Techmeme
April 8, 2015, 12:05 AM

Top News

Caroline O'Donovan / BuzzFeed:
Sources: Google plans to announce a product connecting its search users with home-service providers this spring  —  Google Wants To Send You A Plumber  —  The company is readying a new product intended to connect search users with local home-service providers.
Brad Heath / USA Today:
US Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration secretly tracked billions of international calls for nearly a decade before 9/11  —  U.S. secretly tracked billions of calls for decades  —  Starting in 1992, the Justice Department amassed logs of virtually all telephone calls …
Abhijeet M. / SamMobile:
Samsung's round smartwatch to be called Gear A, come in two variants, one with Bluetooth, one with 3G and calling support  —  Exclusive: Samsung's round smartwatch to be called Gear A, have 3G and calling support  —  A perfect smartwatch?  There's no such thing, but Samsung …
Chris Thompson / Poynter:
Fortune Magazine to announce hiring of six former Gigaom reporters, a third of editorial staff  —  Fortune Magazine to hire roughly one-third of GigaOm's editorial staff  —  Fortune Magazine will announce Wednesday morning that it has hired six reporters from GigaOm, according to multiple sources close to the matter.
Napier Lopez / The Next Web:
HBO Now launches in US on Apple TV, iOS, and Cablevision's Optimum Online for $14.99 per month  —  HBO Now goes live for Apple TV, iOS and Optimum users  —  We knew HBO's new Now streaming service would launch ahead of the Season 5 premiere of the popular Game of Thrones series …
Nicole LaPorte / Fast Company:
An inside look at HBO's strategy to compete with Netflix by launching HBO Now  —  HBO to Netflix: Bring it on  —  On a frigid winter Friday in Manhattan's MediaGulch, HBO CEO Richard Plepler glides through the doors of a power-lunch spot called the Lambs Club.
CNN:
Russian hackers accessed sensitive White House information, including real-time details of president's schedule, via compromised State Department system  —  How the U.S. thinks Russians hacked the White House  —  Washington (CNN)Russian hackers behind the damaging cyber intrusion …
John Callaham / Windows Central:
Kabam abandons Windows Phone development after releasing just one game  —  Windows Central has learned that Kabam, one of the biggest mobile game developers, has decided to stop making titles from the Windows Phone platform.  This decision represents a complete reversal of Kabam's original plans …
Jim Edwards / Business Insider:
Angela Ahrendts tells employees to encourage customers to order Watch and new MacBook through Apple Store app and online store as part of “change in mindset”  —  Angela Ahrendts has told Apple employees ‘a significant change in mindset’ is coming to the way the company launches products
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Google Moderator, a service that ranked user-submitted questions, suggestions, and ideas, is closing on July 31  —  Google Moderator is shutting down on July 31, 2015  —  Google has quietly announced Google Moderator will be shut down on July 31, 2015.  Users can download their Google Moderator data …
Ina Fried / Re/code:
Google and Microsoft case could determine what constitutes a “reasonable royalty” when patents are used as part of a standard  —  Google Will Battle Microsoft (Again) Over the Value of Patents in Tech Standards  —  Google and Microsoft will face off in a San Francisco appeals court Wednesday …
Don Reisinger / CNET:
iFixit teardown shows Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is difficult to repair, gives it 3 out of 10 for repairability  —  Teardown shows Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is tough to repair  —  The smartphone, which has a curved screen at the edge, received a score of three out of 10 for repairability from iFixit.
Christine Dobby / Globe and Mail:
Bell Canada reverses its online tracking policy to opt-in after privacy commissioner report  —  Bell to change Web-tracking policy after report from privacy watchdog  —  Bell Canada says it will change its policy on tracking the Internet browsing habits of its cellphone customers in response …
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Instagram Adds Post Notifications For Specific Accounts, Color And Fade Tools  —  Instagram has a couple of new photo editing tools available in its mobile applications, out today on Android and coming soon to iOS: Color and Fade.  Color lets you adjust the tone of both the highlights …
J.T. Quigley / Tech in Asia:
Dropbox surpasses 10M Japanese users, inks biz cloud deal with SoftBank  —  Dropbox co-founder and CEO Drew Houston (left) with Japan Country Manager Hiroaki Kawamura.  —  Dropbox co-founder and CEO Drew Houston was in Tokyo this morning to announce the firm's partnership with SoftBank Commerce and Service (SoftBank C&S).
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
Data integration company Informatica goes private after $5.3B acquisition by private equity firm Permira  —  Informatica goes private in $5.3 billion deal  —  Summary:The data integration and management software provider will pursue its growth plans as a private company owned by Permira and Canada's pension plan.

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Chris Morran / Consumerist:

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