Techmeme
January 26, 2016, 11:40 AM

Top News

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:
Confirmed: Twitter Appoints Longtime American Express Executive Leslie Berland as CMO  —  Here's some positive executive news coming out of Twitter: It has found its new chief marketing officer.  —  Twitter has appointed longtime American Express executive Leslie Berland to CMO …
Re/code:
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Sony merges PlayStation businesses into US-based Sony Interactive Entertainment  —  Sony has merged the entire PlayStation business into one new company called Sony Interactive Entertainment.  As of April 1st, SIE's president and CEO will be Andrew House, and the business will be run out of San Mateo, California.
Peter Kafka / Re/code:
Sources: Twitter no longer showing ads to some of its more valuable users in order to keep them engaged  —  Twitter Has Stopped Showing Ads to Some of Its Most Valuable Users  —  Twitter makes its money by showing ads to its users.  —  But not all of its users: For the past few months …
Brad Sams / Thurrott.com:
Microsoft testing its Windows phone keyboard Word Flow for iOS with fanned layout for one-handed typing  —  Microsoft's iOS Word Flow Keyboard Supports A New One-Handed Layout  —  Share Tweet Pin it Reddit Share Share  —  A few days back, Microsoft began sending out invites to Insiders …
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Amazon is reportedly asking OEMs to integrate retailer's services into Android phones at a “factory level”, but Google's contracts may limit the possibilities  —  Amazon reportedly seeks a bigger hand in Android phone software  —  Amazon is reportedly in talks with OEMs to “gain a bigger backdoor to Google's Android.”
Cam Bunton / 9to5Google:
LG shipped 59.7M smartphones in 2015, 15.3M in Q4, while losing $36M+ in mobile division, promises 2 new flagships in 2016  —  LG plans to launch two flagship phones in 2016 following 4th quarter mobile loss  —  LG announced its Q4 2015 earnings this morning and revealed that although …
Glenn Rifkin / New York Times:
Marvin Minsky, Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 88  —  Marvin Minsky, who combined a scientist's thirst for knowledge with a philosopher's quest for truth as a pioneering explorer of artificial intelligence, work that helped inspire the creation of the personal computer and the Internet, died on Sunday night in Boston.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Inbox By Gmail Gets Smarter Search With Quick Answer Cards  —  Inbox by Gmail, Google's next-gen email client for mobile and the web, is getting a nice little update today that will make it easier to find information like addresses, membership numbers and package tracking numbers in your emails.
Alistair Barr / Wall Street Journal:
Waze announces Transport SDK to let apps integrate driver guidance data, launches with six partners including Lyft, JustPark, 99taxis  —  Waze to Scoop up More Data through New Partnerships  —  Waze changed how millions of people drive by convincing them to share their locations in return for real-time …
Ginny Marvin / Marketing Land:
Google Offers More Details On Ads In AMP, Set To Launch In Search Next Month  —  With more than 20 ad tech vendors joining the initiative, publishers should be able to support most ad serving scenarios in AMP pages at launch.  —  Since Google announced that AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Backblaze, the cloud backup service, will now loan you a hard drive full of your data  —  Backblaze, my preferred cloud backup service for a few years now, is today making it a bit easier and cheaper to restore all of your data if your computer should ever crash or get lost / stolen.

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's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Enhancements to Zoho Writer's automation flow designer: New PDF operations, password protection, and more  —  Once we rolled out the automation flow designer in Zoho Writer's merge templates …
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

The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Naughty Citizen', With Quinn Nelson
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Big Technology Podcast:
2025 In Review, 2026 Predictions — With Reed Albergotti
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt's Second Act: Less Budget, More Control
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.
BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Great Chat:
The stories we told ourselves in 2025
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:40 AM ET, January 26, 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

Mike Shields / Wall Street Journal: