Do you like Pushbullet? As an Android user, you are required to like it. Sorry, we don't make the laws, we just enforce them... with extreme prejudice. The news you are henceforth required to celebrate is that the Pushbullet devs have created a Play Store beta program. Just a few clicks and you'll get the new stuff first. Plus, there's an update coming to the desktop app that takes some of the weight off the browser extensions.

• Pushbullet Releases Beta Windows App, Makes It Even Easier To Push Between Devices
• PushBullet 12.2 Update Brings Mirrored Notification Duration Setting, Shows Upload Progress, Makes Downloads Easy To Cancel, And More
• PushBullet Releases Extension For Firefox Browser, Continues Plan For World Domination
• PushBullet Updated To Version 8 With Device Sharing: 'Friends Let Friends Push'

Pushbullet Adds A Google Play Beta Program And Pushes An Update To The Desktop App With Mirroring Support was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Most people in the UK may not have realized it, but every time they backed up an MP3 or made a copy of a CD or DVD for personal use, they were breaking the law.

Starting today this is no longer the case for the disabled, thanks to a revision of copyright law that just went into effect. Disabled citizens can now copy and publish copyrighted material if there’s no commercial alternative available.

“Disabled people and disability groups can now make accessible copies of copyright material (eg music, film, books) when no commercial alternative exists,” the Government announced today.

Previously the Government also said that all private copying for personal use would be legal starting in June, but this has apparently been delayed pending Parliament approval.

However, following a thorough inspection of local copyright legislation the UK Government has already committed to change current laws in favor of consumers.

“Copyright law is being changed to allow you to make personal copies of media you have bought, for private purposes such as format shifting or backup,” the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) previously announced.

“The changes will mean that you will be able to copy a book or film you have purchased for one device onto another without infringing copyright.”

In other words, people will be free to rip CDs and DVDs or backup their MP3s to an online storage provider, without risking legal trouble. The Government emphasizes, however, that it is still not allowed to share these personal copies with the rest of the world.

“You will be permitted to make personal copies to any device that you own, or a personal online storage medium, such as a private cloud. However, it will be illegal to give other people access to the copies you have made,” the IPO explains.

It is no secret that several entertainment industry groups are wary of the new copying regulation. However, before implementing the changes the Government carefully researched the economic impact for copyright holders, concluding it to be minimal.

On the other end of the spectrum, it’s expected that the technology sector will greatly benefit from the newly gained freedom. The revised copying rules are expected to generate an additional £31 million in revenue per year. This money will come from consumers who use services and products to assist their copying needs.

“This measure will benefit technology firms by removing barriers and costs and improving entry to technology markets which rely on consumers being able to make private copies,” the IPO predicts.

Besides new private copying rights, the upcoming amendments will also broaden people’s fair use rights. For example, people no longer have to ask permission to quote from or parody the work of others, such as a news report or a book, as long as it’s “fair dealing” and the source is recognized.

A complete overview of the changes, and how they apply to the public, are summarized in a handy guide published by the UK Intellectual Property Office.

Update: This article initially stated that the general private copying restrictions were also lifted, as announced previously and still listed in the consumer guide. However, these still have to be approved by Parliament. The article has been updated accordingly.

TorrentFreak asked IPO to clarify the confusion and we will post the response here when it comes in.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

After making its way into Samsung cameras and smartwatches, the Tizen operating system is finally on a phone. The Samsung Z is the first Tizen smartphone, representing a third pillar alongside Samsung's efforts with Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone. Samsung calls it a "premium" device, but the specifications are fairly pedestrian: a 4.8-inch 720p AMOLED display, a 2.3GHz quad-core processor, and an 8-megapixel camera. Like the Android-based Galaxy S5, it includes a fingerprint sensor.

Continue reading…

UK phone retailer Carphone Warehouse will start taking pre-orders for the LG G3 tomorrow, promising to have the new Android device in stores on July 1st. Local carrier O2 is targeting the same date and LG itself has rubber-stamped it as the official start of availability. This is the first official release date we've heard outside of Korea, where the G3 is already on sale, and will be followed by the rest of Europe later in July.

Qi wireless charging will come integrated on every G3 handset sold outside of Korea and the United States. Carrier agreements within those markets prevent LG from including it, meaning users there will need to buy the Qi-capable QuickCircle cover if they wish to charge without resorting to a cable. For more...

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 Google has officially confirmed that it received 12,000 requests to be forgotten from EU citizens on the first day that it offered the ability to do so, according to a report from the AFP. The requests were submitted Friday, after Google offered up an online form for users to fill out in order to ask that search results related to their name be removed from Google’s listings. The… Read More

Some apps are essential, and you use them every day. Everyone knows their names: Firefox, VLC, 7-Zip, and so on. However, there's another class of app that gets less attention: the apps that are insanely useful to have in your back pocket on the rare occasions you need them. Here are 10 of our favorites.

10. Speccy

Maybe you've forgotten what kind of RAM you bought, or want a quick glance at your CPU's temperature. Speccy scans your machine and gives you a complete rundown of everything, from model numbers to temperatures, fan speeds, S.M.A.R.T. status, and...well, pretty much anything else you can think of. It's also available in portable form, so you don't have to install anything—just stick it in a folder for when you really need it. For an alternative, check out HWiNFO.

9. Ultimate Windows Tweaker

When you first install Windows, you probably get everything set up just the way you like it, including all your favorite little Registry hacks and unsupported tweaks. You might even discover new ones later and try them out. Apps like Ultimate Windows Tweaker make this a lot easier, and they're useful to keep around later if you start incorporating new things into your workflow. Its list of features is endless, allowing you to tweak the tiniest features in the taskbar, Windows Explorer, the lock screen, and anything else you could imagine. Download it once and keep it forever (and as always, back up before you start tweaking your system).

8. Stress Testing Utilities

Overclockers are probably very familiar with stress testing utilities like Prime95, LinX, and AIDA64. If you've overclocked your CPU, you should definitely keep these around, but they can be useful for non-overclockers too. When your processor is having issues, it can be difficult to diagnose. If some of your apps are crashing, a stress test like Prime95 can help you figure out whether your CPU is the problem (or whether it's something else). Many folks also recommend giving a new computer a stress test to make sure there aren't any problems. Most of these are also portable, so you can throw them in a folder and start them up when you need them.

7. MalwareBytes, VirusTotal, and AdwCleaner

We put these in the same category since they all protect you from unwanted programs, but they're each useful in their own right. You probably have a good antivirus program running all the time, but no antivirus program catches everything—so it's useful to have a secondary program to check once in awhile. MalwareBytes is great because it only works on-demand, which means it won't conflict with your always-running antivirus tool. The VirusTotal Uploader, on the other hand, lets you scan any individual file with over 50 antivirus tools at once, so it's great if you've downloaded something you think might be fishy. Lastly, if you've accidentally installed an annoying toolbar on your system that just won't go away, AdwCleaner will help you get rid of it.

6. Magical Jelly Bean KeyFinder

Ever had to reinstall a program, but couldn't find your product key? Magical Jelly Bean KeyFinder will search your PC for installed programs, and—if they have a product key—show them to you, so you can write it down and use it the next time you reinstall. Note: this one contains some toolbars and such upon installation, so be sure to use the custom installation to avoid the crapware.

5. Process Explorer

The Windows Task Manager can show you a lot of information about what programs are running, and usually it does what you need it to. But on the rare occasions you need more information—like if you're trying to figure out which program is using your webcam, for example—you need Process Explorer. Process Explorer is one of the many Task Manager alternatives out there, offering information on what files are currently in use, what hardware, and what each program is doing. If the regular Task Manager isn't giving you the info you need, Process Explorer will.

4. UNetbootin and YUMI

Even if you're a diehard Windows user, Linux can be really useful from time to time—especially for troubleshooting. Traditionally, Linux distros and other troubleshooting tools come in the form of live CDs, but if you don't have a CD drive, UNetbootin is a seriously handy tool. It can turn nearly any ISO into a bootable flash drive. Even better is YUMI, which lets you put multiple live CDs on one flash drive—meaning you can combine all your favorite rescue discs, Linux distros, and other tools and put them in your pocket.

3. Wireless Network Watcher (and Other Network Tools)

Need to see a list of all the computers on your network, along with IP addresses, MAC addresses, and other information? Whether you're planning your network or think someone's stealing your Wi-Fi, Wireless Network Watcher is a handy tool to have around. Despite its name, it works over wired networks, too. Of course, we also recommend checking out all of NirSoft's network tools—which one you use depends on what you're trying to troubleshoot, but they're all pretty awesome.

2. WinDirStat

We all reach that fateful day at some point: when your computer tells you its running out of space. Not sure where it's all going? WinDirStat will tell you. It scans all of your disks and shows you the biggest folders, which file types are taking up space, and more. If you've tried the usual things (like Disk Cleanup) and are still coming up short, WinDirStat is the next step in the disk cleaning process.

1. Sandboxie

Let's admit it: sometimes, even though we know it's wrong, we all open the occasional sketchy program or file. We're not judging, but if you're going to do it, at least use protection. Enter Sandboxie, which lets you run programs independent of the rest of your system. That way they can't infect, access, or otherwise interfere with your Windows installation. It's also great for testing apps you aren't sure of or running multiple instances of an app that won't let you, so it's fun for the whole family.

The Pirate Bay has altered its operations quite a bit over the years, moving from a full-fledged BitTorrent tracker to a trimmed-down and highly portable torrent index.

First the tracker was removed, then the torrents followed, and later the infamous torrent site canceled nearly all central servers after moving to the cloud. In addition, the site switched domain names on multiple occasions.

All these changes were carried out to make the site more resilient and less likely to be shut down by the authorities. This determination to escape the long arm of justice is deeply rooted in the site’s history, dating back to the raid eight years ago.

Most of the site’s current users are probably unaware that without a few essential keystrokes in the site’s early years, The Pirate Bay may have not been here today.

May 31, 2006, less than three years after The Pirate Bay was founded, 65 Swedish police officers entered a datacenter in Stockholm. The policemen had instructions to shut down the largest threat to the entertainment industry at the time – The Pirate Bay’s servers.

While the police were about to raid the datacenter, Pirate Bay founders Gottfrid and Fredrik got wind that something was up. In the months before the raid they were already being watched by private investigators day and night, but this time something was about to happen to their trackers.

At around 10am in the morning Gottfrid told Fredrik that there were police officers at their office, and asked him to get down to the co-location facility and get rid of the ‘incriminating evidence’, although none of it, whatever it was, was related to The Pirate Bay.

As Fredrik was leaving, he suddenly realized that the problems might be linked to their tracker. He therefore decided to make a full backup of the site, just in case.

When he later arrived at the co-location facility the concerns turned out to be justified. There were dozens of policemen floating around taking away dozens of servers, most of which belonged to clients unrelated to The Pirate Bay.

In the days that followed it became clear that Fredrik’s decision to start a backup of the site was probably the most pivotal moment in the site’s history. Because of this backup Fredrik and the rest of the Pirate Bay team managed to resurrect the site within three days.

The site’s operators were not impressed and renamed the site “The Police Bay” complete with a new logo shooting cannon balls at Hollywood. A few days later this logo was replaced by a Phoenix, a reference to the site rising from its digital ashes.

Logos after the raid

Instead of shutting it down the raid brought the site into the mainstream press, not least due to its amazing three-day resurrection. All this publicity resulted in a huge traffic spike for TPB, exactly the opposite effect Hollywood had hoped for.

Despite a criminal investigation leading to convictions for the site’s founders, The Pirate Bay kept growing and growing in the years that followed. The site’s assets, meanwhile, had been transferred to the Seychelles-based company Reservella.

Under new ownership several major technical changes occurred. In the fall of 2009 the infamous BitTorrent tracker was taken offline, turning The Pirate Bay into a torrent indexing site.

Early 2012 The Pirate Bay went even further when it decided to cease offering torrent files for well-seeded content. The site’s operators moved to magnet links instead, allowing them to save resources while making it easier for third-party sites to run proxies.

These proxies turned out to be much-needed, as The Pirate Bay is now the most broadly censored website on the Internet. In recent years ISPs in Denmark, Italy, UK, the Netherlands and elsewhere have been ordered by courts to block subscriber access to the BitTorrent site.

On its tenth anniversary last summer the Pirate Bay team released another option for its users to circumvent the increased censorship, the PirateBrowser. With this browser users in blocked countries can bypass ISP blockades without having to use a proxy.

Over the past year The Pirate Bay also encountered some domain name troubles. Fearing a domain seizure through the Swedish court the site moved from its .SE domain to Greenland’s .GL ccTLD. However, TPB wasn’t welcome there, a rejection that signaled the start of a domain hopping exercise via Iceland’s .IS to Sint Maarten’s .SX, to Ascension Island’s .AC, Peru’s .PE, and back via Guyana’s .GY to the good old .SE domain, where it resides again today.

Looking ahead The Pirate Bay plans to become even more indestructible, partially moving away from the web. The TPB team is working on a special BitTorrent-powered application, which lets users store and distribute The Pirate Bay and other websites on their own computers. Instead of bypassing external censors, this new tool will create its own P2P network through which sites can be accessed without restrictions.

This “p2p browser” should be able to keep The Pirate Bay operational, even if the site itself is pulled offline. There is currently no estimated release date set for this second project, but it will take a few more months of development at minimum.

And so The Pirate Bay is expected to live on and on. A few months ago the site turned ten years old and today it’s celebrating the raid anniversary, which it declared “Pirate Independence Day” back in 2008.

“Let today be the pirates independence day! Today we celebrate the victories we’ve had and the victories that will come. Today we celebrate that we’re united in our efforts. Keep on seeding!,” the TPB team said at the time.

The site’s millions of regular visitors indeed kept on seeding. But remember, if there hadn’t been a recent backup back in 2006, things may have turned out quite differently.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

 We’ve been hearing rumors about Google Stars — a new bookmarking service from Google — for quite a while now, but today, the project got a bit more real thanks to an extension the well-known Google watcher Florian Kiersch found earlier today. German blogger Carsten Knobloch has made the extension available for download and you can find a link to it at the end of his post… Read More

Weeks after rolling out its new profile design to all its users, Twitter's made another big change to how its site looks. Today the company said it's dropped Helvetica Neue for Gotham, a font that was used heavily in Barack Obama's first presidential run, as well as by GQ magazine, which ordered the font from designer Tobias Frere-Jones. So far, the change can be found on individual profile pages, though has not extended to the home feed, notifications, or discovery pages.

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Dustin Adamson's wonderful short film of "Octupuses of the Night" with footage he shot in the Philippines (via Laughing Squid).

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines silhouette as: a dark shape in front of a light background. It is a dramatic way to use backlighting to create stunning photos. Silhouettes are often associated with portraits but there are many other forms as well. 

Here’s a selection of a variety of silhouette photos  - enjoy!

The post A Collection of Great Silhouette Photos by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

 The GooBing Detroit Tumblr chronicles the state of the crumbling metropolis. By using Google Maps images captured in 2009 and more recent pictures captured by Bing Maps in 2012, this Tumblr offers a unique view of the decay. Some areas have went from depressed to devastated in just three years. Click through and check out some of the images. Blight porn gets pageviews. But this Tumblr offers… Read More

Members of the House voted late last night to stop federal law enforcers from interfering with medical marijuana operations in states that have made them legal. The measure, which restricts funds from being spent on stopping states from implementing the legalized distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana, will now head to the Senate, which will have to pass it in order to put a final stop to DEA raids being conducted on facilities that are legal within their state. While the federal government hasn't been intent on shutting down these operations, occasional raids have occurred because the operations are not legal at a federal level.

The measure was largely supported by House Democrats, though nearly 50 Republicans...

Continue reading…

 Live in the European Union and want some old, irrelevant info about you deleted from search results? Google has now implemented a search removal request mechanism for people living in Europe who believe it has indexed information about them that they have a right to remove. Read More

Welcome back to Android Gaming Weekly, our weekly recap of new game releases. We still plan to cover upcoming releases and games we’re playing, but this column is dedicated to new games that you can start playing right now. Check out our top picks and let us know in the comments section if you have any suggestions for next week’s post.

Racing Rivals

Description: True real-time racing at your fingertips. Racing Rivals lets you experience multiplayer racing as it was meant to be: live, fierce and risky. Does your team have what it takes to dominate the Racing Rivals globe? Race in weekly competitions to control cities and earn gems and bonuses for your team! Exclusive Prizes means cars no one else can buy, wrapped in livery no one else has seen.

 

Worms 3

Description: Deal yourself the advantage with a new, game-changing enhancement. Turn on the card mode and alter the start and end of each turn by the playing of strategic cards. Collect in-game rewards that allow you to purchase bronze, silver and gold cards. Build your deck from 41 fiendishly designed cards!

 

Dragon Quest VIII

Description: The 8th instalment in the legendary DRAGON QUEST series is now even easier to enjoy! This was the first title in the series to be presented in full 3D, and its exquisitely detailed world has to be seen to be believed! Set off on an unforgettable adventure with Yangus, the bandit with a heart of gold, Jessica, the high-born magical minx, and Angelo, knight and lothario, by your side!

 

Pablo Cavarez

Description: Pablo Cavarez: Sliding Puzzle Explorer is an original puzzle game, as easy and immediate as the Fifteen puzzle, but fun and deep as the best puzzle games. The goal of each level is to move tiles to create a safe route to guide Pablo to the exit, while collecting treasures and avoiding traps.

 

Unearthed:Trail of Ibn Battuta

Description: When fortune hunter Faris Jawad and his sister Dania receive a call to visit Morocco, they embark on an exotic adventure throughout the Middle East on the trail of the famous Muslim explorer Ibn Battuta. The trail won’t be clear, however, as Faris will have to overcome an unholy alliance of a militia army leader, a weapons dealer and a wealthy antiquities smuggler who are after the same goal.

 

Romans In My Carpet!

Description: Now for something completely different from the developers of the Ravenmark saga. We’ve got Romans In My Carpet! – an absurd MULTIPLAYER turn-based strategy game in vivid 16-bit pixel glory!

 

Just Escape

Description: Just Escape, whether it’s a medieval castle or an abandoned space station you’ll need to solve puzzles and find clues to unlock the door and Just Escape.

 

Record Run

Description: Record Run is a free rhythm-runner that puts you in the middle of your music, chasing records and dodging obstacles to the beat in a crazy musical world. With gameplay levels created to play along with your music, this is a whole new way to run!

 

Conquest of Elysium 3

Description: The game can be described as a strategy roguelike, it plays fast and you can die quickly if you are unlucky. Worlds are randomly generated, so no two games are the same. It is also an unfair game, random events can wreak havoc upon the world and game changing monsters or locations can be encountered.

 

Tales of the Adventure Company

Description: Join the Adventure Company on their dangerous quest to obtain riches and glory! You’ll battle terrifying liches, horrific slimes and even the gods! Unique blend of RPG, puzzle, and roguelike elements. Fight dangerous monsters and save brave heroes across five unique episodes.

 

In a Google+ post, Senior Developer Advocate at Google Timothy Jordan highlighted how notifications will be handled on Google's upcoming Android Wear platform.

Basically, any app that serves notifications on your Android smartphone or tablet can be extended to show notifications on a wearable device running Android Wear with minimal effort. Jordan mentioned by adding a few lines of code, devs can "deliver even richer experiences on the wearable by using stacks, pages, and voice replies."

The notifications are identified by the app icon, which is featured in the top right corner. The notifications themselves seem to take up the lower half of the screen, with Google also demoing a right-to-left swipe gesture that allows you to view longer notifications over multiple screens. If you're interested in knowing how these notifications can be enabled, check out the video below:

What are your thoughts on Android Wear? Are you excited about upcoming smartwatches like the LG G Watch or the Moto 360?

Source: Google+, Via: Engadget

New apps need lovin’ too, right? Every day there are thousands of additions to the Google Play Store, but many go unnoticed and never receive the attention they deserve. We’ve shown in the past that this community can discover great apps and propel them to new heights. Our weekly Fresh Meat column highlights new apps with fewer than 100,000 installs. Browse our new Android app picks below and let us know which ones you enjoy.

Peek

Description: This application is a complete redesign of the known “Peek” feature by ParanoidAndroid project, built to work on any 4.4+ ROM. The whole concept lies into allowing users to quickly interact with their notifications, without having to press any button.

 

Gritness

Description: Gritness is your way to find group activities no matter where you are. Looking for the latest group run, ride, boot camp, yoga class, swimming activity or other group fitness related activities? Use our app to get all of those results in one central location.

 

 

Watch_Dogs Companion: ctOS

Description: Connect and play LIVE with any Watch_Dogs player logged into their console or PC game. Control the city of Chicago from anywhere in the world with the Watch_Dogs Companion: ctOS app.

 

New Relic

Description: Take all that awesome New Relic data with you, everywhere you go. Monitor your web apps, servers, browser data and mobile apps no matter where you are, and stay alert(ed) with critical push notifications.

 

FreedomPop Free Voice and Text

Description: FreedomPop gives you free voice and text plan to call and message anyone in the US, with a free phone number. There are no recurring charges. Every month your account will replenish with voice minutes and texts, for FREE!

 

Autotext PhraseExpress

Description: Insert frequently used phrases which can be selected from a handy popup menu. The Text Expander can also expand Autotext shortcuts into large chunks of text.

 

Inapp Translator

Description: Sometimes you want to read an E-mail, a text or an article in a foreign language and you immediately need a translator. With Inapp Translator, you can easily translate the whole text or part of it into your preferred language without closing the active application; you can see the translated result at the same place, on your screen.

 

TomTom GPS Navigation Traffic

Description: The new TomTom GO Mobile app is a sleek combination of the latest TomTom car navigation technology and world-class traffic information. You will always choose the best route available based on accurate, real-time traffic information that gets you to your destination faster, every day.

 

Fontster

Description: Fontster allows you to easily change the system wide fonts on your Android device within a well designed Holo UI. In order to use this app, your device must be rooted. What makes Fontster special is that it will replace all font styles used by the operating system.

 

Motorola Modality Service

Description: Motorola Modality Services helps your Motorola phone respond more intelligently to motion, phone orientation (e.g. face up/down) and stowed state (e.g in/out-of-pocket).

 

Android/Chrome/Web: Sunrise, our favorite calendar app for the iPhone, just made the jump to Android, and it's bringing all of its best features along for the ride. Sunrise is also getting a webapp—both designed to give you a productive view of your day.

All of the features that made Sunrise a hit on the iPhone and iPad have made it to Android: support for multiple Google calendars, support for meetings and contacts in multiple time zones, Facebook events and birthdays on the same calendar, local weather reports and other useful information, information pulled from your Google contacts, LinkedIn contacts, and Facebook friends, and support for iCloud calendars (we previously said that Exchange was supported—it's not, although the devs say it's coming.)

Similarly, Sunrise lets you add events and reminders in plain language, so you don't have to format the date or time properly—"Lunch with Whitson tomorrow at 2pm" will populate correctly, and if you add a location for your meeting, Sunrise will use Google Maps to add in relevant information and provide directions when it's time for the meeting.

In addition to the Android app, the Sunrise team is also unveiling their webapp, which has all of the same great features (you'll be prompted to log in with Google, Facebook, or with your email if you'd rather not use either, and the webapp prompts you for your location to add things like sunrise/sunset and weather information.) If you're a heavy Chrome user and would prefer a Chrome app, they've got you covered there too with a new Chrome extension. Hit the links below to give it a whirl.

Sunrise (Free) | Google Play

Sunrise (Free) | Chrome Web Store

Sunrise Webapp via Sunrise

The abrupt announcement that the widely used, anonymously authored disk-encryption tool Truecrypt is insecure and will no longer be maintained shocked the crypto world, after all, this was the tool Snowden himself lectured on at a Cryptoparty in Hawai'i. Cory Doctorow tries to make sense of it all. Read the rest

We’ve always been reluctant to publish numbers about the diversity of our workforce at Google. We now realize we were wrong, and that it’s time to be candid about the issues. Put simply, Google is not where we want to be when it comes to diversity, and it’s hard to address these kinds of challenges if you’re not prepared to discuss them openly, and with the facts. So, here are our numbers:
There are lots of reasons why technology companies like Google struggle to recruit and retain women and minorities. For example, women earn roughly 18 percent of all computer science degrees in the United States. Blacks and Hispanics each make up under 10 percent of U.S. college grads and each collect fewer than 10 percent of degrees in CS majors. So we’ve invested a lot of time and energy in education.

Among other things, since 2010 we’ve given more than $40 million to organizations working to bring computer science education to women and girls. And we’ve been working with historically black colleges and universities to elevate coursework and attendance in computer science. For example, this year Google engineer Charles Pratt was in-residence at Howard University, where he revamped the school’s Intro to CS curriculum.

But we’re the first to admit that Google is miles from where we want to be—and that being totally clear about the extent of the problem is a really important part of the solution. To learn more about our work on diversity—for our workforce, for the web and for the tech leaders of the future—visit google.com/diversity.

Posted by Laszlo Bock, Senior Vice President, People Operations

Update May 31: We updated the language of this post to correct the number of degrees black and Hispanic students earn in CS majors, which are 8 percent and 6 percent respectively, according to the National Science Foundation.

Architecture is part art and part science, and when it comes to some of the world's most beautiful bridges, you can enjoy both with a well taken photograph. Dress up your desktop with some scenic views with these wallpapers.

Remember, we're now requesting your participation in the Wallpaper Wednesday series! You'll find a selection here, but post your favorites for this week's topic in the discussions below. Stick to our format as best you can, including a title, the image, resolution, and a link. Happy wallpapering!

The Golden Gate

Download this Wallpaper (2560 x 1600) | The Paper Wall

The Peace Bridge

Download this Wallpaper (2560 x 1600) | The Paper Wall (originally by Willis.la on Flickr)

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Download this Wallpaper (1440 x 900) | The Paper Wall

Tower Bridge

Download this Wallpaper (2560 x 1440) | The Paper Wall

Manhattan Bridge

Download this Wallpaper (1920 x 1200) | The Paper Wall

Meiko Nishi Ohashi Bridge

Download this Wallpaper (1920 x 1080) | The Paper Wall

The Gateshead Millennium and Tyne Bridges

Download this Wallpaper (1920 x 1200) | The Paper Wall

Stourhead Gardens Bridge and Pantheon

Download this Wallpaper (1920 x 1080) | The Paper Wall (originally by Ken Hircock on Flickr)

Foggy Night

Download this Wallpaper (1920 x 1200) | The Paper Wall

We added an extra Golden Gate at the end there to celebrate its 77th birthday yesterday. For more great wallpapers, check out our previous Wallpaper Wednesdays. Got any great wallpapers you'd like to share? Email me a link with "Wallpaper Wednesday" in the subject line. Submitting your own work is highly encouraged!

Apple is buying Beats Electronics and Beats Music, the headphone hardware manufacturer and streaming music service for $3 billion.

Rumors of the deal have flummoxed tech insiders since they leaked out earlier this month. It’s unclear how Beats will fit into Apple’s vision, though it’s likely a bid to buy back the future of music and regain its “cool factor.” 

Beats founders rap megastar and producer Dr. Dre and Interscope Records cofounder Jimmy Iovine will join Apple as full-time employees, though it's not yet clear in what capacity.

Image via Beats