Techmeme: Facebook working on stand-alone mobile app that will allow anonymous discussion; release expected in coming weeks (Mike Isaac/New York Times)

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October 7, 2014, 6:15 PM

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Mike Isaac / New York Times:

Facebook working on stand-alone mobile app that will allow anonymous discussion; release expected in coming weeks — Facebook Readies App Allowing Anonymity — Facebook has long attempted to be the place where, above all else, you try to be yourself. — Soon, Facebook will allow you to be yourself, but under a different name.

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:

Twitter sues U.S. government over limits on ability to disclose surveillance orders — Twitter, the world's largest microblogging platform, on Tuesday sued the U.S. government, alleging that the Justice Department's restrictions on what the company can say publicly about the government's …

More: The Twitter Blog, Wired, VentureBeat, New York Times, Guardian, GeekWire, NEWS.com.au, ZDNet, The Verge, VatorNews, The Next Web, Gizmodo, SiliconBeat, BBC, National Journal, The Hill, Re/code, FedScoop, Boing Boing, Consumerist, Electronista, TIME, New York Magazine, Bloomberg and Threatpost

Tweets: @dnvolz and @mikeisaac

See also Mediagazer

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

iOS 8 Adoption Stagnates Just Two and a Half Weeks After Launch — After almost three weeks of availability, Apple's iOS 8 operating system is now installed on 47 percent of devices, according to new numbers posted on Apple's App Store support page for developers.

More: Fiksu, New York Times, Engadget, 9to5Mac, The Verge, AppleInsider, TUAW, 9to5Mac, Computerworld, GeekWire, CNET, Network World, Inquirer, Pocket Gamer.biz, BGR, TechnoBuffalo, SlashGear, AppleTell, DailyTech, PadGadget, Neowin, The Register, iPhone, Gigaom, Inquirer, iMore, Business Insider, Electronista and Seeking Alpha. Tweets: @benbajarin

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft to hold cloud media event in San Francisco on October 20 — CEO Nadella to talk up what's next for Microsoft's cloud — Summary: Microsoft execs, including its CEO Nadella, are on tap to talk more about the company's cloud futures on October 20.

More: TechCrunch, eWeek, ScottGu's Blog, Re/code, WindowsITPro, Gigaom, GeekWire and Neowin. Tweets: @maryjofoley

Walt Mossberg / Re/code:

Kano Lets Kids Build Their Own Computers and Learn to Code — If you ask a typical 10-year-old today what's inside her computer, or how the software is created, she's likely to be baffled. Today's sleek notebooks and desktops, and the apps they run, are a far cry from the crude models …

More: Gigaom, Lifehacker, The Verge, Crowdfund Insider and Guardian. Thanks:@brewpr

Roberto Baldwin / The Next Web:

Google rolls out local News & Weather app for iOS — Google just introduced a new app for iOS that displays local news and weather. It's like the nightly local news except on your iPhone or iPad. — The News & Weather app for iOS is “your comprehensive and personalized view of headline stories …

More: 9to5Mac, Engadget, iLounge and iDownloadBlog.com

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Plastc, a card to digitally replace other payment cards, is up for $155 pre-order, ships in summer 2015 — Plastc wants to replace your entire wallet with a single card — How much technology can you fit into a 0.8-millimeter-thick credit card? — Last November, Coin offered a first taste of what was possible.

More: AppleInsider, BGR, AppleInsider, The Next Web, Android Police, Gigaom, App Advice, PadGadget, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacRumors, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, Inc.com and iPhone Hacks

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Lays Off 400 Employees In India — Just ahead of its Q3 earnings, Yahoo is laying people off in its international business. Specifically, it is downsizing its software development center in Bangalore, India. We understand that 400 people, mainly working in product engineering, have been affected.

More: NextBigWhat, Wall Street Journal, Tech in Asia and MediaNama. Tweets: @zerohedge

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

BloomNation, A Marketplace For Local Florists, Raises $5.6 Million Series A — BloomNation, a Santa Monica-based startup offering florists and floral designers a platform for running their business online, as well as a marketplace that connects florists and consumers, has now closed on $5.55 million in Series A funding.

More: Los Angeles Times, StrictlyVC, BloomNation, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, VentureBeat, tech.co, bizjournals, bizjournals, socalTECH.com, PE Hub Blog, Forbes and VatorNews

Steve Dent / Engadget:

Microsoft's Project Spark game creator comes to Xbox One and PC — If you enjoy the creative part of building games but not so much the coding, Microsoft's Project Spark is now available for Xbox One and PC (Windows 8.1 only). That marks the end of a six month beta period that saw …

More: Xbox Wire, SlashGear, The Verge, PC World, Ubergizmo, The Official Microsoft Blog, Electronista and Blogging Windows

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Microsoft launches OneNote Class Notebook Creator app for teachers, Office 365 subscription required — Microsoft today launched OneNote Class Notebook Creator, an app designed to help teachers do their job in the paperless age. If you have an Office 365 subscription …

More: Office Blogs and Windows Phone Central

Josh Ong / The Next Web:

Highfive's $799 TV-connected device & service outfits conference rooms for easy video meetings — Highfive: A new device and cloud service that will fix your meetings and video conferences — Even with technological advances in other aspects of our lives, business meetings have remained frustratingly antiquated.

More: eWeek, Re/code, TechCrunch, PC World, Highfive Blog, The Verge, Business Insider, Fast Company, Network World, Wired, Gizmodo and Los Angeles Times

Stephen Shankland / CNET:

Adobe announces alliance with Microsoft to improve Creative Cloud software on touch PCs — Creative pros like Macs, but Adobe cozies up with Microsoft — At Adobe's Max conference, the company announces an alliance with Microsoft to focus on touch and tablets. The alliance could help both companies move beyond PCs.

More: Facebook

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

Google's “In The News” box moves beyond news sites, and may now include Reddit discussions, blog posts, and social media — Google's “In The News” Box Now Lists More Than Traditional News Sites — Google has confirmed that new “In The News” box appearing in some of its search results …

More: Engadget, TechSpot, 9to5Google, Search Engine Roundtable and Gizmodo. See also Mediagazer

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

Latest Apple TV update enables remote access relay for HomeKit connected accessories — The center of a connected smart home could soon be the Apple TV, as Apple's latest beta software officially brings HomeKit support to its $99 streaming set-top box. — As first discovered by AppleInsider …

More: Gizmodo, Cult of Mac, MacDailyNews, SlashGear and App Advice

Jonathan Vanian / Gigaom:

Docker acquires testing-centric startup Koality as it continues to build out its paid services — Fresh off a recent $40 million funding round, cloud darling Docker just bought a small startup that the company feels fits in nicely with its focus on making application development easier with containers.

More: Forbes, TechCrunch, Data Center Knowledge, eWeek, The Register, VentureBeat, Apprenda and bizjournals

Colin Neagle / Network World:

Secret ad beacon network uncovered, shut down in New York City — For almost a year, a company called Titan has operated a network of advertising beacons, devices that are capable of identifying nearby smartphones and which are often used to push advertisements and information to them …

More: BuzzFeed, BuzzFeed, Gigaom, Marketing Land, Ars Technica, Wall Street Journal and Business Insider

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

GitHub Partners With DigitalOcean, Unreal Engine, Others To Give Students Free Access To Developer Tools — Back in the days of shrink-wrapped software, students would often get huge discounts on expensive software packages like Adobe's Creative Suite or Microsoft's developer tools.

More: GitHub, Los Angeles Times, ReadWrite, EdSurge, InfoWorld and The Next Web

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

Misconfigured server at US bond insurer MBIA leaks account statements of clients on public web — Huge Data Leak at Largest U.S. Bond Insurer — On Monday, KrebsOnSecurity notified MBIA Inc. — the nation's largest bond insurer — that a misconfiguration in a company Web server …

More: Computerworld, Tech Times, Wall Street Journal, SecurityWeek, CNBC, Reuters and Business Insider

Sydney Ember / New York Times:

Blockchain raises $30M led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, has 2.3M consumer wallets — Blockchain Is Latest Bitcoin Start-Up to Lure Big Investment — The bets that Silicon Valley is placing on Bitcoin are getting bigger. — Even though concerns remain about the digital currency's staying power …

More: Blockchain Blog, CryptoCoinsNews and TechCrunch. Tweets: @semil

Deborah Gage / Wall Street Journal:

SolidFire Raises $82 Million for Pooled Storage on Flash Memory … Storage based on flash memory, which consumes less power while reading data much faster than traditional hard disk drives, is one of the more promising new technologies for handling enormous amounts of data.

More: VentureBeat, Data Center Knowledge, Reuters, Xconomy, The Register, Forbes and Gigaom

Peter Bright / Ars Technica:

Belkin confirms router failures blocking users from getting online, offers partial workaround — Borked Belkin routers leave many unable to get online — Many ISPs, models appear affected—with a DNS problem apparently to blame. — Owners of Belkin routers around the world are finding themselves unable to get online today.

More: DSLreports, TechCrunch, Macworld, Gigaom, Myce.com and Gotta Be Mobile

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