Techmeme: Google Now integrated in Chrome Canary builds, with weather, scores, traffic, and reminder cards (Alex Chitu/Google Operating System)

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January 16, 2014, 3:45 PM

Top News

James Ball / Guardian:

NSA collects almost 200 million text messages a day in global “untargeted” sweep — NSA collects millions of text messages daily in ‘untargeted’ global sweep — The National Security Agency has collected almost 200 million text messages a day from across the globe …

More: Techdirt, TechCrunch, TheHill, Gizmodo, The Verge, SlashGear, The Next Web and Salon

Tweets: @jamesrbuk, @benedictevans, @openrightsgroup, @mattblaze, @coneee, @noahshachtman, @mattblaze, @tprophet and @jamesrbuk

Bloomberg:

Obama Said to Keep NSA in Charge of Phone Records for Now

Tweets: @rj_gallagher

Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:

Google Now integrated in Chrome Canary builds, with weather, scores, traffic, and reminder cards — Google Now in Chrome for Desktop — Google Now cards are available in the latest Chrome Canary build for Windows and Mac (34.0.1788). You only need to go to chrome://flags/#enable-google- now …

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Launches Trending Topics On Web With Descriptions Of Why Each Is Popular — Following tests of Twitter-style Trending Topics on the web and mobile in August, Facebook today officially launches a redesigned “Trending” section on its web homepage's sidebar in the US, UK, Canada, India and Australia.

More: Facebook, TechHive, ReadWrite, Marketing Land, Computerworld, Digital Trends, AllFacebook, GeekWire, Inside Facebook, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, SiliconBeat, Engadget, The Next Web, NYT Bits, The Verge and SlashGear

Tweets: @joshconstine, @jboorstin, @caseynewton, @jboorstin, @joshconstine, @fmanjoo and @cwarzel

Thanks:@anthonyha. See also Mediagazer

Matthew J. Belvedere / CNBC:

Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson says Google, not Apple is the greatest innovator in the world — Google steals innovation crown from Apple: Isaacson — iPhones begin selling at China Moblie on Friday — This is a big deal, says Walter Isaacson, Aspen Institute, discussing Apple's deal …

More: 9to5Mac, BGR, SiliconBeat, App Advice, Business Insider, InvestorPlace, Cult of Mac, 9to5Google, Softpedia News and eWeek

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

NPD: Apple grabbed 42% of US smartphone share in Q4 2013, Samsung took 26%, as HTC, Motorola, and BlackBerry fell — In Q4 2013, Apple and Samsung were the clear winners in the US smartphone race. iPhone ownership increased from 35 percent in Q4 2012 to 42 percent in Q4 2013 …

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Facebook plans suite of standalone mobile apps for 2014 — Messenger is just the tip of the iceberg — Facebook's new Messenger app is lightning fast and utilitarian — a vision of the “mobile first” mentality Facebook promised one year ago. In an earnings call two weeks after Messenger launched …

More: SlashGear and Digits. Tweets: @anttihirvonen, @mgrooves, @simonkhalaf, @chartier and @hamburger

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

OUYA Founding Team Member And VP Of Product Development Departs — One of OUYA's founding members, Muffi Ghadiali, has left the company, TechCrunch has learned. Ghadiali was instrumental in helping launch the OUYA on Kickstarter and to the consumer market, and has previous experience working for Lab126 …

More: AndroidHeadlines.com, Phandroid, The Escapist, SlashGear, Joystiq, Polygon and GamesIndustry International. Thanks:@vmgarmstrong

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Citing The Re-Org, Xbox Exec Exits Microsoft After Nearly A Decade — In the wake of the recent Microsoft reorganization, a longtime Xbox-group executive is leaving Microsoft, according to the Los Angeles Times and confirmed by TechCrunch. Blair Westlake, a now former corporate vice president …

More: Variety, GamesIndustry International, Engadget, The Verge, The Escapist, VG247, Polygon, Joystiq and The Seattle Times

Ben Gilbert / Engadget:

Steam Controller drops touchscreen, adds physical buttons (update: new controller image) — It turns out that Valve's hardware beta was an actual beta: the Steam Controller is dropping its touchscreen and adding some physical buttons before going up for sale via Steam and at retail later this year.

More: Steam Database, Guardian, VentureBeat, Gotta Be Mobile, Geek.com, T3 News, GamesIndustry International, The Tech Report, Electronista, Kotaku, VG247 and Softpedia News

Christopher Mims / Quartz:

Someone's refrigerator just took part in a malicious cyberattack — Between December 23 and January 6, more than 100,000 internet-connected smart “things,” including media players, smart televisions and at least one refrigerator, were part of a network of computers used to send 750,000 spam emails.

More: Gizmodo

Brad Molen / Engadget:

LG G Flex coming to Sprint January 31st for $300, preorders begin today — The LG G Flex was finally announced for three carriers in the US at CES, but we didn't know any pricing or availability. It looks like Sprint is the first to strike with the news: the G Flex will be coming …

More: Sprint Newsroom, CNET, Gigaom, IntoMobile, MobileBurn.com, Gotta Be Mobile, The Droid Guy, Phones Review, pocketnow.com, Unwired View, Android Central, AndroidGuys and AndroidHeadlines.com

David Meyer / Gigaom:

Privacy activists can sue Google in UK over Safari tracking, court decides — A group of privacy activists in England have won permission to sue Google in that country over its tricking of Apple's Safari browser into accepting its tracking cookies, even when the browser settings forbade this.

More: MacRumors, Guardian, V3.co.uk, Bloomberg, Softpedia News, Inquirer and SlashGear

Nick Summers / The Next Web:

Samsung announces the Galaxy Tab 3 Lite, a low-end 7-inch Android tablet — Samsung is throwing yet another Android tablet into the mix; a 7-inch slate called the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite. — The WSVGA display sports a 1024×600 pixel resolution (170 ppi), which falls far below high-end devices …

Bloomberg:

Microsoft CEO Candidate List Is Said to Include Ericsson's Vestberg — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s board is considering Ericsson AB Chief Executive Officer Hans Vestberg as a potential successor to departing leader Steve Ballmer, according to people briefed on the search.

More: ZDNet, GeekWire, Reuters, Inquirer, AppleInsider, TheStreet.com, Guardian and LiveSide.net

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Secondhand Clothing Marketplace Twice Raises $18.5M From Andreessen Horowitz — Online fashion marketplaces are fast picking up steam these days, quickly replacing the traditional auction model pioneered by eBay, as a way to consign, and sell your clothes. Twice, an online consignment shop …

More: Business Insider

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Pew: 69% of Americans read a print book in 2013, 28% read an e-book, but only 4% went exclusively electronic — During 2013, 69 percent of Americans read a book in printed form, 28 percent read an e-book, and 14 percent listened to an audiobook. While the proportion of Americans who read e-books …

More: Pew Internet, Digits, VatorNews, GeekWire, internetretailer.com, Internet2Go, Marketing Land and Digital Book World. See also Mediagazer

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Shopkick Starts 100-Store iBeacon Trial For American Eagle, Biggest Apparel Rollout Yet — Apple's iBeacon technology, which uses Bluetooth LE to send notifications to users when they're inside a physical store, is making another mainstream advance today: Shopkick — the location-based offers startup …

More: Gigaom, MacRumors and 9to5Mac. Tweets: @mdudas

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Spotify Drops Free Web Listening Time Limit Everywhere - A Big Scalability Milestone — Spotify's advertising engine and paid customer conversion funnel are finally working well enough that today it eliminated all limits on free, ad-supported web listening in all countries.

More: Spotify Blog, Inquirer, Computerworld, Inc.com, CNET, Engadget, GSMArena Blog, Gizmodo, The Register, SlashGear, The Verge, BGR, Electronista, Business Insider, TUAW, Overclockers Club, Gizmodo UK and Pocket-lint. See also Mediagazer

JP Mangalindan / Fortune:

A third of SF cabbies switched from registered cabs to Uber, Lyft or Sidecar in the past year — San Francisco cab drivers are Uber's latest pickup — Uber, Lyft and other ride-sharing upstarts are transforming a slow-to-change industry from the outside in. — FORTUNE — Being a cab driver isn't what it used to be.

More: ParisLemon, Street Fight and SlashGear. Tweets: @filloux. Thanks:@jpmanga

Mike Grishaver / Pandora Blog:

Discover More Music with Personalized Station Recommendations — Music discovery has always been at the heart of the Pandora experience and today we're thrilled to announce the launch of personalized station recommendations on both iOS and Android mobile devices.

More: PC Magazine, The Next Web, Engadget, Mashable, MacNN, iDownloadBlog.com, AndroidGuys, The Verge, Android Beat and iPhone Hacks. Tweets: @dpaschel

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

He Was Fired: Here's Marissa Mayer's De Castro Buh-Bye Memo to Yahoo Staff — Here it is, the internal memo to Yahoo staff about the sudden — though it was not sudden, by any means — leave-taking today of its COO, Henrique De Castro, courtesy of one of my 10,563 sources left at Yahoo!

More: VatorNews, StrictlyVC, Business Insider, Beyond Search, DealBook, USA Today, Marketing Land, Lastest ITProPortal news, SiliconANGLE, Inquirer, Wall Street Journal, memeburn, Softpedia News, InfoWorld and The Register. Tweets: @evelynrusli

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:

Amazon Warehouse Workers Vote Against Joining Union — In the first vote of its kind among workers employed by Amazon in the U.S., a group of up to 30 of the commerce giant's warehouse workers at a Delaware distribution center voted against unionization today.

More: Businessweek, Reuters, New York Times, CNNMoney.com, TIME and GeekWire. Thanks:@delrey

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