Friday is here, Data Sheet readers! Apple’s online storefront just got a facelift. IBM will pay $1 billion to buy medical imaging company Merge Healthcare. Plus, there’s a marked gender divide when it comes to teenagers’ social media habits. Celebrate this newsletter’s one-year birthday. Encourage a colleague to subscribe, and have a super weekend.
TOP OF MIND
Apple's subtle endorsement for in-context e-commerce. You'll no longer find a separate "store" tab on Apple's main web site. Instead, a "buy" link now appears alongside product descriptions that encourages browsers to transact. I'm sure the accessories and software companies that previously received prominent cyber shelf space aren't thrilled. Maybe they can make up the difference on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter. The latter is now up to 100,000 merchants for its "buy buttons."
TRENDING
Much to T-Mobile's chagrin, the FCC won't increase the wireless spectrum it will set aside for smaller carriers as part of the forthcoming auction next year.
Software giants spend big on big data. The $5.3 billion buyout of data integration company Informatica was completed Thursday. What's this? It turns out Microsoft and Salesforce Ventures are among the strategic investors. Meanwhile, IBM is paying $1 billion to shore up its healthcare analytics business. This time, the focus is on medical imaging.
Uber lawyer to California: Let's test the law first. The ride-sharing company wants to keep a lawsuit by three drivers over employment policies from turning into a class-action case that sets a risky precedent for the entire sharing economy.
Teenage boys and girls use social media in very different ways. Hint: It has a lot do with games. But their usage generally mirrors real world behavior. Close to 60% made at least one friend in the digital world first, and most have cyber friends they've never met.
THE DOWNLOAD
Why a judge let Apple off the hook for losing text messages
It feels like Apple got away with one. Even though a judge agreed the company hurt consumers by sending millions of text messages into a blackhole, the iPhone maker was still able to wriggle away from a class action lawsuit this week. It’s one of those cases where the court probably got the law right, but the outcome still feels unfair. Fortune writer Jeff John Roberts analyzes the ruling.
ALSO WORTH SHARING
Find a bug in Microsoft software, and you could earn up to $100,000.
Activist investor wants out. Elliott Management will dump its stock in a Samsung affiliate, after failing to thwart a forthcoming merger.
Zynga has fewer gamers, but they spent more money in its latest quarter.
You can social-stalk 35,000 brands in one place with this new mobile app. Plus, here is Twitter's 122-page playbook for managing social customer service as well as companies like Hilton.
Speculation abounds over a Google-Twitter merger, but antitrust concerns shouldn't get in the way.
A security update for Android device owners. There's a fix for the Stagefright bug. Now, worry about protecting the fingerprint sensor.
China and Russia aren't the only countries mulling tougher cybersecurity policies. The European Union is debating changes, including stricter data breach reporting requirements.
MY FORTUNE BOOKMARKS
Here's why Verizon is breaking into eSports by John Gaudiosi
This sport app wants to complete with ESPN, Twitter and WhatsApp by Daniel Roberts
Carly Fiorina won the early GOP debate—at least according to Google trends by Nina Easton
When Steve Jobs' ex-girlfriend asked him to pay $25 million for his "dishonorable behavior" by Peter Elkind
Hackers discover ways to crack into Apple devices by Jonathan Vanian
ONE MORE THING
Want to get into a Yankees home game faster? Just present your finger. The legendary sports franchise thinks biometrics technology can keep lines shorter.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
LinuxCon North America: All about open source. (Aug. 17 - 19; Seattle)
SuccessConnect: Simplify the way the world works. (Aug. 10 - 12; Las Vegas)
VMworld: The virtualization ecosystem. (Aug. 30 – Sept. 3, 2015; San Francisco)
Gartner Customer 360 Summit: Strategies for digital engagement. (Sept. 9 - 11; San Diego)
Dreamforce: The Salesforce community. (Sept. 15 - 18; San Francisco)
.conf2015: "Get your data on" with Splunk. (Sept. 21 - 24; Las Vegas)
Cassandra Summit: Largest gathering of Cassandra database developers. (Sept. 22 - 24; San Francisco)
nginx.conf: The modern web. (Sept. 22 - 24; San Francisco)
AppSec USA: Application security principles. (Sept. 22 - 25; San Francisco)
BoxWorks: Cloud collaboration solutions. (Sept. 28 - 30; San Francisco)
Workday Rising: Meet and share. (Sept. 28 - Oct. 1; Las Vegas)
Minds+Machines: GE's annual industrial Internet event. (Sept. 29 - Oct. 1; San Francisco)
HP Engage: Big data, big engagement. (Oct. 4 - 6; San Diego)
Gartner Symposium ITxpo: CIOs and senior IT executives. (Oct. 4 - 8; Orlando, Florida)
AWS re:Invent: The global Amazon Web services community. (Oct. 6 - 9; Las Vegas)
I Love APIs: Apigee's annual conference. (Oct. 12 - 14; San Jose, California)
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing: World's largest gather of women technologists. (Oct. 14 - 16; Houston)
DevOps Enterprise Summit: Lean principles meet technology management. (Oct. 19 - 21; San Francisco)
Dell World: Global conference for customers and partners. (Oct. 20 - 22; Austin, Texas)
CX San Francisco: Forrester's forum for customer experience professionals. (Oct. 22 - 23)
Oracle OpenWorld: Customer and partner conference. (Oct. 25 - 29; San Francisco)
TBM Conference: Manage IT like a business. (Oct. 26 - 29; Chicago)
eBusiness Chicago: eBusiness and channel strategy. (Oct. 29 - 30)
QuickBooks Connect: SMBs, entrepreneurs, accountants and developers. (Nov. 2 - 4; San Jose, California)
CMO+CIO: Forrester's summit on strategy collaboration. (Nov. 2 - 4; Sarasota, Florida)
Oktane: Identity management trends. (Nov. 2 - 4; Las Vegas)
FutureStack: Define your future with New Relic. (Nov. 11 - 13; San Francisco)
