existing Lumia devices this week. The Lumia Cyan update provides the full Windows Phone 8.1 software, alongside some tweaks and customizations specifically for Lumia handsets.

More: Nokia Conversations, The Register, Windows Phone Central, AnandTech, WinBeta and Engadget

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:

Using Adobe Flash For Your Web Site? Google Mobile Results Will Issue Searchers A Warning. — Flash, Adobe's multimedia based website technology, is not a friend of mobile devices or search spiders and now Google has decided to step up their campaign against such sites using the technology.

More: Google Webmaster Central Blog, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, Engadget, Gigaom, Cult of Mac, eWeek, iPhone in Canada Blog, Softpedia News, iMore, The SEM Post, 9to5Google, WebProNews, Search Engine Roundtable, CNET and App Advice

Andrew Martonik / Android Central:

MediaTek announces MT6795 64-bit octa-core processor with 2K display support — MediaTek, makers of processors for a variety of different applications including mobile devices, is today announcing its latest high-end chip, the MT6795. This SoC, which sits at the top of the MT67xx range …

More: Re/code and Inquirer

Kevin Montgomery / Valleywag:

Twitter Hit with Age Discrimination Lawsuit — Silicon Valley fetishizes youth—the 20-something, white, over-worked male who will write code until his wrists tingle. That's just great, unless you happen to not be those things. Case in point: a new lawsuit against Twitter complains …

More: The Snitch and Gigaom. Tweets: @nitashatiku

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