NSA gathered thousands of Americans' e-mails before court struck down program  —  The National Security Agency unlawfully gathered as many as tens of thousands of e-mails and other electronic communications between Americans as part of a now-discontinued collection program, according to a 2011 secret court opinion.

Yahoo, Foursquare In Talks Over Data Partnership  —  Foursquare sells a lot of ads, but the biggest upside for the location-sharing start-up may be in selling its data.  And sources say Yahoo is interested.  Foursquare, once criticized for not being able to figure out a business, may have finally struck gold deep in its data centers.

Apple poaches Levi's Senior VP for U.S. Retail as search for chief continues  —  Apple has poached Enrique Atienza from Levi Strauss, a global clothing sales powerhouse, to become a top director for its U.S. Retail market, according to sources with knowledge of the hire.

Embedded Posts Now Available to Everyone  —  We introduced Embedded Posts in July to make it easy for publishers to add any public post from Facebook to their blog or web site.  Today, we're excited to make Embedded Posts available to everyone.  We've also added several enhancements based on feedback from our launch partners.

Field Trip now ready for Google Glass  —  The Field Trip app for exploring and learning about your surroundings launches a Glassware app for a more hands-free approach to real-world discovery.  —  Self-guided smartphone tours just got a lot more hands-free, as the Field Trip app …

Is Google Ready to Buy Its Way Into TV With an NFL Deal?  —  Here's a fun combination to ponder: The world's most powerful media company and America's most popular sport.  —  That could happen if Google buys the rights to the NFL's Sunday Ticket package, the all-you-can-eat subscription-TV service currently owned by DirecTV.

Technology Leaders Launch Partnership to Make Internet Access Available to All  —  Facebook, Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm, Samsung to be founding partners  —  MENLO PARK, CA, — Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, today announced the launch of internet.org …

Maker Studios Buys Blip, and a Home Outside of YouTube (Update)  —  Maker Studios, one of the biggest YouTube networks, is buying Blip, a video maker and distributor.  —  Blip officials informed their staff of the deal this morning, and it is expected to close in early September.

Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years for WikiLeaks disclosures  —  Bradley Manning's court-martial reached an end today, with Army Colonel Denise Lind sentencing him to 35 years in prison.  The WikiLeaks source, arrested in Iraq in 2010 for releasing nearly 700,000 government documents to WikiLeaks …

Microsoft offers classrooms free Surface RT tablets with ad-free Bing for Schools  —  Microsoft's plan to battle Google in the classroom is launching today.  Bing for Schools is a new ad-free version of Microsoft's search service that includes strict filtering and privacy protections designed for schools.

Yahoo #1 Web Property Again In US, First Time Since Early 2008  —  ComScore just released its monthly Top 50 US Web properties list today.  I've generally stopped looking at this list.  But it was pointed out to me that Yahoo is back at number one.  —  When was the last time Yahoo was number one?

Amid Executive Changes, HP Posts Declining Q3 Revenue Of $27.2B As Its PC Division Weakens  —  Today HP announced its third-quarter financial performance, including revenue of $27.2 billion, down 8 percent year over year.  The company earned $0.86 per share on a non-GAAP basis.

Insight: Peter Chou - Is he HTC's savior or obstacle to revival?  —  (Reuters) - Now in his tenth year as CEO of HTC Corp, Peter Chou is lauded as the architect of the Taiwanese firm's award-winning smartphones.  But as the company's fortunes have dived, some insiders say he's now an obstacle to any revival.

Facial Scanning Is Making Gains in Surveillance  —  WASHINGTON — The federal government is making progress on developing a surveillance system that would pair computers with video cameras to scan crowds and automatically identify people by their faces, according to newly disclosed documents …

Full memo: Big Fish CEO announces job cuts, cancellation of cloud games business and closure of Ireland and BC facilities  —  Big Fish Games CEO Paul Thelen at Casual Connect in 2012 announcing the company's cloud-based game platform, which is being shut down today.  —  It's a bad day for Big Fish.

Goldman Invests $40 Million in Salesforce Rival SugarCRM  —  SugarCRM Inc., a maker of sales-tracking software, raised $40 million from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to speed global expansion as it takes on larger rivals Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM)

Nearly A Year Later, Twitter Triggers Return to IFTTT With Official Support  —  Today, the ‘Internet glue’ service IFTTT gets a fresh set of Twitter triggers that allow users to build recipes that react to tweets, favorites, retweets and more.  This enables users to return to archiving tweets to Dropbox …

Google Updates Its Keep Note-Taking App With Reminders, Location-Based Alerts And Google Now Integration  —  When Google launched Keep for Android and the web a few months ago, it was essentially a basic note-taking application.  Today, the company is launching a major update that turns it into a far more useful application.

SmartThings, the “Internet of Things” Company That Connects the Gadgets in Your Home, Launches Its Own Store  —  SmartThings, the connected-home platform that lets you control your lights, your coffee maker and even your door lock from a mobile app, doesn't just want to control them — it wants to sell them, too.