It’s the saga no one knew or cared much about until David Fincher’s The Social Network turned up the volume: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg hoodwinks fellow Harvard students (and twins) Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss out of millions in Facebook profits. The twins sue and win some of those millions in a settlement. But it turns out …
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Google Introduces Daily Trivia Game
Every time there’s a problem, the solution is rather simple: use Google.
That’s the premise of A Google a Day, a new crossword puzzle that encourages players to use the search engine in pursuit of the answers.
Questions will be posted every day on the A Google a Day site and printed on weekdays above the New York Times …
Kiip: A New Ad Model For Mobile Gaming Rewards Users in Real Life
File this one under “Why the heck didn’t anyone think of it sooner?” Alexia Tsosis over at Tech Crunch is reporting on a new mobile ad model called Kiip (pronounced “keep”) that turns in-game achievements into real world currency.
Leveraging a term 19-year old co-founder (and Digg alum) Brian Wong calls the “achievement moment” — …
Sony Settles with GeoHot in PS3 Hacking Lawsuit
The lawsuit that called down the wrath of Internet bogeymen Anonymous will go no further, as Sony Computer Entertainment America announced today that they’d reached a settlement with hacker George Hotz.
(More on TIME.com: Playstation vs. Anonymous: Rogue Hacker Collective Targets Sony’s Networks, Execs)
Hotz’s hacking unlocked the …
Russia, U.S. in Space Anniversary Double-Header This Week
NASA’s probably breathing easier this week after last’s near-catastrophic government shutdown, and what better way to pop a celebratory cork (or two) than with a couple big anniversary events.
Tomorrow marks both the 50th anniversary of humanity’s first trip into space, as well as the 30th anniversary of NASA’s first ever Space …
Nintendo Stock Price Struggling to Recover from Big Drop After Launch of 3DS
Even Mario’s vaunted jumping abilities may not be enough to help with Nintendo’s surprising stock market woes. Two weeks after the launch of their new 3DS system, Nintendo’s stock price dropped steeply on Friday to a one-year low of $30.10 per share. The previous low was $31.20 last September. As of this morning, the price was hovering …
A Catholic Parish Calls Facebook the ‘Opposite of Christian Culture’
Just when the contentious relationship between the Catholic Church and Facebook seems to have settled down, parish leaders at St. John Cantius in Chicago put out a controversial letter in this past Sunday’s bulletin, condemning the social networking site as a tool for vanity.
The Chicago Tribune reports:
“[Facebook] is exactly the
…
Alas, There Will Be No More Google Street View in Germany
Auf wiedersehen, Google Street View. There’s going to be no more new street view pictures in Germany, says the search engine company.
Google isn’t taking any of the old Street View pictures down, but they’re not adding or updating any either. Street View was just launched in Germany last summer, but was scrutinized for its …
Twitter and Facebook Users: Getting Social on Fridays
Feeling guilty for sneaking in those few minutes of checking status updates or tweets at your work desk? Don’t. It’s Friday and, according to new research, you aren’t alone in your social media longings.
After analyzing more than 200 of its clients’ Facebook pages over two weeks, Buddy Media found that social media engagement …
Global Data Consumption? 9,570,000,000,000,000,000,000 Bytes
The world’s computers crunch through 9,570,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes of data every year.
That’s 9.57 zettabytes. One zettabyte is 10 to the 21st power, or a million million gigabytes.
And if you still can’t get your head around that kind of number (I know I can’t), let’s convert it into average-sized books.
In book form, our …
Finally: Minecraft Comes Out of Beta on 11/11/11
Minecraft‘s been one of the biggest success stories ever in the video game medium. The sprawling browser-based game’s mostly the work of one man, indie developer Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, with more than 6 million people registered. It’s become wildly popular over the last year, so much so that Paypal froze Persson’s account on suspicions …
DOJ Green Lights $700m Google ITA Purchase
Google can go right ahead and snap up travel software company ITA Software for $700 million, but only if it agrees not to kick the competition to the curb, says the Department of Justice in a statement.
Well, sort of. The DOJ’s antitrust division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit this morning to block the proposed acquisition, then …