Techmeme
August 12, 2015, 5:40 PM

Top News

Peter Kafka / Re/code:
NBCU invests $200M in Vox Media, pre-money valuation of $850M; will invest $200M in BuzzFeed  —  NBCUniversal Buys Big Chunks of Vox Media and BuzzFeed  —  Last week Re/code reported that NBCUniversal was investing in BuzzFeed and Vox Media.  —  Now those deals are done, and NBCU and Vox Media are announcing their deal today.
Jason Del Rey / Re/code:
Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC May Not Launch Until Next Year  —  Google and Samsung are gearing up to join Apple Pay in the battle to replace your wallet later this year, but another payments app backed by big retailers like Walmart may wait a little longer before entering primetime.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google Launches New Site To Showcase Experimental Open Source Apps For Android And Android Wear  —  Google launched Android Experiments today, the mobile apps counterpart to its Chrome Experiments site.  —  Just like with Chrome Experiments, the idea behind Android experiments is to showcase apps …
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
New OS X beta suggests iPad Mini 4 will be faster and support split-view apps  —  El Capitan file hints at faster iPad mini 4 with full split-view apps support  —  One of iOS 9's marquee additions is support for split-screen applications on the iPad.  This allows users to operate two iPad applications simultaneously, side-by-side.
Owen Williams / The Next Web:
Lenovo shipped laptops with an “anti-theft” rootkit that reinstalled unwanted software, has issued manual, optional patch to remove the functionality  —  Lenovo used a hidden Windows feature to ensure its software could not be deleted  —  A recently uncovered feature …
Richa Naidu / Reuters:
Fidelity National to buy software maker SunGard in $9.1 billion deal  —  Financial industry software maker Fidelity National Information Services Inc (FIS.N) said it would buy SunGard Data Systems Inc for $9.1 billion including debt, scooping up one of the longest-held investments in private-equity history.
Robert D. Hof / MIT Technology Review:
Why Google's Alphabet Is Nothing like Berkshire Hathaway - and Much Riskier  —  Google's new structure has few historical precedents, in tech or outside it.  —  Before Apple's Steve Jobs died in 2011, he told Google cofounder and CEO Larry Page that his company was trying to do too much.
Terry Collins / CNET:
Twitter increases maximum length of direct messages from 140 to 10K characters  —  Chat away: Twitter removes 140-character limit for direct messages  —  The social network now allows users to chat privately without feeling constrained by a space limit.  Blabbermouths, however, will get cut off at 10,000 characters.
Kellex / Droid Life:
Moto X Pure Edition Will be Available Starting September 3  —  Motorola, via Twitter, just announced that its new flagship phone for 2015, the Moto X Pure Edition, will arrive September 3.  Previously, Motorola would only state that the phone was coming in September, which left a few …
Ryan Knutson / Wall Street Journal:
Inside SoftBank's Struggle to Turn Around Sprint  —  Two years after takeover, SoftBank's Masayoshi Son struggles to overhaul the U.S. carrier  —  Billionaire Masayoshi Son asked to speak with U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy right away one Saturday last year.
Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:
Pure Storage Files to Go Public Later This Year  —  Pure Storage, the company challenging established players in the enterprise storage business by using flash memory chips instead of hard drives, has filed for an initial public offering.  —  The company's filing with the U.S. Securities …

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Prospect:
A running list of the best startups to join  —  We've analyzed thousands of startups using the same data VCs use and distilled our list down to the top 2%.  Discover and join the next Stripe, Airbnb, or Coinbase today.
Zoho:
15 live chat best practices to improve customer support  —  Every interaction customers have with your business shapes their perception about you and can either make them more loyal or send them elsewhere looking for alternatives.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Carolina Reis Oliveira & Alessandra Zonari | OneSkin: Aging Myths, Senescent Cells, and How to Age Slower (#56)
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 05/10 - Apple Apologizes For The "Crush" Ad
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:40 PM ET, August 12, 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

Earlier Picks

Nancy Jo Sales / Vanity Fair:
Maren Kate / Medium:
David McCabe / The Hill: