News Summary: Quirky launches US-made product

COMING NOW: Quirky.com, a website that lets users collaborate on designing household products, is launching its first U.S.-manufactured item.
WHAT IT IS: It's a take on the traditional milk crate. The storage crates will be sold on the design website Fab.com for the next seven days. Starting on July 1, they will be available at 400 Target stores.
ABOUT THE COMPANY: Quirky lets people submit inventions that range from kitchen tools to bathroom accessories. The company's designers develop them. Quirky keeps the rights to the products and the inventors and Quirky members who gave input on the design get royalties.


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Angry Birds Space tops 100 million downloads in 76 days

Rovio’s latest Angry Birds game continues to beat expectations and smash records. The company previously revealed that its Angry Birds Space game had been downloaded more than 50 million times in 35 days, making it the fastest growing mobile game of all time. The Finnish game developer on Wednesday announced that the game recently surpassed the 100 million download milestone in a mere 76 days. The Angry Birds franchise has been immensely popular and a financial success for Rovio, having been downloaded over 1 billion times across the major platforms, generating $106 million for the company in 2011 with a total of 200 million active monthly users.
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LinkedIn works with FBI on password theft

(Reuters) - LinkedIn Corp is working with the FBI as the social network for job seekers and professionals investigates the theft of 6.4 million member passwords, the company said on Thursday.
The company does not know of any accounts that were taken over as a result of the security violations, according to LinkedIn spokesman Hani Durzy.
A spokeswoman with the FBI declined to comment.
LinkedIn is still in the early stages of the investigation. Durzy said it was not yet determined whether the email addresses that corresponded to the hacked passwords were also stolen.
On Wednesday, LinkedIn confirmed that millions of passwords were stolen.
The company said on Thursday it would disable passwords that had been compromised and force customers to reset them. The company sent affected members emails explaining how to change their passwords.
Several security experts said that LinkedIn's stolen passwords had not been adequately secured and that the company did not employ best practices utilized by the world's largest websites.
When asked to comment on that criticism, Durzy said that LinkedIn had already boosted the security of its database. "We place the highest value on the security of our members' data," he said.
Online dating service eHarmony warned on Wednesday that some of its user passwords had been breached after security experts discovered scrambled files with passwords for millions of online accounts.
The dating website's contents are sensitive and could subject compromised members to embarrassment or even extortion attempts, experts said.
The attack on LinkedIn did not last long as the latest in a series of security breaches that could affect sensitive consumer data.
On Thursday, Last.fm, which recommends music to users based on the songs they already listen to, also warned its website visitors to change their passwords after a leak which may have resulted from a hacking attack.
"We're sorry for the inconvenience around changing your password," the London-based company wrote.
It is unclear if the three attacks are all related. Web application security expert Jeremiah Grossman said on Twitter that all three companies used common Apache software for serving web pages to visitors, though that doesn't mean that there is a new flaw in the program.
The series of problems underscored the continuing issues with passwords, which are best complex, different for each site and changed every few months.
Major breaches often lead to scam emails and account takeovers, which can be used to convince acquaintances of the target to click on dangerous links that monitor online credit card or bank account use.
LinkedIn caters to companies seeking employees and people scouting for jobs. It has more than 161 million members worldwide and makes money by selling marketing services and premium subscriptions.
Shares of LinkedIn closed up 1.1 percent at $94.13 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston and Joseph Menn in San Francisco; Writing by Jennifer Saba in New York and Joseph Menn in San Francisco; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Phil Berlowitz)
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NintendoLand,' 'Mario Bros.' coming to Wii U

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nintendo is relying on a famous plumber, zombies and a virtual theme park to build buzz for the Wii U.
The Japanese gaming giant unleashed 23 games for its upcoming console featuring a touchscreen controller during a news conference Tuesday at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the gaming industry's annual trade show.
Among the titles announced were the cooperative platform game "New Super Mario Bros. U" and the amusement-park-themed mini-game collection "NintendoLand." Nintendo also demonstrated the fantastical strategy sequel "Pikmin 3" and first-person undead-fighting game "ZombiU" from Ubisoft Entertainment.
The titles employed what the company is dubbing "asymmetric gameplay," which gives players using the 6.2-inch touchscreen controller called the Wii U GamePad a different experience than those armed with traditional Wii controllers. The Wii U will be compatible with previous Wii controllers, including the Wii Nunchuk and Wii Balance Board.
"When we launched the Wii at the press conference in 2006, people were still wondering what this thing is all about," said Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, backstage after the press conference. "To make a comparison of where we are with the Wii U vs. the Wii, I think we're actually much further along. I say that because here at this press conference, we're able to show off over 20 games, and we've got fantastic third-party support."
Nintendo illustrated that "New Super Mario Bros. U" could be played on either a TV or the touchscreen controller, and that the latest installment in the brick-smashing, coin-collecting franchise would allow up to four players to play simultaneously with traditional controllers, while another could join in with the touchscreen controller to jab enemies and build platforms from afar.
"With the Wii U GamePad, we have the first dedicated personal screen in the long history of game machines," Shigeru Miyamoto, who created "Super Mario Bros." and "Legend of Zelda," said at the news conference through a translator.
Other games announced for the successor to the popular Wii console included the fitness title "Wii Fit U," a sing-and-dance-along game called "SiNG" and the word-filled puzzler "Scribblenauts Unlimited" from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
Nintendo Co. jumped ahead of rivals Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. to build hype at E3 by streaming an online video Sunday revealing that the touchscreen controller would be called the Wii U GamePad. The company also announced Sunday that it would release a traditional controller outfitted with two analog sticks called the Wii U Pro Controller, and that the Wii U's interface would be an online virtual hub called Miiverse.
Fils-Aime said Wii U users would be able to connect to the Miiverse, which is populated by cartoony Nintendo avatars called Miis, with Internet-enabled smartphones, tablets and other devices after the console's launch.
Microsoft and Sony showed off similar second-screen capabilities Monday. Microsoft unveiled an app called Xbox SmartGlass that would allow users to stream and share content across their TVs, tablets and smartphones using the Xbox 360, while Sony continued to hype what it calls "cross-play" between its PlayStation 3 console and PlayStation Vita hand-held device.
No price or release date was announced for the Wii U system, which was unveiled last year at E3. The tablet-like Wii U GamePad is equipped with an infrared transceiver, gyroscope and accelerometer. It also has a camera, stylus, two analog sticks and multiple buttons.
Fils-Aime said the Wii U console would work with two Wii U GamePads, but that feature was not demonstrated Tuesday.
Nintendo also previewed a trio of games for its 3DS handheld device starring its famous plumber siblings: "New Super Mario Bros. 2" introducing a golden Mario, "Paper Mario: Sticker Star" presenting a 2-D version of the protagonist in 3-D, and "Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon" focusing on Mario's ghost-capturing brother.
Following the news conference at the Nokia Theatre, long lines of people snaked around the Nintendo booth inside the Los Angeles Convention Center as they waited to try "NintendoLand," which features mini-games inspired by 12 different Nintendo franchises, such as "Legend of Zelda," ''Animal Crossing" and "Donkey Kong."


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Digital music revenue overtakes physical formats in U.K. for first time

Digital music downloads and streaming revenues for the first time ever have surpassed those of physical CDs in the United Kingdom, according to the British Phonographic Industry. Digital music accounted for 55.5% of U.K. music revenue between January and April of this year compared to 31% of worldwide industry revenue in 2011, with industry revenues growing by 2.7% to £155.8 million. Digital music revenue, including subscription and ad-supported services, grew by 23.6% year-over-year to £86.5 million, while revenue from physical formats fell by 15.1% to £69.3 million. Sales of digital albums increased by 22.7% to £35.9 million. Paid-for subscription services revenue almost doubled over the same month a year ago, increasing 93% to nearly £9 million, while revenue from ad-supported services such as Spotify increased by 20% to £3.4 million. The continued increase of digital revenues highlights the switch millions of users continue to make from physical music formats to digital downloads and streaming services. The British Phonographic Industry’s press release follows below.
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iPad game lets kids virtually pulverize food to learn about nutrition

An award-winning mobile game called Smash Your Food is making strides among kids by allowing them to virtually smash junk food into oblivion, aiming for both fun and gross-out appeal, all while learning about nutrition.

Created by Washington-based nutritionist Marta De Wulf, the game was released in late March as an iPad app and is a winner in US First Lady Michelle Obama's "Apps for Health Kids" Competition, part of her Let's Move! initiative. The app is available in free and paid versions and for the web, and versions for iPhone and iPod Touch are coming this summer.

The idea of the game is to let kids guess the amount of sugar, salt, and oil in their favorite foods -- such as burgers, fries, and sodas -- then smash them to learn the totals. As players advance in the game, they'll have a chance to guess what is in more complex foods, and eventually entire meals.

"It's kind of playful and it's fun, and it doesn't hit you over the head," Adam Drewnowski, Ph.D., director of the University of Washington Center for Obesity Research, told The Seattle Times this week. "It helps families make small, incremental changes so that they eat a little bit better."

The free version includes five foods; the $2.99 version includes 40 foods and meals. "So far, more than 140,000 foods have been smashed around the world," according to The Seattle Times.

Meanwhile, another app game recently launched that hopes to inspire overweight teens to get active. Dubbed Zamzee, the game comes equipped with a hip-worn sensor that tracks kids' movements and awards physical activity with points that they can upload to the Zamzee web portal.

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Facebook launches iPhone camera app

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook's rocky initial public offering hasn't stopped life at the world's biggest online social network. On Thursday, the company unveiled a camera app for the iPhone.

The app can be downloaded from Apple's App Store and works like most other camera applications for smart phones. To take a photo, you tap a camera icon in the upper left corner of your screen, aim and shoot. You can then add filters, crop or tilt your photo, and share it on Facebook.

The new app is similar to Instagram, the photo-sharing app Facebook is in the process of buying for $1 billion. The acquisition, however, has not yet been completed, and Instagram's employees did not work on the photo app. Facebook has said it expects the Instagram acquisition to close sometime this year.

Facebook didn't give details on when it might release a version of the app for phones that run on Google's Android operating system. In a statement, Facebook said it is "carefully looking at what might make for a good Facebook photos experience across Android devices."
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Microsoft appoints first official Iraq distributor

BAGHDAD (AP) — Microsoft Corp. said Monday it has appointed a local company to distribute its products in Iraq, calling the move a sign of progress for the country.

Microsoft's manager of Business Development for Emerging Markets, Rajai S. El-Khadem, said the software giant had chosen the Baghdad-based Legend Lands Co. as its Iraqi partner.

"This is a big step for Microsoft and for Iraq," said El-Khadem. "As of today Microsoft will be officially and locally represented in Iraq ... to provide Microsoft licenses, support and services for our clients and resellers."

El-Khadem called the Iraqi market a "promising and aggressive" one that "needs to be served at the same level as all the other countries." But he also called on the Iraqi government to approve laws that protect intellectual property rights and usage of software.

Decades of war and U.N. sanctions have created sweeping technology shortages in Iraq, and the government's limited supervision over the sector has overwhelmed the market with illegal software products.

The CEO of Legend Lands Co., Ahmed Izzedien, said his company will provide a wide range of software products that address the needs of the government, public and private sector and home users. The company will also provide support and services through a network of resellers nationwide.

"Things have changed in Iraq in a way that needs to address the major needs such as updating software used by the government ... and to move in parallel with economic development, mainly in the oil sector," he said.
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Facebook smartphone could come by next year: report

Facebook hopes to release its own smartphone by next year, as the newly public social networking giant looks to boost its revenue in the mobile Internet market, the New York Times reported Monday.

The company has hired more than half a dozen software and hardware engineers who have worked on Apple's bestselling iPhone and one engineer who has iPad experience, the paper said, citing employees and other unnamed sources.

It has also expanded a group working on a partnership with Taiwan's HTC to create a smartphone codenamed "Buffy" -- a project first revealed last year by technology blog All Things Digital.

One former Apple engineer who worked on the iPhone and was recruited said he had met with Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg "who then peppered him with questions about the inner workings of smartphones," the report said.

"Mark is worried that if he doesn't create a mobile phone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms," a Facebook employee told the New York Times.

When asked for comment, Facebook neither confirmed nor denied the report.

"Our mobile strategy is simple: we think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social," it said in a statement emailed to AFP.

"We're working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world.

Facebook's initial public offering this month raised a record $16 billion but has sparked fury, and lawsuits, amid concerns that key information about the outlook for the company might not have been made widely available.

The company said earlier this month that it was launching an App Center for mini-programs that plug offerings such as Pinterest or Draw Something into the leading social network, which has more than 900 million members worldwide.

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Chavez notches up three million Twitter followers

Firebrand Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez now has more than three million followers on Twitter, making him the most popular Latin American politician on the site -- a milestone he celebrated on Monday.

"To the three million followers, I sent a special thank you! We will use this platform to pursue our battle of ideas!" Chavez wrote early Monday, shortly after the number of followers topped the three million mark.

At midday, the @chavezcandanga account had 3,001,091 followers.

Early in the day, state television VTV aired an ad announcing the milestone.

Chavez, who is battling cancer, opened the account in April 2010 to counter the opposition's use of social media. He quickly attracted hundreds of thousands of followers, some of whom asked him for jobs or housing.

The flood of messages prompted the leftist leader to open a special service tasked with reading and answering all of the tweets.

Chavez, 57, has been in power in 1999. He is running for reelection as a "revolutionary socialist" in October against Henrique Capriles, the youthful Miranda state governor and center-left candidate for the united opposition.

Chavez has been especially active on Twitter since his first cancer surgery in Cuba to remove a tumor from his pelvic area in June 2011.

He underwent a second operation on the same area in February after it recurred, and since then has made several trips to Cuba -- Venezuela's closest ally -- for radiation treatment.

Chavez is the most prominent face of the left in Latin America and has rallied a group of like-minded leaders as a counterweight to the United States.

He said last week that he would officially throw his hat into the ring for the October 7 presidential election.
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DVDs and Blu-rays to carry two unskippable government warnings

The FBI Anti-Piracy Warning that is found on all modern DVD and Blu-ray discs is getting an upgrade. The United States government earlier this week announced that it will require two copyright notices on DVD and Blu-ray discs, Ars Technica reported. The first notice will warn potential piracy thieves, while the second one is meant to educate viewers. All six major movie studios have agreed to include the notices, which we will begin seeing on new discs this week. The screens will “come up after the previews, once you hit the main movie/play button on the DVD.” The warnings will each last 10 seconds and users will not have the ability to skip or fast forward through them. “Law enforcement must continue to expand how it combats criminal activity; public awareness and education are a critical part of that effort,” ICE Director John Morton said in a statement.
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Mobile usage doubles, now accounts for 10% of worldwide Internet usage

The number of people accessing the Web through mobile devices has doubled since 2010 and now accounts for 10% of worldwide Internet usage. According to numbers compiled by Pingdom, Asia’s mobile usage amounted for 17.84% of the country’s total Internet usage, a 192.5% increase over the past 18 months. Africa’s mobile usage placed the region in second with 14.85%, usage in North America sat at 7.96%, followed by Australia, Europe and South America at 7.55%, 5.13% and 2.86% respectively. Pingdom notes that while worldwide mobile usage may only account for 10% of Web access, the number is growing at an extremely fast rate, and some countries’ Internet usage, such as India, is already nearing 50% from mobile devices.

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Google issued first license to test driverless cars

Nevada is the first state to grant Google a U.S. license to test driverless cars. The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles confirmed on Monday that it had approved the company’s application to test autonomous vehicles on public streets. Google will be required to have at least two people in the vehicle while testing it, however, including one in the driver’s seat. Prior to being approved, the Mountain View-based company had been testing the car on freeways in neighborhoods around Carson City and Las Vegas, according to Fox News. The tests showed the car was just as safe, if not safer, than cars operated by human drivers. “It gets honked at more often because it’s being safe,” said Nevada DMV Director Bruce Breslow. The driverless vehicles will be required to wear red license plates that contain an infinity symbol, which the DMV says represents their status as “the car of the future.” If testing goes as planned and the vehicles are ever used by the general public, the license plates will be green. “They’re designed to avoid distracted driving,” Breslow said. “When you’re on the Strip and there’s a huge truck with a three scantily clad women on the side, the car only sees a box.”

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