Snapchat Spurned $3 Billion Acquisition Offer from Facebook  —  Snapchat, a rapidly growing messaging service, recently spurned an all-cash acquisition offer from Facebook for $3 billion or more, according to people briefed on the matter.  —  The offer, and rebuff, came as Snapchat …

Mozilla: No Firefox phones in US  —  Mozilla's Mitchell Baker stresses Firefox OS's appeal to developing countries — and (pay attention, Apple and Google) the importance of price.  SAN FRANCISCO — If you're a Firefox OS fan and you live in the United States, you're going to have to wait a bit longer to get your Firefox phone.

The Dual-Screen YotaPhone Will Launch Internationally In December  —  Russia-based Yota Devices has been working on a curious beast called the YotaPhone for years now, and it's gained quite a reputation for itself because of its split personality.  While the front of the phone sports …

Government requests for user information double over three years  —  In a year in which government surveillance has dominated the headlines, today we're updating our Transparency Report for the eighth time.  Since we began sharing these figures with you in 2010, requests from governments …

Intel opening temporary showcase stores featuring free movie nights, coffee and events  —  Intel Opening Retail “Experience” Stores Starting November 23rd  —  Intel wants to give you a chance to get up close and personal with its PCs.  At a press event in New York this evening …

Our Government Has Weaponized the Internet.  Here's How They Did It  —  The internet backbone — the infrastructure of networks upon which internet traffic travels — went from being a passive infrastructure for communication to an active weapon for attacks.

Dart, Google's controversial Web language, turns 1.0  —  Dart leader Lars Bak speaking at Google I/O 2013  —  Dart is done.  —  Well, not completely done — anything not actually cancelled at Google is a constant work in progress — but the company on Thursday announced version 1.0 of its controversial Web programming language.

Redfin is now a $500 million company  —  Online real estate company Redfin raises $50 million in new VC funding.  —  FORTUNE — Online real estate company Redfin has raised $50 million in what it believes will be its last round of VC funding before going public.

Android powers four in every five smartphones thanks to growth in China  —  Gartner's third-quarter smartphone research report is out, and on the surface it paints a very flattering portrait for Google.  Mirroring Strategy Analytics' report at the end of last month, Gartner also estimates …

The Story Behind the “What Would I Say?”  Facebook App  —  Am fond of Seinfeld, and I disparage the value of baseball arguments.—That was the first phrase generated just for me this afternoon by What Would I Say?, a new app that runs users' old Facebook status updates through a text-generating bot …

TPP Leak Confirms the Worst: US Negotiators Still Trying to Trade Away Internet Freedoms  —  After years of secret trade negotiations over the future of intellectual property rights (and limits on those rights), the public gets a chance to looks at the results.

IBM to offer Watson supercomputer as cloud development platform  —  IBM is preparing to give third parties access to its Watson supercomputer with the aim of spurring the growth of applications that take advantage of the system's artificial intelligence capabilities.

Google Search for Android now does Siri-style conversational voice commands  —  The Google Search app for Android was updated today.  While Google's official post about the new version mentioned some updated cards and traffic incidents, the real news is that voice search can now hold a conversation.

MeeGo Startup Jolla's First Phone To Go On Sale In Finland On November 27  —  MeeGo startup Jolla has just announced that its first smartphone will go on sale in Finland on November 27th.  It will be sold by Finnish carrier DNA - the first carrier Jolla signed up to its Sailfish OS project, back in November last year.

MapQuest Updates Its iPhone App With Improved Cartography And Routing To Take On Google And Apple Maps  —  On the iPhone, Apple Maps and Google Maps app have gotten all the headlines over the last several years, but MapQuest is still hanging in there, despite a lack of real innovation over the years.

NSA Transparency Hurts Americans' Privacy, Feds Say With Straight Face  —  Adding limited public accountability to the NSA's vast electronic spying programs would actually harm the privacy of Americans, Obama administration officials told a Senate hearing today.

Amazon WorkSpaces - Desktop Computing in the Cloud  —  Once upon a time, enterprises had a straightforward way to give each employee access to a desktop computer.  New employees would join the organization and receive a standard-issue desktop, preconfigured with a common set of tools and applications.

Verizon drops Moto Maker customized Moto X to $49.99 until November 18th  —  Motorola's world may be concentrated on the release of the Moto G this week but Big Red is working to shift some attention back to the Moto X. The carrier is offering a $50 promotion on customized orders through Moto Maker until November 18th.

Go Launcher Developer Raises $20M From Kingsoft, Qihoo360 Ahead Of IPO  —  Go Launcher, an Android app maker out of Beijing that has been around for nearly a decade and has 42 million monthly active users across a portfolio of apps, just picked up $20 million in funding from Chinese antivirus software giant Qihoo360 and Kingsoft.

US intelligence wants to radically advance facial recognition software  —  National Intelligence agency wants to cull facial IDs from massive amounts of video, images  —  Identifying people from video streams or boatloads of images can be a daunting task for humans and computers.

New FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Talks Competition Net Neutrality and More  —  When Tom Wheeler was named in May to lead the Federal Communications Commission, some consumer groups fretted that the former cable- and wireless-industry lobbyist would favor industry over individuals.

Value of a bitcoin doubles, breaks $400 over last two weeks  —  Don't look now, but everyone's favorite crypto-currency is creeping back up the charts again.  Over the past two weeks the value of a bitcoin has skyrocketed from just over $200 to just shy of $450.  —  And it's not entirely clear why.

IBM buys Fiberlink, eyes BYOD management  —  Summary: The company said Fiberlink's cloud mobile management and security software will be lumped into IBM's MobileFirst suite.  —  IBM on Wednesday acquired Fiberlink Communications in a move to fill out its bring your own device management software.

Pocket update highlights the saves you're most likely to enjoy  —  Pocket is releasing an update to its app today that puts a new focus on helping you discover the best of the items you have saved, using algorithms to surface content likely to interest you the most.

New Service Rates Your Phone Number Just Like Your Credit History  —  Most web companies want to attract as many users as possible.  But they don't want scammers, spammers, and bots using their web applications.  Companies use everything from email verification to IP address bans …