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• Microsoft To Reveal New Xbox Features

  Peter Suciu for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  Video game sales this year have not exactly been setting records. In fact the year started off quite slow, with hardware sales down 38 percent.
  
  Things have been looking up in recent months, however, with Microsoft currently sitting in the top spot of video game console sales for the 28th consecutive month according to retail tracking firm NPD Group. Total retail spending for the Xbox 360 platform in April -- which included hardware, software and accessories -- topped $208 million dollar. However, the company is already looking ahead to the next generation.
  
  “Looking forward to next week, May 21 will mark the beginning of a new generation of games, TV and entertainment. On that day, Microsoft will hold a special press event on the Xbox Campus at 10 a.m. PT and we invite you to join us via the live global stream that will be available on Xbox LIVE, Xbox.com and Spike TV in the U.S. and Canada,” posted Jeff Meisner, editor of The Official Microsoft Blog last week.
  
  Thus, while the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is still three weeks away, Microsoft isn’t waiting until the annual video game tradeshow to unveil some key features for its next generation console system. Rumors circulated following Meisner’s post that Microsoft’s new Xbox dashboard update could enter a public beta in late June or early July, with changes and updates in preparation for the launch of the next system. The final update could be made available in August, depending of course on how the public beta pans out.
  
  The Verge reported on Monday that Microsoft is looking to ensure that current Xbox 360 users will be able to make the transition over to the still-to-be-officially-unveiled next generation system, and interact with existing 360 users using messaging, beacons and achievements. Microsoft will reportedly phase out the use of its current points system with this dashboard update and may instead replace it with currency and gift card options.
  
  What exactly the new Xbox might -- or even might not -- have is still just speculation at this point, but according to various sources this system will likely be packed with computing power.
  
  “There is no question it will have a big hard drive, a DVD/Blu-ray drive, a fast processor, and tons of memory,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter told Cnet. “Microsoft has all the network support it needs to ensure a stellar multiplayer experience. What’s left is software, non-game functions, and form factor.”
  
  Given that retail game sales have been on the decline as consumers have increased options to play on smartphones, tablets and other devices, Microsoft could be hedging its bets to ensure that the next generation system is a lot more than just another game machine. Those non-gaming entertainment features that Pachter referenced will likely make up the centerpiece of Tuesday’s media event.
  
  This could include an emphasis on features that are already available with the Xbox 360, which include connectivity to Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video and Hulu. Microsoft already has partnerships with Major League Baseball, and the UFC for pay-per-view events.
  
  It is rumored that at its E3 press conference Microsoft will focus on specific game titles and look to appeal to hardcore gamers.
  
  

• LG To Unveil Flexible OLED Smartphone

  Peter Suciu for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  At this week’s Display Week 2013 conference being held in Vancouver, attendees will get to see something quite flexible. LG Display announced that it will demonstrate a new, flexible smartphone panel that is apparently unbreakable as well, and the handset maker will present it at the Society for Information Display’s (SID) annual exhibition.
  
  The device utilizes OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology that promises to be thinner, lighter and, most notably, more flexible than conventional LCD displays.
  
  This follows last month’s announcement by LG that it would begin accepting pre-orders for its new 55-inch Curved OLED TV, Model 55EA9800. To date LG is the only company to introduce a curved OLED HDTV set.
  
  LG is also in third place in the global smartphone race for the first quarter of this year, after South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc.
  
  “Recent trends indicate that the small- and medium-sized display market is moving toward high resolution and low power consumption, and the large panel market to OLED and Ultra HD,” Yeo Sang-Deok, LG Display’s chief technology officer, said in a statement as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
  
  He added that LG Display is looking to meet the “rapid need for display advancements.” This comes as analysts have predicted that “bendable” and “rollable” screens could be the next innovation in display technology.
  
  At this year’s CES 2013 -- formerly the Consumer Electronics Show -- in January, Samsung also introduced its own flexible display technology, which it called Youm. Samsung had been making the shift from glass to plastic displays since last year, while the flexible display was first on display at CES 2011.
  
  Introduced at CES 2013, the Youm technology was developed to allow the company’s partners to make bendable, rollable and even foldable displays.
  
  LG’s flexible OLED-equipped smartphone could even arrive later this year. Yoon Bu-hyun, vice president of mobile at LG, revealed last month that the company looks to introduce a device in the fourth quarter.
  
  Mobile handset OLED technology is not the only display innovation that the South Korean company plans to introduce in the near future.
  
  At Display Week 2013, G Display will also reportedly introduce five-inch and seven-inch HD LCD panels that are based on Oxide TFT, which is seen as the next generation TFT technology. This offers high transparency along with low power consumption for displays. The five-inch HD panel will feature a 1.0mm bezel that could pave the way for borderless smartphones that are lightweight and emit less heat; while the seven-inch HD LCD panels that LG will unveil will reportedly be equipped with touch function-embedded technology.
  
  The company will also unveil a 14-inch 2560x1440-pixel laptop panel, along with LCDs designed for use in refrigerators and automotive dashboards.
  
  “Recent trends indicate that the small- and medium-sized display market is moving towards high resolution and low power consumption, and the large panel market to OLED and Ultra HD,” Dr. Sang-Deok Yeo, CTO and executive vice president of LG Display said in a statement. “With the resulting rapid need for new display advancements, LG Display, at the forefront of these trends, is well positioned to lead the market with its differentiated and cutting-edge technologies.”
  
  

• Nook Simple Touch May Get Web Browser, Email

  Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  Barnes & Noble’s entry-level e-reader, the Nook Simple Touch, may soon be transformed from a one-trick pony to a three-trick pony, according to TechCrunch. Since its initial release, the Simple Touch (and Simple Touch with Glowlight) have mostly only operated as a basic e-reader, complete with black and white screen. Yesterday, TechCrunch posted an article claiming an inside source told them these devices will soon receive an upgrade that will bring email and web browsing. This update is said to begin rolling out on June 1 and was developed following a successful update that brought the Google Play app store to Barnes & Noble’s other Nook devices.
  
  This update also marks the first time the Simple Touch has been able to browse the web or check email. Barnes & Noble’s main competitor Amazon has run an “experimental” web browser on their Kindle e-readers since the device’s second generation, but has never offered an official browser or email support.
  
  “The Nook Simple Touch is still pretty focused on e-books, but as an email triage device and basic browser, especially for text heavy content, it probably becomes a lot more attractive to an audience that mostly wants books but would like a little more general-use value as well,” writes TechCrunch writer Darrell Etherington in yesterday’s article.
  
  Though this will allegedly be the first time the Simple Touch gets an email app and web browser officially, the device’s Android platform has left it open to hacking and tweaking to add all sorts of functionality Barnes & Noble may have never intended.
  
  For instance, once the device has been rooted, games such as Angry Birds can be installed and tweaks like fast page switching can be configured.
  
  A kind of browser was found in the 2011 version of the Nook Wi-Fi, though it appeared as if Barnes & Noble wasn’t able to prepare the browser in time. By simply typing a URL into the device’s universal search bar, users could navigate to web pages and even download ePub books. There were some obvious downsides, of course, the most notable being that the black and white e-ink screen is not the best choice for browsing the web. Users also had to scroll all the way to the top of the page if they wanted to type in another URL.
  
  The new Simple Touch update is also said to include a new store app.
  
  Earlier this month, TechCrunch also claimed they found reports which not only detailed Microsoft’s take over of Nook Media LLC, but also the imminent death of the Nook tablets. According to these documents, Barnes & Noble has plans to stop selling the device by 2014 as a progressive end to the tablet’s life cycle.
  
  TechCrunch claimed these documents explained Barnes & Noble might be looking to build another Nook model that receives its content from a “third-party partner” device, though it wasn’t clear if this meant a Microsoft Windows 8 tablet. The documents claim these new, third-party partner devices could be introduced as early as next year.
  
  

• Controversial Supreme Court Decision Defers To FCC

  Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  The Supreme Court today ruled that the FCC is allowed to speed along to the production of new wireless towers if things get mired in red tape or other hassles. Following a 6-3 victory, the Supreme Court also said they’ll defer to the FCC when it comes to laws pertaining to the FCC and their jurisdiction.
  
  This move not only gives the Supreme Court another federal body to look to when determining cases involving ambiguous and sticky statutes, but also works to solve the problem of cities and local governments taking too much time to build cell towers. Previously the FCC ruled that that 90 and 150-day deadlines regarding these towers was fair. With today’s decision, the Supreme Court will now uphold the FCC’s wishes.
  
  According to Reuters, AT&T Inc., Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Wireless all stood in support of giving the FCC the power to speed along the building process. There were those who opposed this decision, of course, including Chief Justice John Roberts as well as Justices Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy. Bloomberg reported that Roberts even went as far as to cite an excerpt from the Federalist Papers, a collection of articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. In these papers, Madison warned that “accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judiciary, in the same hands ... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
  
  “It would be a bit much to describe the result as ‘the very definition of tyranny,’ but the danger posed by the growing power of the administrative state cannot be dismissed,” wrote Roberts.
  
  The local governments of Arlington, Texas, San Antonio, Texas and Los Angeles, California also opposed this decision, saying the FCC’s 90 to 150-day deadlines do not give them enough time to enforce their local zoning standards. This ruling has helped to define how much the Supreme Court should defer to specialist government agencies when considering regulations. These local governments, for instance, had hoped the Supreme Court would come to their own conclusion rather than deferring to the FCC.
  
  Arlington and San Antonio were both battling the FCC over a 2009 ruling which claimed local governments must handle applications to build new towers in a “reasonable period of time,” or 90 to 150 days. Today’s decision not only means that the FCC will be able to uphold their 90 to 150 day deadline, but that the Supreme Court will now look to them to settle cases regarding laws of this kind.
  
  Justice Antonin Scalia, on the other hand, mentioned several instances where the Supreme Court had trusted the expertise of certain federal agencies.
  
  “Where Congress has established a clear line, the agency cannot go beyond it," said Justice Scalia, according to Reuters.
  
  “Where Congress has established an ambiguous line, the agency can go no further than the ambiguity will fairly allow."
  
  

• Robot Accepts Gift From Human Hand With Help Of Motion Capture

  Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  Scientists at Disney Research and the Interactive Systems Lab of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) say they've taken human-to-robot hand-off motion to the next level.
  
  Researchers have had a difficult time developing a robot that is able to recognize when a person is handing them something and predicting where to make the hand-off. However, the team from Disney and KIT will be presenting their latest achievements in this area of robotics at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Karlsruhe, Germany.
  
  The scientists say they were able to solve the problem by using motion capture data with two people to create a database of human motion. By searching the database, a robot is able to realize what the human is doing and make a reasonable estimate of where he is likely to extend his hand.
  
  Katsu Yamane, a senior research scientists with Disney Research, Pittsburgh, said people handing a coat, a package or a tool to a robot will become commonplace if robots are introduced to the workplace and the home. Yamane and his team's technique could be applied to a number of situations where a robot needs to synchronize its motion with that of a human.
  
  "If a robot just sticks out its hand blindly, or uses motions that look more robotic than human, a person might feel uneasy working with that robot or might question whether it is up to the task," Yamane explained in a statement. "We assume human-like motions are more user-friendly because they are familiar."
  
  The team had to develop a hierarchal data structure in order to help the robot access the library of human-to-human passing motions with the right speed. They first developed a rough estimate of the distribution of various motion samples. Afterwards, they grouped samples of similar positions and organized them into a binary-tree structure. This allows the robot to rapidly search the database so it can recognize when the person initiates a handing motion and then refine its response as the person follows through.
  
  The researchers tested their method with computer simulations and confirmed that the robot began moving its hand before the human's hand reached his desired passing location. They saw that the robot's hand position roughly matched that of the human receivers from the database it was attempting to mimic.
  
  Yamane said the team's work is not finished, and now they need to expand the database for a wider variety of passing motions and passing distances. They also hope to eventually add finger motions and secondary behaviors that would make the robot's motion more engaging.
  
  A team from DARPA announced earlier this month that they have created an extremely advanced three-fingered robot hand. The hand is capable of grasping up to 50 pounds and turning a key, making it one of the most agile robotic hands to come out.
  
  

• China's PLA Hackers Pick Up Where They Left Off

  Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  Earlier this year, security firm Mandiant released a report which found a rash of cyber attacks against companies from the US and other English-speaking countries. These attacks were all believed to be launched from China, specifically a branch of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) called Unit 61398, located in one 12-story building on the edge of Shanghai.
  
  In the weeks following this report’s release, cyber activity from Unit 61398 had been slow, even though the Chinese government denied any participation in the attacks on hundreds of companies. Yesterday, the New York Times released a second report claiming that the Unit is back at work, and this time they’re using different techniques to avoid being spotted.
  
  “They dialed it back for a little while, though other groups that also wear uniforms didn’t even bother to do that,” said Kevin Mandia, the chief executive of Mandiant, in an interview with the Times.
  
  “I think you have to view this as the new normal.”
  
  Mandiant has once again reported hacking activity, and though they did not disclose the PLA’s targets, they did say several of them were attacked during the last round of cyberattacks. The New York Times itself was a target of the earlier attacks and hired Mandiant to investigate.
  
  The Obama administration has commented on this new uptick in hacking attempts, saying they need to have another conversation with the Chinese government and let them know “there is a real cost to this kind of activity.”
  
  Shortly after being discovered in February, the hackers not only ceased their attacks but also removed any spying tools that they had used or left behind. Mandiant has kept an eye on the Unit, however, and now says they’ve been slowly ramping up their attacks over the past two months. To hide their tracks, the Chinese hackers have begun to use new servers with which to carry out their strikes as well as other spy tools which allow them to steal private information without being detected.
  
  Mandiant believes these hackers have been able to operate at “60 to 70 percent” of the level they were at before they shut down operations in February. The security firm watched as the Unit was essentially dismantled and hackers dispersed. Online detectives worked to find these hackers and link their online pseudonyms with their real identities.
  
  One hacker in particular operated under the assumed name “UglyGorilla.” Online detectives later linked him back to a man named “Wang Dong” who blogged about his experiences as a low-paid and hungry hacker for the PLA.
  
  The PLA hackers only took a few weeks off from their strikes before slowly picking up again where they left off. The new attacks are still originating from the same building in Shanghai, and Mandiant claims most of the Chinese hackers are taking advantage of small Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who aren’t aware of their presence.
  
  Mandiant also found the hackers are still using the same malware as before, though the code has been slightly altered.
  
  Thomas Donilon, President Obama’s national security advisor, is expected to talk about these attacks and more during an upcoming visit to China.
  
  

• Happy Birthday YouTube! Video-Sharing Site Turns Eight

  Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  Google-owned video sharing site YouTube is celebrating its eighth birthday this month, approaching nearly a decade’s worth of the informative and the inane, the serious and the silly, and enough crotch-related injuries to support the world through a 50-year comedic drought.
  
  To commemorate their anniversary, YouTube has released a little blog post claiming people from all over the world are uploading videos to the great wide Internet at a rate of 100 hours of video every minute. The site still says they’re seeing about one billion users every month, a claim they first made in March.
  
  Those one billion users, by the way, represent about one half of all Internet users in the world, according to YouTube’s math. It’s taken them eight years to get to this point, but the feat is no less impressive.
  
  “Over the years, you’ve continued to surprise and delight us,” reads the YouTube official blog post.
  
  “And the past year was no exception. Who would have guessed that a tux-rocking K-pop star would shatter records left and right or that Sesame Street would go global with 1 billion views? That’s one of our favorite things about our global audience: you’re as unpredictable as you are creative and irreverent.”
  
  YouTube is well known for being but a part of the larger Google enterprise, but the company did spend a brief period of time on their own in this world. The company was founded in February 2005 and launched a few months later in May. More than a year and a half later, Google picked up the site for $1.65 billion. Since that time, Google has used the site to help drive advertising on PCs and that new hot platform every company wants a piece of: mobile.
  
  Now that they’ve become such a force to be reckoned with that YouTube is actually looking to take on the traditional cable television model by allowing users to buy subscriptions to individual channels on the site.
  
  So far, there are more than 50 channels which users can pay to view, including Cars.TV, National Geographic Kids and UFC Select. YouTube gets to keep a portion of the money generated by these subscriptions as well, though the company has yet to specify just how much.
  
  Users aren’t only watching homemade videos on YouTube, of course. Just as popular are music videos and streaming songs. Many on the Internet use the site as a sort of free digital jukebox, streaming songs from their favorite band straight from the site. While these “videos” don’t feature any movement –often they’re just a slideshow of photos of the artist or a plain black screen – users have discovered this creative way to listen to music free of charge.
  
  During last week’s I/O developers conference, Google announced their new Google Play Music All Access service aimed to take on Spotify. It’s been rumored that Google also plans to bring the same service to YouTube to allow users to continue doing what they’ve been doing all along.
  
  

• Pinterest Looks To Broaden Its Horizons With More Useful Pins

  Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  Though it’s highly revered by users, social sharing site Pinterest still has a few kinks to work out of its system.
  
  With 25 million users essentially sharing links in the form of appealing and appetizing pictures, things don’t always work out the way they should. More specifically, users can get lost in an ocean of links and often end up just finding broken links, if it leads them to anything at all. Pinterest is also working on solidifying a monetization model which includes plenty of advertising.
  
  Pinterest is addressing these issues today with more useful “pins” (links) and the ability to pin something from other mobile apps. The social company has partnered with several businesses and websites to include more info with certain pins.
  
  Specifically, Pinterest is focusing on three kinds of pins: Movie Pins, Product Pins and Recipe Pins.
  
  As mentioned above, a user may find a picture of a recipe they’d love to try, but after clicking through several sites for the ingredient list, the link might be broken. Pinterest says they want to make these kinds of pins more useful and present the information in an easier way. Certain Movie Pins, for example, will be fully fleshed out with ratings, cast members and reviews. Product Pins will also include important information, such as where to buy the product and how much it costs. Recipe Pins will include a full ingredient list as well as photos of the dish and other pertinent information.
  
  Pinterest has worked with a large number of companies and websites to add this information to their pins, including Anthropologie, Modcloth, Urban Outfitters, Epicurious, Martha Stewart Living, Whole Foods Market and Netflix.
  
  “From your feed, you can tell when a pin has more information by the icon that appears below the picture. We’ll also update all of your old pins so they’re more useful, too,” reads an introductory Tumblr post from Pinterest. The sharing network is also opening up these “rich pins” to any site that wants to share more information with their Pinterest-friendly users.
  
  It’s this move to make pins more “actionable” which the company hopes will bring in advertisers to their site. The ability to have users sharing their products with one another and be led to their site to purchase said item is a mouthwatering proposition for these businesses. It’s this kind of effortless sharing and buying which has led to other companies swooping in to gain some ground on Pinterest. Thefancy.com, for instance, separates itself from Pinterest by giving users the ability to actually buy the products they see on the site.
  
  According to GigaOm, Pinterest isn’t yet making any money from these new rich pin partnerships. As the company is still in its growth period, many onlookers are curious to how Pinterest will one day look to earn money rather than raising it from investors. These new rich pins are only available in Pinterest’s new layout which was first announced in March.
  
  

• Samsung Developer Contest Seeks To Build A Galaxy Of Apps

  Enid Burns for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  To create content for its Galaxy smartphones, Samsung is kicking off the Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013. The Challenge calls for developers to create apps that make use of the Samsung Smart Chord SDK, to run on the Galaxy S4 handset.
  
  The entry period runs from June 20 through the end of August, with judging occurring in October and November. Winners will be announced in December. Samsung said there will be up to ten winning entries, and each will receive $800,000 in total prizes. Each winner will be eligible for investment evaluation from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, as well as multiple marketing promotion. This is the second consecutive year that Samsung has held such an app challenge.
  
  "With Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013, Samsung is going to boost mobile ecosystem," said Won-Pyo Hong, president and head of the Samsung Electronics Media Solution Center, in a corporate statement. "At Samsung we will continue to encourage mobile developers to develop new and innovative applications with newly-launched features of Galaxy series. The Samsung Smart App Challenge will greatly enhance application choices for Galaxy S4 so users can enjoy a valuable experience."
  
  Samsung's Smart Chord SDK is used for media streaming and impromptu networking, Slashgear reports. It is a modification to the android for the S4, and makes information sharing between nearby devices simpler. "Much as DLNA and UPnP have attempted to do with media streaming, the Chord SDK opens impromptu networking up to apps, games and more," wrote Slashgear’s Tim Davies.
  
  Samsung hopes to build up content for its Samsung Apps download store. It also hopes to create content that is exclusive to Samsung, and to the company's flagship Galaxy S4 device.
  
  A drive for the development of apps for the Chord feature will ensure adoption by users. "The company is particularly looking for apps that can be coordinated with Samsung's 'Group Play' service. Group Play is a function highlighted on Samsung's latest Galaxy S4 smartphone that allows users to share certain content such as photos, games and music at the same time and interact with one another," the Wall Street Journal explained.
  
  Without a number of apps to support the feature, Chord could be an overlooked feature. By putting a spotlight on Chord, Samsung is encouraging adoption, and increasing the likelihood that Chord will be used on other Samsung handsets, and possibly licensed to other companies for use on other Android devices.
  
  There have been a few features Samsung has created for its phones, including a proprietary chat app called Chat On, which was launched a few years ago and was met with little success, the Journal reports.
  
  "To be sure, Samsung's strength has always been in hardware manufacturing rather than software. But analysts say better software would certainly give the South Korean company a competitive edge," said the Journal.
  
  The Smart App Challenge is a way for Samsung to build its ecosystem of apps as well as highlight some of the phone's unique capabilities. Samsung will also have to market the app store in addition to the apps, in order to drive traffic to their store instead of Google Play, where most Android apps are available and downloaded.
  
  

• Yahoo Purchase Of Tumblr Confirmed

  Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  Last Thursday All Things D broke the story of Yahoo’s intentions to buy popular blogging service Tumblr for $1.1 billion. At the time, the move was pending approval by the board in a Sunday afternoon vote. The $1.1 billion all-cash deal was apparently approved as Yahoo CEO Marrisa Mayer woke up early Monday morning to Tweet: “I’m delighted to announce that we’ve reached an agreement to acquire Tumblr! We promise not to screw it up.”
  
  Mayer also got in the Tumblr spirit with an animated Gif with a play on the “Keep Calm and Carry On” meme. Tumblr CEO David Karp will remain in his position and has announced the news on his own Tumblr page, noting that their headquarters will not be moving and their team will not be changing.
  
  According to an earlier All Things D story, (there were several this weekend) the Yahoo/Tumblr deal shares some similarities with the Facebook/Instagram deal last year.
  
  Tumblr will generally remain the same; they’ll be allowed to operate as their own company, but with Yahoo’s backing. Just as Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom had done last year, Tumblr’s CEO stands to earn a hefty pile of cash from this deal.
  
  Yahoo’s take away from the deal will be a certain “cool” factor which cannot be defined in words or monetary values. Tumblr is a hit with younger audiences, allowing teens and college students to have their own place on the web to post their thoughts or, more often, collect pictures and Gifs they find from the Internet. Mayer reportedly has a long view for the future of Yahoo, looking to capture the interest of these young people in hopes of turning them into lifelong Yahooers.
  
  All Things D’s sources say this deal began nearly six weeks ago as Yahoo began to discuss how they could incorporate themselves into Tumblr’s infrastructure.
  
  "On many levels, Tumblr and Yahoo! couldn't be more different, but, at the same time, they couldn't be more complementary,” said Mayer in a press statement released this morning.
  
  “Yahoo is the Internet's original media network. Tumblr is the Internet's fastest-growing media frenzy. Both companies are homes for brands - established and emerging. And, fundamentally, Tumblr and Yahoo! are both all about users, design, and finding surprise and inspiration amidst the everyday."
  
  According to the Yahoo statement, Tumblr now sees 300 million unique visitors every month with 120,000 signups every day. What Yahoo (assumedly) really likes about Tumblr, however, is their mobile interaction. More than half of Tumblr’s users post on the go with the mobile app and do so at a rate of seven sessions per day.
  
  All told, Yahoo expects to grow their audience by about 50 percent while increasing traffic by 20 percent. They’ve also kindly promised to work together with Tumblr to begin creating “advertising opportunities that are seamless and enhance the user experience.”
  
  With the deal done and announced, (it’s still subject to closing conditions, of course) many are beginning to consider the future of Tumblr’s “naughty” side; namely, the stores of pornography freely available across the site. The blogging service has earned their level of popularity by allowing any user to create a page and post just about anything they like there. In true Internet fashion, this formula has led to users posting plenty of pornographic images and animated gifs.
  
  It’s left to be seen, of course, if Mayer and Yahoo will implement and enforce a “No Porn” rule for the site or continue to sweep it under the rug.
  
  

• Teenage Inventor Honored For Developing Affordable Self-Driving Car Technology

  redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online
  
  A Romanian teenager has been awarded first prize at the 2013 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his work on an artificial intelligence system that could drastically reduce the cost of building a self-driving car.
  
  Nineteen-year-old Ionut Budisteanu took home a $75,000 scholarship for his concept, which replaces the costly high-resolution 3D radar used in many types of self-driving vehicles (including those designed by Google) with AI, webcam imagery, and low resolution 3D technology, Travis Andrews of Dvice reported on Saturday.
  
  Budisteanu looked at Google’s design and realized that the developer was not concerned about the costs of their self-driving car when designing the vehicle. The high-resolution 3D radar was the most expensive component, costing approximately $75,000, according to John Roach of NBC News. Budisteanu was able to replace their technology with something that should cost no more than $4,000 to build, Roach added.
  
  “By using low resolution 3-D imaging to recognize the larger objects like cars and houses and using webcam imagery with artificial intelligence to recognize the smaller objects like curbs, lane markers and soccer balls, he found a way around the expensive component,” Andrews explained. “All of this information is processed by a suite of computers that then offer the processed info to a supervisor computer program which calculates the car’s path and drives it.”
  
  The teenager’s technology performed flawlessly in 47 out of 50 simulations he conducted, according to NBC News. In the three others, it failed to recognize some individuals between 65 to 100 feet away – a problem which he said could be corrected with a slightly higher-resolution 3D radar system. Even then, the cost of his self-driving car technology would be “a fraction of Google's” and could help make it available to the public at large, Roach added.
  
  Budisteanu has obtained funding from a Romanian firm and will start testing a prototype this summer.
  
  Also at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, 18-year-old California native Eesha Khare was awarded the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award of $50,000 for a miniature device which fits inside a cell phone battery and allows them to recharge completely in no more than 30 seconds. In a statement, Intel said that her invention could also be potentially applied to help recharge dead car batteries.
  
  Louisiana native Henry Lin, 17, also received the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award of $50,000. Lin simulated thousands of clusters of galaxies, providing astronomers and other scientists with “valuable new data, allowing them to better understand the mysteries of astrophysics: dark matter, dark energy and the balance of heating and cooling in the universe's most massive objects,” the chip manufacturer and event sponsor added.
  
  

• New Mac Spyware Program Discovered At Oslo Freedom Forum

  redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online
  
  Previously unknown malware for Mac OS X that appears to have been signed with a valid Apple Developer ID has reportedly been discovered on the laptop of an African activist at a Norwegian human rights conference.
  
  According to CNET’s Topher Kessler, the spyware program is a small application known as macs.app and is being identified as OSX/KitM.A. The program appears to be a backdoor application, he said, and it appears to take screenshots of the infected computer before uploading them to remote servers for an unknown purpose.
  
  “When installed, the application is appended to the current Mac user's log-in items so it runs whenever the affected user account is logged in,” Kessler said. “It then takes regular screenshots that it places in a visible folder in the user's home directory called MacApp. It then tries to upload them to the URLs ‘securitytable.org’ and ‘docsforum.info,’ which either are not working or are issuing ‘public access forbidden’ error messages.”
  
  The malware was discovered on the computer of an Angolan activist by security researcher Jacob Appelbaum at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway last week, explained ZDNet’s Liam Tung. Appelbaum reportedly said that the unnamed activist had been victimized by a spearphishing attack, and was tricked into downloading the program by an email that he or she and received.
  
  “This bit of malware is somewhat unique in that it is signed with what appears to be a valid Apple Developer ID associated with the name Rajender Kumar,” Kessler said. “Though not an uncommon name, this may be a reference to the late Bollywood actor of a similar name. Regardless, the use of the ID appears to be an attempt to bypass Apple's Gatekeeper execution prevention technology.”
  
  Apple’s Developer ID program allows software creators to sign the applications they create for Mac with digital certificates that are issued and trusted by the Cupertino, California-based company’s systems, according to Lucian Constantin of IDG News Service.
  
  Those certificates make it so that the programs are not flagged as malicious software by Mac OS X Mountain Lion’s Gatekeeper security feature, he said. Apple claims the program makes it so that Gatekeeper can verify that the programs are safe and not tampered with, and “in theory, that should also allow Apple to specifically revoke the certificate for this app, preventing it from running,” Constantin added.
  
  

• EA Currently Not Developing Games For Nintendo Wii U

  redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online
  
  Just two years after committing to create content for the Wii U, an Electronic Arts (EA) spokesman has confirmed that the company currently has “no games in development” for Nintendo’s current home video game console.
  
  Those comments were made by EA’s Jeff Brown during an interview with Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo on Wednesday, and represent a drastic change in stance from a company that stood on stage, side-by-side with Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata and promised to deliver “great EA content” for the Wii U during the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).
  
  “EA delivered for Wii U early, releasing Wii U versions of Mass Effect 3, Need For Speed Most Wanted, Madden and FIFA for the new console,” Totilo explained. “Each of those games had been released months earlier on rival Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms. While they ran well, they were, ultimately, late ports.”
  
  Dead Space 3, EA’s top console title of the year thus far, was not released on Wii U, he said.
  
  “The full absence of Wii U games from Nintendo's pipeline seemed increasingly likely as the Wii U remained conspicuously absent from announcements regarding major 2013 EA games such as Battlefield 4 and the new Madden and FIFA,” the Kotaku reporter added. “A lack of EA support will prevent Wii U gamers from having access to an NFL game, for which EA holds the exclusive license.”
  
  Slow sales for the gaming system may have played a role in EA’s decision, according to Matthew Shaer of the Christian Science Monitor. While Nintendo had hoped to sell over four million Wii U systems over the past fiscal year, they came up 0.5 million units short, and some analysts say that the system sold only 55,000 units in April, he added.
  
  Brown has said that the company is not ruling out returning to Wii U development sometime in the future, it comes as little consolation to Nintendo right now, Shear said.
  
  “Nintendo can't be happy,” he explained. “A console is only as good as its games, and if the Wii U is to succeed, it should have a wide variety of titles, including games such as the best-selling Madden franchise, which EA produces.”
  
  In other Nintendo news, Forbes contributor Dave Thier reports that the company will be appealing to the public and not just the gaming media at this year’s E3 conference. While the annual event is typically used by gaming companies to introduce upcoming products to industry journalists, the 3DS and Wii U producers will be allowing regular gamers to play unreleased titles at Best Buy locations during the 2013 event.
  
  “It’s a wonderful service for regular gamers, and a clever subversion of the gaming media as it stands today,” Their said. “Essentially, Nintendo is saying that any customer in the country is just as important as a professional games journalist. When the idea of ‘Public Relations’ can sometimes just mean ‘talking to reporters,’ this is an interesting way for a company to control its own story and interact with customers on its own terms.”
  
  

• NASA, Google To Open Joint Quantum Supercomputing Facility In California

  redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online
  
  Google and NASA are joining forces to create a new research laboratory that will use a quantum supercomputer to study artificial intelligence and machine learning, according to various media reports.
  
  The Mountain View, California-based computing company and the US space agency’s new Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab will be hosted at the Ames Research Center in California and will include a quantum supercomputer supplied by British Columbian firm D-Wave Systems, according to Matt Brian of The Verge.
  
  The two agencies are also planning to share access to the $15 million machine with other scientists via the Universities Space Research Agency (USRA), BBC News added. The supercomputer operates using the D-Wave Two processor, which reportedly uses a phenomenon known as quantum tunneling to examine all possible solutions to a mathematical problem at the same time and select the best one in less than a second.
  
  “Google believes quantum computing might help it improve its Web search and speech recognition technology,” MIT Technology Review writer Charles Choi explained. “University researchers might use it to devise better models of disease and climate, among many other possibilities.”
  
  In fact, according to the New York Times, Google researchers have already developed machine-learning algorithms that are usable within the supercomputer. One is capable of quickly recognizing data and conserving mobile device power, while a second showed promise at selecting and deleting bad or mislabeled data.
  
  “Machine learning is highly difficult,” Hartmut Neven, the tech giant’s Director of Engineering, said in a blog post Thursday. “As an analogy, consider what it takes to architect a house. You’re balancing lots of constraints – budget, usage requirements, space limitations, etc. – but still trying to create the most beautiful house you can. A creative architect will find a great solution. Mathematically speaking the architect is solving an optimization problem and creativity can be thought of as the ability to come up with a good solution given an objective and constraints.”
  
  As for NASA, D-Wave’s director of business development and strategic partnerships Colin Williams told Choi, “Computers play a much bigger role within NASA missions than most people realize… Examples today include using supercomputers to model space weather, simulate planetary atmospheres, explore magnetohydrodynamics, mimic galactic collisions, simulate hypersonic vehicles, and analyze large amounts of mission data.”
  
  The Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab is the second research firm to purchase a quantum computer from D-Wave, according to Nature’s Nicola Jones. In 2011, Lockheed Martin purchased a machine from the Canadian company and installed it at the University of Southern California (USC) Quantum Computation Center. Both quantum computing centers have earmarked 20 percent of computer time for use by outside researchers, Jones added.
  
  “We’ve learned some useful principles: e.g., you get the best results not with pure quantum computing, but by mixing quantum and classical computing,” Neven said. “Can we move these ideas from theory to practice, building real solutions on quantum hardware? Answering this question is what the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab is for.”
  
  “We hope it helps researchers construct more efficient and more accurate models for everything from speech recognition, to web search, to protein folding,” he added. “We actually think quantum machine learning may provide the most creative problem-solving process under the known laws of physics. We’re excited to get started with NASA Ames, D-Wave, the USRA, and scientists from around the world.”
  
  

• Privacy Concerns Prompt Congress To Request More Info About Google Glass

  redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online
  
  US lawmakers concerned over potential privacy abuses associated with Google Glass have contacted the Mountain View, California-based tech giant for clarification about the project, various media outlets are reporting.
  
  According to BBC News, the letter was addressed to Google CEO Larry Page and signed by eight members of the bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus. Among the questions it poses is whether or not Google plans to use facial recognition technology in conjunction with the project, which consists of a wearable computer with a head-mounted display.
  
  In addition, the lawmakers wanted to know what measures the company would be taking to prevent unintentionally collecting data without user consent – which it did in 2010, resulting in the company agreeing to pay $7 million to settle claims in 38 different states – and what they plan to do to protect non-users when Glass is in use.
  
  “The letter, addressed to Google boss Larry Page, pointed out that the company did not have an unblemished history when it came to handling personal information,” the BBC said. “It mentioned the widespread criticism Google faced and the fines it had to pay after it inadvertently scooped up data from unprotected Wi-Fi networks while gathering information for its Street View service.”
  
  “The politicians want to know how Google will ensure it does not repeat that mistake,” the British news outlet added. “In addition, the Congressmen want to know what Google's policy is for handling the privacy of non-users and how it will respect the wishes of those who do not want to be identified or have any information about them taken from social media sites.”
  
  They are asking Google to respond to a total of eight inquiries by June 14. However, while not a formal response to the letter, Google Glass product director Steve Lee did address privacy issues during a fireside chat with developers, according to Ina Fried of All Things D.
  
  “From the beginning, the social implications … of Glass, of people wearing Glass, has been at the top of our mind,” Lee said, adding that those concerns also extended to individuals who do not use Glass but are in the same vicinity of someone who is using the device.
  
  He emphasized that pressing a button or issuing a voice command is required in order to take a picture, and that the screen lights up when Google Glass is active. Lee also said that Glass will operate under Google’s existing privacy policy in terms of data collection, and that the company had “experimented” with facial recognition technology but that such software is not currently included in the product at this time.
  
  

• Facebook IPO, One Year Later: What Does The Future Hold For The Social Network?

  redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online
  
  One year after its forgettable entry into the stock market, Facebook’s shares have still not returned to the level of their IPO, but the social network has found success in other ways.
  
  In fact, according to Juliette Garside of The Guardian, shares of the website were still trading 70 percent below their opening price of $38 as of Friday. However, in other ways, “the world's largest social network has made seemingly unstoppable progress.”
  
  Back in October, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg reported that the social media site had crossed the one billion monthly active user threshold, Garside said. Furthermore, according to research firm eMarketer, the business is set to make $6.6 billion in 2013 – an increase of $1.5 billion from last year, she added.
  
  During the most recent quarter, Facebook’s net income rose seven percent to $219 million versus the same quarter 2012, and revenue jumped 38 percent to $1.46 billion, said AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay. In terms of users, she said the site now has 665 million individuals posting, sharing photos, and playing games each day.
  
  “Much has changed at Facebook in a year,” Ortutay said. “The company's executives and engineers have quietly addressed the very doubts that dogged the company for so long. Facebook began showing mobile advertisements for the first time last spring. It launched a search feature in January and unveiled a branded Facebook smartphone in April. The company also introduced ways for advertisers to gauge the effectiveness of their ads.”
  
  The next step for Facebook, according to the AP, is to try and convince big businesses that advertising on a social network can be every bit as effective as running a television commercial. In order to achieve this goal, Zuckerberg’s firm has developed a new set of tools designed to help advertisers reach a more specific target audience than they can through TV or in print – connecting with consumers of certain ages and with certain interests.
  
  “Analytic tools like these weren't available a year ago,” Ortutay explained. “But last fall Facebook hired several companies that collect and analyze data related to people's online and offline behavior. Facebook's advertisers can now assess whether a Crest ad you saw on Facebook likely led you to buy of a tube of toothpaste in the drugstore. The services take what Facebook knows about you and what ads you saw and combine this with the information retailers have about you and what you've purchased through loyalty cards and the like.”
  
  “What we can see conclusively a year after the IPO is that ads on Facebook really do help drive people into the store and help them make purchasing decisions, help influence their purchasing decisions,” added Sean Bruich, the website’s head of measurement platforms and standards.
  
  

• Canada's Tech Industry Hoping To Capitalize On US Visa Woes

  redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online
  
  A Canadian invasion of sorts is underway in the US, but it isn’t a military operation – rather, it’s an attempt to convince Silicon Valley tech workers frustrated with America’s immigration policies to take their talents north.
  
  According to the Associated Press (AP), Jason Kenney, Canada's minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, kicked off a four-day recruitment drive by offering immigrants working in the high-tech industry a new visa in an attempt to bolster his nation’s economy.
  
  Kenney is hoping to capitalize on non-resident US workers who are becoming irritated by the country’s visa policies, and his visit comes at a time when Congress is in the midst of working on a long-awaited overhaul of the American immigration system, the wire service added.
  
  “I think everyone knows the American system is pretty dysfunctional,” he told Matt O'Brien of MercuryNews.com on Thursday. “I'm going to the Bay Area to spread the message that Canada is open for business; we're open for newcomers. If they qualify, we'll give them the Canadian equivalent of a green card as soon as they arrive.”
  
  The visa, which is being known as the “startup visa,” grants permanent Canadian residency to any budding entrepreneur who opens a business within the country’s boarders and successfully raises enough venture capital, the AP said. Kenney’s visit comes only a few days after a billboard advertising the program was erected in the southern part of San Francisco encouraging workers having difficulties with their H-1B temporary visa to relocate.
  
  O’Brien said that Kenney will be meeting with tech executives, as well as speaking to students at Stanford University and operating the Canadian booth at the TiEcon entrepreneurship conference this weekend at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Under current US visa regulations, foreign-born tech employees may remain in the country on H1-B visas for a maximum of six years and are prohibited from changing employers.
  
  “The Canadian perspective is they would love to re-create Silicon Valley in Canada,” Irene Bloemraad, chairperson of the Canadian studies program at the University of California, Berkeley, told MercuryNews.com. “And they recognize that under the current immigration system in the United States… there are people who are having a hard time getting permanent legal status.”
  
  Kenney’s visit “exposes broader differences between Canadian and U.S. immigration laws and philosophies – differences that could narrow if Congress passes a bipartisan Senate plan that follows the Canadian model by moving to a more skills-based admissions system,” O’Brien added. “The Senate plan would shift to a more Canadian approach in adopting a new ‘merit visa’ to award permanent U.S. residency to the highest scorers in a points system favoring those who are young, highly educated, fluent in English and working in high-demand fields.”
  
  

• Romanian Hacker Seeks Redemption At The ATM

  Enid Burns for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  Reports of “skimmers” hacking into accounts and stealing millions of dollars regularly seen on the nightly news are enough to scare many people away from the ATM. A Romanian hacker in prison for producing such skimmers has reached a penitent moment, and from behind bars has created a card reader that he says will prevent skimming devices from being installed, Reuters reports.
  
  Skimming has become prevalent at ATM machines worldwide. An ATM skimming device is installed by criminals, which sits in front of the card reader and is able to steal bankcard information and create clone cards with which to steal money.
  
  The reader created by inmate Valentin Bonata, who is currently serving a five-year sentence in the Vasuli penitentiary in Romania, has the bank card inserted horizontally, and is then rotated inside the machine in order to read the magnetic strip. The card is then tuned horizontal once again as it is returned to the user, IBTimes UK reports.
  
  Before being convicted, Bonata was a thrill junkie. "Crime was like a drug for me. After I was caught, I was happy I escaped from this adrenaline addiction," he told Reuters. "So that the other part, in which I started to develop security solutions, started to emerge."
  
  In prison Bonata works at a craftsman desk, where he invented the device. The hacker-turned-security-inventor says that ATMs are outdated. "All ATMS have [aging] designs so they are prone to vulnerability, they are a very weak side of the banking industry," Bonata said to Reuters.
  
  The new solution -- Bonata calls it the “Secure Revolving System,” or SRS -- rotates the card to prevent skimmers from being able to lock on to the magnetic data strip.
  
  "Every ATM can be penetrated through a skimming crime. My security solution, SRS, makes an ATM unbreachable," Bonata told Reuters.
  
  The SRS is funded and in development with a technology firm near Bucharest called MB Telecom. The device is patented and this year won an award at the International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva. It is expected that the SRS will be available soon, though a price is yet to be stated.
  
  "He fully deserves such recognition," SRS co-inventor and MB Telecom president Mircea Tudor told Reuters. "He's taking part in improving Romania's image abroad and he'll surely join our team when released."
  
  Bonata is six months into his five-year sentence. He was arrested and charged with supplying gadgets to an organized crime gang that was used to conceal ATM skimmers.
  
  In an annual Data Breach Report from Verizon Enterprises, the company reported that Romanian criminals were responsible for 28 percent of the 47,000 cases of personal data theft it investigated. China beat out Romania, accounting for 30 percent of cases, IBTimes reports .
  
  The paper also reports that a global ring of criminals operating in 27 different countries recently stole $45 million from ATMs by hacking credit card processing companies and increasing the withdrawal limit on dummy bankcards.
  
  

• Google Glass Gets Social And Commerce Apps

  Enid Burns for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  Google Glass is currently in the hands of the few. The new wearable computing device is in its early deployment, and now the growing set of users are starting to see apps developed for the device.
  
  Social networks Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, as well as ecommerce website eBay are among the properties getting Glass treatment, the Telegraph UK reports.
  
  So as not to cause confusion between apps for mobile devices and apps for the computer, Google is calling apps for Glass “Glassware,” the New York Times reports.
  
  Glassware developers have been given four pieces of advice from Google: "Keep it short and sweet for the small screen; make sure alerts are relevant; send timely information people need on the go and make tasks easier and more seamless than they are on other devices," the New York Times reports.
  
  The apps are important for the influencers who plunked down the money for Glass and are using it out in public. "The addition of major social networks and the facility to buy products via eBay significantly broadens the appeal of the product beyond a small core of Silicon Valley acolytes," the article said.
  
  The first wave of apps included CNN news alerts, women's magazine Elle, and reminders from Evernote. The New York Times newspaper and messaging service Path were among the very first apps for Glass.
  
  While there are several apps in development, developers can't expect the same amount of data or monetization from Glass users just yet. The New York Times reports that developers have limited access to user data, and are not allowed to show advertisements via the app.
  
  That still doesn't deter companies from making apps for this group of influencers. It is crucial for Google to build an ecosystem of apps and content for the device, but also important for platforms to be in front of this audience, or the audience will find other venues to spend their time on Glass.
  
  Reports of a Twitter app began appearing last month. Now the apps are seeing the light of Glass. Reuters reports that Facebook and Twitter apps are now at the ready. At Google's I/O conference about a half a dozen apps were revealed; including CNN, Elle, Tumblr, Evernote, Twitter and Facebook.
  
  It was also revealed that eBay is working on applications for Google Glass, Reuters reports. The Innovation and New Ventures Group at eBay are taking part in the Google Glass trial program, which gives eBay both the user and developer perspective.
  
  An eBay app might give bidders an opportunity to stay updated on the status of running auctions, and if they are outbid. The app could also alert users to new auctions within a user's search parameters. Sellers can also stay up to date on their open auctions while not in front of the computer.
  
  Glass users are free to use their Glass anywhere -- with the exception of a few banned locations such as the The 5 Point, a dive bar in Seattle. As far as sharing, users are tethered to Google properties such as sharing photos and video on Google+.
  
  

• Yahoo In Talks With Tumblr About Buyout

  Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  According to tech news website AllThingsD, Yahoo is in talks with blog site Tumblr regarding a possible takeover.
  
  AllThingsD said talks with Yahoo and Tumblr are in the "serious" stage, and a later report by AdWeek mentioned the figure for the buyout could be $1 billion.
  
  Yahoo is struggling to try and stay in business against Internet giant Google, despite being one of the first search engines. Marissa Meyer, the chief executive of Yahoo, has been trying to keep the company afloat after a multi-year decline in revenue and user engagement on its website. The deal with Tumblr could be just the thing to boost the company's earnings.
  
  "Yahoo needs to grow and better engage its audience, and Tumblr would find itself in possession of a key new weapon: the Yahoo homepage, not to mention the massive scale of Yahoo’s various digital media properties," AllThingsD reported. "Needless to say, the Tumblr demographic skews young and likely mobile, which is the product category that Yahoo has itself trained its sites on; Yahoo has expressly stated that it is working to become a mobile-first, or at least focused company."
  
  Tumblr was founded in February 2007 and has 175 employees in offices across the country. It hosts nearly 108 million blogs, over 50 billion posts, and 70.6 million daily posts. Last November, Tumblr was ranked as the ninth most popular Web site in the US, with more than 61.3 million monthly US visitors and 170 million monthly visitors around the world. According to Forbes.com, the company made $13 million in 2012 and is looking to bring in about $100 million due to new advertising initiatives.
  
  Yahoo's chief financial officer Ken Goldman said earlier this week at a financial conference in Boston that one of the company's biggest challenges is having an aging demographic.
  
  "Part of it is going to be just visibility again in making ourselves cool, which we got away from for a couple of years," Goldman said, according to CNET.
  
  Adding Tumblr to Yahoo's repertoire could be just the thing to help the company seem a little more hip.
  
  

• UK Sends Four Hackers Associated With LulzSec To Prison

  Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  Four more LulzSec hackers said to have played a part in the June 2011 attacks against Sony Computer Group have been sentenced to up to 32 months in prison. Each of these young hackers pleaded guilty to their charges which included attempts to hack into the UK’s Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) site, The Arizona State Police site, and Sony’s website.
  
  As is often the case in hacker culture, these cybercriminals operated under pseudonyms whilst online. The four hackers sentenced to prison this week are Jake “Topiary” Davis, Ryan, "Viral" Cleary, Mustafa "T-Flow" Al-Bassam and Ryan "Kayla" Ackroyd.
  
  Each of the four young men were arrested shortly after FBI informant Hector Xavier "Sabu" Monsegur, himself a former LulzSec hacker, agreed to help with FBI to receive a lighter sentence.
  
  In an interview with the BBC, Jake Davis explained his intentions during the “50 days of Lulz” campaign during which these attacks took place. Now that he’s been caught and convicted, Davis says he regrets "95 percent of the things I've ever typed on the internet.”
  
  He will now spend at least two years in an institution for young offenders. Al-Bassam received only a 20-month sentence as he was a minor at the time of the attacks and Ackroyd will serve 15 months of his 30-month sentence.
  
  As she handed down the sentences to the four hackers in London today, Judge Deborah Taylor said these young men were playing a “cyber game” which they did not realize had real-life consequences.
  
  "You cared nothing for the privacy of others but did everything you could through your computer activities to hide your own identities while seeking publicity," said Judge Taylor, according to ABC News.
  
  In the Sony attacks the LulzSec hackers found confidential information of Sony customers who had entered contests put on by the entertainment and gaming company. These hackers then published this confidential information -- addresses, birthdays, email addresses, passwords and phone numbers -- on their Twitter profile for any and all to see as a sort of trophy of their conquests.
  
  "It was my world, but it was a very limited world. You can see and hear it, but you can't touch the internet. It's a world devoid of empathy - and that shows on Twitter, and the mob mentality against politicians and public figures. There is no empathy,” said Davis in his remorseful interview with the BBC.
  
  "So it was my world, and it was a very cynical world and I became a very cynical person."
  
  In addition to breaking into the Sony website, the LulzSec hackers launched a DDoS (or distributed denial of service attack) against the CIA website.
  
  According to Mashable, each of the four Lulzsec hackers played a different role in the June 2011 attacks.
  
  Ackroyd was found to be the leader of the outfit, randomly picking targets and sending fellow hackers to attack these sites. Davis was found to be in charge of media during the attacks, alerting the press that it was, in fact, LulzSec behind these large-scale strikes. Cleary was the man in charge of distributing software and botnets needed to break into these computer networks, while Al-Bassam was responsible for leaking the innocent victims’ very private information online for other hackers to steal and take advantage of.
  
  It wasn’t until after these hackers went after the Arizona State Police that Davis began to regret his actions, according to his BBC interview.
  
  "I thought this hack has gone way too far - there's no point to this thing, it's just harming police officers… This doesn't entertain anybody or help anybody anywhere," said the accused hacker.
  
  

• Pebble Gets $15 Million To Fund Smartwatch

  Peter Suciu for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  A whole lot of Rolex watches could be bought for $15 million, but some venture capitalists are betting on a smartwatch instead. On Thursday it was announced that Pebble has secured a $15 million Series A investment led by Charles River Ventures. This follows the Pebble project, which has already raised $10 million via a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign.
  
  Those who pledged support via Kickstarter are beginning to receive their watches. Pebble reported that to date, 70,000 early supporters, of 85,000 who placed orders during the development phase, have received the device.
  
  “The tremendous response we received from Kickstarter backers validated our belief in the value of a smartwatch as a wearable computer, but also in the value an open platform brings to truly personalizing the watch to their daily activities”, said Eric Migicovsky, Pebble’s founder in a released statement. “This new investment will help us build out the Pebble development ecosystem and deliver on Pebble’s extraordinary potential.”
  
  The company also announced that it had expanded its software developer kit (SDK), which will let third-party app developers create more sophisticated apps for the smartwatch platform. Since the launch of the initial SDK in April, it was downloaded more than 8,000 times, which resulted in more than 5,000 unique ‘watchapps’ with 300,000 installs during the past month.
  
  This SDK will allow for data communication from the smartwatch back to a users’ host Andriod or iOS device, and could offer features that gather data from the Internet, provide remote controls for web-connected devices, multi-player games and even allow for fitness technology integration with much of this information displayed on the watch face.
  
  Among the apps that are already supported is RunKeeper for both Android and iOS. This has been a way for Pebble’s device to compete with rival devices including the Nike+ GPS sports watch and offerings from Garmin.
  
  “We are pledging to support the developers hacking on Pebble,” Pebble’s Migicovsky told TechCrunch in an interview. “We want to make the Pebble the go-to place for developers.”
  
  In addition to competition from the likes of Nike, Pebble faces likely offerings from Apple, Microsoft, Samsung and even Google.
  
  Apple has long rumored to be working on a so-called ‘iWatch’ type device, and while there are reports that it could be in the market by the end of the first half of this year, so far it isn’t even official yet. It was reported in December that Apple is creating the Bluetooth-enabled devices with support from Intel, and that it would feature a 1.5-inch display.
  
  Apple rival Samsung is another company that reportedly has a wrist-wearable device in the works – and could be named the Galaxy Altius.
  
  The Pebble smartwatch features a 144x168 resolution display, 3 axis accelerometer with gesture detection and runs Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR and 4.0 (Low Energy).
  
  The Pebble device is compatible with the iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, 5 or any iPod Touch running iOS 5 or iOS 6. It is also compatible with Android devices running OS 2.3 or up, and reportedly “works great with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).” The device is not compatible with BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7 or Palm at this time. It can connect to compatible mobile devices via Bluetooth.
  
  

• Google To Microsoft: Remove YouTube App From Windows Phone Store

  Peter Suciu for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  It is the battle of giants and video is at the center of their conflict.
  
  No sooner did Microsoft update its YouTube app for Windows Phone, then Google -- the parent company that owns the popular video sharing service -- issued a cease and desist letter, instructing the software giant to remove the YouTube app from the Windows Phone Store.
  
  Google has demanded that Microsoft remove the app within a week’s time.
  
  “We request that you immediately withdraw this application from the Windows Phone Store and disable existing downloads of the application by Wednesday, May 22, 2013,” the Google letter to Microsoft read.
  
  What is at the core of this matter? The Microsoft YouTube application contains no ads, which Google claimed impacts those content creators that are paid via Google’s partner program. Google further alleges that this is a violation of the YouTube API terms and conditions.
  
  “Content creators make money on YouTube by monetizing their content through advertising. Unfortunately, by blocking advertising and allowing downloads of videos, your application cuts off a valuable ongoing revenue source for creators, and causes harm to the thriving content ecosystem on YouTube,” the letter added. “We were surprised and disappointed that Microsoft chose to launch an application that deliberately deprives content creators of their rightful earnings, especially given that Windows Phone 8 users already have access to a fully-functional YouTube application based upon industry-standard HTML5 through the web browser.”
  
  Microsoft had launched the YouTube app for Windows Phone on May 8, and while the Microsoft Windows Phone Store does not disclose the number of downloads for the app, the YouTube app was reportedly reviewed by more than 9,000 users and, as of this week, was the fifth-most-downloaded free app in the catalog.
  
  “YouTube is consistently one of the top apps downloaded by smartphone users on all platforms, but Google has refused to work with us to develop an app on par with other platforms,” Microsoft said via a spokeswoman. “Since we updated the YouTube app to ensure our mutual customers a similar YouTube experience, ratings and feedback have been overwhelmingly positive. We’d be more than happy to include advertising but need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs.”
  
  This is just the latest salvo between the two companies, which has heated up in recent months but began in earnest last fall when Microsoft challenged Google over which company offers the best search engine. It picked up steam when Microsoft launched a pre-holiday campaign for Bing that accused Google of being Scrooge-like.
  
  The dust ups between Mountain View, Calif.-based Google and Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft goes back to 2006, when Google acquired YouTube. Since that time, Microsoft has alleged that Google had barred access for search engines such as Bing, giving Google’s own search engine control over video searches. More recently the battle has shifted to mobile.
  
  “In 2010 and again more recently, Google blocked Microsoft’s new Windows Phones from operating properly with YouTube. Google has enabled its own Android phones to access YouTube so that users can search for video categories, find favorites, see ratings, and so forth in the rich user interfaces offered by those phones. It’s done the same thing for the iPhones offered by Apple, which doesn’t offer a competing search service,” wrote Brad Smith, senior vice president and general counsel for Microsoft in a March 2011 blog post, indicating that these problems aren’t new and likely won’t be resolved anytime soon.
  
  

• Google Wallet Lets You Send Payments Through Gmail

  Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  All eyes were on Google yesterday as they kicked off their 2013 I/O developers conference in San Francisco. While earlier reports claimed this conference would be slow on announcements, Google spent the day discussing updates to existing products like search and Wallet.
  
  Google search will now include improved versions of Knowledge Graph and Google Now, as well as voice activated controls. As an extension of Google Now, this new search can use your Gmail inbox to find the best results. In addition to better search, Google also announced Google Wallet integration with Gmail. Now users can not only attach files to their email, they can also attach payments, even if the recipient doesn’t have a Gmail address. This process is free if the sender has their Google Wallet account linked to their bank account. Google Wallet has also been upgraded with Instant Buy APIs and Wallet Objects APIs which allow developers to build loyalty cards, boarding passes and the like.
  
  For Google Wallet users, attaching a payment in Gmail is as easy as clicking the dollar sign in the new mail window, entering the amount, and clicking send. The sender will then receive a confirmation email immediately after.
  
  “We're rolling out this feature over the coming months to all US Gmail users over 18 years old, so keep an eye out for the $ icon in the attachment options,” writes Travis Green, a product manager for Google Wallet in a blog post. “You can also get earlier access if your friends have the feature and send money to you.”
  
  Though the recipient isn’t required to have a Gmail address, they will be asked to either sign into their Google Wallet account or sign up for one to receive their money. Right now only laptops in the US are capable of sending money via Gmail and Google Wallet.
  
  Google also aims to make the exchanging of money even easier with their new Wallet APIs. Their Instant Buy API, for instance, can be baked into native Android apps to process payments with just two taps.
  
  “The Instant Buy API is designed for merchants and developers selling physical goods and services, who already have a payment processor and are looking to simplify the checkout experience for their customers,” writes Prakash Hariramani, a senior product manager with Google Wallet in a separate blog post.
  
  These new APIs will make buying things online even easier for those with Google Wallet accounts. In an introductory video, a user is shown buying airline tickets with just two taps. The user’s information is verified with Google Wallet, meaning they only need to confirm the purchase before it’s pushed through.
  
  Earlier it had been rumored that Google planned to go even farther with their Wallet offerings by announcing a tangible plastic Wallet card. This card would be linked with a Google Wallet account and essentially work as a credit card anywhere MasterCard is accepted.
  
  According to ReadWrite.com, this product had issues leading up to the I/O conference.
  
  

• Apple Store Hits Historic 50 Billionth App, Ohio Man Wins Wins $10K

  Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
  
  [Update]
  
  Apple hit their 50 billionth mark several hours before DeWitt and Macworld’s predictions on Wednesday afternoon. An Ohio man downloaded the lucky 50 billionth app which won him a free $10,000 gift card to the App Store. At just the right time yesterday, Brandon Ashmore downloaded the game “Say the Same Thing” by Space Inch, LLC. This is a free game from the band OK Go which asks two people to find a common word from two random words. The execs at Apple are obviously pleased that they’ve hit this milestone, changing the splash page at Apple.com from the countdown to an image of an iPad mini running the app Paper to spell out a handwritten “Thanks.”
  
  [Original Article]
  
  Just as Apple was turning their odometer over 50 billion, Google announced during their I/O developers conference in San Francisco that their own app store, Google Play, is conveniently nearing 48 billion downloads. A surprising 2.5 billion of these apps were downloaded last month alone, according to VentureBeat. [http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/15/apple-hits-50-billion-app-downloads-just-ahead-of-google/] Apple’s developer conference will take place in the same San Francisco building next month, starting on June 10.
  
  Just as they’ve done in years past, Apple is celebrating another App Store achievement by giving away thousands of dollars. For more than a week now, the home page at Apple.com and iTunes has featured a running ticker counting up to the App Store’s 50 billionth download. The lucky person to download this app will be awarded with a $10,000 gift card to the App Store.
  
  To up the ante, the first to download the first 50 after 50 billion will also receive $500 App Store gift cards. The countdown has been ticking for several days at this point, but according to the team at Macworld, the 50 billionth could be downloaded by Wednesday. If you’ve been holding several apps in queue for purchase, now might be the time to start downloading. Others have even taken up the task of trying to figure out a more precise window of time when this number will be reached.
  
  Apple is accustomed to using these milestone moments for marketing magic. For instance, in April of 2009, the App Store saw its one billionth download less than two years after it first opened its digital doors. As more iOS devices began to saturate the market, these numbers quickly skyrocketed. The Store reached the 10 billion mark in January 2011, 25 billion in February 2012, and is finally nearing the big Five Oh.
  
  According to Apple press, nearly 800 apps are downloaded every second on average. With this number in hand, Macworld has done some quick, back of the envelope style calculations to estimate when you’ll have your best shot at winning that $10,000 gift card. Though Apple claims 800 apps are downloaded every second, the ticker on Apple.com and iTunes appears to be counting down about 1,000 apps each second. This is assuming the ticker is at all accurate, of course, and not simply a running banner.
  
  Based on their calculations, the best time to download an app is around 10 AM GMT tomorrow morning, or 5 AM EST, 2 AM PST in the US.
  
  Fortune editor Philip Elmer-DeWitt has a more precise estimation.
  
  “As of 1 p.m. EST Tuesday, apps were being downloaded at the rate of 813 per second. At that speed, the App Store would hit 50 billion by 12:39 p.m. Wednesday,” writes DeWitt in his Apple 2.0 column.
  
  “But we expect things to accelerate as the goal approaches.”
  
  Some app developers are even using this giveaway to promote their own apps, saying they’ll kick in some extra cash and prizes if the lucky winner downloads their app.
  
  Addappt, a social networking app, said they’ll give away another $10,000 if the winning user downloads their app and wins late this evening or early tomorrow morning. According to CNET, messaging service Hike is promising to give away “$100,000 worth of Apple products and accessories” if the app winner downloads their app.
  
  For Apple fans, this could feel like the lottery. The more you play, the better your chances of winning. If DeWitt and MacWorld are correct, it may be beneficial to start downloading apps this evening and through the morning.