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Facebook has updated its Messenger app, adding some popular features from the old Beluga messenger startup it acquired in 2011 but then shut down.

The update for iOS will let you group contacts together and then send texts or stickers or pictures to them as a group, rather than individually.

Additionally, you can now forward messages and photos to users that are not in the conversation, a welcome feature.

Finally, the app will see typical speed, performance and stability improvements and fixes.

Amazon has denied the WSJ's report that the e-commerce giant was planning to offer a free TV and music video service that would have been supported by ads.

"We're often experimenting with new things, but we have no plans to offer a free streaming-media service," Amazon spokeswoman Sally Fouts noted. This is the second time in recent memory that the company has had to deny a WSJ report. In January, the outlet reported that the company was looking to start an Internet-based TV service. That story was quickly denied, as well.

The service would have featured original content, said the report, similar to what is available for Prime subscribers. Prime users pay $99 a year for free two-day shipping on millions of items and access to the free streaming library of movies and TV shows.

Additionally, the service would have possibly included licensed TV programming, added the report. Regardless of the validity of the report, investors were spooked out of Netflix, with the company's stock falling nearly 3 percent on the news.

According to a Slingbox employee, the TV streaming service should be headed to the Google Chromecast "soon."

The company is working on supporting the HDMI dongle, which would be a huge upgrade for the $35 device.

Slingbox devices streams the video signals to PCs, mobile devices and more, usually TV streams from cable boxes. In the past, it was tougher to 'sling' to other HDTVs, but this would make it much easier for those that have multiple TVs in the home but only one cable box or if you are on the road and need live content.

It is important to note that the Slingbox itself sells for $180, so the upfront cost is more than just the $35 for the Chromecast, but it could be worth it to have live TV content at all times on a device that can fit in your pocket.

I can confirm TechHive's speculative piece - Slingbox support IS coming to Chromecast. Soon. http://t.co/XL8k7pIOTy

-- Dave Zatz (@davezatz) March 27, 2014

Google Play Music will now allow users to upload their music via the browser and not just exclusively through the desktop Music Manager.

The drag and drop process should be easier than using the Music Manager, which required you to put the songs you wanted uploaded in a specific folder on your computer and then Google did the rest. If it matches tracks in Google's catalog, it will be added automatically but if not it will upload the full track.

Another great addition is the ability to download your entire music library through the web interface, rather than through the Music Manager app.

In addition, the Chrome Apps launcher has added a Play Music mini-player app allowing for pause, skip forward or back with a thumbnail cover art.

Even though the game is incredibly old and has likely been played by anyone who would want to play it, Origin has made "Dead Space" available for free.

Until May 8th, the game is free to download as long as you have an EA Origin account.

The game was released in 2008 and reinvigorated the sci-fi thriller category, leading to popular sequels.

If interested, get the game here.

Turkish authorities have now moved to try to block access to video sharing giant YouTube, just days after government officials banned Twitter.

The government has been widely criticized for the move against Twitter, which came just days before a key election and is seen as a censorship of freedom of speech. At the time, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to eradicate the site, which was being used to share information about a growing corruption scandal.

A short release from the government's telecommunications authority says "After technical analysis and legal consideration based on the law, an administrative measure has been taken for this website [YouTube.com]."

On YouTube, there was recently a video uploaded allegedly of a meeting by Turkey's foreign minister, intelligence chief and top military and Foreign Ministry discussing a military intervention in Syria. one official says blocking YouTube will prevent the "posting of other recordings that may threaten national security."

Philips has decided to downgrade the size of some of its 4K TVs for 2014, but its added numerous interesting features.

First, the company has shown off its 55-inch 8809 series 4K TV with Android as the operating system, giving you full access to 1 billion apps and games through the Google Play Store.

Philip's own Smart TV apps are also included for your standard Hulu Plus, Netflix, Pandora, Spotify and more. Additionally, the TV gives you access to your cloud storage through Dropbox and Google Drive.

On the hardware side, the set promises a 1GHz refresh rate, hexcore processing power and Ambilight illumination.

The company says the first Philips TVs featuring Android will be available from the second quarter 2014 in Europe and Russia. There was no word on price or American availability.

After years of rumors, Microsoft has finally and officially made its Office suite of applications available for the iPad.

Office for iPad is available now in the App Store and includes native versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Each app was built from scratch and will not be ports.

The suite is free to download and will allow for free read-only of all Office documents as well as presentations. If you want to create and edit documents, you will need to pony up for an Office 365 subscription, which can be as cheap as $5 per month depending on your needs.

Releasing the apps for the most popular tablet on the planet (even amongst professional users) should give the tech giant a boost to their subscription sales. Office had been available previously on Windows and Windows Phone devices including the Surface tablet.

Kim Dotcom has announced the formal launch of his own political party in New Zealand: The Internet Party.

The new party is a "movement for the freedom of the internet and technology, for privacy and political reform."

Dotcom, the larger-than-life mogul behind the original Megaupload and the new MEGA cloud lockers, is still facing possible extradition to the U.S. for charges of copyright infringement for Megaupload, which at one point controlled over 10 percent of the entire Internet's traffic.

The Internet Party wants to "give you faster, cheaper internet, create high-tech jobs, protect your privacy and safeguard our independence," says the site. In addition, the Party will into "a New Zealand-sponsored digital currency that is safe, secure and encrypted."

Dotcom made news earlier this week when he announced plans to have MEGA go public on the New Zealand stock exchange.

Klout, the service that hooks up to your social media and measures your influence on followers with an extremely controversial score, has been acquired by Lithium Technologies for a reported $200 million.

Lithium works with enterprise customers by managing their customer service through social media.

"With Klout, Lithium fully delivers on its vision of building a trusted online connection between consumers and the brands they care about," said Rob Tarkoff, Lithium President and CEO. "Trust is the currency online. For consumers, a trusted expert provides greater confidence in making purchases and getting advice. For brands, building a trusted reputation allows them to better find and keep customers."

The company says that combined, the companies now reach more than 500 million consumers across 10,000 specific interest areas, and 300+ branded communities.

Klout CEO Jose Fernandez sent emails to all current users: "We started Klout in 2008 with the crazy idea of measuring the world's influence. We wanted to help people understand and be recognized for the impact of their voice. It has been amazing to watch this happen. The Klout Score has grown into the standard of influence and our platform has evolved significantly to help users share their passions online.

Amazon's long-anticipated set-top box could be on the way.

The company has sent out press invites for an event in New York on April 2nd, in which the company has promised an "update for our video business."

An Amazon set-top box would offer streaming access to a plethora of apps, just like rivals Apple TV, Roku and WD Live. In addition, the box is expected to run on Amazon's own version of Android, Fire, which should mean access to the Amazon App Store of curated Android apps.

Finally, the company's set-top is rumored to come with a discounted or trial subscription to Prime, the company's $99 per year service that gives access to the free Netflix rival Amazon Prime Video and potentially an upcoming rumored unlimited streaming music service.

Android users beware: a new research report has pointed to a critical exploit in the operating system that could lead to over a billion devices being vulnerable.

The report comes via researchers from Indiana University and Microsoft and the security flaw is related to the Android update process. They call the bug "Pileup," and say that while the operating system is updating and replacing thousands of files, the bug could allow malicious apps to attach to the update, pretending to be replacements for real update files and then attaching to legitimate apps.

Reads the research report: "A third-party package attribute or property, which bears the name of its system counterpart, can be elevated to a system one during the updating shuffle-up where all apps are installed or reinstalled, and all system configurations are reset. Also, when two apps from old and new systems are merged as described above, security risks can also be brought in when the one on the original system turns out to be malicious."

PlayStation's Turkey division has confirmed that "The Last of Us" is headed to the PlayStation 4 soon as a physical and digital release with 'enhanced graphics.'

VP Sercan Sulun made the comments to Turkish gaming site Multiplayer, which was then translated by Neogaf.

Reads the translation: "Sequel is not coming right now as far as I know, but I can say that [the] first game will be released this summer for PS4 as a physical and digital copy with enhanced graphics." Sulun had been asked if there was plans for a sequel.

The game was released for PS3 in June of last year, and has seen critical and commercial success. The game has been rumored to be one of the first PlayStation Now titles so a physical PS4 release does not seem to make too much sense, so take Sulun's comments with a grain of salt.

Facebook has denied a recent report that the social network behemoth will be re-branding the Oculus Rift and interface with its own Facebook branding.

Earlier this week, following the $2 billion acquisition, the NYTimes wrote, "According to a person involved in the deal who was not allowed to speak publicly because he was not authorized by either company, Facebook eventually plans to redesign the Oculus hardware and rebrand it with a Facebook interface and logo."

Facebook has said this is just not true "and not in the spirit of our relationship [with Oculus]."

The company has already said it will let Oculus operate independently, exactly like it allows Instagram to do, and will do for its $19 billion acquisition, WhatsApp, as well. Facebook will certainly fund additional R&D, and help with talent hiring along with additional marketing.

Microsoft Xbox head Phil Spencer has confirmed that the company is looking to enhance the Xbox One's digital marketplace with the ability to have gamers loan/gift their digital titles.

Speaking during the 2014 GDC event last week, Spencer noted: "We believe in a digital future on our box. On the digital space, and the things that we've talked about, what that opens up...like we understand what games you own and who you are and how you move around and who you might want to loan rights to your games or gift your games to. We totally believe in that future. And any other marketplace you play in, these kind of mechanisms are out there."

Microsoft would not be the first with such initiatives. Steam has allowed gifting for some time and also has a "Family Sharing" service that lets families and households play each other's games and save progress in their cloud servers.

Before its launch of the Xbox One, Microsoft had promised a similar feature which would have allowed users to share their games with up to 10 others, but the decision was reversed at the last moment.