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After a series of high profile hacks, Twitter is finally getting serious about log-in security with a new feature that will require users to enter an extra pin code when using non-familiar devices.

The feature, known as “two-factor” authentication, is already used by companies like Google and Apple and works by sending a pin code via text message to a user’s cell phone. Twitter has details and a tutorial video here.

The decision to add an extra security feature comes after hackers have repeatedly gained control of high profile Twitter feeds. The most prominent example occurred last month when hackers used the Associated Press’s account to say bombs had injured President Obama. The fake tweet roiled financial markets and led to calls for Twitter to improve its security features.

Attackers have also targeted CBS, the BBC and the Onion. The latter offered a candid account of how the hackers phished employees accounts and induced some of them, including a person with control over social media passwords to share log-in information.

Two factor authentication would likely have prevented those attacks because the attackers would have had to enter a password sent to the employee’s cell phone.

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Verizon Wireless is going after the Latino market through a new venture called Viva Movil and it’s getting a little bit of help from Jennifer Lopez. The new venture, owned by Lopez, retail chain Moorehead Communications and mobile supply chain manager Brightstar, will have its own physical and online stores, but the devices and service plans all will be Verizon’s.

Speaking at a Verizon press conference at CTIA Wireless, Lopez said that there are 52 million Latinos in the U.S. with a combined purchasing power of $1.2 trillion annually, presenting a huge opportunity for a premium mobile service. “As modern Latinos, we do things differently, including how we shop for mobile devices,” said Lopez, who is assuming the role of Viva’s chief creative officer.

The venture might sound like one of the new breed of mobile virtual network operators, like TracFone’s Telcel America, which also targets the Latino community. But it’s not an MVNO. Nor is it a Verizon brand, like Virgin Mobile is brand of Sprint.

The best way to think of Viva Movil is as an authorized dealer, like RadioShack or Best Buy. Verizon has no ownership stake in the Viva, but it will be the venture’s exclusive service and device provider, said Verizon COO and EVP Marni Walden.

The only thing Viva stores will sell other than Verizon phones and services will be a line of accessories such as smartphone cases supposedly designed by Lopez. Viva is also adding a twist on the online front. It will turn its Facebook page into a full retail portal. Customers can see what phones their Facebook friends have bought or recommended, and they will be able to buy their devices and set up their accounts directly from the Facebook page, Lopez said.

The first store will open on June 15 in New York City. Lopez and Walden wouldn’t say where it would be located, though they strongly hinted it would be Times Square. The company plans to follow up with 15 more store openings in cities with bug Latino populations.

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After a series of high-profile hacks and calls from the user base, Twitter has finally unveiled their form of two-step verification.

“Every day, a growing number of people log in to Twitter. Usually these login attempts come from the genuine account owners, but we occasionally hear from people whose accounts have been compromised by email phishing schemes or a breach of password data elsewhere on the web. Today we’re introducing a new security feature to better protect your Twitter account: login verification,” says Twitter.

It works similar to other two-step verification systems you may be familiar with (Google, for instance). Once you enable login verification, the next time you attempt to log in you’ll also need to enter a code that Twitter will send to your mobile device. So, it’s your password + mobile code. Two steps.

All you have to do to enable it is visit your account settings page.

Twitter says that you existing applications you’ve enabled via Twitter login should be unaffected:

“With login verification enabled, your existing applications will continue to work without disruption. If you need to sign in to your Twitter account on other devices or apps, visit your applications page to generate a temporary password to log in and authorize that application.”

Of course, two-factor authentication won’t solve all of your security problems, and it’s not foolproof. But it’s a much-needed buffer between you and everyone out there eyeing your account with malicious intent.

If you’ve been paying attention lately, you’ll see the signs of a significant disruption in computing. No, I’m not talking about mobile: That disruption already happened and we’re in the midst of it playing out now as PC sales have become stagnant at best. Instead, it’s within the browser: Google Chrome is the harbinger of change and through it, Google has huge potential to change computing once again.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say, within a year, many of you will be using a Chromebook. Before you roll your eyes, let me add one caveat: That Chromebook won’t be Google designed hardware; instead it will be on the Mac, Windows or Linux machine you have at that time. So it won’t be a Google build device like my Chromebook Pixel is.

Let’s step back and I’ll explain.

Chrome is widely installed and growing

When Google launched the Chrome browser in late 2008 for Windows, the idea behind it was to speed up your web experience. It took until May of 2010 for all three major operating systems to have a stable version of the browser. Since then, usage has grown tremendously. Looking at market share summaries from five sources (consolidated at Wikipedia), four of them show Chrome as the biggest market share in March, 2013. (Note: April’s numbers are missing one source, which is why I’ve pointed to March figures.)

If you follow browser share statistics — hey, we all need a hobby — this won’t surprise you. Chrome has continued to slowly grow its worldwide user base with rather steady progress. And there’s little reason to assume that trend will change any time soon. So what does that mean?

For many Chrome is just a browser. For others who use a Chromebox or Chromebook, like myself, it’s my full-time operating system. The general consensus is that Chrome OS, the platform used on these devices, can only browse the web and run either extensions and web apps; something any browser can do. Simply put, the general consensus is wrong and the signs are everywhere.

Let’s talk about Chrome apps

First, much time was spent at Google I/O on two key topics we featured on last week’s GigaOM Chrome Show podcast: Packaged Apps and Native Client apps. You can listen to the show for a full description by Google’s own Joe Marini, but I’ll summarize the concept here.

Packaged apps are written in HTML, JavaScript and CSS, just like a traditional website or web app. There’s one subtle difference though. These apps are “packaged” in a way that allows them to run outside of the Chrome browser on any device that has Chrome installed. And they can run when the user is offline. Google Keep is a perfect example of this. I use it as a to-do list outside of my browser, both online and offline. When I don’t have a connection, my data is saved locally and when I later connect to the web, Google Keep automatically syncs my data to the cloud.

Here’s an image from my Chromebook showing Google Keep outside of the browser. Note too, the notification message at the bottom right; Google has added these in the developer channel of Chrome, bringing even more desktop features to the environment.

Native client apps are similar in that they’re also packaged and they support offline access. There’s a key difference however: These apps are coded in their native programming languages — C or C++ for example — compiled and then embedded in HTML where they behave like standalone native apps. Google says there’s about a 5 percent overhead performance hit, so they’re not quite as fast as their native app counterparts.

A good example of a native client app is a game I played on my Chromebook Pixel recently called Cracking Sands Racing The app, a port of a game for iOS and Android, was a 533 MB download to my Pixel and I played it outside of the browser. Even better, the support for a gamepad worked just fine as I used an Xbox 360 controller to play the game. Controls and graphics were responsive; no different overall that if I was playing a version of the game on a Mac or PC.

I know what you’re thinking. “That’s good for you since you have a Chromebook. What do I care?”

Chrome is a back door to the new app economy

Here’s the thing: Both Packaged Apps and Native Client apps work on any computer that has the Chrome browser installed. You remember: the browser that has the biggest market share. Even better, Google is working on Portable Native Client, which extends the native client app support to mobiles. Meanwhile, at Google I/O, the company said these apps can work on mobiles through Apache Cordova, a set of cross-platform APIs that support iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and more.

You can see where I’m going with this but lets take it a step further. Have you noticed that Google recently added the Chrome App Launcher to Microsoft Windows? It’s the same app launcher that’s native to Chrome OS. And Google is working on it for the Mac platform; it’s already in the developer channel for Chromium. And it’s sure to follow for Linux.

Essentially, once you can run web, Packaged and Native Client apps on any device with the Chrome framework, you need an easy way to manage and launch them. Think of Chrome as a platform environment atop a platform. On my Pixel, Chrome runs over Linux. For you, Chrome may run on top of Windows or OS X. Both of those have their own program launchers but as developers expand the number of Chrome apps, you’ll use the Chrome App Launcher to access them.

By the way, in the launcher picture above, did you notice that CIRC doesn’t have the same little arrow as the other icons? That means it’s an app, not a web shortcut.

Wait, won’t the big platform players block this?

Along with the disruption of mobile devices, the physical media market has undergone changes too. We typically don’t buy apps on a disk to install them any longer. Instead, platforms are providing centralized applications stores that they maintain control over. The Mac App Store is a perfect example. Note that you can install apps from outside of the App Store, provided you allow for such actions in your security settings. Since these stores are controlled by the platform makers, won’t Apple, Microsoft and others try to keep Chrome apps from spreading to the desktop?

They can try but I don’t think they’ll succeed, expect maybe on mobiles. If people find the apps compelling enough, they’ll be in an uproar for starters. But there’s another possible reason and I think it’s brilliant on Google’s part.

I noticed that when I downloaded Cracking Sands Racing, the video game I was able to play offline on my Pixel, the file had a .crx file extension. That may not look familiar to you, but I recognize it. It’s the same file extension Chrome uses for browser extensions. If that naming convention holds true, any company blocking Chrome app installations would also block Chrome extensions. How would the Chrome using community react to that? Not well.

What does your desktop look like a year from now?

As I alluded to at the beginning of this post, if you’re a Chrome user today, you’ll be more immersed in the Chrome ecosystem a year from now, even if you don’t have an “official” Chromebook. This all depends on how well Google pulls off its strategy to upend the desktop computing world, but so far, it seems to be on track.

Bear in mind the apps in this vision will be truly cross-platform as they’ll run on any Windows, Mac or Linux computer with Chrome installed. If it can get developers on board — and those I spoke with at Google I/O are ready to embrace the effort — Google will have a thriving desktop platform built on top of the platforms created by others. But it will be a desktop that’s far more agile, with new features added within days or weeks, not months or years.

Welcome to Chrome, my desktop today and your desktop of the future.

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Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray today announced that he will be resigning his position in government. Murray has been the state’s lieutenant governor since 2007. Before that, he served as the Mayor of Worcester, Massachusetts.

Murray announced his resignation today in a joint press conference with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Murray stated that he is leaving his position to take on the role of president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“This unique, new opportunity will allow me to continue to work on the economic and community development initiatives and ideas that I have worked on over 15 years in elective office,” said Murray.

Murray had announced in January that he did not intend to run for governor after Patrick’s term ended. Even so, he made it clear today that he had planned to serve out his term as lieutenant governor and that he initially rejected the Worcester offer “because the timing was too immediate.” He then reconsidered, and now believes that he can build “economic growth, job creation, and community development” in Massachusetts through the private sector.

Murray has posted his statement to his Facebook page, where he is receiving mostly well-wishes for his decision:

Tim Murray55 minutes ago

Dear Friends,

This post represents both an ending and a beginning.

I wanted to tell you directly about my decision to accept a new opportunity that will allow me to continue striving for the economic and community development ideals I have worked for over the past 15 years in public service. This unique new opportunity, however, means I must end my service as Lieutenant Governor of this great state.

In January, I wrote about the decision I made with my wife not to run for public office in 2014. I said at that time the next chapter of my life needed to be focused primarily on family. My wife Tammy and I are blessed with two active and beautiful daughters, Helen and Kati, who recently turned 8 and 7 years old. We wanted to take advantage of this moment in our lives, since childhood passes quickly, and this is an important time for our family.

When I made that decision, I expected to finish my term as Lieutenant Governor, working closely with Governor Patrick on the priorities we have established to help Massachusetts. Of course, I did begin to think about what the future would bring when my state service was over, however I was not pursuing any employment opportunities. Then, I was approached by the leadership of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce with an intriguing idea.

The chamber’s long-time capable President, Dick Kennedy, is retiring and the executive committee asked if I would be interested in leading the chamber, growing its mission and economic impact. This was not a post I had sought, and at first I dismissed the idea because the timing was too immediate. Then, as I gave the matter more thought and discussed it in depth with Tammy, I became increasingly interested about the unique opportunity it presents.

So much of what we have accomplished across the Commonwealth in the past six-plus years has been through public-private partnerships. I have always said that government can’t, and shouldn’t do it all, but through strategic public investments, directed by enlightened public and private leadership, we can foster the economic growth, job creation and community development that Massachusetts deserves. In my new role as President and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, I will work for these same goals, on the private sector side of the equation.

The city of Worcester is the economic anchor of one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas of the country, not only Massachusetts. With nearly a million residents, 30,000 college students and a diversified economy, the greater Worcester region contributes enormously to the economic and cultural vitality of the Commonwealth and central New England. I look forward to helping the chamber, its membership, and the entire region build a brighter future.

This has been a very difficult, yet empowering decision. You and I have worked together in so many ways that have improved the quality of life in this Commonwealth. It has been an honor to serve as your Lieutenant Governor. At the same time, however, I know that change is the nature of life. And as I imagine how best to keep working on the issues that I am passionate about, while being close to home and more present in the lives of my wife and children, the chamber post is the perfect fit. So I intend to submit my resignation as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, effective at the end of the day on June 2, and will begin my new role as President and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce on June 3.

As I begin to close this chapter in my career, I especially want to thank my staff, past and present, who have worked alongside me to accomplish so many substantive economic policy and development initiatives across Massachusetts. The Bay State is a special place. I have loved learning about its history, its traditions, and meeting so many great people in every corner of this state while working on their behalf.

Most importantly I want to thank Governor Patrick. He has been a friend, mentor and partner. He has led the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through some of its most tumultuous moments in modern times. Whether it was dealing with the Great Recession, the many challenges thrown at us by Mother Nature or most recently the marathon bombing, the people of Massachusetts have a captain who is steady during the storm and is leading state through to better days.

Finally, to all my friends, I will be forever grateful for the support you have shown me over the years. I know that we will stay in touch and find ways to work together on important issues and initiatives for many years to come.

With my best regards,

Tim Powered by socialditto  143 likes ·  39 comments

Google X, Google’s lab where the company hatches big ideas like driverless cars and Google Glasses, is acquiring the high altitude wind startup Makani Power, according to an article in Bloomberg Business Week. This is the first time we’ve heard that Google’s secretive moonshot lab has bought an outside company and is bringing it in house — usually the lab works on crazy ideas in house, and if these ideas become less risky, then Google turns those into actual Google products or pushes the products into other Google divisions.

Makani Power has been building and testing a new type of wind turbine that is attached to a long tether (that could be 600 meters long) and which rotates high off the ground, capturing wind that is stronger and more consistent than typically found on the ground. The idea behind the innovation is that capturing high altitude wind could be cheaper, more efficient, and more suitable for certain environments like offshore than traditional wind turbines.

Makani Power has said its kite-style system could deliver twice as much capacity factor (a measure of energy generation productivity) with 20 percent less mass than conventional wind turbines. A computerized system launches the turbines and monitors and tracks the data on how much energy is generated.

Makani Power’s kite turbine on display at ARPA-E 2012.

Makani Power was founded in 2006 by Saul Griffith and former World Cup windsurfer Don Montague and a lot of the early employees were kite surfers. Griffith has since gone on to run Other Labs, his incubator workshop in San Francisco that is building things like a new natural gas engine and tiny solar thermal devices.

Makani Power previously raised $15 million from Google.org, back when Google.org and Google were more actively funding next-gen energy devices. According to the Business Week article Google X’s captain of moonshots, Astro Teller, proposed the idea of buying Makani Power to Larry Page and Page’s response was that Teller had to make sure to crash at least five of the high-altitude wind devices in the near future (basically put it to a rigorous enough test).

While Makani Power has been working on this innovation for seven years, it’s been slow going commercializing a product. The company has survived on the funding from Google.org, and grants from the Department of Energy’s early stage ARPA-E program. Late last year Makani’s charismatic, kitesurfing CEO, Corwin Hardham, tragically passed away unexpectedly. Earlier this year former energy policy maker and energy exec Cathy Zoi joined Makani’s board of directors.

Google is interested in clean energy generation partly because its data centers suck up a ton of energy and cost it a lot of money. Google has invested over a billion dollars into various clean energy projects, but in recent years moved away from making equity investments into clean energy startups. Perhaps Google X is a better place for this high-risk clean energy ideas.

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Do Xbox 360 owners still play games on an SDTV? Minecraft players proved they do, but it looks like Microsoft will be ignoring them with the Xbox One.

GimmeGimmeGames reports that the Xbox One only sports an HDMI out. That means the console will not be able to connect to displays with component or composite ins. Of course, there are converters that convert digital signals to analog for those still rocking a component connection, but Microsoft won’t be supporting it out of the box.

It’s hard to imagine that gamers still play HD consoles on an SDTV in this day and age, but a number of examples prove they still exist. They also may be interested in the Xbox One. That interest will require them to upgrade to an HDTV before jumping into the next generation of gaming. Thankfully, HDTVs are not quite as expensive as they used to be.

The last generation introduced digital audio and video to game consoles, but they still had support for analog connections. The Xbox One ditching analog signals may be a sign that the PS4 will be doing the same. We haven’t seen Sony’s hardware yet, however, so we don’t know if that will be the case.

Lack of SDTV support isn’t the only issue facing Microsoft’s latest machine. The company has been sending mixed signals regarding its stance on used games with the Xbox One. We’re still waiting on a definitive statement, but signs are pointing to it allowing used games within certain parameters.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft for confirmation on this specific issue, and will update if we hear back.

If you know Java, R or SAS, doing machine learning on Hadoop data just got a lot easier. Concurrent (see disclosure), the company behind the popular Cascading framework for writing big data jobs, has developed a new open source tool called Pattern that lets users export their models from statistical analysis applications and run THEM? at scale on Hadoop data with little to no code change.

The reason for creating Pattern is pretty simple, according to Concurrent Founder and CEO Chris Wensel: “Hadoop is never used alone.” It’s always part of a data environment that also includes databases, visualization tools, analytics software and/or statistical analysis tools that arguably do the really valuable work. Hadoop’s real value is an integration platform that can feed data into these other systems and, ideally, put their outputs to work across much larger datasets.

Developers can use the Pattern Java API to create machine learning jobs, but they can also simply export a Predictive Model Markup Language (PMML) file from software like R, SAS and MicroStrategy that Pattern will read and run them as a Cascading workflow. Models are useless unless you can run them in production, Wensel said, and Pattern lets them run across more data, stored in Hadoop, than you can use to build them with those other tools.

However, Wensel noted, “The real takeaway isn’t Pattern itself.”

From his perspective, the real story is Pattern plus Cascading plus Lingual, the open source SQL-to-Hadoop tool that Concurrent recently developed and released. Lingual is the tie that binds everything together, creating a sort of assembly line for data as it works its way from generation to delivering some value. For example, someone might create a Cascading job that adds structure to incoming data, and then pull some of the data into R using Lingual. Once a model is created in R and exported to the Hadoop cluster using Pattern, Lingual can feed the MapReduce output file back to R so a data scientist can test the model’s accuracy.

And actually, Wensel said, Lingual could have a positive effect on companies’ bottom lines. Airbnb recently replaced a departed engineer with Lingual for monthly migrations of data from Hadoop and into SQL environments. Climate Corporation, a massive Hadoop and Cascading user, could use Lingual to let its crop-and-weather insurance customers access their data from the company’s Hadoop store.

Lingual and Pattern should help Concurrent finally make some money, too. Both of them, as well as the Cascading framework that underpins them, will always be open source, Wensel said, but it plans to create “a suite of products that will make your life much better if … you standardize on Cascading.”

For example, the company has the ability to monitor jobs at the application level rather than the cluster level, meaning it can tell you the details of that job that’s locking up all the resources and whether you really want to kill it (it might be an important report for the CFO …). “We can do some really interesting things,” Wensel said.

Disclosure: Concurrent is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, the founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.

Feature image courtesy of Shutterstock user PENGYOU91.

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Netflix wants to take on HBO and Showtime with the production of original stand-up comedy, the company’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos revealed in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter this week.

Sarandos pointed to Bill Burr as one example of a stand-up comedian who has seen huge success on Netflix, to the point where he can now tour in countries where Netflix is operating its streaming service. Producing stand-up comedy is “also a great way to cultivate talent for future scripted projects,” Sarandos added.

Asked about his plans for the next phase of original shows on Netflix, Sarandos said that he wants to target audiences that the company has so far overlooked, including tweens, Sci-fi fans and sitcom viewers. Altogether, Netflix could debut as many as 16 originals in 2013, according to Sarandos.

In 2013, Netflix is going to launch a total of 8 originals, including the much-anticipated return of Arrested Development, which will premier on Netflix this coming Sunday.

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Photos of Marilyn Monroe which were supposed to go on exhibit at Prague Castle have been stolen, along with display cases and mannequins that were also to be included in the event.

The items were collected by Italian museum creators last year in tribute to the 50th anniversary of Monroe’s death and included the star’s shoes, clothing, and diaries. Those in charge of the exhibition have not decided whether they will go on with the Prague show; it’s scheduled to move on to Tokyo soon, however.

Monroe was one of the most photographed women in the world at the height of her fame; several pictures of her taken by friend and makeup artist Allan Snyder were auctioned off last year for a pretty penny. The movie star and beauty icon still holds our fascination, even decades after her death, and the PR firm handling the exhibition hopes to catch whoever nabbed the items so that they may be shared with the world.

YouTube user MagicofRahat is becoming YouTube famous for his various pranks – many of them involving drive-thrus.

You see, Rahat likes to drive his car up to various drive-thrus and scare the crap out of poor, innocent, food workers. Various pranks involve scary dolls, fake hands, and headless drivers. This time, he’s combined a zombie drive-thru prank with a headless drive-thru prank. The results are nice:

Earlier this month, Abercrombie & Fitch caught heat for comments its CEO made in the past about the company’s marketing strategy. Mike Jefferies was quoted in a new book, saying that Abercrombie & Fitch markets to “cool and popular kids” and “good-looking people,” which is why its stores do not stock extra-large female clothing.

The comments sparked a backlash online that reached evening news programs and even actress Kirstie Alley. A campaign to counter Abercrombie & Fitch’s message has also begun, with activists urged to clothe the homeless in Abercrimbie & Fitch clothing.

Now, Abercrombie & Fitch is facing legal trouble over the layout of its stores. According to an Associated Press report, a federal judge in Denver, Colorado has ruled that Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister stores are “unfriendly” to disabled persons. Abercrombie & Fitch is the parent company of Hollister. The judge is now considering an injunction against the company.

The lawsuit was filed by disabled Colorado consumers who claim to have had trouble getting into the stores through side doors and have complained that countertops in the stores are too high. The lawyer representing the disabled in the court case compared the use of side doors, rather than some type of access to the stores’ main entrance, with racial segregation. Lawyers for Abercrombie & Fitch have called this comparison “inflammatory” and have stated that the stores were constructed to standards in place at the time they were built.

Well, this is good news. The state of Vermont has decided to join private companies like Twitter in taking the fight to patent trolls — shell companies that don’t do anything except use old patents to extort businesses into paying licenses for common technology.

In a complaint filed in Vermont’s Supreme Court, the state accuses MPHJ Technology — which operates 40 shell companies through a UPS store in Delaware  – of violating consumer protection law by demanding small businesses buy a license or face a patent lawsuit.

“Hopefully would-be patent trolls will see this and realize that if you want to prey on Vermont businesses large and small they’re going to have a fight on their hands,” Attorney General, William Sorrell, said by phone on Wednesday.

The patents in question date from the year 2001 and involve technology for scanning documents and attaching them to an email. Despite being around for more than a decade, no one tried to enforce the patents until 2012 when an attorney from Texas — a notorious troll forum — named Jay Mac Rust began brandishing them.

The Vermont complaint explains that Mr. Rust and his friends have been sending letters to hundreds of businesses in Vermont, including non-profit groups that help the disabled, and telling them to pay $900-$1200 or face a federal lawsuit.

Patent trials are one of the most expensive forms of litigation and are an ordeal for even big companies — let alone a small shop in the Green Mountains. Worse, the defendants are out of luck even if they win since the shells that sue them don’t have any assets.

According to Sorrell, “patent trolling is a national problem” and the trolls have been harassing Vermont’s tech sector, as well as small business and non-profits, for years.

Vermont’s lawsuit, which demands the troll pay $10,000 for each letter it sent out, is based on consumer protection laws that forbid deceitful communications. The state’s governor this week also signed a new anti-troll law that Sorrell describes as “another arrow in the quiver.”

The site will almost surely raise constitutional issues concerning state power and patents but, for now, businesses will welcome a big new ally in the fight against patent trolls; others include Google and patent scholars like Mark Lemley and Brian Love. It will be interesting to see if states with big tech centers, like California and Massachusetts, ask to intervene or file suits of their own. You can read the complaint yourself here:

Vermont v MPHJ Technologies Complaint

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Windows users never get tired of finding new ways to improve the appearance of the operating system or of tweaking for increased usability.

Among the most popular tuning jobs is changing the log on screen, which is the same with the log off one and the system lock wallpaper. There are dozens of applications fit for the job, most of them fre… (read more)

Google announced some new features for Goals in Google Analytics, including a new set-up flow, new templates, and new verification capabilities.

For setting up Goals, you now find a profile in your account, click the admin tab, and navigate to the account, property, and and profile of choice. From there, click Goals, and Create a Goal. From there, you will be guided further:

New templates have been added to the set-up flow.

“When you use a template, the Goal setup flow is prefilled with suggested values (based on your industry) that you can either keep or change as you walk through the process,” explains product manager Stefan F. Schnabl. “The templates are organized into four business objectives (Revenue, Acquisition, Inquiry, Engagement) to help you think about the purpose of each Goal, plus you can still create custom goals. Note that ‘revenue’ goals don’t necessarily imply a direct sale — these goals are user activities which have a strong impact on your desired business outcomes. Depending on your business model, a Revenue Goal could be a purchase, such as a completed checkout; or it could also be a successful lead submission, such as a scheduled appointment. Some Revenue Goals might lend themselves to Ecommerce tracking as well.”

Templates are based on Industry Categories selected in your property settings. There are also twenty new categories.

“In addition to the templates, we’ve added a way for you to check your setup before you save,” says Schnabi. “You’ll find a verify option at the end of the setup flow that lets you see what the conversion rate would have been for the past seven days had this Goal been setup. Using the verify option gives you immediate feedback, so you can decide to save or modify the Goal configuration you’re working on.”

You can use the Goals Overview report under Conversions to see how goal completions happen over time. From there, you can also choose relevant metrics with the metric selector.

The updates are now live in Google Analytics.

“In order to get the TV part of Xbox One to work, you’ll essentially end up plugging it into your existing cable box, via another box that lets you perform an ‘HDMI pass-through,’” writes Kafka. “In essence, Xbox One is acting as a sort of custom remote for your cable box, which will let you change the channel; it is also creating its own programming guide so you can see what’s on TV.”

As Kafka also notes, Microsoft has worked with ESPN and HBO to create Xbox apps that only deliver content if you’re already subscribed to a cable service. So while we one day just might be able to get all the programming we want over our broadband connections, it’s highly unlikely that Microsoft will be the company to give it to us.

The competition for your cloud business continues between Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Dropbox, Box and other competitors. Today Google takes its next step, with an attempt to make the experience better for Android customers with, what it terms, a “smoother” experience.

The search giant claims that Drive files will now be displayed in a clean, simple card-style. This will allow users to swipe between files to see large previews that will permit them to quickly review and discover the information they are looking for. If a customer wishes to keep some Drive files on his or her Android device, they will now be able to “download a copy” from the actions menu inside settings.

The new version of the app also contains a “Scan” feature that will enable customers to track paper documents like receipts, letters, and billing statements. OCR will take care of the rest, turning the document into a PDF.

Finally Google enhances the editing capabilities in Sheets, with the ability to adjust font types and sizes for a spreadsheet and tweak the cell text colors and cell alignment right from the app.

“The process of creating and accessing your stuff shouldn’t be, well…a process. Today, the Drive app for Android is getting several improvements to make creating and accessing your stuff on-the-go even easier”, says Denis Teplyashin, Software Engineer for Google. The update is available now.

An attack in London has left one man dead, and two others injured, near a military barracks.

The AP is reporting that two men attacked another man in London this morning. Those on the scene said that the attackers employed a number of weapons, but it’s unknown if a gun was involved yet.

Police responded to reports of an assault where they found one man dead. The two other men were shot and taken to nearby hospitals.

The above scenario may seem like a random act of violence, but the authorities aren’t so sure yet. An anonymous government official said that the attack may have been “terrorist-motivated” and that the authorities are investigating the incident as such.

While it may pale in comparison, this isn’t the first time London has suffered a terrorist attack. In 2005, suicide bombers attacked the public transportation system in London leading to the deaths of fifty-two civilians and over 700 were injured.

More details regarding this latest attack will likely emerge in the coming days. We can just be thankful that not more were injured or killed.

Here’s a report with more details on the attack: