Techmeme: Fon pulls in $14M as it partners with Qualcomm and Facebook (David Meyer/Gigaom)

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January 20, 2014, 12:50 PM

Top News

Nick Summers / The Next Web:

Nest CEO Tony Fadell vows to make any privacy policy changes transparent and opt-in — Following last week's Google acquisition, Nest chief executive Tony Fadell has vowed to make any alterations to its privacy policy opt-in, and to be transparent about such changes to all of its users.

More: VatorNews, Engadget, The Verge, 9to5Google, TechCrunch, TechnoBuffalo, Softpedia News and WebProNews

Tweets: @caseynewton and @boris

Rolfe Winkler / Digits:

Google removes “Add to Feedly” and “Tweet This Page” extensions after they were paid to show adware — Google Removes Two Chrome Extensions Amid Ad Uproar — Google removed two Chrome browser extensions from its web store after it was discovered the software included code …

More: BBC, Engadget, Help Net Security, CNET, BGR, Guardian, Computerworld, Inquirer, BGR India, Digital Trends, The Verge, OMG!, Electronista, Gizmodo, ZDNet, Cult of Mac, PC Pro, memeburn, SiliconANGLE, SlashGear, The Next Web, TechSpot, Mashable and Business Insider. Tweets: @bryfitz

David Meyer / Gigaom:

Fon pulls in $14M as it partners with Qualcomm and Facebook — The crowdsourced Wi-Fi network Fon is about to find its way into a whole lot more routers, as Qualcomm and others have plowed $14 million into the Spanish company. Qualcomm in particular will bake Fon functionality into its Atheros wireless chipsets.

More: Martin Varsavsky, PC World, Re/code, ZDNet, TechCrunch and dailywireless.org

Tom Warren / The Verge:

HP brings back Windows 7 ‘by popular demand’ — HP really wants people to buy a Windows 7 PC instead of a Windows 8 machine. The PC maker has been emailing customers over the weekend noting that “Windows 7 is back.” A new promotion, designed to entice people to select Windows 7 over Windows 8 …

More: Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Gigaom, GeekWire, PC World, BGR, VentureBeat, Digital Trends, Softpedia News and Global Nerdy

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

As Microsoft CEO Rumors Continue to Churn, One Thing Is Clear: Gates Will Be More Visible at Microsoft — On Friday, the latest chatter in the ongoing rumor mill that has become the Microsoft CEO search began again, with sudden noise that the new leader would be announced sometime in the next few days.

More: Ubergizmo, The Verge, memeburn, Softpedia News and CNET

Luke Edwards / Pocket-lint:

Samsung Galaxy S5 new UI leaks again looking like an attractive Google Now — Samsung's refreshed UI looks almost certain now. Yet more photos have leaked online at the same time as the Galaxy S5 rumour mill gets up to speed. — We're expecting to see the new Samsung UI unveiled …

More: BGR, Engadget, 9to5Google, Inquirer, Phandroid, Business Insider, The Next Web, The Verge, AndroidOS.in, Android Beat, Android and Me and IntoMobile. Tweets: @evleaks

David Segal / New York Times:

More on Silk Road creator: FBI arrested Ulbricht before he could close laptop, Ulbricht asked agent posing as dealer to execute Silk Road employee — Eagle Scout. Idealist. Drug Trafficker? — Ross Ulbricht's last moments as a free man were noisy enough to draw a crowd.

More: The Verge. Tweets: @erickschonfeld, @nickbilton and @glennf

Wall Street Journal:

IBM Revives Effort to Sell Low-End Server Business — Revives An Effort That Came Close To Yielding A Deal Last Year — International Business Machines Corp. is exploring a sale of its low-end server business, according to people familiar with the matter, reviving an effort that came close to yielding a deal last year.

More: Ars Technica, Gigaom, TechSpot, Reuters, ZDNet and The Register

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:

Spotify opens up merchandise-selling feature to all artists — Over recent weeks, more than 200 artists have been selling merchandise through their Spotify profiles, after the streaming music service announced a partnership with D2C firm Topspin to launch the new feature. Now it's being opened up to everyone.

More: Spotify for Artists, Digits, The Next Web, BetaNews, Softpedia News, TechCrunch and SlashGear. See also Mediagazer

Dan Levine / Reuters:

Intellectual Ventures' first ever trial is set to begin against Google's Motorola this week — Google set to face Intellectual Ventures in landmark patent trial — (Reuters) - Intellectual Ventures is set to square off this week against Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unit in the first trial …

More: Softpedia News. Tweets: @fosspatents

Paul Sieminski / Wired:

Corporations Abusing Copyright Laws Are Ruining the Web for Everyone — Picture this somewhat typical scenario: Before breakfast, you use WordPress to write your morning blog post, which includes a screen shot of a movie you saw last night, along with your thoughts about the film.

More: Mike Linksvayer and Boing Boing. Tweets: @jeffjohnroberts and @internetcases

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

Jimmy Wales joins UK-based charitable MVNO The People's Operator as chairman, plans international expansion — Jimmy Wales' Plan to Save The World With Mobile Phones — Jimmy Wales, the founder and public face of Wikipedia would like to give $1 billion to charity, but he doesn't have $1 billion to give.

More: CNET, Inquirer, The Next Web, The Verge, Telegraph and Gigaom

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