Techmeme
July 25, 2013, 3:25 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Apple's Secret Weapon: the iPhone 4  —  Three-Year-Old Smartphone Propels Company's Sales in Price-Conscious Markets  —  Apple Inc. is known for drawing crowds with its latest and greatest technology.  But one of its most potent weapons in some markets came out three years ago.
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Why Chromecast is such a big deal for Google, and a threat to Apple  —  Google officially launched its next big idea for the living room Wednesday, and the cast of people presenting the new product dubbed Chromecast at the company's breakfast event in San Francisco looked awfully familiar …
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
BlackBerry Lays Off 250 Employees From Its New Product Testing And R&D Department  —  Layoffs at Waterloo-based smartphone industry pioneer BlackBerry cut deep last year, with around 5,000 employees being let go.  Those cuts continue into 2013 as BlackBerry undergoes what CEO Thorsten Heins called a …
Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:
Fast Car: Uber Funding Auction Could Reach a $3.5B Valuation  —  Uber, the ride-logistics startup, could be valued at up to $3.5 billion in a new funding round led by TPG Capital, said multiple sources close to the discussions, which are ongoing but advanced.  We had first reported that Uber was seeking the round in June.
Declan McCullagh / CNET:
Feds tell Web firms to turn over user account passwords  —  Secret demands mark escalation in Internet surveillance by the federal government through gaining access to user passwords, which are typically stored in encrypted form.  —  The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet …
Tweets: @stshank and @declanm
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft rolls out developer preview of IE11 on Windows 7  —  Summary: Microsoft is making available for download immediately a test build of its IE11 browser for Windows 7, along with various new dev tools and discounts.  —  At Microsoft's Build conference, the IE team confirmed that Internet Explorer 11 …
Ilya Khrennikov / Bloomberg:
Yandex Co-Founder Ilya Segalovich on Life Support  —  Yandex NV (YNDX), Russia's largest search engine, said co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Ilya Segalovich suddenly died at age 48.  —  “Mr. Segalovich had been diagnosed with a treatable form of cancer and was responding well to treatment …
Rebecca Grant / VentureBeat:
The six most memorable startups from 500 Startups sixth class  —  MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF — The always-entertaining Dave McClure kicked off the 500 Startups Demo Day today with a video about Sharknado, otherwise known as “the best worst movie ever.”  —  “We hope our startups go as viral as Sharknado did,” McClure said.
Stephen Shankland / CNET:
Mozilla proposes Web tech for sharing personal interests  —  The Interests API would let browsers infer what people are interested in and, when those people give permission, share that information with Web sites that could tailor content or ads accordingly.  —  Harvey Anderson, Mozilla's SVP of business and legal affairs
Andy Greenberg / Forbes:
Hackers Reveal Nasty New Car Attacks—With Me Behind The Wheel (Video)  —  Stomping on the brakes of a 3,500-pound Ford Escape that refuses to stop-or even slow down-produces a unique feeling of anxiety.  In this case it also produces a deep groaning sound, like an angry water buffalo bellowing somewhere under the SUV's chassis.
More: BGR and SC Magazine.  Tweets: @pkafka
Ben Gilbert / Engadget:
Microsoft to allow indie self-publishing on Xbox One, retail consoles will double as debug units (updated)  —  Microsoft's Xbox One is getting decidedly more indie-friendly with today's confirmation from Microsoft that its forthcoming game console will double as a developer debug unit.
Stefan Constantinescu / Engadget:
Sony names devices that will (eventually) see Android 4.3  —  With Android 4.3 being less than 24 hours old, it's nice to see manufacturers already addressing concerns about whether all those under-the-hood tweaks will reach their devices.  On Sony Mobile's website, the company confirms that the Xperia Z …

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Donna Cassata / Associated Press:
Seth Fiegerman / Mashable: