Techmeme: IBM is challenging developers to insert Watson into mobile apps (Derrick Harris/Gigaom)

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February 27, 2014, 11:45 AM

Top News

Guardian:

GCHQ, aided by NSA, intercepted and stored webcam images of millions of global Yahoo users — UK spy agency intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users — • Optic Nerve program collected Yahoo webcam images in bulk — • 1.8m users targeted by GCHQ in six-month period alone

More: The Next Web, Telegraph, Computerworld, Digital Trends, Fox News, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, BBC, The Verge, Engadget, ZDNet, Gigaom, Guardian, Charlie's Diary, USA Today, Softpedia News, Ubergizmo, Gawker, Boing Boing, SlashGear, TechPresident, emptywheel and Wall Street Journal

Tweets: @dliebelson, @csoghoian, @csoghoian, @guardianus, @guardianus, @guardianus, @tomscott, @ggreenwald and @ggreenwald

Thanks:@zackwhittaker

eBay, Inc.:

Statement by Pierre Omidyar, eBay Inc. Chairman of the Board — I am eBay Inc.'s founder, board chairman and largest shareholder. — A new eBay shareholder, Carl Icahn, is making unsubstantiated claims about our company — and deliberately impugning the integrity of our directors.

More: CNET, USA Today, TechCrunch, Shareholders Square Table and GeekWire. Tweets: @pmarca

Steven Perlberg / Business Insider:

Carl Icahn Goes After The eBay Board In A New Open Letter With 6 Facts — Carl Icahn is out with a new open letter to the shareholders of eBay. — There has been quite a back and forth between the activist investor and eBay's board, and the scrap continues today with Icahn laying out six “facts.”

More: Shareholders Square Table. Tweets: @cnbc

Harry McCracken / TIME:

Project Ara: Inside Google's Bold Gambit to Make Smartphones Modular — The two-year quest to create the ultimate customizable phone, inside and out. — On January 29, Google announced that it had agreed to sell Motorola, its phone-manufacturing business, to Chinese electronics giant Lenovo.

More: LAPTOP Magazine, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, The Verge, TechHive, Google ATAP, CNET, BGR, Telegraph, The Tech Report, I4U News, Phandroid, Geek.com, Softpedia News, TechSpot, Gizmodo, IntoMobile, Android Central, SlashGear, Digital Trends, Android Beat, The Register, Electronista, Yahoo Tech, The Next Web, ZDNet, MobileSyrup.com and bit-tech.net

Tweets: @andreascon, @tim and @jordannovet

Thanks:@mariedomingo

Bertel King, Jr / Android Police:

Google Announces Project Ara Developers' Conference, Taking Place Online Via Live Webstream April 15-16th

More: The Verge, The Next Web, SiliconANGLE, Android and Me, VentureBeat, AndroidGuys, TechCrunch and 9to5Google. Tweets: @projectara

Fred Wilson / AVC:

Fred Wilson to Senator Manchin: “Benefits of Bitcoin will be as important, impactful, and beneficial as that of the Internet” — A Letter To Senator Manchin — Senator Joe Manchin wrote a public letter to financial regulators asking them to “take appropriate action to limit …

More: Union Square Ventures, Feld Thoughts and Bitcoin Foundation

Tweets: @polemitis, @fredwilson and @bradusv

Andy Greenberg / Forbes:

Senator Calls For Bitcoin Ban In Letter To Financial Regulators

More: Business Insider, CNET, The Verge, TechCrunch, Inquirer, Network World, SiliconANGLE, CoinDesk, ITworld.com, Mashable, Digital Trends, Engadget, Ars Technica, Techdirt, The Switch, newsBTC, MarketWatch and Business Insider

Tweets: @sen_joemanchin and @kashhill

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Facebook Messenger for Windows will shut down on March 3 — Facebook today began prompting Facebook Messenger for Windows users with a message saying the app is shutting down next week. Without much of an explanation, the company plans to kill off Windows support for Facebook Messenger on March 3.

More: PC World, Softpedia News, SlashGear, AllFacebook and gHacks Technology News. Thanks:@epro

Luke Baker / Reuters:

Europe invites Apple, Google to discuss ‘in-app’ purchases — (Reuters) - The European Commission announced plans on Thursday to tackle one of the scourges of the modern age - games on tablets and mobile phones that allow adults and children to rack up vast credit card bills by making “in-app” purchases.

More: EU Press Room, Wall Street Journal, MacRumors, Gigaom, CNET, bizjournals, iDownloadBlog.com …, MobileBurn.com and Dow Jones Newswires

Eric Johnson / Re/code:

A Long Tail of Whales: Half of Mobile Games Money Comes From 0.15 Percent of Players — Oh, you've spent a couple dollars on Candy Crush? How cute. — In a mobile monetization report released today, app testing firm Swrve found that in January, half of free-to-play games' in-app purchases came from 0.15 percent of players.

More: VentureBeat, destructoid, Joystiq, www.pocketgamer.biz, Guardian and Ubergizmo

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:

Apple Launches Big Improvements For iOS Management Tools For Enterprise And Education — Apple has been busy in the IT department. Today, it released a slew of improvements and alterations to its large-scale deployment tools for education and enterprise customers.

More: Fraser Speirs, Macworld, 9to5Mac, App Advice, iDownloadBlog.com …, iPhone Hacks, AppleInsider, MacRumors, The Loop and PalmAddict

Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:

Apple retires Snow Leopard from support, leaves 1 in 5 Macs vulnerable to attacks — Twice now that Apple's bypassed Snow Leopard when it patched newer editions — Apple on Tuesday made it clear that it will no longer patch OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, when it again declined to offer …

More: ReadWrite, BGR and Softpedia News. Tweets: @r0h1n

David Kravets / Wired:

Feds Refuse to Release Public Comments on NSA Reform — Citing Privacy — The Obama administration has received 28 proposals from corporations with ideas for managing the NSA's massive database of U.S. phone call metadata. But don't expect to see the proposals anytime soon.

More: VentureBeat, The Switch and Wall Street Journal

Tweets: @jesselynradack and @thomas_drake1

Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:

Marketing Chief Kathy Savitt's Star Rises at Yahoo — A management shake-up at Yahoo Inc. has conferred more power on Kathy Savitt, a marketing executive who has quickly risen to become one of Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's most prominent and trusted lieutenants.

More: bizjournals and GeekWire. Tweets: @wsjd

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

The Fingerprint Scanner On The Samsung Galaxy S5 Will Be Accessible By Developers — Samsung's Galaxy S5 includes a fingerprint scanner embedded in the home button, and that hardware will be made available to third-party devs, the company announced today at a developer-focused event during MWC this year.

More: Gotta Be Mobile, TechnoBuffalo, Network World and Daring Fireball

Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:

Samsung releases Galaxy S5, Gear 2, Gear Fit SDK kits for developers

More: Inquirer, Samsung Mobile Press, IntoMobile, Softpedia News, TechCrunch, internetretailer.com, 9to5Google, Engadget, I4U News, SlashGear, Samsung Tomorrow and CNET. Thanks:@zdnetcharlie

Stuart Dredge / Guardian:

Spotify and Ministry of Sound settle music playlists copyright lawsuit — Playlists based on dance brand's compilations will be removed from streaming service's search engine — Dance brand Ministry of Sound and streaming service Spotify have reached an “amicable” out-of-court settlement in their legal battle over music playlists.

More: hypebot. See also Mediagazer

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google Launches Maps Gallery To Make Public Data Maps More Discoverable — Senator Warns Unregulated Bitcoin Leaves Americans Holding A “Valueless Currency” — Google today launched the Google Maps Gallery, an extension of the Google Maps Public Data Program it announced last October.

More: The Verge, The Next Web, ZDNet and Google Enterprise Blog

Derrick Harris / Gigaom:

IBM is challenging developers to insert Watson into mobile apps — At the Mobile World Congress event today, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty laid down the gauntlet for mobile developers. Over the next three months, IBM will host its Watson Mobile Developer Challenge to find the best ideas for mobile apps …

More: IBM, Beyond Search, eWeek, InfoWorld, San Francisco Chronicle, Wireless Week, CRN, Smarter Computing Blog, AdAge, CNET, PC Magazine, thedrum.com, ZDNet, InfoWorld, Re/code and Tech Trader Daily

Tweets: @umichhi and @manojsaxena

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

T-Mobile has turned every accepted practice in the mobile phone business on its head — T-Mobile Turns an Industry on Its Ear — A rash of consumer-friendliness has broken out across the mobile data industry. Over the last year, the four major carriers — AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile …

More: Quartz. Tweets: @alexisohanian and @johnlegere

Sean Hollister / The Verge:

How Google is turning Mountain View into a company town — Welcome to Googletown — Here's how a city becomes company property — Some days it feels like Google is taking over the world. For the residents of Mountain View, California, that feeling is personal.

More: bizjournals. Tweets: @caseynewton, @om, @mattlynley and @starfire2258. Thanks:@srikardr

Jason Green / Mercury News:

Mountain View: City Council inks deal with Google for new Wi-Fi network

More: dailywireless.org, 9to5Google and bizjournals

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