Google, US government, transparency

US government, NSA, et al, -- the "cat's out of the bag" --

Google to hit U.S. gov't harder with transparency reporting demands ...
By Meghan Kelly
In June, Google formally asked the courts to allow it to publish the total number of requests for user information made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) as well as the number of people and accounts affected by these requests. Google releases a transparency report .... Some of the companies it covers in depth include Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter, Zynga, Cisco, RIM, but it also covers path breaking start-up companies. VentureBeat | News About Tech, ...
VentureBeat

Microsoft strikes deal with ValueAct Capital
USA TODAY
Under an agreement announced Friday, ValueAct's President Mason Morfit will meet with Microsoft directors and management to discuss a range of business issues. The agreement also gives ValueAct the option of having Morfit join the Microsoft board of ...

Apple ups its odds of gaining on Samsung in China
CNET
Apple's growth in China has been stunted, in part, because it hasn't been able to strike a deal with China Mobile and its 740 million subscribers. (Apple lost market share in China last quarter.) Talks continue -- Apple CEO Tim Cook met with China ...

Google, Pitting Itself Against Samsung, Prepares For Device War
Forbes
The old lines that barely separated supplier from buyer are blurring further, however, bringing Google and Samsung into direct competition, with a face-off against Apple on the horizon. It means that all three will have already reset their strategies ...

Apple's Very Clever Trick With The iPhone Trade-In Program
Forbes
Apple demands, and gets, a subsidy from the airtime providers. They agree to sell the handset to the consumer for less than they are paying Apple for it: they make this up from the monthly charges over the life of the contract. However, a retailer also ...

Amazon Picks Supreme Court Tax Fight Over New York, But Collects In Virginia ...
Forbes
Amazon famously started life in the “no-taxes ever” column. More recently, the Bezos-driven behemoth emerged from its chrysalis with a pair of sales tax wings. Starting September 1st, Amazon adds two states, Virginia and Georgia, to its growing stable ...

Microsoft abruptly pulls 'masters' certification; hints a replacement may come
ZDNet (blog)
Microsoft's surprise phase-out of its highest-level certification programs has angered a number of those who have trained or are in the midst of training to be "masters" across a variety of the company's products. microsoftmasters. Microsoft officials ...

Apple Loop: iPhone Trade-Ins Begin, Siri Trash Talks Google Glass, iTunes ...
Forbes
Those prices are significantly lower than the trade-in quotes being offered by competing services” such as Amazon, Gazelle, GameStop and even Apple's own online trade-in program. I asked Gazelle what they think of Apple's entry into the take-back space ...

Yes, Microsoft Could Have Invented the iPhone. Here's How
TIME
Basically, if Microsoft had announced Surface a year or so after Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, it would have been subject to an avalanche of snark about it being a Jumbotron-sized knockoff of Apple's product. Even though they both owed a ...

Fascinating Number: Amazon Is Larger Than The Next Dozen Internet Retailers ...
Forbes
The implication for Amazon being of course that there's still plenty of expansion possible. The only thing that slightly puzzles me is why internet sales would be so much smaller in the US. I would have thought that the geographic dispersion of the ...

Microsoft, Google to sue US over releasing user data requests
Economic Times
WASHINGTON: Technology firms Microsoft and Google are set to sue the US government after the failure of their talks on releasing official requests for user data. The two technology giants filed suits in June, demanding a right to disclose more ...

Apple's bug reporting tool redesign goes live (again), includes ...
By Mark Gurman
Developers tell us that the new design opens up the door for Apple to add new functionality. Additionally, the updated reporter more intuitively informs developers if their bug report has already been submitted. Other new features include ...
9to5Mac

Apple iPhone Trade-Ins More About Convenience Than Savings ...
By Ian Sherr
Apple's long-rumored iPhone trade-in program is up and running at its U.S. stores around the country, adding to a healthy mix of competitors offering similar schemes. But isApple's program a good deal?
AllThingsD

Google-Owned Panoramio Gets a New Design - The Next Web
By Jon Russell
Panoramio, the Google-owned service that showcases geolocation tagged photos and is an important source of images for Google Earth and Google Maps, has got a fresh look that places greater emphasis on its photos. A blog post from ...
The Next Web Top Stories

Google's Crazy Internet Balloons Will Flock Together Like Cyborg ...
By Eric Limer
Google's Project Loon is sort of insane. Then again, that's kind of the point. And to make it actually work, the squadrons of balloons are taking a cue from nature.
Gizmodo

Microsoft's Next Era | TechCrunch
The story of Microsoft under Steve Ballmer can be told in two very different ways. ... low-end software disruptors like Google Apps and Amazon Web Services; a missed ...Apple producing better devices gets Google producing better operating ...
techcrunch.com/2013/08/25/microsofts-next-era/

Ex-NASA CTO on using cloud computing to discover galaxies, and ...

GigaOM
Ex-NASA CIO and CTO, and current Nebula co-founder and CEO, Chris Kemp came on the Structure Show podcast this week to talk about everything from ...

Crop Pests Moving North Fast
Discovery News
Trees and shrubs are taking hold on what was once tundra, like this young pine and surrounding shrubs in Norway's Arctic Finnmark. NASA Vegetation Index. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ...

LG unveils 'pocket-sized' G Pad 8.3 tablet
CNET
LG hopes to make a splash at IFA 2013 with its G Pad 8.3 tablet, which will feature an 8.3-inch WUXGA display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor. 

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