Techmeme: Mobile subscriber growth in the U.S. slows to a standstill (Kevin Fitchard/GigaOM)

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August 13, 2013, 7:15 PM

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Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Message unread: Silicon Valley's secret, failed bid to save BlackBerry — Could switching to Android and focusing on business have turned the company around? — In the summer of 2012, just a few months into the job, RIM (now BlackBerry) CEO Thorsten Heins was trying to guide the company through an ongoing crisis.

More: BGR, CITEworld, slideshare.net, pocketnow.com, IntoMobile and Facebook

Tweets: @reckless and @robinchan

Bloomberg:

BlackBerry Said to Have Sought Buyers Since 2012 Without Success — BlackBerry Ltd.'s announcement yesterday that it's considering takeover bids followed almost a year of advisers unsuccessfully canvassing potential buyers in search of a deal, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

More: GeekWire

Devindra Hardawar / VentureBeat:

Amid BlackBerry's sinking ship, here comes a new BB7 phone with ancient hardware

More: BlackBerry Press Room, The Next Web, Guardian, TechSpot, ZDNet, BerryReview, Unwired View, Inquirer, Digital Trends, Electronista, GadgeTell, Engadget and CrackBerry.com

Vauhini Vara / New Yorker:

How BlackBerry Fell — Shares in the Canadian maker …

More: GigaOM, Wired, Bloomberg, stratechery, larry borsato, memeburn, Daring Fireball and Mashable

Tweets: @gsterling and @mattrosoff

Steve Cheney:

On The Future of iOS and Android — We've entered the age of iOS and Android penetrating beyond mobile, and there's a lot happening with respect to how the entire ecosystem is developing. Mobile advancements / investments are now driving the progression of all converged hardware / software.

More: Fortune. Tweets: @stevesi, @jessicalessin, @semil, @rohit_x_, @disruptivedean and @rabois

Benedict Evans:

Defending iOS with cheap iPhones — Over the last 12 months, Google Android devices have outsold iOS by about 3 to 1. There are now perhaps 775m-800m ‘official’ Android devices in use, versus perhaps 415m iOS devices. This is without counting sales of the Amazon Kindle Fire or the (very) …

More: Tech.pinions, BGR, Key Performance Indicators, A VC, iDownloadBlog.com and Business Insider. Tweets: @madewulf. Thanks:@monkbent

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Zynga to Restructure Top Ranks, Three C-Suite Execs to Depart — In one of the first major acts under newly named CEO Don Mattrick, sources said Zynga plans to announce on Tuesday a shake-up of its top ranks as part of a larger management restructuring, resulting in the departure of three C-level executives.

More: Digits, VentureBeat, ZDNet, Ars Technica, BuzzFeed, VG247, Polygon and bizjournals. Tweets: @akrejcik

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Carl Icahn Makes a Large Investment in Apple — Shares of Apple are rising by more than four percent on word that Carl Icahn, the billionaire activist investor trying to take over Dell, has made a large investment in the company behind the iPhone and the Mac.

More: Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Tech Trader Daily, TechCrunch, GigaOM, AppleInsider, BGR, Fortune, MacRumors, ZDNet, 9to5Mac, Bloomberg, CNNMoney.com, Dealbreaker, TUAW, CNBC, Business Insider, Electronista, Macworld, BuzzFeed, Deadline.com, Mashable and MoneyBeat

Tweets: @carl_c_icahn, @zpower, @parislemon, @stevekovach, @miguelrios, @cnbc, @johnpaczkowski, @pkedrosky and @edbott

Tiernan Ray / Tech Trader Daily:

AAPL Ends Up 5%: Icahn Tweets ‘Large Position,’ Nice Chat with CEO Cook

More: Wired, The Next Web and VentureBeat

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Facebook Testing VIP App With Some Celebs — The VIP app, which sources say Facebook is currently testing with a small group of famous people, essentially lets celebs (or their handlers) easily monitor Facebook fan chatter about themselves from a mobile device.

More: VentureBeat, Los Angeles Times, Inside Facebook, The Atlantic Wire, AllFacebook, The Verge, TechCrunch, Ubergizmo, iDownloadBlog.com, iClarified, bizjournals and App Advice

Tweets: @caseynewton and @evelynrusli

David E. Sanger / New York Times:

N.S.A. Leaks Make Plan for Cyberdefense Unlikely — WASHINGTON — Even while rapidly expanding its electronic surveillance around the world, the National Security Agency has lobbied inside the government to deploy the equivalent of a “Star Wars” defense for America's computer networks …

More: netzpolitik.org. Tweets: @willmcavoyacn and @trevortimm

Brendan Sasso / Hillicon Valley:

White House denies intel chief will lead NSA surveillance review

More: ODNI Newsroom Feed and The Verge. Tweets: @richardson_mich and @runasand

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft's YouTube Windows Phone app returns following Google complaints — Microsoft's YouTube app for Windows Phone is returning to the Store today. After Google forced Microsoft to remove the app, the pair have been working together to create the updated application.

More: Engadget, TechCrunch and Windows Phone Central. Tweets: @tomwarren

Sam Biddle / Valleywag:

AOL CEO Apologizes for Public Shame-Firing — It turns out, even Tim Armstrong finds Tim Armstrong obnoxious—the trouble chief of AOL just sent an apology email to his company for firing a subordinate on a conference call. — The email is carefully pasted here in its entirety:

More: Business Insider, TechCrunch, AllThingsD, Mashable, Poynter and Business Insider. See also Mediagazer

Jamie Rigg / Engadget:

Some 2013 Nexus 7 users report buggy multitouch, Google is investigating — A muddled sense of direction isn't the only problem affecting the new generation of Nexus 7 slates, it seems, as some users are also reporting issues with multitouch on the 1,920 x 1,200 display.

More: CNET, GSMArena Blog, MobileSyrup.com, 9to5Google, IntoMobile, TechHive, The Next Web, Android Police, Softpedia News, The Verge, Android Beat, Android Community and Delimiter

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Starts Sharing Mobile User Counts For Each Country: 78% Of US Users Are Mobile — A new level of transparency from Facebook will help the world see whether its mobile growth is entirely propped up by international users that don't earn the company as much money.

More: AllFacebook. Thanks:@joshconstine

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Millennial Media To Acquire Mobile Ad Company Jumptap For $200M+ In Millennial Stock — Millennial Media just announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Jumptap, a deal that brings together two well-known mobile ad companies. — The acquisition press release describes the deal as …

More: Business Insider, VentureBeat, AdExchanger, Overview and Business Wire

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

To Square Up To Foursquare, Yelp Now Lets Users Post Reviews Directly From Its Mobile App — It's been a long time coming, but user-generated local reviews site Yelp is finally getting with the program: today it is rolling out the ability for users to write reviews directly in its mobile app …

More: Yelp Official Blog, Engadget, Local Media Watch, MobileSyrup.com, iDownloadBlog.com, App Advice, WebProNews and 9to5Mac

Tweets: @chris_ciaccia and @joshconstine

Dan Primack / Fortune:

Fitbit raises $43 million in new funding — Health tracker bulks up ahead of possible competition from Apple. — FORTUNE — Fitbit, maker of a wearable device that measures health and physical activity, has raised $43 million in new venture capital funding.

More: TechCrunch, AllThingsD, TechCrunch, Business Insider, VentureBeat and Mashable

Tweets: @danprimack and @ericjackson

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Amazon's AWS Now Offers A Push Notification Service For iOS, Android And Kindle Apps, Widening Its Toolkit For Mobile Developers — Amazon continues to “push” further into the space of becoming a one-stop shop for mobile developers looking to make, host and distribute apps …

More: Amazon.com, GeekWire, The Next Web, Engadget, Computerworld, iPhone Hacks, ZDNet, GigaOM, MacRumors and MacNN

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Twitter Buys Open Source Training Company Marakana To Power New “Twitter University” For Engineers — Twitter today announced its latest acquisition, along with a move into offering richer resources to attract better engineering talent to the company. It has bought Marakana …

More: AllThingsD, Digits, PC World, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Mobile Marketing Watch, ZDNet, Official Twitter blog, memeburn, Mashable and WebProNews. Tweets: @twu

Zoe Kleinman / BBC:

Norway blocks Apple map flights — Oslo (left) is visible in 2D on Apple's map but Danish capital Copenhagen (right) is in 3D — Norway's government is refusing to let Apple take aerial photography of the capital city Oslo to create 3D images for its Maps app, reports local media.

More: 9to5Mac, ZDNet, VentureBeat, WorldViews, The Register, Agence France Presse, TechnoBuffalo, PadGadget, App Advice, Digital Trends, Inquirer, The Switch, TUAW, TechEye, iPhone Hacks, iDownloadBlog.com, MacDailyNews, AppleInsider and The Mac Observer. Tweets: @9to5mac

Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:

Strong sales of Apple's iPhone boost Foxconn profits by 41% — Net profits at Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn were up by 41 percent in the company's second quarter, boosted by stronger than expected sales of the existing iPhone lineup. — Net profit for the quarter was 16.98 billion …

More: Wall Street Journal, NYT Bits, MacRumors, iClarified, Agence France Presse, Reuters, Bloomberg, MacDailyNews, ITworld.com and Electronista

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Business Intelligence Startup Looker Raises $16M From Redpoint, First Round — Looker, a business intelligence startup founded by an early lead engineer from Netscape and LiveOps, has raised $16 Million in series A funding, led by Redpoint Ventures with First Round Capital …

More: VentureBeat, eWeek, Redpoint Ventures, GigaOM, ex post facto, The Register, Reuters and PandoDaily. Tweets: @firstround. Thanks:@drs650

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