Apple applies for 'iWatch' trademark in Japan

Following months of reports about Apple’s upcoming foray into wearable electronics, the company is now seeking to trademark "iWatch" in Japan, reports Bloomberg . Many are convinced that Apple is working on a smartwatch product, but so far Cupertino has kept more or less quiet — save for Tim Cook’s statement about the "profound" opportunity in wearables at the D11 conference in May.

Of course, merely applying for a trademark doesn’t cement either Apple’s plans or the name of any forthcoming products. The company has been known to trademark plausible names for future products that it plans to release, like 2009’s iSlate application, or doesn't, like the Knowledge Navigator. But whether Apple intends to bring something to...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/1/4481860/apple-applies-for-iwatch-trademark-in-japan

NSA spies on Germany as much as it does China and Saudi Arabia: Der Spiegel

Since details of the NSA’s massive phone and internet spying programs first came to light, America’s allies in the EU have been demanding for Washington to explain what it’s doing with Europeans’ data. Now, a new report from German news weekly Der Spiegel provides some more insight into the size of Washington’s telecommunications dragnet, claiming that US intelligence compiles metadata on half a billion German data connections (including phone calls, emails, and text messages) every day. The report points out that the NSA’s interest in Germany is much higher than that of other EU countries like France, whose communications the NSA only logs a tenth as often.

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/30/4481670/nsa-spying-in-germany-revealed-der-spiegel

Nokia said to buy out Siemens stake in joint telecom equipment venture

Nokia is poised to buy out German partner Siemens for its 50 percent share of their joint Nokia Siemens Networks telecom equipment business, report Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. According to the reports, the Finnish cellphone maker will pay less than €2 billion (€1.7 billion, or $2.21 billion, says the WSJ), using short-term debt to finance the deal. Formed in 2007, Nokia Siemens Networks had been unprofitable until last year, when cost cutting finally pushed it into the black for the first time.

Despite Nokia’s lackluster handset sales and a $196 million loss last quarter, the company is arguably in a better place than it was a year ago, when it posted an operating loss of €1.3 billion, owing in large part to...

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Wings land a sniper with NHL pedigree

NEWARK, N.J. – The Red Wings used their first-round selection to take a prolific goal scorer with an Original Six pedigree. A 50-goal scorer in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, forward Anthony Mantha is the grandson of four-time Stanley C...



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'Pocket Spacecraft' Kickstarter gives backers control over a tiny space-bound flying machine

Commercial space travel has become increasingly mainstream in the past decade, from "space tourism" flights to NASA's public-private partnerships with SpaceX and others. But the latest push isn't just to take space into the private sector — it's to get citizens involved in the process. Copenhagen Suborbitals and other grass-roots efforts are trying to essentially crowdfund space, raising tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to put small craft into orbit. And one of the latest, called Pocket Spacecraft, hopes to do so with a "personalized spacecraft" for each of its backers.

The Pocket Spacecraft isn't quite as exciting as it sounds, but it's still pretty unique. If you put more than £19 (about $30) into the project, you'll get...

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Val-d'Or's Mantha has brain and brawn for hockey

Take one look at Anthony Mantha on the ice, and you won't need to be a seasoned hockey scout to immediately see that the hulking left wing for the Val-d'Or Foreurs has everything a young player needs to one day reach his goal of playing in the NHL...



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Microsoft's SkyDrive name at risk in Europe after losing trademark case against broadcaster

A UK court has ruled that Microsoft's SkyDrive product infringes on a trademark owned by the British Sky Broadcasting Group, which operates under the name Sky. The ruling is valid across the entire European Union and could force Microsoft to pay for use of the SkyDrive name, or in a worst-case scenario, to rebrand the service throughout most of Europe. In part, the ease of confusion between SkyDrive's cloud services and Sky's broadband services led the England and Wales High Court to rule in favor of Sky, which holds the the "Sky" trademark for matters of software and digital communications within the EU.

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Red Wings brass meets with Lecavalier

NEWARK, N.J. – Red Wings general manager Ken Holland and coach Mike Babcock met with former 50-goal scorer Vincent Lecavalier for 30-40 minutes Sunday morning. Tampa Bay used one of its two compliance buyouts last week to part ways with Lecaval...



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NASA begins testing drilling Mars rover in Chilean desert

NASA this month began testing a prototype robot in the Chilean desert, as part of the agency's ongoing search for evidence of life on Mars. The prototype, known as Zoë, is a solar-powered, autonomous robot equipped with onboard sensors, cameras, and a one-meter drill. The robot will use its drill to find and analyze soil samples from Chile's Atacama Desert, the driest on Earth. Led by Carnegie Mellon University and the SETI Institute, the Life in the Atacama Project was launched earlier this month as NASA began testing a variety of new technologies that could be used on the craft that replaces the Curiosity rover in 2020.

Zoë is explicitly designed to search for signs of microbial life, which experts say would likely exist well below...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/30/4479258/nasa-tests-zoe-robot-in-chile-desert-could-replace-mars-curiosity-rover

Peruvian royal tomb reveals secrets behind a long-lost empire

Not much is known about the Wari empire, which is thought to have ruled over what is now coastal Peru from the 4th to the 11th century. Indeed, some question whether the South American society should even be referred to as an empire. But a royal tomb discovered a four- hour drive away from the Peruvian capital of Lima has revealed some of the structure and traditions of Wari society. The remains of over 60 people, including 3 Wari queens, were found among over a thousand artifacts, including gold tools, bronze axes, and "sophisticated gold and silver jewelry." Evidence found in the tomb points toward a people that participated in royal ancestor worship, and archaeologists expect it will take another eight-to-ten years to fully explore...

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The story behind 'The Room,' the 'worst movie ever made'

If you haven't seen The Room , it's a difficult film to define. At its core lies the story of a love triangle, but fans of what is often referred to as "the worst movie ever made" will tell you it's much more than that. It's horribly shot with inconsistent cameras; it has awful actors reading truly terrible lines; and it forces viewers to sit through some of the poorest pacing — and likely the worst sex scenes — of all time. It's this combination of ineptitude that led the movie to gain a Troll 2-esque cult following, and saw the movie spread from a single theater in Los Angeles to New York, London, and beyond. But why did this $6 million epic ever get its funded? Who is Tommy Wiseau, the film's enigmatic director, writer, and star?...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/30/4479600/the-room-tommy-wiseau-making-of

German prosecutors may investigate claims of US spying across Europe

German officials have said that they may launch a probe to examine whether the United States' surveillance regime broke German laws. According the the Associated Press, the Federal Prosecutors' Office has said it is looking at claims that the NSA has routinely spied on communications of the Council of the European Union in Brussels and New York, and that German communications have beens particularly singled out and monitored. If the office is able to "achieve a reliable factual basis," it may open a formal investigation. Meanwhile, a spokesperson said, private citizens are likely to file individual complaints — and some politicians have lashed out harshly against the apparent spying.

"Comprehensive spying on Europeans by Americans...

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How 'The Thing' became a different movie in post-production

Considered by many to be one of John Carpenter's finest horror features, The Thing was very nearly a dramatically different film. After viewing the first cut of the movie, Carpenter (who also directed classics such as Halloween, The Fog, and Escape from New York) found the movie a confusing mess that dragged heavily and didn't have any sort of lead character. By filming additional scenes, extending some, and cutting a huge amount of already-shot material, Carpenter created the movie that we all know so well. Stuart Cohen, who co-produced the movie, has written a blog post laying out the last-minute adjustments that Carpenter made to the script and final cut. It's a fascinating insight into the drastic changes that can happen to a movie...

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The best writing of the week, June 30

We all know the feeling. You're sleepless in the sad hours of the night or stumbling around early on a hazy weekend morning in need of something to read, and that pile of unread books just isn't cutting it. Why not take a break from the fire hose of Twitter and RSS and check out our weekly roundup of essential writing from around the web about technology, culture, media, and the future? Sure, it's one more thing you can feel guilty about sitting in your Instapaper queue, but it's better than pulling in vain on your Twitter list again.

Grab all of these as a Readlist.

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Obama pledges $7 billion to doubling electricity access in Africa

President Barack Obama today is expected to unveil an ambitious $7 billion initiative aimed at doubling access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. As the Associated Press reports, Obama will announce his "Power Africa" initiative in Cape Town, South Africa Sunday, in what administration officials describe as the signature speech of his weeklong trip to Africa.

The president's plan will see the US invest $7 billion in clean and efficient power generation in sub-Saharan Africa, with private sector companies such as General Electric and Symbion Power committing an additional $9 billion. According to the White House, more than two-thirds of the population in sub-Saharan Africa currently lack access to electricity; among those living in...

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Inside Hollywood's blockbuster assembly line

Red, White and Blood seemed destined for box office success. It had car chases, terrorist attacks, and political romance — all the ingredients needed to whip up the kind of high-octane blockbuster that movie studios have become so dependent upon. The only problem is that Red, White and Blood wasn't a real movie; it was a fake pitch from the New York Times.

Working in consultation with veteran screenwriter Jordan Roberts, the Times built Red, White and Blood in the formulaic image of so many other summertime blockbusters ("Fast & Furious meets Nicholas Sparks meets Die Hard"), before presenting the pitch to a host of Hollywood decision makers. Marketers, researchers, executives — all weighed in with input and critiques on how to turn...

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Palantir is helping California police develop controversial license plate database

Throwing more light on the controversial use of police license plate readers, a new report from the Center for Investigative Reporting reveals the development of a new California database under development with the help of Palantir, a Silicon Valley firm whose data analysis technology is in wide use by the US intelligence and defense communities. According to the report, the company is party to a $340,000 contract to build the new infrastructure. The project is being spearheaded by the Northern California Intelligence Research Center — an office set up after the 9/11 terror attacks to enable police and intelligence agencies to share data.

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New PRISM slides: more than 100,000 'active surveillance targets,' explicit mention of real-time monitoring

The Washington Post has revealed four new slides from its trove of top secret PRISM information, appearing to confirm earlier reporting about the US government surveillance program.

Notably, the new slides appear to confirm whistleblower Edward Snowden's claims that PRISM allows the NSA and FBI to perform real-time surveillance of email and instant messaging, though it's still not clear which specific internet service providers allow such surveillance. (As originally reported, PRISM providers include Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, YouTube, Skype, AOL, and Apple.) In notes accompanying the new slides, the Post claims that "depending on the provider, the NSA may receive live notifications when a target logs on or sends an...

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FCC approves Google's TVWS database for use, bringing whitespace broadband one step closer

Two months after Google got permission to test its TV whitespace (TVWS) database from the FCC, the Commission is approving it for operation. Registered wireless devices operating on unlicensed TV bands are able to use the database to automatically determine which channels are OK to transmit on where they are by sending it their encrypted location information. Individuals and organizations can also browse the database to see which bands are available for use in their area.

Google has pushed unlicensed TVWS for years as a cost-effective way to bring broadband service to sparsely populated rural communities whose economics don’t justify building out traditional cable or fiber lines. It initially got permision to start testing the...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/29/4478424/google-tv-whitespace-database-approved-by-fcc

Forwards are on Wings' list at draft

DETROIT – It’s a job that Joe McDonnell wasn’t sure he’d like, but 18 years later, the former Ontario Hockey League coach of the year can’t imagine doing anything else. “I was actually still looking to continue on coaching, but then this opport...



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With new ICANN agreement, you'll need to verify email and phone to register a domain

Domain registrars like GoDaddy will soon be held far more accountable for information on those who are signing up for web domains. In the future, users will need to verify both their email address and phone number within 15 days of applying for a domain. Without verification, registrars are instructed to suspend domain registrations. The new rule, which is one among many, comes as part of a new Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) approved earlier this week by the board of directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) — a nonprofit which oversees everything from top-level domains to IP addresses. The updated rules, which won't take effect until a later date when registrars sign the new agreement,...

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3D-printed 'Cortex' cast concept puts a modern spin on bone fracture treatment

To anyone that's ever broken a bone, the negatives of traditional plaster casts are familiar: they're cumbersome, heavy, and can get rather smelly. Victoria University of Wellington graduate Jake Evill is looking to change all that with his Cortex cast. A mere concept for now, Evill says the cast — which is specifically fitted to each wearer based on X-rays of the fractured bone and a 3D scan of its surrounding limb — introduces many benefits. First and foremost, you'd be able to wear a longsleeve shirt over the lightweight, ventilated nylon cast.

The Cortex would be 3D printed on site, according to Evill, and each cast would be most dense near the location of a wearer's fracture. "After many centuries of splints and cumbersome...

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Metropolitan Museum of Art retiring iconic admission buttons, citing rising metal prices

Back on January 1st, 1971, the Metropolitan Museum of Art handed out its first admission button, and tomorrow will be the last day the iconic metal wafers will be given to visitors. For over 42 years guests have folded the metal tab over and stuck the buttons onto their collars as a proof of admission — and later taken them home as a keepsake from one the largest and most legendary at museums in the world. The museum has cycled through hundreds of color variations (all with some variation of the Met's Renaissance "M" logo) and those who collected all 16 colors in the current run could skirt the suggested $25 admission fee. Metal costs more than it used to, however. Starting on Monday, the museum is transitioning to paper ticket...

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NSA reportedly bugged European Union offices in Washington DC, the UN, and abroad

According to a "top secret" National Security Agency (NSA) document, the US bugged the offices of European Union member state offices in Washington and at the UN and gained access to computer networks used at those locations. The latest report revealing spy activities by the NSA comes from German news magazine Der Spiegel , which says it saw parts of documents in whistleblower Edward Snowden's possession. Snowden was also behind leaks that revealed the NSA's massive PRISM program, designed to spy on internet users, as well as documents that shed light on the British government's involvement in the program.

Europeans called out as a "target"

Today's leak, according to the Der Spiegel report, reveals that NSA efforts to spy on European...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/29/4477646/nsa-reportedly-bugged-european-union-offices

Twitter quietly rolls out Bing language translation on the web

Twitter now offers automatic language translation for tweets viewed at Twitter.com. There's been no official announcement of the new feature yet, but the Bing-powered translations have begun popping up for some users. The Verge has confirmed that translations are currently enabled (we've embedded a sample below) and support a number of languages at launch, though not all Twitter.com vistors are seeing them just yet. The move follows a similar implementation of translations — again powered by Bing — seen in Twitter's Windows Phone app earlier this week. As you'd expect, the translations are by no means flawless but at least provide a gist of a tweet's content. We've reached out to Twitter for more details as to when all users will...

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Vine makes tablet debut with Kindle Fire app while Windows Phone, BlackBerry users wait

Vine has worked its way to another platform today, but it's not Windows Phone or BlackBerry 10. No, Vine is now available for Kindle Fire tablets. Amazon's media-focused tablets are based on Android, of course, so it makes sense that it wouldn't be difficult for the Vine team to bring a Fire-friendly version of its video creation and sharing app to market. It's worth noting that the app requires Android 4.0 or greater, which means that all Kindle Fire tablets other than the first generation (which still runs software based on Android 2.3) will be able to run the Vine app.

The addition marks the first expansion for Vine beyond Android and iOS, the two dominate leaders in the mobile space. This is also the first version of Vine designed...

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'Pacific Rim' featurette explains why giant robots were built to battle massive monsters

Pacific Rim is about skyscraper-sized robots and monsters fighting to the death in the Pacific Ocean. But there are people in the movie too — after all, the monsters, or Kaiju, are looking to wipe humanity off the face of the earth. In a new featurette released today, director Guillermo del Toro and actors Idris Ebala, Charlie Hunnam, and Charlie Day explain how civilization is pushed to the point of building massive mechs to take on the Kaiju threatening the planet.

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Wings get deals done for Miller, Kindl

DETROIT – The Red Wings tied up a few loose ends before heading to the NHL draft in New Jersey this weekend, signing veteran forward Drew Miller and defenseman Jakub Kindl to long-term deals. The club announced Saturday that they have signed Mi...



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The Weekender: dirty pool water, smoggy skies, and a beautiful blue umbrella

Welcome to The Verge: Weekender edition. Every Saturday, we'll bring you some of the best and most important reads of the past seven days, from original reports, to in-depth features, to reviews and interviews. Think of it as a collection of some of our favorite pieces that you may have missed — or that you may just want to read again.

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Making 'Man of Steel': a conversation with visual effects supervisor John 'DJ' DesJardin

Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel opened to record-breaking box office numbers, thanks in no small part to its arresting visual sequences. One of the individuals behind those scenes is the film’s visual effects supervisor, John “DJ” DesJardin. First drawn to effects work after seeing the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars, DesJardin has since carved out a distinguished career, with films like Watchmen, Sucker Punch, and the two Matrix sequels to his name. I spoke with him about what it took to reimagine the Kryptonian superhero for a modern audience, starting with Superman’s most iconic action: flying.

Warning: some very mild story spoilers are included below.

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Rupert Murdoch's News Corp completes split from 21st Century Fox entertainment business

Last December Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation announced that it would be splitting into two distinct corporate entities, and that vision has finally been realized. As of 4:30PM ET on Friday, News Corp and 21st Century Fox were officially separated — putting the majority of the company's profitable ventures under the latter banner. 21st Century Fox includes the 20th Century Fox film and television studio, Fox Sports, FX, and the Fox News Channel. News Corp, on the other hand, will oversee the publishing divisons, including the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London, and book publisher HarperCollins.

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Sprint finally shutting down iDEN network Sunday to make way for LTE

This Sunday, just after midnight, Sprint will finally pull the plug on the legacy push-to-talk iDEN network it inherited when it purchased Nextel. The move is designed to free up spectrum and cell towers for the carrier's growing LTE network. That means the last full day of iDEN service, for those still using phones running on the network, is Saturday. After that, iDEN devices won't work — even to make 911 calls.

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/29/4476406/sprint-iden-push-to-talk-network-shut-down-sunday

Digg Reader open to the public with web and iOS apps

It's later than Betaworks promised, but Digg Reader has finally opened up to the public and the service is integrated into Digg's iOS app too. Digg's hotly-anticipated RSS reader has been in beta for about a week, after a development period of about three months. And the new reader, on both the web and iOS, is nothing if not minimal. That's not a bad thing per se, but this is clearly a service that has plenty of evolution ahead of it.

---

As we noted in our hands-on with the beta release, the Digg Reader web app currently lacks the robust feature set of rivals such as Feedly or Newsblur. But, the service is simple, intuitive, and not set to be killed off anytime soon as Google Reader is as of July 1st. A Google account will be required to...

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Spec Sheet: comparing the week's best gadgets with The Verge Database

Spec Sheet looks at the week's most interesting products to keep track of the state of the art. A lot of products come out each week — we don't cover all of them, but all of them make it into The Verge Database. This week, we’re taking a look how Sony, HTC, and Samsung are all releasing alternate versions of their own products.

Just a short few months after the RX1 landed in stores, Sony is already gearing up to release a new version of its flagship point-and-shoot, this time known as the RX1R. But Sony isn’t planning on replacing the original RX1 at all instead, the the RX1R is a slightly different model designed to appeal to a different set of professional photographers.

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4474844/spec-sheet-alternative-product-models-htc-samsung-sony

Apple signs chip manufacturing deal with TSMC in effort to distance itself from Samsung

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has signed a deal with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to build chips for its mobile devices. TSMC will begin producing chips for Apple starting next year, but Apple will continue to rely on Samsung as the primary supplier for its mobile processors through next year. According to the Journal's sources, the transition has been slow-going because of glitches at TSMC that have prevented its output from meeting Apple's power and speed standards.

The transition comes as Apple is trying to rely less and less upon competitor Samsung as a component supplier. Cupertino has already stopped buying iPhone screens from Samsung and has pulled back on displays for the iPad as well. Back in 2012 reports...

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Android updates, Netflix rolls out Max, and 'The Terminator': 90 Seconds on The Verge

I couldn't believe it. After all the confusion, the deception... could this nasty turnabout be true? Was this the person that had been testing us all along?

"I... I don't understand."

The killer snorted. "Of couse not. Of course you don't 'understand.' You don't have the capacity. Do you know how simple it was to concoct this scenario? Oh, it should have been much harder. Much harder, indeed. But for you lot..."

The killer trailed off, then smiled. "For you it took all of 90 seconds to seal your fate."

via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4475610/android-updates-netflix-rolls-out-max-and-the-terminator-90sotv

Twitter visualizes billions of tweets in artful, interactive 3D maps

On June 1st, Twitter created beautiful maps visualizing billions of geotagged tweets. Today, the social network is getting artsy once agsain, using the same dataset — which it calls Billion Strokes — to produce interactive elevation maps that render geotagged tweets in 3D. This time around, Twitter visualized geotagged tweets from San Francisco, New York, and Istanbul in maps that viewers can manipulate.

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4475804/twitter-interactive-3d-map-tweet-visualization

New trailers: ‘The Conjuring,’ ‘The Counselor,’ ‘Prisoners,’ and ‘Escape Plan'

This weekend you'll have your choice of genres with The Heat and White House Down both hitting theaters — but what's up ahead? Let’s take a look at some of the latest trailers to make the rounds.

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4475888/new-trailers-the-conjuring-the-counselor-prisoners-escape-plan

A closer look at the new Mail app for Windows 8.1

Microsoft demonstrated its new Mail app for Windows 8.1 earlier this week during the Build keynote, but the company has started to share even more details about the upcoming overhaul. While the Mail app has gradually been getting better in Windows 8, the Windows 8.1 version opens up new features like drag and drop support, and sections to filter specific emails. During a Build session on Friday, Microsoft's Jeremy Epling walked through most of the new improvements in Mail.

Microsoft has altered the sidebar in the Mail app to include access to the categories that filter out emails like social updates or newsletters, and there's also options to pin folders. One new feature is the ability to pin a specific person to the sidebar and have...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4475256/windows-8-1-new-mail-application

Yahoo shutting down AltaVista, Axis search tool, and other services in coming days

As part of an ongoing attempt to streamline and reinvent the company, Yahoo has announced that it will be shutting down 12 products in the coming days and months. Among other things, that means that once-popular search engine AltaVista will be shutting down for good on July 8th. AltaVista, which became part of Yahoo nearly a decade into its life in 2003, was a major search destination before Google rose to dominance. Now, Yahoo asks users to "please visit Yahoo! Search for all of your searching needs."

Besides AltaVista, Yahoo is shutting down a number of services that never quite caught on. That includes Yahoo WebPlayer (which won't work after June 30th), RSS alerts (which will be replaced by email alerts on July 1st), and Axis, a...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4475774/yahoo-shutting-down-altavista-axis-search-tool-and-other-services

Government wiretaps were foiled by encryption for the first time in 2012

Law enforcement agencies like the FBI have long complained about what they call the "going dark" problem — the assertion that encrypted communications hamstring their efforts to catch criminals and terrorists. But US officials are only now reporting, for the first time, that encryption has managed to stop government wiretaps dead in their tracks.

Of the 3,395 wiretaps authorized by federal and state judges in 2012, investigators were only unable to circumvent encryption in 4 of the 15 cases where they encountered it. The figures come from a new annual report to Congress from the US Administrative Office of the Courts, which has been tracking the use of encryption since 2000.

In 109 cases between 2000 and 2011, encryption had not...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4475564/government-wiretaps-foiled-by-encryption-for-the-first-time

Cox beta testing FlareWatch internet TV service with 97 channels, 30 hours of cloud DVR storage

Cable provider Cox Communications is reportedly making efforts to launch a less expensive, internet-based TV and DVR service to capture users who've cut the cord and no longer pay for traditional cable TV service. According to a report in Variety , Cox is currently beta-testing a service for its broadband internet subscribers that offers 97 live channels and 30 hours of cloud-based DVR storage. The service, called FlareWatch, costs $34.99 per month — significantly less than most average cable TV plans. Of course, you don't get the hundreds of channels included in those more expensive plans, but FlareWatch does include typically cable-only networks like ESPN, A&E, CNN, TNT, USA, MTV, and FX along with local broadcast stations. It's a...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4475602/cox-beta-testing-flarewatch-internet-tv-service

Phone sex hotline accidentally featured in 'The Last of Us'

For one of PlayStation's most prized and lauded development studios, Naughty Dog appears to have made some sloppy mistakes in creating The Last of Us. First came criticism from an unappreciative Ellen Page regarding Elle's likeness to the actress. Then earlier this week, the developer came under fire for using a Boston subway map as in-game artwork without proper attribution. Having smoothed that situation over, Naughty Dog now finds itself attached to a more risqué controversy. It turns out the phone number displayed on another piece of in-game background art — a billboard advertisement for a pest control company — belongs to an exotic phone sex hotline. The Verge can confirm that dialing the number for The Last of Us' fictional...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4475682/phone-sex-number-accidentally-listed-in-the-last-of-us-ps3-game

My barber gave me a head orgasm: the strange world of ASMR

A scene from a video designed to induce ASMR, "Space Travel Agent"

The barber turns on his trimmers.

Click. Bzzzzzzzzz.

He brings them closer and closer to my ears. He moves from one side of my head to the other. The gentle buzzing sound slowly pans from my left ear... behind my head... and then on to my right ear. BZZzzzzzzz.............zzzzzzzZZZ.

I notice an odd, tingly sensation in the back of my head. It feels good. The sound of the buzzing approaching my ear and the personal attention from the barber cause the back of my scalp to explode in tingles. It’s a distinct feeling, but until recently I never thought much of it. Then, last year, I discovered it had a name, and that there was a large community dedicated to eliciting...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4475154/my-barber-gave-me-a-head-orgasm-the-strange-world-of-asmr

'Music Wardens' and MP3 players could make America's prisons a little more humane

At the Idaho Correctional Institution, inmates' aural link to the outside world is called the Music Warden. For between one and two dollars a song, the black box will load music into a specially designed prison MP3 player, a small luxury that has replaced FM radios, tapes, or CDs from the prison store. Spin looks at just why two companies have decided that selling songs to prisoners could be big business, why cheap MP3 players could be making prisons safer, and what easier access to music means to the inmates themselves. "It gives me a different coping mechanism, just being able to be here with everyone else, but also not be here," says one inmate serving time for robbery. "Because it's my own music, it brings back memories of stuff that...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4475572/behind-mp3-players-in-american-prisons

Google+ catches up to competition, lets you follow favorite websites with new button

It's hard to believe, but while Google+ has had share buttons and +1 buttons, its has never had a follow button that users could embed on their own webpages until today. Facebook and Twitter introduced their respective follow buttons in 2011 — Facebook's was once called a subscribe button. As one would expect, the Google+ follow button works pretty much the same as buttons from rival social networks. It's a simple javascript plugin for web developers that allows visitors to follow them on Google+ without ever having to leave the site they're visiting.

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4475204/new-google-follow-buttons-badges

Department of Defense hands out $2.9 million contract for a military app store

The Department of Defense has awarded a $2.9 million contract to build an app store for use on its networks. Maryland firm Digital Management has been given a year-long contract and tasked with developing a "mobile device management system and mobile application store" that can handle the Pentagon's security needs. For the past few years, high-security government agencies have been nudging their doors open for modern smartphones, and the Defense Department is no exception. It approved devices running BlackBerry 10, iOS, and Samsung's Knox platforms for use on military networks in May, and it's run pilot programs with the intention of securing wireless network access for devices.

Part of Digital Management's job will involve creating a...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4475062/department-of-defense-hands-out-internal-app-store-contract

Exclusive: Victor Oladipo's NBA Draft through the lens of Google Glass

Victor Oladipo’s professional basketball career hasn’t even started yet, but he’s already learning one very important lesson: the NBA takes what players are wearing extremely seriously. The league may look the other way when players wear capri pants, head-to-toe orange suits, or blindingly wild shirts, but there’s a line even soon-to-be millionaire athletes can’t cross.

The lanky shooting guard from Indiana University has arrived at the 2013 NBA Draft wearing a sharp three-piece suit with a lavender shirt and black tie, but that’s not what has the league concerned.

In a first in the history of professional sports, a league official approaches Victor in the green room of the draft and asks him to take off his Google...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4470344/exclusive-victor-oladipo-nba-draft-through-the-lens-of-google-glass

NSA director claims leaks damaged US security as Senators question legality of surveillance

The National Security Agency (NSA) is not having a great month. Three weeks after the NSA's secret internet surveillance program PRISM and its separate covert phone records collection effort were publicly revealed by leaked documents published in The Guardian, the US intelligence community is grappling with the political and security fallout. Just yesterday, NSA director General Keith Alexander gave a speech in Baltimore in which he alleged that the publication of the leaked documents caused “significant and irreversible damage," to US national security.

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4475008/nsa-director-claims-leaks-damaged-us-security-as-senators-question

David Lynch directs Nine Inch Nails' latest music video, working in the medium of seizures

David Lynch is asking you to think of a music video. The pulsing lights, the quick cuts. The surreal set pieces, the singer's eyes staring into yours. No, all wrong. Too slow. Make it faster. The lights must be brighter, the imagery starker. Multiply the singer's face a hundred-fold. Let's say it's Trent Reznor, for argument's sake, but it's not really Trent Reznor — it's the idea of Trent Reznor, the idea of Nine Inch Nails' new single, the idea of a music video. The cuts are faster, but they're not enough: let's add some flashing dots on top until the whole thing pulses. Has it stopped pulsing? No. Don't let it stop. We are distilling the essence of flashed-forward entertainment to its core, even if (we worry sometimes) the final...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4474862/david-lynch-directs-nine-inch-nails-latest-music-video

Facebook to pull ads from all Groups and Pages with violent, graphic, or sexual content

Facebook is taking new steps to assure advertisers that their valued brands won't be associated with controversial Pages and Groups hosted on the social network. The company says it already enforces a stringent removal policy for terms of service violations, but readily admits there's more that can be done to prevent advertisers from being linked to unwanted or inappropriate content.

"We recognize we need to do more to prevent situations where ads are displayed alongside controversial Pages and Groups. So we are taking action," the company said in a statement today. And it's not waiting long to get started; beginning Monday, Facebook will implement a new review process for determining which Pages and Groups are a good match for...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4474828/facebook-removing-ads-from-groups-pages-with-violent-graphic-sexual-content

The Verge merchandise is now available!

Humans! The moment you’ve all been waiting for is finally here: The Verge merchandise is now available for purchase! For our initial run, we’ve created t-shirts and stickers in a plethora of colors and combinations. Each shirt style and color combo is extremely limited, so make your pick and place your order as soon as you can! Because we've made so many varieties, those of you who snag shirts will be the proud owner of a relatively rare color variation (think single digits for each size and combination). Don’t worry though, there are plenty of styles to choose from — but don't waste any time.

Our shirts are unisex and made out of comfortable pre-shrunk cotton. The stickers are printed on high-quality vinyl (great for laptops)....

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4459176/the-verge-merchandise-is-now-available

Nyquist earns DSBA's rookie award

DETROIT – Gustav Nyquist played more than hundred pro games this season, appeared in his first Stanley Cup playoffs and helped the Grand Rapids Griffins win the Calder Cup. It was an exhausting time, but one that Nyquist hopes to build on for t...



via Red Wings Recent Headlines http://redwings.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=675541&cmpid=rss-roose

Telecom exec: NSA can't distinguish between Americans and foreigners during data sweeps

One of the Obama administration's most repeated defenses of the NSA's internet surveillance programs has been that they does not "intentionally" target American citizens communicating domestically. That may be technically true, but an unnamed telecom executive who dealt with surveillance orders tells Foreign Policy that there's no way for the NSA to tell the difference at the point of collection.

"There is physically no way to ensure that you're only gathering US person e-mails," said the executive, who has reportedly complied with court orders which forbid their recipients from acknowledging receiving them. "The system doesn't make any distinction about the nationality" of the people whose communications are intercepted. That's due in...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4474334/telecom-exec-nsa-cant-distinguish-between-americans-and-foreigners

Outcry over PRISM spying delays CISPA and other cyber bills from moving forward

US lawmakers have been trying for the past two years to pass new bills that would set up information sharing programs between tech companies and the government. But those bills, including the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), looks like they will be spending even more time in legislative limbo. Bloomberg news reports today that House and Senate lawmakers are holding back on introducing their own versions of CISPA or similar cyber information sharing legislation till at least this fall, due primarily to the public outcry following the revelations of the NSA's secret internet spying program PRISM and its surveillance of millions of personal phone records.

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4474438/prism-fallout-delays-advance-of-other-cyber-bills

The Indian express: how an Amway CEO landed behind bars halfway around the world

Amway India CEO William Pinckney

When police in the Indian state of Kerala arrested US citizen William S. Pinckney last month, a local official attempted to explain how the CEO of Amway India ended up in handcuffs.



"With the call of easy money, [Amway has] been luring people to invest," the official told an Indian press gathering. "The new members in turn had to get more people and this was leading to illegal money circulation."



It sounded familiar. In the US, similar allegations have plagued Herbalife, the Los Angeles-based multi-level marketing company (MLM) that’s used some sketchy internet marketing tactics to expand its nutritional-supplement empire in recent years. In December, Wall Street hedge fund manager Bill Ackman placed a...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4472608/the-indian-express-pyramid-scheme-investigations-amway-herbalife

'Random Access Memories Memories' remixes Daft Punk's latest into a whole new album

If you thought Daft Punk's Random Access Memories was a bit too polished, precise, and clean, then the production duo Daftside has just the cure. The group remixed and reordered the recent album into a new work that's an altogether familiar but sonically disparate experience, trading in the robot pair's sparkling clean production and guitarist Nile Rodgers' precision for warped, gritty reworkings. The album debuted for free on SoundCloud last week under the moniker Random Access Memories Memories. In a review today, Pitchfork describes how much the album's debut single has changed: "'Get Lucky' sounds positively bluesy at times, with Pharrell's vocal reduced to a drunken slur, making its central refrain sound more like a lost hope than a...

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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/28/4474046/daft-punk-full-album-remix-daftside-nicolas-jaar