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January 17, 2015, 1:55 AM

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Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Sources: Google is interested in buying mobile payments company Softcard, price could be less than $100M — Google Is In Talks With Mobile Payments Company Softcard — Apple has Apple Pay, and now it looks like Google may be fattening up its own wallet.

More: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, AppleInsider, CNET, Marketing Land, Engadget, Forbes, Reuters, The Register, Pocketnow, PhoneDog.com, Phandroid, 9to5Google, VentureBeat, PaymentsSource, SlashGear, Ars Technica, App Advice, WMPoweruser, Android and Me, Android Central and 9to5Mac

Tweets: @ohthatflo, @mdudas and @mikeisaac

Ashlee Vance / Businessweek:

Elon Musk planning low-orbit Internet satellite system to compete with OneWeb, based out of SpaceX's new Seattle office — Revealed: Elon Musk's Plan to Build a Space Internet — Because he doesn't have enough going on, Elon Musk—he of Tesla Motors, SpaceX, SolarCity, and the Hyperloop—is launching another project.

More: Engadget, GeekWire, The Verge, VentureBeat, Light Reading, Wall Street Journal, The Register, Network World, Gigaom and Pocket-lint

Tweets: @trengriffin, @bldgblog, @mikeisaac and @rolfewinkler

Faryaab S. / SamMobile:

Samsung to use Touch ID-like fingerprint sensor in Galaxy S6 instead of swipe-based sensor — Exclusive: Samsung opts for a touch-based fingerprint sensor for the Galaxy S6 — A smartphone is one of the most personal devices a human being can own, and it's one of those devices where compromising on security is not an option.

More: PC Magazine, Ausdroid, AndroidGuys, SlashGear, PhoneDog.com, MobileSyrup.com, AppleInsider, 9to5Google, Pocketnow, Droid Life, Forbes, TechnoBuffalo, Gigaom, Phandroid, PhoneArena, Seeking Alpha, Android Authority, Gotta Be Mobile and iPhone in Canada Blog

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Republicans introduce net neutrality legislation which would strip rule-making power from the FCC, avoid a major reclassification of broadband service — Republicans want a net neutrality law, but only if it stops the FCC from handling it — A month before the FCC votes on a new net neutrality proposal …

More: Energy & Commerce Committee, Reuters, Washington Post, Public Knowledge, CNET, Consumerist, Variety, Electronista, SiteProNews, Gizmodo, The Daily Caller and TechCrunch

See also Mediagazer

Steven Levy / Backchannel:

How Google Search is using Knowledge Graph, Voice Search, and Google Now to transition to the mobile dominant world — How Google Search Dealt With Mobile — Google's flagship product has been part of our lives for so long that we take it for granted. But Google doesn't.

More: Backchannel, Backchannel, Backchannel, Search Engine Land and BuzzFeed. Thanks:@steverubel

Julian Hattem / The Hill:

Obama backs call for tech backdoors — President Obama wants a backdoor to track people's social media messages. — The president on Friday came to the defense of British Prime Minister David Cameron's call for tech companies to create holes in their technology to allow the government to track suspected terrorists or criminals.

More: Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and National Journal

Tweets: @rj_gallagher and @gcluley

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Facebook Messenger tests Google Voice-style transcriptions for sound clips — Another victory in the war against voicemail — Voicemail is one of the least efficient ways of communicating, and yet a form of it survives in many messaging apps. Facebook added voice clips to Facebook Messenger in 2013 …

More: SlashGear, iMore, VentureBeat, and App Advice. Tweets: @joshconstine

Ben Woods / The Next Web:

Google makes it easier to buy tickets for live events, straight from search results and Maps — Google has inked a deal with live event companies Ticketfly, Ticketmaster and AXS to integrate sales for live shows into its Search and Google Maps search results on mobile or desktop, as well as within the Google Maps app.

More: Google Webmaster Central Blog, start.ticketfly.com, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Watch, Gizmodo, hypebot, Street Fight, 9to5Google, VentureBeat and Engadget

Alistair Barr / Wall Street Journal:

Google joins PricewaterhouseCoopers in $2B bid to update US DoD's electronic-health-records system — Google Is Bidding for a Pentagon Contract Worth More Than $2 Billion — Google is using a new partnership with consulting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers and some of its $60 billion in cash …

More: Computerworld, Politico, EHRintelligence.com and cloudpro.co.uk. Tweets: @alistairmbarr

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Holtzbrinck Ventures Closes $331M Fund To Back More Consumer And E-Commerce Startups — One of the more prolific VCs in Europe with close ties to e-commerce startup factory Rocket Internet has closed another fund — its biggest yet — to back more consumer internet businesses in the region and beyond, with an emphasis on e-commerce.

More: PE Hub Blog. Tweets: @ingridlunden and @_fredrik

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