Google to acquire Tony Fadell's smart home startup Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in cash
Google to Acquire Nest — Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to buy Nest Labs, Inc. for $3.2 billion in cash. — Nest's mission is to reinvent unloved …
Taxi protest in Paris turns to guerrilla warfare as Uber car attacked on freeway
The right to protest has always been powerfully upheld in France - whether it's protesting an immigrant's right to healthcare, the closing of a factory, or even Taxis, who have perfected the art of ma...
Facebook acquires link-sharing service Branch for around $15 million
Link-sharing service Branch and subsidiary Potluck have agreed to be acquired by Facebook for around $15 million, sources familiar with the deal told The Verge. Branch CEO Josh Miller broke the news ...
Apple now shipping the Mac Pro to Europe once again, after EU ban of old model
Since March, the old Mac Pro has not been available to buy in Europe as changes in regulations meant that the old Mac Pro no longer complied with EU law. In particular, the large exposed fans of the ...
In role swap, Matt Mullenweg becomes Automattic's CEO, Toni Schneider to focus on new products
Toni Schneider & Automattic CEO — Eight years and one day ago I blogged about Toni Schneider joining Automattic as CEO, as I said then: … Fast-forward roughly two thousand, nine hundred …
Sprint's ‘One Up’ early upgrade plan axed after just four months
Sprint's One Up early upgrade plan is no more. With the announcement of the plan last September, Sprint joined T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon in offering a way for customers to upgrade their handset mid...
We're now rolling out a refreshed http://twitter.com reflecting the look & feel of our iOS & Android apps. pic.twitter.com/Mb6qjjP8Dm
Apple loses bid to block antitrust monitorship
(Reuters) - Apple Inc lost a bid on Monday to block an antitrust monitor appointed after a judge's finding that the company conspired to fix e-book prices. — At a hearing, U.S. District Judge Denise...
Dropbox messed up OS upgrade, caused two days of downtime
Dropbox went down Friday night after some normally routine upgrades went awry. While the company restored most functionality within three hours, problems for some users persisted until Sunday. — Th...
Nokia's Android phone appears in prototype form
Images of Nokia's Android phone — code-named Normandy — were published in November, showing what purported to be a low-cost smartphone that would run with a custom implementation of Android. Now anot...
Mobile Use Grows 115% in 2013, Propelled by Messaging Apps
In November 2013, Benedict Evans, a well-respected and widely followed analyst, shared an updated version of his famous slide deck called “Mobile is Eating the World”. This deck quickly made the roun...
Firefox, which is 100% open source, has a critical security advantage over all other browsers
Trust but Verify — Background — It is becoming increasingly difficult to trust the privacy properties of software and services we rely on to use the Internet.
Accenture to Take Over Fixing HealthCare.gov Website
Consulting Giant Tapped to Take Reins From CGI, Whose Contract Wasn't Renewed — Fixing the troubled HealthCare.gov site will fall to Accenture LLP, a widely known consulting giant tapped to replace ...
‘High-profile’ Google+ users will get better default email settings
A few days ago, Google rolled out a potentially invasive new feature — if you have both a Gmail address and Google+ account, other Google+ and Gmail users will soon be able to send messages right into...
NBC's News Unit Teams With Video Start-Up NowThis News
Broadcasting executives realize that viewers increasingly get their news by glancing on their smartphones instead of spending a half-hour in front of the television. — Reacting to that shift, NBC's ...
I Spent Two Hours Talking With the NSA's Bigwigs. Here's What Has Them Mad
My expectations were low when I asked the National Security Agency to cooperate with my story on the impact of Edward Snowden's leaks on the tech industry. During the 1990s, I had been working on a b...
The winners and losers in Google's acquisition of Nest
The designer who helped create the iPhone at Apple is now officially going to be part of Apple's arch rival: Google. That's right, on Monday afternoon Google and Nest announced that the search engine...
Internet of Things: The “Basket of Remotes” Problem
We count on WiFi and Bluetooth in our homes, but we don't have appliances that provide self-description or reliable two-way communication. As a result, the Internet of Things for consumers is, in pra...
Microsoft, GoDaddy partner on Office 365 plans for small businesses
Summary: GoDaddy will be offering its small-business customers a choice of three Mirosoft Office 365 plans, including one for $12.49 a month that includes desktop versions of Office. — Microsoft and...
CNN consolidates tech coverage
CNN and CNNmoney.com will merge their respective tech desks into one team headed by New York-based editor David Goldman. — CNNMoney.com executive editor Chris Peacock and CNN Digital managing editor...
New Acer CEO disappoints with lack of detail on future plans
(Reuters) - Investors looking for specifics as to the future of Acer Inc, the world's No.4 PC vendor, came away disappointed when the new CEO spent more time delivering a history of the company's past...
Groupon Moves Into Flash Fashion, Buys Ideeli For $43M In Cash
More acquisitions for Groupon to widen the net of consumers using its platform for more than daily deals. Today it is announcing the acquisition of ideeli, a flash fashion retailer, for $43 million i...
PayPal makes buying products faster with its new in-context checkout process, available by June
PayPal is getting back to its roots to focus on improving its core feature: the checkout process. — The payment processing company today announced that it is releasing an updated experience to its o...
Big Money Monday: Trustpilot (Copenhagen) raises $25m, Delivery Hero (Berlin) orders $88m
You won't see many funding announcements here on Tech.eu, but the following ones are just too notable to ignore: — Delivery Hero scores $88 million round — Delivery Hero, the Berlin company behind...
App Monetization To Get Tougher Still, With Gartner Predicting 94.5% Of Downloads Will Be Free By 2017
The business of making money from apps is going to get tougher still, with analyst Gartner predicting that through to 2018 less than 0.01% of consumer mobile apps will be considered a financial succes...
A first look at the Beats Music website, with plenty of leaked screenshots
Beats Music is scheduled to launch its subscription service by January 21, but over the weekend, I stumbled across a beta version of the website that already let me sign up and snoop around.
Out in the Open: An NSA-Proof Twitter, Built With Code From Bitcoin and BitTorrent
When mass political protests erupted throughout Brazil in June, Miguel Freitas did what countless others did: He followed the news on Twitter. Tweets revealed information he couldn't get anywhere els...
Supreme Court Lets Stand Ruling Bolstering Gadget Privacy at U.S. Border
A convicted sex offender's loss at the Supreme Court today was indirectly a boost to the privacy rights of travelers crossing the border to the United States. — Without issuing a ruling, the justice...
Digital Ad Company Turn Raises $80M, Stays Vague On Possible IPO Plans
Turn, which describes itself as a “post-ad-tech” company, is announcing that it has raised $80 million in Series E funding, bringing its total investment to more than $135 million. — The round was l...
Gestural interfaces fulfill Hollywood's fictional future, but may not be what we want or need
I am the interface — Gestural computing is about to change everything — Asteroids are barreled towards Earth from every direction, and my only defense was my eyes. I looked at one asteroid.