Techmeme: NSA and FBI covertly monitored emails of several Muslim-Americans, including a political candidate and civil rights activists (First Look Media)

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July 9, 2014, 2:55 PM

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First Look Media:

NSA and FBI covertly monitored emails of several Muslim-Americans, including a political candidate and civil rights activists — Meet the Muslim-American Leaders the FBI and NSA Have Been Spying On — The National Security Agency and FBI have covertly monitored the emails of prominent Muslim-Americans …

Tony Romm / Politico:

Apple noted to the FTC in January that Google Play also allowed kids to make unauthorized in-app purchases — Apps and kids: Google may be next in FTC crosshairs — Apple leaped into action after the Federal Trade Commission cracked down on iPhone and iPad apps that let kids spend their parents' money without permission.

More: MacRumors, Gigaom, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, Cult of Mac, MobileBurn.com, MacDailyNews and Electronista. Thanks:@ericengleman

Guardian:

DARPA finances research on social media platforms like Twitter, Pinterest, Kickstarter, others to understand how ideas spread and how to influence them — US military studied how to influence Twitter users in Darpa-funded research — The activities of users of Twitter and other social media services …

More: SiliconBeat, PC World, The Next Web, Wired.co.uk, Electronista, Mashable, VentureBeat and Engadget

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

High school interns hired by Silicon Valley's tech giants can make more than US average income — Silicon Valley's Talent Grab Spawns High-School Interns — Facebook Inc. (FB) rolled out the red carpet for Michael Sayman when the social network hired him for a job that started last month …

More: BetaBoston, Valleywag, Daily Dot, Business Insider, The Technology Chronicles and The Register

Tweets: @adamdangelo, @cdixon, @mark_beech and @sarahfrier

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Google Adds Android Smartphone And Tablet Screen Mirroring To Chromecast — Google has released a feature for Chromecast announced at Google I/O this year - Android device screen mirroring. The update today brings the much-desired feature to all Chromecast-capable devices and makes Google Cast …

More: Official Android Blog, Engadget, Gizmodo, 9to5Google, Gigaom, The Next Web, TechHive, Geek.com and Phandroid

Alistair Barr / Wall Street Journal:

Google Cloud now offering 2TB of free storage for a year to compete with Amazon and Microsoft — With Google Offer, Cloud Storage Gets Closer to Free — Google Wednesday fired another shot in the price wars for cloud-computing services, offering businesses more free storage in an effort …

More: eWeek and 9to5Google

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

PayPal Makes Good On Its Braintree Acquisition With Launch Of New Developer Tools, The Braintree “v.zero SDK” — Payments gateway Braintree is making its first significant product announcement since its acquisition by PayPal last year, with the launch of a jointly developed Braintree SDK …

More: VentureBeat, PandoDaily, Gigaom and The Next Web

Simon Khalaf / Flurry Insights:

Users of Xiaomi devices in China spent 7% more time in apps than iPhone users in January — Xiaomi Brings Apple's Magic to China's Young Business Professionals (...and to Android) — Over the past 5 years, Apple and Google have maintained a healthy duopoly in the smartphone market.

More: The Next Web, iPhone Hacks, 9to5Mac, Tnooz, Business Insider and CNET

Tweets: @sammywalrusiv and @rolfewinkler

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft readies three new Office 365 plans for small and mid-size businesses — Summary: Microsoft is introducing three new Office 365 plans for small and midsize business users this October. Here's what's coming. — One of the primary markets where Microsoft goes head-to-head with Google …

More: Office Blogs, TechCrunch, PC World, theWHIR.com and WinBeta

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

Adidas wants to put a personal trainer on your wrist with the Fit Smart — Nike might be planning to abandon its Fuelband hardware, but Adidas is taking the opposite path with the introduction of its new Fit Smart fitness tracking device. It's a wrist-worn tracker that looks similar …

More: Gigaom, New York Times, Gizmodo, Engadget, Wearables Arena, Pocket-lint, Pocket-lint and Pocket-lint

BBC:

Apple suffers Siri patent case defeat in China — Apple has failed in its attempt to get a Chinese company's voice-recognition patent ruled invalid. — The verdict threatens Apple's ability to offer its voice-controlled virtual assistant, Siri, in the country.

More: Reuters, Wall Street Journal, The Register, MacRumors, Xinhua News Agency, 9to5Mac, Forbes, Electronista, Cult of Mac, SlashGear, Fortune and ZDNet

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

137 Ventures Raises $137M Second Fund To Offer Early Liquidity To Startup Execs — Secondary investment firm 137 Ventures is announcing that it has raised a $137 million new fund. (That number has to be intentional, right?) — When the firm was founded in 2010, it was pitched as an alternative …

More: Wall Street Journal and Reuters

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

A profile of ex-Googler Morgan Marquis-Boire, now director of security at First Look Media — The Ex-Google Hacker Taking on the World's Spy Agencies — During his last six years working as an elite security researcher for Google, the hacker known as Morgan Mayhem spent his nights …

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

ServiceNow to Acquire Israel's Neebula for $100 Million — ServiceNow, the cloud software company that helps other companies automate their corporate IT environments, will pay $100 million in cash to acquire Neebula, an Israeli startup. — Neebula's speciality is a system for discovering …

More: VentureBeat and RTTNews

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / ZDNet:

Quarterly tablet PC shipments to fall for the first time ever — Summary: For the past several years, tablet PCs and smartphones have been the primary growth driver in the smart device category, but that cash cow might be running dry. — Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

More: iMore and The Next Web

Kaylene Hong / The Next Web:

LG's new KizON wristband is a wearable for kids that lets parents track their location — LG is going all out to make its presence felt in the wearables space — after its Android Wear-based G Watch went on sale across the world yesterday, it has unveiled today a new wearable device for kids, the KizON wristband.

More: Be Korea-savvy, TechHive, SlashGear, HotHardware.com News, Ausdroid, Mobile Magazine, GSMArena Blog, CNET, Electronista and Re/code

Om Malik:

With Big Data Comes Big Responsibility — “You should presume that someday, we will be able to make machines that can reason, think and do things better than we can,” Google co-founder Sergey Brin said in a conversation with Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla.

More: Beyond Search, TechCrunch and Fast Company

Tweets: @rozzie and @om

Thanks:@srikardr

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Texas lawyer sues Tor for providing tools used by revenge porn site — Encryption service Tor has been caught up in a Texas revenge porn lawsuit. Yesterday, attorney Jason Lee Van Dyke linked to a lawsuit filing against Pink Meth, a nude photos site accessible only to users of the encryption software.

More: PandoDaily and Daily Dot

Mark Spoonauer / LAPTOP Magazine:

Sony Nabs Verizon As Partner, Xperia Z2 First Exclusive — With its very light and waterproof design, the Sony Xperia Z2 is one of the best iPad Air alternatives, but most people don't know it exists. Verizon hopes to change that by offering an exclusive version of the tablet with 4G LTE …

More: Verizon Wireless Promotions, TechCrunch, Gigaom, CNET, BGR and IntoMobile. Thanks:@mspoonauer

Faryaab S. / SamMobile:

Gear VR, Samsung's virtual reality headset, to launch at IFA 2014 early September — Exclusive: Samsung's virtual reality headset will be called Gear VR, launch at IFA 2014 — A month ago, Engadget exclusively reported on Samsung's upcoming VR device, which is being developed in collaboration with Facebook's Oculus Rift.

David Shamah / The Times of Israel:

“Red Alert: Israel” app now using Yo to deliver rocket attack alerts — Red Alert app offers a Yo! update on missile attacks — A mobile platform developed by two Israeli volunteers spreads the word on Israeli communities in danger- in real time

More: The Verge, The Independent, ABC News, Fast Company and Valleywag. See also Mediagazer

Seth Rosenblatt / CNET:

Android's phone wiping fails to delete personal data — Prepping an older phone for resale or as a donation? A study shows you'll need more than the default data wipe tools to eliminate personal data and those embarrassing selfies.

More: avast! blog, VentureBeat, BGR, MobileBurn.com, TIME, Geek.com, The Register, SlashGear, Redmond Pie, TechSpot, blog.chron.com, Gizmodo, Pocketables, The Daily Caller, SC Magazine, Softpedia News and 9to5Google

Marcus Wohlsen / Wired:

UberX now 20% cheaper in NYC, undercutting taxis, and operating at a loss to make itself too big to ban — Uber's Brilliant Strategy to Make Itself Too Big to Ban — The question of how Uber would spend its billion-dollar investment was never really much of a riddle.

More: Uber Blog, BGR, VentureBeat, The Awl, Ubergizmo, Digital Trends, New York Magazine, Engadget, TechCrunch, CNNMoney.com, Quartz, Wall Street Journal and Re/code

Tweets: @matthewstoller, @jowyang and @counternotions

Ben Thompson / stratechery:

Samsung's basic problem: no software-based differentiation, competing on price is not enough — Smartphone Truths and Samsung's Inevitable Decline — For me, anyway, the most surprising thing about Samsung's disappointing earnings was just how surprised many folks seemed to be.

More: Fortune, TechCrunch, Technologizer, The Guardian and Stowe Boyd

Ryan Faas / CITEworld:

What businesses need to know about Android Work — Google announced its Android Work program during its developer conference in June. The program, which will launch as part of Android L this fall, marks a turning point for Android in business. Until now, there haven't been true across …

More: Android Police. Tweets: @mattrosoff

Blake Stimac / TechHive:

New custom ROM for LG G Watch promises better performance and battery life — While Android Wear hardware is only just now beginning to ship en masse, development looks to be coming along swimmingly. New apps with Android Wear support are popping up quickly, but it's surprising …

More: RootzWiki, The Verge, ReadWrite, Android Central, Phandroid, TechnoBuffalo, SlashGear, Ubergizmo, Softpedia News, Android Beat, Gizmodo, Ausdroid, AndroidHeadlines.com, Pocketnow and 9to5Google

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Google issues ‘workaround’ to fix bug affecting paid-for apps on Android Wear devices — Google has released details of a “workaround” that fixes a troublesome issue that is preventing paid-for apps from working on Android Wear devices. — The issue was highlighted by Android Police …

More: Android Developers Blog, Business Insider, Softpedia News, Android Police, BetaNews, Droid Life, Android Central, Electronista, AndroidOS.in, WebProNews, Ubergizmo and SlashGear

Russell Holly / Geek.com:

Sprint LivePro is a Pico Projector, Hotspot, and backup battery for your smartphone — Sprint and ZTE have teamed up to stuff a ton of technology into a 14.1 oz container that can deliver an impressive combination of features for home or enterprise needs. — With connected homes …

More: The Verge, CNET, TechCrunch, PhoneDog.com, AndroidHeadlines.com, TechnoBuffalo and Android and Me

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