Internet advertisers kill text-based CAPTCHA

If you’ve submitted a comment, signed up for a newsletter, or uploaded a photo to the Internet at any point in the past five years, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with the CAPTCHA system. CAPTCHAs are the annoying little verification windows that pop up, asking you to decipher a nearly unrecognizable series of letters or words, and Web users have hated them for years.
But if these silly security systems make you want to bust your keyboard in half, you’ll be happy to hear that we may very well be seeing the last days of the obnoxious, text-based CAPTCHA system, and the next verification system you see online may make you happy to view advertisements for the first time ever.

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Sony unveils PlayStation 4 game console with shoot-’em-up game

The new console faces stiff competition from casual gamers who play games on their cell phones and online, as well as criticism from those who say video game violence is the cause of massacres such as the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Sony unveiled the long-awaited update of PlayStation Wednesday — by ignoring critics of video game violence and touting the latest glitz and graphics of the shoot-’em-up classic “Killzone.”

The company unwrapped PlayStation 4, the first revamp of the popular gaming machine in seven years, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in midtown.

“The stakes are high for what we are about to show you,” said Andrew House, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment.

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Outlook.com dumps “Preview” tag, preps for mass Hotmail migration

Hotmail users will be getting a new outlook on email before long. Late Monday, Microsoft announced that the preview phase for Outlook.com, the software giant’s new and improved Webmail service, is over after being used by more than 60 million people in its six months of existence. Now that’s it’s ready for prime time, Microsoft plans to migrate current Hotmail users over to the new interface by the time summer rolls around. Fear not; the transition shouldn’t be too painful, as your mail, contacts, and current account settings will come along for the ride.

There’s a lot to love about the Outlook.com migration if you’re a Hotmail user. First of all, you get a Webmail service with a clean, modern interface that is much easier on the eyes than the crowded 90’s-style look of Hotmail. Microsoft’s new Webmail service also integrates with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn so you can see social updates from your contacts right in your e-mail window. If you already integrated these accounts with Windows Live, these settings should also come with you.

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Apple Is Said To Be Developing a Curved-Glass Smart Watch

Disruptions: Where Apple and Dick Tracy May Converge
By NICK BILTON

Dick Tracy had one. As did Inspector Gadget and James Bond. A watch that doubled as a computer, two-way radio, mapping device or television.

Though such a device has been lost to science fiction comics and spy movies of the era before smartphones, the smart watch might soon become a reality, in the form of a curved glass device made by Apple.

In its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Apple is experimenting with wristwatch-like devices made of curved glass, according to people familiar with the company’s explorations, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they are not allowed to publicly discuss unreleased products.

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PlayStation 4 may not be the gaming powerhouse we’ve been expecting

Sony (SNE) is scheduled to announce its next-generation PlayStation 4 console at a press conference in New York City on February 20th. Recent rumors have pegged the system as a gaming powerhouse with 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and 1080p HD resolution in 3D at 60 fps, however this may not be what the company is aiming for. According to a report from the Nikkei, Sony hopes the Playstation 4 will act more as a home entertainment “nerve center” than a dedicated gaming system. An unnamed company executive reportedly said that the console’s main selling point won’t be its high-end specs, but rather the new styles of play it will introduce and its ability to connect and share to mobile devices. The PlayStation 4 is rumored to launch in October and could cost more than $400.

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Dell Buyout, Once Deemed Unlikely, May Happen If Microsoft Gets Its Way

Connie Guglielmo

A buyout of Dell Inc., deemed by some financial analysts as unlikely because it would be the largest such buyout since the beginning of the financial crisis and hinder CEO Michael Dell’s ability to do acquisitions, may be closer to completion – assuming Microsoft gets a say in the company.

The deal, which would value the world’s third-largest personal computer maker at $22 billion or more, would “include the nearly 16% Dell stake owned by founder and Chief Executive Michael Dell, contributions from private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners and Microsoft, in addition to about $15 billion in debt financing arranged by banks,” according to the Wall Street Journal.


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Google Offers $3.14159 Million in Hacking Prizes

Ben Weitzenkorn

Whoever successfully cracks Google’s Chrome operating system at this year’s Pwnium hacking contest will walk away with a piece of the pi.

Google, which had previously offered totals of $1 million, then $2 million, in prizes for successful hacks, is upping the ante at the contest, to be held in March at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, B.C. The company is offering a total of $3.14159 million in cash rewards.

That’s a nod to pi, math’s most intriguing irrational number, and to the added challenges that come with cracking Google’s ever-improving security measures.

It’s unlikely that any single hacker will get the whole pi. Instead, many contestants could win $110,000 for each temporary compromise of Chrome OS, or $150,000 for each compromise that survives a system reboot.


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Man of Steel MPAA Rating Revealed

Warner Bros. Pictures’ highly-anticipated Superman movie, Man of Steel, has been rated by the MPAA. The film has received a PG-13 rating “for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, action and destruction, and for some language.” Sounds good, right?

Flying into 3D, 2D and IMAX theaters on June 14, the Zack Snyder-directed action adventure stars Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni, Russell Crowe, Michael Kelly, Harry Lennix and Richard Schiff.

In the film, a young boy learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this Earth. As a young man, he journeys to discover where he came from and what he was sent here to do. But the hero in him must emerge if he is to save the world from annihilation and become the symbol of hope for all mankind.

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Kingston Digital Ships Its Fastest, World’s Largest-Capacity USB 3.0 Flash Drive

2013 International CES Las Vegas, NV and Fountain Valley, CA — January 7, 2013 — Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced the DataTraveler® HyperX® Predator 3.0 USB Flash drive. DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 is the world’s largest-capacity USB 3.0 Flash drive as it will be available in a 1TB capacity later in Q1. It is shipping now in 512GB capacity. DT HyperX Predator 3.0 is the fastest USB 3.0 Flash drive in the Kingston® family, with speeds of up to 240MB/s read and 160MB/s write. It has also achieved SuperSpeed USB 3.0 certification.

For more information visit www.kingston.com.

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