Techmeme
December 9, 2013, 4:00 PM

Top News

Reform Government Surveillance:
Global Government Surveillance Reform  —  The undersigned companies believe that it is time for the world's governments to address the practices and laws regulating government surveillance of individuals and access to their information.  While the undersigned companies understand …
New York Times:
Tech Giants Issue Call for Limits on Government Surveillance of Users  —  Eight prominent technology companies, bruised by revelations of government spying on their customers' data and scrambling to repair the damage to their reputations, are mounting a public campaign to urge President Obama …
James Ball / Guardian:
Revealed: spy agencies' covert push to infiltrate virtual world of online games  —  NSA and GCHQ collect gamers' chats and deploy real-life agents into World of Warcraft and Second Life  —  Read the NSA document Exploiting Terrorist Use of Games & Virtual Environments
Lorraine Luk / Digits:
China Mobile to Accept iPhone Orders This Week  —  China Mobile Ltd. plans to take preorders for Apple Inc.'s iPhones from Thursday in Shanghai, according to an advertisement on its website, as the world's largest mobile carrier by subscribers moves closer to launching high-speed fourth-generation mobile services in the country.
Dan Primack / Fortune:
Stealth payment startup Clinkle lays off 25% of staff  —  Layoffs at stealth payment startup Clinkle  —  Clinkle still wants to kill Square.  But first it needs to get its own house in order.  —  FORTUNE — Clinkle, a stealthy mobile payment startup that recently raised …
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Snapchat Files For A Restraining Order, Accuses Ousted Founder Of Leaking Confidential Court Docs  —  Snapchat has filed for a temporary restraining order against Reggie Brown, the man who claims to have invented the idea for disappearing messages.  According to court documents filed today …
Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
Marissa Mayer's Next Big Acquisition Could Be Imgur, The Photo-Sharing Site Reddit Loves  —  This fall, Yahoo began serious talks to buy photo-sharing site Imgur, a source with first-hand knowledge of those discussions tells us.  —  Since she joined Yahoo in July 2012, CEO Marissa Mayer has acquired dozens of startups.
More: Valleywag and Softpedia News.  Tweets: @nitashatiku.  Thanks:@stevekovach
Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:
Confirmed: Flipboard Raises Another $50 Million To Close Out Its Series C Round  —  Flipboard has confirmed that it raised an additional $50 million, which will close out the Series C round of financing that it brought on in September.  In addition to the new funding, Flipboard is also announcing …
More: AllThingsD and Forbes
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Google Launches Google+ Social Ads on Other Sites  —  Advertisers can plug anything they want on Facebook and Twitter for free.  And if they pay up, they can take those posts and transform them into “native” ads, so more people can see them.  —  Now Google is trying the same thing with its Google+ social network.
Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:
“Hour of Code” Calls on Students to Program Computers, With Support From Obama (and the Republicans, Too!)  —  By now you may have heard about the United States' woeful lack of public coding classes, despite the economy's ever-growing need for technical workers.
Enricko Lukman / Tech in Asia:
Lazada raises $250 million, totalling $486 million so far  —  Rocket Internet's e-commerce ventures are on a roll.  After just recently announcing $112 million in funding for fashion e-commerce sites Zalora and The Iconic last week, today its sister site Lazada also announces …
More: TechCrunch and Bloomberg.  Thanks:@williswee
Matthew Humphries / Geek.com:
Samsung squeezes 1TB into an mSATA SSD for Ultrabooks  —  If you own an Ultrabook or laptop that contains an SSD, chances are it uses the mSATA rather than SATA interface. mSATA drives are typically a quarter the size of a standard 2.5-inch SSD, which allows for much thinner devices.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Twitter Is Taking A “Log-Out” Approach To Raise Usage, Awareness In Emerging Markets With USSD On Mobiles  —  Twitter is working hard to build up its profile and usage among people in developing markets, and today another piece of that strategy has come into focus.

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Featured Podcasts

Channels with Peter Kafka:
David Ellison's Paramount-Warner Empire & The Fight That Comes Next
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Sources:
Factory CEO on why AGI is already here
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Invest Like the Best:
Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
The grief, loneliness, and burnout sweeping through the tech industry right now | Molly Graham
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
Meta's Muse Revival, Frontier AI Under Threat, The Rise Of Dopamine Sites
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Great Chat:
Doomers at Dreamforce
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
 

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Earlier Picks

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post: