Business, Financial & Legal - Page 119

Kim Dotcom is one of those people that I liken to the gunslingers of wild west legend, or something like Zoro or RobinHood even. Even though he faces very serious allegations that could land him in prison for quite a long time, he never gives up and continues to champion for internet freedom, and net neutrality.

Dotcom's latest venture is not a new file-sharing website, or even attempting to dominate the latest first person shooter style video game. In fact, Dotcom has decided to move into a more political world where he can influence the path that government's take when it comes to internet legislation. Today Kim Dotcom officially launched the new political party which he named the "Internet Party," and has released a few videos detailing the party's new mission, and goals.

"The Internet Party was founded on the spirit of the Internet, to get an open, free, fair, connected and innovative society," the party said on its website. "A party that will give you faster, cheaper Internet, create high-tech jobs, protect your privacy, and safeguard our independence." Check out the videos above and below to find out exactly what the Internet Party is all about. The Obama impersonator is quite amusing I must say!

You don't have to go far to see someone walking around and texting on their iPhone. you also don't have to wait long to see some of these people run into something or someone while looking at their phone instead of what's going on around them. Apple has a patent application that shows a system called transparent texting.

The idea is that the rear camera of the smartphone would be used to grab a live video image of what is behing the smartphone. That way the person texting and walking could see what is behind the phone as they move around. Naturally, this would require the person texting to hold the phone straight up in front of their face.

Most of the people I see are walking and looking down at the phone. In that instance, having what is behind the phone in the background behind a text conversation would do no good. The Apple patent app was field with the USPTO on Thursday of this week according to reports.

Just when it seemed that eBay has finally stabilized their ever changing fee and user structures, Australian users have been slugged with an additional new 10% postage charge in an email sent out to registered users earlier today.

Under the auspices of the otherwise innocently named "Changes to the fee structure", from May 6th sellers will now be charged a flat 9.9% fee on the price of all goods sold, including the price that sellers charge for postage. Whilst eBay are continuing to encourage sellers to not charge buyers for postage, TweakTown has spoken to a number of sellers disgusted to eBay's latest fee hike, whom have indicated that they will have no choice but to charge higher rates for postage to compensate for this charge.

Some have indicated that this change will unfairly target Australians in favor of overseas sellers, whose cost of shipping goods is negligible, compared to the rising costs of shipping goods via Australia Post.

Digital currency bitcoin has endured ups and downs over the past 12 months, and clearly is shaking up the financial industry. More consumers are becoming familiar with bitcoins, while businesses are embracing the payment, and governments remain unsure how to utilize the online currency.

An upcoming meeting in Paris led by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) should involve an active bitcoin discussion, in which companies such as AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, US Federal Reserve, and other major organizations listen and share experiences - as bitcoin legality and legislation still remains a difficult battle.

"The rise of bitcoin has changed everyone's idea of what a good payment system should be," said Manu Sporny, Digital Bazaar CEO, in a statement. "bitcoin raised the bar, so everyone's got to come in and match that in some way."

Revenues on music sales on iTunes continue to slide, but is Apple looking at releasing iTunes on Android? Billboard is reporting just that, looking to fill in some of its financial holes by expanding iTunes to Android, and launching a paid music subscription service.

It's not like the competition hasn't done this, as Google has its Google Play Music service on iOS, but for Apple to do it, it is almost unthinkable. The iPhone maker makes up around 40% of the US digital music market, but the market itself is seeing double-digit declines in revenue over the last couple of years. Apple currently has a free, ad-supported radio service with its iTunes Radio, but it secures most of its profits in media from the standard single and album sales through the iTunes Store.

If the company moves toward a flat rate subscription music service, it could create a new revenue stream for itself, but it wouldn't exactly stem the losses it is experiencing through iTunes. Expanding the service to Android on the other hand, could open the company up to hundreds of millions of new devices and consumers who wouldn't be buying content through the iTunes Store.

To help the Spanish people "break free from their shackles," the new SpainCoin will pre-mine and share 50 percent of Spaincoins to Spanish nationals.

The cryptocurrency is valued around $50 million.

"Using SpainCoin is a way for the individual to get back his freedom and have 100% control over his money and assets, breaking free from the shackles of central banks," the official SpainCoin website notes. "Unlike other cryptocoins, less accessible for the general population, SpainCoin will be distributed among all Spaniards."

Traditionally coins minted in the US have a very distinctive round and flat shape, but a new release from the US Mint has all but shattered that pattern. A new commemorative design will soon roll out that honors the National Baseball Hall of Fame's 75th birthday in the form of the country's first curved coin. The round coin takes the profile of a baseball and is featured in both gold and silver mintings.

The coins profile and design are loosely based on the curved shape of the International Year of Astronomy coins minted by France back in 2009, as well as Australia's Southern Cross coins. Designed by California Artist, Cassie McFarland, the coins feature a baseball on the front and a catchers mitt on the reverse. Her winning "Hand full of Gold" design was chosen from a pool of 178 entries and was based off of a baseball glove she used as a kid.

"Raised loving the native pastime, a glove assisted me not only as a tool, but helped foster communication between my family and peers," she wrote in her submission. "It is a fundamental symbol for teamwork and camaraderie." Up to 50,000 $5 gold coins, 400,000 $1 silver coins and 750,000 half-dollar coins will be minted, and will cost an extra $35, $10 and $5 each, which will go toward funding the Baseball Hall of Fame's non-profit operations.

Today, the Central Bank of Singapore announced that it will now regulate all virtual currency intermediaries that operate and do business within the country's borders. The country says that this move will address concerns over money laundering, and terrorism funding. Starting today, Bitcoin Exchanges, virtual currency ATM's and vending machines that accept Bitcoins or other virtual currencies will have to verify the identity of its customers and report all transactions that seem suspicious in nature.

This aligns Singapore with US efforts to bring regulation to the wild west that is cryptocurrency, but this regulation does not mean that there will be any form of safeguards extended to investors like their are in traditional investments made with analog money. This means that while regulators wish to control the currency, they do not wish to protect its investors against collapse, theft, or loss due to natural disasters.

I think most of us know if you hang out with someone that is in a bad mood, you are more likely to get that bad mood for yourself. A new study has been published that looked at if the same holds true for online moods via status updates.

The study was conducted by Facebook, Yale, and the University of California San Diego. The results of the study found that your online mood could spread to others just as your offline mood can. The researchers looked at 100 million Facebook users in the US.

They also studied more than a billion posts. Using an algorithm they created, they were able to filter the posts based on a positive or negative mood. The results found that the mood of one user could affect the moods of their online friends. The researchers say that they knew moods were contagions, but this is the first study to look at how the process works online.

Tabu is a company that makes some very interesting LED light bulbs that are controlled via an app on your smartphone and Bluetooth. The Bulb is green since it uses LEDs that consume less power. The coolest part about the bulb is that you can use the smartphone app to control the color of the light.

With RGB LEDs inside and a fourth white LED, the original Lumen smart bulb can make any color you can think of. Tabu has announced a new project that is on Kickstarter right now. This project is for a smaller version of the original Lumen called the LuMini.

The goal with this smaller light bulb is to be able to fit it inside a lamp or other small fixture where the original couldn't go. Other than the size and the lack of a white LED inside, the LuMini is the same as the original.

Of all the tech in my home, the thing I would be least willing to give up is the DVR. I like my DVR even more now that it use a Dish Hopper Whole home DVR. With that DVR, I can watch any show on any TV in the house and it has three tuners for recording lots of stuff at once.

I still have conflicts on occasion with three tuners because we record lots of shows. Dish has announced that the Super Joey that goes with the Hopper Whole Home DVR system is now available. The Super Joey only works with the Hopper DVR and adds two more tuners to the mix.

With the Super Joey, you get a total of five tuners to use. Between those five turners you can record eight shows at once. If you are wondering how that happens, one tuner is dedicated to Primetime shows and they all come across a single feed letting one tuner record four primetime shows at once.

Pando Daily is reporting that Google has acquired parts of Green Throttle Gaming, a small company who developers Bluetooth controllers and Android-based virtual gaming consoles.

Google scooped up Green Throttle Gaming's two founders, as well as the parts and labor division of the company. A Google spokesperson has confirmed the deal, but didn't extend its terms to the public. The deal sees Green Throttle's business rights stay with co-founder Charles, while the company's staff and co-founders move over to Google.

The other co-founders of Green Throttle are Karl Townsend, who is the company's Lead Engineer on the original and second generation Palm Pilot, and President and Chief Operating Officer Matt Crowley, who used to work for Nokia and Palm. The company has worked on an Android-based virtual console, which allows gamers to connect their smartphones and tablets up to their TVs through an HDMI connection to play mobile games with Green Throttle controllers.

During a recent interview with Charlie Rose, Sprint's chairman, Massayoshi Son said that he would like to see his company purchase T-Mobile in a effort to truly compete with AT&T and Verizon in the mobile phone marketplace. Sprint is currently running at the number 3 position with T-Mobile following closely behind and gaining more traction every month.

Reports suggest that Sprint has been planning the acquisition of T-Mobile for months now and has been working with OEMs in the industry, and has even secured banks to help provide the financing needed to make such a large acquisition. One major hurdle is those at the Securities and Exchange Commission who might see the acquisition as bordering on Antitrust laws, but executives from both T-Mobile and Sprint have told regulators that a merger would be beneficial to consumers as it would allow more fair competition with AT&T and Verizon.

"We would like to have the real fight, OK? Not the pseudo fight, the real fight," Son said about competing with AT&T and Verizon. Son is in Washington DC this week lobbying for the acquisition as well as testifying before the Chamber of Commerce on broadband's important role in invention, innovation, and education, and how a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile could benefit those fundamentals as well.

SXSW is in full swing in Austin, Texas and music fans from around the world are at the show and needing a way to get around. That means that cabs and public transport in Austin are very busy. Austin PD recently tweeted a warning to visitors at SXSW telling them to only use approved transport providers.

The core of the post is that most Uber services aren't approved and therefore SXSW attendees shouldn't use Uber even though there may be some drivers signed up in the Austin area. The Austin PD was later specifically asked if Uber rides were permitted, and responded, "No, they are not."

Uber has been on hand at SXSW the last few years and has skirted rules in Austin that prevent its service from operating normally. One way it has skirted the rules is by offering free rides. Austin PD says that any for hire service driver must have an operators permit, commercial insurance, and a chauffer's permit.

If you surf the web and read news on just about any topic, you are apt to run across little disclaimers saying that an image came from Getty Images or Shutterstock. Images from both these places cost money to license and use for commercial activities.

Not too long ago, Getty Images announced that it was allowing non-commercial use of some of its images at no charge. The catch to the free use of these images was that you can't use them for commercial purposes and Getty gets to serve ads over the top of the images.

The announcement from Getty sent stocks tumbling a bit for Shutterstock. Shutterstock CEO Jon Oringer has come out and said that the free Getty Images aren't a concern for him. He says that his firm gets 99.9% of its business from the commercial sector and that it will keep working that sector.

If you are ever in the mood for beer, whatever game happens to be on, and hot wings, Buffalo Wild Wings is a good place to find. You can even watch the UFC fights there on a fight weekend. If you have ever been in one of these places when it is busy, you know it can be hard to get your server to come to the table when you want them.

Buffalo Wild Wings has announced that it is now using tablets at all tables in 150 company owned stores around the US. The tablets will be rolling out to another 500 stores by the end of 2014 and then by next year all stores will have the tablets.

These tablets will serve many uses. Patrons to the eatery will be able to play games on the tablet including multi-player games. The tablets are called Beond and in addition to playing games, you will be able to make food and drink orders from the tablets.

Back in January, we mentioned that IBM had sold its low-end x86 server business to Lenovo. As part of the deal, Lenovo would get a facility in China where the servers were made and the staff working at that facility. It seems that the workers at the IBM International System Technology Company factory in Shenzhen aren't happy about the deal.

About 1000 workers at that factory have been on strike and the factory has stopped manufacturing for at least four days. One of the striking workers says that the strike will continue. The worker noted that so far the company had ignored the demands of the workers.

As you can guess, the strike has to do with money. The workers want better pay to move to Lenovo or they want better severance packages if they choose to leave the company. An IBM spokesperson says that the deals offered to these workers are on par with what they have now.

Things are not looking up for Bitcoins much these days and the cryptocurrency was dealt yet another blow today when Flexcoin announced that it has ceased operations and closed its doors for ever. Flexcoin was the first Bitcoin "bank" that operated much in the same manner as traditional banks do. Flexcoin announced today that on Sunday, March 2nd hackers breached the company's security and managed to steal 896 Bitcoins, valued at more than $620,000 USD.

Not all accounts at Flexcoin were compromised though, and it appears that only the hot wallet was breached, leaving thousands of bitcoins in cold storage untouched and safe due to them not being connected to the network. Customer's who chose to store their coins in cold storage payed an additional 0.5-percent for the added security and it looks like it paid off.

Bitcoin's disappearing or being stolen is quickly becoming the norm these days. Another firm named Polonix has also announced that 12.5-percent of its stored bitcoins were stolen by hackers, but said that it would be replacing the coins with those from its own reserve. With major failures of big names in Bitcoin, can the cryptocurrency remain a viable and trustworthy digital currency solution? If it were me with millions tied up in bitcoins, I would sell the majority of them as fast as possible and run far away from Bitcoins as possible.

U.S. electronics store RadioShack announced it plans to close up to 1,100 of its stores in the United States, as the company continues to struggle in a fight for survival.

RadioShack has a large retail footprint in the United States, with 90 percent of US shoppers located within a few minutes of at least one store.

"Our focus on the brand, our operations, and the in-store experience has been unfolding in parallel with a strategic review of our store footprint," said Joseph Magnacca, RadioShack CEO, in a press statement. "Over the past few months, we have undertaken a comprehensive review of our portfolio from many angles - location, area demographics, lease life and financial performance - in order to consolidate our store base into fewer locations while maintaining a strong presence in each market."

If you have been around long enough to remember a world when most people didn't have mobile phones and we relied on a home phone and an answering machine to stay in contact, you will appreciate a new patent Apple has been granted. One of the things that people liked about answering machines is that you can listen to the messages being left as a way to screen calls. That is one thing you can't do on a smartphone.

Apple has been granted patent by the USPTO that is a patent acquired via the Rockstar Consortium when it purchased Nortel patents a while back. The patent shows a way that the smartphone user can listen in to a caller leaving them a voice mail in real-time.

The system covered in the patent shows a way that a conference call is set up on-the-fly between the caller, voice mail server, and the phone owner. The user's phone mic is muted to keep the listening in on the down low.