NSA collected Americans' email records in bulk for two years under Obama  —  • Secret program launched by Bush continued ‘until 2011’  —  • Fisa court renewed collection order every 90 days  —  • Current NSA programs still mine US internet metadata

Apple Can't Add Galaxy S4 to Samsung Patent Lawsuit  —  Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost its bid in a lawsuit to add Samsung Electronics (005930) Co.'s Galaxy S4 smartphone to a list of products it alleges to infringe its patents.  —  The decision yesterday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal …

WikiLeaks Volunteer Was a Paid Informant for the FBI  —  On an August workday in 2011, a cherubic 18-year-old Icelandic man named Sigurdur “Siggi” Thordarson walked through the stately doors of the U.S. embassy in Reykjavík, his jacket pocket concealing his calling card: a crumpled photocopy of an Australian passport.

Yahoo News Gets A Makeover, But The Bigger Improvements Are Under The Hood  —  A little over a month after Yahoo partnered with Twitter to beef up its homepage news feed with relevant tweets from news organizations, the company is today announcing a major makeover for one of its flagship properties, Yahoo News.

Windows 8.1 in-depth hands-on: features, apps, impressions and screenshots  —  The last time we wrote about Windows 8.1, we had lots to talk about, but very little to share in the way of hands-on impressions.  You see, though Microsoft unveiled loads of new features, apps and UI tweaks …

Square Poaches Facebook Ad Product Director Gokul Rajaram to Lead Product Engineering  —  Square has hired Gokul Rajaram, Facebook's director of ad products, as its product engineering lead, the company announced today.  —  Rajaram will oversee software development for the company's point-of-sale system …

Apple Spells Out iTunes Radio Terms for Record Labels  —  Ahead of its launch of an online radio service, Apple circulated terms to independent record labels last week, many of them more generous to the music companies than what rival Pandora Media currently pays.

Valuation vs Ownership  —  I am talking at the PreMoney conference today (via Skype) and I woke up thinking about the challenges facing the VC industry.  I hope to talk a bit about this at the conference.  —  Some investors are ownership focused.  They want to own 20% of the business but care less about the valuation.

Clinkle Raises Celebrity-Filled $25M Round As It Gears Up To Eliminate The Physical Wallet  —  Clinkle, a mobile payments startup that aims to put your entire wallet on your phone, has raised a $25 million round from over 18 investors.  —  The company, which has been in stealth mode since …

Digg Reader Now Available On Digg's iOS App  —  Digg Reader, Digg's alternative for the RSS aggregation addicts who will be bereft when Google Reader finally shuts down on July 1, is now available on the Digg iOS app.  An Android app is expected to make its debut in the next three to four weeks.

Verizon wraps up LTE rollout; plans all-VoIP phone launch for late 2014  —  Verizon Wireless's LTE juggernaut has hit its 500th market, leading the carrier to declare on Thursday its rollout is “substantially complete.”  Verizon's 4G network now covers 298 million people and covers 95 percent of the U.S. population.

Air attack: Aereo CEO talks up his tech, prepares Chicago launch  —  Armed with his DVRs and tiny antennas, Aereo says the shift in TV has begun  —  Chet Kanojia, Aereo's founder and CEO, strolls past the rows and rows of DVRs, TV antennas, and transcoders, and smiles when he recalls …

Pandora and Royalties  —  (Warning: This is long, but I'd really like to fully articulate Pandora's perspective on royalties, which is simply impossible to do in just a few sentences.)  —  Over 13 years ago when I started this company, we set out with a singular mission …

iOS 7 includes the ability to control your iPhone or iPad using head movements [video]  —  Discovered by an anonymous tipster, iOS 7′s “Accessibility” section now includes a feature that allows you to control your iPhone or iPad with left or right head movements.

Google Earth 7.1 for Android and iOS, now with Street View  —  Whether you're on foot looking for the best sushi place in a new neighborhood or you'd like to do some virtual archaeology around Pompeii, we're all explorers of the world around us in our own way.

FTC commissioner calls for way to ‘reclaim your name’  —  Consumers should be able to retake control of data collected by websites and data brokers, Brill says  —  IDG News Service - U.S. consumers should be able to reclaim control of their personal data from data brokers, websites and other companies …

Google will remove all Blogger sites that monetize adult content, from June 30  —  Google sent an email to Blogger users today warning them that their site will be removed at the end of the month if they do not remove all adverts and links to external sites hosting adult content.

TouchCast Wants You to Watch Web Video With Your Fingers  —  The problem with most Web video startups is that you've seen them before.  Another compilation of cheap clips posing as the next big cable channel.  Another solution for nonexistent “discovery” problems.  Another “Instagram for video” that won't be.

Cloudsweeper tells you how much your Gmail is worth to a hacker  —  The value of your data is the driving force behind much of the malware and malicious behavior on the internet.  If an attacker can gain access to a store of information, it can be sold off piece by piece until the evildoer …

Swell Launches A Personalized App For News Radio Listening  —  Swell, a smartphone app launching today, is quickly becoming my favorite way to listen to spoken-word content.  —  There are other apps focusing on that kind of content — for example, when we wrote about Stitcher's growth last year …

Microsoft: Kinect for Xbox One will not work on PCs  —  This Kinect is designed to only work on an Xbox One.  You'll need a different one to plug in to your PC.  —  When Microsoft announced a special next-generation Kinect for Windows pre-release developer program earlier today …

Mark Suster's GRP Partners goes big: Announces new $200M fund and rebrands as Upfront Ventures  —  Venture capitalists GRP Partners announced today that it has closed its fifth fund, bringing in $200 million to help early stage startups grow.  With news of the fund the Los Angeles-based firm …