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Signs of Liquid Water Found on Surface of Mars, Study Says – via @NYTNow

Chip Cards Will Require Users to Dip Rather Than Swipe – via @NYTNow

Chip Cards Will Require Users to Dip Rather Than Swipe – via @NYTNow

We Asked a Cultural Historian: Are Apple Stores the New Temples? – via @NYTNow

We Asked a Cultural Historian: Are Apple Stores the New Temples? – via @NYTNow

In a report published Aug. 13, an APA task force reviewed more than 100 studies on violent video game use published between 2005 and 2013. They concluded that playing video games can increase aggressive behavior and thoughts, while lessening empathy and sensitivity toward aggression. The task force also concluded that although some studies suggested links to criminal violence and neurological changes, there wasn’t enough evidence to determine a connection.

If all goes as planned, all of Google’s share of stock will be converted to the exact same number of Alphabet shares. The stock tickers for shares of Class C ($GOOG) and Class A ($GOOGL) stock will stay the same. So will the board. So will shareholder rights, a point of contention for Google shareholders since all of its controlling Class B shares are held very tightly by the very top executives.

Over the last three years, Prime Video has become an important part of Prime. It’s important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion. Roku, XBOX, PlayStation and Fire TV are excellent choices.

This is going to be a big event. We’re expecting to hear about Microsoft’s Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL handsets, a new Surface Pro 4, Microsoft Band 2, and perhaps some surprises from the Xbox and Surface teams. For all of the details on what to expect — including which of these announcements are guaranteed — we've put together a full preview of the event below. The event itself kicks off Tuesday, October 6th at 10AM ET / 7AM PT. As always, you'll be able to follow along with our live blog for immediate updates on Microsoft’s announcements.

In AT&T's initial fixed WLL proposal, the carrier said its fixed WLL technology would make use of its wireless spectrum and LTE infrastructure through a 20 MHz (10x10 MHz paired uplink and downlink) configuration. AT&T in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year said fixed WLL will "provide consumers with a robust broadband experience, with speeds and usage comparable, and typically superior to, the best wireline services available in the areas in which the fixed WLL solution will be deployed."

The release of a new Android version is a great time to take a fresh look at our signature Moto Enhancements to ensure we’re complementing Android (not competing with it). Android 6.0 Marshmallow includes some great new features similar to things we’ve developed in the past. For example, you’ll find an option for ‘Do not disturb’ under the ‘Sound and notification’ settings to make sure you’re not interrupted during meetings or while sleeping. That’s similar to Moto Assist, so we’re removing Moto Assist as part of the upgrade to M.

Japan’s cabinet office, Kanagawa prefecture and Robot Taxi Inc. on Thursday said they will start experimenting with unmanned taxi service beginning in 2016. The service will be offered for approximately 50 people in Kanagawa prefecture, just south of Tokyo, with the auto-driving car carrying them from their homes to local grocery stores.

Wifatch even leaves a message for device owners asking them to upgrade their device firmware and to change their passwords, Ballano said. “Telnet has been closed to avoid further infection of this device,” the Wifatch message, posted on the Symantec blog, notes. “Please disable telnet, change telnet passwords, and/or update the firmware.”

An Evernote spokesperson said the number of paying users is currently in the "millions," that 20,000 businesses use the company's business version of the product, and that the number of users paying Evernote for the first time is up 40% from the same time last year. But she declined to provide specific revenue figures, as the company is privately held and does not disclose its financials.

This program is open to anyone who wants to participate, said Richard Gingras, Google’s head of news. “One key objective was a deal-less environment,” he said. “That’s how the web works.” Later he added, “There are no business relationships behind the search results.”

The court based its reasoning (PDF) on the fact that, although an isolated gene such as BRCA1 was "a product of human action, it was the existence of the information stored in the relevant sequences that was an essential element of the invention as claimed." Since the information stored in the DNA as a sequence of nucleotides was a product of nature, it did not require human action to bring it into existence, and therefore could not be patented.

The IP Chapter of the TPP has perhaps been the most controversial chapter due to its wide-ranging effects on internet services, medicines, publishers, civil liberties and biological patents. “If TPP is ratified, people in the Pacific-Rim countries would have to live by the rules in this leaked text,” said Peter Maybarduk, Public Citizen’s Global Access to Medicines Program Director. “The new monopoly rights for big pharmaceutical firms would compromise access to medicines in TPP countries. The TPP would cost lives.”

The past and future of the TV cable box is at the center of a big war-of-words this week at the Federal Communications Commission. The fight has gotten scant press attention, but it's a subject that's fueling strong commentary from the likes of tech giants Google and Amazon and even dividing Hollywood. The MPAA is even going so far as to suggest that a proposal to revolutionize the TV device market would violate both the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The Writers Guild disagrees.

"Facebook updates are easier than ever thanks to 3D Touch" #apple #feedly

A unanimous three-judge panel of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that Google’s scanning millions of copyrighted books wasn’t infringement because what the company makes viewable online is so limited. The decision affirmed a lower-court ruling.

Next up, Cook discussed Apple TV. Most notably, the Apple executive revealed that the fourth-generation model will be available next week. Orders will start on Monday with the device shipping later that week. Cook called the current TV industry “terrible and broken” and explained that it has to be “brought up and modernized.” He went on to say that “the starting gun has been fired,” thanks to Apple.

Among the attachments was a spreadsheet containing names and Social Security numbers—some of them for US intelligence officials—and a letter from the Senate asking the CIA to halt its use of harsh interrogation techniques—that is, its controversial use of torture tactics.

The New York Times Magazine will release a new virtual reality film, called “The Displaced,” about children uprooted by war. It can be watched with the cardboard viewers, which are used with a smartphone, and will be sent to home delivery subscribers on the weekend of Nov. 7. Some digital subscribers will receive codes by email to redeem for a free viewer.

Today Automated Insights has launched a beta version of its new free service based on Wordsmith, the technology it uses to generate stories for companies like the AP. Typically, Automated Insights, much like its competitor Narrative Science, works with large customers to create the templates that the Wordsmith software fills in. This new service allows anyone to create their own templates and dump data into them on their own.

In court papers, Apple said that for the 90 percent of its devices running iOS 8 or higher, granting the Justice Department's request "would be impossible to perform" after it strengthened encryption methods. Those devices include a feature that prevents anyone without the device's passcode from accessing its data, including Apple itself. The feature was adopted in 2014 amid heightened privacy concerns following leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about NSA surveillance programs. Apple told U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein it could access the 10 percent of its devices that continue to use older systems, including the one at issue in the case. But it urged the judge to not require it to comply with the Justice Department's request.

During its first quarter fiscal 2016 earnings call, Microsoft announced that Bing had finally achieved profitability. Search contributed more than $1 billion to Microsoft's first quarter for fiscal 2016, said Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood during the company's October 22 earnings call.

Meanwhile, Microsoft said revenue from its Azure cloud service more than doubled, while revenue from Office 365, the cloud version of its popular productivity software, jumped nearly 70%.