Hi there!
Here's the latest feed from TechCrunch.
Add feeds@feed2email.net to your contact list to make sure you receive all your emails
Make sure to visit feed2email.net to get more feeds sent to your inbox.
To find out which feeds you are subscribed to, or to get further help, just reply to this email.
PRISM Would Have Come Off Better With Better PowerPoint Design
Jun 12, 12:26AM
I don't know what to believe about the world anymore. First of all, how does an NSA contractor have the ability to wiretap anyone, ANYONE, from an infrastructure level to a legal level? Is the legal part that "terrorism" is important enough to bypass a court? Is the infrastructure part that the data's available on the NSA's servers somewhere, and this guy who worked at Booz Allen for three months was given clearance for it? How did this happen?Is PRISM Precipitating A Bitcoin Sell-Off?
Jun 11, 11:49PM
Bitcoin has experienced a fairly massive drop in value over the weekend and into this week, moving from a peak of $118 on June 7 to a low of $89 on June 9. While precipitous drops and dizzying highs aren't unusual for the cryptocurrency, BTC watchers are pointing to the PRISM and NSA leaks as a cause for this weekend's massive dip.Gmail's People Widget Now Lets Brands Highlight Their Google+ Profiles And Posts
Jun 11, 11:45PM
Google today launched a small but nifty new feature for its Gmail people widget that allows brands and businesses to highlight their Google+ profiles and recent Google+ posts right in their customers' inboxes.Take A Peek At The Inner Workings Of MakerBot's New Brooklyn Factory
Jun 11, 10:44PM
Brooklyn-based MakerBot is a darling of the 3D printing community, and it recently moved into its new digs in Sunset Park, so the crew can more efficiently build and ship their shiny new Replicator 2 and 2X printers. Call it a classic case of growing pains -- once demand for 3D printers started picking up, the MakerBot team soon found themselves aching for even more space to work in, and we got the chance to tour the new 50,000-square-foot facility when it opened last week.Event Ticketing And Crowdfunding Platform Picatic Now Lets Event Organizers Pay What They Want
Jun 11, 8:33PM
Online event ticketing startup Picatic is taking a novel new approach to signing up event organizers and getting them to use its services. The company's new FairPay initiative will allow users to pay what they want after their events are successful.Why Google's Request To Release More Spying Data Would Be *Uninformative [Updated]
Jun 11, 8:26PM
[Update: Someone from Google has responded to us (by tweet!) We'll update this post as we get more questions answered] Google made headlines today for a letter to the federal government requesting the right to release more information on compliance with spy orders. The letter claims that if the public knew how many requests for data the National Security Agency demanded, they would dispel rumors that it’s giving away sweeping access to federal spies. “We therefore ask you to help make it possible for Google to publish in our Transparency Report aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures—in terms of both the number we receive and their scope. Google's numbers would clearly show that our compliance with these requests falls far short of the claims being made. Google has nothing to hide,” wrote Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond. I’m calling BS. Google’s transparency reports only disclose the number of requests made of each service. In understanding FISA orders, it’s important to realize that it’s possible for one court order to gather troves of data. “FISA orders can range from inquiries about specific people to a broad sweep for intelligence, like logs of certain search terms, lawyers who work with the orders said,” explained The New York Times. As a case in point, the leaked court order to allow the government to collect phone records of all U.S. Verizon calls could have been a single, solitary FISA request. “It’s not necessarily the case that disclosing raw numbers will be helpful, but it depends on the type of order they receive,” explains Mark Rumold of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, “In the business records context (the Verizon order), the government disclosed raw numbers, but that didn’t provide meaningful information because they were using a single order to obtain records on millions.” The good folks at the EFF are right in that any step towards more transparency is helpful. As the EFF reminds me, Google has been a laudable industry pioneer in disclosing censorship requests, and helping to bring public attention to America’s growing spying apparatus. But this latest letter doesn’t give us any indication that disclosing the number of requests would help. We reached out to Google and have yet to receive a response. Google responded to us, saying that they would like to include the number of users affected, as they currently do on the transparency reports. ”We know that sometimes a single governmentThis Mechanical, 3D-Printed Entabulator Is An Amazing Tribute To The Power Of Clockwork
Jun 11, 8:02PM
As a lover of all things mechanical, I'm in awe of Chris Fenton's Entabulator. Using an old book on mechanical loom-making, a 3D printer, and some serious patience he engineered a computer that can read a program off of punch cards and, in this case, calculate the Fibonacci sequence. The machine runs using a hand crank (Fenton notes you can overclock it by cranking faster) and it is quite finicky but also quite beautiful in its own way.Apple Stays Closed As iOS Shuts The Door On Developers
Jun 11, 7:47PM
Apple demonstrated that it will keep its iron grip on iOS 7, despite Tim Cook saying it's time for Apple to start opening up. Rather than debut new opportunities for developers, Apple squelched them at WWDDC by building its own substitutes for widgets, phone modifications, and whole categories of existing apps.The Best Of iOS 7′s Minor Upgrades
Jun 11, 7:47PM
Apple revealed a number of notable new features with the debut of iOS 7 yesterday, but there are many smaller features which are now leaking out as developers have had a chance to play around with the new operating system. Though most of these didn't get a shout-out during Apple's keynote and accompanying demo at WWDC, they are the "little touches," which help to make iOS 7 something bigger than an incremental update in terms of the new functionality it introduces.Zuckerberg Is (Still) Disappointed By Facebook Stock, Says He's 'Well-Versed' In Its Ad Business
Jun 11, 7:30PM
Before Mark Zuckerberg started the question-and-answer session at today's Facebook shareholder meeting, he noted that many of the pre-submitted questions focused on the performance of Facebook's stock since IPO. It's a familiar question, and he offered comments similar to ones that he's made before — including at TechCrunch's Disrupt conference last fall. Zuckerberg acknowledged that many shareholders aren't happy with the stock's performance, and he said Facebook needs to do more than achieve its general mission of making the world more open and connected — it also needs "to be a great financial return for all of our shareholders."At Facebook Shareholder Meeting, Zuckerberg Stands Behind His Initial PRISM Denial
Jun 11, 7:26PM
The PRISM story has progressed significantly since last week, when Mark Zuckerberg published Facebook's official response to the reports that it is among a group of tech companies that have been secretly cooperating with the United States government to provide user data. But at Facebook's annual shareholder meeting held today in Millbrae, California, Zuckerberg said the company continues to stand behind that initial statement. "I wrote this statement last week that I published on Facebook that I think is basically the fullness of what we believe," Zuckerberg said in response to a shareholder's question about the general national security reports in the press. He went on to add more detail:Who Won E3?
Jun 11, 7:03PM
By now we've heard most of what the big three have had to say. Nintendo is holding the line with the Wii U, Microsoft has announced an always-on box for $499, and Sony has made nice with gamers by offering a $399 device that allows users to share and sell games. All of the consoles are HD, all of them support multi-player, and the console wars are essentially over. Each console is a permutation of a high-end PC and each console should have a life-cycle of about seven years, give or take, until 4K becomes interesting then the new console generation will pop onto the scene.Gillmor Gang: Cider House Rules
Jun 11, 6:00PM
The Gillmor Gang — Dan Farber, Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — absorb the WWDC keynote. iOS7, OS/10 Mavericks, Macbook Air refresh, and iTunes Radio were the big bullets, but underlying the event was the resurgence of Apple as the leader in setting the agenda. Not everyone buys this perspective, of course. @scobleizer sees this as the assignment of RIM and Microsoft to the dustbin of history. But wait, there’s XBox. @dbfarber provides the context, @kevinmarks the technopop view, and I watch from the comfort of my living room as Apple TV looms, the elephant in the room. 1080P HD straight into the living room, iOS7′s control panel makes AirPlay one scroll and click away. Apple no longer feels haunted by the ghost of Steve Jobs; they’re having fun again in Cupertino. @stevegillmor, @scobleizer, @dbfarber, @kevinmarks Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor Live recording chat streamKeen On… Internet Access: Does American Broadband Suck?
Jun 11, 6:00PM
For years, it's been taken for granted that the US ranks low in the broadband performance table. But a controversial piece by ITIF's Richard Bennett explodes the myth of poor US broadband. Not everyone, however, agrees with Bennett. So, to debate the ITIF Senior Research Fellow, I invited Public Knowledge SVP Harold Feld, who has a much less positive take on America's broadband reality.Google Asks U.S. Government For Permission To Publish Aggregate Number Of National Security Requests It Receives
Jun 11, 5:46PM
Google is one of the companies that were implicated in the PRISM leak last week, but the company continues to deny that it provided the NSA with special access to its servers. It is, however, now asking the U.S. government to be allowed to publish at least a little bit more information about the FISA national security requests it receives, which it isn't currently allowed to publish in its transparency reports.Apple's Top Brass Looks Very Much In Sync At WWDC Following Last Year's Reorganization
Jun 11, 5:26PM
Apple's WWDC Keynote yesterday left one impression on me above all others: the executive team seems much more comfortable and in sync under CEO Tim Cook now than they ever have before. Rarely has a keynote or event gone as smoothly as the one Apple delivered yesterday, and rarely has the ensemble cast approach (where different execs present different features and announcements) worked as well in terms of providing moments of unforced levity and in terms of pacing.Europe Rattles Its Sabres Over Prism's 'Bulk Transfer' Of EU Citizen Data
Jun 11, 5:24PM
The European Commission today outlined its concerns regarding the widely reported Prism surveillance programme run by the NSA. The Commission plans to raise the Prism matter with US authorities "at the earliest possible opportunity" and will "request clarifications as to whether access to personal data within the framework of the Prism program is limited to individual cases and based on concrete suspicions, or if it allows bulk transfer of data." The next opportunity will be this Friday at a meeting Dublin.Animoto Updates iPhone App To Simplify Its Automatic Video Creation Workflow
Jun 11, 5:00PM
Animoto has made a big update to its iPhone app, which reduces the number of steps it takes to create videos on the mobile app. With the simplified workflow, Animoto hopes even more users will start taking advantage of its tool.Google Boosts BigQuery With New Analytics Functions, Adds New UI, Drops Prices
Jun 11, 4:40PM
Google BigQuery is getting a number of new updates to make it easier to analyze large amounts of data quickly and at a lower price. BigQuery is designed to process terabytes of data, and today's updates should provide a greater degree of flexibility for ad hoc analysis of extremely large datasets and allow for more sophisticated analysis.Mozilla, EFF, Reddit And 83 Other Organizations Launch StopWatching.Us To Protest NSA Snooping
Jun 11, 4:28PM
It’s still not quite clear what PRISM really is, but what has become clear is that the NSA is doing its best to tap into as much online communications as it can. To protest this, Mozilla, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Reddit, the ACLU and numerous other organizations with both technical and political backgrounds have launched StopWatching.Us. The campaign, Mozilla’s Alex Fowler writes, wants to call on “citizens and organizations from around the world to demand a full accounting of the extent to which our online data, communications and interactions are being monitored.” Given last week’s revelations that the NSA is likely tapping into a wide array of Internet communications, it’s no surprise that a number of Internet-based organizations are now banding together to protest the agency’s surveillance programs. As Mozilla’s Fowler notes, we now have a number of technical means to help us protect our privacy online, but “exposures resulting from government-sponsored online surveillance are entirely separate from whether we choose to share information and what those sites say they will or will not do with our data.” The group specifically asks the U.S. Congress to form a special committee to investigate the allegations and demands “legal reforms to rein in spying and that public officials responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance be held accountable for their actions.” It also asks for a reform of Section 215 of the Patriot Act – the “business records” section that allowed the NSA to get phone records from all the major U.S. phone companies, to reform the FISA Amendment (there seems to be some movement on this front already) and to amend the state secrets privilege. StopWatching.Us, of course, also aims to bring more attention to this issue, similar to the SOPA/PIPA protests last year. Mozilla will link directly to the site from its Firefox start page, for example, though it’s not clear how the other organizations will support the effort.If at any time you'd like to stop receiving these messages, just send an email to feeds_feedburner_com_techcrunch+unsubscribe-hmdtechnology=gmail.com@mail.feed2email.net.
To stop all future emails from feed2email.net you can reply to this email with STOP in the subject line. Thanks
