Latest news

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has announced today that Twitter will soon be integrated into the company's portal newsfeed.

Says the exec: "Updates direct from politicians, celebrities, media outlets, and other publishers have become an important source of real-time news and information. 140 characters can connect athletes with their fans, capture live chatter from the red carpet, and inspire global debate. Tweets have become an important information source for many of our users, so we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Twitter to bring Tweets directly into the Yahoo! newsfeed.

As users explore our nearly endless stream of content, we will seamlessly include relevant and personalized Tweets alongside stories from Yahoo! and our other sources. With this greater breadth of compelling content, we're excited to give our users even more opportunities to learn and connect. Users now also have an easy way to discover relevant and interesting people and publishers to follow on Twitter, personalized to their interests and preferences.

Major video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) has said today that it is not currently developing any games for the Nintendo Wii U.

Spokesperson Jeff Brown told Kotaku today that "we have no games in development for the Wii U currently."

The company had hinted last week that its upcoming blockbuster Star Wars games would not be headed to the Wii U, but it seems there are no games headed to the struggling console.

In 2011, the companies announced their "unprecedented" partnership for the Wii U but Brown says the company has fulfilled their obligations and no longer have to develop for the system.

Whether or not EA stops developing for the Wii U for good, this news is certainly not good given that the Xbox Infinity and PS4 are right around the corner.

Microsoft has responded to a demand from Google Inc. to remove its updated YouTube app from the Windows Phone Store.

Google sent Microsoft a cease and desist letter, ordering it to remove the YouTube app from the Windows Phone Store. A recent update to the app violated the terms of the YouTube API, because it intentionally cuts out advertisements and cuts straight to the video.

Google not only pointed out that this is a violation of the terms of the YouTube API, but that it also denies the creators of the content ad revenue for their work.

Microsoft issued a statement in response, saying essentially that it would absolutely show the advertisements, but that Google needs to come to the table.

YouTube is consistently one of the top apps downloaded by smartphone users on all platforms, but Google has refused to work with us to develop an app on par with other platforms. Since we updated the YouTube app to ensure our mutual customers a similar YouTube experience, ratings and feedback have been overwhelmingly positive. We'd be more than happy to include advertising but need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs. In light of Larry Page's comments today calling for more interoperability and less negativity, we look forward to solving this matter together for our mutual customers.

Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet PC running Windows 8 will be available in the United Kingdom from May 23.

The Surface Pro is Microsoft's effort to Showcase Windows 8 Pro. It is coming to the UK with similarly hefty price tags compared to other regions, with the 64GB device costing £719, and the 128GB config costing £799.

"The response to Surface RT has already been great to see," said Robert Epstein, UK Surface Lead.

"There has been strong anticipation for Surface Pro in the UK and we're excited to be able to offer people a fully blown Windows 8 PC packed with powerful processing features in the innovative Surface design."

Surface Pro, powered by an Intel Core i5 processor, is equivalent to a full-blown Windows 8 laptop that also boasts tablet capabilities.

Surface Pro will be available from http://www.microsoftstore.co.uk

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.