Is It true? YouTube co-founder announces MixBit video site

After the announcement that Google would be shutting down YouTube after eight years (not really), the service’s co-founder, Chris Hurley, has announced his new video website to fill the void. Hurley assures us this isn’t an April Fools’ joke either, but he pokes fun at Google’s attempt at April Fools humor on his new site called MixBit.

Hurley initially announced his plans to start a new video website earlier this month at SXSW, and at the time, he said he was about a month away from officially launching the new site to the public, so there’s still about a week and a half left before that happens, but Hurley officially announced MixBit today via Twitter, and created a landing page for the new service. On the MixBit website, Hurley notes that “instead of sitting around, we thought you’d want a new site to not only watch cat videos, but create them…together!” This suggests that MixBit will not only be a consumption platform to watch videos, but a service that allows you to create videos with other users as well. Hurley noted that MixBit won’t be a YouTube competitor, but rather a supplement. MixBit’s collaboration focus could create a whole new meaning to video-streaming sites, but we’ll have to wait and see what it’s all about first. Details are rather scarce at this point, and there’s no exact launch date specified, but we should hear more about it sometime in the near future. Story Timeline Billboard now takes YouTube views into account in its Hot 100 formula YouTube for iOS updates with "send to TV" feature YouTube tipped to launch its own music streaming service Simon Cowell to launch next competition on YouTube YouTube's newest milestone: 1 billion unique monthly users YouTube announces live-streaming tools for game developers YouTube co-founder announces MixBit video site is written by Craig Lloyd .

Is It true? Nuance Voice Ads turn your phone into a chatty salesman

Could Siri start selling to you? Maybe so, if Nuance has its way: the company has launched Voice Ads, a system of dynamically injecting spoken promotions into digital personal assistant services like Apple’s Siri. Aiming to make commercials more engaging – and thus increase the number of people who actually act on them – the first iteration of Voice Ads will see promotional content on smartphones and tablets invite users to speak to them, with an ensuing conversation including a sales message.

Because the Voice Ad is showing up on a mobile device, Nuance can offer more granular control over when, and where, it’s visible. That can include GPS positioning, so that advertisers know when you’re near, say, a store where you can buy their product. Nuance also uses automatic volume and microphone sensitivity, so that the ad still works even in areas of high background noise. Nuance’s example is somewhat basic: the company has created a Magic 8 Ball app which tags on an advert for deodorant at the end. At the moment, it all feels a little stilted and artificial, though the speech recognition works well. Nuance Voice Ads demo: We’re probably still some way off from having Siri and other spoken assistant systems throw in a sales pitch for popcorn when they help us find the nearest movie theater, though Nuance says that there’s already significant interest from ad networks in the Voice Ads technology. It’s unclear when we can expect the first Voice Ads to turn up in the wild. Nuance Voice Ads turn your phone into a chatty salesman is written by Chris Davies .

Is It true? World’s first petaflop supercomputer gets decommissioned

IBM has been producing some of the best performing supercomputers in the world for a number of years. In fact, back in 2008 and 2009 IBM developed and launched a supercomputer called Roadrunner. This supercomputer was the first to be able to operate at sustained performance in the petaflop range.

The computer was installed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory where it has been in use for the last five years. Yesterday, the laboratory officially decommissioned Roadrunner. The supercomputer has 12,960 IBM PowerXCell 8i processors and 6480 AMD Opteron dual-core processors. Those processors shared 114 TB of memory and about 1.09 million TB of storage. The supercomputer isn’t being completely dismantled, researchers will continue to utilize the machine and its impressive power for various experiments. These experiments will include things such as determining the methods for compressing operating system memory and optimizing data routing. With Roadrunner being decommissioned from research duties, scientists and other researchers can now use the computer for projects that couldn’t have been done while the supercomputer was being used for research projects. The computer is housed in 6000 ft.² of space and cost $125 million to build. Roadrunner may not be fast enough for the scientists and researchers at Los Alamos, but the computer is still incredibly fast and sits at number 22 on the list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. The computer gulps power needing 2345 kW when running full tilt. Modern supercomputers need significantly less power to achieve significantly more performance. [via PCMag] Story Timeline Chinese Sunway BlueLight MPP supercomputer hits world's most powerful list Exascale supercomputers expected by the decade's end IBM Sequoia Supercomputer grabs World's Fastest crown IBM Watson supercomputer learned to curse thanks to Urban Dictionary Eurora supercomputer cuts back on CO2 emissions with help of NVIDIA GPUs NVIDIA unveils GTX Titan GPU with supercomputer performance NVIDIA: GTX Titan is a supercomputer in your home World’s first petaflop supercomputer gets decommissioned is written by Shane McGlaun .

Is It true? Saudi Arabia eyes ban on Skype, WhatsApp, Viber

Back in 2010 the government in Saudi Arabia threatened to institute a ban against BlackBerry services for not complying with rules in the country have new do with the ability to monitor communications. BlackBerry was forced to work very hard to avoid being banned within Saudi Arabia. Officials in Saudi Arabia are now threatening to ban some major VoIP applications.

The reason the new ban is being considered has to do with the Skype, WhatsApp, and Viber VoIP applications not complying with rules within Saudi Arabia that allow for the monitoring of phone calls. Strangely, while the Saudi Arabia and Communications and Information Technology Commission has said that it will take “appropriate action regarding these applications” it hasn’t said specifically which conditions the applications are failing to meet. Reports have indicated that the problem the Saudi Arabia government has is that it’s unable to monitor communications made using those apps. CNN reported that the threats likely stem from the fact that last week political protests were organized using WhatsApp. This sort of political demonstration is against the law in Saudi Arabia. When the government in Saudi Arabia took offense to communications made using the BlackBerry network, the problem was that the encryption used prevented the government from monitoring the communications channel. The Saudi Arabian government said that the inability to monitor the channel meant that it could be used to threaten national security. At this time, all three of the apps in question remain available according to reports from within Saudi Arabia. [via CNET] Saudi Arabia eyes ban on Skype, WhatsApp, Viber is written by Shane McGlaun .

Is It true? ZTE wins in court against Huawei

Smartphone makers ZTE Corporation and Huawei Technologies have been embroiled in a patent lawsuit in France. Huawei had filed a lawsuit against ZTE alleging infringement on patents having to do with data cards. The case is being heard in Paris District Court and the decision was handed down on March 28.

The French court rejected all of Huawei’s claims on patent infringement focusing on the EP724 data card. The French ruling follows similar rulings handed down in China and Germany. The court in Paris rejected the patent infringement claims made by Huawei that focused on the “rotor head” data card patents saying that the patent lacked novelty. The French court also ordered Huawei to pay €100,000 in damages to ZTE. The company has said that it has won numerous patent rulings against Huawei over the last two years in courts around Europe. ZTE also says that it will resolutely defend 10 other patent infringement claims made by Huawei in Europe. In June of 2012, the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office ruled that this same patent held by Huawei was invalid. In October 2012, the German Federal Patent Court issued a preliminary verdict making the patent in question invalid. The German court also rejected six Huawei patent modification proposals. [via ZTE] Story Timeline Novatel patent infringement lawsuit against ZTE and FWC still stands [UPDATED] Huawei and ZTE "could undermine US national security" say lawmakers Cisco ditches ZTE over Iranian switch sales cover-up US lawmakers list five must-dos to block Huawei and ZTE hack-threat ZTE wins in court against Huawei is written by Shane McGlaun .

Is It true? Russian government blocking some Internet content

There are number of places around the world where the government blocks all sorts of Internet content to prevent citizens from accessing things deemed inappropriate. While no one would be particularly surprised that Internet content is being filtered in the Middle East or in some parts of Asia, you might be surprised to learn that some content is being blocked in Russia.

Since Russia is no longer a communist nation, it may come as a bit of surprise to some that the Russian government has been making use of the new law that gives it the power to block certain Internet content within the country. The new law allows the Russian government to block content that it deems in illegal or harmful to children. Reports indicate that communications regulators within Russia have asked Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to remove content deemed objectionable. The only website of those three that reportedly resisted the Russian government efforts to forcibly remove content was YouTube. However, YouTube did remove a video that Russian officials objected to that the Russians felt promoted suicide. YouTube did file a lawsuit in a Russian court objecting to the forced blockage of the video. The video in question is reportedly designed to show how to fake wounds using makeup materials and a razor blade. YouTube says that this particular video is intended for entertainment and should not be restricted. Supporters of the Russian law say that it allows Russian authorities to control child pornography and content promoting drug use are suicide. However, those who oppose the law say that it opens the door to increased Internet censorship. [via New York Times] Story Timeline China cracks down on Internet video regulation Egypt must ban internet porn orders legal chief Iran blocks VPNs to enforce internet filter North Korea takes down mobile Internet connection for visitors Russian government blocking some Internet content is written by Shane McGlaun .

Is It true? William Shatner fights alien Gorn in new Star Trek video game commercial

I’m a fan of Star Trek The Next Generation, but I’ve never really been a fan of the original Star Trek television series. I have always liked all of the big-screen Star Trek movies with the original crew. The original series was a bit too cheesy for me, but if you’re huge fan of Captain Kirk and crew you may remember an episode from 1967 called Arena.

In this episode, Captain Kirk battles a giant lizard race called the Gorn. A new commercial for the coming Star Trek: The Video Game launching on April 23 shows Shatner and Gorn trying to bury the hatchet while playing the new video game. The commercial for the game re-creates the classic television battle, this time in the living room. Shatner and Gorn get into some sort of argument over the video game and then re-create almost blow for blow the fight from the 1967 episode. The new Star Trek video game has an updated version of the Gorn playing the key enemy against Captain Kirk and Spock. The highlights co-op play and has Kirk and Spock working together to solve a mysterious attack by the Gorn. The story for the video game was written by Marianne Krawcyzk. The game follows Captain Kirk, Spock and the crew of the enterprise battle as they battle to save the universe. The video game will be available for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC and can be pre-ordered now. [via Star Trek Game] Story Timeline Star Trek actor William Shatner calls ISS Cdr. Chris Hadfield Star Trek Into Darkness International Trailer crash lands with details Hulu making all Star Trek episodes free until April [UPDATE] William Shatner fights alien Gorn in new Star Trek video game commercial is written by Shane McGlaun .