Yahoo has acquired news-reading iOS app Summly, which was created by London teenager Nick D’Aloisio. Summly will no longer exist as a standalone app and will be removed from the iTunes Store today. Read more »
Eliot Higgins, an unemployed British blogger with no military background, has become a crucial source of information about illegal weapons being used in Syria for both human-rights organizations and traditional journalists. Read more »
A New York court issued a major ruling that limits the amount of content an internet scraping service can take without paying for it. Here’s a plain English explanation. Read more »
Some of the larger traditional brands in journalism will probably wind up prospering in the new digital era, and some hyper-local ones will as well — but what happens to the players in the middle? Their future remains uncertain. Read more »
Barnes & Noble is running a weeklong promotion: Customers who buy a Nook HD+ tablet (starting at $269) will get a Nook Simple Touch e-reader ($79) for free. Read more »
Reporters and bloggers writing about a company are supposed to disclose any stock they own in that firm. With currencies, that’s not the case. But what about Bitcoin? Read more »
Storytelling website Storybird has added a poetry web app designed to let users quickly create illustrated digital poems. Read more »
AVOS, the company that now owns Delicious, is working on a mysterious site that takes data from Delicious to serve up news, videos and products. Read more »
Everyplay instantly records your iPhone gameplay, and makes replay clips available for sharing online. The service promises developers new ways to find an audience for their games. Read more at GigaOM »
How can media companies and publishers monetize their content when advertising continues to decline and paywalls are not filling the gap? This is one of the major themes we’re going to explore at paidContent Live on April 17 in New York. Read more »
Simon & Schuster will give authors direct access to information on how their books are being pirated online, the company announced Thursday. Read more »
Children’s ebook iPad app Bookboard is adding more content, like the Berenstain Bears and the Boxcar Children, to its streaming model. It also announced subscription pricing. Read more »
Pay-as-you-go online video service M-Go has inked a deal with Lionsgate that will allow M-Go customers to access episodes of Mad Men and other fare from the studio. Read more »
Watch out, Crackle: Zurich-based VOD startup Viewster is starting to rack up more views than some of its established U.S. competitors. Read more »
Google’s new Android and web app, Keep, lets users jot down ideas and make lists. The app will soon be fully integrated with Google Drive. Read more at GigaOM »
An investigation this week revealed that major brands are paying at least $6 million a month to serve ads to bots on 202 websites. Here are some more names and details. Read more »
Are algorithms actually making society dumber? Yes, says at least one big data expert. We can’t throw computers at our problems until we better define those problems though human input. Read more at GigaOM »
As Punchfork gets ready to shut down its API post Pinterest acquisition, Yummly hopes to step into its shoes, proving recipe content to food sites and apps. Yummly’s semantic search technology, however, has a lot to offer. Read more at GigaOM »
According to the British advertising regulator, Amazon listings are ads. That’s why a listing for a rude greeting card has just resulted in a slap-down for the online retail giant. Read more at GigaOM »
Looking for a job in digital media? Each week we highlight some of the most interesting positions posted to paidContent’s jobs board. Check out the latest gigs at media companies across the country. Read more »
Amazon launched a “Send to Kindle” button that publishers can add to their websites. The Washington Post and Time are among the first to sign up. “Send to Kindle” is Amazon’s answer to read-it-later services like Pocket and Instapaper. Read more »
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is getting yet another video service with the launch of a Redbox Instant app. This marks the first time Redbox Instant is available on a game console. Read more at GigaOM »
Evernote updated the Evernote Food app with Foursquare and OpenTable integration, recipe sharing and some other new features. Read more at GigaOM »
Hulu’s Apple TV app has been given a major facelift to better highlight new content. The relaunch could set off a revamp of the service across various CE devices. Read more at GigaOM »
Want to get rid of your big and expensive cable bundle? So does your cable company. And in that quest, it is joined by some unlikely frenemies. Read more »
The Supreme Court sided with a student textbook seller agains the publisher John Wiley in a major dispute over who can resell copyrighted works. Read more »
Airport bookstore chain Hudson Booksellers has launched an online bookstore where it sells both print and ebooks. The site focuses on hand-picked titles and has an “ask a bookseller” feature. Read more »
An analytics firm has uncovered a network of more than 200 sites that appears aimed at defrauding the online ad industry. The network tricks marketers into serving billions of “targeted” ads to bots every month. Read more »
Publishing giant Wiley has launched Digital Classroom, an online marketplace of software training videos and digital books. Read more »
NewsCred, a service that syndicates content from more than 2500 publishers, is expanding further with a major new investment and a partnership with the NYT. It plans to use the money to expand globally. Read more »
Amazon Publishing is speeding up its royalty payments to authors, the company said in a letter to literary agents Monday. The full letter is printed below. Read more »
Twitter has teamed up with Turner Broadcasting and a startup to provide short video highlights from the NCAA March Madness games, showing again how the company is interesting in a variety of multimedia options. Read more »
Andrew Sullivan’s The Dish is tightening its paywall. Users will now be able to access 5 free “read-on” stories every 60 days, down from seven stories every 30 days. Read more »
The Washington Post, the last remaining paywall holdout among major newspapers, will begin charging for content this summer. The paywall, however, is set to be an extremely leaky one — meaning casual readers will have no trouble accessing the site. Read more »
TWiT’s Leo Laporte teamed up with YouTuber Lamarr Wilson for a new show called This Week In YouTube. The show is another sign of how far TWiT has come. Read more »
The Financial Times stands out in the news industry for its clever and aggressive switch to a digital revenue model. But while the paper is an inspiration, it’s not an example. Read more »
The Pew Center’s latest report on the state of the media shows the financial woes affecting the traditional news business continue, and this is having an effect on consumers — but there are a few bright spots as well. Read more »
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter fan site Pottermore is launching on Sony’s PlayStation Home. Pottermore CEO Charlie Redmayne said the partnership provides the “most immersive experience possible within that space.” Read more »
Sony is ending a price promotion that it had been running in its U.K. store since last July. The promotion sold select ebooks for just 20 pence, and Amazon matched the discounts on Kindle books in the U.K. Read more »
Content creators no longer need to brandish a Flattr button in order to receive micropayments through the service. All that’s needed is for a Flattr user to ‘like’ their video, tune or tweet. Read more at GigaOM »
