Techmeme
December 15, 2014, 4:15 PM

Top News

Gurdeep Pall / Skype Blogs:
Skype Translator preview goes live on Windows 8.1 with support for real-time translation of English and Spanish  —  Skype Translator Preview - An Exciting Journey to a New Chapter in Communication  —  For more than a decade, Skype has been breaking down geographical barriers to make every day audio and video communications possible.
Laura Lorenzetti / Fortune:
SurveyMonkey is worth $2 billion after new $250 million fundraising round  —  SurveyMonkey, the online survey platform, raised $250 million in equity financing, making the company worth close to $2 billion.  —  The funding will help the company pursue future acquisition purchases …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Gartner: 301M Smartphones Sold In Q3 As Xiaomi Muscles Into The Top 5 At Samsung's Expense  —  Smartphones now account for 66% of all mobile phones worldwide and are on track to see 2014 sales of 1.2 billion units in 2014.  But while Android appears to have “won” the so-called platform war …
Alex Heath / Cult of Mac:
Workflow lets you easily chain together and automate hundreds of actions across iOS apps  —  Workflow pushes the limits of how powerful iOS can be  —  A new app called Workflow aims to close the divide between the power of OS X and the convenience of iOS.
Brian Ries / Mashable:
Uber introduces surge pricing during Sydney hostage siege, then backtracks, offers free rides, refunds  —  Uber intros surge pricing during Sydney hostage siege, then backtracks after user outcry  —  This post was updated at 10:45 p.m. ET to include an updated statement from Uber
Eugene Volokh / Washington Post:
Sony unlikely to prevail in court if it sues media organizations for publishing stolen data  —  Can Sony sue media outlets who publish the stolen Sony documents?  —  David Boies, representing Sony, has written a letter to various media outlets, demanding that they not publish or otherwise use …
Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:
Sony hackers offer to withhold posting emails from specific employees if they write in and ask  —  Sony Hackers Offer to Withhold Stolen Data From Promised Leak  —  A group claiming responsibility for the devastating hacking attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment on Sunday offered …
Matthew Bennett / The Spain Report:
Spanish Newspaper Publishers' Association Now Asks Government To Help Stop Google News Closure  —  NEWS: AEDE announces it wants the Spanish government and EU competition authorities to stop Google closing Google News: “to protect the rights of citizens and businesses”.
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Google:
T-Mobile teases a new uncarrier deal livestreaming tomorrow as it claims 50% faster LTE in NY  —  T-Mobile has announced that it will be unveiling its latest contract-free deal in a livestreamed ‘fireside chat’ tomorrow, Un-carrier 8.0. … The company hasn't hinted at any of the details, but we'll of course let you know ...
Chine Labbe / Reuters:
France says UberPop to be banned as irate taxi drivers stall traffic  —  (Reuters) - The UberPop transport service will be banned in France from Jan. 1 to avoid unfair competition, the interior ministry said on Monday as taxi drivers impeded morning traffic into Paris in a one-day protest against the U.S.-based online cab-hailing firm.
Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:
Survey reveals most technology companies' privacy policies do not cover employee access to user data  —  We Asked 29 Tech Companies If Their Employees Can Access Your Personal Data  —  Privacy policies rarely mention the weakest point in any company's security infrastructure: its employees.
Tweets: @cwarzel and @parmy

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

Lenny's Podcast:
This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'What's in Louie's Wallet', With Louie Mantia
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Big Technology Podcast:
Leopold Blows Up, OpenAI Drastically Cuts Prices, Microsoft's Best Day
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
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.
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 4:15 PM ET, December 15, 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

Brad Smith / The Official Microsoft Blog:

Earlier Picks

Gerry Shih / Reuters: