Techmeme
October 30, 2013, 8:40 PM

Top News

Washington Post:
NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say  —  The National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world, according to documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden …
Andrea Peterson / The Switch:
PRISM already gave the NSA access to tech giants.  Here's why it wanted more.  —  reveals that the NSA has been tapping into the primary communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world.  That allowed the agency to collect metadata and content from hundreds …
Facebook:
Facebook Reports Third Quarter 2013 Results  —  Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) today reported financial results for the third quarter, which ended September 30, 2013.  —  “For nearly ten years, Facebook has been on a mission to connect the world,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO.
John Poole / Primate Labs Blog:
iPad Air Geekbench: Over 80% faster than iPad 4, A7 processor 100MHz faster than iPhone 5s  —  iPad Air Benchmarks  —  Geekbench 3 results for the new iPad Air are starting to appear on the Geekbench Browser.  I've charted the results for all iOS 7 capable iPads below.
Steve Rosenbush / The CIO Report:
Facebook Tests Software to Track Your Cursor on Screen  —  Risk-based authentication solutions can help thwart cyber intruders' attempts to access enterprise systems.  By learning users' expected log-in patterns, and by setting appropriate risk thresholds for various systems …
Matt McGee / Glass Almanac:
California Woman Gets the First Ticket for Driving with Google Glass  —  This is history: the first known case of a Glass Explorer getting a ticket for driving while wearing Google Glass.  —  Cecilia Abadie told her story on Google+ late Tuesday night, and shared this image of the citation …
AllThingsD:
Intel May Turn Over Its Web TV Project to Verizon  —  Intel's efforts to break into the TV business may be coming to a close.  —  Sources say the chipmaker is close to a deal to hand over control of Intel Media, the unit that has been trying to build a Web-based subscription TV service …
Joanna Stern / ABC News:
Ashton Kutcher Ditches His iPhone, iPad in New Role as Lenovo Product Engineer … Alicia Keys has been the creative director of BlackBerry.  Shakira was named T-Mobile collaborator last month.  And now the latest celebrity tech hire?  Ashton Kutcher is now a product engineer at Lenovo.
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Is Marissa Mayer's Year-Old Employee Review System at Yahoo Finally Taking Aim at Underperformers?  —  A little over a year ago, only a few months into her tenure, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer sent out an internal “goals” memo to employees that outlined a new system of evaluating the efficacy of its staff.
BBC:
Dell users: Latitude 6430u laptops ‘smell of cat urine’  —  A number of Dell users have complained that their Latitude 6430u Ultrabooks “smell of cat urine”.  —  Dell engineers have ruled out biological contamination, and said the smell was not a health hazard.
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Sprint promises 60Mbps LTE today, demos gigabit cellular in the lab  —  Sprint today said it has demonstrated 1Gbps “over-the-air speed at its lab,” in an early preview of things to come.  —  The cellular company calls the technology “Sprint Spark.”  Sprint claims that Spark …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Neustar Buys Aggregate Knowledge, One of Facebook's Ad Tech Favorites, for $119 Million Cash  —  Neustar, which makes most of its money managing databases for phone companies, is buying Aggregate Knowledge, an analytics company best known recently for its work with Facebook.

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Roger Cheng / CNET: