Techmeme
February 19, 2015, 7:20 AM

Top News

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Lenovo PCs ship with man-in-the-middle Superfish adware that breaks HTTPS connections, affects Chrome and Internet Explorer  —  Lenovo PCs ship with man-in-the-middle adware that breaks HTTPS connections  —  Superfish may make it trivial for attackers to spoof any HTTPS website.
Ritsuko Ando / Reuters:
Sony three-year plan to focus on PlayStation and camera sensors; company may exit smartphone and TV markets  —  Sony sees 25-fold profit jump by 2018; could exit TVs, phones  —  (Reuters) - Sony Corp (6758.T) aims to boost operating profit 25-fold within three years by growing its camera sensors …
Jessi Hempel / Wired:
White House Names DJ Patil as the First US Chief Data Scientist  —  It's finally official: The White House has named DJ Patil its first ever Chief Data Scientist and Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Data Policy.  —  Yes, that's a mouthful.  Even as an acronym, Patil's new title is ten letters long: CDCaDCTODT.
Serenity Caldwell / iMore:
Astropad is a $50 sketching app that mirrors a Mac display on an iPad at a high frame rate with functionality similar to a Wacom tablet  —  Astropad brings the Cintiq experience to your iPad  —  The iPad's made great progress in the sketching world, but it's still been hampered …
Johnathan Nightingale / meandering wildly:
Mozilla's VP in charge of Firefox Johnathan Nightingale to step down at the end of March  —  Home for a Rest  —  Earlier today, I sent this note to the global mozilla employees list.  It was not an easy send button to push.  —  One of the many, many things Mozilla has taught me over the years is not to bury the lede, so here goes:
Dustin Volz / National Journal:
Google Calls FBI's Plan to Expand Hacking Power a ‘Monumental’ Constitutional Threat  —  Any change in accessing computer data should go through Congress, the search giant said.  —  Google is warning that the government's quiet plan to expand the FBI's authority to remotely access computer files amounts …
Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
Entertainment firm Whalerock creates online and app-based channels for celebrities to reach fans directly with paid and free programming  —  Coming Soon: Celebrity Web Networks From the Media Company Whalerock  —  SANTA MONICA, Calif. — An under-the-radar media company here called Whalerock …
Eric Blattberg / Digiday:
YouTube prohibits sponsored overlays to keep creators from cutting Google out of ad revenues  —  YouTube makes a move against brand-sponsored videos  —  YouTube is putting down the clamps on video creators who work directly with brands, nudging them instead to rely on Google's sales team for deals.
Newley Purnell / Wall Street Journal:
Google Capital's first international expansion set for India  —  Google Capital Sets Sights on India  —  More evidence of global investors' growing interest in India's startups: Google's new investment arm is setting up shop in the country.  —  In what will mark the first such expansion outside the U.S. …
Mark Sullivan / VentureBeat:
Pinterest is trying to raise another $500M, valuing the company at $11B (report)  —  The image bookmarking site Pinterest is reportedly in talks to raise another $500 million in venture capital, which would put the company at a valuation of about $11 billion.
Steve Kovach / Business Insider:
Samsung will buy Apple Pay competitor LoopPay  —  Samsung will buy LoopPay, a mobile payments company.  —  LoopPay's technology allows mobile payments through traditional magnetic credit card readers.  That means it can theoretically work in a lot more places than Apple Pay, which requires special payment pads to work.
John Cook / GeekWire:
Software maker K2 raises more than $100M to help businesses build custom applications … K2 may not be the best known software company in the Seattle area.  In fact, most people hearing the name probably first think of the Seattle-based ski manufacturer.  —  But in the shadow of companies …

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Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
Joe Mullin / Ars Technica: