Techmeme
December 5, 2013, 10:20 AM

Top News

Brad Smith / The Official Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft to expand encryption, increase software transparency to protect customer data  —  Protecting customer data from government snooping  —  The following post is from Brad Smith, General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft.
Nicole Perlroth / NYT Bits:
Microsoft's General Counsel: N.S.A. Hacks Were an ‘Earthquake’ for Tech  —  Microsoft is the latest company to try to protect its data from its own government.  —  An article on Thursday indicates that Microsoft is in the process of expanding and strengthening the encryption …
More: BetaNews and Inquirer
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Twitter Names Marjorie Scardino, Ex-CEO Of Pearson, As The First Female Member Of Its Board  —  Posted 6 seconds ago by Ingrid Lunden (@ingridlunden)  —  Homejoy Raises $38M As It Looks To Expand Beyond Home Cleaning  —  Twitter has announced the appointment of its first female board member …
Wall Street Journal:
China Mobile signs deal with Apple, bringing iPhone option to 700 million+ subscribers later this month  —  Apple, China Mobile Sign Deal to Offer iPhone  —  Tie-Up Would Give Apple Access to 700 Million Subscribers … China Mobile Ltd. has signed a long-awaited deal with Apple Inc …
Bloomberg:
China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions  —  China's central bank barred financial institutions from handling Bitcoin transactions, moving to regulate the virtual currency after an 89-fold jump in its value sparked a surge of investor interest in the country.
Anna Yukhananov / Reuters:
Obama says he's not allowed iPhone for ‘security reasons’  —  (Reuters) - The troubled mobile phone maker BlackBerry still has at least one very loyal customer: U.S. President Barack Obama.  —  At a meeting with youth on Wednesday to promote his landmark healthcare law …
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Google invites Glass Explorer Edition owners to upgrade their eyewear  —  Google promised early Glass wearers that they could eventually upgrade to next-generation Explorer hardware, and that moment is finally at hand.  The company is now inviting owners to swap devices through a free mail exchange before February 5th.
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
AT&T launches ‘Mobile Share Value Plans’ with notable monthly savings for BYOD customers, 18-month Next option  —  AT&T has launched a new initiative called Mobile Share Value Plans that is designed to save customers money on their monthly AT&T mobile phone service bills.
Dara Kerr / CNET:
Apple desktops overtake Dell on shoppers' holiday wish lists  —  Apple has long been the most-desired brand for tablets, smartphones, MP3 players, and streaming media devices on US shoppers' holiday lists.  And, for the first time, the company also got ranked as the top brand for desktops this year …
Caitlin Dewey / WorldViews:
Of the 7,776 languages in use in the offline world, fewer than five percent exist online  —  How the Internet is killing the world's languages  —  Less than five percent of current world languages are in use online, according to a recent study by prominent linguist András Kornai …
Tweets: @language_today
Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:
Plex for Chromecast: new clues hint at imminent launch  —  One of the most-requested features for Google's Chromecast streaming stick has been support for local file playback, and it looks like Chromecast users won't have to wait much longer: Media center app Plex could get support for Chromecast very soon …
David Meyer / Gigaom:
Twitter signs deal with Deutsche Telekom — T-Mobile users to get homescreen widget in 2014  —  Twitter is now a strategic partner of the German carrier group Deutsche Telekom, proprietor of the T-Mobile brand, the companies announced on Thursday.  —  This is an unusual deal for both parties.
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Layer aims to deliver XMPP-style open-source messaging interoperability for mobile apps  —  You have too many chat apps.  Can Layer connect them?  —  The people behind Jabber and Grand Central want to reinvent how we chat  —  Jeremie Miller almost brought on a golden age of instant messaging.
Tweets: @rsarver and @caseynewton
Washington Post:
NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show  —  The National Security Agency is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world, according to top-secret documents and interviews with U.S. intelligence officials …
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
Pinterest's Engineering Lead Jon Jenkins Leaves To Launch His Own Startup  —  Jon Jenkins, who joined Pinterest a year ago as its head of engineering, is leaving the company in what he describes on Quora as a “bittersweet” decision.  Jenkins says wants to launch his own company, a wish he had even before he joined Pinterest.

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