Latest news

During the weekend it was confirmed that Digg founder Kevin Rose was leaving the company he created although he will stick around in some positions.

Says Rose, via Mash:

I’ll continue advising Digg [and serve] on the board of directors and taping Diggnation (as I have been since [Matt Williams] joined).

Rose started the site in 2004, and within 18 months it had become the largest social news site in the U.S.

Over time, the site has lost its share to competitors like StumbleUpon and Reddit, which recently announced a 1 billion view month, massive by any means.

Rose has almost completed a $1 million funding round for a new startup.

Snaptu has confirmed they have been acquired by Facebook, although the financial details have not been released.

Israeli business papers have estimated the purchase will cost the social networking giant $70 million at highest or $40 million on the low end.

Says Snaptu:

Earlier this year, we announced the launch of a new Facebook mobile application to give people a great mobile experience on a broad range of feature phones. The Facebook for Feature Phones app currently works on more than 2,500 devices.

We soon decided that working as part of the Facebook team offered the best opportunity to keep accelerating the pace of our product development. And joining Facebook means we can make an even bigger impact on the world.

Facebook's response:

As part of our goal to offer people around the world the opportunity to connect and share on mobile devices, we’re excited to confirm that we recently signed an agreement to acquire Snaptu. We expect the acquisition to close in a few weeks, subject to customary closing conditions.

Snaptu is a startup run by a highly innovative collection of engineers and entrepreneurs, who we already work closely with to offer a Facebook mobile application for feature phones.

AT&T has announced today that it will purchase T-Mobile USA from parent Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion, in a cash and stock transaction.

With the major acquisition, AT&T will add a significant amount of market share and better compete against Verizon, the market leader in the U.S. for mobile phone users.

AT&T says it will expand its 4G LTE to 95 percent of the American population, an additional 46.5 million people.

Says AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson:

This transaction represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nation’s future. It will improve network quality, and it will bring advanced LTE capabilities to more than 294 million people. Mobile broadband networks drive economic opportunity everywhere, and they enable the expanding high-tech ecosystem that includes device makers, cloud and content providers, app developers, customers, and more. During the past few years, America’s high-tech industry has delivered innovation at unprecedented speed, and this combination will accelerate its continued growth.

This transaction delivers significant customer, shareowner and public benefits that are available at this level only from the combination of these two companies with complementary network technologies, spectrum positions and operations. We are confident in our ability to execute a seamless integration, and with additional spectrum and network capabilities, we can better meet our customers’ current demands, build for the future and help achieve the President’s goals for a high-speed, wirelessly connected America.

Netflix has confirmed it has beat out HBO and AMC for the drama "House of Cards," starring Kevin Spacey.

The show is directed by David Fincher, the man behind 'Fight Club' and 'The Social Network,' among other hits.

House of Cards will be Netflix' first original program, and puts the company in direct competition with HBO and Showtime, which have had years of original hits that have helped raise their subscriber bases.

Airing in late 2012, the show will be available exclusively through Netflix's "Watch Instantly" streaming service, which costs $7.99 by itself, or minimum $8.99 when mixed with a physical media package.

To get the show, Netflix had to commit to two seasons (26 episodes) before the pilot/test episode was even shot. A full-season commitment is an anomaly in the TV world, and a two-season commitment is just unheard of.

Netflix COO Ted Sarandos says the "company will pay a portion of the production costs of the series, with Media Rights Capital financing the rest and retaining DVD, television syndication and international distribution rights." It is unclear how much the company had to pay for the agreement, although he admitted that Netflix made sure its fees per show was capped.

Microsoft and federal law enforcement have jointly taken down the spam giant Rustock botnet, seizing computers, servers, and other equipment from hosting providers in Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Kansas City, Seattle, Scranton, Pa., and Columbus.

The devices were allegedly "command-and-control" machines, from where operators of the botnet controlled over one million infected PCs, globally.

Microsoft called the seizures a "decapitation" of the botnet, which was sending out as much as 30 billion spam emails every day.

The raids were part of a civil lawsuit filed by Microsoft last month against John Does 1-11, the unidentified operators of the botnet.

Hotmail, Microsoft's email service, is "taxed" by the huge amount of spam, says the software company, and Windows and Office users are hurt because the spammers usually exploit security vulnerabilities in Office or Windows to infect and take control of computers.

ICANN, the governing body behind the Internet has finally approved .XXX domains, almost 10 years after the idea was brought to the group.

With a vote of 9-3, and despite objections from the adult industry, the measure passed.

Adult sites can choose to use the new domain, but are not required to do so.

The Free Speech Coalition, the main opponent to the vote because it represents many businesses in the adult industry, says the move will raise costs for porn providers, thanks to the need to register .xxx domains on top of their current addresses.

Additionally, the Coalition says the new domain will make it much easier for filters to block adult sites in bulk.

The group plans to appeal the decision.

Specs for the upcoming HTC Evo 3D and Evo View 4G (headed to Sprint) have leaked today, days before their expected launch at CTIA.

The Evo 3D will have a dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor and a 4.3-inch 3D display which will not require special glasses.

Additionally, the device will have dual-5MP cameras that can record 720p 3D video, and will support the YouTube 3D app. A smaller 1.3MP front-side camera will be used for video chatting, but no 3D.

Finally, the smartphone will be the first of HTC's phones to run Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and will include 1GB RAM, 4GB ROM and a large 1,730mAh battery.

The Evo View 4G is based on the Flyer tablet, and has a 7-inch display, 1024x600 resolution, a single core 1.5Ghz Snapdragon processor, 5MP standard camera, 1.3MP front-side camera, Android 2.3.3, WiMax 4G support, and pen input support.

Despite the warning on every Nintendo 3DS that it shouldn't be used by any child under the age of 6, optometrists in the U.S are saying that it won't actually harm their vision, and young children should try out the 3D screen as it could help the doctors find vision disorders that must be caught early to treat.

Says Michael Duenas, associate director for health sciences and policy for the American Optometric Association:

The 3DS could be a godsend for identifying kids under 6 who need vision therapy.

Nintendo's latest handheld is on sale in Japan and will hit the U.S. next Sunday with a $250 price tag.

The handheld can display 3D images without the need for special glasses, and can take 3D pictures.

If a child under 6 cannot see the 3D effect, it is a clear sign that they may have amblyopia (lazy eye) or other vision disorders, says the AOA.

AT&T has moved to bully tactics in an effort to stop smartphone owners who are using wireless tethering without paying extra for a data plan.

Tethering allows users to turn their phone into a wireless hotspot using their 3G connection and allowing other devices to connect to it.

Hundreds (if not more) of AT&T subscribers received the following email this week, in which AT&T practically says "start paying for tethering or we will force you to."

Reads the email:

We've noticed your service plan may need updating.

Many AT&T customers use their smartphones as a broadband connection for other devices, like laptops, netbooks or other smartphones- a practice commonly known as tethering. Tethering can be an efficient way for our customers to enjoy the benefits of AT&T's mobile broadband network and use more than one device to stay in touch with important people and information. To take advantage of this feature, we require that in addition to a data plan, you also have a tethering plan.

Our records show that you use this capability, but are not subscribed to our tethering plan.

If you would like to continue tethering, please log into your account online at www.wireless.att.com, or call us at 1-888-860-6789 Monday - Friday, 7 a.m. - 9 p.m. CST or Saturday, 8 a.m. - 7 p.m. CST, by March 27, 2011 to sign up for DataPro 4GB for Smartphone Tethering. Here are details on the plan:

Last week, Sony introduced PlayStation 3 firmware 3.60, which added cloud saving for PlayStation Plus members.

This week, a hacker uploaded a video alleging that he had jailbroken the firmware, showing off a retail console with 3.60 with homebrew.

You can read an interview with the hacker here: MyCE.

In separate news, PSX Scene has said that Sony has enabled 3.60 authentication, thus kicking all custom firmware users off of PSN.

It is unclear whether the last move will lead to bans.

Following the decline in sales for music and rhythm games like 'Guitar Hero' and 'Rock Band,' Ubisoft has announced the launch of its first ever "authentic guitar game," dubbed Rocksmith.

Rocksmith will be available for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC and will allow gamers to plug in their real electric guitar and learn how to play via the game.

The gameplay will adjust automatically to match a player's skill level (beginner to expert) and the developer says music reading will be "visually fun and intuitive."

It is unclear what the full launch catalog will be but there will be music from The Animals, The Black Keys, David Bowie, Interpol, Nirvana and The Rolling Stones.

Adds Ubi (via PCW)

Rocksmith is the most authentic and addictive music game ever created. Whether a beginner or a seasoned guitarist, players can progress at their own speed and walk away from the game with the ability to play songs by memory. Rocksmith is the only video game that gets players stage-ready.

Following 12 betas and the recent RC, Mozilla has said today that Firefox 4 will be officially released on March 22nd for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Firefox 4 is most notable due to the addition of hardware-accelerated browsing.

Chrome 10 has partial acceleration and the new Internet Explorer 9 offers acceleration for users with AMD chips.

The browser features a minimalist interface, much improved JavaScript performance, increased HTML5 support (including WebM) and a revamped plug-in architecture called JetPack.

Firefox 4 adds the ability to create tab groups (dubbed Panorama), and adds tab pinning, as well. Frequently used sites, like Gmail and Twitter can be created into App Tabs, which means they will pin, and glow when updated (new tweets, new emails).

As with past versions, you can sync all settings, passwords, bookmarks and open tabs to mobile devices via secured 26-character key.

Dan Rayburn of StreamingMedia has updated his report on Netflix streaming costs, and it appears that the company's direct costs fell by 50 percent since the end of 2009.

In all, the company will pay just $50 million in 2011 to CDNs for delivery of the video.

As 2009 came to a close, Netflix was paying around 5 cents for every streamed movie, but that cost has fallen to 2.5 cents. The post explains:

While most video contracts with third party CDNs are typically priced on per GB delivered model, Netflix and other large content distributors usually pay the CDNs on a per Mbps sustained model. They pay not for the total number of bits they transfer each month, but rather the total amount of bandwidth they peak at each month, a pricing model also referred to in the industry as 95/5. This means that a customer can burst above their committed rate of Mbps less than 5% of the time with no penalty, but once they go over that, they pay for overages.

Netflix is on the verge of acquiring its first original series, outbidding HBO and AMC for the drama "House of Cards," starring Kevin Spacey.

The show is directed by David Fincher, the man behind 'Fight Club' and 'The Social Network,' among other hits.

While the numbers are mostly speculation, Deadline says the deal may end up costing Netflix over $100 million for two seasons (26 episodes).

Netflix is the overwhelming streaming video market leader, but the company had shunned original programming until recently.

A two-season commitment is an absolute anomaly in this day and age, with most broadcasters, and even premium channels like HBO and Showtime piloting new shows, or signing on for short 6-13 episode seasons. With a two-season commitment, Netflix is betting largely that the show will be a massive hit, brining in millions of new subscribers.

Netflix has currently committed over $1.5 billion for deals with Paramount, CBS, Lionsgate, MGM, Relativity Media and Starz. A streaming-only plan from Netflix is $8 per month.

Samsung's Galaxy S Wi-Fi 4.0 and 5.0 media players have reached the U.S., dubbed the Galaxy Player 4" and 5" for the American market.

The media players should be the first competition the market leader Apple iPod Touch has had, ever.

Both devices run on Android 2.2, and will be upgradeable to Gingerbread 2.3 or higher in the future. Each device has a 3.2MP rear-side camera and a VGA camera on the front.

Galaxy Players come built-in with Skype and Qik for video conferencing.

Furthermore, the players have Flash 10.1, working GPS that can be used offline with Google Maps 5, and DLNA media sharing.

Each of the devices ships with 8GB storage in an effort to keep down costs, but MicroSDHC slots means you can add up to 32GB more. Because of Android, the devices don't require a syncing app like iTunes, and the devices supports AAC, MP3, MPEG-4, H.264, WMV, DivX, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, and XviD.