Techmeme
July 31, 2014, 9:40 AM

Top News

Chris Duckett / ZDNet:
Samsung mobile profit down by a third in 2Q 2014  —  Summary: A decline in profitability of Samsung's IT and mobile communications division has pulled overall profit for the Korean conglomerate lower.  —  Chris Duckett  —  Samsung has announced an overall 15 percent fall in operating profit …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Internet.Org's App With Free Access To Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, Local Info Launches In Zambia  —  85% of the 5 billion people without Internet simply can't afford data plans.  So Facebook's accessibility initiative Internet.org today launches its Android and web app for the developing world …
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Heads rolling at Beats as Apple eliminating redundant positions, Ian Rogers & Trent Reznor to stay on  —  As Apple's acquisition of Beats Electronics and Beats Music nears completion this financial quarter, the Cupertino and Santa Monica, California-based companies have begun work …
Walt Mossberg / Re/code:
Exclusive Interview: Best Buy CEO Says Tablet Sales Are “Crashing,” Hope for PCs  —  Re/code has landed in Minneapolis to talk to the folks at Best Buy — the last standing nationwide big-box, bricks-and-mortar consumer electronics retailer, with over 1,000 main stores and hundreds of smaller mobile device stores.
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:
Google Will Add Ratings to Search-Results Ads So They Look More Like Amazon  —  Google is prodding merchants to provide more information to make its search results more effective-and more like Amazon.  The question is whether merchants will play ball.  —  In a blog post Tuesday …
David Pierce / The Verge:
Lytro Illum review: an expensive, flawed, buggy glimpse of the future of photography  —  Lytro Illum review: this is the camera of the future  —  It's almost time to forget everything you ever knew about photography  —  Ten minutes into using the Lytro Illum, I'm throwing out everything I've ever learned about photography.
Ina Fried / Re/code:
T-Mobile Adds 1.5 Million More Customers, Swings to Profit on Spectrum Sale  —  T-Mobile said Thursday that it added a further 1.5 million customers to its network in the second quarter, adding more than a million customers for the fifth straight quarter.  —  The company posted a net profit …
More: BGR, CNET, ZDNet and Engadget
Josh Ong / The Next Web:
Google releases the source code for its I/O 2014 app as a template for developers  —  Google today published the source code for its I/O 2014 app in hopes of teaching developers some of its best practices for Android apps.  —  While you may have used the I/O 2014 app to plan your schedule at the conference …
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
1Password debuts extension for third party apps on iOS 8  —  The popular password and security management app 1Password has already previewed its iOS 8 extension and Touch ID support for unlocking and accessing its content outside of its iOS app, and today AgileBits has announced …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
NomadPlus Transforms an Apple Charger Into a Portable Battery  —  Nomad, the company behind the pocket-sized NomadKey iPhone cable, today debuted the NomadPlus, a product that transforms an Apple charger into a portable battery pack.  —  While there are hundreds of different portable battery options …
Ryan Whitwam / Android Police:
Samsung's Milk Music Update Adds $3.99 Premium Subscription Option  —  Samsung pitched Milk Music this spring as a totally free music service exclusive to its devices, but slipped in at the end that it might not be free forever.  You can still stream tunes for free without ads …
Sam Gustin / Motherboard:
FCC Chairman: Verizon Uses a ‘Disturbing’ Loophole to Throttle Unlimited Data  —  Federal Communication Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is “deeply troubled” about Verizon Wireless's recently-announced plan to begin slowing down data speeds for some customers, he wrote in a strongly-worded letter to the company's CEO on Wednesday.
Elliot Njus / Oregonian:
Portland legalizes Airbnb-style short-term rentals  —  Portland will start issuing permits for its first legal short-term rental operations in private homes as soon as September.  —  The Portland City Council on Wednesday gave its OK for Portlanders to rent out one or two bedrooms in their home …

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More News

András Neltz / Kotaku:

Earlier Picks

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:
Mike Futter / Game Informer:
Eduard Kovacs / SecurityWeek: