Media

Top-trending music topics on Twitter to fuel new TV show

Do you like music and want to know what the hottest music-related stories are? A new TV show that features the top trending music topics on Twitter hopes to have you covered.

Known as "Trending 10," the new show is being produced for music-oriented cable TV network Fuse, in partnership with Twitter and gum company Trident.

The idea, the companies said in a release, is to build "Trending 10" around the Top 10 music-related Twitter topics of the day. Those stories will be selected based on Fuse's "heat tracker" algorithm, a system that … Read more

Korea's backhander to Bill Gates for one-handed handshake

Etiquette, politeness, and decorum are not words that normally bother the tech world.

When your life's work consists of disrupting existing systems, you can hardly spend a moment considering whether the fork goes on the left or the right side of your burger wrapper.

Today, though, there is much consternation concerning Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and the hand that stayed in his pocket when he met Korean President Park Geun-hye on a visit to her country.

There are many moms reading this who would be appalled if their male offspring greeted any adult with their right hand extended and … Read more

Breakthrough: Order Pizza Hut from your Xbox

It's well-known that pizza helps gamers' concentration. It allows them to shoot more accurately and endure more obdurately.

Pizza and gaming go together like fish and chips in England or plates and large portions in America.

Previously, though, whenever gamers had to order pizza, their concentration was destroyed. They had to use ancient machines, like their phones and laptops, to get that pepperoni knocking on their apartment door. In the name of progress, Pizza Hut and Microsoft decided to get together in a darkened room and chew over a new salvation.

Please, without letting go of your controls, welcome the Pizza Hut Xbox app. … Read more

Reuters fires social media editor after Anonymous hacking probe

News agency Thomson Reuters has fired Matthew Keys a month after federal prosecutors accused the social media editor of conspiring with the hacktivist group Anonymous to break into the Los Angeles Times Web site.

Keys announced the development Monday morning on his Twitter account, saying he had just learned of his dismissal and that his union would file a grievance:

Just got off the phone. Reuters has fired me, effective today. Our union will be filing a grievance. More soon.

— Matthew Keys (@TheMatthewKeys) April 22, 2013

Prosecutors alleged last month that Keys, a former Web producer for a TV station … Read more

Anthony Weiner gets a new handle on Twitter

On balance, there may be worse things in life than sending someone pictures of yourself in your underpants.

However, there may be fewer more ill-advised things, especially if you've never met the recipient and you happen to be a politician held in some regard.

For his intimately twittered transgression, Anthony Weiner paid a certain price and that price was what, in some media, is defined by the word "disgrace." It seems odd that this word might be damning, as it is one so often used to describe politicians.

Some might have imagined that Weiner would seek a quieter, more contemplative life after events which saw the Democratic Representative for New York resign in 2011 for his socially networked unseemliness.

A decent amount of time has passed, however, and Weiner seems to be girding his loins for a run at the mayor's office. With this perhaps in mind, he has returned again to the place of alleged disgrace, Twitter. … Read more

Netflix shares explode as revenue tops $1 billion

Bulls and bears will continue to argue about the fair price of its stock, but Netflix's surprisingly good first-quarter earnings report should put paid to the contention that this company's fundamentals are built on a house of cards.

Netflix on Monday posted adjusted earnings per share of 31 cents. Revenue was $1.02 billion. Wall Street expected slightly more than $1 billion in revenue and earnings of 18 cents to 19 cents a share. A year ago during the same quarter, the company lost $5 million, or 8 cents a share, on revenue of $870 million.

The company … Read more

Toddlers need treatment for iPad addiction?

I understand that one of the main joys of parenting a toddler involves keeping the little one amused.

Amused, as in quiet.

Ever since the iPad came along, with its bright colors and infinite range of games and pictures, it has seemed like an ideal tool to keep baby happy. This happiness, however, is one that baby does not want to ever, ever stop. So much so that some toddlers are now said to be iPad addicts.

This curiously adult affliction seems to involve baby undergoing seven aspects of demented ranting, should her iPad be taken away.… Read more

Twitter partners with Comedy Central to host laugh fest

If you've got time for quick joke, Twitter will be the place to be next week.

While there there's already plenty to laugh at on Twitter, the microblogging site is partnering with Comedy Central on a five-day laugh festival that will occur almost entirely on Twitter, according to The New York Times. Comedy legends such as Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner will be joined by young comics in tweeting jokes and posting video clips on Vine, the app Twitter launched in January that allows users to share six-second video clips.

Utilizing Vine's brevity, comedian Steve Agee will … Read more

Facial-recognition tech played no role in ID'ing bomb suspects

While surveillance video provided key images of the men suspected of planting bombs at the Boston Marathon, police use of facial-recognition software proved unhelpful in revealing their identities.

Despite several images of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from the scene of the deadly bombings and the existence of images of the brothers in official government databases, facial-recognition software was unable to put names to their faces, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis told the Washington Post in an interview published Saturday. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has a Massachusetts driver's license, while Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the elder brother who died Friday after a shootout with … Read more