Techmeme: Google leads pack as ten tech firms spend more than $61 million lobbying Washington (Rich McCormick/The Verge)

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January 23, 2014, 10:15 AM

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Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:

Independent review board says NSA phone data program is illegal and should end — An independent executive branch board has concluded that the National Security Agency's long-running program to collect billions of Americans' phone records is illegal and should end.

More: The Switch, Ars Technica, Engadget, Boing Boing, The Verge, Techdirt, BGR, DSLreports and GamePolitics blogs

Tweets: @ggreenwald, @joanneleon, @jasonleopold, @amadooooo, @astepanovich, @trevortimm and @jasonleopold

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Watchdog Report Says N.S.A. Program Is Illegal and Should End — WASHINGTON — An independent federal privacy watchdog has concluded that the National Security Agency's program to collect bulk phone call records has provided only “minimal” benefits in counterterrorism efforts, is illegal and should be shut down.

More: SlashGear and CNET. Tweets: @rsingel, @arusbridger, @declanm and @ncardozo

Adario Strange / Mashable:

Apple Promises to Fix iOS 7 ‘White Screen of Death’ — Since Apple released iOS 7, its completely revamped operating system for the iPhone, reviews have been mixed but mostly positive. However, a glitch that has quietly plagued iPhone users — the “white/black screen of death,” …

More: 9to5Mac, TheStreet.com, ZDNet, Inquirer, Gizmodo, blog.chron.com, TechSpot, Apple Gazette, Wired.co.uk, Softpedia News, iPhone in Canada Blog, Ars Technica, TUAW, MacNN, MobileSyrup.com, PhoneArena, Pocket-lint, TechnoBuffalo, BGR, Phones Review, iPhone Hacks, iMore, Gotta Be Mobile, Business Insider, SlashGear, iClarified, Cult of Mac, Gigaom, The Verge, MacRumors, App Advice, CNET and Re/code. Tweets: @chartier. Thanks:@film_girl

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

AOL Buys Personalization Startup Gravity for $90 Million in Cash — In a bid to add another publishing and advertising tool to its offerings, AOL has acquired personalization startup Gravity for about $90 million in cash. — As part of the deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter …

More: Business Wire, Digits, Re/code, TechCrunch, CNET, Gigaom, The Next Web, New York Times, Business Insider, BGR India, Gravity, Softpedia News and PE Hub Blog

Tweets: @bgarlinghouse and @luke_beatty

See also Mediagazer

Bloomberg:

Lenovo to Buy IBM Server Unit For $2.3 Billion Amid PC Slump — Lenovo Group Ltd., the world's largest maker of personal computers, will buy International Business Machines Corp.'s server business for $2.3 billion. — The deal price includes about $2 billion of cash and the rest in Lenovo stock …

More: DealBook, IBM, CNBC, ZDNet, The Verge, The Next Web, Gigaom, Re/code, InfoWorld, Reuters, WebProNews, CNET, ZDNet, Wall Street Journal and Gigaom Research

Tweets: @ciscoservergeek, @qthrul and @edmondlococo

Larry Dignan / ZDNet:

eBay CEO Donahoe gives Icahn e-commerce tutorial over PayPal plan — Summary: eBay CEO John Donahoe: Why in an era of big data and e-commerce innovation would you separate eBay, PayPal and their network effects? — eBay CEO John Donahoe elaborated on why PayPal should remain part …

More: The Register, Softpedia News and CNET. Tweets: @levie

Reuters:

EBay dismisses Icahn proposal to spin off Paypal

More: ebay inc, eBay Inc., The Official PayPal, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, ITworld.com, CNBC, Gigaom and BBC

Tweets: @pierre and @pkafka

Steven Hickson / Steves Computer Vision Blog:

Hacking Snapchat's people verification in less than 100 lines — I woke up this morning and saw this article detailing Snapchat's new people verification system. You may have seen it but if not I will summarize it for you. They basically have you choose each image with the Snapchat ghost to prove you are a person.

More: Silicon Republic, Softpedia News, Mashable, Engadget, Daily Dot, Electronista, Digital Trends and Business Insider

Tweets: @lukew, @chriseng, @privacychoice, @bobpoekert, @film_girl and @carnage4life

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Nokia Says Lumia & Other Phone Sales Declined In Q4 As It Prepares To Sell Division To Microsoft — In what is likely to be Nokia's last quarterly earnings before it hands off its mobile phone making business to Microsoft, the Finnish mobile maker has reported lower sales of Lumia devices in its Q4.

More: The Verge, The Next Web, BGR, TechHive, Inquirer, BetaNews, PC World, Guardian, InfoWorld, Re/code, CNET, Engadget, Softpedia News, Gotta Be Mobile, Electronista, Silicon Republic, Nokia, Reuters, Bloomberg and My Nokia Blog. Thanks:@riptari

John Biggs / TechCrunch:

Google Glass User Detained By Feds Talks About Ordeal — While some businesses are banning the high-tech wearable device Google Glass, a theatre owner in Columbus, Ohio, saw enough of a threat to call the Department of Homeland Security. The manager called in unnamed Homeland Security agents …

More: Business Insider, TechNewsWorld, PC & Tech Authority, Guardian, Computerworld and T3 News

Roberto Baldwin / Wired:

Tivo Lays Off Most of Its Design Team as It Transitions to the Cloud — Update: Tivo says it will continue to use third-party designers for hardware going forward. The article has been updated to reflect this fact. — Tivo has been bullish lately about releasing new software products beyond its core DVR boxes.

More: TIME, The Verge, Ars Technica, Pocket-lint, Gigaom, Engadget, SlashGear, Business Insider, Electronista and ParisLemon. Thanks:@strngwys. See also Mediagazer

Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:

Protesters show up at the doorstep of Google self-driving car engineer — Protests against tech giants and their impact on the San Francisco Bay Area economy just got personal. — According to an anonymous submission on local news site Indybay, an unknown group of protesters targeted …

More: Business Insider, Android Beat, SFist, Los Angeles Times, PandoDaily, Examiner, Veronica Belmont and Salon

Tweets: @blakehounshell, @ryan, @jowens510 and @dangillmor

Marco Arment / Marco.org:

Apparently It's OK For iOS Apps To Ask For Your Apple ID And Password — Apple's currently featuring the Sunrise app in the App Store. — Upon first launch, Sunrise invites you to create an account, then asks you to add a calendar. The first option, “iCloud Calendar” …

More: Neven Mrgan, iDownloadBlog.com, iPhone Hacks, AppleInsider and Sunrise

Marco Arment / Marco.org:

Sunrise on why they ask for your Apple ID and password

Tweets: @monkbent

Jack Clark / The Register:

Amazon's lack of public involvement in open source may cause talent attrition, say insiders — Amazon's ‘schizophrenic’ open source selfishness scares off potential talent, say insiders — Moles blame Bezos for paltry code sharing — Exclusive Amazon is one of the most technically …

Tweets: @mappingbabel. Thanks:@mappingbabel

Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:

Huawei settles with Rockstar Consortium, will pay for Android's infringement of ex-Nortel patents — The Google-led group of Android device makers sued on Halloween 2013 over former Nortel patents fails to present a united front to the Rockstar Consortium, a patent holding firm jointly owned by Apple …

More: Engadget and CNET

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Netflix wants to introduce three pricing tiers for new members — Netflix is getting ready for a new pricing structure, according to the company's Q4 letter to shareholders (PDF) released Wednesday. In it, CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells write:

More: Inquirer, SlashGear, Gizmodo, Bloomberg, TechnoBuffalo and Business Insider

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Netflix's momentum continues with 2.33 million new US customers in Q4

More: TechSpot, CNET, GeekWire, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, internetretailer.com, WebProNews and VatorNews. See also Mediagazer

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Judge: IP-Address Does Not Prove Copyright Infringement — Mass-BitTorrent lawsuits have been dragging on for years in the US, involving hundreds of thousands of alleged downloaders. — The copyright holders who start these cases generally provide nothing more than an IP address as evidence.

More: SlashGear, Business Insider, Motherboard and Techdirt

David de Jong / Bloomberg:

Sheryl Sandberg Becomes One of Youngest U.S. Billionaires — Sheryl Sandberg's fortune surpassed $1 billion today after Facebook Inc. (FB) closed at a record high. — The chief operating officer of the world's most popular social-networking service owns about 12.3 million shares of the Menlo Park …

More: WebProNews. Tweets: @daringfireball. Thanks:@sarahfrier

John Cook / GeekWire:

Early stakeholders in Scout Analytics claim venture capitalists engaged in ‘self dealing, corporate waste’ prior to $32M acquisition — Not everyone is happy about today's $32 million acquisition of Scout Analytics by ServiceSource. A group of series A preferred stockholders filed suit …

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

Renew OnDemand Provider ServiceSource Acquires Scout Analytics For $32M

More: Wall Street Journal, bizjournals and GeekWire

JP Mangalindan / Fortune:

Prim: Anatomy of a folded startup — The YCombinator-backed laundry pick-up and delivery business barely lasted 7 months. One of its founders walks Fortune through the post-mortem. — FORTUNE - Can technology disrupt even the most mundane chores? — That's the question Yin Yin Wu …

Tweets: @steipete, @mikeisaac and @caseynewton. Thanks:@jpmanga

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Lively raises $2 million as live concert space heats up — Seattle-based digital music startup Lively has raised close to $2 million in new funding, according to an SEC filing. Lively offers artists an easy way to record their concerts, and then sell them to concert-goers and other fans immediately after the show.

More: hypebot and GeekWire

Dennis Schaal / Skift:

Groupon Adds 20,000 Properties To Its Hotel Feature — Groupon added 20,000 hotels, up from the several hundred hotel flash sales that it previously ran. / PlaceIt by Breezi — Groupon wants to be much more than a flash sales site when it comes to hotels.

More: TechCrunch. Tweets: @rafat

Chris Kohler / Wired:

Instead of porting its games to other mobile platforms, Nintendo should run its own platform — Everything You're Thinking About Nintendo Is Totally Wrong — The entire internet has weighed in with what it believes is the answer to Nintendo's financial woes: Go mobile, immediately.

More: BGR. Tweets: @magicody

Shira Ovide / Digits:

The Holes in Microsoft's Data Protection Pledge — Microsoft says it can keep its customers' data from the prying eyes of U.S. spies and cops. But the company may not be able to honor its pledge. — Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said the company would allow its foreign customers …

More: Financial Times, Inquirer, WinBeta, Gigaom, ReadWrite, Lastest ITProPortal news, Engadget, The Verge and SlashGear

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