The Inside Story of the Moto X: The Reason Google Bought Motorola  —  THE PHONE THAT REVEALS WHY GOOGLE BOUGHT MOTOROLA  —  lmost exactly two years ago, Google announced its purchase of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.  It was the company's biggest deal ever, far exceeding previous big buys …

Exclusive: Apple Recently Acquired Low-Energy Chipmaker Passif  —  As the smartphone wars heat up, Apple has acquired a key technology in the arms race.  —  The company in recent months purchased Silicon Valley-based wireless chip developer, Passif Semiconductor, according to people briefed on the deal.

Employer Tipped Off Police To Pressure Cooker And Backpack Searches, Not Google  —  In what might be Medium's first widespread Twitter moment, music writer Michele Catalano used the platform to blog details of an unexpected visit to her home yesterday, from six men she identifies as members of the “joint terrorism task force.”

FBI Taps Hacker Tactics to Spy on Suspects  —  Law-Enforcement Officials Expand Use of Tools Such as Spyware as People Under Investigation ‘Go Dark,’ Evading Wiretaps  —  Law-enforcement officials in the U.S. are expanding the use of tools routinely used by computer hackers to gather information …

Is Tumblr Shrinking?  —  Yahoo bought Tumblr because Tumblr has millions of young users.  But are they sticking around?  —  David Karp, founder and CEO of Tumblr, photographs the Nasdaq screen in Times Square after ringing the opening bell, Thursday, July 11, 2013, in New York.  —  Via: Mark Lennihan / AP

SIM card hack inspires quick fix by carriers  —  Las Vegas (CNN) — Major wireless carriers have fixed a bug that could have allowed criminals to hack into hundreds of millions of cell phones, says a security expert who exposed the flaw.  —  Cryptographer Karsten Nohl of Security Research Labs …

Michael Dell and Silver Lake Reach Last-Minute Buyout Deal  —  Michael Dell and the private equity firm Silver Lake have raised their offer to take the company public to $13.75 a share with a 13-cent per share special dividend.  —  The new deal, reached after a night of furious negotiations …

PSA: The Latest Chromecast Over-The-Air Update (12840) Patches The Bootloader Exploit Used To Obtain Root  —  The Chromecast runs a modified version of Android, so of course modders are all over it like white on rice.  The folks at GTVHacker already gave us a working bootloader hack and root access …

As YouTube Stars Invent Their Own Ways to Get Paid, Patreon Raises $2.1M  —  “There was this weird hundred-year period where content was distributable but not digitized, from the 1900s, when the phonograph was invented and sound recording was first released.  It was the age of physical media with artificial scarcity.

Apple Notifying Former MobileMe Customers of Impending iCloud Storage Downgrade  —  In 2011, when iCloud replaced MobileMe, Apple gave paying MobileMe customers an additional 20GB of iCloud storage as a thank you for their purchase.  That storage was to be discontinued in September of 2012 …