Techmeme
January 30, 2016, 12:30 AM

Top News

Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
Sources: Apple's virtual and augmented reality research team includes hundreds of staff from poaching and acquisitions; Apple confirms purchase of Flyby Media  —  Apple builds secret team to kick-start virtual reality effort  —  Apple has assembled a large team of experts in virtual …
Danny Yadron / Guardian:
Ashkan Soltani, who contributed to reporting on Snowden docs, departs White House Office of Science and Technology Policy after being denied security clearance  —  White House denies clearance to tech researcher with links to Snowden  —  Pulitzer prize-winning journalist …
New York Times:
Facebook announces it is banning private, person-to-person sales of guns on its network and Instagram  —  Facebook Moves to Ban Private Gun Sales on Its Site  —  Facebook is banning private sales of guns on its flagship social network and on its Instagram photo-sharing service, the company said late Friday.
Mark Harris / Guardian:
Documents reveal Alphabet is testing solar-powered internet drones that use millimeter-wave transmissions  —  Project Skybender: Google's secretive 5G internet drone tests revealed  —  Trials at New Mexico's Spaceport Authority are using new millimetre wave technology to deliver data from drones - potentially 40 times faster than 4G
John Callaham / Android Central:
Fewer than 700 Jolla Tablets will ever ship; 21K backers may eventually get a refund  —  Fewer than 700 Jolla Tablets will ever ship; 21,000 backers will eventually maybe get a refund  —  Just 540 additional Jolla Tablets will be shipped out to backers of the original Indiegogo crowdsourced campaign …
Wesley Yin-Poole / Eurogamer.net:
EA's CFO estimates 55M current-gen consoles have been sold, putting Xbox One at around 19M or less units sold  —  We now have a clearer picture of how Xbox One is doing  —  Thanks, EA!  —  Microsoft doesn't report Xbox One sales any more, but we have a decent idea of how it's doing - thanks to EA.
Sarah Lacy / Pando:
Birchbox lays off 15% of staff, citing funding environment and a need to rebalance the company  —  Founder Katia Beauchamp tells Pando: “It's 100% the right decision for the company.”  —  From The Lessons from the Trenches Desk  —  This member-only article was unlocked for you by Andrea Wasserman.
More: Bloomberg Business and RackedTweets: @timbeejones
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg Business:
Amazon ramps up investment in podcasts, other radio-style shows to expand Audible offering  —  Amazon Recruits Comedians, Engineers for Audio Service  —  Audible expands to offer radio-style programming, podcasts  —  Division is advertising for almost 100 positions worldwide
More: GeekWireTweets: @lucas_shaw

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Earlier Picks

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica: