Techmeme
December 19, 2014, 5:40 PM

Top News

FBI:
FBI concludes that the North Korean government is responsible for Sony Pictures hack  —  Update on Sony Investigation … Today, the FBI would like to provide an update on the status of our investigation into the cyber attack targeting Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE).
Re/code:
Obama calls Sony canceling The Interview a “mistake”, says North Korea acted alone; White House contemplating “proportional response”  —  President Obama Says Sony Made “Mistake” in Canceling “The Interview” Film  —  President Obama, speaking at his year-end presser …
Brian Stelter / CNNMoney.com:
In new email sent to Sony executives, hackers threaten further release of “sensitive data” pending any “additional trouble”  —  Source: Hackers send new message to Sony  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney)  —  The hackers behind a devastating cyberattack at Sony Pictures …
Rhiannon Williams / Telegraph:
Apple CEO Tim Cook is “deeply offended” by the BBC's labor abuse allegations  —  Apple goes to war with the BBC  —  Exclusive: Chief executive Tim Cook ‘deeply offended’ by allegations made by BBC's Panorama programme that Apple is failing to protect its Chinese factory workers
Staples Investor Relations:
Staples provides details on September breach: 115 stores' POS systems, 1.6M payment cards compromised  —  Staples Provides Update on Data Security Incident  —  Staples, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLS) today gave an update on the investigation into its previously announced data security incident involving …
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Google sues to block Mississippi AG Jim Hood's “burdensome, retaliatory” subpoena of records, issued a document preservation notice to MPAA  —  Goliath strikes back: Google takes legal action against Mississippi State Attorney General Jim Hood  —  Last Friday, The Verge published …
The Reddit Admins / reddit:
Reddit to distribute equity to active users by lottery with ‘reddit notes’ in 2015  —  Announcing reddit notes  —  We raised some funding in September, and we promised to reserve a portion to give back to the community.  If you're hearing about this for the first time, check out the official blog post here.
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Computer intrusion inflicts massive damage on German steel factory  —  A German steel factory suffered significant damage after attackers gained unauthorized access to computerized systems that help control its blast furnace, according to a report published Friday by IDG News.
More: ITworld.com and Gigaom
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook announces first two-day F8 developer conference for March 25-26 in San Francisco  —  Facebook Has So Much To Announce, Its f8 Conference Expands To 2 Days In SF March 25-26 2015  —  Facebook has more news to share at f8 than can fit in a single day, so it's adding a second …
Kevin C. Tofel / Gigaom:
Sales rise in McDonald's tests of beacons for wireless offers of promotions on iOS/Android  —  Hold the beacon: McDonald's tests wireless offers near stores  —  Credit: Flickr / Kenny Louie  —  Credit: Flickr / Kenny Louie  —  McDonald's was one of the first retail locations I used …
More: PYMNTS.com
Ruth Reader / VentureBeat:
Yahoo announces plans to kill off some regional news sites, sunsets Yahoo Classic Games, alerts, and profile sites  —  Today Yahoo released an updated product report for 2014, which highlights the closure of several regional sites.  —  Yesterday the company shut down regional homepages in Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, and Chile.
More: Yahoo and WebProNews
Amy Schatz / Re/code:
T-Mobile settles FTC's cramming charges lawsuit for $90M, will give refunds to customers  —  T-Mobile Settles Government “Cramming” Charges for $90 Million  —  T-Mobile settled a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit that accused the company of profiting from unauthorized charges placed …
Kia Kokalitcheva / VentureBeat:
Evernote's intelligent writing assistant, Context, is now available on Android and Windows  —  Evernote's artificial intelligence-based writing assistant is now available for paying customers on Android and Windows, the company announced.  —  Context, which the company first launched on Mac …

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.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
The 90-day recognition cliff: Why praise programs fade, and what keeps them alive  —  Recognition programs often start with enthusiasm.  Employees participate, managers share shoutouts, and teams have a new way to celebrate achievements.
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

Big Technology Podcast:
SAP CEO: AI Won't Kill Software, But It Will Change Your Job — With Christian Klein
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
David Ellison's Paramount-Warner Empire & The Fight That Comes Next
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Sources:
Factory CEO on why AGI is already here
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Invest Like the Best:
Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
The grief, loneliness, and burnout sweeping through the tech industry right now | Molly Graham
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.
Great Chat:
Doomers at Dreamforce
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:40 PM ET, December 19, 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

Earlier Picks

Vindu Goel / New York Times:
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
Reuters: