NSA can somehow “tap” user data on iPhone, Android, and Blackberry phones  —  NSA Can Spy on Smart Phone Data  —  SPIEGEL has learned from internal NSA documents that the US intelligence agency has the capability of tapping user data from the iPhone, devices using Android as well as BlackBerry …

Amazon says it won't launch a phone this year, and it won't be free  —  Responding to an earlier post on reporter Jessica Lessin's website, Amazon is now telling Lessin's team that it won't be selling its own smartphone in 2013 — and if it does decide to eventually launch one, it won't be free.

Instagram will have ads within a year, now has 150 million monthly active users  —  Instagram Pictures Itself Making Money  —  Leading the Charge to Woo Advertisers Is Facebook Veteran Emily White  —  MENLO PARK, Calif.—When Emily White joined Instagram from parent company Facebook Inc. in March …

Xbox Music gets iOS and Android apps, free web playback; cloud locker to follow  —  Xbox Music is now available on Android and iOS, and web playback is now free.  Coming up is a cloud locker for pre-owned tracks.  —  The times they are a-changin' at Microsoft, and we are not just talking …

TechCrunch Disrupt Kicks Off with “Titstare” App and Fake Masturbation  —  As a lovely followup to recent discussions of gender inclusivity in tech, here's the first presentation from the TechCrunch Disrupt 2013 conference: an app called Titshare, presented by two grinning Australian dudes, exactly as tasteless as it sounds.

Why cards are the future of the web  —  Cards are fast becoming the best design pattern for mobile devices.  —  We are currently witnessing a re-architecture of the web, away from pages and destinations, towards completely personalised experiences built on an aggregation of many individual pieces of content.

Apple's Wearables Future  —  Wearable technologies have a huge future.  For Apple, they'll create a new product category with an iPhone-like revenue stream!  No so fast.  Smartwatches and other wearable consumer products lack key attributes for breaking out of the novelty prison.

The once-bright future of color e-paper  —  It's all too easy to dismiss the optimistic fantasies of yesterday: flying cars and robot servants may have filled the pages of Popular Mechanics in the 1950s, but today we're better grounded in reality, pinning our hopes on more reasonable futures based on technology we've actually developed.

Verizon's bid to kill network neutrality law goes to court Monday  —  In December 2010, the Federal Communications Commission adopted the Open Internet Order, enshrining the concept of “network neutrality”—that Internet Service Providers must treat all data on the Internet equally—into law.

Twitter's tablet-optimized Android app leaks out  —  Even Google admits that Android tablet software has been lagging, but one key app might finally be catching up.  At IFA 2013, a tablet-optimized copy of Twitter was spotted running on a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.

Microsoft's Belfiore: fewer secrets between us and Nokia will lead to better phones  —  For Microsoft and Nokia, fewer secrets  —  What can Microsoft do with Nokia in-house that it couldn't before?  Share top-secret plans, says Joe Belfiore, the Microsoft corporate vice president in charge of Windows Phone.