Techmeme: German minister: Stop using U.S. Web services to avoid NSA spying (Zack Whittaker/ZDNet)

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July 3, 2013, 3:50 PM

Top News

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Streaming Entertainment Startup Boxee Acquired By Samsung For Around $30M — Israeli and NYC-based streaming media and entertainment startup Boxee has been acquired by South Korean electronics giant Samsung, we've been told by reliable sources. The Tel Aviv-based startup launched …

More: The Verge, AllThingsD, NYT Bits, CNET, The Jewish Press, Digits, Engadget, AppleInsider, Mashable, Digital Media Wire, PC Magazine, Business Insider, ZDNet, GigaOM, Betabeat, TechHive, The Next Web, BGR, VentureBeat, 9to5Google, Light Reading, Geek News Central, PhoneArena, TechSpot, TechnoBuffalo, Macgasm, AndroidHeadlines.com, IntoMobile, Dan Rayburn and Pocket-lint

Tweets: @evelynrusli, @jyarow and @danprimack

Thanks:@sohear. See also Mediagazer

Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:

German minister: Stop using U.S. Web services to avoid NSA spying — Summary: Germany is one of the most privacy conscious nations in the world, with data and privacy laws stronger than any other in the EU. And amid the NSA spying scandal, the country's top security chief has warned users to simply avoid U.S. companies.

More: Associated Press, GigaOM, CNET, ReadWrite, Softpedia News and GamePolitics blogs

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

WordPress.org, Reddit, Mozilla & Others Will Participate In Anti-NSA Web Protests On July 4th — A number of high-profile websites will be taking part in an online protest tomorrow against the National Security Agency (NSA)'s surveillance of online activity and phone calls.

More: Digits, Electronic Frontier Foundation, BBC, Hillicon Valley, reddit and InfoWorld

Dina Bass / Bloomberg:

Microsoft CEO Said to Give Bates Mergers Role in Revamp — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer is considering a reorganization that would put Skype president Tony Bates in charge of acquisitions and relationships with software developers, according to people familiar with the matter.

More: Digital Trends, CITEworld, GeekWire, Computerworld, Tech Trader Daily, Joystiq, Wall Street Journal, BGR, BGR India, TechnoBuffalo, CNET, VG247, LiveSide.net, gameinformer.com, Polygon, The Seattle Times, GamesIndustry International and Engadget

Om Malik / GigaOM:

Doug Engelbart, American inventor and computing legend, passes away. — Douglas “Doug” Engelbart, a legendary American inventor and computing science icon passed away last night, according to family sources. The news of his passing was shared on Professor David Farber's email list.

More: New York Times, TechCrunch, The Verge, Engadget, CNET, AllThingsD and Robert Scoble

Tweets: @computerhistory, @waxpancake, @mkapor and @anildash

Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:

Boston University sues Apple over 1997 patent, asks for ban on iPhone sales — How do college students feel about this one? The powers that be at Boston University want a federal court to ban the sale of a wide range of Apple products — including the iPhone 5, the iPad and the MacBook Air …

More: Boston Herald, CNET, VentureBeat, Betabeat, GeekWire, The Verge, AppleInsider, Ars Technica, 9to5Mac, Business Insider, PadGadget, Electronista, Patently Apple, iLounge, Cult of Mac, iClarified, BostInno, iDownloadBlog.com and everythingiCafe

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Twitter Will Soon Start Showing Targeted Ads Based On User Account Information, Browsing History — Another step ahead for Twitter in its bid to step up the pace with advertising on its platform: today the company announced that it would soon start “experimenting” with ways of making ads more …

More: Twitter Blog, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Computerworld, VentureBeat, Digits, GigaOM, AllThingsD, The Next Web, Boing Boing, Digiday, WebProNews, SlashGear and Mashable. Tweets: @joshconstine

Joanna Stern / ABC News:

Moto X Details Revealed: Colors, Wallpapers, Engravings Will Be Customizable at U.S. Factory — Motorola's upcoming phone called the Moto X will allow users to fully customize the look of the device with different colors and an engraving, sources have told ABC News.

More: Droid Life, TechnoBuffalo and Android Geeks

Kyle Russell / Business Insider:

Check Out What Data Motorola Has Been Collecting About Some Of Its Users

More: Beneath the Waves, DSLreports and SiliconANGLE

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Moto X will not be a Droid on Verizon

More: Examiner, eWeek, The Next Web, Android Geeks, TechnoBuffalo, Phones Review, Mobile Magazine, AndroidHeadlines.com and PhoneArena

Tom Gara / Corporate Intelligence:

How Facebook's IPO Created the Best-Paid County In America … It's not very often that the actions of a single company register in national economic statistics, but Facebook Inc. 's 2012 initial public offering appears to have hit the mark. — The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics …

More: The Atlantic Wire, SiliconBeat, Forbes, WebProNews, Business Insider, Softpedia News and Valleywag. Tweets: @wsjcorpintel

Marco Arment / Marco.org:

Lockdown — Officially, Google killed Reader because “over the years usage has declined”.1 I believe that statement, especially if API clients weren't considered “usage”, but I don't believe that's the entire reason. — The most common assumption I've seen others cite is that …

More: Anil Dash, 25hoursaday.com, TechCrunch, Forbes, GigaOM and Co.Labs

Tweets: @davewiner, @theromit, @waxpancake and @panzer

See also Mediagazer

Alex Kantrowitz / Forbes:

Google Reader Founder: I Never Would Have Founded Reader Inside Today's Google

More: Softpedia News

Official Google Reader Blog:

A final farewell

More: Building Feedly, SiliconANGLE, GSMArena Blog, memeburn, eWeek, TechnoBuffalo, Wonkblog and Search Engine Land

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

The $50 Million Man: Mattrick Gets Hefty Cash and Stock Package From Zynga, Including $19.3 Million in the First Year — Zynga just filed its 8-K regulatory filing that outlines the compensation it took to attract Microsoft Xbox head Don Mattrick to the troubled social gaming company as its new CEO, replacing founder Mark Pincus.

More: Digits

Mike Dano / FierceWireless:

AT&T prepping sale of customers' anonymous location information and Web, app usage data — AT&T (NYSE:T) said it “may” begin selling anonymous information about its customers' wireless and Wi-Fi locations, U-verse usage, website browsing, mobile application usage and “other information” to other businesses.

More: Forbes, Engadget, DSLreports and iClarified. Tweets: @blackplans

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

Beachmint CEO: PandoDaily Is Wrong, I'm Not Fired, And I'm Not Giving Any Money Back To Investors — Early this morning, an article was published on PandoDaily: “BeachMint board ousts founders, company returns $20 million to investors.” — In it, Michael Carney reports that Beachmint …

More: PandoDaily and VatorNews. Tweets: @calebgarling, @ryanlawler, @abrams, @ajs and @pandodaily. Thanks:@ajs

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

USA TV network lands on iOS with new app to watch full show episodes — The NBC-owned USA TV network has launched its own iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch application to bring the USA show viewing experience to the small-screen. The application, like many TV network apps currently on the App Store …

More: TUAW, The Next Web, iPhone and Engadget

AppleInsider:

Apple now No. 1 in customer satisfaction on Samsung's home turf of South Korea — Apple's products are renowned around the world for quality, but now the company's iPhone has achieved yet another milestone: it has taken the top spot for customer satisfaction in South Korea the home country of Apple's chief rival, Samsung.

More: 9to5Mac, Electronista, Examiner, memeburn and Ubergizmo

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Vine for iOS gets channels, trending users section, revining, new shooting tools, and protected accounts — Twitter today announced what it says is the biggest update to Vine for iOS yet, adding a slew of new features and fixing multiple issues. You can download the new app now directly from Apple's App Store.

More: Vine, TechCrunch, AllThingsD, Engadget, The Verge and 9to5Mac

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: Veteran VCs Peter Wagner and Gaurav Garg Launch Wing Venture Partners — Last month, when the networking startup Cumulus Networks came out of stealth and announced a Series A investment by a bunch of notable venture capitalists, Peter Wagner, a longtime managing partner at Accel Partners, was one of them.

More: ZDNet, Venture Capital Dispatch and Fortune. Thanks:@ahess247

Edward Wyatt / New York Times:

F.C.C. Is Told Verizon Underpaid Data Refunds — WASHINGTON — An independent telecommunications lawyer filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, claiming that Verizon Wireless had vastly understated the amount it collected from false data charges on customer bills …

More: DSLreports and FierceWireless

Michal Conger / Washington Examiner:

State Department bureau spent $630,000 on Facebook ‘likes’ — State Department officials spent $630,000 to get more Facebook “likes,” prompting employees to complain to a government watchdog that the bureau was “buying fans” in social media, the agency's inspector general says.

More: Digital Trends, PC Magazine, Marketing Land, CNET, Techdirt, Foreign Policy, BostInno, Gawker, NationalJournal.com, Gizmodo, Daily Dot and Forbes

Erica Ogg / GigaOM:

Apple's decision to hire fashion exec for “special projects” could boost its wearable computing efforts — Apple has reportedly hired a former fashion executive from Yves Saint Laurent to be the head of “special projects.” The report comes by way of Bloomberg, which says Paul Deneve will report directly to CEO Tim Cook.

More: Vogue.com UK, iMore, iPhone Hacks and CNET

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple hires former YSL CEO Paul Deneve to work on special projects under Tim Cook

More: Bloomberg, AppleInsider, Reuters, AllThingsD, TechHive, iDownloadBlog.com, TUAW, ZDNet, CNET, App Advice, Macgasm, GeekWire, Pocket-lint and The Verge. Tweets: @levie

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