Techmeme: Meet Executive Order 12333: The Reagan rule that lets the NSA spy on Americans (John Napier Tye/Washington Post)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

July 19, 2014, 12:00 PM

Top News

Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:

How warped incentives for Comcast's “retention specialists” lead to a vexing cancellation call — Here's why your Comcast rep is yelling at you — Warped employee incentives and an absence of competition make bad customer service inevitable — In 2006, a man named Vincent …

More: DSLreports, Venture Chronicles, Gizmodo, FierceCable and Technologizer

Tweets: @davewiner, @levie, @cfcamerer and @paleofuture

John Napier Tye / Washington Post:

Meet Executive Order 12333: The Reagan rule that lets the NSA spy on Americans — In March I received a call from the White House counsel's office regarding a speech I had prepared for my boss at the State Department. The speech was about the impact that the disclosure …

More: ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Guardian. Tweets: @kenroth

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Snapchat Files Trademarks To Handle Payments — Snappay? Snapchat may try to monetize by processing peer-to-peer payments, money transfers, or online payments, according to two trademarks it filed earlier this week. Owned by Snapchat and filed on July 11th by an attorney at Cooley …

More: iMore, The Verge, VatorNews, The Next Web, memeburn, Business Insider and ReadWrite

Ashlee Vance / Businessweek:

Amazon's Cloud Is One of the Fastest-Growing Software Businesses in History — Five billion dollars. — That's how much Amazon.com (AMZN) will rake in from its cloud computing business this year, according to a new estimate from Pacific Crest Securities. If true, it's an incredible figure.

Tweets: @bfrist

Se Young Lee / Reuters:

Nearly 200 managers at Samsung's mobile division voluntarily return $3M in bonuses as firm profits decline — Samsung handset division managers return part of bonuses: source — (Reuters) - Nearly 200 managers at Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's mobile division have voluntarily returned …

More: DailyTech, The Verge, CNET, 9to5Google, BGR, Android Central and SamMobile

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:

Starbucks will let customers place pickup orders via mobile app in one test market this year — Starbucks Has Bigger Plans in Mobile Payments Than Most People Realize — A decade after the idea was first sketched on the proverbial drawing broad, Starbucks is poised to finally let its customers order their coffees from their phones.

More: Android Police, Ubergizmo, Gotta Be Mobile, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Verge, VentureBeat, Cult of Mac and Wall Street Journal

Lenovo Newsroom:

Lenovo will continue selling 8" and 10" Windows tablets in the US, new models coming this holiday — Clarification on Lenovo Statement on Sales of Small Screen Windows-Based Tablets — We will continue to bring new Windows devices to market across different screen sizes …

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Internal memo: Microsoft to cut off all ‘external staff’ after 18 months, imposing mandatory 6-month break — An internal Microsoft memo, distributed earlier today, imposes new restrictions on the company's use of “external staff” — including a new limit on people who work on projects for Microsoft through vendors.

Thanks:@taylor_soper

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Netflix tests private viewing mode to hide your B-movie binges — Select Netflix members are getting a chance to hide viewing of embarrassing titles from logs, recommendations and Facebook friends. — We've all been down that road: You decide to watch some roadhouse B-movie fare on Netflix …

More: VentureBeat, Digital Trends, Engadget, SlashGear, Mashable, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Phandroid, The Verge and TIME

Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:

Yahoo Search Share Falls Below 10 Percent For “All-Time Low” — We're on the cusp of new comScore U.S. search market share data for June. According to financial analyst notes, releasing the numbers early, desktop search declined for the fifth consecutive month after a period of growth in mid-2013.

More: Business Insider, Design & Trend, TheDomains.com and WebProNews

Jack Smith IV / Betabeat:

Inside Look: Imgur Reveals Redesign, Announces Plans for a Convention — Can Imgur remain its positive, plucky self while growing to be one of the Internet's rising social titans? — Imgur's Sarah Schaaf, IRL. (Photo via Imgur) — Imgur is at a tipping point.

More: Fast Company, TechCrunch, BestTechie, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Search Engine Land, WebProNews, The Guardian and ReadWrite

Roberto Baldwin / The Next Web:

Twitter will soon give you access to your entire DM history via the iOS and Android apps — With more and more people using Twitter's DM (Direct Messages) feature as a chat service, the company is working to upgrade the experience. … Access to your entire history is a great way to keep track …

More: iMore, Mashable, App Advice, TechOne3, 9to5Google, Engadget and iPhone Hacks

Tweets: @support, @support, @dcseifert and @caseynewton

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Shopify:

Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26 — Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.

Zoho:

The best time to become a Zoho Partner — The business world is not only changing but it is being rebuilt. Customers want connected ecosystems that will help them automate, unify their data, and do more with less.

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble

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:

Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped

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.

Access:

Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain

A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.

Subscribe to Access.

Great Chat:

So what happens after AGI?

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

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.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.

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.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:00 PM ET, July 19, 2014.

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.