Techmeme
December 18, 2013, 12:15 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.
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
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
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.
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.
Guardian:
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.
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.
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 …
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.
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: Gigaom and Annoyed LibrarianTweets: @miketaylor
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.
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.
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 …

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Kevin C. Tofel / Gigaom: