Comic Con London, Geekonomics, Cosplay Business (video)

Comic Con London: Geekonomics and the Cosplay Business: Video - Bloomberg:
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The power of 'geekonomics' was on display at Comic Con London 2014 over the weekend. More than 120,000 lycra-clad crusaders and devotees of all thing animated flocked to the event, with the gaming and movie industries hoping to cash in. So what's driving this costume-clad economy? Bloomberg went to find out. (Source: Bloomberg Oct 27)

Apple Pay Takes On Hackers, Cash - Barron's: "For years, technology companies have set their sights on the payment industry, with each firm wanting a slice of the digital wallet. So Apple ’s plan to partner with the industry’s most established names— Visa (ticker: V), MasterCard, (MA) and American Express (AXP)—came as a surprise when it emerged last month. Apple Pay, officially launched last week, is essentially a high-tech way to access traditional cards issued by big banks. For Visa and MasterCard, it’s just one more conduit to their dominant electronic networks. Despite the efforts of eBay (EBAY) and Google (GOOGL) and start-ups like Square, Silicon Valley couldn’t blow up the traditional ecosystem. “Early adopters in the [digital] space have learned the hard way,” says Jim McCarthy, Visa’s head of innovation and strategic partnerships. “Payments are just hard.” Enlarge Image Apple Pay makes credit-card data less vulnerable to hackers. Photo: Apple Apple’s embrace should give long-term investors confidence about Visa and MasterCard’s highly profitable networks...."


New York Times
Apple Pay Is Disabled by Rite Aid and CVS as a Rival Makes Plans
New York Times
A demonstration of Apple Pay on its first day last week. ... Nonetheless, over the week,Apple Pay technology was working in Rite Aid and CVS stores.
Some US retailers shun Apple Pay, eye rival payments system - Reuters
Apple, retailers at odds over mobile payments - USA TODAY
2 drug chains disable Apple Pay, as a rival makes plans - Boston Globe


New York Times
How Facebook Is Changing the Way Its Users Consume Journalism
New York Times
Though other services, like Twitter and Google News, can also exert a large influence, Facebook is at the forefront of a fundamental change in how ...


New York Times
Facebook Offers Life Raft, but Publishers Are Wary
New York Times
So while Facebook loves the content, it hates the clunky technology many publishers ... Yes, search from Google still creates inbound interest, and Twitter can spark ... (Amazon's dominance in the book business comes to mind.) ... (All considered, Apple has already pulled off that trick, creating a private ...


Forbes
The Fire Phone Flop: Does Amazon Care About Its Customers?
Forbes
Xbox One Gets Another Price Cut Active on Facebook ... Amazon disclosed a $170 million charge for “inventory evaluation and supplier commitment cost” for ... Apple Apple and iTunes come to mind. ... Conversely, despite rumors of Google Google entering the segment with “Google Shopping Express,” ...
Amazon's Fire Stick Is a Challenge to Google and a Threat to Roku - Businessweek
Amazon Launches $39 'Fire TV Stick' - Mac Rumors
The Fire TV Stick, Amazon's answer to Google Chromecast - CNN Money

Amazon's Fire TV is doing much better than its phone
This week Amazon announced it would take a $170 million hit due to the ... it may be in a position to stand out from the crowd (Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast). Amazon's pitch to prospective developers -- conveniently timed as we're ... Microsoft is doing great, and so are Surface Pro 3 and Office 365.

CurrentC Is The Big Retailers’ Clunky Attempt To Kill Apple Pay And Credit Card Fees | TechCrunch: ".... The only way CurrentC has a real chance is if it can organize some big discount for all CurrentC payments across retailers. For example, if it said you’d get 5% off for paying with CurrentC, some people might be willing to use it. In the short-term, this would eradicate any savings on credit card fees for the merchants. But eventually, if the app gains a loyal user base it could scale back those fees to start reaping the benefits of sidestepping credit cards. If CurrentC doesn’t offer a vivid value proposition to consumers, its likely to go the way of the dinosaur while Apple Pay pushes the evolution of the rest of the mobile payments industry."

Google Pirate Update - Business Insider: "Google has pushed out an update to its search algorithm that is making it even harder for people to discover free movie and music torrents, with sites like Pirate Bay, Isohunt and Torrentz.eu among the worst affected by the rollout..."

Amazon Unveils Fire TV Stick in Chromecast Challenge - Businessweek: "Amazon.com Inc. unveiled a media-streaming device that plugs into a TV set to let users browse video and music from Netflix Inc., Hulu LLC and Pandora Media Inc., seeking to extend its reach in customers’ digital lives. The $39 Fire TV Stick plugs into a port on a high-definition television, comes with a remote control and can mirror media content and applications from a user’s phone or tablet, Seattle-based Amazon said today in a statement. The device can be ordered today and will be released on Nov. 19."

Wall St. finally turning on Amazon as Bezos magic fades | Reuters: "They're becoming much too distracted in all these other efforts" outside core businesses like online retailing and web services, said Matthew Benkendorf, portfolio manager at Vontobel Asset Management. Benkendorf unloaded his Amazon holdings a year ago and said he would be skeptical of future involvement even if the stock falls further. "They are their own worst enemy to success," he said. "They really need to do some soul searching and get focused."

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Amazon Fire TV misses the mark, as do other media boxes

Amazon Fire TV misses the same marks as Ouya, other media boxes | Ars Technica: "At $99, Amazon's first entry into this space is pretty disappointing, even just considering the product at hand. When we add up the missed opportunities—like the possibility for video subscription service, some kind of privileges for Prime customers, a free gaming controller to play up the gaming angle, or HDMI passthrough—it's clear Amazon's shot is pretty wide of the mark. Amazon's interest in media is clearly large and growing, and its ability to privilege its own box on its site the way it privileges Amazon content on the box itself virtually guarantees sales. But in the media device landscape, the Fire TV not only fails to achieve its goals, it falls short of its competitors." (read more at link above)

Chrome OS tablet to be launched at the Acer event on April 29? Unlike Android, a mobile and tablet platform, Chrome OS runs on all platforms — mobile, desktop, and potentially table --
Google gives strong signal a Chrome tablet is indeed on the way | ZDNet: "speculation that we'll soon see one announced has recently surfaced. This is due to a press invite to an Acer event that leads one to believe a tablet may be announced." (read more at link above)

Here’s Why the Comcast–Time Warner Merger Is Bad | MIT Technology Review: "Among the many threats to the future of Internet access in the United States, nothing tops Comcast’s proposed $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable. The combined company would be in a position to provide high-capacity data services to almost two-thirds of American households and to tightly control everything flowing over its pipe. It could extract unconstrained fees for access to its subscribers or for entry to its network. And it would have the ability to charge different fees for different services, and to protect the success of its affiliated streaming-video assets like Streampix (and other uses of its network requiring high-capacity data) at the expense of others, thereby undermining the ideals of net neutrality...."

Alibaba to acquire AutoNavi in $1.5 billion deal | ZDNet: "Alibaba likely has specific intentions on how it will use AutoNavi's mobile-map capabilities. Licenses that allow the mapping of Chinese roads are scant, and AutoNavi holds the keys to one of the few. Alibaba could fold that map muscle into its own platform, giving would-be shoppers directions to nearby stores and sending them mobile ads once they're inside. China's mushrooming online market has reached 618 million users, 80 percent of which are mobile."

Facebook Received 28,147 Government Requests in H2 2013: "Since Facebook only released its first report in August 2013, we can’t compare to see how these results compare to previous years. We can, however, compare the second half of 2013 (July to December) against the first half (January to June), as well as get a total for the full year."

Apple and Samsung spar over huge damages claim
PCWorld
Apple outlined for the first time on Friday how it came up with the $2.2 billion ... “If I was, I wouldn't be working for Microsoft, for Amazon,” Vellturo said, ...

Facebook Adds Censorship Data to Transparency Report
PC Magazine
Facebook on Friday released its second official government transparency ... Facebookand firms like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have also been ...

Amazon Plans 3D Phone: Report
InformationWeek
Amazon is preparing to release a smartphone of its own this fall, according to a ... a June announcement, it might try doing so on June 24th, to upstage Google. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ... will include 4 3D sensors to track gestures -- like Microsoft Kinect -- and that it ...

Microsoft, Apple Diverge on Bankrolling Big Patent Buyer
Voice of America
Microsoft, Sony, Intel and Apple also would not comment. ... Some companies likeGoogle Inc publicly supported the bill, which included a provision to ...

Amazon Adds Digital Comic Books to Its Content Super Team
Businessweek
Amazon acquired ComiXology, a leading online hub for comics. ... tech: Facebooksnapping up the virtual reality firm Oculus Rift or Google buying Nest. ... that Amazon, outspent and outgunned by companies such as Apple (AAPL), ...

Google Glass Goes Public
InformationWeek
Once a club for favored developers, Google's Glass Explorer Program will open its doors ...Apple is also said to be working on a computerized watch.

Facebook Unfriends In-App Mobile Messaging
InformationWeek
Facebook is phasing out the in-app chat feature in its iOS and Android apps and wants users to download a separate app to chat with friends.

Google quashes 31 vulnerabilities, restores Metro mode 'steppers' with Chrome 34
Computerworld
On the same day, Google also refreshed Chrome OS, its browser-based ... Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and ...

Google Translate Now Lets You Edit Entire Translations - The Next Web
By Paul Sawers
Google has introduced, or is at least trialing, a new feature that makes it easier for users to edit results in Google Translate. As the unofficial Google.
The Next Web

Are Facebook Ads a Failure? | Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content...
By Jim Tobin
More recently, they've partnered with Google to make it easier for advertisers to reach theFacebook Exchange ad inventory. All fine moves, but miles ...
Convince and Convert: Social...

Study: Brands still overwhelmingly prefer photos on Facebook - Inside Facebook
By Justin Lafferty
Though Facebook has tried to make its link share post format more visual, with bigger images, many marketers still prefer to simply post photos ...
Inside Facebook

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Heartbleed Password Changes, Security Experts Warning

Heartbleed: don't rush to update passwords, security experts warn | Technology | theguardian.com: "...But suggestions by Yahoo and the BBC that people should change their passwords at once – the typical reaction to a security breach – could make the problem worse if the web server hasn't been updated to fix the flaw, says Mark Schloesser, a security researcher with Rapid7, based in Atlanta, Georgia. Doing so "could even increase the chance of somebody getting the new password through the vulnerability," Schloesser said, because logging in to an insecure server to change a password could reveal both the old and new passwords to an attacker...." (read more at link above)

Google Services Updated to Address OpenSSL CVE-2014-0160 (the Heartbleed bug)

We've assessed this vulnerability and applied patches to key Google services such as Search, Gmail, YouTube, Wallet, Play, Apps, and App Engine....Android - All versions of Android are immune to CVE-2014-0160 (with the limited exception of Android 4.1.1; patching information for Android 4.1.1 is being distributed to Android partners)....
googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/.../google-services-updated...

Amazon Fire TV misses the same marks as Ouya, other media boxes | Ars Technica: " When we looked closer at the Fire TV, we saw some solutions. But these fixes are too half-baked and too limited in scope. Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't appear to be looking for an answer to the big media box issues as much as it's interested in finding less-glaring ways of cutting the same corners. As a result, functionality is expended for Amazon's own self-absorption."

T-Mobile CEO teases Uncarrier 5.0, says 'we are by far not done' - CNET: "...T-Mobile launched its "Simple Starter" plan, a $40 option for customers who don't necessarily use a lot of data on their phones (it's capped at 500 megabytes). But that's just the beginning. Legere said he plans to make two more announcements -- one on Thursday and a third on Friday. He wouldn't provide any details, saying only that they would be "equal or greater" to the Simple Starter plan. Legere also teased that T-Mobile would be holding "at least" one more Uncarrier event this year -- Uncarrier 5.0 -- suggesting a much larger promotion or program in the works..."

Jony Ive shakes up Apple’s software design group, iPhone interface creator Greg Christie departing | 9to5Mac: "...Following friction between top Apple Human Interface Vice President Greg Christie and Senior Vice President Jony Ive, Apple’s hardware and software design is being dramatically shaken up, according to sources familiar with the matter. After adding human interface design direction to his responsibilities in 2012, Ive will soon completely subsume Apple’s software design group, wresting control away from long-time human interface design chief Christie, according to sources briefed on the matter. Previous to this shakeup, all Apple software design has been led by Christie, who has reported to Craig Federighi, and Ive has been attending interface design meetings and providing instruction…"

Comcast Quietly Preps Challenge to Wireless Carriers - The Information: "Comcast officials recently told people outside the company that it was considering a mobile phone service, which would rely on a combination of Wi-Fi and leased capacity on cellular networks...."

Will Facebook-Oculus purchase advance virtual reality?
USA TODAY
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was 9 years old when the Sega VR headset graced the cover of Popular Science. Virtual reality in 1993 was a ...

Microsoft suspends Windows 8.1 Update release to businesses
Computerworld
Computerworld - Microsoft on Tuesday suspended serving Windows 8.1 Update to businesses that rely on WSUS (Windows Server Update Services), ...

Facebook feud fires alarm over public service snoop plans
Sydney Morning Herald
Federal government departments are using increasingly powerful cyber-snooping equipment to monitor the social media lives of millions of ...

Apple's Top Product Pundit Predicts 2014: Here's What You Need To Know
Forbes
Because Apple Apple rumors come and go faster than the latest celebrity gossip, it's often challenging to to know whether they are worthy of your ...

Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg rules out run for public office
San Jose Mercury News
Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg sought Wednesday to spike persistent rumors that she may ... or google.com/+BrandonBaileyOnline or on Facebook at ...

Google exec reiterates commitment to mobile payments
CNET
Google Payments chief Ariel Bardin tells attendees at a payment conference that .... There are also several other potential competitors, such as PayPal and Amazon. ... (The latest rumor is that Google and Apple have each talked to Square about possible ...Microsoft to Windows XP users: The jig is up.

How Google forced Microsoft to change its business
USA TODAY
Last week, Microsoft (ticker:MSFT) made a radical change to its business model, effectively doing away with the strategy that helped it dominate ...

Twitter and Facebook Wield Little Influence on TV Watching - NYTimes.com - NYTimes.com
By By VINDU GOEL
While many Twitter and Facebook users don't post updates on those services while ... Listen to executives at Twitter and Facebook talk about how we watch ... female employee who was left out of her 5-person start-up's acquisition by Google. ... Readers Respond: How Should Apple Spend Its Billions?
NYT Bits

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Protected Setup™ adds NFC tap-to-connect for simple set up of security-protected Wi-Fi® devices and networks | Reuters: "Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Protected Setup™ now offers consumers a simplified option to set up Wi-Fi connections, even on devices without a user interface. Users can now connect devices certified for this capability by simply tapping them together, activating a security-protected Wi-Fi connection."

New 'Switch' Could Power Quantum Computing
MIT Technology Review
A light lattice that traps atoms may help scientists build networks of quantum information transmitters. By Peter Dizikes on April 9, 2014. Using a laser to place individual rubidium atoms near the surface of a lattice of light, scientists at MIT and Harvard ...
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AutoCast for Chromecast

AutoCast -  AutoCast is a Tasker plugin that gives you full control over your Chromecast. It not only enables you to cast images, audio and video from Tasker, but you can also cast and control many other local or web contents, like YouTube videos and playlists, notifications, voice, and web pages! You can also take over other apps that are being cast and control their playback! Get the app here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...
Other apps used in the video:
Tasker: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...
AutoNotification: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de... (to intercept Android notifications)
AutoVoice: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de... (for voice commands)
AutoShare: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de... (to share stuff from the browser and gallery app)
AutoRemote: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de... (to cast from my PC)
BubbleUPnP: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de... (to cast system audio; check how to do it here: http://joaoapps.com/autocast/faq/)

'AutoCast' for Android might be the most useful Chromecast app yet | VentureBeat | "...Yet the real selling point for AutoCast is its ability to let you multitask via Chromecast-connected TVs. That means you can cast a slideshow of photos to your TV’s screen and have music playing in the background that uses the TV’s speakers. This also means you can get notifications while you’re watching a movie.
AutoCast is available now for free in the Google Play Store..."

Google's Project Loon balloon circles Earth in a record 22 days - CNET: "The tech giant may have found its darling with Ibis-167. Surfing air currents and dodging the polar vortex, the Wi-Fi carrying balloon beat all odds in its recent journey...."

Microsoft takes steps to improve its Windows 8 business-app story
ZDNet
Microsoft's onerous requirements for sideloading Windows Store/Metro-Style apps is one of the reasons for the dearth. Sideloading is the way ...

HTC's M8: Get This Smartphone Before It's Too Late?: "Chou says in a March 25 company statement. “Today I’m proud to launch the most stunning, intuitive and advanced handset that the industry has seen to date, the new HTC One (M8).”"

Amazon Fire TV review: A great device, but not fully ready
IBNLive
Apple TV already has all that, but it doesn't offer Amazon Instant Video directly on the device. ... You can also check email and Facebook. ... Meanwhile, Google Inc. has a $35 streaming device called the Chromecast. ...

Google working on new Android TV platform: Report
Times of India
NEW DELHI: It appears that Google has not given up on the idea of creating its ... to compete with Apple TV and Amazon's recently unveiled Fire TV offering. ... Google wants developers to create simple apps for Android TV and is ....

Apple's Deep Pockets: What $159 Billion Could Do
New York Times (blog)
And tech giants like Apple, Google and Microsoft had the most. ... Amazon has bought robot makers, e-commerce services and hardware start-ups. And Facebook has spent more than $20 billion in just the last two months on a ...

Facebook post saves girl's vision as 'glow in the eye' raises alarm
WXIA-TV
When her 3-year-old daughter gave herself a new hairdo last fall, Tara Taylor proudly posted a photo of the look on Facebook. It wasn't the cute bows ...

Microsoft Office for iPad: Hit or miss?
Business Standard
Microsoft Office. These two ... one from Microsoft. Office for iPad, though, will remain on my Apple tablet, even if I'm not going to subscribe to Office 365.

Google pays EU fine for Street View breaches
HeraldNet
LUXEMBOURG - Google paid a $1.37 million fine in Italy after the local regulator found its Street View cars drove incognito across the country, ...

Microsoft's open sourcing of .Net: The back story
ZDNet
Microsoft's move to open source key chunks of its .Net platform was one of the biggest announcements at Microsoft's Build 2014 show last week.

Google's climb of Mount Meru
The Hindu
“Do you really want to climb this?” asked the journalist next to me as we looked up at the steep flight of steps leading up to Mount Meru. No, this was ...

Apple Acknowledges Consumers Want Larger and Cheaper Phones - Mac Rumors
By Arnold Kim
The latest internal documents coming out of the Samsung/Apple trial show some candid insight into Apple's analysis of the future of the smartphone ...
MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors...

"Night Walk In Marseille" Is The Best Use Of Google Maps So Far - BuzzFeed
buzzfeed.com
Let Google take you on a magnificent tour of the French city's streets at night. .. ... Don't forget to share with your friends on Twitter and Facebook.
www.buzzfeed.com/.../night-walk-in-marseille-is-the-best-use-...

Google Recently Studied Square Acquisition - The Information
theinformation.com
Google recently pondered an acquisition of payment company Square, according to two people briefed on the company's thinking. The companies ...
https://www.theinformation.com/Google-Recently-Studied-Sq...

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Amazon Fire TV, not ready for Prime time?

Amazon Fire TV: $99 for the basic box + $99 for Amazon Prime subscription + $40 for Game Controller = $238 vs. $35 for a Chromecast

Amazon Fire TV review - CNET: "The Bad - The user interface strongly favors Amazon Instant content over other services, and the voice-search feature doesn't comb through Netflix or most other non-Amazon apps. Some major apps are missing, including HBO Go and Spotify. The $99 price feels relatively expensive, especially since you really need the $40 Fire Game Controller and a Prime subscription to get the most out of the box."

Brendan Eich steps down as Mozilla CEO after equality controversy
BetaNews
Brendan Eich is no longer the CEO of Mozilla. Effective today, he has stepped down. This news is rather bittersweet for me. While I disagree with Eich's perceived stance on marriage equality, I defend his right to express it. However, I also support the rights of ...

Nest halts detector sales, citing safety
Boston Globe
Nest Labs, the home automation company recently acquired by Google for $3.2 billion, said Thursday that it was halting sales of its smoke and carbon monoxide detector over safety concerns. Tony Fadell, the chief executive of Nest, said in a letter posted on ...

Microsoft's mobile moves: Still your father's technology company
Network World
This has been a big week for Microsoft, with a flood of new announcements and changes of direction. Along with its Build conference, new CEO Satya Nadella has made a number of moves designed to reverse the public perception that the company is an ...

Amazon Fire TV takes aim at Roku and Apple TV (+video)
Christian Science Monitor
Amazon has taken the wraps off a set-top box called the Fire TV, which can be used to stream a range of content, from video games to sitcoms and feature-length films. Skip to next paragraph. Recent posts. 04.03.14. Microsoft set to bring Internet Explorer 11 ...

Unreal Engine 4.1 update brings Linux/SteamOS support, free Elemental demo
Computerandvideogames.com
Unreal Engine will receive an update "later this month" that'll add initial support for Linux and SteamOS, Epic has confirmed. The company released detailed information on the Unreal Engine 4.1 update on Thursday, which will expand one of the industry's ...

New atomic clock will neither gain nor lose one second in about 300 million years
Business Standard
U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has launched a new atomic clock, called NIST-F2, which will serve as the new US time standard, and will neither gain nor lose one second in about 300 million years.

5 Facebook problems you need to fix right now
Charleston Post Courier
Facebook has been in the news a lot recently. Mark Zuckerberg bought the What's App company in February for a staggering, mind-blowing, huge - I'm running out of adjectives here - $19 billion. Last week, the company bought a little-known virtual-reality ...

5-year-old Ocean Beach boy exposes Microsoft Xbox vulnerability
10News
Click to view the latest contests and giveaways to find out how you can become a winner! ABC 10 Contests · More About Us. Weather. Back. All Weather Wildfires Radar Interactive National Weather Earthquake Preparedness. Weather. 277559704 - Weather ...

Apple Buys UK Voice Recognition Company Novauris
The Mac Observer
Apple CEO Tim Cook has made another corporate purchase, a UK voice recognition firm called Novauris. Bloomberg reported the acquisition, and Apple confirmed it without specifying terms or the purpose to which it will put Novauris. Apple Buys Novauris.

Europe's earth-monitoring Sentinel satellite heads into space
euronews
It is a revolutionary eye in the sky in what has been dubbed the most ambitious Earth observation venture ever. European radar satellite Sentinel-1a is being launched on Thursday. A fleet of other Sentinels will follow in coming years as part of Copernicus, ...

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T-Mobile fastest 4G LTE network, but goodbye BlackBerry

Sprint is the worst -- no wonder Sprint is trying to take over T-Mobile --

T-Mobile ranked fastest 4G LTE network in the US, Sprint the worst: "If you’re lucky to live in an area where T-Mobile has a good 4G LTE coverage, then you’re using the fastest 4G LTE network in the U.S. According to a report conducted in February, T-Mobile has the fastest 4G LTE network in the US, study from OpenSignal concluded...."

BlackBerry Ending US Licensing Deal With T-Mobile - ABC News: "BlackBerry's existing licensing agreement with T-Mobile U.S. Inc. expires on April 25."

Amazon announces $99 Fire TV set-top box, available now | The Verge: "Apple and Roku have a new competitor in the living room. Amazon just announced its own video streaming device: the $99 Amazon Fire TV. It starts shipping today. "We need to invent and simplify on behalf of customers," said Amazon's Peter Larsen. During the presentation, Larsen went over three pain points of current devices: search, performance, and "closed ecosystem." Fire TV promises to avoid the problems that plague other living room hardware, according to Larsen."

Microsoft announces Cortana smartphone voice search
USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft on Wednesday announced new features for ... a widely anticipated Siri- and Google Now-like voice assistant called Cortana. ... e-mail and the like, similar to what you find on Android and Apple devices. Microsoft also announced new features for the Start Screen and a ...

Apple and Samsung Reprise Patent Fight (With Google a Shadow Presence)
New York Times
SAN JOSE, Calif. — As lawyers for Apple and Samsung made their opening statements in their patent trial in a federal courthouse here, they could not ...

Microsoft demos touch-focused Office apps at Build
PCWorld (blog)
Less than a week after introducing Office for iPad, Microsoft showed off the progress of touch-friendly Metro Office apps at its Build conference keynote ...

Microsoft Battles Google, Amazon In Cloud Price War
InformationWeek
Microsoft executives have previously said they planned to match AWS pricing, but that was before both Google and Amazon enacted steep drops in ...

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Now Among Billionaire CEOs Earning $1 Salary
Forbes
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now the company's ... Zuckerberg — worth $27.8 billion mostly in Facebook stock — requested an annual ... Google's Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page, worth roughly $30 billion a ...

Google's 'evil' stock split
Fortune
It's been almost 10 years since Google famously told the world in its filing for an initial public offering that ... Google now is worth more than Microsoft.

Apple patches Safari's Pwn2Own vulnerability, two-dozen other critical bugs
Computerworld
Apple on Tuesday patched the security vulnerability in Safari that was ... Of the others, more than half were reported by the Google Chrome security team, ... 

HP agrees to pay $57 million to settle shareholder lawsuit | Reuters: "...The lawsuit was filed after former Chief Executive Leo Apotheker shocked investors on August 18, 2011 by announcing plans to refocus the company on business services and products. He also revealed plans to scrap WebOS, whose rights HP had obtained when it bought Palm Inc in 2010; pay $11.1 billion for British software company Autonomy Plc; and possibly spin off HP's personal computer business. The company also halted sales of the TouchPad, after just seven weeks on the market....The case is Gammel et al v. Hewlett-Packard Co et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 11-01404."

How Gmail Happened: The Inside Story of Its Launch 10 Years Ago Today | TIME.com: " . . . One remarkable thing about Gmail that wasn’t obvious in 2004: Its creators built it to last. The current incarnations of Outlook.com and Yahoo Mail have nothing to do with the email services Microsoft and Yahoo offered 10 years ago. But Gmail–despite having added features more or less continuously and gone through some significant redesigns–is still Gmail. “I can’t think of another app that has existed so close to its original form for 10 years,” says Fox. “Someone who had only used Gmail in its first iteration and suddenly used it today would still understand Gmail. They’d know how to use it for virtually everything they’d want to do.”..."

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