Techmeme: Max Levchin's latest: Homer, a creepily intimate look at what apps your friends use (Carmel DeAmicis/Gigaom)

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July 26, 2014, 5:40 PM

Top News

TechCrunch:

Apple Secretly Acquired “Pandora For Books” Startup BookLamp To Battle Amazon — TechCrunch has learned that Apple has made another acquisition, one that it is using to boost its e-books effort and “beat Amazon at its own game.” It has bought BookLamp, a startup based out of Boise, Idaho …

More: Booklamp, Re/code, PC Magazine, The Digital Reader, GeekWire, VatorNews, AppleInsider, VentureBeat, CNET, Softpedia News, Gigaom, Business Insider, Cult of Mac, MacDailyNews, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacNN, iMore, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, App Advice, TUAW, GSMArena Blog, The Next Web and Gizmodo UK

Tweets: @joshconstine, @jyarow and @joshconstine

Michael Crider / Android Police:

Leaked Photos Of A Motorola Pre-Production Device: This May Be The Moto X+1 — We've been hearing rumors and seeing at least some evidence of a new Motorola flagship for the past few months. The Moto X was released in August of last year, which makes it just about time for a refresh in the current yearly phone cycle.

More: TechnoBuffalo, Tech Times, Phones Review, Neowin, Softpedia News, Gotta Be Mobile, Android Authority, SlashGear, Cult of Android, Droid Life, Phandroid, 9to5Google, Ars Technica, AndroidGuys, Android Beat, Business Insider, BGR and Greenbot

Mark Suster / Both Sides of the Table:

How later IPOs and other big trends are changing the structure of the VC industry — The Changing Structure of the VC Industry — There has been much discussion in the past few years of the changing structure of the venture capital industry. — On the surface the narratives have been

More: Andreessen Horowitz and AVC. Tweets: @mattermark, @shaig, @infoarbitrage and @hunterwalk

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

With photo-based key-copying services like KeyMe, simply allowing others to view your keys poses a security problem — The App I Used to Break Into My Neighbor's Home — When I broke into my neighbor's home earlier this week, I didn't use any cat burglar skills. I don't know how to pick locks.

Tweets: @lainnafader, @chartier, @joemfbrown and @kashhill

Carmel DeAmicis / Gigaom:

Max Levchin's latest: Homer, a creepily intimate look at what apps your friends use — Max Levchin's latest product, Homer, lets you see your friends' phone screens to discover new apps. It also unwittingly provides a fascinating window into their lives. — My gchat pinged. “Why do you have Glow?

More: PC Magazine, hvflabs.com and Business Insider

Tweets: @mlevchin and @hunterwalk

Thanks:@bizcarson

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon Rolls Out A YouTube-Like “Video Shorts” Section On Instant Video — Amazon's Instant Video service has traditionally been thought of as both a rival to iTunes and Netflix, in terms of offering movies and TV shows for rent, purchase or for free streaming via the company's Amazon Prime membership program.

More: Variety, Engadget, VentureBeat, Tubefilter and TechnoBuffalo. See also Mediagazer

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Why Doesn't Facebook Want to Brag About Its Billion-Dollar App Ad Business? — Did you think that Facebook's amazing mobile ad story — mobile was a big, troublesome zero two years ago, and 62 percent of the company's ad revenue yesterday — was fueled by app install ads?

Tweets: @reedalbergotti and @mhbergen

Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:

China's Baidu follows in Google's footsteps as it reveals it's working on partial self-drive cars — Google took the wraps off its self-driving cars in May, and now Baidu — commonly known as China's Google — has also revealed that it is working on a similar project.

More: Tech in Asia, New Scientist, Engadget, Daily Bhaskar, Jalopnik, VentureBeat, ValueWalk and SlashGear

Associated Press:

Social networks Bubblews and Bonzo Me pay users for posts that attract traffic and advertisers — Get paid for posts? Social networking's new twist — SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook and most other social networks are built on the premise that just about everything should be shared -except the money those posts produce.

More: Wired.co.uk, thenational.ae, Business Insider and ITProPortal

Andrew Chung / Reuters:

Bose sues Beats over headphone noise-cancellation patents — (Reuters) - High-end sound system and headphone maker Bose Corp is going after the newer kid on the block, Beats Electronics, with a lawsuit accusing Beats of infringing several patents related to noise-cancellation technology.

Kevin Fitchard / Gigaom:

Verizon will start restricting LTE speeds for its heaviest unlimited-plan customers — Verizon's 4G networks soon will start favoring customers who pay for mobile data by the gigabyte over customers who draw deeply from Verizon's unlimited plans. — Verizon Wireless has been trying to coax …

Julian Hattem / The Hill:

House votes to allow cellphone ‘unlocking’ — The House on Friday passed legislation allowing people to “unlock” their cellphones and switch from one carrier to another, sending the bill to the president's desk. — The bill won unanimous support in the lower chamber and has been widely backed …

More: Patrick Leahy, TIME, The White House, The Verge, Ars Technica, VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, Engadget, Gizmodo, Computerworld, ReadWrite, CrackBerry.com, New York Times, eWeek, SiliconBeat, Slate, Gigaom, 9to5Google and Washington Post

Tweets: @dangillmor, @monkbent and @senjohnthune

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