Techmeme: Target confirms breach: 40 million accounts affected (Larry Dignan/ZDNet)

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December 19, 2013, 3:30 PM

Top News

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

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: Foursquare Raises a $35 Million Round and Adds DFJ's Schuler to the 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 …

More: The Foursquare Blog, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, The Verge, Business Insider, The Next Web, Mashable, Valleywag and Skift

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: SiliconBeat, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, IntoMobile, Gotta Be Mobile, Cult of Mac, Macworld, San Francisco Examiner …, MacDailyNews and TodaysiPhone.com

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, PC World, Ars Technica, The Tech Report, Geek.com, CNET, WebProNews and Gizmodo

Tweets: @ifixit and @steamdb

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, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Next Web, Digits, Online Dating Insider and Forbes

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

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg Sell Shares, Facebook Stock Price Drops — After a nice run on the Nasdaq, Facebook and its CEO are selling a big block of shares. Wall Street's reaction: We're selling, too. — Facebook says it is planning a secondary sale of 70 million shares …

More: PR Newswire, StrictlyVC, Inside Facebook, SiliconBeat, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, CNBC, VentureBeat, Guardian, Softpedia News, CNET, Digits, The Next Web, Gigaom, Wall Street Journal and PE Hub Blog

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

Apple's Redesigned Mac Pro Now Available for Online Orders — In line with yesterday's announcement, Apple's redesigned Mac Pro is now available for order through the company's online stores. The Mac Pro currently ships by December 30, though upgraded versions list a non-specific “January” shipping estimate.

More: Macworld, Ars Technica, Apple, MacRumors, Fortune, iMore, Gigaom, iPhone Hacks, everythingiCafe, TUAW, Engadget, Softpedia News, Inquirer, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, MacDailyNews and The Next Web. Tweets: @tim_cook

David Pierce / The Verge:

Up close and personal with the new Mac Pro (hands-on)

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

Larry Dignan / ZDNet:

Target confirms breach: 40 million accounts affected — Summary: Customer name, credit or debit card number, and the card's expiration date and CVV (the three-digit security code) were breached, the retailer said. — Target on Thursday confirmed that its payment card data was compromised …

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

Tweets: @bizo, @emarketer and @anamarketers

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: TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, VentureBeat, iMore, The Next Web, CNET and Thomas Hawk Digital Connection. Tweets: @mathewi. Thanks:@mathewi. See also Mediagazer

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, VentureBeat, GeekWire, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, AllThingsD, Business Insider, SlashGear and Android Community. Tweets: @caseynewton

Mike Deri Smith / BBC:

Porn filters block sex education websites — The new filters are designed to block sites unsuitable for children — Pornography filters used by major internet service providers are blocking websites offering sex education and advice on sexual health and porn addiction, the BBC has learned.

More: Forbes, Inquirer, DSLreports, Electronista, Yahoo! News, Motherboard and Gigaom

Tweets: @refugecharity, @jackschofield and @hvklav

See also Mediagazer

Alex Payne:

Bitcoin, Magical Thinking, and Political Ideology — Last week, investor Chris Dixon posed a provocative dichotomy when introducing his employer's USD $25M investment in Bitcoin service Coinbase: … Now working at vogue venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Dixon is in a fine position to speak for Silicon Valley.

More: Charlie's Diary, Business Insider and CoinDesk

Tweets: @jeffjohnroberts, @hunterwalk, @fdestin, @konklone and @buzz

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 Verge, VentureBeat, Engadget, Search Engine Land, Guardian, CNET and Gigaom. See also Mediagazer

Paul Thurrott / SuperSite for Windows:

Windows Phone Turned the Corner in 2013 — We're number three. And no, that doesn't suck — 2013 was nothing less than a blockbuster success for Windows Phone, which went from industry also-ran to the undisputed third mobile ecosystem, and is poised to challenge iPhone for the number two spot.

More: Global Nerdy, TechCrunch, PhoneArena, BGR and PhoneArena. Tweets: @greenskull

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: ZDNet and SecurityWeek

Dan Seifert / The Verge:

Verizon's Motorola Droid Ultra, Maxx, and Mini to get Android 4.4 starting today — Verizon Wireless has announced that the Android 4.4 KitKat update for the Motorola Droid Ultra, Maxx, and Mini smartphones will begin rolling out to users today. The update follows the launch of KitKat …

More: Gigaom, Engadget, 9to5Google, Android Beat, Softpedia News, TechnoBuffalo and AndroidGuys

Andrew Zajac / Bloomberg:

Secret Spy Court Won't Reconsider Phone Data Collection — The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court rejected a request by a civil liberties watchdog group to re-examine an order authorizing the U.S. to collect call data from phone companies. — The Center for National Security Studies …

More: The Star Online and New York Times. Tweets: @gabrielmalor and @brendansasso

San Francisco Chronicle:

Obama won't give tech firms assurances on snooping

More: Mercury News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Instagram Says First Ad Results Are “Promising” With Recall Up 32%, Shows It Wants TV Brand Dollars — Instagram may prove a valuable platform for advertisers. Instagram released its first results on ads since they began appearing November 1st. Brands saw average ad recall up 3X …

More: Instagram for Business, CNET, The Next Web and Gigaom

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: The Seattle Times

Matthew Lynley / BuzzFeed:

WSJ's revamped tech section to be called “WSJD”, launches in January — The Wall Street Journal's Answer To AllThingsD Launches Next Month — The Journal's revamped tech coverage section launches next month . The company is launching a global conference, too. — Jason Reed / Reuters

Tweets: @karaswisher, @stevekovach and @alexckaufman. See also Mediagazer

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