Techmeme: White House privacy bill empowers FTC to levy steep fines on privacy violators, strengthen oversight of data brokers (Tony Romm/Politico)

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January 29, 2015, 11:35 AM

Top News

Julia White / The Official Microsoft Blog:

Microsoft launches Office for Android tablets, new Outlook mail apps for iOS and Android — Office everywhere: More great news for Office on iOS and Android — Last week, we saw the new experiences coming with Windows 10, including how Office universal apps for Windows 10 will deliver …

More: Office Blogs, GeekWire, Ars Technica, The Register, Telegraph, Office Blogs, PC World, AnandTech, Bloomberg Business, Droid Life, Engadget, ZDNet, Reuters, SiliconANGLE, SlashGear, The Verge, Android Authority, Gigaom, TechCrunch, Ubergizmo, Android Central, VentureBeat, iMore and Gizmodo UK. Tweets: @julwhite

Office Blogs:

New Accompli-based Outlook for iOS, Android integrates email, calendar, contacts, and files, supports Office 365, iCloud, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail — A deeper look at Outlook for iOS and Android — Today, we announced the release of Outlook for iOS and a preview of Outlook for Android.

Dawn Chmielewski / Re/code:

Samsung sold 71-75M smartphones in the holiday quarter, on par with Apple's 74.5M iPhone sales — Apple and Samsung in Dead Heat for Smartphone Dominance — Apple, which years ago ceded the top spot in the global smartphone market to rival Samsung, appears to have pulled into a dead heat.

Youkyung Lee / Associated Press:

Samsung Electronics' Q4 earnings down 27% to $4.9B, beating estimates on strength of component business — Samsung's 4Q profit drops but beats forecast — SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday its quarterly earnings dropped smaller-than-expected 27 percent …

Paul Mozur / New York Times:

New regulations in China require source code, audits, and backdoors from companies working with banks, alarming Western tech firms — New Rules in China Upset Western Tech Companies — HONG KONG — The Chinese government has adopted new regulations requiring companies that sell computer equipment …

More: BBC, 9to5Mac, PC World, Gigaom, MacDailyNews, iDownloadBlog.com, Ars Technica, Electronista, Business Insider, Patently Apple, Ubergizmo and AppleInsider. Tweets: @amir

Tony Romm / Politico:

White House privacy bill empowers FTC to levy steep fines on privacy violators, strengthen oversight of data brokers — White House preps expansive online privacy bill — The White House is preparing to send a sweeping online privacy proposal to Congress that would restrict how companies …

More: Washington Post and Gigaom. Tweets: @counternotions, @juliaangwin and @tonyromm

Michael Sippey / Medium:

Snapchat's Discover feature for news could also function more broadly as an app platform — theory: snapchat launched an app platform — And then go through the list of capabilities they can bring... - Interaction? Check. You may not have all the tools of Swift or Java at your disposal …

Tweets: @sippey. See also Mediagazer

Travis Green / Google Commerce:

Now available in the UK: Send and request money right from Gmail — Since we announced Send Money in Gmail, paying back your friends has never been so simple, whether you're chipping in for lunch or reimbursing your housemate for your share of the rent. Today, we're excited to make this feature available for Gmail users in the UK.

More: 9to5Google, Android Police, TechCrunch, GSMArena Blog, Business Insider, Engadget, The Next Web, Ubergizmo, TechnoBuffalo, Electronista, Android Central and NFC World+

Alden Kroll / Steam Community:

Valve has paid out $57M+ to 1.5K creators across 75 countries through Steam Workshop since 2011; announces curated workshops for non-Valve games — Content Creators Earn Over $50M Through Steam Workshop, Can Now Earn Money in More Games — When we launched the Workshop late in 2011 …

More: Engadget, VentureBeat, SiliconANGLE, Polygon, GamePolitics blogs, Gamasutra and destructoid. Tweets: @pentadact

Lulu Yilun Chen / Bloomberg Business:

Alibaba Q3 net income fell 28% to $964M, misses estimates as Jack Ma invests in apps, shares fall 8% in pre-market trading — Alibaba Profit Misses Estimates as Jack Ma Boosts App Spending — Don't Miss Out — … (Bloomberg) — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. posted profit …

More: VentureBeat, New York Times, Fortune, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal and CNBC

Owen Williams / The Next Web:

Samsung's Gear VR will provide in-flight entertainment for first-class Qantas passengers — A new partnership between Samsung and Australian airline Qantas means passengers flying on the airline will be able to use a Gear VR on long-haul flights. — A limited number of Gear VR devices …

More: Qantas News Room, Gizmodo Australia, Tech Times, Engadget, Ubergizmo, Electronista, SlashGear, GSMArena Blog, The Verge and Android Central

Hannah Breeze / CRN UK News:

Symantec gives Veritas name to new info-management arm — Vendor outlines strategy for soon-to-be spun-off arm — Symantec has settled on the name Veritas for its newly established information-management (IM) arm which was created when the company split in two in October.

More: ITWire.com

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Tumblr Takes On Medium With Upgrades To Its Writing Interface And More — Starting today, Tumblr is rolling out a series of updates to its online blogging platform designed to make the service more attractive and useful for content creators, and specifically for those writing long-form content.

More: Tumblr Staff, The Verge, Digital Trends, Fast Company, The Next Web and SlashGear. Tweets: @joshconstine

Joseph Bernstein / BuzzFeed:

Peeing My Way Around New York City With Airpnp, The App For Bathroom Emergencies — Airpnp is the worst-designed app I've ever used. It's also the most profound. — Justine Zwiebel/BuzzFeed News — My bladder is the Murphy's Law of organs. — It's not that it's small, exactly; rather, it's disagreeable; neurotic.

Tweets: @jmbooyah, @jaredbkeller, @msamandalewis, @katyawachtel and @jbasher

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:

LG's Annual Profit Doubles To $475M After Shipping 59.1M Smartphones In 2014 — Samsung may be stumbling after posting its lowest annual profit for three years. The same can't be said for fellow Korean company LG, which just revealed that it posted an improved $475 million profit for 2014 …

More: LG Newsroom, Neowin, 9to5Google, Ubergizmo, memeburn, Android Central, Engadget and SlashGear

Mark Hachman / PC World:

Microsoft adds smart search of document text and photos with OCR in OneDrive for web and iPad — Microsoft OneDrive adds super-intelligent searching of document text, photos — Microsoft just made it easier to upload more photos and files to its OneDrive cloud service.

More: OneDrive Blog, VentureBeat, The Next Web, SlashGear, Engadget, The Verge, The Fire Hose, iMore, Ubergizmo, Neowin, Windows Central, iClarified, BetaNews and WinBeta

Stephen Barrett / AnandTech:

Intel Announces Broadwell vPro Processors: Wireless Docking and More — While Intel formally announced availability of Broadwell-U processors at CES this year, vendors did not actually have any devices available for purchase containing Intel vPro technology.

More: BetaNews, ZDNet, CNET and Liliputing

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:

Armed With A Push-Bike And $25 Million, Europe Beckons For Premium Take-Out Service Deliveroo — “I was actually the first delivery driver, I still do deliveries for 4 hours a week,” Deliveroo CEO and co-founder William Shu tells me during a call. “I don't do it on the scooter anymore, I do it on the bicycle.

More: Wall Street Journal, Telegraph, Techworld.com and VentureBeat. Tweets: @fdestin. Thanks:@sohear

Garett Sloane / Adweek:

Facebook mobile ad revenue accounts for 69% of total ad revenue in Q4, up from 53% Q4 2013; 1.19B mobile MAUs — Facebook Just Shared Insane Q4 Mobile Numbers and Ad Sales — Its smartphone promos alone did $2.5 billion — Facebook's mobile sales continue to skyrocket …

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Facebook video views hit 3B per day, up from 1B daily views in September 2014

More: Bloomberg Business, The Equity Kicker and Electronista. Tweets: @sarahfrier

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook Beats Estimates In Q4 With $3.85B Revenue, User Growth Up To 2.9% QOQ To Hit 1.39B

More: BIA/Kelsey, PC World, Seeking Alpha, GeekWire, Agence France-Presse, bizjournals, TheStreet.com and Engadget

Sarah Spickernell / City A.M.:

CylonLab cyber security incubator launches in London, aims to link startups with UK government — Cyber London: Startup scheme hopes to make UK the centre of cyber security technology — GCHQ estimates that eight out of 10 of the UK's biggest businesses have been victims (Source: Getty)

More: Guardian, Reuters, SC Magazine, TechCrunch and SC Magazine UK

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