Facebook has been throwing its financial weight around this week once again, announcing the purchase of yet another firm, this one a video advertising company called LiveRail. Costing the social network a reported $500 million (£291 million), it's expected that Facebook will leverage its content matching technology to add relevant adverts …
Read More »Bitcoin should be regulated by EU, claims finance firm
Circle, a bitcoin financing company that provides wallet functions for online use, as well as new tools for utilising the digital currency, has called on the EU to offer regulatory support for bitcoin, suggesting that the continued growth of its acceptance is an indicator that it could very well be the …
Read More »Google is starting to forget BBC and Guardian articles
Google has begun complying with EU privacy law and is processing “right to be forgotten” requests. However, the process seems to be removing BBC and Guardian news articles from the search engine. The Guardian's James Ball has said that six of the paper's articles have been removed so far and …
Read More »NZ Police blocked from sending Dotcom passwords to FBI
It looks like Kim Dotcom might get access to some of his seized data after all, as the police are finally going to give it to him. However, one stumbling block on the road to data freedom was that if Dotcom unlocked the encrypted data, those passwords would be sent to …
Read More »Worldwide ISPs and Privacy International go after GCHQ
GCHQ, the British intelligence agency that is responsible for Tempora, the UK's version of the NSA's PRISM spying scheme which hoovers up data on citizens and foreign nationals alike without permission, is going to have to defend itself in court, as a handful of internet service providers from around the …
Read More »GlobalFoundries to upgrade one of its Singapore fabs to 300mm
GlobalFoundries, one of the world’s top contract makers of semiconductors, said this week it will upgrade one of its 200mm semiconductor production facilities in Singapore. The move will help the company to expand production capacities and increase output of chips made using advanced fabrication technologies. Although GlobalFoundries is one of …
Read More »Canon and Microsoft sign broad cross-licensing agreement
Microsoft Corp. and Canon on Wednesday said that they have signed a broad patent cross-licensing agreement. Thanks to the new pact the two companies gain licenses to each other’s highly valued and growing patent portfolios. Theoretically, Canon’s licensing of Microsoft patents may indicate that the company is preparing a family …
Read More »Oculus dev kit 2 to start shipping this month
The new Oculus Rift development kit has been up for pre-order for a while now but Oculus has announced that it is finally ready to start shipping the headset. Ten thousand of the 45,000 pre orders will ship this month with the rest shipping shortly after. Oculus VR Community Manager, …
Read More »UK could ban revenge porn
Taking a note out of Australia's book, the UK could be soon set to make revenge pornography, the practice of uploading sexually explicit images of someone (usually an ex-partner) to the internet without their consent, illegal. This news comes from the British justice secretary, Chris Grayling, who said that the …
Read More »Facebook to boost developing country ads with call-backs
One of the biggest issues for a company like Facebook when it comes to delivering adverts, is that it needs bandwidth for them to work properly. While the idea of a 30 second video or high resolution image is scoffed at by the internet connections of the Western world, in …
Read More »Vaio launches as independent PC company in Japan
Earlier this year Sony Corp. decided to sell off its money-losing Vaio personal computer business to Japan Industrial Partners, an investment fund. As expected, on the 1st of July Vaio Inc. began its operations as an independent PC company. Initially the firm will only operate in Japan, but it hopes …
Read More »Google Glass banned from UK Cinemas
Shortly after the release of Google Glass in the UK, The Cinema Exhibitors Association has banned the smart glasses from UK cinemas. The CEA represents most big chain cinemas in the country and is worried that bootleggers will use the device to illegally distribute movies, despite its 30 minutes to 45 …
Read More »Government: UK should become robotics world leader
Robotics might be something you consider the Japanese good at, or the Americans perhaps, maybe even the Russians, but not necessarily the British. That's something that the Technology Strategy Board wants to change and it has plenty of ideas how. By 2025, it wants the UK to become a hotbed …
Read More »Synology announces DSM and product launch event
Synology has announced its next event which will see the launch of the next stage of the company's famous Diskstation Manager (DSM) operating system along with some new products that are due to hit the market in the fourth quarter of 2014. The event will take place at the Millbank Media …
Read More »Moto 360 smartwatch might feature Moto Maker customization
New rumors are suggesting that Motorola's upcoming smartwatch, the Moto 360, could launch with the company's “Moto Maker” customization options. Moto Maker was launched last year alongside the Moto X smartphone, the ability to choose your own colors and build materials was arguably the biggest selling point for the device …
Read More »Ukranians crowdfund military drone-tech for army
Ukraine's current relationship with its neighbours in the East hasn't been the most care-free as of late, with tension and hostilities rising from both local and Russian camps. The problem on the Ukrainian side of things though, is that there's no budget to equip its soldiers, leading many to have …
Read More »Facebook conducts psychological study on users
Facebook is finding itself under attack this morning, after news emerged that it had conducted a psychological experiment on just under 690,000 of its users without their permission. In conjunction with two universities, it manipulated the news feeds of individuals to see if it affected their regular posting habits. The …
Read More »Intel’s sales chief steps down, will work on corporate strategy
Thomas M. Kilroy, executive vice president and general manager of the sales and marketing group (SMG) at Intel Corp., has announced that he would step down from his position. After returning to the company after his leave of absence on the 17th of July, he will be responsible for the …
Read More »Foxconn eyes robots, electric cars, wearables and cloud services
Foxconn Electronics, the world’s largest contract maker of consumer electronics and the main manufacturing partner of Apple, plans to make wearable computing devices, robots and even electric cars, the company’s chief executive officer said this week. Foxconn has been trying to expand and diversify its business for years and now …
Read More »Baboom music on how it plans to disrupt and reinvent industry
Kim Dotcom might be most well known for his file lockers, Megaupload and Mega, but he's also put a lot of time and resources into developing Baboom, a music sharing and sales platform for the new generation. In a new video, Baboom's head of content and platform, Mikee Tucker has …
Read More »Youtube to add 60FPS feature in future
As part of its yearly VidCon gathering of users and video creators, Youtube has announced a whole host of features that will be coming to the video sharing site over the next few months. Most of it is designed to give creators more ways to interact with their fans or …
Read More »IBM faces roadblocks with sale of server, semiconductor businesses
International Business Machines Corp. is expected to accomplish two important transactions this year: it is projected to complete sale of its x86 server division to Lenovo Group and it is rumoured that the company will also agree to sell its semiconductor manufacturing business to GlobalFoundries. However, the U.S. regulators may …
Read More »Google starts granting ‘Right to be forgotten’ requests
Google is now complying with a European Court of Justice ruling made last month, requiring the company to remove specific personal information from search results upon a user's request. Searching for a person on a European Google site will now come with a disclaimer saying that some information may have …
Read More »Hyundai to kill speeding fines with auto-braking
We're still a few years off of Google's self-driving cars taking over, so until then, we have to watch out for speed cameras, especially if you like to goose it on an open road. However Hyundai may eliminate that need in the near future, as it's upcoming Genesis saloon will …
Read More »You could head to space in 2016 for just £44,000
Getting in to space has always been an expensive affair. It's come down a lot over the years, but whether you were one of the early NASA or Russian sponsored astronauts who sat on top of billions in development costs, or the first few space tourists that spent upwards of …
Read More »Would you retake your privacy with the Visor stealth-hoodie?
Personal privacy is a hot topic in the aftermath of the Edward Snowden revelations – and the government's call for even more surveillance – but beyond using Tor, a VPN or an encryption system, there often doesn't seem to be much of a way to hide yourself from the world. …
Read More »Razer has announced plans to release an Android TV console
During Google's I/O conference today, it was announced that Razer would be releasing a gaming focused micro console powered by Android TV. Razer is best known for its gaming peripherals alongside its Blade gaming laptop but the company does like to expand with cool projects every so often. Android TV …
Read More »Google Glass is now available in the UK
The Google Glass was first made available in the US last year but the wearable is now making its way over to the UK for the first time. In addition to the UK launch, the Google Glass is getting a hardware upgrade too, bumping it up to 2GB of RAM …
Read More »UK Home Secretary calls for more government surveilance
Despite last year's Edward Snowden revelations kicking off big debates about government intrusion in the day to day lives of internet and telephone users the world over, the British government doesn't feel like it has enough eyes on its citizens. The Home Secretary, Theresa May, recently made a speech about …
Read More »Apple’s new HQ is starting to take shape
Apple began construction work on its new headquarters in Cupertino, California late last year, but the foundations are only just starting to give us a real idea of what the final building will look like. Thanks to the efforts of one traffic reporter, there's a few aerial shots doing the …
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