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February 14, 2014, 9:30 AM

Top News

Mayumi Negishi / Wall Street Journal:

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten to buy voice-call app maker Viber for $900 million — Rakuten to Buy Voice-Call App Maker Viber — Japanese e-commerce Giant to Spend $900 million — TOKYO—Japan's Rakuten Inc. said it will acquire call-application maker Cyprus-based Viber Media Inc …

More: Business Wire, Rakuten, Inc.Press Releases, VentureBeat, Digital Trends, BGR, The Verge, BBC, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Guardian, Bloomberg, Re/code, InfoWorld, IntoMobile, I4U News, Tech in Asia, ZDNet, Gigaom, Engadget, Reuters, CNET, Ubergizmo, Cult of Mac, iDownloadBlog.com and App Advice

Tweets: @caseynewton, @semil, @fcourt and @benbajarin

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Exclusive Interview: Rakuten's Mikitani Calls $900 Million He Paid for Viber a “No-Brainer” — “This is a no-brainer,” was the first thing that Hiroshi Mikitani, co-founder and CEO of Japan's online commerce giant Rakuten, said to me in his first interview after he spent $900 million in cash to buy messaging app Viber.

More: The Next Web, InfoWorld, Tech in Asia, Digits, Electronista and iPhone in Canada Blog. Tweets: @juroosawa

Alistair Barr / USA Today:

Google working on 10 gigabit Internet speeds — Project to develop ‘next generation’ of the Internet is part of Google's broader obsession with speed, CFO says — SAN FRANCISCO - Google is working on technology that will provide data transfer speeds over the Internet that are many times faster …

More: BGR, ZDNet, Gizmodo, Mashable, Electronista, Softpedia News, I4U News, Business Insider, SlashGear, CNET, DSLreports and Droid Life

Tweets: @georgebludger, @davethefuturist and @alistairmbarr

Andy Greenberg / Forbes:

Silk Road 2.0 ‘Hack’ Blamed On Bitcoin Bug, All Funds Stolen — The same bug that has plagued several of the biggest players in the Bitcoin economy may have just bitten the Silk Road. — On Thursday, one of the recently-reincarnated drug-selling black market site's administrators posted …

More: Deep Dot Web, TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, Business Insider, The Verge, Softpedia News, We Live Security, MoneyBeat and SlashGear

Michael Isikoff / NBC News:

Exclusive: Snowden Swiped Password From NSA Coworker — A civilian NSA employee recently resigned after being stripped of his security clearance for allowing former agency contractor Edward Snowden to use his pers...

More: BBC, Ars Technica, BGR, Mashable, TheBlot, Boing Boing, Nextgov, New York Times, I4U News, Slate and TheHill

Stephen Shankland / CNET:

Chrome speeds up web apps by compiling JavaScript in the background — Google: Under-the-hood change helps Web apps on Chrome — Google has taught Chrome how to walk and chew gum at the same time. — The newest Chrome beta version, 33, includes a feature called concurrent compilation …

More: Chromium Blog, I4U News, Softpedia News, SlashGear, The Register and The Next Web

Samuel Gibbs / Guardian:

Thousands of Tesco.com customer accounts suspended after hacker attack — More than 2,000 leaked usernames and passwords forced the retailer to suspend online shopping accounts — Tesco has been forced to deactivate online customer accounts after thousands of login details, including passwords, were posted online.

More: BBC, Computerworld, CNET, The Register and Telegraph

Kim-Mai Cutler / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Acquires Technical Recruiting Startup Distill — Yahoo just acquired a San Francisco-based startup called Distill, which was working on a way to make technical recruiting easier by pairing video interviews and programming challenges. They had raised $1.3 million in funding …

More: Computerworld, VatorNews, I4U News, CNET, Softpedia News and Business Insider

Tweets: @joshconstine and @dsaezgil

Thanks:@anthonyha

Martyn Williams / Computerworld:

Phil Schiller up again in next round of Apple-Samsung battle — The Apple executive is one of a handful of people Samsung said it will call to the court — Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller is among the witnesses that lawyers for Samsung plan to call when the two companies return to court in California in late March.

More: AppleInsider, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, App Advice, Network World, iPhone in Canada Blog, Cult of Mac and MacRumors

Craig Malisow / Dallas Observer:

How an 18yo Texan who posted a facetious threat to Facebook now faces 10 years in prison — The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life — A young man's violent threat on Facebook lands him in jail, and limbo. — Approximately one hour after Justin Carter posted a sarcastic comment on a Facebook thread …

Tweets: @pronailprincesa, @jbrodkin and @nicolaskb

Lisa Jennings / Nation's Restaurant News:

Taco Bell testing mobile ordering for in-store pickup, will roll out nationally this year — Taco Bell to offer mobile ordering nationwide — Taco Bell is preparing to roll out mobile ordering nationwide later this year, a move that will likely fuel a trend expected to shake up the quick-service world.

More: ZDNet, Ubergizmo, Los Angeles Times, Phandroid, Electronista, The Verge, The Switch, MacRumors, Droid Life and AndroidGuys

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

New Android OEM licensing terms leak; “Open” comes with a lot of restrictions — The least understood area of the Android ecosystem has always been the highly secretive Google Play Apps licensing process. While Android is open source, the Google applications, like the Play Store, Gmail …

More: Inquirer, Beyond Search, BenEdelman.org, Android Community, WindowsITPro, Digits, BGR, Pocketnow, The Register and ZDNet. Tweets: @glennf

Amy Schatz / Re/code:

Peering could replace net neutrality as one of the key issues in Comcast-Time Warner review — Sleeper Issue Peers Around the Corner of Comcast-Time Warner Deal — Comcast executives scored big points three years ago with the Federal Communications Commission by volunteering to abide …

More: Comment, Wired, eWeek, The Technology Chronicles and Deadline.com. See also Mediagazer

TechCrunch:

Facebook Opens Up LGBTQ-Friendly Gender Identity And Pronoun Options — Facebook has just updated to let users choose the gender pronoun they associate with. Aside from the usual “male” and “female” options, users can choose up to 10 different gender definitions to describe themselves …

More: GLAAD, The Verge, Inquirer, Softpedia News, Computerworld, CNN, PSFK, CNET, VentureBeat, Lastest ITProPortal news, Gizmodo, Re/code, BBC, Gigaom, GeekWire, ZDNet, VatorNews, Salon, PC Magazine, Reuters, Slate and SlashGear. Tweets: @tomscott

Josh Ong / The Next Web:

PlayStation 4 beat Xbox One for January console sales, but Xbox One sold more games — Sony and Microsoft are both trumpeting market share wins from NPD's January US gaming data. Sony declared its PlayStation 4 the top-selling console last month, while Microsoft took credit for selling the most games.

More: Xbox Wire, VentureBeat, VentureBeat, VG247, The Verge, Geeky Gadgets, ITworld.com, Softpedia News, WinBeta, KitGuru, Gearburn, SlashGear, SlashGear, Ubergizmo, NYT Bits, Engadget, VG247, Joystiq and GeekWire

Evelyn M. Rusli / Wall Street Journal:

New Apps Whisper and Secret Cater to a Craving to Dish Freely — Messaging Services Offer Anonymity and a Web With Fewer Consequences — Michael Edgeworth, a 20-year-old college student in Illinois, rarely texts and never tweets. — However, he sends more than 50 messages a day on Snapchat that disappear soon after they are read.

More: Venture Capital Dispatch. Tweets: @scottmaustin, @wsjd, @zeynep, @scottmaustin and @evelynrusli

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Wall Street Journal:

Pandora to let advertisers target listeners based on its sense of their political leanings starting next week — Internet Radio Service Builds Profiles of Its Audience — Pandora Hopes to Build Ad Revenue by Pinpointing Likely Voting Preferences — Next time you listen to a Bob Marley channel …

Tweets: @peteskomoroch, @lizzadwoskin and @a_grossman. See also Mediagazer

Jay Yarow / Business Insider:

Microsoft's Shaw to NYT's Manjoo: “you are using a rear-view mirror, not a windshield, to look at the road ahead — Microsoft PR Chief Shreds New NY Times Columnist Over His Advice Column — The New York Times recently hired former Slate (and former Wall Street Journal) technology columnist Farhad Manjoo.

Tweets: @fxshaw, @thestalwart, @ganeshtoday, @mikeisaac, @mhelft, @willoremus, @fmanjoo, @davegirouard, @mattyglesias, @drew, @mims, @stldreiling and @karaswisher

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

To avoid obsolescence, buy Apple's hardware, use Google's services, and buy Amazon's media

More: Guardian and MacDailyNews. Tweets: @binarybits

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft signs Android patent deal with Voxx Electronics — Summary: Microsoft has added Voxx Electronics to its list of Android patent licensees. — Microsoft may be considering ways to entice Android developers and handset makers to join the Windows world, but that isn't stopping …

More: PR Newswire, WinBeta, FOSS Patents, Seattle Times blogs and The Droid Guy

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Windows 8 passes 200 million license sales — Microsoft has been rather quiet about its risky Windows 8 bet. The company passed 100 million license sales of Windows 8 after around six months, but a year on the market came and went without any real update on its progress.

Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:

Apple files patent for automated disposable email addresses to combat spam — Apple wants to stop, track down spammers with automated disposable email addresses — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday published an Apple patent application describing a system that thwarts spam mail …

More: MacRumors, VentureBeat, CNET and TechCrunch. Tweets: @counternotions

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