Oracle settles with the FTC over deceitful security updates

More than 850 million computers have Java installed on them, and for years, users might not have known the software wasn't fully updated or secure. Oracle is now settling with the Federal Trade Commission over that security oversight. It reached an agreement with the FTC on Monday over charges that it deceived consumers about security updates to the platform. The FTC claimed Oracle portrayed security updates as the latest and most secure. However, the company failed to mention that an update only replaced the most recent prior version of Java, as opposed to all earlier versions that might have been installed. So while users might have thought they patched any vulnerabilities in Java, in reality, they could have still had less secure...

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Google wants to stop being just an ad company by 2020

The technology industry is flush with companies forecasting the rapid growth of cloud computing over the next five to 10 years. Now Google, a relatively small player in the cloud market, has chimed in. Urs Hölze, senior vice president of technical infrastructure, predicted today at the Structure conference that Google's cloud revenues would surpass its advertising revenues by 2020, according to Business Insider. Google made 89 percent of its total revenues last year from advertising delivered through its search engine.

It's a bold projection. But it mirrors the ambitions of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who said in April that his company's cloud business would be notching $20 billion a year in revenue by 2018. At the time, Microsoft's...

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Get a TripMate Titan portable media hub for $39.99

From the Cheapskate: This colorful travel companion doubles as a Wi-Fi router and triples as a mobile charger. Plus: free/cheap games for Android and iOS!

Get a free 2-month subscription to a kids' e-book service

From the Cheapskate: Built for kids 12 and under, Epic provides unlimited e-books and audiobooks for a flat monthly rate.

This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Samsung, 3D Printing, And The Coolest Cooler

Samsung unveiled new phones and Samsung Pay this week, causing a bit of buzz in the world of mobile. Because we simply can’t resist it, we discussed the latest in 3D printing, while the Coolest Cooler has become the second-most funded project on Kickstarter. We discuss all of this, and our future romantic relationships with robots, on the latest episode of the TC Gadgets Podcast. This… Read More

Get a refurbished Pebble smartwatch for $59.95

This is still one of the best smartwatches you can buy, so these probably won't last long.

Makerbase wants to connect you to the creators of the internet stuff you love

For many, the apps and programs we use everyday might feel like they were created by companies more than by actual human beings. People like Mark Zuckerberg are known names, of course, but the army of coders, writers, and engineers behind them aren't readily accessible to those who aren't in the know. Tech entrepreneurs Gina Trapani and Anil Dash want to better connect the people in these networks, while also creating an avenue for long-excluded women and people of color to join in. Thus they created Makerbase, a kind of LinkedIn for techies that shows what digital creators are up to everyday.

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"If you love apps, there was no way to know who made them."

For Dash, that the talent behind so much of what makes the web work is often...

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Fly Or Die: AKG By HARMAN N90Q

The AKG By HARMAN N90Q headphones are, in short, awesome. Harman has long been one of the top names in audio, but its newest pair of over-ear headphones — the latest in Quincy Jones’ signature line — add a new type of technology called TruNote, which uses microphones to tailor music to your environment. And it goes beyond loud cars driving by or noise from being on a plane,… Read More

Wild Wednesday: Chromebooks, Chromecasts and more!

From the Cheapskate: The planets must be aligned in some weird way, because there are some truly spectacular deals to be had today!

Twitter wants to know your birthday so it can shower you with balloons and ads

Twitter wants to know when your birthday is, so it can shower you with animated balloons (yay!), and better target you with ads (boo!). The social network today introduced the option for users to set their birthdate in its settings menu and have it appear on their profile. Twitter says the new feature will allow people to celebrate your birthday more effectively, sending you all-important #HBD tweets to commemorate the anniversary of your existence, but its introduction also has a less altruistic side — it will help the social network work out which ads it thinks you want to see.

Last week Twitter introduced new audience insights for brands that allowed them to choose groups of users — including millennials, seniors, college grads — at...

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Reddit is changing because it wants celebrities to visit more

Reddit's removal of talent director Victoria Taylor sparked a community protest over the weekend, and now the site seems to be touching on some of the reasons why it let her go. In a comment, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian essentially writes that her dismissal is part of an overhaul to how Reddit will work with celebrities. Rather than occasionally helping celebrities conduct an hour-or-so question and answer session — which is what Taylor did in Reddit's AMA community — Ohanian says that Reddit now intends to help celebrities become "consistent posters ... rather than one off occurrences." Ohanian says that Reddit will still help bring big names to the AMA section, but it intends to let the section's moderators take it from there.

R...

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Reddit's sound and fury

What would you imagine if someone asked you to picture the front page of the internet? It would, in all honesty, probably look a lot like Reddit — that is to say, it would look like popular content from everywhere else on the web. And yet, many have strained trying to figure out what the hell Reddit is. Is Reddit a forceful expression of democracy on the internet? Is it a weak feudal system run by warlords? Or is it merely "a global platform for online communities to connect and share?" Maybe. Or maybe it's just like every other media platform: an algorithm that's been endlessly gamed.

Yes, Reddit has an algorithm. It's seldom discussed, yet it fundamentally structures everything that happens there. And it's incredibly biased.

Reddit,...

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Amazon says 20th birthday celebration will be bigger than Black Friday

To celebrate its 20th birthday, Amazon is introducing Prime Day, a "global shopping event" that the retail giant says will offer more deals than Black Friday. The deals will become available at midnight ET on July 15th, but will only be available to Amazon Prime customers in the US, the UK, Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, and Austria. Amazon says new deals will be introduced as fast as every ten minutes, and will come from every product category, from clothing to electronics.

The new promotion appears to be part of Amazon's ongoing attempt to drive regular shoppers toward Prime membership, having last month expanded its same-day rapid-delivery service Prime Now outside the US. According to Consumer Intelligence Research...

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PicoBrew’s Zymatic Beer Making Machine Made A Brewer Out Of A Noob Like Me

PicoBrew is a beer-centered startup in Seattle, founded by brothers Bill and Jim Mitchell and Avi Geiger. The machine at the heart of their operation is The Zymatic—an apparatus that simplifies beer-making by reducing the need to monitor the cooking process of creating Wort (unfermented beer). Did their device turn a beer drinker like me, with zero brewing experience, into a beer maker? Read More