Techmeme
July 12, 2013, 8:30 AM

Top News

Guardian:
Revealed: how Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages  —  • Secret files show scale of Silicon Valley co-operation on Prism  —  • Outlook.com encryption unlocked even before official launch  —  • Skype worked to enable Prism collection of video calls
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft is cutting the price of its Surface RT tablets, base model to cost $349  —  Microsoft is planning to cut the price of its Surface RT tablets.  Sources familiar with Microsoft's Surface plans have revealed to The Verge that the price cut could occur as early as next week, with each model being cut by $150.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Google Will Shut Down Alfred, The Local Recommendations App, July 19  —  Looks like Latitude wasn't the only Google product that got shut down yesterday in the wake of a new version of Google Maps.  Alfred, the local recommendations app that Google picked up through its acquisition …
Julie Bort / Business Insider:
Chairman Eric Schmidt: Google's Relationship With Apple Has Improved  —  On Thursday, Google chairman Eric Schmidt revealed a surprising thing: Google's relationship with Apple has improved after many meetings, he said.  —  He praised Apple alongside Google saying, “These are two proud, well-run, different companies.”
The Coinbase Blog:
Instant Bitcoin Purchases at Coinbase  —  You know what's really satisfying?  Being able to buy Bitcoin without a lot of hassle.  That's what Coinbase has always let you do.  But you know what's really awesome?  Being able to buy Bitcoin instantly, on-demand, any time you want …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Following Amazon And Netflix, Rakuten Is Expanding Its Wuaki Video Service Across Europe; First Stop UK  —  E-commerce giant Rakuten, often called the Amazon of Japan, is taking another step in a bid to square up to is rival: today it is officially launching a beta of its Wuaki video streaming service …
David Meyer / GigaOM:
AT&T and Verizon lose bid to maintain secrecy of French interconnection deals  —  AT&T and Verizon have failed in their attempt to block the French telecoms regulator from examining their secret interconnection agreements - deals that may be key to the erosion of net neutrality.
More: arcep.fr, CNET and Engadget
Harry McCracken / TIME:
PCWorld Exits Print, and the Era of Computer Magazines Ends  —  The last of the big general-interest PC magazines is no longer a magazine.  —  By Harry McCracken @harrymccrackenJuly 11, 2013  —  The news isn't shocking.  In fact, it's sort of a shock it didn't happen several years ago.
More: The Verge, ZDNet and ParisLemonTweets: @shonaghosh
Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:
More Moves Abroad for Twitter's Top Brass as Three Execs Head Overseas  —  Three of Twitter's top execs are moving away from the company's headquarters in San Francisco, charged with overseeing international offices across multiple countries.  —  The changes, noted in the three executives' Twitter profiles …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Verizon joins Ubuntu's potential smartphone launch partners  —  Verizon will help “shape” Ubuntu phone OS, possibly sell the phones.  Verizon Wireless today joined Canonical's “Ubuntu Carrier Advisory Group (CAG),” meaning the company is exploring smartphones based on Ubuntu.
Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
NSA's Snowden case review focuses on possible access to China espionage files, officials say  —  A National Security Agency internal review of damage caused by the former contractor Edward Snowden has focused on a particular area of concern: the possibility that he gained access to sensitive files …
Tweets: @pierre
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
YouWeb Founder Peter Relan Debuts New Company Building Studio And Accelerator, 9+; Raises $2M In Funding  —  As we reported a couple of weeks ago, serial entrepreneur Peter Relan is sunsetting his gaming and mobile focused incubator YouWeb, which spawned Crowdstar, Agawi, Spaceport, OpenFeint and others.
Sarah Silbert / Engadget:
In Amazon dispute, EU Court of Justice rules that levies on blank CDs can be collected ‘in some cases’  —  Amazon's spent quite a bit of time in court as of late; in addition to a recently settled trademark dispute with Apple, a row with an Austrian copyright collection agency is keeping the e-tailer busy.
David Kravets / Wired:
RIAA Wants Infamous File-Sharer to Campaign Against Piracy  —  Did you hear the one about the world's most infamous music file-sharer being asked to publicly extol the virtues of the Recording Industry Association of America's anti-piracy platform?  —  The RIAA is suggesting Jammie Thomas-Rasset do just that.
jessica lessin:
Andreessen Says Foreign Web Co.'s Could Take Advantage of Prism Fallout  —  SUN VALLEY, Idaho- Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen said in an interview that U.S. Internet companies may lose business to foreign competitors following revelations about Prism, the government data-mining effort.
Tweets: @jessicalessin
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
New peak: Amazon shares surpass $300 for first time  —  The rapid growth of Amazon.com was echoed Thursday on Wall Street, as the company's stock briefly topped $300 for the first time ever during the trading session.  Shares rose $7.27, or 2.5 percent, to close at $299.60.
More: CNET and Quartz
Josh Ong / The Next Web:
Pebble passes 275,000 pre-orders and 1M app downloads, says Gmail and IMAP support coming  —  Smartwatch maker Pebble has announced passing 275,000 device preorders and 1 million app downloads and is making a renewed commitment to its development platform, promising to help third-party …

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI that works  —  Tribe builds tech for top AI companies.  Get in touch to learn how our bench of 500+ engineers and researchers can accelerate your roadmap.
Kulkan Security:
Hire Kulkan as your penetration testing partner  —  Kulkan prioritizes deep-dive manual security reviews, dissecting your software and infrastructure to find issues that once remediated can truly reduce security risk.
Zoho:
Environmental impact of remote support: Reducing carbon footprints in IT  —  Information technology is essential for powering core business processes and facilitating communication.
Mastodon:
Donate to Mastodon  —  Mastodon gGmbH, the non-profit behind the open-source software powering the social web, relies entirely on support from users like you.  Donate directly with a credit card or through Patreon.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Magatte Wade, Unlocking Prosperity in Africa (#53)
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 04/19 - All The News About Llama 3
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 8:30 AM ET, July 12, 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

Earlier Picks