Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts

Microsoft acquires start-up id8: source






SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp bought start-up id8 Group R2 Studios Inc as it looks to expand further in technology focused on the home and entertainment, a person familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.


id8 Group R2 Studios was started in 2011 by Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Blake Krikorian. It recently launched a Google Android application to allow users to control home heating and lighting systems from smartphones.






Krikorian’s Sling Media – which was sold to EchoStar Communications in 2007 – made the “Slingbox” for watching TV on computers.


Krikorian will join Microsoft with a small team, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported the acquisition earlier on Wednesday. Microsoft also purchased some patents owned by the start-up related to controlling electronic devices, the newspaper added.


Krikorian and a Microsoft spokesman declined to comment.


Krikorian resigned from Amazon.com Inc’s board in late December after about a year and a half as a director at the company, the Internet’s largest retailer.


(Reporting By Alistair Barr; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)


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Barack Obama’s AMA is Reddit’s Top Post of 2012






Do you remember that Barack Obama AMA on Reddit this past August? The one that started with “Hi, I’m Barack Obama, President of the United States. Ask me anything.”


That was Reddit’s top post of 2012 with 5,598,171 page views. Reddit compiled a list of it’s top posts of the year we just said farewell to.






[More from Mashable: This Is 2012 Summed Up in One Image]


The site also handed out some “best of” awards along with a few other tidbits of info. To see if your favorite post ranked, check out the video above.


BONUS: 20 Silliest Questions Posed to Obama in reddit AMA


1. Star Trek vs Star Wars


[More from Mashable: Dying Trekkie Gets Private ‘Into Darkness’ Screening]


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This story originally published on Mashable here.


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Unreleased ‘BlackBerry X10′ QWERTY phone appears again in new photos









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Top 5 Kids Apps: Best Games






1. Bugs and Bubbles


Ages 3-up Overall rating: 5 out of 5 stars Why we like it: Fun, fast and good for building emerging math skills, Bugs and Bubbles contains 18 leveled sorting, classification games set in Uncle Bob’s Bubble Factory. The goal is to collect stickers by harvesting bubbles, requiring kids to apply skills of counting, sorting and remembering patterns in an elegant fashion. Need to know: The better you do, the greater the challenge, and progress can be saved over time on different devices. Watch a video review of this app here. Ease of use: 10/10 Educational: 10/10 Entertaining: 10/10 $ 2.99


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[More from Mashable: 7 Bad Moves That Hurt Facebook in 2012]


Chris Crowell is a veteran kindergarten teacher and contributing editor to Children’s Technology Review, a web-based archive of articles and reviews on apps, technology toys and video games. Download a free issue of CTR here.


While you’re at the grownup table this holiday season, the kids could be eating their vegetables and sitting quietly — what’s more likely is they’ll be playing on their smart devices.


[More from Mashable: 40 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed]


So we’ve rounded up the best 5 games that were included in this year’s Top 5 Kids Apps. All these games are not only a lot of fun, they’re also educational for your kids. The top game, Bugs and Bubbles, got 5 stars out of 5 for its perfect mix of entertainment and math teaching. There’s also room for pure fun with games like Build and Play and Rush Hour.


SEE ALSO: Mobile Apps Under Scrutiny: Is Your Kid’s Privacy at Risk?


Our friends at Children’s Technology Review shared with us these 5 top apps from their comprehensive monthly database of kid-tested reviews. The site covers everything from math and counting to reading and phonics.


Check back next week for more Top Kids Apps from Children’s Technology Review


Photo via Christopher Furlong/Getty Images


This story originally published on Mashable here.


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Five-year-old finds porn on refurbished Nintendo 3DS from GameStop






Five-year-old Brandon Giles must have been excited to receive a Nintendo 3DS for Christmas — at least, he was until he turned it on. According to 9News, Giles’ father bought a refurbished 3DS from GameStop (GME) in Colorado for his son. However, when his son turned  it on and started poking around, he found nine pornographic images of two people in a bed and asked his brother to help him erase them. That’s when the father gave GameStop a call. GameStop’s response was that the images were most likely left over from its previous owner and an employee failed to properly wipe out the data on the 3DS before re-stocking it. “We have a rigorous quality control process in place to ensure that existing content is removed from all devices before they are re-sold,” GameStop said in a statement issued from its corporate office. “Out of millions of transactions each year, ones like this happen very rarely. Our number one priority is to make this right for our customer.”


[More from BGR: Samsung could face $ 15 billion fine for trying to ban iPhone, other Apple devices]






The bigger question many people are asking is, why would anyone take pornographic photos with the 3DS’s terrible low-res cameras? We may never know the answer.


This article was originally published by BGR


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iPad mini met with ‘insatiable’ demand in China







Despite a “soft” launch with few lines and seemingly abundant availability, China is going crazy for the iPad mini according Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White. His checks in China and Hong Kong reveal consumers are snapping up iPad minis at rapid rates, causing short supply, even with Apple (AAPL) opening two new retail stores in Hong Kong and three in China. White wrote in a research note on Friday that the iPad mini was sold-out at virtually all Apple Stores in both regions this week and is already more popular than the fourth-generation iPad thanks to the tablet’s smaller size and lower price.


[More from BGR: The Boy Genius Report: The Wii U is Nintendo’s last console]






[More from BGR: Samsung could face $ 15 billion fine for trying to ban iPhone, other Apple devices]


Additionally, White’s research shows iPhone 5 supply has improved to the point where anyone can walk into an Apple Store and buy one on the spot.


“After the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note I/II became more popular than the iPhone 4S in recent months, our discussions now indicate that the iPhone 5 has recently become the most popular high-end smartphone at the resellers that we spoke with,” White in his note.


This article was originally published by BGR


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Apple loses another copyright lawsuit in China: Xinhua






SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A Chinese court has fined Apple Inc 1 million yuan ($ 160,400) for hosting third-party applications on its App Store that were selling pirated electronic books, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.


Apple is to pay compensation to eight Chinese writers and two companies for violating their copyrights, the Beijing No.2 Intermediate People’s Court ruled on Thursday, Xinhua said.






Earlier in the year, a group of Chinese authors filed the suit against Apple, saying an unidentified number of apps on its App Store sold unlicensed copies of their books. The group of eight authors was seeking 10 million yuan in damages.


“We are disappointed at the judgment. Some of our best-selling authors only got 7,000 yuan. The judgment is a signal of encouraging piracy,” Bei Zhicheng, a spokesman for the group, told Reuters.


Apple said in a statement that it takes copyright infringement complaints “very seriously”.


“We’re always updating our service to better assist content owners in protecting their rights,” Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu said.


China has the world’s largest Internet and mobile market by number of users, but piracy costs software companies billions of dollars each year.


Apple, whose products enjoy great popularity in China, has faced a string of legal headaches this year. In July, Apple paid 60 million yuan to a Chinese firm, Proview Technology, to settle a long-running lawsuit over the iPad trademark in China.


($ 1 = 6.2360 Chinese yuan)


(Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom and Melanie Lee; Editing by Kazunori Takada and Matt Driskill)


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Temple Run was downloaded more than 2.5 million times on Christmas Day









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8 Festive Christmas Tumblrs, Presented by Santa Dogs






365 Days of Christmas


Image courtesy of Flickr, nicktakespics


Click here to view this gallery.






[More from Mashable: 10 Holiday Stock Photos That Make Your Christmas Look Normal]


If the endless loop of Wham and Mariah Carey Christmas tunes still hasn’t put you in the holiday mood, let the Internet help.


SEE ALSO: 20 Amazing Christmas Surprises

[More from Mashable: Now and Then: 10 Awesome Past and Present Pics]


We ho, ho, ho‘ed around Tumblr in our digital sleigh to track down eight Christmas-themed Tumblr pages. As if the jolly Tumblrs weren’t enough, we also paired each of our favorites with a dog dressed like Santa Claus — or Santa Paws.


Merry Christmas, Internet!


Image courtesy of Flickr, H.L.I.T.


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Image courtesy of Flickr, jacilluch


This story originally published on Mashable here.


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First photos of BlackBerry 10 ‘N-Series’ QWERTY smartphone leak









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Saudi website editor could face death for apostasy-rights group






RIYADH (Reuters) – The editor of a Saudi Arabian website could be sentenced to death after a judge cited him for apostasy and moved his case to a higher court, the monitoring group Human Rights Watch said on Saturday.


Raif Badawi, who started the Free Saudi Liberals website to discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in June, Human Rights Watch said.






Badawi had initially been charged with the less serious offence of insulting Islam through electronic channels, but at a December 17 hearing a judge referred him to a more senior court and recommended he be tried for apostasy, the monitoring group said.


Apostasy, the act of changing religious affiliation, carries an automatic death sentence in Saudi Arabia, along with crimes including blasphemy.


Badawi’s website included articles that were critical of senior religious figures, the monitoring group said.


A spokesman for Saudi Arabia’s Justice Ministry was not available to comment.


The world’s top oil exporter follows the strict Wahhabi school of Islam and applies Islamic law, or sharia.


Judges base their decisions on their own interpretation of religious law rather than on a written legal code or on precedent.


King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia’s ruler, has pushed for reforms to the legal system, including improved training for judges and the introduction of precedent to standardize verdicts and make courts more transparent.


However, Saudi lawyers say that conservatives in the Justice Ministry and the judiciary have resisted implementing many of the changes that he announced in 2007. (Reporting By Angus McDowall; Editing by Kevin Liffey)


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The ‘Teen Mom’ Twitter Proposal






Hmm. Teen mom from Teen Mom Maci Bookout was on Twitter the other day when she received a tweet from the father of her child asking her to marry him. No lie! Ryan Edwards from Teen Dad — Huh? What’s that? There’s no such show? He’s just on Teen Mom? Oh, OK — was all “Maci Bookout marry me!” And Maci was all “Ur s–t got hacked BRO! Outta ur mind haha.” And then Ryan was all “would never let that happen.” Maci asked what he was playing at and then Ryan said, omg, “It means that I want to get on one knee and tell you how much I love you.” Whoaaaa! That’s huge! Maci, marry that boy! He just proposed to you sort of maybe on Twitter! How romantic! Also you have a four-year-old child together so maybe it would be easier to be married, I dunno, for like legal reasons or something? But no. Alas. Maci responded to that saying “Twitter is not the place. Ima kill u.” So wait. If we’re going to take Ryan’s sweet Twitter proposal seriously, which we’re going to, I guess that means we have to take Maci‘s Twitter death threat seriously, too? Police, go arrest Maci. As much as it pains us to say it. Fair’s fair. Ryan, you can marry Maci while she’s in jail. Bentley, which is the name of the child that made all of this, literally all of this, possible, can come live with Ryan while Maci serves her sentence. Sad that such a sweet moment had to end so tragically. But that’s Twitter for you. [Us Weekly]


RELATED: James Franco Has a New Girl






Haha/Ew: Lindsay Lohan said she would not kiss Charlie Sheen when they were filming their scene for Scary Movie 5 because “his mouth grossed her out.” Yes. That’s actually the headline of the TMZ post: “Lindsay REFUSED to Kiss Charlie … Because His Mouth Grossed Her Out.” Man. In a thousand years, when the aliens are sifting through our bones and ashes to learn about the civilization they just annihilated, they’re going to somehow find a list of TMZ headlines and will shake their big gelatinous heads and figure they were right to wipe us out. TMZ headlines. Wooftie. But back to Lindsay, I don’t blame her. You couldn’t pay me a trillion dollars to kiss Charlie Sheen. Why not just pay me ten bucks to lick a wall at the Port Authority? Honestly. Here’s a good line from the story: “we’re told BOTH parties had to sign releases that they didn’t have cold sores.” Which, holy hell, guys. If you have to do that to film a stupid movie, maybe it’s time to pack a suitcase and more to Uruguay. Like, chuck this rotten life aside and say see you soon, Montevideo. You’d be so much happier. It’s supposed to be great down there. It’s time for a change, you guys. Don’t be another TMZ headline. [TMZ]


RELATED: Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan Made Out


Naomi Campbell ate at the new Beatrice Inn on Wednesday night, hobbling in on crutches and in a leg brace after she tore a ligament or something. She ate with Vogue editor Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele and a photographer named Steven Meisel. At a table nearby, Vera Wang, Calvin Klein, and Donna Karan were all having dinner. Excuse me?? What happened next? Did they all go to a screening of Unzipped and then to the after party, where the Spin Doctors were playing? Was everyone talking about the last MTV Top 20 and if Idalis is better than Daisy Fuentes? I mean, what? Naomi Campbell walks into a restaurant and Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, and Vera freaking Wang are eating nearby? Was Betsey Johnson the busboy? Was Cindy Crawford sweating on the line as a cook? Honestly. I didn’t realize they were still filming Prêt-à-Porter. Good grief. [Page Six]


RELATED: The 2012 Gossip Stories We Loved


Did you know that Kelly Clarkson is engaged to Reba McEntire‘s stepson? Because she is. Kelly Clarkson is engaged to Reba McEntire‘s stepson. So engaged, in fact, that Reba thinks the two might elope. Or at least she “wouldn’t be surprised” if they did. Because some big wedding wouldn’t really be Kelly’s style, apparently. Reba said as much: “That was never my deal and I don’t know that that’s Kelly’s either.” Oh, man. I wish Reba would say “that was never my deal” in a sentence about me. What a nice life Kelly Clarkson has had. Famous from a TV show and then actually famous, respectably famous. And now she gets to marry into Reba McEntire‘s family. It’s all coming together for Kelly Clarkson, guys. Just in time for the end of the world. [Us Weekly]


RELATED: In Which Taylor Swift and One Direction’s Harry Styles Get Serious


Jessica Biel has been doing a tour of Broadway recently. First she went to see Book of Mormon and afterward tweeted thusly: “Book of Mormon was too good for words . . . Except for words like amazing and best musical I’ve seen in forever and incredible!” Which is a totally boring thing to say about Book of Mormon. Here’s the skinny on that show: It’s not that good. Actually, forget the italics. It’s just not that good. Just because a Broadway musical swears and says “scrotum” a lot, does not mean it is being daring or irreverent. It’s a wan show that actually totally gives Mormonism a pass and instead averts your gaze to freaking Africa, which it just makes fun of for two hours because who’s gonna fight back on that one? Toothless and dim, that show. Entertaining, but toothless and dim. Whatever. Jessica Biel then went to go see ScarJo in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which good heavens I didn’t know that was in previews already. That is a nightmare. She’s playing Maggie the Cat, ScarJo is. Can you believe that? Well, believe it or not, she is. And Jessica Biel went to go see it. Tellingly, no tweets about that. Ha, not a single damn tweet about that heap. Anyway, all this playgoing has Page Six wondering if J.Biel might be hungry for a Broadway show of her own. Which would be a fine mess, wouldn’t it? Unless they do a Seventh Heaven stage play, something really serious and earnest, in which case I would walk Ms. Biel to the theater myself. But otherwise? Nope. Get thee back to the Stealth 2 set, Biel. Return to where you belong. [Page Six]


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Suicide bombers attack mobile phone firms in Nigeria






KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) – Two suicide car bombers attacked the offices of mobile phone operators India’s Airtel and South Africa’s MTN on Saturday in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano, killing themselves but no civilians, police said.


Islamist sect Boko Haram has previously targeted phone firms, blowing up telephone masts and offices, saying the companies help the security forces catch its members.






“The one who hit the Airtel office was shot by military men before the bomb exploded … at the MTN office the car rammed into the fence but no civilians were killed,” Ibrahim Idris, the chief of police in Kano, told Reuters.


Airtel Nigeria’s parent company Bharti Airtel, India’s top cellphone operator, gave no immediate comment.


The national emergency agency confirmed the bombing and said it was not aware of any civilian casualties. The security forces have played down the death toll in previous bombings.


At least 2,800 people have died in fighting in the largely Muslim north since the sect launched an uprising against the government in 2009, watchdog Human Rights Watch says.


The sect wants to impose strict Islamic law on a country of 160 million people split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.


The group has previously targeted churches on Christmas Day and security has been increased in all the major northern cities, although security experts say given the scale of Christian worship in Nigeria they cannot protect everyone.


Kano, Nigeria‘s second largest city after the southern commercial-hub Lagos, was the site of Boko Haram’s most lethal attack which killed at least 186 people in January in coordinated bombings and shootings.


(Additional reporting by Isaac Abrak in Kaduna; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Janet Lawrence)


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Facebook tests $1 fee for messages to non-friends






SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook says it is testing a service that will charge users $ 1 to guarantee that messages they send to people they are not connected to arrive in users’ inboxes, rather than in an often-ignored folder called “other.”


Launched in 2011, the “other” folder is where Facebook routes messages it deems less relevant. Not quite spam, these include messages from people you most likely don’t know, based on Facebook’s reading of your social connections. Many users ignore this folder.






Now, users will be able to pay $ 1 to route their messages to non-friends. Facebook said Thursday that it is testing the service with a small percentage of individuals — not businesses — in the U.S.


“For example, if you want to send a message to someone you heard speak at an event but are not friends with, or if you want to message someone about a job opportunity, you can use this feature to reach their Inbox,” Facebook said in an online post. “For the receiver, this test allows them to hear from people who have an important message to send them.”


The company says charging for messages could help discourage spammers.


In October, Facebook unveiled another feature that lets users pay if they want more people to read their updates. For $ 7, users can promote a post to their friends, just as advertisers do.


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Nexus 4 ad touts Photo Sphere as the go-to app for avoiding holiday family photo headaches [video]









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What If Nothing or Nobody is to Blame for Lanza? Guns, Video Games, Autism or Authorities






What if there is nobody or nothing to blame for Adam Lanza‘s heinous acts? Other than Lanza, of course.


What if school security and the school psychiatrist kept an eye on Lanza since his freshman year? The Wall Street Journal has a compelling narrative about the red flags addressed.






What if he had a form of autism that has little or no link to violent behavior? Lanza may have had Asperger’s syndrome but, even so, that is not a cause.


What if it’s too simple to lay the massacre at the feet of the gun lobby? Reader Larry Kelly tweets that shaming Aspies “makes about as much sense at stigmatizing the NRA. Pick an enemy … any enemy. Let outrage and fear rule.”


What if Lanza wasn’t provoked by video games? David Axelrod, a close friend an adviser of President Obama, tweeted last night: “In NFL post-game: an ad for shoot ‘em up video game. All for curbing weapons of war. But shouldn’t we also quit marketing murder as a game.”


When I asked whether he was laying groundwork for a White House initiative, Axelrod said no: “Just one man’s observation.” A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonytmmity, said today that Axelrod was not a stalking horse for Obama on this issue.


What if Lanza’s mother did everything she could, short of keeping her guns out her adult son’s reach? What if he wasn’t bullied?


What if there is nobody or nothing to blame? Would that make this inexplicable horror unbearable?


What if we didn’t rush to judgement? What if we didn’t waste our thoughts, prayers and actions on assigning blame for the sake of mere recrimination? What if we calmly and ruthlessly learned whatever lessons we can from the massacre — and prevented the next one?


A parting thought: What if it wasn’t one thing, but everything, that set off Lanza?


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$35 Raspberry Pi computer gets its own app store









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Google could emerge unscathed from federal web search probe – WSJ






(Reuters) – Google may not face any major repercussions from the Federal Trade Commission‘s (FTC) two-year-old anti-trust investigation into its web search business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.


The FTC might drop the investigation sometime this week based on voluntary changes Google will make to its search practices, rather than making the company sign a formal settlement called a consent decree, the Journal said.






The web search investigation examined whether Google tweaks its search results to disadvantage rivals in travel, shopping and other specialized searches.


Google will probably still be required to sign a consent decree for a separate federal investigation into the licensing of mobile-technology patents it acquired when it took over phone maker Motorola Mobility, the Journal said.


An end to the federal probe into Google’s search business would allow the company to avoid getting mired in anti-trust investigations like rival Microsoft Corp endured in the early 2000s.


The European Commission, which is also probing Google, is expected to announce a decision next month.


The FTC declined to comment to the Wall Street Journal and could not be reached for comment by Reuters outside of regular business hours. Google could not be reached for comment by Reuters outside of regular business hours.


(Reporting by Tej Sapru in Bangalore; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)


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Facebook unveils new privacy controls






SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc began rolling out a variety of new privacy controls on Wednesday, the company’s latest effort to address user concerns about who can see their personal information on the world’s largest social network.


New tools introduced on Wednesday will make it easier for Facebook’s members to quickly determine who can view the photos, comments and other information about them that appears on different parts of the website, and to request that any objectionable photos they’re featured in be removed.






A new privacy “shortcut” in the top-right hand corner of the website provides quick access to key controls such as allowing users to manage who can contact them and to block specific people.


The new controls are the latest changes to Facebook’s privacy settings, which have been criticized in the past for being too confusing.


Facebook Director of Product Sam Lessin said the changes were designed to increase users’ comfort level on the social network, which has roughly one billion users.


“When users don’t understand the concepts and controls and hit surprises, they don’t build the confidence they need,” said Lessin.


Facebook, Google Inc and other online companies have faced increasing scrutiny and enforcement from privacy regulators as consumers entrust ever-increasing amounts of information about their personal lives to Web services.


In April, Facebook settled privacy charges with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that it had deceived consumers and forced them to share more personal information than they intended. Under the settlement, Facebook is required to get user consent for certain changes to its privacy settings and is subject to 20 years of independent audits.


Facebook’s Lessin said some users don’t understand that the information they post on their Timeline profile page is not the only personal information about them that may be viewable by others. Improvements to Facebook’s so-called Activity Log will make it easier for users to see at a glance all the information that involves them across the social network.


Facebook also said it is changing the way that third-party apps, such as games and music players, get permission to access user data. An app must now provide separate requests to create a personalized service based on a user’s personal information and to post automated messages to the Facebook newsfeed on behalf of a user – previously users agreed to both conditions by approving a single request.


The revamped controls follow proposed changes that Facebook has made to its privacy policy and terms of service. The changes would allow Facebook to integrate user data with that of its recently acquired photo-sharing app Instagram, and would loosen restrictions on how members of the social network can contact other members using the Facebook email system.


Nearly 600,000 Facebook users voted to reject the proposed changes, but the votes fell far short of the roughly 300 million needed for the vote to be binding, under Facebook’s existing rules. The proposed changes also would eliminate any such future votes by Facebook users.


(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic)


Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Valve Confirms New Game Console on Its Way






In an interview with Kotaku’s Jason Schreier at the Spike TV Video Game Awards, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell confirmed that a “living-room-friendly PC package,” designed to “compete with next-gen consoles from companies like Microsoft and Sony,” will be available for purchase starting next year.


What makes a PC a PC






Most of the machines Newell described, which he expected “companies” would “start selling” next year, would be powered by Microsoft Windows like normal PCs. However, they would be more like home theater PCs than regular computers; they would be designed to fit in the living room and plug into an HDTV, and they would use a much-simplified interface which eschews pointing and clicking in favor of using a game controller.


Getting the (Big) Picture


That interface is Steam’s Big Picture mode, launched last week as a free upgrade to the Steam digital store. Gamers can click a button on the Steam window to be taken to a screen much like an Xbox 360′s dashboard or PlayStation 3′s XMB, where they can use a game controller to buy things from the store and play their installed games.


Games which can be played using only a controller get special branding and status in Big Picture mode. Steam held an enormous sale to promote such games when Big Picture mode launched, including titles like Sonic Generations which are also available on game consoles.


Steam-powered penguins?


Besides Big Picture mode, Valve’s other big project as of late has been porting Steam to Linux, starting with the popular Ubuntu version. The Linux version of Steam, currently in beta, also supports Big Picture mode. Newell said in the interview that a working Linux version would “give Valve more flexibility when developing their own hardware,” and dozens of games are already available for Linux gamers on Steam.


What will this hardware look like?


Newell’s talk of “companies” making computers like this suggests a Valve-created standard, like the Intel ultrabook or like Google’s requirements for Android devices, which PC manufacturers would have to adhere to. He also talked about Valve making its own hardware, which might be similar to Google’s Nexus lineup of tablets and smartphones.


Besides that, these game console style PCs won’t be as “malleable” as a normal computer, according to Newell. Like with today’s laptops, it may be difficult or impossible to get at the internals and upgrade parts, the way dedicated PC gamers like to do with their machines.


How much will these machines cost?


Newell’s statement that they will compete with “next-gen” consoles from Sony and Microsoft, which probably means the long-awaited new PlayStation and Xbox consoles expected next year, implies that they will be cost-competitive in some way. Gaming PCs typically have prices starting at $ 600 – $ 800 at the very lowest, while the PlayStation 3′s $ 599 USD launch price made it a pariah of the game console world for years. A Steam-powered game console may have to invent its own price bracket.


However, the original Xbox was basically an Intel Celeron PC with a custom-made case. So it’s possible that Steam has a similar plan in mind.


Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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