Techmeme
December 16, 2014, 12:10 PM

Top News

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:
Samsung in talks with mobile payments startup LoopPay to launch Apple Pay rival in 2015  —  Samsung in Talks to Launch Apple Pay Competitor  —  Samsung has discussed a deal with a payments startup that would help the smartphone maker unveil a wireless mobile payments system in 2015 to rival Apple, according to multiple sources.
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Apple Pay now supports 90% of US credit cards in terms of purchase volume  —  Dozens More Companies Sign Up for Apple Pay  —  The list of companies working with Apple Pay continues to grow.  —  On Tuesday, Apple announced that in recent weeks the company had signed up dozens more banks …
Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:
Uncarrier 8: T-Mobile lets you store, roll over your data  —  Summary:The fourth largest cellular giant in the U.S. will now let you “stash” your data, allowing you to store unused data in following months.  —  T-Mobile launched its eighth round of jabs to its cellular rivals — so-called “data stashing.”
Amit Singhal / The Official Google Blog:
A Year in Search: the moments that defined 2014  —  Every year, we reflect on the moments that made us laugh, smile from ear to ear, or stay gripped to our screens in our annual Year in Search.  In 2014, we were struck by the death of a beloved comedian, and watched news unfold about a horrific plane crash and a terrifying disease.
Peter Kafka / Re/code:
Comcast Will Finally Let Roku Owners Stream HBO, Showtime  —  Many people who own Roku Web video boxes can use the devices to watch shows from HBO and Showtime.  But not Comcast subscribers: A dispute between Roku and America's biggest pay-TV provider has kept the networks' streaming services off of Roku gadgets.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Microsoft removes waitlist for its Office presentation app Sway, adds slew of new features to the preview  —  Microsoft today expanded the preview for its content aggregation and presentation application Sway.  The waitlist has been axed, meaning anyone with a Microsoft Account can sign up to start creating Sways.
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Dots Spins Out Of Betaworks With $10M Series A From Tencent, GreyCroft  —  Dots, the mobile gaming studio responsible for two dead-simple but beautiful games, is today announcing the close of a $10 million round, as well as the official spinout of Dots as its own company, separate from betaworks.
Tweets: @mims
Jacob Fischler / BuzzFeed:
Uber responds to Sen. Al Franken, says it accessed reporters' account because she was late, scales back access to God View; senator still dissatisfied  —  Uber Said It Accessed BuzzFeed News Reporter's Information Because She Was “Late”  —  The company, responding to Sen. Al Franken …
Zoltan Istvan / Motherboard:
Flying smartphones, or personal drones with smartphone capabilities, to rise in popularity over the next ten years  —  The Dawn of the Flying Smartphone  —  Zoltan Istvan is a futurist, journalist, and author of the novel The Transhumanist Wager.  He writes an occasional column for Motherboard …
Tweets: @motherboard
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
‘Opera Coast’ Browser for iOS Gains Discover Feature, Turbo Data Compression [iOS Blog]  —  The Opera Coast webkit-based browser for iOS was today updated to version 4.0, adding Opera Software's Turbo data compression technology to make browsing websites on the iPhone and iPad much faster on congested networks.
Mark Suster / Both Sides of the Table:
LA's Upfront Ventures raises $280M for its fifth fund  —  Upfront Ventures Raised New $280 Million Fund  —  Whew!  —  We've been dying to tell you all for a while that we had raised a new venture capital fund and of course given SEC filing requirements the story was somewhat already scooped …
Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:
Clever Gets $30 Million From Lightspeed To Become The Login Layer For Education Apps  —  It's not often you hear about companies actually disrupting the education market.  Conventional wisdom seems to be that due to the bureaucratic nature of the industry, it's nearly impossible to get wide-scale adoption at the institutional level.
Kate Knibbs / Gizmodo:
Russian malware SoakSoak infects 100k+ self-hosted WordPress sites, uses known vulnerability in RevSlider plug-in  —  Report: Mysterious Russian Malware Is Infecting 100,000+ Wordpress Sites  —  A Russian malware called SoakSoak has infected over 100,000 Wordpress sites since this Sunday, turning blogs into attack platforms.
Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:
Netflix updates its Android app with social sharing features, Android Wear integration  —  Streaming video service Netflix is showing some love for subscribers using the company's Android app with a new social-focused updated released today.  —  The Netflix Android app update adds a set …
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 …
Kyle Wiens / Wired:
DRM restrictions and copyright laws make e-books less accessible to the visually impaired  —  E-Book Legal Restrictions Are Screwing Over Blind People  —  In late 2012, a 14-year-old high school student stood in front of a camera and began to read.  Chris Nusbaum's voice was calm and steady.

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