Techmeme: Networking company Riverbed Technology to be acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $3.6B after activist investor struggle (Jeremy C. Owens/Mercury News)

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December 16, 2014, 10:35 AM

Top News

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:

Samsung in talks with mobile payments startup LoopPay to launch Apple Pay rival in 2015 — Samsung in Talks to Launch Apple Pay Competitor — Samsung has discussed a deal with a payments startup that would help the smartphone maker unveil a wireless mobile payments system in 2015 to rival Apple, according to multiple sources.

More: 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, AppleInsider, Business Insider, TechCrunch, SlashGear and SamMobile

Mike Isaac / New York Times:

Apple Pay now supports 90% of US credit cards in terms of purchase volume — Dozens More Companies Sign Up for Apple Pay — The list of companies working with Apple Pay continues to grow. — On Tuesday, Apple announced that in recent weeks the company had signed up dozens more banks …

More: 9to5Mac, SlashGear, TechCrunch, MacRumors, Gigaom, MacNN, MacDailyNews, iPhone, AppleInsider, Patently Apple and Ubergizmo. Tweets: @nytimesbusiness

Amit Singhal / The Official Google Blog:

A Year in Search: the moments that defined 2014 — Every year, we reflect on the moments that made us laugh, smile from ear to ear, or stay gripped to our screens in our annual Year in Search. In 2014, we were struck by the death of a beloved comedian, and watched news unfold about a horrific plane crash and a terrifying disease.

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Comcast Will Finally Let Roku Owners Stream HBO, Showtime — Many people who own Roku Web video boxes can use the devices to watch shows from HBO and Showtime. But not Comcast subscribers: A dispute between Roku and America's biggest pay-TV provider has kept the networks' streaming services off of Roku gadgets.

More: PC World, BGR, Gizmodo, The Verge, TechnoBuffalo, Electronista and Engadget

Amazon:

HBO GO is now available on Amazon Fire TV, support for Fire TV Stick coming in spring — HBO GO Now Available on Amazon Fire TV — HBO GO joins a growing list of services that support Amazon Fire TV voice search — customers simply say the name of a movie or TV show to find it on Amazon …

More: Tech Times, TechnoBuffalo, Android Police, 9to5Google, Ubergizmo, CNET, The Verge, The Next Web, VentureBeat, GeekWire, TechCrunch, Gigaom, Engadget and Droid Life. See also Mediagazer

Nathan Olivarez-Giles / Wall Street Journal:

HBO Go not available on Fire TV for Comcast and Charter customers

More: Gizmodo and TIME

Erin Griffith / Fortune:

Evan Williams: Medium's key advertising sales metric is not page views, but time spent on page — Evan Williams: On billionaire-backed journalism, Shanley Kane, and the problem with vanity ad metrics — Many people use the newish blogging site Medium each day, but almost as many of them are confused …

Tweets: @ftrain, @megan, @jonathanglick, @joshelman, @pkafka and @digiphile

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Microsoft removes waitlist for its Office presentation app Sway, adds slew of new features to the preview — Microsoft today expanded the preview for its content aggregation and presentation application Sway. The waitlist has been axed, meaning anyone with a Microsoft Account can sign up to start creating Sways.

More: Office Blogs, PC World, BetaNews, The Register, Good E-Reader, Business Insider, TechCrunch, The Fire Hose, SuperSite for Windows, Patently Apple, The Tech Portal, WinBeta and The Next Web

Jacob Fischler / BuzzFeed:

Uber responds to Sen. Al Franken, says it accessed reporters' account because she was late, scales back access to God View; senator still dissatisfied — Uber Said It Accessed BuzzFeed News Reporter's Information Because She Was “Late” — The company, responding to Sen. Al Franken …

More: Al Franken, PandoDaily, Engadget, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Computerworld, The Verge, Politico, Wall Street Journal, CNET, Gizmodo, New York Times, CNET and PC World

Tweets: @dnvolz and @itsfischy

Brad Smith / The Official Microsoft Blog:

Apple, Amazon, other tech giants, trade groups, and academics support Microsoft in its case against US Government on overseas search warrants — Business, Media and Civil Society Speak Up in Key Privacy Case — Today represents an important milestone in our litigation concerning …

Zoltan Istvan / Motherboard:

Flying smartphones, or personal drones with smartphone capabilities, to rise in popularity over the next ten years — The Dawn of the Flying Smartphone — Zoltan Istvan is a futurist, journalist, and author of the novel The Transhumanist Wager. He writes an occasional column for Motherboard …

Tweets: @motherboard

Kate Knibbs / Gizmodo:

Russian malware SoakSoak infects 100k+ self-hosted WordPress sites, uses known vulnerability in RevSlider plug-in — Report: Mysterious Russian Malware Is Infecting 100,000+ Wordpress Sites — A Russian malware called SoakSoak has infected over 100,000 Wordpress sites since this Sunday, turning blogs into attack platforms.

More: Sucuri Blog, Ars Technica, Sucuri Blog, TechSpot, Threatpost, Ubergizmo, SecurityWeek, Infosecurity Magazine, ZDNet, SC Magazine and Help Net Security. Tweets: @hfuhs

Jeremy C. Owens / Mercury News:

Networking company Riverbed Technology to be acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $3.6B after activist investor struggle — Riverbed Technology to sell for $3.6 billion after activist investor struggle — SAN FRANCISCO — Networking company Riverbed Technology has agreed …

More: Gigaom, internetnews.com, ZDNet, Reuters, Riverbed, CBC News, Benzinga, NASDAQ.com, Wall Street Journal, Financial Post, Bloomberg, Investor's Business Daily, bizjournals, Reuters, silicontap.com, New York Times and Forbes. Tweets: @recode

Kyle Wiens / Wired:

DRM restrictions and copyright laws make e-books less accessible to the visually impaired — E-Book Legal Restrictions Are Screwing Over Blind People — In late 2012, a 14-year-old high school student stood in front of a camera and began to read. Chris Nusbaum's voice was calm and steady.

More: Boing Boing

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

Jury begins deliberations in billion-dollar Apple iTunes trial — OAKLAND, Calif.—The long-running iTunes antitrust lawsuit against Apple has gone to a jury, which took the case after about three hours of closing arguments today. The jury will make an unusual split decision …

More: CNET, The Verge, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Tech Times, App Advice, 9to5Mac, VentureBeat and iMore

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Bose May Be Working on Streaming Music Service — Apple's Beats Electronics and Bose already compete in the headphone and speaker markets, but it appears that Bose may be gearing up to compete with Beats in another area — streaming music. — A Bose job listing first noticed by Hypebot …

Jonathan Vanian / Gigaom:

Microsoft to open source Project Orleans, the cloud framework behind Halo by early 2015 — Microsoft open sources cloud framework that powers Halo — Microsoft is continuing its open-source push, this time announcing that it will open source its Project Orleans cloud computing web framework.

More: The Verge, Inquirer, ZDNet, Computerworld, TechWeekEurope UK, The Register and cloudpro.co.uk

Claire Cain Miller / New York Times:

Automation is not only replacing manufacturing jobs, it is displacing knowledge and service workers too — As Robots Grow Smarter, American Workers Struggle to Keep Up — A machine that administers sedatives recently began treating patients at a Seattle hospital.

Alistair Barr / Wall Street Journal:

Google Ventures invested 36% in healthcare & life sciences startups this year, up from 9% last year; consumer internet down from 66% last year to 8% in 2014 — Google Ventures Shifts Focus to Healthcare — Google 's venture-capital arm is moving strongly into healthcare and life-sciences startups …

More: Wired.co.uk and VentureBeat

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Warner Music's CEO advocates for paid services as streaming revenue rises 74% in last 12 months while download sales dropped by 12% — Warner Music Says It Loves Streaming Music — As Long as Listeners Are Paying for It — Like other music labels, Warner Music Group thinks the boom in streaming music services is a good thing.

More: TechCrunch, Ubergizmo and MacRumors

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