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RT @Techmeme: Apple wants its own path on Comcast network for video service, WSJ says (@jbrodkin)

RT @Techmeme: Apple wants its own path on Comcast network for video service, WSJ says (@jbrodkin)

RT @Techmeme: Apple in Talks with Comcast About Streaming-TV Service (Wall Street Journal)

RT @Techmeme: Apple in Talks with Comcast About Streaming-TV Service (Wall Street Journal)

RT @Techmeme: iOS 7's Multipeer Connectivity enables network creation and expansion in unconnected locations

RT @Techmeme: iOS 7's Multipeer Connectivity enables network creation and expansion in unconnected locations

RT @Techmeme: Revealed: Apple and Google's wage-fixing cartel involved dozens more companies, over one…

RT @Techmeme: Revealed: Apple and Google's wage-fixing cartel involved dozens more companies, over one…

Glass Journalism," a new course slated for the fall semester at the University of Southern California, where students will be tasked with thinking up new ways for journalists to tell stories using augmented reality and Google Glass.

Easy php encryption and key exchange

Starting today, Gmail will always use an encrypted HTTPS connection when you check or send email. Gmail has supported HTTPS since the day it launched, and in 2010 we made HTTPS the default. Today's change means that no one can listen in on your messages as they go back and forth between you and Gmail’s servers—no matter if you're using public WiFi or logging in from your computer, phone or tablet.

RT @waxpancake: "I definitely want to be a part of VR, but I will not work with Facebook." @notch's thoughts on Oculus.

RT @TaimurAsad: MS-DOS And Word for Windows Source Code Is Now Officially Public

There is a standing presumption when one backs a Kickstarter project: you may lose your money. But there's a new—or at least now proven—angle to consider, in light of Facebook's acquisition of the virtual reality company Oculus: people may use your money to make a lot more money without ever properly starting a successful company in the first place.

Iribe points out one concrete benefit for users: cheaper headsets. Now Oculus can afford to sell them at cost. “It changes our priorities from making money to making virtual reality happen.” Iribe rejects the idea that he and his colleagues sold out. “If anything, I think Facebook got an incredibly good deal,” he says. “If we stayed independent, we could probably have made a lot more.” Brian Blau, a consumer technology analyst at research firm Gartner, says, “They want to seed the market. They want to get it in front of more developers and more early adopters. And that’s the way to do it, to give it away as cheaply as they can.”

Twitter met with Beats Music in San Francisco this week, proposing a partnership that would promote subscriptions to the music-streaming service, according to a person familiar with the matter. It is also looking to partner with music-sharing site SoundCloud for the new strategy, this person said.

Less than a week after a notorious ban on Twitter went into effect, the Turkish government blocked access to YouTube on March 27. The ban was ordered hours after leaked recordings of a key security meeting were published on the video sharing website.

According to a blog post published Tuesday by a researcher from antivirus provider Trend Micro, the apps are Songs, installed from one million to five million times, and Prized, which was installed from 10,000 to 50,000 times. Neither the app descriptions nor their terms of service make clear that the apps subject Android devices to the compute-intensive process of mining, Trend Micro Mobile Threats Analyst Veo Zhang wrote. As of Wednesday afternoon, the apps were still available.

But another disclosure from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday is also worthy of attention (no goggles required): More than one billion users now access the social network through mobile applications.

FORTUNE -- Social score startup Klout has been acquired by Lithium Technologies, a provider of social customer experience solutions for the enterprise, in a deal valued at nearly $200 million, Fortune has learned.

The year also brought more evidence than ever that news is a part of the explosion of social media and mobile devices, and in a way that could offer opportunity to reach more people with news than ever before. One-half of Facebook users get news there even though they did not go there looking for it. And the Facebook users who get news at the highest rates are 18- to-29-year-olds. The same is true for the growth area of online video. One-half of those who watch some kind of online video watch news videos. Again, young people constitute the greatest portion of these viewers.

In a ruling on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg ruled that the minors gave their consent when they signed up for Facebook under a "statement of rights and responsibilities" that governs the site.

"Although prices range widely, RAND found hacked accounts can be worth anywhere from $16 to $325+ depending on the account type." Twitter accounts have become high-yield on the black market for both the access the account provides to a user's other accounts, and the increased value of a "real" account to spammers. Even spam Twitter accounts are worth five times the value of a spam Yahoo account, according to the RAND report's citation "The Role of the Underground Market in Twitter Spam and Abuse" (.PDF).

"Through this arrangement, Microsoft and Dell have agreed to license each company’s applicable intellectual property related to Android and Chrome OS devices and Xbox gaming consoles. Under the terms of the agreement, they agreed on royalties for Dell’s products running the Android or Chrome platforms and on consideration to Dell for a license for Xbox gaming consoles," according to the companies.

RT @gigaom: Facebook has built ThreatData, a framework for web security

There’s Just No Getting Around Apple Buying Yahoo

Candy Crush maker's shares collapse after IPO

Is the Oculus Rift sexist?

In a blog post Friday, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said the company will turn to law enforcement when it believes someone is “using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property from Microsoft.”

Similar to sharing around an HBO Go password among friends, all that's required to exploit the loophole -- which, again, is against the rights agreement that limits you to authenticating only five tablets -- is to have someone with a valid Office 365 account log in to Word, Excel or any other Office app on iPad. Once that happens, the tablet is automatically authenticated for all Office apps and any future users, regardless of whether or not those users have paid for 365.