Latest Internet News

17 September 2013
News: Internet.org looks to 'Facebook for Every Phone'

The companies behind Internet.org, the organization formed by Facebook, Qualcomm and several others to bring the Internet to areas that still don't have it, released a document (PDF) yesterday detailing some of their plans for the initiative. One section stands out in particular, if only for its title – Facebook for Every Phone.
News: Reddit learns lesson, bans subreddit created to find Washington Navy Yard shooters

Reddit is being applauded for quickly nixing a subreddit dedicated to finding shooters involved in killing a dozen people Monday at Washington Navy Yard.
News: Space storms causing satellite failures that blunt Internet and TVs

Space weather, like solar flares and geomagnetic storms, are knocking out satellites that people rely on to check out their Facebook pages, to tweet and to watch TV.
News: Bing gets a tuneup, but still grapples with the query: "How to top Google?"

Microsoft still hasn't found what it's looking for in the search market -- a way to beat Google -- but it's not giving up just yet.
News: Bing gets a Modern makeover and smarter search results

Bing for browsers has always been eye-catching, but since the release of Windows 8, it's seemed a bit like the black sheep of the Metro family. No more! Today, Microsoft announced it's giving Bing a Modern-style makeover to welcome the search engine back into the " One Microsoft" fold--and the refresh includes redesigns of some Google-like features that Bing already offers.
News: Scientists prove the existence of the Internet Hate Machine

If you've been on the Internet for more than a day, you probably noticed it's a bit... angry. All the time. On its best days there's a thin layer of snark coating the famed series of tubes. On its worst days, well, the Internet tries to get someone fired for giving a game a 9/10 rating instead of a 10/10 or Anna Gunn has to write a New York Times op-ed about receiving death threats because people hate her Breaking Bad character or a social network identifies the wrong man as a terrorist or...
News: Google buys Bump for smoother file sharing

Android, Chrome, and maybe even the iPhone could get a jolt in the file sharing department with Google's acquisition of Bump, which was announced Monday.
16 September 2013
News: Netflix turns to pirates to pick new shows

If you're wondering which TV shows Netflix hopes to add to its catalog in the coming months, look no further than sites like the Pirate Bay. When the online streaming company wants to figure out what people are watching, Netflix looks at what does well on piracy sites, Netflix vice president of content acquisition Kelly Merryman reportedly told the Dutch-language site, Tweakers.
News: Rdio to rock free, ad-supported tunes by end of 2013 thanks to radio partnership

With so many free streaming choices available to music fans in the U.S., some services are struggling to find an audience. On a given day, the average online music fan can hop from their personal library on Google Play Music, to Pandora radio-like tunes, to the on-demand listening of Spotify and Xbox Music--all without paying a dime.
News: Barclays moves into mobile commerce with Pingit app upgrade

Barclays has launched updates to its Pingit app that will expand the bank's reach into mobile payments, kicking off the race among financial services firms to deliver m-commerce platforms.
News: China's Tencent expands search engine presence with Sogou deal

Competition in China's search market is heating up with a new US$448 million deal that will bolster Internet giant Tencent's presence in the country's search market.
News: Mozilla postpones Metro Firefox release to late January

Mozilla said slower-than-expected progress on Firefox for Microsoft's Windows 8 "Modern" user interface means that the touch-based browser likely won't launch until late January.
News: Who's actually writing your favorite celebrity's tweets?

Now in his mid-70s, actor George Takei has found new fame as a beloved social media maven boasting millions of followers across his varioussocial networking accounts. That's some heavy digital mojo for an actor best known for a supporting role on a short-lived 1960s TV series and occasional guest appearances on The Howard Stern Show. There's a very good reason for his newfound digital popularity, though: Takei's meme-orific posts are absolutely delightful!
14 September 2013
News: 5 pilots (and one returning show) you can stream before they're on TV

The fall TV season starts soon, and you can be forgiven for having a little deja vu. When we went looking for pilots and season premieres streaming early online, we found a good handful on the networks' websites and apps, not to mention good old Hulu. But even the brand-new series feel awfully familiar--from straight-up remakes to "homages" that just feel like remakes. Still, familiar isn't necessarily bad, and these shows are pretty darn entertaining.
News: Twitter's Frankensteins: The Spambots that look like people

I grew up in Tuolumne County in California's Sierra Nevada foothill region. My old stomping grounds have been in the news lately, mostly because they've been on fire. As the Rim fire has grown to 400 square miles in size, making it the third largest fire in state history, I've been following along with reports on Twitter using the hashtag #rimfire.
13 September 2013
News: Twitter's going public: Who cares?

Unless you work on Wall Street, news of Twitter's IPO probably did little to pique your interest. Executives and financiers make a lot of money when companies go public, but regular folks don't benefit that much.
News: Survey: Email, calendaring, HR top list of SaaS buyers' priorities

Companies of all sizes are picking up their adoption of SaaS (software as a service), with email, calendaring and human resources applications garnering the most interest, according to a new survey from Constellation Research.
News: Microsoft working out kinks in Outlook.com's IMAP implementation

Getting Outlook.com to work with email client applications via IMAP is proving to be a challenge for some users of the Microsoft webmail service.
News: Surveillance court orders transparency review of its NSA opinions

A U.S. surveillance court has ordered government agencies to review the court's own opinions related to the legality of a massive telephone records collection program at the U.S. National Security Agency in preparation for possible publication of those opinions.
News: I, me, mine: Chrome for iOS learns pronouns

Google has pushed out updates for the iOS and Android versions of Chrome, as the company continues beefing up its browser for use with tablets and smartphones.