Consumer content

Amazon, PBS expand streaming partnership

Amazon and PBS have expanded their streaming partnership.

The companies announced on Wednesday that Amazon's Prime Instant Video service will now included "hundreds of additional episodes" of "Nova," "Masterpiece," and several other PBS shows. More PBS Kids shows, including "Arthur" and "Caillou," will also be available.

The wildly popular "Downton Abbey" has also been worked into the deal, with Amazon becoming the "exclusive video subscription home" to the third season of the acclaimed series. Earlier this year, Amazon announced that it will exclusively carry all &… Read more

India overtakes Japan as third largest smartphone market

India is now the third biggest smartphone market in the world.

During the first quarter of 2013, smartphone sales in India jumped by 163 percent over the prior year's quarter, Strategy Analytics said on Wednesday. In comparison, smartphone volume over the same period rose by 86 percent in China, 24 percent in Japan, and 19 percent in the United States. The global average came in at 39 percent.

India's surge in smartphone use helped it swipe the third spot from Japan for the first time ever. It now ranks behind the U.S. in first place and China … Read more

Nook Windows 8 app offers new design, discounts

Barnes & Noble is trying to lure more Windows 8 users to its Nook app with new features and a half-off promotion.

Updated Wednesday, Nook for Windows 8 and RT adds a new interface along with speedier performance, according to B&N. Users can also now highlight and annotate text, search for words via a dictionary, and find specific text within a book.

Book and magazine buyers will find a redesigned shopping experience. And users can now sideload both ePub and PDF files from their computers. The app also takes advantage of Windows 8 search. People can simply start … Read more

Tim Berners-Lee warns against governments controlling the Web

The so-called father of the World Wide Web wants to protect his child from governments and corporations.

Tim Berners-Lee was in the U.K. on Tuesday and was one of several people to receive the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. At the event, the inventor of the Web was asked about the allegations made by Edward Snowden that governments are using the Web to tap into the communications of private citizens, The Guardian reported Wednesday.

In response, Berners-Lee said: "The original design of the Web of 24 years ago was for a universal space, we didn't have a … Read more

Texas senator's filibuster heats up the Internet

YouTube and Twitter provided blow-by-blow coverage of a long, heated filibuster Tuesday in Texas that the major cable networks failed to carry.

State Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) held the Texas Senate floor Tuesday in a filibuster and session that lasted almost 13 hours, the Texas Tribune reported Wednesday.

Davis was trying to prevent passage of Senate Bill 5, a controversial bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. It would also have required doctors to have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles of an abortion facility, perform abortions in ambulatory surgical centers, and administer drugs that … Read more

BitTorrent: We don't deal in pirated content

It's pretty well established that torrent files can be used for downloading pirated music, movies, games, and more. But, the company BitTorrent wants it to be known that it has nothing to do with such piracy.

The company's vice president of marketing Matt Mason penned a blog post on Tuesday saying that while BitTorrent built the open-source, peer-to-peer technology used for content sharing, it does not endorse piracy in any shape or form.

"We don't host infringing content. We don't point to it. It's literally impossible to 'illegally download something on BitTorrent,'" Mason … Read more

FTC to search engines: Make it clear which results are ads

Search engines need to be careful to make it clear what results are actually ads, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission warned Tuesday.

In letters to Google, Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft's Bing, and several other search engines, the FTC updated its guidance from 2002 about the need to distinguish between advertisements and search results. Since that original letter in 2002, the FTC has seen a decline in compliance with its guidelines.

"The letters note that in recent years, paid search results have become less distinguishable as advertising, and the FTC is urging the search industry to make sure the … Read more

Google Groups enhances its ability to share

Those of you who use Google Groups will find a couple of improvements the next time you fire up the site.

Google Groups are essentially virtual forums that let you set up mailing lists, stay in touch with members of a real-life group, and discuss common interests with other people.

One new feature allows you to create a shared inbox that helps you better collaborate with others. An example cited in Monday's Gmail blog describes how to use the new inbox:

Imagine you and a few friends are organizing an event for your school and want a single e-mail … Read more

Saints Row 4 banned from Australia over 'sexual violence'

Saints Row 4, the latest console and PC title from developer Volition in the action-adventure open world game, has become the first to be banned from sale in Australia.

The game was sent to the Australian Government's Classification Board, which determines ratings on video games, in May, the organization said in a statement (PDF) on Tuesday. According to that statement, the Board rated the game RC, or Refused Classification, meaning it cannot be sold in Australia. The game's content was deemed too adult-oriented.

"In the Board's opinion, Saints Row 4, includes interactive, visual depictions of implied … Read more