Techmeme
January 2, 2015, 7:40 PM

Top News

Steve Dent / Engadget:
Google's Project Zero posts Windows 8.1 flaw after Microsoft failed to patch it within 90 days  —  Google posts Windows 8.1 vulnerability before Microsoft can patch it  —  Google's Project Zero tracks vulnerabilities in software systems and reports them to vendors “in as close to real-time as possible” — a noble cause, no?
Josh Lederman / Associated Press:
US sanctions North Korean intelligence agency, an arms dealer, and 10 individuals working for the government over Sony cyberattacks  —  US sanctions North Korea over Sony cyberattack … HONOLULU (AP) — The U.S. is imposing sanctions on North Korea in retaliation for the cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Scribd Raises $22M For Its Subscription E-Book Service  —  Scribd, a company offering unlimited access to half a million e-books for $8.99 a month, is announcing that it has raised $22 million in additional funding.  —  The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with Khosla partner Keith Rabois …
Rich McCormick / The Verge:
Alcatel's Pixi 3 runs Windows Phone, Android, or Firefox OS; comes in 3.5", 4", 4.5", and 5" screen sizes; debuts at CES  —  Alcatel's new Pixi smartphone can run Windows, Android, or Firefox OS  —  Fresh off the news that it's acquired the Palm brand, Alcatel has a new Pixi for us.
Kashmir Hill / Fusion:
FBI talks with Tennessee man who copied style of Sony hackers' Pastebin posts and then mocked CNN  —  The FBI thought this Tennessee prankster was a Sony Pictures hacker  —  After an ill-advised prank, David Garrett Jr. spent an hour on New Year's Day at an FBI bureau in Tennessee explaining …
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Canadian ISPs and VPNs Now Have to Alert Pirating Customers  —  After years of public and private discussions, Canada started implementing a new copyright law in recent years.  —  The law introduced great improvements in terms of fair use and non-commercial file-sharing, and also adopts a …
Rich McCormick / The Verge:
Xbox One SDK leak could let developers make homebrew apps for the console  —  A group of hackers has reportedly leaked the full version of Microsoft's official Xbox One SDK — the software kit that approved Xbox developers use to make games and apps for the console.
Roberta Naas / Forbes:
Montblanc unveils a luxury watch strap with an activity tracker and vibrator for notifications, available in June for about $425  —  2015: Montblanc Just Got Smarter  —  Montblanc starts the New Year with a smart move: just two hours into 2015, the brand unveiled the new Montblanc Timewalker Urban Speed e-Strap watch line.
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:
Security researcher rewrites Mac firmware over Thunderbolt, says most Intel Thunderbolt Macs vulnerable  —  A security researcher speaking at the Chaos Computer Congress in Hamburg demonstrated a hack that rewrites an Intel Mac's firmware using a Thunderbolt device with attack code in an option ROM.

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:
Stop re-entering Shopify order details in Zoho CRM  —  This is a guest blog from Xapplets (Zeeyes AI Inc).Here's a scene that plays out in many growing Shopify stores every day: a customer places an order …
IDrive:
IDrive Autonomy: low-cost L2+ driver assistance with AI  —  L2+ driver assistance with a scalable AI stack built for automotive companies and laying the foundation for the autonomous future.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
GPT-6 & OpenAI's Comeback, Hugging Face Attack Debate, Ballmer's Scandalous Legacy
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:
The A.I. Mob That Attacked Hugging Face + METR's Ajeya Cotra
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Data Centers, Elon Musk, and the New Politics of Tech, with David Weigel
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:
Sam Altman on OpenAI's next model and the AI backlash
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.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Brian Singerman from GPx
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
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 7:40 PM ET, January 2, 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

Jon Southurst / CoinDesk:

Earlier Picks

Fred Wilson / AVC: