Techmeme
December 19, 2014, 10:15 AM

Top News

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
Richard Bilton / BBC:
Reuters:
Google will build Android Auto software directly into cars with Android M, no smartphone needed  —  Exclusive: Google aiming to go straight into car with next Android - sources  —  (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOGL.O) is laying the groundwork for a version of Android that would be built directly into cars …
Kent Walker / Google Public Policy Blog:
Google concerned by reports that MPAA is secretly working with studios to resurrect SOPA  —  The MPAA's Attempt to Revive SOPA Through A State Attorney General  —  We are deeply concerned about recent reports that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) led a secret …
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.
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
Samsung to shut down its ChatOn messaging service Feb. 1, 2015 in all markets except U.S.  —  Samsung's ChatOn service will shut down next year (update)  —  After denying reports that its ChatOn service was close to being disbanded on a region-by-region basis, Samsung has announced in Korea that it's going away.
Robert McMillan / Wired:
Bots Now Outnumber Humans on the Web  —  Diogo Mónica once wrote a short computer script that gave him a secret weapon in the war for San Francisco dinner reservations.  —  This was early 2013.  The script would periodically scan the popular online reservation service, OpenTable …
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 …
Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:
Uber Strikes Deal With Portland to Suspend Service for Three Months  —  Uber reached an agreement with Portland to suspend operations in the city for three months while regulators work to revise rules around taxis that currently prohibit ridesharing apps.  —  The city agreed to let Uber …
Vindu Goel / New York Times:
Instagram purges spambots; popular accounts lose millions of followers, with the company losing the most at 18.9M  —  Millions of Fake Instagram Users Disappear in Purge  —  Social media services like Facebook and Twitter are always battling against spam or fake accounts that hijack hashtags …
Junio C Hamano / Gmane:
Vulnerability in Git, Mercurial allows for arbitrary code execution on OSX, Windows; affects Visual Studio, Github client app, among others  —  Subject: [ANNOUNCE] Git v2.2.1 (and updates to older maintenance tracks)  —  Newsgroups: gmane.linux.kernel, gmane.comp.version-control.git
Sean Silcoff / Globe and Mail:
BlackBerry stock slips as revenue tumbles below expectations  —  BlackBerry Ltd. revenue plunged unexpectedly in the third quarter, but the company managed to eke out a slight profit on an adjusted basis.  —  The company earned $793-million (U.S.) in revenue in the quarter ended Nov. 29, down from $916-million in the previous quarter.
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
Craig Timberg / Washington Post:
Critical vulnerabilities in SS7 telephony protocol found; tested techniques can decrypt cell phone calls and texts  —  German researchers discover a flaw that could let anyone listen to your cell calls.  —  German researchers have discovered security flaws that could let hackers …
Bloomberg:
China is Planning to Purge Foreign Technology and Replace With Homegrown Suppliers  —  China is aiming to purge most foreign technology from banks, the military, state-owned enterprises and key government agencies by 2020, stepping up efforts to shift to Chinese suppliers, according to people familiar with the effort.

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Is AI just hype?  —  Find out how top enterprises use Tribe to get real business results.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Zoho:
All new Zoho Workerly 2024  —  Staffing businesses around the world face a unique set of challenges when it comes to managing their temporary workforce.  With a constantly shifting job market and changing staffing needs …
Comprehensive.io:
Browse salary data from 3,000 startups for free  —  Click for FREE, immediate access to real-time compensation benchmarking data.  Paid version helps HR automate comp reviews and communicate total compensation to employees.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Henry Shukman, Lessons from an Authentic Zen Master
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Thu. 03/28 - Claude 3 Opus Surpasses GPT-4 For The First Time
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:15 AM 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

Marc Rogers / Marc's Security Ramblings:

Earlier Picks