Techmeme
October 11, 2013, 11:25 AM

Top News

Ryan Gallagher / Guardian:
Skype under investigation in Luxembourg over link to NSA  —  Ten years ago, the calling service had a reputation as a tool for evading surveillance but now it is under scrutiny for covertly passing data to government agencies  —  Skype is being investigated by Luxembourg's data protection commissioner …
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Google to sunset Google TV brand as its smart TV platform merges with Android  —  Google TV is dead, long live Android TV: Three years after launching the first generation of Google TV devices, Google is now looking to rid itself of the brand and realign its smart TV platform efforts more closely with Android.
Financial Post:
Apple Inc looks to poach BlackBerry Ltd workers in Waterloo  —  Apple Inc. has all but destroyed BlackBerry Ltd.'s business model and now it's after the Canadian company's decimated workforce.  —  Just days after BlackBerry Ltd. revealed plans to lay off 40% of its global workforce amid …
Miguel Helft / Fortune:
Sheryl Sandberg: The real story  —  The motorcade that snaked through 1 Hacker Way earlier this year surprised even jaded Facebook employees, who are used to on-campus celebrity sightings and visits from politicians and world leaders.  So a few days later, at the question-and-answer session …
Brandon Bailey / Mercury News:
Zuckerberg buys four houses near his Palo Alto home  —  PALO ALTO — Living the fantasy of every homeowner who's faced the prospect of a nuisance project next door, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has bought four homes adjacent to his own 5-bedroom crash pad in one of Palo Alto's toniest neighborhoods.
Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:
Chrome rises from 1.5% to 3% of iOS use since June 2012 launch  —  After stagnating for months, usage of Google's Chrome browser for iOS in North America is on the rise.  According to data from its ad network, Chitika says Chrome for iOS has climbed to 3 percent of iOS web traffic on the network as of the end of September.
John Koetsier / VentureBeat:
Apple iWatch is actually a home automation play, not a smartphone companion (analyst)  —  Nov. 12 - 13, 2013  —  Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch launched a couple of weeks ago as a fat, ugly, and expensive smartphone accessory that our own Devindra Hardawar called “relentlessly inessential.”
Digits:
Judge: Google's Tracking Not Harmful  —  It just got even tougher to stop a company from tracking your movements online.  —  A federal judge in Delaware Wednesday dismissed a class-action lawsuit brought against Google and two other tech companies, arguing that the Web users who brought …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook Removing Option To Be Unsearchable By Name, Highlighting Lack Of Universal Privacy Controls  —  “Who can look up your Timeline by name?”  Anyone you haven't blocked.  Facebook is removing this privacy setting, notifying those who had hidden themselves that they'll be searchable.
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Seven Key Designers of BlackBerry 10 Left the Company in January  —  The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) has decamped BlackBerry.  —  Earlier this year, seven members of the Swedish design house acquired by the smartphone maker to help develop BlackBerry 10, left it to found a new design group called Topp.
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Jason Evangelho / Forbes:
Valve Confirms Official AMD-Powered Steam Machines For 2014  —  In a statement to Forbes, a Valve representative has confirmed that AMD graphics hardware will be included in commercially available Steam Machines next year.  The more interesting story, however, is why Valve needed to confirm this in the first place.
Jon Russell / The Next Web:
Instagram no longer lets users disable video autoplay, a small but important step towards ads  —  Instagram announced earlier this month that it will begin serving in-feed advertising before the end of the year, and the Facebook-owned photo and video app has made a subtle, but important …
Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:
As More Startups Move To San Francisco, Y Combinator Opens A Satellite Office In The City  —  Y Combinator has been a mainstay of Silicon Valley, with an office not far from the Mountain View Caltrain station.  * Over the years, however, the seed-stage venture firm has seen more of its companies …
More: ZDNet, bizjournals and CNET
JP Mangalindan / Fortune:
Can Silicon Valley boot camps get you a $120K job?  —  These crash courses accomplish in 12 weeks (or less) what top computer science schools might teach in four years.  Welcome to the 21st century vocational school.  —  FORTUNE — Hiring a good software engineer in Silicon Valley these days …
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Reportedly Cutting iPhone 5c Production as Chinese Gray Market Prices Drop  —  Apple is reportedly cutting iPhone 5c production in half from 300,000 units to 150,000 units per day, according to claims by C Technology [Google Translate], which leaked a number of photos of the iPhone 5s …
Dan Farber / CNET:
Apple legend Bill Atkinson's new mission: Save the postcard  —  The creator of the Macintosh's QuickDraw graphics system, MacPaint, and HyperCard wants to save the postcard from extinction.  —  It's 5:00 a.m., and Bill Atkinson makes his way downstairs to begin his daily routine of, as he calls it, milking the cow.

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 11:25 AM ET, October 11, 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

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:

Earlier Picks

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch: