Techmeme
August 31, 2013, 12:05 PM

Top News

Washington Post:
U.S. spy agencies mounted 231 offensive cyber-operations in 2011, documents show  —  U.S. intelligence services carried out 231 offensive cyber-operations in 2011, the leading edge of a clandestine campaign that embraces the Internet as a theater of spying, sabotage and war …
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Feds plow $10 billion into “groundbreaking” crypto-cracking program  —  The federal government is pouring almost $11 billion per year into a 35,000-employee program dedicated to “groundbreaking” methods to decode encrypted messages such as e-mails, according to an intelligence black budget published by The Washington Post.
More: ComputerworldTweets: @suffert
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Scoop: Google acquired WIMM Labs to bolster its own smartwatch plans  —  Watch out, Samsung: Google has some smartwatch development projects of its own, and it quietly snapped up Los Altos, Calif.-based WIMM Labs last year to kickstart these efforts.  WIMM Labs not only gives Google the talent …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Doctape Launches Standalone File Viewer App For iOS With Support For 80+ File Types  —  German cloud storage and file management startup doctape has launched a new standalone iOS app aimed at making it easier for iPhone and iPad users to view file types not supported natively by iOS.
Microsoft:
Microsoft and ValueAct Capital sign cooperation agreement  —  Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has signed a cooperation agreement with ValueAct Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm with $12 billion in assets under management that beneficially owns approximately .8 percent …
Brad Smith / TechNet Blogs:
Standing Together for Greater Transparency  —  General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft  —  To followers of technology issues, there are many days when Microsoft and Google stand apart.  But today our two companies stand together.
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple blocking support personnel vacations from Sept. 15-28 for launch of new iPhones & iOS 7  —  AppleCare employees have been restricted from taking time off for a two-week period, from Sept. 15 through 28 — a span during which Apple is expected to launch its new iPhone lineup, as well as the revamped iOS 7 mobile operating system.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Target Ticket, Target's Video Download & Rental Service, Nears Launch  —  Target's answer to Walmart's Vudu, Netflix, and iTunes, is preparing to launch.  Employees at the Minneapolis-headquartered retailer were told this week that Target Ticket, as the service is called …
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Syrian Electronic Army ‘Hack’ Of The NYTimes Was The Exact Remedy MPAA Demanded With SOPA  —  There were many, many concerns related to SOPA and PIPA when they were proposed, but the absolute biggest was the use of DNS blocking as a “remedy” against sites where it was alleged that infringement was a primary purpose.
More: FortuneTweets: @alisternburg and @robpegoraro
Kelli B. Grant / CNBC:

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Earlier Picks

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD: