Techmeme: Google's Eric Schmidt: US spy programs may “end up breaking the internet” if not reformed (Kim Zetter/Wired)

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October 9, 2014, 3:20 PM

Top News

Carl Icahn / Shareholders Square Table:

Carl Icahn says Apple is “dramatically undervalued” in open letter to Tim Cook, asks for an accelerated stock repurchase program — Sale: Apple Shares at Half Price — “IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION” — As a large Apple shareholder with approximately 53 million shares …

Jay Yarow / Business Insider:

Apple says it's already “executing the largest capital return program in corporate history” — Apple Responds To Carl Icahn's Letter With A Killer Chart — Carl Icahn wrote an open letter to Apple and its CEO Tim Cook. — In it, he asks Apple to accelerate its stock repurchase …

More: CNBC. Tweets: @cnbcnow

Wall Street Journal:

Apple suppliers postpone production of 12.9" iPad from December to early 2015 in order to cope with strong iPhone demand — Larger Apple iPad to Be Delayed — Apple Suppliers Concentrating on Meeting Demand for New iPhones — Apple Inc. suppliers have pushed back plans to mass produce …

More: Gizmodo, PC Magazine, VentureBeat, Digital Trends, The Verge, The Register, ExtremeTech, ReadWrite, MacRumors, PadGadget, 9to5Mac, Pocketnow, TechSpot, Consumerist, Mashable, TIME, Reuters and VentureBeat

Wall Street Journal:

Amazon opening first brick-and-mortar store in Manhattan in time for holidays, will handle pickups and returns — Amazon to Open First Store — The New York City Location to Handle Same-Day-Delivery Inventory, Product Returns — Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. plans to open …

More: Telegraph, Gizmodo, The Verge, Engadget, Business Insider, VentureBeat, Mashable, New Tang Dynasty Television …, StreetInsider.com, MarketIntelligenceCenter.com, Mashable, Seeking Alpha and NBC Bay Area. Tweets: @mims

Ian Sherr / CNET:

Unity, one gaming development platform to unite them all, up for sale — A presentation pitching Unity has been circulating around the games industry, sources say. The potential buyer gets popular software that powers games, large and small.

More: Joystiq, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Electronista and GamePolitics blogs. Tweets: @mattrix. Thanks:@rogerwcheng

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Microsoft makes slew of commitments to get businesses hooked on Surface — Microsoft today made a slew of announcements as part of a new commitment to Surface for business. — The company says firms have been asking it about a longer-term commitment to Surface for businesses of all sizes.

More: Surface Blog, ZDNet, BGR, The Next Web, Gigaom, GeekWire, MSDN Blogs, The Verge, SuperSite for Windows, WindowsITPro, Ars Technica, WinBeta and Neowin

Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:

Snapchat CEO Spiegel Says Untargeted Advertising Is Coming Soon — Snapchat, the popular mobile app for disappearing messages, is close to launching its first disappearing ads as the company sets out to prove its $10 billion valuation. — Evan Spiegel, the startup's 24-year-old co-founder …

More: The Verge, VentureBeat, Vanity Fair, VatorNews, Business Insider, PC Magazine, PC World, FierceWireless, Marketing Land, Gizmodo, WebProNews, Entrepreneur, Engadget, The Daily Dot and TIME. Tweets: @danprimack

Kim Zetter / Wired:

Google's Eric Schmidt: US spy programs may “end up breaking the internet” if not reformed — US Spy Programs May Break the Internet if Not Reformed, Google Leader Says — PALO ALTO — You own your data. And the government needs to start respecting that.

More: CNET, The Hill, SiliconBeat, Washington Post, Inquirer, Washington Post, Digital Trends, Los Angeles Times, Fox Business, Fortune, The Register and Wall Street Journal. Tweets: @williamlidwell

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Google launches Hangouts app for Chrome on Windows and Chrome OS — Google today launched a new Hangouts app for Chrome on Windows as well as Chrome OS. You can download the app now directly from the Chrome Web Store. — The release brings Google's chat service to the desktop in a new way.

More: Google Chrome Blog, Inquirer, Gizmodo, Gigaom, Engadget, The Next Web and TechCrunch

Sarah / The Imgur Blog:

Imgur now converts GIF uploads to more compact MP4 format, increases upload limit 10X to 50MB, plans to standardize new “GIFV” container format — Introducing GIFV — GIFs are no longer about .GIFs-the culture of the GIF now trumps the file format.

More: The Next Web, VentureBeat, The Verge, TIME, Mashable, Featured stories, tech.co, BetaNews, TechCrunch, Entrepreneur, Kotaku and WebProNews. Tweets: @mikemchargue

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

Surging Mac sales put Apple among top five global PC vendors for first time, IDC says — The Macintosh may have posted its strongest worldwide market share yet last quarter, according to the latest estimates from IDC, which place Apple among the top five global PC vendors for the first time.

More: IDC, ReadWrite, MacDailyNews, BetaNews, Windows Phone Central, ZDNet, bizjournals, Ubergizmo and Business Insider

Electronista:

Gartner, IDC: top five name-brand PC manufacturers all saw significant growth from last year

More: Gigaom, Gartner, SiliconBeat, AppleInsider, New York Times, eMarketer and Newsroom Posts, CNET, Engadget and ANYBODY CAN LEARN

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

WeatherSignal, OpenSignal's crowdsourced weather reporting app, comes to iOS 8 — OpenSignal brings its crowdsourced weather reporting app to iPhone — In May last year, we brought you news on WeatherSignal, a new crowdsourced weather reporting tool. The Web and Android app came courtesy …

More: TechCrunch, App Advice, SlashGear and TUAW

Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:

Google launches Google+ polls, putting its Polar acquisition to use — Today Google announced a new feature for its oft-ignored social network: polls. — The introduction of this feature comes with little surprise, as it closely follows Google's high-profile purchase of Polar …

More: Dennis Troper, 9to5Google, Marketing Pilgrim, Google Plus Daily and Android Central

Dan Levine / Reuters:

Google asks US Supreme Court to overturn lower court in Oracle's Java API copyright case — Google asks Supreme Court to decide Oracle copyright fight — (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOGL.O) has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to wade into contentious litigation against Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) …

More: 9to5Google, Engadget, PC World, TechSpot, AndroidHeadlines.com, FOSS Patents, The Register, bizjournals and Inquirer

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Skype's new design on Windows and Mac focuses on messaging — Mobile look and feel reaches the desktop — Microsoft's Skype client has traditionally focused on video and voice calls, but with the rise of mobile it has started to shift to target instant messaging.

More: Skype Blogs, TechCrunch, MacRumors, AppleInsider, VentureBeat, ZDNet, Engadget, 9to5Mac, The Next Web, Ubergizmo and iClarified

Quentin Hardy / New York Times:

Business subscribers of Quip productivity suite can now integrate spreadsheets into documents — Quip: Make Numbers Dynamic, Too — Quip, a fast-moving start-up that makes collaborative software for mobile workers, has an important new addition to its product: Spreadsheets.

More: PC World, VentureBeat, ReadWrite, Fast Company, Business Insider, The Next Web, FierceMobileIT News, Wired, Forbes and TabTimes. Thanks:@ashleymcarlson

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Google releases 64-bit Android L developer preview emulator image — Google today released the x86 64-bit Android L developer preview emulator image, allowing developers to start testing their 64-bit apps. You can download the emulator image now from the Android NDK page.

More: Android Developers, BGR, Android Police, ExtremeTech, SlashGear, Electronista, Engadget and MobileSyrup.com

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:

Alibaba Invests $50 Million in TV Remote App Peel — Alibaba, the Chinese tech giant, continues to place financial bets outside of its core e-commerce focus, investing $50 million into entertainment app maker Peel. — The Mountain View, Calif.-based startup makes apps for smartphones …

More: TechCrunch, bizjournals, Gigaom, VentureBeat, PE Hub Blog and Tech in Asia

Brad Stone / Businessweek:

Thync raises $13M led by Khosla Ventures for mood altering device, expected to ship 2015 — Thync Raises $13 Million for Its Brain-Stimulating Electrodes — In a windowless conference room at Thync, a secretive startup in Los Gatos, Calif., I recently tried what may be Silicon Valley's strangest new product in years.

More: SiliconBeat, Tech Times, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, PE Hub Blog, Xconomy, bizjournals and Business Insider

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Box Acquires Y Combinator-Backed MedXT To Bolster Its Healthcare Push — Box, an enterprise-focused cloud storage and productivity company, announced this morning that it has acquired Y Combinator-backed MedXT, a firm that provides a cloud-based file storage system for medical imaging.

More: The Box Blog, ZDNet, VentureBeat and Re/code. Thanks:@ron_miller

Dan Seifert / The Verge:

HTC introduces Desire Eye, with highest resolution front-facing camera on a smartphone, 13MP front and back — HTC's Desire Eye wants to be the king of selfies — The Desire Eye has the most powerful front-facing camera ever put on a smartphone — It's no secret that taking selfies …

More: HTC Blog, The Register, KnowTechie, Guardian, Inquirer, Computerworld, The Next Web, Electronista, CNET, Android Police and BetaNews

Joshua Goldman / CNET:

HTC announces screenless RE action camera that uses smartphone as screen, priced at $199

More: TechCrunch, Pocketables, Engadget, The Verge, Electronista, Droid Life, 9to5Google, Phandroid, AndroidHeadlines.com, TechSpot, iMore and NEWS.com.au

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