news

Angelina Jolie's stunt double sues News Corp. for alleged hacking

There has long been a tendency for some media to publish all the news that's fit to be found out through any means possible.

One of those means is the hacking of voice mails. Indeed, News Corp. has settled hundreds of claims from famous people and those temporarily in the news for reasons that might be as sad as they might be trifling.

Now a woman who stood in for Angelina Jolie in dangerous times (but not in sex scenes with Brad Pitt in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith") says that her voice mails were allegedly hacked too.… Read more

Why DOJ didn't need a 'super search warrant' to snoop on Fox News' e-mail

If attorney general Eric Holder wanted to perform even a momentary Internet wiretap on Fox News' e-mail accounts, he would have had to persuade a judge to approve what lawyers call a "super search warrant."

A super search warrant's requirements are exacting: Intercepted communications must be secured and placed under seal. Real-time interception must be done only as a last resort. Only certain crimes qualify for this technique, the target must be notified, and additional restrictions apply to state and local police conducting real-time intercepts.

But because of the way federal law was written nearly half a … Read more

Hulu buyout heats up with four reported bidders

Companies looking to get a piece of the Hulu pie had until this week to put in their first round of bids for the video streaming service. And, it appears that four companies have gone in for a slice.

Former News Corp president Peter Chernin, private equity fund Guggenheim Digital Media (which is headed the former interim Yahoo CEO by Ross Levinsohn), satellite operator DirecTV, and cable operator Time Warner Cable have all put in bids, according to Reuters.

Hulu has supposedly been looking for a buyer over the past couple of years, and recently several companies have allegedly expressed … Read more

Apple's WWDC keynote scheduled for June 10

Apple's keynote speech for its Worldwide Developers Conference will kick off on June 10, the first day of the weeklong conference.

This is typically when the keynote occurs, with the rest of the week consisting of sessions for developers, along with events held at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., and other parts of the Moscone Center in San Francisco, where WWDC is taking place.

AllThingsD reported the start time for the keynote earlier on Thursday.

Apple has not yet announced plans to stream the event live, on video. The company did that the last time around for its … Read more

LinkedIn pushes news with Channels

CNET Update is big on Mars:

In this edition of Update:

- LinkedIn is pushing personalized business news to users with Channels on LinkedIn Today. The professional social network has been busy lately with the acquisition of Pulse and adding the ability to put images and video in profiles.

- Windows 8 users could see the Start button again someday, according to a Windows executive.

- Ford's Sync system now works with the Amazon Cloud Player iOS app, so iPhone owners can stream music from their Amazon cloud storage.

- If you can't go to Mars, at least … Read more

The Yahoo app delivers your news visually

The Yahoo app is focused on the latest headlines, bringing more personalization to your news feed, quick summaries for easy reading, and good-looking article pages with photo backdrops.

This is not the app you're going to use to check your e-mail or access most of the other services that Yahoo provides, but what the app does well is bring you the latest news in an intuitive layout.

You have the option to view headlines in a clean list if that is your preference, but the app also features a visual view of the news. The clean list is great … Read more

Customize BlinkFeed for HTC One

For the HTC One, HTC designed a news feed widget called BlinkFeed that pulls in top stories from around the Web, as well as social feeds, such as Twitter and Facebook. It's a good-looking piece of software, and for better or worse, HTC makes it your default home screen on the HTC One.

But if you're less than thrilled by BlinkFeed, I'll show you how to better customize the stories that it pulls in, or even remove it from your home screen.

First off, tap the home button to make sure you're at the top of … Read more

Facebook releases new News Feed look for iPad

Facebook is updating its News Feed for iPads, promising the bigger photos and more prominently displayed content that the social network has already launched on the desktop version of Facebook.

The update for the iPad app will be available for download in the iTunes store later today, according to Facebook.

The new News Feed means a new look for the iPad. "You'll see brighter, more beautiful stories," a Facebook blog post says.

The social network unveiled the overhaul of its most lucrative feature last month. Facebook is hoping the new News Feed equals a richer story design, … Read more

YouTube creates 'Explosions at Boston Marathon' video page

As Boston grapples with the aftermath of two explosions that hit the city during its annual marathon, YouTube has created a way for people to immediately get the latest news.

The video steaming site has built an official YouTube Spotlight page devoted to all video related to the blasts. Titled "Explosions at the Boston Marathon," the page has 26 videos as of this writing -- from President Barack Obama's speech to videos captured by onlookers to police press conferences detailing the explosions. More videos will surely be added as more is uncovered about what happened.

Earlier today, … Read more

Microsoft updates Windows 8 News, Maps, other apps

Microsoft has updated its various Bing apps for Windows 8 in a move designed to make them quicker to use and easier to customize.

The News app now lets you manage the different news categories that appear in the app. You can add or remove categories for world news, technology, politics, business, and entertainment, and sort the order in which they appear. You can also add a particular news source or RSS feed to your featured sources and to the Windows Start screen so that you can more quickly access their stories.

The News app's app bar has also … Read more