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November 20, 2014, 3:55 PM

Top News

Al Franken:

Sen. Al Franken asks Uber CEO Travis Kalanick for answers on privacy, God view tool, discipline for Emil Michael, and tracking journalists — Dear Mr Kalanick: — I am writing in regard to reports of recent comments and actions by top Uber executives concerning journalists.

More: StrictlyVC, SiliconBeat, Re/code, Haywire, TechPresident, TechSpot, Street Fight, ReadWrite, Washington Post, TechCrunch, Mashable and PandoDaily. See also Mediagazer

Napier Lopez / The Next Web:

Uber hires former IBM Chief Privacy Officer to carry out internal review — From controversial statements from executives to concerns over its users' data privacy, it's been a rough week for Uber. — It's now trying to do some damage control. The company announced today that it has hired …

More: Uber Blog, TechCrunch, Fortune, The Verge, ZDNet, Re/code, The Hill, TIME, Business Insider and Mashable

Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:

Uber's Massive Fundraising Campaign Forges Ahead Amid Controversy

More: Business Insider, AVC, ReadWrite and Digiday

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Google launches Contributor, a crowdfunding tool for publishers — Google is launching a new service for websites called Contributor, which allows users to sign up and pay anywhere from $1 to $3 a month to sites that they visit frequently. In return for contributing, they won't see any Google ads on those sites

More: VentureBeat, BetaNews, Marketing Land, Gizmodo, Engadget, 9to5Google, The Next Web and ECPM BLOG. Thanks:@mathewi. See also Mediagazer

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Corning's Gorilla Glass 4 aims to protect your phone from deadly drops — It's unlikely we'll see a truly impervious smartphone screen anytime soon, but Corning says it's getting us closer. Today the company is announcing Gorilla Glass 4, the latest revision of its signature cover glass.

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Former Fake Steve Jobs and HubSpot content marketer Dan Lyons to head up Valleywag in January — Dan Lyons Used to be Fake Steve Jobs. Now He's the Chief Valleywag. — Valleywag's chief editor Nitasha Tiku just left for the Verge. Here's her replacement: Dan Lyons …

Tweets: @stevekovach, @edbott, @jyarow, @fromedome, @nichcarlson and @glennf. See also Mediagazer

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

Exodus of revived Valleywag's original team complete as Nitasha Tiku heads to The Verge to bolster Silicon Valley coverage

More: Poynter and FishbowlNY. Tweets: @nicknotned, @nitashatiku and @nitashatiku. See also Mediagazer

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

Billboard Top 200 album chart will incorporate streaming data starting Dec. 3 from services including Spotify, Beats Music, Google Play, Xbox Music — Billboard, Changing the Charts, Will Count Streaming Services — Streaming music services like Spotify have brought big changes to the music industry.

More: Billboard, 9to5Google, ParisLemon, SlashGear, 9to5Mac, Forbes, Fortune, VatorNews, The Verge, App Advice, Business Insider and WebProNews. See also Mediagazer

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:

iOS 8.1.1, iPhone 4S, and iPad 2: A little faster, kind of, sometimes — It took a lot of work to find the promised performance and stability improvements in iOS 8.1.1 for Apple A5 devices like the iPhone 4S, the iPad 2, the iPad Mini, and the iPod Touch. — Andrew Cunningham

More: BGR, MacRumors, Gotta Be Mobile and iPhone in Canada Blog

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Dropbox's Carousel photo software comes to iPads and the web — In April, Dropbox launched Carousel, a standalone app for storing and managing photos and videos on your phone. Designed as a single place to view your life's memories, until now Carousel has only been available for the smallest screen in your life.

More: The Next Web, 9to5Mac, Engadget, iMore and Gizmodo. Tweets: @mattlynley

Tim Culpan / Bloomberg:

Foxconn will spend $2.6B to build dedicated Apple display plant in Taiwan — Foxconn to Build Dedicated Apple Display Plant in Taiwan — Foxconn Technology Group will spend NT$80 billion ($2.6 billion) over the next two years on a new factory in Taiwan to supply displays exclusively for a client.

More: MacRumors, Pocketnow, TodaysiPhone.com, Bidness Etc, 9to5Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, Cult of Mac, Patently Apple, iClarified, AppleInsider, iMore, Electronista and iDownloadBlog.com. Thanks:@srikardr

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Amnesty International, EFF, Privacy International release an open source spyware detection tool for Windows — Amnesty, EFF, Privacy International Put Out Free Anti-Surveillance Tool — Resistance is digital. Human rights charity Amnesty International is one of several organizations behind …

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Netflix takes up 9.5% of upstream traffic on the North American Internet — ACK packets make Netflix an upload monster during peak viewing hours. — We've written a lot about how Netflix takes up a gigantic share of Internet traffic. During peak viewing hours, Netflix accounts …

More: Re/code, Sandvine, VideoNuze Analysis, Variety, CNET, The Huffington Post, Light Reading, TIME and DSLreports. Tweets: @chairmanpowell. Thanks:@srikardr. See also Mediagazer

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Square Register, Sans Payments And Hardware, Now Works Globally On Android And iOS — Last week, when Square started pre-orders for new chip-based card-reading hardware to upgrade its older mag-stripe readers, we noted that it seemed only a matter of time before the company would finally turn …

More: Town Square, CNET, The Verge, iMore, The Next Web and Engadget. Tweets: @ingridlunden. Thanks:@ingridlunden

Danny Sullivan / Marketing Land:

Default search engine for Firefox in Europe remains Google, Yandex in Russia, Baidu in China — Mozilla CEO: It Wasn't Money — Yahoo Was The Better Strategic Partner For Firefox — Mozilla CEO Chris Beard says when presented with deals of “equivalent economics” to power search in Firefox, Yahoo was the better partner.

Russell Brandom / The Verge:

Firefox drops Google as default search engine, signs five-year deal with Yahoo

More: The Mozilla Blog, Computerworld, eWeek, Search Engine Watch, ZDNet, InvestorPlace, Search Engine Roundtable, Slate and ReadWrite

Tweets: @dangillmor and @dannysullivan

Roberto Baldwin / The Next Web:

Twitter launches sharing public tweets in Direct Messages — Twitter is moving towards making DMs (Direct Messages) more like the messaging apps that have captured the globe. But first, it wants to make sure you can share public tweets privately with your friends.

More: The Twitter Blog, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch, VentureBeat and Re/code. Tweets: @agarwal

Roberto Baldwin / The Next Web:

The Basis Peak can now share heart rate data with 3rd-party apps, notifications from phone coming in December — The Basis Peak's heart rate monitor now works with third-party apps — The Basis Peak doesn't try to replicate a smartphone on your wrist. Instead, it's meant mainly for fitness and sleep tracking.

More: TechCrunch, CNET, Engadget, Re/code and Electronista

Steven Mufson / Washington Post:

Washington Post launches twice-daily tablet editions on Amazon Fire app — The Washington Post tablet app for Kindle Fire is a highly visual news experience aimed at a national and international readership. It offers two editions a day, as well as updates for breaking news. (The Washington Post)

More: Amazon.com, New York Times, Engadget, The Next Web, Los Angeles Times, blogs.ft.com, CNNMoney.com, Fast Company, bizjournals, Gizmodo, PandoDaily, GeekWire, Mashable, CNET, Gigaom and Poynter. See also Mediagazer

Kia Kokalitcheva / VentureBeat:

Amid Uber controversy, taxi-hailing app Flywheel raises $12M, adds new management — At the end of Uber's first full day of PR wreckage on Tuesday, one of my bosses announced she was downloading taxi-hailing app Flywheel and deleting Uber's app — like many have tweeted they have done.

More: TechCrunch, Wired, Macworld, TIME, CNBC, CNNMoney.com, Forbes, GeekWire, Inc.com, Mashable, Network World and San Francisco Examiner …

Martin Beck / Marketing Land:

Forrester: brands should invest more on their own websites, and Instagram or Pinterest, instead of Facebook and Twitter — Forrester Says Marketers Are Wasting Resources on Facebook, Twitter — Because of low reach and engagement on the major social networks, report suggests that brands …

More: Wall Street Journal, ITBusiness.ca, Business Insider, Marketing Pilgrim, Search Engine Land and Forrester Research. Tweets: @r

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Microsoft updates Bing homepage with HD backgrounds, image captions, and new Office Online menu — Microsoft today updated the Bing homepage with high-definition backgrounds, image captions, and a new Office Online menu. Unlike other Bing rollouts, this one isn't gradual: The new features are available worldwide today.

More: Search Blog, Search Engine Land, The Next Web, WinBeta, WebProNews and The Fire Hose

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