Hasta La Gadget!

Behold, a ready-made answer for those who own a Linux-powered fruit machine but who are still looking for new ways to use it. It’s a simple media center starter kit, fresh out and shipping today, which makes it easy to hook your Raspberry Pi up to an HDMI display and use it to play video or music from the internet or your home network through the wonders of XBMC. Known simply as “XBMC Solution,” it consists of the Raspbmc software on a bootable SD card (this is an all-in-one install that combines XBMC with a lightweight Linux distro), a rechargeable RF controller with a small keyboard and touchpad to aid navigation (it’s generic, unbranded, and even has a “Win” key, but it works fine), plus Ethernet and HDMI cables in case you don’t have any going spare. Read on for more.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Networking, Internet, Software, HD

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Source: Element14

Note-taking addicts and Evernote lovers alike have had access to the Evernote Web Clipper tool for awhile now, which allows individuals to clip items from the web for easy saving to their account. That tool just got a little more useful, however, with an addition to its Web Clipper for Chrome extension: clipping within Gmail.

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Although Google Drive has spread far and wide, its localization hasn’t always kept pace. The service just took a few needed strides forward, however, with the addition of 18 new languages. Asia gets the most recognition with support for Hong Kong Chinese, Khmer, Lao, Malaysian, Nepali, Persian, Sinhalese and Urdu. Not that Google is neglecting other corners of the world, mind you: Africa is well covered with the additions of Afrikaans, Amharic, Swahili and Zulu, while Europeans get some TLC through support for Basque, Estonian, Galician and Icelandic. French Canadians and Spanish-speaking Latin Americans get localizations, too. Google Drive still isn’t tuned for every language on Earth, but those with cloud storage in Cape Town or Kuala Lumpur should feel at home.

Filed under: Storage, Internet, Google

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Source: Google Drive Blog

Google and other companies have already made general calls for more transparency in the wake of the PRISM revelations, and it looks like Mountain View is now escalating those requests to a court challenge. As The Washington Post reports, Google is asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for some additional leeway with the government requests for data that it’s able to disclose, and it’s citing the First Amendment to make its case.

In a statement provided to us (included in full after the break), a Google spokesperson says that the company is specifically asking the court to let it “publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately,” adding that “lumping national security requests together with criminal requests – as some companies have been permitted to do – would be a backward step for our users.” That’s in line with a statement Google made on Friday, which was echoed by Twitter, although there’s no word yet on it or any other companies joining Google in the court challenge at this time.

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Source: The Washington Post

As much as the federal government would like it to, the public outrage at the scope of its PRISM program has yet to die down, despite any good the program may have served in the interests of national and local security. The revelations made by Edward Snowdon have cast a bright light on the powers granted our government by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and many companies are taking the opportunity to push the feds to let them tell the public just how many governmental data requests are being made. Of course, no company can release exactly how many requests were made under FISA — companies can only publish the number of total data requests, whether they be from the NSA, local law enforcement or elsewhere. Since so many of Silicon Valley’s giants have been dishing our data to Uncle Sam on the sly, we figured we’d bring you all the numbers in one place.

At the top of the request list is Yahoo, which received between 12-13,000 requests in the first six months of 2013. During that same time period, Apple received between 4-5,000 requests. Meanwhile, Google reported 8,438 requests between July and December of 2012, Facebook received between 9-10,000 and Microsoft was asked for its users data between 6-7,000 times. Prefer pictures to numbers? A colorful chart awaits after the break.

Filed under: Internet, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook

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Source: Yahoo!, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Twitter