Techmeme: NBC story on visitors to Sochi Olympics getting hacked is misleading (Robert Graham/Errata Security)

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February 7, 2014, 12:00 AM

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Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple buys sapphire crystal furnaces for AZ plant, capable of producing 100-200M ~5" iPhone displays per year — Exclusive: Apple just procured enough Sapphire Crystal furnaces to make 100-200M ~5-inch iPhone displays in Arizona — Last year, Apple and GT Advanced struck a deal to open …

More: TechCrunch, ZDNet, AppleInsider, everythingiCafe, The Mac Observer, Electronista, It's a Gadget, MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com, Pocketnow, iPhone in Canada Blog, TechnoBuffalo, iPhone Hacks, BGR, Gigaom, Business Insider and iLounge. Thanks:@swb1192

Robert Graham / Errata Security:

NBC story on visitors to Sochi Olympics getting hacked is misleading — That NBC story 100% fraudulent — Yesterday (Feb 5 2014) NBC News ran a story claiming that if you bring your mobile phone or laptop to the Sochi Olympics, it'll immediately be hacked the moment you turn it on.

More: iMore, Engadget, Daring Fireball, Business Insider and Android Central

Tweets: @stilgherrian, @tapbot_paul, @jandrade, @inthisdimension and @iliablinderman

See also Mediagazer

Mike Isaac / Re/code:

LinkedIn to Acquire Job-Seeking Site Bright for $120 Million — LinkedIn announced on Thursday it plans to acquire Bright, a data-driven job search startup, for $120 million. — The buy is LinkedIn's largest acquisition to date, topping the company's earlier major acquisitions of SlideShare ($119 million) and Pulse ($90 million).

More: LinkedIn Blog, Bright.com Blog, Tech in Asia, PC World, LinkedIn, Quartz, TechCrunch, BetaNews, ReadWrite, TechSpot, The Next Web, CNET, WebProNews, Mashable, VentureBeat, MarketWatch and Digits

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

LinkedIn Beats In Q4 With Revenue Of $447.2M, But Growth Concerns Dampen After Hours Trading — Today, following the close of regular trading, LinkedIn reported its fourth-quarter financial performance, including revenue of $447.2 million and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.39 .

More: GlobeNewswire, VatorNews, Gigaom, VatorNews, Tech Trader Daily, Forbes, Re/code, Reuters, MarketWatch, ZDNet and GeekWire

Kashyap Deorah / OpenTable Blog:

Pay Your Check with OpenTable Mobile: Pilot Payment Program Launches in San Francisco — First, OpenTable made it simple to book a restaurant reservation at any time of day or night with just a few clicks. Now, we're pleased to announce that it will soon be just as easy to pay for your meal.

More: TechCrunch, The Verge, MacRumors, The Next Web and Eater National

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

OpenTable Buys Ness For $17.3M To Beef Up Mobile And Restaurant Recommendations — Restaurant reservation platform OpenTable today reported quarterly earnings of $52.3 million and used the day to put out some other news: the company has acquired Ness Computing, makers of the personalized restaurant recommendations app Ness.

More: Press Room, Internet2Go, Press Room, Re/code, Skift, bizjournals, App Advice and Eater National

Tweets: @jess and @chloepark

Daisuke Wakabayashi / Wall Street Journal:

Apple Repurchases $14B of Own Shares in 2 Weeks — CEO Cook Says Company Wanted to Be ‘Aggressive’ and ‘Opportunistic’ — CUPERTINO, Calif. - Apple Inc. has bought $14 billion of its own shares in the two weeks since reporting financial results that disappointed Wall Street, Chief Executive Tim Cook told The Wall Street Journal.

More: ZDNet, 9to5Mac, The Next Web, MacRumors, AppleInsider, Business Insider, Daring Fireball, SlashGear and Business Insider

Tweets: @drewdowell, @sammywalrusiv and @sandycannold

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

iWatch time: Apple seeking physiologists to run fitness, energy expenditure tests — Apple has published a job listing on its website seeking physiologists and engineers to run tests related to health and fitness data. This job will require the employees to “design and run user studies related …

More: Computerworld, VentureBeat, AppleInsider, PadGadget, ReadWrite, TechnoBuffalo, iPhone in Canada Blog, PhoneArena, CNET, SlashGear, Mashable, USA Today, BGR, everythingiCafe, MacRumors, App Advice, iDownloadBlog.com, Business Insider, Apple Bitch, TechCrunch, iLounge, I4U News and Electronista. Tweets: @markgurman. Thanks:@apollozac

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

That Secret App Is Becoming Silicon Valley's New Blind Item — “I work at Evernote and we're about to get acquired... Watch this space” — That could be the first big acquisition rumor to have found its way onto Secret, the new “anonymish” sharing app launched late last week. But it won't be the last.

More: Valleywag, Digits and Yahoo Tech

Tweets: @plibin, @dcurtis, @tedr, @jyarow, @sg, @panzer, @sarahlane, @frankba, @benparr, @ajs, @karaswisher, @jessicalessin, @danprimack, @hunterwalk, @profjeffjarvis, @howardlindzon, @danprimack, @carnage4life and @ryanlawler

William Alden / DealBook:

How Ben Horowitz Avoided an Options Backdating Scandal — Just by listening to his favorite rappers, Ben Horowitz has absorbed many tales of run-ins and near run-ins with the law. But the prominent Silicon Valley investor also lived one of his own. — Mr. Horowitz, a co-founder …

More: Ben's blog. Tweets: @pmarca, @pmarca, @integrilicious, @stevesi, @shiraovide and @johnofa

Liam Tung / ZDNet:

IBM lands deal to make DARPA's self-destructing ‘VAPR’ ware — Summary: DARPA's VAPR project could allow it to blanket vast areas with monitoring sensors without risking the equipment falling into enemy hands. — Liam Tung — IBM has won a US government contract to create a model for transient devices that destruct on command.

More: Pocket-lint, Ars Technica, ExecutiveBiz, DeviceMAG, Geek.com, Business Insider, Motherboard, Washington Post, ExtremeTech, Ubergizmo, Engadget, The Register and SlashGear

Sean Hollister / The Verge:

Google wants to replace your office's teleconference system with a $999 Chromebox — Google's $35 Chromecast dongle made it cheap and easy to show off YouTube videos on your TV. Now, the company sees another narrow window of opportunity for Chrome: teleconferencing.

Jon Fingas / Engadget:

Firefox beta brings touch-friendly web browsing to Windows 8 — After roughly a year of development, Mozilla has at last released a beta of Firefox for Windows 8. The not-quite-finished browser gives early adopters a full touchscreen interface with finger-friendly elements and gesture support.

More: Future Releases, The Next Web, CNET, The Register and SlashGear

Josh Ong / The Next Web:

Ex-Googlers announce Beep, a Pandora-enabled WiFi controller for streaming music to any speaker — A pair of ex-Googlers have launched Beep, a beautiful WiFi-equipped dial that lets you stream music to any speaker with a line-in port. The device will launch this Fall with Pandora integration.

More: Engadget, Pocket-lint, Mashable, Computerworld, Geek.com, TechSpot, Gigaom and PandoDaily. Tweets: @5022lyfe

Kwame Opam / The Verge:

Google's acquisition of Nest wins FTC approval — The US Federal Trade Commission has cleared the way for Google to purchase Nest for $3.2 billion in cash. After Mountain View announced the buyout earlier this year, Google stated it expected the deal to close in the next few months.

More: SlashGear, Federal Trade Commission, 9to5Google, Computerworld and TechCrunch

Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:

Don't Like Your Facebook “Look Back”? You'll Be Able To Edit It Soon. — For the past 24 hours, my Facebook newsfeed has been predominantly filled with just two things: — 1) People sharing those cutesy automated “Look Back” videos that Facebook made for most of its users to celebrate the company's 10th anniversary

More: AllFacebook, PC Magazine, SlashGear, Softpedia News, CNET, Mashable and ResearchBuzz

Jack Clark / The Register:

FT: IBM has appointed Goldman Sachs to sound out possible buyers for its semiconductor arm — Report: IBM to peddle its chip wing — Big Blue looks at chip division, then chopping block, then chip division, then ... IBM is rumored to have retained Goldman Sachs to help it put a price on its semiconductor division.

More: Financial Times and Reuters

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Now With 75% Of All Traffic Coming From Apps, Pinterest Revamps Its Mobile Website — Pinterest is today launching a new version of its mobile website, which the company says is “complete rewrite and redesign” aimed at better integrating the features found in Pinterest's native mobile applications …

More: Oh, How Pinteresting!, Gigaom, CNET, Marketing Pilgrim, TechSpot, Marketing Land and Engadget. Thanks:@jasoncosta

Michael Carney / PandoDaily:

After tripling year-on-year, PayNearMe raises $20M to build out its payments network for cash-only Americans — Entrepreneurs and VCs are falling all over themselves to grab a piece of the next-gen payments ecosystem. But while much of Silicon Valley laments over the future of digital wallets …

More: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Re/code, VatorNews and Payments News

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:

Sony exits the North American ebook business and gives its customers to Kobo — Sony, which is essentially a non-player in the U.S. ebook market at this point, is cutting its losses and shutting down its digital bookstore in the U.S. and Canada, the company reported Thursday.

More: Press Articles, Digital Book World, Engadget, The Verge, Softpedia News, PC Magazine, The Register, The Verge, SlashGear, MobileSyrup.com, Forbes, TechnoBuffalo, Wired, TechCrunch, Computerworld, Gigaom Research and CNET. Tweets: @nvbinder. See also Mediagazer

Mat Smith / Engadget:

Sony to exit VAIO PC business, spin off TV business, cut 5000 jobs worldwide

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