It's Never Too Early To Say Goodbye  —  “You can't just quietly slip out the door,” I've been told by too many people I trust.  So okay, fine, here's this post!  —  Since you asked, TechCrunch is in a really good place right now.  —  The various numbers we use to measure ourselves …

Apple Devices Flow Into Corporate World … As technology shifts from personal computers to smartphones and tablets, Apple Inc. is expanding its reach into a lucrative customer base: companies.  —  The popularity of the iPhone and iPad among employees is prompting corporate tech managers …

Obama Readies Revamp of NSA  —  WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is leaning toward extending broad privacy protections to non-U.S. citizens and is seriously considering restructuring the National Security Agency program that collects phone-call data of nearly all Americans, officials familiar with the process said on Thursday.

Closing Windows: Microsoft and its platforms are nowhere to be found at CES  —  For over a decade, Microsoft was the dominant presence at CES.  But after pulling out the show in 2013, the company has faded almost completely from view this year: the biggest Microsoft story at CES 2014 …

Graphs of sales market share of mobile platforms compared with those of actual installed base  —  Three graphs to stop smartphone fans fretting about ‘market share’  —  Graphs of data for sales of iPhones, Android and Windows Phones in the US look very different from those of actual users

Overstock.com becomes the first major online retailer to accept bitcoins, will use Coinbase's payment system  —  The Grand Experiment Goes Live: Overstock.com Is Now Accepting Bitcoins  —  Overstock.com is now accepting payments in bitcoin, making it the first major online retailer to embrace …

Google updates Play services with turn-based multiplayer, Google Drive API, improved battery life, and more  —  Google today updated Google Play Services to version 4.1, adding turn-based multiplayer support, a preliminary Google Drive API, improved battery life for all users …

New Gmail Feature Allows Anyone On Google+ To Email You & Vice Versa, But Opt Out Is Provided  —  Google is today making a change to Gmail that will further bake in Google+ to its webmail product in a way that's actually somewhat practical, though also potentially invasive.

PlayStation Now will require a DualShock controller for TVs, tablets, and phones  —  PlayStation Now could be the future of gaming, but you're going to need a proprietary controller to play.  Though Sony has announced that the streaming game service will come to tablets and smartphones …

Singapore Tax Authorities (IRAS) Recognize Bitcoin and Gives Guidance  —  Singapore, January 8, 2014: While most governments are scratching their heads about how to handle Bitcoin, Singapore has once again shown its leadership in the region by letting Bitcoin businesses and merchants know how to handle taxation on transactions.

Surprise: Amazon tests physical retail with ‘Kindle Kiosk’ vending machines  —  LAS VEGAS — Amazon, the company that defined the world of online commerce, is venturing further into the world of physical retail — experimenting with standalone, automated “Kindle Kiosk” vending machines in selected airports and shopping malls.

Gartner: PC shipments slip 6.9% to 82.6m units in Q4, as 2013 sees the worst yearly decline in history  —  The PC market continues to be in free fall, having now seen its seventh consecutive quarter of declining worldwide shipments.  Worldwide PC shipments dropped to 82.6 million units …

Source: Yahoo Bought Aviate For $80M  —  Earlier this week, Yahoo announced that it had acquired Aviate, a startup providing contextually relevant information on Android homescreens, but it didn't say anything about the acquisition price.  Now a source with knowledge of the deal tells me that the acquisition was for $80 million.

How SnapchatDB Attacked Snapchat's Servers  —  Snapchat, the social network that allows people to send photo and video messages that disappear within ten seconds, had a grim end to 2013.  Late on New Year's Eve, SnapchatDB, an anonymous collective of self-described “independent security researchers …

Google Data Chief Says ‘Flawed’ EU Privacy Law Is Dead  —  Google Inc. (GOOG)'s top privacy official said the European Union's “flawed” attempt to overhaul data-protection rules is “dead” and urged politicians to go back to the drawing board.  —  “Europe's much-ballyhooed, and much-flawed …