Techmeme: Barrett Brown sentence shows increasing dangers of security journalism, and why reporters should step back until laws are fixed (Quinn Norton/Medium)

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January 25, 2015, 5:20 PM

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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: @waltmossberg, @jayrosen_nyu and @mdudas

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: @0xdeadbabe, @lalaurenista, @lorenzofb, @quinnnorton, @anildash, @dangillmor, @rsingel and @farmgeek. See also Mediagazer

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

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

Bogdan Petrovan / Android Authority:

Cyanogen's CEO says they'll be independent from Google in 3-5 years, offering its own app store in 18 months and alternatives to Google apps — CEO: “Today, Cyanogen has some dependence on Google. Tomorrow, it will not.” — Kirt McMaster, the outspoken CEO of Cyanogen Inc. …

More: The Information, Liliputing, AndroidHeadlines.com, Business Insider, AndroidGuys and Gizmodo UK

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

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

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

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

The Verge:

11 of 14 projects in Sundance Film Festival's experimental showcase use virtual reality — How virtual reality ate the Sundance Film Festival — The future of independent film may not be film at all — The most buzzworthy feature of 2015's Sundance Film Festival isn't a film at all …

More: New York Times, Engadget, Variety, Variety, Reuters, The A.V. Club, Engadget, VideoInk, Engadget, Wall Street Journal and VR Focus. See also Mediagazer

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.

Aloysius Low / CNET:

Xiaomi Mi Note review: refined hardware, distinct design, limited LTE support outside of Asia — Xiaomi's latest flagship dazzles with quality design — The Good The Xiaomi Mi Note's refined steel and glass design is as good as any. Impressively, Xiaomi crams a 13-megapixel camera …

More: Forbes

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