The SkyHelp Team Hacked By SEA

Next up in line for hacking by the Syrian Electronic Army: British Broadcaster Sky News. Tonight, all of its Android apps were hacked and replaced. Also, the hackers changed the broadcaster's Google Play developer page to show the SEA's logo. As of 10:18am EST, all of Sky's apps have been removed from the Play store and the developer's page is down.



 

The Sky Team is actively aware of the hack, and is working to fix the mess caused by it. If you have any of the hacked Android apps installed on your phone, please uninstall them.
— Sky Help Team (@SkyHelpTeam) May 26, 2013

Google Offers Free Internet To Moore, OK After Devastating Tornado

In wake of the Oklahoma tornado tragedy, Google has shared that it is working with both Verizon Wireless and Acer to set up Chromebook stations with free Internet.

According to Google, three locations have been set up, including two Red Cross stations — located at St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church and the Moore Community Center — as well as Walmart #277.

With so much damage done, this free internet should help to allow Oklahoma residents to connect back to the rest of the world.

Also, Google released its crisis map for Oklahoma, as it always does for natural disasters.

Windows 8 Start Button Has Returned: On A Mouse

The Windows team has never had it easy since Apple came around. As a result of major user backlash, Microsoft put the Start Button back into Windows 8. But, you have to buy a mouse to use it.

The Sculpt Comfort Mouse has a blue strip on the left-hand side. Swiping up on the strip cycles through apps; swiping down reveals the Metro app task switcher. Pressing the button will take you to the Start screen. The mouse connects to your PC using Bluetooth. It will cost $39.95 when it goes on sale in June.

The Sculpt Mobile Mouse has a simple Start button next to its wheel that will open the Start menu in Windows 7 or the Start screen in Windows 8. The Sculpt Mobile is a wireless USB mouse, and it will cost $29.95 when it goes on sale this month.

I'm not sure whether this will satisfy the quells of Windows 8 rebellers. This will certainly be something to watch.

 

Xbox One's Pre Ordering Notification

How much? When? Where? What if I don't even want one? The impending Xbox One's pre-order notification sign up form is now live. Reminder: This is not a sign up to pre-order the Xbox. This is a way to be notified of when pre-orders are being opened up. Enjoy!

 

 

Yahoo Acquires Tumblr

Yikes, according to The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo's rumored-acquisition of Tumblr has been approved. It has been said that the company is going after the hip micro-blogging site because of its young user base. The deal has been all-cash and worth $1.1 billion. CEO Marissa Mayer will mostly likely officially announce the acquisition tomorrow in NYC, where Yahoo is having an impromptu press conference, that was hastily put together.

Many (most) of Tumblr's users have been crying out in outrage as they try and prevent the merger. Unfortunately, their efforts seemed to not be enough to stop the acquisition.

Zact: The Reinvented Wireless Carrier

Imagine a wireless carrier that allowed you to build your own plan. Zact, an upstart service provider created by Andreessen Horowitz-backed ItsOn that uses Sprint’s network, has an amazing breakthrough on wireless.

Zact has all no contract plans, so there is no commitment. Just a simple plan, 500 minutes, 1,000 texts, and 1 GB of data will cost just short of $40. At the end of the month, Zact's billing style is much different than that of traditional cell providers. Regular carriers, such as AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, will charge you for what you paid for, and will send you no notification that you should downgrade or upgrade your plan. Zact automatically goes and looks back at your usage for the past month. It will only charge you for the nearest plan that fits your usage; no extra charges for data/texts/call minutes you didn't use. This is a different business model for cell carriers, actually try and charge the customer as little as possible.

There is only one catch though: Zact only has two Android smartphones (three if you count a color change), and then only one with LTE. None of them are very pretty though. Ting is a slightly more attractive Sprint MVNO, but only because it offers more devices. I am definitely going to be keeping my eye on Zact, they are really onto something.

BREAKING: Syria's Internet is Off Again

[liveblog]

Viber Releases a Desktop App with Video Calling

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Viber is taking a stand on app messaging; they are releasing a desktop app for their wildly popular messaging platform. Starting today, Viber’s 200 million+ users will have access to their Viber contacts from both mobile and desktop.

Viber is also releasing new updates to its mobile apps, but the bigger story is the desktop app.

The ambitious company is breaking ground on video calling today; but unfortunately, only from desktop to desktop. Hopefully, mobile to mobile, and then even mobile to desktop will be arriving on the scene soon.

Other than that, the desktop version has just about everything the mobile version has, including messaging, stickers, etc.

To start, you must be a mobile user of Viber, so if you don’t have a number that’s already associated with the service, the desktop app will ask you to download the mobile application. From there, you simply input your number into the desktop app, enter a pin which is sent to your mobile device, and you instantly have access to all the contacts you know on Viber.

All of the Viber apps will sync messages with each other as well. This is yet again another weakness in Apple's iMessage: It doesn't sync. All of these app messaging services are fighting with iMessage as well as regular SMS for market space.

Viber is also taking a leap forward with its mobile apps, but Android and iOS, as always, are the main focus of this mobile updgrade. Both will receive video messages, a new assortment of stickers, a new photo experience, a new voice engine, and then some other minor stuff.

Viber has been growing steadily, announcing growth to 200 million users, up from 175 million in February.

This latest advance really only works for those with multiple devices, but it will be interesting to see how the market responds to this new leap forward in app messaging.

Has The Onion Been Hacked by The Syrian Electronic Army?

Apparently, The Onion is next on the hack list for the Syrian Electronic Army. After hacking many other large international publishing companies, it appears that The Onion has been hacked by this group. It is unclear whether this hack is legitimate or not, because The Onion is a satirical news site.

In addition to The Onion, an Associated Press hack had the stock market take a little dip just a few days ago.

Twitter is claiming to be creating a two-step verification system for login. But for now, we are stuck with just regular passwords.

As The Onion always adds satire into news events, they have apparently changed their Twitter password to "OnionMan77", just to make their Twitter account "impenetrable".

Below is a screenshot of the tweets from the apparent SEA hack.

MTA Hackathon Photos

Congrats again to the winners of the MTA and AT&T Hackathon this weekend. Check down below for photos from the event.

 

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MTA App Quest Hackathon Recap

Wow, what an amazing hackathon! There were great apps built this weekend; I am very impressed with what was built. These developers only had 24 hours to build their apps and have something ready to show off. Congratulations to the first, second, and third place prize winners; SubCulture.Fm, MTA Sheriff, and ACCESSWAY. These apps will truly impact the New York City's mass transit in a bright way. Check out below for a quick summary of what's cooking in the app division of NYC public transit.

SubCulture.Fm is an iOS app that allows you to interact with subway musicians. The app mostly works through QR codes. Each artist would have a QR code that the user would scan. This would give the user information about the artist; such as social media, albums and songs, etc. You can share information about the musician using Facebook or Twitter. The app also allows you to track nearby musicians, and even where your favorite musician will be playing. SubCulture.Fm won first place at the hackathon.

MTA Sheriff is a quick and easy gamified way to report issues within the MTA's system. As you report more issues, your character upgrades until you become the "MTA Sheriff".

ACCESSWAY is an iOS way-finding app to help visually-impaired or wheelchair-assisted New Yorkers find their way in the NYC Subway. It allows you to track elevator and exit status. The app currently looks pretty good, but should try and implement real time status updates.

MTA/AT&T App Quest Hackathon Live Blog

The liveblog will begin at 4 pm EDT on Sunday May 5.

[liveblog]

Good Night Nerd Heads to New York

Hello, Big Apple! GNN is heading out to NYC this weekend to cover the MTA and AT&T's App Quest Hackathon. This is a hackathon devoted to creating new and creative apps for public transit in New York City. I will be covering the demos/presentations and awards on Sunday starting at 4 pm EDT, so be sure to stay tuned for my liveblog. The liveblog will be here: jmtek.info/24. I can't wait!