Techmeme: NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show (Washington Post)

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December 4, 2013, 11:50 PM

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Rana Foroohar / TIME:

TIME Exclusive: Icahn Files Apple Shareholder Proposal — The richest man on Wall Street is opening a new front in his quest to persuade Apple to part with more of its massive cash stockpile. — Veteran investor Carl Icahn is opening a new front in his quest to persuade Apple to part with more of its massive cash stockpile.

More: The Verge, Tech Trader Daily, Forbes, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, MacRumors, Cult of Mac, iPhone Hacks, Business Insider, iDownloadBlog.com, The Register, CNET, TUAW, AllThingsD and Electronista

Tweets: @carl_c_icahn, @davidfaber, @danprimack, @time and @qthrul

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Carl Icahn Files $50B Apple Share Buyback Proposal

More: Forbes

Nitasha Tiku / Valleywag:

Leaked: Uber's Internal Revenue and Ride Request Numbers — Valleywag has obtained detailed internal financial information indicating that Uber, the e-hailing app that has spawned a hundreds of half-baked pitches, is making a lot more money than its investors had anticipated.

More: Digits, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, Business Insider, IntoMobile and bizjournals

Tweets: @mikemadden, @stammy, @pkafka, @danprimack, @benpopper, @nickconfessore and @conorsen

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Leaked Uber Numbers, Which We've Confirmed, Point To Over $1B Gross, $213M Revenue — Today, Valleywag got its hands on leaked screenshots of Uber's dashboard, along with a series of numbers from two weeks ago that show raw revenue, signups, active clients and ride request/completion ratios.

More: StartupBook. Tweets: @fmanjoo and @moiraforbes

Wall Street Journal:

China Mobile signs deal with Apple, bringing iPhone option to 700 million+ subscribers later this month — Apple, China Mobile Sign Deal to Offer iPhone — Tie-Up Would Give Apple Access to 700 Million Subscribers … China Mobile Ltd. has signed a long-awaited deal with Apple Inc …

More: 9to5Mac, CNET, TechCrunch, The Verge, MacRumors, The Next Web, Fortune, Engadget, everythingiCafe, Tech Trader Daily, iDownloadBlog.com, Pocket-lint, SlashGear, Mashable, PhoneArena, Cult of Mac, App Advice and iClarified

Tweets: @hblodget, @ampressman and @yunheekim22

Thanks:@mrinaldesai

Sam Byford / The Verge:

Next USB plug will finally be reversible — Work has begun on a new generation of USB that will break compatibility with existing connectors in order to improve ease of use and allow for thinner devices. The new connector, called Type-C, is an addition to the existing USB 3.1 specification …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon's New Cloud Desktop Service, Amazon WorkSpaces, Arrives On iPad — Amazon WorkSpaces, the company's recently announced virtual desktops service and competitor with VMware, has now arrived on the iOS platform, or more specifically, on iPad. The new app will allow those who have access …

More: GeekWire, CITEworld and PadGadget

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Plex for Chromecast: new clues hint at imminent launch — One of the most-requested features for Google's Chromecast streaming stick has been support for local file playback, and it looks like Chromecast users won't have to wait much longer: Media center app Plex could get support for Chromecast very soon …

More: MacStories, iPhone Hacks, iClarified, Phandroid and 9to5Google

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

iBeacons Used To Deliver Location-Based Access To iOS Newsstand Publications — iBeacon, Apple's hyperlocal trigger tech in iOS 7, is an innovation that holds a lot of promise, and that will probably continue to make waves in the retail industry for a long time to come.

More: Exact Editions, AppleInsider, everythingiCafe, dailywireless.org, TUAW and iPhone Hacks

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Google Search for Android gets app listings, surfacing results from inside apps on your device and Google Play — Google today announced a big update to Google Search for Android that will make it a lot easier to find information. In short, the company has added app listings …

More: Inside Search, ZDNet, BetaNews, Android Central, Android Community, Engadget, Android Beat, Search Engine Land, SlashGear, Android and Me, 9to5Google, pocketnow.com, Phandroid and Droid Life

Tweets: @mdudas and @ourielohayon

Washington Post:

NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show — The National Security Agency is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world, according to top-secret documents and interviews with U.S. intelligence officials …

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Twitter Is About To Officially Launch Retargeted Ads — Twitter is ready to roll out retargeted ads fueled by browser cookies, sources confirm. Twitter could make the announcement as soon as tomorrow, expanding retargeted ads beyond the “experimental” phase that started in July.

Tweets: @novaspivack and @cjc

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

FCC chair: ISPs should be able to charge Netflix for Internet fast lane — Newly anointed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said this week that it would be OK for Internet service providers to charge Netflix and other companies for a faster lane to consumers.

More: DSLreports, GamePolitics blogs, Seeking Alpha, Motherboard and Center for Democracy …. See also Mediagazer

Zach Walton / WebProNews:

Google May Have Lost NORAD, But It's Still Tracking Santa This Year — After years of collaboration with Google, NORAD decided to partner with Microsoft instead last year to release its Santa Tracker app exclusively on Windows 8. That's not going to change this year, but Google will be releasing …

More: Google LatLong, ABC News, 9to5Google, VentureBeat, Gotta Be Mobile, Search Engine Watch and Engadget

Kwame Opam / The Verge:

Verizon wins approval for $130 billion takeover of Vodafone's share of its wireless network — Months after Verizon confirmed its $130 billion buyout of Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless, the FCC has given its approval. With the commission's blessing, Verizon will have complete control …

More: PR Newswire, The Register, CNET, Droid Life, PhoneDog.com, Electronista, AndroidHeadlines.com, ITworld.com, SlashGear, MobileBurn.com and PhoneArena

Kevin Poulsen / Wired:

This Is the MIT Surveillance Video That Undid Aaron Swartz — The door to the network closet pops open and a slender figure enters, a bicycle helmet hanging from one arm. He sheds his backpack and pulls out a cardboard box containing a small hard drive, then kneels out of frame.

More: Errata Security and Softpedia News

AllThingsD:

Rhode Island School of Design President John Maeda Departs for Roles at Kleiner Perkins and eBay — John Maeda, the former MIT professor who is a director on the boards of Sonos and Quirky, is leaving his job as president at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design to take a role at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

More: Gigaom. Tweets: @ebayinc, @kpcb, @johnmaeda and @tednesi

James Temple / San Francisco Chronicle:

Tech's space appetite eclipses highs of dot-com boom — Technology companies have leased 40 percent more San Francisco office space since the start of 2010 than during the five-year dot-com boom. — That's just one eye-catching statistic in a comprehensive new report analyzing …

More: 9to5Mac. Tweets: @timishungry, @richard_florida, @fisherucb, @owashb, @aarieff, @jtemple and @nytimesbits. Thanks:@techchronicle

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Beats Music Streaming Service Launches January 2014, Fires Up Username Reservations — The new Beats Music streaming music service will launch January 2014, according to CEO Ian Rogers. The service also launched a ‘name claiming’ site today that lets you snag a primo username early.

More: FISTFULAYEN, AllThingsD, The Verge, Android Community, Electronista, iPhone Hacks, New York Times, WebProNews, Droid Life and Engadget

Tweets: @rob_sheridan, @caseynewton, @chartier and @trent_reznor

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