Techmeme
November 20, 2014, 11:45 AM

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.
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 …
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.
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  —  Today, Yahoo and Mozilla announced a five-year partnership that would make Yahoo the default search engine for Mozilla's Firefox browser on mobile and desktop.  The agreement also sets the stage …
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: The Next Web.  Tweets: @ingridlunden.  Thanks:@ingridlunden
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 …
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
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.
Ian Paul / PC World:
Watching shows online is more common now, Flurry says, but TV's hardly dead yet  —  We're all spending more time with smartphones and tablets.  So much so that the “second screen” may now be the “first screen,” depending on the data you read.  —  Mobile analytics and advertising firm Flurry released …
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Developers In China Can Now Make Money Via Google Play Apps (But Not In China)  —  Google has announced that developers based in China can now make money from apps listed on the Google Play Store.  The update covers 130 international markets but not China itself, however.
Cromwell Schubarth / Silicon Valley Business Journal:
Data virtualization firm Primary Data comes out of stealth, announces $63M funding, brings on Steve Wozniak as chief scientist  —  Primary Data emerges from stealth at Demo with Woz as chief scientist  —  The Los Altos company raised about $63 million in funding to help in their plan …

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Earlier Picks

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