Techmeme
December 15, 2014, 9:10 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.
Amazon:
HBO GO is now available on Amazon Fire TV, support for Fire TV Stick coming in spring  —  HBO GO Now Available on Amazon Fire TV  —  HBO GO joins a growing list of services that support Amazon Fire TV voice search — customers simply say the name of a movie or TV show to find it on Amazon …
The Foursquare Blog:
Foursquare launches on iPad with emphasis on trip planning  —  Introducing Foursquare for the iPad, the best way to plan your holiday travels.  —  Since the new Foursquare came out a few months ago, people have been telling us that they do a lot of their planning on their iPad …
Brad Smith / The Official Microsoft Blog:
Apple, Amazon, other tech giants, trade groups, and academics support Microsoft in its case against US Government on overseas search warrants  —  Business, Media and Civil Society Speak Up in Key Privacy Case  —  Today represents an important milestone in our litigation concerning …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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
Jeremy C. Owens / Mercury News:
Networking company Riverbed Technology to be acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $3.6B after activist investor struggle  —  Riverbed Technology to sell for $3.6 billion after activist investor struggle  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Networking company Riverbed Technology has agreed …
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.

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Earlier Picks

Matthew Bennett / The Spain Report: