Techmeme
December 9, 2013, 1:50 PM

Top News

Reform Government Surveillance:
Global Government Surveillance Reform  —  The undersigned companies believe that it is time for the world's governments to address the practices and laws regulating government surveillance of individuals and access to their information.  While the undersigned companies understand …
New York Times:
Tech Giants Issue Call for Limits on Government Surveillance of Users  —  Eight prominent technology companies, bruised by revelations of government spying on their customers' data and scrambling to repair the damage to their reputations, are mounting a public campaign to urge President Obama …
James Ball / Guardian:
Revealed: spy agencies' covert push to infiltrate virtual world of online games  —  NSA and GCHQ collect gamers' chats and deploy real-life agents into World of Warcraft and Second Life  —  Read the NSA document Exploiting Terrorist Use of Games & Virtual Environments
Lorraine Luk / Digits:
China Mobile to Accept iPhone Orders This Week  —  China Mobile Ltd. plans to take preorders for Apple Inc.'s iPhones from Thursday in Shanghai, according to an advertisement on its website, as the world's largest mobile carrier by subscribers moves closer to launching high-speed fourth-generation mobile services in the country.
Dan Primack / Fortune:
Stealth payment startup Clinkle lays off 25% of staff  —  Layoffs at stealth payment startup Clinkle  —  Clinkle still wants to kill Square.  But first it needs to get its own house in order.  —  FORTUNE — Clinkle, a stealthy mobile payment startup that recently raised …
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Snapchat Files For A Restraining Order, Accuses Ousted Founder Of Leaking Confidential Court Docs  —  Snapchat has filed for a temporary restraining order against Reggie Brown, the man who claims to have invented the idea for disappearing messages.  According to court documents filed today …
More: ValleywagThanks:@elinblesener
Jean-Louis Gassée / Monday Note:
Microsoft CEO Search: Stalemate  —  The Microsoft CEO succession process appears to be stalled.  This is a company with immense human, technical, and financial resources; the tech industry is filled with intelligent, energetic, dedicated candidates.  What's wrong with the matchmaking process?
Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:
Confirmed: Flipboard Raises Another $50 Million To Close Out Its Series C Round  —  Flipboard has confirmed that it raised an additional $50 million, which will close out the Series C round of financing that it brought on in September.  According to a company spokesperson, the funding closed last week …
More: AllThingsD
Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
Marissa Mayer's Next Big Acquisition Could Be Imgur, The Photo-Sharing Site Reddit Loves  —  This fall, Yahoo began serious talks to buy photo-sharing site Imgur, a source with first-hand knowledge of those discussions tells us.  —  Since she joined Yahoo in July 2012, CEO Marissa Mayer has acquired dozens of startups.
More: Valleywag and Softpedia NewsTweets: @nitashatikuThanks:@stevekovach
Nicole Lee / Engadget:
Square reveals thinner and more accurate mobile credit card reader  —  As Square spreads its wings to Japan, starts a new cash-by-email service and retools its mobile apps, the humble credit card reader that started it all hasn't received much attention of late.

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Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
OpenAI Models Go Rogue + Kimi K3 Freakout + A.I. Superforecasting
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
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The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Scam Held Together With Patriotism and Golden Paint', With Quinn Nelson
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
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The Upstarts Podcast:
Abridge's Shiv Rao: The Doctor Founder Taking On Microsoft In Healthcare AI
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
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Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Bots Break Containment and Hack Hugging Face Autonomously — With Alex Stamos
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Great Chat:
Too big to laugh: how tech lost its sense of humor
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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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
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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Earlier Picks

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post: