Techmeme: In prep for an early 2014 launch, devs can access Pebble's smartwatch app store (Kevin C. Tofel/Gigaom)

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December 18, 2013, 1:35 PM

Top News

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.

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, iPhone in Canada Blog, Digits, iPhone, The Verge, MacDailyNews, Poynter and Cult of Mac

Tweets: @mikeisaac, @nycjim, @karaswisher, @digiphile, @robpegoraro, @fmanjoo and @cdixon

See also Mediagazer

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, Charlie's Diary, eWeek, TechCrunch, CryptoJunky, BBC, Computerworld, VentureBeat, CoinDesk, Daily Mail, Bloomberg, Daily Dot, The Switch, Tech in Asia, Mashable, The Next Web, SlashGear and Business Insider

Tweets: @taylorlorenz, @jwherrman and @doublejake

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: Businessweek, CNN, USA Today, TheHill, New York Times, Business Cloud News, Techdirt, PC Magazine and Inc.com

Tweets: @jeffjarvis and @b_fung

Justin Sink / The Hill:

NSA review panel to make 46 reform recommendations today, Obama to weigh in after holidays

More: Politico and Wall Street Journal. Tweets: @sinderbrand

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, VatorNews, ZDNet, Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, The Verge, BBC, Droid Life and Android Central

Kevin C. Tofel / Gigaom:

In prep for an early 2014 launch, devs can access Pebble's smartwatch app store — With nearly 200,000 Pebble smartwatches on wrists, it's about time for a dedicated app store. The “Pebble appstore” — that's the branded name — is planned for early 2014, and on Wednesday, Pebble opened up early access for developers to prepare.

More: TechCrunch, The Verge, Engadget, BGR, Pebble and TUAW

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

‘Hatching Twitter’ Book Optioned For TV Show Development By Lionsgate — New York Times' columnist Nick Bilton's book Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal, on the dramatic origins of Twitter, has been optioned by Lionsgate for production as a TV show.

More: Hollywood Reporter, The Verge, Gigaom, Engadget and AllThingsD. Tweets: @nickbilton. See also Mediagazer

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

Clare Jim / Reuters:

China Mobile chairman says still in talks with Apple on iPhone deal — (Reuters) - China Mobile Ltd said it's still in talks with Apple Inc to sell iPhones amid mounting industry speculation that the pair are about to announce a deal to net the technology giant hundreds of millions of potential new customers.

More: Bloomberg, Reuters, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, Digits, Forbes, Ubergizmo, TUAW, Business Insider, MacDailyNews, Tech in Asia, InvestorPlace, CHINAdaily, The Next Web, Electronista and Patently Apple

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

Tweets: @rowenaboggle and @lyndsayfarlow

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Stealth startup Black Pearl Systems reveals Lyve Minds brand, personal media device — Black Pearl Systems, the startup co-founded by former Apple executive Tim Bucher, came out of stealth mode Wednesday, revealing its new name Lyve Minds, and a device called LyveHome that will help users …

More: BGR, mylyve.com, Reuters, PR Newswire and Zatz Not Funny!. Thanks:@sidharthdassani

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, Examiner, Android Beat, Ubergizmo, gHacks Technology News, Android Community and Web Browser

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, CrackBerry.com, 9to5Google, AllThingsD, Softpedia News, PhoneArena, Android Community and MobileSyrup.com. Thanks:@chrisvelazco

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

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

Big Money for Mobile Crowdsourced Transit App Moovit, With Sequoia Leading $28M Round — The notion that public transportation is a large and growing global opportunity for a tech company might seem a bit of a strange one. But, as Moovit co-founder and CEO Nir Erez sees it …

More: TechCrunch, VatorNews, PandoDaily, Gigaom, Business Insider, The Next Web, PE Hub Blog and Skift. Tweets: @sequoia_capital

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 and Electronista

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 and Boing Boing. Tweets: @martijn_grooten, @thebtbgroup and @threatpost

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.

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

Tweets: @xor and @brokep

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Amazon Raises Its Game Against Alibaba, Will Expand AWS Cloud Services To China In 2014 — Another step ahead for Amazon in its bid to become the world's biggest cloud computing platform for businesses, and to specifically take aim at a big regional competitor in Asia, Alibaba.

More: Amazon Web Services Blog, VentureBeat, The Register, Wall Street Journal, GeekWire, Gigaom, The Next Web and ZDNet

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: eWeek, Inquirer, Bloomberg, TechEye, The Register and Reuters

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

Facebook, Zuckerberg, banks must face IPO lawsuit: judge — (Reuters) - A federal judge said Facebook Inc, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and dozens of banks must face a lawsuit accusing the social media company of misleading investors about its financial health before its $16 billion initial public offering last year.

More: Telegraph and The Verge

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