Techmeme: WordPress.org, Reddit, Mozilla & Others Will Participate In Anti-NSA Web Protests On July 4th (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

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July 3, 2013, 5:30 PM

Top News

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: TechCrunch, Engadget, GigaOM, Examiner, 9to5Google, CNET, VentureBeat, The Verge, SlashGear, Droid Life, Ubergizmo, IntoMobile, Pocketables, AndroidHeadlines.com, Pocketnow, MobileSyrup.com, TechnoBuffalo and Android Geeks. Tweets: @jyarow

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Moto X will not be a Droid on Verizon

More: Engadget, TechHive, The Register, Examiner, eWeek, The Next Web, Android Geeks, TechnoBuffalo, Phones Review and Mobile Magazine

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 …

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, 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: DSLreports, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Digits, BBC, Hillicon Valley, reddit and The Boston Globe

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, AllThingsD, VatorNews, Business Insider, Engadget, Computerworld, Electronic Frontier Foundation, VentureBeat, Digits, GigaOM, The Next Web, internetretailer.com, WebProNews and Mashable. Tweets: @joshconstine

Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Twitter Shows The Way Forward With Do Not Track

More: Mobile Marketing Watch, PC Magazine, AdExchanger, CNET, Marketing Land, Los Angeles Times, gHacks Technology News, Lifehacker, Boing Boing, Digiday and SlashGear. Tweets: @mikeisaac

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, Computerworld, GeekWire, Wall Street Journal, Joystiq, BGR India, TechnoBuffalo, BGR, CNET, Tech Trader Daily, gameinformer.com, Polygon, VG247 and LiveSide.net

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 …

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, IETF, The Technology Chronicles, Digits, The Verge, Engadget, CNET, AllThingsD, Business Insider, ReadWrite, Robert Scoble and WebProNews

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

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Yahoo Acquires Xobni for Upwards of $30 Million (Like ATD Said, Part 2) — Yahoo said it has bought Xobni, as AllThingsD.com had previously reported it was planning to do. — According to numerous sources close to the company, Yahoo paid $30 million to $40 million for the maker of address book apps and plugins.

More: The Smartr & Xobni Blog, Xobni Support, ZDNet, Engadget, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Digits, SlashGear, Valleywag, Mashable, Ubergizmo and BostInno. See also Mediagazer

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Tim Cook heralds sweeping iPhone sales push to Apple retail leadership — Apple CEO Tim Cook and his leadership team are moving to implement sweeping changes to the way iPhones are sold and marketed in order to deflect competition from smartphones running Google's Android operating system.

More: GigaOM, MacRumors, BGR and iLounge

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 online gaming company as its new CEO …

More: Business Insider and Digits

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, The Verge, TechCrunch, TechHive, MacRumors, Gizmodo, AllThingsD, Engadget, 9to5Mac, ReelSEO Video Marketing, iDownloadBlog.com, Apple Fan Site and WebProNews

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, Business Insider and WebProNews

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

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, GigaOM, Co.Labs, TechCrunch and Forbes

Tweets: @davewiner and @theromit

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