YouTube subscribers with Channels claiming more than 1,000 subscribers might be eligible to enable YouTube Live.

Over the past year, many YouTube channels were able to take advantage of YouTube Live for sports events and music events and so on. Now, YouTube is expanding YouTube Live to far more users.

Basically, if a channel has over 1,000 subscribers and is in good standing, then they are eligible for live streaming. All that needs to be done is a click of an "Enable" button on the Account Features page.

Eligible subscribers can enjoy these key features:

• You get real-time transcoding in the cloud, so you only need to send us your highest quality stream and we make it instantly available in all resolutions and device formats
• You can show multiple camera angles, add closed captions, and insert ads and slates
• Viewers can watch the live stream from any device, get the best quality constantly adjusting to their Internet connection, and can skip back and forth in the live stream

Electronic Arts is dropping its controversial Online Pass program after three years, due to disapproval from customers.

EA's Online Pass consists of a one-time code that a buyer of a new game can use to unlock Online services and content. If the game is then sold on second hand to another player, then that player needed to pay a $10 fee to unlock the same services.

Frankly, if it took EA this long to realize that gamers don't like these measures, they need to clean their ears out.

"Yes, we're discontinuing Online Pass," John Roseburg, Senior Director, Corporate Communications at EA, told VentureBeat.

"None of our new EA titles will include that feature. Initially launched as an effort to package a full menu of online content and services, many players didn't respond to the format. We've listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward."

Of course, since EA adopted the measure, Sony, Activision and Ubisoft followed suit.

A German federal court has ordered Google to clean up its Auto Complete service on the Google.DE search engine.

In a decision that baffled Google, the German court has told it that it must ensure terms generated by auto-complete are not offensive or defamatory. The decision overturned prior ruling from two lower German courts.

The case started with a complaint from an unnamed businessman in Germany who claimed auto-complete linked him with "Scientology" and "Fraud."

The court has ordered Google to remove "defamatory word combinations" when told about them.

Google's auto-complete makes search string suggestions based on the frequency of searches by other Google users, and the search giant claims it has very little control over the combination of words that auto-complete might serve up. If a large group of people search a name with a keyword like "fraud" after it, then it's likely other users will see that search as an auto-complete recommendation.

A Google spokesman said the company is disappointed with the decision of the court, and said it was "incomprehensible" that Google could be seen as liable for the search content of its users.

Internet giant Amazon has come under fire for the relatively low tax it pays in the United Kingdom, whilst racking up billions worth of sales.

Amazon reportedly paid $3.7 million of tax despite UK sales being around $6.5 billion - or around £4 billion. Amazon's figures also show that it received £2.5 million in government grants during 2012.

Tax avoidance has become a hot topic in the UK, and Prime Minister David Cameron is calling for action at the international level to stop large corporations from shifting profits around the world to avoid paying adequate tax.

In Amazon's case, all sales to British customers are routed through affiliate "Amazon EU Sari", located in Luxembourg. Amazon EU Sari employs around 500 staff, while Amazon employs 4,191 people in the UK, and thousands more indirectly through contracting agencies.

"The government clearly needs to do a detailed study on how to handle the tax implications of e-commerce," John Hemming, a member of the Liberal Democrats, said. On the opposite side of the House, Labour MP Nick Smith is calling on the HMRC to go through Amazon's tax arrangements with a fine-tooth comb.

Sony is considering launching a version of the upcoming Gran Turismo 6 for the PlayStation 4 (PS4) console after it launches.

Gran Turismo 6 was announced today, and will be available for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console this holiday season. Almost immediately, questions were raised about whether it will be released for PS4 too.

"We have a PS4 version in mind for the future" Polyphony Digital president Kazunori Yamauchi told GameSpot.

"But for this holiday season we thought that it would be best for users to release the PS3 version. I thought the best scenario would be for the game to come out, and we're planning to have new content, and DLC every few months."

The iconic franchise has reached a whopping 70 million sales since it first captured gamers attention in the 1990s. All of the cars and tracks from Gran Turismo 5 - which has sold 10 million copies - will be present in GT6, but the car lineup will expand to over 1,200. There will be a total of 33 locations (71 different layouts) available, including the UK's famous Silverstone Circuit.

Four UK-based men who were allegedly involved with several cyber crime cases as part of the Lulzsec group have pleaded guilty.

Ryan Ackroyd, Jake Davis, Mustafa al-Bassam and Ryan Cleary will be sentenced next week at the Southwark Crown Court. They are alleged to have been part of a group called Lulzsec, which authorities blame for a series of attacks in 2011 against targets including Sony Pictures, Electronic Arts and even the Metropolitan Police's Serious Organised Crime Agency.

"It's clear from the evidence that they intended to achieve extensive national and international notoriety and publicity," said Prosecutor Sandip Patel, according to the BBC.

"This is not about young immature men messing about. They are at the cutting edge of a contemporary and emerging species of criminal offender known as a cybercriminal."

According to Strategy Analytics, Samsung took 94.7 percent of all Android smartphone profits in the Q1 this year, leaving everybody else in the dust.

By their calculations, the Android phone business saw profits of $5.3 billion for the quarter, of which Samsung made $5.1 billion.

LG took second place, at $100 million in profits, good for 2.5 percent share. The other $100 million in profits were shared by ZTE, Sony, HTC, Huawei and others.

"An efficient supply chain, sleek products and crisp marketing have been among the main drivers of Samsung's impressive profitability" says Strategy Analytics. When asked about LG, "it currently lacks the volume scale needed to match Samsung's outsized profits," concludes the firm.

Google has written a cease and desist letter to Microsoft, demanding that it remove an updates YouTube app for the Windows Phone operating systems.

Microsoft recently released an updated YouTube app for Windows Phone that raised some eyebrows as it clearly seemed to violate the terms and conditions of the YouTube API. At the center of Google's anger is the deliberate blocking out of ads by the app.

"Unfortunately, by blocking advertising and allowing downloads of videos, your application cuts off a valuable ongoing revenue source for creators, and causes harm to the thriving content ecosystem on YouTube," Google wrote to Todd Brix, Senior Director of Windows Phone Apps Team.

Another noted issue with the updated app since it was released is its apparent ability to download YouTube videos locally, making them available to other apps on the system.

Google is demanding that Microsoft remove the updated YouTube app from the Windows Phone Store and "disable existing downloads of the application," by May 22.

A U.S. Judge has denied class-action status to a copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube that would have included thousands of claimants from all over the world.

U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton in Manhattan refused to certify a worldwide class of copyright owners in the lawsuit, which stretches back to 2007. The same judge also recently threw out a $1 billion lawsuit Viacom had originally filed against Google in 2007 over the unauthorized use of clips from The Daily Show, South Park and other programmes.

Today, he gave Google yet another major boost by denying class action status to another lawsuit filed around the same time, which included the English Premier League, the French Tennis Federation, the National Music Publishers' Association and others.

"The suggestion that a class action of these dimensions can be managed with judicial resourcefulness is flattering, but unrealistic," Stanton wrote. "Generally speaking, copyright claims are poor candidates for class-action treatment."

One part of the proposed class would have included videos that were removed after YouTube received a DMCA takedown request, as well as music used in YouTube videos with prior permission.

HP has announced two new convertibles today, the aptly named SlateBook x2 and Split x2.

Both devices include detachable tablet displays and a battery-boasting keyboard dock but that is mostly where the similarities stop.

The SlateBook x2 is a high-end 10.2-inch Android tablet that runs on Android 4.2.2, has a quad-core Tegra 4 processor (yes, the new Tegra 4), 1920 x 1200 resolution, 400 nits of brightness, 2GB RAM, and 16GB internal storage. The dock has two USB ports, an SD card slot, and HDMI port and a battery life of over 8 hours.

HP has priced the convertible competively, as well, at $479.99.

Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president for Chrome and Android, announced today the Chrome has reached 750 million monthly active users, gaining an incredible 300 million in the last month.

Unsurprisingly, most of the growth is coming from mobile, where the company continues improve their Chrome mobile app almost weekly.

During the presentation the exec says Google is aiming to improve the browsing experience in a "multiscreen world." One example is the browser will be able to mimic actions on different devices, such as a game on their tablet will sync instantly to their desktop browser, mimicking all controls.

Performance updates have been substantial, as well, with the mobile app seeing an improvement by "more than 50 percent."

By some accounts, Chrome is the most popular browser in the world, followed by Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Apple has announced that their popular App Store has reached 50 billion downloads since launch in 2008.

The company had started a "50 Billion App Countdown" promotion two weeks ago, and the winner of the promotion (the 50 billionth download) will get a $10,000 gift card valid at the App Store, Mac App Store, or towards any iTunes Store content.

The fifty downloaders after the 50th billionth will each receive $500 gift cards, as well.

Apple is now seeing 50 million downloads per day, and the number continues to grow. There are just over 850,000 apps in the store.

The company saw 40 billion downloads earlier this year, 30 billion in June of 2012, and 10 million in December 2010.

As expected, Google's popular "Google Now" voice search service is headed to your PC, via Chrome or the ChromeOS operating system.

Google search boss Amit Singhal said the voice search tech would be available this week on your computer via the Chrome browser, along with new cards including movie times and reviews, TV shows, video games and public transit commute times.

A "card" is really a tab of information that comes in response to a recent search. Additionally, cards sync to your Gmail and calendar and previous searches and can remind you of upcoming flights, upcoming games from your favorite sports team, and appointments.

On the desktop, you just have to say "Google" to activate the voice search, and then ask away.

"This experience is rapidly developing and will take some time before it becomes the dominant search experience. There are several complex problems to solve, but our investment and commitment to getting there sooner rather than later are immense," Singhal concluded (via BI).

Google used their I/O conference today to unveil their oft-rumored unlimited streaming music subscription service, dubbed "Google Play Music All Access," or just "All Access" for short.

The service will rival Spotify, Rdio and others, and should prove to be major competition given Google's deep integration in Android and its hundreds of millions of users.

At $9.99 per month, the service will offer unlimited streaming music from the major record labels (UMG, Warner and Sony) and indie labels and be available on mobile devices as well as the standard desktop option. Clear market leader Spotify costs the same amount but there is a free option that is not unlimited and does not include mobile access.

One great deal from Google, is if you sign up before June 30th, the premium service is just $7.99 per month.

Google is making it possible for U.S. users over the age of 18 to send money as an attachment in Gmail with Google Wallet integration.

It's free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google Wallet or using your Google Wallet Balance, but low fees do apple for a linked credit or debit card (flat fee of 2.9% per transaction), while receiving funds is always free.

To send money in Gmail, hover over the attachment paperclip, click the $ icon to attach money to your message, enter the amount you wish to send, and press send.

The option is rolling out to U.S. users over the age of 18 over the coming months, so keep an eye out for it. Sending money through Gmail is limited to a Desktop for the time being, though you can quite easily use Google Wallet to send and receive money through mobile.