Techmeme
August 31, 2013, 1:35 PM

Top News

Washington Post:
U.S. spy agencies mounted 231 offensive cyber-operations in 2011, documents show  —  U.S. intelligence services carried out 231 offensive cyber-operations in 2011, the leading edge of a clandestine campaign that embraces the Internet as a theater of spying, sabotage and war …
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Feds plow $10 billion into “groundbreaking” crypto-cracking program  —  The federal government is pouring almost $11 billion per year into a 35,000-employee program dedicated to “groundbreaking” methods to decode encrypted messages such as e-mails, according to an intelligence black budget published by The Washington Post.
More: Computerworld.  Tweets: @suffert
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Scoop: Google acquired WIMM Labs to bolster its own smartwatch plans  —  Watch out, Samsung: Google has some smartwatch development projects of its own, and it quietly snapped up Los Altos, Calif.-based WIMM Labs last year to kickstart these efforts.  WIMM Labs not only gives Google the talent …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Doctape Launches Standalone File Viewer App For iOS With Support For 80+ File Types  —  German cloud storage and file management startup doctape has launched a new standalone iOS app aimed at making it easier for iPhone and iPad users to view file types not supported natively by iOS.
Microsoft:
Microsoft and ValueAct Capital sign cooperation agreement  —  Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has signed a cooperation agreement with ValueAct Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm with $12 billion in assets under management that beneficially owns approximately .8 percent …
Brad Smith / TechNet Blogs:
Standing Together for Greater Transparency  —  General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft  —  To followers of technology issues, there are many days when Microsoft and Google stand apart.  But today our two companies stand together.
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple blocking support personnel vacations from Sept. 15-28 for launch of new iPhones & iOS 7  —  AppleCare employees have been restricted from taking time off for a two-week period, from Sept. 15 through 28 — a span during which Apple is expected to launch its new iPhone lineup, as well as the revamped iOS 7 mobile operating system.
Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:
A rare defense of venture capital classic  —  One of our most popular stories this week was about the future of venture capital.  It traced the asset class's history from its boutique roots to the age of mega-brands to the rage around international expansion and into the last few years of microVCs, super angels, and accelerators.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Target Ticket, Target's Video Download & Rental Service, Nears Launch  —  Target's answer to Walmart's Vudu, Netflix, and iTunes, is preparing to launch.  Employees at the Minneapolis-headquartered retailer were told this week that Target Ticket, as the service is called …
Kelli B. Grant / CNBC:

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
The 90-day recognition cliff: Why praise programs fade, and what keeps them alive  —  Recognition programs often start with enthusiasm.  Employees participate, managers share shoutouts, and teams have a new way to celebrate achievements.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Channels with Peter Kafka:
David Ellison's Paramount-Warner Empire & The Fight That Comes Next
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Sources:
Factory CEO on why AGI is already here
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Invest Like the Best:
Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
The grief, loneliness, and burnout sweeping through the tech industry right now | Molly Graham
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
Meta's Muse Revival, Frontier AI Under Threat, The Rise Of Dopamine Sites
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Great Chat:
Doomers at Dreamforce
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:35 PM ET, August 31, 2013.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

Earlier Picks

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD: