Techmeme
February 18, 2015, 5:55 PM

Top News

Ritsuko Ando / Reuters:
Sony three-year plan to focus on PlayStation and camera sensors; company may exit smartphone and TV markets  —  Sony sees 25-fold profit jump by 2018; could exit TVs, phones  —  (Reuters) - Sony Corp (6758.T) aims to boost operating profit 25-fold within three years by growing its camera sensors …
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Uber expands Series E round by $1B, bringing the total capacity for round up to $2.8B  —  Uber Expands Funding Round by $1 Billion  —  Uber, the popular ride-hailing service, likes to trumpet its popularity with consumers.  That fervor is surpassed, perhaps, only by investors.
Steve Kovach / Business Insider:
Samsung will buy Apple Pay competitor LoopPay  —  Samsung will buy LoopPay, a mobile payments company.  —  LoopPay's technology allows mobile payments through traditional magnetic credit card readers.  That means it can theoretically work in a lot more places than Apple Pay, which requires special payment pads to work.
Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:
Patent troll claims to own Bluetooth, scores $15.7M verdict against Samsung  —  Big patent trolls see court wins, twice in two weeks.  Will it matter for reform?  —  Gordon Bremer didn't invent Bluetooth 2.0.  In fact, as he admitted on the stand last week in an East Texas federal court …
Robin Wauters / Tech.eu:
Yandex asks Russian antitrust authorities to probe Google over bundling of Android with Google services (including search)  —  Yandex asks Russian antitrust authorities to probe Google over bundling of Android with Google services (including search)  —  This just in: Yandex, the ‘Google of Russia’ …
Dustin Volz / National Journal:
Google Calls FBI's Plan to Expand Hacking Power a ‘Monumental’ Constitutional Threat  —  Any change in accessing computer data should go through Congress, the search giant said.  —  Google is warning that the government's quiet plan to expand the FBI's authority to remotely access computer files amounts …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
US carriers still stink at unlocking phones, analysis finds  —  Sprint is especially bad, while Verizon is the most customer-friendly.  —  A consumer rights activist who led the charge against restrictions on phone unlocking has graded the four major US carriers and found three …
Sarah Buhr / TechCrunch:
Breath analysis startup Breathometer announces partnership with Uber, now prompts drunk users to order Uber or a cab  —  Breathometer Now Calls Ubers To Drive The Drunks Home  —  Breathometer and Uber are teaming up to get the drunks home safely.  —  We wrote before that Breathometer …
Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal:
Raspberry Pi 2 Review: A $35 Computer Can Do a Heck of a Lot  —  An open-source computer that encourages you to look inside  —  The small, bare-bones Raspberry Pi 2, meant to encourage children and adults to build and engage more with computers, does more than you think.  WSJ's Joanna Stern puts it to the test.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Microsoft is killing Windows Phone's Rooms group chat  —  When Windows Phone 8 launched back in 2012, one of the biggest new features was Rooms, an extension to the People hub that let users hold conversations and share photos, notes, and calendars in private groups.
Kevin Rawlinson / BBC:
UK banks RBS and NatWest add Apple's Touch ID logins to their mobile apps  —  Banks to allow account access using fingerprint tech  —  Apple's TouchID, now to be used to access banking apps, was criticised after hackers managed to breach it  —  Two banks are allowing their customers …
Deborah Gage / Wall Street Journal:
Storvisor Emerges as Springpath With $34 Million to Simplify Data Storage  —  Springpath Inc. emerged from stealth Wednesday with $34 million in funding and a new software platform that is intended to dramatically simplify how data storage is done.  —  Formerly known as Storvisor …
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
Qualcomm's new Snapdragon chips bring high-end features to midrange SoCs  —  New Snapdragon 600-series SoCs are the first to use ARM's new Cortex A72 CPU.  —  High-end processors are normally the most interesting ones.  They've got all the coolest features, the best performance, and the most “new” stuff.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Yik Yak systematically downvotes mentions of competitors; founder blames anti-spam measures  —  Yik Yak Systematically Downvotes Mentions Of Competitors  —  You can say anything on Yik Yak, as long as it's not a competing app's name.  The anonymous app has quietly built a system that downvotes …
More: Quartz and Gigaom.  Thanks:@hendrix

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