Techmeme
October 12, 2013, 6:55 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 bizjournals.  Tweets: @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.

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
SubQ Snap 1.1: the first long-context decision model for real enterprise work  —  Tied for #1 on the AA Decision Index, Snap is a multimodal model with a 384k-token context window for fast reasoning and agentic decisions.
Zoho:
Labels that build themselves: Simplified Label Automation in Zoho Writer  —  Anyone who ships every day knows this feeling.  Forty orders, each with a different number of items, and every item needs its own label.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
WebBrain:
WebBrain: an open-source AI agent for your browser  —  Read pages, fill forms and automate tasks in Chrome or Firefox.  Use local models or your preferred AI provider.  Get started free.

Featured Podcasts

Training Data:
Bringing Continual Learning to Every Company: Trajectory's Ronak Malde
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Big Technology Podcast:
Will the Democrats' Big Win Stop the AI Buildout? — With Teddy Schleifer
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Machine Gods:
Crypto's Biggest Heist Ever + The Spy Who Loved Nvidia + Hacktober's Unsolved Mysteries
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Barry Diller on Big Bets, AI, and Knowing When to Walk Away
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.
Invest Like the Best:
Martin Casado on Frontier Model Economics, AI's Slowdown, and the Cursor Deal
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Sources:
A quiet investor's $10 billion bet on AI, chips, and defense
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:55 AM ET, October 12, 2013.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

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