Latest news

Google has announced today that video sharing behemoth YouTube will be shutting down tomorrow, for good, with all content being deleted.

Apparently, YouTube was really just an eight year long contest, and the best video of all-time will now be voted on by an expert panel of judges that includes famous viral video celebrities like Antoine Dodson and Charlie of "Charlie Bit My Finger."

YouTube says the voting will take about a decade to complete, and the billions of videos submitted have been narrowed down to just 150,000.

The winner will get $500 as a creative stipend for their next video, and an MP3 player.

Thanks to a leaked roadmap, it appears that BlackBerry is working on a new tablet and a phablet, as well.

The map shows off this quarter's Z10 and Q10 smartphones, but also shows off a tablet slated for the Q3/Q4 and a phablet dubbed the U10, set for the Q4 2013 or Q1 2014.

Additionally, there appears to be a large smartphone device that has a full QWERTY keypad, as well, but that is way off in the Q2 2014.

BlackBerry's last attempt at a tablet was a complete failure, and the company eventually had to take a $500 million write-down on excess inventory that had to be liquidated at prices $300-$400 lower than the MSRP.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has confirmed today that its $25 Model A board is now available for purchase via reseller Allied Electronics.

Until this week, only the Model B, which costs $35 and includes ethernet, had been available to U.S. and UK buyers.

The cheaper model was created with lower power consumption in mind, and indeed uses 30 percent less power than the B. It also includes half the RAM of the B, only one USB port (compared to 2), and no ethernet.

Model A sales began in Europe in February, and the Foundation says sales have been a "few thousand a week."

The Foundation recently sold its 1 millionth Model B board in January.

Epic Games showed off a quick demo video of its Unreal Engine 4 at GDC, an amazingly powerful piece of tech.

In the demo, the company shows off different filters.

As they note, the demo is "running 100% in-engine in real time, showing off UE4's high-end rendering features as well as the latest tools."

Check the video here:

Today is World Backup Day, a tradition that started on Reddit in 2011 but has caught on with the rest of the world since.

There are plenty of great options to backup your data, including the built in options for Windows and OS X if you own an external hard drive.

Check this guide if you are a Windows user: Backup and Restore

Try this guide if you are a Mac user: Time Machine

If you prefer to have a little more power over your backups, check our plethora of backup tools here at Afterdawn: Software section

Of course, you are willing to have your files in the cloud, Box is a great alternative, with 5GB free space.

According to Jon Jordan, Apple made it clear during this year's GDC that they are ready to release their own dedicated game controller.

The reporter says the company used the conference to lets developers know about its plans and to ensure that their games will support the controller.

Additionally, the report says Apple booked a meeting room at the show under an assumed name, as to avoid media attention.

Apple is expected to announce the controller officially at its April event, in which they usually announce a new iPad.

Samsung recently beat Apple to the punch, introducing their own Game Pad for smartphones. (Pictured)

A shareholder lawsuit against BlackBerry has been dismissed this week, letting the smartphone maker breath a sigh of relief.

The suit, which could have become a class action, accused the company of purposely (and fraudulently) obscuring its falling market position.

U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan dismissed the case, claiming the plaintiffs "failed to adequately allege that the company or various executives had made deliberate and material misstatements."

Sullivan did say that BlackBerry clearly fell behind its rivals, and the company "has paid a price for their mistakes by way of demotions, terminations and sizable financial setbacks. Nevertheless, corporate failings alone do not give rise to a securities fraud claim."

The lawsuit had been filed in 2011 by BlackBerry stock investor Robert Shemian. The investor hoped to recover losses for shareholders of record from December 2010 through June 2011. During the time, the company's stock fell from $70 to $27 a share. It currently sits at $14 per share.

According to sources, Japan's NEC is in talks to sell their mobile phone unit to China's Lenovo.

Additionally, the company is speaking with potential domestic buyers.

The division has been a heavy loser in the last few years, and it appears NEC is trying to slim down to remain more profitable.

"Amid the rapidly changing market we are considering a number of ways to bolster the competitiveness of our mobile phone business, but nothing has been decided," NEC said in a statement.

For the fiscal year, NEC shipped 4.3 million phones. It is unclear how much the division could fetch in a sale.

Facebook recently sent out press invites for April 4th, saying bluntly "Come See Our New Home On Android."

Multiple sources are reporting that the event will be to showcase a modified version of Android that includes deep integration with the social network and will likely be released on an HTC hardware.

It will keep most of Android's foundations but will have "all sorts of extra Facebook functionality built in," says one source. This makes the Facebook UI similar to HTC Sense or Samsung's TouchWiz UX.

The rumored name of the UI is "Facebook Home" and the home screen would be highly dedicated to Facebook. This could include a widget reading Facebook news feed stories, and easy access to Facebook Messenger, Facebook voice calls and picture uploads.

As reported, the Ouya gaming console has begun shipping to Kickstarter backers this week, ahead of a retail launch on June 4th.

The console will begin with 104 published games at launch, all of which are free.

8000 developers have already created developer accounts for the system, and new games are being developed "daily."

There is one annoying caveat for getting the games, however. Users must first enter credit/debit card details before they can download anything, even the free games.

Additionally, Ouya says there will be a mandatory software update right when you boot up the console for the first time, so make sure you are Internet-ready when you get the device.

Robin Saxby, co-founder of ARM, has used this week's GSA Entrepreneurship Conference to try to extend an olive branch to major rival Intel.

ARM is the top designer of processor architecture used in almost all tablets and smartphones.

"As an ARM shareholder, I recommend Intel to take an ARM license and stop messing about," said Saxby.

Although Intel is the dominant force in the x86 architecture market, used in PCs, servers and workstations, it has yet to take a meaningful share of the low-power market with its Atom processors.

The main reason for this is that ARM architectures remain more power efficient, leading to better battery lives for devices.

"We had to turn our enemies into friends, the only enemy we have not turned into a friend is Intel," concluded Saxby.

Speaking earlier this week, HBO Sports president Ken Hershman made an important announcement.

The exec says the company will begin live streaming sports events via HBO Go, allowing subscribers to watch the events in real-time via their computers, phones, tablets and set-top boxes.

This move is hugely important since HBO offers top-tier boxing events amongst other sporting events.

Usually, live streaming of major sporting events has been available through dedicated networks like NBA's League Pass, Verizon's NFL Mobile and ESPN's WatchESPN. Additionally, one-time events like the Super Bowl have recently began being streamed, giving more users a chance to watch them.

According to ATD, Amazon actually paid $150 million for Goodreads, one of the most popular book review/recommendation services on the Internet.

Original reports had placed the purchase at closer to $100 million. Additionally, the deal could go as high as $200 million if a few important performance metrics are hit.

Goodreads had raised $3 million from angel investors, meaning those investors have cashed out large.

"Amazon and Goodreads share a passion for reinventing reading," said Russ Grandinetti, Amazon Vice President, Kindle Content, during the announcement. "Goodreads has helped change how we discover and discuss books and, with Kindle, Amazon has helped expand reading around the world. In addition, both Amazon and Goodreads have helped thousands of authors reach a wider audience and make a better living at their craft. Together we intend to build many new ways to delight readers and authors alike."

"Books – and the stories and ideas captured inside them – are part of our social fabric," said Otis Chandler, Goodreads CEO and co-founder. "People love to talk about ideas and share their passion for the stories they read. I'm incredibly excited about the opportunity to partner with Amazon and Kindle. We're now going to be able to move faster in bringing the Goodreads experience to millions of readers around the world. We're looking forward to inspiring greater literary discussion and helping more readers find great books, whether they read in print or digitally."

Supercell, the new hot gaming startup out of Finland, has raised $100 million, with a valuation of $625 million.

The company makes two games currently, Clash of Clans and Hay Day, both available for iOS. The games have been wildly successful, making about $1.3 million per day.

Supercell raised the $100 million by selling 16 percent of their outstanding shares. According to Crunch, the new investors are Institutional Venture Partners, Atomico and Index Ventures.

Accel Partners already has a 21.6 percent stake in the company, which they purchased for $12 million in 2011 before the games company even had any hits.

Microsoft has made a small change to its Windows 8 tablet minimum hardware requirements.

The new change will allow Windows 8 tablet makers to create hardware with a resolution of 1024x768, with no restrictions. Previously, OEMs had to disclose that a tablet with that resolution could not support Snap View, easily one of the best features of the operating system.

Thanks to a leaked build of Windows Blue, it appears that restriction has been lifted, with Snap View allowing users to run apps side-by-side.

The new changes imply that 7 or 8-inch form factor tablets may be in the works as Microsoft says the move is that "partners exploring designs for certain markets could find greater design flexibility helpful."