Techmeme: Passwords don't just protect data, they reveal our hopes, dreams, secrets, fears, and memories (Ian Urbina/New York Times)

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November 23, 2014, 4:35 AM

Top News

Felix Gillette / Businessweek:

Behind PayPal-owned mobile payments app Venmo, which processed $700M in payments in Q3 2014 — Mobile Payment Startup Venmo is Killing Cash — Kristen Geil, a writer for an Internet marketing firm in Chicago, heard about Venmo for the first time two summers ago.

Tweets: @kaylatausche

Ian Urbina / New York Times:

Passwords don't just protect data, they reveal our hopes, dreams, secrets, fears, and memories — The Secret Life of Passwords … Play Videos — Howard Lutnick, the chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, one of the world's largest financial-services firms, still cries when he talks about it.

Tweets: @nytmag, @amiraaah, @megan, @nickbilton, @stammy, @digiphile, @nicoleperlroth and @ethanz

AnandTech:

Full disk encryption on Nexus 6 leads to 62.9% drop in random read performance — Encryption and Storage Performance in Android 5.0 Lollipop — As alluded to in our Nexus 6 review, our normal storage performance benchmark was no longer giving valid results as of Android 5.0.

More: PC Magazine, TechSpot, Android Beat, Electronista, Digital Trends, Droid Life, BetaNews, Ubergizmo, BGR and Android Authority

Ken Dilanian / Associated Press:

Internal NSA debate led Obama to consider plan to stop gathering US phone records in 2009 — AP Exclusive: Before Snowden, a debate inside NSA — 1 photo — WASHINGTON (AP) — Years before Edward Snowden sparked a public outcry with the disclosure that the National Security Agency …

More: Schneier on Security and Techdirt. Tweets: @normative, @rj_gallagher, @declanm and @stuartmillar159

Laura Hudson / New York Times:

How Twine, a creation tool for text-based video games, brought more diverse voices to gaming — Twine, the Video-Game Technology for All — Perhaps the most surprising thing about “GamerGate,” the culture war that continues to rage within the world of video games, is the game that touched it off.

Tweets: @john_brindle, @bryfitz, @laura_hudson and @nytmag

Lauren Schwartzberg / Fast Company:

The Oral History of The Poop Emoji (Or, How Google Brought Poop to America) — Everyone's favorite emoji began in Japan. But without Google, it may have stayed there. — If the story of the poop emoji's rise were told in emojis, it would look like this:

Ben Huh / Backchannel:

How Cheezburger survived 3 years of turmoil to create a platform for remixing funny images — Rewriting Cheezburger Saved My Life — Please You Download It … I want to tell you the entire story of how this app came to be, with all the guts and gore.

More: Inc.com. Tweets: @paulsingh, @caro, @jguynn, @backchnnl, @randyjhunt and @eamonleonard. Thanks:@themadhacker

Lane Wood / Medium:

Pando founder Sarah Lacy's allusions to physical threats distort media narrative on Uber scandal — Here ego again. — There's something unsettling about all this Uber stuff. — Maybe it's the fact that I have to wade through all the technorati tweets about “#Ubergate” …

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

Eyes-on with Streaming Photoshop: Adobe's plan to bring PS to the cloud — We have seen Photoshop work in a browser, and it looked pretty good. “Streaming Photoshop” is Adobe and Google's plan to bring the incomparable photo editor to Chrome OS and the Chrome Browser.

More: VentureBeat, TechCrunch, The Verge, PetaPixel and PopPhoto.com

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Acquires Photo Startup Cooliris — Photo app-maker Cooliris just announced that it has been acquired by Yahoo. — It's been a long road to this exit. Cooliris was founded back in 2006 and was initially known for creating a “3D wall” for navigating photos and other media content.

More: Cooliris, ZDNet, Tech in Asia and The Next Web

Derek Walter / Greenbot:

Google Maps 9.1 for Android now displays local weather, time, and tips about your destination — Google Maps 9.1 is a rather minor update, compared to the major Material Design overhaul in 9.0. — But it turns out there are some useful features tucked away, especially if you rely on the app …

More: Android Police, Engadget and BGR

Susan Decker / Bloomberg:

Samsung Files Complaint to Block Nvidia Chips From U.S. — Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) is seeking to block computer-graphics chips made by Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) from the U.S. market, escalating a battle begun after licensing talks failed. — Samsung filed a complaint today against Nvidia …

More: Engadget, NASDAQ.com, Reuters and Wall Street Journal

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