Techmeme: Facebook Messenger for Windows will shut down on March 3 (Emil Protalinski/The Next Web)

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February 27, 2014, 1:10 PM

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

eBay, Inc.:

eBay chairman Omidyar defends board members, CEO against Icahn attack, says PayPal should remain part of the company — 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 …

More: USA Today, CNNMoney.com, ZDNet, CNET, TechCrunch, Shareholders Square Table and GeekWire

Tweets: @pierre and @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 and Guardian. 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: Gigaom, PC Magazine, VentureBeat, LAPTOP Magazine, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, The Verge, CNET, TechHive, Pocketnow, TeleRead, The Tech Report, I4U News, BGR, Phandroid, Geek.com, Telegraph, Softpedia News, Android Central, IntoMobile, Digital Trends, TechSpot, Android Beat, SlashGear, The Register, Electronista, Yahoo Tech, The Next Web, ZDNet, bit-tech.net and MobileSyrup.com

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: Google ATAP, The Verge, The Next Web, Android and Me, VentureBeat, SiliconANGLE, 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: CNET, Business Insider, 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, Engadget, TechnoBuffalo, SlashGear, Softpedia News, 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, MacRumors, Wall Street Journal, Gigaom, CNET, bizjournals, iDownloadBlog.com …, Dow Jones Newswires and MobileBurn.com

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, Inc.com, 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, iMore, Macworld, 9to5Mac, App Advice, iDownloadBlog.com …, iPhone Hacks, AppleInsider, MacRumors, The Loop and PalmAddict

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google Launches Maps Gallery To Make Public Data Maps More Discoverable — Google today launched the Google Maps Gallery, an extension of the Google Maps Public Data Program it announced last October. The new gallery is meant to showcase maps from the organizations Google is working with …

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

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

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

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: The Register, ReadWrite, BGR, TechSpot and Softpedia News. Tweets: @r0h1n

Dhanya Skariachan / Reuters:

Best Buy profit beats, set to cut costs more; shares jump — (Reuters) - U.S. retailer Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N) reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday and announced more aggressive cost cuts this year, sending its shares up nearly 6 percent in morning trading.

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. See also Mediagazer

David Pierce / The Verge:

Meet Moov, the fitness tracker that turns Siri into your new personal trainer — Nikola Hu is running wrong. He's loping along, leaning back as he goes. Suddenly a voice emerges from his phone: “Your cadence is low. Try swinging your arms legs and arms faster.”

More: TechCrunch, Engadget, Gizmodo, MacRumors and Gigaom

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

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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