Techmeme: House passed our amendment to defund #NSA's backdoor surveillance on Americans @RepZoeLofgren @JimPressOffice (Thomas Massie/@repthomasmassie)

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June 19, 2014, 11:25 PM

Top News

Michael Gold / Reuters:

Apple's smartwatch to launch as early as October with 2.5" screen, wireless charging, pulse sensor, sources say — Taiwan's Quanta to start mass production of Apple's smartwatch in July: source — (Reuters) - Taiwan's Quanta Computer Inc will start mass production of Apple Inc's first smartwatch in July …

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Significant enhancements coming to AppleCare+, Apple IDs, iOS support — Apple's vice president of AppleCare and technical support initiatives, Tara Bunch, held a Town Hall meeting for for AppleCare employees earlier this week, according to several employees in attendance who asked to remain anonymous.

More: MacNN, iDownloadBlog.com, TechnoBuffalo, App Advice and iLounge

Baljeet Singh / The Twitter Blog:

Twitter acquires SnappyTV, the service for clipping, editing, and sharing video clips from live broadcasts — SnappyTV is joining the flock — One of the best ways to follow events as they unfold is through real-time videos on Twitter. As we continue to invest in video …

Joshua Ho / AnandTech:

iOS 8 exposes almost every manual camera control possible, allows third-party apps access to all — Manual Camera Controls in iOS 8 — For the longest time, iOS had almost no camera controls at all. There would be a toggle for HDR, a toggle to switch to the front-facing camera, and a toggle to switch to video recording mode.

More: Pocket-lint, Daring Fireball, BGR, iPhone in Canada Blog, Pocketnow, MacRumors, TechnoBuffalo, Gigaom, MacDailyNews, MacNN and Geeky Gadgets

John Cook / GeekWire:

Google buys Alpental, a startup focused on 5G technologies and led by former Clearwire researchers — Google just quietly bought this stealthy Seattle startup led by ex-Clearwire researchers — Sometimes startups attract corporate attention after releasing cutting-edge products, or nailing down key customers.

More: Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, 9to5Google and BGR. Tweets: @monicapaolini. Thanks:@toddbishop

Mat Smith / Engadget:

US House of Representatives pass amendment to cut NSA's ‘backdoor search’ funding — Following a push from Representatives Justin Amash and Thomas Massie, the House of Representatives has passed an amendment to stop at least some of the surveillance programs at the National Security Agency.

Tweets: @sarahjeong, @rabite, @steventdennis, @craigcaplan, @repzoelofgren, @stuartmillar159, @xor, @xor, @eff and @normative

Thomas Massie / @repthomasmassie:

House passed our amendment to defund #NSA's backdoor surveillance on Americans @RepZoeLofgren @JimPressOffice

Tweets: @emptywheel, @rabite, @rabite and @rabite

Josh Lowensohn / The Verge:

The Nokia team Microsoft didn't buy has made an Android launcher — But is it better than what's out there? — Nokia's involvement with Google's Android can only be described as one big “what if.” Ahead of Microsoft's deal to buy it, Nokia was testing Android phones …

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

LinkedIn Launches Its First Standalone Job Search App, Privacy Guaranteed — LinkedIn says that today 40% of its 300 million users access the site on mobile devices, so its bid to tap into the wave of users accessing the site via smartphones and tablets continues apace …

More: Official LinkedIn Blog, iMore, Gigaom, App Advice, Network World, iPhone Hacks, 9to5Mac, VentureBeat, PC Magazine, Geeky Gadgets, WebProNews, CNET, ZDNet, The Next Web and SeekingAlpha.com

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Adam Bain taking over business development at Twitter; Gabriel Stricker to head its media unit — Bain Officially Gets Biz Dev, While Media Unit Moves to Stricker at Twitter (Plus TV Memo!) — As Re/code reported last week, Twitter sales leader Adam Bain will take over business development at Twitter …

More: CNET and Wall Street Journal

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:

Maps ‘City Tours’ feature hidden in iOS 8 betas, works like a guided Flyover video — Although deeper changes to Maps are in the works, Apple did announce a new City Tours feature for iOS 8 discreetly on one of the keynote slides. This feature is not normally available in the current iOS 8 betas …

More: MacRumors, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, PadGadget, Redmond Pie, AppleInsider, iPhone in Canada Blog, Gotta Be Mobile, TechnoBuffalo, iPhone Hacks, App Advice, Geeky Gadgets, Business Insider, TUAW and MacNN. Tweets: @markgurman

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Supreme Court rules software patents that cover ‘abstract ideas’ are invalid — Software patents aren't dead, but they just took a blow. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that a series of banking patents didn't cover a concrete software process but an abstract idea …

More: New York Times, Gigaom, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Ars Technica, Vox, SCOTUSblog, NationalJournal.com, Re/code, The Register, InfoWorld, Consumerist, The Hill, GeekWire, Washington Post, Fortune, CNET, Patently-O, GamePolitics blogs, Engadget and Turnstyle

Tweets: @b_fung, @spolsky and @jeffjohnroberts

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

Why Did Amazon Make a Phone? A Conversation With Jeff Bezos — Shortly after he introduced the new Fire phone on Wednesday, I spoke with Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon's founder and chief executive, about the device and Amazon's goals in the smartphone business. — Here is an edited transcript of our discussion.

More: Wall Street Journal, Ubergizmo and Boing Boing

Tweets: @b_fung, @stevekovach, @jyarow and @jyarow

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Google Acquires mDialog To Improve DoubleClick's Video Advertising — Google today announced that it has acquired video advertising company mDialog. — In a post on Google+, the company said that it will “work with the mDialog team to incorporate their technology and expertise …

More: DoubleClick Digital Marketing, PC World, CNET, The Next Web, Multichannel News, 9to5Google and Marketing Land

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Mozilla to Develop Comments Platform for New York Times and Washington Post — The New York Times and The Washington Post announced on Thursday that they had teamed up with Mozilla to develop a new platform that will allow them to better manage their readers' online comments and contributions.

More: Gigaom, VentureBeat, Poynter, The Verge, OStatic blogs, Knight Foundation and The Awl. See also Mediagazer

Brad Sams / Neowin:

Microsoft provides roadmap for Office 365 and a new ‘First Release’ program — Microsoft's move to turn Office into a subscription-based service is working out well for the company. With millions of consumers and businesses now using the platform, Microsoft has to be clear …

More: Office Blogs, ZDNet, The Register, Network World, InfoWorld, PC World and WinBeta

Simon Khalaf / Flurry:

Fitness app usage up 62% in past six months from 49% in 2013, 87% faster than total app market growth — Health and Fitness Apps Finally Take Off, Fueled by Fitness Fanatics — Over the past six years, we have seen mobile and its apps disrupt and transform many industries.

More: CNET, ITworld.com, PandoDaily, TechCrunch and Guardian. Thanks:@flurrymobile

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

Sources say Box hopes to complete IPO by July-August; contrary to rumors, has ruled out sale — Box Revives IPO Plans as Cloud Shares Recover — Timing is everything. And cloud storage company Box could not have picked a worse time to go public. — The March 24 public disclosure …

More: SiliconBeat and TechCrunch

Neil McAllister / The Register:

Android to drop Dalvik VM for high-performance ART in next version — Code changes proclaim death of OS's original code runtime — The next version of Google's Android smartphone OS may ship with a new code execution engine that improves performance and battery life, if a new report is to be believed.

More: xda-developers, Inquirer, Engadget, BGR, Android and Me, Softpedia News, Android Authority, Pocketnow, Android Authority, Phandroid and Android Police

Daniel Bader / Mobile Syrup:

BlackBerry Passport, formerly known as ‘Windermere’, coming in September — John Chen announced during BlackBerry's quarterly earnings report that the company's next phone will be called Passport. Previously known as ‘Windermere’, the often-leaked QWERTY device will sport …

More: CrackBerry.com, CNET, TechCrunch, BerryReview, Ubergizmo, Gizmodo, SlashGear, Electronista, BGR and Softpedia News

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