Techmeme
November 25, 2013, 9:20 PM

Top News

BBC:
Amazon workers face ‘increased risk of mental illness’  —  A BBC investigation into a UK-based Amazon warehouse has found conditions that a stress expert said could cause “mental and physical illness”.  —  Professor Michael Marmot was shown secret filming of night shifts involving up to 11 miles …
Robin Turner / walesonline:
Amazon hits back over Panorama claims about working conditions at Swansea warehouse  —  A BBC Panorama undercover investigation claims workers at Amazon's Swansea base have to walk up to 11 miles a shift  —  Online retail giant Amazon has defended itself against BBC Panorama claims …
Mark Hosenball / Reuters:
Spies worry over “doomsday” cache stashed by ex-NSA contractor Snowden  —  (Reuters) - British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about a “doomsday” cache of highly classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud.
Siobhan Gorman / Wall Street Journal:
Shaken NSA Grapples With an Overhaul  —  Agency's Director Offered to Resign Last Summer in Wake of Snowden Leaks  —  WASHINGTON—Shortly after former government contractor Edward Snowden revealed himself in June as the source of leaked National Security Agency documents, the agency's director …
Juro Osawa / Digits:
ZTE Jumps On Smartwatch Bandwagon  —  When Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy Gear launch in early September created a hype around the potential market for smartwatches, it was certain that we would soon see cheaper versions from Chinese competitors.  —  Now, ZTE Corp., mainly known …
Dan Primack / Fortune:
Exclusive: Flipboard raising another $50 million  —  Flipboard said in September that it had raised $50 million.  That was only half the story.  —  By Dan Primack and Jessi Hempel  —  FORTUNE — Social news app Flipboard is in final negotiations to raise $50 million in new venture capital funding, Fortune has learned.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft is fixing Skype messaging, ‘fun things’ planned for Windows Phone 8.1  —  Ever since Microsoft started forcing Windows Live Messenger users over to Skype earlier this year, instant messaging on Windows has been somewhat painful.  If you're a frequent Skype user then you'll be intimately familiar with the problems.
Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:
FDA Tells 23andMe to Stop Marketing DNA Kits; 23andMe Says It's Sorry for Being Slow  —  23andMe's $99 DNA kits can't be advertised for their abilities to detect diseases and conditions without permission from the FDA, the FDA formally told the company on Nov. 22, as reported today by Bloomberg.
More: Mercury News and NEWS.com.auTweets: @wilbanks
Anna Edney / Bloomberg:
Sari Horwitz / Washington Post:
Julian Assange unlikely to face U.S. charges over publishing classified documents  —  The Justice Department has all but concluded it will not bring charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for publishing classified documents because government lawyers said they could not do so without …
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Mayer Confirms Hire of News Star Couric as “Global Anchor,” Calling Her the “Face of Yahoo News”  —  As AllThingsD had reported it would today, Yahoo said it has hired well-known TV news star Katie Couric for a high-profile job to do interviews and more on its homepage, with the decidedly lofty title of “global anchor.”
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft's device chief sees a future without three versions of Windows  —  Microsoft currently ships Windows RT, Windows 8, and Windows Phone software on a variety of devices, but it's heading towards a future where just a single version of Windows will exist.
Kristian Vättö / AnandTech:
Western Digital Releases Black^2: 120GB SSD + 1TB HD Dual-Drive in 2.5" Form Factor  —  To date all the hybrid storage solutions we have seen have been rather limited.  Seagate got the idea right with the Momentus XT but having only 8GB of NAND (4GB in the first generation) limited the gains of caching dramatically.
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
After acquiring the online reservation startup, Yelp adds option to book SeatMe reservations from its listings  —  Yelp today introduced a new feature that lets users book SeatMe reservations directly from its service's restaurant and nightlife venue listings.  The integration is now available on Yelp's Web, Android, and iOS apps.
Dominic Rushe / Guardian:
Paul Carr's news site NSFW Corp joins with Silicon Valley-backed PandoDaily  —  After NSFW's financial failure, the tech journalist joins the tech site PandoDaily - ‘the site of record for Silicon Valley’  —  Tech journalist and entrepreneur Paul Carr's last venture was surprisingly old-school.
Jon Southurst / CoinDesk:
Bitcoin Payment Processor BIPS Attacked, Over $1m Stolen  —  Europe's primary bitcoin payment processor for merchants and free online wallet service, BIPS, was the target of a major DDoS attack and subsequent theft in the past few days that saw 1,295 BTC (just over $1m on CoinDesk's BPI) stolen.
Richard Padilla / MacRumors:
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Posts Guide on Converting to Android from iPhone  —  Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has posted a multi-step guide on switching from Apple's iPhone to an Android device on his Google+ page today, refreshing the rivalry between the two companies as of late.

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Earlier Picks

Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Kaylene Hong / The Next Web: