Techmeme: Internet backbone giant Level 3 suspected of giving NSA access to Google and Yahoo users' data (New York Times)

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November 26, 2013, 12:35 PM

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Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

Jury: Newegg infringes Spangenberg patent, must pay $2.3 million — Determined lawyers, and the father of modern crypto, couldn't stop TQP patent. — MARSHALL, TX—Newegg, an online retailer that has made a name for itself fighting the non-practicing patent holders sometimes called …

More: Gigaom, Techdirt and Mashable

Tweets: @pkedrosky, @edbott, @tapbot_paul, @mattcutts, @dangillmor, @laurencstill, @cipherlaw, @webmink, @xor, @0xabad1dea and @psaffo

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

Newegg trial: Crypto legend takes the stand, goes for knockout patent punch

Tweets: @letoams

New York Times:

Internet backbone giant Level 3 suspected of giving NSA access to Google and Yahoo users' data — N.S.A. May Have Hit Internet Companies at a Weak Spot — SAN FRANCISCO — The recent revelation that the National Security Agency was able to eavesdrop on the communications of Google …

More: SiliconBeat, Business Insider, ReadWrite, Softpedia News, Gizmodo, Gigaom, Yahoo! News and VentureBeat

Tweets: @declanm, @thomas_drake1, @timothys, @jesselynradack, @kemp, @arusbridger, @jeff_kaye and @dangillmor

Stephen Shankland / CNET:

Google confirms RAW photo support and burst mode coming to Android — Click! Google rebuilds Android camera base for better photos — Want a better camera on your Android device? Google does, too. — For that reason, the company has overhauled the mobile OS's plumbing.

Jon Fingas / Engadget:

Google now inviting developers to buy Glass — Now that Google has offered a preview of Glass' SDK and opened the Mirror API to all developers, it has a strong incentive to get its eyewear in the hands of app writers. Accordingly, the crew in Mountain View is now inviting developers …

More: Glass Almanac, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, CNET, Marketing Land, 9to5Google, Android Community, Softpedia News, SlashGear and The Next Web

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google Opens Glass Mirror API To All Developers Even If They Don't Have Glass

More: TechnoBuffalo and eWeek

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:

Apple Store a Big Source of Cellphone Sales; Best Buy Is Key for Carriers — The carrier stores are still the dominant place for Americans to get their new cellphones, but two other retailers — Apple and Best Buy — have emerged as significant channels. — Apple, of course, sells only iPhones …

More: AppleInsider, BGR, Gotta Be Mobile, iDownloadBlog.com, App Advice, Electronista, iPhone, Cult of Mac, iPhone Hacks, TUAW and MacRumors

Steven Musil / CNET:

Judge denies Samsung motion to stay Apple patent damages trial — Korean electronics giant sought halt to proceedings so that the Patent Office could examine a key patent's validity. — A federal judge has denied Samsung's emergency motion to stay a patent infringement damages trial while the validity of a key patent is re-examined.

More: FOSS Patents, AppleInsider, BGR, MacRumors, TUAW, The Droid Guy, PhoneArena, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, SlashGear, App Advice and iLounge

Jim Edwards / Business Insider:

TV Is Dying, And Here Are The Stats That Prove It — The TV business is having its worst year ever. — Audience ratings have collapsed: Aside from a brief respite during the Olympics, there has been only negative ratings growth on broadcast and cable TV since September 2011, according to Citi Research.

More: The Tech Report and HEXUS.net Latest Content. Tweets: @lisatalia, @hblodget and @willsmith

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Microsoft's Xbox One Costs $90 More to Build Than Sony's PS4, Teardown Shows — With two significant game console releases recently, research firm IHS has been working a little extra overtime these days. After doing surgery on Sony's Playstation 4, the team gave Microsoft's Xbox …

More: CNET, Tech Trader Daily and Gotta Be Mobile. Tweets: @capnsmak

Bloomberg:

Apple Defeats Patent Claim Over Invention of Smartphone — Apple Inc. (AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, was found by a federal jury not to infringe the patent of a 70-year-old electrical engineer who claims he came up with the idea for the smartphone.

More: TUAW, Electronista, MacDailyNews, iPhone Hacks, iDownloadBlog.com, Cult of Mac and The Mac Observer

Brian X. Chen / NYT Bits:

For Apple, 3-D Sensors Have Potential Beyond TV — Apple over the weekend confirmed its acquisition of PrimeSense, a 3-D sensor company that could help Apple unlock new applications for devices in the living room and beyond. — The acquisition has fueled speculation that Apple will develop …

More: iMore and Mercury News

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Canalys: Half Of All PCs Shipped in 2014 Will Be Tablets; Android 65%, Apple 30% — The growth of tablet sales has been outstripping that of more traditional desktop and laptop personal computers for a while, and now it looks like we are finally approaching the tablet/PC tipping point …

More: Canalys Newsroom, PC Magazine, Computerworld, 9to5Google, VatorNews, CNET, Inquirer, WinBeta, The Next Web, Benzinga, Softpedia News and AndroidHeadlines.com

Tweets: @lukew and @halberenson

Thanks:@ingridlunden

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Moto G now available unlocked in the US: 8GB for $179 and 16GB for $199, starts shipping on December 2 — Motorola today announced the GSM version of the Moto G is now available for purchase in the US on Motorola.com, and will start shipping on December 2. The device comes with no contract …

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Microsoft Confirms That “Excessive Profanity” In Xbox Upload Studio Videos Can Cost You Account Privileges — Reports have surfaced over the past 24 hours that Xbox users are losing their Xbox Live account privileges after uploading profanity-laced videos. Xbox One customers complained …

More: ComputerAndVideoGames.com, Forums Home, Business Insider, Guardian, Engadget, Polygon, Inquirer, Gearburn, SlashGear, Gizmodo UK, CNET, PandoDaily, Gizmodo, Ubergizmo and Geek.com

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 …

Tweets: @galtsgirl, @rupertmurdochpr, @mlcalderone, @mathieuvonrohr, @jlllow, @postbaron, @amasna, @jasonleopold and @alexjamesfitz. See also Mediagazer

Reuters:

German watchdog ends Amazon probe after pricing concession — (Reuters) - Germany's antitrust watchdog has dropped an investigation into Amazon after the world's biggest Internet retailer agreed to stop forcing third-party merchants to offer their cheapest price when selling products on its platform.

More: Softpedia News

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Kim Dotcom Links €20,000 Wikileaks Donation to Megaupload Raid — Few people would disagree that Kim Dotcom is a fascinating man. After his file-sharing service Megaupload was raided early 2012, Kim Dotcom became an instant Internet celebrity. — The success and controversy surrounding …

More: Inquirer and Softpedia News. Tweets: @glynmoody

Bloomberg:

Intel Said Asking $500 Million for Streaming Pay-TV Unit — Intel Corp. (INTC) is asking about $500 million for OnCue, the online pay-TV service that the world's largest chipmaker developed before dialing back its ambitions, according to people with knowledge of the process.

More: eWeek, Tech Trader Daily, The Register, DSLreports, HotHardware.com News, CNET, Lastest ITProPortal news, TheStreet.com, ZDNet, The Verge, Reuters, Pocket-lint, SlashGear, TechEye, I4U News, Variety and VentureBeat. See also Mediagazer

Sarah Sloat / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon Workers in Germany Strike — Services Union Ver.di Says 1,000 Workers Participate — Nearly a thousand Amazon.com Inc. employees on Monday participated in strikes at two of the e-commerce giant's German sites and services union Ver.di threatened further action as the year's busiest shopping season begins.

More: DW.DE, Business Insider, Lastest ITProPortal news and Guardian

Tweets: @laurastevenswsj and @teamcoworker

Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:

Android KitKat begins rolling out to Google Play editions of Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One — Google has announced that from today onwards, the Google Play editions of Samsung's Galaxy S4 and the HTC One are getting updated to Android 4.4, as noted by Android Police.

Jon Fingas / Engadget:

U-Verse dropping Xbox 360 receiver support after December 31st — We hope you weren't bent on using the Xbox 360 as a U-Verse TV receiver. AT&T is now telling customers that it will drop IPTV support for Microsoft's older console after December 31st, leaving viewers with little choice but to use a conventional set-top box.

More: DSLreports, TelecompetitorTelecompetitor and TweakTown

Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:

Apple patents Lytro-like refocusable camera suitable for iPhone — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday awarded Apple a patent for a camera system that uses a microlens adaptor to enable refocusing of an image after the initial shot is taken, much like the Lytro light-field camera.

More: Gigaom, MacRumors, Gizmodo, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, iLounge, pocketnow.com, iPhone in Canada Blog and MacNN

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:

After Last Month's Security Breach, Social Media Scheduling Service Buffer Adds 2-Step Login — Buffer, the social media scheduling service, experienced a potentially brand-damaging security breach last month that saw a slew of weight-loss spam posted to Twitter and Facebook on behalf of its users.

More: The Next Web, The Buffer blog, VentureBeat, ZDNet, PandoDaily, Softpedia News and Lifehacker

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Twitter Streamlines Its ‘Age Gate’ Process To Make Ads More Attractive To Adult Brands — Twitter introduced ‘age gate’ screening over a year ago in order to make the platform more legally sound for ‘adult’ brands like liquor and beer vendors. Today, it's streamlined the process …

More: Twitter, ABC News, The Verge, VentureBeat, The Next Web, Mashable, Digital Trends, SocialTimes, AdExchanger, The Register, WebProNews, AllTwitter and CNET. See also Mediagazer

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