Techmeme
December 15, 2013, 8:00 PM

Top News

Adam Fisher / New York Times:
A profile of Google Maps, an integral part of the company's future location-aware products  —  Google's Road Map to Global Domination  —  Fifty-five miles and three days down the Colorado River from the put-in at Lee's Ferry, near the Utah-Arizona border, the two rafts in our little flotilla suddenly encountered a storm.
Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:
How Americans Were Deceived About Cell Phone Location Data  —  Remember when multiple Obama Administration figures said the NSA doesn't collect it?  That wasn't true.  —  Shortly after the earliest articles sourced to Edward Snowden appeared, Americans newly aware of the cell phones …
New York Times:
Leo Mirani / Quartz:
The future of Microsoft as seen by an insider who could be its next CEO  —  It's been a fun couple of weeks for Microsoft watchers.  First Ford CEO Alan Mulally dominated headlines as a favorite for the top job at Microsoft, even as his board publicly said he would stay at the auto manufacturer at least through the end of 2014.
More: TechCrunch
Allison Arieff / New York Times:
As tech companies embrace urban life, many in San Francisco remain closed off from their city  —  What Tech Hasn't Learned From Urban Planning  —  SAN FRANCISCO — The tech sector is, increasingly, embracing the language of urban planning — town hall, public square, civic hackathons, community engagement.
Ben Sisario / New York Times:
Music streaming services struggle to attract paying subscribers amidst increasing competition  —  A Stream of Music, Not Revenue  —  When Spotify, the digital music company of the moment, announced this week an exclusive deal with Led Zeppelin and free access on mobile devices, it also reported impressive numbers.
More: BillboardTweets: @nycjim and @pkafka
Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:
Boston Police indefinitely suspends license plate reader program  —  The Boston Police Department currently has 14 license plate scanners, which are often mounted on police cars.  —  cle0patra  —  The Boston Police Department (BPD) has indefinitely halted its use of license plate readers …
Marco Arment / Marco.org:
Apple Can't Ban “Rate This App” Dialogs  —  There's been a lot of discussion in the last few days about those annoying “Rate This App” dialogs in far too many iOS apps today, initiated by John Gruber, summarized nicely by Chris Gonzales, and followed up with a nice discussion between Gruber and Daniel Jalkut in The Talk Show this week.

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Brendan O'Connor / The Awl:

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