Techmeme
January 16, 2015, 7:50 PM

Top News

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Sources: Google is interested in buying mobile payments company Softcard, price could be less than $100M  —  Google Is In Talks With Softcard, The Mobile Payments Company  —  Apple has Apple Pay, and now it looks like Google may be fattening up its own wallet.
South East Regional Organised Crime Unit:
UK cybercrime unit and FBI arrest 18-year-old man in UK for “swatting” offenses and DDoS attacks on Playstation Network and Xbox Live  —  Man arrested for ‘swatting’ and denial of service offences  —  SEROCU, has worked closely with the FBI on the operation which focused …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Republicans introduce net neutrality legislation which would strip rule-making power from the FCC, avoid a major reclassification of broadband service  —  Republicans want a net neutrality law, but only if it stops the FCC from handling it  —  A month before the FCC votes on a new net neutrality proposal …
Faryaab S. / SamMobile:
Samsung to use Touch ID-like fingerprint sensor in Galaxy S6 instead of swipe-based sensor  —  Exclusive: Samsung opts for a touch-based fingerprint sensor for the Galaxy S6  —  A smartphone is one of the most personal devices a human being can own, and it's one of those devices where compromising on security is not an option.
Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:
Yahoo combines ad products into one unit, to be led by Prashant Fuloria, former executive at Google, Flurry, and Facebook  —  Yahoo Reorganizes Ad Product Team, Says Memo to Staff  —  Marissa Mayer is reorganizing management at Yahoo as part of her effort to jumpstart the company's stagnant advertising business.
Phil Goldstein / FierceWireless:
Sprint's Virgin Mobile launches new prepaid shared data plans at Walmart, with option for unlimited data in select apps for $5/month  —  Sprint dumps Virgin Mobile Custom brand, but keeps ItsOn technology and Walmart partnership  —  Sprint launches new shared data plans under Virgin Mobile banner
Douglas Soltys / BetaKit:
Founding partners of Teehan+Lax, the design firm behind Medium, join Facebook  —  Teehan+Lax shutting down as partners join Facebook  —  A new era begins for the Toronto design community as the founding partners of Teehan+Lax announced this morning they are shutting down the company to join Facebook.
Andrew Webster / The Verge:
As Xbox One leads December console sales in US, Microsoft drops price to $349 again  —  The Xbox One costs $349 again  —  Leading up to the holidays, Microsoft “temporarily” dropped the price of the Xbox One by $50 to $349 — a moved that proved successful, after the console managed to outsell the PS4 in November.

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Earlier Picks

Jason Koebler / Motherboard: