The Verge - Web & Social Posts

'The Pirate Cinema' monitors popular torrents to create a video wall of piracy

2013-05-20T08:58:12Z

The Pirate Cinema is a cinematic collage or sorts. Its creators took torrent database The Pirate Bay's Top 100 video files and monitored each, creating small, fragmented clips based on traffic (torrents are transfered block-by-block in a somewhat random order). The resulting installation, which runs through to May 29th in Montreal's Eastern Bloc gallery, is a mash of sights and sounds, revealing the extent of global file sharing. Head over to We Make Money Not Art for an interview with co-creator Nicolas Maigret.

Google Hangouts upgrade removes ability to host Google Voice calls on your computer

2013-05-20T03:05:42Z

Google new Hangouts messaging service is quite impressive — it takes Google's old and neglected Talk service and upgrades it with always-on communication, support for images, video calling, and much more. But for all of the improved service that Hangouts offers, if you upgrade the Google Talk service within Gmail to Hangouts (by selecting the "Try the new Hangouts" option in Talk's menu), you lose some significant features — namely the ability to set your availability status and, more importantly, the ability to place or receive Google Voice calls from within Gmail. Essentially, the new Hangouts removes the option to host a Google Voice call on your computer, something that many users find convenient and necessary in their day to day...

Google Street View's underwater journey

2013-05-19T19:48:26Z

Last September, Google expanded its Street View service to include locations under the ocean, and if you're curious about just how the company managed, TechCrunch has a great rundown of what goes into capturing all of those cute little sea turtles. As you'd imagine, it all starts with camera-equipped divers, and an average dive covers around two kilometers and captures up to 4,000 images — so far Google has captured more than 150,000 underwater snapshots. That's all done using a specialized camera that includes a wider-angle lens compared to the typical Street View camera, and it's outfitted with a tablet to control all of the underwater photo capturing. Currently the service only covers six locations, but expect that to change over...

WSJ: Yahoo's board approves $1.1 billion all-cash Tumblr acquisition

2013-05-19T16:20:56Z

According to The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo's board of directors has approved the company's widely-rumored acquisition of Tumblr in an all-cash deal worth $1.1 billion. Assuming the terms are accepted by Tumblr, CEO Marissa Mayer is all but certain to announce Yahoo's latest pickup — easily its largest to date in a spree of acquisitions and content deals — at a media event tomorrow in New York City. Reports of the approval follow days of rampant speculation, with AllThingsD first reporting that Yahoo's board planned to meet today to reach a final decision.

YouTube users now upload 100 hours of video every minute

2013-05-19T15:34:24Z

Today is YouTube's eighth birthday, and to mark the occasion Google is revealing new statistics that underline what a cultural sensation its video site has become. Most staggeringly, over 100 hours of video are now uploaded to YouTube each and every minute. One year ago on this day, that figure stood at 72 hours per minute (it was 48 hours in 2011). So aside from record-breaking viewership — over one billion people now visit YouTube monthly — more and more users are continuing to upload their own clips to the site in hopes of creating the next viral phenomenon. YouTube has highlighted some of those memorable videos in its celebratory post, though at this point the greater challenge may be finding one you haven't already seen.

Former Google UK exec alleges company misrepresented sales to avoid paying taxes

2013-05-19T05:04:42Z

Google and other tech companies have come under fire for exploiting a common tax loophole to book revenues through their Irish subsidiaries, but today The Sunday Times is reporting that a former Google UK executive has evidence of further tax avoidance by his one-time employer. Barney Jones worked for Google between 2002 and 2006 and says that during his time at the company, Google relied almost exclusively on its UK sales staff to secure advertising deals in London, effectively closing deals there rather than in Dublin, where it booked the revenues. Google VP Matt Brittin had previously testified to the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that "nobody" at Google’s UK office was selling Google advertising, last week revising his...

Amtrak improves its notoriously-sluggish onboard Wi-Fi with 4G connectivity

2013-05-18T19:33:02Z

After years of sluggish service, train operator Amtrak has begun a network-wide overhaul of its onboard Wi-Fi service. Piggybacking on a number of different mobile networks, the new service uses 4G connectivity to improve speeds. The upgrade is already complete on the 400-mile Washington to Boston route, and has also rolled out on some state routes in California. Amtrak promises the rest of its Wi-Fi enabled trains, which serve 75 percent of its passengers, will be upgraded by "late summer."

Despite the speed upgrade, Amtrak is still limiting the service. Bandwidth-heavy services such as Netflix and Pandora will continue to be blacklisted, as will file downloads of over 10MB. Given the service remains free for Amtrak customers, it's...

What would you like to see Google do next after I/O? - Verge Forums

2013-05-18T16:13:05Z

Google's business practices to be investigated by Canadian Competition Bureau

2013-05-18T04:57:08Z

It appears that Canada will become the latest country to look into the business practices of search giant Google. The Financial Post reports that Canada's Competition Bureau — a law-enforcement agency focused on ensuring competitive conditions in the marketplace — has notified Google that it will be investigating the company's Canadian operations. It's not clear at this time what the scope of the investigation will be, or what specific Google products and services will be targeted.

The investigation will follow a series of other Google investigations, including ones launched by the Federal Trade Commission and EU regulators. Google reached a settlement with the FTC earlier this year; the company offered to make changes to address EU...

Security experts warn FBI wiretap bill would make apps less secure

2013-05-18T03:48:58Z

A group of cybersecurity experts has come out in opposition to a White House-backed proposal that would dramatically expand the FBI's wiretapping capabilities for internet communication services.

In a new research paper, the group argues against new regulations under what's being called CALEA II, an extension to the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, which mandated law enforcement backdoor access for telephone networks. The new regulation would do something similar for internet communications, threatening heavy fines on companies that do not comply with wiretapping orders. That means that all apps would need to be built or rebuilt to be wiretap-ready, just in case they need to accomodate a law enforcement...