11 Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week

Posted 7 hours ago by Travis Bernard (@travisbernard)

From the Sony hack coverage to Instagram being valued at $35 billion, here are the top stories from 12/13-12/19.

1. Sony was hacked. Sony cancels the theatrical release of The Interview after threats from hackers. The FBI blames North Korea for the hack. Obama says Sony made a mistake in canceling the release of The Interview (and calls James Franco, James Flacco). Sony’s CEO responds by saying that they did not have control over what the theaters wanted to do. Now North Korea is saying they weren’t responsible.

2. John Biggs investigates what Sony now looks like after the hack.

3. Leaked emails from the Sony Pictures hack uncovered several acquisitions made by Snapchat, as well as plans for a music feature and meetings to discuss partnerships with Twitter.

4. Sarah Perez responds to the NYT op-ed penned by screenwriter and playwright Aaron Sorkin. Here’s why it’s right to report on the Sony hack.

5. Google released the top 10 searches from 2014. See if you can guess what they were before taking a look at the list.

6. Alex Wilhelm compiled a hilarious list of phrases and words commonly used by startups. The definitions he provides help demystify startup lingo.

7. Guest columnist Chris Bruce takes a look at wearables in the workforce. With the pending debut of the Apple Watch, wearables in the workplace are about to become ubiquitous, particularly at large tech companies that are known for innovation and change.

8. Blackberry announced a new phone, the Classic.

9. Microsoft’s Sway, an online tool for creating presentation documents, is now generally available to the public.

10. After Google decided to shut down Google News in Spain, the Spanish Newspaper Publishers’ Association is now pleading for mercy.

11. Facebook originally bought Instagram for $1 billion. Instagram is now worth $35 billion. It looks like Facebook bought Instagram at a steal.