Techmeme
January 17, 2014, 8:30 PM

Top News

Reuters:
Obama bans spying on leaders of U.S. allies, scales back NSA program  —  (Reuters) - President Barack Obama announced a ban on U.S. eavesdropping on the leaders of close friends and allies on Friday, and rein in the vast collection of Americans' phone data in a series of reforms triggered by Edward Snowden's revelations.
The Verge:
Dan Primack / Fortune:
Andreessen Horowitz raising $1.5 billion for new fund  —  Andreessen Horowitz is raising its fourth fund in six years.  —  FORTUNE — Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is in the process of raising $1.5 billion for its fourth fund, Fortune has learned.
Bloomberg:
HTC Said to Plan New One Phone With Larger Screen, Better Camera  —  HTC Corp. (2498) plans a March release for the latest version of its HTC One smartphone featuring a larger screen and twin-sensor rear camera, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans.
Greg Bensinger / Digits:
Amazon patents method for anticipating your purchases to move them to a shipping hub near you  —  Amazon Wants to Ship Your Package Before You Buy It  —  Amazon.com knows you so well it wants to ship your next package before you order it.  —  The Seattle retailer in December gained …
Nick Summers / Businessweek:
ATMs, 95% of which run Windows XP, must upgrade by April 8 to avoid losing support  —  ATMs Face Deadline to Upgrade From Windows XP  —  One-dollar bills.  Envelope-free deposits.  Stamp dispensers.  These are a few of the features that Wells Fargo (WFC), Bank of America (BAC) …
More: InfoWorld, WinBeta, Gizmodo and ConsumeristTweets: @murtaugh
Andrew Webster / The Verge:
Nintendo ‘studying’ mobile devices in wake of bleak hardware sales forecast  —  “It's not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone.”  —  Earlier today Nintendo slashed its sales forecast for the Wii U by nearly 70 percent, which in turn led the company to predict an operating loss of around $336 million.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Code points to a Google “Fitness API” allowing Android apps to view and edit activity data  —  Google Works on a Fitness API for Android  —  Wearables are now the next big thing.  A lot of companies develop smart watches, smart glasses and head-up displays, smart headphones, smart clothes.
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Google introduces surveys to discover why you're muting its ads  —  Google today announced it is introducing, over the next few weeks, a series of short surveys in English-speaking countries which will appear after a user mutes an ad.  The company says its goals are to learn why users mute ads …
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Path launches for Windows Phone as a public beta  —  Path today quietly launched an app for Windows Phone, but there's a small catch: it's a public beta.  Nevertheless, the social network has arrived on Microsoft's mobile platform and you can grab the app now directly from the Windows Phone Store.

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Wall Street Journal:
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
CNN: