Techmeme: Amazon's Fire Phone is an experiment to mitigate mobile's threat to traditional e-commerce (Michael Mace/Mobile Opportunity)

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July 6, 2014, 5:35 PM

Top News

Washington Post:

In a cache of 160K conversations intercepted by NSA, 90% of those surveilled were not the intended targets — In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are — Files provided by Snowden show the extent ordinary Web users are caught in the net

Vinod Khosla / Khosla Ventures:

Fireside chat with Google co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin — At the annual KV CEO Summit, we were fortunate to have both Larry Page and Sergey Brin sit down to discuss a wide range of topics including the acquisition that never was (although not for lack of trying!) …

More: TechCrunch, Business Insider, CNET, chris dixon's blog, Re/code and VentureBeat

Tweets: @bijans, @counternotions, @stevenlevy, @teamcleveland, @dshaywitz and @counternotions

Quartz:

Following Netflix, YouTube shames ISPs delivering slow video with message underneath videos — YouTube, following Netflix, is now publicly shaming internet providers for slow video — When videos blur, buffer, or won't play altogether, YouTube is now pinning the blame on your internet service provider.

More: The Verge, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, Business Insider, Re/code, Geek News Central and Mashable. Tweets: @alexisohanian

Reed Albergotti / Wall Street Journal:

Facebook's Data Science group has run hundreds of tests with few boundaries until recently — Inside Facebook's Data-Science Team — Data Science Lab Conducted Tests on Users With Little Oversight — Thousands of Facebook Inc. users received an unsettling message two years ago …

More: Mashable, Andrew Ledvina, Ubergizmo, Washington Post, VentureBeat, Jay Rosen, The Verge, Tech Times, CNET, USA Today, The Register, Engadget, Ubergizmo, BGR and PandoDaily

Tweets: @levie, @mikeisaac, @jdickerson, @reedalbergotti and @eric_andersen

Thanks:@evelynrusli

danah boyd / Medium:

We need to hold all companies accountable, not just Facebook, for how they manipulate people — What does the Facebook experiment teach us? — Growing Anxiety About Data Manipulation — I'm intrigued by the reaction that has unfolded around the Facebook “emotion contagion” study.

More: Guardian, Dare Obasanjo's weblog, Memex 1.1, Beyond Search and MIT Technology Review

Tweets: @phillmv and @pomeranian99

New York Times:

With Revenue Roaring, Twitter's Advertising Team Is Untouched by Turmoil — Twitter's top executive ranks have been transformed in the past year, from its general counsel to, most recently, its chief financial officer. — Many of the executives have left or been pushed out as Twitter's chief executive …

Tweets: @sacca and @karaswisher

Michael Mace / Mobile Opportunity:

Amazon's Fire Phone is an experiment to mitigate mobile's threat to traditional e-commerce — The Real Meaning of the Fire Phone — People have been asking my opinion of the new Amazon Fire Phone, but I've had a lot of trouble answering. My first reaction was overwhelmingly blah.

Tweets: @hugh_w_forrest, @michaelmace, @fuelcut and @hunterwalk

Melissa Eddy / New York Times:

Daimler demonstrates prototype “Mercedes-Benz Future Truck 2025” with highway autopilot — Daimler Demonstrates a Self-Driving Truck — MAGDEBURG, Germany — For Daimler, the truck driver of the future looks something like this: He is seated in the cab of a semi, eyes on a tablet and hands resting in his lap.

More: ParisLemon, Ubergizmo, Business Insider, Gizmodo, Transport Topics, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Daily Mail, NBC News, Bloomberg and Rough Type

Tweets: @parislemon and @_alexlawrence

John Callaham / Android Central:

50,000 units of Xiaomi's MiPad sold in just under four minutes — China-based Xiaomi started selling its Android-based tablet, the MiPad, in its home country earlier this week and the company claimed that 50,000 units were sold in its first 3 minutes and 59 seconds.

More: MIUI, Neowin, Ubergizmo, TheDomains.com, Mike Cane's xBlog, AndroidOS.in, Liliputing, IntoMobile and AndroidGuys

Michal Lev-Ram / Fortune:

Google beefs up enterprise efforts with Drive for Work, Android Work, and executive hires from Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, AWS — Google beefs up its enterprise chops — With a new crop of executives from Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services, the company is quickly building partnerships.

Tweets: @mdkail and @milesward

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:

Fab's CEO, Still Standing, Is Plotting The Next 20 Years — Forget what you know about the old Fab. This time CEO Jason Goldberg thinks he's finally got it right with a new furniture site called Hem. — Investors can be forgiven for demanding Goldberg's head given the sheer number of pivots the e-commerce site has endured.

Tweets: @kenli729, @delrey, @adamjh and @ajs

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

On The Hunt For Better Margins, Fab Debuts Hem, A New Furnishings And Design Brand

More: BestTechie, ArcticStartup, Racked National, The Next Web, Co.Design, VatorNews and Digital Trends. Tweets: @ingridlunden

Dylan Love / Business Insider:

Cycorp opens up about Cyc, a 30yo project to codify general human knowledge for machines — The Most Ambitious Artificial Intelligence Project In The World Has Been Operating In Near-Secrecy For 30 Years — “We've been keeping a very low profile, mostly intentionally,” said Doug Lenat, President and CEO of Cycorp.

More: UK News and Opinion. Tweets: @thetranshuman

Businessweek:

Hospitals Are Mining Patients' Credit Card Data to Predict Who Will Get Sick — Imagine getting a call from your doctor if you let your gym membership lapse, make a habit of buying candy bars at the checkout counter, or begin shopping at plus-size clothing stores.

More: The Verge and Gizmodo. Tweets: @blaqswans and @dangillmor

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