Techmeme: Viber messaging app launches Public Chats to let you follow live conversations of celebrities (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

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November 19, 2014, 4:20 PM

Top News

BuzzFeed:

Uber investigating its New York general manager, Josh Mohrer, for tracking BuzzFeed journalist's location without her consent — “God View:” Uber Investigates Its Top New York Executive For Privacy Violations — In the wake of a BuzzFeed News story, the transit company is looking …

Maya Kosoff / Business Insider:

Uber investor Ashton Kutcher defends digging into “shady” journalists' private lives — Ashton Kutcher Defends Uber Against ‘Shady Journalist’ — Ashton Kutcher Lenovo's newest ‘product engineer’ — One day after Uber's SVP of business suggested his company spend millions …

More: BuzzFeed. Tweets: @aplusk, @aplusk, @aplusk, @aplusk, @aplusk, @aplusk, @stevekovach, @paulcarr, @llsethj, @pandodaily, @paulcarr, @aplusk, @danprimack, @mikeisaac, @patrickc, @aplusk, @llsethj, @paulcarr, @paulcarr, @profjeffjarvis, @aplusk, @stevekovach, @aplusk, @paulcarr, @paulcarr and @chris_ciaccia

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

Uber risks turning off investors, employees, and the public with its aggressive culture

More: USA Today, John Hodgman, Slate, VentureBeat, Washington Post, The Hill, DailyTech, Raw Story, TechCrunch, FishbowlNY, Wall Street Journal, Street Fight, The Baffler, Fortune, BuzzFeed and Upstart Business Journal. See also Mediagazer

Nancy Scola / Washington Post:

Uber updates privacy policy, reiterating it will only use rider data for “legitimate business purposes”, says it is investigating recent BuzzFeed claims

More: BuzzFeed

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

Beats Music to Be Bundled Into iOS Early Next Year, Will Remain Paid Subscription Service — As part of Apple's revamp of its recently acquired Beats Music streaming service, the company plans to bundle Beats directly into iOS, reports Financial Times.

More: AppleInsider, VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, BBC, Engadget, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, The Verge, BGR, Business Insider, Digital Music News, Pocketnow, The Next Web and Electronista

Tweets: @jbrodkin, @joshconstine and @joshconstine

See also Mediagazer

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Apple Relabels “Free” Download Buttons On iTunes And Mac App Store To “Get” Following Pressure from EC — Across the iTunes and Mac App Stores today, a minor but also notable change is taking place with regard to how Apple is marketing its iOS and Mac applications.

More: 9to5Mac, PC World, Six Colors, Re/code, iMore, InvestorPlace, Pocketnow and TUAW

Ryan Whitwam / Android Police:

Android Lollipop's Trusted Places removes need to unlock device in select geographical areas — Google Play Services Update Adds Trusted Places Feature To Lollipop's Smart Lock — Smart Lock in Lollipop encompasses both trusted face and trusted devices, but a new option is joining the party—trusted places.

More: 9to5Google, BGR, Daring Fireball, Computerworld, Gizmodo, APKMirror, The Verge, Electronista, PC World, Gizmodo, Droid Life, Liliputing and Android Beat

Tim Higgins / Bloomberg:

Apple still committed to bringing jobs to Mesa, Arizona, plans to repurpose the sapphire plant — Apple Sticking With Arizona Plan After Supplier Falters — Apple Inc. (AAPL) has told officials in Mesa, Arizona, that it's committed to bringing jobs and manufacturing to the area …

More: Reuters, 9to5Mac, Cult of Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, PadGadget, MacDailyNews, TechnoBuffalo, iPhone in Canada Blog, iLounge, The Register, MacNN and TUAW

Ross Miller / The Verge:

Apple Watch will feature info-rich “Long Look” notifications if wearer keeps wrist raised, and static, non-interactive maps — 11 things we just learned about how the Apple Watch works — As of today, developers can now make apps for Apple Watch.

More: Business Insider, Digital Trends, The Next Web, BGR, Seeking Alpha, FierceWireless, TIME, PadGadget, iPhone in Canada Blog, Wearable Tech Insider, MacDailyNews, Wearable World News, 9to5Mac, TechSpot, SiliconANGLE, OS X Daily, Associated Press, Phones Review and Inquirer

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Google:

RelativeWave acquired by Google, makes its mobile app prototyping software free for Mac — RelativeWave, the company behind the mobile app prototyping software Form, today announced it's joining Google. The company made an announcement on its website noting that it will continue working …

More: RelativeWave, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, iMore and The Next Web

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:

Kik Messenger Takes $38 Million in Funding, Buys GIF Startup Relay — Messaging app Kik has raised $38.3 million in new funding and acquired Relay, a messaging network focused on sending and receiving GIFs. — The round was led by Valiant Capital Partners, and included new investors Millennium Technology …

More: VatorNews, Kik Messenger, TechCrunch, CNET, Techvibes Global News, iPhone in Canada Blog and BetaKit

Justin Fenton / Baltimore Sun:

Prosecutors withdraw key evidence in robbery case to avoid revealing how police used phone tracking technology — Judge threatens detective with contempt for declining to reveal cellphone tracking methods — Baltimore prosecutors withdrew key evidence in a robbery case Monday rather …

More: Ars Technica, Slate, Blog of Rights and PandoDaily

Dennis Fisher / Threatpost:

Google Removes SSLv3 Fallback Support From Chrome — Google has released Chrome 39, fixing 42 security vulnerabilities and removing support for the fallback to SSLv3, the component that was the target of the POODLE attack revealed last month. — When the POODLE attack was disclosed …

More: Google Chrome Releases, Computerworld, ZDNet, VentureBeat, Digital Trends, iDownloadBlog.com, Gotta Be Mobile, iMore, MacRumors, 9to5Google and MacNN

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Amazon's $39 Fire TV Stick starts shipping today, but new orders won't arrive before January 15 — As expected, Amazon today started shipping its $39 Fire TV Stick to fill preorders. Yet if you preordered the streaming device in the last few days or want to order it now, don't expect to see it before January 15, 2015.

More: Amazon.com, The Next Web, eWeek, Digital Trends, Gotta Be Mobile, Electronista, Android Police, Engadget, TechCrunch, IntoMobile, WebProNews, SlashGear and Android Central

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Viber messaging app launches Public Chats to let you follow live conversations of celebrities — Messaging App Viber Takes A Step Into Social Networking With New Public Chats Feature — A lot of messaging apps have been highlighting how their services are a great way for people …

More: TechSpot, The Drum, NDTV Gadgets, The Next Web, Ubergizmo, New York Times, Wired, Mashable and Webrazzi

Tweets: @viber and @viber

Gerrit De Vynck / Bloomberg:

Toronto Asks Court to Shut Down Uber's Operations — Toronto is asking a court to order the mobile car-booking service Uber Technologies Inc. to shut down in North America's fourth-largest city. — Uber has been operating in Toronto since 2012 without a proper license …

More: Globe and Mail, TechSpot, TIME, CTV News and CBC News

Amy Gesenhues / Search Engine Land:

Google News Displaying “Suggested For You” Stories Customized To Match Your Interests — Google News founder Krishna Bharat used his Google+ account to announce a new “Suggested for you” feature in Google News. — According to his post, Google News will now include a “Suggested for you” …

More: Krishna Bharat, Search Engine Roundtable and The Next Web

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Google's New Bookmarking Interface, Formerly Called “Stars,” Goes Live In Chrome Beta — Last month, Google quietly launched its new bookmarking service previously called Stars on the Chrome Web store as a free download. Today, the company says it's integrating the feature into the Google Chrome browser.

More: The Next Web, VentureBeat, Google Chrome Blog and 9to5Google

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

Apple's iPhone 6 Plus & iPad Air 2 lose out to Samsung & Surface in detailed color accuracy analysis — Following its detailed reports on displays used in the new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, today DisplayMate published a scientific analysis of color accuracy for the six best mobile displays it's tested this year.

More: DisplayMate, AppleInsider, Android Police, BetaNews, PC World, Wired, CNET, The Inquisitr News, O'Grady's PowerPage and Gizmodo

Shara Tibken / CNET:

Samsung shifts gears again with Tizen, now targeting $100 phone market, taking on Android One — Tsk, tsk, Tizen: How Samsung's OS stumbled — and aims to rise again — The Korean electronics giant is shifting gears again with its troubled mobile operating system, now aiming for affordability …

Erin Kelly / USA Today:

Senate effectively kills USA Freedom Act, a bill that proposed an end to NSA phone metadata collection — NSA spying bill stalls in Senate vote — WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday failed to get the 60 votes needed to advance a bill that would stop the National Security Agency …

More: Ars Technica, New York Times, Guardian, The Hill, The Intercept, GeekWire and Bloomberg. Tweets: @ronwyden

Robin Wauters / Tech.eu:

Big numbers for Prezi: 50 million users, 160 million presentations created and $57m in fresh funding — It's a big day for Prezi, the Hungarian-American company behind the nifty cloud-based presentation platform with the same name. — At the Slush conference in Helsinki, Finland …

More: PE Hub Blog, Webrazzi, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal and bizjournals

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Jolla Crowdfunds $380K+ To Build An iPad Alternative — Update: Well that was very fast indeed. Jolla's Indiegogo campaign to build an open source iPad alternative — taking its Sailfish OS onto the tablet form factor — has passed its initial funding target of $380,000 with around 2,450 backers putting in cash.

More: The Verge, eWeek, The Next Web, Engadget, Electronista, Technology Personalized, BetaNews, ZDNet, Digital Trends, TechnoBuffalo, Reuters, Ubergizmo and CNET. Thanks:@riptari

Andrew Grush / Android Authority:

Report: Google hopes to launch Play app store in China, moderating its approach with Beijing — Google Play may be coming to China — For those in major markets like the United States, we tend to think of Android as a Google-powered OS that is centered around the search giant's services like Maps, Google Play and many others.

More: The Information and Seeking Alpha

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Samsung launches video aggregation app Milk Video, only works on Galaxy devices — Samsung's new Milk Video app is all about taking on YouTube — Samsung took the next step in its quest to revamp its media services Wednesday with the launch of Milk Video11, a mobile video aggregation app …

More: Samsung Tomorrow, Engadget, ReadWrite, The Next Web, CNET, SlashGear, Gizmodo, The Verge, Electronista, PC World and Android Authority. See also Mediagazer

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