Techmeme
June 27, 2013, 4:10 PM

Top News

Guardian:
NSA collected Americans' email records in bulk for two years under Obama  —  • Secret program launched by Bush continued ‘until 2011’  —  • Fisa court renewed collection order every 90 days  —  • Current NSA programs still mine US internet metadata
Guardian:
How the NSA is still harvesting your online data  —  Files show vast scale of current NSA metadata programs, with one stream alone celebrating ‘one trillion records processed’  —  A review of top-secret NSA documents suggests that the surveillance agency still collects and sifts through large quantities …
Tweets: @jeffjarvis and @ethanz
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Facebook announces Beta Program for its main Android app, ironically uses Google Groups  —  In a meeting with journalists today, Facebook announced it's offering a Beta Program for its app on Android, allowing users to test upcoming versions.  The first beta will be available today.
Facebook Engineering / Facebook:
Introducing the Facebook for Android Beta Testing Program  —  Android's openness, reach, and diversity create enormous opportunities for developers.  At Facebook, we've been able to utilize Android's flexibility to innovate in ways that aren't possible on other platforms, like building the first version of Home.
Joel Rosenblatt / Bloomberg:
Apple Can't Add Galaxy S4 to Samsung Patent Lawsuit  —  Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost its bid in a lawsuit to add Samsung Electronics (005930) Co.'s Galaxy S4 smartphone to a list of products it alleges to infringe its patents.  —  The decision yesterday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal …
Kevin Poulsen / Wired:
WikiLeaks Volunteer Was a Paid Informant for the FBI  —  On an August workday in 2011, a cherubic 18-year-old Icelandic man named Sigurdur “Siggi” Thordarson walked through the stately doors of the U.S. embassy in Reykjavík, his jacket pocket concealing his calling card: a crumpled photocopy of an Australian passport.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Yahoo News Gets A Makeover, But The Bigger Improvements Are Under The Hood  —  A little over a month after Yahoo partnered with Twitter to beef up its homepage news feed with relevant tweets from news organizations, the company is today announcing a major makeover for one of its flagship properties, Yahoo News.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Leaked Details Of Facebook's New Chat Rooms Feature  —  Facebook has built a new feature codenamed “Host Chat” that lets people set up chat rooms their friends can join without an invitation, a source familiar with the feature tells us.  I've contacted Facebook and it confirms it has begun testing this feature in the wild.
Billy Gallagher / TechCrunch:
Clinkle Raises Celebrity-Filled $25M Round As It Gears Up To Eliminate The Physical Wallet  —  Clinkle, a mobile payments startup that aims to put your entire wallet on your phone, has raised a $25 million round from over 18 investors.  —  The company, which has been in stealth mode since …
Stephen Shankland / CNET:
Google Now comes closer to Chrome, shares TV show info  —  The Android version of Google's notification system can reveal background about TV you're watching, and Google is wiring Now up to Chrome, too.  —  Chrome prompts users if they want to receive Google Now updates through their browser.
Digits:
Apple Spells Out iTunes Radio Terms for Record Labels  —  Ahead of its launch of an online radio service, Apple circulated terms to independent record labels last week, many of them more generous to the music companies than what rival Pandora Media currently pays.
Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:
Personal Assistant App Donna Goes Live, With Better Battery Performance And Instant Uber Requests  —  Personal assistant app Donna is ready to help simplify users' lives, and is being launched on the Apple App Store today to do just that.  With the general release also comes a few new features …
Greg Sandoval / The Verge:
Air attack: Aereo CEO talks up his tech, prepares Chicago launch  —  Armed with his DVRs and tiny antennas, Aereo says the shift in TV has begun  —  Chet Kanojia, Aereo's founder and CEO, strolls past the rows and rows of DVRs, TV antennas, and transcoders, and smiles when he recalls …
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Kickstarter Allowing Canada-Based Projects Beginning This Summer  —  Kickstarter just announced via its Twitter account that it will be opening up its crowdfunding platform for Canada-based projects as of “later this summer.”  Thus far, that's as specific as the company is getting …
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
Digg Reader Now Available On Digg's iOS App  —  Digg Reader, Digg's alternative for the RSS aggregation addicts who will be bereft when Google Reader finally shuts down on July 1, is now available on the Digg iOS app.  An Android app is expected to make its debut in the next three to four weeks.
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
TouchCast Wants You to Watch Web Video With Your Fingers  —  The problem with most Web video startups is that you've seen them before.  Another compilation of cheap clips posing as the next big cable channel.  Another solution for nonexistent “discovery” problems.  Another “Instagram for video” that won't be.
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Twitter #Music for iOS updated with genres, five new charts, and in-app Rdio authentication  —  Twitter today released the first update to its Twitter #Music app for iOS.  You can grab the new version now directly from Apple's App Store.  —  The biggest addition is undoubtedly genres …
Nick Summers / The Next Web:
Google will remove all Blogger sites that monetize adult content, from June 30  —  Google sent an email to Blogger users today warning them that their site will be removed at the end of the month if they do not remove all adverts and links to external sites hosting adult content.
Dana Wollman / Engadget:
Windows 8.1 in-depth hands-on: features, apps, impressions and screenshots  —  The last time we wrote about Windows 8.1, we had lots to talk about, but very little to share in the way of hands-on impressions.  You see, though Microsoft unveiled loads of new features, apps and UI tweaks …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
First clues emerge about Jelly, Twitter co-founder's mysterious new startup  —  On April 1st, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone posed a question on a company blog: “What is Jelly?”  The answer, he said, is a new company and product named after the jellyfish.  Unmentioned in the post is that Jelly …

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Is AI just hype?  —  Find out how top enterprises use Tribe to get real business results.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Zoho:
All new Zoho Workerly 2024  —  Staffing businesses around the world face a unique set of challenges when it comes to managing their temporary workforce.  With a constantly shifting job market and changing staffing needs …
Comprehensive.io:
Browse salary data from 3,000 startups for free  —  Click for FREE, immediate access to real-time compensation benchmarking data.  Paid version helps HR automate comp reviews and communicate total compensation to employees.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Henry Shukman, Lessons from an Authentic Zen Master
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Thu. 03/28 - Claude 3 Opus Surpasses GPT-4 For The First Time
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:10 PM ET, June 27, 2013.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Haris Ramic / Google LatLong:

Earlier Picks

Tim Westergren / Pandora Blog: