Techmeme: N.S.A. Leaks Make Plan for Cyberdefense Unlikely (David E. Sanger/New York Times)

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August 14, 2013, 1:20 AM

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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: @kenroth, @willmcavoyacn and @trevortimm

Brendan Sasso / Hillicon Valley:

White House denies intel chief will lead NSA surveillance review — The Obama administration is denying that James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, will control a review of the government's surveillance programs. — Privacy advocates expressed dismay on Monday …

More: ODNI Newsroom Feed, ZDNet, The Daily Caller, GamePolitics blogs, The Verge, Washington's Blog and Techdirt

Tweets: @richardson_mich and @runasand

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

NSA “touches” more of Internet than Google

Shane Harris / Foreign Policy:

Irony Alert: Pentagon Now Sees Big Data as ‘National Security Threat’

More: Welcome To ZYN.COM, SiliconANGLE, Gawker, Motherboard, The Daily Caller and The Register

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

The Case for a New Lower-Cost iPhone — Lost amid much of the rampant speculation that Apple is on the cusp of unveiling a new plastic-bodied lower-priced iPhone “5C” is the simple fact that Apple has offered lower-priced iPhones for several years now — year-old and two-year-old models.

More: Fortune, App Advice, Gotta Be Mobile, PhoneArena, Forbes and iClarified

Steve Cheney:

On The Future of iOS and Android

More: Fortune, Business Insider, Paul Stamatiou and PC Pro

Tweets: @semil, @stevesi, @jessicalessin, @rohit_x_, @disruptivedean and @rabois

Benedict Evans:

Defending iOS with cheap iPhones

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

Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:

Apple acquires second screen TV startup Matcha.tv (scoop) — Updated at 6:01 p.m. (PST) with a response from Matcha.tv CEO Guy Piekarz. Update #2 at 7:35 p.m. with clarification on the acquisition price. — Apple's latest acquisition is the recently-shut down second-screen TV/video app Matcha.tv …

More: AllThingsD, Gizmodo, Digits, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Engadget, MacNN, AppleInsider, iPhone Hacks, App Advice, iDownloadBlog.com, Apple Fan Site and Pocket-lint

Tweets: @awallenstein and @sfiegerman

Thanks:@tched. See also Mediagazer

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

Tweets: @reckless and @robinchan

Bloomberg:

BlackBerry Said to Have Sought Buyers Since 2012 Without Success

More: GigaOM, GeekWire and New Yorker

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

QNX Locks Down Key Contract With Panasonic, Reminding Us That BlackBerry Still Has Some Shine For Buyers

More: QNX, Engadget, Businessweek, SlashGear, dailywireless.org, Ottawa Citizen and BerryReview. Tweets: @lessien

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Here's Zynga's New Executive Org Chart — As AllThingsD previously reported, Zynga announced a complete overhaul of its executive ranks on Tuesday, effectively flattening out its top management levels and reorganizing the chain of command for its existing leadership.

More: BuzzFeed, Digits, Ars Technica, Polygon, ZDNet, VentureBeat, bizjournals, Electronista and Joystiq

Tweets: @obrien and @akrejcik

Tomio Geron / Forbes:

Zynga Restructures With Three Top Execs Out

More: Zynga Company Blog, AllThingsD, TechCrunch, Reuters and VG247. Tweets: @forbestech

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

Tweets: @evelynrusli and @caseynewton

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, Bloomberg, Forbes, CNBC, GigaOM, AppleInsider, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, Dealbreaker, Business Insider, BuzzFeed, Deadline.com, ZDNet, BGR, Electronista, TechnoBuffalo, Fortune, CNNMoney.com, VentureBeat, MacRumors, Tech Trader Daily, 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 Verge, Gotta Be Mobile and TUAW

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

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: Windows Phone, ZDNet, Windows Phone Central, Engadget, SlashGear, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Ubergizmo, GeekWire, WMPoweruser and MobileSyrup.com. Tweets: @tomwarren

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 Wire, Business Insider, Digiday, Overview, GigaOM, Business Insider, AdExchanger and VentureBeat. Tweets: @petersontee

Steven Levy / Wired:

The Untold Story of Google's Quest to Bring the Internet Everywhere—By Balloon — On October 16, 2012, the granddaughter of one of Allen Epling's houseguests spotted a shiny object in the sky. Epling, an amateur astronomer living in Pike County, Kentucky, grabbed his binoculars and spied a glimmering …

More: The Verge

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: Inside Facebook, The Verge and AllFacebook. Tweets: @corybe. Thanks:@joshconstine

Bloomberg:

3-D Printing Stirs Copyright Clash on Homemade IPhone Gear: Tech — Fernando Sosa had no doubt his sword-covered iPhone dock inspired by the hit TV series “Game of Thrones” would become a top seller for his small manufacturing startup. Then he heard from HBO.

More: SiliconBeat and Business Insider

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