Apple ordered to pay $532.9 million to a 8th-grade dropout patent troll

Apple was ordered by the courts to pay Smartflash LLC for willful infringement of three U.S. Patents.

In a move of sheer legal brilliance, Patrick Racz, a 8th grade drop out created a LLC called Smartflash which makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no U.S. presence, and has been set up specifically to exploit the U.S. patent system and has successfully claimed royalties for technology Apple invented.At first Apple refused to pay off this company for the ideas their employees spent years innovating but unfortunately Apple has been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the U.S. Patent court system. Which in the end sided with Smartflash LLC.

Bill Gates is named world's richest person again

Bill Gates has been declared the richest man in the world for the 16th time by Forbes magazine's annual ranking of global billionaires.The Microsoft founder once again beat Mexican businessman Carlos Slim to the top spot.Mr Gates' net worth rose by just over $3bn (£1.94bn) in the year to 13 February, to $79bn.There are a record 1,826 billionaires in the world, Forbes said, an increase of 181 in the past 12 months.Mr Gates has now been top of the list for 16 of the last 21 years, Forbes added.Legendary US investor Warren Buffett regained third place in the list with a net worth of $72.7bn, from Amancio Ortega, the founder of Spanish fashion chain Zara.

Upgrading from Windows 7 or 8? You'll love Windows 10

Are you a Windows 8 user? Still using Windows 7? Either way, you'll love Windows 10.Over the six years since Windows 7 was released, Microsoft has made its PC operating system far more intuitive and powerful by packing it with tablet- and smartphone-like features.A lot of those features debuted with Windows 8, but they still weren't working perfectly.

Nissan unwraps a glow-in-the-dark vehicle

While motor enthusiasts around the world watched the happenings at the Chicago auto show, across the Atlantic, Nissan Europe stole a bit of the limelight with a standout announcement of its own: a plan to offer glow-in-the-dark paint on the company’s Leaf battery electric vehicle.

Energised during the day by solar radiation, the white paint produces a ghostly bluish glow for long as 10 hours after sunset. Glowing paint and wraps aren’t entirely new in the aftermarket, but Nissan is the first automaker to suggest it might offer this visibility-improving emulsion on a production car.

First Ubuntu Phone to be distributed soon

A year after it revealed another attempt to muscle in on the smartphone market, Canonical’s first Ubuntu-based smartphone is due to go on sale in Europe in the “coming days”, it said today. The device will be sold for €169.90 (~$190) unlocked to any carrier network, although some regional European carriers will be offering SIM bundles at the point of purchase. The hardware is an existing mid-tier device, the Aquaris E4.5, made by Spain’s BQ — with the Ubuntu version of the device known as the ‘Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition’. So the only difference here is it will be pre-loaded with Ubuntu’s mobile software, rather than Google’s Android platform.

New hotel in Japan to be run by robots

A new hotel in Japan would be ran by robots. Room service, cleaning, serving drinks would be done by machines.

It looks like the rise of the machines as reports have revealed that a new hotel is being opened in Japan which will be run entirely by robots.

The Henn Na Hotel will be opening on Friday, July 17 at the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Japan, and the staff of the hotel will be robots.

The Pirate Bay Is Back After Nearly Two Months Of "Death"

One of the Internet’s most targeted, and yet also most hard-to-kill sites is back again following a raid on its servers over seven weeks ago: The Pirate Bay resides once again at its familiar “.se” URL, offering a database that appears to be fairly intact, with torrents mostly in place up to its closure on December 9. The website, a famed destination for those seeking pirated material (but which also seeks simply to provide a portal for sharing of information via bit torrent technology, and ascribes content choice to users), went down after its servers were raided at a data center in Nacka station near Stockholm, Sweden.This looked like one of the most serious threats yet to The Pirate Bay, which has been in operation since 2003,

New Instant Language Translation App from Google for Android and iOS users

Google releases new direct output Language Translation tool for Android and iOS devices

Often language is the important factor during travelling. Sometimes,  you do not know what a single word being spelled in different countries you visit on business or for leisure. Now Google  has updated the platform of translator which can guide you in different ways. The updated platform is available for Android and iOS versions.The translator uses the lens to snap a photo of the text, recognize words and translates in 36 different languages in your phone screen.

Japan Unveils Designs For First Underwater City

We've seen people living in tiny homes, big homes and everything in between -- but nobody has ever taken underwater dwelling to a level like this.

A Japanese architecture firm has unveiled renderings of what would be the world's first underwater city, which the firm says could be constructed as early as 2035. The massive, spherical structure measures more than four football fields in length, and its electricity and water supplies extend almost two miles deep into the sea.

Facebook Launches New Amber Alert System To Help Find Missing Children

Starting today, there's a new way you can help locate a missing child simply by checking Facebook.

Facebook is teaming up with the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children to send Amber Alerts to its users in specific areas where a child has gone missing.

“Facebook ... in essence in this situation, is the world's largest neighbourhood watch," Emily Vacher, Facebook’s Security, Trust and Safety manager told the media, announcing the partnership.

GTA 5 system requirements announced- Can your PC handle it?

Is your PC capable of smoothly running Rockstar's latest? Today, you can find out, as Rockstar has finally released the game's system requirements ahead of a now delayed 24 March release.

Here's what Rockstar says you'll need to enjoy new-GTA's brand of violence and mayhem:

What Facebook knows about you that your family doesn't

You think no one knows you better than your family and friends? Wrong.There's something else that "gets" you better than your inner circle, according to a study from Stanford University and the University of Cambridge.Computers, or artificial intelligence, can judge a person's personality traits just as accurately as their spouse -- sometimes even more precisely.From 2007 to 2011, researchers collected and studied online personality questionnaires answered by 86,220 respondents.

The Mercedes-Benz F 015: this is what tomorrow's self-driving cars look like

 Mercedes-Benz took the wraps off a new concept car here at CES this week, and considering the setting, it's appropriately loaded to the gills with technology. The F 015 Luxury in Motion — yes, "Luxury in Motion" is part of the car's name — is basically a sleek pod with a huge passenger compartment, a fortuitous side effect of an imagined future where we spend most of our times chilling out in cars while they drive us around all by themselves. Mercedes actually calls the cabin "lounge-like," thanks to four rotating seats that can face each other. An array of screens throughout the car let passengers interact with controls and entertainment, supporting not-quite-production features like gestures and eye tracking.

Facebook Drones to provide Internet access to the world

Robots and drones have definitely marked the technological advancement of the coming era. Recently the world has witnessed the release of many new robots, humanoids and drones. After the spectacular release of Google’s project loon , we have a new drone set to bamboozle the world with its wonders. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced the release of this drone under the project of Internet.org. This Facebook drone is all set to introduce it with its last and final test and release being covered up in the year 2015.

Whatsapp to provide Free Calling service, Screenshot leaked online

WhatsApp, the most popular messaging service acquired by Facebook this year, will provide free voice calling service very soon . This will increase the popularity of this messaging app because many people says that WhatsApp is not doing good job of keeping pace with newer offerings in terms of adding popular new features to its app.

North Korea partially back online after internet collapse

Some internet services have been restored in North Korea after an almost unprecedented internet outage, amid a cyber security row with the US.Though there has been no comment from the authorities in Pyongyang, US experts reported the restoration.Some analysts say the country's web access was cut entirely for a time.Washington said it would launch a proportional response to a cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, which made a comedy about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Officials would not comment on any US involvement in the current outages.

Facebook thinking about 'dislike' function - Zuckerberg

Facebook is thinking about adding a way to "dislike" posts on its site, founder Mark Zuckerberg has said.

Speaking at a Q&A session in California, he said it was one of the most requested features the social network receives from its users.

He said the site would need to find a way to make sure it did not become a way to demean people's posts.

According to Facebook's own figures, 4.5 billion "likes" are generated every day.

"One of things we've thought about for quite a while is what's the right way to make it so that people can easily express a broader range of emotions,"

Snapchat Now Lets You Send Money To Friends!!

While Venmo, Google Wallet, and more try to take a business approach to peer-to-peer payments, Snapchat today swooped in from the consumer side. It just added a “Snapcash”  payments option to its app through a deal with Square Cash. Now you can add a debit card, type a dollar amount into Snapchat’s text-chat feature, and hit the green pay button to instantly send a friend money. The feature is on Android now and is coming to iOS soon.

Mercedes renames vehicles to avoid customer confusion

Mercedes-Benz is changing the way it identifies its cars and light trucks as it prepares to launch 30 models, including 11 all-new vehicles, by 2020.
In addition to new models, Mercedes said it would also introduce new body variants and drive systems, Autonews reports.
“This results in an increasingly complex situation when it comes to naming the models,” a statement by the company said.
Mercedes joins Infiniti and Cadillac among luxury brands changing the way they name their vehicles.

United States Postal Service Hacked !!

It seems like 2014 has been one endless series of massive hacks. Home Depot. Target. Neiman Marcus. Michaels. JPMorgan Chase. It’s been one hack after the other, each dumping anything from customer credit card numbers to mailing addresses into the wild.

The latest one is a big one: the United States Postal Service.

Here’s what we know: