Techmeme
January 31, 2012, 1:00 PM

Top News

Ben Horowitz / ben's blog:
Why Has Andreessen Horowitz Raised $2.7B in 3 Years? … Since Marc and I founded Andreessen Horowitz three years ago, we have raised $2.7 billion.  That statement begs a few questions.  The two most obvious are:  — Why did such a new venture capital firm raise so much money?
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Andreessen Horowitz Closes $1.5 Billion New Fund  —  Last week, we heard from Evelyn Rusli at the New York Times that Andreessen Horowitz was in the process of raising $1.5 billion for the venture firm.  Today, partner Ben Horowitz has confirmed that the fund has closed …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Apple hires former Dixons CEO John Browett as retail chief  —  Apple announced today that it has appointed John Browett, former Dixons CEO, as Senior Vice President of its retail operations, responsible for the company's retail efforts worldwide.  Browett, who previously held the position …
Bobbie Johnson / GigaOM:
EU Press Room:
Antitrust: Commission opens proceedings against Samsung  —  The European Commission has opened a formal investigation to assess whether Samsung Electronics has abusively, and in contravention of a commitment it gave to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) …
Wall Street Journal:
The Coming Tech-led Boom  —  Three breakthroughs are poised to transform this century as much as telephony and electricity did the last.  —  In January 1912, the United States emerged from a two-year recession.  Nineteen more followed—along with a century of phenomenal economic growth.
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Amazon S3 Reports Staggering Growth in 2011  —  Amazon Web Services just reported jaw-dropping growth in the number of objects stored in Amazon S3 year over year.  —  “As of the end of 2011, there are 762 billion (762,000,000,000) objects in Amazon S3.  We process over 500,000 requests per second …
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Twitter's Dick Costolo on Ads, Censorship and Google (Video)  —  Twitter CEO Dick Costolo kicked off D: Dive Into Media with a bang on Monday, defending its ability to block tweets by country, rejecting the need for a stock offering and declaring 2012 to be the year of the Twitter election.
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
German appeals court upholds Galaxy Tab 10.1 injunction — but on different legal basis than Apple's design right  —  This morning, the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court (an appeals court) announced that it has upheld a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and has confirmed …
Chris Chang / M.I.C. Gadget:
Thousands Line Up For Foxconn's Jobs in Zhengzhou (video)  —  On the 30th of January, thousands of hopefuls stood for hours outside a labour agency located in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou.  The lines stretched more than 200 meters along the road, and the people who were waiting in line …
CNET:
Feds: We obtained MegaUpload conversations with search warrant  —  One of the most curious aspects of the U.S. government's case against MegaUpload is the large number of the company's internal communications acquired by the FBI.  —  Kim DotCom  —  In one exchange, MegaUpload managers …
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Apple updates Final Cut Pro X with multicam, broadcast monitoring  —  Apple updates Final Cut Pro X with multicam, broadcast monitoring  —  Apple on Tuesday updated its professional workflow application, Final Cut Pro X, adding a number of significant features.
Zach Epstein / BGR:
Can these four superheroes rescue RIM?  —  Research In Motion's newly appointed CEO Thorsten Heins said during his first day on the job that hiring a new marketing boss and revamping the company's marketing strategy was among his first orders of business.  If some of us were unsure why finding …
Stuart Dredge / Guardian:
Angry Birds boss: ‘Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business’  —  Rovio's Mikael Hed tells music industry audience that embracing pirates can attract new fans  —  Rovio Mobile learned from the music industry's mistakes when deciding how to deal with piracy of its Angry Birds games …
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Country-Specific Blogger URLs  —  Google found an interesting trick to defend Blogger blogs against local laws: redirect readers to country-specific domains and only remove those URLs if required.  —  “Over the coming weeks you might notice that the URL of a blog you're reading has been redirected …
Reuters:
Mexicans overcharged billions for phone, web: study  —  (Reuters) - Mexicans have been overcharged $13.4 billion a year for phone and internet services as the industry dominated by billionaire Carlos Slim gouges customers and keeps the economy from growing, a study released on Monday said.
Wall Street Journal:
Verizon's Tangled Web  —  As Phone Giant Battles Cable in FiOS Fight, Wireless Unit Supports Comcast  —  As Verizon Communications Inc. pushes for more cable-television and high-speed Internet subscribers, a new competitor is emerging: its own subsidiary, Verizon Wireless.
More: FierceIPTV and Digits
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Visa leads $40M in TrialPay's alternative payments business  —  Visa has led a $40 million investment round in TrialPay, one of the leaders in alternative payments known as offers.  —  Mountain View, Calif.-based TrialPay will use the money to expand into new markets and innovate in “transactional advertising.”
Ben Popper / VentureBeat:
Obama calls on Congress to pass bill aimed at helping startups  —  President Obama photo: Dave Brenner/Flickr  —  A day after showing his techno savvy with an appearance in a Google+ hangout, President Obama is calling on Congress to pass new legislation that would aid startups …
Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:
Firefox 10 Launches: Promises Fewer Add-On Compatibility Issues, Enables Fullscreen API  —  Now that Mozilla has fully embraced its rapid-release cycle, an update from version 9 to 10 of its popular Firefox browser isn't really an event anymore.  Nevertheless, version 10, which launched today …

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