Former National Security Agency (NSA) IT contractor Edward Snowden could be able to stay in Russia for more than one year, as the Russian government said they don't plan to send him packing.

Snowden, currently in Russia on a temporary one-year asylum, has offers from Brazil and several Central American countries interested in taking him in - but Alexy Pushkov, the Russian Foreign Affairs Committee legislator, noted that Snowden could stay longer. The 30-year-old American is now free to stay in Russia, working for private Russian companies, until he is ready to return back to the U.S.

During a recent online chat, Snowden said he would like to one day return to the United States, but that cannot happen unless he's granted protection under the federal Whistleblower Protection Act - which doesn't apply to former government contractors. Meanwhile, Snowden continues to claim he didn't carry out actions for Russia or any other foreign government, though some U.S. lawmakers still aren't so sure about that.

US researchers and scientists have developed the Space-Based Telescopes for Actionable Refinement of Ephemeris, or STARE, which is basically a bunch of small satellites that orbit the Earth, helping satellites avoid collisions with space junk - so, really, space cops.

These 'space cops' have the researchers seeing a future of deploying countless satellites into Earth's orbit, with the space cops then relaying information about potential collisions between satellites and space debris back to Earth, which would then send alternative coordinates to the satellites that are in trouble.

A ground-based satellite was used to refine the orbit of the NORAD 27006 satellite, which was based on the first four observations made within 24 hours. The team managed to predict NORAD's satellite trajectory to within 50m, in under 36 hours. Considering that current technology is only capable of working out the pace of a space object within a 1km range, which gives ground operators the hard time of weeding through thousands of false alarms, for that one rock that might cause trouble.

For the time it took smartphone displays to shift from 720p to 1080p - around 18 months - Qualcomm has now stated that it shouldn't be long before 4K smartphones are the norm.

Qualcomm's Vice President of Marketing, Tim McDonough, spoke with TrustedReviews and said: "I think 4K is one of the primary things you are seeing from us. 4K is pretty cool because it means that not only can you do 4K video, but once you can push that number of pixels and the chip has the ability to do 4K video, anything that is multimedia related - think about gaming - that gets better too".

McDonough teased that it shouldn't be long before we have full 4K smartphones, not just SoCs that are capable of driving 4K. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 805 is capable of driving Ultra HD, as well as shooting 4K video and playing it back. He adds: "It has already sampled and we said the first half of 2014 [for devices to launch]".

DICE is asking for gamers' feedback to help balance Battlefield 4 gameplay, something that will be baked into future patches for the first-person shooter.

The developer said in its blog: "We have a wide range of tweaks planned to further balance the core gameplay of Battlefield 4 in upcoming patches. But we need your help in identifying next steps". Players can provide feedback on five potential changes that are being worked on.

These changes include the way weapons and vehicles take and receive damage, with simple yes/no voting. The five tweaks include improving air defense for attack boats, increasing the FGM-148's damage against tanks, changing damage on the stealth jet cannons, altering fast attack craft cannons, and buffing certain shells on the MBT and IFV.

Today, a new report was released from ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, that stated that Microsoft is planning on releasing the first update to Windows 8.1 as early as March 11th, the same day the company has scheduled to push out its monthly security updates. This throws off analyst expectations for Microsoft's Build conference, which was expected to be centered around Windows 8.1.1.

Windows 8.1 Update 1 is expected to refine the operating system and will reduce memory usage and disk space requirements to help lower-end tablets really shine with the OS. Microsoft hopes that these lower system requirements will help the OS gain some market share in the mobile arena, and become popular among low-end tablet manufacturers. We are expecting to see Windows 9 launch in October, so maybe Build will be all about Windows 9 and its return to a more traditional desktop.

A research team completely crowdfunded, is using a machine learning algorithm to examine the cells of rare individuals who are immune to HIV, and are looking to make a vaccine from their efforts.

The team is known as The Immunity Project, which promises a revolutionary method to reach its goals, vowing to revolutionize how we look at vaccines in general, too. Pharmaceutical companies projects can, and do cost billions of dollars - but this project could solve a very large problem, and is simply crowdfunded.

The Immunity Project is run by researchers out of Harvard, Stanford and MIT, with some big names on the roster: the creators of the Internet's first spam filter, an artificial intelligence and machine learning specialist at Microsoft, and the founder of Flow Pharma and drug delivery system specialist.

Late last year, Pete Lau, former VP of Oppo announced the formation of a new company aimed at disrupting the current smartphone arena. He named the company OnePlus and set out to build the highest quality smartphone in the world. With just over a month in the books, OnePlus has just released a statement that says its first phone will make it to market by June of this year.

OnePlus has officially named its first foray into the smartphone world, the OnePlus One, and says that it will be "Built using only the best components and 2014 flagship specs, both inside and out." While I am sure that statement made HTC take notice, I am quite excited myself to see what this phone may include both hardware and software wise. As far as aesthetics, the OnePlus said the folowing about the phone: "Industrial design wise, we're confident our phone is more attractive than just about any other on the market."

While no official specs have been released, we expect the phone to feature a screen size greater than 5-inches with a resolution of 1080p or 1440p. Ram should be in the 2-4GB range while the processor is most likely Qualcomm's flagship chip. Storage would be set between 64GB and 128GB, with expansion via microSD card built-in. We do know that CyanogenMod will be serving up the Android-based operating system for the device, and believe it to be Android 4.3 or 4.4.

If WhatsApp is king of app-based text messaging, then Aviary rules the photograph editing app world. Today the company announced that it has hit a massive milestone in the success of its company. Aviary announced that its app for Android and iOS has been used to edit over 10 billion photos since its launch.

The company says that its success is largely due to the fact that its SDK is so popular with developers who have added the apps editing tools to their own apps and websites. Aviary has been integrated with more than 7,000 partner apps, with big names such as Pic Stitch, Tango, and even SquareSpace using features from the software. Aviary says that it now has over 70 million active monthly users and that it expects growth to continue in 2014.

In a statement the company said:

This morning, Cougar unveiled its latest mid-tower PC chassis that has been designed with gamers in mind. The all new MX300 features a rugged honeycomb mesh front facade that allows ample airflow through the case. The MX300 is designed to provide gamers with an aggressive style while packing in all of the latest high-performance hardware.

The MX300 is able to accommodate discrete GPUs up to 310mm in length as well as three 3.5-inch hard drives. For those who still use optical drives, the new chassis has room for three 5.25-inch drives as well. The entire drive system features tool-less mounting solutions for added convenience. The top of the case features dual USB 3.0 ports, while support for up to 7 120mm fans can be found on the inside. Cable management solutions have been provided inside the chassis for a clean and efficient setup as well.

All in all, the MX300 from Cougar appears to be a solid mid-tower chassis that is perfect for those building a gaming PC but are not ready to spend the cash needed to get a premium full-tower chassis. Personally I would have liked to seen more space for 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch hard drives and the removal of the 5.25-inch bays. The amount of fan options mean that there is ample room for cooling solutions and it looks like you may even be able to fit in a 240mm radiator from a AiO cooling system.

Microsoft has something to cheer about after the company saw strong year-over-year sales for the Xbox 360 game console, with the next-generation Xbox One also posting strong sales figures. The company sold 7.4 million Xbox 360 and Xbox One game consoles during the holiday shopping season, as Microsoft competes with the Sony PlayStation 4 in the game console market.

In addition, the Microsoft Surface line of tablets saw revenue double, reaching $893 million from the previous quarter, as the company continues to try and invade the mobile market. Overall device revenue increased a massive 68 percent, reaching $4.73 billion, outpacing investor estimates.

However, Microsoft is still dealing with Windows revenue shrinking, as consumers and business users still waffle about embracing Windows 8/8.1, which will be a continued battle. The company once dominated software sales offering its products on CDs and DVDs, but expanding to the cloud - and increasing hardware sales - has continued to be a slippery slope for the tech giant.