Techmeme: Be My Eyes app harnesses volunteers to help sight-impaired people (David Meyer/GigaOm)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

January 15, 2015, 9:45 PM

Top News

BBC:

Google Glass to become an independent division reporting to Tony Fadell; Glass Explorer Program shutting down; production of device in current form to end — Google calls end to Glass programme but says kit is not dead — Google is ending its experimental Google Glass programme, the BBC has learned.

Jared Newman / TechHive:

Xiaomi announces $30 Mi Box Mini, a media streamer the size of a phone charger, with pre-orders open in China on Jan. 20, shipping late Jan. — Xiaomi's Mi Box Mini is a media streamer the size of a phone charger — With the $30 Mi Box Mini, Xiaomi has managed to stuff …

More: Digital Trends, TechSpot, PhoneDog.com, Gizmodo, Android Authority, Business Insider, Liliputing, Ubergizmo, Engadget, SlashGear, bgr.in and AndroidHeadlines.com

Richard Lai / Engadget:

Xiaomi takes on iPhone 6 Plus with 5.7" 1080p Mi Note phablet launching January 27 for $370; $530 Mi Note Pro with 2560x1440 display coming in March — Xiaomi mocks Apple with its very own premium phablet — There's just no stopping for the world's most valuable startup.

Stephen O'Grady / tecosystems:

Apple's Swift rises from 58th in Q3 '14 to 22nd in Q1 '15 in Redmonk's language ranking list that uses Github and Stack Overflow data — The RedMonk Programming Language Rankings: January 2015 — With two quarters having passed since our last snapshot, it's time to update our programming language rankings.

More: Wired, The Next Web, AppleInsider, MacNN, iMore, ReadWrite, SlashGear, Cult of Mac, MacDailyNews and The Loop

Steven Johns / Neowin:

Moving the Steam folder on Linux is causing users' entire file systems to be deleted — Users of Steam on GNU/Linux are reporting that attempting to move the Steam folder - something that the GNU/Linux Steam installer doesn't allow you to set at the time of installation - is leading to everything being deleted recursively from root.

More: GitHub

David Meyer / GigaOm:

Be My Eyes app harnesses volunteers to help sight-impaired people — The Danish developer Robocat, which I've previously covered for its Thermodo thermometer dongle, has fully launched a new app that could be of great use to visually-impaired people. — Robocat built the open-source …

More: The Next Web, cphpost.dk, Laughing Squid, Quartz, iMore and TUAW

Phil Goldstein / FierceWireless:

T-Mobile launches new ‘Simply Prepaid’ plans, starting at $40/month with 1 GB of LTE — T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) launched new prepaid plans under its “Simply Prepaid” banner starting at $40 per month. The new plans come several months after T-Mobile launched the “Simply Prepaid” …

More: T-Mobile Newsroom, Wireless Week, Gigaom, Lifehacker, Geeky Gadgets, PhoneDog.com, Consumerist, Ubergizmo, Droid Life, CNET, TechnoBuffalo, TmoNews, 9to5Google, SlashGear, AndroidHeadlines.com and Finextra Research news. Tweets: @dannysullivan

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

KeySweeper, a USB charger that sniffs, decrypts, logs, and transmits keystrokes of some Microsoft wireless keyboards can be built for $10 — Meet KeySweeper, the $10 USB charger that steals MS keyboard strokes — It sounds like the stuff of a James Bond flick or something described …

More: Samy Kamkar, VentureBeat, Threatpost, Security Affairs, Telegraph, Neowin, SlashGear, Business Insider, Network World, Schneier on Security, Hackaday and TechCrunch

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

DHS suspected Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles may have been Silk Road's mastermind, Dread Pirate Roberts — DHS Believed Mt. Gox CEO Might Have Been Silk Road's Secret Mastermind — Long before the Department of Homeland Security set its sights on a 29-year-old named Ross Ulbricht …

More: Ars Technica, CoinDesk, Bloomberg, The Verge, Inside Bitcoins and Business Insider

Dan Levine / Reuters:

Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe settle US poaching lawsuit for $415M — Apple, Google settle U.S. poaching lawsuit for $415 million — SAN FRANCISCO - Four Silicon Valley companies including Apple Inc and Google Inc agreed to pay $415 million to resolve an antitrust class action lawsuit …

More: VentureBeat, CNET, The Verge, Associated Press, bizjournals and USA Today

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Twitch launches free music library for video game streamers — Game streaming platform Twitch is trying to solve a problem that has plagued it for months: how can you enforce copyright laws without limiting what players can do on the service? Today, the Amazon-owned company is launching …

More: The Official Twitch Blog, Engadget, Ars Technica, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, PC Gamer, PC World, Geeky Gadgets, GeekWire, Mashable, Shacknews, The Next Web, Wall Street Journal, Joystiq, destructoid and Polygon

See also Mediagazer

Carmel DeAmicis / Gigaom:

Instacart quietly changed its primary revenue model from delivery fees and product markups to grocer fees — On the way to $220M in funding, Instacart quietly changed its business model — Kaitlin Myers a shopper for Instacart studies her smart phone as she shops for a customer at Whole Foods in Denver on October 28, 2014.

More: Slate. Thanks:@bizcarson

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Maker Studios Looks Beyond YouTube As It Announces Exclusive Content Deal With Vimeo — Vimeo and Maker Studios are announcing a partnership that will bring new videos from the Disney-acquired content network (that's Maker Studios) to the IAC-owned streaming video service (that's Vimeo) for an exclusive time window.

More: The Next Web, CNBC, TheStreet.com, International Business Times, Deadline, Union Gazette, Chinatopix, LaughingPlace.com, TIME and New Media Rockstars

See also Mediagazer

Mike Shields / Wall Street Journal:

MySpace says it reached 50.6M unique users in US in November, 575% over same month in 2013, and generated over 300M video views — MySpace Still Reaches 50 Million People Each Month — Did you know that 50 million people still visit MySpace each month? — Would you be surprised …

More: PC Magazine, Mashable, TIME, The Huffington Post, TechSpot, The Daily Dot, Gigaom, Business Insider and SiliconANGLE

Brendan Klinkenberg / BuzzFeed:

South Carolina Orders Uber To Stop Operations — The latest regulatory battle facing the ride-hailing giant. — http://blog.uber.com — Uber's increasingly bitter fight to operate in states across the country worsened today, as South Carolina issued an order to cease and desist all operations in the state.

More: The Verge and Gigaom

Ron Miller / TechCrunch:

Neo Technology, a graph database company, raises $20M Series C led by Creandum — Neo Technology Bags $20M As Graph Databases Get Hot — Neo Technology, developers of the neo4j graph database have been growing steadily, and investors have noticed, rewarding them with a $20M Series C pay day.

More: VatorNews, VentureBeat, Forbes, Yahoo! Finance, bizjournals, PE Hub Blog, PandoDaily, Gigaom, SiliconANGLE, Neo4j Graph Database and silicontap.com

Stephen Lawson / PC World:

Open Interconnect Consortium releases preview of IoTivity, an open-source framework for its Internet of Things standard — Intel-backed OIC advances in fast-moving IoT standards race — Internet of Things industry groups are in high gear, driving toward standards they hope will define …

More: SiliconANGLE, Yahoo! Finance, Wall Street Journal, SD Times, Rethink Wireless, The Next Web and EnterpriseTech

Brian Fung / Washington Post:

Source: FCC to vote February 26 on petitions from two cities asking to preempt state laws that limit municipal Internet service — The FCC will vote next month on whether to help cities build their own Internet — US President Barack Obama speaks about increasing access to high speed …

More: The Verge, The Dish and tech.slashdot.org

See also Mediagazer

Ian King / Bloomberg:

Intel reports net income of $3.7B, record revenues of $14.7B, EPS of $0.74 for Q4; Q1 sales estimated to be a modest $13.7B — Intel Sales Forecast Misses Estimates, Signaling Deeper PC Slump — Intel Corp. (INTC), the largest maker of chips that run personal computers …

More: Intel, Re/code, VentureBeat and New York Times

Tweets: @corytv, @corytv and @chris_ciaccia

Robert Graham / Errata Security:

Obama's proposed anti-hacking laws will criminalize the legitimate work of security professionals and create a cyber police state — Obama's War on Hackers … In next week's State of the Union address, President Obama will propose new laws against hacking that could make either retweeting …

More: Liquidmatrix Security Digest, We Live Security, The Register and The Next Web. Tweets: @sehnaoui

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Google and Lending Club to launch pilot program offering low-interest business loans to eligible Google partners — Google and Lending Club launch low-interest loans for Google partners — Peer-to-peer lending service Lending Club has announced a new tie-up with Google to facilitate funding for “eligible Google partners.”

More: PR Newswire, Seeking Alpha, Re/code and StreetInsider.com

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Soxton:

AI-powered law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!

Zoho:

Zoho CRM Plus in 2025: A year of thoughtful CX improvements — 2025 marked 11 years of building a customer experience platform designed to support organizations as customer expectations, channels …

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

Alex And Ranjan's 2026 Outlook: ChatGPT 1 Billion, AI Shopping, Apple's Big Year, AI Love Boom

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Hard Fork:

Where Is All the A.I.-Driven Scientific Progress?

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

The Talk Show With John Gruber:

'A Naughty Citizen', With Quinn Nelson

The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.

Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt's Second Act: Less Budget, More Control

Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

BG2 Pod:

AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean

Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.

Subscribe to BG2 Pod.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:45 PM ET, January 15, 2015.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.