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Dedicated portable consoles like Nintendo's 3DS lineup and Sony's PlayStation Vita provide gaming experiences that aren't even approached by today's smartphones and tablets. But as top video game developers continue to embrace Android and iOS, and as mobile devices get more powerful, will dedicated portable consoles still have a place in the video game market a few years from now? Smartphone and tablet penetration continues to soar but when it comes to gaming, on-screen controls bring serious limitations to the mobile video game experience. The solution for those looking for a better way to game on the go is to spend hundreds of dollars on a separate console — but why not spend a fraction of that on a gaming controller attachment like Samsung's new Smartphone GamePad?

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Looks like Amazon may have quietly made another acquisition, and another move to expand its role in the world of mobile: Italian newspapers are reporting that the e-commerce giant has acquired Gopago, a startup that offers consumers an iOS or Android mobile app to pre-pay for goods before picking them up at a store, and retailers a point-of-sale system to process those orders and more.

Gopago, founded in 2009, is based in Silicon Valley but was started by Italian co-founders: CTO Vincenzo di Nicola hailed from Teramo in Abruzzo before eventually studying at Stanford. The other co-founder, CEO Leo Rocco, was raised in the U.S. by Sicilian parents.

It’s unclear how much money Gopago had raised but its lead investor was JP Morgan Chase, which took a stake in the company last year.

We have reached out to Gopago, its co-founders, and Amazon to try to get a direct confirmation of the deal and will update as we learn more, but for now it looks like Di Nicola has spoken to Italian press about the deal. Here’s what we know from there:

– The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
– There was apparently also interest from Google.
– Di Nicola is going to have a little rest now (“Intanto un bel po’ di riposo.”), and he’s not coming over to Amazon with the acquisition. (He’s actually just gotten U.S. citizenship. Congrats, Vincenzo!)
– It’s not clear yet whether anyone is coming over to Amazon, as it happens. It seems one of the main interests for the company was the technology, which Di Nicola says will be at the heart of a new, “ambitious” project.

So what is this ambitious project?

Amazon today already offers a few ways for people to use mobile devices to buy things, but for now these are largely limited to in-app payments on apps sold via Amazon’s app store, and APIs that let third parties sell Amazon products in their apps.

But there have been some hints for a while that Amazon could be working on something more. Over a year ago, we reported that Amazon was working on a Square competitor. Gopago, with its business firmly rooted in facilitating local commerce by way of mobile devices, could be part of that plan.

In any case, Square is not Amazon’s only commerce rival. Amazon recently launched “Log In and Pay with Amazon“, a digital wallet service that places it in competition with the likes of PayPal and credit card companies, by offering online sellers a one-click checkout option that would let a user pay instantly through his or her Amazon account. Just as eBay and PayPal are working hard to connect the dots between online and offline, mobile and desktop commerce, so, too, may Amazon.

(And there are still some loose ends that we’ve never quite figured out how they will fit into the mix, such as Amazon’s mobile billing deal with Bango. Who knows if this is also part of this ambitious plan.)

Combined with the fact that many are expecting Amazon to launch a phone or two of its own sooner rather than later, and you can see where Gopago technology, perhaps working across those handsets and a Kindle Fire tablet souped up specifically for merchants, suddenly starts to make a lot of sense.

Liking comments and status updates on Facebook has been a long running theme of the social network, but you’ve never been able to demonstrate your disdain with a "dislike" until today. While Facebook isn’t introducing a full dislike button, the Messenger part of the service is getting a giant thumbs-down sticker as part of a free pack released this week. Stickers were originally introduced in April, but a recent hackathon has resulted in a “Likes” sticker pack that includes a sore thumb, fiery thumb, poke, and lots more.

The new sticker pack is available from the Sticker Store, which is accessible via the smiley face within a Facebook Messenger chat session on the web or mobile apps. While it won’t bring the highly...

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The original Tomb Raider is now available for iOS, and it costs just 99 cents. "We've not messed about with it," promises developer Square Enix. Players can expect the "full, unedited, unadulterated experience" that introduced the world to Lara Croft and kicked off one of gaming's most enduring franchises. You'll also be getting two extra levels that were added to Tomb Raider with its 1998 re-release. Square Enix says this all adds up to about 15 hours worth of gameplay. "How better to find out if you’ve still got what it takes to beat a legendary game than by taking on the lost city of Atlantis and the pyramids of Egypt?"

And while playing through this classic using a touchscreen is by no means ideal, early reviews describe the...

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Every day, around the world, we search. We want to find out more about our heroes, explore far-away destinations, or settle a dinner table dispute between friends. And sometimes we just search to find out how many calories are in an avocado.

In our annual Year-End Zeitgeist (“spirit of the times”), we reflect on the people, places, and moments that captured the world’s attention throughout the year. This year marks our most global Zeitgeist to date—with 1,000+ top 10 lists across categories like Trending People, Most-Searched Events and Top Trending Searches from 72 countries.

As we get ready to turn the page to 2014, we invite you to take a global journey through the biggest moments from the past 12 months in our Year in Review video:

It’s perhaps unsurprising that the #1 trending search of 2013 was an international symbol of strength and peace: Nelson Mandela. Global search interest in the former President of South Africa was already high this year, and after his passing, people from around the world turned to Google to learn more about Madiba and his legacy.

Tragedies like the Boston Marathon, the 6th trending term globally, and Typhoon Haiyan, #2 on our global events list, also captured the world’s attention. And our human desire to help came through, with [donate to the Philippines] ranking highly around the world.

2013 also had moments that made us move. People uploaded more than 1.7 million video versions of the Harlem Shake to YouTube, propelling it to the #5 spot on our global list; it was also the second most trending video on YouTube. And unashamedly, we all wanted to learn about twerking, which topped this year’s "what is…" list of search terms (although I’m still not sure I understand that one!).

Here’s a full look at our top 10 global trending searches of 2013:

1. Nelson Mandela
2. Paul Walker
3. iPhone 5s
4. Cory Monteith
5. Harlem Shake
6. Boston Marathon
7. Royal Baby
8. Samsung Galaxy s4
9. PlayStation 4
10. North Korea

You can also explore more global trends this year—directly from our Zeitgeist homepage. Check out the top 100 trending searches of 2013, and simply click one to dig deeper on Google Trends. Or if you’d rather be nostalgic, you can take a look back at each year's Zeitgeist from 2001 on.

Finally, we've made an interactive 3D global map showcasing the top search trends of 2013 by day in cities around the world. You can easily spin the globe, select a city and explore the topics that brought people to search on any day of the year—from local sports games to international news stories.
As I reflect on the year behind us, I’m excited about what’s to come in the year ahead. What will you be searching for?

Posted by +Amit Singhal, Senior Vice President and Google Fellow

A crow uses a jar lid to go snowboarding. (Thanks, Matthew!)

Ted Balaker says:

During an undercover pubic restroom sex sting, police in Manhattan Beach, California tackled, arrested, and interrogated an innocent man, seized his property without probable cause or a warrant, caused the man to withdraw from college (they held his computer for months, which contained all his coursework), and instead of quickly verifying that he was the caretaker of a disabled child and not the sex criminal they suspected, they held him in legal limbo with bogus charges, and humiliated him by releasing his mugshot to the media.

Now Charles Samuel Couch has filed a federal lawsuit, which alleges, among other things, that Manhattan Beach officers have a habit of arresting men during sex stings without probable cause and publicizing the arrests--something that's all too common across America, where so many delight in gawking at mugshots in which many innocent, peaceful people are mixed in with violent thugs.

"Don't Cops Have Better Things to Do?" is written and directed by Ted Balaker

Android's notification shade is awesome. Except when you accidentally clear all and catch a glimpse of a message you need to read. Crap, what app was that in? As of Android 4.3 and up, there's an easy way to find out.

By creating a shortcut to the notifications section of Settings, you can open up a list of every notification you've received. Here's how:

1. Open the widget selector.
2. Find "Settings shortcut" and place it on the screen.
3. Choose "Notifications" from the menu.

Now, you can tap this shortcut whenever you need to see your old notifications! It won't include everything you've ever gotten since the beginning of time, but it will go back quite a while. You can also use this interface to jump to the App Info for an app that may be sending you unwelcome notifications.

How to View your Old Notifications in Android | Digital Inspiration

The ladies and gentlemen at Amazon would certainly prefer it if you read your Kindle books on a Kindle or a Kindle Fire, but for the several hundred million who have a regular Android phone or tablet instead, they've improved the eponymous app on the Google Play Store. Today's update to version 4.3.0 adds a few much-needed features, most notably better organization for your growing collection of books and other documents.

• Amazon Rolls Out Fire OS 3.1 OTA For Kindle Fire Tablets, Introduces Goodreads Integration, Wireless Printing, And More
• Official Amazon Kindle Application Coming "Soon" To Android, Has Us Excited
• Amazon Pushes Software Updates For The Kindle Fire (2nd Gen), Kindle Fire HD 7", And Kindle Fire HD 8.9"
• Amazon Kindle App For Android Demoed, Integrated Store Rumors Debunked [Post Google I/O Coverage]

Amazon Kindle App Update Adds Collections, Font Options, And Book Rating Suggestions was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

We're rounding up some of our favorite strategy games on Android for the deep thinkers out there. These are more than just simple puzzles games - these require careful planning and forethought to emerge victorious. You’ll find some great replay value in games like these too, since the same strategy won’t always work twice.

Strategy gamers, pop on your thinking caps and get downloading these outstanding Android games.

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The race to the bottom of the Android tablet market continues with the launch of the UbiSlate 7Ci in the UK, priced at just £29.99. Originally part of a program run by the Indian government to bring cheap tablets to educational establishments, the UbiSlate is, according to its manufacturer, the "world's cheapest tablet."

So what do you get for your thirty quid? Well, the spec page lists a 1GHz Cortex A8 CPU, 512MB of RAM, a WVGA (800x480) 7-inch display and 4GB internal storage expandable via microSD. On the software side, the company claims its tablet runs Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich, though the launcher and UI on its product render appears to be from version 2.3, Gingerbread.

The UbiSlate 7Ci is just one of many super-low-cost tablets to arrive on the UK market in recent months. Tesco launched its Hudl tablet for £119 in September, followed shortly after by even cheaper offerings from Argos, Carphone Warehouse and even discount supermarket Aldi.

With the holidays looming, the temptation to pick up such a cheap Android tablet may be strong. But as we always point out, when you pay such a small amount for a tablet you're likely to get exactly what you pay for.

Source: UbiSlate; via: The Guardian

Annadel Cruz and Alexander Bernstein spent one month in a Pennsylvania jail while their soap was tested for cocaine. They were released when the laboratory test results revealed the soap to be free of illegal drugs.

The trooper said he stopped the car on Interstate 78 because Cruz was driving five miles per hour above the posted speed limit and "hugging the side of the lane," as the Allentown Morning Call put it. Bernstein's lawyer thinks it is more likely that the trooper's suspicions were aroused by the sight of a young Latina driving a new Mercedes-Benz with out-of-state plates. After pulling over the car, in which Bernstein was a passenger, the trooper claimed to smell marijuana, and Cruz confessed she had smoked pot before leaving New York City. Then the trooper asked if he could search the car, and Cruz supposedly said yes.

What, no forced anal probes like they do in New Mexico and Texas?

One Month in Jail for Soap Possession

One of the best ways to deal with online piracy is to make content available legally.

This is common knowledge by now, but copyright holders still believe that exclusivity can earn them more in the long run, even when it hurts legitimate customers.

A good example of this twisted reasoning is Disney’s decision to make certain Christmas videos unavailable on Amazon because they want people to tune in to their TV channel instead. This ban is not limited to new customers and includes those who already purchased the videos.

One of the affected customers of Disney’s restrictive policy is Bill, who informed BoingBoing that the Christmas themed ‘Disney Prep & Landing’ he bought for his kids last year had been pulled from his library.

“Amazon has explained to me that Disney can pull their content at any time and ‘at this time they’ve pulled that show for exclusivity on their own channel.’ In other words, Amazon sold me a Christmas special my kids can’t watch during the run up to Christmas,” Bill notes.

“It’ll be available in July though!” he adds.

Those who go to Disney Prep & Landing’s Amazon listing now get the following notice: “Due to our licensing agreements this video is currently not available for purchase or rental.” And that’s not the only title that has been pulled, the same notice also appears for other Disney Christmas videos such as ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol‘ and ‘Beauty And The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.’

Appropriately enough, Disney decided to allow people access to the Ebenezer Scrooge story, as Disney’s a Christmas Carol remains available for now.

No Merry Christmas

Amazon appears to be torn by the situation and Bill says that he received “a very generous credit” to purchase another Christmas movie for his kids.

According to Cory Doctorow, however, Disney is not the only one that deserves blame for this customer-unfriendly practice. He notes that Amazon should have never allowed copyright holders to make purchased content unavailable to begin with.

“Yes, Disney is stupid and evil for doing this. But when Amazon decided that it would offer studios the right to revoke access to purchased videos, they set the stage for this,” Doctorow comments.

“This is what was set in motion in the 1970s, when we started using the term ‘intellectual property’ instead of ‘copyright’ or ‘author’s monopoly.’ If the movie is Disney’s ‘property’ for ever and ever, it follows that it is never your property, no matter that you ‘buy’ it,” Doctorow adds.

Adding to the above, it is questionable whether Disney will win anything with this move.

Aside from annoying customers who can no longer watch their purchases, all the titles Disney pulled from Amazon are widely available through unauthorized channels. As a result, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Disney’s actions cause a bump in piracy for these movies.

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

Thanks to legal action by the Hollywood studios and major recording labels, more than a couple of dozen file-sharing sites are now blocked by the six leading ISPs in the UK.

One of those sites is YIFY-Torrents, a particularly popular file-sharing site best known for its compact movie rips. Over the weekend TorrentFreak ran an article on the site which detailed its efforts to beat the censors.

Although we aren’t privy to exactly what was going on behind the scenes at YIFY, we do know that in addition to other tweaks they were experimenting with CloudFlare, a CDN and security company which, according to stats released by the company last year, is used by hundreds of thousands of websites.

What we also learned is that the main ISPs in the UK – BT, SKY, Virgin, TalkTalk etc – are each using their own techniques to try and render torrent sites unavailable to their subscribers. Tricks that worked on one ISP didn’t necessarily produce the same results on another, with YIFY managing to unblock Sky and TalkTalk seemingly quite quickly but with Virgin Media requiring more work.

This is where it gets interesting. By using CloudFlare’s services as a front-end to YIFY’s caching servers alongside other backroom tweaks, YIFY managed to beat the censors to became accessible in the UK over the weekend. But that came at a price.

As revealed by these extended discussions on Reddit and StackOverflow, sometime on Saturday Imgur was rendered inaccessible to all five million users of Sky Broadband in the UK.

There was much speculation, ranging from Imgur somehow ending up on the Internet Watch Foundation’s blocklist to Sky simply being a “terrible” broadband supplier. However, there was a more straightforward but ultimately bewildering explanation.

Sky employs an automated blocking system that polls torrent sites’ DNS records in order to quickly re-block them in the event they switch servers or IP addresses.

“Sky regularly pull IP addresses listed on our DNS servers and adds them to their block list. This block list is then used by an advanced proxy system that redirects any requests to the blacklisted IP addresses to a webserver that the ISP owns which returns a blocked page message,” YIFY explains.

Therefore, when YIFY began using CloudFlare servers in Australia, Sky pulled these IP addresses and blocked them in the mistaken belief that they were YIFY’s. Since Imgur uses the same IP addresses, Sky’s automated blocking took the site offline, to the huge disappointment of countless customers.

Unbelievably this isn’t the first time that Sky’s systems have managed to block entirely innocent sites. Back in August, Sky blocked TorrentFreak.com after EZTV experimented with its DNS settings and just days later it blocked RadioTimes and other sites following a screw-up initiated by the Premier League.

Of course, to some extent this whole blocking problem has been placed in Sky’s lap by the High Court, but by now one would have thought that the ISP would have mastered the process. Allowing their systems to be dictated to by other external systems over which it has no control can never be a good idea.

Sometime yesterday Imgur was eventually unblocked by Sky.

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

In the past few months, we’ve seen the launch of several e-book subscription services using a Netflix-style pricing model, where users pay a monthly fee and get access to any title in the catalog. A new service called Entitle is going in a different direction — users still pay a subscription fee, but they can only download a few books each month.

Isn’t that a worse deal? CEO Bryan Batten argued that it’s not, for a couple of reasons. First, Entitle users actually own the books they purchase, so if they unsubscribe they still have access to the titles that they’ve already paid for. And while many people have become accustomed to the pay-for-access model popularized by Netflix and Spotify, Batten argued that there’s still “a majority of people who like the thought of owning something.”

“With an all-you-can-eat type service, people might put five or 10 books on their bookshelf that they may not ever get to,” he said. “And they don’t get to them, they’re lost if they cancel.”

Second, the Netflix model may make more sense for, well, Netflix, where it really is possible to binge watch an embarrassing number of movies and TV shows. But while there are bookworms out there who read dozens titles in a month, for the average reader the number is probably much lower.

And appropriately for a content company, Batten said the biggest lure for Entitle should be the books themselves. The company has deals with major publishers including Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, HarperCollins Christian, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, with more than 100,000 professionally-published titles from authors like Stephen King, Dan Brown, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michael Crichton, Walter Isaacson, Janet Evanovich, Mark Halperin, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald (uh, some of those are more contemporary than others). Batten pointed out that the Entitle catalog includes recent releases like King’s Doctor Sleep, Glenn Beck’s Miracles & Massacres, and Goodwin’s The Bully Pulpit.

For a point of comparison, when Scribd unveiled its subscription service in October, its big publisher deals were limited to HarperCollins (including HarperCollins Christian), and it didn’t include the publisher’s newest titles.

We actually wrote about Entitle last month in an overview of various “Netflix for e-books” services. At the time, however, it was called eReatah. Apparently, the biggest piece of feedback during the beta period was to change the name, and even Batten admits now that the old name was “pretty terrible.”

Entitle’s current pricing is $14.99 per month for two books, $21.99 for three books, and $27.99 for four books. (In some ways, the pricing seems closest to a book-of-the-month type model.)

The company is also announcing that it has raised $5.3 million in funding. (Turns out the funding was actually disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the summer, but the filing didn’t attract too much attention.) Batten said the money comes from a single investor who asked not to be identified.

You can read more about Entitle on its website and download its iOS app here and its Android app here.

Update: The Digital Reader reported that Entitle’s ownership is a bit limited in that you can’t actually download the e-books to your computer, and they’re still locked up with digital rights management software. I tested this out on the Entitle website and the report appeared to be correct, though when I followed up with Batten he noted that there is a (somewhat circuitous) way to download:

You absolutely can download the books you get from Entitle. In iTunes you can use the built in File Sharing in the Apps tab to backup your books to your computer. We store them for our customers in the cloud forever (no matter if you still have a subscription or not) as well so this is normally not needed but it’s absolutely an option. Downloading the books is also available using the file transfer feature of Android.

As with every single other major ebook distributor (Apple, Amazon, Barns & Nobels) our books contain DRM which is a distribution requirement that everyone adheres to — not just us. If that requirement ever changes we would gladly remove the DRM from our books but unfortunately this is not an option at this time.

All of our members have permanent access to any of the titles that they download even if there are to leave the service and stop paying same as they would with Apple, B&N or Amazon a la carte purchasing.

Basically, Entitle’s “ownership” appears to be circumscribed in a manner similar to lots of other digital content. None of that contradicts the claims that Batten has made about the service, but given his emphasis on ownership, it’s probably worth pointing out.

Organization within families — or even within teams — has never been easy. Different people use different calendars and tools for to-do lists, which means that it’s tough to stay on the same page. Well there’s a new app called Hub that is designed to allow family members to share calendars and lists with one another.

Hub was created by the same team behind SimplyUs, one of the many couples apps that popped up during the spring and early summer of last year. But in building that app, the team realized that couples apps weren’t really sufficient for all the people involved in family decisions.

While sharing calendars and lists definitely helped facilitate communications between couples, there were other members of the family who were left out.

For instance, grandparents who take care of kids might want to share schedules with the parents. And children who are old enough, like teenagers for instance, could have their chores assigned via the app direct to their own smartphone. And there’s also the ability to add babysitters, daycare providers, and other service providers to facilitate scheduling.

With that in mind, the team built the new app to enable easier calendar and list sharing. It’s especially good for wrangling calendars from various different services and making them accessible to each other. That’s because it supports any calendar your phone does, including Google Calendar, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud, and Exchange.

Users can also create multiple hubs with different participants. So there can be like a kid’s chore hub, a babysitter hub, a romantic couple hub, whatever. Hub operates on a freemium model, where free hubs get 5 event shares and 10 task shares per month.

To upgrade, pricing is $35.99 annually or $4.99 monthly for unlimited hubs and event shares and task shares. And once one person in a hub has upgraded, everyone he or she shares with gets unlimited shares in the hub.

Back in July, feminist activist and journalist Caroline Criado-Perez successfully campaigned to get Jane Austen's image on the £10 bill — and unwittingly became a major target for trolls on Twitter who sent Criado-Perez all manner of abuse and threats. The UK police made arrests following the outbursts, and now the AP reports that two individuals have been formally charged with "improper use of a communications network." Two other suspects will not be charged, and a fifth continues to be under investigation. Since the outburst, Twitter rolled out an easier way for users to report abusive tweets — something Criado-Pereze she was receiving at rates up to 50 times an hour. There's no word on what kind of penalties the charges carry if...

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Metail, the UK-based virtual fitting room startup, has raised £2.6 million in “growth funding”, as it gets ready to move into a new 6,000 square foot converted warehouse on the periphery of “Tech City” in East London. The new investment — its first institutional funding — was led by New World Private Equity Partners, with participation from Stefano D’Anna and John Gleasure, co-founders of Perform. It brings total funding for Metail to £5.4 million, having previously raised £2.8 million from friends and family, angel investors, and via a TSB R&D grant.

Metail’s virtual fitting room is based on its 3D visualisation technology, which enables a clothes shopper to upload a photo and dial in a few basic measurements to create a virtual representation of themselves, known as a ‘MeModel’, so that they can ‘try on’ garments virtually. A user only has to create their MeModel once as it’s portable across supporting sites. The startup then makes money by taking a commission on every purchase that comes via its virtual fitting room.

It boasts a decent (and growing) customer base that includes Tesco, Warehouse and the Shop Direct Group in the UK, SingTel (via its e-commerce platform) in Asia, Zalando in Germany, and Dafiti in Brazil. The latter two are Rocket Internet companies, which, given the Samwer brothers’ obsession with execution, perhaps speaks to the validity of Metail’s B2B proposition.

Its virtual fitting room solution claims to boost a clothes retailer’s bottom line by increasing customer conversion — seeing how an outfit will look and fit is an attractive consumer proposition — and by reducing return rates.

In a statement, Ben Bommert, Director of Special Operations at Dafiti, says customers using MeModels on its site, “buy and retain 6% more products than customers who don’t use the technology”.

It’s also testament to the way Metail’s business model is aligned with the interests of the online retailers it sells to. That’s because it doesn’t charge an upfront fee for its technology and the work carried out to visualise each garment, and only generates revenue if it helps to actually shift more product. That requires its virtual fitting room solution to scale for itself and its partners — a major retailer like Zalando photographs 3-500 items of clothing per-day — something that Metail founder and CEO Tom Adeyoola tells me the startup has made a lot of progress on over the last year.

He says they’ve managed to half the costs of visualising each garment, partly by ensuring that the photography aspect happens as part of a retailer’s existing workflow — Metail provides a specialised photography rig and the required training — while the photographs taken are tagged and pushed to the cloud to enable its tech to extrapolate different garment sizes and fit based on a single sized item. It’s this technology that is being continually refined at Metail’s Cambridge-based R&D and technology base, headed up by co-founder Duncan Robertson, one of seven PhDs within the company.

Adeyoola says the aim is to get this cost down to a few dollars per garment, and at the same time improve the consumer-facing proposition so that more shoppers create and use a MeModel, which in turn will help drive up revenue. To that end, the startup has recruited “fashion industry veteran” Sarah Walter as Chief Creative Officer. Walter has held senior positions at a number of major UK fashion media and high street brands, both in editorial and comms, such as Vogue, Bazaar, Marie Claire, New Look, and River Island.

Metail has also been experimenting with a second-screen play. In December last year it began partnering with the UK television broadcaster ITV as part of a fashion segment on the channel’s day time show This Morning. Viewers are invited to style the two models featured in the show via a virtual wardrobe and fitting room powered by Metail. The most ‘liked’ looks are then paraded by the models on the catwalk at the end of the program.

Of course, the company doesn’t operate in a vacuum. There are a plethora of startups attempting to solve the problem of how to try on clothes online, with various approaches that range from robotic mannequins to using a previously bought garment as a guide for future purchases. Competitors include TrueFit, MyShape, Clotheshorse, True & Co., Virtusize, Fitiquette, and Fits.me.

Stretching the boundaries of London’s “Tech City”

Metail will see 2013 out with a staff of 40, up from 27 at the start of the year — growth that has required the company to seek a new London HQ. As part of today’s announcement it’s named New Loom House, in Whitechapel, as its new 6,000 sq ft London premises, meaning the startup is moving out of the Old Street area in East London that’s been rebranded by the UK government as “Tech City”.

However, another way to look at it is that the synthetic boundaries of Tech City are naturally expanding as more startups and even larger technology companies take root in the area, a trend that Adeyoola tells me is pushing up rent, which, along with lower business rates, is making the adjacent borough of Tower Hamlets a more attractive proposition.

Specifically, he says that rent has typically gone up from £12 per-square foot to £40 as landlords play startups off against each other. By relocating ever so slightly further afield Adeyoola says he’s been able to redistribute some of that potential outlay to make Metail’s new London home “the kind of space we want”. In addition, he says that Whitechappel has excellent transport links to Cambridge, where Metail has its R&D base.

Disney Prep and Landing 2' if you're curious) and it was gone from our library and couldn't be found on the site at all. Amazon has explained to me that Disney can pull their content at any time and 'at this time they've pulled that show for exclusivity on their own channel.' In other words, Amazon sold me a Christmas special my kids can't watch during the run up to Christmas. It'll be available in July though!"

To be fair, the Amazon rep gave me a very generous credit to watch something else, recognizing that this is a suck policy.

But at a minimum, beware, somewhere buried in the legalese is the right for Amazon and partners to pull content away from you, even content you specifically paid for, anytime they want.

Maybe this is standard in the new digital world and not limited to Amazon. If so, screw the new digital world and give me a physical copy.

Yes, Disney is stupid and evil for doing this. But when Amazon decided that it would offer studios the right to revoke access to purchased videos, they set the stage for this. They stuck the gun on the mantelpiece in Act One, and they don't get to act all surprised now that it went off in Act Three. Anyone who didn't see this coming failed to do so because it was their job not to see it coming.

This is what was set in motion in the 1970s, when we started using the term "intellectual property" instead of "copyright" or "author's monopoly." If the movie is Disney's "property" for ever and ever, it follows that it is never your property, no matter that you "buy" it. And since "IP" is embedded in everything from blenders to cars to yoga studios, there is nothing that you can ever own -- you can only be a tenant in someone else's fields, an ambulatory wallet for a rentier looking for "passive income" while suckers like you work for a living and pay rent on everything in your life, only to have it yanked away from you at the landlord's pleasure.

Peter O'Toole, best known for his legendary role in the classic 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, died this weekend at a hospital in London. He was 81.

O'Toole announced his retirement from his 50-year acting career last year, something he later attributed to his failing health. "I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell," he said at the time. The actor had been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor eight times during that period, including for his defining performance as T.E. Lawrence, though he never took home the Oscar. Fans today can recognize his presence in such works as Troy, The Tudors, and even Ratatouille as the gruff food critic Anton Ego.

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After giving 30-day free trials a shot, Amazon has a new master plan to get its Kindle Fire HDX tablets under as many trees as possible this holiday season: a nine-month financing option. According to a new offer spotted by All Things D, you’ll be able to pay just 25 percent of the tablet’s purchase price up front, with another quarter due every ninety days. And if you fail to pay off the device completely? Amazon says that it has the right to deregister it, blocking access to Amazon content you’ve paid for, like your Kindle books.

With the smaller 7-inch Kindle HDX starting at $229, most people would probably prefer to just pay for it upfront rather than drag it out over nine months, but interestingly, Amazon won’t charge any...

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Adobe Photoshop is the market leader when it comes to photo retouching, image editing, or even creating new images from scratch. However, for most people's uses, it may just be too many features to wade through, too much money to spend, or too complicated to use. Thankfully, there are plenty of powerful alternatives that also have tons of features. Here's a look at five of the best.

Earlier this week we asked you which Photoshop alternatives you thought were the best, or which ones you preferred when you needed to do image editing or photo editing. You responded with a ton of great suggestions, but here are your top five, in no particular order.

GIMP (Win/OS X/Linux)

The GNU Image Manipulation Program, aka GIMP, is well known and well loved for more than a few reasons. It's incredibly powerful, packing as many features as Photoshop itself, the fact that it's cross platform and supports Windows, OS X, and Linux machines with ease (and with feature parity across all devices), and of course, because it's completely free. It has a completely modular and customizable interface, so you can keep your most oft-used tools front and center. It also features image correction utilities that make photo manipulation and retouching easy.

Those of you who nominated GIMP praised it for coming in at the low low price of $0, but many of you also reported issues with its interface and usability. It's true, the interface certainly leaves more than a few things to be desired, and it can be difficult to get used to if you're more accustomed to other image editing tools. Some people love it, some people hate it, but everyone acknowledges that it's difficult to find a comparable feature-packed utility for free.

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Pixelmator (OS X)

Pixelmator is a richly featured image editor for OS X. It'll set you back $30, but it often appears in bundles and app packs along with other useful utilities, so it can be had at a bargain. Pixelmator is remarkably powerful; packing a flexible, customizable interface that's designed for OS X, multiple layer styles and filtering/editing tools, and an adaptive engine that switches to the right tools or features when you need them. It's packed with photo and image editing and retouching features, so if you're looking to clean up photos before posting them to the internet, or getting them printed and framed, this app comes at a fraction of Photoshop's price and offers a ton of useful features.

There's a reason that we said that Pixelmator is a seriously good replacement for Photoshop, and while some people will always have a use case that requires Photoshop specifically, (eg, you need non-destructive editing, channel support, or adjustment layers) for the rest of us, Pixelmator is worth a look. Those of you who nominated it praised its RAW file support, and its depth of features, not to mention its price tag. Of course, it's Mac only, so those folks doing image editing on Windows or Linux machines don't have it as an option.

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Paint.NET (Windows)

Paint.NET is one of our favorite image editing tools. Part of it is because the app is feature packed, offering layer editing, a customizable interface with plenty of room to work but also plenty of tools at your disposal, unlimited undo, tons of effects and filters, and a community of passionate users. Part of it is because Paint.NET is completely free, and for the vast majority of people looking to touch up a photo before they post it to the web, resize or crop an image, or do basic image editing, it's more than enough, and it's completely free. It doesn't have the same features as more advanced tools like Photoshop or even GIMP, but not every Photoshop alternative needs to have the same breadth of features—just the ones that matter.

Those of you who nominated Paint.NET noted this explcitly. Advanced users may run up against its limitations after a while, but advanced users probably already know the tools that have the features they need. The rest of us though, who just need to open a tool to do some basic work here and there and want a fast, flexible, and free utility to do it, Paint.NET Is the way to go.

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Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Windows/OS X)

Adobe Lightroom stands out from a number of the alternatives here partially because it's designed specifically for photographers, and has the broad variety of tools and features they need to get their photos edited, retouched, updated, and corrected before they're printed, framed, posted online, or even professionally judged. Color correct your images, remove objects or people, straighten images, and more. Lightroom is part of Adobe's Creative Cloud suite, so you have the option of buying access to it alone, or making it part of a larger subscription to Adobe's other utilities as well. The full version is $149, but it's frequently available with discounts.

We were initially surprised that another Adobe product, much less Lightroom, got the nominations for the top five. However, it makes sense if you're a photographer looking for a great image editing tool that's not quite Photoshop, and it looks like a number of you are doing just that—editing photos specifically, not just images, and not necessarily creating images from scratch.

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Pixlr Editor (Web)

Pixlr Editor is actually part of a suite of Pixlr apps, including the previously mentioned mobile appPixelr Express, and photo filter and tweaking app, Pixlr-O-Matic. Pixlr Editor on the other hand is a richly featured webapp that offers a healthy dose of features for editing photos and images. It packs adjustments, layers, filters and effects, basic features like rotation, resizing, cropping and editing, area selection, and so on. It's not as feature-packed or as streamlined as a lot of other tools, but the fact that it's free and runs in your browser alone makes it worth your attention, and your use if you're away from a computer with a tool you already know installed.

Those of you who nominated Pixlr highlighted that fact as well; it does just about everything the average user needs, and while professionals will likely find it lacking, amateurs and everyday users have a lot to like here. Plus, the fact that it's a webapp means it runs in any browser, on any OS, with the same features. Sign up for an account and you can save images for future work.

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There you have it, your top five. Now it's time to put them to an all-out vote.

Not much in the way of honorable mentions this week, with the exception possibly of Google Picasa, which some of you noted you use to touch up your images, do some light image editing before sharing them or posting them to the web, and also to organize and manage your photo library. Similarly, we should give a nod to SumoPaint, another free, cross-platform tool that's web-based and offers a ton of useful tools and features.

Have something to say about one of the contenders? Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below.

The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!

Photos by Robert Freiberger and Blake Patterson.

Despite the growing availability of legal services, unauthorized file-sharing continues to generate thousands of petabytes of traffic each month.

This massive network use and its legal implications have received plenty of interest from Internet providers over the years, and AT&T now believes it has found a good way to deal with the ongoing threat.

A new patent awarded to the Intellectual Property division of the Texas-based company describes a system that can classify unauthorized file-sharers on its network, place them in a “risk category”, and take appropriate action to counter their defiant behavior.

Titled “Methods, devices and computer program products for regulating network activity using a subscriber scoring system,” one of the patent’s main goals is to target and stop online piracy.

“Internet piracy may account for significant bandwidth usage, which may be problematic for a service provider,” the company explains. “Thus far, copyright protection measures that have been deployed by, for example, the entertainment industry, have failed to curtail increases in Internet piracy.”

“For example, millions of downloads may result from just one file that is posted on a shared network. Thus, efforts to date have been insufficient in protecting a user and/or a service provider from the results of unwanted network activity, which may pose significant risks to the user, network and/or service provider.”

By analyzing network usage patterns the provider can give customers a Subscriber Reputation Score (SRS) based on which they can be classified into several risk categories. Depending on the type of threat AT&T can then take appropriate countermeasures.

The system can be used for a variety of problematic network activities, but online file-sharing is used as one of the main examples in the patent.

“The SRS may be used to identify subscribers engaged, whether volitionally or otherwise, in high-risk network activities such as, for example, file sharing and/or Internet piracy. In this regard, mitigating services may be provided and the network and/or the subscriber may be protected from such high-risk network activity,” the company explains.

When subscribers are placed in the high risk file-sharing category the ISP may choose to limit their network access, which includes blocking access to known pirate sites.

“Some embodiments provide that subscriber protection may include providing a walled-off and/or secured portion in the network in which the subscriber can have limited access to the network. For example, in some embodiments, access to risky network resources, such as, for example, illegal file sharing websites, may be denied,” the patent reads.

Whether the provider has intentions to test or implement the scoring system in the real world is unknown. One thing is clear though, AT&T has an above average interest in online piracy, which is reflected in the company’s patent portfolio.

Earlier this year the ISP also patented systems to track content being shared via BitTorrent and other P2P networks, and report offenders to the authorities.

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

Share an account, but keep your libraries separate

The latest Netflix app update in the Play Store has a short changelog, but what's there has been a long time coming. That's right, proper profile support has made its way to Android after being available on practically every other platform, and Netflix users are going to be extremely happy about that fact.

No more handling of multiple accounts, and no more mixing of suggestions when you have a few different people sharing an account or device. Just see your most recent movies and shows completely separate from the others using the account. We're sure more than a few of you have been waiting for this one — snag the update from the Play Store link above.

Italy has been accused of not doing enough to tackle the issue of online piracy in the past but in recent times the country has been making an effort to make the climate more difficult for file-sharing sites.

Many of the world’s leading sites, such as The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents, are already blocked at the ISP level following orders from various courts. However, going to court can be a drawn out affair and rightsholders have always been keen to short-cut the process with something more streamlined.

Thanks to AGCOM, Italy’s independent Electronic Communications Authority, they are well on their way.

Earlier this year AGCOM drafted new regulations that would allow it to order a domain seizure or ISP blockade of any site that fails to remove infringing content in a timely manner. AGCOM’s proposals envisaged a 72-hour window for websites and ISPs to process takedown notices, which is similar to the system currently in place in Russia.

Unlike under the old system, all this would be achieved without a court order. Only adding fuel to the ‘lack of due process’ fire is the fact that AGCOM introduced these rules through an administrative process, without a hearing in Parliament.

Nevertheless, on Thursday the proposals passed by unanimous vote, thereby heralding the introduction of an efficient process for dealing with unauthorized content and for punishing sites beyond Italy’s borders.

After consulting with the European Commission certain requirements for removing content have been adjusted (only working days will be counted) and it was also established that ISPs are not obliged to carry out Deep Packet Inspection. Some other technical details aside, the bulk of the measures remain intact.

“Today marks a new era for Italian culture,” said Marco Polillo, president of Confindustria Cultura Italia.

“We consider this a landmark victory against the pirates of Italian culture and those who support them. Now we can happily work with information and communications technology companies to develop new business models and increase the supply of Italian cultural production.”

Speaking with TorrentFreak, Enzo Mazza, president of Italian anti-piracy group FIMI, says the new mechanism to clamp down on pirate sites will be much better than the old one.

“The system will be very useful in speeding up the blocking of foreign sites,” Mazza explains.

“Italy already has a criminal procedure in place where public prosecutors have ordered the blocking of at least 18 major international rogue sites, but the ordinary criminal procedure can sometimes take months before an order is issued. AGCOM will solve this in a few weeks or less. It’s a very significant improvement.”

Despite many top file-sharing sites already being blocked in Italy, Mazza says there is still room for more and some may even require additional action.

“Any international pirate site is on the list. It’s not a secret that we will focus on any available target. We will review our records and decide what line will be more appropriate regarding a specific target. There are sites that just need to be blocked and sites where a more detailed criminal case will be the best option. AGCOM and criminal actions can be used in parallel,” Mazza concludes.

Once the mechanism gets properly underway in April 2014, Italy will have the toughest anti-piracy regime in Europe. Only time will tell the effect it has on the downloading habits of locals.

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

Britons, take note: Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives has a timely reminder about the London Police's new powers. The new biting powers will be useful alongside the ASBO, detention without charge, the right to seize domain names, illegal harvesting of innocent peoples' DNA, the right to arrest you for reading things that might help terrorists, the right to kettle legal demonstrations, the right to shoot people in the street, the right to beat people standing near demonstrations to death, the right to arrest you for taking pictures that might help terrorists, and all the other legal doctrines that are so consistent with all the invisible words in our "unwritten constitution."

New Police Powers (via Boing Boing Flickr Pool)

According to the Wall Street Journal, Twitter is testing a new service called Nearby, which will display geographically local tweets to users, whether they are following the progenitor of the update or not.

The potential privacy impact of Nearby appears to be constrained. As the Journal notes, “Twitter has allowed users to add their location to tweets since 2010. But that feature is turned off by default and must be turned on by the user.” It seems doubtful Twitter would be foolish enough to make location opt-out instead, and then display everyone’s tweets with a Nearby-like fashion sans their explicit permission.

Nearby appears to be a test for the moment, meaning that the chance you can access it is low. But, do take a look, and post screenshots in the comments.

Recent moves by Twitter to change how its blocking feature worked unleashed a monsoon of complaints from users regarding the potential impact to their privacy, and ability to get rid of those users that they found repugnant. I suspect those same folks would balk at being automatically opted-in to a program such as Nearby.

However, potential foibles aside, the feature could find resonance with local marketers, providing Twitter with a fresh revenue stream to bolster its now-public financials.

It should be noted that the further Twitter strays into the local space, the more pressure it brings to bear on competitors in that area, such as Foursquare, and perhaps Path. Twitter is a huge player in social, and if it were to throw that heft into local, it could siphon advertising dollars from smaller, less well-funded competitors.

And of course, not all experiments live, meaning that Nearby could find a seat on the shelf, and not in your phone.

Top Image Credit: Flickr

12 Must-Read Collections of Famous Authors’ Letters

Tablets seem to be all the rage right now, but some of us are still trying to figure out why we'd even want one. Well wonder no more: here are ten worthwhile, clever uses for tablets, whether it's an iPad, Android, or Windows device.

10. A Productive Second Screen

Chances are you probably do a lot of work on your computer, and a tablet can actually make a great second screen to augment it—whether you hook it up to your computer as a second monitor or actually use it as a tablet. With a couple work apps and shortcuts, you can actually use your tablet as a more productive, secondary device for keeping up with email, your notes, or other work-related tasks you need to keep an eye on.

9. A Universal Remote Control

Your phone can control a lot of things, but a tablet's size make it a great remote for just about anything. With the right apps, you can use your tablet to control your home theater PC, your computer from afar, or even your actual house.

8. An All-In-One Ereader

You probably saw this one coming, but it doesn't change that it's one of the best ways to use your tablet. Between apps like iOS' Newsstand or Google Play Magazines, Kindle, comic book readers, and "read later" apps like Pocket, you can pretty much combine all your reading into one, much more portable device. Sorry we forgot to add #8, folks!

7. A Note Taking Machine

If you're in school (or need to take a lot of notes at work), a tablet actually makes for a pretty dandy note-taker. You guys had a ton of examples of how you used a tablet in class, from making annotations in books and articles to making handwritten notes and equations or even just downsizing your massive stack of textbooks. And with apps Evernote, Drafts, and OneNote available, you can do more with your notes than you ever could on paper.

6. A Creative Tool

Traditionalists may scoff at the use of digital tablets for art, but they allow you to do a lot of things you can't do on paper—especially if you're short on funds. Whether it's making music, digital painting, or creative writing, a tablet gives you portability, ease of use, and the ability to easily copy or share your works quickly and easily. It may not be your go-to studio, but it's a great tool to have at your disposal for creative tasks.

5. An Integrated Car Dashboard

Ever used the built-in navigation and music players in most cars? A lot of them leave a lot to be desired (okay, let's be frank, they suck). Why not just integrate your iPad or Android tablet to the mix instead? It's got music, it's got navigation, it's easy to use, and you can even control it with your voice. We've seen countless examples of this, from DIY mounts to more serious, built-in setups. Whatever you choose to do, it's sure to bring your car into the 21st century.

4. A Portable Media and Gaming Center

Imagine the awesomeness of a home theater PC that fits in your backpack. You can bring it over to your friends' house for the Game of Thrones finale, throw some old school video games on their TV, or stream some Netflix on a whim. All you need is a tablet and the right apps and accessories. Plus, it's great for when you have those same cravings at the airport or while you're out with no access to a TV. And if you're really dedicated to those old school video games, you can turn it into a mini retro cabinet, too.

3. A Do-Everything Family Device

Having a tablet lying around as a general all-purpose device—for quickly checking email, reading the web, or killing a few minutes with a game—seems to be an ideal use case. It's faster and easier than grabbing your laptop or heading to your computer, and it isn't locked to one location. However, most tablets don't really lend themselves to multi-user experience. Thankfully, we've figured out some ways around that problem, so you can use your tablet as a do-everything device for the whole household. And with a few dedicated "tablet stations," it'll never get lost.

2. A Device Dedicated to Distractions

The internet is distracting. Between places like Facebook, Twitter, and even (admittedly) Lifehacker, it's hard to stay focused when you have so many options for procrastination. blogger Ben Brooks recommends offloading all that distraction to your tablet. Then just schedule in some time for procrastination and switch to your secondary device to keep it separate from your work. Photo by Houang Stephane.

1. A Distraction-Free Work Device

On the flip side of the distraction coin, tablets are also great at focusing you on one specific task—mostly since you can't have multiple apps open at the same time. That makes it great for distraction-free writing, and turns it into a surprisingly legitimate productivity tool. It's also great (obviously) for distraction-free reading. In fact, when we asked you guys whether you use your tablet for work, a surprising majority of you said yes for these very reasons.

Smartphones and tablets may not deliver the gaming quality you get from dedicated portable consoles such as the PS Vita and the Nintendo 3DS... but they're definitely catching up. VentureBeat reports that chipmaker ARM has acquired Geomerics, a graphics technology firm that specializes in making realistic lighting and imagery in video games. And Geomerics's Enlighten technology has some very impressive notches under its belt since it's been used in big-time games such as Battlefield 4, Need for Speed Rivals, Eve Online, and Medal of Honor: Warfighter. Carl Almgren, who serves as head of development for Electronic Arts' Frostbite Engine, says that Enlighten has "helped EA provide new levels of realism and gameplay experience," so it should be exciting to see what it can do on tablets and smartphones with ARM-based chips.