Techmeme
August 12, 2015, 6:10 PM

Top News

Peter Kafka / Re/code:
NBCU invests $200M in Vox Media, pre-money valuation of $850M; will invest $200M in BuzzFeed  —  NBCUniversal Buys Big Chunks of Vox Media and BuzzFeed  —  Last week Re/code reported that NBCUniversal was investing in BuzzFeed and Vox Media.  —  Now those deals are done, and NBCU and Vox Media are announcing their deal today.
Jason Del Rey / Re/code:
Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC May Not Launch Until Next Year  —  Google and Samsung are gearing up to join Apple Pay in the battle to replace your wallet later this year, but another payments app backed by big retailers like Walmart may wait a little longer before entering primetime.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft Surface Hub to ship starting January 1, 2016, rather than September 1, 2015, as originally planned  —  Microsoft Surface Hub to ship starting January 1, 2016  —  Microsoft's Surface Hub conferencing system will begin shipping on January 1, 2016, rather than September 1, 2015, as originally planned.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google Launches New Site To Showcase Experimental Open Source Apps For Android And Android Wear  —  Google launched Android Experiments today, the mobile apps counterpart to its Chrome Experiments site.  —  Just like with Chrome Experiments, the idea behind Android experiments is to showcase apps …
Owen Williams / The Next Web:
Lenovo shipped laptops with an “anti-theft” rootkit that reinstalled unwanted software, has issued manual, optional patch to remove the functionality  —  Lenovo used a hidden Windows feature to ensure its software could not be deleted  —  A recently uncovered feature …
Robert D. Hof / MIT Technology Review:
Why Google's Alphabet Is Nothing like Berkshire Hathaway - and Much Riskier  —  Google's new structure has few historical precedents, in tech or outside it.  —  Before Apple's Steve Jobs died in 2011, he told Google cofounder and CEO Larry Page that his company was trying to do too much.
Richa Naidu / Reuters:
Fidelity National to buy software maker SunGard in $9.1 billion deal  —  Financial industry software maker Fidelity National Information Services Inc (FIS.N) said it would buy SunGard Data Systems Inc for $9.1 billion including debt, scooping up one of the longest-held investments in private-equity history.
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
New OS X beta suggests iPad Mini 4 will be faster and support split-view apps  —  El Capitan file hints at faster iPad mini 4 with full split-view apps support  —  One of iOS 9's marquee additions is support for split-screen applications on the iPad.  This allows users to operate two iPad applications simultaneously, side-by-side.
Terry Collins / CNET:
Twitter increases maximum length of direct messages from 140 to 10K characters  —  Chat away: Twitter removes 140-character limit for direct messages  —  The social network now allows users to chat privately without feeling constrained by a space limit.  Blabbermouths, however, will get cut off at 10,000 characters.
Kellex / Droid Life:
Moto X Pure Edition Will be Available Starting September 3  —  Motorola, via Twitter, just announced that its new flagship phone for 2015, the Moto X Pure Edition, will arrive September 3.  Previously, Motorola would only state that the phone was coming in September, which left a few …
Ryan Knutson / Wall Street Journal:
Inside SoftBank's Struggle to Turn Around Sprint  —  Two years after takeover, SoftBank's Masayoshi Son struggles to overhaul the U.S. carrier  —  Billionaire Masayoshi Son asked to speak with U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy right away one Saturday last year.

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