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August 14, 2013, 1:55 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Windows 8.1 will launch on October 18th, available a day earlier on Windows Store — Microsoft continues to finalize its Windows 8.1 update, but the company revealed today that it plans to make it available on October 18th. The free update will be listed in the Windows Store …

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

They don't make Windows like they used to — Summary: Microsoft is making the Windows sausage differently these days. And that impacts everything from how products are tested, to how they're launched and updated. — Microsoft announced on August 14 that it will be launching Windows 8.1 on October 18, 2013.

More: Ars Technica, WindowsObserver.com, PC Pro and TechNet Blogs

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Twitter Is Testing Out A New ‘TV Trending’ Box At The Top Of Your Timeline — Twitter is betting big on TV, both as a source of traffic and as a potential source of lucrative advertising revenue. And that's leading the company to test out new ways of bringing even more TV content — and traffic — to its platform.

More: The Next Web, Engadget, The Verge, VentureBeat, Softpedia News, bizjournals and Mashable. Tweets: @jeffweiner. See also Mediagazer

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Smartphones Finally Overtook Dumbphone Sales Globally In Q2, Android Now At 79%, Says Gartner — Analyst Gartner has put out its latest smartphone market report, and the Q2 2013 numbers show the inevitable finally occurred: smartphone sales exceeded feature phone sales for the first time.

More: Gartner, Digits, GigaOM, GeekWire, Digital Trends, Engadget, ReadWrite, Ars Technica, AppleInsider, Android Beat, TechHive, tbreak, 9to5Mac, Computerworld, BetaNews, WMPoweruser, Tech in Asia and 9to5Google. Thanks:@ingridlunden

OpenSignal:

How phone batteries measure the weather — This is the story of the most surprising thing we have yet discovered at OpenSignal. Eighteen months ago we began gathering data on battery performance from our Android app - the metrics available on Android include charge level, voltage and battery temperature.

More: GigaOM. Tweets: @cdespinosa and @ak. Thanks:@opensignal

Shane Harris / Foreign Policy:

Irony Alert: Pentagon Now Sees Big Data as ‘National Security Threat’ — The data divers at the Defense Department know better than most how to track down someone just by looking at his phone records. Now they want to know if America's enemies could cause a fiscal meltdown or a massive cyber attack …

More: Zyn Systems, SiliconANGLE, Gawker and The Register

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

NSA “touches” more of Internet than Google

More: Techdirt

Brendan Sasso / Hillicon Valley:

White House denies intel chief will lead NSA surveillance review

More: ZDNet and GamePolitics blogs. Tweets: @frauenfelder and @richardson_mich

David E. Sanger / New York Times:

N.S.A. Leaks Make Plan for Cyberdefense Unlikely

More: VentureBeat, Mashable and netzpolitik.org

Tweets: @kenroth, @willmcavoyacn and @trevortimm

James Trew / Engadget:

Google+ for Android update brings Drive access, improved location sharing and more, drops messenger — If you spend much time on Google+ for Android, then we hope you follow the app's Tech Lead, Virgil Dobjanschi. He's just shared that version 4.1 will be available on the Play Store today …

More: The Verge, 9to5Google, CNET, TechCrunch, GigaOM, TechnoBuffalo, Macgasm, I4U News, Android Community, MobileBurn.com, AndroidGuys and Android Police

BBC:

Hacker ‘shouts abuse’ via Foscam baby monitoring camera — The BBC has found evidence of hackers sharing information on how to access insecure Foscam cameras via several widely-used forums. — Using specialist search engines, people can narrow their results by location.

More: Forbes, ABC News, GigaOM, ZDNet, Business Insider, Help Net Security, Naked Security, Boing Boing, Softpedia News, The Inquisitr and Gawker. Thanks:@davelee

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft Outlook, SkyDrive outages hit users worldwide — Summary: Some Microsoft users are reporting problems accessing their Outlook, Skydrive and Contacts on August 14. — Microsoft is experiencing difficulties with its Outlook.com, Skydrive and Contacts services …

More: Engadget, TechCrunch, LiveSide.net, BetaNews, Softpedia News, Mashable and Windows Phone Central. Tweets: @maryjofoley

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, GigaOM, Guardian, TechHive, Network World, The Verge, Digits, IntoMobile, The Mac Observer, everythingiCafe, Business Insider, AppleInsider, Macgasm, I4U News, ZDNet, iPhone, Ubergizmo, TechCrunch, BGR, AppleTell, Inquirer, Digital Trends, TUAW, MacNN, Engadget, Mashable, Gizmodo, Insanely Great Mac, iPhone Hacks, Apple Fan Site, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, MacRumors, iLounge, App Advice, Softpedia News, PE Hub Blog, Pocket-lint, WebProNews and bizjournals

Tweets: @sfiegerman and @awallenstein

Thanks:@tched. See also Mediagazer

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Glam Media Raises Another $25M As It Prepares To Go Public — Digital media company Glam Media has raised $25 million in new funding, according to an industry source. (The company declined to comment.) — My source said this is a “top up round” for Glam — in another words …

More: Fortune and bizjournals

Jordan Robertson / Bloomberg:

Phone Hackers Build Networks to Deliver Legitimate Ads and Malicious Code — To keep hackers off your smartphone, the standard advice has been to avoid downloading dodgy applications. Digital criminals love to hide their attack code in free porn apps and counterfeit versions of popular programs such as Angry Birds.

More: FierceMobileIT News, TechHive, Softpedia News, Network World and Business Insider. Tweets: @weldpond

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: Zynga Company Blog, BuzzFeed, Digits, TechHive, GamesIndustry International, Computer And Video Games All, Ars Technica, VatorNews, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, GamePolitics blogs, Polygon, Kotaku, Wired.co.uk, VG247, ZDNet, bizjournals, Electronista, Joystiq and VentureBeat

Tweets: @obrien and @akrejcik

Tomio Geron / Forbes:

Zynga Restructures With Three Top Execs Out

More: SiliconBeat, The Register, Inside Social Games and Reuters. Tweets: @forbestech

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Xbox One launch delayed to 2014 in eight European countries — Microsoft originally revealed Xbox One would launch in 21 markets in November, but the company says it's delaying the availability in some European countries. Eight countries have been hit with a delay to 2014: Belgium, Denmark …

More: Xbox Wire, The Next Web, Engadget, SlashGear and Kotaku

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: MacRumors, AppleTell, App Advice, PhoneArena, Forbes, iClarified, iDownloadBlog.com and Gotta Be Mobile

Steve Cheney:

On The Future of iOS and Android

More: iMore, Daring Fireball and Business Insider

Tweets: @lukew and @semil

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

QNX Locks Down Key Contract With Panasonic, Reminding Us That BlackBerry Still Has Some Shine For Buyers — QNX, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of BlackBerry, announced some news today that reminds us that parceling the company out could be among BlackBerry's best options as it considers a sale and other alternatives.

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

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Message unread: Silicon Valley's secret, failed bid to save BlackBerry

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

Tweets: @robinchan and @reckless

Bloomberg:

BlackBerry Said to Have Sought Buyers Since 2012 Without Success

More: Los Angeles Times, GigaOM and GeekWire

Matt Levine / Dealbreaker:

77-Year-Old Man Good At Twitter — Once upon a time before there were activist hedge funds there were corporate raiders, whose business model was — This model had many delights of which perhaps the greatest was that you couldn't really, like, do damage to your reputation.

More: Macworld, TheStreet.com, CNBC, MoneyBeat and Tech Trader Daily

Tweets: @carl_c_icahn, @johnstieger and @ktbenner

Thanks:@mattlynley

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