Techmeme
January 2, 2015, 6:00 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?
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.
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.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Yahoo search is down; Bing, other Microsoft services also suffered brief outages earlier today  —  Microsoft And Yahoo Confirm Search Outages  —  Microsoft's search engine Bing.com and other sites, including live.com, suffered a brief outage of somewhere around 20 minutes today, give or take …
More: Reuters and Gizmodo
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.
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 …
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.
Fred Wilson / AVC:
Predictions for 2015 on IPOs, Xiaomi, messaging, wearables, Bitcoin, cybersecurity, and more  —  What Is Going To Happen  —  Yesterday I wrote a post summing up what happened in 2014.  In it I promised a post on what is going to happen.  What I did not specify was how far forward I am going to look.
Fred Wilson / AVC:

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More News

Jon Southurst / CoinDesk:

Earlier Picks

Michael Crider / Android Police:
Jeff Grubb / VentureBeat: