Techmeme: Tim Draper Wants To Split California Into Pieces And Turn Silicon Valley Into Its Own State (Gregory Ferenstein/TechCrunch)

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December 20, 2013, 3:55 PM

Top News

New York Times:

N.S.A. Dragnet Included Allies, Aid Groups and Business Elite — Secret documents reveal more than 1,000 targets of American and British surveillance in recent years, including the office of an Israeli prime minister, heads of international aid organizations, foreign energy companies …

More: Guardian, Spiegel Online, Computerworld, CNET, The Verge, ZDNet, Techdirt, The CIO Report, Quartz, TheHill, Nieman Journalism Lab, RT, Ars Technica, Gawker, BBC and Softpedia News

Tweets: @csoghoian, @dhh, @barakravid, @koenrh, @ggreenwald, @declanm, @froomkin, @thomas_drake1, @ggreenwald and @ggreenwald

Brad Molen / Engadget:

BlackBerry CEO hoping to avoid future layoffs, expects to be profitable by 2016 — This morning's earnings report may not have been BlackBerry's brightest moment, but John Chen seems confident in the company's future — and his ability to turn things around.

More: New York Times, CNET, PhoneArena and CrackBerry.com. Tweets: @parislemon

Steve Dent / Engadget:

BlackBerry teams up with Foxconn for budget smartphones as sales continue to plunge

More: Marketwired, BBC, Yahoo! Finance, AllThingsD, Tech Trader Daily, eWeek, CNET, Inquirer, Quartz, BestTechie, AppleInsider, Guardian, NEWS.com.au, BGR, AndroidHeadlines.com, Electronista, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Softpedia News, WebProNews, VentureBeat and Yahoo! News. Tweets: @tapbot_paul

Sean Silcoff / Globe and Mail:

BlackBerry posts massive $4.4-billion quarterly loss, revenue plunges

More: The Verge, Ars Technica, Reuters, Business Insider, Gigaom Research, CNET and TechnoBuffalo

Tweets: @charlesarthur and @iainmarlow

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

BlackBerry's First Foxconn Partnership Phone Will Be 3G BB10 Device, Coming March Or April 2014

More: BGR and MobileSyrup.com. Thanks:@romaindillet

Miguel Helft / Fortune:

Square's Dorsey returns 10% of his shares — Exclusive: The founder and CEO makes an uncommon move to expand the company's pool of shares for compensation and acquisitions. — FORTUNE — Jack Dorsey, the founder and CEO of Square, has voluntarily given 10% of his shares in the company back to Square.

More: Digits, Gigaom, Business Insider, The Next Web, bizjournals and AllThingsD

Tweets: @shuvster, @stevecheney, @om and @anildash

Fred Vogelstein / The Atlantic Online:

The Day Google Had to ‘Start Over’ on Android — Google was building a secret mobile product to fend off chief rival Microsoft. Then Apple announced the iPhone, and everything changed. — In 2005, on Google's sprawling, college-like campus, the most secret and ambitious of many …

More: BGR, The Verge, MacRumors, Fortune, iPhone Hacks, InvestorPlace, 9to5Google, iMore, AmongTech, iPhone, TechSpot, Mashable, Global Nerdy, Gizmodo, Ubergizmo, Daring Fireball, AppleInsider, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacDailyNews, The Loop, Cult of Mac and The Switch. Tweets: @whatthebit

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

Cards Stolen in Target Breach Flood Underground Markets — Credit and debit card accounts stolen in a recent data breach at retail giant Target have been flooding underground black markets in recent weeks, selling in batches of one million cards and going for anywhere from $20 to more than $100 per card, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.

Beth Kowitt / Fortune:

Warby Parker raises $60 million — Exclusive: The fashionable eyeglasses purveyor more than doubles its total investment. — FORTUNE — Warby Parker has raised $60 million in its latest round of venture capital funding, led by its biggest investor, Tiger Global Management.

More: VatorNews, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Mashable and AllThingsD

Gregory Ferenstein / TechCrunch:

Tim Draper Wants To Split California Into Pieces And Turn Silicon Valley Into Its Own State — TechCrunch has learned about noted technology investor Tim Draper's plan to split California into six separate states, including a Northern California slice appropriately named “Silicon Valley.”

More: Betabeat, CNET, Inc.com, Valleywag, Business Insider, InfoWorld, TechSpot, bizjournals, Venture Capital Dispatch and SlashGear

Tweets: @gaberivera, @johnjcook, @leelefever, @mat, @monstro, @jacksonwest, @johnolilly, @susie_c, @loyalelectron, @lenkendall, @qthrul and @tcarmody

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:

T-Mobile Plans to Talk “Un-Carrier” 4.0 at CES — T-Mobile is ready to make another big move, announcing plans for a media event at January's CES to discuss the next step in its “un-carrier” strategy. — “This one you aren't going to believe,” T-Mobile says in an invitation to journalists.

More: TmoNews, 9to5Google, TechHive, AndroidHeadlines.com, IntoMobile, PhoneArena and The Droid Guy

John Biggs / TechCrunch:

Alleged Top Moderators Of Silk Road 2 Forums Arrested In Ireland, U.S. In International Sweep — At least two moderators of the Silk Road 2 user forums have been arrested by authorities in the U.S. and Ireland. A source claiming to have inside knowledge of the arrests said that Libertas …

More: Deep Dot Web, Forbes, The Verge, Daily Dot, NYT Bits, Mashable and The Register

Michael Dalder / Reuters:

Clock ticking for Google after EU rejects latest antitrust offer — (Reuters) - Google has been told it is running out of time to improve its offer to settle a European Union investigation into anti-competitive behavior or face formal charges that could lead to a hefty fine.

More: Gigaom, The Verge, BGR, Electronista, Forbes, Associated Press, The Next Web, Search Engine Land, Bloomberg, ZDNet, Engadget and WebProNews

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple seeds first OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 beta, brings FaceTime Audio to Macs — Just days after the first public release of OS X 10.9.1, Apple has seeded the first beta of OS X 10.9.2 to developers. The update is available in the Mac App Store for registered developers …

Lauren Hockenson / Gigaom:

In honor of Winamp, Spotify releases Spotiamp — After Friday, longstanding music player Winamp will fade from existence, as AOL discontinues support, shuts down the website and erases any possibility of downloading the software. In honor of Winamp's departure, Spotify has released Spotiamp …

More: AppleInsider, Engadget, CNET, VentureBeat, BetaNews and The Next Web

Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:

Oracle snaps up marketing software maker Responsys for $1.5B — Summary: The business-to-consumer marketing software company will be bought for a 38 percent premium of its stock price as of Thursday. — Zack Whittaker — Software giant Oracle said Friday it will buy Responsys …

More: Marketing Land, AllThingsD, Gigaom, AdExchanger, Computerworld, BetaNews, internetretailer.com and Associated Press. Tweets: @qthrul

David Beren / 9to5Google:

Moto X for $350 off contract courtesy of the Today Show — Did you miss out on Motorola's $350 off-contract Cyber Monday deal for the Moto X? If you did, here's another opportunity to score the device sans contract for that very same price. The offer is “exclusive to Today Show viewers” …

More: Droid Life, The Verge, PhoneArena, The Droid Guy and Android and Me. Thanks:@llsethj

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

Rocket Internet Partners With African Telecom Operator MTN To Invest $410M in Middle East Startups — MTN Group and Rocket Internet announced that they have formed a new joint venture to invest in startups in the Middle East, with a focus on e-commerce. The two companies will each hold …

More: VentureBeat and The Next Web

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

AOL Finalizing Talks To Sell Winamp And Shoutcast, No Shutdown Expected On Dec. 20 — AOL is finalizing negotiations to sell off Winamp and Shoutcast in a deal that would allow both products to live on, according to a source with knowledge of the discussions.

More: Ars Technica, CNET, gHacks Technology News, SlashGear, Softpedia News, The Atlantic Online and Boing Boing

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

AT&T follows Verizon's lead, will start publishing law enforcement request data in early 2014 — Never let it be said that AT&T and Verizon don't follow each other's leads. Just one day after Verizon announced it would start publishing a semiannual transparency report that details …

More: PR Newswire and Gigaom. Tweets: @declanm

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