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December 12, 2013, 6:15 PM

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Instagram Blog:

Introducing Instagram Direct — Today, we're excited to bring you Instagram Direct, a new way to send photo and video messages to friends. Over the past three years, the Instagram community has grown to over 150 million people capturing and sharing moments all around the globe.

More: Examiner, The Technology Chronicles, Fortune, Gigaom, Forbes, Computerworld, everwas, Ausdroid, TechCrunch, MacRumors, Digits, VentureBeat, SocialTimes, Marketing Pilgrim, PadGadget, BBC, PC Magazine, Consumerist, PandoDaily, Inside Facebook, POPSUGAR, AllFacebook, iPhone in Canada Blog, memeburn, LAPTOP Magazine, GeekWire, NBC Bay Area, Cult of Mac, SlashGear, Android Beat, Laughing Squid, PetaPixel, Redmond Pie, 9to5Google, Skift, Marketing Land, Gizmodo, SiliconBeat, The Droid Guy, IntoMobile, The Verge, Business Insider, Windows Phone Central, Tnooz, Lifehacker, Ignite Social Media, App Advice, Droid Life, TechSpot, WebProNews, Gotta Be Mobile, Android Central, ReadWrite, Softpedia News, MobileSyrup.com, TUAW, CBS Los Angeles and Phandroid

Tweets: @peterrojas, @jwherrman, @dannysullivan, @pkafka, @emilysteel, @aripap and @qthrul

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Instagram announces Instagram Direct for private photo, video, and text messaging — At an event in New York City today, Instagram announced a new messaging feature that lets users send text and photo messages to each other privately. “Communication is not about photography, necessarily,” said CEO Kevin Systrom.

More: Inside Mobile Apps, The Switch, Gigaom, NYT Bits, Ars Technica, NEWS.com.au, Engadget, Betabeat, TechHive, ABC News, Softpedia News, Gizmodo, iMore, The Register, Guardian, The Next Web, Newsy, Electronista and BGR

Tweets: @austincarr, @erinbury, @anildash, @danprimack, @zpower, @pkafka and @mikeisaac

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Instagram Says Half Of All Instagrammers — 75M+ — Use the App Daily

Tweets: @mikeisaac

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

With Private Messaging, Instagram and Twitter Continue Their Arms Race

More: TechCrunch, Slate, PandoDaily and stratechery

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

Gmail blows up e-mail marketing by caching all images on Google servers — Ever wonder why most e-mail clients hide images by default? The reason for the “display images” button is because images in an e-mail must be loaded from a third-party server. For promotional e-mails and spam …

More: Gmail Blog, BetaNews, iDownloadBlog.com and Consumerist

Tweets: @neerav, @rozzie, @oroup, @john_moyle_, @netik, @jedbickford and @hdmoore

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Gmail for desktop now automatically shows images in your messages, coming to Android and iOS 'in early 2014′

More: Computerworld, Marketing Land, PC Magazine, Zettasphere, PC World, 9to5Google and The Verge. Tweets: @leemunroe

Andrea Peterson / The Switch:

No, Gmail's tweak won't stop e-mail marketers from knowing if you open their e-mail

More: MailChimp Email Marketing Blog, Google Operating System and Wired

Jason Del Rey / AllThingsD:

Bitcoin's Biggest Bet: Andreessen Horowitz Leads $25 Million Investment in Coinbase — Coinbase co-founders Brian Armstrong (l) and Fred Ehrsam, sporting we-got-money grins. — If you're a bitcoin doubter, you might want to turn away. The doors to venture funding in bitcoin startups are about to swing wide open.

More: The Coinbase Blog, DealBook, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Newsy, Business Insider, PE Hub Blog, Payments News, Y Combinator Posthaven, TechSpot and The Switch. Tweets: @btcfoundation

Chris Dixon:

Coinbase — One of the interesting things about Bitcoin is the contrast between how it is portrayed in the press and how it is understood by technologists. The press tends to portray Bitcoin as either a speculative bubble or a scheme for supporting criminal activity.

More: The Register, Gigaom, PC Magazine, VentureBeat, On Bitcoin and Mashable

Tweets: @fromedome and @mathewi

Marguerite Reardon / CNET:

FCC votes 3-2 to lift technical ban on in-flight cellphone use — The Federal Communications Commission took the first step toward removing regulations that ban phone calls while in flight. But FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler emphasized that the Department of Transportation …

More: Engadget. Tweets: @emilydreyfuss

Kevin Robillard / Politico:

Anthony Foxx: DOT will consider banning cell phone calls on planes

More: Computerworld, Business Insider and Associated Press. Tweets: @breakingnews

Josh Lowensohn / The Verge:

Fleksy wants to become your new iOS keyboard, everywhere — Can a software keyboard startup succeed where others failed? — In 2007, early iPhone users had a problem. They wanted to take a snippet of text from one place to another, and their phones wouldn't let them do it.

More: TechCrunch, Engadget, AppleInsider, AppShopper.com, MacNN, MacStories, MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com, 9to5Mac, The Next Web, Geeky Gadgets, MobileBurn.com and iMore

Bloomberg:

Microsoft Said to Consider Qualcomm's Mollenkopf for CEO Job — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s board is considering Qualcomm Inc. Chief Operating Officer Steve Mollenkopf among candidates to replace Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, said people familiar with the matter.

More: The Verge, Engadget and Tech Trader Daily. Tweets: @jyarow

Aaron Taube / Business Insider:

Google Will Now Only Charge For Ads That People Can Actually See — Google took a major step toward pleasing its advertisers Thursday by announcing it will now sell display ads based on viewability, a metric that will allow marketers to pay only for ad slots users are likely to see.

More: Inside AdWords and The Next Web. Tweets: @jessicalessin

Ted Johnson / Variety:

Aereo to Broadcasters: Go Ahead, Take the Case to Supreme Court — Aereo on Thursday said that it would not oppose broadcasters' petition to the Supreme Court to review rulings in the startup streaming service's favor. — “We have decided to not oppose the broadcasters' petition for certiorari …

More: TechCrunch, The Verge, Hollywood Reporter, CNET and Deadline.com. See also Mediagazer

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Highlight Raises $4 Million From DFJ, Releases Version 2.0 Of Its Location-Based Social Networking App — Location-based social startup Highlight has just released a new version of its app, aimed at being smarter about the connections it shows, while also giving users more context about what those connections have been up to.

More: Valleywag, Wired, Gigaom and The Next Web. Tweets: @besvinick

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Yahoo Says Mail Functionality Is Returning, but Some Users Might Be Missing Up to Two Weeks of Email — Yahoo, which had been glacial in giving users information about problems with its high-profile Yahoo Mail product over the last several days, said last night that it had restored access …

More: help.yahoo.com, CNN, The Register, Mashable and Computerworld. Tweets: @alex

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

IFTTT Launches iOS Location Channel With Integrations For Foursquare, Twitter, Instagram And Facebook — Today, IFTTT announces the addition of an iOS Location channel to its ‘Internet glue’ service. The channel will allow users to specify an ‘area’ that will allow them to trigger actions …

More: Engadget, Gigaom, MobileSyrup.com, Wired, SlashGear, iDownloadBlog.com, The Verge and TUAW

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

YouTube expands live streaming to all channels, adds option to directly launch a Google+ Hangout On Air — YouTube today announced it is expanding its live streaming service to all YouTube channels. The Google-owned company now only has two requirements: your account must be verified and it has to be in good standing.

More: YouTube Creator Blog, TechCrunch and WebProNews

Alina Selyukh / Reuters:

Wireless carriers, FCC agree on ‘unlocking’ cellphones — (Reuters) - U.S. wireless carriers will make it easier for consumers to “unlock” their mobile phones for use on a competitor's network, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said on Thursday.

More: TechHive, The Verge, Electronista, Ars Technica, AllThingsD, MacRumors, iMore, The Switch, AppleInsider, Gigaom, Los Angeles Times, DSLreports, iPhone Hacks, FierceWireless, Bloomberg, The Mac Observer, Gigaom, Ubergizmo and The Verge

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

LifeLock Acquires Mobile Wallet Platform Lemon For $42.6 Million, Launches LifeLock Wallet — Lemon, a digital wallet platform which allows users to store their ID, payment, loyalty cards and more on their smartphone, has been acquired by identity theft protection service LifeLock …

More: The Next Web, CoinDesk, Street Fight and Gigaom

Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:

Twitter for Mac 3 released with photo previews, updated design, more — Shortly after launching its new Twitter update for iPhone earlier this week, Twitter for Mac 3 is out on the Mac App Store with a refreshed design and a set of new features. — Twitter for Mac now supports Twitter photo previews inline with the timeline.

More: The Twitter Blog, iMore, MacRumors, The Next Web, TechCrunch, iDownloadBlog.com, iClarified and MacNN

Jennifer Van Grove / CNET:

Kik rides teen interest to 100M users — The company behind the mobile messaging app Kik announced Thursday that it now has more than 100 million registered users, which is more than triple the number it had just one year ago. The app is signing on as many as 250,000 new people each day, CEO Ted Livingston told CNET.

More: The Next Web, TechCrunch, Light Reading, MobileSyrup.com, Gigaom, VentureBeat and Digits. Tweets: @cnet

Joseph Czikk / BetaKit:

Toronto's Bitstrips Raises $3 Million After Users Created Over 30 Million Avatars — The resounding message from an update (in comic strip form I might add) from Bitstrips is that once the Toronto-based startup released their mobile app, the growth they experienced was both unexpectedly big and even overwhelming.

More: TechCrunch, Globe and Mail, The Next Web, PE Hub Blog, Valleywag, iPhone in Canada Blog, Inside Mobile Apps, Business Insider and WebProNews. Thanks:@jdubilicious

Diane Bartz / Reuters:

Former Google executive to run U.S. patent office — (Reuters) - Former Google Inc executive Michelle Lee has been named deputy director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and will run the agency until a new director is named, the agency said on Wednesday.

More: The Register, 9to5Google, AllThingsD, TechSpot, AppleInsider, Wired, bizjournals and Mercury News. Tweets: @fedcourtjunkie

Richard Devine / iMore:

Google Maps for iOS will now show you your flight, hotel and restaurant reservations — Google has bumped Google Maps for iOS up to version 2.5.0 and with it brought some neat new additions for folks in selected locations. Maps will now pull information from your Gmail account and show you your flight …

More: Android Police, 9to5Mac, Lifehacker, TechCrunch, Gigaom, IntoMobile, Search Engine Land, Mashable, Engadget, Electronista, iPhone, Android Community, Gotta Be Mobile, Ubergizmo, BetaNews, Geeky Gadgets, PhoneArena and Softpedia News

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