Techmeme
February 6, 2015, 7:15 PM

Top News

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Twitter Confirms Google Firehose Deal To Target Logged Out Users  —  During Twitter's Q4 earnings call, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo today confirmed that Twitter has signed a firehose deal with Google, which will bring tweets back into Google searches, more eyeballs to those tweets …
Owen Bowcott / Guardian:
UK court rules GCHQ mass internet surveillance was unlawful, breached human rights law  —  GCHQ mass internet surveillance was unlawful, rules court  —  Access to intercepted information obtained by the NSA breached human rights laws, according to the Investigative Powers Tribunal
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Google Uses Hangouts As A Virtual Genius Bar To Sell Google Devices  —  In 2013, Google expanded its Hangouts video conferencing service into a commerce platform called Helpouts, where people buy and sell services like cooking or technical advice via live video.
Bloomberg Business:
Tesla has hired 150+ Apple employees, more than from any other company; Apple tries poaching Tesla employees with $250,000 signing bonuses but recruits few  —  Apple Abduction  —  Tesla has hired more workers from Apple than from anyplace else  —  Doug Field never considered leaving Apple.
Ben Fritz / Wall Street Journal:
Nintendo and Netflix are reportedly in early stage of developing “Legend of Zelda” live-action series  —  Netflix Is Developing a Live-Action ‘Legend of Zelda’ Series  —  “The Legend of Zelda,” one of the most popular videogame series of all time, is in the works as a television show at Netflix.
Nick Summers / Engadget:
First Ubuntu phone, a repurposed mid-range BQ Android phone, goes on flash sale in EU next week for $195  —  The first Ubuntu phone arrives next week, but there's a catch  —  It's been a long time coming, but finally Canonical is ready to release its first Ubuntu phone.
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Galvanize to open massive, 71,000-square-foot ‘tech startup campus’ and coding school in Seattle  —  Good news for Seattle entrepreneurs: Galvanize is opening up a huge new space in Pioneer Square.  The Denver-based company's hybrid model combines tech office space with a programming school, access to investors and mentorship.
Andrew Chung / Reuters:
US court orders Symantec to pay $17M for violating two patents owned by Intellectual Ventures related to its email and Internet protection products  —  U.S. court orders Symantec to pay $17 mln for patent infringement  —  (Reuters) - Symantec Corp, maker of the popular Norton antivirus software …
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
OS X 10.10.3 Puts More Focus on Emoji, Lays Groundwork for Skin Tone Modifiers  —  While the featured addition in yesterday's OS X 10.10.3 developer seed was the new Photos app, Apple is addressing other issues with the forthcoming update, and one of these focus areas is emoji, which is seeing several changes and improvements.
Mark Scott / New York Times:
Google's advisory council on the Right to be Forgotten suggests limiting it to Europe  —  Limit ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ to Europe, Panel Tells Google  —  LONDON — Europe's so-called right to be forgotten should apply only in Europe.  —  That was the recommendation published on Friday …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Maps for Android update includes Local Guides program, similar to Yelp Elites  —  Google Takes On Yelp Elites With Its New “Local Guides” Program  —  Google is rolling out a “Local Guides” program in an update to Google Maps - a move that seemingly sees the company taking on …

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Earlier Picks

Kyle Wiens / Wired: