Techmeme: EU Commission clears Facebook's $19 billion bid for WhatsApp (Foo Yun Chee/Reuters)

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October 3, 2014, 11:50 AM

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Reuters:

Facebook plotting first steps in healthcare: support communities for ailments and preventative care apps — Exclusive: Facebook plots first steps into healthcare — (Reuters) - Facebook Inc already knows who your friends are and the kind of things that grab your attention.

More: PC Magazine, PandoDaily, CNET, Washington Post, Engadget, The Next Web, BetaBoston, The Verge, Gizmodo UK, Cult of Mac, WebProNews, SlashGear, Gizmodo, Business Insider and Seeking Alpha. Tweets: @zimbalist

Jayadevan PK / The Economic Times:

Google planning to launch own mobile messaging app similar to WhatsApp — BANGALORE: After losing WhatsApp to Facebook in a multibillion dollar acquisition bid, Google is planning to launch its own mobile messaging app which the search giant is likely to test in India and other emerging markets.

More: Gizmodo, Business Insider, Fox News, Pocketnow, TechnoBuffalo, Reuters, Seeking Alpha, Tech Times, Gizmodo UK, Ubergizmo, bgr.in and Neowin. Tweets: @timesofindia. Thanks:@therealjpk

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Apple Asks the Music Labels for a Price Cut on Streaming Subscriptions — There are lots of music subscription services that let people listen to all the songs they want for $10 a month. — Apple thinks that price is too high. — Sources say Apple is talking to the big music labels …

Borys Kit / Hollywood Reporter:

Leonardo DiCaprio Exits Steve Jobs Biopic as Contenders Line Up — Instead of making the untitled project after shooting ‘The Revenant,’ the actor has removed himself from the biopic altogether — Leonardo DiCaprio will not be tackling the role of Steve Jobs.

More: Business Insider, Guardian, iDownloadBlog.com, App Advice, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, AppleInsider and Cult of Mac

New York Times:

JPMorgan says data breach affected 76M households, 7M small businesses — Cyberattack Against JPMorgan Chase Affects 76 Million Households — A cyberattack this summer on JPMorgan Chase compromised the accounts of 76 million households and seven million small businesses …

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

Security researchers publicly release code to Github for “practically unpatchable” exploit BadUSB — The Unpatchable Malware That Infects USBs Is Now on the Loose — It's been just two months since researcher Karsten Nohl demonstrated an attack he called BadUSB to a standing-room …

More: GitHub, PC World, The Register, ReadWrite, The Mac Observer, The Tech Report, Mashable, Gizmodo, TechSpot, MacDailyNews, The Verge, Business Insider, SecurityWeek, Neowin, Help Net Security, Engadget, SlashGear and Electronista

Tweets: @mikebutcher and @marypcbuk

Logan Whiteside / CNNMoney.com:

Schmidt: Google's systems “far more secure and encrypted than anyone else, including Apple” — Google: Tim Cook is wrong about us — Apple got it wrong — Google is the safest place on the Web, the search giant's chairman says. — “We have always been the leader in security and encryption …

More: CNET, Business Insider, Inquirer, 9to5Mac, Engadget, The Register, Electronista, Beyond Search, Daring Fireball and DISPLAYBLOG

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:

EU Commission clears Facebook's $19 billion bid for WhatsApp — (Reuters) - European Union antitrust regulators approved on Friday a $19 billion offer by Facebook, the world's most popular social network, for mobile messaging startup WhatsApp. — The landmark deal is the largest …

Yoni Heisler / TUAW:

An in-depth look at Apple Pay, and why it could be the safest way to make a credit card payment — Apple Pay: An in-depth look at what's behind the secure payment system — With Apple Pay slated to go live later this month, one can soon expect to see an avalanche of fear mongering from pundits who …

More: iMore, iPhone in Canada Blog, Starpoint Blog and MacDailyNews. Tweets: @briantong. Thanks:@superpixels

Owen Thomas / ReadWrite:

Apple's Health app is useless, dependent on other apps to gather data — Apple's Health App Is An Embarrassment — ReadWriteBody is an ongoing series where ReadWrite covers networked fitness and the quantified self. — You know those super-awkward “before” shots with a fat guy holding …

More: blog.human.co, Medium and VentureBeat

Tweets: @joannastern, @danmunro and @owenthomas

Bloomberg:

France's Iliad Said to Plan Bid for Bigger T-Mobile Stake — Iliad SA (ILD) is planning to bid for a bigger stake in Deutsche Telekom AG's U.S. unit than it sought in July, as the French telecom carrier approaches a self-imposed deadline to reach a deal, people familiar with the matter said.

More: Reuters, TmoNews, GeekWire, Ubergizmo, TechSpot, GeekWire, TheStreet.com, Wireless Week, Reuters, SlashGear, Windows Phone Central and CNET

William Maclean / Reuters:

Dubai detectives to get Google Glass with facial recognition tech developed by local police — Dubai detectives to get Google Glass to fight crime — (Reuters) - Dubai police plan to issue detectives with Google Glass hands-free eyewear to help them fight crime using facial recognition technology …

More: PC World, Glass Almanac, The Daily Dot, 9to5Google and Engadget. Tweets: @lucymarcus

Wall Street Journal:

Google's Projects Lab Developing Screens That Can Connect to Form a Big Seamless Image — Google's Projects Lab Developing Screens That Can Plug Together to Form a Giant TV — Google Inc. is building self-driving cars and balloons to beam Internet service from the sky. Now it also wants to make giant TVs.

More: 9to5Google, Business Insider and TIME

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

iOS 8 Translator Keyboard Introduces Easy Access Language Translation Capabilities — With iOS 8 bringing support for system wide third-party keyboards for the first time, developers have been coming up with creative ways to introduce new functionality to the keyboard, beyond simply making it quicker to type.

More: BGR, TechCrunch and iDownloadBlog.com

Reuters:

HTC third quarter profit beats estimates as cost cuts offset weak sales — (Reuters) - Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp swung to better-than-expected profit in the third quarter from a heavy loss a year earlier, as cost cuts helped it offset the impact of still-sluggish sales.

More: Gigaom, BGR, Bloomberg, AndroidHeadlines.com and Wall Street Journal

Steven Russolillo / Wall Street Journal:

GoPro stock falls as much as 14% as founder gifts 5.8M shares to new charity, sidesteps IPO lockup rule — GoPro's Lockup Loophole Spooks Investors — GoPro Inc. found a way to maneuver around its lockup restriction, a development that spooked investors and sent the high-flying stock down as much as 14% on Thursday.

More: Bloomberg, Investor Relations, Business Insider, Reuters, CNBC, Fortune and USA Today

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:

Bing: No Plans To Give Ranking Boost For HTTPS — At Search Marketing Expo, Bing's Vincent Wehren, the Lead Program Manager for Bing Webmaster Tools, said they have no plans on ever giving a ranking boost to websites that switch to HTTPS. — In August, Google began giving sites that use HTTPS …

More: PC World and Search Engine Roundtable

ZDNet:

Samsung to start producing Apple's 14nm A9 processors by year end — Samsung expects sales boost from Apple chip deal — Summary: Samsung's chip boss said supplying its 14-nanometre FinFet chips to Apple will boost its financials greatly, reports ZDNet Korea's Cho Mu-hyun.

More: Gearburn, AppleInsider, TechnoBuffalo, BGR, DailyTech, MacRumors, Electronista and The Tech Report

Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:

New Apple patent hints at next-generation iOS Remote app that reproduces Apple TV GUI — Apple's next-gen iOS Remote app solution could boast full Apple TV GUIs, interactive content — An Apple patent application published Thursday describes a next-generation iOS Remote app system capable …

More: iPhone, PadGadget, iPhone in Canada Blog, InvestorPlace and MacRumors

Nick Summers / The Next Web:

Flipboard for Windows Phone 8 is finally here — At last, Flipboard has an app for Windows Phone 8. Nokia said a version of the magazine-inspired reading app would come to its platform over a year ago, and users have been waiting patiently ever since. — Now, it's finally here.

More: Inside Flipboard, TechnoBuffalo, Blogging Windows, Digital Trends, Engadget, Conversations, WinBeta, PC World and VentureBeat

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Deezer launches US partnership with Bose, at $5/month with lower quality audio than Sonos deal — Deezer launches in the U.S., again, this time partnering with Bose — Deezer is launching another paid tier of its streaming service in the U.S., this time through an exclusive partnership with Deezer.

More: Engadget, Engadget, Gizmodo, SlashGear, TechSpot, AllAccess.com, Billboard, CNET, The Verge and VentureBeat

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Hulu makes peace with Apple's 30 percent cut, enables in-app billing in latest iPhone update — Hulu is giving Apple 30 percent of its Hulu Plus subscription fee for new users that sign up through the just-relaunched iPhone app. The company's business model may help with this significant bounty.

More: 9to5Mac, Hulu Blog, Engadget, iDownloadBlog.com, MacRumors and iMore

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