Techmeme
January 30, 2015, 1:00 PM

Top News

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
AOL To Lay Off About 150 People, Mostly In Sales; Folding Joystiq, TUAW Into Engadget  —  Some more details are emerging around AOL's reorganization plans.  Sources tell us that the company will lay off around 150 people, with the majority in sales.  As part of it, AOL is also consolidating some websites.
New York Times:
Verizon Wireless to Allow Complete Opt Out of Mobile ‘Supercookies’  —  Verizon Wireless, which has been under fire by privacy advocates since late last year, has decided to make a major revision to its mobile ad-targeting program.  Users who do not want to be tracked with an identifier …
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Jay-Z takes on Beats and Spotify with acquisition of music-streaming services Tidal and WiMP for $56M  —  Here's an interesting piece of acquisition news for a Friday morning: International rapping superstar Jay-Z is on the verge of buying Swedish company Aspiro AB — the firm that owns …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Google Agrees To Change Privacy Policy In Settlement With UK's Information Commissioner  —  While Google continues to work through the best implementation of Right To Be Forgotten legislation in Europe, some more developments in the area of consumer data and privacy.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Secret Co-Founder Chrys Bader-Wechseler Steps Down Because It's Not About Design Anymore  —  One year after founding anonymish app Secret with fellow Googler David Byttow, Chrys Bader-Wechseler is leaving the company on amicable terms.  He cites that Secret isn't about design and curation …
Strategy Analytics Blog:
Android Shipped 1 Billion Smartphones Worldwide in 2014  —  According to the latest research from our WSS (Smartphones) service, global smartphone shipments grew 30 percent annually to reach a record 1.3 billion units in 2014.  Android accounted for 81 percent of all smartphones last year …
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Vine Kids, a separate app tailored for kids with child-friendly Vines, is available now on iOS  —  Vine Introduces Vine Kids  —  Vine is today introducing a new layer of the app called Vine Kids.  It's meant to be a safe, kid-friendly space for a younger audience to play around with the app and watch vines.
Kevin Fitchard / Gigaom:
The big 4 carriers will bring LTE to Chicago's subways  —  4G services are finally coming to Chicago's subways.  Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are collectively installing a $32.5 million LTE upgrade in the Chicago Transit Authority's 22 miles of subway tunnels, allowing commuters to continue chatting …
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 …
More: TIME, SiliconANGLE and TechSpotTweets: @a_greenberg
Andrew Jacobs / New York Times:
China acknowledges targeting VPN services to foster the “healthy development” of the nation's internet, says VPNs are illegal  —  China Clamps Down Still Harder on Internet Access  —  BEIJING — Jing Yuechen, the founder of an Internet start-up here in the Chinese capital …

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More News

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Abhijeet M. / SamMobile:

Earlier Picks

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:
Barb Darrow / Gigaom: