Techmeme: Taiwan-based mobile phone chipmaker MediaTek plans US expansion to challenge Qualcomm (Ben Fox Rubin/CNET)

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January 25, 2015, 12:45 PM

Top News

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Walmart starts selling its Vudu Spark streaming stick for $25 — Remember Walmart's very own HDMI streaming stick, which I spotted in the FFC's online database two months ago? Turns out Walmart already started selling it for just $24.95, and is now getting ready to make it more widely available.

More: Ubergizmo, Zatz Not Funny!, The Verge, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, TechRadar.com, Engadget, Multichannel News, Liliputing, GSMArena Blog, Electronista and SlashGear

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

In response to rise of programmatic advertising, AOL drastically restructures ad sales staff — As Ad Business Shifts to Machines, AOL Restructures Its Sales Staff in a Major Reorg — According to numerous sources, AOL is now initiating long-planned changes to drastically reorganize …

Tweets: @jayrosen_nyu and @mdudas

Adam Lashinsky / Fortune:

Behind Jawbone's transition from making earpieces to wireless speakers to fitness trackers — Jawbone: The trials of a 16-year-old can't-miss startup — The first thing you notice about Hosain Rahman, CEO of the much-buzzed-about gadget maker Jawbone, are his wrists.

More: Forbes, Wearable Tech Insider and mobihealthnews

Tweets: @darpa, @jyarow, @bryce and @abrams

Mario Aguilar / Gizmodo:

Music artists who refuse YouTube's aggressive Music Key terms lose all YouTube monetization options — Why Google Is Strong-Arming Artists Into Signing With YouTube Music Key — Cello rock n' roller Zoë Keating is really upset that Google is trying to force her to sign over the rights …

More: Zoë Keating, Music Industry Blog, musictechpolicy, Android Police, The Register, Guardian, Tubefilter and Music Week

Tweets: @zoecello and @marcoarment

See also Mediagazer

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:

Saavn, 'India's Spotify', Reveals It Has 11M Monthly Users And Hires Ex-Google Exec — It's looking like 2015 will be a big year for India's music streaming space. A week after Rdio's arrival in the country, Saavn — a New York/India startup that was among the first to cater to India …

More: Digital Music News, Music Business Worldwide, Music Week, exchange4media.com, Billboard, Music Week and MediaNama. Tweets: @jonrussell

Phil Goldstein / FierceWireless:

Report: Qualcomm working on updated Snapdragon 810 chip for Samsung's Galaxy S6 — Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) is expected to provide Samsung Electronics with a new version of its Snapdragon 810 chipset in March for the next version of Samsung's flagship Galaxy S smartphone, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

More: Wall Street Journal, Gotta Be Mobile, WCCFtech, GSMArena.com, AndroidHeadlines.com and PhoneArena

Nick Heath / ZDNet:

Mozilla adds WebVR support to Firefox Nightly, enabling Oculus Rift with add-on — Firefox enters the realm of virtual reality with the Oculus Rift — Summary:Mozilla has added support for virtual reality apps running on the Oculus Rift headset to an experimental version of the Firefox browser.

More: MozVR, Andreas Gal, TechCrunch, Engadget, Fast Company, Tom's Hardware Guide, PC World and VentureBeat. Tweets: @eirepreneur

The Verge:

How Bahrain's government used FinFisher spyware to target a political activist — A Spy in the Machine — In November 2005, during the dead of night, five black cars pulled up in front of the home of Moosa Abd-Ali Ali. The doors opened, and a group of men stepped out.

More: The Citizen Lab. Tweets: @pernillet, @bbhorne, @russellbrandom, @propublica and @verge

Ben Fox Rubin / CNET:

Taiwan-based mobile phone chipmaker MediaTek plans US expansion to challenge Qualcomm — Meet MediaTek, the brains powering your next budget smartphone — The Taiwanese company, which supplies mobile chips in Asia, is gearing up for an expansion into the US. That could mean more affordable smartphone options.

Carmel DeAmicis / Gigaom:

What 1,000 attendees at Product Hunt's happy hour show about tech culture and the company's future — Over 1,000 people showed up to Product Hunt's massive happy hour — The Product Hunt happy hour crowd in the outdoor half of 620 Jones — Credit: Taken by Carmel DeAmicis for Gigaom

Tweets: @kim617, @ericnewcomer, @stevesi, @panzer, @bplewis, @gigastacey, @mims, @ryanlawler, @mathewi, @howardlindzon, @fromedome and @semil

Quinn Norton / Medium:

Barrett Brown sentence shows increasing dangers of security journalism, and why reporters should step back until laws are fixed — We Should All Step Back from Security Journalism — I'll Go First — I started studying the computer underground back when I worked in tech, as an early web developer, in the mid 1990s.

More: Bluelight and Boing Boing. Tweets: @lalaurenista, @lorenzofb, @quinnnorton, @anildash, @dangillmor, @rsingel and @farmgeek. See also Mediagazer

Carolyn Said / San Francisco Chronicle:

California DMV stops making Uber drivers get commercial license plates; policy review pending — DMV to reconsider commercial plates for UberX, Lyft drivers — In an abrupt U-turn, the California of Motor Vehicles late Friday night retracted its finding that drivers for ride-hailing services like Uber …

More: bizjournals, CIO.com, PC Magazine, VentureBeat, Tech Times, Slashdot, SFist, Curbed LA, SlashGear, Gizmodo and BuzzFeed

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