Techmeme
January 30, 2015, 5:40 PM

Top News

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 …
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.
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 …
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 …
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.
Ross Miller / The Verge:
Associated Press now writes 3K stories per quarter on US earning reports after teaming with Automated Insights, plans to expand globally  —  AP's ‘robot journalists’ are writing their own stories now  —  Minutes after Apple released its record-breaking quarterly earnings this week …
Kirk McElhearn / Kirkville:
iTunes 12.1 adds new Yosemite Notification Center Widget and changes to info windows  —  iTunes 12.1 Brings Changes to Info Windows, Adds Notification Center Widget  —  iTunes 12.1 has been released, the first major update to the latest version of this app.
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 …
Richard Nieva / CNET:
Google's search for sales, profit falls short  —  The search giant continues to pull in billions from its search and advertising business, even as the company looks for other ways to make money.  —  For the past few quarters, Google's finances have been the story of same-old, same-old …
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:

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Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Andrew Jacobs / New York Times:
Abhijeet M. / SamMobile: