Techmeme: Uber's Massive Fundraising Drive Forges Ahead Despite Scandal (Douglas MacMillan/Wall Street Journal)

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November 20, 2014, 4:50 PM

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Al Franken:

Sen. Al Franken asks Uber CEO Travis Kalanick for answers on privacy, God view tool, discipline for Emil Michael, and tracking journalists — Dear Mr Kalanick: — I am writing in regard to reports of recent comments and actions by top Uber executives concerning journalists.

More: StrictlyVC, SiliconBeat, Re/code, bizjournals, Haywire, TechSpot, Street Fight, TechPresident, ReadWrite, Washington Post and TechCrunch. See also Mediagazer

Napier Lopez / The Next Web:

Uber hires former IBM Chief Privacy Officer to carry out internal review — From controversial statements from executives to concerns over its users' data privacy, it's been a rough week for Uber. — It's now trying to do some damage control. The company announced today that it has hired …

More: Uber Blog, TechCrunch, PC World, Re/code, Fortune, The Verge, ZDNet, Skift, The Hill, TIME, Business Insider and Mashable

Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:

Uber's Massive Fundraising Drive Forges Ahead Despite Scandal — A recent controversy ensnaring Uber doesn't appear to be lessening the company's appeal to investors as it moves forward with plans to raise one of the largest venture-capital funding rounds in history.

More: Business Insider, AVC and ReadWrite

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Google launches Contributor, a subscription service that lets users contribute to participating sites and turn off Google ads — Google launches Contributor, a crowdfunding tool for publishers — Google is launching a new service for websites called Contributor, which allows users to sign …

More: GeekWire, The Verge, VentureBeat, BetaNews, Business Insider, Marketing Land, Gizmodo, Engadget, 9to5Google and The Next Web. Thanks:@mathewi. See also Mediagazer

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Former Fake Steve Jobs and HubSpot content marketer Dan Lyons to head up Valleywag in January — Dan Lyons Used to be Fake Steve Jobs. Now He's the Chief Valleywag. — Valleywag's chief editor Nitasha Tiku just left for the Verge. Here's her replacement: Dan Lyons …

Tweets: @edbott, @jyarow, @fromedome, @nichcarlson and @glennf. See also Mediagazer

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

Exodus of revived Valleywag's original team complete as Nitasha Tiku heads to The Verge to bolster Silicon Valley coverage

More: Poynter and FishbowlNY. Tweets: @nicknotned, @nitashatiku and @nitashatiku. See also Mediagazer

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Corning's Gorilla Glass 4 aims to protect your phone from deadly drops — It's unlikely we'll see a truly impervious smartphone screen anytime soon, but Corning says it's getting us closer. Today the company is announcing Gorilla Glass 4, the latest revision of its signature cover glass.

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

Billboard Top 200 album chart will incorporate streaming data starting Dec. 3 from services including Spotify, Beats Music, Google Play, Xbox Music — Billboard, Changing the Charts, Will Count Streaming Services — Streaming music services like Spotify have brought big changes to the music industry.

More: Billboard, SlashGear, 9to5Google, ParisLemon, Fortune, Forbes, 9to5Mac, The Verge, VatorNews, App Advice, WebProNews and Business Insider. See also Mediagazer

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:

iOS 8.1.1, iPhone 4S, and iPad 2: A little faster, kind of, sometimes — It took a lot of work to find the promised performance and stability improvements in iOS 8.1.1 for Apple A5 devices like the iPhone 4S, the iPad 2, the iPad Mini, and the iPod Touch. — Andrew Cunningham

More: BGR, MacRumors, Lifehacker, Gotta Be Mobile and iPhone in Canada Blog

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Dropbox's Carousel photo software comes to iPads and the web — In April, Dropbox launched Carousel, a standalone app for storing and managing photos and videos on your phone. Designed as a single place to view your life's memories, until now Carousel has only been available for the smallest screen in your life.

More: The Next Web, 9to5Mac, iMore, Engadget and Gizmodo. Tweets: @mattlynley

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Amnesty International, EFF, Privacy International release an open source spyware detection tool for Windows — Amnesty, EFF, Privacy International Put Out Free Anti-Surveillance Tool — Resistance is digital. Human rights charity Amnesty International is one of several organizations behind …

Tim Culpan / Bloomberg:

Foxconn will spend $2.6B to build dedicated Apple display plant in Taiwan — Foxconn to Build Dedicated Apple Display Plant in Taiwan — Foxconn Technology Group will spend NT$80 billion ($2.6 billion) over the next two years on a new factory in Taiwan to supply displays exclusively for a client.

More: Pocketnow, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, iPhone in Canada Blog, Cult of Mac, Patently Apple, TodaysiPhone.com, Bidness Etc, iClarified, AppleInsider, Electronista, iMore and iDownloadBlog.com. Thanks:@srikardr

Husain Sumra / MacRumors:

Sony Drops Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs Movie, Universal May Take Over — Despite Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs movie being in the casting process and moving towards full fledged production, Sony Pictures has dropped the movie and put it “in turnaround”, which allows another large studio to purchase the movie and take over, reports Deadline.

More: Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Fortune, PadGadget, CBS News, BBC, Fast Company, USA Today, Wired.co.uk, TechnoBuffalo, The Next Web, MacDailyNews, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, Cult of Mac and O'Grady's PowerPage

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Square Register, Sans Payments And Hardware, Now Works Globally On Android And iOS — Last week, when Square started pre-orders for new chip-based card-reading hardware to upgrade its older mag-stripe readers, we noted that it seemed only a matter of time before the company would finally turn …

More: Town Square, The Verge, CNET, The Next Web, Engadget and iMore. Tweets: @ingridlunden. Thanks:@ingridlunden

Roberto Baldwin / The Next Web:

Twitter launches sharing public tweets in Direct Messages — Twitter is moving towards making DMs (Direct Messages) more like the messaging apps that have captured the globe. But first, it wants to make sure you can share public tweets privately with your friends.

More: The Twitter Blog, Wall Street Journal, 9to5Google, Engadget and VentureBeat. Tweets: @agarwal

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Netflix takes up 9.5% of upstream traffic on the North American Internet — ACK packets make Netflix an upload monster during peak viewing hours. — We've written a lot about how Netflix takes up a gigantic share of Internet traffic. During peak viewing hours, Netflix accounts …

More: Re/code, Sandvine, VideoNuze Analysis, Variety, CNET, The Huffington Post, Light Reading, TIME and DSLreports. Tweets: @chairmanpowell. Thanks:@srikardr. See also Mediagazer

Kia Kokalitcheva / VentureBeat:

Amid Uber controversy, taxi-hailing app Flywheel raises $12M, adds new management — At the end of Uber's first full day of PR wreckage on Tuesday, one of my bosses announced she was downloading taxi-hailing app Flywheel and deleting Uber's app — like many have tweeted they have done.

More: Re/code, TechCrunch, Wired, bizjournals, TIME, GeekWire, Inc.com, PC World, CNBC, Forbes, CNNMoney.com, Mashable, Network World and San Francisco Examiner …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Flickr Now Lets You Buy Wall Art From Professional Photographers And Creative Commons — Flickr today is expanding its Wall Art print service to include access to images from Flickr's licensed artists and Creative Commons. The expansion comes only a month after the launch of Flickr Wall Art …

More: Engadget, The Technology Chronicles, Marketing Land, The Next Web and PetaPixel

Roberto Baldwin / The Next Web:

The Basis Peak can now share heart rate data with 3rd-party apps, notifications from phone coming in December — The Basis Peak's heart rate monitor now works with third-party apps — The Basis Peak doesn't try to replicate a smartphone on your wrist. Instead, it's meant mainly for fitness and sleep tracking.

More: TechCrunch, CNET, Electronista, Engadget and Re/code

Martin Beck / Marketing Land:

Forrester: brands should invest more on their own websites, and Instagram or Pinterest, instead of Facebook and Twitter — Forrester Says Marketers Are Wasting Resources on Facebook, Twitter — Because of low reach and engagement on the major social networks, report suggests that brands …

More: Wall Street Journal, ITBusiness.ca, Business Insider, Marketing Pilgrim, Search Engine Land and Forrester Research. Tweets: @r

Steven Mufson / Washington Post:

Washington Post launches twice-daily tablet editions on Amazon Fire app — The Washington Post tablet app for Kindle Fire is a highly visual news experience aimed at a national and international readership. It offers two editions a day, as well as updates for breaking news. (The Washington Post)

More: Amazon.com, New York Times, Engadget, The Next Web, Los Angeles Times, blogs.ft.com, Gizmodo, CNNMoney.com, bizjournals, Fast Company, GeekWire, Mashable, CNET, Gigaom, PandoDaily and Poynter. See also Mediagazer

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Web Video Channel Guide PlutoTV Raises $13 Million — Lots of people have tried to build TV guides for the Web-video era, and no one has succeeded so far. — But PlutoTV has convinced investors that it's onto something. The company, which presents “channels” of Web video in a format …

More: VentureBeat, Variety, PE Hub Blog, Tubefilter, Deadline and VideoInk. Thanks:@jenmartinez

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