Techmeme: DRM restrictions and copyright laws make e-books less accessible to the visually impaired (Kyle Wiens/Wired)

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December 16, 2014, 9:20 AM

Top News

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: Re/code, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch, iPhone, Patently Apple, AppleInsider and Ubergizmo

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, GeekWire, CNET, The Verge, The Next Web, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Engadget, Gigaom 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

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 have kept the networks' streaming services off of Roku gadgets.

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

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.

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: Engadget, The Verge, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, Politico, Wall Street Journal, 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 …

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: @jonathanglick, @megan, @joshelman, @pkafka and @digiphile. See also Mediagazer

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, 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

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

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

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:

Kik Introduces Hashtags To Bring Mini Social Networks To Its Messaging Service — Messaging app Kik is embracing one of the hallmarks of social networks after it introduced hashtags to its service. An update to the iOS and Android apps today turns hashtags into clickable links to chat groups …

More: Kik Messenger, Medium, MobileSyrup.com and Gigaom

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

Gurdeep Pall / Skype Blogs:

Skype Translator preview goes live on Windows 8.1 with support for real-time translation of English and Spanish — Skype Translator Preview - An Exciting Journey to a New Chapter in Communication — For more than a decade, Skype has been breaking down geographical barriers to make every day audio and video communications possible.

Elyse Betters / Pocket-lint:

Microsoft's Gestures Beta app brings ‘enhanced’ gestures to Lumia Windows Phone devices — Microsoft has been working on some interesting gestures for Windows Phone that will allow you to interact with your device without having to touch the display, and the company is now ready to show off …

More: Windows Phone, MSDN Blogs, BetaNews, Engadget, The Verge, PhoneDog.com, Geek on Gadgets, WinBeta and WMPoweruser

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 …

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

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, New York Times and Forbes. Tweets: @recode

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

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Pirate Bay admin talks about the raid, copycats, says he's not sure site will be relaunched — Pirate Bay Responds to The Raid, Copies and The Future — For more than a decade The Pirate Bay's been the bastion of uncensored information. Until the raid on some of its critical infrastructure last week …

More: DSLreports, Wired.co.uk, eWeek, Plagiarism Today, Ubergizmo, The Register, ExtremeTech, VentureBeat, The Next Web and Business Insider

Ginny Marvin / Marketing Land:

Google is talking to retailers about 1-click “Buy Now” button and an Amazon Prime-like free 2 day shipping program — Google Shopping May Go Deeper Into Ecommerce With “Buy Now” Button To Challenge Amazon — Google is reportedly floating the idea of a “Buy Now” button and two-day shipping program.

More: Wall Street Journal, Android Authority, Business Insider, 9to5Google, Ubergizmo, Pocket-lint, Open IT Strategies, Android Central, GeekWire and The Verge

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