Techmeme: Federal privacy watchdog finds NSA programs targeting foreigners are effective, legal and show “no trace” of “illegitimate activity” (Julian Hattem/The Hill)

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July 2, 2014, 1:40 PM

Top News

R. Jai Krishna / Wall Street Journal:

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg apologizes for poorly communicating controversial News Feed study: “We never meant to upset you” — Sandberg: Facebook Study Was ‘Poorly Communicated’ — Facebook 's psychological experiment on nearly 700,000 unwitting users was communicated “poorly …

More: Telegraph, USA Today, The Technology Chronicles, Mercury News, SiliconBeat, The Next Web, Guardian, Business Insider, NDTV News, TIME, Technologizer, Forbes, ROUGH TYPE, PandoDaily, Mashable, Times of India and Press Association

Tweets: @astepanovich, @nycjim and @dangillmor

Jillian Ward / Bloomberg:

Facebook's News Feed Experiment Probed by U.K. Regulators

More: The Register, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC, New York Times, bizjournals, iMore, Gigaom, Ubergizmo, Engadget, WebProNews, Reuters, The Next Web, CNET, The Laboratorium and Mercury News

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

Developer preview test for Android L's Project Volta shows promise, 2 hours or 35% more battery life on Nexus 5 — Examining Project Volta: We put Android L through our battery test — For each Android release, Google likes to have a “Project” that picks an area of weakness and focuses on tuning the whole OS to fix it.

More: BGR, Gigaom, Android Beat, Redmond Pie, TechnoBuffalo, Geeky Gadgets, Geek.com, SlashGear, Business Insider and Android Police

Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:

Investor Tim Draper wins auction for 29,655 bitcoins seized from Silk Road, partners with Vaurum to leverage the pool as a liquidity source in emerging markets — Famed investor Tim Draper wins auction of Silk Road's 29,655 bitcoins — Draper to partner with Vaurum, which offers “secure storage solutions” to banks.

More: Medium, New York Times, Re/code, CNET, Gigaom, PandoDaily, Fortune, TechCrunch, CoinDesk, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Wired, TIME, On Bitcoin and NEWSBTC

Tweets: @boostvc and @adamdraper

Julian Hattem / The Hill:

Federal privacy watchdog finds NSA programs targeting foreigners are effective, legal and show “no trace” of “illegitimate activity” — Privacy board backs NSA's foreign spying — A federal privacy watchdog is largely putting its support behind a major pillar …

More: Ars Technica, Forbes, Bloomberg, Associated Press and Wired.co.uk

Tweets: @the_intercept and @granick

Cindy Cohn / Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Flawed Oversight Board Report Endorses General Warrants

More: Computerworld, The Verge, Techdirt, Alexander B. Howard, Softpedia News, Re/code, Reuters, Guardian, Nextgov, Mashable, Network World and Inquirer. Tweets: @matt_cagle

Mariella Moon / Engadget:

Chumby's smart alarm clock relaunches with 1,000 apps — Remember Chumby? You probably haven't heard much about the snuggly tiny computer/smart alarm clock since its makers' company disbanded, but now it's back from its semi-retired state. Its current owner, Blue Octy LLC …

More: The Verge, Connectedly, Geeky Gadgets and Liliputing. Tweets: @chumby

Dan Primack / Fortune:

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers raises $1.2B: $450M for flagship early-stage fund, $750M for digital growth fund — Exclusive: Kleiner Perkins raises $1.2 billion — Kleiner Perkins has no trouble raising a pair of new venture capital funds. Venerable venture capital firm Kleiner …

More: bizjournals, VentureBeat and SiliconBeat

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

Source: Google paid more than $39M for Songza — Google Buys Songza, a Playlist Service for Any Occasion — In a sign of growing consolidation in the digital music business, Google announced on Tuesday that it had bought Songza, a three-year-old app that competes with Pandora and others …

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Google acquires music streaming service Songza for undisclosed amount, will keep product intact for now

Hitesh Arora / NDTV Gadgets:

Google Discontinues SMS for Hangouts; Might Integrate Google Voice Soon — Google on Monday has updated that it is discontinuing SMS for Google Hangouts feature for Web from July 2. Up till now the feature was available for India, Pakistan, Israel, Turkey, Ukraine, Congo and many other countries from Africa and Asia.

More: Gizmodo, Google Operating System, Gigaom, Google Operating System, Droid Life, The Next Web and AndroidGuys

Soma Somasegar / MSDN Blogs:

Microsoft acquires SyntaxTree, creator of UnityVS plugin for Visual Studio — Game developers build the apps that hundreds of millions of users play every day across a wide variety of devices, from Xbox and Windows to iOS, Android and the Web. Games are the most popular application type …

More: The Next Web, ZDNet, Neowin and Develop Feed

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

An Upper Limit For Apps? New Data Suggests Consumers Only Use Around Two Dozen Apps Per Month — There are now well over a million mobile applications in both Google Play and the iTunes App Store alike, and growth of those app marketplaces shows no sign of slowing down.

More: asymco.com, ZDNet, 9to5Mac, MacDailyNews and TIME

Bloomberg:

Shutterfly Said to Hire Qatalyst to Seek Buyers for Site — Shutterfly Inc. (SFLY), which turns digital photos into printed albums, is working with boutique investment bank Qatalyst Partners to find buyers for the company, according to people familiar with the matter.

More: SiliconBeat

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

BlaBlaCar Raises A Massive $100 Million Round To Create A Global Long Distance Ride-Sharing Network — In what is the largest VC round in a French startup of all time, BlaBlaCar just raised a $100 million round led by Index Ventures, with existing investors Accel Partners, ISAI and Lead Edge Capital also participating in the round.

More: VatorNews, Gigaom, PE Hub Blog, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Re/code, VentureBeat, CNET, Skift, New York Times, Guardian, Rude Baguette, Webrazzi, Tnooz, PandoDaily and Engadget

Tweets: @scottmaustin and @robinklein

Greg Bensinger / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon resists FTC request to tighten in-app purchase policy for children — Amazon Resisting FTC on Policy Change for In-App Purchases — Amazon-FTC Dispute Is Over Limiting Children's Purchases — Amazon.com Inc. is bucking a request from the Federal Trade Commission that it tighten …

Amy Schatz / Re/code:

FTC says T-Mobile made hundreds of millions on crammed text message charges; T-Mobile says accusations are “unfounded and without merit”

More: T-Mobile Newsroom, DSLreports, TIME, PR Newswire, Gawker, PandoDaily, Inside Mobile Apps, Techdirt, Tech Times, PhoneNews.com, Business Insider, The Hill, consumer.ftc.gov, SlashGear, BGR, VentureBeat, Android Central, Mashable, 9to5Google and Bloomberg

Tweets: @stevekovach and @johnlegere

Husain Sumra / MacRumors:

Apple Launches $49 Mac Pro Security Lock Adapter in Online Store — Apple today launched a new $49 Mac Pro Security Lock Adapter in its online store, offering users of the new Mac Pro a way to easily secure their machines using existing Kensington locks. Previously, users had to resort …

More: iMore, Softpedia News, SlashGear, AppleInsider, iPhone in Canada Blog, 9to5Mac and App Advice

Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:

Facebook's new type of ad in India lets users place a ‘missed call’ for more information — Facebook faces several challenges in emerging markets. The company has to find ways for people to access its platform by maneuvering around limitations which include a widespread use of feature phones …

More: Facebook, VentureBeat, AllFacebook, blogs.ft.com, Quartz, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Windows Phone Central, The Drum, SocialTimes and Mashable

Ian Austen / New York Times:

Canadian antispam law goes into effect, resulting in a flurry of ‘please opt in’ emails — Canadian Antispam Law Whips Up a Storm of Last-Minute Messages — OTTAWA — The email has all the markings of malicious spam: an overwrought subject line screaming “Urgent Action Required …

More: Gigaom, Toronto Star, Canadian Business, Craig Addy, Marketing Pilgrim, CAUCE, Financial Post, natlawreview.com, Ottawa Citizen, Politico, Rachel Rodgers Law Office, Slate and Michael Geist Blog

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft seeks Office for Android testers as it readies tablet version — Touch-friendly Office Android apps coming before Windows version — Microsoft may have released a basic Office app for Android phones almost a year ago, but the company is now building a suite designed specifically for Android tablets.

More: Engadget, PC World, Gigaom, 9to5Google, Phandroid, Ubergizmo, Pocketnow and Droid Life

TechCrunch:

Russia Moves To Ban Online Services That Don't Store Personal Data In Russia — The Russian government has moved one step closer towards a “China-like” approach towards Internet services. — Last night, the Russian State Duma (parliament) passed the first bill requiring that the personal data …

More: Gigaom, VentureBeat, The Voice of Russia, News, theWHIR.com, Geek.com, Geeky Gadgets and Ubergizmo

Nicholas Stango / Gizmodo:

Inside the Secret Building That's Bringing Cell Service To NYC's Subway — As Hurricane Sandy revealed almost two years ago, New York's 100-year-old subway is not a modern and robust system. In fact, compared to other cities, it's downright dirty, unpredictable and technologically behind.

More: ANIMAL

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