Techmeme: FTC fines TracFone Wireless $40M for throttling customers after advertising “unlimited” data (Ina Fried/Re/code)

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January 28, 2015, 6:25 PM

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Facebook:

Facebook Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2014 Results — Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2014. — “We got a lot done in 2014. Our community continues to grow and we're making progress towards connecting the world …

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Beats Estimates In Q4 With $3.85B Revenue, User Growth Up To 2.9% QOQ To Hit 1.39B — Facebook met the street's estimates in its Q4 2014 earnings. It now has 1.38 billion users, up 2.2% quarter over quarter, which was a little slower than in Q4. The company brought $0.48 EPIS on $3.77 billion in revenue.

More: Wall Street Journal and Agence France-Presse. Tweets: @joshconstine

Garett Sloane / Adweek:

Facebook mobile ad revenue accounts for 69% of total ad revenue in Q4, up from 53% Q4 2013; 1.19B mobile MAUs — Facebook Just Shared Insane Q4 Mobile Numbers and Ad Sales — Its smartphone promos alone did $2.5 billion — Facebook's mobile sales continue to skyrocket …

More: VentureBeat, Guardian, CNNMoney, ZDNet, The Next Web, CNET, Forbes, Re/code, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, MobileSyrup.com, Variety and Deadline. Tweets: @joshconstine

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Facebook video views hit 3B per day, up from 1B daily views in September 2014

Ben Kepes / Forbes:

Amazon to introduce WorkMail, a cloud email and calendar service aimed at Microsoft Exchange's market, in Q2 2015 — Amazon Changes The Game Again—AWS Introduces WorkMail — Amazon Web Services, Amazon's cloud computing business unit, continues to surprise industry commentators with both its growth and its incessant innovation.

More: Wall Street Journal, ZDNet, VentureBeat, Ink, Bits, & Pixels, GeekWire, The Verge, Network World, TechCrunch, Re/code, The Next Web, Business Insider, Ubergizmo, Technology Personalized and Seeking Alpha

Eric Lempel / PlayStation.Blog:

Sony announces Spotify-powered PlayStation Music streaming service for PS4, PS3, and Xperia devices; Music Unlimited shutting down March 29 — PlayStation, Meet Spotify — Hello everyone! I'm thrilled today to introduce a new music destination called PlayStation Music, with Spotify as the exclusive partner.

Facebook:

Facebook Super Bowl hub collects posts and videos from friends, news outlets, players, and teams — Introducing a New Super Bowl Experience on Facebook — By Alex Himel, Engineering Director and Dan Reed, Head of Global Sports Partnerships — More than 50 million people joined …

More: Reuters, Marketing Land, TIME, Gigaom, Engadget, The Verge, iDownloadBlog.com, SocialTimes, Wired, LostRemote, The Daily Dot, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Ubergizmo, Pocket-lint and GeekWire

Ina Fried / Re/code:

Qualcomm Cuts Outlook, Warning Its Snapdragon 810 Dropped From a Flagship Device — Wireless chipmaker Qualcomm said Wednesday that it is cutting its financial outlook for the next two quarters as its Snapdragon 810 chip was dropped by a large customer. — The company also blamed continued concerns …

More: Gigaom, CNET, PC World, Ars Technica, 9to5Google, TechnoBuffalo, Reuters and Pocketnow

Ina Fried / Re/code:

FTC fines TracFone Wireless $40M for throttling customers after advertising “unlimited” data — FTC Says Unlimited Data With Throttling Doesn't Count as Unlimited — In a case that could have broad implications, the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday ordered prepaid mobile provider TracFone …

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Slack Buys Screenhero To Add Screen Sharing And Voice Chat To Its Work Messaging Platform — Slack, the enterprise collaboration service that has raised $180 million and proven to be a runaway success with 365,000 daily active users, has made another acquisition to add more functionality …

More: Several People Are Typing, The Screenhero Blog, Engadget, Android Authority, BetaKit, The Next Web, FierceMobileIT News, The Verge, Business Insider, Computerworld, Mashable, Wired, VentureBeat, tech.co and iMore

CBC News:

Canada's electronic spy agency tracks millions of online movie, photo, music, and other downloads worldwide — CSE tracks millions of downloads daily: Snowden documents — Global sites for sharing movies, photos, music targeted in mass anti-terror surveillance

More: Techdirt, The Intercept, Wired, Ars Technica, Engadget, RT, TorrentFreak, The Verge, CIO.com, SiliconBeat, The Hill, PandoDaily and Gigaom. See also Mediagazer

Washington Post:

Google says it fought gag orders in WikiLeaks investigation — Google has fought all gag orders preventing it from telling customers that their e-mails and other data were sought by the U.S. government in a long-running investigation of the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks …

More: eWeek, Ars Technica and 9to5Google

Tweets: @emptywheel, @anonyops, @tbridis, @dangillmor, @csoghoian and @csoghoian

See also Mediagazer

Andrew Grush / Android Authority:

Evleaks reveals render showing off One M9 in two sizes, with improved aesthetics — With HTC set to unveil its next flagship in March, we're already hearing quite a few rumors on what to expect from the One (M9). In addition to talk of specs, there have also been several leaked images …

More: Android Central, 9to5Google, PC World, GadgeTell, Ubergizmo, Gotta Be Mobile, Droid Life, Phandroid, PhoneDog.com, Forbes, MobileSyrup.com, TechnoBuffalo, The Verge, Android Police, AndroidGuys and Neowin. Tweets: @evleaks

Ben Popper / The Verge:

Firmware update prevents DJI drones from flying over Washington, DC after White House crash — Drone maker DJI will disable its units over Washington, DC, after White House crash — Rookie pilots will get a little extra help determining what's a no-fly zone

More: Wall Street Journal, TIME, The Next Web, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, bizjournals, Mashable, Ubergizmo, The Hill, TechCrunch and Digital Trends. Tweets: @jacknicas

Jonathan Shieber / TechCrunch:

UserTesting raises $45.5M Series C led by Accel Partners to expand usability testing business — Accel Chooses “A” And “B” With UserTesting's $45.5 Million Round — When rolling out a new product, or making changes to an old one, companies can spend thousands of dollars on testing to ensure …

More: UserTesting, VentureBeat, PE Hub Blog, PR Newswire, bizjournals, Wired, Forbes and Xconomy. Thanks:@stevemnich

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg Business:

Snapchat original series “SnapperHero” to be made by YouTube and Vine stars, sponsored by AT&T — YouTube Stars Expand to Snapchat — Don't Miss Out — … (Bloomberg) — Snapchat Inc. is getting its own superhero series, the latest sign that the ephemeral-messaging startup …

More: Variety, Re/code, The Next Web, AdAge, Tubefilter, Wireless Week, Comicbook.com and Mashable. See also Mediagazer

Jonathan Shieber / TechCrunch:

TechStars Ventures Raises $150 Million As It Expands Into Series A Investments — Techstars has raised $150 million for its latest vehicle, Techstars Ventures (formerly known as Bullet Time Ventures) as it expands from seed into Series A investment. — “The $150 million third fund is focused …

More: Techstars, VentureBeat, Hi, I'm David G. Cohen, Feld Thoughts, GeekWire, Xconomy and Wall Street Journal

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Metromile Launches Uber Car Insurance Where Drivers Only Pay For Personal Miles — Uber covers drivers with $1 million of insurance when they're on the job, but they still have to buy personal car insurance even if they hardly drive off-the-job. But now, Metromile and Uber have developed …

More: Engadget, VentureBeat, PandoDaily, Gigaom and Metromile Blog

Signe Brewster / Gigaom:

Meta raises $23M Series A to refine its augmented reality glasses — The Meta 1 develop kit. — The Meta 1 develop kit. — Meta, an early startup in the augmented reality industry, has raised a $23 million Series A round led by Horizons Ventures, Tim Draper, BOE Optoelectronics and Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian of Y Combinator.

More: Wall Street Journal and VentureBeat

Lulu Yilun Chen / Bloomberg Business:

China accuses Alibaba of bribery and lax oversight of illegal operations on its platforms in report withheld until now to avoid disrupting the company's IPO — China Accuses Alibaba of Lax Oversight of Merchants — Don't Miss Out — … (Bloomberg) — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has a …

More: CNNMoney, Wall Street Journal, International Business Times, AdAge, Consumerist, BBC, Forbes, New York Times, CNBC, Associated Press, Quartz, Reuters, Asia Stocks to Watch and Associated Press

Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:

Apple Just Had The Most Profitable Quarter Of Any Company Ever — Apple had a pretty good quarter. — And by “pretty good,” I mean it was the biggest quarter in history. And not just for Apple. For any company. Ever. — This page charts the past record holders.

More: stratechery, iMore, eWeek, Computerworld, Gawker, Network World, ScreenwerkScreenwerk, Business Insider, Daring Fireball, 9to5Mac, Mercury News, AppleInsider, FierceMobileIT News, internetretailer.com, App Advice and Re/code

Brian X. Chen / New York Times:

Apple reports $16.1B in revenue from greater China, up 70% from same period a year ago

More: iMore, The Economic Times, Wall Street Journal, Daring Fireball, Six Colors, Bloomberg Business, Patently Apple, Global Nerdy and Telecoms.com. Tweets: @csoghoian

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