Techmeme: NSA statement does not deny ‘spying’ on members of Congress (Guardian)

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January 4, 2014, 10:20 PM

Top News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Apple Acquires Rapid-Fire Camera App Developer SnappyLabs — Apple has acquired the one-man photo technology startup SnappyLabs, maker of SnappyCam, sources tell me. The startup was founded and run solely by John Papandriopoulos, an electrical engineering PhD from the University Of Melbourne …

More: AppleInsider, Sydney Morning Herald, App Advice, MacRumors, CNET, Network World, Cult of Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, iPhone Hacks, AppleTell, 9to5Mac and iClarified

Tweets: @joshconstine and @lessien

Rap Genius:

Rap Genius begins to recover its Google search ranking, details SEO strategies, apologizes — Rap Genius is Back on Google — In this post we give more details about our misguided SEO strategies and how we got there. We also explain our process and the tools we used to fix the problem and return to Google.

More: TechCrunch, TechCrunch, PEEBS.ORG, blog.nullspace.io, Yahoo! News, Daily Dot, Search Engine Land, Forbes, Business Insider, SEO Book, Valleywag, The Verge, Business Insider, The Switch, VentureBeat, Softpedia News, Re/code and GitHub

Tweets: @jyarow, @fredericl, @sg, @stevesi, @stevekovach, @dannysullivan, @bhorowitz and @pauldix

Thanks:@bkessler. See also Mediagazer

George Lewis / Galapagos Digital:

Jeff Bezos flown from cruise in Galapagos islands by Ecuadorian navy after kidney stone attack — Billionaire Bezos Flown out of Galápagos — Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of the popular Amazon.com shopping website and current owner of the Washington Post …

More: Business Insider, NYT Bits, The Verge, CNBC, GeekWire, Digits, Re/code, CNET, NBCNews and Gawker

Tweets: @bensherwoodabc and @tim_stevens

See also Mediagazer

Guardian:

NSA statement does not deny ‘spying’ on members of Congress — Spencer Ackerman in Washington and Martin Pengelly in New York — The National Security Agency on Saturday released a statement in answer to questions from a senator about whether it “has spied, or is ... currently spying …

More: Bernie Sanders, The Switch, Gizmodo, IC ON THE RECORD, The Verge, LeakSource, Techdirt and PandoDaily. Tweets: @davidsirota

Ryan J. Reilly / The Huffington Post:

FISA Court Reauthorizes NSA Phone Metadata Collection

More: ODNI Newsroom Feed, New York Times, Techdirt, Computerworld, The Hill, Digital Trends and Examiner

Michael Crider / Android Police:

Google Buys Timely Alarm Clock Developer Bitspin, Premium IAP Content Is Now Free — In an odd bit of M&A news, the developers at Bitspin announced that the small company will be joining forces with Google. Whether Google has purchased the company outright or merely hired …

More: Bitspin, The Verge, The Next Web, Vinoth Ragunathan, Computerworld, TechHive, Droid Life, BetaNews, 9to5Google, Android Beat, Electronista, TechCrunch, Geeky Gadgets, Engadget, Re/code and AndroidPure

Ed Christman / Billboard:

As streaming grows, digital music sales decreased in 2013, the first time since iTunes launch — Digital Music Sales Decrease For First Time in 2013 — For the first time since the iTunes store opened its doors, the U.S. music industry finished the year with a decrease in digital music sales.

More: The Verge, TechnoBuffalo, MacRumors, TheStreet.com, MacStories, iDownloadBlog.com, Digital Trends, iClarified, Electronista, Engadget, iMore, cir.ca, 9to5Mac, BetaNews, MacNN, AppleInsider, Gizmodo and VentureBeat. See also Mediagazer

Timothy B. Lee / The Switch:

Thousands of visitors to yahoo.com hit with malware attack, researchers say — Two Internet security firms have reported that Yahoo's advertising servers have been distributing malware to hundreds of thousands of users over the last few days. The attack appears to be the work of malicious parties …

More: Fox-IT International blog, CNET, Gizmodo, ZDNet and Techie News

Tweets: @markloman, @arnoldkim, @ashk4n and @markloman

Jason Kincaid:

Evernote wants to help you “Remember Everything”, but is a bug-ridden elephant — Evernote, the bug-ridden elephant — To say this post pains me would be an understatement. More than any other technology, Evernote is part of me, having evolved from habit to instinct over several years and nearly seven thousand notes.

More: Gotta Be Mobile and Business Insider. Tweets: @mathewi, @samfbiddle, @jasonkincaid, @dangillmor, @hunterwalk, @pkafka, @cameronspickert and @jeff

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

Palm's abandoned webOS plans at HP included phones and tablets, major UI evolution — The lost secrets of webOS — LG is about to unveil the future of webOS — but there's a past we never saw — Next week, LG will unveil new televisions running webOS, the ill-fated operating system it acquired in last February.

Tweets: @panzer

Daniel Stuckey / Motherboard:

Barnaby Jack, Hacker of ATMs and Pacemakers, Died From an Overdose — The celebrated hacker Barnaby Jack, who spectacularly demonstrated his ability to cause ATMs to spit out cash and pacemakers to crash, died from a drug overdose, San Francisco police revealed, months after his death at his home at the age of 36.

More: BBC, Mashable, Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Beast, NZCity, Daily Dot, The Verge and CNET

Natasha Singer / New York Times:

Pandora begins targeting ads by musical taste — Listen to Pandora, and It Listens Back — Pandora, the Internet radio service, is playing a new tune. — After years of customizing playlists to individual listeners by analyzing components of the songs they like, then playing them tracks …

Wall Street Journal:

Candidates' concern about influence of Ballmer and Gates has prolonged Microsoft CEO search — Why Microsoft Hasn't Yet Chosen a New CEO — One Big Factor: Awkward Boardroom Dynamics — To appreciate why Microsoft Corp. is having trouble choosing a new chief executive …

More: TechSpot, Softpedia News and BGR

Tweets: @dannysullivan and @philippbohn

Min-Jeong Lee / Korea Real Time:

Samsung chairman in New Years address urges more R&D, less of a hardware focus — Samsung's New Year's Resolution: Get Rid of Old Habits … In his annual speech at the start of the new year, Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Kun-hee highlighted how tough the competition has been in 2013 …

More: ZDNet, BGR, Fortune, Inquirer, Bloomberg, The Verge and SammyToday.com

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