Techmeme: A look at CurrentC, the clunky and creepy mobile payments app that Walmart, CVS, and other big retailers hope will help them sidestep credit card fees (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

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October 26, 2014, 2:50 PM

Top News

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

CVS and Rite Aid reportedly disabling NFC in stores to shut down Apple Pay and Google Wallet, as they prepare to roll out MCX's rival payment system — CVS Stores Reportedly Disabling NFC to Shut Down Apple Pay and Google Wallet — Earlier this week, pharmacy chain Rite Aid shut …

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

A look at CurrentC, the clunky and creepy mobile payments app that Walmart, CVS, and other big retailers hope will help them sidestep credit card fees — CurrentC Is The Big Retailers' Clunky Attempt To Kill Apple Pay And Credit Card Fees — Long before Apple Pay, big brick …

More: MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Gizmodo, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Business Insider, iMore and SlashGear

Tweets: @mg, @carlosdomingo, @panzer, @lessien and @delrey

Thanks:@joshconstine

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

CVS and Rite Aid blocking Apple Pay is a defensive move to buttress a cumbersome and ultimately doomed rival payment system — Retailers Are Disabling NFC to Block Apple Pay — Eric Slivka, reporting for MacRumors: … These retailers are part of a group (Merchant Customer Exchange …

More: iMore, SlashGear, iPhone Hacks, rc3.org and Re/code

Tweets: @profjeffjarvis, @sulka, @benedictevans, @bluechoochoo, @drbarnard and @mikeisaac

Noah Everett / Twitpic Blog:

Twitpic agrees to give Twitter the Twitpic.com domain and photo archive, site to remain in read-only mode — Twitpic's Future — First off I want to say thank you to everyone who has used Twitpic over the years and for your patience with us over the last couple of months.

Adrian Chen / Wired:

“It's like PTSD”: inside the army of outsourced moderators cleaning gore, porn, and hate speech from the Internet — The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed — The campuses of — the tech industry are famous for their lavish cafeterias, cushy shuttles, and on-site laundry services.

More: SocialTimes and Online Dating Insider. Tweets: @kinggary, @bobmcmillan, @mslods, @obscuricaggc, @bradplumer, @chrismessina, @sree, @hamburger, @tha_rami, @zephoria, @kashhill and @nickbilton. Thanks:@srikardr

Jenna Wortham / Matter:

How Uber helps black riders bypass the difficult and often humiliating act of hailing a taxi — Ubering While Black — The comedian Hannibal Buress has a bit in his act about trying to hail a cab in New York as a black man. He walks up to the taxi and tries to open the door …

Tweets: @readmatter and @susanmcp1

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Wall Street Journal:

Study shows e-commerce sites vary prices depending on device type, OS, other factors — Are Online Vendors Giving You Their Best Price? Maybe Not, Research Says — A new study found that e-commerce sites vary online pricing depending on whether customers use mobile or desktop devices, iOS or Android, and other factors.

More: Racked National, TIME and Engadget

Tom Simonite / MIT Technology Review:

Patent, trademark filings reveal more about Magic Leap's wearable augmented reality tech — How Magic Leap's Augmented Reality Works — Patent and trademark filings reveal the augmented reality technology that convinced Google and others to invest $542 million into Magic Leap.

More: Tech Times and ITProPortal. Tweets: @johnverdon. Thanks:@tsimonite

Victor Fiorillo / Philadelphia Magazine:

Philadelphia Parking Authority makes good on threat, impounds five UberX vehicles — PPA Impounds UberX Vehicles in Undercover Sting Operation — On Saturday, we told you that Uber had announced the arrival of UberX — the cheaper version of Uber — in Philadelphia proper …

More: BetaNews, Philly.com, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Technical.ly Philly, 6abc.com and Philadelphia Magazine

Re/code:

Larry Page reorgs staff, transfers leadership of core Google products to Sundar Pichai — Exclusive: Google CEO Larry Page Reorgs Staff, Anoints Sundar Pichai as New Product Czar — In a significant reorganization of Google management, CEO Larry Page is transferring leadership …

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

More crowdfunding campaigns for routers promising anonymity follow Anonabox, but choose wisely — Now Everyone Wants to Sell You a Magical Anonymity Router. Choose Wisely — Maintaining your privacy online, like investing in stocks or looking good naked, has become one of those nagging desires …

More: SlashGear, Ars Technica and Boing Boing

Stephen Lawson / ITworld.com:

Boingo uses Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals at Austin airport to predict security wait times — At Austin airport, Wi-Fi predicts how long the security line will be — Using signals from passengers' devices, the system collects data that can help travelers plan ahead

More: Gizmodo

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