Techmeme: PopCap Games co-founder emerges with virtual reality startup Pluto VR (John Cook/GeekWire)

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February 27, 2015, 1:35 PM

Top News

Allister Heath / Telegraph:

Apple Watch will replace your car keys, says Tim Cook — Exclusive interview: The Apple chief executive reveals to Allister Heath how the revolutionary features in the company's smartwatch could forever alter our daily lives — Like millions of people, Tim Cook stopped wearing a watch a while back.

More: Fortune, The Next Web, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, Macworld, iMore, GeekWire, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Cult of Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacDailyNews, iLounge and iDownloadBlog.com

Matt Brian / Engadget:

Google won't ban adult content on Blogger after all — Well that was fast. Google only declared that it would begin cracking down on adult content posted to Blogger a few days ago, but it's already decided it was a bit hasty in its decision. After coming under fire over the introduction …

More: Google Groups, ABC News, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, Business Insider, VentureBeat, BetaNews, Neowin, The Next Web and Beyond Search. See also Mediagazer

Bloomberg Business:

Ericsson Sues to Block Apple IPhone in U.S. Amid Patent Spat — (Bloomberg) — The licensing battle between Apple Inc. and Ericsson AB is escalating. — Ericsson, a pioneer in mobile phones that transformed itself into the world's largest maker of wireless networks, said Friday it's filing seven …

Miles Brignall / Guardian:

UK ISP TalkTalk suffers massive data breach, subscribers' information used in scams — Fraud threat to millions of TalkTalk customers — Major breach of data leaves one customer £2,800 out of pocket as TalkTalk and his bank, Santander, refuse to compensate him

More: BBC, Engadget, theWHIR.com, Telegraph, Inquirer, Business Insider, SecurityWeek, Gigaom, The Register, The Next Web, Wall Street Journal, bit-tech.net and Wired.co.uk

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

VLC gets first major release across Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows RT, and Android TV — VideoLAN today launched what is arguably the biggest release of its popular media player to date: an update to VLC for the desktop coordinated with new versions across all major mobile platforms.

More: CNET, Gigaom, 9to5Google, PC World, windowsphone.com and etix's weblog. Thanks:@epro

Ariel Adams / aBlogtoWatch:

Swiss watchmakers launch luxury smartwatches with embedded activity tracker based on an open platform — MMT ‘Horological Smartwatch’ Platform Finally Ties Switzerland To Silicon Valley — Ever since the smartwatch became a thing, I have been preaching that companies need to pool …

More: MotionX News, 9to5Mac, Bloomberg Business, Gigaom, The Daily Dot, MacRumors, Engadget, TechCrunch, App Advice, iPhone in Canada Blog, Gotta Be Mobile, CNET, Wearable Tech Insider, Forbes and Frederique Constant. Tweets: @cisco_mobile

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Apple Opens Up ‘iWork for iCloud’ to Everyone, No Apple Device Required — Following a short beta testing period, Apple's iCloud.com website has been updated to make its iWork suite of apps accessible to all users, even those without an Apple device. — As of today, anyone can sign …

More: Official Apple Support, TechCrunch, BGR, Cult of Mac, MacNN, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacDailyNews, AppleInsider, iMore, The Next Web, Gigaom and 9to5Mac

Andrew Chung / Reuters:

Smartflash LLC sues Apple again over use of same patents in iPhone 6/6 Plus and iPad Air 2 — Apple faces second suit from victorious patent firm — (Reuters) - Fresh off a $532.9 million jury win against Apple Inc (AAPL.O), a Texas company is again suing the tech giant …

More: CNET, App Advice, 9to5Mac, ZDNet, The Loop, The Next Web, SlashGear, Computerworld, Techdirt, MacRumors, Seeking Alpha, iPhone in Canada Blog and iMore

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / ZDNet:

Lenovo promises to stop bundling crapware on PCs — Summary:Following on from the Superfish debacle the company found itself embroiled in earlier this month, PC maker Lenovo is promising to bring to an end to the practice of pre-loading crapware onto systems.

More: Ars Technica, Gigaom, BetaNews, The Verge, VentureBeat, Business Insider, Reuters and Neowin

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Verizon mocks FCC ruling with Morse code response dated 1934, despite using Title II to its benefit — Verizon issues furious response to FCC, in Morse code, dated 1934 — Verizon wants 1st Amendment right to edit the Web, but rules from 1934 are too old.

Stacey Higginbotham / Gigaom:

Net neutrality's next chapter: How experts saw today's milestone and next steps

More: New Yorker, DSLreports, PC World, Verizon Policy Blog, Sonic.net Blog, Re/code, FierceWireless, counton2.com, Techdirt, Reuters, The Verge, The Verge and BuzzFeed. See also Mediagazer

Reuters:

China's draft counterterror law would require that technology firms hand over encryption keys, install backdoors; Obama administration has conveyed concerns — China draft counterterror law strikes fear in foreign tech firms — (Reuters) - China is weighing a far-reaching counterterrorism law …

More: Channel EYE. Tweets: @trevortimm, @glynmoody and @trevortimm

John Cook / GeekWire:

PopCap Games co-founder emerges with virtual reality startup Pluto VR — As the co-founder of PopCap Games, John Vechey helped create some of the most compelling and beloved games for PCs, consoles and mobile devices. Now, the 37-year-old Seattle entrepreneur sees the same opportunity …

More: TechSpot, Engadget, VentureBeat, GamesIndustry.biz, Polygon and Gamasutra. Thanks:@belril

Paul Carsten / Reuters:

China censorship sweep deletes more than 60,000 Internet accounts — (Reuters) - Some of China's largest Internet companies deleted more than 60,000 online accounts because their names did not conform to regulations due to take effect on Sunday, the top Internet regulator said.

More: The Next Web, Wall Street Journal, english.cntv.cn and globaltimes.cn

Russ Mitchell / Los Angeles Times:

Google Ventures and Michael Dell invest $60M in Kobalt, which handles music publishing rights — Music royalty hunter Kobalt wins Google funding — Since the music industry began in the early 20th century, musicians and songwriters have complained about paltry royalty payments for their creations.

More: Re/code, Bloomberg Business, New York Times and VentureBeat. See also Mediagazer

Brian P. Rubin / ReadWrite:

Pebble releases SDK v3.0 with software emulator for Pebble Time — Pebble: It's Time To Preview Our New App Development Tools — Thursday, Pebble released a preview of its software development kit for its new smartwatch platform and Pebble Time device. — With SDK 3., the company touts …

More: Android Authority, Pebble Developer Blog, TWICE, TechCrunch, MobileSyrup.com, SlashGear, The Next Web, Jewish Business News, Canadianreviewer.com and Android Police

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