Techmeme: Amazon updates Fire OS; Firefly now translates text and identifies famous artwork (Chris Davies/SlashGear)

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December 19, 2014, 4:35 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 …

More: The Verge, ZDNet, ABC News, Bloomberg and Vox

Tweets: @nicoleperlroth, @reckless, @reckless, @nicoleperlroth, @dannysullivan, @panzer, @fmanjoo, @mikeisaac and @mikeisaac

See also Mediagazer

Andy / TorrentFreak:

MPAA says Google positioning itself as a defender of free speech is shameful — Google & MPAA Publicly Slam Each Other Over Piracy — Even after running for weeks, the fallout from the Sony hacking fiasco is showing no signs of waning. In fact in some areas it appears that matters are only getting worse.

More: Ars Technica. See also Mediagazer

Kent Walker / Google Public Policy Blog:

Google concerned by reports that MPAA is secretly working with studios to resurrect SOPA

More: New York Times, Techdirt, CNNMoney.com, The Hill, Electronic Frontier Foundation, PandoDaily, SiliconBeat, Washington Post, AndroidHeadlines.com, PC Magazine, Tech Times, Re/code, The Verge, WebProNews and Electronista. Tweets: @google. See also Mediagazer

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Citigroup raises valuation of Instagram, bought by Facebook for $1B, from $19B to $35B — Instagram Is Now Worth $35 Billion — Citigroup raised the valuation of Instagram this morning from $19 billion to $35 billion. — The photo-sharing network recently announced …

More: The Verge, The Fly, bizjournals and iPhone in Canada Blog

Tweets: @thestalwart, @jennydeluxe and @miriamgottfried

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.

More: The Next Web, Gigaom, VentureBeat, Inc.com, SocialTimes and Inc.com

Tweets: @mikeisaac and @bryceweiner

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Messenger gets performance improvements, message sending/sent/delivered/read receipts — Facebook Messenger Shows Its New Speed With FacePile Read Receipts — Milliseconds make a difference when it comes to chat. The less lag, the more it feels like being in the same room.

More: Redmond Pie, David Marcus and iPhone in Canada Blog

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Stickered from Facebook's Creative Labs lets you add stickers to photos you send on Messenger; available for Android, coming to iOS

More: Facebook, iMore, Re/code, The Next Web and VentureBeat

Sean Portnoy / ZDNet:

Intel launches free Easy Migration app to help users transfer files from Windows, Android, iOS to Chromebooks — Intel launches free Easy Migration app to transfer files to Chromebooks — Summary:The software helps users move files from their Android, iOS, and Windows devices to an Intel-powered laptop running the Chrome OS.

More: The Verge, Gigaom, Laptop Mag, eWeek, CIO.com and FierceCIO News

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

Report: Facebook popularity slips among teens aged 13-17 to 88%, down from 94% in 2013 — Facebook's Popularity Among Teens Dips Again — Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg — Facebook Inc. (FB:US) is getting less and less cool, at least among teens.

More: CNET, The Verge, Business Insider, bizjournals, TIME, Mashable and NBC Bay Area

Danny Yadron / Wall Street Journal:

Poll: 45% of Americans have been notified that payment card details were stolen in a data breach — Poll Shows Broad Impact of Cyberattacks — Just fewer than half of Americans say that a retailer, bank or credit-card company has told them or a household member that their payment card details …

More: TUAW, Business Insider and 9to5Mac

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 …

More: Federal Trade Commission, CNET, USA Today, Android Police, The Register, Engadget, TIME, MacRumors, Washington Post, iMore, Gizmodo, The Hill, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, SlashGear and TmoNews

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:

Apple increases app prices in Russia in response to changing exchange rates — Apple has today informed developers that it has changed the pricing of apps and In-App Purchases in the Russian App Store, following changes to exchange rates. The recent ruble-dollar rates have fluctuated …

More: iDownloadBlog.com, Business Insider, TUAW, App Advice, MacNN and O'Grady's PowerPage

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

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

Amazon's smartphone strategy could threaten its retail dominance as local delivery services, retail startups bring innovation to consumers — Amazon Not as Unstoppable as It Might Appear — Thanks to its ugly spat with book publishers, Amazon has lately been cast as the abominable boogeyman of American commerce.

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

isoHunt posts code to GitHub enabling anyone to launch their own version of The Pirate Bay — isoHunt now lets anyone launch their own version of The Pirate Bay — Not satisfied with merely launching The Old Pirate Bay, torrent site isoHunt today debuted The Open Bay …

More: TorrentFreak, Gizmodo, GitHub, Geek.com and TechWorm. Thanks:@epro

Owen Thomas / ReadWrite:

Square ports feature that lets you pay by saying your name from discontinued Wallet app to Square Order, offers the service free to merchants — Square Is Resurrecting Wallet, Its Pay-By-Name Mobile App, And Giving It Away — Wallet, the pay-by-name app that payments company Square introduced …

More: ReadWrite and Consumerist. Tweets: @mdudas. Thanks:@owenthomas

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

Chris Davies / SlashGear:

Amazon updates Fire OS; Firefly now translates text and identifies famous artwork — Fire Phone gets arty with Amazon update — Amazon has given the Fire Phone a high-brow update, adding the ability to recognize famous works of art with its Firefly visual search system …

More: 9to5Google, Engadget, ABC News and GMA News Online

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