Techmeme
January 23, 2015, 10:20 AM

Top News

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple targets Watch battery life of 2.5 hours heavy use and 3.5 hours standard use; pure standby battery life likely to be 2-3 days; CPU said to be A5-caliber  —  Apple targets for Apple Watch battery life revealed, A5-caliber CPU inside  —  Although Apple has said that the Apple Watch …
New York Times:
Winklevoss Twins Aim to Take Bitcoin Mainstream With a Regulated Exchange  —  Bitcoin, the virtual currency that was once the talk of the financial world, has been taking a beating over the last year with the price tumbling downward.  —  Now two of the biggest boosters of the virtual currency …
Fortune:
Cover story on the rise of unicorns: 80+ private companies achieve valuations of at least $1B  —  The Age of Unicorns  —  Stewart Butterfield had one objective when he set out to raise money for his startup last fall: a billion dollars or nothing.  If he couldn't reach a $1 billion valuation for Slack …
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Box opens at over $20 per share giving it a valuation of around $2.5B  —  Box Skyrockets 50% To More Than $21 Per Share In First Minutes As A Public Company  —  Bam.  —  Today Box opened at around $20.50, far above its $14 IPO price, giving the company a valuation of around $2.5 billion.
Roger Cheng / CNET:
Verizon: Don't expect us to offer a data rollover plan  —  Verizon CFO Fran Shammo says the carrier won't be following AT&T and T-Mobile's lead.  —  Don't hold your breath for Verizon Wireless to counter AT&T and T-Mobile with a data rollover program.  —  That's according to Verizon Chief …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Bill and Melinda Gates annual letter: How the smartphone will lift up the world  —  Fifteen years after starting their foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates released their 2015 annual letter overnight, laying out their goals for the next 15 years and explaining their “big bet” — that …
Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:
Apple HomeKit incompatible with home automation accessories not licensed as MFi products that connect over WiFi, like Nest Thermostat  —  Apple details HomeKit compatibility with competing home automation platforms, rules out rival Wi-Fi gear  —  Apple will allow its upcoming Siri-controlled …
Tim Higgins / Bloomberg:
Tim Cook's compensation doubled to $9.22M in 2014; retail executive Angela Ahrendts received $73.4M  —  Apple's Cook Gets $9.22 Million in Pay as Stock Reaches High  —  Apple Inc. (AAPL) Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook received compensation valued at $9.22 million last year …
Leon Spencer / ZDNet:
Uber relaunches in Delhi with radio taxi licence  —  Summary:Uber is resuming operations under a radio taxi licence in Delhi six weeks after it was banned in the city when one of its drivers was pulled up on rape charges.  —  Controversial ride-share app developer Uber has relaunched …
Dennis Schaal / Skift:
Expedia Acquires Travelocity for $280 Million  —  As expected after the early termination of a Federal Trade Commission antitrust review earlier two weeks ago, Expedia Inc. acquired Travelocity outright for an underwhelming $280 million in cash.  —  The acquisition from Travelocity's parent …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Hutchison Says It's In Exclusive Negotiations To Buy UK's O2 For Up To £10.25B  —  Today, Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa released a statement saying that it is in exclusive negotiations with Telefonica to acquire mobile carrier O2 in the UK, offering to pay up to £10.25 billion ($15.3 billion, €13.5 billion ).
Martin Beck / Marketing Land:
Twitter launches Bing translation of tweets on iOS, Android, and web  —  Twitter Officially Rolls Out Bing Translation  —  Tweets in users' non-native languages will automatically trigger translations.  After being reintroduced on TweetDeck earlier this month, the feature has been added to iOS, Android and Twitter.com.

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More News

Sean O'Kane / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Shara Tibken / CNET:
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat: