Techmeme
January 21, 2014, 6:15 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Amazon considering online live TV service, has approached at least three media conglomerates seeking rights to distribute their channels  —  Amazon Considering Online Pay-TV Service  —  Live TV Channels Would Compete With Cable, Satellite  —  Amazon.com Inc. has approached big entertainment companies …
Chris Poole / Chris Hates Writing:
Today my startup failed  —  No soft landing, no happy ending—we simply failed.  —  It's been a long four year journey, full of highs and lows.  I am simultaneously incredibly proud, and incredibly disappointed.  —  I'm incredibly proud of an amazing team and all that they have accomplished.
Jim Edwards / Business Insider:
CONFIRMED: Man Interrogated By FBI For Wearing Prescription Google Glass At The Movies  —  A man who went to the movies with his wife in Columbus, Ohio, was subjected to a terrifying hour-long interrogation by the FBI because employees at the AMC theater saw him wearing Google Glass.
Marc Andreessen / DealBook:
Why Bitcoin Matters  —  Editor's note: Marc Andreessen's venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, has invested just under $50 million in Bitcoin-related start-ups.  The firm is actively searching for more Bitcoin-based investment opportunities.  He does not personally own more than a de minimis amount of Bitcoin.
Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:
Verizon agrees to buy Intel's failed internet TV project  —  After publicly announcing and failing to follow through with a big plan to launch a set-top box, Intel is selling the project to Verizon.  The telecoms company will purchase assets of Intel Media, a division set up to develop “over the top” TV services.
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Developer activates Apple's upcoming iOS in the Car system, shows different interface  —  Ahead of Apple's launch of iOS in the Car later this year, developer Steven Troughton-Smith has seemingly activated the feature inside what we presume is the iOS Simulator. iOS in the Car allows an iOS 7 user …
Walt Mossberg / Re/code:
Beats Music creates satisfying playlists by relying more on human curation than artist and genre matching algorithms  —  Beats Music Streams With a Human Touch  —  For years and years, people have predicted that subscription streaming music services would eventually overtake paid download services in the hearts of average consumers.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Jessica Livingston / Y Combinator Posthaven:
Announcing the Female Founders Conference  —  I'm delighted to announce that Kat Manalac, Kirsty Nathoo, Carolynn Levy and I are hosting Y Combinator's first Female Founders Conference on Saturday, March 1.  We're going to gather together female founders at all stages to share stories, give advice, and make connections.
More: TechCrunch and bizjournalsTweets: @paulg
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Acquires Mobile Marketing Startup Sparq  —  Mobile marketing company Sparq announced on its site today that it has been acquired by Yahoo.  The company did not disclose the purchase price.  —  Yahoo declined to illustrate the deal's financial details.  Sparq's team will be joining Yahoo's Sunnyvale campus.
More: ZDNet and SPARQ
Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
Yahoo's Next Problem: Tumblr's Traffic Isn't Growing  —  The past year has been an up-and-down affair for Yahoo , with the company and its CEO, Marissa Mayer, scoring numerous PR coups while failing to make headway in its core business of selling digital advertising.
More: PandoDailyTweets: @nytimesbits and @jeffbercoviciThanks:@jeffbercovici
Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:
It doesn't always end in tears: Inside Wealthfront's second orderly CEO switch  —  Adam Nash is replacing Andy Rachleff as CEO of Wealthfront — the company's third CEO in its young life.  Rachleff was the “grown up” who originally replaced founder Dan Carroll, as the company moved out of its early Web 2.0-ish “kaChing” phase.
More: Re/codeTweets: @joshmedia, @johnolilly and @sarahcuda
Ben Thompson / stratechery:
While Dropbox leads in consumer adoption, Box's early focus on enterprise sales a key strength  —  Battle of the Box  —  The problem with the old thin client model was the assumption that processing power was scarce.  In fact, Moore's Law and the rise of ARM has made the exact opposite the case - processing is abundant.
AppleInsider:
Apple expands educational iBooks to new markets in Asia, Latin America & Europe  —  Apple on Tuesday announced that iBooks Texbooks and iTunes U Course Manager, two education-oriented products from the company, are expanding into new markets around the world, including Asia, Latin America, and Europe.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
GitHub President Becomes CEO, CEO Becomes President In Executive Role Swap  —  So now is the time for top execs at middle-stage technology companies to trade titles with each other apparently: GitHub has just announced that co-founder Tom Preston-Werner will be taking over the role of President …
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
IBM's Q4 mixed, hardware unit tanks  —  Summary: IBM's challenge: Its new businesses aren't growing fast enough to offset struggling units such as the hardware division.  —  IBM's fourth quarter results were a mixed bag as the company's earnings were better than expected, but revenue missed estimates as hardware sales tanked.

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More News

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Earlier Picks

Roger Cheng / CNET: