Techmeme
January 17, 2014, 6:20 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:
President Obama's NSA reforms show both promise and peril  —  The president's NSA changes have potential to increase privacy, but need concrete action  —  President Obama just announced big changes to America's massive government surveillance programs, promising to add new safeguards …
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.
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.
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, Gizmodo and ConsumeristTweets: @murtaugh
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 …
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.
David Kravets / Wired:
Supreme Court to Decide if Warrants Needed to Search Mobile Phones  —  The Supreme Court today agreed to decide the unsolved constitutional question of whether police may search, without warrants, the mobile phones of suspects they arrest.  —  The justices did not immediately schedule …
Rebecca Grant / VentureBeat:
With 60M downloads, BitTorrent's Bundle experiment is paying off  —  The Internet has created a world where value is determined by virality.  —  BitTorrent is contributing to the evolution of how content gets shared.  The creator of file-sharing technology revealed today that people …
Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:
Apple details secure ‘touchless’ e-wallet strategy in patent filing  —  Apple has been coy in revealing its plans for a touchless payment solution, but a patent filing discovered on Thursday gives clues as to where the company is headed.  —  Tech companies like Google are looking …
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.
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
Breach at Neiman Marcus Went Undetected From July to December  —  The computer network at Neiman Marcus was penetrated by hackers as far back as July, and the breach was not fully contained until Sunday, according to people briefed on the investigation.  —  The company disclosed the data theft …
Alex Howard / E Pluribus Unum:
California court rules blogger has same First Amendment protections as traditional media  —  Here's the summary of the decision, published earlier today: … You can read the whole thing ruling (appropriately enough) or the backstory on the case of the Obsidian Finance Group and defendant Crystal Coxat …

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