Techmeme: NSA chief pleads for public's help amid push for spying restrictions (Brendan Sasso/Hillicon Valley)

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September 25, 2013, 8:20 PM

Top News

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

LexisNexis and other large data brokers hacked by underground identity theft service SSNDOB — Data Broker Giants Hacked by ID Theft Service — An identity theft service that sells Social Security numbers, birth records, credit and background reports on millions of Americans …

More: The Register, Cisco Blog, Ars Technica, Gartner, The Verge, Help Net Security, InfoWorld, Securosis Highlights and Softpedia News

Tweets: @sdweberg, @jenvalentino, @katecrawford, @csoghoian, @daniel_bilar and @virusbtn

Reuters:

T-Mobile US will no longer stock BlackBerry in stores — (Reuters) - T-Mobile US Inc, the No. 4 U.S. wireless service provider, plans to stop carrying BlackBerry Ltd smartphones in its stores and instead ship the devices directly, according to an executive for the company.

More: GigaOM, The Next Web, PhoneNews.com, SlashGear, CrackBerry.com and PhoneArena

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Google Shopping Express Launches In San Francisco Peninsula, Debuts New Apps — After previously dogfooding and then beta testing its same-day Amazon Prime and eBay Now competitor Google Shopping Express, Google says that today the service is launching to all those in its initial target markets …

More: Google Commerce, The Next Web, Mercury News, PC Magazine, bizjournals, Engadget, Mashable, AllThingsD, NBC Bay Area, GigaOM, Macgasm, The Verge, internetretailer.com and SiliconBeat

John Biggs / TechCrunch:

Amazon Announces The Kindle HDX 7- And 8.9-Inch Tablets With High-Res Screens, 2GHz Processors — Amazon has upped the Fire tablet ante with two new HDX models in 7- and 8.9-inch sizes with brand-new, high-resolution screens and running an updated Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor at 2GHz.

Joshua Topolsky / The Verge:

Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX: power, with a helping hand

More: PandoDaily, Forbes, AndroidHeadlines.com, MacRumors, GeekWire, I4U News and ABC News

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Amazon Tries Breaking From the Streaming-Video Pack With Offline Viewing for New Kindles

More: Engadget, TechSpot, Businessweek, Washington Post, Benzinga, GadgeTell, GigaOM, Gizmodo and memeburn. See also Mediagazer

Brian Heater / Engadget:

Amazon's Fire OS 3.0 ‘Mojito’ arrives just in time for those new tablets

More: Amazon.com, Examiner and blog.chron.com

Lance Whitney / CNET:

Apple wins right to use iPhone name in Brazil — Apple can now share the name in Brazil with IGB Electronica, which wanted to retain exclusive rights. — The iPhone can now legally be known as the iPhone in Brazil following a court ruling. — On Tuesday, Judge Eduardo de Brito Fernandes ruled …

More: BNamericas, Los Angeles Times, TechnoBuffalo, MacRumors, The Verge, iPhone Hacks, iPhone in Canada Blog, iDownloadBlog.com, iClarified, Patently Apple, App Advice and Electronista

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

Nokia will announce six new devices at its October 22nd event — There'll be a range of new form factors as well — Nokia's Innovation Reinvented event in Abu Dhabi next month will host the launch of at least six new devices from the Finnish company, including at least two new Lumias.

More: VentureBeat, Unwired View, CNET, PhoneArena, WinBeta, IntoMobile, TechnoBuffalo, ValueWalk, pocketnow.com, Windows Phone Central, WMPoweruser, Softpedia News and dailywireless.org

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Apple Uses Bluetooth LE To Enable Apple TV ‘Touch To Set Up’ Via iOS 7 Devices — Apple is leveraging the Bluetooth LE technology that it has been building into every iPhone since the iPhone 4S to enable automatic setup of an Apple TV 3G. Just touch a device running iOS 7 to a newer Apple set-top box …

More: Apple, The Verge, AppleInsider, MacRumors, TUAW, Engadget, SlashGear, iPhone Hacks and Softpedia News. Tweets: @panzer

Brendan Sasso / Hillicon Valley:

NSA chief pleads for public's help amid push for spying restrictions — Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency, called Wednesday on the public to help defend his agency's powers as Congress mulls restrictions aimed at protecting privacy. — “We need your help.

More: Techdirt. Tweets: @youranoncentral and @dellcam

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Senators Demand Answers On NSA Snooping - By The End Of 2014

More: Hillicon Valley and Ars Technica

Matt Burns / TechCrunch:

Nest Labs To Open Up Its Learning Thermostat To Developers — The Nest Learning Thermostat is about to get a little smarter (and perhaps the forthcoming Protect). Speaking at CEDIA Expo 2013, Tony Fadell, the company's co-founder and CEO, just detailed an API that's aimed at developers looking …

More: AllThingsD, Engadget, The Next Web and The Verge. Thanks:@elinblesener

Sean Hollister / The Verge:

Valve announces Steam Machines, the Steam Box hardware beta — Valve is building a game console, but not just one. The company wants to create an entirely new class of computers that brings the power of Linux and the distribution might of Steam to the living room. That's why on Monday, it announced SteamOS.

More: NVIDIA, GigaOM, IntoMobile, Giant Bomb, Kotaku, 9to5Mac, Polygon, Softpedia News, Joystiq, Gizmodo, Steam Universe, TechCrunch, Penny Arcade and The Next Web

Tweets: @garrynewman, @chrisremo, @jimsterling, @tronmaximum, @tinaamini and @stephentotilo

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

Samsung counters iPhone 5S with a golden Galaxy S4 — Two weeks after Apple's September 10th reveal of a champagne-colored iPhone, Samsung is launching its own golden phone in the shape of a new Gold Edition Galaxy S4. There are two options, Gold Pink or Gold Brown, which Samsung …

Kevin Fitchard / GigaOM:

Google tries to fuel innovation outside of Silicon Valley with new Tech Hub network — Google is looking to cultivate innovation in some of the more obscure tech markets in the North America. It announced on Wednesday a program that would expand Google's community ties and outreach …

More: The Official Google Blog, The Next Web, Engadget, Xconomy, BetaKit, Xconomy, Mashable, dailywireless.org and Computerworld. Tweets: @qthrul

Andrea Peterson / The Switch:

Sudan loses Internet access — and it looks like the government is behind it — Internet intelligence corporation Renesys confirmed reports Wednesday that Sudan has been cut off from the Internet. Al Arabiya reported earlier Wednesday morning that Internet access was cut and schools …

More: Renesys, Alarabiya.net English, PC World, Reuters, Computerworld, TIME, Guardian and Mashable. Tweets: @renesys. See also Mediagazer

Sinead Carew / Reuters:

T-Mobile CFO makes case for U.S. consolidation, Sprint deal — (Reuters) - T-Mobile US Inc Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said on Wednesday that he expected more consolidation in the U.S. wireless market and made a case for a deal between his company and bigger rival Sprint Corp.

More: The Register, The Verge, DSLreports, Digits, Ubergizmo, ZDNet and Pocket-lint

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft's Surface Mini: Not until spring 2014? — Summary: Microsoft may not get its first Surface Mini tablet out the door until Spring 2014 — which is looking like the same time when its Windows variants may get a refresh, sources say. — There's been a lot of speculation …

More: CNET, The Verge, BGR, The Register, The Verge, Gotta Be Mobile, Windows Phone Central, Mobile Magazine, pocketnow.com, Gizmodo UK and Gizmodo

Eliza Brooke / TechCrunch:

Automattic Acquires File-Sharing Service Cloudup To Build A Faster Media Library And Enable Co-Editing — Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, has acquired file-sharing service Cloudup, which launched in beta in June. The acquisition will help Automattic improve two features …

More: VentureBeat, Cloudup and WordPress.com News. Thanks:@hsonneland. See also Mediagazer

Harry McCracken / TIME:

The Myth of Steve Jobs' Constant Breakthroughs — Last Friday, Apple's iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c went on sale. The company sold nine million of them in the first weekend, breaking the five-million-phone record it set last year with the iPhone 5. I sort of thought that was clearly good news for Apple and the iPhone.

More: Digits, ITworld.com, Benzinga and ParisLemon

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft left alone with Windows RT as Dell drops XPS 10 tablet — Microsoft appears to be the only company still selling a Windows RT-based tablet. Dell's XPS 10 is now listed as unavailable, following a price drop for the past few months. While the company won't comment …

More: ZDNet and WinBeta

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Target goes head-to-head with iTunes and Amazon with launch of ‘Ticket’ video service — Target Ticket, the US retailer's video-on-demand offering, has today launched to the public. After months of beta testing, Target Ticket is now live with a catalog of over 30,000 movies and more than 50 episodes of “next-day TV.”

More: Engadget, A Bullseye View, GigaOM, TechHive, WebProNews, multichannel.com/rss, TechSpot and Electronista

Jason Del Rey / AllThingsD:

Google Is Going to Pay You Back for Your Unused Google Offers — Google has started sending out emails this week notifying its customers that it will soon start refunding their unused Google Offers. — The refunds signal a shift in how the Google Offers local deals platform works, as outlined in a July blog post.

More: Engadget and Marketing Land

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Hyperlocal Power: Urban Compass Raises $20M At A $150M Valuation; Adds Advance Publications And Marc Benioff As Investors — Urban Compass, the young New York startup that emerged from stealth mode in May with a home rentals platform and accompanying hyperlocal social network …

More: The Verge, VentureBeat and Bloomberg. Tweets: @ingridlunden

Miyoung Kim / Reuters:

Samsung Electronics to launch smartphone with curved display in October — (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it will introduce a smartphone with a curved display in October, as the world's top handset maker seeks to set the pace of hardware innovation and maintain its supremacy in a fiercely competitive business.

More: BBC, Digits, SlashGear, BGR, The Register, eWeek, PC Magazine, pocketnow.com, Droid Life, AndroidHeadlines.com, Redmond Pie, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, Gotta Be Mobile, Android Authority, ZDNet and TechHive

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

YouTube's new Audio Gallery gives you 150 royalty-free tracks to use anywhere...not just YouTube — YouTube now has an Audio Gallery featuring 150 royalty-free instrumental tracks, which can be used for anything...not just YouTube videos. — The proposed gallery first came to light back in August …

More: youtubecreator.blogspot.ch, VentureBeat, The Verge, Pocket-lint, Search Engine Watch, Geekosystem, Gizmodo, 9to5Google, Softpedia News and Mashable. See also Mediagazer

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