Techmeme: You can't beat politics with technology, says Pirate Bay cofounder Peter Sunde (Olivia Solon/Wired.co.uk)

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November 19, 2013, 9:10 AM

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Miyoung Kim / Reuters:

Samsung Elec says Gear smartwatch sales hit 800,000 in two months — (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co said on Tuesday its Galaxy Gear has become the world's most popular smartwatch with sales reaching 800,000 since its debut two months ago, defying some market concerns the accessory would fail due to a lack of compelling features.

Ashlee Vance / Businessweek:

Dropbox Seeks Another $250 million and $8 billion valuation — Dropbox has always had a flair for the dramatic. Its CEO and co-founder Drew Houston, for example, appeared on a YouTube clip in 2012, belting out “Rocket Man” with a pint in hand at a Swiss bar—just one of several bravura performances.

More: Forbes, The Register, ZDNet, CNET, TechCrunch, Reuters, New York Times, SocialTimes, Fortune, The Verge, Business Insider and bizjournals

Tweets: @om and @alex

Thanks:@mattlynley

Wall Street Journal:

Dropbox's revenue in 2012 was $116M and $46M in 2011

Tweets: @dmac1

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Nokia shareholders approve Microsoft deal — Nokia shareholders have approved a deal allowing Microsoft to purchase the Finnish smartphone maker's Devices and Services unit. 99.7 percent of shareholders who participated in the vote agreed with the Microsoft sale, representing around four-fifths …

More: BGR, ZDNet, TechCrunch, Softpedia News and Neowin. Tweets: @johndstoll

Olivia Solon / Wired.co.uk:

You can't beat politics with technology, says Pirate Bay cofounder Peter Sunde — Pirate Bay cofounder Peter Sunde spoke to Wired.co.uk about the problems with the file-sharing website in its current form, the “imminent death” of peer-to-peer and the centralised services that leave us open to NSA surveillance.

More: The Verge. Tweets: @wireduk, @brokep and @noelrock

Derek Khanna / Slate:

Obama's Secret Attempt to Ban Cellphone Unlocking, While Claiming to Support It — Last week, WikiLeaks made public a portion of a treaty that the White House has been secretly negotiating with other nations and 600 special interest lobbyists. The draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty …

More: DSLreports, Gizmodo, Cult of Mac, VentureBeat, Ars Technica, I4U News and Computerworld

Spencer Ackerman / Guardian:

Court order that allowed NSA surveillance is revealed for first time — Fisa court judge who authorised massive tapping of metadata was hesitant but felt she could not stand in the way — A secret court order that authorised a massive trawl by the National Security Agency of Americans' email …

More: The Switch, Associated Press and Washington Post. Tweets: @jamesrbuk

IC ON THE RECORD:

DNI Clapper Declassifies Additional Intelligence Community …

More: Ars Technica, The Next Web, New York Times and CNET

Tweets: @dangillmor and @charlie_savage

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

Bitcoin surges to all-time high of $900, then drops below $650 in 30 minutes — The value of Bitcoin has skyrocketed in the past five days. Graph via Bitcoincharts.com. — It's Bitcoin-madness today. — On the same day the U.S. government began discussions about Bitcoin, the value of the digital currency is skyrocketing.

More: NYT Bits, Business Insider, TechCrunch, The Mac Observer, Business Insider, The Next Web, The Cody Word, Gigaom, Business Insider, Examiner, MoneyBeat, Mashable and ExtremeTech

Tweets: @hunterwalk, @levie and @kashhill

Zachary M. Seward / Quartz:

Ben Bernanke's letter to Congress: Bitcoin and other virtual currencies “may hold long-term promise”

More: Forbes, TechCrunch and The Technology Chronicles. Tweets: @qz

On Bitcoin:

Senate Committee Listens to Bitcoin Experts, Expresses Open-Mindedness

More: DealBook, Motherboard, TheHill and Reuters

Andy Greenberg / Forbes:

Meet The ‘Assassination Market’ Creator Who's Crowdfunding Murder With Bitcoins — As Bitcoin becomes an increasingly popular form of digital cash, the cryptocurrency is being accepted in exchange for everything from socks to sushi to heroin. If one anarchist has his way, it'll soon be used to buy murder, too.

More: SiliconANGLE, Motherboard, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, Mashable, Softpedia News, Bitcoin Blogger and WebProNews

Tweets: @forbes, @kashhill and @greg_palast

Dr. Raymond M. Soneira / DisplayMate:

Mini tablet display comparison: Kindle Fire HDX 7 and Nexus 7 impress, iPad Mini disappoints — Mini Tablet Display Technology Shoot-Out — Introduction A new generation of Mini 7 to 8 inch Tablets from three of the major manufacturers has just completed with the belated launch of the Apple iPad mini with Retina Display.

More: Computerworld, Gizmodo, ZDNet, MacRumors, Forbes, 9to5Mac, iLounge, DisplayBlog, AllThingsD, DisplayBlog, iDownloadBlog.com, Electronista and eWeek

Tweets: @displaymate and @nanosysinc

Katie Fehrenbacher / Gigaom:

Special report: Apple's ground-breaking bet on its clean energy infrastructure, with exclusive photos — Last week a utility in North Carolina announced something seemingly mundane on the surface, but it was a transcendent moment for those that have been following the clean energy sector.

More: Gigaom Research, Cult of Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, TUAW, iMore, iPhone in Canada Blog, iClarified, MacRumors and 9to5Mac. Tweets: @iankennedy. Thanks:@jeffjohnroberts

Barb Darrow / Gigaom:

Salesforce.com buys cloudconnect just in time for Dreamforce — Salesforce.com has purchased cloudconnect, a startup founded by Heroku and Salesforce.com alum Adam Gross who is now, I guess, back in the fold. — The news was posted — with scant details — on cloudconnect's web page which read:

More: eWeek, Computerworld, AdExchanger, The Register, ZDNet, Pulse 2.0, VentureBeat and Forbes

Alex Williams / TechCrunch:

Salesforce And HP Join To Offer Superpod, A Dedicated Hosted Service

More: PR Newswire, ZDNet and Forbes

Rachel King / ZDNet:

Salesforce.com's Q3: Beats estimates, raises outlook, promises $5B rev by 2015

More: SiliconANGLE, AllThingsD, PR Newswire, TechCrunch, Digits, San Francisco Chronicle, Tech Trader Daily and eWeek

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

Samsung makes the case for ‘bended’ phones in latest patent application — Filed in May of this year and made public this month, Samsung's latest patent application details a “method of operating functions of a portable terminal having a bended display.” You can think of this as the manual …

More: Gizmodo, 9to5Google, Phones Review, Ars Technica, Digits, Business Insider and Geek.com

Hamish McKenzie / PandoDaily:

Tencent to launch international version of free 10TB storage service. New photo-sharing app coming soon to US — Tencent, China's largest Internet company, will release an international version of its 10TB cloud storage product next year, and within the coming weeks it'll launch …

More: The Next Web, Tech in Asia and memeburn

Tweets: @hamishmckenzie and @jonrussell

Marissa Mayer / Yahoo:

Yahoo will encrypt all information moving between its data centers by the end of Q1 2014 — Our Commitment to Protecting Your Information — We've worked hard over the years to earn our users' trust and we fight hard to preserve it. — As you know, there have been a number of reports …

More: BBC, Techdirt, DSLreports, Telegraph, Inquirer, Digits, New York Times, Marketing Pilgrim, Ars Technica, InfoWorld, Bloomberg, TechnoBuffalo, BGR, The Register, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, PC Magazine, Data Center Knowledge, bizjournals, SlashGear, Electronista, The Switch, GeekWire, Engadget, ZDNet and The Verge. Tweets: @om

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Will Follow Google In Encrypting Data Center Traffic, Customer Data Flow By Q1 '14

Donna Tam / CNET:

Uber adds PayPal payment option to drive user adoption — Uber users can now pay for on-demand car service with PayPal, kicking off a partnership that lends PayPal some mobile cred while potentially driving new users to Uber's services. — Uber is releasing new versions of its Android …

More: VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Gigaom and Bloomberg

Tweets: @davidmarcus and @ppalavilli

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