Brazil hacker posts alleged data of ex- president

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — A hacker has posted what appears to be private information of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the Internet to protest a major corruption scandal which he says "will end in nothing."The addresses of properties said to be owned by Silva, phone numbers, companies registered in his name and his taxpayer number were posted on Twitter. The hacker identified himself...

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Amazon and Samsung are running away with the Android tablet market

Following the successful launch of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, Android vendors saw a beacon of hope in a market that had been dominated by Apple’s (AAPL) iPad since 2010. The Android tablet space has since become flooded with hundreds of products from a wide-range of companies, but there are only two companies that matter.[More from BGR: ‘Apple is done’ and Surface tablet is cool, according to teens]According...

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People's Choice Awards Will Air on Xbox 360 Tonight

CBS's televised broadcast of the People's Choice Awards will also be aired on Xbox 360, Microsoft's gaming and entertainment-streaming console.Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers in the United States can tune in and interact with the festivities starting at 8 p.m. EST with the red carpet event. The ceremony begins at 9 p.m. EST.[More from Mashable: NBC Comedy ’1600 Penn’ Launches Social Media Cupcake Contest]Using...

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Video games and shooting: Is the NRA right?

After a week of silence following the Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 20 first graders and six staff in Newtown, Conn., the National Rifle Association blamed the entertainment industry – specifically the producers of violent video games for inciting what has become a pattern of gun violence in the United States.In describing the industry, NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre said, “There exists...

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Atheist Kids and Bullying: Just an Xbox and a Football Game Away From Redemption

I’ll never forget the year my eight-year-old daughter came home from school saying she got in trouble for going to the bathroom.“I was afraid,” she said, “that the devil was coming out of the mirror to get me.... I wanted Aya to stay with me until I was done.”Like any parent, I sat her down and asked her to tell me why she would ever think a mirror could spawn something as terrifying as that.“Susie...

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The Violent Video Games the NRA Didn't Blame

In a news conference today (Dec. 21), National Rifle Association Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre blamed video-game studio and publishers for helping to create "genuine monsters" like Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old who killed 20 first-graders with an assault rifle in Newtown, Conn., last week."There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow...

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Instagram gains users in December despite recent uproar as Zynga gets pecked to death by rivals

Zynga (ZNGA), the Facebook (FB) app behemoth, still reigns supreme on its most important platform. But the erosion of its dominant position continues as smaller rivals keep chipping away at its market share. On December 26, Zynga-owned Facebook applications had 267 million Monthly Active Users, down 20 million in two weeks. Far behind it followed Microsoft (MSFT) with 70 million MAU, King.com with...

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Nintendo’s Wii U wobbles as sales sink

According to Famitsu, Nintendo’s (NTDOY) portable 3DS console continued to see huge success during the week ahead of Christmas. It racked up sales of 433,000 units in Japan, up from 333,000 units in the prior week. But weirdly enough, the brand new and heavily promoted Wii U home console wobbled badly as its weekly sales slipped to 122,000 units from 130,000 units in the previous week. This may have...

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Samsung Smart TVs: The next frontier for data theft and hacking [video]

Smart TVs, particularly Samsung’s (005930) last few generations of flat screens, can be hacked to give attackers remote access according to a security startup called ReVuln. The company says it discovered a “zero-day exploit” that hackers could potentially use to perform malicious activities that range from stealing accounts linked through apps to using built-in webcams and microphones to spy on...

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Huge Wave of Google App Updates Hits iOS, Android

Google just brought iPhone and Android phone users a holiday gift. Google Maps has returned to the iPhone, this time in the form of its own separate app, while Google Currents -- the company's Flipboard-style online magazine app for Android -- received a substantial update as well.Besides the two big updates, about a half-dozen other apps for Android and Google TV received bug fixes and new features,...

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Valve Confirms New Game Console on Its Way

In an interview with Kotaku's Jason Schreier at the Spike TV Video Game Awards, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell confirmed that a "living-room-friendly PC package," designed to "compete with next-gen consoles from companies like Microsoft and Sony," will be available for purchase starting next year.What makes a PC a PCMost of the machines Newell described, which he expected "companies" would "start selling"...

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$35 Raspberry Pi computer gets its own app store

DIY developers adore the $35 Raspberry Pi and huge communities have enabled the Linux-powered computer to do cool things like emulate Super Nintendo games and run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. What’s next for the cheap computer? The Raspberry Pi Foundation announced it’s launching the “Pi Store” – an app store created in partnership with IndieCity and Velocix. Anyone will be able to download and...

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Is the Christmas card dead?

Author Nina Burleigh says the holiday photo is dead — and the internet killed itEvery year around the holidays, countless Americans sit down at their dining room tables to thoughtfully scribble pen-and-paper updates about how they are and what they've been doing with their lives to a select number of friends. These messages are usually written on the back of a recent family photograph (sometimes with...

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Record number of reporters jailed globally: Report

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — The Committee to Protect Journalists says more journalists around the world are sitting in prisons than ever before.The U.S.-based group on Tuesday said Turkey, Iran and China have imprisoned the most journalists. The journalists' group says that such states are using stepped-up anti-terror and anti-state charges to silence critical reporters.The Committee to Protect...

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The CIA Agent Who Found Bin Laden Is Having Trouble at Work

If you're not already aware of the bull-headed CIA agent whose persistent pressure to track Al Qaeda couriers helped lead the way to bin Laden's compound, you're about to be. The main character of Zero Dark Thirty, the soon-to-be released Oscar bait that portrays the story of the Bin Laden raid, is based on said agent, "is based on a real person" whose identity remains classified as she's still working...

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Life imitates art: Man strips at Austrian exhibition of paintings and sculptures of naked men

VIENNA - An Austrian museum says a man took the concept of life imitating art to an extreme when he suddenly stripped at an exhibition of pictures and sculptures portraying nude men through the ages.Vienna's Leopold Museum says that after taking his clothes off, the man calmly sauntered through the exhibition, dressing again only after a security guard asked him to do so.Museum spokesman Klaus Pokorny...

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S. Africa, Vietnam sign rhino protection agreement

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa says its diplomats have signed an agreement with Vietnam to try and halt the trade of horns taken from poached rhinoceros. South Africa's Department of Environmental Affairs announced Monday that the deal had been signed. The department said the agreement included conservation and protection provisions, as well as a promise to increase law enforcement efforts...

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Smart Cups Detect Date Rape Drugs

Drink Savvy, a Boston-based company, has created a material that changes color when it comes in contact with a drug-spiked drink.Founder Mike Abramson said he plans to use the discovery to create a set of products, including cups, glassware, stirrers and straws, that he hopes will be used to help reduce date rape."Within the past three years, three of my very close friends and myself have been the...

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