Techmeme: Facebook tests new version of Offers to increase conversions, give users control when they share with friends (Brittany Darwell/Inside Facebook)

February 19, 2013, 8:20 AM

Top News

Chinese Army Unit Is Seen as Tied to Hacking Against U.S. — On the outskirts of Shanghai, in a run-down neighborhood dominated by a 12-story white office tower, sits a People's Liberation Army base for China's growing corps of cyberwarriors. — The building off Datong Road …

Josh Ong / The Next Web:

Security firm releases screen capture video of alleged Chinese military hackers at work — Security firm Mandiant has released a damning report offering unprecedented evidence, including screen capture video, of the actions of an alleged Chinese military-backed hacking group.

More: TG Daily and Tech in Asia. Tweets: @nikcub. Thanks:@epro

Associated Press:

China calls US hacking allegations ‘groundless’ — BEIJING (AP) — China has dismissed as “groundless” detailed allegations pointing to a Chinese military unit in Shanghai as the source of massive computer hacking of U.S. targets. — Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei was responding …

More: SlashGear. Tweets: @stshank

David Law / The Microsoft Office Blog:

Outlook.com leaves preview as the world's fastest growing email service going from 0 to 60 million in just 6 months — Last summer, we released a preview of Outlook.com, a new modern email service from Microsoft. Since then, we've been humbled by the fast pace of adoption …

More: ZDNet, digitaltrends.com, Mashable!, Computerworld, SlashGear, Neowin, The Official Microsoft Blog, Techie Buzz, LiveSide.net and WinBeta. Thanks:@ryanburk

Dana Wollman / Engadget:

Outlook.com exits preview with 60 million active users, Hotmail UI to be retired this summer — It's been so long since Microsoft launched Outlook.com that we forgot it was technically in preview mode. Well, that ended today, at 12:01AM ET on the dot. The company just announced …

More: Microsoft, The Next Web, Inquirer, The Verge, BetaNews, Bloomberg, CNET, Electronista, TechCrunch, memeburn and GeekWire. Tweets: @theromit

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

You can download Firefox 19 for Windows, Mac, and Linux right now; official launch tomorrow — Firefox 19 for desktop is due to officially launch on Tuesday, with long-anticipated built-in PDF viwer, but the latest version is already available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

More: BetaNews, WinBeta, MacRumors, Pocket-lint, Neowin and Electronista

Chris Ziegler / The Verge:

Galaxy S IV will ‘definitely’ be announced on March 14th: sources — Expect it to take design cues from the Galaxy Note 8.0, which doesn't look like the leaks — Earlier today, mobile-review's Eldar Murtazin suggested on Twitter that March 14th would see a “big announcement,” …

Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:

Microsoft quietly raises prices of Mac Office by up to 17% — Dumps multi-license packages, all to make Office 365's subscription pricing more attractive — Microsoft has quietly raised prices of Office for the Mac as much as 17% and stopped selling multi-license packages of the application suite.

More: CNET, Neowin, Ars Technica, TUAW, 9to5Mac, ZDNet and MacNN

Antonio Regalado / MIT Technology Review:

Miguel Nicolelis Says the Brain is Not Computable, Bashes Kurzweil's Singularity — A leading neuroscientist says Kurzweil's Singularity isn't going to happen. Instead, humans will assimilate machines. — Miguel Nicolelis, a top neuroscientist at Duke University, says computers …

More: The Verge

Steve Lohr / NYT Bits:

Software Assistants for Doctors Are Making Progress — Doctors have long been in the high-stakes information management business. They must quickly sort through a patient's symptoms, comments, test results, records and history to come up with a diagnosis.

Tim Carmody / The Verge:

Why Intel could be the company to finally crack internet TV — Everyone else has tried, now it's the chipmaker's turn — Intel? Really? There were rumors and reports for months that Intel was mounting a play for internet TV, but there was always an element of implausibility to them.

More: Forbes

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: In Yet Another Internal Hire, Yahoo's Mayer Makes Mann Search Head — Longtime Yahoo techie Laurence “Laurie” Mann, who has recently been SVP of engineering operations at the Silicon Valley Internet giant, has been given the new job of heading its search efforts, according to sources inside the company.

Brittany Darwell / Inside Facebook:

Facebook tests new version of Offers to increase conversions, give users control when they share with friends — Facebook is testing a new version of its Offers product, which gives users the option to shop immediately or get a reminder before the promotion ends.

More: Marketing Land and WebProNews

Peter Farago / The Flurry Blog:

China Knocks Off U.S. to Become World's Top Smart Device Market — Just days into the Chinese New Year (Year of the “Snake” for anyone keeping track), China has passed the U.S. to become the world's top country for active Android and iOS smartphones and tablets.

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

U.K.'s First 4G Network Not Overrun With LTE Early Adopters — Just 201k Total 3G & 4G Postpaid Adds In Q4 — Being first to 4G may not be quite the advantage EE may have hoped. The U.K.'s first 4G network was up and running at the end of October last year but EE, the joint venture combining …

More: ZDNet, Engadget, Inquirer, Guardian, Telegraph, Sky News and Reuters

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Fujitsu Finally Enters Europe's Smartphone Market With A Senior-Focused Android Device With France Telecom, Starting In June — It was exactly a year ago that news began to surface of Fujitsu's intention to come to Europe with its Android-based smartphones.

More: Fugitsu, Engadget, ZDNet, GigaOM, digitaltrends.com, CNET, Softpedia News, Electronista, Phones Review and The Verge

Associated Press:

Burger King Twitter account back up after Monday afternoon hacking; company apologizes — Associated Press - This frame grab taken Monday, Feb. 18, 2013, shows what appears to be Burger King's Twitter account after it was apparently hacked. Starting just after noon Eastern time on Monday …

More: Gizmodo, CNET, TechCrunch, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic Wire, BetaNews, The Next Web, TIME, Slate, Guardian, ABCNEWS, Digiday, Reuters, Business Insider, TG Daily, Business Insider, Business Insider, The Verge, Zennie62, GigaOM, SiliconBeat, Digits, The Raw Story, Mashable!, NBC Bay Area, Geekosystem, memeburn, ReadWrite and AllThingsD

Tweets: @mcdonalds, @burgerking, @amyrosebrown, @davepell, @samfbiddle, @drew, @fwd and @ischafer

Joseph Stromberg / Surprising Science:

Any Two Pages on the Web Are Connected By 19 Clicks or Less — The Opte Project creates visualizations of the 14 billion pages that make up the network of the web. Image via Opte Project — No one knows for sure how many individual pages are on the web, but right now, it's estimated that there are more than 14 billion.

More: Telegraph, TG Daily, Gizmodo, Mashable! and ANIMAL

Josh Ong / The Next Web:

Alibaba's new Aliyun search engine raises the stakes in its feud with Google and Android — Chinese ecommerce leader Alibaba has rolled out its own search engine in a move that will likely deepen the animosity between it and Google. — Last year, Google took action against Alibaba's Aliyun OS ahead …

More: The Register, Computerworld, memeburn, Tech in Asia, The Sinocism China Newsletter, Marbridge Consulting, ZDNet and Seeking Alpha

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Rackspace Blog:

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