Techmeme: Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Dropbox, Evernote, Aol, LinkedIn, Twitter lend support to NSA Freedom Act in open letter to US Senate (Samuel Gibbs/Guardian)

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November 17, 2014, 11:40 PM

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Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:

Uber exec, at NYC dinner with CEO present, suggested digging up dirt on critical journalists — Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt On Journalists — Senior vice president Emil Michael floated making critics' personal lives fair game. Michael apologized Monday for the remarks.

More: PandoDaily, The Daily Dot, PandoDaily, Business Insider, Valleywag, VentureBreak, Mashable and GeekWire

Tweets: @darlin, @qhardy, @sarahcuda, @anildash, @amir, @carmeldea, @daveweigel, @sg, @aterkel, @tomgara, @danprimack, @profjeffjarvis, @mims, @zpower, @sarahcuda, @jmbooyah, @annaholmes, @digiphile, @joshuatopolsky, @pkafka, @scottmaustin, @drpizza, @nero, @stevekandell, @danprimack and @tomkrazit

See also Mediagazer

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:

Snapchat's new Snapcash feature, rolling out on Android now and iOS soon, lets you send money to friends via Square — Snapchat to Let You Send Money to Friends, Thanks to Square — Snapchat unveiled Snapcash on Monday, a new payments feature that allows users to send and receive money …

Federal Trade Commission:

TRUSTe, which certifies websites for privacy protections, settles with FTC for failing to audit companies — TRUSTe Settles FTC Charges it Deceived Consumers Through Its Privacy Seal Program — Company Failed to Conduct Annual Recertifications, Facilitated Misrepresentation as Non-Profit

More: TRUSTe Blog, Engadget, Computerworld, Federal Trade Commission, SiliconBeat, Techdirt, Washington Post, VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney.com, ABC News and Ars Technica

Tweets: @jeremiahg and @csoghoian

Larry Seltzer / ZDNet:

Wirelurker site in China taken down, suspects arrested — Summary: The Mac/iOS malware was able to install on non-jailbroken iOS devices, but was quickly neutered. Three suspects are in custody. — Chinese authorities have shut down the web sites responsible for the Wirelurker malware …

More: AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, SlashGear, App Advice, SecurityWeek, The Verge, iMore, MacNN, iDownloadBlog.com, Help Net Security, TweakTown News, iPhone in Canada Blog, Ubergizmo, The Register, GMANetwork.com and SC Magazine

Marco Arment / Marco.org:

Podcasts are neither exploding nor dying - they've been steadily growing for a decade — Why podcasts are suddenly “back” — Did you hear? Podcasts were dead, and now they're back! — This story is suddenly everywhere. It's not extremely accurate, but I'll take it.

Tweets: @jayrosen_nyu and @pmarca. See also Mediagazer

Samuel Gibbs / Guardian:

Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Dropbox, Evernote, Aol, LinkedIn, Twitter lend support to NSA Freedom Act in open letter to US Senate — Facebook, Google and Apple lobby for curb to NSA surveillance — A coalition of the biggest names in consumer technology have backed a US bill …

More: Reform Government Surveillance, Gigaom, GeekWire, Engadget, PandoDaily, TechnoBuffalo, TechCrunch, Computing, Mashable, ZDNet, theWHIR.com, The Hill and The Hill

Don Clark / Wall Street Journal:

Intel's MICA smart bracelet with built in GPS and sapphire touchscreen will be available in December with 2 year AT&T contract for $495 — Intel Reveals Details of MICA Smart Bracelet … Intel CEO Brian Krzanich visited New York's Fashion Week festivities in September to drum up interest in MICA …

More: Engadget, The Next Web, Yahoo Tech, The Verge, New York Post, Bloomberg, Gizmodo, Gigaom, Reuters, Wearable World News, Ubergizmo, POPSUGAR, KGW-TV and CNBC

Mario Aguilar / Gizmodo:

NYC announces LinkNYC a free gigabit speed wi-fi network; construction will start in 2015 — The Plan to Turn NYC's Old Payphones Into Free Gigabit Wi-Fi Hot Spots — Today, the New York City mayor's office announced the winning bid to transform the city's existing payphone infrastructure.

More: TechCrunch, Re/code, The Verge, The Digital Reader, Business Insider, The Register, Ars Technica, CNET, Engadget, SlashGear, The Next Web, AppleInsider, New York Magazine and Gigaom. Tweets: @qthrul

Nik Cubrilovic / New Web Order:

Large Number of Tor Hidden Sites Seized by the FBI in Operation Onymous were Clone or Scam Sites — This post is the fist in a series dealing with the takedown of Silk Road 2.0 and Operation Onymous. The data in this post was put together with @secruedmh and @imposter.

More: Gizmodo

Jane L. Levere / New York Times:

Airbnb launches Pineapple, a quarterly print magazine focused on travel; $12 at select stores — Airbnb Introducing Print Magazine, Pineapple — Following in the footsteps of other digital brands like CNET and WebMD, Airbnb is getting into the print magazine business.

More: The Awl, The Drum, Dexigner, Guardian, PR Newswire, Business Insider, FishbowlNY, Gawker, Street Fight and BetaBoston

Tweets: @viejomoeb, @jonmarino, @susie_c and @besvinick

See also Mediagazer

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Hidden In Spotify's App Code Alongside Uber, Plans To Launch Podcasts And Something ‘Magic’ — Spotify's upcoming integration with Uber — getting announced formally today — is not the only development the music streaming service has planned to grow its business.

More: Business Insider, Six Colors, Gizmodo, Ubergizmo, MacRumors, SlashGear, Electronista, TechSpot, iDownloadBlog.com, MobileSyrup.com, Engadget and Cult of Mac. Tweets: @joshconstine. See also Mediagazer

Billy Steele / Engadget:

Spotify confirms Uber integration, will launch on Nov. 21st, in 10 cities around the world

More: Uber Blog, The Next Web, ReadWrite, InvestorPlace, Webrazzi, AndroidHeadlines.com, Wall Street Journal and The Register. See also Mediagazer

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google Brings Autoscaling To Compute Engine — Google continues to build out its cloud computing platform and today the company announced that its autoscaling service for Compute Engine, its infrastructure-as-a-service platform, is now available in beta. — Using this new feature …

More: Google Cloud Platform Blog, Data Center Knowledge, VentureBeat, Gigaom, WebProNews and InfoQ

Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:

Apple releases iOS 8.1.1 w/ bug fixes & performance improvements for iPad 2, iPhone 4s — Apple has released iOS 8.1.1, a minor update to last month's iOS 8.1 release for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The public release for iOS 8.1.1 follows a beta release to members of Apple's developer program.

More: Official Apple Support, MacRumors, The Verge, AppleInsider, Ars Technica, iMore, TUAW, IntoMobile, O'Grady's PowerPage, TechnoBuffalo, O'Grady's PowerPage, ZDNet, InvestorPlace, GeekWire, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, BGR, Electronista, Macworld and Gizmodo

Tweets: @mikebeas and @reneritchie

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Biz Stone's new app Super prompts users to share opinions and recommendations with images either with a username or as “anonymish” — Biz Stone's Jelly Launches Super So You Can Express Your Best, Craziest, Sexiest Opinions — Twitter co-founder Biz Stone's Q&A app Jelly didn't quite blow up …

More: Medium, Mashable, Engadget, Pocket-lint, The Next Web, Laughing Squid, Android Police and Business Insider. Tweets: @joshconstine

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

Luxe's on-demand valet parking service expands to Los Angeles — Luxe Valet App Eliminates the Headache of Finding a Parking Spot — Every few years, I come across a new tech service that completely upends how I navigate urban life. — It happened with Amazon Prime …

More: Business Insider, Wired and Gigaom. Thanks:@cckarl

Edward Wyatt / New York Times:

FCC will propose raising annual cap on spending for school Internet needs by $1.5B to $3.9B — F.C.C. Chief Aims to Bolster Internet for Schools — WASHINGTON — With a goal of fiber-optic lines reaching to every school and a Wi-Fi connection in every classroom, Tom Wheeler …

More: FCC.gov, The Hill, Computerworld, Fortune, CNET, DSLreports, Gizmodo, TechSpot, The Verge, Engadget and EdSurge

David Meyer / Gigaom:

Swedish ISP protects customers from surveillance with free VPN — Bahnhof was the last Swedish ISP to resist the enforcement of a data retention law that is arguably illegal under EU law. Now it's technically giving in, but it intends to make the retained data useless to spies and law enforcement.

More: ZDNet and TorrentFreak

Parmy Olson / Forbes:

Fitbit Data Now Being Used In The Courtroom — Personal injury cases are prime targets for manipulation and conjecture. How do you show that someone who's been in a car accident can't do their job properly, and deserves thousands of dollars in compensation?

More: The Register, Gizmodo, The Verge, Connectedly and SlashGear. Thanks:@parmy

Anna Irrera / Wall Street Journal:

Deutsche Bank to set up joint innovation labs with IBM, Microsoft in Berlin, London, Palo Alto — Deutsche Bank Setting Up Innovation Labs With IBM, Microsoft — Deutsche Bank AG is working on setting up joint innovation laboratories with technology firms IBM Corp. …

More: Finextra Research news

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