Techmeme: Cyanogen's $70M+ round to include Microsoft as a minority investor (Rolfe Winkler/Wall Street Journal)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News

January 29, 2015, 9:10 PM

Top News

Google:

Google Inc. Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2014 Results — Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today announced financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2014. — “Google's full year revenue for 2014 was $66 billion, up 19% year on year,” said Patrick Pichette …

More: ZDNet, Engadget, Quartz, Business Insider, Re/code, AdExchanger, Computerworld, Marketing Land, Gigaom, TechCrunch, Pocketnow, internetretailer.com, MacDailyNews, Silicon Valley Watcher, SlashGear, MobileSyrup.com and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @lexnfx, @ampressman, @asymco, @lexnfx, @chris_ciaccia, @lexnfx and @sai

Harrison Weber / VentureBeat:

Google misses in Q4 2014 with $14.48B revenue, $6.88 EPS on slowing ad revenue growth — Updated 1:45 p.m. Pacific with new details from Google's earnings call. — Google reported its fourth-quarter earnings today, with GAAP EPS of $6.88 on revenue of $14.48 billion (minus traffic acquisition costs).

More: The Register, Wall Street Journal, Tech Trader Daily, internetnews.com, 9to5Google, Fortune, Mercury News, BGR, Wall Street Journal, CNET, USA Today, ZDNet, Tech Trader Daily, The Verge, GeekWire, Phandroid and bizjournals. Tweets: @chris_ciaccia

Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:

Cyanogen's $70M+ round to include Microsoft as a minority investor — Microsoft to Invest in Rogue Android Startup Cyanogen — Microsoft is investing in a hot startup that's trying to weaken Google 's hold over Android. — People familiar with the matter say Microsoft is putting money into Cyanogen …

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

The best Gmail app for the iPhone is now made by Microsoft — Outlook. Yes, Outlook. — Gmail is the world's most popular email service, and the iPhone, as if this week didn't make it abundantly clear, is the world's most popular smartphone. The two have been around for years and years …

More: AppleInsider, Business Insider and TUAW

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, Ars Technica, Office Blogs, The Daily Dot, Telegraph, Engadget, Droid Life, GadgeTell, The Register, TechnoBuffalo, Bloomberg Business, AnandTech, Pocketnow, PC Magazine and TIME. Tweets: @msftnews

Office Blogs:

New Accompli-based Outlook for iOS and Android integrates email, calendar, contacts, and files, supports Office 365, Exchange, iCloud, Gmail, and Yahoo accounts

More: Pocket-lint, Business Insider, New York Times, MSDN Blogs, MacRumors, Ink, Bits, & Pixels, Phandroid, Macworld, Digital Trends, Redmond Pie, MobileSyrup.com, ITworld.com, Ars Technica and Lifehacker

Micah Singleton / The Verge:

FCC redefines broadband: minimum download speed raised from 4 to 25 Mbps, minimum upload from 1 to 3 Mbps — The FCC has changed the definition of broadband — The Federal Communications Commission has voted to change the definition of broadband by raising the minimum download speeds needed …

More: FCC.gov, Ars Technica, BetaNews, CNET, Gizmodo, Techdirt, Slate, Engadget, Guardian, Business Insider, BGR, NCTA, Android Authority, Hit & Run, New York Times, AppleInsider, ZDNet, Electronista, CNBC, Re/code, SlashGear, Geek.com, GamePolitics blogs, Gigaom, TechnoBuffalo and Neowin

Tweets: @wstrife and @munin

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

Amazon posts $214M profit, $0.45 EPS in Q4 2014 on $29.33B revenue; Prime membership grows 53% year over year — Amazon Prime memberships grow 53% in 2014, despite $20 price hike … Amazon's decision to increase the price of its Prime membership doesn't seem to be hurting the company.

More: CNET, Gigaom, Re/code, VentureBeat, ZDNet, USA Today, Associated Press, Variety, The Verge, New York Times, GeekWire, Tech Trader Daily, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, internetretailer.com, Bloomberg Business and Fox Business

Tweets: @delrey, @mgsiegler, @levie, @delrey and @chris_ciaccia

See also Mediagazer

Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:

Alibaba invests $10M in Ouya, plans to incorporate Ouya's game library into set-top boxes — Alibaba Breathes New Life Into Game-Console Maker Ouya — Ouya, the game-console maker that has struggled to gain traction since its record-breaking Kickstarter campaign, has received a new injection …

More: Android Police, VentureBeat, Ubergizmo, The Verge, GamesIndustry.biz and Engadget

Daniel Terdiman / VentureBeat:

Facebook launches location tips on iPhone, tests Bluetooth beacons to increase geolocation accuracy in NYC — Facebook invades Yelp, Foursquare territory with geo-specific Place Tips for iPhone — Facebook knows that being able to target users with information about exactly where they are can be extremely lucrative.

More: Facebook, Engadget, Marketing Land, Re/code, The Verge, Electronista, ABC News and Consumerist

Phil Goldstein / FierceWireless:

FCC raises record $44.9B in AWS-3 spectrum auction — It's over: FCC's AWS-3 spectrum auction ends at record $44.9B in bids — The FCC said bidding in the AWS-3 spectrum auction, known as auction 97, is now closed after 341 rounds of bidding. Total provisional winning bids came in at a record $44.899 billion.

More: The Verge, Wall Street Journal, TmoNews and DSLreports. Tweets: @bfeld. Thanks:@fiercewireless

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

The App Install Ad Boom Helps Tune Raise $27 Million — A few years ago, the app install ad business — fueled by developers who want to distribute their stuff across a universe of smartphones — didn't really exist. — Now it's one of the big reasons Facebook has a giant mobile ad business.

More: VentureBeat, TechCrunch and GeekWire

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Nickelodeon to unveil stand-alone streaming video subscription service in February — Nickelodeon to Unveil Stand-Alone Subscription Video Service in February — Kid-entertainment giant Nickelodeon intends to follow the example of HBO and unveil a direct-to-consumer subscription service in February …

More: TechCrunch, Reuters, CNBC, New York Times, SlashGear, TechnoBuffalo, Digital Trends, New York Post, ABC News, The Verge, Consumerist, Ubergizmo, Gizmodo and Telecompetitor. See also Mediagazer

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

FTC shuts down “revenge porn” operation, but imposes no fine — In one of the most despicable scams on the internet, Colorado resident Craig Brittain ran a website that posted nude photographs of hundreds of women alongside their Facebook profiles and other personal information …

More: The Verge, Techdirt, PC World, Popehat, CBS News, The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, VentureBeat, TIME, The Hill, National Journal, Ars Technica, SC Magazine and Gizmodo

Barb Darrow / Gigaom:

VMware's vCloud Air to integrate Google's BigQuery analytics, Cloud Datastore, Cloud DNS, and Cloud Storage services — VMware is bringing key Google services to its cloud — Here's a deal that has “corporate synergies” written all over it. VMware and Google are working together …

More: VMware Blogs, Data Center Knowledge, eWeek, Bloomberg Business, cloudpro.co.uk, Forbes, RealWire, Virtualization Review, Wall Street Journal, CRN, ZDNet and VentureBeat

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

Prosecutors Trace $13.4M in Bitcoins From the Silk Road to Ulbricht's Laptop — If anyone still believes that bitcoin is magically anonymous internet money, the US government just offered what may be the clearest demonstration yet that it's not. A courtroom PowerPoint presentation traced hundreds …

Dan Levine / Reuters:

Delhi Uber passenger who alleges driver rape sues in U.S — (Reuters) - A passenger who said she had been raped by an Uber driver in India's capital sued the online car service in U.S. federal court on Thursday, claiming the company failed to maintain basic safety procedures.

More: PC World

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

FAA imposes 30-mile radius ban on drones around stadium hosting Super Bowl XLIX — Super Bowl will have 30-mile “no drone zone” — Buzzing quarterback Tom Brady with an unmanned aircraft might sound like fun, but anyone who flies a drone remotely near the University of Phoenix stadium …

More: Wall Street Journal, GeekWire, Marketing Land, Forbes, The Verge, CNET, CNN, Gizmodo, Fox News and Popular Science

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Imgur introduces new tool to make high-quality GIFs from streaming video like YouTube — Imgur's new tool makes the most beautiful GIFs on the web — Imgur has been on a quest to upgrade the GIF, and part of that means making GIFs look a whole lot nicer.

More: Gigaom, The Imgur Blog, PC Magazine, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, The Daily Dot, BuzzFeed, The Next Web, Engadget, Mashable and Re/code. See also Mediagazer

Abhijeet M. / SamMobile:

Samsung may remove default add-ons from TouchWiz on Galaxy S6, make them downloadable instead — Exclusive: Samsung removing bloat from TouchWiz, making most of it downloadable — The fact that Samsung's phones and tablets come with a lot of software features is both an advantage and a curse.

More: Gotta Be Mobile, 9to5Google, Phandroid, PC World, TechnoBuffalo, Pocketnow, BestTechie, SlashGear, Droid Life, PhoneDog.com, Ubergizmo, Gizmodo, Android Authority, Business Insider, Gigaom and BGR

Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:

Apple resolves iTunes Connect issue presenting wrong user name and apps for developers — Widespread iTunes Connect issue presenting wrong user name and apps for developers (Update: Resolved) — iTunes Connect, Apple's portal where developers manage software published on the App Store …

More: MacRumors, The Register, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, Ars Technica, MacNN, Cult of Mac, iPhone Hacks, GeekWire and The Next Web

Tweets: @tapbot_paul, @tapbot_paul, @bitario, @llsethj, @9to5mac, @drbarnard and @apollozac

J.T. Quigley / Tech in Asia:

Google's Nexus Player heading to Japan, its first market outside of North America — Google today announced that its Android-powered TV streaming box, the Nexus Player, will begin selling in Japan late next month. Japan will be the first country outside of the US and Canada to receive the device.

More: Gigaom and Android Central

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

GIF search engine Giphy raises $17M Series B led by Lightspeed Ventures at $80M valuation — After An Approach From Facebook, Giphy Raises $17M At An $80M Valuation — Giphy — the betaworks-backed platform for searching and sharing gifs — has just raised $17 million in Series B funding led …

More: Business Insider and Crowdfund Insider

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, Slate, SiliconANGLE, GeekWire, Gizmodo Australia, ABC News, Tech Times, GSMArena Blog and SlashGear

Maya Kosoff / Business Insider:

Spotify working with Goldman Sachs to raise $500M at possible $6B+ valuation; could delay IPO for another year — Spotify Is Looking To Raise $500 Million In New Funding — Spotify is looking to raise $500 million with help from Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

More: Wall Street Journal, CNET, The Verge and Mashable

Tweets: @joshconstine and @finansakrobat

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Shopify:

Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26 — Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.

Zoho:

Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control — Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Acquired:

10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)

Learn the playbooks that built the world's greatest companies - and how you can apply them as a founder, operator, or investor.

Subscribe to Acquired.

Lenny's Podcast:

Why humans are AI's biggest bottleneck (and what's coming in 2026) | Alexander Embiricos (OpenAI Codex Product Lead)

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

Big Technology Podcast:

OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Hard Fork:

Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

Access:

Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain

A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.

Subscribe to Access.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:10 PM ET, January 29, 2015.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.