Techmeme: Three Months After Being Banned From The App Store, Bang With Friends Returns As “Down” (Greg Kumparak/TechCrunch)

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August 29, 2013, 8:55 PM

Top News

Washington Post:

U.S. spy network's successes, failures and objectives detailed in ‘black budget’ summary — U.S. spy agencies have built an intelligence-gathering colossus since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but remain unable to provide critical information to the president on a range of national security threats …

More: Wired, Techdirt, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, The Verge, Guardian, The Switch, ZDNet, The Daily Caller, It's a Gadget, Boing Boing, WorldViews, Ars Technica, Hillicon Valley and Gawker

Tweets: @rj_gallagher, @washingtonpost, @bencnn, @wlpress, @yahoo, @declanm, @kgosztola, @nycjim, @granick, @gregorydjohnsen, @shanewharris, @declanm, @laughingstoic and @declanm

Andrea Peterson / The Switch:

The NSA has its own team of elite hackers — Our Post colleagues have had a busy day. First, they released documents revealing the U.S. intelligence budget from National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden. Then they recounted exactly how the hunt for Osama bin Laden went down.

More: Washington Post and The Daily Caller. Tweets: @vinceinthebay, @virusbtn, @kgosztola and @csoghoian

Washington Post:

Inside the 2013 U.S. intelligence ‘black budget’

More: Salon and Business Insider. Tweets: @kaymee, @declanm and @bcmerchant

Bloomberg:

Microsoft Is Said to Be in Talks to Invest in Foursquare — Microsoft is in talks with Foursquare about a potential investment in the social-media company, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. The talks are at an advanced stage, said two of the people …

More: VentureBeat, ScreenwerkScreenwerk, Ubergizmo, ZDNet, TechCrunch, Digits, The Next Web, ValueWalk and WMPoweruser

Tweets: @amir and @dcurtis

See also Mediagazer

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

Foursquare Said in Talks for Strategic Investment — Foursquare Labs Inc. is in talks with multiple large technology companies about a potential strategic investment, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. — The social-media company, which lets users check in to show they're visiting …

More: GeekWire, Business Insider, GigaOM, ValueWalk and WebProNews

Tweets: @sarahfrier and @sarahfrier

Thanks:@mattlynley

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple begins training support staff on iOS 7 & iTunes Radio, preparing for customer surprise — Apple has started training its AppleCare technical support staff on the changes and feature-set of iOS 7, according to multiple AppleCare employees. These people say that training began today …

More: IntoMobile, iDownloadBlog.com, ValueWalk, Gotta Be Mobile, SlashGear, TechnoBuffalo, PadGadget, App Advice, MacNN, iClarified and MacRumors. Tweets: @markgurman. Thanks:@jordankahn

Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters:

Facebook considers adding profile photos to facial recognition — (Reuters) - Facebook Inc is considering incorporating most of its 1 billion-plus members' profile photos into its growing facial recognition database, expanding the scope of the social network's controversial technology.

More: Facebook, VentureBeat, The Technology Chronicles, Hillicon Valley, Marketing Land, Computerworld, Washington Post, Inside Facebook, TechHive, The Verge, GigaOM, AllFacebook and WebProNews

Jennifer Van Grove / CNET:

Facebook forced to clarify how it's using your data for ads

More: AllThingsD, San Francisco Chronicle, TechCrunch, Digits, The Next Web and Engadget

Tweets: @dangillmor and @waltmossberg

Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:

Three Months After Being Banned From The App Store, Bang With Friends Returns As “Down” — They're baaack. — Bang With Friends, the Facebook friend hookup app that seemed to be endlessly engulfed in one controversy or another earlier this year, is returning to the iOS App Store …

More: GeekWire, Betabeat, Macgasm, The Verge and IntoMobile. Tweets: @qthrul

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Guess who's advising Box: Ex-Microsoft exec Sinofsky helping Levie and team — Like many modern relationships, this one started with a Facebook message. — Steven Sinofsky and Box CEO Aaron Levie — That was how Aaron Levie, the CEO of Box, connected with Steven Sinofsky after hearing …

More: The Box Blog, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, GigaOM and The Next Web

Tweets: @levie, @stevesi, @theromit and @caseynewton

Thanks:@johnhcook

AppleInsider:

Parallels Desktop 9 for Mac launches with cloud storage support, Windows 8 Start button, 40% faster read times — Existing Parallels users can now get their hands on Parallels Desktop 9 for Mac, the latest version of the virtualization software that lets Mac users run Windows applications natively …

More: Ars Technica, Business Wire, 9to5Mac, MacRumors and Macworld

Scott Buscemi / 9to5Mac:

Text-based bug that crashes apps in OS X 10.8 & iOS 6 discovered, fixed in OS X 10.9 and iOS 7 — An exploit publicly announced yesterday (picture of source page available here - won't force a crash) shows how a string of Arabic characters can crash applications in OS X 10.8 and iOS 6.

More: TechCrunch, Ars Technica, PC Magazine, TechnoBuffalo, The Mac Observer, TUAW, iMore, MacRumors and Yahoo! News

Leo Kelion / BBC:

Skype confirms 3D video calls are under development — Skype said that limitations with current 3D technologies had stopped it launching the feature — Skype has confirmed it has developed 3D video calls. — The news was revealed by a senior executive in an exclusive interview with the BBC to mark Skype's tenth anniversary.

Mark Suster / Both Sides of the Table:

Bring Me Your Accents. Immigration Fuels Innovation — I have lived (England, France, Italy, Spain, Japan & the US) and worked (Ireland, Germany, India) around the world. — I adore accents. I listen not only for the country but the region. — I became engrossed with the origins of both accents and phrases.

More: Valleywag, GigaOM, dcurtis, Business Insider, SiliconBeat and Salon

Tweets: @qthrul, @anildash, @anildash, @michalzajda, @commagere, @paulg and @paulg

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Google:

Screenshots of Samsung's ‘Galaxy Gear’ smartwatch companion app leak ahead of Sept. 4 unveiling — We've been hearing a lot about Samsung's upcoming smartwatch dubbed “Galaxy Gear” in recent weeks, and just a few days ago Samsung's Lee Young-hee confirmed that the device …

More: AmongTech, Gizmodo, Android Community, Pocket-lint, GigaOM, pocketnow.com, Android Police, TechnoBuffalo, MobileSyrup.com, IntoMobile, pocketnow.com, Gotta Be Mobile, SlashGear and Ubergizmo. Tweets: @evleaks

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

IDC Lowers 2013 Tablet Forecast To 227M, As Phablets And Wearables Crowd Into The Market — The PC industry may be shaken up by the rapid encroachment of tablets into consumer and enterprise spending habits — a trend that's seeing lighter devices like the iPad, as well as cheaper tablets …

More: Business Wire, ZDNet, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, SiliconBeat, Digits, AdExchanger, Computerworld, Mercury News, Yahoo! News, Mobile Marketing Watch and ZDNet

Ken Yeung / The Next Web:

Outbox lands on Android as its service to digitalize snail mail opens to all in San Francisco — Outbox, the service that digitizes your postal mail and sends it to you wherever you are, has opened its doors to the public — well at least to those in San Francisco.

More: PandoDaily, VentureBeat and TechCrunch. Thanks:@johnrobertreed

Alexander C. Kaufman / International Business Times:

Exclusive: Aereo To Launch On Android In September, Says CEO — Aereo uses tiny antennas to pick up over-the-air signals and beam them to subscribers' iPads and computers. Courtesy of Aereo — Aereo, the upstart television streaming service, plans to launch its product on Android devices in September …

More: The Verge, GigaOM, GadgeTell and Engadget. See also Mediagazer

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Foursquare Launches New “Passive” Tip Feature for Phones — Earlier this year, Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley raised $41 million, and promised to use that money “to do the things we want to do.” — Today he's giving people a glimpse of what that looks like: A new feature that will allow …

More: Foursquare Blog, TechCrunch, NYT Bits, Engadget, Search Engine Land, Betabeat, Fast Company, ReadWrite, About Foursquare, Marketing Land and All Points Blog

Tweets: @pkafka, @pkafka and @jwherrman

Thanks:@mattlynley

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Zendrive Raises $1.5M From First Round, Jerry Yang, Max Levchin, Time Ferris And Others To Use Big Data To Fix Driving — Zendrive, a startup that aims to make driving better by using data from smartphone sensors, today announced that it has raised $1.5 million from a group of backers including …

More: AllThingsD, SiliconBeat, VatorNews, GigaOM, VentureBeat and silicontap.com

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

VHX Raises $3 Million More for Its Sell-It-Yourself Video Service — YouTube makes it easy to upload your videos and distribute them all over the world. But what if you want to sell those videos? — That's where VHX would like to step in. — The Brooklyn-based company …

More: VentureBeat, New York Times, Union Square Ventures and GigaOM

Jonathan Lau / Medium:

Dollar for dollar raised, Kickstarter dominates Indiegogo SIX times over … While freelancing in the crowdfunding space, Edward (@ejunprung) and I noticed a huge size discrepancy between Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We decided to fully size Indiegogo up and compare their numbers …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

U.S. Losing Ground In Mobile App Market — If mobile apps are the post-PC era's software industry, the U.S. may be losing its edge. According to new findings mobile analytics firm Flurry released this morning, the U.S. isn't leading in the creation of mobile applications …

More: The Flurry Blog, GigaOM, ReadWrite, VentureBeat and bizjournals. Thanks:@flurrymobile

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