IntoNow

Some big stories in Thursday's tech highlights, but stick around for the Olympic LOLs:

Google Wallet now lets users pay with any major credit or debit card. But you still have to have one of the few Sprint devices with NFC to use the service. That's because Verzion, AT&T and T-Mobile rather have you wait for the competing service they invested in, called Isis. But don't hold your breath waiting for Isis.

The Transportation Security Administration has been ordered to address comments and concerns from the public about its airport body scanners. Wired has reported … Read more

The recurring rumors about Apple entering the TV set business are at fever pitch, with no less than former Apple President Jean-Louis Gassée recently jumping into the fray and joining the it-will-likely-happen bandwagon.

Gassée and I have been arguing about the idea of an Apple TV since 2008, when I was among the first to blog about the idea. Gassée had taken the position that since TVs are upgraded every five years on average, and computers every two years on average, melding the two would not make sense. The computer would make the TV … Read more

In 1977, Warner Communications launched QUBE, an interactive cable TV system, in Columbus, Ohio. It was a two-way system that let TV watchers use a special remote control to engage with the programming on their sets. It was remarkably ambitious. And it flopped.

Ever since, various forms of interactive TV have kept bubbling up--Google TV being one current example. None of them has changed everything, or even much of anything. I've come to the conclusion that most of us don't want our TVs to be interactive. We want to be able to change the channels and adjust … Read more

Yahoo is bringing IntoNow, a mobile application that can detect what TV program you're watching and let you share the information via Twitter or Facebook, to the iPad.

And it's expanding IntoNow's functionality, integrating it with other Yahoo Web properties. So now IntoNow can not only detect that you're watching CNN, for example, but then use the close caption feed to search the Web and surface relevant articles about the topic of a news segment.

IntoNow, which Yahoo acquired in April, is a bit like the music application Shazam, with which users can determine song titles … Read more

On today's show, the iPhone is apparently storing your location data even when you've turned off the location tracking services. And law enforcement agencies and a cottage industry of iOS forensics companies have been taking advantage of these logs for years. Nevertheless, Steve Jobs appears to insist in an email to a customer that Apple is not tracking anyone. Really. Hunch shows you why you love both hummus and Macs, even if you don't love Apple. Plus, Sony is rebuilding its PlayStation Network security after its now five-day outage, and an innocent man is accused of child pornography because it's still just too damn hard to put a password on a WiFi network. --Molly

Yahoo announced today that it's acquired IntoNow, a nifty little mobile application that will detect what you're watching on TV and then let you share via Twitter or Facebook that you're watching it. The price was either $13 million or as much as $30 million, depending on which tech blog you prefer to believe. (Oh, wait, now it's $17 million and some earnouts, or something. Money!) Financial terms were not disclosed.

IntoNow launched only 12 weeks ago and has just seven employees: "We were all surprised to say the least but it makes a ton … Read more

If you're familiar with Shazam or SoundHound, then you're already halfway to understanding IntoNow, a new Silicon Valley startup and iPhone app that launched today.

Like the music-tagging apps, the new IntoNow app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch uses an algorithm to pattern-match a TV show's audio output--its sound--to the right show.

Unlike SoundHound and Shazam, chances are that viewers aren't looking for help identifying the name of the show or title of the episode. Instead, IntoNow hopes that couch potatoes will use the information to get social, sharing their TV picks on Facebook and … Read more