Techmeme: Trouble At Yahoo: Partial Webmail Outage Continues, While Surprise Small Business Websites Shutdowns Anger Customers (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

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December 11, 2013, 6:05 PM

Top News

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

Behind the scenes look at Apple TV app development w/ the new Bloomberg channel — Unlike its developer program and vast ecosystem of apps on iOS and Mac, there's not much we know about Apple's strategy for content on the Apple TV. There's been a lot of talk that a much rumored refreshed …

More: CNET, AllThingsD, iMore, Gotta Be Mobile and Gigaom. Tweets: @markgurman. Thanks:@benjaminzamayo. See also Mediagazer

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

Apple Adds ABC, Bloomberg, Crackle, and KORTV Channels to Apple TV

More: 9to5Mac, Computerworld, SlashGear, iDownloadBlog.com, The Verge, TechnoBuffalo, AppleInsider, iPhone in Canada Blog and iLounge

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Kick the Can — Yahoo Mail Is a Consumer Disaster, but Company's Response Is Even Worse — On Friday, November 8, Jeff Bonforte, the well-regarded techie who is now in charge of Yahoo Mail and all its communications products after the Silicon Valley Internet giant bought his startup Xobni …

More: Yahoo Mail, Fortune, Tech Trader Daily, ZDNet, Computerworld, WebProNews and The Tell

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Trouble At Yahoo: Partial Webmail Outage Continues, While Surprise Small Business Websites Shutdowns Anger Customers — Digital Magazine Startup Magzter Raises $10M To Fuel Global Growth — Normally a report of a web services outage goes like this: web service goes down, reporter writes post …

More: The Verge, Gigaom, Los Angeles Times, KUSA-TV, VCPOST, Techzim, Consumerist and Softpedia News

Marguerite Reardon / CNET:

AT&T chief: We can't keep doing big subsidies on phones — AT&T's top executive says the era of big subsidies for devices is coming to an end, as wireless operators can no longer afford to fund a constant smartphone upgrade cycle. — Speaking at an investor conference in New York City on Tuesday …

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft considers free versions of Windows Phone and Windows RT to battle Android — Redmond wants to counter Mountain View — Microsoft is considering making Windows Phone and Windows RT available free of charge to device makers. Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans have revealed …

More: Fortune, BGR, Geek.com, Inquirer, GeekWire, Computerworld, Gigaom, Electronista, pocketnow.com, WinBeta, SlashGear, WMPoweruser, CNET, Android Community, Softpedia News, ZDNet, Ubergizmo and TechnoBuffalo

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Snapchat Raises $50 Million In Series C From Coatue Management — Amid rumors of a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook and a potential $200 million funding round, turns out that ephemeral messaging sensation Snapchat has actually raised $50 million in Series C funding.

More: VentureBeat, Digits, Fortune, Forbes, New York Times, Business Insider, AllThingsD and The Technology Chronicles

Tweets: @jwherrman, @joshconstine, @danprimack and @danprimack

Thanks:@ryanlawler

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:

Why Nokia Is Building an Android Phone and Why Microsoft Might Not Kill It — So, is Nokia really working on an Android-based phone, and would Microsoft really go ahead with such a device? — The answer to the first one is definitely yes. And, surprisingly, the answer to the second question may be yes, as well.

More: Computerworld, Internet2Go, Examiner, Business Insider and T3 News

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Nokia's “Normandy” phone uses a forked variant of Android, a la Kindle Fire

More: Computerworld, Digital Trends, ExtremeTech, The Droid Guy, VentureBeat, FierceWireless, FierceMobileIT News, Yahoo! News, Lastest ITProPortal news, Gigaom, TheStreet.com, TechnoBuffalo, PC Magazine, ValueWalk, Tech Trader Daily, LiewCF Tech Blog and WinBeta

Mary Jo Foley / Fortune:

Steve Ballmer and Microsoft's top executives reflect on his legacy — For Steve Ballmer, a lasting touch on Microsoft — As the world prepares for Microsoft to announce a new chief executive, we ask the company's top executives—including the man himself—to take a look at the legacy Steve Ballmer leaves on the technology company.

More: InfoWorld, ZDNet, Business Insider, ZDNet, TechnoBuffalo, BGR, The Verge, AppleInsider, WinBeta and TechRepublic

Tweets: @fortunemagazine and @thurrott

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Spotify Goes Freemium On Tablets, Launches Free Shuffle Product On Smartphones — For the first time since launching, Spotify now offers free access to the streaming music service from tablets only, on iOS and Android. Meanwhile, users on smartphones can use Spotify Shuffle …

More: Spotify Blog, PandoDaily, AppleInsider, AllThingsD, The Verge, Engadget, Gotta Be Mobile, The Next Web, Betabeat, TechnoBuffalo, Guardian and 9to5Mac. See also Mediagazer

Stacey Higginbotham / Gigaom:

AT&T's gigabit service is $70 if you let it spy on your searches — AT&T said Wednesday that it has started service in four Austin neighborhoods with an offer to bring its GigaPower fiber-to-the-home service for $70 a month — but with a pretty big catch. — If you want to pay the lower rate …

More: AT&T, BGR, Ars Technica, The Verge, DSLreports, VentureBeat, The Switch, CNET, DSLreports, Engadget, Daily Dot, TelecompetitorTelecompetitor and Consumerist. Tweets: @evelynrusli. Thanks:@om

The Switch:

NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint targets for hacking — The National Security Agency is secretly piggybacking on the tools that enable Internet advertisers to track consumers, using “cookies” and location data to pinpoint targets for government hacking and to bolster surveillance.

Ed Felten / Freedom to Tinker:

How to stop spies from piggybacking on commercial Web tracking

More: The Switch and Computerworld. See also Mediagazer

Bryan Bishop / The Verge:

Twitter becomes a better TV remote control as ABC, AMC, and Fox sign up for See It — It's been obvious for some time that Twitter sees television as a major way in which it can participate in, drive, and profit from the broader cultural conversation. It's about to become an even more useful tool …

More: Engadget and Comcast. See also Mediagazer

Katherine Rosman / Wall Street Journal:

Twitter plants “Mirror” tablets at VIP events for celebrities to tweet selfies — Twitter Mirror: Celebrities' New Publicity Machine — Cellphones, Paparazzi Won't Do; Twitter Pushes Star Entertainers, Athletes to Take More Photos … It's no simple job to manufacture authentic, spontaneous celebrity photos.

More: The Verge

Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:

Valve: First version of SteamOS to be released to the masses on Friday — PC gamers who are champing at the bit to build their very own “Steam Machines” won't have to wait long to start tinkering, as Valve has revealed that its recently announced SteamOS will be available this Friday.

More: Steam Universe, The Verge, ReadWrite, Digital Trends, Electronista, TechnoBuffalo, Joystiq and Kotaku

Ken Yeung / The Next Web:

Square acquires Evenly to better enable its users to collect payments from friends — Square has announced another addition to its growing list of acquisitions. In a blog post, the mobile payment processing company revealed that it has acquired Evenly, a service designed around helping …

More: The Corner, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, Gigaom, eWeek, iClarified, TechnoBuffalo and TechCrunch

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Web Video Startup Ooyala Raises $43 Million — We saw a smattering of ad tech IPOs this year, and there are a bunch of companies that are supposedly lined up for next year. — Here's one you likely won't see going public in 2014 — at least not in the beginning of the year: Ooyala, the Web video startup.

More: VentureBeat, Variety and PE Hub Blog. See also Mediagazer

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google Sheets Gets Offline Editing, Speed Boost And Filter Views — Google today is launching a major update to Sheets, its Google Drive spreadsheet app that's part of Google Drive productivity suite. With this new version, Sheets joins the rest of Google's productivity apps in letting users create …

More: Google Drive Blog, AllThingsD, The Next Web, Softpedia News, Engadget, CNET and Ubergizmo

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Google launches Chrome apps and the Chrome App Launcher for all Mac users — Google today announced Chrome apps are now available on OS X, in addition to Windows and Chrome OS. Mac users will also now get the Chrome App Launcher in their Dock when they download their first Chrome app.

More: MacRumors, Engadget, SlashGear and Pocket-lint. Tweets: @antderosa

Michele Sinner / Reuters:

Cisco loses court challenge to Microsoft's takeover of Skype — (Reuters) - Microsoft fended off a challenge to its $8.5 billion takeover of messaging service Skype when Europe's second-highest court ruled against claims by rival Cisco that the 2011 deal would harm competition.

More: eWeek, GeekWire, The Verge, ValueWalk, WinBeta, Lastest ITProPortal news, AllThingsD, Bloomberg, ZDNet and Gigaom

Jordan Golson / MacRumors:

Southwest Airlines Offering In-Flight iMessaging for $2 Per Day — Southwest Airlines is offering passengers the ability to send and receive iMessages from their iOS devices in-flight for $2 per day. In-flight Wi-Fi access for all applications is available for $8 per device per day.

More: Nuts About Southwest, The Verge, CNET, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, Skift, iPhone Hacks, Wall Street Journal, Gotta Be Mobile and App Advice

Richard Lai / Engadget:

ASUS CEO: The PadFone is coming to America — ASUS has big ambitions with its PadFones, a unique phone-to-tablet convertible concept that was first introduced back at Computex 2011. While these devices are barely nibbling on the global mobile market (let alone entering the US) …

More: The Verge, Android Central, The Droid Guy, Android and Me, Android Police, Digital Trends, Gigaom, Unwired View, 9to5Google and Inquirer

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Monetization meets analytics as PlayHaven merges with Kontagent — Kontagent and PlayHaven combined. — In a sign of consolidation for the middlemen of the game business, mobile monetization firm PlayHaven is merging today with analytics firm Kontagent. — Analytics and mobile monetization …

More: AllThingsD and Kontagent. Thanks:@dj

Mayumi Negishi / Wall Street Journal:

Japan Tops World In Mobile Apps Revenue — Data Tracker Says Japan Spends 10% More Than U.S. on Apps … TOKYO—Japan overtook the U.S. to become the world's No. 1 country in app store revenue, thanks to an explosion in growth of smartphone and tablet games.

More: App Annie Blog, Gigaom, The Verge, SlashGear and Ubergizmo

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

“Revenge porn” operator arrested, charged with ID theft — Websites that post nude pictures of adults without their permission, commonly known as “revenge porn” sites, have recently drawn public scorn and a few lawsuits. — Now, the owner of one revenge porn website is facing prison.

More: California Attorney …, CNET, Business Insider, Examiner, VentureBeat and The Switch

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