Techmeme: Amazon launches a portal dedicated to customizing and selling 3D-printed products (Ben Woods/The Next Web)

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July 28, 2014, 11:50 AM

Top News

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Apple to Buy Radio App Swell for $30 Million — Apple is close to buying the Pandora-for-talk-radio app Swell, according to multiple sources. — The deal is worth about $30 million, these sources say. — Swell had raised $7.2 million from investors including DFJ, Google Ventures and InterWest Partners.

Michael J. de la Merced / New York Times:

Zillow to Acquire Trulia for $3.5 Billion — For much of the last nine years, Zillow and Trulia have competed in the online real estate listings market they helped create. — But after a speedy six-week courtship, the two are set to combine forces. — Zillow agreed on Monday to buy Trulia …

More: Zillow MediaRoom, Gigaom, Washington Post, VentureBeat, CNET, Marketing Land, ScreenwerkScreenwerk, TechCrunch, Xconomy, WebProNews, Mashable and Fortune. Tweets: @nytimesbusiness

Mike Isaac / New York Times:

Reddit, still unprofitable, looks to grow ad revenues without alienating users — Can Reddit Grow Up? — Since its founding nine years ago, Reddit has stuck to its own weird guns. — The site, where users find, share and talk about web links and photos, has been faithful to an antiquated design …

More: Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider and ITProPortal

Tweets: @alexjamesfitz, @mims and @pinboard

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Builtvisible:

A history of the undersea cables that carry much of the world's international internet traffic — Messages in the Deep - The Remarkable Story of the Underwater Internet — In October of 1971, in the midst of the Cold War, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Halibut entered heavily guarded Russian waters in the Sea of Okhotsk.

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Amazon apparently set to launch Square-competitor in August as it develops biometric payment solutions — Amazon could be preparing to launch its own mobile credit card reading hardware in the coming weeks, according to internal Staples documents hinting at such a launch that we've obtained.

More: CNET, USA Today, The Verge, Business Insider, Digital Trends, Techie News, Guardian, ITProPortal, The Next Web, VentureBeat, WebProNews, PC Magazine, Gizmodo, Mashable, Engadget and Electronista

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

Ultrapak external battery packs can grab a full charge for a standard smartphone in 15 minutes — How to Charge Your Phone in 15 Minutes — Say you've got 15 minutes in an airport between flights and your phone is nearly dead. What do you do? — In the past, you had two choices.

More: Global Nerdy and AndroidHeadlines.com. Tweets: @msquinn

Lee Fang / VICE:

The Judges Approving the NSA's Surveillance Requests Keep Buying Verizon Stock — Drawing of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court at an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) event in Germany last year. Photo via Flickr user mlcastle, original drawing by Lindsay Young

More: Ars Technica, Engadget and Softpedia News

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple Stores to soon open up iPhone sales via AT&T Next, T-Mobile JUMP, & Verizon Edge — Apple is preparing a significant expansion of its iPhone sales capabilities in its official retail stores, according to sources. Late in August, many Apple Stores in the United States will kick off …

More: Gigaom, Gotta Be Mobile, iPhone, iPhone Hacks, iMore, App Advice and MacRumors

Will Oremus / Slate:

Facebook's privacy pivot: Mark Zuckerberg's plan to win back trust — Why Mark Zuckerberg is trying to win back users' trust. — Remember when Mark Zuckerberg didn't believe in privacy? When he argued that it was “no longer a social norm”? When Facebook employees wouldn't even use the word …

More: Gigaom and bizjournals. Tweets: @joshconstine and @howardlindzon

Steve Dent / Engadget:

Europe approves Apple's $3 billion takeover of Beats — Apple is official a step closer to owning Beats, as the $3 billion merger has just been cleared by European regulators. The EU commission ruled that the merger “did not raise concerns because the combined (headphone) market share of Apple and Beats Electronics is low.”

More: EU Press Room, AppleInsider, ABC News, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Inquirer, CNET, MacRumors, ZDNet, iMore, The Next Web, 9to5Mac, TUAW, MacDailyNews, Cult of Mac, Electronista and App Advice. See also Mediagazer

Ben Woods / The Next Web:

Amazon launches a portal dedicated to customizing and selling 3D-printed products — Amazon has introduced a new portal on its site that is designed to bring together and highlight 3D-printed products for sale on the platform. — The company said that the marketplace is home to more than …

More: TechCrunch, Amazon.com, Gizmodo, CNET, The Verge, BGR, iMore, VentureBeat, TechHive, ZDNet, Engadget, Business Insider, WebProNews, Softpedia News, TIME, Reuters and Electronista

Ben Gilbert / Engadget:

The battle for virtual reality: Google, Samsung, Sony and Oculus VR — Back in June, Google revealed Cardboard: an open-source attempt at mobile virtual reality. Heck, even the “hardware” is open source —here are instructions to make your own, right now! — But the concept is more than a low-tech solution to mobile VR.

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