Techmeme
January 7, 2016, 1:25 PM

Top News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
David Marcus' plan for Messenger in 2016 as it hits 800M MAUs: eliminate the need for a phone number, build app functionality into chat threads  —  Facebook Messenger Hits 800M Users: 2016 Strategy And Predictions  —  Kill SMS, spawn a chat bot platform, bring friends together offline …
Biz Carson / Business Insider:
Sources: Yahoo to lay off at least 10%, or 1,000+ of its employees, as early as this month  —  Yahoo is prepping to lay off 10% or more of its workforce  —  Major layoffs will be coming to Yahoo as part of its planned reorganization to get its business back on track.
Michael J. de la Merced / New York Times:
Activist investor Starboard calls for changes to Yahoo's board and management in addition to a change in strategy, threatens to run its own slate of directors  —  Starboard Value Calls for Shake-Up at Yahoo and Shift in Strategy  —  SAN FRANCISCO — As Yahoo weighs efforts to spin off …
Associated Press:
Chinese drone maker Ehang unveils human-carrying electric drone, which can carry up to 220 pounds, fly for 23 minutes at sea level, and reach 63mph  —  Chinese drone maker Ehang (EE'-hang) has unveiled what it calls the world's first drone capable of carrying a human passenger.
Wall Street Journal:
Amazon's Annapurna Labs to sell its own “Alpine” line of ARM-based chips to other device manufacturers  —  Amazon Enters Semiconductor Business With Its Own Branded Chips  —  Amazon's Annapurna Labs targets customers designing home equipment  —  A secretive Amazon.com Inc. unit broke …
Johana Bhuiyan / BuzzFeed:
Uber agrees to overhaul privacy and security practices and pay a $20K fine in settlement over “God View” with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman  —  Uber Settles With New York Attorney General Over “God View” Tracking Program  —  The ride-hailing company agrees to overhaul …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
In Reddit AMA, Oculus' Palmer Luckey admits screwing up Rift price-point messaging, says Oculus is selling the Rift at cost  —  “No More Ballparks” — Oculus' Palmer Luckey Admits Screwing Up Rift Price-Point Messaging  —  Yesterday VR fans eager to get their hands on the consumer version …
Emily Steel / New York Times:
Netflix launches in 130 additional countries, now available in 190 countries worldwide, excluding China, Crimea, North Korea, and Syria; stock rises 9%  —  At CES, Netflix Adds Over 130 Countries to Streaming Service  —  Netflix went live with its streaming television service …
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Nextbit announces first wave of GSM Robin smartphones will ship February 16  —  Nextbit's cloud-savvy smartphone ships on February 16th  —  Good news if you've been sitting on pins and needles waiting for Nextbit's Robin smartphone to ship: it's nearly ready for action.

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
5 common accounting mistakes  —  This is a guest post by Yaali Bizappln Solutions.  A lot of businesses manage their customers and finances on separate platforms.  This disconnect often leads to missed invoices …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 11/22 - An LLM Siri But... Only The Year AFTER Next?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:25 PM ET, January 7, 2016.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Reuters:
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Shira Ovide / Bloomberg Business:

Earlier Picks

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Owen Williams / The Next Web: