Having been established in 2005, the SceneTorrents (ScT) tracker was very well known in the BitTorrent community.

However, after four-and-a-half years of operation it all came to an end. On November 28, 2009, site members were informed that there were “pending legal issues” and with immediate effect the site would shut down.

What followed was an information vacuum. No one from the site made a public statement until TorrentFreak published an interview with an ex-admin of SceneTorrents at end of May 2011. The details of his story came as little surprise.

Police had arrived at “Feeling’s” house some 18 months earlier at 6am on November 27, 2009, accompanied by operatives from the Hollywood-backed Federation Against Copyright Theft. FACT had become more active in recent times, building cases against TV-Links and another torrent site, FileSoup.

“The police handcuffed me and arrested me for copyright theft and money laundering,” Feeling explained.

Down at the police station a familiar picture began to emerge. FACT, not the police, were running the show. They had carried out the investigation against SceneTorrents and the police were there merely as support, despite this being a criminal case with “six figure” sums allegedly at stake.

After being released, Feeling was told to answer bail in February 2010. Just two days before that date, police informed him that they were still waiting for a response from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on how to proceed. A new bail date was set for May 2010. That date was also canceled, as was a subsequent one arranged for July.

Feeling was told that by early 2011 things should be progressing but the year came – and went – with no decision from the CPS. However, in February of that year the Crown Prosecution Service were forced to drop the case against FileSoup. A sign of positive things to come?

As it turns out – yes.

Some three-and-a-half years after the original raids, TorrentFreak has learned of a significant development. According to sources close to the case, during the past month the police made the decision to drop all charges (criminal copyright infringement, conspiracy to defraud, money laundering) against both Feeling and a second individual who was arrested on the same day in 2009.

Intrigued as to how this conclusion was reached, TorrentFreak fired off questions to both FACT and lawyer David Cook, who we believed to have been defending at least one of the SceneTorrents admins.

Cook successfully defeated prosecutions in previous cases against both FileSoup and OiNK and was part of the pro-bono defense team acting for Richard O’Dwyer. He often chats about tech and copyright issues via Twitter but on this occasion declined to comment.

FACT did respond, however, initially questioning why we were interested in such an old case. We pointed out that we knew that in recent weeks the police had dropped the case but FACT said that both Feeling and the second defendant had instead been handed police cautions which “usually” means admitting guilt.

TorrentFreak is informed by sources very close to the investigation that neither admitted guilt and the police simply chose not to take matters further. So why has such a big case collapsed yet again?

A definitive answer to that is a matter for the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service, but one only has to look at earlier cases to see a repeating pattern of problematic behaviors.

FACT, a privately-owned commercial organization, conducted the investigations against both FileSoup and SceneTorrents and were later given possession of computer equipment and evidence seized when both sites were raided. This made them not only the alleged victim in the case, but also the prosecutor and expert witness.

Furthermore, TorrentFreak is informed that FACT’s presence on the sites (apparently at times in an “agent provocateur” role) and other evidential issues combined to play a role in the undermining of both cases, ultimately contributing to the decision by the Crown not to pursue the case.

With City of London Police now threatening torrent sites around the globe claiming that crimes are being carried out in the UK, one has to wonder what lessons have been learned from the cases of FileSoup and now SceneTorrents.

Considering four years have passed, with a successful prosecution of SurfTheChannel in the meantime, one has to presume that the answer to that is “quite a few.”

Source: SceneTorrents Admins No Interest to Police as Hollywood’s Case Falls Apart

France isn't the only European country that's tired of asking Google to clean up its privacy act. BBC News reports that the United Kingdom Information Commissioner's Office has given Google just over a month to delete all the data that it collected from users through its Street View initiative. It's been nearly a year since Google admitted to U.K. regulators that it had neglected to delete thousands of emails and passwords that employees had swept up from Wi-Fi hotspots while driving through various neighborhoods in Google Street View cars. Google was originally ordered to delete all the data collected through Street View back in 2010 and U.K regulators are now threatening to charge the company with a criminal offense if it doesn't comply within the next 35 days.

Dilbert readers - Please visit Dilbert.com to read this feature. Due to changes with our feeds, we are now making this RSS feed a link to Dilbert.com.

A rare, severe charge w higher bar - not only leaking, but intent to harm US. WashPo: Snowden charged for espionage washingtonpost.com/world/national…

—
Ari Melber (@AriMelber) June 21, 2013

According to the Washington Post, the U.S. government has brought the hammer down on NSA leaker Edward Snowden, charging him with one of the most serious offenses: espionage. Snowden, who is holed up in Hong Kong, is currently searching for asylum with the help of fellow leak-enthusiast, Julian Assange of Wikileaks.

Ironically, The Post and USA Today report that charging Snowden with a heavy political crime could make it harder to extradite him. “The treaty, however, has an exception for political offenses, and espionage has traditionally been treated as a political offense. Snowden’s defense team in Hong Kong is likely to invoke part of the extradition treaty with the United States, which states that suspects will not be turned over to face criminal trial for offenses of a “political character,” explains The Post.

The extradition process could drag on for months. “Prosecutors now have 60 days to file an indictment, probably also under seal, and can then move to have Snowden extradited from Hong Kong for trial in the United States… Any court battle is likely to reach Hong Kong’s highest court, and could last many months”.

The harsh indictment should worry those who fear Snowden will face the same treatment as Wikileaks source Bradley Manning who was reportedly driven to suicidal thoughts from “extreme” 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement.

In an interview with Charlie Rose, President Obama refused to comment on how Snowden would be punished.

For good measure, we’ve included a screenshot of live Google search results that show the world still has its priorities straight with regard to the most important “bradley.”

There are a myriad of ways to move data between your Android device and computer, but the new app Scatter promises to do it better. Scatter uses peer-to-peer data syncing to send files and text from one device to the other. It's in beta, but the functionality is impressive.

 

To get started, just install the app on your phone, and the desktop client on your PC. You'll have to make an account to associate your devices and keep everything in sync. From there, it's pretty easy. You can add files from the Android device, and they show up on the PC.

• Download New Dropbox Beta For Android v2.0.9 With Automatic Uploads, Get Up To 5GB Of Extra Storage For Free
• [New App] 'My Sync Center' Offers Automatic Two-Way Data Sync Between Your Android Device And PC Over Wi-Fi
• Tip: Drive's Latest Update Adds Global 'Copy To Clipboard' Option In The Share Menu
• Clipper Plus Updated To v2.1, Now Has Cross-Device Sync

[New App] Scatter, From Developer Of AIDE, Automatically Syncs Data Between Your PC And Android Device Over A Secure P2P Connection was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Judging by the massive spike in selfies (and response selfies) and lunch shots in our Instagram feeds following the debut of their new video functionality, it certainly seemed like a successful launch.

Now, thanks to some stats that the team just shared with us, we know exactly how well it did right out of the gate.

In the first 24 hours after the switch was flipped, Instagram saw 5 million videos uploaded. That’s a jaw-droppingly huge number for any day one feature, but remember: Instagram does have 130 million users. Even if we assume that each of the 5 million videos came from a unique user (an absolutely wild assumption, of course), that works out to around 3.8% of Instagram’s userbase giving the new feature a spin.

In the first 8 hours alone, Instagram saw roughly a year’s worth of content uploaded.

Curiously, their biggest spike in traffic didn’t come right after launch — instead, it was a few hours later, when the Miami Heat won Game 7 of the NBA Finals. At that point, they were seeing almost 40 hours of videos uploaded per minute.

For comparison’s sake, Vine’s 13 million users reportedly upload a collective 1 million videos per day.

If you're freaked out about the thought of Google Glass users one day being able to use facial recognition technology that's capable of spotting you wherever you go, then some researchers in Japan may have a solution for you. Engadget reports that researchers at Japan's National Institute of Informatics have designed a pair of glasses that obscure your face to prevent facial recognition algorithms from locking onto it. The glasses use "11 near-infrared LEDs that shine a bright light" across your face and blur it out when being photographed by infrared-sensitive cameras, Engadget says. A demonstration video of the glasses is posted below.

Continue reading...

According to the latest set of documents from Edward Snowden that were released by the Guardian today, the Britsh spy agency GCHQ has been tapping into 46 transatlantic fiber-optic cables that carry data between Europe and North America to collect and store email messages, Facebook posts and other information for at least the last 18 months. Though the program, code-named “Tempora,” has supposedly been built up over the last five years.

Given what we’ve heard about the NSA and its close relationship to Britain’s GCHQ, this may not come as a total surprise, and, as the Guardian reports, GCHQ is sharing its information with the NSA.

“It’s not just a U.S. problem. The U.K. has a huge dog in this fight,” Snowden told the Guardian. “They [GCHQ] are worse than the U.S.”

According to this report, about 300 GCHQ and 250 NSA analysts were working on analyzing this data by last May and an unnamed U.K. official argues that they get to work with even more information than the NSA because the program actually “produces larger amounts of metadata than NSA.” By last year, the program was handling 600 million “telephone events” each day and was processing data from 46 of the 200 fibre-optic cables it tapped into.

As with all of these program, the legality of the operation is in doubt, though the 2000 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), the report says, requires the GCHQ to obtain a warrant for the tapping of “defined targets.”

Paying Companies For Cooperation

The report also alleges that a number of companies have been “paid for the cost of their co-operation,” but unlike the NSA PRISM leaks, the names of these companies remain under wraps and the companies themselves are forbidden to reveal the existence of this program. They were, however, “obliged” to participate in the program, though it’s obviously not clear if they put up a fight or not.

Sadly, the Guardian did not post the actual documents, so for the time being, we have to take the reporter’s word as to the extent of the program.

YouTube has been getting deeper into live-streaming sports lately and today, Google’s online video site announced that it will live-stream the Wimbledon tennis tournament, too. The company says YouTube will stream “the key moments of the tennis, interviews, behind the scenes and press conferences” throughout the two-week tournament. The coverage, which will be sponsored by Rolex, will be available on the Wimbledon YouTube channel, starting Monday, June 24.

The Wimbledon channel debuted in 2006, and this year marks the tournament’s first foray into live-streaming the matches.

The coverage will be available “anywhere YouTube Live is available.” There are some geographic restrictions, though. The live video and full broadcast will be restricted to the U.S., Canada, South America (except Brazil), the U.K., Netherlands, Belgium, Cyprus and New Zealand. Highlights will be available globally except for the U.K., the U.S., South America, Germany, Austria and Italy. All other content will be available on a global basis.

As Google tells me, tennis is about as popular as baseball on YouTube according to searches, but both are still well behind soccer. Currently some of the most popular sports channels on YouTube that stream live video include the UFC’s and WWE’s channels, but YouTube has also recently streamed major soccer tournaments, cricket matches and similar sporting events with a worldwide audience.

Given that YouTube offers live streaming in its mobile apps, as well as through Google TV and its web-based “leanback” experience, this actually puts YouTube in direct competition with the traditional TV broadcasters that generally had a lock on major sporting events coverage.

UPDATE: Roland Emmerich says no Will Smith

UPDATE: Emmerich has been talking about the plans once more to Collider and now says that  despite he and Dean Devlin mapping out two sequels, Fox appears happier making one for now and judging the demand for another based on that movie's results. He's also claiming that Will Smith won't be back because he's too expensive and too much of a marquee name. 

...

Back in March, Roland Emmerich kept the fires of hope in the hearts of Independence Day fans stoked with word that he was continuing to work on not one but two sequels to the original. 20th Century Fox has now set July 3, 2015 as the date for at least the first of those planned new movies.

Of course, having a date means very little if there’s no cast locked down and no movie made. But it’s a very clear sign that at least one of the films – apparently named ID Forever Parts One and Two – will step blinking into the projector’s light within a couple of years.

So far, concrete details on the plot or possible actor involvement are hard to come by, with Bill Pullman insisting he’ll be back and no word on whether Will Smith wants to return as hotshot pilot Steven Hiller. Might After Earth’s disappointing showing at the box office nudge him into the job?

Emmerich will be doing promotion for White House Down soon, so we expect him to begin discussing his ideas for the new Independence Day. Whether his latest chat about the alien race following up a distress call from the original mother ship and facing down a technologically advanced human race pans out remains to be seen.

Also planned for the date is an untitled Illumination Entertainment / Universal project, which means the Despicable Me producers could be going head-to-head with a live-action behemoth. Fox has slotted in Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children in on July 31 the same year and that one is currently sitting pretty alone.

White House Down, meanwhile, arrives on September 6.

After many years of doing almost nothing to stop the spread of unauthorized materials online, the Russian Government recently introduced a draft bill proposing one of the toughest online copyright regimes to be found anywhere in the world.

The proposals would see copyright holders filing lawsuits against sites carrying infringing content. Site owners would then be required to remove unauthorized content or links to the same within 72 hours. Failure to do so would result in their entire site being blocked by Internet service providers pending the outcome of a court hearing.

Last Friday, 257 lawmakers in Russia’s State Duma voted in favor of the bill during its first hearing, despite outcry from Internet giants such as Google, and Yandex, the country’s largest search engine.

It was hoped that amendments proposed by the tech giants aimed at making the legislation less punishing on innovation could be introduced before the bill’s second and third readings. Today those hopes were dashed when lawmakers fast-tracked the bill and had both readings in one day.

The result is a law that allows copyright holders to complain directly to the courts if infringing material is found, even without first contacting the website in question. If the rightsholder wins his case and the content remains, the site’s IP address will be blacklisted by Russian ISPs.

The blocking of IP addresses, which can be shared by many sites, is terrifying web companies.

“This approach is technically illiterate and endangers the very existence of search engines, and any other Internet resources. This version of the bill is directed against the logic of the functioning of the Internet and will hit everyone – not just internet users and website owners, but also the rightsholders,” a spokesman for Yandex said in a statement.

“It’s like forever closing the highway, on which there was only one accident.”

Controversially, the original version of the draft bill proposed that all copyrighted content would be covered, but due to last minute negotiations only movies and TV shows will be included for protection. However, further negotiations are expected in the summer to expand the law’s reach to a wider range of content.

The law is expected to come into effect August 1, following upper house and presidential approval.

Source: Russia’s ‘SOPA’ Passed By Lawmakers, Site Blocking Begins “In Weeks”

Rep Alan Grayson (D-FL) is the first Congresscritter to get a look at the text of the super-secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership, currently being negotiated by Obama's US Trade Representative (the Obama administration, like the Bush admin before it, claims that the President has the authority to negotiate and enter into trade agreements without Congress's approval). The TPP has been controversial, as several leaked drafts and discussion documents have shown that the entertainment industry has used it as a vehicle for attempting to win brutal Internet and PC rules, including hard-drive searches at the border, surveillance and censorship powers, and more.

Grayson was dismayed by what he saw in the current draft of the bill, and has affirmed Senator Warren's remark that "If transparency would lead to widespread public opposition to a trade agreement, then that trade agreement should not be the policy of the United States."

The TPP is nicknamed “NAFTA on steroids.” Now that I’ve read it, I can see why. I can’t tell you what’s in the agreement, because the U.S. Trade Representative calls it classified. But I can tell you two things about it.

1) There is no national security purpose in keeping this text secret.

2) This agreement hands the sovereignty of our country over to corporate interests.

3) What they can’t afford to tell the American public is that [the rest of this sentence is classified].

(Well, I did promise to tell you only two things about it.)

I will be fighting this agreement with everything I’ve got. And I know you’ll be there every step of the way.

For now, I’ve set up an e-mail address where you can ask me questions on this topic or other topics: askalan@graysonforcongress.com

I Saw the Secret Trade Deal (via Reddit)

Remember The Beastles, the amazing Beastie Boys/Beatles mashup? Hope you got a copy on your hard-drive because the RIAA's gone on a totally predictable jihad against a piece of delightful, noncommercial creativity.

Tim sez, "RIAA and Universal are pulling dj BC's Beastles across the web. Radio Clash has gotten a nastygram from the RIAA, Mega has pulled a mirror and also the Soundcloud has been disabled. In fact on his Facebook page, dj BC has announced pulling down the links tonight! It's amazing that in this day and age that a non-commercial fair-use project is still being stomped on by the blue meanies. Looking to see how I should respond...but also looking for a new host in Russia, although how that is better post-PRISM I'm not sure :-/"

Sorry, Tim, Russia just passed its own SOPA on steroids.

Cease and Desist Mark 2: Beastles gets pulled by the blue meanies

Private browsing, a.k.a. incognito mode, is useful for more than just porn. It can protect you against sites (including online banks, health sites, and insurance companies) that are storing your sensitive data on your hard drive when they shouldn't be.

When you visit a site that uses the HTTPS or SSL encryption protocol to protect sensitive data, you might expect that sensitive information to be cleared once you close the browser. You know, things like your customer account number, account balances, prescription history, canceled checks images, statements, credit reports, and more.

Unfortunately this isn't the case, according to a recent study by security firm Independent Security Evaluators. They found that twenty-one of the thirty sites evaluated (70%)—including Verizon Wireless, PayPal, Allstate, Equifax, and Scottrade—are saving sensitive data to users' disk caches.

That means if you ever share your computer with someone else, or if your laptop is stolen, that data is completely unsecured. According to ISE:

The fact that the unencrypted, disk cached data is only stored on the user's personal machine should not be discounted. The possibilities for this information to be exposed are numerous: malware infections, theft of laptops and mobile devices, theft of physical backup media or compromise of “cloud” backup services, shared machines and user accounts, and of course, shared computers in libraries, hotels, and Internet cafes.

The sensitive information is stored on your computer and easily retrievable (even if you didn't know it's saved to disk).

The problem stems from the way browsers and web servers communicate about caching content to disk. Web servers—especially the financial ones we're talking about—are supposed to send a standard "Browsers Control: no store" header to tell browsers not to cache the content. ISE found that some don't send any caching instructions. Others do send a "no cache" header, but are using antiquated, non-standard instructions that only work with Internet Explorer and not Chrome or Firefox. All three browsers enable disk caching by default even for HTTPS sites, rather than letting you opt-in. So, in short, there's plenty of blame to go around between the browsers and the websites themselves.

There are two things you can do to prevent your sensitive information from being saved to disk: The easiest is to just use private browsing mode for your financial and similar sensitive accounts or restrict disk caching for encrypted sites.

Alternatively, ISE offers these recommendations:

To End-Users. Users should make the following configuration changes, depending on each browser:

Internet Explorer. Internet explorer already abides by most web application attempts to prevent disk caching. To further restrict what can be cached, a user can open Internet Options, choose the Advanced tab, and under Security, check “Do not save encrypted pages to disk”. This option may have unwanted side effects, such as interfering with file downloads from HTTPS sites. Alternatively, use InPrivate Browsing mode.

Firefox. Install our “HTTPS Caching Controller” Firefox add-on, which adds a toolbar button allowing disk caching of SSL content to be disabled or enabled at any time. This add-on works only on the desktop version of Firefox. Manually, or on the mobile version, navigate to "about:config," enter the preference "browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl," and double-click to switch the value from "true" to "false." Alternatively, use Private Browsing mode.

Chrome. ISE could not locate any settings in Chrome to easily limit disk caching of HTTPS requests. Instead, use Incognito mode.

Safari. Safari users (both desktop and mobile) need not take any action, since, as of this writing, Safari does not cache any content transferred over HTTPS.

In addition to taking these precautions, never log into account-related or other security-sensitive sites from a computer or other device you do not own and control.

You could also clear your browser's cache whenever you close it or on a schedule. For example, you could run CCleaner after browsing or create a cleanup script to run after your browsing session. Firefox users can set their browser to automatically clear the cache when the browser closes and Chrome users can use the Click & Clean extension to do this. Here are instructions on WikiHow for clearing the cache manually for all browsers. This, however, wipes out everything cached by your browser, including stuff from regular HTTP sites.

Until browsers and web servers get their act together, it's better to be safe than sorry and keep your sensitive info safe from being saved to your computer unencrypted.

Industry-wide Misunderstandings of HTTPS | Independent Security Evaluators via LA Times

It took Google how many years to start selling Google Play gift cards? When you look at it that way, it's not so bad gift cards are just now being expanded to Germany and France. Previously, the only supported regions were the USA and UK.

Both new countries will have cards in €5, €25, and €50 denominations. The process to redeem cards is the same as it is in the US and UK – just go to play.google.com/redeem and put in the code. This expansion also lets folks in those countries add Google Play credit to their accounts from the Play Store.

• Elusive Google Support Page Confirms Play Store Gift Cards Will Be US-Only At Launch, Reveals Available Denominations
• Launch Of Play Gift Cards In UK Imminent? Google Updates Help Files With UK-Specific Information
• How To: Redeem Google Play Gift Cards Using The Device Play Store App
• 'Redeem' Option Now Shows Up In The UK Mobile Play Store, Gift Cards Likely Coming Soon

Google Launches Play Store Gift Cards In Germany And France was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

An unholy marriage between Windows and Android takes place in this high-resolution, convertible tablet​

It's Windows. It's Android. It's Windows. It's Android. It's Windows. It's Android.

It's the Samsung ATIV Q, just announced today in London. And it takes a convertible 13-inch tablet -- that is, it's got a keyboard that you can abuse in a couple different positions -- puts Android on one side, Windows 8 on the other, and leaves you and your brain to deal with the aftermath.

Look, we're not going ot get the full feel for this thing in a few short minutes, but this much stood out: There are something like three buttons that will take you to Android -- and one of them is the Windows logo. Somewhere, even Christopher Nolan is scratching his head.

Enjoy this first-look video.

General Keith Alexander, who is in charge of the NSA, has asked Congress to pass legislation immunizing companies from liability if they break the law following NSA spying orders. While on its face this seems reasonable -- if the government orders you to do something, it seems unfair for its judicial branch to prosecute you -- it's really a tacit admission of NSA lawbreaking. Much more reassuring would be a promise from Alexander that his agency will limits its requests of companies to strictly lawful behavior, and a Congressional law immunizing companies that turn down NSA requests if they have a good faith basis for believing that the NSA is asking them to break the law.

Otherwise, as Mike Masnick points out, this is an invitation for companies and the NSA to conspire together for a campaign of lawless, criminal spying:

And, of course, rather than narrowly target this immunity, it appears that Alexander would like it as broad as possible.

One former White House aide told POLITICO that Alexander has been asking members of Congress for some time to adopt bill language on countermeasures that’s “as ill-defined as possible” — with the goal of giving the Pentagon great flexibility in taking action alongside Internet providers. Telecom companies, the former aide said, also have been asking Alexander for those very legal protections.

Given the revelations of the past few weeks, this seems like the exact wrong direction for Congress to be heading. We should want companies to push back against overaggressive demands from the government for information. Giving them blanket immunity would be a huge mistake and only enable greater privacy violations.

NSA Boss Asks Congress For Blanket Immunity For Companies That Help NSA Spy On Everyone

Billionaire, genius, playboy, contract signer

Rejoice and be glad, people, because your worries are over. Fresh from the Marvelsphere comes news that Robert Downey Jr. has re-signed to play Tony Stark and his shellheaded alter ego Iron Man in The Avengers 2 and 3. The studio tweeted the announcement. 

Exclusive! Robert Downey, Jr. signs new #Marvel deal to return as #IronMan! More details: http://t.co/WePKnG9mVb

— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) June 20, 2013

It's exciting news and should put fans' minds at rest following RDJ's hints that he'd considering hanging up the ferrous suit in the near future. As recently as February, Downey Jr. confessed to having considered his, and Iron Man's future in the franchise.

"There's been a death and rebirth of egos three times", he told Empire earlier this year. "The third one being in Iron Man 3. Tony's ego and to a certain extent my own as well, when he comes out of the cave he's been made anew, when he comes out of the wormhole, he's gone to a different level of commitment and I think on this one by the end he's transcended his need to be identified with being Iron Man."

Iron Man 3's colossal success strengthened Downey's hand at the negotiating table, where we assume some juicy Tony arcs in the Avengers sequels - not to mention a cheque the size of Guatemala - helped Team Marvel persuade him to commit. It will no doubt come as a relief to all parties to have his scrawl on the doted line, especially with Avengers director Joss Whedon unwilling to push forward without him. “He is Iron Man,” Whedon stressed recently. “He is Iron Man in the way that Sean Connery was James Bond.”

A potential Iron Man 4, still very much in the 'maybe-one-day' basket, is not part of the deal. The RDJ-filled Avengers 2, however, is scheduled for May 1, 2015. For the full chronology of Marvel projects, past and future, head over to our all-singing, occasionally-dancing Marvel timeline.

It seems that some major tech companies are being much more cooperative with law enforcement officials than they'd like to have us believe. The New York Times reports that Skype back in 2008 launched a secret program called Project Chess for the express purpose of making users' Skype calls more "readily available" to intelligence agencies and law enforcement officials. Knowledge of the program, which was launched years before Skype was purchased by Microsoft, was limited to around a dozen people within the company and the Times' sources say that "the company had sometimes contentious talks with the government over legal issues." The Times also notes that "Microsoft executives are no longer willing to affirm statements, made by Skype several years ago, that Skype calls could not be wiretapped."

Ironing is barbaric. There I said it. Heating up a giant metal plate to slowly smooth out wrinkles is, at best, a tedious exercise, and at worst it requires way too much set up to be practical. Fortunately, there are alternatives.

It should go without saying that anything you do that involves heat should not be left unattended and should be handled with care. Some of these tricks are less risky than others, but in general, always use caution around the house.

Spray Clothes With Water, Then Hang Them to Dry

Estimated time: 30 minutes to an hour.

Before you get ready for work in the morning, spray your wrinkled clothes lightly with a water bottle and let them hang to dry. You don't want to soak them, but just get them lightly damp. You can also add a bit of vinegar to the mix, but this can be harmful to some fabrics and may result in a smell if you include too much. This method can take as short as 15 minutes if you don't mind your clothes being a tiny bit wet, but for best results, let them completely dry.

Lightly Wet Clothes and Toss Them in the Dryer

Estimated time: 5-10 minutes.

If you're in a hurry, you can use a similar method to the one above. Lightly spray your clothes with a water bottle, then toss them in the dryer. You won't want to use this method unless you're about to wear the clothes imminently. If you leave them in the dryer or a laundry basket for hours, those wrinkles will just come right back. However, for a quick, out-the-door method, this will do in a pinch. Alternatively, you can also toss your clothes in with a wet towel, instead of spraying your clothes directly.

Hang Your Clothes in the Shower With You

Estimated time: The length of your shower.

When you shower, you fill a tiny room with a lot of heat very fast. Make use of that by hanging your clothes near your shower. Obviously, you'll have to take care not to get them wet, but the closer you can get them to the heat and moisture in the air, the better (though not quite as close as the picture above). In an emergency, you can accomplish the same thing by running hot water and leaving the room, but this will waste water. It would be best to do this when you're already using the shower.

Use a Flat Iron

Estimated time: 5-20 minutes.

Okay, so maybe this is cheating on the whole "never touch an iron" thing, but a hair-straightening flat iron is arguably a bit more safe than a full-fledged clothing iron. With a much smaller and dual-sided surface area, you can focus on certain problem areas. Before you use it, you'll want to make sure that your flat iron is completely clean of all hair products, as these can damage your clothes. You'll still need to be careful about burning yourself or anything else, but it's still more simple than using a much larger iron and giant flat surface to work on.

No matter what method you use, you'll always want to make sure to be sure that it won't harm your clothing. For most everyday clothing, these methods should be okay, but delicate clothing with specialty instructions should always be treated with extra care. Be sure you know that what you're doing won't harm your garments before proceeding. If you do decide to go the old-fashioned route, you can still cut down on your ironing time with a simple sheet of aluminum foil.

Lead image mixed from LizMarie_AK, photos by Diego Torres Silvestre, Casey Fleser, Steven Orr, and Michelle Yee.

Startups aiming to tap into the ubiquity of smartphones and extend their reach with additional hardware add-ons (plus an app) are winking rapidly into existence, as the disruptive vanguard for the long-imagined Internet of Things. Connected objects are just smarter with an app on hand to tap into the data. The latest entrant to this nascent space, Tile, has been incubated out of Silicon Valley mobile accelerator Tandem Capital, with $200,000 in funding, and has just kicked off a crowdfunding campaign on Selfstarter to raise $20,000 to fund initial production of its connected gizmo.

So what is its connected gizmo? Its Tiles are bluetooth low energy tags designed for attaching to valuable items so that these real-world objects — wallets, bikes, suitcases etc — can be traced if they go missing. “We’ve created a super, super inexpensive device that doesn’t need recharging, that gives GPS-like functionality,” explain Tile co-founders Nick Evans and Mike Farley.

These Tiles are used in conjunction with the Tile app, which allows the user to do things like ring a particular Tile to figure out where they put their keys down, say, or view a map of the last known location the Tile they fixed to their bike was at. Tile’s app also lets users turn on a range view when they are within 100-150 feet of a Tile, so they can try to retrace their steps and find where they dropped their item.

Tile’s creators are hoping to get enough people using its Tiles that the usefulness increases based on a distributed network effect. Each Tile app is capable of picking up the location of any Tile, regardless of its owner. So when a Tile user marks one of their tagged items as lost, the whole network is alerted to be on the hunt for it. Should another Tile user then pass within range of the item their smartphone will record its location and send a notification to the owner of that Tile — without that other Tile user being party to any of this background communication.

Effectively, it’s a crowdsourced scavenger hunt, where players are intentionally kept in the dark about the specific role they are playing so that it’s only the person who’s stuff it actually is who gets sent the info to retrieve it.

It’s a nice idea but one which does require a high density of Tile users to create the network needed for it to work. Evans and Farley stress that initially they won’t be playing up this side of Tile, but rather flagging up functionality that doesn’t require a wide network of users to fly — such as the range finder view and ring a tile features that allow Tile users to figure out where exactly in their house their misplaced keys have gotten to.

Targeting its rollout to particular cities, and perhaps also going after specific communities such as college campuses, is another strategy it’s looking at to ensure it builds out its user-base in a way that enhance the overall usefulness of the service to those users, in the shortest possible time frame.

“Where you lose your items is frequently where your friends and your family also go — so in the house, in the office, at restaurants where you typically go to and what not — so as those people around you join the Tile network your little world is going to get populated, so the most important people that join the network are your friends and family. And that is going to be so beneficial that we see it spreading through word of mouth,” adds Farley.

Each matchbook-sized Tile will cost $25 so it’s not exactly inexpensive enough at this point to encourage people to tag all of their important things. And being a still relatively sizeable slice of hardware, it’s not a very elegant thing to stick on personal mobile electrics like smartphones and laptops. Asked whether Tile might look at creating virtual Tiles for digital items that already contain the sensors required to power its Tiles, so for instance a virtual Tile could be added to a smartphone without the need to attach a physical Tile at all, the co-founders said it is something they are looking at, down the line. Initially though they intend to focus on hardware Tiles.

Each hardware Tile is designed to last one year, with the idea being that users don’t have to worry about replacing its batteries. After around 11 months of use, Tile owners will be sent a notification to return their Tile to the company for recycling. They’ll need to pay to purchase a replacement though. This ongoing cost is where Tile sees its initial business model — making a small margin on each Tile — but the co-founders have other ideas in the pot, including the possibility of licensing their technology to other companies. For instance, high end suitcase makers could incorporate their tag tech directly into bags, so suitcase buyers also get the tracking system as part of the whole package.

Short-length videos are quickly becoming the new picture thanks to services like Vine, so it only makes sense that Instagram would also want to get in on the action. Today, the now Facebook-owned company announced videos for Instagram, a new feature that will let users capture up to 15 second clips (almost thrice the length of Vine's capture window).

  

As all Instagram users have come to expect, the feature will also include filters – 13 new, exclusive-for-video filters, to be exact. Other than the addition of a new video icon, the overall interface has gone largely unchanged as far as content creation is concerned.

• Autodesk's Recently-Acquired 'Socialcam' Updated To v2, Brings New Filters, FFC Support, And An All-New Interface
• [New App] Instagram Now Available In The Play Store
• No, There Is No Proof Instagram For Android Is Around The Corner - Just Fake Crap Advertising More Fake Crap
• Your Lunch Goes Viral: Full Instagram Feeds Are Now In The Web Browser

Instagram Announces Video, Lets Users Record 15-Second Clips And Apply Video-Specific Filters was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Samsung today in London announced the ATIV Q tablet, sporting Windows and Android in a single platform. It's a dual-boot OS device that brings Windows 8 alongside the best of Android.

But the high-res display is just half of what makes this an intriguing device.

Be sure to check out our hands-on!

read more

Galaxy NX camera official, mirrorless body and interchangeable lenses

We're live in London with Samsung at their Premiere 2013 event where the previously rumored and leaked Galaxy NX camera has become official. The NX is a big step up from the first Galaxy Camera in the sense that it's no longer a mere point-and-shoot. We're looking at a professional-level mirrorless camera, with interchangeable lenses. 

Spec wise we're looking at a 20.3MP APS-C sensor, full 1080p video recording and a 4.8-inch HD LCD on the rear. Inside, there's a 1.6GHz quad-core processor powering Android 4.2.2 with the latest version of TouchWiz overlayed, along with a discrete Image Signal Processor (ISP). In terms of software there is a full cropping of manual controls and modes (such as aperture priority, shutter speed priority, full manual) along with 30 automatic "smart" modes that will auto-select scenes for you when you need a quick shot. The NX will be compatible with all of Samsung's existing line of lenses -- over 30 in total -- including a new fisheye lens. Samsung is also talking up the fact that the NX comes with LTE on-board, offering loads of sharing options when paired with a full build of Android.

The Galaxy NX is a world away from the original Galaxy Camera, and we'll be going hands-on with it very soon. For more from the Samsung Premiere 2013 event be sure to head on over to our liveblog for full up to the minute coverage. 

Yahoo is making it known today that the deal to acquire Tumblr has officially closed, putting the blog network in the hands of brand new owners and leaving industry observers with many unanswered questions.

"As promised, Tumblr will continue to operate as a separate business, led by David Karp as CEO," Yahoo CEO wrote on Yahoo's blog today. "Their product roadmap, their team, and tone will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators and curators alike to do what they love best: create."

But even separated like this, will Yahoo and Tumblr be a good fit? If Yahoo wants to use Tumblr as a platform to sell ads, it might find a sketchy fit on some of Tumblr's racier blogs. And will the demographic of the tamer Tumblr outposts be a match for Yahoo's needs?

Time will tell, but one thing that frankly horrifies us is the thought of high-level corporate messaging now including animated, rotating GIFs. Oh, the humanity!

YouTube just announced (as part of this week’s Cannes Lions advertising event) that it’s expanding its partner program to include advertisers.

The program already provides the top YouTube content creators with access to resources for improving their production skills and distribution (and as a result improve their monetization).

YouTube says the advertising program will be structured identically to the existing partner program — just, y’know, for advertisers. The program will start in September with a week-long workshop in Los Angeles. Each advertiser will be assigned a partner manager to help them develop their content strategy.

“By inviting advertisers into our partner program, we hope to give them access to resources and expertise that will help them develop even more compelling and authentic content on YouTube,” said Lucas Watson, YouTube’s vice president of video online global sales, in the announcement press release.

With this program, YouTube-owner Google seems to be encouraging businesses to create advertising that’s designed specifically for the video site, rather than just repackaging existing TV ads and video content. Those kinds of custom campaigns could potentially be more lucrative for YouTube and its content partners — the company also says it will “facilitate the development of strategic alliances with some of YouTube’s top creators” so that advertising and content can be integrated in new ways.

The initial advertising partners are American Express, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo, along with their ad agencies. This is currently just a pilot program, but YouTube plans to expand it to include 100 advertisers by the end of 2014.

Warning: there are some minor Game of Thrones spoilers in here, but come on, you should have seen it by now–it’s very easy to pirate!

Apple TV got HBO GO and Watch ESPN and some other content yesterday. Cool. Am I supposed to care?

This is a minor product update. Sure, it’s great for Apple TV users to get the additional content. But the real story to me is the absurdity that you still need to have cable to (legally) watch HBO.

All spring, I gathered around a TV with a bunch of friends and we’d watch the smash-hit Game of Thrones, naturally, through a friends’ parents’ HBO GO account on a laptop connected to the TV.

Many of us pay for our own Hulu+, Netflix, Spotify, and other accounts, or at least share them with a sibling. But none of us are willing to pay absurd rates for cable, and thus we can’t have HBO GO.

It’s asinine that the technology for producing quality content is so incredible (Blackwater Bay, anyone?) and yet we still have to have decades-old technology to access it.

There is clearly a market for a standalone HBO GO app. Netflix began offering online video streaming in 2007. Hulu started up in 2009. In 2010, HBO Go launched. Now, halfway through 2013, I’m supposed to get excited that there *might* be a broadband-only HBO Go in five years?

Pirates of the Iron Islands

HBO does a pretty good job right now–their content is top-notch and the HBO GO interface is great. HBO does a great job of being very lax about multiple sign-ins, to the point that it’s a running joke with many of my friends of “whose account are you using” and if you even know that person.

And yet, you still need a cable subscription for any of HBO’s content. And good luck if you’re not in the U.S.

I know, HBO isn’t worried about its record piracy right now; they claim it helps the show’s record ratings (more hype and awareness). And yes, the company has said on multiple occasions that it won’t do a standalone version soon.

This is short-sighted. A massive group of people–from the young, more-Internet savvy and more mobile demographic to, you know, every person not living in America who wants to watch the Starks and Lannisters–are growing accustomed to accessing HBO’s content without paying for it. This is not a new phenomenon, but it is a problem that will grow every year.

HBO receives marketing and sales support (think of those free trials of HBO you get when you sign up for cable), and other major financial incentives from the cable companies.

But tying everything to these old set-top boxes isn’t a winning long-term strategy for anyone.

The Iron Throne

Content has been and will be an enormous treasure to fight over. Right now, the Houses Comcast, Time Warner Cable (which hasn’t been affiliated with Time Warner since 2009), Cox, Verizon, and AT&T rule the Seven Kingdoms, and renting cable from them is about as pleasant as being Walder Frey’s wedding guest.

Their customers resent them and actively seek a way out. By keeping premium content like HBO tethered to cable subscriptions, these cable companies are protecting their present and very near future. This is exactly how big companies and mature industries get disrupted.

Isn’t the whole point of a good business strategy to put yourself in a better position for the future? The cable companies, like mad kings, seem to be trying to squeeze every last dollar out of their customers before their reign ends.

DirecTV is a great example of a network that’s actually embracing the 21st century. Their NFL Sunday Ticket, featuring every game and other features like showing every touchdown of the weekend, is extremely popular and has no doubt won them many customers away from the cable companies. Instead of trying to hide this gem in a walled garden, DirecTV offers a web version. This is the way forward.

Monsters & Kings

In Game of Thrones, for those of you who’ve managed to make it through this entire post without ever seeing an episode, the phrase Valar Morghulis means “all men must die.” We aren’t sure if the crazed author George R. Martin is going to literally kill every male character, or if a King or Queen will be able to seize the throne long enough to outlast the series.

The cable companies can figure this whole Internet thing out, and quickly, or they will die. It will be a long, slow, annoying death, or pivot out of the content space, but eventually, they’ll be gone.

Most of these cable companies are also Internet providers. They have two products: television and Internet; more users want Internet than television, and many would like premium content at the right price, via either platform. The cable companies insist on using premium content to try to prop up cable sales, rather than just switching the premium content to their more popular product, or making it available on both.

I’ve yet to hear a good rationale for why this can’t happen. Because calculator sales will hurt abacus sales?

If you have a choice between $50 for cable, $15 more for HBO, and $80 for Internet ($145) — versus — $122 for faster internet (for video streaming), $15 for HBO, and $8 for Hulu+ or Netflix ($145), which are you going to take? Probably the one with faster Internet.

That’s where the cable companies can survive, and even thrive. But they have to be more flexible and see their premium content (all of their content, really) the way their users do.

In the most recent Thrones’ season finale, Tyrion Lannister ominously notes, “Monsters are dangerous and, just now, kings are dying like flies.”

The cable companies are kings right now. But their kingdoms are ripe for the taking. Netflix and Amazon are producing exclusive content to rival HBO and the old guard of Starz and Cinemax. Apple has long been interested in a TV project, the shape and scope (beyond Apple TV) of which is unclear.

The clock is ticking for the cable companies and HBO. Kings are dying like flies. And winter is coming.

Images via, io9, and my own screenshot.

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

Supreme Heroes: Card RPG

Description: Create your own superhero and engage in strategic card-style battles against fearsome foes. Your amazingly addictive comic book RPG legend begins now. Customize your unique avatar with 1,000 costume and gear options. Evolve abilities through collectible cards and equipment. Then, unleash your superhero to save the day!

Despicable Me

Description: Gru’s loyal, yellow, gibberish-speaking Minions are ready for their toughest challenge in Despicable Me: Minion Rush. Play as a Minion and compete with others in hilarious, fast-paced challenges in order to impress your boss, (former?) super-villain Gru! Jump, fly, dodge obstacles, collect bananas, be mischievous and defeat villains to earn the title of Minion of the Year!

Rage of the Gladiator

Description: You play the role of Gracius, a gladiator battling for his life in the arena. Your opponents are no ordinary evil, but are epic boss fights whose tricky attacks will challenge even the most elite gamers. There are no ‘fodder’ enemies – it’s all bosses – the most fun part of games! Beat them before they brutally beat you.

LEGO® STAR WARS™

Description: For hundreds of years Yoda™ has trained the Jedi Knights™ of the future, but never for something like this. The Dark Side is preparing a weapon more powerful than any Jedi™ has ever faced before. Play now to take control of the galaxy! Build, create and control your favorite characters and vehicles to smash your enemy, solve puzzles and complete challenges within the LEGO® Star Wars™ universe.

Hero of Many

Description: Hero Of Many takes you on an epic journey as a tiny hero in a dangerous world. But you’re not alone; you lead a swarm of water-beings through fierce battles for freedom across four different worlds and twenty-six choreographed levels.

Geography Quiz Game 3D

Description: Fun game for all the fans of geography quizzes and race games. This addictive quiz game is great for gaining new geography knowledge. And it’s so much fun! Race around the world with other players, answer geography questions, complete achievements and have fun playing this geography game.

Icy Tower 2 Temple Jump

Description: Jump up the Temple without falling down. Easy to learn and amazingly entertaining, this hit arcade game will stick like glue in your hands for hours and hours! Can you reach the top?

Steel Commanders

Description: The age of Mechanical Warfare has begun! Employ tactical, operational and strategic battle formations to emerge victorious in battle. Steel Commander is a card battle simulation game that features mechanical warfare and strategic planning. Recruit highly advanced mech warriors and amass a formidable army to fend off the alien invasion. Defeating the invasion is only the beginning. Featuring weekly tournaments, you can battle against friends and players from around the world and climb the leaderboards.

Chess War

Description: Why Chess War Boridino is so special? Join the battle with the high educated artificial intellect. Fisher Chess, an exclusive option which will diversify the game. Lightning tournament, course return, camera lock, 6 levels of difficulty, historical facts about outstanding people and battles Napoleons time are available. [sic]

Crazy Lee

Description: Bruce Lee makes Kung Fu popular among the whole world! Kung Fu is broad and profound! All the people around the world admire it! Now you can enjoy Kung Fu on your phone! Chinese style! Very smooth feelings of hitting! You will not be able to stop as soon as you start! Crazy Lee is a 2D side-scrolling fighting game. [sic]

COMING SOON

It wouldn't be a sexy subject were it not for the imminent demise of "market" leader Google Reader, but Mat Honan's article about Digg's replacement service is a must-read.

The core Digg experience is one of discovery: It constantly has to be showing you something new to work. ... This is where it gets neat: If Digg had its own news reader, it could immediately identify which stories people were actually reading—not just what they click on.

The 35 Most Spectacular Wildlife Photos From The National Geographic Photo Contest