Techmeme: Apple's Tim Cook, tech execs meet with Barack Obama to talk surveillance (Tony Romm/Politico)

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August 9, 2013, 2:20 PM

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Tony Romm / Politico:

Apple's Tim Cook, tech execs meet with Barack Obama to talk surveillance — President Barack Obama hosted Apple CEO Tim Cook, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Google computer scientist Vint Cerf and other tech executives and civil liberties leaders on Thursday for a closed-door meeting about government surveillance, sources tell POLITICO.

Guardian:

NSA loophole allows warrantless search for US citizens' emails and phone calls — Exclusive: Spy agency has secret backdoor permission to search databases for individual Americans' communications — The National Security Agency has a secret backdoor into its vast databases under …

More: CNET and Techdirt. Tweets: @trevortimm, @stuartmillar159 and @jamesrbuk

Mark Rumold / Electronic Frontier Foundation:

What It Means to Be An NSA “Target”: New Information Shows Why We Need Immediate FISA Amendments Act Reform

More: Softpedia News. Tweets: @onejarednewman and @wagenet

Jonathan Allen / Reuters:

NSA to cut system administrators by 90 percent to limit data access

More: VentureBeat, TechWeekEurope UK, Gizmodo, The Huffington Post, The Verge, GigaOM and The Register

Tweets: @kpoulsen, @zeynep, @haroonmeer, @trevortimm, @xor, @evacide and @abrams

Reuters:

Deutsche Telekom snubs U.S. email servers after snooping scandal

More: Deutsche Telekom and The Verge

Russell Holly / Geek.com:

Asus to manufacture Nexus 10 refresh — The largest of Google's three Nexus devices is soon due for a refresh, and it looks like Asus will be the manufacturer this time around. — Google's Nexus program is something of a bidding war in the planning stages.

More: Digital Trends, Computerworld, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, GigaOM, 9to5Google, The Verge, AndroidHeadlines.com, AndroidGuys, Droid Life, Gotta Be Mobile, Unwired View, PhoneArena, TechnoBuffalo, SlashGear, Phones Review and Android Beat

Chance Miller / 9to5Google:

Report: Motorola to produce new Nexus device, will be released in Q4 — According to a new Google+ post from Taylor Wimberly, who was spot on with his Moto X Phone leaks, Motorola and Google are planning to team up on the next Nexus device. Wimberly says the device will be released in Q4 …

More: VentureBeat, Los Angeles Times, GigaOM, WebProNews, BGR and Phones Review

Reuters:

Exclusive: BlackBerry open to going private, sources say — (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd is warming up to the possibility of going private, as the smartphone maker battles to revive its fortunes, several sources familiar with the situation said. — Chief Executive Thorsten Heins …

More: Quartz, BGR, VatorNews, Computerworld, TheStreet.com, Inquirer, Fortune, VentureBeat, InvestorPlace, MoneyBeat, WindowsITPro, TechnoBuffalo, CrackBerry.com, ZDNet, Financial Post, PhoneArena, BGR India, MobileSyrup.com, The Register, DailyFinance.com, TechCrunch, n4bb.com, SlashGear, Engadget, Fudzilla and Electronista

Tweets: @acinvestorblog and @lessien

Sinan Kubba / Joystiq:

Rumor: Amazon developing Android console to release this year — Online retail giant Amazon will enter the Android console market later this year, according to Game Informer sources. In a brief report, the site claims people with “knowledge of the in-development hardware” …

More: Game Informer, Forbes, PC Magazine, Ars Technica, Pocket-lint, Android and Me, Gotta Be Mobile, TechSpot, InvestorPlace and VG247

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Armstrong Confirms “Hundreds” Of Layoffs At Patch, 400 Sites Shuttered Or Partnered Off, And A New CEO — We reported yesterday that AOL's hyper-local news service would lose hundreds of employees today, and now we have confirmation from a well-placed Patcher privy to the call …

More: JIMROMENESKO.COM, ZDNet, Bloomberg, Business Insider, AllThingsD and Betabeat

Tweets: @goborrell, @edmundlee and @zseward

See also Mediagazer

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

In ebook case, Apple wants a stay, and DOJ argues publishers are conspiring again — In advance of a Friday afternoon conference where a federal judge, Apple and the DOJ will meet to discuss Apple's punishment in the ebook pricing case, both sides submitted new filings and Kobo and the Consumer Federation of America jumped in as well.

More: AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, The Verge, MacRumors, Macgasm, Electronista, iDownloadBlog.com and iClarified. See also Mediagazer

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

Twitter #music app gets new ways to discover artists, scans iPhone library for personalized recommendations — Twitter updated its Twitter #music iPhone app today with several new ways to discover new artists in addition to personalized recommendations based on the content in your iPhone's music library.

More: The Next Web and The Verge

Phone Arena:

New Google Nexus 7 having GPS problems — Several owners of the new Google Nexus 7 have resorted to posting on online forums about a problem they are having with their new tablet. The problem has to do with the GPS system on the slate. According to one owner of the new Nexus 7 …

More: Ars Technica, CNET, 9to5Google, Phones Review, SlashGear, Engadget, Softpedia News and Electronista

Chris O'Brien / Los Angeles Times:

Apple faces three major legal showdowns Friday — Apple and Samsung continue to their legal squabbles over which company is the innovator and which one is the copycat. (Park Ji-Hwan / AFP/Getty Images / July 27, 2010) — Get your legal scorecard ready.

More: New York Times, Digits, everythingiCafe, TUAW, Macworld and AllThingsD. Tweets: @reckless

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Silent Circle Preemptively Shuts Down Encrypted Email Service To Prevent NSA Spying — “We knew USG would come after us”. That's why Silent Circle CEO Michael Janke tells TechCrunch his company shut down its Silent Mail encrypted email service. It hadn't been told to provide data to the government …

Kashmir Hill / Forbes:

Email Company Reportedly Used By Edward Snowden Shuts Down Rather Than Hand Data Over To Feds

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Apple to judges: not banning Samsung products would be a ‘fundamental change’ in patent law — Long after Apple's victory over Samsung in a patent suit, the two companies met again today in court as a panel of judges decides whether to issue a sales ban on over two dozen Samsung devices.

More: Bloomberg and Macworld

Benedict Evans:

Amazon's profits — The problem with Amazon is not that it doesn't make a profit, but that you don't actually know what the profits are. — On the face of it, this sounds like an absurd statement - it doesn't make any profits. After all, look at this chart - massive revenue growth, zero profit.

More: TechCrunch, asymco, Beyond Search, Tech.pinions and stratechery

Tweets: @joshconstine, @tomgara, @cvharquail, @stevecheney, @tylerrooney, @soundboy and @carnage4life

Thanks:@joshconstine

Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:

Why Google Glass costs $1,500 now and will likely be around $299 later — If the $1,500 price tag for Google Glass is a budget buster for you, don't give up hope just yet. When the wearable gadget arrives on the consumer market it could cost as little as $299 according to Topology Research's Jason Tsai …

More: TechHive, Softpedia News, SlashGear, Marketing Land, Geek.com, Android Community, PhoneArena, Gotta Be Mobile and AndroidHeadlines.com

Phil Nickinson / Android Central:

Google Wallet pulling support for gift, loyalty cards — A little bit of bad news tonight if you use Google Wallet for gift cards and loyalty cards. According to an e-mail that just went out, support for NFC redemption of gift cards and loyalty cards will end on Aug. 21.

More: GigaOM, The Next Web, Engadget, 9to5Google, MobileBurn.com and Softpedia News

Wall Street Journal:

Nervous About Backlash, Facebook Moves Cautiously on Video Ads — CEO Zuckerberg Tries to Find Right Balance for Users and Advertisers — Facebook has been planning for months to dive into the lucrative market for online video ads. The holdup: CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn't want to annoy its 1.1 billion members.

More: Digits, The Atlantic Wire, Mashable, The Next Web, WebProNews and The Register. Tweets: @aoladvertising

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Google's Charitable Donations Android App “One Today” Exits Pilot — One Today, the charitable giving app Google launched into pilot testing this April, is today publicly available to all Android users in the U.S., the company announced this morning. The app, sort of like a Kickstarter …

More: Google for Nonprofits Blog and Engadget

Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint:

Nexus 7 2 release date UK: Asus confirm 28 August — The Nexus 7 2, or 2nd generation Nexus 7 as it is also known, will launch in the UK on 28 August, Asus has confirmed to Pocket-lint. The UK release date comes just one month after the US launch, but ahead of previous suggestions by retailers in the UK...

More: The Verge, The Next Web, TechnoBuffalo, Android Authority, Softpedia News, www.idigitaltimes.co.uk, Digital Trends, Android Beat, AndroidOS.in, Electronista, Engadget, Android Authority and Crave

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