Techmeme
January 18, 2016, 12:20 PM

Top News

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
WhatsApp Ditches $1 Annual Fee, Tests Business Accounts But No Ads, Says CEO  —  Today at the DLD conference in Munich, Germany, the CEO of Facebook-owned WhatsApp made a couple of big announcements about how the messaging app plans to evolve to its next phase as it approaches 1 billion users …
Wall Street Journal:
Airbus CEO says it will provide helicopters to Uber's chopper service in a trial project launching in a few weeks  —  Airbus to Join Forces With Uber for On-Demand Helicopter Service, CEO Says  —  European aerospace company looking to expand its audience for helicopters
Jillian D'Onfro / Business Insider:
AOL considering changes to its brand, including a name change, to better reflect properties like Huffington Post, TechCrunch, ad platforms, CMO Allie Kline says  —  AOL's identity crisis: The company may ditch the ‘AOL’ brand  —  Verizon-owned AOL has an image problem.
Sarah Jeong / Motherboard:
From impersonation and spammers to Gamergate: how Twitter's rules evolved from the tension between its free-speech ethos and business reality  —  The History of Twitter's Rules  —  “Because of these principles, we do not actively monitor and will not censor user content, except in limited circumstances described below.”
Steve Ragan / CSO:
LastPass web design elements can enable a hard-to-detect phishing attack; company says it has released an update that mitigates most of the risks  —  ShmooCon: LastPass design elements create perfect Phishing opportunity  —  “There's a cool hacker technique called right click, inspect element...”
Geoffrey A. Fowler / Wall Street Journal:
Truly wireless $300 earbuds from Bragi and Earin are available now, but suffer from bluetooth connectivity issues and poor sound quality  —  Review: Truly Wireless Headphones Arrive, But With a Few Strings Attached  —  Bragi Dash and Earin earbuds may usher in an era of ‘hearable’ computers, but they're also works in progress
More: MacRumors
BBC:
BT takeover of EE gets final Competition and Markets Authority clearance  —  BT Group's takeover of mobile phone network EE has been given final clearance by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).  —  The £12.5bn deal brings together the UK's largest fixed-line business and the largest mobile telecoms business.
Kevin Tofel / ZDNet:
Alexa can now read Kindle books aloud from an Amazon Echo for free  —  You won't get the tone of a professional voice actor, but Alexa can read your Kindle books aloud: Best of all, there's no charge.  —  With so much recent focus on using an Amazon Echo to control smart home devices …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26  —  Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Zoho:
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control  —  Picture this: It's Monday morning.  You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Great Chat:
So what happens after AGI?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:20 PM ET, January 18, 2016.

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

Wall Street Journal: