Techmeme
October 31, 2013, 11:55 AM

Top News

Amir Efrati / jessica lessin:
Android's Next Targets: Wearables, TVs, Low-End Phones  —  The launch of Google Inc.'s Android KitKat, the next version of the most widely used operating software for smartphones and tablets, is drawing near.  Google executives haven't announced a release date but people who have been briefed on KitKat say that it is coming soon.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
New FAA Guidelines Permit More Device Use, All The Way From Take-Off To Landing  —  For years now, most of us have been quietly not turning off our phones and devices at landing and take off, and merely putting the screens to sleep and stuffing them in seat pockets instead.
Matt McGee / Marketing Land:
Google's Glass Accessory Store Is Coming Online (Wow.  Stuff's Expensive!)  —  Google is bringing an official accessory store for Google Glass online this evening, based on reports first shared in a private Google forum for Glass Explorers.  —  The store appears to be part of the “My Glass” …
Washington Post:
How the NSA is infiltrating private networks  —  The NSA, working with its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), secretly taps into the internal networks of Yahoo and Google, the two biggest Internet companies by overall data traffic.
Michael Winter / USA Today:
Coast Guard visits mysterious ‘Google barge’  —  Agency mum on trip and San Francisco vessel's purpose, citing “commercial confidentiality.”  —  CONNECT  —  SAN FRANCISCO — The Coast Guard on Wednesday visited the mysterious “Google barge” floating in San Francisco Bay …
Doug Madory / Renesys:
Google DNS Departs Brazil Ahead of New Law  —  In response to recent NSA spying allegations, Brazil is pressing ahead with a new law to require Internet companies like Google to store data about Brazilian users inside Brazil, where it will be subject to local privacy laws.
More: Network WorldTweets: @netfreedom and @scharlab
Lisa Chow / NPR:
Top Reviewers On Amazon Get Tons Of Free Stuff … You're on Amazon.com.  You're buying, say, a toaster, and you're checking out the customer reviews.  You assume the people writing these reviews are people like you — people who wanted a toaster, went online and bought one.
RIA Novosti:
Ex-NSA Contractor Snowden Finds Computer Job in Russia  —  Fugitive former US security contractor Edward Snowden has found a website maintenance job in Russia, his lawyer said Thursday.  —  Snowden, who was granted temporary asylum in Russia this summer, will start work November 1 in maintaining …
Parmy Olson / Forbes:
Flurry in 400K apps, tracks 1.2B devices a month with a reach greater than Facebook or Google  —  Meet The Company That Tracks More Phones Than Google Or Facebook  —  Picture this scenario.  A bored woman sits waiting in an airline lounge.  She scrolls through her iPhone and taps …
Tweets: @forbes
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook Admits Some Decrease Of Usage Amongst Young Teens For The First Time  —  Facebook may be feeling the pinch from teen-focused, mobile-first social networks like Snapchat, as CFO David Ebersman said on today's earnings call that Facebook “did see a decrease in daily users specifically …
Facebook:
Phys.org:
Future Internet aims to sever links with servers  —  This is a diagram showing how information would be shared on the PURSUIT Internet, compared with the present architecture.  Credit: Barney Brown, University of Cambridge.  —  A revolutionary new architecture aims to make the internet more …
More: Gigaom, Gizmodo and redOrbit
Wall Street Journal:
NSA Fallout Hits AT&T's Ambitions In Europe  —  AT&T Inc. T -0.03% 's ambitions to expand in Europe have run into unexpected hurdles amid the growing outcry across the region over surveillance by the National Security Agency.  German and other European officials said any attempt by AT&T …
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Fantastical 2: The calendar Apple should have built... again  —  After bringing natural language input to the mobile calendar experience with Fantastical for iPhone last November, Flexibits today released a brand new version of what was already my absolute favorite calendar app.
Somini Sengupta / New York Times:
No U.S. Action, So States Move on Privacy Law  —  State legislatures around the country, facing growing public concern about the collection and trade of personal data, have rushed to propose a series of privacy laws, from limiting how schools can collect student data to deciding whether the police need a warrant to tap cellphones.
Josh Lowensohn / CNET:
Apple working on a fix for new Retina MacBook input issues  —  Apple on Wednesday acknowledged an issue with some models of its newest MacBook Pro with Retina Display that would leave the keyboard and trackpad unresponsive.  —  Those computers were released last week alongside the debut of new iPads.

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Earlier Picks

Kashmir Hill / Forbes: