Internet & Media

Computer visionary says he knows who invented Bitcoin

The inventor of Bitcoin has been shrouded in a mystery so complete, it's baffled even core developers for the virtual currency. Who is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym for the person or group of people who came up with the original idea for the electronic cash system in 2008?

After contributing thousands of lines of code and hundreds of posts on Bitcoin, Nakamoto sent a note to a developer in April 2011 saying that he had "moved on to other things." Later that year, the New Yorker and others tried to unravel the mystery, but came away empty-handed. … Read more

Google: America's third political party

Congress is a dog that won't go for a walk.

We can tug at its leash as hard as we want, but it sits in the middle of the sidewalk, barking a defiant "no." It's not a purposeful no. It's just a refusal for the sake of it, couched in principle.

Then along comes America's most ambitious politician.

No, it's not Paul Ryan or Elizabeth Warren. It's Larry Page.

The man who is Google stood at last week's I/O 2013 conference and made his own types believe that he was … Read more

Twitter will damn your soul, Saudi cleric says

Life becomes more meaningful when someone from a long way away reflects your own thoughts.

It makes you feel less alone, less forlorn on your island of one.

I was, therefore, lifted to heights previously unimagined on hearing that the head of Saudi Arabia's religious police has declared that Twitter is an appalling waste of time, mind, and soul.

Actually, it's worse than that.

As the BBC reports, Sheikh Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh mused that anyone who uses Twitter "has lost this world and his afterlife."

It may well be that the Sheikh's biggest … Read more

Yahoo board approves $1.1B acquisition of Tumblr -- WSJ

Yahoo's board has approved a $1.1 billion acquisition of blogging site Tumblr, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal first reported the news on Sunday via Twitter.

An imminent announcement of the acquisition had been expected. AllThingsD reported Friday that Yahoo's board was meeting this weekend to finalize a deal. Rumors about the possible tie-up first surfaced on Thursday. The deal could be announced on Monday as part of a product announcement event Yahoo is holding in New York tomorrow. According to reports, Tumblr's board of investors, including Sequoia Capital, Union Square Ventures and Spark … Read more

Fugitive to police on Facebook: Catch me if you can. They do

Thin is the line between the brave and the foolhardy.

Thinner is the brain that thinks it's brave to taunt the police on Facebook.

Perhaps it comes from watching too many movies or too few, but those who are wanted by the police sometimes turn to Facebook to offer a "na, na, na-na, na."

A couple of years ago, a man in Utica, N.Y., allegedly tried to dare the police to catch him, with troubling results (for him).

The world learns as slowly as it turns. For today I have news that an English teen, wanted … Read more

How to really, really make your naked Snapchat photos disappear

The attractions of Snapchat are essentially intellectual.

In creating the conditions for a spontaneous "now you see me, now you don't" aspect to your life, it allows for a greater and more nuanced level of excitement to permeate human relationships.

Recently, however, there have been concerns that the topless, bottomless, or merely hapless shots sent by Snapchat users might not truly disappear. … Read more

Google Translate now serves 200 million people daily

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google Translate provides a billion translations a day for 200 million users, the company revealed here Friday at its Google I/O show for developers.

Google doesn't often share details about the scale on which it operates, but Josh Estelle, leader for Google Translate's front-end and mobile engineering, had a few statistics to share about the service during a talk about it.

Estelle, who's worked on Google Translate for seven years, also said 92 percent of the usage is from people outside the United States. The Internet is famously English-centric, but it's expanding … Read more

Could Tumblr turn into Yahoo's MySpace?

Marissa Mayer wants to attract a younger, hipper audience for Yahoo. Its audience of 700 million is aging, and the 18-year-old brand that defined the first era of the Web doesn't have a compelling entry point to attract the coveted 18- to 34-year-old demographic.

Speaking at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology conference this week, Yahoo CFO Ken Goldman said, "We're working hard to get some of the younger folks," and that Yahoo needs content that's more relevant the 18- to 34-year-old bracket.

Yahoo's board of directors is meeting this weekend to consider resolving … Read more

Pixel's camera failure only one of many

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google's expensive Chromebook giveaway here at its I/O 2013 conference can't handle connecting to digital cameras, but that's just one of many problems the laptop causes for its owners.

Chromebooks, which run Chrome OS (read review), are a perpetual work in progress. Updated every six weeks or thereabouts, just like the browser they're based on, Chromebooks rely on the promise of the modern Web.

But getting browsers to talk to commonplace hardware like USB ports, Webcams, and microphones is no easy task. Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC), a plugin-free way to stream video, … Read more