Techmeme: US senators Ron Wyden, Mark Udall, and Martin Heinrich: End the NSA dragnet, now (New York Times)

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November 26, 2013, 9:45 PM

Top News

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: The Register, CNET, BGR, TechnoBuffalo, Examiner, SlashGear, Geek.com, Gotta Be Mobile, Gamasutra, GamesIndustry International, destructoid and Softpedia News. Tweets: @capnsmak

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Improved App Store Search Engine Now Corrects For Users' “Fat Finger” Mistakes & Other Misspellings — A recent change to Apple's App Store search engine now leads to improved search results for misspelled queries with small typos, we've learned. In addition, searchers looking for an app they know by name …

More: Gigaom, Cult of Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, App Advice, AppleInsider, iDownloadBlog.com, SlashGear, 9to5Mac, Search Engine Land, Ubergizmo, MacRumors, TUAW, iClarified and MacNN. Tweets: @tapbot_paul

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.

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

Jessica Lessin:

With PrimeSense, Apple Got Key Mapping Technology — There's a lot of speculation about why Apple bought motion-sensor company PrimeSense. But I think the real reason has been overlooked. — PrimeSense's chips were in early versions of Microsoft's Kinect sensor, the gaming console …

More: NYT Bits, iDownloadBlog.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, SlashGear, iPhone Hacks and MacRumors. Tweets: @panzer

Shira Ovide / Digits:

Microsoft Hires ‘Pawn Stars’ to Bash Google Chromebooks — Microsoft has enlisted the reality-television series “Pawn Stars” in its ongoing campaign to bash rival Google. — An online video ad released Tuesday mimics the plot set up of “Pawn Stars,” which features people toting precious …

More: Digits, BetaNews, NEWS.com.au, GeekWire, Electronista, Marketing Land, PC Magazine, VentureBeat, Betabeat, Network World, CITEworld, WinBeta, 9to5Google, Gotta Be Mobile, WebProNews, The Verge, The Next Web and The Tech Report

Tweets: @codepo8, @mmasnick, @sjvn, @segphault and @zpower

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Google:

Google releases “OK Google” Chrome extension for hands-free voice search on the desktop — Google announced today on Google+ that it's releasing a new extension for Chrome that will enable hands-free activation of the voice search features it rolled out earlier this year.

More: Google, Computerworld, TechCrunch, GeekWire, Google Operating System, Search Engine Land, Gizmodo, The Next Web and Pocket-lint

Jamie Rigg / Engadget:

Moto G review: an affordable smartphone, done right — Since Motorola was acquired by a certain tech giant last year, its new owner hasn't had a particularly strong impact on the way it does business. Not too long ago, in fact, Motorola dealt another brag-hand of Droids …

More: AllThingsD, Business Insider, TechCrunch, The Pocket Gamer Podcast and The Droid Guy. Tweets: @m4tt

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

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

90% of iPhone 5s models now in stock at Apple retail stores — Supply of Apple's new flagship handset, the iPhone 5s, has nearly caught up with demand, as a new survey of the company's retail stores finds that 90 percent of models are available. — Availability of the iPhone 5s is even greater …

More: CNET, The Next Web, Forbes, iDownloadBlog.com, iClarified, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, Yahoo! News, App Advice and Electronista

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:

Apple Store a Big Source of Cellphone Sales; Best Buy Is Key for Carriers

More: BGR, InvestorPlace and Gotta Be Mobile

New York Times:

US senators Ron Wyden, Mark Udall, and Martin Heinrich: End the NSA dragnet, now — End the N.S.A. Dragnet, Now — WASHINGTON — THE framers of the Constitution declared that government officials had no power to seize the records of individual Americans without evidence of wrongdoing …

Tweets: @markudall

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

HP's Q4 Earnings Beat Street and Shares Rise — Computing giant Hewlett-Packard just reported its fourth-quarter results, and they're slightly better than expected, with some bad news mixed in. — HP's profit fell by 13 percent from the same period last year, to $1.01 a share.

More: Barnes & Noble, Inc., The Register, VentureBeat, Computerworld, Gigaom, Mercury News, The Verge, Digits, Tech Trader Daily, Business Insider and Electronista

Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:

Google brings Street View inside more than 65 airports and train stations, calls it a ‘first effort’ — Foreign airports and train stations can often be confusing places to find your way around. Perhaps with that in mind, Google today launched an interactive map featuring Street Views of over 65 mass transit hubs.

More: CNET, Engadget, Search Engine Land, TechHive, PC Magazine, GeekWire, VentureBeat, Daily Dot, WebProNews and The Next Web

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Twitter Continues Tweet Recommendation Experiments With Fav Happy @Magicstats — Twitter continues to pull the string on personalization and recommendation with a new account called @magicstats. The account, whose description reads ‘I favorite the best tweets I see in real-time’ appears to be doing just that.

More: The Next Web

Graham Cluley:

YouTube comment spam on the rise. Google tries to fight back — Long term users of YouTube will know that its commenting system has always been home to some of the most unpleasant, purile and single-braincelled comments in the universe. — But what it didn't have much of a problem with was link spam.

More: TechCrunch, YouTube Creator Blog, CNET, Digital Trends, ITworld.com, 9to5Google, ReelSEO Video Marketing, Ubergizmo and Guardian

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Barnes & Noble's Nook business falls more than 32% — Barnes & Noble's Nook business continues to struggle in its competition with Amazon, with revenues in the segment declining more than 32 percent in the company's most recent quarter, according to numbers released this morning.

More: VentureBeat, AllThingsD, Barnes & Noble, Inc., Tech Trader Daily, New York Times, WebProNews, Reuters, ABC News, internetretailer.com, Fox Business, BGR, Mashable, ZDNet and CNET. See also Mediagazer

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

Touchscreen PCs expected to take 11 percent of 2013 notebook shipments — Apple has famously compared convertible Windows tablets to combining a toaster and a refrigerator, but competitors are still increasing their output of touchscreen notebooks in hopes of turning around slumping PC sales.

More: DisplaySearch, BGR, ZDNet and PC World

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Personal Finance Startup BillGuard Adds Analytics And Smart Savings Features To Its iPhone App — Personal finance startup BillGuard is launching an update to its iPhone app that will not only help users defend against fraudulent charges on their credit cards, but could also lead them to be more proactive with their money.

More: App Advice, AllThingsD, PandoDaily, iClarified and The Next Web

Craig Timberg / Washington Post:

Microsoft, suspecting NSA spying, to ramp up efforts to encrypt its Internet traffic — Microsoft is moving toward a major new effort to encrypt its Internet traffic after concluding that the National Security Agency may have broken into its global communications systems, said people familiar with the emerging plans.

More: BGR

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Acer announces touchscreen Chromebook C720P with 32GB SSD and 2GB RAM, coming in early December for $299.99 — Acer today announced the Acer C720P Chromebook, a touchscreen version of the C720 Chromebook the company introduced last month. The new C720P will be available in early December at Amazon.com …

More: Engadget, Computerworld, Ars Technica, 9to5Google, SlashGear, The Verge, Gigaom and Electronista

Michael McWhertor / Polygon:

Xbox One owners with hardware issues get complimentary game — Xbox One owners who found themselves on the receiving end of a defective console are being offered a free game for the inconvenience, according to emails from Xbox support representatives. — According to an email …

More: The Verge, TechSpot, Geek.com, Kotaku, Gotta Be Mobile, BGR, gameinformer.com, HEXUS.net Latest Content, Inquirer, GamePolitics blogs, destructoid and Joystiq

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