Techmeme
August 9, 2013, 9:30 AM

Top News

Tony Romm / Politico:
Apple's Tim Cook, tech execs meet with Barack Obama to talk surveillance  —  President Barack Obama hosted Apple CEO Tim Cook, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Google computer scientist Vint Cerf and other tech executives and civil liberties leaders on Thursday for a closed-door meeting about government surveillance, sources tell POLITICO.
Jonathan Allen / Reuters:
NSA to cut system administrators by 90 percent to limit data access  —  The National Security Agency, hit by disclosures of classified data by former contractor Edward Snowden, said Thursday it intends to eliminate about 90 percent of its system administrators to reduce the number of people with access to secret information.
James Temple / The Technology Chronicles:
Kashmir Hill / Forbes:
Email Company Reportedly Used By Edward Snowden Shuts Down Rather Than Hand Data Over To Feds  —  When Edward Snowden emailed journalists and activists in July to invite them to a briefing at the Moscow airport during his long stay there, he used the email account “edsnowden@lavabit.com” according to one of the invitees.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Silent Circle Preemptively Shuts Down Encrypted Email Service To Prevent NSA Spying  —  “We knew USG would come after us”.  That's why Silent Circle CEO Michael Janke tells TechCrunch his company shut down its Silent Mail encrypted email service.  It hadn't been told to provide data to the government …
Reuters:
Exclusive: BlackBerry open to going private, sources say  —  (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd is warming up to the possibility of going private, as the smartphone maker battles to revive its fortunes, several sources familiar with the situation said.  —  Chief Executive Thorsten Heins …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Tumblr Had $16.6 Million Left When Yahoo Bought It  —  In the wake of Yahoo's acquisition of Tumblr, there was some chatter about how much runway David Karp would have had if he hadn't sold the company.  —  Now we know, sort of: Tumblr, which had raised $125 million since 2007, had $16.6 million in cash left when Yahoo bought it.
Roger Cheng / CNET:
T-Mobile's John Legere: The most dangerous man in wireless  —  The CEO has vowed to shake up the status quo — and he's managing to do just that, all while posting T-Mobile's highest customer growth in four years.  —  T-Mobile CEO John Legere makes several big announcements in New York City during its big press event in July.
More: GeekWire, TechSpot, AndroidGuys and CNET.  Tweets: @dbfarber.  Thanks:@joan_e
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint:
Nexus 7 2 release date UK: Asus confirm 28 August  —  The Nexus 7 2, or 2nd generation Nexus 7 as it is also known, will launch in the UK on 28 August, Asus has confirmed to Pocket-lint.  The UK release date comes just one month after the US launch, but ahead of previous suggestions by retailers in the UK...
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Time Warner CEO Says Having Game Of Thrones As ‘Most Pirated’ Is ‘Better Than An Emmy’  —  Because it's so popular — and so pirated (in part because you can't view it legally online if you're not an HBO subscriber via cable/satellite) — the question of Game of Thrones and piracy is a story that just never dies.
More: The Verge.  Tweets: @n_is_een
Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:
Why Google Glass costs $1,500 now and will likely be around $299 later  —  If the $1,500 price tag for Google Glass is a budget buster for you, don't give up hope just yet.  When the wearable gadget arrives on the consumer market it could cost as little as $299 according to Topology Research's Jason Tsai …
Klint Finley / Wired:
Apple's Operating System Guru Goes Back to His Roots  —  That iPad in your hand?  It feels like the most modern of computers.  But like the iPhone and the Macintosh, the Apple tablet revolves around a core piece of software that can trace its roots all the way back to the early 1970s.
Michael Filtz / ZDNet:
Samsung to acquire Germany's Novaled for €260m  —  Summary: Samsung snaps up OLED maker to help expand production capability.  —  Samsung and its affiliate Samsung Cheil Industries announced today that they are to acquire Novaled, a German company that develops and commercializes organic …

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Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
John Koetsier / VentureBeat: