Techmeme: Human Rights Watch files suit against the DEA for collecting records of international calls made from US (Rebecca Jeschke/Electronic Frontier …)

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April 8, 2015, 1:30 PM

Top News

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Apple Watch is the nicest smartwatch yet, but it has performance issues with apps and locations services, and it costs more than rivals — Apple Watch: the definitive review — The Apple Watch is an extraordinarily small and personal device. It is designed to participate in nearly every moment …

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

Apple Watch has a steep learning curve but can be a life-changer after apps are streamlined and initial bugs are fixed — Apple Watch Bliss, but Only After a Steep Learning Curve — It took three days — three long, often confusing and frustrating days — for me to fall for the Apple Watch.

Joshua Topolsky / Bloomberg Business:

Apple Watch Review: You'll Want One, but You Don't Need One … I'm in a meeting with 14 people, in mid-sentence, when I feel a tap-tap-tap on my wrist. I stop talking, tilt my head, and whip my arm aggressively into view to see the source of the agitation.

Katherine Boehret / Re/code:

How Other Smartwatches Stack Up to Apple Watch — Smartwatches are quickly evolving from geeky, ugly devices into user-friendly, stylish wrist computers. Some of the most notable differentiating factors among these watches are battery life and compatibility with more than one operating system.

More: VentureBeat, CNET, The Verge, BGR, The Verge and Macworld UK. Tweets: @panzer

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Apple Releases OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 With Photos for OS X App, Emoji Updates — As expected, Apple today released OS X Yosemite 10.10.3, the first significant feature-rich update the operating system has received. OS X 10.10.3 was first seeded to developers in February, and was provided to public beta testers in March.

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:

Apple releases iOS 8.3, including new emojis with diversity, new Siri languages, more — Following the release of OS X 10.10.3 to the public, Apple has also released iOS 8.3 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The update, which has been in beta for several months, brings over 300 new emojis …

More: MacRumors, The Verge, BGR, iMore and Gotta Be Mobile

Andrew Nusca / Fortune:

Fortune hires six former Gigaom reporters to double down on its technology coverage — Fortune bulks up on technology coverage, hires 6 Gigaom veterans — When technology industry executives visit Fortune's New York City headquarters, one of the things I enjoy most is when they inevitably slow …

More: New York Post, mathewingram.com/work, Om Malik and Poynter

Tweets: @rogerwcheng, @gigastacey, @mathewi, @kevinctofel, @harrymccracken and @jonfortt

See also Mediagazer

Xbox Wire:

TV on Xbox Gets More Versatile with Over-the-Air Tuner for the U.S. and Canada — At Xbox, we're committed to delivering amazing new gaming and entertainment experiences, and part of that commitment includes giving you the best TV-viewing options, in one place, never more than one step away from your gaming.

Rebecca Jeschke / Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Human Rights Watch files suit against the DEA for collecting records of international calls made from US — Human Rights Watch Sues DEA Over Bulk Collection of Americans' Telephone Records — EFF Lawsuit Challenges Drug Enforcement Administration Surveillance of International Call Records

More: Computerworld and The Hill

Brad Heath / USA Today:

US Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration secretly tracked billions of international calls from US for nearly a decade before 9/11

More: SiliconBeat, The Register, TechCrunch, Errata Security, The Atlantic Online, RCR Wireless News, Techdirt, Electronic Frontier Foundation, VentureBeat, Ars Technica, Engadget, hrw.org/rss/news, Gizmodo and ITworld.com. Tweets: @kurtopsahl

Rebecca R. Ruiz / New York Times:

FCC fines AT&T $25M for failing to protect personal information, including SSNs, of customers — F.C.C. Fines AT&T $25 Million for Privacy Breach — The Federal Communications Commission announced on Wednesday a $25 million fine against AT&T for failing to protect the personal information …

More: The Verge and Re/code

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Hillary Clinton hires Stephanie Hannon, Google's director of product management for civic innovation and social impact, as campaign's chief technology officer — Hillary Clinton hires Google executive to be chief technology officer — Hillary Rodham Clinton has hired a longtime Google executive …

Chris Crum / WebProNews:

Twitter confirms it's experimenting with a new search interface with more filtering options — Twitter Confirms It's Messing With Its Search Experience — While covering Google's closure of Google Moderator earlier, I searched Twitter on the desktop to see what people were saying about it …

More: Marketing Land and The Next Web. Thanks:@ccrum237

Megan Geuss / Ars Technica:

Microsoft applies to be a Money Services Business and for money transmitter licenses in all 50 states, paves the way for payment platform — “Microsoft Payments” may join Apple, Android, Samsung in pay platforms — Windows 10 for phones supports Host Card Emulation, licensing makes it official.

More: PC World, The Next Web, Politico, SiliconANGLE, SlashGear and TechnoBuffalo

Matt Weinberger / Business Insider:

The rise and fall of OpenStack startups as venture capital investments in the space dries up — Investors were once tripping over themselves to get into a hot technology called OpenStack. What happened? — Once upon a time, venture capitalists were tripping over themselves to invest …

More: Forbes

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Square Acquires Fastbite To Add Cheap, Fast Meals To Caviar — When Square bought food delivery startup Caviar last summer, it seemed like a strange acquisition for the payments company. But over time it's become clear that Square is committed to competing in the increasingly crowded food-delivery segment.

More: VentureBeat

Blair Hanley Frank / GeekWire:

Oyster takes aim at Amazon with new e-book store, lands all ‘Big Five’ publishers … Oyster launched a new version of its e-book platform today that puts it in even closer competition with Amazon. The New York-based startup introduced its own e-book store to augment its existing Netflix-esque e-book subscription service.

More: Wired, Macworld, Engadget, The Next Web, PandoDaily, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and New York Times. See also Mediagazer

CNN:

Russian hackers accessed sensitive White House information, including real-time details of president's schedule, via compromised State Department system — How the U.S. thinks Russians hacked the White House — Washington (CNN)Russian hackers behind the damaging cyber intrusion …

Mic Wright / The Next Web:

Popcorn Time launches on iOS through an external installer — Popcorn Time's launched on iOS and that's a big problem for Apple and Netflix — Torrent-streaming platform Popcorn Time has been causing headaches for the movie and TV industries ever since it emerged early last year.

More: VentureBeat, The Verge, 9to5Mac and BGR. Tweets: @boris. See also Mediagazer

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

BlackRock Leads $200 Million Round in Domo at $2 Billion Valuation — Josh James has been promising to start talking about Domo, the secretive business software startup he has been running for about four years, and now he is following through on that pledge. But more on that in a minute.

More: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Insider, Forbes and PE Hub Blog

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Sprinklr Buys Get Satsifaction To Add Customer Feedback To Its Social Media Platform — Sprinklr, the social media management company that vaulted into the “unicorn club” last month after it raised $46m on a $1b+ valuation, is making an acquisition to expand into a new area, customer feedback.

More: Forbes, VentureBeat, Medium, Business Wire, bizjournals and The Next Web

Richard Lai / Engadget:

HTC One M9+ launches in China: 5.2" Quad HD screen, fingerprint sensor, MediaTek SoC — HTC's bigger and better One M9+ launches in China — HTC clearly gets China's obsession with large-screen phones. Following the plastic 5.5-inch One E9+, the company is back with the metallic M9+ which …

More: HTC Blog, CNET, 9to5Google, Digital Trends, Android Authority, Inquirer, MobileSyrup.com, SlashGear, TechSpot, Tech Times, The Next Web, TechnoBuffalo, PhoneDog.com, BetaNews, The Verge and BGR

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Genius now lets you annotate any web page without its owner having to change any code — Genius Now Lets You Annotate Any Web Page, Not Just Rap — Rap Genius was just the first step to fulfilling Marc Andreessen's Netscape dream of letting people annotate the whole Internet.

More: VentureBreak and Digital Music News

Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica:

Presidential candidate Rand Paul promises to end warrantless searches of phone, computer records; campaign site sells $15 “NSA spy cam blocker” sticker — Rand Paul sells “NSA spy cam blocker” as Presidential bid fundraiser — Bid announcement video taken off YouTube due to copyright claim over a song.

More: Washington Post, Vox, Techdirt, The Verge, Vox, The Hill, Vanity Fair, ThinkProgress, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, CNBC, Al Jazeera America, Gizmodo, Nextgov, Business Insider and Politico. See also Mediagazer

Eva Dou / Wall Street Journal:

Xiaomi throws parties for fans every few weeks across China, making customers feel part of an exclusive club — Xiaomi: The Secret to the World's Most Valuable Startup — Xiaomi reaches out to customers through parties and social media — HANGZHOU, China—Zhao Ruiping assembles mechanical valves …

Chance Miller / 9to5Google:

Google appears to be developing a teleconferencing tool called GMeet — First noticed by Florian Kiersch on Google+, Google appears to be testing a new meetings service. Google Meetings, also referred to as GMeet, appears to allow users to schedule and join teleconference calls with one click.

More: Phandroid, Fortune, Florian Kiersch, VoIPWatch, Business Insider, Android Beat, Ubergizmo and SlashGear

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