Techmeme: “What Is That Box?” — When The NSA Shows Up At Your Internet Company (Justine Sharrock/BuzzFeed)

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July 21, 2013, 9:50 AM

Top News

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

As part of iPhone sales push, Apple Store app to be redesigned & gain free iTunes content — Next week, Apple will debut a new element of Tim Cook's plan to sell more iPhones direct from Apple Retail. The company, on Tuesday, July 23rd, will release an updated version of its Apple Store application …

More: MacRumors, CNET, App Advice, iDownloadBlog.com, iPhone Hacks, T3 News, iMore and iClarified

Justine Sharrock / BuzzFeed:

“What Is That Box?” — When The NSA Shows Up At Your Internet Company — For nine months, this Utah ISP had a little black box in the corner, courtesy of the NSA. Its owner tells his story. When people say the feds are monitoring what people are doing online, what does that mean? How does that work?

More: The Verge and b0ing

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Zune 2.0: is Microsoft making the same mistakes with Surface RT? — History is in danger of repeating itself — Back in June of last year, Microsoft started teasing a “major announcement” that would soon be revealed as its first tablet: the Surface RT. There was an air of excitement …

More: Windows 8 Applications …, WindowsObserver.com and TUAW

Biz Stone / Medium:

Facebook Premium — Everybody thinks because I'm one of “the Twitter guys” that I must be good at using all social media. The truth is, if I can't figure an app out in a minute, I usually move on to something else. Too many settings and options frustrate and confuse me.

More: b0ing, Finance Post, Fast Company, HotHardware, The Next Web, AllThingsD and CNET

Tweets: @alex and @tcarmody

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Locket Puts Ads On Smartphone Lock Screens, Pays You To Use Your Phone — Would you install an Android app that put ads directly on your smartphone's lock screen? No? What if you were paid to do so, and whenever you swiped to unlock your device, you made a little money?

More: The Verge, ABC News, PC Magazine, Business Insider, AdExchanger, Engadget, TechSpot, Geek.com, HotHardware.com News, Pocketnow, Phones Review and Gotta Be Mobile

Tweets: @caseynewton and @joannastern

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Dropbox Acquires Mobile Coupon Startup Endorse A Month After Shutdown — About a month after it shut down its app, mobile coupon startup Endorse has been acquired by Dropbox, the team announced on its blog today. The deal follows a number of other recent acquisitions Dropbox has been making …

More: AllThingsD, Endorse Blog, CNET, VentureBeat and The Next Web

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

“Designing Facebook Home” Video Gives Rare Look At Prototypes And Iteration Process — Facebook Home's launcher was inspired by Lunchables. That's just one nugget of insight into Facebook's design process from a presentation it gave to Bay Area designers in May and that it's now released as a video.

More: PhoneArena

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Here's what's inside the Moto X — Motorola is set to unveil its new flagship Moto X smartphone August 1st, but even before the company makes things official, The Verge can confirm several of the device's hardware specifications. A tipster who has used a CDMA variant of the phone firsthand tells us …

More: TheUnlockr, GSMArena.com, TechnoBuffalo, TechSpot, The Next Web, iDigitalTimes, Pocket-lint, 9to5Google, Gizmodo, Android Beat, iDownloadBlog.com and VentureBeat. Tweets: @evleaks

Dante D'Orazio / The Verge:

Moto X to be revealed on August 1st in New York City

More: Android Beat, VentureBeat, TechnoBuffalo, CNET, TechHive, Electronista, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, BGR, AllThingsD, The Next Web, Business Insider and 9to5Google. Tweets: @reckless

Leila Abboud / Reuters:

France clears Iliad of intentionally slowing down YouTube — France's telecom regulator has cleared Iliad, the country's second-biggest broadband provider, of intentionally slowing down Google's video-sharing site YouTube, following a six-month investigation.

More: ARCEP and Cell Phone Techno

AllThingsD:

Apple Confirms HopStop Acquisition — Looks like Apple's recent purchase of crowdsourced location data company Locationary was part of a twofer mapping acquisition. The company also acquired online transit-navigation appmaker HopStop. HopStop's area of cartographic expertise …

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Mozilla unveils ‘aggressive’ Firefox OS schedule: Quarterly feature releases, security updates every six weeks — With Firefox OS version 1.0 out the door, Mozilla has decided that it's time to unveil its strategy for new versions. The company is planning to make feature releases available …

More: Future Releases, T3 News and Softpedia News

Billy Gallagher / TechCrunch:

Freedom Of Information Act Machine Fights Government Secrecy By Automating Transparency Requests — The Freedom of Information Act Machine, an open online platform that automates Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, launched on Kickstarter two days ago and has already surpassed its funding goal.

More: TechPresident and The Verge. See also Mediagazer

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