Techmeme
January 30, 2015, 2:15 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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
Ross Miller / The Verge:
Associated Press now writes 3K stories per quarter on US earning reports after teaming with Automated Insights, plans to expand globally  —  AP's ‘robot journalists’ are writing their own stories now  —  Minutes after Apple released its record-breaking quarterly earnings this week …
Natalie Jarvey / Hollywood Reporter:
Snapchat's first original web series debuts tomorrow in Discover, with episodes available for 24 hours  —  Sasha Spielberg, Emily Goldwyn to Star in Snapchat Web Series (Exclusive)  —  Snapchat is making a web series.  —  Literally Can't Even comes from writers Sasha Spielberg and Emily Goldwyn …
Richard Nieva / CNET:
Google's search for sales, profit falls short  —  The search giant continues to pull in billions from its search and advertising business, even as the company looks for other ways to make money.  —  For the past few quarters, Google's finances have been the story of same-old, same-old …
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
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 …
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 Streaming Cricket World Cup Subscriptions  —  ESPN is going to try selling sports directly to viewers over the Internet …
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
Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:
Google's 3D mapping technology, Project Tango, graduates from the Advanced Technology and Projects group  —  Google spins out Project Tango from its Advanced Technology and Projects group  —  At the moment, it's not quite clear what's happening to Project Tango, Google's ambitious plan …

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More News

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Abhijeet M. / SamMobile:

Earlier Picks

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Taylor Soper / GeekWire: