Techmeme
October 12, 2013, 7:00 AM

Top News

Google:
Terms of Service update  —  We are updating the Google Terms of Service.  The new Terms will go live on November 11, 2013 and you can read them here.  —  Because many of you are allergic to legalese, here's a plain English summary for your convenience.  —  We've made three changes:
New York Times:
Eric Schmitt / New York Times:
C.I.A. Warning on Snowden in '09 Said to Slip Through the Cracks  —  WASHINGTON — Just as Edward J. Snowden was preparing to leave Geneva and a job as a C.I.A. technician in 2009, his supervisor wrote a derogatory report in his personnel file, noting a distinct change in the young man's behavior …
Mercury News:
Apple's new headquarters: Exclusive images of Cupertino plan  —  The Mercury News was given an exclusive look at a model of Apple Computer's circular new corporate headquarters, proposed to be built on a 175-acre plot of land bounded by North Wolfe Road and East Homestead Road.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Acquires Bread, Will Shut Down The URL Shortener That Earned You Money  —  Yahoo has just acquired Bread, a 2.5 year old startup that had raised $3.5 million [Update: and we hear was low on cash and shopping itself around to several companies].  Bread let people make money or generate donations by designing interstitial ads.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
iPhone 5S users report ‘Blue Screen Of Death’ reboots  —  Apple's latest iPhone 5S has an unexpected feature: the Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD).  While it's typically an error found on older Windows PCs, a number of iPhone 5S users are reporting random reboots on their handsets following a BSOD.
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft CEO Search Reveals Board Rifts  —  Directors Have Approached at Least Two Microsoft Executives and Eight Outsiders, Including Ford's Mulally.  Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT +1.10% search for a new chief executive is exposing divisions of opinion among directors over the 38-year-old company's …
More: SlashGear
Brad Molen / Engadget:
AT&T to streamline traditional voice plans in favor of Mobile Share on October 25th  —  AT&T is planning to axe its traditional monthly calling and data plans for new customers — both individual and family — in favor of the network's latest shared data options, Engadget has learned …
Milton Mueller / IGP Blog:
Major Internet organizations announce break with US, as ICANN president aligns with Brazil  —  The core Internet institutions abandon the US Government  —  In Montevideo, Uruguay this week, the Directors of all the major Internet organizations - ICANN, the Internet Engineering Task Force …
Reuters:
Sony to focus on Europe and Japan smartphone markets, leaves US and China for the future  —  Without grand plans for China, U.S., Sony set to lag in smartphones  —  (Reuters) - Kazuo Hirai's plan to restore Sony Corp to lasting profitability rests in large part on its smartphones leapfrogging rivals …
Jemima Kiss / Guardian:
Kevin Systrom, Instagram's man of vision, now eyes up world domination  —  The man who sold his photo-sharing app to Facebook for $1bn at the age of 28 talks about his continuing ambition for Instagram  —  Kevin Systrom might be the luckiest man in technology.
Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:
Pinterest Acquires Coding Challenge Site Hackermeter Right Out Of The Gate, Will Shut It Down  —  If you were looking forward to boasting about your Hackermeter score as a means of getting your next coding gig, you're gonna have to make new plans: the two-month old startup has been acquired by Pinterest, and will be shut down.
More: I4U News and bizjournalsTweets: @sarahtavel
John Koetsier / VentureBeat:
TorSearch launches to be the Google of the hidden Internet  —  Nov. 12 - 13, 2013  —  The newest search engine in the world is hidden in the shadows of the Internet, but it shines a light on those shadows that ordinary search engines like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo can't.

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Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
Open Model Wars + Claire Stapleton's Dishy Google Memoir + Substack's Slop Fight
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Great Chat:
Tech's short-term era
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Access:
Meet the most AI-pilled CEO on Earth
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Basis's Matt Harpe: Why AI Won't Replace Accountants — It'll Make Them Richer
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Lucas Shaw on Warner Bros' Limbo, Netflix's Anxiety, and Hollywood's Sort-of Comeback
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

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Joan E. Solsman / CNET:
Brian Crecente / Polygon: