Techmeme: Amazon brings Kindle Unlimited to the UK, an all-you-can-eat book subscription service for £7.99 a month (Paul Sawers/The Next Web)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News Contact Editors

September 24, 2014, 7:10 AM

Top News

Lisa Bettany / snap snap snap:

Comparing photos taken with Camera+ using all iPhone versions, from the original to iPhone 6 — How does the iPhone 6 camera compare to previous iPhone cameras? — In the past seven years, each new advancement in iPhone camera technology has made dramatic improvements to image quality.

More: The Verge, AppleTell, SlashGear, iPhone in Canada Blog, Gizmodo, iDownloadBlog.com, Ubergizmo, Cult of Mac, TechCrunch and 9to5Mac

Tweets: @bill_gross, @timtrueman and @caseynewton

Kelly Hodgkins / MacRumors:

Some iPhone 6 Plus Owners Accidentally Bending Their iPhones in Pockets — As highlighted in a few reports shared in the MacRumors forums, a small but growing number of iPhone 6 Plus owners have reportedly bent their phones after carrying the devices in their pockets just days after launch.

Philip Kollar / Polygon:

Blizzard cancels its next-gen MMO Titan after seven years — Blizzard has officially canceled development on its mysterious next-generation massively multiplayer game Titan. The company confirmed the news to Polygon in a recent interview. — This revelation comes after at least seven years …

Chris Martin / PC Advisor:

Samsung exits laptop market in Europe “for now” after decline in PC market — Exclusive: Samsung exits laptop market including Chromebooks — Following in the path of Sony and its Vaio PCs, Samsung has decided to exit the laptop market stopping sales of Ativ Windows …

More: ZDNet, Guardian, ITProPortal, CNET, Gigaom, DailyTech, bit-tech.net, GSMArena Blog, Ubergizmo, Engadget, Electronista, DISPLAYBLOG, Network World and The Verge

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

Amazon brings Kindle Unlimited to the UK, an all-you-can-eat book subscription service for £7.99 a month — Two months after Amazon launched its e-book subscription service in the US, the internet giant has quietly introduced the offering to UK readers too.

More: Engadget, Inquirer, Guardian, iMore, App Advice and Electronista

See also Mediagazer

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / ZDNet:

iOS 8 crash rate 78 percent higher than iOS 7 — Summary: iOS 8 is showing higher levels of instability compared to iOS 7, with older devices being more susceptible to crashes than the new iPhone 6. — Adrian Kingsley-Hughes — If you're looking for stability, then iOS 8 might not be the direction you want to be going in.

More: BGR, Macworld, Bloomberg, Ubergizmo, InformationWeek, Gotta Be Mobile, StreetInsider.com, ReadWrite, TUAW, ValueWalk and Network World

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Mobile Wallet Laughingstock Clinkle Finally Launches To Let You Pay Friends And Earn “Treats” — After 17 months of jokes about vaporware college payments startup Clinkle, its iOS and Android apps finally launched today at a few colleges. Clinkle lets you pay friends, get a pre-paid Visa …

More: Valleywag, ReadWrite, Business Insider, The Next Web and Gigaom

Tweets: @sammywalrusiv, @delrey, @danprimack, @calebgarling, @stevekovach, @caseynewton, @delrey, @drew, @mr_cso, @flyosity, @ow, @capndesign, @johnpaczkowski, @mikeisaac, @sarahnemerson, @rrhoover and @rrhoover

Margaret Rhodes / Wired:

Stack's Alba smart bulb adapts to sunlight and your household habits to conserve energy — Ex-Tesla and NASA Engineers Make a Light Bulb That's Smarter Than You — Sometime in early 2013, one of the supply chain engineers at Tesla leaned back in his chair and took a look around the Silicon Valley office.

More: Engadget

Sam Altman / How to Start a Startup:

First lecture of the Stanford course “how to start a startup” with Sam Altman and Dustin Moskovitz now online — Lecture 1: Welcome, and Ideas, Products, Teams and Execution Part I — Why to Start a Startup. Sam Altman , View Sam's Slide Deck. Dustin Moskovitz , View Dustin's Slide Deck.

Tweets: @trengriffin

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Google X Founder Sebastian Thrun Has Left His Role As Google VP And Fellow — Sebastian Thrun has left the building — the Google X building, that is. The founder of search giant Google's factory to develop and build “moonshot” technologies, who launched the company's driverless car project …

More: Beyond Search, SlashGear, GeekWire and 9to5Google

Jessica E. Lessin / The Information:

Former Apple retail chief and ex-J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson to launch on-demand delivery service for gadgets — Former Apple Exec, J.C. Penney CEO to Launch Delivery Startup — The godfather of Apple's retail stores is trying to reinvent shopping again, this time by getting rid of stores.

More: Digital Trends, SlashGear, iDownloadBlog.com, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, Cult of Mac, iMore, MacRumors and Business Insider

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Karma Rolls Out An LTE Version Of Its Pay-As-You-Go Mobile Hotspot, Pre-Order For $99 — Karma, makers of the small, portable Wi-Fi hotspot that lets you pay-as-you-go, contract free, for the data you use ($14/1 GB), is now accepting pre-orders for its latest device, the Karma Go portable LTE Wi-Fi hotspot.

More: Karma | Blog, Electronista, SlashGear, The Next Web, The Verge, VentureBeat, Cult of Mac, Engadget, Gigaom, FierceWireless and Android Police

Steven Musil / CNET:

Bitcoin-mining company Butterfly Labs shut down by FTC — Company marketed specialized computers designed to produce the cryptocurrency but delivered useless machines, according to an FTC complaint. — A bitcoin-related company that allegedly engaged in deceptive marketing …

More: Federal Trade Commission, ZDNet, Gigaom, SlashGear, Guardian, NEWSBTC, Forbes, The Register, The Verge, VentureBeat, Data Center Knowledge, Gizmodo and CoinDesk

Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:

FTC sues Bitcoin miner maker Butterfly Labs, alleging fraudulent and deceptive practices

More: Valleywag

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

iPhone 6 costs an estimated $200 to $247 in parts and labor to build, 6 Plus $216 to $263; profit margins 69-70%; Samsung supplies 40% of A8 chips — Teardown Shows Apple's iPhone 6 Cost at Least $200 to Build — Apple spends $200 to $247 in parts and labor to build an iPhone 6 …

More: Businessweek, Business Insider, iPhone in Canada Blog, BGR, iDownloadBlog.com, Mashable, Associated Press, Ars Technica and VentureBreak

Tweets: @ryan and @benedictevans

Ryan Smith / AnandTech:

Apple's A8 SoC: GX6450 4-core GPU, enhanced Cyclone CPU cores, 4MB L3 Cache

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Samsung says Galaxy Note 4 will debut in Korea on Sept 26, be on sale in 140 markets by the end October — Samsung has announced that the Galaxy Note 4, the latest version of its popular ‘phablet’ range, will go on sale from September 26, initially in its home country Korea.

More: Samsung Tomorrow, The Korea Times, Wall Street Journal, Tech in Asia, BGR, SlashGear, Associated Press, Neowin, Android Central, SamMobile, iPhone in Canada Blog, TechnoBuffalo, Digital Trends and Mashable. Tweets: @jonrussell

Issie Lapowsky / Wired:

Facebook's internet connectivity drones to begin testing next year, to deploy within 2-5 years — Facebook Lays Out Its Roadmap for Creating Internet-Connected Drones — A still from an promotional video showing how Facebook and Internet.org will deliver internet access via — aerial drone.

More: SlashGear

Ben Popper / The Verge:

Wink announces Relay, a $300 wall-embedded touchscreen for controlling smart home devices — How one tiny startup is winning the race to power your smart home — For decades the smart home has been a tantalizing dream just out of reach. There are hundreds of connected devices on the market …

More: Co.Design, LinuxGizmos and ReadWrite. Tweets: @generalelectric. Thanks:@benpopper

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

PayPal integrates Bitcoin processors BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin for merchants in the US and Canada — PayPal today announced partnerships with three leading Bitcoin payment processors: BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin. The eBay-owned company wants to help digital goods merchants accept Bitcoin payments …

Roberto Baldwin / The Next Web:

Microsoft announces $59.95 Wireless Display Adapter for streaming Miracast devices to your TV — Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter connects your Miracast devices to HDTVs — The first 10 to 15 minutes of any presentation usually involves trying to figure out which cable connects to the TV.

Stuart Dredge / Guardian:

WhoSampled launches on Android, scans music on your phone to offer samples, remixes, and covers — With 1 million users, WhoSampled brings its music DNA exploration to Android — 'We are much more than a glorified Excel spreadsheet. It's an experience,' says founder Nadav Poraz

More: The Next Web, Droid Life, Complete Music Update, Android Police, AndroidHeadlines.com and Inside Mobile Apps

Tweets: @guardiantech and @jameswragg

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.

Cape:

Most carriers track everything. Cape doesn't. — Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more. Switch today and get 29% off for life.

Zoho:

App Spotlight: MessageWhiz SMS for Zoho CRM — App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools. Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …

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

Channels with Peter Kafka:

The $12.5 Billion Lakers, the NFL's TV Fight, and Sports Media's Big Split

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.

Big Technology Podcast:

Nick Bostrom: Worries About AI Existential Risk Just Became More Concrete

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.

Training Data:

Rich Sutton and Khurram Javed: Why AI Models Stop Learning, and How to Start It Again

Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.

Subscribe to Training Data.

Invest Like the Best:

Ben Thompson on Big Tech, China, and the AI Boom Running Out of Money

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:

OpenAI's Head of Design: This is the best time in history to be a designer | Ian Silber

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.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:10 AM ET, September 24, 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.