Techmeme: Google Hangouts now lets you make free one-minute international calls (Abhimanyu Ghoshal/The Next Web)

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October 29, 2014, 11:45 PM

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Jay Yarow / Business Insider:

CurrentC alerts users of its pilot program that some email addresses were stolen by hackers — Wal-Mart's Answer To Apple Pay Has Already Been Hacked — Here's a bad sign for CurrentC, the fledgling mobile payment system in development by a consortium of retailers.

TechCrunch:

MCX: open to switching from QR codes to NFC and non-exclusivity; reported hack only occurred at email provider — MCX Says QR Payments App Will Pivot To NFC If Necessary, Won't Fine Retailers Who Break Exclusivity — In a virtual press conference today, MCX's CEO Dekkers Davidson said “We're agnostic about technology.

More: MLive.com, New York Times, TIME, Mercury News, The Daily Dot, Fortune, The Verge, AppleInsider, App Advice, BGR and The Next Web. Tweets: @dannysullivan

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

MCX Confirms Retailer Exclusivity for CurrentC Mobile Payments, but No Fines for Leaving Consortium

More: Business Insider, TechCrunch, Wired, iMore, Daring Fireball, The Daily Dot and Macworld

Chris Moody / The Twitter Blog:

IBM to incorporate Twitter data into their analytics tools, enterprise solutions — Changing the way business decisions are made — We believe that social data has unlimited value, and near limitless application. Today, we're taking an important step toward unleashing this value through a new relationship with IBM.

More: IBM, A Smarter Planet Blog, PC World, eWeek, VentureBeat, Bloomberg, Re/code, VatorNews, Benzinga, bizjournals, Forbes, TechCrunch, Gigaom, New York Times, SiliconANGLE, PC Magazine, AllTwitter, Wired, Marketing Land, Engadget, Mashable, Techvibes Global News, Fortune, ZDNet, WebProNews, Business Insider, ReadWrite, The Next Web and blogs.ft.com. Tweets: @ibmresearch

Jason Schreier / Kotaku:

YouTube Finally Supports 60FPS, And It Looks Awesome — Earlier this year, YouTube announced plans to support videos running at 60 frames-per-second—plans that would make a huge difference for footage of video games. Today, the video network has finally started rolling out the new service …

More: The Verge, Engadget, TechCrunch, Siliconera, SlashGear, Ubergizmo and The Next Web

David Pierce / The Verge:

Microsoft's health revolution is here, starting with a $199 fitness tracker — Microsoft Health, the Microsoft Band, and a plan to unite the world — Microsoft's fitness tracking ambitions are not small. — Yusuf Mehdi is sitting at a conference table at the company's campus in Redmond …

More: Re/code, Microsoft Corporation, News Center, Windows Phone Central, Business Insider, CNET, TechCrunch, GeekWire, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, Engadget, New York Times, Neowin and Liliputing

Tweets: @bdsams, @tomwarren, @benbajarin, @benbajarin, @benbajarin, @benbajarin, @bdsams, @monkbent, @inafried and @inafried

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:

Unclassified White House network breached by hackers thought to be working for Russia, no system damage or evidence of classified network hack — Hackers breach some White House computers — Hackers thought to be working for the Russian government breached the unclassified White House computer networks …

David Kravets / Ars Technica:

MPAA, movie theaters announce “zero tolerance” policy against wearables — A movie theater industry group and the Motion Picture Association of America updated their anti-piracy policies and said that “wearable devices” must be powered off at show time. — “Individuals who fail or refuse …

More: The Smoking Gun, The Register, TechCrunch, InfoWorld, The Technology Chronicles, 9to5Google, VentureBreak, Tech Times, SlashGear, TheBlot Magazine and The Hill. See also Mediagazer

Shara Tibken / CNET:

Samsung's Q3 profit drops 60% YoY to $3.9 billion, mobile division profit down 74% YoY — Samsung's Q3 financials show ongoing struggles in mobile — The Korean electronics giant posts a 74 percent drop in its mobile business operating profits during the September period.

More: AppleInsider, ABC News, Reuters, Associated Press, Engadget, Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal

Joe Rossignol / 9to5Google:

Xiaomi overtakes LG to become world's third-largest smartphone maker — The latest numbers from Strategy Analytics reveal that Chinese handset maker Xiaomi has surpassed Huawei and LG to become the third-largest smartphone maker in the world. Xiaomi has been making impressive strides since …

More: Re/code, Engadget, CNET, Tech Trader Daily and Wireless Smartphone Strategies. Thanks:@rsgnl

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Windows Phone Shrinks In Android-Dominated Europe, As New iPhones Boost iOS' Share — Spare a thought for Microsoft, a relative newcomer to the mobile making business, after Redmond completed its $7.2BN+ acquisition of former European mobile making powerhouse Nokia earlier this year.

More: Kantar Worldpanel, 9to5Mac, GeekWire, Windows Phone Central, iPhone in Canada Blog, App Advice, Android Central, iMore and MacRumors

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Microsoft lays off 638 in Seattle area, 3,000 globally, nearly completing its planned 18K cuts — Microsoft cuts another 3,000 jobs, finishing last big phase of layoffs … Microsoft this morning cut an additional 3,000 jobs from its workforce around the world, saying it has now completed almost …

More: ZDNet, Ars Technica, TechnoBuffalo, TechCrunch, SlashGear, The Register, PC Magazine, WinBeta, Windows Phone Central and Business Insider. Thanks:@johnhcook

Chris Velazco / Engadget:

Google takes another step into your living room with its Nexus Player (hands-on) — Google's wanted a piece of your living room for ages, and now — after two attempts that never really went anywhere =- the search giant seems poised to get it what it wants.

More: Official Android Blog, VentureBeat, BetaNews and Gizmodo

Jon Fortt / CNBC:

Twitter consumer engineering VP Jeremy Gordon and analytics group lead Adam Kinney resigning as company plans reorg — More Twitter exits: 2 key executives flying away — Twitter is planning yet another reorganization in its engineering department, and two respected managers plan to resign, CNBC has learned.

More: Wall Street Journal, Gigaom, Re/code and TechCrunch

Tweets: @jeremysf, @kadamk and @mikeisaac

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Google will discuss ‘major changes and advances’ for its modular smartphone in January — Google plans to update developers on the state of its Project Ara modular smartphones at a series of conferences held early next year, where it'll discuss “major changes and advances” …

More: Google ATAP, VentureBeat, PHONEBLOKS.COM and Gizmodo

Nicole Perlroth / New York Times:

Report Analyzes Extent of Data Breaches in California — SAN FRANCISCO — The constant drumbeat of data breaches won't cease anytime soon, according to a new report from California's attorney general, Kamala D. Harris. — There were 167 data breaches reported in California last year …

More: SC Magazine

Abhimanyu Ghoshal / The Next Web:

Google Hangouts now lets you make free one-minute international calls — Google announced yesterday that users in 25 countries will now get the first minute free on international calls to 25 countries they make via its Hangouts app. — Google's Hangouts app for desktops and mobile …

More: 9to5Google, Tech Times, App Advice and Google

Erin Griffith / Fortune:

After a blow from Apple, Nomi sells to Brickstream — Even the smallest change to Apple's iOS platform can have a huge impact. Tiny tweaks, such as the decision to improve privacy settings on iOS8, can wipe out whole categories of app makers. — Take Nomi, a New York-based startup.

More: TechCrunch, AdExchanger, VentureBeat and Brickstream

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Google:

Google Wallet adds recurring bank transfers for automatically adding money, low balance alerts — Google today announced it's adding new ways to add money to its Google Wallet service in addition to some new features that will make keeping an eye on your balance easier.

More: The Next Web, Android Police, Google Commerce, PC World, iDownloadBlog.com and SlashGear

Federico Viticci / MacStories:

Apple forcing PCalc to remove its iOS 8 Notification Center widget, saying widgets cannot perform calculations — Apple Asks PCalc Developer to Remove iOS 8 Widget — As tweeted by PCalc developer James Thomson today, he will be forced to remove the app's iOS 8 widget.

More: MacRumors, TUAW, iPhone in Canada Blog, iMore, iDownloadBlog.com, 9to5Mac and MacNN. Tweets: @drbarnard

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