Techmeme: Interview with former Microsoft senior manager Brian Jorgenson: “I told myself, “Members of Congress can do it"" (Mike Carter/The Seattle Times)

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December 19, 2013, 6:55 PM

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Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Trouble in Austin: Apple repeats last year's iMac holiday shortage with the Mac Pro — The December supply of Mac Pros? — The new Mac Pro is an awesome machine for those with several thousand dollars to spend on a computer and a need for all the power that comes with that thermal core …

More: Computerworld, Forbes, Fortune, Ars Technica, Pocket-lint and TechnoBuffalo. Tweets: @tim_cook

David Pierce / The Verge:

Up close and personal with the new Mac Pro (hands-on) — It's been talked about and endlessly dissected. It's either the future of professional computing or an overpriced, undersized trash can. It's the new Mac Pro, it's on sale starting today, and I've finally had a chance to hold it in my own two hands.

More: Engadget, Macworld, MacRumors, iClarified, iPhone Hacks, Gigaom, Yahoo! News, iPhone in Canada Blog and Gizmodo

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

Apple's Redesigned Mac Pro Now Available for Online Orders

More: iMore, Macworld, MacRumors, Cult of Mac, iPhone Hacks, everythingiCafe, TUAW, Softpedia News, MacDailyNews, TechCrunch, Inquirer, PC World, Engadget and 9to5Mac

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:

SEC Charges Microsoft Senior Manager and Friend With Insider Trading in Advance of Company News — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a senior portfolio manager at Microsoft Corporation and his friend and business partner with insider trading ahead of company announcements.

More: ZDNet, GeekWire, TechCrunch, Gigaom, AllThingsD, WinBeta, WebProNews and Forbes

Tweets: @jonathanweil, @jyarow, @markgurman and @bdsams

Mike Carter / The Seattle Times:

Interview with former Microsoft senior manager Brian Jorgenson: “I told myself, “Members of Congress can do it""

More: The Verge, Business Insider, Forbes and SlashGear. Tweets: @jyarow

Reuters:

Exclusive: Dish eyes 2014 bid for T-Mobile - sources — (Reuters) - Dish (DISH.O) is considering making a bid for T-Mobile (TMUS.N) next year, according to people close to the matter, in what would be the satellite TV provider's second attempt in as many years at acquiring a major wireless operator …

More: TechnoBuffalo, DSLreports, eWeek, GeekWire, IntoMobile, ZDNet, The Verge, iMore, Ars Technica, Electronista, Gigaom, Gigaom Research and TheStreet.com. Tweets: @reckless. See also Mediagazer

Donna Tam / CNET:

DA to Apple: Make iPhone's Activation Lock the rule — San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón released survey results Wednesday that he says makes an argument for Apple to enable its Activation Lock security feature on every phone. — When enabled, Activation Lock …

More: The Register, NEWS.com.au, 9to5Mac, SiliconBeat, iPhone Hacks, IntoMobile, Gotta Be Mobile, iDownloadBlog.com, Cult of Mac, Macworld, San Francisco Examiner … and MacDailyNews

Gerry Smith / The Huffington Post:

California Lawmaker To Introduce Bill Mandating Smartphone ‘Kill Switch’

More: RT and Associated Press

iFixit:

Steam Machine Teardown — If last month's round of next-gen console launches left you in a fog, prepare yourself for the incoming Steam Machine. Valve has released only 300 beta kits into the wild, so grab your companion cube and hold tight—we're about to open one up.

More: Engadget, GeekWire, TechSpot, Joystiq, Ars Technica, PC World, WebProNews, Geek.com, Gizmodo, CNET and The Tech Report

Tweets: @ifixit and @steamdb

Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:

Apple hints at future Maps app in ‘layered map’ patent filing — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday published an Apple patent application that takes the company's existing mapping apps and extends them to new levels of interactivity with data-rich layered viewing modes. — Source: USPTO

More: CNET, iDownloadBlog.com, Gigaom, iPhone in Canada Blog, TechnoBuffalo, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, PadGadget, Spatially Adjusted, BGR and Electronista

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Foursquare Raises a $35 Million Round and Adds DFJ's Schuler to Board — Foursquare, the iconic social location service, has raised $35 million in a Series D round, led by DFJ Growth and the Capital Group's Smallcap World Fund. — The company confirmed the raise to me and later in a blog post …

More: The Foursquare Blog, The Technology Chronicles, VatorNews, Inc.com, TechCrunch, ClickZ, The Next Web, Business Insider, Mashable, The Verge, Valleywag, WebProNews and Skift

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

WhatsApp announces 400M active users, aims to “steer the conversation” away from registered users — WhatsApp Does a Passive-Aggressive Stats Release to Call Out Others for Bulls**t Metrics — There's a big difference between someone signing up for a service, and someone using it on a regular basis.

More: WhatsApp Blog, The Verge, iPhone in Canada Blog, IntoMobile, Digits, Business Insider, The Next Web, Online Dating Insider and Forbes

Tweets: @papadimitriou, @sarahfrier, @benedictevans, @scottmaustin and @jwherrman

Libby Jacobson / Verizon Public Policy:

Verizon to Publish Transparency Report Disclosing Law Enforcement Requests for Customer Information — NEW YORK — Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) today announced plans to publish an online report that will provide data on the number of law enforcement requests for customer information …

More: Gigaom, Engadget, NYT Bits, CNET, Washington Post, The Verge, TheHill, ZDNet and SecurityWeek

Tweets: @csoghoian and @runasand

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Calxeda, Chipmaker That Sought to Bring ARM Chips to Servers, Has Shut Down — Depending on whom you ask, the coming year is supposed to be the one during which server chips based on the ARM architecture that is now so popular in smartphones and tablets start appearing in servers.

More: Gigaom, Wired, The Register, VentureBeat, Forbes, PC World and ZDNet. Tweets: @qthrul

Lisa Eadicicco / LAPTOP Magazine:

$350 Google Glass Competitor Covers Both Eyes to Augment Your Reality — If you think wearing Google Glass makes you look like a futuristic cyborg, than the Atheer One is sure to make you feel like you've just crawled out of a time machine. Atheer Labs has just announced …

More: PC Magazine, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Mashable, Fast Company, CNET, The Next Web, CITEworld, Gigaom and Digital Trends. Thanks:@akattkisson

eMarketer:

Mobile Growth Pushes Facebook to Become No. 2 US Digital Ad Seller — Mobile now accounts for more than 22% of all US digital ad spending, compared with less than 3% in 2010 — US mobile ad spending is expected to near $9.6 billion in 2013 and account for a whopping 22.5% of all digital ad investments …

More: Internet2Go, Forbes, CNET, AdAge, VatorNews, Business Insider, VentureBeat, The Drum, Marketing Land and Inc.com

Tweets: @bizo, @anamarketers and @emarketer

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Prismatic wants to build a social network around all of your interests, which is actually a lot harder than it sounds — There are social networks all around us these days, from Facebook and Twitter to more targeted networks like Instagram and Path — and new ones seem to be launching every week.

More: PandoDaily, VentureBeat, Thomas Hawk Digital Connection, The Next Web, iMore and CNET. Tweets: @mathewi. Thanks:@mathewi. See also Mediagazer

Derrick Harris / Gigaom:

IBM acquires Aspera and its tech for moving massive files to the cloud — IBM on Thursday announced plans to acquire Aspera, a startup whose protocol technology is used to transfer large files fast over the slow public internet. The Aspera protocol, called fasp, is used by a large number …

More: IBM, TechCrunch, ZDNet, The Register, Wall Street Journal and WebProNews

Brad Molen / Engadget:

Facebook Home update to bring new lockscreen and gestures to select Android phones — Facebook hasn't forgotten Home, the Android launcher that originally came out this past April and has trickled out to a few select handsets since. The social network just posted a video showing an upcoming update to Home …

More: TechCrunch, The Verge, Gigaom, Android Community, AndroidHeadlines.com and AndroidGuys

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

BitTorrent serverless chat replaces usernames with crypto keys — BitTorrent, Inc. is developing a serverless instant messaging system that relies on public key encryption to protect the privacy of communications, identifying users not with traditional usernames but with cryptographic key pairs.

More: The Official BitTorrent Blog, The Verge, Business Insider, PandoDaily, The BitTorrent Engineering …, PC World and Ubergizmo

Seth Weintraub / 9to5Google:

After recall, Google releases updated HP Chromebook 11 with newly-designed power adapter — Google recalled the power adapters to its popular little HP Chromebook 11 last week after an investigation by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said that some of the AC adapters were overheating and could be dangerous.

More: The Verge and The VAR Guy. Thanks:@davidj

Rachel King / ZDNet:

Google: Gov't removal requests rise sharply, especially in Turkey, Russia — Summary: A Google legal director pointed to a more “worrying trend,” which she specified was the number of removal requests related to political content. — Google is one of the few tech companies discovered …

More: The Official Google Blog, The Switch, Guardian, NYT Bits, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, Engadget, Search Engine Land, TheHill, Gigaom and CNET

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Hot mod: Cyanogen raises another $23 million to become the next big version of Android — The effort to turn CyanogenMod into the next big mobile operating system just got a big new vote of confidence. The company announced today that it has raised an additional $23 million …

More: CyanogenMod, Gigaom, Engadget, Peter Levine, GeekWire, TechCrunch, MobileBurn.com, dailywireless.org, MobileSyrup.com, VentureBeat, 9to5Google, Android Community and AllThingsD. Tweets: @caseynewton

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Airbnb Tops 10 Million Guest Stays Since Launch, Now Has 550,000 Properties Listed Worldwide — This is what hockey-stick growth looks like: Peer-to-peer lodging marketplace Airbnb announced this morning that it'll top 10 million guest stays since being launched in 2007.

More: VentureBeat and The Next Web. Thanks:@ngerke

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