|
December 29, 2013, 1:15 PM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Spiegel Online: |
NSA Tailored Access Operations unit specializes in “getting the ungettable”, installing malware on diverted hardware shipments, capturing Windows crash data — The NSA Uses Powerful Toolbox in Effort to Spy on Global Networks — The NSA's TAO hacking unit is considered to be the intelligence agency's top secret weapon.
More:
CNET, Gizmodo and Boing Boing
| Spiegel Online: |
NSA has 50-page catalog of exploits and backdoors in devices from Cisco, Huawei, Dell, Juniper, Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor, Samsung, and more — Catalog Reveals NSA Has Back Doors for Numerous Devices — After years of speculation that electronics can be accessed by intelligence agencies through …
More:
Digital Trends, The Verge, Gigaom, SlashGear, Daily Dot, SecurityWeek and Boing Boing
| Gregg Keizer / Computerworld: |
Chromebooks' success punches Microsoft in the gut — Amazon, NPD Group trumpet sales of the bare-bones laptops in 2013 to consumers and businesses — Chromebooks had a very good year, according to retailer Amazon.com and industry analysts. — And that's bad news for Microsoft.
More:
NPD Group, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, ZDNet, Daring Fireball, 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, gHacks Technology News, Computerworld, OStatic blogs, SlashGear, MacDailyNews, Scripting News, CNET and Business Insider
Tweets: @tomwarren, @stevecheney, @stevecheney, @levie and @dannysullivan
| Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post: |
If not the NSA, who should store the phone data? — A measure that President Obama is considering as a way to curb the National Security Agency's mass storage of phone data is already facing resistance — not only from the intelligence community but also from privacy advocates, the phone industry and some lawmakers.| David Kravets / Wired: |
More:
Gizmodo, The Switch and Associated Press
| Jim Finkle / Reuters: |
Exclusive: Hacker took over BBC server, tried to ‘sell’ access on Christmas Day — (Reuters) - A hacker secretly took over a computer server at the BBC, Britain's public broadcaster, and then launched a Christmas Day campaign to convince other cyber criminals to pay him for access to the system.
More:
SlashGear
| Taylor Clark / The Atlantic Online: |
How Jesse Willms built an e-commerce operation the FTC says scammed consumers out of $467M — Jesse Willms, the Dark Lord of the Internet — How one of the most notorious alleged hustlers in the history of e-commerce made a fortune on the Web — If you want to get a sense of Jesse Willms … | Mary Ellen Gordon, PhD / Flurry Blog: |
Kindles saw 24x bump in activations on Christmas vs. other Dec. days, Apple saw 2.3x bump — Amazon Delivers A Great Christmas For Its Kindle — In less than a decade, connected devices have become an integral part of Christmas. They are commonly wished for and given as gifts …
More:
GeekWire, TechnoBuffalo, iPhone Hacks, Android Beat, PadGadget, PandoDaily, iPhone in Canada Blog, AppleInsider and Business Insider. Tweets: @kpkelleher
| Dan Seifert / The Verge: |
How would in-flight calling actually work? — The technology's already here — someone just has to flip the switch — Making phone calls from 35,000 feet in the air has been a hot-button topic of late, spurred on by recent comments made by Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.| John Gruber / Daring Fireball: |
2013: The Year in Apple and Technology at Large — Christopher Mims, writing for Quartz, “2013 Was a Lost Year for Tech”: … What a sad pile of piss-on-everything cynicism. — Was 2013 a seminal or particularly extraordinary year for technology? No, I'd say not.
More:
AppleInsider, iMore, Trends and Silicon Valley Watcher
Tweets: @panzer, @qthrul, @glennf, @benbajarin and @joshelman
| Stanley White / Reuters: |
Sony to give up on sale of its battery unit: media — (Reuters) - Japan's Sony Corp has decided not to sell its lithium-ion battery unit, media reported on Sunday, in a gamble that it can turn the business around with a weak yen and growing demand for smart phone batteries.| Gerry Shih / Reuters: |
Reddit anticipates profitability through expansion of Reddit Gifts — Reddit reaches for profits through a geek-culture bazaar — (Reuters) - Social news hub Reddit snagged an interview with Barack Obama last year. The big get for 2013 was reaching 90 million unique visitors a month …
More:
Electronista
| Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica: |
As US fiber buildouts spur competion, benefiting consumers, threats to net neutrality loom — How US Internet service might get better—and worse—in 2014 — 2013, like just about every year before it, was the year nearly all of us complained about our Internet service. — “It's too slow!” we said.| CoinText.com: |
US Department of Treasury's FinCEN backtracks, says Bitcoin miners are not considered money transmitters and don't need to register with the agency — FinCEN Issues Bitcoin-Friendly Ruling for Miners — The US Department of Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) …
More:
CoinDesk, SlashGear and newsBTC
Tweets: @keybumpkid, @polemitis and @andrewhires
Thanks:@_trendspotterSponsor Posts
Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Soxton:
AI-powered law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!
AI-powered law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!
Zoho:
Zoho CRM Plus in 2025: A year of thoughtful CX improvements — 2025 marked 11 years of building a customer experience platform designed to support organizations as customer expectations, channels …
Zoho CRM Plus in 2025: A year of thoughtful CX improvements — 2025 marked 11 years of building a customer experience platform designed to support organizations as customer expectations, channels …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.Featured Podcasts
Big Technology Podcast:
Alex And Ranjan's 2026 Outlook: ChatGPT 1 Billion, AI Shopping, Apple's Big Year, AI Love Boom
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Where Is All the A.I.-Driven Scientific Progress?
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.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Naughty Citizen', With Quinn Nelson
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt's Second Act: Less Budget, More Control
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
About This Page
This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:15 PM ET, December 29, 2013.
The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.
From Mediagazer
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:The Guardian:
Alex Ritman / Variety:
Upcoming Tech Events
More News
| Chris Davies / SlashGear: |
More:
NVIDIA, IntoMobile, Electronista, PC Magazine, PhoneArena, Gigaom and AndroidGuys
Earlier Picks
| Nitasha Tiku / Valleywag: |
More:
A VC, The Dating Ring, Thisisgoingtobebig.com, The Wire, Medium, Medium, Medium, rc3.org and The Information
Tweets: @alex, @davemcclure, @samfbiddle, @alexia, @wilshipley, @alex, @gruber, @nitashatiku, @gruber, @semil, @samfbiddle, @valleywag, @wilshipley, @timschulz, @samfbiddle, @superwuster, @nolimits, @tolles, @paulg, @sherrod_im, @valleywag, @paulg, @joshconstine, @samfbiddle, @dhh, @alex, @nitashatiku, @valleywag, @brycecovert, @ginatrapani, @pegobry, @clarajeffery, @heymatthenry, @mbaratz, @antoniogm, @tomcoates, @tomcoates, @antoniogm, @msquinn, @evelynrusli, @mikeloukides, @matlock, @riklomas, @skinny, @lucymarcus, @nitashatiku, @wadhwa, @haacked, @dhmspector, @house, @ohthatflo, @krystynheide, @debcha, @seldo and @mat
| Jordan Robertson / Bloomberg: |