Techmeme
December 18, 2013, 6:00 AM

Top News

Guardian:
Tech firms push back against White House efforts to divert NSA meeting  —  Dominic Rushe in New York and Paul Lewis in Washington  —  The top leaders from the world's biggest technology companies pressed their case for reform of the National Security Agency's controversial surveillance operations …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
LG announces Chromebase, a Chrome OS all-in-one computer  —  Google's Chrome OS is typically found in inexpensive Chromebook laptops, and occasionally a Chromebox desktop as well.  At next month's Consumer Electronics Show, however, LG will put it into a desktop computer monitor.
Lucy Battersby / Sydney Morning Herald:
Apple forced to adopt new refund policy under Australian consumer law  —  Apple has been lying to consumers about its obligation to replace or repair faulty computers, iPhones, iPads and iPods, but has now promised to retrain staff and reassess claims stretching back two years following action by the competition watchdog.
Serenity Caldwell / Macworld:
Apple adds gifting options to the iBookstore  —  If it's digital books your family and friends love to read, Apple has a gift for them and for you.  After long being the company's sole online store without gifting options, the iBookstore now allows you to send ebooks to your friends and family.
Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Apple Requiring All App Submissions To Be Optimized For iOS 7 By Feb 1st  —  Apple is requiring developers to optimize all app submissions for iOS 7 by February 1st, 2014, according to a new posting on its developer portal.  That includes new apps and updates to existing apps.
Amit Singhal / The Official Google Blog:
2013 in Search: Heroes, tragedies and the Harlem Shake  —  Every day, around the world, we search.  We want to find out more about our heroes, explore far-away destinations, or settle a dinner table dispute between friends.  And sometimes we just search to find out how many calories are in an avocado.
Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:
TiVo co-founders about to release new TV streaming box called QPlay  —  TiVo co-founders Michael Ramsay and Jim Barton are about to release a new TV companion device that aims to combine video discovery and curation with smart TV functionality.  Dave Zatz recently spotted an FCC filing …
Jamie Hinks / ITProPortal:
Universal laptop charger standard coming in 2014  —  A new universal laptop charger standard that promises to cut down on e-waste has been published in the hope that it firms will choose to adopt it.  —  The International Electrotechnical Commission [IEC] Technical Specification 62700 …
Dara Kerr / CNET:
Meg Whitman's salary bumped from a buck to $1.5 million  —  Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman appears to be getting a big reward for working to make the company more efficient.  —  The company's board has decided to up her salary from a mere $1 to $1.5 million, according to a HP filing …
Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:
Continuing Its Public Content Push, Facebook Acquires SportStream  —  Twitter may still be synonymous with real-time, in-the-moment discussion.  But that's hardly stopping Facebook from moving in on the territory.  —  Natch, Facebook announced on Tuesday it had acquired SportStream …
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
The Case for a Compulsory Bug Bounty  —  Security experts have long opined that one way to make software more secure is to hold software makers liable for vulnerabilities in their products.  This idea is often dismissed as unrealistic and one that would stifle innovation in an industry …
Kim-Mai Cutler / TechCrunch:
Klarna Acquires Germany's Sofort For $150M To Build A Formidable European Payment Network  —  Klarna, the Stockholm-based payments company that has raised a whopping $250 million from top-tier investors like Sequoia Capital, is making an acquisition of its own.
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Sailthru Raises $20M Round To Personalize Email Marketing And More  —  Marketing personalization startup Sailthru is announcing that it has raised $20 million in Series C funding.  —  Less than a year has passed since the company raised its $19 million Series B, and founder and CEO Neil Capel …
More: AdExchanger, Forbes and AllThingsDTweets: @bgurley
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Microsoft Director Says CEO Choice Will Not Be Made Until Early 2014  —  Microsoft director John Thompson, who leads CEO search  —  John Thompson, the Microsoft director who is leading the search for a CEO to replace outgoing leader Steve Ballmer, said today in a blog post that the board will not make its choice until early next year.
Derrick Harris / Gigaom:
Amazon's streaming data service, Kinesis, is now available  —  Kinesis, the streaming data service that Amazon Web Services announced in November, is now publicly available.  The service is comparable in theory to popular open source technologies such as Apache Storm, only Kinesis brings …

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More News

Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Kevin C. Tofel / Gigaom:

Earlier Picks

Seung Min Kim / Politico:
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge: