Techmeme: Apple to instate country-specific app taxes in EU starting Jan. 1 (Mikey Campbell/AppleInsider)

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December 18, 2014, 10:35 AM

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New York Times:

U.S. Said to Find North Korea Ordered Cyberattack on Sony — WASHINGTON — American intelligence officials have concluded that the North Korean government was “centrally involved” in the recent attacks on Sony Pictures's computers, a determination reached just as Sony on Wednesday canceled …

More: Motherboard, NBC News, Help Net Security, Mobile Marketing Watch, Washington Post, Engadget, Hollywood Reporter, Slate, USA Today, CNET, Reuters, ABC News, AVC, CNBC, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Re/code, TIME, Associated Press, Fortune, TIME, Gawker, ExtremeTech, Ubergizmo, Digital Trends, Associated Press, Vox, Ars Technica, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, The Wrap, Reuters, Memex 1.1, TechCrunch, The Hill, Graham Cluley, The Daily Beast, Network World, CNNMoney.com, bit-tech.net, SiliconANGLE, Gizmodo, Business Insider, Forbes, PC World, Reuters, Mashable, ReadWrite, Hit & Run, Electronista, Gigaom, Inside Movies, ZDNet, Yahoo Movies, Polygon, The Verge, Just Jared and Boing Boing

Tweets: @cnnsitroom, @paulmozur, @matthewkeyslive, @stavridisj, @astepanovich, @jameskwantes, @owillis, @jeremiahg, @declanm and @digiphile

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Amar Toor / The Verge:

Amazon brings one-hour delivery to New York City with Prime Now — Service rolls out in select areas of Manhattan today, with other cities coming in 2015 — Amazon today announced a new service called Prime Now, which promises one-hour delivery for a range of “daily essentials.”

More: Amazon.com, The Next Web, PandoDaily, Washington Post, Re/code, CNET, Macworld, GeekWire, Fortune, TechCrunch, BGR, Gizmodo, iMore, Bloomberg, Engadget, VentureBeat, Mashable, WebProNews, Gizmodo UK, TechnoBuffalo, Business Insider and Geeky Gadgets

Russell Brandom / The Verge:

Sony leaks reveal how Hollywood aims to achieve SOPA-style DNS blocking under existing laws — Sony leaks reveal Hollywood is trying to break DNS, the backbone of the internet — Most anti-piracy tools take one of two paths: they either target the server that's sharing the files …

More: The Huffington Post and Neowin. Tweets: @backlon, @tomwarren, @trevortimm and @dangillmor

Kevin Poulsen / Wired:

The FBI used Flash code from abandoned Metasploit side project to identify Tor users in Operation Torpedo — The FBI Used the Web's Favorite Hacking Tool to Unmask Tor Users — For more than a decade, a powerful app called Metasploit has been the most important tool in the hacking world …

More: Ars Technica, SC Magazine, Gizmodo and Schneier on Security

Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:

Apple to instate country-specific app taxes in EU starting Jan. 1 — In an email sent out to iTunes Connect members on Wednesday, Apple reminded developers of an upcoming value-added tax (VAT) rate policy change that will see customers pay fees based on their country of residence rather than other EU locales with lower taxes.

More: iMore, MacNN, TechnoBuffalo, iDownloadBlog.com, 9to5Mac, App Advice and Neowin

Nicholas Carlson / New York Times:

Book adaptation: How Marissa Mayer fought to turn around Yahoo and lost her way — What Happened When Marissa Mayer Tried to Be Steve Jobs — Credit: Illustration by Matt Dorfman. Photographs by Getty Images. — Eric Jackson was sitting in his hotel room on Sea Island, Ga. …

More: MacDailyNews, Daring Fireball, Stowe Boyd, Inc.com, Business Insider and Business Insider

Janelle Lawrence / Bloomberg:

Boston Uber Driver Charged With Raping Woman Seeking Ride — A Boston man who works as an Uber Technologies Inc. driver was charged with taking a woman to a secluded area and raping her, as questions about the company's driver-screening process prompted it to begin an assessment of its safety programs.

More: TechCrunch

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Uber will use biometric scans to improve background checks on drivers

Shira Ovide / Wall Street Journal:

Box CEO Aaron Levie talks about the IPO, competition, and the company's future strategy — Box CEO Aaron Levie: From Commodity to ‘Defining Strategy’ — Box CEO Aaron Levie is one of the biggest cheerleaders for a new generation of corporate technology that he says can transform businesses and make employees more productive.

Tweets: @james_dasilva, @donal888, @collectedinc, @james_dasilva, @lombardi_gloria and @wsjd

Michael Mimoso / Threatpost:

Palo Alto Networks finds factory-installed backdoor on Android devices from China's Coolpad — Manufacturer's Backdoor Found on Popular Chinese Android Smartphone — A popular Android smartphone sold primarily in China and Taiwan but also available worldwide, contains a backdoor …

More: Palo Alto Networks Blog, The Register, 9to5Google, Android Police, Computerworld, Wall Street Journal, AndroidHeadlines.com and SecurityWeek. Tweets: @threatpost

Peter Bright / Ars Technica:

Windows Browser Ballot comes to an end as EC obligation expires — Microsoft will cease showing EU-based Windows users a selection screen offering a choice of different browsers to install, known as the browser ballot. — In December 2009, and after lengthy negotiations …

More: PC World, BBC, Computerworld, ZDNet, The Verge, Neowin and WinBeta

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:

AMC and MoviePass partner for unlimited movie subscription plan, priced between $35 and $45 per month — From AMC and MoviePass, a Film a Day for a Monthly Fee — LOS ANGELES — Netflix brought subscription-based movie and television streaming to the millennial masses.

More: Variety, Geek.com, CBS Boston, TechnoBuffalo, The Verge, SlashGear, Gizmodo, Consumerist, Tech Times, Inc.com and CNN

Katie Benner / Bloomberg View:

Jawbone delays UP3 fitness band release until after holidays, offers discounts to preorderers — Jawbone's Missing Christmas — If you wonder how long the market can support richly valued startups, and what sorts of corporate stress might test investor enthusiasm, look no further than Jawbone …

More: Wareable and Gigaom

iFixit:

Amazon Echo teardown: TI DM3725 processor, single-core ARM Cortex A8 chip, 256MB of LPDDR1 RAM, 4GB storage, 2.5" woofer, 2.0" tweeter, 7-microphone array — Amazon Echo Teardown — Teardown — Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.

More: PC Magazine and The Digital Reader

Lisa Fleisher / Wall Street Journal:

Eurostat study finds nearly one in every five Europeans aged 16-74 has never used the internet — 1 in 5 Europeans Has Never Used the Internet — Believe it or not, at a time when many of us are glued to our smartphones and messaging apps, there are still many Europeans who say they have never used the Internet.

More: SiliconBeat

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Zoho:

Announcing Zoho POS for South Africa—expanding our commitment to the MEA — We're happy to announce that Zoho POS is now available for South African retail businesses, supporting the region's VAT requirements.

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