Techmeme: The Case for a New Lower-Cost iPhone (John Gruber/Daring Fireball)

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August 13, 2013, 11:30 PM

Top News

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

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

NSA “touches” more of Internet than Google — Equinix's co-location facility in San Jose, California, one of the network exchange sites likely tapped by the NSA's “one-side foreign” surveillance. — Photo: Peter McCollough/Wired.com — In a memo issued last Friday, the National Security Agency …

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

Tweets: @richardson_mich and @runasand

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: Ars Technica, Digits, BuzzFeed, Polygon, VentureBeat, bizjournals, ZDNet, Electronista and Joystiq. Tweets: @akrejcik

Tomio Geron / Forbes:

Zynga Restructures With Three Top Execs Out

More: Zynga Company Blog, AllThingsD, TechCrunch, Reuters and VG247

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, Gotta Be Mobile, PhoneArena, Forbes, iClarified and iDownloadBlog.com

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, Business Insider, PC Pro and Paul Stamatiou

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

Benedict Evans:

Defending iOS with cheap iPhones

More: Business Insider, Tech.pinions, A VC, Yahoo! News, Key Performance Indicators and iDownloadBlog.com. 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, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Engadget, AppleInsider, iPhone Hacks, Apple Fan Site, Pocket-lint, iDownloadBlog.com and MACé" blog

Tweets: @sfiegerman and @awallenstein

Thanks:@tched. See also Mediagazer

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, TechCrunch, SlashGear, The Atlantic Wire, The Verge, iDownloadBlog.com, Ubergizmo, AllFacebook, bizjournals, iClarified and App Advice

Tweets: @caseynewton and @evelynrusli

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, TechnoBuffalo, Tech Trader Daily, Dealbreaker, Business Insider, BuzzFeed, Deadline.com, ZDNet, BGR, Electronista, Fortune, CNNMoney.com, VentureBeat, MacRumors, Mashable and MoneyBeat

Tweets: @carl_c_icahn, @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, Gotta Be Mobile and TUAW

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, Engadget, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Windows Phone Central, MobileSyrup.com, SlashGear, Ubergizmo, GeekWire and WMPoweruser. 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: TechCrunch, Business Insider, Poynter, AllThingsD, Mashable and Business Insider. 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, TechCrunch, BGR, pocketnow.com, IntoMobile, CITEworld and Facebook

Tweets: @reckless and @robinchan

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, Business Wire, GigaOM, Overview, VentureBeat, Business Insider and AdExchanger

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:

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: GigaOM, GeekWire and New Yorker

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, The Verge, TUAW, iDownloadBlog.com, Local Media Watch, Engadget, MobileSyrup.com, App Advice, WebProNews and 9to5Mac

Tweets: @joshconstine and @chris_ciaccia

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

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, Electronista, MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com, Reuters, Bloomberg, Agence France Presse, iClarified, MacDailyNews, TUAW and ITworld.com

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, TechCrunch, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, Business Insider and Mashable

Tweets: @danprimack and @ericjackson

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