Techmeme: Researchers create a more accurate alternative to Wi-Fi for tracking people through walls (Signe Brewster/Gigaom)

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December 13, 2013, 5:40 AM

Top News

Michael Sippey / Twitter Blog:

Reverting the changes to block functionality — Earlier today, we made a change to the way the “block” function of Twitter works. We have decided to revert the change after receiving feedback from many users - we never want to introduce features at the cost of users feeling less safe.

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Twitter Reverts Changes To Blocking Functionality After Strong Negative User Feedback — Update: Twitter has reverted the changes to blocking functionality that it made earlier today. After the changes, an outpouring of negative user feedback appeared on Twitter, blogs and other services.

More: hypatia dot ca, CNET, InvestorPlace, Ars Technica, The Wire, ReadWrite, Medium, Los Angeles Times, CNET, Business Insider and iMore

Tweets: @anildash and @glennf

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 …

Andrea Peterson / The Switch:

No, Gmail's tweak won't stop e-mail marketers from knowing if you open their e-mail — Google announced a change to the way that Gmail handles images Thursday. Traditionally, when an e-mail contains an image, e-mail software would fetch the image from a server operated by the mail sender.

More: Wired, MailChimp Email Marketing Blog, Ars Technica, Zettasphere and Marketing Land

Tweets: @randfish and @r

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: Fortune, TechCrunch, Computerworld, Forbes, NBCNews, Gigaom, Examiner, everwas, PadGadget, AllFacebook, Digits, PandoDaily, IntoMobile, POPSUGAR, The Technology Chronicles, SlashGear, Droid Life and SocialTimes

Tweets: @peterrojas, @aripap, @emilysteel, @pkafka, @jwherrman and @mikeisaac

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

With Private Messaging, Instagram and Twitter Continue Their Arms Race

More: Slate, stratechery, Forbes and PandoDaily

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

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

More: The Verge. Tweets: @mikeisaac

Bloomberg:

Google Said to Mull Designing Chips in Threat to Intel — Google Inc. (GOOG) is considering designing its own server processors using technology from ARM Holdings Plc (ARM), a move that could threaten Intel Corp. (INTC)'s market dominance, said a person with knowledge of the matter.

More: Gizmodo, The Verge, 9to5Google, CNET, SlashGear, Gigaom, Ars Technica and Tech Trader Daily. Tweets: @howardlindzon

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Oculus VR raises $75M from web browser inventor Marc Andreessen's VC firm to launch virtual reality goggles — Virtual reality goggle maker has raised a massive round of $75 million from Netscape founder Marc Andreessen's Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm to create a consumer version of its product.

More: The Verge, TechCrunch, Geeky Gadgets, Engadget, Polygon, Business Insider, VG247, Ars Technica and bit-tech.net

Tweets: @jussil, @francoislaberge and @capnsmak

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: PhoneArena, The Register, Engadget and SlashGear. Tweets: @emilydreyfuss

Kevin Robillard / Politico:

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

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

Alistair Barr / USA Today:

Amazon said to launch Pantry to take on Costco, Sam's — Pantry is set to launch in 2014 and will let Amazon Prime members buy consumer packages goods that will be shipping in a set sized box with a maximum weight limit, sources say. — SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon.com is working …

More: CNET, The Verge, GeekWire and Seeking Alpha. Tweets: @tristanwalker

Vanessa Mock / Wall Street Journal:

Google's Hopes of EU Settlement Suffer Blow — BRUSSELS— Google Inc. 's hopes of settling its high-profile antitrust case in the European Union suffered a setback as rivals and consumer groups blasted its latest proposal for resolving the EU's competition concerns.

More: BGR, FairSearch.org, FairSearch.org, WebProNews and Times LIVE. Tweets: @dannysullivan

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: Reuters, Engadget, Pocket-lint, GeekWire, Business Insider, TechnoBuffalo and Tech Trader Daily. Tweets: @jyarow

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft schedules BUILD 2014 developer conference for April 2nd — Microsoft is returning to San Francisco next year to host its BUILD developer conference. The software giant briefly revealed the dates for BUILD 2014 today, before pulling them from its news site.

More: TechCrunch, ZDNet, eWeek and Softpedia News. Tweets: @tomwarren

Deborah Gage / Digits:

Dell's Venture Arm Expands Investments With $300 Million Fund — Dell Ventures is launching a new $300 million venture fund that will broaden its investments beyond storage into several other types of startups, including cloud computing, big data, security, mobility and next-generation data center companies …

More: PE Hub Blog, PC World, VentureBeat and Direct2Dell

Electronista:

Dell reveals new partnerships with Dropbox, Microsoft, Google, Red Hat

More: Eucalyptus News, Dropbox for Business Blog, Dell, AllThingsD, eWeek, TechCrunch and Computerworld

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

CrunchBase Reaches Agreement With People+, Announces New Terms Of Service — Following a legal dispute with Pro Populi, the company behind startup database People+, CrunchBase is announcing new terms of service. CrunchBase data will now be available through a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 license.

More: Electronic Frontier Foundation, TechnoLlama and Wired

Tweets: @pbergerii, @peopleplus and @peopleplus

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Chromecast can now stream videos and music from Google Play's website — Google has been adding more and more ways to play content on a Chromecast, and today it's giving the media streamer a new trick: the ability to stream Google Play music and videos straight from the web.

More: Google Play, Geeky Gadgets, Android Central, Gigaom and The Next Web

Leo Kelion / BBC:

Bots now ‘account for 61% of web traffic’ — The study suggests humans only account for 38.5% of internet traffic — If you are visiting this page the chances are that you are not a human, at least according to research. — A study by Incapsula suggests 61.5% of all website traffic is now generated by bots.

More: Lastest ITProPortal news, TechCrunch, Nextgov, VentureBeat and CNET

Tweets: @gollmann and @wadhwa

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

Signe Brewster / Gigaom:

Researchers create a more accurate alternative to Wi-Fi for tracking people through walls — Back in June, MIT researchers revealed they had figured out how to use Wi-Fi to track moving objects through walls. Today, the same team announced they have refined their system to be even more precise by switching to radio signals.

More: Engadget, MIT, BGR, SlashGear and Technabob

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, SlashGear, The Verge, CNET, TechnoBuffalo, WebProNews, Engadget and TechCrunch

Siobhan Gorman / Wall Street Journal:

Presidential Task Force Recommends Overhaul of Surveillance Tactics of NSA — Draft Proposals Would Change Spy Agency's Leadership to Civilian, Limit How It Gathers and Holds Information — WASHINGTON—A presidential task force has drafted recommendations that constitute a sweeping overhaul …

More: CNET. Tweets: @kevinbankston

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