Latest news

According to a new Pocket-Lint report, Facebook is looking into purchasing Opera Software, the company behind the Opera browser.

By purchasing Opera, the company would then create its own "Facebook Browser" that will come with built-in plug-ins and features that will help you more easily keep up with the latest updates in your social life.

Of course, Facebook would be taking on some major heavyweights in Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and Apple. The company will likely prove to be little competition to the leaders, however, despite its 900 million users.

Opera is used by many millions around the world, and its mobile browser is free and popular, as well. By acquiring the company, Facebook would save the hassles of building a fully functionally browser from scratch.

The browser company claims to have 200 million worldwide users.

Felix Roque, the mayor of West New York in New Jersey, has been arrested after hacking a site that was calling for a recall on his election.

Roque allegedly had his son Joseph hack the site and then threaten the creator. Both have been arrested.

Started in February, the recallroque.com site was created by other Hudson County government officials.

Joseph Roque conducted Google searches for "hacking a Go Daddy site," "recallroque log-in," and "html hacking tutorial" and was finally able to gain control of the account. On February 8th, the wanna-be hacker cancelled the domain name and killed off the site.

The very next day, Mayor Rogue called the owner of the site, claimed that he knew the man was responsible for the site and also said he had "a friend in high level of government who had shut the Recall Website down." The Mayor then threatened that "everyone would pay for getting involved against him."

Roque and his son have now been charged with counts of "unauthorized access to computers in furtherance of causing damage to protected computers; causing damage to protected computers; and conspiracy to commit those crimes."

More rumors and info are abound in regards to Google's still unconfirmed new Nexus tablet.

According to CNBC, the tablet has been passed around the Google headquarters for some time and will come out over the summer.

The device is said to be aimed at killing the Amazon Kindle Fire, which runs a custom version of Android and has a fully different ecosystem than Google's. Amazon has its own browser, its own app store, its own cloud storage, its own music store, its own ebook store and its own streaming movie store.

If accurate, the source says the tablet will cost between $200 to $250 and include a much-higher resolution screen and a front-side camera for video chat.

Rumor has it the device will be unveiled at the Google I/O conference on June 25th for July mass release.

Thanks to a new partnership between charity Teach First and search giant Google, English teachers specializing in computer science will receive free "teaching aids, such as Raspberry Pi's or Arduino starter kits".

Google's chairman Eric Schmidt said thanks to the investment, the UK will no longer risk "losing a generation of scientists."

Schmidt has openly criticized the UK's move away from teaching how to create software and moving more on how to use it.

Says the chariman: "Put simply, technology breakthroughs can't happen without the scientists and engineers to make them. The challenge that society faces is to equip enough people, with the right skills and mindset, and to get them to work on the most important problems."

Teach First takes "exceptional" grad student teachers and puts them in a six-week training program "before deploying them to schools where they teach classes over a two-year period," says the BBC.

Google has revealed the interesting data this week.

The search giant has to remove more than 1 million links to infringing content each month, including links to movies, music, software and video games from its search results.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft sent the most requests during the month, sending a full 543,378.

As part of the DMCA, the company must remove links if they have been reported by copyright holders. Google admits it complies with over 97 percent of requests, which must be submitted via an online form and is then approved by a Google algorithm or a dedicated team.

For those other 2-3 percent, the requests are rejected "because the form is incomplete, the web page doesn't exist or we look at it and say we don't think it is infringing."

Outside of Microsoft, the BPI and NBC sent the next most requests, totaling about 300,000. The sites with the most links removed were filestube.com, torrents.eu and 4shared.com.

In total, Google 1.24 million requests from 1,296 copyright owners.

Facebook has unveiled their latest application for iOS today, called 'Facebook Camera.'

The app will make it easier for Facebook users to take pictures, edit them, and share them on the social networking site.

Says Dirk Stoop, a Facebook product manager for photos: "We can basically show you more photos on the app, so we can make a more immersive experience around your photos. On the side of publishing these photos, Facebook Camera lets you upload much higher resolution photos at up to 2,048 by 2,048 pixels wide."

As most active users know, the default for current pictures is much lower, usually in the 800x800 range.

Building on its acquisition of Instagram, the company has also added photo filters to Facebook. There will be 15 filters and also include cropping and straightening tools within the app.

Facebook recently acquired Instagram for $1 billion. The photo sharing app has 40 million users on Android and iOS.

The American Civil Liberties Union has created an infographic for mass distribution that shows some scary figures related to the U.S. National Security Agency.

Since 9/11, the Agency has been able to "spy" on electronic communications without the need for court-approved warrants. The group has a large complex in Utah that cost $2 billion and holds the data.

You can learn more at FixFISA

Without further adieu, here is the info:

According to multiple sources, Google is preparing to begin shipping their first 7-inch branded tablet next month.

The Asus-built tablet will be the first "Nexus" Android tablet, coming with a vanilla version of Android 4.0 that does not include any third-party user interface or bloatware apps.

Rumors have been swirling for months about the tablet, which was first reported to be released in May. The device had to be pushed back to July due to "design issues," says the report.

Supply chain sources say Google has ordered 600,000 tablets for June with a plan to ship 2.5 million by the end of the year.

If past rumors prove accurate, the device will run on a powerful dual-core processor, include mid-to-high end specs and sell for just $150, undercutting the feature-strapped Amazon Kindle Fire.

Cnet is reporting today that the FBI is in the process of creating a new unit that will be able to spy on your conversations that take place using wireless communications, like Skype.

The new unit will be called the "Domestic Communications Assistance Center."

Reads the source: "DCAC's mandate is broad, covering everything from trying to intercept and decode Skype conversations to building custom wiretap hardware or analyzing the gigabytes of data that a wireless provider or social network might turn over in response to a court order. It's also designed to serve as a kind of surveillance help desk for state, local, and other federal police."

Talks for the new unit have been around for over four years, and will be "the technological component of the bureau's 'Going Dark' Internet wiretapping push, which was allocated $54 million by a Senate committee last month."

President Barack Obama has mandated today that all major federal government agency sites must become optimized for mobile devices within a year.

By "optimized," the President means at least two key services must be available on mobile phones and tablets.

Additionally, the agencies must create websites to report "on their mobile progress." These sites must be published within 90 days.

Reads the White House press release:

Innovators in the private sector and the Federal Government have used these technological advances to fundamentally change how they serve their customers. However, it is time for the Federal Government to do more. For far too long, the American people have been forced to navigate a labyrinth of information across
different Government programs in order to find the services they need. In addition, at a time when Americans increasingly pay bills and buy tickets on mobile devices, Government services often are not optimized for smartphones or tablets, assuming the services are even available online.

Bill no. S06779 will look to block anonymous speech online.

Lawmakers in the state want to cut down on "mean-spirited and baseless political attacks" and also "turn the spotlight on cyberbullies by forcing them to reveal their identity."

The bill itself is described by lawmakers as "an act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to protecting a person's right to know who is behind an anonymous internet posting."

If the legislation were to ever be passed, an admin/owner of any website hosted in New York can, by request, remove comments "posted on his or her website by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agreed to attach his or her name to the post and confirm that his or her IP address, legal name and home address are accurate." Furthermore, all website admins must have valid contact information "clearly visible in any sections where comments are posted."

There will be, of course, potential First Amendment issues with the bill, says Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney with the Center for Democracy and Technology. The lawyer says "this statute would essentially destroy the ability to speak anonymously online on sites in New York and provide a heckler's veto to anybody who disagrees with or doesn't like what an anonymous poster said."

Sony exits LCD panel venture.

It announced that it will sell back all 7 percent of the stake in Sharp Display Products Corp, walking away from the joint venture after breaking even on its investment.

Sony is moving away from investing in the production of LCD panels, and opting instead to buy them from suppliers. It's TV division is responsible for enormous losses, as Sony has had serious woes in the market for flat-planel televisions the past several years.

Now with a new CEO in charge, Kazuo Hirai, Sony is seeking to stem losses and turn its fortunes around. In the TV business, it will buy its panels from other manufacturers and focus on its own technology to differentiate it from others in the market.

It also recently ended a flat-panel venture with South Korean consumer electronics giant, Samsung.

Regulators leave Sky Movies off the hook.

The Competition Commissioner had found last August that Sky enjoyed a monopoly on running movies first in the UK for years. It had estimated the cost to the public of this monopoly at £60m-£70 million per year. It has not backed off on that stance, however.

The entry of Netflix and Amazon's LoveFilm into the market has provided Sky with adequate competition in the space. Also, the viewing habits of people in the UK are starting to change, making which service shows movies first on PPV irrelevant.

"Competition between providers of movie services on pay TV has changed materially and, as a result of these changes, consumers now have much greater choice," said Laura Carstensen, who led the Commission's investigation.

"LoveFilm and Netflix offer services which are attractive to many consumers and they appear sufficiently well-resourced to be in a position to improve the range and quality of their content further."

Sky had been investigated by UK communications regulator Ofcom for three years, before it passed the case on to the Competition Commissioner.

CEOs fail to reach a deal.

Samsung chief executive Choi Gee-sung and Apple CEO Tim Cook were to met this week after being ordered to do so by the Northern District Court of California. The Judge had hoped that mediation efforts between both parties could bring about a speedy resolution to the case, which both companies say they want.

However, the Korea Times is reporting that no compromise was reached between the two executives. The case is heading for trial in July, a prospect that neither tech firm really wants to face.

Apple has accused Samsung of slavishly cloning its iPad and iPhone products with the Samsung line of Galaxy tablets and smartphones. Samsung denies the allegations and accuses Apple of infringing on patents related to wireless technology.

The two have slugged it out in court in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia over the conflict.

Choi Gee-sung had reportedly suggested that cross-licensing agreement might be the best way for both to resolve the dispute and avoid a costly and risky trial.

Flash will work on some sides in Metro-style browser.

Internet Explorer 10 will have Flash already integrated in Windows 8. It can be used on any website in the browser when running as a Desktop application, but will be limited to a number of trusted sites when it is used with the Metro-style browser.

The websites that will be approved for use of Flash include YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and the other usual suspects that rely heavily on Flash technology. Attempting to use Flash on another site will require the browser to run in Desktop mode.

Microsoft has originally said that the Metro-style browser will be plugin free, anticipating a major shift toward HTML5 in the next few years and away from proprietary plug-ins. Adobe, however, was reportedly very keen on Flash working to some degree in the Metro browser.

The Windows 8 release preview, which is expected early next Month, will include the integrated Flash support.