Techmeme
July 31, 2013, 11:05 AM

Top News

Glenn Greenwald / Guardian:
XKeyscore: NSA tool collects ‘nearly everything a user does on the internet’  —  A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals …
AnandTech:
Update on GPU Optimizations in Galaxy S 4  —  Yesterday we posted our analysis of the Exynos 5 Octa's behavior in the Galaxy S 4 in certain benchmarks.  Samsung addressed issue on their blog earlier today:  —  Under ordinary conditions, the GALAXY S4 has been designed to allow a maximum GPU frequency of 533MHz.
AnandTech:
Quip Blog:
Introducing Quip  —  Today, we are extremely excited to launch Quip.  Quip is a modern word processor that enables you to create beautiful documents on any device — phones, tablets and the desktop.  If you haven't already, download Quip to try it out.  —  Why Quip?
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Jordan Kahn / 9to5Google:
Google gives AT&T the boot, will supply 7000 US Starbucks locations with WiFi starting next month  —  After a brief announcement back in June that it had partnered with Starbucks to offer free, unlimited music through its new Google Play All Access streaming service, Google today announced …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft Office for Android now available, but not for tablets  —  Microsoft is extending its Office mobile software to Android this week, bringing basic editing to smartphones running Android 4.0 or higher.  Following the release of Office for iPhone, the Android variant is almost identical in what it provides and its requirements.
Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:
Facebook Said to Plan to Sell TV-Style Ads for $2.5M Each  —  Facebook Inc. (FB), seeking to break the long-held dominance of television over advertising budgets, plans to sell TV-style commercials on its site for as much as $2.5 million a day, two people familiar with the matter said.
Brian X. Chen / NYT Bits:
OpenTable Begins Testing Mobile Payments  —  OpenTable, the world's largest online reservation service, lets users book a restaurant reservation with its smartphone app or Web site.  Now the company is getting ready to take the next step and let diners pay for the meal with its app, too.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft Surface revenue so far: $853 million  —  Microsoft just filed its annual Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and deep in the filing is the first public disclosure of the company's revenue from its Surface tablet lineup: $853 million.
Mark Collins / GSM Insider:
Moto X To Use Nano-SIM Card, SIM Tray Leaks In Hong Kong  —  Moto X leaks again and again.  This time is about the Nano-SIM tray of the Moto X. It was leaked earlier in an Asian country, Hong Kong.  It looks like Moto X is available in different parts of the world.
Jeff Blagdon / The Verge:
FileMaker dropping Bento database app for Mac and iOS  —  FileMaker is dropping Bento, the consumer-friendly database app for OS X and iOS, in order to focus on its core products.  The Mac app was first released in 2008 to generally positive reviews, followed by an iPhone version the following year and an iPad version in 2010.
Walter S. Mossberg / AllThingsD:
Review of Google's New Chromecast  —  Google is trying to change television watching again, after the tepid response to its Google TV product a few years back.  This time, instead of building a complex system to bring apps and Internet video to the TV, the search giant is taking a simpler approach.
Barb Darrow / GigaOM:
Here are the 7 companies Microsoft doesn't want its ex-Windows chief to join  —  Since Steven Sinofsky and Microsoft shocked the PC world by divorcing last year, some details of Sinofsky's severance have already surfaced.  But now we know, thanks to Microsoft's 10-K filing …
More: GeekWire, AllThingsD and Gizmodo.  Tweets: @rebeccabuckman
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Nvidia Shield review  —  Is Android ready for a portable game console?  —  Last summer, I bought an iPad 3.  I convinced myself I'd use it for everything: showing off wedding photos, reading all those neglected articles I save to Pocket, and as a second monitor for my laptop.
Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:
Google's Privacy Balancing Act  —  Internal Debates Arise Over Using Collected Information and Protecting Privacy  —  In 2011, Google Inc. Chief Executive and co-founder Larry Page asked executives to develop a new, simplified privacy tool that would act as a kind of sliding scale …
More: The Verge.  Tweets: @amir
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft forced to rename SkyDrive following trademark case with broadcaster  —  A UK court recently ruled that Microsoft's SkyDrive name infringed on a trademark owned by British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB), and the software maker has agreed to change the name of its cloud-based service.
Jeff Blagdon / The Verge:
Zynga sues ‘Bang With Friends’ maker for trademark infringement  —  Zynga is going after hookup app Bang With Friends, suing its maker with trademark infringement over its use of the phrase “with friends” — common to a series of Zynga games including Words With Friends and Chess With Friends.
John Ribeiro / PC World:
US appeals court upholds warrantless collection of phone location data  —  Warrants are not required by the U.S. government to access historical cell site information, an appeals court ruled in an order.  —  The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects only reasonable expectations of privacy …
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Viacom Demands New Judge in YouTube Copyright Fight  —  An appeals court is primed to review the long-running dispute a second time.  —  After swinging and missing twice, Viacom is telling an appeals court it needs an umpire who isn't blind to YouTube's alleged copyright infringement.

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