Techmeme
December 30, 2014, 10:30 PM

Top News

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:
Grocery delivery startup Instacart closing $220M round at a valuation of about $2B  —  Grocery Delivery Startup Instacart Scores $220 Million Investment  —  Instacart, the grocery delivery startup, disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it had closed a monster $210 million investment …
Jarah Euston / Flurry Insights:
51% of new devices activated during Christmas week were Apple, 18% were Samsung, 6% Nokia  —  Apple and Apps Dominated Christmas 2014  —  Millions of people woke up and unwrapped a shiny new device under the Christmas tree.  As we have done in years past, Flurry examined these new device activations …
Roger Cheng / CNET:
Samsung launches Milk VR to deliver virtual reality videos to Gear VR  —  Milk VR will provide the videos for free as Samsung hopes to goose interest in virtual reality.  —  Samsung wants to jump-start the virtual-reality movement.  —  The Korean electronics conglomerate on Tuesday launched Milk VR …
Danny Sullivan / Marketing Land:
Promoted Twitter accounts appear in some users' Following lists, making it seem like the users actually follow those accounts  —  Twitter Ads Make It Seem Like People Follow Brands, Even If They Don't  —  Visa follows MasterCard?  So it seemed.  Twitter's expansion of ads into “Following” …
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Sources: Microsoft is building a new, lightweight browser codenamed Spartan for Windows 10  —  Microsoft is building a new browser as part of its Windows 10 push  —  Summary:Microsoft is planning to roll out a new browser when it debuts Windows 10, according to sources.  But IE isn't going completely away.
William Turton / The Daily Dot:
Hacker group Lizard Squad launches DDoS service with prices ranging from $6 to $500, says recent PSN and Xbox Live attacks were marketing scheme  —  Lizard Squad's Xbox Live, PSN attacks were a ‘marketing scheme’ for new DDoS service … A DDoS attack sends a huge amount of traffic to a server …
Michal Lev-Ram / Fortune:
How Disney CEO Bob Iger uses technology to keep every division of his company relevant  —  Disney CEO Bob Iger's empire of tech  —  Even in a dress-down gray sweater, Bob Iger looks a bit mechanical.  His mouth is almost geometrically straight, his face constructed of some cool alloy.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Over 80 Percent of Dark-Web Visits Relate to Pedophilia, Study Finds  —  The mysterious corner of the Internet known as the Dark Web is designed to defy all attempts to identify its inhabitants.  But one group of researchers has attempted to shed new light on what those users are doing under the cover of anonymity.
More: The Tor Blog blogs and BBCTweets: @latentexistence
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
As Microsoft scales back original vision of the Xbox One as a general-purpose living room platform, key team members keep leaving the company  —  Almost every single Xbox executive we profiled in this video last year has left the company  —  Boyd Multerer — the genius Microsoft engineer …
Jason Del Rey / Re/code:
Used car site Beepi raises $12.7M from Yuri Milner, Scott Brommer, AngelList, and two early investors  —  Used Car Site Beepi Lands $12 Million From Yuri Milner and AngelList's Largest Ever Investment  —  Online used car marketplace Beepi has landed a $12.7 million investment …
Pew Internet:
Pew study: Email outranks social media in terms of importance for employed, online adults; 46% say the Internet makes them feel more productive  —  Technology's Impact on Workers  —  Summary of Findings  —  The internet and cell phones have infiltrated every cranny of American workplaces …

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