Techmeme: Dianne Feinstein Accidentally Confirms That NSA Tapped The Internet Backbone (Mike Masnick/Techdirt)

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September 27, 2013, 11:00 PM

Top News

Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:

Apple to pay $40 to iPad 3G owners shut out of all-you-can-eat data plans — Apple and AT&T are set to resolve a long-running class action suit over the companies' decision in June, 2010 to end unlimited data plans for the iPad 3G tablet. — In a ruling issued this week in San Jose …

More: MacRumors, AppleInsider, SlashGear, Electronista and The Mac Observer

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft now wants to buy your iPhone for at least $200 — After offering at least $200 for an iPad, Microsoft is now looking to buy iPhones for the same price or more. The company's latest promotion at its Microsoft Stores, which was previously rumored, will run until November 3rd …

More: TechCrunch, Windows Phone Central, ZDNet, Ubergizmo, iDownloadBlog.com, The Register and Softpedia News

Samantha Murphy Kelly / Mashable:

Apple Feature to Turn MLB Stadiums Into Interactive Playgrounds — Major League Baseball is launching a major initiative to make attending games at stadiums a completely interactive experience for fans. — Taking advantage of Apple's iBeacon indoor mapping, a new feature in iOS 7 …

More: AppleInsider, iDownloadBlog.com, GigaOM, iLounge, Cult of Mac, iMore, iClarified, MacNN, App Advice, TUAW, 9to5Mac, MacRumors and Stuart Henshall

Eric Pfeiffer / Yahoo! News:

Iranian President Rouhani takes to Twitter after phone chat with Obama — Describing his phone conversation with President Obama as “historic,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took to Twitter on Friday with a series of a fascinating messages that stunned and encouraged many foreign policy observers.

More: Renesys

David Nakamura / Post Politics:

White House: Yes, we noticed @HassanRouhani's Twitter feed

More: The Atlantic Online, New York Magazine, The Lede, Mashable and PandoDaily

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Dianne Feinstein Accidentally Confirms That NSA Tapped The Internet Backbone — It's widely known that the NSA has taps connected to the various telco networks, thanks in large part to AT&T employee Mark Klein who blew the whistle on AT&T's secret NSA room in San Francisco.

Tweets: @pierre and @ggreenwald

Russell Holly / Geek.com:

Google Glass XE10 update to finally open the door to Glassware apps — Google Glass is about to get one of its biggest updates yet. That's right, Glass is finally getting the long-awaited ability for users to install third party apps. — Google's wearable computer has improved dramatically since …

More: GigaOM, Android Authority, SlashGear, SlashGear, Android Community and 9to5Google

Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Says Iran Hacked Navy Computers — WASHINGTON—U.S. officials said Iran hacked unclassified Navy computers in recent weeks in an escalation of Iranian cyberintrusions that target the U.S. military. — The allegations by U.S. officials, coming as the Obama administration ramps up talks …

More: Gizmodo, The Verge, Computerworld, SlashGear and National Review

Tweets: @julianbarnes and @gorman_siobhan

Christina Farr / VentureBeat:

Palantir just raised a massive $196M, filing shows — Palantir investor Peter Thiel speaking to a roomful of interns at the San Francisco Exploratorium. — Shadowy data-mining startup Palantir closed over $196 million in funding, according to an SEC filing.

More: TechCrunch and Mercury News. Thanks:@chrissyfarr

VentureBeat:

Google Glass competitor ships 50K devices, takes Intel investment, hints at Apple connection — Google Glass competitor Recon, which sells the Recon Jet heads-up display and bills itself as the Google Glass for athletes and professionals, has secured an investment from Intel Capital.

More: AllThingsD, CNET, eWeek, Glass Almanac, ZDNet, bit-tech.net and MacDailyNews

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Microsoft Received 37,196 Gov Requests For Data Impacting 66,539 Accounts In First Half Of 2013 — Today Microsoft reported the number of data requests it received from various law enforcement agencies around the world in the first half of (calendar) 2013: 37,196. Those requests dealt with, at most, 66,539 accounts.

More: Computerworld, The Verge, The Register, ZDNet and Digits

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft expanding Office's reach with ‘Reader’ for Windows 8 and ‘Lens’ for Windows Phone — Microsoft is building another Office Windows 8-style application. Sources familiar with Microsoft's Office plans have revealed to The Verge that the app, codenamed Office Reader …

More: WindowsITPro, VentureBeat, ZDNet, WinBeta, The Next Web, Pureinfotech Newsletter, Softpedia News, WMPoweruser and Electronista

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Liftopia, An E-Commerce Platform For Ski Resorts, Raises Additional $5 Million — Last year, online ski marketplace Liftopia, which previously focused on offering skiers discounted lift tickets, launched an e-commerce platform for the ski resorts themselves called “Cloud Store by Liftopia.”

More: GeekWire, Venture Capital Dispatch, VatorNews, Skift and silicontap.com

Kevin Poulsen / Wired:

Feds Targeted Snowden's Email Provider the Day After NSA Whistleblower Went Public — When on June 9 Edward Snowden stood up in Hong Kong and revealed himself to the world as an NSA whistleblower, the Justice Department wasted little time in targeting his email provider.

More: SlashGear. Tweets: @kpoulsen

Walter Frick / Harvard Business Review:

If Crowdfunding is the New Day Trading, Look Out — Paul Volcker famously said the only financial innovation to improve society in recent memory was the ATM. Not everyone agrees. In an essay earlier this week on the evolution of money and finance, GigaOM founder and venture capitalist Om Malik argued …

Tweets: @harvardbiz. Thanks:@wfrick

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Airbnb Victory In NYC: Environmental Control Board Reverses $2,400 Fine On Renting Out A Room In An Apartment — A big regulatory victory for Airbnb today: the company has managed to win an appeal in New York City over a fine against a host called Nigel Warren, whose landlord was fined $2,400 …

More: The Airbnb Public Policy Blog, The Verge, GigaOM, CNNMoney.com, Forbes, The Next Web and AllThingsD

David Meyer / GigaOM:

Samsung: We don't region-lock our phones (apart from when you first activate them) — Samsung shed further light on its region-locking policies on Friday, explaining that the locks only affect users the first time they activate the handset. The manufacturer also said the locks apply …

More: Digital Trends, The Register, Mashable, ExtremeTech, Softpedia News, ZDNet, Inquirer, Yahoo! News and Guardian. Tweets: @gigaom

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

Apple's German patent suit shut down by a 2007 video of Steve Jobs — A German court has declared an early Apple photo-management patent invalid because of evidence in a video in which Steve Jobs presented the original iPhone back in January 2007. — Apple had won injunctions against both Samsung …

More: FOSS Patents, Engadget, Cult of Mac, iPhone Hacks, PC Magazine, ITworld.com, MacRumors, AppleInsider, TechEye, MacNN and TUAW. Tweets: @wimbet

Andrew Goldfarb / IGN:

Valve Announces Steam Controller — “A different kind of gamepad.” — Valve has announced Steam Controller, “a different kind of gamepad.” — The controller features two circular trackpads. As explained by Valve, “Driven by the player's thumbs, each one has a high-resolution trackpad as its base.

More: The Verge, The Next Web, Gamasutra, Giant Bomb, DVICE, Steam Universe, SlashGear, ExtremeTech, Polygon, Kotaku, Mashable, Wired, TIME and TechSpot

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple hires director of design at Nike's research and development unit — Apple hires one of Nike's top Fuel Band designers to work on wearable devices — Apple has lured away top Nike design director Ben Shaffer, according to a source at Nike with knowledge of the details behind Shaffer's departure.

More: Fast Company, PC Magazine, Engadget, BGR, MacRumors, MacDailyNews, iPhone in Canada Blog, iDownloadBlog.com, iMore, pocketnow.com, Yahoo! News, TechnoBuffalo, AppleInsider, The Verge, Highsnobiety, Pocket-lint, Ubergizmo, GigaOM, iClarified, Electronista, App Advice and iLounge

Tweets: @markgurman and @austincarr

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