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September 18, 2014, 8:20 PM

Top News

Tim Cook / Apple:

Tim Cook's letter on privacy takes aim at Google's business model, noting Apple doesn't monetize its users' personal information — A message from Tim Cook about Apple's commitment to your privacy. — At Apple, your trust means everything to us. That's why we respect your privacy …

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

Apple's “warrant canary” disappears, suggesting new Patriot Act demands — Apple included language in its first Transparency Report to say that it had not been subject to a Section 215 Patriot Act request. That language is now gone. — When Apple published its first Transparency Report …

More: Ars Technica, Techdirt, The Verge, 9to5Mac, CNET, Gizmodo, MacNN and MacDailyNews

Craig Timberg / Washington Post:

With iOS 8, Apple no longer holds encryption keys, making it unable to decrypt user data for law enforcement

More: Wired, Fox News, ZDNet, The Verge, TUAW, Cult of Mac, NPR, Entrepreneur and BetaNews

Tweets: @pwnallthethings, @csoghoian, @fmanjoo, @startupljackson, @declanm, @declanm, @mikeisaac and @declanm

Bloomberg:

Larry Ellison steps down as Oracle CEO, appointed CTO, chairman; Mark Hurd and Safra Katz now co-CEOs — Oracle's Ellison Steps Down as CEO, Replaced by Hurd and Catz — Oracle Corp.'s Larry Ellison stepped down as chief executive officer of the software maker he founded …

More: Re/code, VentureBeat, The Verge, New York Times, SiliconANGLE, USA Today, ZDNet, Gigaom, Reuters, Business Insider and Mashable

Tweets: @dkberman, @brooke, @pmarca, @ahess247, @panzer, @adamlashinsky, @willoremus, @danprimack, @bgurley, @parislemon, @mattmhunter and @mathewi

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft cuts 747 employees in Washington state, 2,100 worldwide; closing Silicon Valley research lab — Microsoft to close Microsoft Research lab in Silicon Valley — Summary: Microsoft Research's Silicon Valley, with about 50 employees, is one of the casualties of Microsoft's latest round of 2,100 job cuts.

Erich Owens / Facebook:

Facebook to place posts about trending topics and posts with fresh engagement higher in News Feed — News Feed FYI: Showing More Timely Stories from Friends and Pages — Our goal with News Feed is to show everyone the right content at the right time so they don't miss the stories that are important to them.

More: The Daily Dot, PC Magazine, Engadget, PandoDaily, GeekWire, Computerworld, Ars Technica, PC World, The Next Web, AllFacebook, VentureBreak, Business Insider, BuzzFeed, Inside Facebook, SlashGear, Gigaom and Digiday

Tweets: @mikeisaac, @rubinafillion, @zeynep and @nathanjurgenson

Craig Timberg / Washington Post:

Newest Androids will join iPhones in offering default encryption, blocking police — The next generation of Google's Android operating system, due for release next month, will encrypt data by default for the first time, the company said Thursday, raising yet another barrier to police gaining access …

More: The Verge, 9to5Google, Wall Street Journal, Android Police, Ars Technica, PhoneArena and Android Central

Michael J. de la Merced / New York Times:

Alibaba Raises $21.8 Billion in Initial Public Offering — The Alibaba Group, the Chinese Internet juggernaut, will raise nearly $21.8 billion in its initial stock sale, people briefed on the matter said on Thursday, as investors flocked to buy a piece of the company that is poised …

More: PC World, VentureBeat, Gigaom, Reuters and Bloomberg. Tweets: @pjoshiny

Kelly Hodgkins / MacRumors:

iOS 8 Keyboards Climb to Top of App Store Charts — With yesterday's launch of iOS 8, devices running the new operating system are now able to install third-party keyboards that work on a systemwide basis. Most of the major keyboard makers were ready for the launch, introducing iOS 8 versions …

More: SwiftKey, BuzzFeed, AppleInsider, InvestorPlace, iDownloadBlog.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacNN and MacStories

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:

New third-party iOS 8 keyboard Keymoji translates text into emojis as you type

More: The Daily Dot, MacRumors and Laughing Squid. Tweets: @dannysullivan

John Cook / GeekWire:

SAP buying Concur Technologies for $8.3 billion — SAP is buying Bellevue-based Concur Technologies in deal valued at $8.3 billion, a 20 percent premium over the Sept. 17th closing price. Founded in 1993, Concur successfully transformed itself into a software-as-a-service company …

More: Tech Trader Daily, Reuters, Concur Blog, SAP, PC World, TechCrunch, ZDNet, bizjournals, Wall Street Journal and Seeking Alpha. Tweets: @geekwire

Adam Lashinsky / Fortune:

Uber's financing program connects auto lenders and drivers who want to purchase cars — Uber banks on world domination — The story line about Uber these days usually involves a fight: Uber scuffling with German regulators, who banned one of its car services nationwide …

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft's next version of Office includes a Clippy-like helper and a very dark theme — Microsoft is busy preparing a “Windows Technical Preview” for later this month, but the software maker is also privately testing an “Office Technical Preview” for the next version of its popular Office suite.

More: Computerworld, PC World, ZDNet, TechSpot, DailyTech, Pocket-lint, Inquirer, WinBeta, Ubergizmo, Business Insider and Neowin

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

iOS 8 Adoption Off To A Slower Start Than iOS 7, Say Multiple Usage Trackers — The iOS 8 installation spike is high, but lower than it was for iOS 7 last year, according to numbers from a variety of mobile OS usage monitoring platforms. Chitika, Tapjoy, Mixpanel and Appsee all show adoption numbers that …

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

Home Depot: 56M Cards Impacted, Malware Contained — Home Depot said today that cyber criminals armed with custom-built malware stole an estimated 56 million debit and credit card numbers from its customers between April and September 2014. That disclosure officially makes the incident the largest retail card breach on record.

Andrew Allemann / Domain Name Wire:

Amazon pays $4.6M for top level domain name “.buy”, outbidding Google — Wow: Amazon.com buys .Buy for $4.6 million, .Tech sells for $6.8 million — Amazon.com paid $4.6 million to win rights to .buy top level domain name, but that wasn't the most expensive TLD auction on Wednesday.

More: The Next Web, CNET, The Verge, Inquirer, TechSpot, Marketing Land, The Drum, Trusted Reviews, Geek.com, Ubergizmo, WebProNews, Entrepreneur, Tech Insider, Business Insider and Gizmodo

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

After $2M In Pre-Orders, Osmo Starts Shipping Its Hardware-Based iPad Game For Kids, Rolls Out Customization Features — Osmo, the gaming device from former Googlers that combines real world play and the iPad, is now shipping after receiving $2 million in pre-orders, including those from over 2,000 schools.

More: Gamasutra, Gigaom, Crowdfund Insider, VentureBeat and Re/code. Thanks:@deaconlf

Carmel DeAmicis / Gigaom:

Twitpic says it was acquired and will no longer be shutting down, but doesn't name buyer — Twitpic says it's getting acquired but it won't say by whom — The official Twitpic account just tweeted that the company isn't shutting down after all. It's being acquired, although the tweet didn't specify what company is saving the day.

More: The Next Web, The Verge, PandoDaily, Engadget, GeekWire, PC World, VentureBeat and Gizmodo. Tweets: @twitpic. See also Mediagazer

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

CloudFlare CEO shares details on how encrypted sessions work with Keyless SSL — In-depth: How CloudFlare promises SSL security—without the key — CloudFlare has developed a way to separate SSL from private crypto keys, making it easier for companies to use the cloud to protect their networks.

More: Wired, CloudFlare, TechCrunch, InfoWorld, Forbes, Bloomberg, Tech Times and Gigaom

Drew FitzGerald / Wall Street Journal:

Apple Relied on Its Own Network for Part of the iOS 8 Upgrade — The roll-out of Apple 's new mobile-operating system Wednesday was the first time the company used its proprietary data distribution infrastructure, also called a content-delivery network, for such a large-scale deployment.

More: DeepField, 9to5Mac and AppleInsider

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

YouTube will spend millions to fund and promote new shows from popular creators — YouTube Takes Out Checkbook Again, Pays Its Stars to Make Videos — The world's biggest video site is paying people to make videos. Again. — YouTube is planning to invest millions in some of its biggest stars …

More: YouTube Blog and Gigaom. See also Mediagazer

Gina Hall / The Wrap:

Former owner of MySpace, Brad Greenspan, sues NewsCorp, Google, and IAC, alleging collusion in 2005 sale — Google, NewsCorp Slapped With Lawsuit Over MySpace Sale — Brad Greenspan claims MySpace should have been valued at $32 billion at the time of the 2005 sale, instead of $580 million

David Meyer / Gigaom:

Ericsson gives up on modem business, with 1,000 jobs set to go — Qualcomm dominates the thin modem market and now Ericsson, like Broadcom before it, is pulling out. Around a third of the employees in that unit will be reallocated to radio network R&D. — Ericsson is giving …

More: Ericsson

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

‘Airbnb For Home-Cooked Meals’ Startup EatWith Raises $8 Million From Greylock — Since 2007, Airbnb has opened up new opportunities for its hosts to meet new people and make money by renting out parts of their homes they weren't using. In that same vein, a startup called EatWith wants …

More: Re/code, Tech Times and PE Hub Blog

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