Techmeme: Virtual reality doesn't need a killer app; tinkerers will experiment to unleash its potential (Ryan Rigney/Wired)

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December 31, 2014, 3:25 PM

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Jennifer Booton / MarketWatch:

New York City considers letting drivers pay for parking tickets with Bitcoin, Apple Pay, and PayPal — NYC weighs bitcoin, Apple Pay for parking tickets — NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The city of New York issues eight to ten million parking tickets annually.

More: 9to5Mac, Ars Technica, Digital Trends, Gigaom, TechCrunch, iPhone in Canada Blog, Ubergizmo, Cult of Mac, MacRumors, App Advice, Business Insider, iDownloadBlog.com, ValueWalk, TechnoBuffalo, Engadget, iMore, AppleInsider, MacNN and WebProNews

Jana Winter / The Intercept:

FBI bulletin says hackers who attacked Sony have threatened an unnamed news organization — Sony Hackers Threaten U.S. News Media Organization — The cyberterrorists who hacked Sony Pictures Entertainment's computer servers have threatened to attack an American news media organization …

More: The Desk, PC Magazine, TechCrunch, PandoDaily, The Next Web, Ars Technica, Engadget, SC Magazine, New York Post, Gizmodo, Ubergizmo, Gawker, Business Insider and SiliconBeat. Tweets: @dgisserious. See also Mediagazer

Tal Kopan / Politico:

FBI says report that Sony hack was perpetrated by a disgruntled Sony employee and piracy group hackers is “inaccurate”, based on “narrow view” — U.S.: No alternate leads in Sony hack — A briefing for FBI agents investigating the Sony Pictures hack by a security firm …

More: Norse, Schneier on Security, Re/code, SC Magazine, The Daily Beast, Bloomberg, darkREADING, Mashable, SecurityWeek, Forbes, Mashable, SlashGear, Hit & Run, Guardian, eWeek, GotNews, CircleID, PandoDaily, The Register, GamePolitics blogs, Lawfare, ValueWalk, Engadget and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @cyberwar, @kashhill, @declanm, @fmanjoo and @essobi

See also Mediagazer

Gerry Shih / Reuters:

Huawei's smartphone sales rose by almost a third to $11.8B in 2014 with 75M shipped — China's Huawei 2014 smartphone sales rise by a third — (Reuters) - Huawei Technology Co Ltd's [HWT.UL] smartphone sales rose by almost a third to $11.8 billion in 2014, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters …

More: CNET, Wall Street Journal, PhoneDog.com, 9to5Google, Android Beat, Android Central and MobileSyrup.com

Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:

Samsung squeezed past Apple in consumer satisfaction for smartphones — Apple may have owned Christmas, but Samsung won the year when it came to satisfying shoppers with its phones. The latest stats from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index, which surveys 70,000 consumers every year …

More: BGR, 9to5Google, DailyTech, SiliconBeat, iPhone in Canada Blog, GSMArena Blog, The Tech Report, ITProPortal, Phandroid, Neowin, Pocketnow and Business Insider

Julia Love / SiliconBeat:

Apple hit with class action over storage eaten up by iOS 8 — Apple has been hit with a lawsuit alleging that it doesn't inform users just how much storage its new operating system will eat up - and then prods them to buy more space through its iCloud service.

More: The Verge, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Business Insider, Mashable, SlashGear, iMore, Pocketnow, iDownloadBlog.com, TechnoBuffalo, iPhone in Canada Blog, bizjournals, Electronista and MacDailyNews. Tweets: @edbott. Thanks:@byjulialove

Anupam Saxena / Times of India:

India orders ISPs to block Github, Dailymotion, Pastebin, Vimeo, and 30 other websites — Pastebin, Dailymotion, Github blocked after DoT order: Report — NEW DELHI: A number of Indian users are reporting they're not able to access websites such as Pastebin, DailyMotion and Github …

Colleen Taylor / TechCrunch:

Now With 12 Million Users, Timehop Adds Twitter Vet Jason Goldman To Its Board — It's been a very busy few months for Timehop. — The app, which provides users with a personal “today in history” memo by surfacing their photos and social networking posts from this day one year ago or more …

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

HP sells Palm trademarks; brand could be resurrected with new smartphones — It looks like Palm will rise from the dead as a Chinese smartphone brand. — Palm, the legendary smartphone and PDA company, might seem dead and gone, but it's now looking like the name “Palm” will rise again as a zombie brand.

More: The Next Web, The Verge, webOS Nation, adafruit industries blog, NDTV Gadgets, Phandroid, AndroidHeadlines.com, PhoneDog.com, Android Authority, Ubergizmo, Phones Review, 9to5Google, SlashGear, Android and Me, MobileBurn.com and OSNews

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

FTC orders Snapchat to implement a privacy program but issues no fine for deceiving users about ephemeral nature of messages and scraping contact lists — Feds issue final order over Snapchat privacy breach, but no fine — What do regulators do when a popular app deceives users about photos that …

More: Federal Trade Commission, Ars Technica, The Hill, Re/code and WebProNews

Ryan Rigney / Wired:

Virtual reality doesn't need a killer app; tinkerers will experiment to unleash its potential — Why Virtual Reality Doesn't Need a Killer App to Get Huge — On a frosty December morning in 1783, some 400,000 people gathered in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris to see the world's first manned flight in a hydrogen balloon.

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