Techmeme
September 28, 2013, 6:10 PM

Top News

New York Times:
N.S.A. Gathers Data on Social Connections of U.S. Citizens  —  WASHINGTON — Since 2010, the National Security Agency has been exploiting its huge collections of data to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans' social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times …
Globe and Mail:
Inside the fall of BlackBerry: How the smartphone inventor failed to adapt  —  This investigative report reveals that:  — Shortly after the release of the first iPhone, Verizon asked BlackBerry to create a touchscreen “iPhone killer.”  But the result was a flop, so Verizon turned to Motorola and Google instead.
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Exclusive video: Steve Ballmer's intense, tearful goodbye to Microsoft  —  Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has always been a speaker and performer like no other — his absolute enthusiasm for his company is electric in person, turning ordinary corporate events into raw displays of emotion …
Marco Arment / Marco.org:
In an App Store filled with free alternatives, it's over for paid-up-front apps  —  Underscore Price Dynamics  —  Every iOS developer needs to listen to _DavidSmith's most recent podcast episode, Real World Price Dynamics with Lauren Smith (it's just 22 minutes).
More: iMoreTweets: @viticci and @eugenewei
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
JustFab's Checkout Tactics Are JustShady  —  This Hacker News complaint about JustFab scamming a user's girlfriend — which gets resubmitted whenever JustFab raises money — is a little off, because JustFab is not a scam in the traditional sense.  —  The company is, however, abusing a tricky UI …
More: Valleywag and Gawker
Farhad Manjoo / Co.Design:
How Google Taught Itself Good Design  —  “I had just assumed that Google was hostile to designers,” says Matias Duarte one afternoon this summer.  We're in a drab Google conference room at the Plex, and Duarte sports a red-and-yellow floral-print shirt, skinny khaki pants, and a pair of white sunglasses.
Phone Arena:
ABI Research: Android taking over the tablet market from iOS  —  According to ABI Research, there has been a change in the global tablet market.  The Apple iPad, which has been credited with creating the tablet category with the launch of the OG version in 2010, has “passed the baton to the Android ecosystem …
Christina Farr / VentureBeat:
Palantir just raised a massive $196M, filing shows  —  Palantir investor Peter Thiel speaking to a roomful of interns at the San Francisco Exploratorium.  —  Shadowy data-mining startup Palantir closed over $196 million in funding, according to an SEC filing.
Barb Darrow / GigaOM:
Evernote teams up with Saleforce.com on collaboration app  —  Evernote wants to entrench its note-taking and sharing application more in businesses and hopes that a new Salesforce.com version will help it do so.  Evernote for Salesforce, which debuts Friday at the Evernote Conference …

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Featured Podcasts

The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Naughty Citizen', With Quinn Nelson
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
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Big Technology Podcast:
2025 In Review, 2026 Predictions — With Reed Albergotti
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt's Second Act: Less Budget, More Control
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
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Great Chat:
The stories we told ourselves in 2025
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
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