Google and Microsoft Kiss and Make Up Over YouTube App
Windows Phone customers won’t be shut out of seeing YouTube videos after all. After tussling over the YouTube app for Windows Phone, Google and Microsoft have settled their differences now that Microsoft has agreed to include ads in the app.
The YouTube app, like other major apps on Windows Phone, is actually made by Microsoft. But while YouTube launched ads on its the official apps on iOS and Android last year, the Windows Phone version doesn’t have them. As a result, Google, which owns YouTube, hit Microsoft with a cease-and-desist letter.
After the letter was issued, Microsoft publicly commented that it would be happy to include ads in the next version of its YouTube app, but that it lacked the necessary technical tools that only Google has. Read more…
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Sony’s Cute Speaker Ball Is Music to our Ears
I’m kind of in love with Sony’s little egg-shaped speaker, the SRS-BTV5. The tiny, tennis-ball-sized gadget is so cute, it really deserves a name other than the seemingly random series of characters. Maybe Veronica. It looks like a Veronica.
At least mine does, but that’s probably because it’s raven colored. I really wanted one of the bright pink ones — it just seems to go better with the spherical shape — but black still makes a statement, if a quieter one.
And by quiet, I’m referring to the design, of course — not the sound. Veronica actually plays fairly loud for a tiny ball. She’s not going to sustain a house party, but a hotel room, definitely. Read more…
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Syrian Electronic Army Taunts Twitter in Latest Hack
The Syrian Electronic Army claimed credit for hacking one of British television network ITV’s Twitter accounts Friday. One of the SEA’s hijacked tweets linked to a story about Twitter’s recently introduced two-step verification, aimed at preventing such hijackings.
“Just kidding. The Syrian Electronic Army was here. #SEA via @Official_SEA12,” read one of the false tweets from @itvlondon. The SEA’s tweets have since been deleted and the account restored.
An ITV spokesperson told Reuters the hack was triggered by a phishing email, meaning an ITV employee likely opened a malicious link that allowed hackers to access the account. Read more…
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Officials: Stopping 3D-Printed Guns Could Be Impossible
As the world’s first 3D-printed handgun starts to be replicated, authorities are scrambling to react to a technological advancement that only a few weeks ago sounded more like science fiction than fact.. But according to a leaked bulletin by the Department of Homeland Security, any effort to stop the printing of these guns might be in vain.
A May 21 DHS bulletin distributed to several law enforcement agencies across the country, and obtained by Fox News, basically states that there might be nothing that can be done to stop people from downloading and printing plastic guns
“Limiting access may be impossible,” the memo states. Read more…
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Hanson Beer Mmmhops to Make Its Debut
Nearly two years after pop band Hanson announced it would be introducing a beer line, Mmmhops is almost ready for its debut. That’s right, dear readers — you’ll be able to sip your way into ’90s nostalgia.
Called Mmmhops — a reference to the brothers’ popular “MMMBop” song from 1997 — the pale ale makes a cameo in the film Hangover 3, which hits theaters this weekend. The beer is a product of Mustang Brewing in Oklahoma — the boys’ home state — and is in the final stages of brewing, according to BeerPulse.
Mmmhops has arrived @thehangover twitter.com/MmmhopsBeer/st…
— MmmHops Beer (@MmmhopsBeer) May 21, 2013 Read more…
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First Apple Computer Could Fetch Half Million in Auction
An Apple 1 computer, the low-powered PC that started it all for the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, co-founder Steve Wozniak and the then very new Apple Computers, is up for grabs on May 25. All you need is somewhere north of a half a million dollars.
The still-working computer goes to the highest bidder at the German auction house Auction Team Breker. According to a release, the system is part of a wide-ranging auction of “Firsts” that includes a MITS Altair 8800, a Nat Wadsworth’s 1973 Scelbi-8H (the first Intel 8-bit system) and a mechanical computer, the Pascaline.
The virtually hand-built Apple 1, though, is the true star item here. It was, more or less, hand-built in 1976 by Steve Wozniak. In the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, the duo introduced the new computer at a meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club, where Wozniak explained one of the key differences from competing, early PCs: It has “a human-typable keyboard instead of a stupid, cryptic front panel with a bunch of lights and switches.” Read more…
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UCLA Surgeons Live Vine Brain Surgery
Doctors at UCLA Health in Southern California documented a brain surgery on Thursday by using Instagram and Vine, showing yet another ground-breaking use of social media in the hospital setting.
We’ve already witnessed the world’s first live-tweeted open-heart surgery from Houston, as well as a live-tweet of a brain surgery. But what was noteworthy about Thursday’s live surgery from Los Angeles was the use of newbie social platform Vine, as the Los Angeles Times reported. Check out a sampling of the Vine video posts below.
The UCLA Health System (@UCLAHealth) used the hashtag, #UCLAORLive, to chronicle Thursday’s operation. This was the UCLA deep brain stimulation team’s 500th patient for which they implanted a brain pacemaker, according to the #UCLAORLive event page on Facebook. A brain pacemaker can help “cease Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor,” they said. Read more…
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