news

The new AOL Reader is now in beta and open to the public, and while it may not be a perfect replacement for Google Reader, it has a nice layout and a strong tool set for quickly scanning and organizing your RSS feeds. At this time, AOL Reader is Web browser-only (with plans for app-based versions in the works), but it can detect your mobile devices and give you a mobile-friendly experience.

To sign up, you can connect via Twitter, Facebook, Google, or your old AOL account (does anyone still have one of these?). Once logged in, AOL Reader prompts … Read more

Like with Twitter, Facebook users often share breaking news with their friends on the network. But now the social-networking giant is reportedly looking to add a homegrown news-delivery service to its mobile offerings.

The company has been working on a service internally dubbed Reader that would display content from Facebook users and other publishers in a new visual format tailored for mobile devices, people familiar with the project tell The Wall Street Journal. The project, which has been in the works for more than a year, reportedly resembles Flipboard, the popular news-reading app that aggregates content from multiple sources.

A … Read more

Feedly has completed its next wave of Web site upgrades designed to serve as a spiffy, new welcome mat for users of Google Reader, which is shutting down.

Existing users of the Feedly news aggregator and those migrating from Google Reader will now find a refreshed site compatible with all major browsers, Feedly said in a blog post Wednesday. The overhauled site adds support for Internet Explorer and Opera and boasts a new interface that doesn't require plug-ins or browser extensions.

In line with its new cloud, Feedly is no longer shackled to Google. Previously, the site depended on Google Reader's servers for its back-end technology. … Read more

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

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

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