Bytes: What’s new in tech

Google unveils Nexus 5

Meet Google’s latest smartphone, said Mat Honan in Wired.com. The tech giant unveiled the latest version of its Android operating system last week, named “KitKat,” along with “a new flagship phone, the Nexus 5.” The phone, developed with LG, weights just 4.59 ounces and features a 4.95-inch screen, along with “all the stuff you’d expect”: a high-definition display made from scratch-resistant glass; front- and rear-facing cameras; near-field communication capabilities, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4. And while it’s not as striking as, say, a gold iPhone 5S, the Nexus 5’s real job is to showcase the new OS. By tapping into Google’s database, KitKat gives users access to “what Google knows,” tailoring the phone’s functionality to their past activity.

NSA taps into email giants

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The National Security Agency “has secretly broken into” Yahoo’s and Google’s data centers, said Barton Gellman and Ashkan Soltani in The Washington Post. According to top-secret documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the spy agency has been secretly siphoning off millions of records each day from the companies’ internal networks. The program, code-named “Muscular,” works by intercepting “fiber-optic cables that carry information among the data centers of the Silicon Valley giants.” One slide describing how the NSA taps into Google’s data cloud included a hand-drawn smiley face-—“a cheeky celebration of victory over Google security.” The company wasn’t happy to learn about the NSA’s activities. Upon seeing the drawing, “two engineers with close ties to Google exploded in profanity.”

A traffic ticket for Google Glass

Be careful where you wear Google Glass, said Tony Perry in the Los Angeles Times. The California Highway Patrol ticketed a Temecula, Calif., woman last week after she was caught driving while wearing Google’s head-mounted computer. The CHP said a patrolman issued the ticket because the woman, 44-year-old Cecilia Abadie, had violated California Vehicle Code 27602, which makes it illegal to drive while looking at a screen or video monitor. Officials said the ticket “may be the first issued for wearing Google Glass.” The Silicon Valley giant promptly reminded users that the gadget “is meant to help the wearer be in contact with the world and not to make them be distracted from something important like driving.”