Techmeme
September 5, 2013, 5:40 PM

Top News

New York Times:
N.S.A. Foils Much Internet Encryption  —  The National Security Agency is winning its long-running secret war on encryption, using supercomputers, technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communications …
Guardian:
US and UK spy agencies defeat privacy and security on the internet  —  • NSA and GCHQ unlock encryption used to protect emails, banking and medical records  —  • $250m-a-year US program works covertly with tech companies to insert weaknesses into products
Bruce Schneier / Guardian:
How to remain secure against NSA surveillance  —  The NSA has huge capabilities - and if it wants in to your computer, it's in.  With that in mind, here are five ways to stay safe  —  Now that we have enough details about how the NSA eavesdrops on the internet, including today's disclosures …
Bloomberg:
Apple's Falling China Share Complicates iPhone Deal  —  Apple is accustomed to dictating terms to carriers for its iPhone.  As it seeks a deal with China Mobile to sell the handsets, it's the operator that is in command.  Audio Download: Bloomberg's Butler Discusses Low Cost iPhone Enlarge …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
PayPal's new digital wallet app is powerful but baffling  —  Will anybody ever get mobile payments right?  —  Hill Ferguson ordered a smoothie.  Using a newly redesigned app for iOS and Android, PayPal's lanky director of product selected a peach concoction and paid for it with a couple taps on his smartphone.
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Apple Investigating Worker-Abuse Charges at “iPhone C” Supplier  —  Apple hasn't even launched the less-expensive iPhone it's rumored to have in the pipeline, but already a company involved in its manufacture stands accused of labor violations.  —  In a report published Thursday …
Jon Russell / The Next Web:
Nathan Olivarez-Giles / The Verge:
Google's Trojan horse: how Chrome Apps will finally take on Windows  —  The web alone is not enough  —  Today, on Chrome's fifth birthday, Google is announcing the rollout of what it's calling Chrome Apps.  Don't feel bad if you're confused by the name.  Chrome has been serving …
Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Ping for iPhone: does merging email and instant messaging make sense?  —  You've got mail, instantly  —  The battle for email is very clearly in full swing.  Apps and services seem to debut every day that destroy email, or subvert it, or merely help you rearrange it.
Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:
No, seriously: Oyster comes pretty close to being a Netflix for ebooks  —  A lot of startups want to be the Netflix (or Spotify, Pandora, whatever) for ebooks.  That is, they want to provide unlimited access to ebooks for a flat monthly fee.  —  But this is really hard to pull off …
Lee Hutchinson / Ars Technica:
PayPal freezes $45,000 of Mailpile's crowdfunded dollars (Updated)  —  Update: PayPal has contacted Ars Technica and informed us that it has released Mailpile's funding.  PayPal's statement is below.  —  Mailpile is a crowdfunded e-mail client written by a small group of folks in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Wall Street Journal:
Apple Tests iPhone Screens as Large as Six Inches  —  As Apple Inc. prepares to unveil both a new high-end iPhone and a cheaper version for the first time next week, it is already working on something bigger.  —  The electronics giant has begun evaluating a plan to offer iPhones …
Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:
Aetna Once Offered To Buy NY Startup ZocDoc For More Than $300 Million And The Founders Walked Away  —  Insurance company Aetna once offered to buy ZocDoc for more than $300 million but ZocDoc's founders walked away, multiple sources tell Business Insider.  —  ZocDoc was founded in 2007 …
Thanks:@ajs
Matthew Moskovciak / CNET:
Simple.TV partners with SiliconDust: new hardware, 2.0 software update on the way  —  The new Simple.TV box will feature dual-tuning capability and a more traditional set-top box look.  —  It's been a while since we've heard anything from Simple.TV and its quirky over-the-air DVR …
More: GigaOM and Engadget
Ken Yeung / The Next Web:
Salesforce unveils Files, a new way to map files across services like Dropbox, Box, and SharePoint  —  Salesforce has overhauled its file sharing system to allows users to share files from any business unit on any device.  Called Salesforce Files, this updated tool will work with services like Google Drive …
Danny Sullivan / Marketing Land:
Bing News Now Features Trending Topics From Facebook & Twitter  —  Bing News has gotten a makeover, including the introduction of various trending topics boxes drawn from buzz detected on Facebook and Twitter, as well as Bing's own searches.  —  Bing posted about the change, saying:
Billy Gallagher / TechCrunch:
Stanford University Is Going To Invest In Student Startups Like A VC Firm  —  Stanford University is going to start directly investing in students' companies.  Stanford is also giving a $3.6 million grant to StartX, a non-profit startup accelerator for Stanford-affiliated entrepreneurs.
More: VentureBeat.  Tweets: @andyhpalmer.  Thanks:@startx
Mike Shields / Adweek:
Pressure Mounts on Yahoo's De Castro COO needs to deliver results or could face ouster by end of the year  —  Yahoo finally got its latest ad savior yesterday when the company officially announced that former AOL executive Ned Brody will become svp of Americas, reporting directly to chief operating officer Henrique De Castro.
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
Lenovo doubles down on convertible PC bet; Yoga-tizes lineup  —  Summary: Lenovo is betting that all laptop buyers will go multimode and meld tablets and PCs.  To Lenovo, Yoga DNA should go everywhere.  —  Lenovo is making a big bet on convertible PCs and betting that consumers and businesses …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Pew: 86% Of U.S. Adults Make Efforts To Hide Digital Footprints Online; Fear Of Creeping Ads And Hackers Outweighs Spying  —  In one of the latest developments in the fallout of the PRISM story, the ACLU is currently suing four officials in the Obama Administration to try to get federal courts …
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Hearsay Social Raises Another $30M To Help Businesses Grow Sales Through Social Media  —  Hearsay Social, a startup offering for reaching sales leads and customers on social networks, is announcing that it has raised $30 million in Series C funding.  —  CTO Steve Garrity told me Hearsay has had …

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Kathy Savitt / Yahoo!: