Paid-for news 'gains favour online'
A study by Reuters suggests more people are becoming willing to buy online news, but warns that social media may be eroding brand recognition.
06/20/2013 12:13 AM

Microsoft U-turn in Xbox games row
Microsoft backtracks on controversial plans to impose strict restrictions on the playing and trading of games on its upcoming Xbox One console.
06/19/2013 10:43 PM

Xcom iOS app priced at premium
A US publisher is pricing a sci-fi video game for iPhones and iPads at more than double the cost high-end titles are usually sold for on those devices.
06/19/2013 06:41 PM

Smart ring and socks unveiled
A ring that unlocks smartphones and socks which provide feedback about footsteps are the latest devices in the growing wearable tech sector.
06/19/2013 01:59 PM

PlayStation update freezing consoles
A system software update has rendered some PlayStation 3 consoles unusable, manufacturer Sony confirms.
06/19/2013 12:03 PM

Huawei unveils 'slimmest' smartphone
Huawei unveils the world's slimmest smartphone saying the handset will work "miracles" for its brand.
06/18/2013 03:03 PM

Huge 'holograms' created for doctors
Two junior doctors develop giant 3D animations of human body parts to make medics' lectures more memorable.
06/18/2013 06:48 PM

Sharp brings giant 90in TV to Europe
Sharp puts a record-sized TV on sale in Europe, but its 1080p resolution means owners will need a relatively large room to be able to watch it.
06/18/2013 12:53 AM

Sao Paulo, Rio revoke transport fare hikes as protests continue
SAO PAULO/FORTALEZA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's two biggest cities agreed on Wednesday to revoke an increase in public transportation fares that set off demonstrations that have grown into nationwide protests against poor public services, inflation and corruption.
06/20/2013 02:06 AM

Obama challenges Russia to agree to deeper nuclear weapon cuts
BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama used a speech in Berlin on Wednesday to call on Russia to revive the push for a world without nuclear weapons, offering to cut deployed nuclear arsenals by a third, but Moscow immediately poured scorn on his proposal.


06/20/2013 02:05 AM

Afghan government to shun U.S. talks with Taliban
KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Revived Afghan peace talks hit their first roadblock on Wednesday, a day after they were announced, as Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government would not join U.S. talks with the Taliban and would halt negotiations with Washington on a post-2014 troop pact.
06/20/2013 01:42 AM

Sao Paulo, Rio revoke transport fare hikes as protests continue
SAO PAULO/FORTALEZA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's two biggest cities agreed on Wednesday to revoke an increase in public transportation fares that set off demonstrations that have grown into nationwide protests against poor public services, inflation and corruption.


06/20/2013 12:17 AM

Myanmar constitution likely to dash Suu Kyi's presidential hopes
YANGON (Reuters) - Her adoring compatriots believe democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi is destined to become Myanmar's next president. But don't bet on it.


06/20/2013 12:02 AM

Analysis: Brazil's protests: Not quite a 'Tropical Spring'
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's blossoming protest movement is a coming-of-age for what had been one of Latin America's most politically disengaged youth populations, but does not appear to constitute a major threat to governability or established political parties.
06/19/2013 11:59 PM

Amazon Vows To Fight Government Requests For Data
itwbennett writes "Speaking at a cloud panel discussion hosted by Reuters on Wednesday, Terry Wise, head of global partner ecosystem for Amazon Web Services, explained how the company handles government requests for data stored on Amazon's cloud: 'If a U.S. entity is serving us with a legally binding subpoena, we contact our customer and work with that customer to fight the subpoena.' But Wise's best advice to customers is to encrypt their data: 'If the data is encrypted, all we'd be handing over would be the cypher text,' he said."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

01/01/1970 01:00 AM

2 Men Accused of Trying To Make X-Ray Weapon
gurps_npc writes "Two radical pro-Israel terrorists were caught in upstate NY when they tried to solicit money from various honorable Jewish organizations to build a truck based x-ray weapon. They intended to drive the truck around and then turn on the x-ray machine, focusing on enemies of Israel. But the Jewish organizations they tried to solicit money from refused to participate. Instead they called the FBI, who promptly set up a sting. The men were arrested before the machine was in working order."

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01/01/1970 01:00 AM

Monsanto Executive Wins World Food Prize
sfcrazy writes "A top Monsanto executive has won the prestigious World Food Prize. Secretary of State John Kerry announced the award where Robert T. Fraley, the executive vice president and CTO of Monsanto, won the prize along with two other scientists from Belgium and the US. The award was given for devising a method to insert genes from another organism into plant sell, which could produce new genetic lines with highly favorable traits."

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01/01/1970 01:00 AM

Microsoft Launches $100k Bug Bounty Program
Trailrunner7 writes "After years of saying that the company didn't need a bug bounty program, Microsoft is starting one. The company today will announce the start of a new program that will pay security researchers up to $100,000 for serious vulnerabilities and as much as $50,000 for new defensive techniques that help protect against those flaws. Microsoft security officials say that the program has been a long time in development, and the factor that made this the right time to launch is the recent rise of vulnerability brokers. Up until quite recently, most of the researchers who found bugs in Microsoft products reported them directly to the company. That's no longer the case. The system that Microsoft is kicking off on June 26 will pay researchers $100,000 for a new exploit technique that is capable of bypassing the latest existing mitigations in the newest version of Windows."

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01/01/1970 01:00 AM

The Plight of Star Wars Droids
malachiorion writes "Does George Lucas hate metal people? I know, sounds like standard click-bait, but I think I present a relatively troll-free argument in the piece I wrote for Slate. We stuck to the Star Wars canon, pointing out the relatively grim state of affairs for droid rights, and the lack of any real sympathy for their plight from the heroes, or, it would seem, George Lucas. C-3PO is more correct than he might realize, when the says that droids 'seem to be made to suffer.'"

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01/01/1970 01:00 AM

Java API and Microsoft's .NET API: a Comparison
Nerval's Lobster writes "Previously, developer Jeff Cogswell focused on the respective performances of C# and Java. Now he's looking at yet another aspect of the languages: the runtime libraries—what exactly the libraries are, how they are called, and what features the languages provide for calling into them. Examining the official Java API (now owned by Oracle) and the official .NET API owned by Microsoft, he finds both pretty complete and pretty much a 'tie' with regard to ease-of-use and functionality, especially since Java version 7 release 6 allows for automatic resource management. Read on and see if you agree."

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01/01/1970 01:00 AM

MakerBot Merging With Stratasys
MakerBot Industries, creators of the popular Thing-O-Matic and Replicator line of 3-D printers, is being acquired by Stratasys, a company that's been working on 3-D printing and production systems since 1989. '[Stratasys] facilitates the printing of prototypes, concepts, components, parts and more on an industrial scale and for commercial applications. ... Stratasys has demonstrated it’s going to be aggressive about owning the 3D printing space, and the MakerBot buy is the consumer-focused piece in that puzzle. For MakerBot, it gives the startup access to Stratasys’ wealth of industry experience.' According to the official news release, 'MakerBot will operate as a separate subsidiary of Stratasys, maintaining its own identity, products and go-to-market strategy.' MakerBot has sold 11,000 of its Replicator 2 devices in the past 9 months, accounting for half of all its 3-D printer sales since 2009.

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01/01/1970 01:00 AM

Microsoft Kills Xbox One Phone-Home DRM
One of the biggest criticisms of Microsoft's recently-announced Xbox One console was that it would require an internet connection once every 24 hours in order to keep playing games. Enough people complained about the DRM, and Microsoft listened. Today, they announced that they're removing the phone-home requirement. "After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360." They've also scrapped the game trading and resale system they'd built, which allowed publishers to set their own rules with regard to used game sales. "There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360." Unfortunately, that also means users won't be able to take advantage of the good parts of the original system, such as trading and gifting games without needing the disc, or sharing games with remote family members. "While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds." Also noteworthy: they've dropped region-locks as well.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

01/01/1970 01:00 AM