Techmeme: Sounding the alarm: Ars speaks with vocal NSA critic Sen. Ron Wyden (Joe Mullin/Ars Technica)

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July 31, 2013, 10:20 PM

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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 …

Andy Greenberg / Forbes:

NSA Director Heckled At Conference As He Asks For Security Community's Understanding — When NSA Director Keith Alexander appeared at the Las Vegas security conference Black Hat Wednesday morning, he hoped to mend the NSA's reputation in the eyes of thousands of the conference's hackers and security professionals.

More: TechCrunch, CNET, Hillicon Valley, GigaOM, SiliconANGLE, Reuters, VentureBeat, Associated Press, Bloomberg and MIT Technology Review

Tweets: @olivierlacan, @joshgerstein and @karlbode

Guardian:

XKeyscore presentation from 2008 - read in full — Training materials for the NSA's XKeyscore program detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases and develop intelligence from the internet

More: The Register and Washington Post. Tweets: @strngwys, @kevinmitnick, @markusandrezak and @waxpancake

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

Sounding the alarm: Ars speaks with vocal NSA critic Sen. Ron Wyden

More: Senator Wyden's Press Feed

Timothy B. Lee / The Switch:

Senators lash out at NSA for excessive secrecy

More: Ars Technica. See also Mediagazer

Phil Mattingly / Bloomberg:

U.S. Declassifies Court Order Allowing Record Collection

More: New York Times, Office of the Director … and Hillicon Valley

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple has A6-based iPad mini without Retina display in the works — Apple is testing a new iPad mini that includes a faster processor but not a Retina display, according to references in the iOS 7 SDK sent to us by a developer. — The references were located inside of a hidden file …

More: NEWS.com.au, Examiner, PadGadget, TechSpot, Ubergizmo, iDownloadBlog.com, BGR, Gotta Be Mobile, Unwired View, TechnoBuffalo, Business Insider, Pocketnow, Phones Review, MacRumors, IntoMobile and iPhone in Canada Blog

Tweets: @reneritchie and @stevekovach

Christopher Mims / Quartz:

Google is testing a local news product for Google Now — Google has hatched a plan to boost the visibility of its existing local news product, and in the process is testing a whole new way to get people to pay attention to the news that is geographically most relevant to them.

More: BGR, TechHive, GigaOM, 9to5Google, Search Engine Land, Engadget, TechCrunch, TechnoBuffalo, AndroidGuys, The Verge, SlashGear, Android Community and Pocket-lint

Tweets: @mathewi and @mims

See also Mediagazer

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 worldwide as a result.

More: The Next Web, The Register, Gizmodo, ZDNet, TechCrunch, Engadget, TechnoBuffalo, LiveSide.net, LAPTOP Magazine, My Nokia Blog, MobileSyrup.com, TechSpot, Ubergizmo and WebProNews

App Annie Blog:

App Annie Index - Market Q2 2013: Google Play Exceeds iOS App Store in App Downloads by 10% in Q2 2013 — Welcome to the App Annie Market Index, where at the end of each quarter, we review the latest download and revenue insights by stores, countries and categories.

Esat Dedezade / Stuff:

EXCLUSIVE: UK Government to outlaw Google Glass for drivers — The Department for Transport has acted to ban drivers from using Google Glass - even before Google's smart eyewear launches to the general public. Stuff has learned that the government department is concerned about the potential …

More: The Verge, Cult of Android, Betabeat, The Register, TechnoBuffalo, TechHive, IntoMobile, Guardian, Mashable, Examiner, Ubergizmo, The Technology Chronicles, VentureBeat, Macgasm, WebProNews, Engadget and Skift. Tweets: @panzer

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple's upcoming A7 iPhone chip will have Samsung components, code inside iOS 7 reveals — While Apple is using an A6 processor for this new iPad mini, developer Nick Frey has shared with us that Apple is also developing a new A7 processor. A reference to an s5l8960x (likely A7) processor …

More: MacRumors, iPhone in Canada Blog and iDownloadBlog.com

Sascha Segan / PC Magazine:

Motorola Reveals More X8 Chip Details — What the heck is the X8? Motorola's new processing system powers the Droid Ultra, Droid Mini and Droid Maxx, and it's anticipated to be under the hood of Motorola's new Moto X, coming tomorrow. — The X8 isn't a processor, and it isn't a system-on-a-chip.

More: Android Community, SlashGear, PhoneArena, Pocketnow, Droid Life and Android Authority

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Toward a More Public Social Network: Facebook Rolls Out Embedded Posts — The world's premier social network is beginning to learn the value of publicness. — Facebook announced on Wednesday that it will roll out embedded posts, giving users the ability to stick their status updates in pages across the Web, and outside of Facebook.

More: Facebook, Facebook Developer Blog and TechCrunch. See also Mediagazer

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Facebook takes on Twitter with embeddable statuses and photos — but there's a catch

More: Mashable

Jon Fingas / Engadget:

Samsung edges past Apple in US smartphone satisfaction study, but reverse is true in Korea — What a difference a year makes. Apple topped American Customer Satisfaction Index's smartphone rankings back in 2012, but Samsung has taken the lead in 2013 by a slim margin.

More: ACSI, ZDNet, CNET, The Huffington Post, Gotta Be Mobile, InvestorPlace, Computerworld, iDownloadBlog.com, Android Community and GSMArena Blog

Jennifer Van Grove / CNET:

Facebook migrates everyone to https connection — The social network attempts to protect members en masse by establishing a more secure connection between their browser and Facebook's servers. — Facebook said Wednesday that https is now the default standard for everyone browsing its social network …

More: Facebook, The Next Web, Inside Facebook, ReadWrite, AllFacebook and SlashGear

AnandTech:

Update on GPU Optimizations in Galaxy S 4 — Yesterday we posted our analysis of the Exynos 5 Octa's behavior in international versions of the Galaxy S 4 in certain benchmarks first discovered by Beyond3D user @Andreif7. Samsung addressed issue on their blog earlier today:

More: AllThingsD, Ars Technica, TechnoBuffalo and Ubergizmo

Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:

Samsung claims innocence in face of benchmark-rigging allegations

More: Gotta Be Mobile and Examiner

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

Official ‘Imgur’ iOS app finally arrives on the App Store — After launching its first official Android app back in June, popular photo sharing service Imgur this week finally released its first app for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. The new free app provides the majority of features …

More: The Verge

Reuters:

Apple CEO met China Mobile head, discussed cooperation — (Reuters) - Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday met with the head of China Mobile Ltd, the world's largest mobile carrier by subscribers and the only Chinese carrier that doesn't offer iPhones and iPads.

More: Forbes, China Real Time Report, MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com, Ubergizmo, TUAW, Bloomberg, Softpedia News, Tech Trader Daily, AppleInsider and TechnoBuffalo

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Acquires Lexity, Will Keep E-Commerce App Platform Running But Rebrand It — Yahoo has just acquired e-commerce app platform Lexity, a startup founded by former employee Amit Kumar. Lexity says all services will remain running, but it will eventually be renamed with Yahoo branding.

More: Lexity, VatorNews, True Ventures, eWeek, The Next Web and ZDNet

Mia Shanley / Reuters:

Music streamer Spotify doubles 2012 revenues after expansion — (Reuters) - Music streaming web service Spotify more than doubled revenues in 2012 to 435 million euros ($577 million) as it expanded to new markets and almost doubled its users, documents showed on Wednesday.

More: Financial Times, TechCrunch, VentureBeat and Wall Street Journal. See also Mediagazer

Karl Bode / DSLreports:

Google Fiber Server ‘Neutrality Violation’ Being Overblown — The other day I noted that an individual by the name of Douglas McClendon had filed a complaint with the FCC, claiming that the company's TOS language blocking the use of servers is a network neutrality violation.

More: GigaOM, Electronista, Geek.com, Yahoo! News and Gizmodo. Tweets: @rsingel. See also Mediagazer

Jason Del Rey / AllThingsD:

Yelp Easily Beats Street Estimates in Q2 With Revenue Rising 69 Percent to $55 Million — Yelp's second-quarter earnings are in, and Wall Street is giving it a solid review. — The online reviews site beat the Street's expectations with losses of one cent per share on revenue of $55 million …

More: Yelp, VatorNews, VentureBeat, Marketing Land, TechCrunch, Reuters, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Tech Trader Daily. Tweets: @delrey

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