Techmeme: Become a Crime-Fighting Superhero in Your Spare Time (Ryan Tate/Wired)

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December 27, 2012, 5:40 AM

Top News

New York Times:

Signs of Changes Taking Hold in Electronics Factories in China — CHENGDU, China — One day last summer, Pu Xiaolan was halfway through a shift inspecting iPad cases when she received a beige wooden chair with white stripes and a high, sturdy back. — At first, Ms. Pu wondered if someone had made a mistake.

More: The Verge, CNET and New York Times

Tweets: @greenhousenyt and @newsbeagle

Ryan Tate / Wired:

Become a Crime-Fighting Superhero in Your Spare Time — Chris Goodroe doesn't do Facebook, and he doesn't do Twitter. Online socializing isn't his thing. But after watching his neighbors use the internet to bust a pair of burglars earlier this year, the Oakland attorney decided …

More: SlashGear. Tweets: @wired_business and @lasas

Carl Franzen / TPM IdeaLab:

Netflix ‘Social Features’ Coming In 2013, Once President Signs Bill — Netflix will introduce “social features” for U.S. users in 2013, the company told TPM Wednesday, following a bill passed by Congress just before the holiday break that removes previous restrictions that prevented companies from sharing customer video rental history.

More: The Verge, TechCrunch, CNET, digitaltrends.com, VentureBeat, The Next Web, Electronista and Lifehacker

Greg Bensinger / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon's Server Snafu Rattles Netflix, Other Customers — Amazon.com Inc.'s latest technical glitch—interrupting service for Netflix Inc. and others—is causing some companies to rethink their reliance on the Seattle-based company for the bulk of their Web-computing needs.

More: New York Times and Reuters

David Kravets / Wired:

Feds Requiring ‘Black Boxes’ in All Motor Vehicles — Federal regulators are proposing that new automobiles sold in the United States after September 2014 come equipped with black boxes, so-called “event data recorders” that chronicle everything from how fast a vehicle was traveling, the number of passengers and even a car's location.

More: Ubergizmo and VentureBeat

New York Times:

Real and Virtual Firearms Nurture a Marketing Link — As Electronic Arts prepared to market Medal of Honor Warfighter, the latest version of its top-selling video game released in October, it created a Web site that promoted the manufacturers of the guns, knives and combat-style gear depicted in the game.

More: digitaltrends.com, Polygon, SlashGear, GamePolitics blogs, Forbes and Business Insider

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Gracenote's Ad Replacement System That Personalizes TV Commercials Will Start Trials In 2013 — Most TV commercials are poorly targeted and show things you'd never buy. But not for long. Gracenote's new ad replacement system combines viewing habits with personal info to show you more relevant commercials.

More: VentureBeat and The Verge

Pui-Wing Tam / Wall Street Journal:

Venture Capital to Suppress Its Appetite for Risk in 2013 — Internet entrepreneurs have had the upper hand over venture capitalists in recent years but that balance of power is now showing some signs of shifting, a trend that could accelerate in 2013. — Spurring the change …

More: Venture Capital Dispatch

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Samsung's ChatON messaging service gets multi-device syncing, improved tablet support and more — This year has been a breakthrough one for mobile messaging apps, and Samsung is closing out 2012 with a major update to its own cross-platform service ChatON. The Korean electronics firm …

More: SAMSUNG TOMORROW Global and TechCrunch

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Hulu's Employee Owners Are Just Employees Again, Which Means Some May Be Ex-Employees Soon — Hulu's employees used to be owners, too. But those days are over, so they're going to have be happy with a paycheck and some bonuses. — That's the upshot of a new long-term incentive plan I'm told the video site is prepping.

Jake Smith / 9to5Mac:

Apple reportedly moving Mac mini production to US with Foxconn — Digitimes has shed more light on CEO Tim Cook's early December announcement that a Mac line's production will move to the United States in 2013 courtesy of a $100 million investment. According to the hit-and-miss publication this evening …

More: DigiTimes, iDownloadBlog.com, MacRumors, CNET, Techie Buzz, The Verge, iPhone Hacks, AppleInsider and MacDailyNews

Richard Lai / Engadget:

Nubia Z5 unveiled in China with quad-core chip, 5-inch 1080p display and 7.6mm thickness — Much like many Chinese smartphone brands these days, ZTE sub-brand Nubia had prematurely given away the main selling points of its Z5 ahead of its Beijing launch today, but there were still some surprises.

More: Unwired View, BGR, CNET, The Droid Guy, Android Community, LAPTOP Magazine, IntoMobile, GadgeTell, Electronista, Ubergizmo and PhoneArena

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