Internet & Media

Disgruntled IT guy slips porn into CEO's PowerPoint

Sometimes, revenge is bitter.

The reason for this is that sometimes you get your revenge and then you get, well, caught.

Please consider the feelings of Walter Powell, a 52-year-old IT manager at Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems. Actually, he became a former IT manager there. Which, perhaps stimulated a desire for a little revenge.

I am grateful to The Baltimore Sun for offering this story which begins with revenge, has porn in the middle, and whose denouement is played out in court.

Powell, you see, was reportedly fired in 2009. He wasn't very happy about this, so began to … Read more

Is Hulu news being leaked to jack up sale price?

Hulu has hired investment banks to oversee a sale of the streaming-video service, according to The Los Angeles Times.

The news comes a day after someone leaked word that Hulu had received a buyout offer. Later, it was reported that Yahoo was the company that had expressed interest. And now comes another report from Variety that Hulu has renewed its content licensing deal with Fox Broadcasting. Fox is owned by News Corp., which also owns a share of Hulu, along with Disney and NBC Universal.

All these stories hitting at one time (head scratch), what are the odds?

Well, the … Read more

Google hits record with 1 billion site visitors in May

One billion people worldwide visited Google in May, the first time ever that a site has drawn that many visitors in one month, according to data from ComScore.

The number of unique visitors to Google's sites rose by 8.4 percent from 931 million a year ago to just over a billion--1,009,699,000 to be more exact.

Across the world, market researcher ComScore said yesterday, Google saw its greatest numbers in India and South Africa, which accounted for 14.3 percent and 13.5 percent of its visitors, respectively. The lowest numbers were in South Korea and … Read more

Best Buy launching cloud music service

Best Buy is launching its own cloud-based music service that will let customers store and stream music from the Internet to their PCs and mobile devices.

Dubbed simply Best Buy Music Cloud, the service is following in the footsteps of similar offerings from Amazon, Google, and Apple.

Customers can upload their tunes to the Music Cloud and then stream them to their smartphone or tablet. Best Buy is promising that you can store your favorite music offline to listen to when you're not connected. Your playlists come along for the ride, so that you see the same ones across … Read more

Man takes hostage for 16 hours, updates Facebook

"I'm currently in a standoff...kinda ugly, but ready for whatever."

This is, perhaps, not the average Facebook update. But it seems that it's one that was posted by Jason Valdez, 36, while he reportedly held a woman hostage for 16 hours.

According to the Associated Press, Valdez held the woman in a motel in Ogden, Utah. While he was there, he used Facebook to send messages to his friends and his family.

It seems that Valdez had barricaded himself and the hostage in the motel room after the police attempted to serve a warrant for … Read more

Amazon's tablet to launch in August?

It appears Amazon will have its much-anticipated tablet on the market to challenge Apple before the end of the year.

Taiwan-based component makers say the online retailer will launch a tablet PC as early as August, with global sales for 2011 pegged at 4 million units, according to a report from tech site DigiTimes. With monthly orders expected to hit 700,000 to 800,000 units a month, the tablet's launch is timed to take advantage of the pre-Thanksgiving shopping rush, DigiTimes' sources pointed out.

Taiwan-based Quanta Computer has reportedly already received orders from Amazon to build the retail … Read more

This Day in Tech: LulzSec suspect named; more iPhone 5 rumors

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Tuesday, June 21.

Analyst: Apple's iCloud could see 150 million users More than 75 percent of iPhone users intend to use Apple's iCloud service, says a new survey conducted by RBC Capital Markets, which believes the number of iCloud users could reach 150 million. More

FCC outs new Apple AirPort Extreme The Federal Communications Commission posts its test report on a new AirPort Extreme Base Station, Apple's wireless hardware. More

Drawings show big changes for iPhone 5 … Read more

Reports: Hulu mulls sale after receiving buyout offer

Hulu apparently has a suitor and the video portal is considering whether to sell, according to reports from CNBC and The Wall Street Journal.

CNBC added that whoever the prospective buyer is, it isn't Google.

The LA Times, meanwhile, says that Yahoo has approached Hulu about a possible acquisition. It also reports that Hulu's board of directors has not met to consider any offers.

Originally founded by News Corp. and NBC Universal, Hulu later saw Disney become a partner. The service streams TV shows and movies over the Internet.

Hulu was an instant hit when it launched in … Read more

Sony's music comeback story needs third act

Sony's quest to return to a position of power in the music sector already faced plenty of obstacles.

A reputation for writing flawed software was one. Another was the company's history of creating failed consumer-focused media services that appeared more concerned with satisfying honchos at the company's film studio and record label. The company's hardware and software makers struggled to build devices and services that allayed security concerns held by content creators. Sony Connect, the so-called iTunes killer that bubbled up out of the chaos, was a glitch-prone and DRM-laden fiasco that launched to great fan … Read more