Techmeme
January 20, 2014, 6:35 PM

Top News

Nick Summers / The Next Web:
Nest CEO Tony Fadell vows to make any privacy policy changes transparent and opt-in  —  Following last week's Google acquisition, Nest chief executive Tony Fadell has vowed to make any alterations to its privacy policy opt-in, and to be transparent about such changes to all of its users.
Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
Stealth marketing: Microsoft paying YouTubers for Xbox One mentions  —  Machinima campaign offered undisclosed money to videos promoting new console The line between traditional, paid advertising and organic editorial content on the Internet can sometimes be hazy.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
HP brings back Windows 7 ‘by popular demand’  —  HP really wants people to buy a Windows 7 PC instead of a Windows 8 machine.  The PC maker has been emailing customers over the weekend noting that “Windows 7 is back.”  A new promotion, designed to entice people to select Windows 7 over Windows 8 …
David Meyer / Gigaom:
Fon pulls in $14M as it partners with Qualcomm and Facebook  —  The crowdsourced Wi-Fi network Fon is about to find its way into a whole lot more routers, as Qualcomm and others have plowed $14 million into the Spanish company.  Qualcomm in particular will bake Fon functionality into its Atheros wireless chipsets.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
As Netflix Rises, HBO and Showtime Subscribers Shrink as Percentage of U.S. Households  —  NPD finds that U.S. households subscribing to premium cable channels dropped 6 percentage points over 18-month period, while Netflix and other SVOD services grew 4 points  —  Is Netflix putting a dent in premium cable subscriptions?
Michael Mace / Mobile Opportunity:
After Nest acquisition, Google looks more like a conglomerate than a unified product company  —  Google the Conglomerate: After Nest, No Industry is Safe  —  I've spent many hours trying to puzzle out Google's product plans.  What's the logic behind Google Drive, how does Motorola fit in a software company, and on and on (link).
More: Monday NoteTweets: @cdixon and @cdixon
Luke Edwards / Pocket-lint:
Samsung Galaxy S5 new UI leaks again looking like an attractive Google Now  —  Samsung's refreshed UI looks almost certain now.  Yet more photos have leaked online at the same time as the Galaxy S5 rumour mill gets up to speed.  —  We're expecting to see the new Samsung UI unveiled …
Kim Zetter / Wired:
Target Got Hacked Hard in 2005.  Here's Why They Let It Happen Again  —  A gang of shadowy hackers tears through the systems of big-box retailers, making off with millions of credit and debit card numbers in a matter of weeks and generating headlines around the country.  —  Target and Neiman Marcus in 2013?
Tweets: @pmarca and @pmarca
Laura He / MarketWatch:
Weibo user count declined 9% to 281M in 2013 amidst mobile messaging growth, speech crackdown  —  China's Twitter is bleeding users  —  While Facebook FB struggles with declining traffic among U.S. teens, China's most popular social-media channel — a group of Twitter-like microblog services …

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Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
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