Techmeme: CIA review panel exonerates CIA personnel who searched Senate Intelligence Committee computers (National Journal)

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January 17, 2015, 11:45 AM

Top News

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.

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: Gizmodo, Business Insider, Engadget, Union Gazette, GeekWire, The Verge, VentureBeat, Light Reading, The Register, Wall Street Journal, Gigaom, Network World and Pocket-lint

Tweets: @jeff_foust, @bldgblog, @mikeisaac, @trengriffin, @marshallk 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.

Paul Carsten / Reuters:

Alibaba is beta testing DingTalk, a communications app for small and medium sized businesses — Alibaba's latest mobile messaging effort: social networking for businesses — (Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N), the world's biggest e-commerce company …

More: Chinatopix and The Tech Portal

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 and Search Engine Land. Thanks:@steverubel

National Journal:

CIA review panel exonerates CIA personnel who searched Senate Intelligence Committee computers — CIA Review Board Clears Spy Agency of Wrongdoing in Senate Hack — The new report contradicts earlier statements from the agency. — A CIA review panel announced Wednesday it had cleared …

More: Washington Post, Ars Technica, Politico, New York Times, Slate, The Verge, Gizmodo and Yahoo! News

Tweets: @dnvolz, @ronwyden and @ronwyden

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Wall Street Journal:

Palantir was valued at $15B in November, making it the third most valuable VC-backed company — Palantir Raising More Money After Tagged With $15 Billion Valuation — Palantir Technologies, one of the more secretive companies in Silicon Valley, was valued at $15 billion in November …

More: Seeking Alpha

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: VentureBeat, PhoneDog.com, App Advice, SlashGear, and Android Central. Tweets: @joshconstine

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: @w_scottweiss, @rj_gallagher and @gcluley

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, Gizmodo, start.ticketfly.com, 9to5Google, Search Engine Watch, Gizmodo, Search Engine Land, hypebot, Street Fight, VentureBeat and Engadget

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, Consumerist, Electronista, CNET, Gizmodo, The Daily Caller, Variety and TechCrunch

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