Hasta La Gadget!

Hulu has been a source of rumors for months now, with word surfacing in March that the video service’s board is looking into selling the service. Not too long after that, sources began popping up claiming various entities have been in talks with or placed bids on Hulu, including one of its owner’s former president. Now another source has surfaced, this one telling the folks over at AllThingsD that Yahoo! has placed a bid for the platform.

The source is someone said to be familiar with the matter, having said Yahoo! submitted the bid for Hulu earlier this morning. How much the company reportedly offered – and in return for what – wasn’t specified, and Yahoo! isn’t commenting on the matter. This follows a previous attempt in its part to buy a different video site, DailyMotion, which ultimately fell through.

Yahoo! isn’t the only company that is looking into buying it, however, with other alleged interested entities including Directv, KKR, The Chernin Group, Guggenheim Digital, Silverlake and William Moriss Endeavor, as well as Time Warner Cable. As we reported on April 5, The Chernin Group was started by Peter Chernin, who was previously one of the individuals at the helm of Hulu in its hayday, eventually leaving to form his own company, which has holdings in companies like Pandora. The Group reportedly placed a $500 million bid on Hulu.

This rumor follows a Yahoo! acquisition of Tumblr on May 20th for a hefty $1.1 billion, with the former company promising it won’t screw up the service. Such a deal had been rumored for weeks before it happened. A few days later, on May 23, Yahoo then nabbed up PlayerScale as well, a software infrastructure for multi-platform gaming.

According to the source, interested companies were told by Hulu to have their bids in by Wednesday of this week, but it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that other bids could be entertained in the future. For now we’ll have to wait for more details to emerge, including what a Hulu purchase would look like for the winning bidder, but for the time being there’s the possibility we might see Yahoo nab up another big service in the near future.

SOURCE: AllThingsD

Yahoo bids on Hulu says source is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Waze is a navigational app that offers crowdsourced information on things such as traffic conditions, with the information and map updates coming from users themselves. The app has long been the source of acquisition rumors, with word having surfaced back in January that Apple was looking into buying the company, something that was later denied by sources. This was followed up earlier this month by a new rumor, this time that Facebook is looking into buying the company for $1 billion, and now new sources are saying Google is considering tossing a bid into the mix.

This new information comes from sources who are likewise unnamed, said to be familiar with the matter and having access to the private talks. Says these individuals, Google hasn’t made a decision either way, but is considering making a bid on Waze. The navigational company is looking to get at least $1 billion in an acquisition situation, but is also looking into staying independent and instead going the venture capital route.

According to Bloomberg, two sources have both stated that Facebook has, indeed, been in talks with Waze, considering a purchase of $1 billion. If such is the case, and Google is indeed also interested, the independent company could see itself in the middle of a grand-scale bidding war. That isn’t the case any time soon, however, if the sources are correct. None of the companies in talks with Waze, which are said to be more than just Facebook and Google, are close to forming a deal.

Although there was speculation that Apple was in talks to buy the app, with very little information surfacing about the matter, sources have told Bloomberg that Apple is not “currently part of” the business talks. Whether that means the rumors earlier this year were true and Apple has since then backed out, or that the company was never considering the purchase in the first place, is still unknown.

It is particularly interesting to contemplate a Facebook acquisition of Waze, considering the vast amount of data that Facebook already has on many Internet users across the globe. A Google acquisition could be similarly interesting, although for different reasons, and it isn’t too much a stretch to imagine the Internet giant nabbing the crowdsourced navigation app to keep it out of the hands of competitors.

SOURCE: Bloomberg

Google reportedly considering bid against Facebook to buy Waze is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Kim Dotcom, the Internet maverick behind the now-defunct Megaupload, went on to replace his government-squashed file hosting website with the newly launched service Mega. All of this followed the police raid on his home in 2012, prompting a legal battle and eventual lawsuit against New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau, also known as GCSB, for illegal spying. Now he has taken to Twitter, claiming that many big-name companies, including Google, Twitter, and Facebook , have infringed on his two-step verification patent, and in return he is asking for help funding his legal defense.

The issue concerns many companies’ use of two-step verification, something Dotcom alleges he created and holds the patent for, which was filed in 1997. He goes on to link to his patent, which details the kind of two-step verification process mostly any Internet user will be familiar with. The information comes from Dotcom himself, who said in one tweet: “Twitter introduces Two-Step-Authentication. Using my invention. But they won’t even verify my Twitter account?!”

This tweet was followed by another two tweets that hour, the next saying that Google, Twitter, Citibank, Facebook, and more all utilize two-step verification that infringes on his patent. The following tweet then offers the “big reveal,” saying that in excess of 1 billion two-step authentications take place online every week.

All was silent for an hour, then another tweet popped up, this one stating that Dotcom has been aware of the mass violations of his patent but “never sued them” due to a belief in the mutual sharing of ideas and knowledge that better society in some way. He then insinuates that a lawsuit against one – or all – companies could take place, however, over “what the U.S. did to me,” regarding the legal turmoil resulting from the Megaupload debacle.

This is rounded out by a tweet telling Facebook, Google, and Twitter that they can continue to use his patent for free. He implores them to help fund his legal defense, saying they “are all in the same DMCA boat.” He goes on to explain that his defense case is looking to have a price tag of at least $50 million, linking to a whitepaper on the matter. At the end of it all came a tweet asking if anyone wants to buy a world-wide license to use his patent.

SOURCE: The Verge

Kim Dotcom claims companies infringe on his patent, asks them to fund his defense is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It is no secret that corporations use tax loopholes and such to get out of paying what often amounts to a hefty chunk of money in taxes. Apple is one such corporation, but unlike the others, it stands out as having reportedly used exceptionally complex “gimmicks” and “schemes” to get out of paying billions of dollars in taxes over the course of the last few years. According to a Congressional investigation, the multi-country subsidiaries Apple uses are more convoluted than most of the systems seen by experts.

Apple avoided paying $74 billion in taxes from 2009 to 2012, doing so using a variety of subsidiaries scattered throughout the world, according to investigators. According to the New York Times, some of these subsidiaries do not have employees, instead being run by “top officials” at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters. Such subsidiaries not only skip out on paying taxes, but also aren’t required to file tax returns.

Said Senator Carl Levin (D. Michigan), Chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations: “Apple wasn’t satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven. Apple successfully sought the holy grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars while claiming to be tax resident nowhere … I’ve never seen anything like this and we don’t know anybody who’s seen anything like this.”

Despite the means it used to avoid paying taxes, Apple has not been pegged as having violated any laws. The investigation does, however, underscore the reality of tax loopholes, and will be used in a possibly volatile meeting between the Congressional committee and Apple tomorrow. The committee will also show findings that Apple’s effective tax rate was lower than its disclosed tax rate by at least 4-percent.

Not surprisingly, Apple disagrees with the results of the investigation, saying that it does not use gimmicks and other similar methods to avoid paying taxes. Likewise, says the company, its biggest subsidiaries don’t reduce the amount of taxes it pays. Says a statement from the company, “[Apple] welcomes an objective examination of the U.S. corporate tax system, which has not kept pace with the advent of the digital age and the rapidly changing global economy.”

SOURCE: Facebook

Apple avoided billions in taxes via complex system says investigators is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The United States will be rolling out a new greenback this fall, in this case a new $100 note that, while visually similar to the current offering, utilizes new technology (and a slight splash of color) to make it harder for counterfeiters to replicate the bills. Among the changes are such things as a duplicating Benjamin Franklin, who has been enlarged and filled out, microprinting, and more.

According to the Federal Reserve, the new bill will go into circulation on October 8, will all new bills in that denomination ordered after that date being issued with the new technology. This follows the current design, which was issued back in March 1996, and is aimed at making it more difficult for counterfeiters to replicate the notes. As such, the new design implements a variety of technologies.

As part of the changes, Benjamin Franklin is now larger and slightly raised, with more detailed eyes and with a microprinted “United States of America” in the collar. The combination of these two things will make it harder for counterfeiters to print the bills and easier for those receiving fake bills to notice if something is off, such as missing details or incorrectly rendered aspects of the portrait.

In addition, changes have been made to the watermark so that it duplicates slightly when held up to the light. The gold inkwell visible in the image above has a slightly darker image of the Liberty Bell inside of it, which turns green when the bill is shifted. This is achieved using color-shifting ink, and is designed to be easier to spot due to the contrast between the green and gold colors.

One of the biggest changes is found on the back, with the new note featuring a giant golden “100″ numeral vertically aligned on the left side, with the outside of the numbers being lined with blue ink, and the inside being filled with a striated golden gradient, something that makes it especially hard for counterfeiters to replicate, partly because of the color difficulties and partly because of the large size, which require more attention to detail and makes it easier for someone to notice a mistake. There’s the added bonus of being easier on the eyes for those with visual impairments.

Independence Hall is now pictured from the rear, and the clock on the building has had its time changed from 4:10 to 10:30. And finally, there is a blue woven ribbon near the center of the note composed of 650,000 microlenses that generate $100 signs and 3D Liberty Bells. All commonly used counterfeiting methods are incapable of generating this.

SOURCE: Business Week

Technology in new $100 US note aims to foil counterfeiters is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.