Twitter paid IBM $36 million for patents to avoid infringement claims

It looks as though Twitter is finally getting into the intellectual property war game. The company purchased more than 900 patents from IBM recently, according to reports. Like many cases when companies scoop up patents in mass quantity, Twitter isn't interested in the content of the trademarks themselves as much as it is keen on protecting itself from copyright infringement claims.

By purchasing the specific patents at hand, Twitter is protecting itself from at least three different infringement claims put upon it from IBM, not to mention any future claims. Instead of going through the legal hassles of litigation and settlement, Twitter decided to just buy the patents covering the claims set against them in order to bury the issue. The deal between the microblogging giant and IBM was struck back in December but no financial details were disclosed.

Surprisingly for a company of its size, previous to the deal with IBM Twitter held only nine patents, making it extremely susceptible to copyright attacks. The company now increases its portfolio to 

956 patents and 100 patents pending in the US, according to reports Twitter filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pertaining to the IBM transaction.

“We presently are involved in a number of intellectual property lawsuits, and as we face increasing competition and gain an increasingly high profile, we expect the number of patent and other intellectual property claims against us to grow,” Twitter explained in the filing. It sounds as though the company will continue to grow its patent portfolio and the IBM deal could have been to protect it from other infringement claims as well.

While this marks the first time Twitter has made a deal of this nature outside of patents acquired through the purchase of other companies, IBM on the other hand has had the most patents granted in the US for 21 consecutive years.

AMD announces low-cost desktop chipset AM1

With an aim to dominate the desktop in emerging markets, chipmaker AMD has announced the AM1, a new low-cost SoC. It's effectively a sibling of the Kabini family of chips, that were launched last year with both dual- and quad-core CPUs and GPUs on the same chipset -- very similar to what just landed on both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. While Kabini was destined primarily for portables, AM1 is designed to take on desktops.

The company is offering the chipset and motherboard combo at an estimated starting price of $60. While the price seems quite reasonable, the chipset has some restrictions. According to ArsTechnica, motherboard manufacturers ASRock and Gigabyte say that AM1 will be limited to a 25W maximum power draw from the chipset, along with a PCIe 2.0 restriction. The company hasn't yet formally announced specs for the AM1.

AMD says that the new chipset is better than Intel's Bay Trail platform, as it has higher memory speeds, 16 GB memory support, an upgradable socket, and Windows XP support. With emerging markets witnessing a decline in PC sales due to an increase in adoption of smartphones and tablets, it would be interesting to see how well the AM1 is received. The new chipset is set for launch on April 9.

Second significant update for Xbox One rolling out ahead of Titanfall launch

Microsoft’s second significant update for Xbox One is rolling out to gamers as we speak. It delivers a number of features across the board ahead of next week’s launch of Titanfall, the highly anticipated multiplayer first-person shooter.

In a blog post on the matter, Microsoft said they’ve received a ton of feedback since the launch of the console last November. The update addresses much of this feedback including the ability to get to your friends list faster, enabling party chat by default and making it easier to invite friends to multiplayer games.

HP CEO Meg Whitman says Chromebooks are doing better than expected

Microsoft’s recent marketing efforts have focused on how Chromebooks are not real laptops because they don’t have Windows or Office, how they are supposedly useless when offline, and how they just make it easier for Google to capture your personal information. The software giant says you are basically getting “Scroogled” when buying one of these but, if anything, the bashing suggest it sees the web-centric OS as a threat. And rightly so.

Speaking at a technology conference this week, Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman said she is surprised by the appeal of Chromebooks, not just in the education market but for small and mid-sized businesses as well. Even large enterprises are expressing interest. The findings, Whitman claims, validate HP’s multi-OS, multi-architecture, multi-form factor strategy and they intend to continue on that path going forward.

"There are some groups [who] do not need Windows backward compatibility in their laptop," she said.

Google's share of the traditional PC market is tiny and unlikely to overtake Windows for years to come. Only 2.5 million laptops powered by Google's operating system were shipped last year according to IDC, totaling about 1% of global PC sales. But the mere fact that Chromebooks are one of the fastest growing segments in an otherwise stagnant market is reason enough for Microsoft to worry.

Not only do they threaten its business on a few different levels -- from its Office cash cow to online advertising -- pretty much all of Microsoft's biggest hardware partners have jumped on the Chromebook bandwagon, a sign that they might be slowly moving away from a years-long dependence on Redmond’s software.

Windows still dominates the PC market with a ~90% share of the OS install base, and there are some segments that aren’t going anywhere anytime soon -- enthusiasts and PC gamers, for instance. But Microsoft might have a hard time retaining casual users who ‘live’ on the web and now have access to a range of supplementary devices like smartphones and tablets. Windows 8 certainly hasn’t done much to pep up interest on the platform.

Dorian S. Nakamoto denies he's Bitcoin founder, says he was misunderstood

According to an AP report, Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, the 64-year-old man Newsweek claims is the founder of Bitcoin, has now said that he had nothing to do with the cryptocurrency, adding that he came to know about Bitcoin only three weeks ago when a Newsweek reporter contacted his son.

Just hours after Newsweek published the report yesterday, Nakamoto's home, in Temple City, Los Angeles, California, was flocked by reporters. After a long wait, he finally came out saying that he wanted to speak to only one of them, and demanded a free lunch too.

In a two-hour-long exclusive interview with AP, he acknowledged that most of the details in Newsweek's report are correct, including that he once worked for a defense contractor, and that Satoshi is his birth name. But on the claim that he is the face behind Bitcoin, he said he was misunderstood by the Newsweek reporter.

According to Nakamoto, when he said "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it", he meant that he is no longer in engineering. "And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that's what I implied," he added.

On the other hand, Newsweek, which spent a considerable amount of time researching, stands by its story. According to Leah McGrath Goodman, the reporter who covered the story, there was no confusion about the context of conversation between him and Nakamoto, who clearly acknowledged his involvement in Bitcoin.

Besides the report, Nakamoto also talked about his his life, career, and family in the interview.

'The Last of Us' is coming to the big screen in the form of a live-action movie

The Last of Us was one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2013 across any platform, winning numerous awards including Game of the Year from several publications. It was so good, in fact, that it was recently picked up by Screen Gems for a live-action movie adaptation according to a new report from Deadline.

The film’s script will be written by Neil Druckmann, the creative director for the game. Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra, co-presidents of Naughty Dog (the game’s developer) will serve as creative architects alongside Druckmann and game director Bruce Straley. Sam Raimi from Ghost House Pictures is also on board, we’ve heard.

According to the logline, hardened survivor Joel teams with young and capable companion Ellie to journey through a radically transformed world some 20 years after an infectious pandemic ravaged humanity.

Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper said staffers Brian Dukes and Eric Ling brought the game to his attention and insisted they go after it. After he saw the quality of the storytelling, Culpepper realized the audience for the project was far greater than just the gaming community and that Druckmann must write the screenplay.

Wells said they’ve talked with several companies about a film adaptation since the game was released last June. They believe they’ve found the perfect fit with the combination of Screen Gems and Ghose House.

No word yet on when the project will get under way or how long it will be until we can expect it to hit theaters, however.

'The Last of Us' is coming to the big screen in the form of a live-action movie

The Last of Us was one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2013 across any platform, winning numerous awards including Game of the Year from several publications. It was so good, in fact, that it was recently picked up by Screen Gems for a live-action movie adaptation according to a new report from Deadline.

The film’s script will be written by Neil Druckmann, the creative director for the game. Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra, co-presidents of Naughty Dog (the game’s developer) will serve as creative architects alongside Druckmann and game director Bruce Straley. Sam Raimi from Ghost House Pictures is also on board, we’ve heard.

According to the logline, hardened survivor Joel teams with young and capable companion Ellie to journey through a radically transformed world some 20 years after an infectious pandemic ravaged humanity.

Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper said staffers Brian Dukes and Eric Ling brought the game to his attention and insisted they go after it. After he saw the quality of the storytelling, Culpepper realized the audience for the project was far greater than just the gaming community and that Druckmann must write the screenplay.

Wells said they’ve talked with several companies about a film adaptation since the game was released last June. They believe they’ve found the perfect fit with the combination of Screen Gems and Ghose House.

No word yet on when the project will get under way or how long it will be until we can expect it to hit theaters, however.

Developer creating 1:1 replica model of Manhattan with Minecraft blocks

We have seen a number of impressive user made Minecraft models of real life objects and structures in the past, from a meticulous recreation of Apple's headquarters to a model of Jurassic Park from the 1993 Spielberg film, just to name a few. But for the last year or more, computer science PhD student, Christopher Mitchell has been taking the idea to whole new level with his 1:1 scale Minecraft model of Manhattan.

Mitchell began posting about the massive undertaking about a year ago, with images of Minecraft replicas of various Manhattan buildings and landmarks, including the one you see above. With help of some serious processing power, Mitchell is tapping into various databases like Google’s 3D Warehouse (among other things) to slowly recreate a blocky replica of the entire island.

In a magazine article Mitchell wrote about the project, he explained the technology he uses to help replicate the various structures of the city, a system he calls "SparseWorld." Mitchell said it uses "orthoimagery, bathyspheric, and elevation data from the USGS EROS service, and 3D buildings from Google’s 3D Warehouse." The system basically lays Minecraft blocks over existing virtual structural data taken from the various sources to create the models.

The issue is that certain structure data either just isn't available or isn't of a good enough quality on Google’s 3D Warehouse for him to use. Mitchell said that data from places like Google Earth and Maps as well as possibly Bing and Nokia's former map system Here.com could assist him in finishing the project, but he is yet to find a way around the user license restrictions on these services in order to make them usable.

Mitchell's current SparseWorld generated version of Minecraft Manhattan is currently running at 277 square meters in size with a number of the major landmarks in place. Even though there is still a lot of work to do on the map, the current version requires a 300 core cluster with 200GB of RAM to render.

While generally just something impressive to look at for most of us, there are some interesting implications for how game worlds and things of that nature could be created in the future with SparseWorld-like tech. While many gamers would prefer the artistic touch of, for example, the Rockstar designers, it is an interesting thought that we could see full scale, procedurally generated game (virtual) worlds based on real world places using technology of this nature in the future.

'Watch Dogs' release date set for May 27

Watch Dogs was originally scheduled for release alongside the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One late last year. The project was ultimately postponed a month before the consoles hit store shelves and has been in a state of unknown ever since.

Ubisoft has recently confirmed the game will finally arrive on May 27 after a trailer leaked out ahead of the announcement. The game will launch on that date on the PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. No word yet on when the Wii U version will be ready, however.

The story trailer in question gives gamers a bit more insight into Watch Dogs. The plot seems solid enough that it could stand on its own as a hit Hollywood movie (and who knows, it may end up being just that one day).

OCZ's huge 3.2TB Z-Drive 4500 SSD is fast and smart

OCZ has launched a brand new high-capacity, high-speed solid state drive destined for server applications, known as the Z-Drive 4500. Boasting performance well over what is supported through a 6 Gbps SATA interface, the Z-Drive 4500 is a full-height, single-slot PCIe 2.0 8x expansion card, utilizing Toshiba's 19nm MLC NAND.

According to the Z-Drive 4500's specification table, the SSD is capable of 2,900 MB/s sequential reads, 2,200 MB/s sequential writes, 252,000 IOPS random reads and 78,000 IOPS random writes. This is well above a standard desktop SSD, which usually tops out around 550 MB/s for sequential read/write and 100,000 IOPS for random reads.

The drive itself is made up of eight separate SSDs based on SandForce silicon, with OCZ's Virtualized Controller Architecture (VCA) combining all eight drives into a single volume. VCA allows you to configure redundancy, plus there's support for TRIM and it includes a custom queuing system. Alongside VCA, OCZ has packed in a new thermal throttling system that uses several sensors to measure temperatures and scale back performance when thresholds are exceeded.

The Z-Drive 4500 will be available in three models, one with 800 GB of storage that'll set you back $2,355, another with 1.6 TB for $3,806 and the largest with a whopping 3.2 TB. The flagship 3.2 TB drive is capable of withstanding 2,500 TB of writes over its lifetime, but it won't be cheap: expect to pay $6,533 for it, or $2.04 per GB.

In comparison, Samsung's desktop-grade 840 EVO SSD with 1 TB of storage costs $509, or $0.51 per GB; 4 TB desktop-class hard drives are also available for $165, or $0.04 per GB. Just goes to show that if you want a high-speed, high-capacity enterprise drive, you're going to need to hand over quite a lot of cash.

Facebook tightens its gun policy under pressure from gun control groups

Facebook on Wednesday announced major policy changes related to the use of its website (and popular photo sharing app Instagram) for marketing illegal firearm sales amid pressure from gun control groups. "We will not permit people to post offers to sell regulated items that indicate a willingness to evade or help others evade the law," Monika Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy management, said in a press release.

The change in policy means that Facebook will not permit private sellers of firearms in the US to sell guns without background checks or across state lines. Posts about the sale of a regulated item will be limited to people over 18 years of age, and if an Instagram user searches for sales or promotions of firearms, the company would display messages about gun laws.

Facebook said it would rely on users to report anything that violates the company's policies, including offers to illegally sell guns, adding that the company will remove reported content, and notify law enforcement when necessary. The policy changes will be implemented and enforced within a few weeks.

The ease with which children could potentially buy guns through Facebook has increased over the last few months. Last week, VentureBeat reported that buying a gun on Facebook takes merely 15 minutes.

It's a small but auspicious victory for gun control groups like Moms Demand Action (formed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre), who have been demanding tighter restrictions on the marketing of guns through social media. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who had been in talks with Facebook over its gun policies, said that it is "probably the strongest step ever taken to end" illegal gun sales on social media.

Jerry Seinfeld's apartment recreated in 3D for the Oculus Rift

It has been quite a while since Seinfeld last aired on television, but a developer has now produced a 3D model of Jerry's iconic apartment to be explored through an Oculus Rift VR headset.

Created by developer Greg Miller, Jerry's Place is a basic application that allows VR users to simply explore the apartment up close and in 3D. Miller spent about a month on the project, and has recreated just about everything inside as close to the way it was on the show as possible. While there were changes over the years, you'll find Jerry's Superman statue, fridge decorations and the magazines on the coffee table just the way they were during most of the nine years the show was on TV.

While mostly spot on, Miller had some trouble finding reference images to some of the details of the apartment. "I tried to be faithful to the show's original props and its era, but some things were near impossible to Google," Miller explains. "I did a lot of research and tried to find images of the original products used in the show, and modeled around those dimensions, rather than relying solely on blurry screenshots."

While there is no game here, just a simple VR recreation of the environment featured on the popular 90's sitcom, Miller said there are about 11 references to specific episodes to seek out.

The app is downloadable for Windows, Mac and Linux, but you'll need to have an Oculus Rift dev kit to check this thing out, as the company is yet to market an affordable consumer version of its popular VR headset. If you don't have a Rift, you can check out Miller's progress video showing the steps it took to recreate the apartment's 3D model.

Found is a TechSpot feature where we share clever, funny or otherwise interesting stuff from around the web.

Samsung launches free streaming service Milk Music with help from Slacker Radio

The next big thing in music is here according to Samsung. The company on Friday announced a new streaming music service called Milk. It’s a bit unique in that it is free to download, free to use (no ads) and doesn’t require users to log in.

Samsung worked with Slacker to develop the service which launches with some 200 radio stations and 13 million songs on tap. It uses a circular dial similar to classic analog radio dials. Simply slide your finger around the dial to “tune in” to various genres of music. If you find a channel that you like, you can then run your finger along the inside of the dial to select different channels within the genre.

The user interface was designed to be easy to use – something that’s apparently a problem with other services. Samsung’s Ryan Bidan said there is a group of consumers that haven’t engaged yet in mobile music because current services are too hard to understand and people don’t like advertising while consumers that have taken the plunge have been dissatisfied with the experience thus far.

The service will initially be available for the Galaxy S III and S4, the Galaxy Note II and Note 3, the Galaxy Mega, the Galaxy S4 Mini and will be ready for the Galaxy S5 when it launches on April 11. It’s available through Google Play and Samsung is considering bringing it to competing devices as well according to Daren Tsui, vice president of music at Samsung Media Solutions.

PC sales to keep declining through 2018, says IDC report

PC sales will keep falling through the next few years, says International Data Corporation. According to the research firm'slatest report, PC shipments will continue dropping in 2014, and are expected to decline till 2018.

The Quarterly PC tracker report, which was released on Tuesday, states that global shipments of PCs will further decrease from 315.1 million last year to 295.9 million this year, and to 291.7 million in 2018. This accounts for a 2 percent slide in 2014, and just under 1 percent slide in subsequent years.

PC shipments by region and form factor, 2013 - 2018 (shipments in millions)

Region	Form factor	2013	2014*	2018*
Emerging markets	Desktop PC	85.6	80.5	77.2
Emerging markets	Portable PC	96.2	87.2	94.5
Emerging markets	Total PC	181.9	167.7	171.7
Mature markets	Dektop PC	51.1	48.6	42.0
Mature markets	Portable PC	82.2	79.6	77.9
Mature markets	Total PC	133.3	128.2	120.0
Worldwide	Desktop PC	136.7	129.1	119.2
Worldwide	Portable PC	178.4	166.8	172.5
Worldwide	Total PC	315.1	295.9	291.7

For the year 2013, IDC forecasted a 10.1 percent drop in PC shipments across the world, which actually turned out to be 9.8 percent. According to the research firm, the difference between the projected figure and the actual figure was because of short-term trends, such as replacements for Windows XP-running PCs, which Microsoft will be dropping support for in April.

Growing competition from smartphones and tablets, especially in emerging markets, is one of the major factors responsible for declining PC sales. With the current trend in the PC market, vendors need to reduce prices for attracting customers, as there is hardly any other way out of the problem.

Apple reportedly working on native 4K display support in Mavericks

Apple appears to be adding 4K support to Mavericks, according to a recent report. In the latest beta version of Apple's OS, there is reportedly an option available to run the system in native 4K for use on Ultra HD displays. Based on the hands on report, Apple is calling the native 4K feature "Retina" inside the Mavericks ecosystem.

Many expected Apple to add in full 4K support to OS X, as the technology is becoming more and more accepted. While there are no official confirmations at this point, the user was able to run Mavericks beta 10.9.3 in what appeared to be native 4K on a Seiki Ultra HD display.

Macs already support 4K but it is not a true representation of the resolution, the OS simply resizes various elements in order to properly scale up the operating system's UI. With the new pixel-doubled 4K resolution support, images look much sharper and clearer than with the current option, according to the report.

Another detail from beta 10.9.3 that surfaced appears to show late-2013 Retina MacBook Pros with the ability to drive 4K displays at 60Hz. Apple currently states that the rMBP is only able to push a 24 or 30Hz 4K display over HDMI. While Apple's new Mac Pro already supports 4K at 60Hz, this feature would essentially streamline the process.

The report also suggests Apple could have its own 4K display in the works now that it would appear the software end of the system is being taken care of. This could lead to hi res iMacs down the line, but more likely 4K Apple cinema-style displays.

Documentation details low-cost Windows 8.1 with Bing

Last week we heard that Microsoft may be planning a low-cost or free version of Windows 8.1 dubbed Windows 8.1 with Bing, designed to entice more Windows 7 users to upgrade, and provide OEMs with a way of reducing the costs of their devices.

New documentation for Windows 8.1 Update 1 has revealed what Windows 8.1 with Bing will consist of, and how Microsoft plans on positioning it. To start with, there's no mention of free upgrades for Windows 7 users, but it does state that Windows 8.1 with Bing will help OEMs "add Windows to low-cost devices while driving end user usage of Microsoft Services such as Bing and OneDrive."

How will it drive usage of Microsoft services? It appears the only confirmed major change will be that OEMs are forced into setting Bing as the default search engine in Internet Explorer. Currently manufacturers can switch the default search engine to whatever they like (for example a deal may be stuck to have Google the default), but this would be prohibited in Windows 8.1 with Bing.

What's less clear is whether OEMs will be able to install tools and applications that give access to services from Microsoft's rivals. It seems unlikely that Microsoft would allow Chrome to be installed and set as the default browser in Windows 8.1 with Bing installations, but doing so doesn't appear to be specifically prohibited, at least according to this short piece of info from the leaked documentation:

Windows 8.1 with Bing is similar to other editions of Windows and should be imaged, updated, and deployed the same as any other Windows edition. However, OEMs will not be able to change the default search engine with the SearchScopes unattend setting, Registry key, or 3rd party installation tools. When a user starts Internet Explorer, Bing is automatically set to the default Search Engine and will override any OEM-configured search provider. No other Internet Explorer defaults are changed.

The restrictions only apply to how OEMs must configure their devices; end users will be able to switch out Bing for another search engine in Internet Explorer if they like. Also, while there's mention that Windows 8.1 with Bing will be "low-cost", pricing wasn't mentioned, as is usually the case with OEM editions.

Windows 8.1 with Bing will likely be the operating system we'll see on sub $250 Windows devices in the coming months. With pressure from entry-level low-cost Chromebooks mounting, this new SKU will keep Windows and Microsoft well and truly in the game.

Steve Ballmer shouted at board members and threatened to resign over Nokia deal

Most of Microsoft's board members including Bill Gates, Satya Nadella, and Tony Bates, initially opposed Steve Ballmer’s proposal to acquire Nokia, according to a Bloomberg report. While current CEO Satya Nadella later changed his mind, former Skype CEO Tony Bates, who is no longer onboard, remained adamant.

Last year, Ballmer proposed the acquisition of Nokia's Devices and Services unit. The board was not only reluctant to move into hardware, they also found the deal quite expensive. Despite of the opposition from many top executives, he wanted to have his way, and tried hard for it. At a board meeting held in June, he even shouted and threatened to resign. He was so loud that his shouts could be heard outside the conference room.

Later, he got most of what he wanted, when the board agreed to a $7.2 billion purchase of Nokia’s mobile phone business. Although he was deeply hurt that Gates didn't back him. Bloomberg's sources claim the directors were frustrated by Ballmer's tendency to talk more than listen, and his reaction to the pushback on Nokia was for some the last straw.

Ballmer had also appointed Penn and Tami Reller as joint in charge of marketing aspects, a move that didn't go down well with Reller, who later asked Ballmer to choose between them. Reller is now leaving Microsoft, and will be replaced by Chris Capossela.

On August 22, just before announcing his retirement, Ballmer talked to Nokia Chairman Risto Siilasmaa and CEO Stephen Elop separately to reassure that the company remained committed to the deal. He wouldn't have resigned "unless he’d lost Gates’s backing", said Yale University business professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. It was Gates who convinced him to drop out of business school to join Microsoft in 1980.

The report also touches basis on Allan Mullaly, who was a top contender for Microsoft's top job, stating that he was very arrogant with Microsoft's board, and he even refused to give a formal interview.

Weekend tech reading: Newb guide to coin mining, AMD still catching flak over dual GPU stuttering

Digging for cryptocurrency: The newbie's guide to mining altcoins A few weeks ago, when our own "Arscoin" cryptocurrency was first minted, it looked like Senior Reviews Editor Lee Hutchinson would control the majority of the coins. He started mining early, and he has a crowd of Linux servers sitting in his closet that can outrun the all-in-one desktops and power-sipping Ultrabooks most of us have on hand. When our little experiment began, I knew enough about Bitcoin and Litecoin mining to know that there are more efficient ways to rack up coins than using the default miner, but I had never actually mined either of those currencies myself. Ars Technica (also, part two on configuring your own email server)

The Internet terror phone Walk down Broadway, past Canal, past banks and furniture stores, Mr. Fashion and sneaker shops and condos, old then new, brick then steel, until the buildings grow taller and begin to take up entire blocks. Turn right at the unopened Pret, across from the McDonald's, down Thomas Street, a one-way single-lane. Look up. You can't miss it: A monolith, brutalist, granite armored, its skeleton colossal slats of moulded concrete. It is said to feature the largest blank facade in the world. The building's six turrets contain air ducts, a whole mess of ventilation for whatever is inside. Whatever is inside -- that's the question. The Awl

Linux Foundation to build massive open online course program with edX, increase access to Linux training for all The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux and collaborative development, today announced it is building a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) program with edX, the nonprofit online learning platform launched in 2012 by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). More than 31 universities have partnered with edX and nearly two million people have accessed its courses online since it launched just 18 months ago. The Linux Foundation

Colin Angle, iRobot CEO: 'Sonny' humanoid robots too expensive to be a reality According to Colin Angle, CEO and founder of advanced robotics company iRobot, the idea of having a humanoid robot like Sonny in Isaac Asimov's Robot series or the robot butler in futuristic cartoon The Jetsons, is pretty unlikely. "Building a robot that has legs and walks around is a very expensive proposition. Mother Nature has created many wonderful things but one thing we do have that nature doesn't is the wheel, a continuous rotating joint, and tracks, so we need to make use of inventions to make things simpler,"... IBTimes UK

Turbo trouble: AMD's Dual Graphics is bugged, introduces game-breaking frame stutter One of the features both AMD and Intel have adopted in the past five years is the idea of a Turbo Mode (Intel) and Turbo Core (AMD). The CPUs of both companies will raise the operating frequency if there’s thermal headroom to do so, then lower it again if the thermal load is too high. Most of the time, this feature is a positive -- unless you happen to be using AMD's latest Kaveri APU, which has a problem that can significantly lower its overall performance under certain specific conditions. ExtremeTech

Proof that 'Fight Club' would have made an awesome video game You guys. You guys! YOU GUYS! The long wait to see "Fight Club" realized as a video game has finally come to an end. The fine folks at CineFix have imagined David Fincher's darkly comic cult favorite as an arcade classic, and it's a beautiful blend of "Street Fighter" and "Streets of Rage," both of which you undoubtedly spent countless hours playing as a kid. Moviefone

Microsoft accidentally leaks Windows 8.1 Update 1 early

Microsoft won't be officially releasing Windows 8.1 Update 1 until after their BUILD conference in April, but late on Thursday the company accidentally leaked the update to the public. Eager users were able to make a small registry change that made the updates show up in Windows Update, or download it all through direct links to Microsoft's servers.

The overall process to install Update 1 required the download of six separate updates totaling roughly 770 MB. Some users who downloaded and installed Update 1 said the final build string matched what was reported to be the RTM build, suggesting Microsoft was testing methods of delivering the update before links were leaked.

It only took a few hours for Microsoft to block public access to the files both through the download links and registry edits, however the files are still available through several other sources. While it shouldn't be too hard to find, download and install the update, if you're interested in checking out the changes, we recommend waiting for Update 1 to go live officially.

Most of the changes and improvements in Windows 8.1 Update 1 are geared towards improving the experience for keyboard and mouse users. There are new right-click context menus in some parts of the 'Modern' interface, power and search buttons right on the Start screen, title bars at the top of all Metro-style apps, and some desktop-oriented changes. The official launch of Update 1 is expected to be April 8th, according to several rumors.

Sony to sell its Tokyo 'birthplace' in a desperate bid to raise cash

Sony said Friday it would sell properties at a prestigious Tokyo site where it had its headquarters for six decades, as the once-world beating firm struggles to repair its bottom line.

The company's 16.1 billion yen ($157 million) deal to sell the real estate to Sumitomo Realty and Development will be completed next month, it said.

The properties are in the Gotenyama area near the city's Shinagawa railway station, where land prices have been on the rise recently.

In 2007, the firm sold a portion of the site, moving its headquarters to the opposite side of Shinagawa station.

Sony started as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo in 1946, the year after Japan's defeat in World War II. The following year it moved from a different site in the capital to the Gotenyama area, where it grew into a global player built on its groundbreaking Walkman and popular televisions.

A museum archiving Sony's epoch-making products will be one of its few remaining properties there.

The deal Friday comes after Sony said last year it was selling its US headquarters in Manhattan for $1.1 billion as it looks to recoup from four consecutive years of losses.

Sony and domestic rivals Panasonic and Sharp have faced severe competition from abroad in their hard-hit consumer electronics units and have been undergoing painful restructurings to move past years of losses.

Despite returning to profit in its latest fiscal year, Sony is braced for a $1.08 billion loss in the 12 months to March as it plans to cut 5,000 jobs and exit the stagnant PC market.

On Friday, Sony said the real-estate sale would not affect its earnings forecast for the current fiscal year.

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Samsung Galaxy S III mini Value Edition with Android 4.2 now available online

Samsung has been famous for launching its flagship smartphones in a number of variants. Continuing the tradition, the South Korean manufacturer looks all set to release the Galaxy S III mini Value Edition, which is a compact variant of the 2012 flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III.

The Samsung Galaxy S III mini Value Edition is now listed as available in Netherlands at various online merchants for EUR 180, which translates to roughly Rs. 15,300. The phone is however, not listed on Samsung's official Dutch site.

The smartphone was first spotted by Gsminfo which claims that the Galaxy S III mini Value Edition features upgraded innards, when compared to the Galaxy S III mini that was launched in October 2012.

The Galaxy S III mini Value Edition runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out-of-the-box, whereas the Galaxy S III mini was based on Android 4.1.

The Galaxy S III mini Value Edition, much like its sibling, comes with a 4-inch display with a resolution of 480x800 (WVGA) pixels. It is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Cortex A9 (unspecified chipset) processor, alongside 1GB of RAM.

The smartphone sports a 5-megapixel rear camera and also houses a VGA front-facing camera. The Galaxy S III mini Value Edition includes 8GB of built-in storage, which can be expanded up to 32GB via microSD card.

Samsung recently announced faux-leather cover variants of the Galaxy S4. The company officially announced the Black Editions of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S4 mini. The South Korean giant also revealed that the faux-leather coating seen on the Black Edition's back panel would also arrive in White, enabling more colour combinations - Rose Gold White, Rose Gold Black, and Deep Black.

These new back panels for Samsung Galaxy S4, sport a faux-leather texture instead the original plastic sported by the handset when it was released last year. The faux-leather design comes from the company's Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Note 3 Neo phablets, and has also been seen in the Galaxy Grand 2 previously.

Search planes scour sea for missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner

The Singaporean submarine support and rescue vessel, MV Swift Rescue, is prepared before it departs to assist in the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in Singapore, in this March 9, 2014 handout picture

Kuala Lumpur/Phu Quoc Islanad, Vietnam: Search and rescue planes scoured waters off the southern tip of Vietnam on Monday, searching for any trace of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner 48 hours after it vanished from radar screens with 239 people on board.

On Sunday, a senior source said officials investigating the disappearance the plane suspect it may have disintegrated in mid-flight, asVietnam reported that a navy plane had spotted a rectangle object in the sea suspected to be one of the doors of the Boeing 777-200ER, but that it was too dark to be certain.

On Monday, however, Admiral Ngo Van Phat told Reuters, "We sent two boats to where the navy plane reported seeing that object but the boats couldn't find it ....We are sending more planes there this morning."

Questions mounted over possible security lapses and whether a bomb or hijacking could have brought down the Beijing-bound plane, after Interpol confirmed at least two passengers used stolen passports and said it was checking whether others aboard had used false identity documents.

Flight MH370 disappeared in the early hours of Saturday, about an hour into its flight from Kuala Lumpur, after climbing to a cruising altitude of 35,000 ft (10,670 metres).

Shares in Malaysia Airlines fell as much as 18 percent to a record low on Monday morning.

No distress signal was sent from the lost plane, which experts said suggested a sudden catastrophic failure or explosion, but Malaysia's air force chief said radar tracking showed it may have turned back from its scheduled route before it disappeared.

A senior source involved in preliminary investigations in Malaysia said the failure to find any debris for two days, despite dozens of vessels and aircraft crisscrossing the sea below the flight path, indicated the plane may have broken up mid-flight.

"The fact that we are unable to find any debris so far appears to indicate that the aircraft is likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet," said the source.

Asked about the possibility of an explosion, such as a bomb, the source said there was no evidence yet of foul play and that the aircraft could have broken up due to mechanical causes.

Still, the source said the closest parallels were the explosion on board an Air India jetliner in 1985 when it was over the Atlantic Ocean and the Lockerbie air disaster in 1988. Both planes were cruising at around 31,000 feet when bombs exploded on board.

The United States extensively reviewed imagery taken by American spy satellites for evidence of a mid-air explosion, but saw none at all, an authoritative U.S. government source said. The source described U.S. satellite coverage of the region as thorough.

Boeing declined to comment and referred to its brief earlier statement that said it was monitoring the situation.

More than 20 aircraft and 40 ships from seven nations are involved in the search. The U.S. Navy said its aircraft had located a previously reported oil slick south of Vietnam and east of Malaysia, but did not find any debris from the plane.

The passenger manifest issued by the airline included the names of two Europeans - Austrian Christian Kozel and Italian Luigi Maraldi - who were not on the plane. Their passports had been stolen in Thailand during the past two years.

An Interpol spokeswoman said a check of all documents used to board the plane had revealed more "suspect passports", which were being investigated.

"Whilst it is too soon to speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the missing plane, it is clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol's databases," Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said.

Malaysia's state news agency quoted Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as saying the two passengers using the stolen European passports were of Asian appearance, and criticising border officials who let them through.

"I am still perturbed. Can't these immigration officials think? Italian and Austrian but with Asian faces," he was quoted as saying late on Sunday.

The airline has said 14 nationalities were among the passengers, including at least 152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French and three Americans.

Two on missing Malaysia jet used stolen EU passports

Milan:  Foreign ministry officials in Rome and Vienna confirmed on Saturday that names of two nationals listed on the manifest of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight match passports reported stolen in Thailand.

Neither European was on the plane, which disappeared on Saturday less than an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing, officials said. The Italian was traveling in Thailand and the Austrian was located in his native country.

The father of the Italian man told The Associated Press that his son's passport had been stolen a year and a half ago while traveling in Thailand.

"He deposited it with rental car agency, and when he returned the car it was gone," Walter Maraldi said by telephone from his home in the northern Emilia-Romagna region.

Walter Maraldi said authorities could not tell him whether the stolen passport or a counterfeit copy was used by a passenger to board the aircraft.

The father said his son Luigi Maraldi, 37, called his parents from Thailand to tell them he was fine after hearing news reports that an Italian with his name was on board the missing airplane.

Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Weiss confirmed that a name listed on the manifest matches an Austrian passport reported stolen two years ago in Thailand. Weiss would not confirm the Austrian traveler's identity.

"We have no information on who might have stolen the passport," Weiss said.