Techmeme
June 20, 2013, 8:30 PM

Top News

Kevin Systrom / Instagram Blog:
Introducing Video on Instagram  —  Over the past two and a half years, Instagram has become a community where you can capture and share the world's moments simply and beautifully.  Some moments, however, need more than a static image to come to life.  Until now these stories have been missing from Instagram.
Christopher Mims / Quartz:
It's no accident Facebook made Instagram's new videos exactly as long as a television commercial  —  Facebook is going to get us all watching television ads again.  —  Instagram, the photo-sharing app that Facebook acquired last year, just added the ability to share videos, as well.
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Instagram Video Vs. Vine: What's The Difference?  —  Instagram just launched video functionality.  Glorious, 15-second, editable video functionality.  Complete with image stabilization.  —  So what does this mean for Vine?  In the end, the competition should give users plenty to be excited about …
Colleen Taylor / TechCrunch:
Guardian:
Revealed: the top secret rules that allow NSA to use US data without a warrant  —  Fisa court submissions show broad scope of procedures governing NSA's surveillance of Americans' communication  —  • Document one: procedures used by NSA to target non-US persons
Edward C. Baig / USA Today:
Best Buy relaunching trade-in offer for ‘free’ iPhone 5  —  Best Buy says it had the biggest day ever for its four-year old trade-in program on June 1.  That's when the electronics retailer gave customers the opportunity to trade in iPhone 4 and 4S models and get a “free” iPhone 5 in return.
Roger Cheng / CNET:
Samsung goes big with Windows 8-powered Ativ line  —  The Ativ laptops, PCs, and tablet were prominent amid a smorgasbord of product announcements.  —  NEW YORK — The Ativ name may be silly, but Samsung Electronics is betting heavily on it as the namesake for anything related to Windows.
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft Explored Plans to Build Amazon Rival  —  Microsoft Corp. recently explored rolling out an e-commerce marketplace aimed at taking on heavyweights Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc., according to people briefed on the company's plans.  —  The software giant held discussions with retailers …
Wired:
Introducing Aaron's Law, a Desperately Needed Reform of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act  —  The Internet is up for grabs.  —  Foreign countries want to control it.  Military regimes use it to spy, to oppress, and to attack public and private institutions.  ‘Big Content’ sought to censor it and dismantle its architecture.
Mat Honan / Wired:
Inside Digg's Race to Build the New Google Reader  —  Andrew McLaughlin is, like, California-enthusiastic.  Like, we're-totally-going-to-do-this- guys enthusiastic.  The 43 year-old CEO of the recently re-imagined Digg is a believer in the way the Internet can make the world better.
More: SlashGear
Rolfe Winkler / Digits:
WhatsApp Surpasses 250 Million Active Users  —  WhatsApp tells The Wall Street Journal it has more than 250 million monthly active users, the first time it has revealed the scope of its popular smartphone messaging app.  —  The figure is impressive for a company that launched its app …
Greg Sandoval / The Verge:
The reason it took so long for HBO to get on Apple TV: cable companies  —  HBO built the Apple TV app in-house for the first time ever  —  To some, Apple TV seems like a laggard.  —  The web TV box that Apple has referred to for years as a “hobby” is only now offering access to shows …
Wall Street Journal:
How HTC Lost Its Way With Smartphones  —  After product fumbles and two years of share price declines, HTC Corp. Chief Executive Peter Chou knows the inevitable question is coming.  —  “I know you guys want to ask will I quit,” says Mr. Chou, in an interview at the Taiwanese smartphone maker's headquarters on the outskirts of Taipei.
Hayley Tsukayama / Washington Post:
Twitter's Nicole Wong joins White House as deputy chief technology officer  —  Twitter executive Nicole Wong is joining the Obama administration as deputy U.S. chief technology officer, the White House said in a statement Thursday.  —  Wong, who has been Twitter's legal director of products since November …
More: CNET, AL.com, Reuters and WebProNewsTweets: @lisarein
Daniel Terdiman / CNET:
Leap Fund offers $25 million for Leap Motion developers  —  Highland Capital Partners, which led Leap Motion's Series A round, wants to boost the ecosystem for apps built for the Leap 3D gesture-control system, which ships next month.  —  Leap Motion won't ship its cutting-edge 3D gesture …
Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
Oracle Shares Fall on Weaker Than Expected Q4 Sales  —  Oracle's earnings results for its fourth fiscal quarter just crossed the wires.  While the bottom line was even with what analysts had expected, sales fell a little short of the consensus again by about $100 million.

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Earlier Picks

Adam Pasick / Quartz:
Ben Gilbert / Engadget: