Techmeme
January 4, 2015, 6:15 AM

Top News

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Xiaomi Confirms It Sold 61M Phones In 2014, Has Plans To Expand To More Countries  —  Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker that raised $1.1 billion last month, has confirmed that it sold 61.12 million phones last year, bringing in an apparent revenues of 74.3 billion CNY ($12 billion) in the process.
Ryan Whitwam / Android Police:
Xiaomi launches Redmi 2 with LTE, Snapdragon 410 CPU, improved 2MP front camera; goes on sale in China Jan. 9 for about $112  —  Xiaomi Announces Redmi 2 Smartphone Packing LTE, A 64-Bit Snapdragon, And More  —  Xiaomi doesn't have much of a presence in the US, but it's one of the most prominent smartphone makers in Asia.
More: Pocketnow
Chance Miller / 9to5Google:
Acer announces first 15-inch Chromebook with Core i3 processor, 1080p display  —  To kick off CES 2015, Acer has announced its first ever 15-inch Chromebook.  The 15.6-inch screen makes it the biggest Chromebook released to date, but keeping trend with other Chromebooks on the market, the device is still affordable, starting at $250.
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Netflix Cracks Down on VPN and Proxy “Pirates”  —  Due to complicated licensing agreements Netflix is only available in a few dozen countries, all of which have a different content library.  —  Some people bypass these content and access restrictions by using VPNs or other circumvention tools that change their geographical location.
Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:
If the Supreme Court tackles the NSA in 2015, it'll be one of these five cases  —  Roughly a year and a half since the first Snowden disclosures, there's already been a judicial order to shut down the National Security Agency's bulk metadata collection program.
More: Slashdot
Brian Fung / Washington Post:
FCC says it will review a draft of net neutrality rules and vote on them by the end of February  —  Get ready: The FCC says it'll vote on net neutrality in February  —  Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler testifies during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Mitchel Broussard / MacRumors:
Nielsen: song streaming in the US up 54% to 164B in 2014, song downloads down 12% to 1.26B, album downloads down 9% to 106.5M  —  U.S. Music Fans Continue Shift to Streaming Services as Apple Readies Beats Revamp  —  Paid music downloads, which have dominated the digital music market …
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.

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Earlier Picks

Josh Lederman / Associated Press:
Roberta Naas / Forbes:
Steve Dent / Engadget: