Techmeme: Samsung announces 5.5-inch metal unibody Galaxy A7 with 8-core Exynos or Snapdragon CPUs, 13MP camera, dual-sim option (Jon Russell/TechCrunch)

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January 12, 2015, 10:55 AM

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Quentin Hardy / New York Times:

Following Microsoft's new Skype Translator, Google to announce major update to Translate app, add automatic transcription for popular languages — Language Translation Tech Starts to Deliver on Its Promise — The tech industry is doing its best to topple the Tower of Babel.

More: PC World, Inquirer, Telegraph, USA Today, Computerworld, I4U News, SiliconANGLE, Engadget, TechSpot, Gizmodo, The Next Web, Electronista, memeburn, Wired.co.uk, SlashGear, Mashable, Ubergizmo, 9to5Google, The Verge, Neowin, Android Central and Shiny Shiny

Tweets: @fxshaw, @sub8u and @qhardy

Thanks:@reckel

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:

Samsung announces 5.5-inch metal unibody Galaxy A7 with 8-core Exynos or Snapdragon CPUs, 13MP camera, dual-sim option — Samsung Packs An 8-Core Processor Into Its New 5.5-Inch Galaxy A7 Smartphone — Last year Samsung released an eight-core version of the Galaxy S5 …

New York Times:

Obama to propose federal legislation that would protect student privacy, require that companies disclose breaches that involve consumer data — Obama to Call for Laws Covering Data Hacking and Student Privacy — WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday will call for federal legislation intended …

More: BetaNews, Politico, Gizmodo, The Verge, The Register, Computerworld, TIME, We Live Security, Electronista, The Next Web, The Hill and Des Moines Register

Tod Beardsley / Metasploit:

Google stops providing security patches for pre-KitKat WebView, leaves 930M users vulnerable — Google No Longer Provides Patches for WebView Jelly Bean and Prior — Over the past year, independent researcher Rafay Baloch (of “Rafay's Hacking Articles") and Rapid7's Joe Vennix …

More: Wall Street Journal, ZDNet and Forbes

Robert McMillan / Wired:

Another leap second will arrive in June, threatening the stability of UNIX and Linux systems — The Leap Second Is About to Rattle the Internet. But There's a Plot to Kill It — The Qantas Airways computers started crashing just after midnight. A few hours later, as passengers started flying home …

More: Telegraph, Gizmodo, The Register, The Verge, Motherboard, Los Angeles Times, The Next Web and Neatorama

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Chilling Effects DMCA Archive Censors Itself — On an average day Google now processes more than a million takedown requests from copyright holders, and that's for its search engine alone. — Thanks to Google's transparency report the public is able to see where these notices come from and what content they're targeting.

More: ResearchBuzz. Tweets: @xor, @xor and @declanm

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Spotify now has 60M users, 15M of whom are paying subscribers — Two months after Spotify revealed it had 50 million users and 12.5 million subscribers, the music-streaming behemoth has issued an updated set of figures for 2015. — The company says it now has 60 million active users …

More: Spotify Blog, 9to5Mac, Guardian, The Verge, The Next Web and App Advice

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Cable lobby says Google Fiber doesn't need Title II to get pole access — The top cable lobby group says Google is blowing smoke when it comes to Title II and pole attachment rights. — Google told the Federal Communications Commission that reclassifying broadband providers …

Ben Thompson / stratechery:

With a broad range of products united by software, Xiaomi sells an ecosystem, not just phones — Xiaomi's Ambition — Xiaomi, the Chinese smart phone company that late last month raised $1.1 billion at a $45 billion valuation, sells way more than smartphones: Mi.com boasts over a thousand items …

More: Bloomberg. Tweets: @jess, @charlesarthur, @mgsiegler, @naveen, @daiwaka, @semil, @jonrussell, @benbajarin, @mikeisaac and @monkbent

Yuliya Chernova / Wall Street Journal:

For Dave McClure's New 500 Startups Fund, U.S. Institutions Shy Away — Dave McClure's prolific seed investment firm and startup incubator 500 Startups has raised capital from plenty of supporters around the world. But there's one group that continues to shun Mr. McClure's efforts—U.S. institutional investors.

Tweets: @wsjd

David Yanofsky / Quartz:

Instagram fixes privacy hole that exposed private photos posted from a public profile later changed to private — Your private Instagrams weren't as private as you thought they were — A privacy hole was publicly exposing an untold number of photographs Instagram users believed were private …

More: PandoDaily and Business Insider

Matt Burns / TechCrunch:

Leaked Palantir document reveals uses and key clients, including several government agencies — Leaked Palantir Doc Reveals Uses, Specific Functions And Key Clients — Since its founding in 2004, Palantir has managed to grow into a billion dollar company while being very surreptitious about what it does exactly.

More: Fortune and Business Insider. Thanks:@loyalelectron

David Katzmaier / CNET:

4K TV makers push features like quantum dots, HDR, and curved displays to differentiate at CES — TVs at CES 2015 go beyond 4K — 4K is already old hat. The rapidly falling prices of 4K TVs are causing manufacturers push even more elaborate features to make a buck.

More: Engadget, TechCrunch, BBC and New York Times

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Samsung, Sony, Netflix, and others form UHD Alliance to standardize 4K content and delivery

More: PC World, Hollywood Reporter, Broadcasting & Cable, Popular Science, SamMobile, The Verge, Guardian, FierceCable, Wired.co.uk and TechnoBuffalo

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