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Dropbox prepping for 2013 IPO, readies business offerings

Dropbox prepping for 2013 IPO, readies business offerings
  • Posted February 15, 2013, 5:00 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in Industry News, The Web
  • Well-recognized cloud storage outfit Dropbox is aiming to go public during the second half of 2013, or so unnamed sources "briefed on the talks" believe. Dropbox hopes to launch a new range of business-focused products alongside introducing itself as a…

Major ransomware operation dismantled by authorities

Major ransomware operation dismantled by authorities
  • Posted February 15, 2013, 12:00 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in Security, The Web
  • Authorities have detained 11 individuals thought to be responsible for the proliferation of a nasty "police ransomware" virus which demanded users pay €100 ($135 USD) to re-gain access to their infected PCs. Amongst the 11 caught -- a crew of…

The Pirate Bay sues anti-piracy group for copying its design

The Pirate Bay sues anti-piracy group for copying its design
  • Posted February 15, 2013, 8:30 AM by Rick Burgess | Filed in The Web
  • In an attempt to further propel its anti-piracy message, a Finnish organization known as the Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Center has launched a new website (piraattilahti.fi) which shamelessly duplicates the look and feel of the The Pirate Bay. Piraattilahti, by the…

CISPA cybersecurity bill returns, still ignores privacy rights

CISPA cybersecurity bill returns, still ignores privacy rights
  • Posted February 14, 2013, 3:30 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in Security, The Web Breaking News
  • It's back. The U.S. House Intelligence Committee has reintroduced its controversial "Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act" in a second attempt to pass the bill. Originally unleashed last year, CISPA slipped passed Congress but was aborted by the Senate following a…

Research shows computers make better medical decisions than doctors

Research shows computers make better medical decisions than doctors
  • Posted February 13, 2013, 1:00 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in The Web
  • By making computers "think like a doctor", researchers at Indiana University claim their contextual "artificial intelligence" framework can one-up living medical professionals in terms of both cost and accuracy. Researchers indicate their approach could cut costs by more than half…

Opera switching to Webkit engine in 2013, browser will be based on Chromium

Opera switching to Webkit engine in 2013, browser will be based on Chromium
  • Posted February 13, 2013, 11:19 AM by Jose Vilches | Filed in Software, The Web
  • After years struggling to capture a bigger share of the browser market Opera has announced it is dropping its own Presto rendering engine in favor of WebKit -- the same engine used by Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome. The move…

Twitter raises the price of Promoted Trends to $200K per day

Twitter raises the price of Promoted Trends to $200K per day
  • Posted February 11, 2013, 11:30 AM by Shawn Knight | Filed in Industry News, The Web
  • Twitter has increased the price of their Promoted Trends feature to $200,000 per day. The new pricing went into effect earlier this year and represents a 33 percent increase over the previous price of $150,000 and a 150 percent increase…

AOL dial-up users account for 70% of profit, posts first gains in 8 years

AOL dial-up users account for 70% of profit, posts first gains in 8 years
  • Posted February 8, 2013, 5:30 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in Industry News, The Web
  • It's no secret that AOL's dial-up business remains a major cash-cow for the once prolific ISP-turned-media company. However, it may surprise you to know that AOL's profit from those dial-up subscribers utterly dwarfs all other facets of its business --…

Watch this: TPB AFK, The Pirate Bay documentary is out

Watch this: TPB AFK, The Pirate Bay documentary is out
  • Posted February 8, 2013, 4:00 PM by Jose Vilches | Filed in The Web With Video
  • The Pirate Bay documentary TPB AFK premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival today after four years in the making. The film, directed by Swedish filmmaker Simon Klose and partially funded by Kickstarter, chronicles the site’s three founders during their…

Facebook glitch temporarily breaks the web

Facebook glitch temporarily breaks the web
  • Posted February 8, 2013, 11:30 AM by Rick Burgess | Filed in The Web, Security
  • Yesterday, an untold number of Internet surfers experienced a glitch which abruptly redirected them from the sanctuary of their favorite websites to a Facebook error page. Websites essentially taken down by this snafu included Hulu, Lifehacker, Washington Post, ESPN, CNN,…

Microsoft and Symantec kill Bamital search hijacking botnet

Microsoft and Symantec kill Bamital search hijacking botnet
  • Posted February 7, 2013, 4:30 PM by Matthew DeCarlo | Filed in Security, The Web With Video
  • In partnership with Symantec, Microsoft has disrupted yet another botnet, marking its sixth takedown in the three years since starting Project MARS (Microsoft Active Response for Security). Called "Bamital," the malware network has evolved into several variations since Symantec began…

Liberty buys Virgin for $23 bil, claims world's largest broadband ISP

Liberty buys Virgin for $23 bil, claims world
  • Posted February 7, 2013, 12:32 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in Industry News, The Web
  • In an enormous deal funded by both cash and stock, U.S-based Liberty Global has announced the purchase of Virgin Media for a hefty $23.3 billion. When combined, Liberty Global and Virgin Media will be home to roughly 25 million subscribers…

Yahoo teams up with Google on contextual advertising

Yahoo teams up with Google on contextual advertising
  • Posted February 7, 2013, 10:00 AM by Jose Vilches | Filed in Industry News, The Web
  • Yahoo has announced that it will start serving advertising from Google’s AdSense and AdMob services on various of its own web properties and certain co-branded sites. In a blog post announcing the deal, Yahoo said, “By adding Google to our…

Bitcasa: unlimited cloud sync & storage for $69/year, 10GB free

Bitcasa: unlimited cloud sync & storage for $69/year, 10GB free
  • Posted February 5, 2013, 5:30 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in Industry News, The Web With Video
  • After roughly a year and a half of being in beta, Bitcasa has finally hit the cloud storage scene. The multi-platform service is poised to shake things up by offering unlimited space with no file size restrictions for $10 per…

Happy Birthday: Facebook turns nine years old today

Happy Birthday: Facebook turns nine years old today
  • Posted February 4, 2013, 11:18 AM by Shawn Knight | Filed in The Web
  • It was on this day nine years ago that Facebook first went online. The social network, created by Mark Zuckerberg and four friends - Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum and Chris Hughes – during their time at Harvard University…

Google Chrome to get notification center, possibly Google Now

Google Chrome to get notification center, possibly Google Now
  • Posted January 31, 2013, 5:00 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in The Web, Software
  • An interesting find made by astute French developer François Beaufort indicates Google Chrome will be getting a notification center soon. Beaufort discovered the addition while mulling over the source code for the latest build of Chromium -- the open-source project on…

Firefox to block nearly all plug-ins by default with 'Click to Play'

Firefox to block nearly all plug-ins by default with
  • Posted January 31, 2013, 9:13 AM by Jose Vilches | Filed in Software, The Web
  • Third-party plug-ins can be a real pain in the back for browser developers. Security holes constantly showing up in Java or Adobe Reader, for example, leave those running unpatched versions open to potential drive-by download attacks. Looking to minimize the…

UPnP flaws place millions of networks in danger

UPnP flaws place millions of networks in danger
  • Posted January 29, 2013, 4:00 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in Security, The Web
  • Several security vulnerabilities found within common UPnP implementations have prompted experts at Rapid 7 to recommend the public disable UPnP entirely. Research spanning several months in 2012 revealed that over 2 percent -- or about 50 million -- of all…

Rdio expands six month free streaming trial to 14 additional countries

Rdio expands six month free streaming trial to 14 additional countries
  • Posted January 29, 2013, 3:00 PM by Shawn Knight | Filed in The Web
  • Rdio, the online music streaming service that lets customers listen to more than 18 million songs without ads or interruptions, has announced they are offering a number of international customers the same six months of free music streaming that users…

YouTube to launch paid channel subscriptions later this year

YouTube to launch paid channel subscriptions later this year
  • Posted January 29, 2013, 11:17 AM by Jose Vilches | Filed in The Web
  • A handful of popular content producers on YouTube could start charging for channel subscriptions this spring, according to a report on AdAge. The move is intended to lure eyeballs and advertiser dollars away from traditional TV and would kick off…

Newegg defeats patent troll who claims it invented the shopping cart

Newegg defeats patent troll who claims it invented the shopping cart
  • Posted January 28, 2013, 3:30 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in Industry News, The Web
  • Presenting CompuServe's ancient online "mall" as an example of Precambian prior art, Newegg successfully defeated Soverain Software's supposed patent claim to what is essentially the modern day shopping cart. If Soverain had won the verdict, there's a good chance nearly…

Pentagon to quintuple cyber defense personnel

Pentagon to quintuple cyber defense personnel
  • Posted January 28, 2013, 1:00 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in Security, The Web
  • Although yet to be formally announced, a report by the Washington Post reveals plans by the Department of Defense to bolster its Cyber Command unit. The Pentagon's cyber defense force is currently comprised of roughly 900 military and civilian personnel,…

Google+ tops Twitter to become second most popular social platform

Google+ tops Twitter to become second most popular social platform
  • Posted January 28, 2013, 7:00 AM by Shawn Knight | Filed in The Web
  • Results from Trendstream’s Q4 2012 Global Web Index indicate that Google+ is now the second most popular social platform on the Internet. Facebook continues to hold on to the top spot by a large margin, but it’s the shakeup from…

BitTorrent introduces Dropbox-like file syncing without the cloud

BitTorrent introduces Dropbox-like file syncing without the cloud
  • Posted January 25, 2013, 9:55 AM by Jose Vilches | Filed in Software, The Web
  • BitTorrent has taken the wraps off a new service called Sync that aims to take on services like Dropbox using peer-to-peer technology. Available in pre-Alpha, the new application allows users to securely sync files and folders to multiple devices using…

Scientists use DNA to store MP3, holds 2.2 petabytes per gram

Scientists use DNA to store MP3, holds 2.2 petabytes per gram
  • Posted January 24, 2013, 2:00 PM by Rick Burgess | Filed in The Web
  • Further exploring the role biological processes could one day play in the evolution of technology, researchers from the European Bioinformatics Institute claim to have successfully encoded 154 Shakespeare sonnets and an MP3 of Martin Luther King's  famed "I Have a Dream"…

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