The Switch: The Alibaba spin-off means Marissa Mayer will lose her safety net

Today's technology and tech policy news  •  Wed., Jan. 28, 2015 View in your Web browser

The Alibaba spin-off means Marissa Mayer will lose her safety net Yahoo plans to spin off the company's nearly $40 billion stake in China's Alibaba Group Holding into a separate company, avoiding a big tax burden and distributing shares of the new company to stockholders. The announcement pleased investors, sending the company's stock price up on Wednesday.  Read full article »

This wireless carrier is paying $40 million because it put limits on ‘unlimited’ data

Wireless carriers that advertise "unlimited data" but then put restrictions on customers once they've exceeded their monthly data caps are opening themselves up to a federal lawsuit, regulators signaled Wednesday.  Read full article »

Valve’s former in-house economist is Greece’s new finance minister

The new Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, is a harsh bailout critic who describes himself as a libertarian Marxist. And he consulted as a sort of "in-house economist" at Valve, the video game company behind the popular online gaming platform Steam.  Read full article »

You won’t be able to fly this hugely popular drone in D.C. much longer, thanks to that White House crash

The manufacturer of the drone that crashed on the White House lawn earlier this week says it is working to prevent future such incidents by erecting a no-fly zone in the devices' flight software. The update will essentially prevent the popular Phantom quadcopter from flying within the D.C. airspace.  Read full article »

The Switchboard: FCC tells hotels they can’t block WiFi

Published every weekday, the Switchboard is your morning helping of handpicked stories from the Switch team.FTC: The Internet of things is already here — and it needs to be secured. The Federal Trade Commission is taking a closer look at the Internet of Things, the Switch reports. "In a report out Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission says that while there's not need yet for Congress to write legislation regarding the Internet of Things, lawmakers do need to swiftly pass rules laying out when companies must admit they’ve been hacked."  Read full article »

Innovations: 5 amazing ways 3-D-printed food will change the way we eat

Journey to the frontier of food and you’ll find a 3-D printer, spewing out chocolate. While traditional cooking isn’t going anywhere, you can count on 3-D-printed foods eventually finding a place in our world.  Read full article »

The age of the Apple Watch begins in April The dawning of the age of the Apple Watch is at hand. The tech world's highest-profile wrist gadget will ship in April, Apple chief executive Tim Cook said Tuesday.Development of the timepiece "is right on schedule," Cook said on a conference call, adding that he was already enjoying his own. "My expectations are very high on it. I'm using it every day and I love it and I can't live without it," he said.  Read full article »

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