Techmeme
June 27, 2013, 6:00 PM

Top News

Guardian:
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
Guardian:
How the NSA is still harvesting your online data  —  Files show vast scale of current NSA metadata programs, with one stream alone celebrating ‘one trillion records processed’  —  A review of top-secret NSA documents suggests that the surveillance agency still collects and sifts through large quantities …
Facebook Engineering / Facebook:
Introducing the Facebook for Android Beta Testing Program  —  Android's openness, reach, and diversity create enormous opportunities for developers.  At Facebook, we've been able to utilize Android's flexibility to innovate in ways that aren't possible on other platforms, like building the first version of Home.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Facebook announces Beta Program for its main Android app, ironically uses Google Groups  —  In a meeting with journalists today, Facebook announced it's offering a Beta Program for its app on Android, allowing users to test upcoming versions.  The first beta will be available today.
Kevin Poulsen / Wired:
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.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Leaked Details Of Facebook's New Chat Rooms Feature  —  Facebook has built a new feature codenamed “Host Chat” that lets people set up chat rooms their friends can join without an invitation, a source familiar with the feature tells us.  I've contacted Facebook and it confirms it has begun testing this feature in the wild.
Joel Rosenblatt / Bloomberg:
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 …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
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.
Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:
Personal Assistant App Donna Goes Live, With Better Battery Performance And Instant Uber Requests  —  Personal assistant app Donna is ready to help simplify users' lives, and is being launched on the Apple App Store today to do just that.  With the general release also comes a few new features …
Chance Miller / 9to5Google:
T-Mobile sends out invites to July 10th press event, teases its “boldest moves yet”  —  T-Mobile has just sent out an invite to a July 10th press event in New York City.  The invite doesn't offer many details as to what we can expect, but the carrier does tease that we will see its “boldest moves yet.”
Jason Del Rey / AllThingsD:
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 …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
First clues emerge about Jelly, Twitter co-founder's mysterious new startup  —  On April 1st, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone posed a question on a company blog: “What is Jelly?”  The answer, he said, is a new company and product named after the jellyfish.  Unmentioned in the post is that Jelly …
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Google starts letting organizations borrow its Street View Trekker to record imagery for Maps  —  Google today announced it is kicking off a new Google Maps pilot program that lets third-party organizations borrow the Street View Trekker and contribute imagery back to the service.
Billy Gallagher / TechCrunch:
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 …
Stephen Shankland / CNET:
Google Now comes closer to Chrome, shares TV show info  —  The Android version of Google's notification system can reveal background about TV you're watching, and Google is wiring Now up to Chrome, too.  —  Chrome prompts users if they want to receive Google Now updates through their browser.
Nick Summers / The Next Web:
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.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Kickstarter Allowing Canada-Based Projects Beginning This Summer  —  Kickstarter just announced via its Twitter account that it will be opening up its crowdfunding platform for Canada-based projects as of “later this summer.”  Thus far, that's as specific as the company is getting …
Ashley Parker / New York Times:
Immigration Overhaul Passes in Senate  —  WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday approved the most significant overhaul of the nation's immigration laws in a generation with broad bipartisan support, sending the bill to the Republican-controlled House, where there is significant opposition …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
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.
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
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.

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