Techmeme
January 30, 2015, 8:15 PM

Top News

Nathan Olivarez-Giles / Wall Street Journal:
Google Now adds over 40 new cards, fed by data from 30+ third-party apps like Airbnb, eBay, and Lyft  —  ‘Google Now’ Will Suck In Outside App Data  —  Google Inc. doesn't want to lose its perch atop the search market, and it's looking to the likes of Airbnb, eBay , Lyft and a couple dozen other companies to help it do just that.
New York Times:
Verizon Wireless to Allow Complete Opt Out of Mobile ‘Supercookies’  —  Verizon Wireless, which has been under fire by privacy advocates since late last year, has decided to make a major revision to its mobile ad-targeting program.  Users who do not want to be tracked with an identifier …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
AOL To Lay Off About 150 People, Mostly In Sales; Folding Joystiq, TUAW Into Engadget  —  Some more details are emerging around AOL's reorganization plans.  Sources tell us that the company will lay off around 150 people, with the majority in sales.  As part of it, AOL is also consolidating some websites.
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Vine Kids, a separate app tailored for kids with child-friendly Vines, is available now on iOS  —  Vine Introduces Vine Kids  —  Vine is today introducing a new layer of the service called Vine Kids.  It's meant to be a safe, kid-friendly space for a younger audience to play around with the app and watch vines.
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Jay-Z acquiring Aspiro AB, owner of streaming music services WiMP and Tidal, for $56M  —  Jay-Z takes on Beats and Spotify with acquisition of music-streaming services Tidal and WiMP for $56M  —  Here's an interesting piece of acquisition news for a Friday morning: International rapping superstar Jay-Z …
Strategy Analytics Blog:
Android Shipped 1 Billion Smartphones Worldwide in 2014  —  According to the latest research from our WSS (Smartphones) service, global smartphone shipments grew 30 percent annually to reach a record 1.3 billion units in 2014.  Android accounted for 81 percent of all smartphones last year …
Kirk McElhearn / Kirkville:
iTunes 12.1 adds new Yosemite Notification Center Widget and changes to info windows  —  iTunes 12.1 Brings Changes to Info Windows, Adds Notification Center Widget  —  iTunes 12.1 has been released, the first major update to the latest version of this app.
Johana Bhuiyan / BuzzFeed:
Suits Seek To Force Lyft And Uber To Treat Drivers As Employees  —  A group of drivers have filed suits in San Francisco federal court against Lyft and Uber.  The drivers contend that they are misclassified as independent contractors and should be treated and classified as employees of the companies.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Connecting, collaborating, and growing: Zoho Mail 2025 wrap-up  —  Your inbox has been home to a lot this year—quick updates, long threads, approvals, reminders, and the occasional late-night draft you weren't sure about.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Grit:
How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
The coming AI security crisis (and what to do about it) | Sander Schulhoff
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Potential, Google's Speedy Model, Copilot Hits Turbulence
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin' Xmas Song
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Betting on reality with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:15 PM ET, January 30, 2015.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Wesley Yin-Poole / Eurogamer.net:

Earlier Picks

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Jon Russell / TechCrunch: