Mandiant, which rooted out Chinese hackers for the NYT, acquired by FireEye for nearly $1 billion  —  Mandiant, which rooted out Chinese hackers for the NYT, is being snapped up for nearly $1 billion  —  The past year saw the dramatic rise of information security firms in the face …

How Netflix uses the 76,897 micro-genres it assigns to videos  —  How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood  —  If you use Netflix, you've probably wondered about the specific genres that it suggests to you.  Some of them just seem so specific that it's absurd.  Emotional Fight-the-System Documentaries?

YouTube goes 4K, Google signs up long list of hardware partners for VP9 support  —  YouTube will be demonstrating 4K video at CES in Las Vegas next week, with a twist: The Google-owned video service will be showing off ultra high-definition streaming based on VP9, a new royalty-free codec …

Moto G coming to Verizon Wireless on January 9th for $99.99 off-contract  —  Verizon Wireless prepaid customers will be able to order the Moto G starting January 9th for $99.99.  Motorola's budget handset will be available first online and will appear at the carrier's retail stores “in the coming weeks.”

Facebook faces suit for allegedly intercepting private messages  —  Facebook is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly violating its members' right to privacy.  The social network is being sued by members who claim that the company intercepts private messages, without consent, to mine the data for its own profit.

PopCap CEO to retire, cofounder will take over the Plants vs. Zombies studio (exclusive)  —  John Vechey, cofounder of PopCap, is its new chief.  —  Dave Roberts, chief executive of Electronic Arts' PopCap Games division, is retiring from the game studio that he joined almost nine years ago.

Nest Raising Huge New Round From DST, Valuing Smart Home Startup at Upwards of $2 Billion  —  Nest Labs, the innovative smart home startup, is close to completing a deal to raise upwards of $150 million in a new round of financing that values it at more than $2 billion, according to sources close to the situation.

It's Not a Church, It's Just an Apple Store  —  Attention fanboys and fangirls: Your favorite tech hardware, software and services are not religious objects.  And the companies that make them aren't cults or faiths.  They are capitalist enterprises, out to make a profit, grab market share, and, if they can, make products you will buy.

Snapchat Says It's Improving Its App, Service To Prevent Future User Data Leaks  —  Snapchat has released an official post about the recent leak of 4.6M usernames and phone numbers from its servers.  The post blames what it says was ‘abuse’ of its API on the leak, but acknowledges …

Replacement and new Surface Pro 2 devices being sent out with upgraded specs, includes newer CPU  —  Microsoft's Surface Pro 2 has been the center of attention since the December 2013 firmware update release.  Numerous Surface Pro 2 owners were facing issues installing the update, poor battery life, and various other issues.

Samsung's Galaxy Camera 2 starts to refine the Android point-and-shoot  —  Samsung is unveiling the Galaxy Camera 2 today, its second take on the idea of a truly smart point-and-shoot.  Like its predecessor, the Galaxy Camera 2 runs Android, has wireless connectivity, and is operated primarily …

Surface, Kindle Fire are likely holiday winners, but iPad still rules the web surfing roost  —  It's a safe bet many people bought or received a new smartphone or tablet for the holidays.  Which ones did they get?  That's difficult to say for sure, but with some data from Chitika, we can get a pretty good idea.