Techmeme: Rackspace knocks out patent troll that claimed monopoly on rotating smartphone displays (Jeff John Roberts/Gigaom)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News Contact Editors

September 23, 2014, 10:30 AM

Top News

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Apple won't shut down the Beats Music streaming service, but the Beats Music brand may change — Apple's Beats Music Brand May Go Away. Apple's Beats Music Service Is Sticking Around. — Earlier this year, Apple bought Beats Music and Beats Electronics for $3 billion.

More: Gigaom, Inquirer, Guardian, The Register, Ubergizmo, GSMArena Blog, MobileSyrup.com, Mashable and Seeking Alpha. Tweets: @llsethj. See also Mediagazer

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Beats Music brand will be shut down, product could be rolled into iTunes

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Say hello to Talko: Ray Ozzie's startup wants to reinvent the phone call, starting with an iPhone app — What has Ray Ozzie been focusing on since leaving his position as Microsoft's chief software architect? Here's the answer. A new app and online service called Talko …

More: Medium, Re/code, The Register, TechCrunch, The Verge, Fast Company, Medium, Gigaom, Gizmodo, Wall Street Journal, Medium, CNET, Associated Press, USA Today, New York Times, Wired, Engadget and The Next Web

Tweets: @ev, @toddbishop, @rozzie and @erickschonfeld

Thanks:@johnhcook

Raymond M. Soneira / DisplayMate:

iPhone 6 Plus display is “best performing smartphone LCD we ever tested”, iPhone 6 “very good” — iPhone 6 Display Technology Shoot-Out — Introduction A key element for a great Smartphone has always been a truly innovative and top performing display …

More: BetaNews, MobileSyrup.com, BGR, SlashGear, DISPLAYBLOG, Tech2, iDownloadBlog.com, Macworld, TechnoBuffalo, iPhone in Canada Blog, Redmond Pie, Business Insider, Gizmodo, iMore and MacRumors. Tweets: @stevesi

Kelly Hodgkins / MacRumors:

iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Capable of Faster Charging Using iPad 2.1A Adapter

More: iLounge, BGR, Ubergizmo, SlashGear, iPhone in Canada Blog, 9to5Mac, BGR and Business Insider

iClarified:

Apple Announces iOS 8 Adoption Has Already Reached 46% — Apple has announced that iOS 8 adoption has already reached 46%. First spotted by iClarified, Apple quietly revealed the statistic on its App Store Distribution page. — The company says iOS 8 adoption reached 46% on September 21, 2014.

More: AppleInsider, TechCrunch, Business Insider, BGR, The Next Web, Inquirer, The Verge, WebProNews, Cult of Mac, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Ubergizmo, iMore and ITProPortal

John Brownlee / Co.Design:

iPod Mastermind Tony Fadell On The Death Of The iPod: “You Can't Get Too Nostalgic” — After 13 years, the iPod Classic is dead. Google's Tony Fadell tells us what killed the iPod, and why we shouldn't be bummed about it. — What does it feel like to lose your design child?

More: Business Insider, MacNN, TechnoBuffalo, iPhone in Canada Blog, Cult of Mac, 9to5Mac, Ubergizmo, MacRumors and ReadWrite

Tweets: @alipasha and @jyarow

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Eric Schmidt says Google will cut ties with ALEC because group is lying about climate change — Google will stop supporting climate change science deniers, calls them liars — Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. — JD Lasica — Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt today said it was a …

More: The Diane Rehm Show …, SiliconBeat, The Verge, ThinkProgress, Bloomberg, National Journal, SlashGear, The Register, ZME Science, msnbc.com, Guardian, PandoDaily, Washington Post, Business Insider and The Technology Chronicles

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

Home Depot's former security architect had history of techno-sabotage — “We sell hammers” was the justification Home Depot managers gave for cheaping out on security to IT employees. — WestportWiki — When Home Depot suffered a breach of transaction data that exposed …

Tweets: @casio_juarez

Nathan Olivarez-Giles / Wall Street Journal:

SquareTrade breakability tests show iPhone 6/6 Plus are the most durable iPhones yet — iPhone 6 Is the Most Durable iPhone Yet, Says Insurer — The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus may be the largest iPhones Apple has ever made, but they're also the toughest, according to SquareTrade, a gadget insurer that publishes a “breakability” index.

More: squaretrade.com, ZDNet, Inquirer, ExtremeTech, Business Insider, Bloomberg, Gizmodo, Telegraph, Yahoo Tech, VentureBeat, iPhone in Canada Blog, CNET, The Register, PC Magazine, ABC News, BGR and App Advice

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:

Google Structured Snippets Officially Live In Search Results — Earlier this month, we caught Google testing a form of knowledge graph data within the search results snippet. This feature is now officially being confirmed by Google on the Google Research Blog.

More: Google Research Blog, Engadget, Search Engine Roundtable, SEO by the Sea, 9to5Google, WebProNews and The Next Web

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

HBO, Amazon Prime and Broadband for $40 a Month at AT&T — It's still nearly impossible to get HBO, or any other pay-TV channel, without subscribing to a pay-TV package that gives you a bundle of channels, whether you want them or not. — But the people who sell you TV are starting to tinker with the model, at least at the margins.

More: Engadget, Variety, DSLreports, Wired, Tech Times, Ubergizmo, PC World, Gizmodo, StreetInsider.com, GeekWire and The Verge

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

Rackspace knocks out patent troll that claimed monopoly on rotating smartphone displays — A troll called called Rotatable claimed a patent monopoly on the use of rotating mobile screen displays. Rackspace won a victory for everyone by destroying its patent.

More: The Official Rackspace Blog, The Register, SlashGear and Android Police. Tweets: @mattcutts

Tom Fairless / Wall Street Journal:

Google Must Improve Search Settlement or Face Charges, EU's Almunia Says — Antitrust Chief Says Investigation Hasn't Been Swayed by Political Pressure — BRUSSELS— Google Inc. must improve its proposal to settle European Union concerns over its search practices or face formal antitrust charges …

More: EU Press Room, Computerworld, The Register, WebProNews and The Verge

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:

Q&A with LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner on strategy, management, setbacks, and company culture — LinkedIn's CEO Jeff Weiner Reveals The Importance Of Body Language, Mistakes Made Out Of Fear, And One Time He Really Doubted Himself — Who is the best CEO in the country?

More: ITProPortal. Tweets: @greylockvc, @pkafka, @felixsalmon and @mdudas

John Battelle / John Battelle's Search Blog:

Buying into murky Alibaba is buying into a corrupt government that's excluded US companies — Thoughts On Alibaba — The post Thoughts On Alibaba appeared first on John Battelle's Search Blog. — A caveat before I think out loud, quite possibly getting myself into a running battle I know I can't win …

More: DISPLAYBLOG. Tweets: @jjhikes, @pennockd, @mhelft, @mattrosoff, @arrington and @bryce

Elzio Barreto / Reuters:

With $25B raised, Alibaba IPO ranks as world's biggest after underwriters sell 48M more shares

More: TechCrunch, PC Tech Magazine and SiliconBeat

Kevin Fitchard / Gigaom:

Huawei buys UK internet-of-things networking firm Neul for $25M — Huawei buys internet-of-things networking firm Neul — Huawei sees an opportunity in the industrial internet of things, so its buying a U.K. company specializing is sensor and meter networking for a reported $25 million.

More: Business Weekly, Inquirer, Engadget, Forbes, Tech in Asia, Rethink Wireless, New Electronics, ITProPortal, Tech City News, VentureBeat, The Register and Light Reading

Melissa Eddy / New York Times:

2,000 Amazon workers from four distribution centers in Germany walk off the job in wage dispute — Amazon Workers Walk Off the Job in Germany Over Wage Dispute — BERLIN — Amazon employees in Germany, frustrated by the company's refusal to hold wage talks, walked off their jobs Monday …

More: ZDNet, ThinkProgress, Wall Street Journal, GeekWire, Fox Business, Agence France-Presse, DW.DE, BBC and The Register

Kim Zetter / Wired:

MIT students behind Bitcoin mining tool Tidbit fight New Jersey subpoena demanding source code — MIT Students Battle State's Demand for Their Bitcoin Miner's Source Code — Four MIT students behind an award-winning Bitcoin mining tool will face off against New Jersey state authorities …

More: Boston Magazine. Tweets: @josephzhou

Electronista:

UPS Store expands 3D printing services to nearly 100 locations — In-store 3D printing facilities offered in more markets — Delivery company UPS is making its 3D printing service more widely available at its stores across the United States. After an initial test with six markets …

More: UPS, 3DPrint.com, Gizmodo, SlashGear, Engadget, Ubergizmo and CNNMoney.com

Tyler Wilde / PC Gamer:

Big changes to Steam: ‘Discovery Update’ adds curators, recommendations, and hides unpopular new releases — The Steam homepage finally has a new look! A very slightly different, bluer new look! OK, it looks about the same, but the functional changes in today's ‘Discovery Update’ are really big.

More: Steam, Digital Trends, PC World, gameinformer.com, VG247, Gamasutra, Engadget, Blue's News, destructoid and GameSpot

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:

Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.

Cloudflare:

Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference — Stop preparing for agents. Start running them. 100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.

Zoho:

The 90-day recognition cliff: Why praise programs fade, and what keeps them alive — Recognition programs often start with enthusiasm. Employees participate, managers share shoutouts, and teams have a new way to celebrate achievements.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

SAP CEO: AI Won't Kill Software, But It Will Change Your Job — With Christian Klein

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

David Ellison's Paramount-Warner Empire & The Fight That Comes Next

Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

Sources:

Factory CEO on why AGI is already here

Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.

Subscribe to Sources.

Invest Like the Best:

Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent

The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.

Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.

Lenny's Podcast:

The grief, loneliness, and burnout sweeping through the tech industry right now | Molly Graham

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

Great Chat:

Doomers at Dreamforce

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:30 AM ET, September 23, 2014.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.