Techmeme: Redbox Instant streaming video service operated by Redbox and Verizon is shutting down on October 7 (Janko Roettgers/Gigaom)

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October 5, 2014, 11:40 AM

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Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Redbox Instant streaming video service operated by Redbox and Verizon is shutting down on October 7 — Redbox Instant is shutting down October 7 — A year and a half after its official launch, Redbox Instant is calling it quits. The shut-down shows how hard it is to compete with Netflix for streaming video subscriptions.

Jeff Elder / Wall Street Journal:

Google to Make Security Guards Employees, Rather Than Contractors — In a move that could reverberate around Silicon Valley, Google plans to hire more than 200 security guards as its own employees, rather than through an outside contractor. — The guards will be eligible for the same benefits …

More: USA Today, SiliconBeat, bizjournals, The Huffington Post, The Technology Chronicles and NBC Bay Area. Tweets: @mdudas

Jake Swearingen / The Atlantic Online:

A Year After Death of Silk Road, Darknet Markets Are Booming — It's been one year since the FBI shut down Silk Road, the granddaddy of darknet marketplaces, and arrested main Silk Road admin Ross William Ulbricht (or, as he was known online, Dread Pirate Roberts).

More: Gigaom. Tweets: @jeffreyatucker

Matthew Green / A Few Thoughts …:

A technical analysis of the barriers preventing Apple from decrypting iPhones — Why can't Apple decrypt your iPhone? — Last week I wrote about Apple's new default encryption policy for iOS 8. Since that piece was intended for general audiences, I mostly avoided technical detail.

More: Washington Post and Silicon Exposed. Tweets: @weldpond, @virusbtn and @startupljackson. Thanks:@srikardr

Jenna Wortham / New York Times:

Founding “queen” of pirate streaming site NinjaVideo is unrepentant after 16 months in prison — The Unrepentant Bootlegger — The Deposed Queen of NinjaVideo The Deposed Queen of NinjaVideo — Hana Beshara, a founder of NinjaVideo, once a popular illegal video downloading site, was known as Queen Phara to its users.

Tweets: @margotkaminski, @wyattnyt and @choitotheworld

Richard Lai / Engadget:

Vertu launches Aster, a 4.7 inch 1080p “mid-tier” luxury Android phone that starts at $6,900 — Vertu Aster is a luxury smartphone with ‘mid-tier’ price, top-tier specs — Since the launch of the Signature Touch, Vertu CEO Max Pogliani promised that “technology …

More: IntoMobile, Highsnobiety, Digital Trends, Telegraph, SlashGear, GSMArena.com, TechRadar.com, Wired.co.uk, Pocket-lint, Geek.com and CNBC

Nellie Bowles / Re/code:

Three Downtown Project entrepreneurs committed suicide. Was happiness as a goal a factor? — The Downtown Project Suicides: Can the Pursuit of Happiness Kill You? — “It wasn't just about building a business. It was about building a lifestyle that was about delivering happiness to everyone, including ourselves.”

More: Feld Thoughts, GeekTime, KNPR, PandoDaily, Gigaom and Adventures in Capitalism

Tweets: @hamishmckenzie and @johnpaczkowski

Christopher White / Neowin:

Gates talks Apple Pay, Bitcoin, Nadella and how Office needs to be dramatically better — There's no denying the fact that Bill Gates is a very smart man, and that he has a passion not only for technology but also for helping the poor through his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

More: Bloomberg, CoinDesk, Entrepreneur, TUAW, CNET, iMore, iPhone in Canada Blog, BGR, The Verge, Business Insider, Windows Phone Central, Ubergizmo, PadGadget, MacDailyNews, WinBeta, Business Insider and Bloomberg. Tweets: @cdixon

Matthew Lynley / BuzzFeed:

Behind the Dropbox team working to deeply integrate the company's services in phones like the Galaxy Note 4 and Xperia Z3 — Meet The Team Putting Dropbox On Your Phone — Dropbox's strategic partnerships team, filled with a batch of former Googlers and other policy experts, is tasked with embedding Dropbox into new mobile devices.

Tweets: @mattlynley and @tomgara. Thanks:@mattlynley

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft's Windows 10: More on the ‘under the covers’ security, Store features — Summary: Microsoft's Windows 10 will include more than just user interface tweaks. Here are some of the expected security, manageability and Store changes coming to the next version of Windows client.

More: GeekWire, Neowin, WinBeta and MSDN Blogs. Tweets: @chrisbhoffman

Liam Tung / ZDNet:

After legal threat, Google says it removed ‘tens of thousands’ of iCloud hack pics — Summary: Google says it has taken down many of the pictures of stolen from celebrity iCloud accounts and posted on its online properties. — Liam Tung — Google has hit out at accusations it was slow …

More: Tech Times, Digital Trends, SlashGear, Beyond Search and Wired

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Snapchat Wanted MessageMe Before Yahoo Bought It For Up To $30-$40M — Earlier today we reported that messaging app MessageMe was getting acquired by Yahoo — which MessageMe has now confirmed on its site, along with the inevitable news that the app is shutting down, effective November 7.

More: Re/code, MessageMe, PC Magazine, App Advice, Tech Trader Daily, WebProNews, BGR, Phandroid, TechSpot, Pocketnow, TechCrunch and Seeking Alpha. Tweets: @jbruin. Thanks:@ingridlunden

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