Techmeme
January 17, 2014, 5:40 PM

Top News

Reuters:
Obama bans spying on leaders of U.S. allies, scales back NSA program  —  (Reuters) - President Barack Obama announced a ban on U.S. eavesdropping on the leaders of close friends and allies on Friday, and rein in the vast collection of Americans' phone data in a series of reforms triggered by Edward Snowden's revelations.
The Verge:
President Obama's NSA reforms show both promise and peril  —  The president's NSA changes have potential to increase privacy, but need concrete action  —  President Obama just announced big changes to America's massive government surveillance programs, promising to add new safeguards …
Noel Randewich / Reuters:
Intel announces plans to cut 5% of its 107k workforce this year  —  Intel to reduce global workforce by five percent in 2014  —  (Reuters) - Intel Corp plans to reduce its global workforce of 107,000 by about 5 percent this year as the chipmaker, struggling with falling personal-computer sales …
Bloomberg:
HTC Said to Plan New One Phone With Larger Screen, Better Camera  —  HTC Corp. (2498) plans a March release for the latest version of its HTC One smartphone featuring a larger screen and twin-sensor rear camera, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans.
Dan Primack / Fortune:
Andreessen Horowitz raising $1.5 billion for new fund  —  Andreessen Horowitz is raising its fourth fund in six years.  —  FORTUNE — Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is in the process of raising $1.5 billion for its fourth fund, Fortune has learned.
Nick Summers / Businessweek:
ATMs, 95% of which run Windows XP, must upgrade by April 8 to avoid losing support  —  ATMs Face Deadline to Upgrade From Windows XP  —  One-dollar bills.  Envelope-free deposits.  Stamp dispensers.  These are a few of the features that Wells Fargo (WFC), Bank of America (BAC) …
More: InfoWorld and GizmodoTweets: @murtaugh
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Code points to a Google “Fitness API” allowing Android apps to view and edit activity data  —  Google Works on a Fitness API for Android  —  Wearables are now the next big thing.  A lot of companies develop smart watches, smart glasses and head-up displays, smart headphones, smart clothes.
Andrew Martonik / Android Central:
Sprint Wifi Calling poised to debut on two Samsung phones  —  Calling requires software update but no monthly fee; only supported in the U.S.  —  T-Mobile may soon no longer be the only major carrier offering first-party Wifi calling, as Sprint apparently is preparing to launch a system of its own.
The Official Google Blog:
Introducing our smart contact lens project  —  You've probably heard that diabetes is a huge and growing problem—affecting one in every 19 people on the planet.  But you may not be familiar with the daily struggle that many people with diabetes face as they try to keep their blood sugar levels under control.
David Kravets / Wired:
Supreme Court to Decide if Warrants Needed to Search Mobile Phones  —  The Supreme Court today agreed to decide the unsolved constitutional question of whether police may search, without warrants, the mobile phones of suspects they arrest.  —  The justices did not immediately schedule …
More: Forbes and USA Today
Rebecca Grant / VentureBeat:
With 60M downloads, BitTorrent's Bundle experiment is paying off  —  The Internet has created a world where value is determined by virality.  —  BitTorrent is contributing to the evolution of how content gets shared.  The creator of file-sharing technology revealed today that people …
Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:
Apple details secure ‘touchless’ e-wallet strategy in patent filing  —  Apple has been coy in revealing its plans for a touchless payment solution, but a patent filing discovered on Thursday gives clues as to where the company is headed.  —  Tech companies like Google are looking …
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
Breach at Neiman Marcus Went Undetected From July to December  —  The computer network at Neiman Marcus was penetrated by hackers as far back as July, and the breach was not fully contained until Sunday, according to people briefed on the investigation.  —  The company disclosed the data theft …
Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:
Dropbox Raises About $250 Million at $10 Billion Valuation  —  BlackRock Is Leading the Deal Alongside Previous Backers  —  Dropbox Inc. has closed on about $250 million in a funding round that values the online-storage provider at close to $10 billion, according to two people familiar with the deal.
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Path launches for Windows Phone as a public beta  —  Path today quietly launched an app for Windows Phone, but there's a small catch: it's a public beta.  Nevertheless, the social network has arrived on Microsoft's mobile platform and you can grab the app now directly from the Windows Phone Store.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Nintendo warns of loss after slashing Wii U sales forecast by 69 percent  —  Throughout the past year, Nintendo CEO and president Satoru Iwata has maintained his belief that the company will turn an operating profit of ¥100 billion yen in 2014, even in the face of disappointing Wii U sales.

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Zoho:
Do you need a Zoho Partner?  Here's why working with one can benefit you.  —  Zoho offers over 60 applications, each one built for a unique use case.  From sales and marketing to finance, HR, and customer support …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
Open Model Wars + Claire Stapleton's Dishy Google Memoir + Substack's Slop Fight
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.
Great Chat:
Tech's short-term era
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.
Access:
Meet the most AI-pilled CEO on Earth
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Basis's Matt Harpe: Why AI Won't Replace Accountants — It'll Make Them Richer
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Lucas Shaw on Warner Bros' Limbo, Netflix's Anxiety, and Hollywood's Sort-of Comeback
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
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 5:40 PM ET, January 17, 2014.

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

Peter Kafka / Re/code: