John Shinal / CNBC:
Report: Google has bought 52 properties in Sunnyvale, California, for $820M to fill in gaps near other campuses  —  - The report comes one month after Google won exclusive rights with the city of San Jose to buy land there.  — Google, which said earlier this week it now has more than 72,000 employees …

Miles Brignall / The Guardian:
UK regulator says Airbnb customers who leave early or decide not to to stay in accommodation will be able to leave a review starting August 31  —  Accommodation website to allow guests who leave before the end of stay to post comments in bid to expose poor-quality listings

Paul Thurrott / Thurrott.com:
Microsoft makes Windows 10 S available to developers and education users ahead of wider rollout  —  Microsoft announced today that it will make Windows 10 S available to developers and education customers.  But sorry, Windows Insiders and other enthusiasts: It will not make Windows 10 S available for testing to consumers.

Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Google hires Liron Damir, head of UX at Andy Rubin's Essential, to lead UX for Google Home; Damir was VP of design at Pebble prior to Google  —  Google has hired a former lead Pebble and webOS designer Liron Damir as the new head of user experience of its Google Home group …

Reuters:
Google says it aims to train 10M Africans in online skills over the next five years, alongside 100K software developers in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa  —  LAGOS (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google aims to train 10 million people in Africa in online skills over the next five years in an effort …

Kurt Wagner / Recode:
Estimate places Twitter's DAUs at 157M in Q2 2017, extrapolated from a Q2 2015 figure, up from 140M DAUs in Q2 2016  —  Twitter talks a lot about DAU growth but doesn't break out any hard numbers, so we did our own estimate.  —  For the past six months, Twitter has been selling investors …

Rita El Khoury / Android Police:
LG's mobile division lost $117.2M in Q2, down from a $132M loss in Q2 2016, on $2.39B revenue; LG blames “weaker than expected” G6 sales  —  LG Home Appliance and Air Solutions Company Again Leads All Business Units;  —  Overall Profitability and Revenues Up Despite Challenging Quarter for Mobiles

Joseph Menn / Reuters:
Sources: Facebook traced accounts targeting Macron to tools used in past by Russia's GRU; 70K French propaganda or spam accounts closed, up from 30K in April  —  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Russian intelligence agents attempted to spy on President Emmanuel Macron's election campaign earlier …

Kif Leswing / Business Insider:
Apple confirms it has discontinued iPod nano and iPod shuffle; iPod touch now starts at 32GB for $199, 128GB for $299  —  Apple updated its iPod lineup on Thursday and discontinued the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle.  —  They were the last two iPods that didn't run iOS, the same software on the iPhone.

Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple Discontinues iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle  —  Apple today removed the iPod nano and iPod shuffle from its website and online store around the world, and it has since confirmed the iconic portable media players have been discontinued.  Apple continues to sell the iPod touch with updated pricing …