Techmeme
November 14, 2013, 2:50 PM

Top News

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:
Google wins book-scanning case: judge finds “fair use,” cites many benefits  —  Google has won a resounding victory in its eight-year copyright battle with the Authors Guild over the search giant's controversial decision to scan more than 20 million books from libraries and make them available on the internet.
The Official Google Blog:
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 …
Nick Statt / CNET:
Inside Coin's techie vision for the all-in-one credit card  —  In a compact San Francisco office suite equipped with soldering stations and swipe-testing machines, Coin's team of seven has been working furiously to perfect the final prototype of an unlimited credit card.  No, not one that will let you charge with abandon.
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
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.
Don Clark / Digits:
Under Armour to Buy MapMyFitness in Embrace of Sports Tech  —  Under Armour is buying the popular workout application company MapMyFitness for $150 million, putting the sports apparel maker in charge of one of the biggest social sports communities on mobile devices.
Avram Piltch / Laptop:
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 …
Seth Rosenblatt / CNET:
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.
Roger Cheng / CNET:
Isis Mobile Wallet goes live nationwide, offers freebies  —  Wave phone, buy stuff: after a long period of trials, the joint venture teaming Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile is finally broadly available.—The wireless carriers' mobile payment initiative, Isis Mobile Wallet …
TechCrunch:
Education Startup Udacity Bets It Can Fill The Need For More Data Scientists With New Online Degree Program  —  Hot on the heels of a new $37 million White House initiative designed to encourage data science work at American universities, education startup, Udacity, is responding with a data science initiative of its own.
Jenna Wortham / New York Times:
Rejecting Billions, Snapchat Expects a Better Offer  —  What business makes no money, has yet to pass its third anniversary and just turned down an offer worth billions of dollars?  Snapchat, a social media service run by a pair of 20-somethings who until last month worked out of a beachfront bungalow in Venice, Calif.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Amazon Announces New I/O-Optimized Instances With SSD Storage For EC2  —  At Amazon's re:Invent developer conference in Las Vegas, the company's CTO Werner Vogels announced a new instance type for applications that need high I/O performance.  As Vogels noted, the company's customers …
John Cook / GeekWire:
CreativeLive lands $21.5M, looks to upend online learning with live broadcasts  —  CreativeLive co-founder Chase Jarvis at the company's offices on Thomas Street in Seattle.  —  CreativeLive co-founder Chase Jarvis is giving a tour of his company's spartan offices — tucked in a former photo studio …
Matt Brian / Engadget:
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 …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
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.
Ian Crouch / Culture Desk:
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 …
Chris Baraniuk / Wired.co.uk:
'We still don't encrypt server-to-server data' admits Microsoft to EU Committee  —  A senior Microsoft executive has told a European parliamentary committee that the company does not encrypt its server-to-server data communications.  —  Dorothee Belz, EMEA VP for Legal and Corporate Affairs …

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Chris Kanaracus / Computerworld: