Techmeme: It's official: China is the wild, wild west of cloud computing (Barb Darrow/Gigaom)

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December 18, 2013, 4:27 PM

Top News

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: Daring Fireball, iPhone in Canada Blog, iPhone, The Verge, Digits and MacDailyNews

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

See also Mediagazer

The Switch:

Research shows how MacBook Webcams can spy on their users without warning — The woman was shocked when she received two nude photos of herself by e-mail. The photos had been taken over a period of several months — without her knowledge — by the built-in camera on her laptop.

More: BGR, Cult of Mac and Boing Boing

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: Washington Post, Businessweek, CNN, USA Today, TheHill and Business Cloud News. Tweets: @trevortimm

Brendan Sasso / @brendansasso:

Here's the report from the NSA review group: http://www.whitehouse.gov/...

David E. Sanger / New York Times:

Obama Panel Recommends New Limits on N.S.A. Spying

More: Washington Post, CNET, SiliconBeat, Computerworld, Gizmodo, CNET, The Hill, The Verge, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Fox News

Tweets: @tonyromm, @jayrosen_nyu, @csoghoian, @emptywheel, @washingtonpost, @mattblaze and @jamesrbuk

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.

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.

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

oDesk and Elance Merge to Create One Big Freelancer Company (But Still With Two Brands) — Elance and oDesk said today that they would merge. The companies have a lot in common — they both connect freelancers and gigs online — and they say they have a combined 10 million workers in 180 countries, with $750 million in 2013 billings.

More: PandoDaily, NYT Bits, VentureBeat, The Next Web, Elance Blog, Bloomberg and Business Wire

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, CoinDesk, CryptoJunky, Ars Technica, Computerworld, TechCrunch, InfoWorld, Bloomberg, Tech in Asia, The Switch, VentureBeat, Mashable, The Next Web, SlashGear, Daily Dot, Business Insider and Daily Mail

Tweets: @taylorlorenz, @jwherrman and @doublejake

Barb Darrow / Gigaom:

It's official: China is the wild, wild west of cloud computing — Within hours of Amazon's announcement of a new Beijing region for Amazon Web Services, IBM jumped into the mix, announcing a new relationship with 21Vianet to offer high-end SmartCloud Enterprise + cloud services from a new 21Vianet-hosted facility in Beijing.

More: IBM, ZDNet, The Register and Forbes

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Amazon Raises Its Game Against Alibaba, Will Expand AWS Cloud Services To China In 2014

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

Jon Fingas / Engadget:

Microsoft releases standalone Xbox Music and Xbox Video apps for Windows Phone 8 — Microsoft appears to be taking a page from Google's approach to core software updates; it just launched standalone Xbox Music and Xbox Video apps for Windows Phone 8 users. The music app is largely …

More: The Verge, The Verge, PC World, LiveSide.net, Nokia Conversations, The Next Web, Gigaom, The Windows Blog, Windows Phone Central, Windows Phone Central, Wpxbox, Electronista, Softpedia News and WindowsObserver.com

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: AllFacebook, ZDNet, The Verge and Telegraph

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, Gigaom, The Verge and WebProNews. Tweets: @nickbilton. See also Mediagazer

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, DSLreports, Engadget, GeekWire, Wall Street Journal, PC World, ZDNet, Business Insider, Geek Beat Technology News, The Verge 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: Pebble, The Verge, developer.getpebble.com, iMore, 9to5Google, 9to5Mac, LAPTOP Magazine, TechCrunch, Engadget, BGR, App Advice and TUAW

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

Sources: Target Investigating Data Breach — Nationwide retail giant Target is investigating a data breach potentially involving millions of customer credit and debit card records, multiple reliable sources tell KrebsOnSecurity. The sources said the breach appears to have begun …

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

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

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: Digits, ACCC, Examiner, ZDNet, SiliconBeat, Engadget, Forbes, Guardian, SlashGear, iClarified, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, iLounge, iMore, Business Insider, Gizmodo Australia, afr.com, Any Any and MacRumors

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

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, AppleInsider, VentureBeat, SiliconBeat, Business Insider, The Next Web, TUAW, Inside Mobile Apps, Mobile Marketing Watch, 9to5Google, www.pocketgamer.biz and MacDailyNews

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