Techmeme
August 27, 2015, 12:50 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
iPhone 6S will animate UI with Apple Watch-like Motion wallpapers  —  Apple is preparing to bring some motion from the Apple Watch to the iPhone 6S.  One of the new device's differentiators over its predecessor will likely be a spiced up set of animated wallpapers, according to three sources …
Greg Bensinger / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon lays off dozens of engineers, scales back and reorganizes its hardware-development center Lab126 after Fire Phone failure  —  Amazon Curtails Development of Consumer Devices  —  Amazon is scaling back its efforts to develop consumer devices, laying off dozens of engineers …
Annalee Newitz / Gizmodo:
Ashley Madison had approximately 31M male members, 5.5M female members, but likely only 12K women actively used the site  —  Almost None of the Women in the Ashley Madison Database Ever Used the Site  —  When hacker group Impact Team released the Ashley Madison data, they asserted that “thousands” of the women's profiles were fake.
IDC:
IDC: In Q2, Apple Watch shipped 3.6M units with 19.9% market share, just behind Fitbit with 4.4M units for 24.3% market share  —  Apple Debuts at the Number Two Spot as the Worldwide Wearables Market Grows 223.2% in 2Q15, Says IDC  —  In its first appearance in the wearables market …
Brian X. Chen / New York Times:
In-Flight Wi-Fi Prices Jump as Demand Surges  —  During a Tuesday-morning flight in April from Los Angeles to New York, Christine Lu's smartphone web browser loaded an unpleasant surprise: Gogo, the in-flight Wi-Fi provider, wanted to charge her $27 to use its service during the five-and-a-half-hour trip.
Mark Scott / New York Times:
Google Denies Europe's Antitrust Accusations  —  Google on Thursday rejected claims from the European Union's top antitrust official that the company favored some of its own search results over those of rivals, saying there was significant competition in the region's online search market …
Roberto Baldwin / Engadget:
Ex-Apple CEO John Sculley unveils two sub-$200 Android Obi smartphones for Asia, Africa, and Middle East markets, will be available October  —  Former Apple CEO John Sculley launches a line of stylish smartphones  —  Like most consumer items, the lower the price point of a phone, the less exciting the design.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Leaked images reveal Microsoft's 5.2-inch Lumia 950 and 5.7-inch 950XL, to launch in October  —  Leaked images reveal Microsoft's new flagship Lumia phones  —  Microsoft is preparing to launch two new Lumia flagship devices at an event in October.  While we've seen some images emerge along …
ZEIT ONLINE:
Germany's domestic intelligence agency BfV got XKeyscore software from NSA in exchange for German surveillance data  —  A Dubious Deal with the NSA  —  Internal documents show that Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, received the coveted software program XKeyscore from the NSA - and promised data from Germany in return.
Ronda Scott / Evernote Blog:
Evernote Food apps for iOS and Android to be retired September 30  —  Evernote to end support for Evernote Food apps  —  Two years ago, we created Evernote Food to help people chronicle the universal experience of enjoying great food.  Food's most popular features were clipping recipes and snapping photos of meals.
Reuters:
Sources: Uber China closes $1B round, valuing the unit at $7B  —  Uber China closes $1 billion fundraising round: sources  —  Uber Technologies Inc's [UBER.UL] China arm has closed its $1 billion fundraising round early, according to two people with knowledge of the matter …
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
Chinese Drone Startup Yuneec Grabs $60M In Funding From Intel  —  A second Chinese drone startup has disclosed major funding this week.  Intel announced it put $60 million into Shanghai-based Yuneec, just two days after rival EHANG publicized a $42 million Series B.

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Earlier Picks

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