Techmeme: Secret struggles after clamping down on bullying; CEO teases dramatic revamp coming next week (Carmel DeAmicis/Gigaom)

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December 7, 2014, 1:50 AM

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Carmel DeAmicis / Gigaom:

Secret struggles after clamping down on bullying; CEO teases dramatic revamp coming next week — What's happening with Secret? — Secret, the anonymous messaging app that captured the attention of Silicon Valley in the months after its January launch, is struggling.

More: PandoDaily. Tweets: @davidbyttow and @jyarow

Reuters:

North Korea's cyber war cell Bureau 121 employs 1800 hackers who are considered military elite — In North Korea, hackers are a handpicked, pampered elite — (Reuters) - Despite its poverty and isolation, North Korea has poured resources into a sophisticated cyber-warfare cell called Bureau 121 …

More: CNET, Wall Street Journal, Engadget and ZDNet. Tweets: @hg_masters

Zac Bowden / WinBeta:

Video demonstrates pre-release version of Cortana running on Windows 10 — Exclusive: Here's Cortana running on the desktop in Windows 10 — It's been months since the Windows Technical Preview launched to the public, and we're still yet to see Cortana running on the desktop.

More: Engadget, VentureBeat, Neowin, The Verge, Tech Times, Digital Trends, PC World, TechSpot, Neowin, CIO.com, TechCrunch, Laptop Mag, Business Insider, TechnoBuffalo, Windows Phone Central, The Tech Report and Gizmodo. Thanks:@refsrc

Liam Tung / ZDNet:

IBM's Watson Analytics enters public beta — Summary:IBM has made it cognitive analytics package more widely available. — IBM has launched the public beta of Watson Analytics, its set of cloud-based predictive and analytics tools. — The move to public beta for Watson Analytics …

More: The Next Web, Gizmodo, CMSWire, PR Newswire, InformationWeek, Computerworld, WebProNews and eWeek

Harry McCracken / Fast Company:

DeviantArt launching first official iPhone and Android apps, reveals new logo and website revamp — With Its New App, DeviantArt Finally Has A Mobile Place For Those 65 Million Monthly Visitors — With 65 million unique visitors a month sharing, exploring, and discussing artwork of all sorts …

More: Design Week, DeviantArt and Empty Lighthouse Magazine. Thanks:@mariedomingo

Scott Rosenberg / Backchannel:

Why tech giants create new programming languages, and how Go and Swift reflect their creators — My Computer Language is Better than Yours — Go and Swift take another step up the programming-language ladder … Google has Go, first conceived in 2009. Facebook introduced Hack last spring.

Tweets: @olivier_poitrey, @joshuajberk and @mattcutts

Vauhini Vara / New Yorker:

Freedom House report: Internet freedom declined in 36 of 65 countries studied this year — The World Cracks Down on the Internet — In September of last year, Chinese authorities announced an unorthodox standard to help them decide whether to punish people for posting online comments that are false …

More: Freedom House, Washington Post, Sputnik, TodaysZaman, Business Recorder, The Register, Trakin' the india …, Reason, American Journalism Review, Tom's Hardware Guide, U.S. News, Voice of America, RT and TechPresident

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Instacart raising $100M+ in round valuing the company at $2B, 5X the previous valuation — Instacart Is Raising North Of $100 Million At A $2 Billion Valuation — Instacart, the home grocery delivery service that launched back in 2012, is close to raising a massive Series C round …

More: SiliconANGLE, Wall Street Journal, GeekWire, Re/code, Business Insider and bizjournals

Tweets: @mdudas and @sub8u

Josh Lowensohn / The Verge:

Steve Jobs's 2011 testimony in Apple DRM lawsuit points finger at music labels — Apple's late CEO says rival companies were “collateral damage” — Whether Apple's security measures for iTunes and iPods were designed to actively shut out competitors, or simply keep record labels happy …

More: CNET, New York Times, iMore, iPhone in Canada Blog, AppleTell, ABC News, Ars Technica, MacRumors, Cult of Mac, AppleInsider and New York Times

Brian X. Chen / New York Times:

One of two plaintiffs named in Apple iPod antitrust case withdrawn while Apple files motion asking for dismissal

More: Associated Press, Ars Technica, eWeek, Tech Times, App Advice, Digital Trends, The Verge, Macworld, Electronista, Wall Street Journal, SlashGear, iPhone in Canada Blog, iMore, The Daily Dot, AppleInsider and Cult of Mac

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:

Former Product VP Daniel Graf Leaves Twitter After Demotion — Twitter's former head of product Dainel Graf is leaving the company just one month after he was demoted. — Graf announced his departure on Twitter Friday afternoon. He was hired to run Twitter's product team in April …

More: Gigaom, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch and Seeking Alpha. Tweets: @danielgraf

Chris Ziegler / The Verge:

Sources: HP's Chronowing was manufactured by smartwatch maker Meta — Meet the company that's behind HP's smartwatch — HP threw a curveball when it announced a surprisingly good-looking smartwatch earlier this year, the Michael Bastian-designed Chronowing.

Joseph Rose / Oregonian:

Defiant Uber rideshare launches in Portland, with City Hall promising to ‘throw the book’ at drivers — Uber says it is no longer willing to wait for the city of Portland to revamp its strict taxi regulations to allow residents to hail and pay for rides with the push of a smartphone button.

More: New York Times, PortlandOregon.gov, Ars Technica, PC World, Uber Blog, CNET, GeekWire, SlashGear, BostInno, The Verge, and GeekWire

Tweets: @caseynewton, @mikeisaac, @jonrussell, @kevinroose, @caseynewton and @waxpancake

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Bebe confirms payment card data breach at retail stores, does not disclose number of affected customers — Retailer Bebe Confirms Payment Card Data Breach — Another day, another payment card data breach. In what's now becoming routine news, this morning retailer Bebe is confirming …

More: bebe, Krebs on Security, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNET, Fortune, Computerworld, PandoDaily, Help Net Security and Consumerist

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