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Submission + - Amazon Is Reportedly Working On a TiVo-Like DVR For Live TV (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Amazon is developing a new device that records live TV, working around cable providers and encroaching on TiVo's market, according to a person familiar with the plans. The device, dubbed "Frank" inside Amazon, is a new type of digital video recorder for the streaming era. It would include physical storage and connect to Amazon’s existing Fire TV boxes, the living room hub for the company’s online video efforts. The Frank DVR has the same wireless technology that Amazon’s Echo speakers use to connect to Fire TV boxes. Users will be able to record live TV and stream the video to a smartphone so it can be watched later. That functionality is similar to offerings from TiVo and Dish’s Slingbox. Amazon hasn’t made a final decision on rolling out the streaming feature, the person said, noting that the plans could either be canceled or delayed.

Submission + - SPAM: The Shared Family Computer

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "Long before phone addiction panic gripped the masses and before screen time became a facet of our wellness and digital detoxes," begins Katie Reid's How the Shared Family Computer Protected Us from Our Worst Selves, "there was one good and wise piece of technology that served our families. Maybe it was in the family room or in the kitchen. It could have been a Mac or PC. Chances are it had a totally mesmerizing screensaver. It was the shared family desktop. I can still see the Dell I grew up using as clear as day, like I just connected to NetZero yesterday. It sat in my eldest sister’s room, which was just off the kitchen. Depending on when you peeked into the room, you might have found my dad playing Solitaire, my sister downloading songs from Napster, or me playing Wheel of Fortune or writing my name in Microsoft Paint. The rules for using the family desktop were pretty simple: homework trumped games; Dad trumped all. Like the other shared equipment in our house, its usefulness was focused and direct: it was a tool that the whole family used, and it was our portal to the wild, weird, wonderful internet. As such, we adored it."
NASA

Submission + - Researchers Develop Super Batteries From Aerogel (inhabitat.com) 1

Submitted by
greenerd
greenerd writes: "Researchers from the University of Central Florida may have found the most efficient (and most bizarre) battery material yet – ‘frozen smoke’, also known as Aerogel. One of the world’s lightest solids, aerogel contains multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) which each one several thousands thinner than human hair. The researchers, Associate Professor Lei Zhai and Postdoctoral Associate Jianhua Zou, believe that this material could soon become the best energy storage material for capacitors and batteries."
Facebook

Submission + - Students Suspended, Expelled Over Facebook Posts (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Two students have been suspended, and one student has been expelled, over negative Facebook postings they made about a teacher. The individuals are in seventh grade at Chapel Hill Middle School, meaning they are either 12 or 13 years old, according. The children are accused of violating a portion of the school code that is a “level one” offense, the worst possible: “Falsifying, misrepresenting, omitting, or erroneously reporting” allegations of inappropriate behavior by a school employee toward a student.
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook offers easy commenting alternative (wired.com) 1

Submitted by Spice Consumer
Spice Consumer writes: Facebook has just unvield a "...new system (that) lets website owners replace their current commenting system with Facebook’s simply by dropping in a few lines of Javascript." How widely adopted this new system becomes could greatly affect Facebook's already entrenched position on the web and further compromise individual user's privacy.
Businesses

Submission + - Apple Negotiates for Unlimited iTune Downloads

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Bloomberg reports that Apple is in talks with record companies including Vivendi SA (VIV)’s Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Corp. (WMG) and EMI Group Ltd. to give iTunes music buyers easier access to their songs on multiple devices. The deal would provide iTunes customers with a permanent backup of music purchases if the originals are damaged or lost and would allow downloads to iPad, iPod and iPhone devices linked to the same iTunes account. The negotations comes as iTunes is facing competition from new Web-based services such as Spotify Ltd., Rdio Inc. and MOG Inc. that focus on letting customers listen to songs from anywhere with an online connection, instead of downloading tracks to a hard drive. "Long-time iTunes users know that one of the more obnoxious differences between music and app downloads on the iTunes Store is the fact that apps can be re-downloaded a seemingly infinite number of times," writes Jacqui Cheng. "In contrast, users can only download music tracks once — if you find yourself without backups and your music disappears, you must beseech the iTunes gods to let you re-download all your music—a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, should they hear your prayers.""
Science

Submission + - Evidence of extraterritorial life discovered (journalofcosmology.com)

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "NASA scientist Dr. Hoover claims he discovered evidence of extraterritorial life in a meteorite. He published his results in the March issue of Journal of Cosmology. Scroll down on the linked page to read the article. Front of the article there is an official statement form the editor in chief: "We believe Dr. Hoover's careful analysis provides definitive evidence of ancient microbial life on astral bodies some of which may predate the origin of Earth and this solar system. Dr. Richard Hoover is a highly respected scientist and astrobiologist with a prestigious record of accomplishment at NASA. Given the controversial nature of his discovery, we have invited 100 experts and have issued a general invitation to over 5000 scientists from the scientific community to review the paper and to offer their critical analysis.""
Security

Submission + - Russia's Top ePayment Firm Is Top Rogue AV Player (krebsonsecurity.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Brian Krebs has posted a deep dive through more than a year worth of emails leaked from ChronoPay, Russia's largest online credit card processor. The story uses the documents to show how ChronoPay has worked to corner the market for processing rogue anti-virus or "scareware," and the evidence indicates that ChronoPay executives created scareware companies from the ground up, paying for everything form their domain name registration to virtual hosting, to setting up the front companies and associated bank accounts and the 1-800 support lines for entire scareware operations that typically netted the company millions in revenue for each scam.
Media

Submission + - Posting AC - a thing of the past? (indystar.com) 1

Submitted by c0lo
c0lo writes: A Marion County judge has ruled, for the first time in Indiana, that news media outlets can be ordered by the court to reveal identifying information about posters to their online forums.
If you think that this will affect only posting on /. or the like, think again: according to TFA, under threat seems to be no less than the right of the media outlets to protect the identity of their sources.
Technology

Submission + - Researchers turn to silk for flexible e-devices (idg.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Researchers at a Taiwan university say they have found a way to use silk membranes in flexible electronic devices and started talks with manufacturers about adopting the unusual but cheap material. After less than two years of study motivated by news that silk had untapped properties, an engineering professor and two post-graduate students at Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University figured out how to use the soft, low-cost material for flexible e-book readers, LED displays and radio-frequency identification tools."
Privacy

Submission + - Student sues FBI for planting GPS tracker (yahoo.com)

Submitted by GabriellaKat
GabriellaKat writes: This story was also covered last year when he found the tracking device.
"Yasir Afifi, 20, says a mechanic doing an oil change on his car in October discovered the device stuck with magnets between his right rear wheel and exhaust. They weren't sure what it was, but Afifi had the mechanic remove it and a friend posted photos of it online to see whether anyone could identify it. Two days later, Afifi says, agents wearing bullet-proof vests pulled him over as he drove away from his apartment in San Jose, Calif., and demanded their property back."
Now he has decided to sue the FBI

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