Techmeme: Leaked Details Of Facebook's New Chat Rooms Feature (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

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June 27, 2013, 8:40 PM

Top News

Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:

Google Is Developing Android Game Console — Google Inc. is developing a videogame console and digital wrist watch powered by its Android operating system, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Internet company seeks to spread the software's domination beyond smartphones …

More: Engadget, MacRumors, Computerworld, Gizmodo, CNET, VentureBeat, Los Angeles Times, Business Insider, GigaOM, The Next Web, Ars Technica, Polygon, AllThingsD and TechWhack

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

More: Digits, The Verge, Wired, Techdirt, Ars Technica, Computerworld, TechCrunch, Forbes, VatorNews, The Daily Caller and Yahoo! News

Tweets: @mat, @davidkenner and @attackerman

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 …

Tweets: @jeffjarvis and @ethanz. See also Mediagazer

Declan McCullagh / CNET:

Surveillance ‘partnership’ between NSA and telcos points to AT&T, Verizon

More: Guardian and RT

Ragavan Srinivasan / 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.

More: AllFacebook, PC Magazine, Pocketnow, CNET, PhoneArena, MobileSyrup.com, Inside Facebook, SlashGear, Mashable and TechWhack

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.

More: TechCrunch, TechHive, AllThingsD, CNET, The Next Web, ZDNet, Computerworld, 9to5Google, GigaOM, Engadget, VentureBeat, Macgasm and Electronista

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.

More: CNET, Electronista, Ubergizmo, Pocket-lint, Gizmodo, AllFacebook, Macgasm, BestTechie and TechWhack

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.

More: The Verge. Tweets: @mlcalderone. See also Mediagazer

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 …

More: The Next Web, Valleywag, BestTechie, GigaOM and Inc.com

Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:

Unity Game Engine Announces Xbox One Support, Goes Free For Windows Phone 8 Developers — Unity, the cross-platform 3D engine and game development tool that's been on something of a roll lately, has a few more bits of good news today. At Microsoft's Build 2013 conference this morning …

More: Unity Technologies Blog, Xbox Wire, The Verge, VentureBeat, ZDNet, TechHive, Gamasutra, The Escapist, Polygon and destructoid

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Foursquare rolling out its first native tablet app on Windows 8

More: Engadget, The Next Web, CNET, PC Magazine, TechWhack, VentureBeat, GeekWire and About Foursquare. Tweets: @panzer

Dana Wollman / Engadget:

Windows 8.1 in-depth hands-on: features, apps, impressions and screenshots

More: Digital Trends, SiliconANGLE, ZDNet, CITEworld, LAPTOP Magazine, Computerworld, Windows Phone Central, Guardian, Gotta Be Mobile, Yahoo! News, blog.chron.com, TechSpot and BetaNews

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.

More: Yahoo!, AllThingsD, Mercury News, The Next Web, CNET and BetaNews. See also Mediagazer

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 …

Want China Times:

Hon Hai reveals iPhone-compatible smartwatch — Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry — the main manufacturer of Apple's iPhones and iPads, better known by its trading name Foxconn — showcased a smartwatch on Wednesday that can be connected wirelessly to an iPhone, which the company hopes …

More: CNET, MacRumors, AppleInsider, TechSpot, Engadget, TUAW, iPhone in Canada Blog, Liliputing, BGR, App Advice, Electronista and ITworld.com

Alex Williams / TechCrunch:

Windows Azure Web Sites, Mobile Services Now Generally Available — Microsoft has announced general availability of Windows Azure Web Sites and Mobile Service, accentuating the emphasis on development using the Azure cloud service. — According to Microsoft, Windows Azure Web Sites allows customers …

More: MSDN Blogs, Ars Technica, eWeek, ZDNet, ScottGu's Blog, TechNet Blogs, GeekWire and ReadWrite

Alex Wilhelm / The Next Web:

Microsoft: Azure powers 299M Skype users, 50M Office Web Apps users, stores 8.5T objects

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.

More: Google LatLong, GeekWire, TechCrunch, Engadget, Softpedia News, Ubergizmo and CBS San Francisco

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:

Twitter #Music for iOS updated with genres, five new charts, and in-app Rdio authentication — Twitter today released the first update to its Twitter #Music app for iOS. You can grab the new version now directly from Apple's App Store. — The biggest addition is undoubtedly genres …

More: TechCrunch, MacRumors, CNET, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac and Engadget

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 …

More: The Hill, PandoDaily, VentureBeat, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, Agence France Presse, BBC and TIME

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Adobe Acquires Conversational Marketing Platform Neolane For $600M In Cash To Bolster Its Marketing Cloud — Adobe today announced that it has acquired Neolane, a conversational marketing company with an annual revenue of just under $60 million, in a transaction that's worth $600 million in cash.

More: AdExchanger, AllThingsD, Computerworld, Business Wire, VentureBeat, GigaOM, ZDNet, internetretailer.com and Forbes

Mark Suster / Both Sides of the Table:

GRP Announces $200 Million Fund. Rebrands as Upfront Ventures — I am super excited to announce that today is a day of lots of new things for my partners & me: A new fund, a new office and a new brand. Let's start with the fund. — We have previously raised funds in 1996 ($200 million) …

More: Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, The Next Web, PE Hub Blog, VatorNews, Domain Name Wire, AllThingsD, VentureBeat and PandoDaily. Thanks:@msuster

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.

More: The Verge, CNET, VentureBeat, Ars Technica, Macgasm, WebProNews, 9to5Google and Softpedia News. See also Mediagazer

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