Techmeme: Suspend U.S. cloud data deal, European Parliament's civil liberties committee says (David Meyer/Gigaom)

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December 18, 2013, 11:40 AM

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Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Apple's New Mac Pro Goes On Sale Thursday Online And In Retail Starting At $2,999 — Apple has just announced that its new Mac Pro computer, featuring that signature ‘Darth Vader’ design, will be available for sale starting tomorrow, Thursday Dec. 19 beginning at $2,999.

Alex Hern / Guardian:

Bitcoin plummets as China's largest exchange blocks new deposits — The digital cryptocurrency has lost almost 50% of its value overnight after BTC China said it could no longer accept deposits in the Chinese currency following a crackdown on third-party payment firms

More: New York Times, eWeek, VentureBeat, Daily Mail, BBC, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, CoinDesk, The Switch, The Next Web, Tech in Asia, Mashable, SlashGear and Business Insider. Tweets: @doublejake

Thad Starner / Wired:

Wearables Pioneer: How Wearing Tech on Our Bodies Actually Helps It Get Out of Our Way — One of the rallying cries for Google Glass is to make technology that's there when you need it, gone when you don't. It is intended to help people get on with their lives, without focusing on the technology.

More: Gigaom

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.

More: ACCC, iLounge, ZDNet, iClarified, Engadget, iMore, Digits, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, Any Any, AppleInsider, Business Insider, Gizmodo Australia, Guardian, SlashGear, NEWS.com.au and The Register

Tweets: @rowenaboggle and @lyndsayfarlow

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.

More: LG Newsroom, VentureBeat, Inquirer, Ars Technica, Digital Trends, BetaNews, Android Beat, Android Community, SlashGear, CNET, ZDNet, The Next Web, Ubergizmo, Electronista and 9to5Google. Tweets: @tomwarren

David Meyer / Gigaom:

Suspend U.S. cloud data deal, European Parliament's civil liberties committee says — Europe should suspend the Safe Harbor agreement with the U.S. that allows American cloud firms to handle the data of EU citizens, the European Parliament's civil liberties committee has said in a set of draft recommendations.

More: European Parliament News. Tweets: @fpietrosanti

Eric Johnson / AllThingsD:

Distimo Stat Show 2013 Was a Huge Year for Android Gaming — For years, Apple has been the presumptive leader in mobile gaming, and it's still in pole position. But if global trends in 2013 were any indication, its nearest rival, Google Play, is putting the heat on.

More: Distimo, VentureBeat, Inside Mobile Apps, Mobile Marketing Watch, 9to5Google, www.pocketgamer.biz, MacDailyNews, Marketing Land, Electronista and Financial Times

Walter S. Mossberg / Wall Street Journal:

Top Products in Two Decades of Tech Reviews — Walt Mossberg on the products that changed the digital industry — Remember the Apple Newton? How about Netscape? Even if these products did not last until the present, they left their mark in the evolution of personal technology.

More: Business Insider, Digits, iPhone, MacDailyNews, The Verge and Cult of Mac

Tweets: @digiphile, @nycjim, @waltmossberg, @robpegoraro and @fmanjoo

Andy / TorrentFreak:

Torrent Site Uploader Ordered to Pay $652,000 For Sharing One Movie — In 2011, popular private BitTorrent tracker Swebits announced it would close down, just a week after one of its users was arrested. — The then 25-year-old was a moderator and uploader and between April 2008 …

More: BBC, Inquirer, Guardian, Softpedia News and BGR

Tweets: @xor and @brokep

Bloomberg:

Yahoo's Mayer Said to Warn of Internet Balkanization Over Spying — Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer warned President Barack Obama the backlash over U.S. spying threatens to Balkanize the Internet, as countries adopt different standards to thwart surveillance, according to an industry official.

More: CNN, TheHill, New York Times and Techdirt

Tweets: @b_fung and @jeffjarvis

Guardian:

Tech firms push back against White House efforts to divert NSA meeting

More: Washington Post, USA Today, Politico, TheHill, Reuters, The Verge, The Mac Observer, Business Cloud News, Bloomberg, Electronista, Wall Street Journal, SlashGear, Inc.com, 9to5Mac, iPhone Hacks, PC Magazine and iDownloadBlog.com. Tweets: @qthrul

Matt Burns / TechCrunch:

BBM To Come Preinstalled On LG Smartphones — BlackBerry is keeping the hope alive with a partnership with LG. Announced today, the LG G Pro Lite will ship with BBM already installed on the smartphone. — This comes two months after BBM's Android and iOS launch.

More: BlackBerry, The Next Web, 9to5Google, Softpedia News, PhoneArena, Android Community and MobileSyrup.com. Thanks:@chrisvelazco

Brad Molen / Engadget:

Opera Max beta compresses most of the data going through your Android device — Opera's mobile browsers are quite popular because of their ability to compress data, but it's unfortunately been limited to just that — the browser itself. This becomes less and less useful as smartphones continue to evolve …

More: Opera Blogs, TechHive, Android Beat, Ubergizmo, gHacks Technology News, Android Community and Web Browser

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.

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 …

More: Inquirer, Computerworld, Bloomberg, TechEye, The Register and Reuters

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.

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 …

More: BetaNews. Tweets: @martijn_grooten, @thebtbgroup and @threatpost

Glyn Moody / Techdirt:

Copyright Strikes Again: No Online Access To UK Internet Archive — Last week we wrote about how Norway had come up with a way to provide online access to all books in Norwegian, including the most recent ones, available to anyone in the country. Here, by contrast, is how not to do it, courtesy of publishers in the UK:

More: Annoyed Librarian. Tweets: @miketaylor

Ben Mutzabaugh / USA Today:

Delta CEO makes it clear: No voice calls on our flights — Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson wants to be clear: His airline will not allow in-flight voice calls even if regulators allow it. — Anderson spelled out Delta's opposition to in-flight calls in a Wednesday memo to employees.

More: Delta Air Lines Newsroom, Engadget, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, BBC, Gizmodo and Android Central

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 …

More: Digital Trends and Digital Media Wire

Matt Hartley / Financial Post:

BlackBerry Ltd hires former SAP mobile boss John Sims to lead global enterprise business — Interim BlackBerry Ltd. chief executive John Chen has found the man he wants to lead the struggling company's enterprise services business, the division which sits at the core of the Waterloo, Ont.-based company's turnaround hopes.

More: Reuters, BGR, Business Insider, GlobalPost, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal and Financial Post

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 …

More: IEC, Computerworld, Engadget, Mashable, Crave and V3.co.uk

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.

More: AllThingsD, Financial Times, ZDNet and New York Times

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