Techmeme
January 30, 2015, 12:30 PM

Top News

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.
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
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 is on the verge of buying Swedish company Aspiro AB — the firm that owns …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Google Agrees To Change Privacy Policy In Settlement With UK's Information Commissioner  —  While Google continues to work through the best implementation of Right To Be Forgotten legislation in Europe, some more developments in the area of consumer data and privacy.
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 …
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 …
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
Steven Levy / Backchannel:
Facebook queries 600 paid users directly about stories selected for their News Feed to improve ranking algorithms, may expand querying to general population  —  Revealed: Facebook's Project to Find Out What People Really Want in Their News Feed  —  Every weekday beginning at around nine …
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Prosecutors Trace $13.4M in Bitcoins From the Silk Road to Ulbricht's Laptop  —  If anyone still believes that bitcoin is magically anonymous internet money, the US government just offered what may be the clearest demonstration yet that it's not.  A courtroom PowerPoint presentation traced hundreds …
More: TIME, SiliconANGLE and TechSpotTweets: @a_greenberg
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Secret Co-Founder Chrys Bader-Wechseler Steps Down Because It's Not About Design Anymore  —  One year after founding anonymish app Secret with fellow Googler David Byttow, Chrys Bader-Wechseler is leaving the company on amicable terms.  He cites that Secret isn't about design and curation …
Andrew Jacobs / New York Times:
China acknowledges targeting VPN services to foster the “healthy development” of the nation's internet, says VPNs are illegal  —  China Clamps Down Still Harder on Internet Access  —  BEIJING — Jing Yuechen, the founder of an Internet start-up here in the Chinese capital …
Kevin Fitchard / Gigaom:
The big 4 carriers will bring LTE to Chicago's subways  —  4G services are finally coming to Chicago's subways.  Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are collectively installing a $32.5 million LTE upgrade in the Chicago Transit Authority's 22 miles of subway tunnels, allowing commuters to continue chatting …
Peter Kafka / Re/code:
ESPN to sell live, on-demand access to the Cricket World Cup on web for $100, mobile apps coming on Feb. 11  —  ESPN Takes Another Step Outside the Bundle, Starts Selling Cricket World Cup Subscriptions  —  ESPN is going to try selling sports directly to viewers over the Internet …
Todd Shields / Bloomberg Business:
FCC considers formal complaint process for reviewing paid peering deals  —  Netflix Deals With Broadband Providers Said to Get Oversight  —  Don't Miss Out —  (Bloomberg) — U.S. regulators plan to issue rules next month allowing them to review the terms Internet service providers demand …

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More News

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Earlier Picks

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Wall Street Journal: