Techmeme: NSA Bought Exploit Service From VUPEN, Contract Shows (Dennis Fisher/Threatpost)

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September 17, 2013, 10:10 PM

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David Pogue / New York Times:

In Arrival of 2 iPhones, 3 Lessons — We can draw three lessons from the arrival of Apple's two new iPhone models, the 5C and 5S. — LESSON 1 Apple may have set its own bar for innovation too high. — Year after year, Steve Jobs used to blow our minds with products we didn't know we wanted.

More: Bloomberg, Business Insider and Pogue's Posts. Tweets: @jyarow

Anand Lal Shimpi / AnandTech:

The iPhone 5s Review — For much of the iPhone's life Apple has enjoyed a first-mover advantage. At the launch of the first iPhone, Steve Jobs expected the device and OS would give it a multi-year head start over the competition. Indeed that's how the market played out.

Tweets: @philnickinson and @anandshimpi

Myriam Joire / Engadget:

iPhone 5s review — Forward-thinking. It's ironic that Apple's marketing slogan for the iPhone 5s invites us to look ahead to the future when, from the outside, the device looks like a carbon copy of last year's model, the iPhone 5. But just like any other odd-year iPhone — the “S” …

More: TechCrunch, USA Today, CNET, The Loop, Business Insider, iMore, Gizmodo, SlashGear and MobileSyrup.com

Walter S. Mossberg / AllThingsD:

iPhone 5s is “the best smartphone on the market” — A New Touch for iPhone — Apple brings out a new top-of-the-line iPhone model every year, but a redesign only every other year. In the intervening cycles, the company tends to keep the phone's exterior the same, but change the innards and the software.

More: ABC and 9to5Mac. Tweets: @dcurtis, @waltmossberg, @carlquintanilla, @markgurman and @moorehn

Anand Lal Shimpi / AnandTech:

The iPhone 5c Review — For years now Apple has followed a rather intelligent waterfall of its products down the pricing stack. With the arrival of every new iPhone, the previous generation gets a $100 discount from its on-contract price, and the generation before that one is offered for free on-contract.

More: TechCrunch, Engadget, AllThingsD and Gizmodo

CNET:

iPhone 5C review: A cheaper iPhone that doesn't cut corners — The iPhone 5C is kinda, sorta, technically a new product — colorful, cute, with a variety of interchangeable color cases much like the recently released Motorola Moto X — but under the hood it's really an iPhone 5 with a new paint job …

More: AppleInsider, BGR, Washington Post, VentureBeat and FierceWireless. Tweets: @cnet

Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:

Apple testing iOS 7.0.1, preparing iOS 7.1 - iPhone 5s supply ‘severely constrained’ — It's no secret Apple is working on newer versions of iOS 7 even before iOS 7 is released to the public. We're able to confirm this two ways: one is through multiple sources of ours and the second is, well, because we have one.

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

iPhone 5s to be constrained at launch as Apple preps app to check availability — While supply for Apple's iPhone 5c has been strong enough to deter complete sell-outs from carrier stores and Apple's own online store, sources say that supplies of the higher-end iPhone 5s will be constrained at launch (as we expected).

More: AllThingsD, Electronista, BGR, Examiner, LAPTOP Magazine, pocketnow.com, ZDNet, The Verge, iPhone in Canada Blog, Gotta Be Mobile, TechnoBuffalo, Ubergizmo, iPhone Hacks and Business Insider. Tweets: @stevekovach

Alistair Barr / USA Today:

Google looking to replace third-party cookies with new anonymous identifier AdID — Google eyes big change in online tracking for ads — Google is developing an anonymous identifier for advertising, or AdID, that would replace third-party cookies as the way advertisers track people's …

More: Marketing Pilgrim, GigaOM, Marketing Land, The Atlantic Wire, The Verge, SlashGear and VentureBeat

Tweets: @danieleran, @csoghoian and @ashk4n

See also Mediagazer

Brett Martin / Medium:

Why Sonar failed: Co-founder and former CEO Brett Martin shares lessons learned — Postmortem of a Venture-backed Startup … For those unfamiliar, Sonar Media Inc. was a mobile app created to help make the world a friendlier place. Our mobile app buzzed in your pocket when friends …

More: TechCrunch, The Next Web and AllThingsD

Tweets: @mattrosoff, @besvinick and @mikeisaac

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Microsoft Leaves Windows 8.1 Pricing Unchanged From Windows 8 But Kills System Builder SKUs — Microsoft today announced the pricing structure for its upcoming Windows 8.1 operating system. Windows 8 users will receive the new code free of charge, but for those not currently on Microsoft's …

More: The Windows Blog, The Windows Blog, LiveSide.net, Electronista, InfoWorld, The Register, TechHive, TechnoBuffalo, The Verge, Softpedia News and Ars Technica. Thanks:@fredericl

Pete Swabey / Information Age:

Cloud provider Nirvanix gives customers two weeks to vacate data — US-based cloud storage provider Nirvanix tells employees it has “gone to the wall”, gives customers until the end of the month to move their data elsewhere — UK partner seeking financial rescue deal

More: Digits, VentureBeat and Ars Technica. Tweets: @storagezar

Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:

Secret court declassifies opinion providing rationale for metadata sharing — For the first time, the United States' most secret court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), has published its legal rationale as to why the telecom metadata sharing program under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act is legitimate.

More: GigaOM, Wired, TechCrunch, Washington Post, ZDNet, Techdirt, The Hill, Guardian, Associated Press, Bloomberg, The Atlantic Wire, Motherboard, ThinkProgress and Gawker

Om Malik / GigaOM:

Airbnb hires maverick hotelier Chip Conley as its head of hospitality, hoping for better hosts, happier customers — A few years ago, I got a chance to listen to hear Chip Conley, the enigmatic founder of Joie de Vivre Hotels, address a group of founders and share his journey.

More: Forbes, TechCrunch and The Next Web. Thanks:@marissac

Nathan Olivarez-Giles / The Verge:

Google is done selling the Nexus 4 in the US — The Nexus 4's run in Google Play is now over. On Monday, Google's online storefront sold out of the 16GB version of the flagship phone in the US, and a trusted source with knowledge of the company's plans tells The Verge that this marks the end for the LG-built device.

More: Unwired View, BGR, Ars Technica, PhoneArena, Digital Trends, TechnoBuffalo, PandoDaily, Examiner, Gotta Be Mobile, Los Angeles Times, GigaOM, I4U News, TechHive, The Next Web and LAPTOP Magazine

Dennis Fisher / Threatpost:

NSA Bought Exploit Service From VUPEN, Contract Shows — The U.S. government-particularly the National Security Agency-are often regarded as having advanced offensive cybersecurity capabilities. But that doesn't mean that they're above bringing in a little outside help when it's needed.

More: GigaOM and InformationWeek. Tweets: @threatpost

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Longtime Microsoft Evangelist Jeff Sandquist Joins Twitter As Director Of Platform Partnerships — Jeff Sandquist, who's currently senior director of developer relations at Microsoft, just announced that he will be joining Twitter as director of platform partnerships. — “Change invigorates the soul,” he wrote.

More: VatorNews and GeekWire. Tweets: @jeffsand, @marshallk, @rsarver and @scobleizer

Jason Del Rey / AllThingsD:

New Google Wallet App Moves Past NFC and to All Major Carriers. iPhone Version on Tap? — Google is launching a new version of its Google Wallet app for Android today and there are some big changes. — Most notably, the app will now be available on all Android devices running version 2.3 …

Evelyn M. Rusli / Digits:

Facebook's Shaffer and Zandy to Depart — Facebook is losing two key employees: Justin Shaffer, a project manager who is helping to lead the company's video ad product, and Ashley Zandy, a manager on its corporate communications team. — The departures, confirmed by Facebook …

More: AllFacebook. Tweets: @evelynrusli, @pkafka and @evelynrusli

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