Techmeme: Round two of Microsoft layoffs coming September 18: Sources (Mary Jo Foley/ZDNet)

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September 16, 2014, 8:55 PM

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Buster Hein / Cult of Mac:

Apple confirms iPhone 6 NFC chip is only for Apple Pay at launch — Apple finally added NFC to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but if you were hoping the company's new NFC chip will allow you to pair speakers or integrated NFC tags into your favorite apps, however you won't be able …

Microsoft Corporation:

Microsoft raises its dividend by 11%, adds Kraft and Visa execs to board as Dave Marquardt and Dina Dublon retire — Microsoft announces board changes and quarterly dividend increase — Teri List-Stoll of Kraft and Charles W. Scharf of Visa to join board; Dave Marquardt and Dina Dublon …

More: Tech Trader Daily, Bloomberg, Neowin, WinBeta, Business Insider, Windows Phone Central, The Official Microsoft Blog and Seeking Alpha

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Codenamed “Moments”, Facebook Has Built An App For Super-Private Sharing — Facebook has failed repeatedly to get us to use complicated lists and privacy settings to share intimate moments with just our closest friends and family. It's clumsy and confusing doing that with the same composer for blasting News Feed updates to everyone.

More: The Daily Dot, AllFacebook and VentureBeat

Tweets: @caseynewton and @ryanlawler

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Round two of Microsoft layoffs coming September 18: Sources — Summary: Microsoft will continue with its planned layoffs of 18,000 with job cuts across nearly all divisions of the company with its second wave of cuts later this week. — Later this week, Microsoft will lay off another group …

More: Business Insider, WinBeta, Neowin and Windows Phone Central

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Apple Launches Guide for Android Users Switching to iPhone — Ahead of the launch of the large-screened iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple has released a detailed support document that walks Android users through moving data from their Android devices to the iPhone.

More: Official Apple Support, The Verge, 9to5Mac, Softpedia News, Electronista, Ubergizmo, Redmond Pie, iLounge, Business Insider, iDownloadBlog.com and App Advice

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

Rackspace no longer exploring sale, names current president Taylor Rhodes CEO, falls 17% after hours — Rackspace No Longer for Sale, Names New CEO — Rackspace, the cloud computing player that has been for sale since May, ended that process today, saying it intends to remain independent.

More: VentureBeat, Data Center Knowledge and Gigaom

Austin Carr / Fast Company:

Tony Fadell on the evolution of Nest, working with Jobs and Page, and integrating Google's culture — The $3.2 Billion Man: Can Google's Newest Star Outsmart Apple? — Google is betting big on Nest CEO Tony Fadell, who helped invent the iPod and iPhone. Here, a look inside his design revolution.

More: DisplayBlog. Tweets: @thejgr and @austincarr

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

U.S. court throws out VirnetX $368 million patent award vs Apple — (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out a jury order requiring Apple Inc to pay VirnetX Holding Corp $368.2 million in damages for infringing four patents concerning technology for providing security over the Internet.

More: Wall Street Journal, The Register, Ars Technica, InfoWorld, iMore, MacRumors, AppleInsider and Bloomberg

Kim-Mai Cutler / TechCrunch:

Misfit announces Flash, a plastic $50 wearable that tracks fitness and sleep — Misfit Wearables Launches The Flash, A More Affordable Fitness And Sleep Tracker — Misfit Wearables, which has sold roughly 600,000 metallic, quarter-sized activity trackers or Shines, has launched a more affordable fitness wearable called the Flash.

More: The Verge, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, Wired, Engadget, SlashGear, Wearables Arena, The Next Web, Gigaom, Wearable World News, Ubergizmo, AppleInsider and Android Police

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft introduces “Universal Mobile Keyboard”, built for iOS, Android, and Windows; to be released this October for $79.95 — Microsoft creates a keyboard for iOS and Android tablets — Microsoft has created a keyboard designed for iOS, Android, and Windows tablets.

More: The Fire Hose, Gizmodo, PC World, Blogging Windows, The Next Web, iPhone in Canada Blog, ZDNet, Ubergizmo, Electronista, Windows Phone Central, TechCrunch, BetaNews, GeekWire, WinBeta, Gigaom and Android Police

Josh Lowensohn / The Verge:

Smart thermostat maker Ecobee pokes Nest with a striking redesign — And the promise of lower heating and cooling bills — One of the first things Stuart Lombard will tell you is how much he spent on the solar panels that are on top of his house. It's not to brag so much as to explain …

More: Engadget, SlashGear, MobileSyrup.com, PC World, Gizmodo and Gigaom

Dennis Keohane / BetaBoston:

Product design startup GrabCAD acquired by Stratasys for $100 million — Computer-aided design (CAD) startup GrabCAD of Cambridge has been acquired by Stratasys (SSYS), a Minnesota-based 3D printer and 3D production systems maker. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed …

More: TechCrunch, ArcticStartup and Xconomy. Thanks:@dbkeohane

Eugene Kim / Business Insider:

YC's Sam Altman plus Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, Marissa Mayer, Marc Andreessen, and more to teach Stanford course on startups; lectures to appear online — Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, And Marissa Mayer Want To Teach You ‘How To Start A Startup’ — Some of the most prominent investors …

More: Re/code, TechCrunch, Wired, New York Times, GeekWire, Fortune, bizjournals and Fast Company

Tweets: @sama and @sama

Yang Jie / Wall Street Journal:

Chinese Worker Detained for Giving Customers a Sneak Peek at iPhone 6 — Apple's new iPhone 6 might not be available in mainland China any time soon. But, according to local authorities, plenty of people there have already wrapped their hands around its contours.

More: CNET, BGR, SlashGear, Softpedia News, MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com, 9to5Mac, Electronista, Ubergizmo, Cult of Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, App Advice, Business Insider and iMore

Josh Lowensohn / The Verge:

Tim Cook doesn't want Apple to be a ‘treasure trove’ of user data for the NSA — Apple's privacy and security measures have been under a microscope for the past month, first with a targeted attack on celebrities that led to leaked nude photos, and now on Apple's own systems as the company gears …

More: Re/code, Wall Street Journal, TechnoBuffalo, Bank Innovation, PadGadget, Inquirer, SiliconBeat, PandoDaily, VentureBeat, MacRumors, TUAW, TechCrunch and Cult of Mac

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Microsoft launches OneNote for Android Wear and Share extension for iOS 8, updates Office Lens for Windows Phone — Microsoft today made three major OneNote announcements. The company launched OneNote for Android Wear and a Share extension for iOS 8, as well as updated Office Lens for Windows Phone.

More: Office Blogs, Office Blogs, The Verge, Engadget, PC World, PC Magazine, BetaNews, CITEworld, Android Police, The Fire Hose, Android Central, Neowin, Pocket-lint, 9to5Google, VentureBeat, ZDNet and Ubergizmo

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

Jury finds CBS infringes podcasting patent, awards $1.3 million — The popular show NCIS is one of several shows that CBS was sued over. — CBS — A jury in Marshall, Texas found the infamous “podcasting patent” was infringed by CBS's website today and said that the TV network …

More: Electronista, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Law360. See also Mediagazer

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Handybook Rebrands As Handy In An Effort To Become Amazon For Home Services — What's in a name? As it turns out, a lot. — That's the thinking behind Handybook's decision to rebrand itself simply as “Handy.” The two-year old company, which provides on-demand home services via a web and mobile app …

More: Macworld, BetaBoston, TheDomains.com and VentureBeat

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Two-factor verification for iCloud.com is back following recent hacks — Back in June, Apple rolled out a two-factor authentication system for the iCloud.com suite of web apps. The feature quickly disappeared, but today, users are noticing that it has returned.

More: Ars Technica, MacRumors, AppleInsider, Engadget, The Verge, App Advice, Softpedia News, Ubergizmo, Lifehacker and iMore

Jordan Novet / VentureBeat:

Fastly grabs $40M on its quest to build a big, cool content-distribution network — Above: Servers at Fastly's point of presence in Frankfurt. — Fastly, a startup looking to challenge the biggest companies in the business of distributing content around the world for quick online access, has brought on $40 million in fresh money.

More: TechCrunch, PE Hub Blog, Data Center Knowledge and Gigaom

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Quidsi co-founder Marc Lore raises an additional $20M for secretive e-commerce startup Jet — Quidsi Co-Founder Raises An Additional $20M For A New E-Commerce Biz — In less than a year after leaving Amazon, Quidsi co-founder Marc Lore began work on a new startup called Jet.com.

More: Marc Lore, Re/code, GeekWire, Business Insider and Wall Street Journal

Abhirup Roy / Reuters:

Adobe profit fell 46% in Q3; paid subscribers for Creative Cloud rose by 500K — Adobe revenue forecast misses, shares slip — (Reuters) - Photoshop maker Adobe Systems Inc's (ADBE.O) forecast disappointing revenue for this quarter and reported lower quarterly sales at its digital media business …

More: ZDNet, AdExchanger, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Forbes, VentureBeat, Tech Trader Daily, RTTNews and Benzinga

Ahmed Ghappour / Just Security:

Justice Department Proposal Would Massively Expand FBI Extraterritorial Surveillance — A Department of Justice proposal to amend Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure would make it easier for domestic law enforcement to hack into computers of people attempting to protect their anonymity on the Internet.

Tweets: @juliaharte1, @kashhill and @trevortimm

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