zuckerberg

In his first major act of public philanthropy, The New York Times reported late today that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to donate $100 million to the public school system in Newark, N.J., a troubled and crime-ridden city across the Hudson River from New York. The formal announcement will reportedly come Friday on Oprah Winfrey's talk show, where Zuckerberg will be joined by Newark Mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who will formally cede some control of the Newark school system to Booker's municipal administration.

The article in the Times hints that it's … Read more

Welcome to another week of The 404 Podcast! We're running through several stories on today's episode, including OnStar reading you Facebook updates in the car, Cablevision and Time Warner teaming up to offer "free" public Wi-Fi in NYC parks, carrier pigeons beating the Internet, Americans increasingly distracted by the Internet, a useless product appropriately called the "Textee," and a nerdy new Tumblr that looks at how the Internet and hacking culture are portrayed in film!

Our first story in the rundown is a shameless plug for AccessMainComputerFile, a new blog that pokes fun at images of hacker culture and embellished UI in popular movies like "Independence Day," "Richie Rich," "Terminator 2," and more. Submissions are also welcome, so send over your YouTube links!

Facebook is already a ubiquitous part of daily Interlife, but now OnStar is testing a service that connects your car to the social network as well. The system uses voice recognition and even interprets Web-slang like LOL as "laughing out loud," and drivers can also record audio as status updates without taking their hands off the wheel.

Additionally, if you have an Android-powered phone with Bluetooth, OnStar can receive your text messages and translate them to audio and from there, you can use voice commands to send a reply (like "yes" or "can't talk--driving"). OnStar hopes to have an similar app available for the iPhone soon, but in the meantime iPhone users can download OnStar's MyLink App that shows you service information, tire pressure, and even offers the capability to lock your doors remotely from anywhere in the world.

New York's two main cable providers are teaming up to offer free wireless Internet in select New York City public parks. Before you head out, though, we should mention that Time Warner and Cablevision promise only three free 10-minute sessions per month; after that, you'll be charged $0.99 a day to get on the network. It sounds like a classic bait-and-switch scenario, and we can't see people jumping to pay for public Internet when truly free wireless access is already available in thousands of hot spots around the city.

Everyone complains about sluggish Internet, but a CTO of a U.K. ISP put his own pathetic broadband speeds to the test...against a carrier pigeon. The only thing more bizarre than the test setup is the result: the pigeons were able to deliver the 100MB of video by MicroSD Card faster than it took to upload the clip to YouTube. The stunt is a half-joke, but it makes a good point about the necessity for Net neutrality.

No voice-mails today, so it's up to you to call us up at 1-866-404-CNET and help out the show! You can also hit us up on Twitter or just e-mail us at the404(at)cnet(dot)com!

On today's Buzz Out Loud, Jason confesses his noob security mistake, Consumer Reports wants the world to know they STILL don't recommend the iPhone 4. Plus, Mark Zuckerberg's Hollywood moment isn't going to be as fun as he hoped, and we predict the MPAA will go nuclear if rumors of a permanent HDCP crack are true.

NEW YORK--They're everywhere here: on the sides of buses and along the walls of subway stations, posters for the upcoming film "The Social Network" bearing little else than the three words "PUNK, BILLIONAIRE, GENIUS" and a partial headshot of lead actor Jesse Eisenberg. Likewise, buzz about the David Fincher-directed film about the contested origins of Facebook, based on Ben Mezrich's book "The Accidental Billionaires," has been growing now that its hyped premiere at the New York Film Festival is less than a month away. Its wide theatrical release is on October 1.… Read more

It's our annual scare-the-bejesus out of ourselves episode, wherein we discuss all of the scary things that were announced and demonstrated at DefCon this year. Seriously, DefCon is way past phone phreaking and seriously into national security right now. Yikes. Also, new Apple jailbreaks are available, the BlackBerry doesn't pass Middle Eastern muster, and we've got the ultimate solution to Internet privacy concerns: data locavores.

In a twist that makes the whole story sound like the Coen brothers penning an episode of "Arrested Development," New York resident Paul Ceglia claimed in an interview with Bloomberg published Monday, that he might never have found the musty old papers containing proof that he owns 84 percent of Facebook--except that last fall, state troopers dispatched by the office of state attorney general Andrew Cuomo arrived at his house to arrest him for fraud in the wood-pellet business, and he was forced to unearth various old paperwork.

You heard that right.

"If this thing hadn'… Read more

All week long we've been discussing this year's Comic Con(vention) in California, an annual gathering where Conheads can buy, sell, and trade all manner of nerdly paraphernalia. It's also a good opportunity for companies to introduce new products, and our buddy Claire brought us back a bottle of SULU Pour Homme, the new fragrance from the folks at Genki Wear.

Designed for the man "wielding a rapier in a swordfight or commanding the helm of a Constitution-class starship," SULU is actually Genki's SIXTH Trek-inspired frangrance- past colognes include Tiberius, Red Shirt, Pon Farr for Women, … Read more

Facebook said in a statement Friday that a lawsuit from a man who claims he owns 84 percent of the company is based on a contract that was likely "forged." It's an unusually forceful denial coming from a company that prefers not to talk about pending litigation.

A Facebook lawyer had initially said that the company was "unsure" whether CEO Mark Zuckerberg had ever signed an agreement with the plaintiff, New York resident Paul Ceglia, to help build something called "The Face Book" in 2003 and in which Ceglia would have an 84 … Read more

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's interview on "ABC World News" on Wednesday night was pretty boring. But according to one hilarious rumor Thursday, the 26-year-old founder will soon be showing up on a very different kind of prime-time television.

Apparently he will be voicing a cartoon version of himself in a cameo appearance on "The Simpsons."

New York Magazine's pop-culture blog Vulture claims to have heard this much: "Lisa (Simpson) decides to help fund Nelson's new bike company. While attending an entrepreneurs convention, the two encounter Zuckerberg, who reminds the kids just how … Read more