Techmeme: Square's Jack Dorsey on using data to minimize risk and improve the company's margins, how Caviar helps Square get inside restaurants, more (Mat Honan/BuzzFeed)

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April 17, 2015, 12:35 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:

Apple plans to launch Pay in Canada in November, in talks with six biggest banks, which account for more than 90% of country's retail bank accounts — Apple Pay Plans to Launch in Canada This Fall — Apple is in talks with six Canadian banks for mobile payment service's first venture outside the U.S.

More: Tech Trader Daily, AppleInsider, The Next Web, Engadget, VentureBeat, Reuters, The Verge, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, iMore, TodaysiPhone.com, SlashGear, MobileSyrup.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, Seeking Alpha and App Advice

Howard Blume / Los Angeles Times:

L.A. schools iPad program subject of inquiry by SEC — The federal Securities and Exchange Commission recently opened an informal inquiry into whether Los Angeles school officials complied with legal guidelines in the use of bond funds for the now-abandoned $1.3-billion iPads-for-all project.

More: AppleInsider, Digital Trends, RCR Wireless News, 9to5Mac, Ars Technica, MacNN and Cult of Mac. Tweets: @daytonpubpolicy

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Apple Stores to Offer ‘Apple Watch Basics’ Workshops Beginning April 24 — Starting on April 24, it appears that Apple will be offering “Apple Watch Basics” workshops in some of its retail stores around the world, helping customers who begin receiving their watches on that day to learn how to use them.

Stuart Dredge / Guardian:

YouTube competitor Vessel raises a $57.5M Series B round led by IVP, just weeks after launch — Vessel raises $57.5m funding to expand its ‘first window’ for YouTube creators — Silicon Valley heavyweight IVP joins US startup's investors, and predicts it could be as successful as Netflix and Twitter

More: TechCrunch, Re/code, Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg Business and Variety. See also Mediagazer

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Leaked emails from Sony Pictures hack indicate that Snapchat gave 0.11% of its stock to former Apple executive Scott Forstall to be an adviser — Snapchat Is Paying Ex-Apple Exec Scott Forstall 0.11% To Be An Advisor — A leaked email from the Sony Pictures hack indicates Snapchat set aside .11% …

More: BGR, Telegraph, bizjournals, TodaysiPhone.com, Cult of Mac, Bloomberg View, SiliconANGLE, The Mac Observer, MacRumors, Business Insider, iDownloadBlog.com, AppleInsider and 9to5Mac. Tweets: @applespotlight

Danny Sullivan / Marketing Land:

FAQ: The New Yahoo-Microsoft Deal, Explained — Yahoo and Microsoft have reached new terms in their search partnership that was created in 2009. Here's how the new deal will work to give Yahoo more flexibility about ads. — Yahoo and Microsoft have renewed their search partnership. What's changed?

More: Inquirer, Computerworld, Neowin, TechEye, New York Times, eWeek, Search Engine Roundtable, Search Engine Land, BGR and MarketWatch. Tweets: @dannysullivan

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Verizon offering FiOS TV packages with mix-and-match channel packs that viewers can swap out each month; plans start at $54.99 — Verizon's New Pay TV Pitch Isn't A La Carte TV. But It's Getting Closer. — People who say they hate paying for cable TV often say they only want to pay …

More: Wall Street Journal, CNET, Light Reading and Engadget. See also Mediagazer

Caleb Melby / Bloomberg Business:

Tim Cook has the best pay-for-performance rating among highest-paid US executives, earning $65.2M last year — Apple's Tim Cook Is a Steal at $65 Million in Pay — Apple Inc.'s Tim Cook has the best pay-for-performance rating of any chief executive officer on the Bloomberg Pay Index …

More: iPhone in Canada Blog

Mat Honan / BuzzFeed:

Square's Jack Dorsey on using data to minimize risk and improve the company's margins, how Caviar helps Square get inside restaurants, more — Square's Jack Dorsey Puts It All Together — The Square CEO and Twitter founder explains how his company's recent spate of initiatives fit together in the big picture.

More: Business Insider

Joel Hruska / ExtremeTech:

How Moore's Law has been reinvented over the last 50 years, becoming cultural shorthand for innovation itself — Moore's Law is dead, long live Moore's Law — Moore's Law turns 50 this coming week — making this an opportune time to revisit Gordon Moore's classic prediction …

More: IEEE Spectrum and Beyond Search

David C. Brock / Backchannel:

Book excerpt from Moore's Law: How Gordon Moore shared his “law” with the world

More: Wall Street Journal, Re/code, Basic Books, Washington Post, Economist, eetindia.co.in, CNET, The Hill and CNET

Tweets: @backchnnl, @mit_spectrum and @stevenlevy

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Google Updates Chrome Browser for iOS With Notification Center Widget, App Extensions — Google today released a significant update to its Chrome browser for iOS, adding several features to improve its compatibility with iOS 8. There's a new Notification Center widget that includes controls …

More: PCWorld, TechSpot, Ubergizmo, 9to5Mac, The Next Web, Tech2 and iMore

Matthew Wall / BBC:

Mark Zuckerberg defends Internet.org after Indian companies pull out, says project not incompatible with net neutrality — Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg believes Internet.org is not a threat to net neutrality — Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has defended the aims of his Internet.org initiative …

More: The Verge, Telegraph, USA Today, TechEye, The Hill, Light Reading, Mark Zuckerberg, Tech in Asia, BetaNews and Tech2

Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal:

Instagram Tightens Guidelines to Curb Pornography and Harassment — Instagram is dropping the nice-guy act. — The photo- and video-sharing app Thursday unveiled more-detailed standards for images, aimed at curbing pornography and harassment. The tone is tougher, too …

More: The Verge, PandoDaily, ABC News, SiliconANGLE, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Tech2, Tech Times, The Daily Dot, Digital Trends, SlashGear, ITProPortal, Macworld, WebProNews and Engadget. Tweets: @digiphile

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Universal credit card device Coin ships 350K units after year delay, some backers still to wait months — Coin, The One Credit Card To Rule Them All, Is Finally Shipping — The Coin card (promising to let you combine all your credit/debit/loyalty cards into a single piece of tech) …

More: Fortune

Anthony Deutsch / Reuters:

Dutch prosecutors launch criminal investigation into Uber for violation of court order, say police caught dozens of drivers offering illegal taxi services — Dutch launch criminal investigation into Uber — (Reuters) - Dutch prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into Uber …

Liam Tung / ZDNet:

ARM buys Wicentric and Sunrise Micro Devices, creates new IoT chip portfolio under Cordio brand, claims devices using Cordio radios will last up to 60% longer — ARM buys two low-power IoT firms to launch Cordio for wearables — Summary:ARM has acquired two companies that will add …

More: Light Reading, Inquirer, Business Weekly, TrustedReviews, Bidness Etc, Telegraph, Reuters, ITProPortal, eWeek and Computerworld

Vijaya Gadde / Washington Post:

Twitter General Counsel admits to inexcusably slow abuse response times, commits to balancing free speech and safety, says size of user protection team tripled — Twitter executive: Here's how we're trying to stop abuse while preserving free speech — Open discussion doesn't mean much if some people are afraid to take part.

More: Business Insider. See also Mediagazer

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple officially names Steve Dowling as Vice President of Communications — Apple has officially named long time director of public relations Steve Dowling as its new Vice President of Communications, as noted on the company's executive bios webpage. Dowling succeeds former Apple Communications …

More: Macworld, AppleInsider, MacRumors and iMore

Mike Rogoway / Oregonian:

Oregon's new law exempts gigabit Internet services like Google Fiber from antiquated property tax — Gov. Kate Brown signs ‘gigabit’ tax bill for Google Fiber — Google Fiber made it all sound so simple. — The company arrived in Portland in early 2014 and said it might bring its hyperfast Internet service to town.

More: Ars Technica and SlashGear

ZDNet:

Microsoft to bring universal Office apps to Windows Phones in a test build before the end of April — What's next for Microsoft's ‘universal’ Office apps — Summary:Microsoft is readying a test build of its Office ‘Universal’ apps for Windows Phones before the end of April.

More: Reuters, CNET and Office Blogs

Tim Peterson / AdAge:

Spotify to Use Playlists as Proxy for Targeting Ads to Activities, Moods — 15 Playlist-Targeting Categories Include Workout, Commute and Party — Spotify has categorized its 1.5 billion playlists based on mood and activity. — Digital Video Ads to Get Viewability Reporting on YouTube

More: Spotify Press, Marketing Land, WebProNews, Mediatel, The Next Web and VentureBeat

Brett Howse / AnandTech:

AMD's Q1 earnings miss with non-GAAP loss of $0.09/share on $1.03B revenue, down 16.9% from last quarter — AMD Posts Q1 2015 Results: $180 Million Net Loss — Today AMD released their Q1 FY 2015 financial results, and the company reported revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter.

More: ZDNet, Benzinga and VentureBeat

Ryan Smith / AnandTech:

AMD Exits Dense Microserver Business, Ends SeaMicro Brand

More: Ars Technica, Computerworld, KitGuru, CRN and The Register

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