Techmeme
December 4, 2014, 7:30 PM

Top News

Uber Blog:
Uber raises $1.2B, looks to invest in the Asia Pacific region; acknowledges shortcomings in company's culture  —  The Ride Ahead  —  2014 has been a year of tremendous growth for Uber.  It was just a year ago that Uber was operating in 60 cities and 21 countries - today we are in over 250 cities in 50 countries.
Liz Gannes / Re/code:
Uber confirms $40B valuation; $1.2B round of funding could swell to $1.8B  —  Uber Announces $1.2 Billion Raise, Confirms $40 Billion Valuation  —  Quick on the heels of a filing this morning, Uber announced it has raised $1.2 billion in a new round of funding.
Ryan Gallagher / The Intercept:
Operation AURORAGOLD: How the NSA hacks cellphone networks worldwide and spies on the GSM Association, which includes Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Facebook, others  —  How the NSA Hacks Cellphone Networks Worldwide  —  In March 2011, two weeks before the Western intervention in Libya …
Sherrel Wheeler Stewart / Reuters:
Tim Cook agrees to lend his name to Alabama LGBT anti-discrimination bill after initial resistance from Apple  —  Alabama anti-discrimination bill to be named after Apple's Tim Cook  —  (Reuters) - An anti-discrimination bill championed by Alabama's only openly gay lawmaker will bear …
Lev Grossman / TIME:
Inside Mark Zuckerberg's plan to wire the world and put every single human being online  —  Exclusive: Inside Facebook's Plan to Wire the World  —  Chandauli is a tiny town in rural India about a four-hour drive southwest of New Delhi.  India's a big country, and there are several Chandaulis.
Jason Del Rey / Re/code:
Amazon Unveils Its Own Diapers and Baby Wipes Called Amazon Elements  —  For years, Amazon naysayers have warned that the e-commerce giant's ambition would drive it to compete ever more directly with the merchants who sell goods on Amazon's popular online marketplace.
Brian Womack / Bloomberg:
Yahoo Set to Pass Twitter in U.S. Mobile Ads After Mayer Revamp  —  Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) is poised to surpass Twitter Inc. (TWTR) next year to become the third-biggest company in U.S. mobile advertising, bolstering a key part of Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer's turnaround effort.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft sells its 17.6% stake in Nook back to Barnes & Noble for $62M and 2.7M shares  —  Microsoft sells its stake in Nook back to Barnes & Noble  —  Microsoft and Barnes & Noble unveiled a “strategic partnership” back in April 2012 which involved the software maker investing $300 million …
Nick Statt / CNET:
Eddy Cue testimony in antitrust trial: Apple's iPod updates, DRM strategy were to prevent hacks, piracy  —  Apple defended iPod from hackers, iTunes chief says in antitrust trial  —  iTunes chief Eddy Cue says hackers wanted to break apart Apple's digital music ecosystem in a trial questioning its use of software updates.
Jeff Elder / Wall Street Journal:
Aruna Viswanatha / Reuters:
US Justice Department creating new unit to work with the private sector to prevent online crime and advise on electronic surveillance in cyber investigations  —  New U.S. cybersecurity prosecutor unit to focus on prevention  —  (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is creating a unit within …
More: Gizmodo
Owen Williams / The Next Web:
Facebook's Slingshot hits 2.0, now emulates Snapchat's stories feature instead  —  Facebook's answer to Snapchat, dubbed Slingshot, launched with a fizz back in June but didn't see much adoption, with many complaining it was too much work compared with Snapchat.
Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:
Google's Inbox team promises cross-browser support, unified inbox, and more in Reddit AMA  —  Google's Inbox team promises cross-browser support and a host of other features soon  —  Google's new Inbox interface for its longstanding Gmail service is an intriguing, futuristic …
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Google+ now lets you pin posts on profiles and pages  —  Google today added a new feature to Google+: pinned posts.  You can now choose to pin one of your posts to the top of your profile or page.  —  As you'd expect, a pinned post is shown above all your other posts when someone visits your profile or page.

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Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Tim Moynihan / Wired: