Techmeme
January 7, 2013, 4:30 PM

Top News

Apple:
App Store Tops 40 Billion Downloads with Almost Half in 2012  —  Apple® today announced that customers have downloaded over 40 billion apps*, with nearly 20 billion in 2012 alone.  The App Store has over 500 million active accounts and had a record-breaking December with over two billion downloads during the month.
Matthew Lynley / Digits:
Apple Has Paid Out More Than $7 Billion To Developers  —  Apple announced today that more than 40 billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store for the iPhone and iPad — which has led to more than $7 billion in payments to developers.  —  That's still a fraction of Apple's revenue …
Jamie Condliffe / Gizmodo:
Ben Gilbert / Engadget:
NVIDIA unveils Project Shield, a Tegra 4-powered Android gaming handheld  —  A video shown on-stage during NVIDIA's press conference just unveiled “Project Shield,” a gaming controller / portable console running the just announced Tegra 4.  The controller looks an awful lot like a PlayStation 3 DualShock 3 …
Alex Fitzpatrick / Mashable!:
Congressman Demands Investigation of Google FTC Probe Leaks  —  Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, demanded an investigation of the Federal Trade Commission's role in sharing private information about the Commission's Google probe …
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Apple Can't Afford Buyer's Remorse With Next Retail Hire  —  John Browett, the Dixons exec tapped to oversee Apple's retail operations last January, was Tim Cook's first big hire after taking up the CEO reins at the company.  Nine months later, he would be among Cook's first big fires …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
My conversation with ex-Facebook CTO and Quora co-founder Adam D'Angelo  —  To say that I have had a contentious relationship with former Facebook chief technology officer Adam D'Angelo's three-year-old startup Quora would be an understatement.  I've had my reasons for disagreeing with some of its policies relating to the content.
Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
At Disney Parks, a Bracelet Meant to Build Loyalty (and Sales)  —  ORLANDO, Fla. — Imagine Walt Disney World with no entry turnstiles.  Cash?  Passé: Visitors would wear rubber bracelets encoded with credit card information, snapping up corn dogs and Mickey Mouse ears with a tap of the wrist.
Steve Stecklow / Reuters:
Exclusive: U.S. nuclear lab removes Chinese tech over security fears  —  (Reuters) - A leading U.S. nuclear weapons laboratory recently discovered its computer systems contained some Chinese-made network switches and replaced at least two components because of national security concerns, a document shows.
Associated Press:
Google executive chairman arrives in North Korea  —  PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Google's chairman wants a first-hand look at North Korea's economy and social media during his private visit Monday to the communist nation, his delegation said, despite misgivings in Washington over the timing of the trip.
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Yahoo Mail users hit by widespread hacking, XSS exploit seemingly to blame (Update: Yahoo is investigating)  —  Late last night reports started coming in suggesting that Yahoo Mail users have had their accounts hacked.  While “hacked” is a very broad term nowadays, it does appear …
Chris Ziegler / The Verge:
AT&T Screen Pack could be U-verse's $5 Netflix competitor  —  AT&T announced Screen Pack today, a $5 per month add-on for subscribers of its U-verse TV service that offers access to a streaming library of movies “all without having to rent DVDs.”  If that sounds familiar, that's because it's is …
Tamar Lewin / New York Times:
Massive Open Online Courses Prove Popular, if Not Lucrative Yet  —  MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — In August, four months after Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng started the online education company Coursera, its free college courses had drawn in a million users, a faster launching than either Facebook or Twitter.

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Tim Culpan / Bloomberg: