Mounting BITCOIN mystery -- Social gaming decline rocks DISNEY -- DRONES free to fly -- SPOTIFY's checkmate move -- Ex-NSA official's MEA CULPA

 

March 7, 2014 06:00 PST | 09:00 EST | 14:00 UTC

Not a TechBrief subscriber? Sign up for a free subscription.

>> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH: 'Real' Satoshi claims he is not Dorian Nakamoto, by Catherine Shu: "Dorian S. Nakamoto is probably having the weirdest day of his life. In less than 24 hours, the Temple City, California resident has been the subject of a Newsweek cover article 'outing' him as the elusive creator of Bitcoin, has denied his involvement with the cryptocurrency, and has literally been chased around Los Angeles by a pack of rabid journalists. Meanwhile, an individual claiming to be the real Satoshi Nakamoto said the Newsweek story was wrong in a brief post on the P2P Foundation's Ning page, stating simply 'I am not Dorian Nakamoto.'... TechCrunch emailed the creator of the P2P Foundation's Ning, Josef Davies-Coates, who verified that the email associated with the account is the same one connected to the [original Bitcoin] 2009 post." TechCrunch

> AP exclusive: In a two hour interview, Nakamoto denies he's bitcoin founder AP

> Why Satoshi Nakamoto worked so hard to hide his identity Timothy B Lee

> The outing of bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto is brilliant journalism Forbes

> Reporter: Here's how I found the creator of bitcoin Business Insider

> We are all Bitcoin. The Bitcoin project is decentralized. It has no leader by design. Bitcoin Foundation

>> PRO TIP: Apple building support for driving 4K displays at 'Retina' resolution, 60Hz output from 2013 MacBook Pros, by Mark Gurman: "Earlier today, Apple provided developers with the first beta for the upcoming release of OS X Mavericks version 10.9.3. Apple did not disclose any new features coming in 10.9.3, but we have discovered that the update includes notable enhancements for users with Macs connected to 4K-resolution monitors. With 10.9.3, Mac users can now natively set their 4K monitors to run the Mac operating system at a pixel-doubled 'Retina' resolution… the current Retina MacBook Pro can only drive 4K displays at either 24Hz or 30Hz over HDMI… this will likely soon change." 9to5Mac

> Pixelworks' shares soar after it reveals Apple as major customer: "Shares of Pixelworks, which makes chips for digital display, rose 54 percent a day after the company revealed that Apple is among its largest customers." Reuters

> TechBrief notes: Now we know why Apple hasn't updated its Thunderbolt monitor.

>> DEPARTURE LOUNGE: Interactive unit at Disney cuts a quarter of its staff, by Brooks Barnes: "Disney's struggling video game and Internet division laid off roughly 700 employees on Thursday, or 26 percent of its global staff, in a major retrenchment that includes a shift in advertising strategy at Disney.com. Layoffs were long expected in the unit, but not on this scale. They came as a result of Disney's decision to combine two businesses: booming mobile games (those played on iPads and smartphones) and sagging social games (those played on websites like Facebook). Disney also decided to sharply scale back in-house development of games of all types. It will now rely much more on outside licensing." New York Times

>> ALL YOUR BASE: Spotify acquires The Echo Nest, gaining control of the music DNA company that powers its rivals, by Darrell Etherington: "The financial details of the acquisition haven't been revealed, but The Echo Nest is a self-described 'music intelligence company' that does things like determine what recommendations to make to listeners for automatic streaming radio services. The arrangement will help Spotify gain increased access to a key tech piece that already informed a lot of its service delivery. The Echo Nest says that its API will remain free and open as part of the deal, which is good news for Spotify rivals including Rdio that use its services to power their own music recommendations. But ultimately this does mean that Spotify gains control over tech that underpins its rivals' offerings, which is always going to be a tenuous line to walk at best when entire ecosystems depend on the products involved." TechCrunch

> Spotify just dropped two hints that it's about to go public Quartz

>> LIBERTY & JUSTICE: Commercial drones are completely legal, a federal judge ruled, by Jason Koebler: "For the moment, commercial drones are, unequivocally, legal in American skies after a federal judge has ruled that the Federal Aviation Administration has not made any legally binding rules against it.... The judge dismissed the FAA's case against Raphael Pirker, the first (and only) person the agency has tried to fine for flying a drone commercially. The agency has repeatedly claimed that flying a drone for commercial purposes is illegal and has said that there's 'no gray area' in the law. The latter now appears to be true, but it hasn't gone the way the FAA would have hoped. Patrick Geraghty, a judge with the National Transportation Safety Board, ruled that there are no laws against flying a drone commercially." Motherboard

> Ruling on model plane raises questions on regulation of drones PCWorld

>> HORSE'S MOUTH: Ex-NSA official Inglis warns tech firms: Be transparent, by Danny Yardon: "Former NSA deputy director [Chris Inglis] is warning technology companies that amass vast amounts of personal information to learn from his agency's mistakes. Be transparent about what they collect, and why they collect it... Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and other tech firms make money by recording and selling detailed bits of information on Web users. They typically disclose their data-collection policies in long legal statements. And in theory, customers can take their business elsewhere if they don't like the policies. But few people read the fine print, just as few people watched C-Span when Congress codified some of the NSA's snooping abilities in 2008, Mr. Inglis said." Wall Street Journal

>> Andreessen Horowitz leads $37.2M investment in high-flyer DigitalOcean and its IaaS GigaOM

>> What's the largest website hosted on DigitalOcean? Hacker News/Ycombinator

>> Emotient's face-tracking Google Glass app can identify the mood of people around you, raises $6M TNW

>> Warner Bros. gets ready to bet on YouTube with a Machinima gamers network investment Re/code

>> General Assembly digital trade school raises $35 million in financing round New York Times

>> Windows 8.1 update leaks to the web, direct from Redmond ZDNet

>> HootSuite uses part of its massive $165M round to form a skunkworks (exclusive) VentureBeat

>> Sean Parker formally leaves Founders Fund Fortune

>> IBM 'as a service' cloud pieces fall into place ZDNet

>> Surveillance by algorithm Schneier on Security

>> What you need to know about the GnuTLS Linux bug PCWorld

>> External disk storage market recovers from slump InfoWorld

>> How much will CarPlay cost? stratechery

>> GitHub Developer Program emphasizes integrations InfoWorld

>> GCHQ Oversight tribunal has to ask GCHQ's permission to reveal GCHQ's wrongdoing TechDirt

>> HAD TO RUN IT: Livr: This social network unlocks features the more drunk you get TNW

>> BITCOIN: $644 Coinbase

>> TWEET O' THE DAY: "Newsweek has found a man named Elvis Presley living in Texas!" @bramcohen

FEED ME, SEYMOUR: Comments? Questions? Tips? Shoot mail to Trent or Woody. Follow @gegax or @woodyleonhard.

Pass it on. Tweet us!

Not a TechBrief subscriber? Sign up for a free subscription.

Copyright © 2014 IDG Communications, Inc.