Techmeme
February 19, 2015, 9:30 AM

Top News

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Lenovo PCs ship with man-in-the-middle Superfish adware that breaks HTTPS connections, affects Chrome and Internet Explorer  —  Lenovo PCs ship with man-in-the-middle adware that breaks HTTPS connections  —  Superfish may make it trivial for attackers to spoof any HTTPS website.
Kashmir Hill / Fusion:
Samsung TVs aren't the only gadgets spying on you, list includes LG TV, Xbox Kinect, Amazon Echo, GM's Onstar and more  —  It's not just Samsung TVs — lots of other gadgets are spying on you  —  Earlier this month, Samsung was the target of a privacy dust-up due to a disturbing sentence …
More: DSLreportsTweets: @dangillmor
Lucian Constantin / PC World:
Eric Blattberg / Digiday:
YouTube prohibits sponsored overlays to keep creators from cutting Google out of ad revenues  —  YouTube makes a move against brand-sponsored videos  —  YouTube is putting down the clamps on video creators who work directly with brands, nudging them instead to rely on Google's sales team for deals.
Johnathan Nightingale / meandering wildly:
Mozilla's VP in charge of Firefox Johnathan Nightingale to step down at the end of March  —  Home for a Rest  —  Earlier today, I sent this note to the global mozilla employees list.  It was not an easy send button to push.  —  One of the many, many things Mozilla has taught me over the years is not to bury the lede, so here goes:
Mike Beasley / 9to5Mac:
Apple reportedly poached employees from A123 Systems to work on battery tech, now faces unfair competition lawsuit  —  Apple has poached five key engineers from A123 Systems to work in a new battery division at the Cupertino technology company, with some hires possibly going as far back as June, a new report claims.
Jessi Hempel / Wired:
White House Names DJ Patil as the First US Chief Data Scientist  —  It's finally official: The White House has named DJ Patil its first ever Chief Data Scientist and Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Data Policy.  —  Yes, that's a mouthful.  Even as an acronym, Patil's new title is ten letters long: CDCaDCTODT.
Jason Del Rey / Re/code:
Pandora testing a message service that lets artists send audio messages to fans  —  Pandora to Let Music Artists Like Lenny Kravitz Send Audio Messages to Fans (Video)  —  Even Pandora wants in on the messaging boom.  —  The music streaming service is launching a pilot test this week …
Serenity Caldwell / iMore:
Astropad is a $50 sketching app that mirrors a Mac display on an iPad at a high frame rate with functionality similar to a Wacom tablet  —  Astropad brings the Cintiq experience to your iPad  —  The iPad's made great progress in the sketching world, but it's still been hampered …
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / Motherboard:
Babar, malware that monitors web activity and logs keystrokes, is tied to French spy agency  —  Meet Babar, a New Malware Almost Certainly Created by France  —  The NSA, GCHQ, and their allies in the Five Eyes are not the only government agencies using malware for surveillance.
eMarketer and Newsroom Posts:
Mobile Game Revenues to Grow 16.5% in 2015, Surpassing $3 Billion  —  Gaming leads growth of $10 billion mobile content market as ebook and music downloads stagnate  —  US mobile game revenues—including both downloads and in-app purchases—will grow 16.5% this year to reach $3.04 billion, according to new figures from eMarketer.
Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
Entertainment firm Whalerock creates online and app-based channels for celebrities to reach fans directly with paid and free programming  —  Coming Soon: Celebrity Web Networks From the Media Company Whalerock  —  SANTA MONICA, Calif. — An under-the-radar media company here called Whalerock …
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 …
Newley Purnell / Wall Street Journal:
Google Capital's first international expansion set for India  —  Google Capital Sets Sights on India  —  More evidence of global investors' growing interest in India's startups: Google's new investment arm is setting up shop in the country.  —  In what will mark the first such expansion outside the U.S. …
Mark Sullivan / VentureBeat:
Pinterest is trying to raise another $500M, valuing the company at $11B (report)  —  The image bookmarking site Pinterest is reportedly in talks to raise another $500 million in venture capital, which would put the company at a valuation of about $11 billion.
John Cook / GeekWire:
Software maker K2 raises more than $100M to help businesses build custom applications … K2 may not be the best known software company in the Seattle area.  In fact, most people hearing the name probably first think of the Seattle-based ski manufacturer.  —  But in the shadow of companies …

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More News

Steve Kovach / Business Insider:
Dustin Volz / National Journal:

Earlier Picks

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
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