Techmeme
July 31, 2014, 3:50 PM

Top News

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Security researchers say USB security is fundamentally broken; hard-to-detect malware in the firmware can take over Macs/PCs, no easy fix  —  Why the Security of USB Is Fundamentally Broken  —  Computer users pass around USB sticks like silicon business cards.
Dan Rayburn / StreamingMediaBlog.com:
Apple's CDN Now Live: Has Paid Deals With ISPs, Massive Capacity In Place  —  Since last year, Apple's been hard at work building out their own CDN and now those efforts are paying off.  Recently, Apple's CDN has gone live in the U.S. and Europe and the company is now delivering some of their own content, directly to consumers.
Wall Street Journal:
French telecom Iliad has made a $15 billion offer for T-Mobile US  —  France's Iliad Makes Bid for T-Mobile US  —  Bid Counters Earlier Offer From Sprint Corp.  —  French upstart telecommunications company Iliad SA has made an offer for T-Mobile US Inc., in a bold bid to counter an offer …
Ina Fried / Re/code:
T-Mobile Adds 1.5 Million More Customers, Swings to Profit on Spectrum Sale  —  T-Mobile said Thursday that it added a further 1.5 million customers to its network in the second quarter, making this the fifth straight quarter of million-plus customer gains.  —  The company posted a net profit …
Ben Fox Rubin / CNET:
iFixit's Oculus Rift teardown finds Samsung display, 40 LEDs  —  The repair-guide website uncovers a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 display inside the second-generation virtual-reality headset prototype.  —  Inside the Oculus Rift DK2 prototype.  —  iFixit  —  If you're one of the lucky few …
Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:
C.I.A. Admits Penetrating Senate Intelligence Computers  —  WASHINGTON — An internal investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency has found that its officers improperly penetrated a computer network used by the Senate Intelligence Committee in preparing its report on the C.I.A.'s detention and interrogation program.
Billy Steele / Engadget:
NFL players to wear shoulder pad RFIDs for on-field stats tracking  —  The NBA isn't the only professional sports league in the States getting serious about accurate stats accounting.  With some help from Zebra Technologies' location system, 17 NFL stadiums will use receivers and RFID …
Chris Duckett / ZDNet:
Brad Molen / Engadget:
With Qi wireless charging, you'll soon be able to charge your device from a short distance  —  It's becoming more and more common to find mobile devices with wireless charging capability, either as a built-in feature or integrated into third-party cases.  Progress has been somewhat hampered …
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Shazam Brings Always-On Music and TV Recognition to Mac With Free Menu Bar App  —  Music recognition service Shazam, which was one of the early App Store hits and has continued to see good success on mobile platforms, is now bringing its services to the desktop in the form of the first music, TV show, and ad recognition app for Mac.
Erin Griffith / Fortune:
Palantir snaps up Propeller — its second deal this week  —  Until this week, Palantir Technologies, a Palo Alto-based data analytics company, wasnt much of an acquirer.  Despite having raised $896 million in venture capital, at a $9 billion valuation, and generating more than $500 million in revenue …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Internet.Org's App With Free Access To Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, Local Info Launches In Zambia  —  85% of the 5 billion people without Internet simply can't afford data plans.  So Facebook's accessibility initiative Internet.org today launches its Android and web app for the developing world …
Parmy Olson / Forbes:
Xiaomi now world's fifth largest smartphone maker; Android captures record 85% market share in Q2  —  China's Xiaomi Becomes World's 5th Largest Smartphone Maker  —  Global smartphone sales are still growing, but the market's star performer in the last three months wasn't Apple or even Samsung.
Nick Summers / The Next Web:
PlayStation Now game streaming service hits open beta today on PS4 in the US and Canada  —  Sony is launching a public beta for its PlayStation Now video game streaming initiative in the US and Canada today (July 31).  —  For now, the service will be available exclusively on the PlayStation 4 …
Larry Neumeister / Associated Press:
NY judge, ruling against Microsoft, says US warrant can access email stored in Ireland  —  NEW YORK — A judge has ruled against Microsoft Corp., saying U.S. law enforcement can force the company to turn over emails it stores in Ireland.  —  Loretta Preska, a federal judge in New York …
More: TechCrunch and ZDNet
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:
Google Will Add Ratings to Search-Results Ads So They Look More Like Amazon  —  Google is prodding merchants to provide more information to make its search results more effective-and more like Amazon.  The question is whether merchants will play ball.  —  In a blog post Tuesday …
Kim-Mai Cutler / TechCrunch:
Stripe Backs Non-Profit Decentralized Payment Network Stellar, From Mt. Gox's Original Creator  —  There's Bitcoin, the asset and hedge against fiat currencies and the politics of their central banks.  —  And then there's Bitcoin, a fundamental innovation around a distributed public ledger of transactions.
Ben Woods / The Next Web:
Twitter transparency report: Account info requests up 46%, still no national security breakdown  —  Twitter has published its fifth transparency report, revealing that the number of requests it receives from different countries around the world is continuing to climb, up 46 percent since its last report in February.

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