Techmeme
January 13, 2016, 1:40 PM

Top News

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Gartner: Global PC shipments fell 8.3% in Q4 2015, Apple only company in top 5 to see growth  —  The PC market ended its poor year with another negative quarter.  Both Gartner and IDC agreed: PC shipments were down globally, again.  —  Gartner estimated worldwide PC shipments fell 8.3 percent to 75.7 million units in Q4 2015.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Google Maps for Android adds new Driving Mode that guesses your destination based on your location history, recent searches, and time of day  —  Google Maps for Android's new Driving Mode guesses where you want to go  —  Google today released an update to Google Maps for Android that includes a new feature: Driving Mode.
Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
SoundCloud strikes licensing deal with Universal Music  —  The deal was announced this afternoon (although leaked in the New York Post yesterday): it's a multi-territory agreement that covers Universal's recorded-music division and its publishing group.  —  The agreement covers SoundCloud's …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Skype to add group video calling on iOS, Android, and Windows 10 Mobile; users can now sign up to preview the feature  —  Skype adds mobile group video calling on iOS, Android, and Windows 10 Mobile  —  Skype is celebrating the tenth anniversary of its free video calling feature with the addition …
SecurityWeek:
Verizon Accused of Routing Millions of IP Addresses for Cybercriminals  —  US network operator Verizon Communications is routing over 4 million IP addresses that are currently in the hands of cybercriminals, researchers at The Spamhaus Project reveal.  —  Spammers have been acquiring large ranges …
Mark Bergen / Re/code:
Google opens VR division, headed by VP for Product Management Clay Bavor; apps division now under SVP Diane Greene, head of enterprise operations  —  Google Opens Virtual Reality Division, Apps Move to Enterprise Unit  —  As Facebook and Microsoft have plowed ahead with virtual reality, Google has looked like it's behind.
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Researchers find older versions of Fortinet's firewall software allow remote access using a hard-coded password; company says issue resolved via patch in 2014  —  Et tu, Fortinet?  Hard-coded password raises new backdoor eavesdropping fears  —  Discovery comes a month after competitor Juniper disclosed unauthorized code.
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Announces $100M Philanthropic Education Fund  —  Reed Hastings took to Facebook Tuesday to announce that he would be personally funding a new $100 million philanthropic fund, focusing exclusively on education-related projects and organizations.
Samit Sarkar / Polygon:
EA announces Origin Access, $4.99 monthly subscription for PC games  —  Electronic Arts' EA Access is now available for Windows PC games as Origin Access, a subscription for EA's Origin digital distribution platform, the company announced today.  Origin Access costs $4.99 per month …
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Envelop VR raises $5.5M Series A for enterprise VR software, with $1.5M from Google Ventures  —  Alphabet investment arm GV pours $1.5M into virtual reality startup Envelop VR … Count Alphabet's investment arm as another top venture firm that's betting on a new Seattle-area virtual reality startup.

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Earlier Picks

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / Motherboard:
David Curry / Digital Trends: