Estonian pleads guilty in U.S. court to Internet advertising scam

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An Estonian man pleaded guilty on Friday in U.S. federal court for his role in a massive Internet scam that targeted well-known websites such as iTunes, Netflix and The Wall Street Journal.The scheme infected at least four million computers in more than 100 countries, including 500,000 in the United States, with malicious software, or malware, according to the indictment. It included...

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China May (or May Not) Be Behind the Twitter Hack

You may not have heard, but roughly 250,000 Twitter accounts may have been compromised by hackers. There’s a theory that — if you read between the lines — Twitter is implying the Chinese are to blame for compromising their security. RELATED: The Chinese Want to Know Why Their News Is on Twitter and They Aren’tTwitter revealed that roughly a quarter million accounts may have been compromised by...

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Netflix CEO fights for the right to post company milestones on Facebook

It may not seem like the most pressing matter in an era of massive financial scandals, but the Securities and Exchange Commission has decided to go after Netflix (NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings for posting information about Netflix company milestones on his Facebook (FB) page. According to Bloomberg, the SEC believes that Hastings’ Facebook post, which announced that Netflix users had watched more than...

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3 Things That Still Worry Me About BlackBerry

BlackBerry put on a pretty good show on Wednesday when it revealed the Z10 and the Q10, its first new smartphones in a year and a half. The demos were crisp, and the new BlackBerry 10 software looked clever. At the very least, it seems that BlackBerry has finally joined the modern smartphone era.But despite my interest in BlackBerry’s new phones, I’m still worried about the future of the platform,...

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Facebook slumps as mobile ad growth fails to impress

(Reuters) – Shares of Facebook Inc were set to open 7 percent lower on Thursday as a surge in fourth-quarter mobile advertising revenue failed to live up to Wall Street’s high expectations.Three brokerages downgraded the stock of the No. 1 social network, which has struggled to develop a full-fledged mobile advertising business.Facebook has long established itself as one of the most important websites,...

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Yandex puts mobile app blocked by Facebook on hold

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian internet company Yandex has put an experimental application that allows users to search social networking sites from mobile devices on hold after it was blocked by Facebook.Facebook, which launched its own search tool earlier this month, blocked the Wonder app three hours after its launch on January 24 for U.S. users.The application allows users to look for recommendations...

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Children’s magazine promotes adult video games

LONDON (Reuters) – A British magazine distributed by a joint venture of Conde Nast and Hearst Corporation and aimed at primary school children has been featuring images of adult-rated video games.The most recent issue of Cool Kidz, which is published by privately-owned LCD Publishing, contained images of five games that carried age ratings of 18 years, under the European gaming industry’s PEGI rating...

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Facebook Profile May Expose Mental Illness

A person’s Facebook profile may reveal signs of mental illness that might not necessarily emerge in a session with a psychiatrist, a new study suggests.“The beauty of social media activity as a tool in psychological diagnosis is that it removes some of the problems associated with patients’ self-reporting,” said study researcher Elizabeth Martin, a psychology doctoral student at the University of...

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Nokia CEO closes the door on a potential Android smartphone

Nokia (NOK) CEO Stephen Elop on Thursday shot down rumors that his company might be interested in developing Android-based smartphones. During Nokia’s fourth-quarter earnings call, the executive reiterated his support for the company’s Asha phones and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone platform, while shutting the door on earlier Android rumors. [More from BGR: Unlocking your smartphone will...

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Go forth and Tweet! Pope sees web networks as “portals of truth”

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict urged Catholics on Thursday to use social networks like Twitter and Facebook to win converts, as he launched his own smartphone app streaming live footage of his speeches.The websites – often associated with endless postings of idle gossip and baby photos – could be used as “portals of truth and faith” in an increasingly secular age, the pontiff said in his 2013...

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First “Firefox OS” Phones Previewed, to Launch in February

Mozilla, the non-profit organization behind the popular Firefox web browser, has been promoting its Firefox OS project (once known as “Boot to Gecko”) for some time now. A hardware partnership with Telefonica, the international telecom giant, had been announced, but no phones had yet been unveiled.But in an announcement today on its blog, Mozilla announced the impending launch of its first “developer...

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I Might Be Too Old for Facebook Graph Search

On Sunday, I turned 30.That’s not too old, I tell myself, yet the signs of aging are creeping in. Teenagers listen to music that I either haven’t heard of or believe to be mostly terrible. They use slang I don’t recognize, and I imagine my slang would sound to them like “groovy” or “far out” sound to me.But for the purposes of our tech blog, the most notable sign is how much more active teens...

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Why Google Isn’t Scared of Facebook’s Graph Search

Facebook may have just released a major search product that many are saying “declares war” on Google or may at least put the social network “on a collision course” with the search giant, but Google CEO Larry Page doesn’t sound all that worried about the new competition. Because who said Facebook and Google couldn’t get along someday? In an interview for the new issue of Wired published...

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Why does Michelle Obama need two Twitter accounts?

Michelle Obama is on Twitter! That was big news on Thursday, the first lady’s birthday. The White House announced that Mrs. Obama had launched a new Twitter account, @FLOTUS, and lots of folks chimed in with messages welcoming her to the world of micro-blogging social media.But hold it – wasn’t she already on Twitter? We’ve been following @MichelleObama since the beginning of the 2012 presidential...

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Thank You to the OpenStack Members Who Voted in the Individual Director Election

HP Cloud Services would like to thank all of the OpenStack® Foundation member/electors who participated in the recent Individual Director election.The OpenStack Foundation regularly conducts elections for Individual Directors of the Foundation’s Board.  This process is very important for the legitimacy of the Foundation and for the health of the project. These directors represent the voices and...

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Mo. lawmaker wants tax on violent video games

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Republican lawmaker from rural Missouri bucked her party’s anti-tax bent on Tuesday and called for a sales tax on violent video games in response to a deadly Connecticut school shooting.Rep. Diane Franklin, of Camdenton, said the proposed 1 percent sales tax would help pay for mental health programs and law enforcement measures aimed at preventing mass shootings. The tax...

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iPhone demand said to be ‘robust,’ recent cuts don’t reflect weak demand

Following recent reports from Nikkei and The Wall Street Journal that suggested Apple (AAPL) slashed iPhone 5 component orders in half due to weak demand,  the company’s stock fell significantly and opened below $ 500 for the first time in nearly a year. The reports have been called into question, however, with many believing they do not...

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BlackBerry service outage hits Europe [updated]

BlackBerry subscribers using Vodafone in Europe, the Middle East and Africa were hit with a service outage on Friday morning that left many with no access to data services. Vodafone confirmed the outage to ZDNet but did not indicate what might have caused the service interruption. “We are aware that some BlackBerry customers are experiencing issues,” Vodafone said in a statement. “Vodafone is...

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Facebook tests $100 charge to message Zuckerberg

NEW YORK (AP) — Would you pay $ 100 to message Mark Zuckerberg? Facebook says it’s testing some “extreme price points” to let users pay to have their messages seen by people who are not their friends.The tech blog Mashable reported early Friday that some users trying to message Zuckerberg are offered the option to pay $ 100 to ensure that their missive reaches the Facebook CEO’s inbox. Without paying,...

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The Worst ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Player Ever

We realize there’s only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:  RELATED: Movie and Television Characters Need a Lesson in Talking TrashIf we’re ever on Wheel of Fortune...

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