Techmeme: Google launches Chrome extension letting you open files from Google Drive with desktop apps like Adobe Reader or Photoshop (Rachel Barton/Google Drive Blog)

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November 5, 2014, 4:50 PM

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Evelyn Kim / Google LatLong:

Google Maps for iOS and Android revamped with Material Design, restaurant booking through OpenTable, Uber ride estimates — Google Maps: Your best accessory this season — Bold colors and textures are in—and Google Maps is on trend, with a slick new style to make traveling with Maps even easier.

Kara Swisher / Vanity Fair:

Behind Travis Kalanick's fighting instinct, how Andreessen Horowitz missed the boat on Uber's Series B, and how Kalanick attempted to hamper Lyft's fundraising — Man and Uber Man — Uber, Travis Kalanick's smartphone-based car service, has been valued at $18.2 billion, but its C.E.O. still spends a lot of his time on the warpath.

More: bizjournals, Business Insider, Mashable and BRYCE DOT VC

Tweets: @ellenhuet, @katgleason, @msquinn, @dmac1, @chirag_mehta, @mikeisaac and @kaylatausche

Rachel Barton / Google Drive Blog:

Google launches Chrome extension letting you open files from Google Drive with desktop apps like Adobe Reader or Photoshop — Launch desktop applications from Google Drive in Chrome — Browsers are pretty amazing things. Before, if you wanted to do any serious computing, you'd have to install software onto your computer.

More: VentureBeat, 9to5Google, PC World, PC Magazine, Engadget, Android Central, BetaNews, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, The Next Web, AndroidHeadlines.com, Electronista, Lifehacker and WebProNews

Megan Geuss / Ars Technica:

Google Wallet weekly transactions and new users signups increase thanks to Apple Pay launch — Google Wallet use grows after Apple Pay launch — NFC-based mobile payments have had a boost in recent months, possibly thanks to the launch of Apple Pay, which was announced in September.

More: The Verge, iMore, PC World, BGR, Cult of Mac, MacDailyNews, MacRumors, 9to5Google, ITProPortal, Gotta Be Mobile, FierceWireless, 9to5Mac, Gigaom, iPhone in Canada Blog, O'Grady's PowerPage, AppleInsider, App Advice, Forbes, Digital Trends, Gizmodo, Mercury News and PE Hub Blog. Tweets: @mikeisaac

Jemima Kiss / Guardian:

Former NSA lawyer: encrypting user data led to Blackberry's demise, cautions Apple and Google — Former NSA lawyer: the cyberwar is between tech firms and the US government — Stewart Baker said that Apple and Google could be restricting their business in markets like China and Russia by encrypting user data

More: Slate, PadGadget, TechSpot, SiliconBeat, Techdirt and ZDNet

Tweets: @matthew_d_green, @p1bc, @brianhonan, @glynmoody, @paulbernaluk and @declanm

Husain Sumra / MacRumors:

Apple Watch Pricing to Reportedly Start at $500 for Stainless Steel, $4,000 for Gold — French Apple website iGen.fr is reporting [Google Translate] that pricing for the stainless steel Apple Watch may start at $500, while the gold Apple Watches' pricing could start between $4,000 and $5,000. iGen …

Robert Lemos / Ars Technica:

EFF finds that only 6 of 39 messaging apps guarantee basic secure communications — Security scorecard finds messaging apps need more development — Only six out of 39 messaging applications have the features needed to guarantee the security of communications sent over the Internet …

More: Electronic Frontier Foundation, 9to5Google, Electronic Frontier Foundation, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, iMore, AppleInsider, The Hill, BetaNews, Neowin, TUAW, Help Net Security, WebProNews, Geek.com, PC World, GeekWire and Financial Times

Reuters:

Axel Springer, Germany's top publisher, grants Google license to index its news stories despite “Google Tax”, citing 80% drop in Google News traffic — Germany's top publisher bows to Google in news licensing row — (Reuters) - Germany's biggest news publisher Axel Springer …

More: Techdirt, Gigaom, The Verge and Wall Street Journal. See also Mediagazer

Amy Schatz / Re/code:

Winners and Losers for Silicon Valley in Tuesday's Election — While the big story Tuesday night was the Republican wave that gives control of the Senate back to the GOP in January, there were plenty of smaller races that are of interest to the tech community. — One Race a Democrat Was Sure to Win

More: SiliconBeat, Washington Post and Gigaom

Lauren Goode / Re/code:

Jawbone launches $50 Move clip-on fitness tracker, preorder today, ships Nov 7; $180 Up3 wristband tracker with heart-rate sensor, ships within weeks — Jawbone Joins Pre-Holiday Wearable Race, With $50 Up Move and a New Up3 Wristband — Get ready for yet another activity-tracking device.

Alissa Walker / Gizmodo:

Amazon testing deliveries through Flywheel taxi hailing app in San Francisco and Los Angeles — Your Next Amazon Prime Delivery Might Arrive By... Taxi? — Forget drones, Amazon has been experimenting with a far more innovative method of providing same-day delivery to its customers.

More: Wall Street Journal and Engadget

Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:

EFF asks for the right to revive “abandoned” online games — While playing the original versions of classic games on aging original hardware can sometimes be difficult, it's at least typically possible. That's not the case for many online games, which are functionally inoperable once …

More: bit-tech.net, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Boing Boing, SiliconANGLE, Techdirt, The Tech Report, Electronista and Massively. Tweets: @laurensx

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Kobalt, which represents major artists, reports that royalties collected from Spotify in Europe in Q1 surpass those from iTunes by 13% — In Europe, Spotify Royalties Overtake iTunes Earnings By 13% — Spotify may be smarting from the removal of Taylor Swift's music catalogue from its platform …

More: kobaltmusic.com, Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, SiliconBeat, hypebot, iMore, Neowin, TechSpot, 9to5Mac, TechnoBuffalo, iDownloadBlog.com, Cult of Mac, VatorNews and AppleInsider

Tweets: @ianbetteridge and @ianbetteridge

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