Techmeme
January 1, 2015, 8:00 AM

Top News

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
Snapchat raises $485.6M at $10B+ valuation from 23 investors  —  Snapchat Raises $485.6 Million to Close Out Big Fundraising Year  —  Snapchat Inc., among a pack of elite technology startups that has attained a valuation of $10 billion or more, capped the year with a filing that disclosed it raised $485.6 million.
William Turton / The Daily Dot:
U.K. police allegedly arrest Lizard Squad hacker … Lizard Squad took credit for the Dec. 25 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.  DDoS attacks overwhelm a network with too much traffic, leaving targeted networks inaccessible for legitimate users.
New York Times:
Interviews with Sony employees show that the company was slow to realize the gravity and impact of hacking  —  Sony Hacking Attack, First a Nuisance, Swiftly Grew Into a Firestorm  —  LOS ANGELES — It was three days before Thanksgiving, the beginning of a quiet week for Sony Pictures.
Tal Kopan / Politico:
Jana Winter / The Intercept:
Alistair Barr / Wall Street Journal:
Google Fiber could use utility poles and other utility-owned infrastructure under Title II, spurring broadband, company says in letter to FCC  —  Google Strikes an Upbeat Note With FCC on Title II  —  In a rare public comment by Google on net neutrality, the Internet giant this week …
Se Young Lee / Reuters:
Samsung Electronics says new smart TVs in 2015 to run Tizen platform  —  (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Thursday that all its new smart television products launched in 2015 will be powered by the Tizen operating system, marking a fresh effort by the company to increase the usage of the software platform.
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
HP sells Palm trademarks, likely to Alcatel One Touch; brand could be resurrected with new Android smartphones  —  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.
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  — The city of New York issues eight to ten million parking tickets annually.  But great news: Drivers will soon be able to use …
Craig Buckler / SitePoint:
Average web page size increased 15% in 2014 to almost 2MB; HTTP requests per page hardly changed at 95  —  Average Page Weight Increases 15% in 2014  —  The HTTP Archive Report collates information from almost half a million of the web's most popular websites.
More: theWHIR.com and GigaomTweets: @craigbuckler
J.R. Wu / Reuters:
Taiwan clears Xiaomi, Apple, Samsung, Sony, Huawei, others of breaching data privacy laws  —  Taiwan clears Xiaomi, other smartphone brands of breaching data privacy  —  (Reuters) - Taiwanese regulators cleared on Tuesday China's Xiaomi Inc [XTC.UL] and other smartphone brands …
Jonathan Soble / New York Times:
Abandoned Japanese social network Mixi resurges with Monster Strike, its first mobile game  —  ‘Monster Strike’ Gives Former Social Media Giant Mixi a Second Act  —  TOKYO — It was a familiar trajectory for a social network like Facebook that did not happen to be Facebook …
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.

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
F5:
Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit  —  Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23.  Register now to save your spot.
Zoho:
Fixing collaboration friction : Why collaboration feels hard and how Zoho Workplace fixes it  —  It's never been easier to work together.  Right now, your team can co-edit a document in real time …
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

Access:
The billionaire paying AI researchers to stay out of Big Tech
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
The Race to the Middle
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Great Chat:
After you ring the bell
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
AI Fact or Fiction: The Fable Ban, Tokenmaxxing, Saaspocolypse — With Ara Kharazian
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.
Hard Fork:
'Hard Fork' Live Part 2: Dylan Field on Standing Out in the A.I. Era
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:00 AM ET, January 1, 2015.

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

Anupam Saxena / Times of India: