Inside Nadella's plan to reinvent Microsoft, starting with HoloLens, a flatter org chart, and a willingness to forge new partnerships  —  Satya Nadella's Got a Plan to Make You Care About Microsoft.  The First Step?  Holograms … REDMOND MISSED MOBILE  —  The old Microsoft never gained turf in smartphone operating systems.

Sources: Google is preparing to sell wireless plans running on Sprint and T-Mobile networks  —  Google's Next Telecom Move: Becoming a Wireless Carrier  —  Google is preparing to sell mobile phone plans directly to customers and manage their calls and mobile data over a cellular network …

The next generation of Windows: Windows 10  —  Today I had the honor of sharing new information about Windows 10, the new generation of Windows.  —  Our team shared more Windows 10 experiences and how Windows 10 will inspire new scenarios across the broadest range of devices, from big screens to small screens to no screens at all.

Twitter rolls out “While you were away” feature to iOS users, coming soon to Android and web  —  While you were away...  Today we're introducing something new to your home timeline: a recap of some of the top Tweets you might have missed from accounts you follow.

BlackBerry CEO Wants Legislators To Make Developing BlackBerry Apps Mandatory  —  At this point, BlackBerry and Windows Phone fans are probably used to having a much smaller selection of apps than their counterparts on iOS and Android smartphones.  After all, diehard devotees of BlackBerry and Windows Phone …

Gift Card Marketplaces Raise Grabs $56 Million From NEA And Others  —  A company offering a marketplace where consumers can buy and sell their unused gift cards, Raise.com, announced this morning it has taken in a sizable $56 million round of Series B funding, led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA).

Backblaze: 4 TB HGST and Seagate hard drives are most reliable, 3 TB Seagate and WD drives fail often  —  What is the Best Hard Drive?  —  It was one year ago that I first blogged about the failure rates of specific models of hard drives, so now is a good time for an update.

In-flight Wi-Fi is getting slower, less reliable, and more expensive as demand increases  —  The Sorry State of In-Flight Wi-Fi  —  35,000 FEET, SOMEWHERE OVER THE MIDWEST — I've finally found something on commercial flights that's worse than airplane food: the Wi-Fi.

Amazon looking to buy datacenter tech startup Annapurna Labs for $350m  —  Summary:Amazon is reportedly in talks to buy a stealth-mode Israeli startup that could give its datacenters a boost.  —  After almost a year of searching, Amazon has found its Israel ‘soulmate,’ which is developing …

Ex-Facebookers at Interana raise $20M for mass-scale event data  —  Interana, a Menlo Park, California, analytics startup that officially launched in October has closed a $20 million Series B round.  Index Ventures led the round, which also included new investors AME Cloud Ventures, Harris Barton and Cloudera's Mike Olson.

WhatsApp launches a desktop web app to serve Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone users  —  WhatsApp Web  —  Today, for the first time, millions of you will have the ability to use WhatsApp on your web browser.  Our web client is simply an extension of your phone: the web browser mirrors conversations …

Illinois law says schools can ask for students' Facebook passwords if they violate policy  —  Illinois Says Rule-Breaking Students Must Give Teachers Their Facebook Passwords  —  School districts in Illinois are telling parents that a new law may require school officials to demand …

The case for Marissa Mayer, as key metrics suggest the turnaround at Yahoo is on track  —  Marissa Mayer's Plan for Yahoo Takes Hold.  The Question Now Is Time.  —  When Marissa Mayer was offered the chief executive job at Yahoo in the summer of 2012, she had a script for returning …

Kim Dotcom Launches Skype Competitor MegaChat  —  Kim Dotcom, the infamous entrepreneur behind Megaupload, has released his latest product.  Currently in beta, MegaChat is a browser-based encrypted video calling and file-sharing platform that is being positioned as a Skype competitor.

eBay to Cut 2,400 Jobs and Explore Sale or IPO of Enterprise Unit  —  EBay said today that it would cut about seven percent of its workforce globally in the first quarter as it looks to reduce costs ahead of its planned spinoff of PayPal.  The company also said it would explore a sale or IPO …