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Ross Ulbricht, who went by the name 'Dread Pirate Roberts' online, has been convicted on all counts for running the illegal, anonymous bazaar, the Silk Road.

The Silk Road underground marketplace allowed users to purchase drugs, buy counterfeit products, and trade child pornography while paying with Bitcoin digital currency.

In just 3 hours of deliberations, the jury found Ulbricht guilty on all seven charges which included 'trafficking drugs on the Internet, narcotics-trafficking conspiracy, running a continuing criminal enterprise, computer-hacking conspiracy and money-laundering conspiracy.'

Prosecutors had alleged that Dread Pirate ran Silk Road from 2011 until its raid in 2013, and that over $200 million in Bitcoins were used to purchase illegal merchandise on the site in that time. Ulbricht was also accused of arranging to murder five people who threatened to expose sellers on the Silk Road.

In his defense, Ulbricht claimed that he was set up to take the blame by former Mt. Gox founder Mark Karpeles. The jury didn't buy it. On Ulbricht's computers they found Silk Road maintenance logs, weekly reports, online chat transcripts and over $13 million worth of bitcoins, which were then traced back to Silk Road.

Universal Pictures has confirmed the release date for the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic, just two days after we saw our first leaked scene pics from outside of Cupertino.

The film will debut in theaters on October 9th and will reportedly cover Apple founder Steve Jobs through three major launches; the original Mac, the NeXT, and the iPod. The script is based on Walter Isaacson's hit authorized biography on Jobs.

Directed by Danny Boyle, the movie features Michael Fassbender as Jobs and Seth Rogen as co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Universal acquired the film from Sony Pictures in November after the producers had a falling out with Sony's studio co-chairman. The arguments were infamously leaked when Sony Pictures' emails were released to the web following December's cyber attack on the studio.

Source:
AVC

In an effort to get into the brick-and-mortar business, it appears that Amazon is in talks with bankrupt retailer RadioShack to buy some of their over 4000 locations.

The stores would be used to showcase Amazon's hardware, which is now an entire lineup including a phone, tablet, e-reader, set-top box, and HDMI streaming stick. They could also be used as drop off and pickup centers for online buyers.

Major U.S. carrier Sprint and retailer Brookstone have also discussed buying thousands of locations from RadioShack in bankruptcy.
"This is a year in which we intend to grow our distribution dramatically," CEO Marcelo Claure said. "You are going to see the opening of more and more Sprint stores as this is one area that we work on."

If true, Amazon is hoping the move will put them on more even ground with Apple and Microsoft, whose brick-and-mortar locations have been popular and crucial in showing off products to consumers that do not only want to buy online.

Despite the devastating cyber attack that crippled the company for weeks, it appears that Sony Pictures Entertainment still eeked out a small profit for the fiscal Q3 ended December 31st.

Sony said today that SPE had a provisional (pending audit) profit of ￥24.3 billion, or $20 million USD. The profit was 90 percent lower than the same quarter last year, thanks mainly to the attack and also lower theatrical revenue across the board. Overall revenue is expected to be $1.63 billion, down 23 percent year-over-year.

Notably, "the quarter is expected to include approximately $15 million (1.8 billion yen) in investigation and remediation costs" related to the hack, added the company. Of course, the company faced more questions related to the cyber attack. "We don't think the leaking of unreleased films online or the damage to the IT systems will cause a significant loss. We had insurance against cyberattacks, and will be able to recover a significant portion of the costs, which will likely be be paid out in the next fiscal year [after April]," said Kazuhiko Takeda, vice president at the corporate planning and control dept.

We will have official numbers in the coming weeks, especially related to the attack.

The team behind Popcorn Time, after a brief hiatus, have returned with updates to their Windows, Mac and Android versions.

As the team says, the updates are mainly for the UI and for general performance and stability. Reads the post: "Getting this software to work flawlessly in one hell of a challenge and with these releases we're getting so much closer to this desired goal...

Also the content is of higher quality this time around, and we're doing our best to make sure you won't have movies that don't play, specific episodes in a series you're watching that get stuck.. We're doing our best to make sure the video will run smoothly without stuttering, looping, pausing... That the sound quality will be even higher than it already was, that the download will be quicker and that the overall watching experience will rock your world! Even more than before. It worked beautifully when testing it, and if it works beautifully for all of you... Well, we may be able to start fantasizing on crossing out the word BETA before the version number ;-)"


Here is the changelog for the Mac and Windows versions, which now move to beta 5.2:

New interface for Mac Os X!
Metadata errors fixed! (0/0 peers,0kb/s, 100% and then back to info page issues are under this category).
Magnet links support
Initial download progress fix
Torrent engine stability updates
Seek and download bar fixes
Brazilian Portuguese subtitles fix
Cache bug fixed.
Updater improvements – From the next version on there will be no need for you to re-install every time we offer a new version!

According to a new report, tech giants like Microsoft, Google and Amazon have been paying to have their ads whitelisted through the popular ad-blocking extension software Adblock Plus.

The report claims that the paid deal between the makers of Adblock Plus (Eyeo) and the tech companies allows the ads to get through the filter which would otherwise block them.

Eyeo has confirmed that they do indeed have a whitelist that is part of their "acceptable ads" program which allows "less aggressive" ads to bypass the filter. Users of the plugin can choose to accept the "acceptable ads" whitelist in which "by doing this you support websites that rely on advertising but choose to do it in a non-intrusive way."

Apparently, addition to the acceptable ads program is free for small companies, big companies are paying large fees to ensure their ads make it through.

Microsoft and the Raspberry Pi Foundation have confirmed that the software giant will be offering a version of Windows 10 for free for Raspberry Pi micro PCs.

"We see the Maker community as an amazing source of innovation for smart, connected devices that represent the very foundation of the next wave of computing, and we're excited to be a part of this community," said Kevin Dallas, General Manager, Windows IoT (Internet of Things) Group.

Yesterday, the Foundation showed off the Raspberry Pi 2, which added 1GB of RAM and a quad-core processor for the same $35 price tag opening up the possibility of more advanced software like Mathematica, or Windows.

"Raspberry Pi 2 is a surprisingly powerful device that opens up the world of computing and programing to a huge range of people and skill levels. We are excited about our work with the Raspberry Pi Foundation and to share that Windows 10 will support Raspberry Pi 2. We will be sharing more details about our Windows 10 plans for IoT in the coming months," added Dallas.

It appears that we finally have some scene pics of the upcoming Apple biopic, which features Michael Fassbender and Seth Rogen as Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

The movie has been filming around the Bay Area for the last few weeks, within walking distance of Apple's current Cupertino headquarters.

Universal is behind the film, which began filming at Jobs' childhood garage, and emails leaked in December implied that the entire film could be shot in just a few weeks although it is unclear if that timeline has changed. Sony Pictures originally owned the script before dropping it in November.

The new film centers around the notable launches of the original Mac, the NeXT cube and the iPod.

Some pics:

As we have reported for the past few months, Google's latest version of Android is struggling to see adoption.

Into its third month of availability, the operating system is only installed on 1.6 percent of devices, a way lower figure than the install base for Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which was released in 2011.

Android 4.4 KitKat continued to take share, and now stands at 39.7 percent, still slightly below Jelly Bean, which encompasses Android 4.1-4.3.x and has 44.5 percent.

Lollipop remains available for very few devices, most notably Google's own Nexus line. Android 5.0 is easily the search giant's best mobile OS to date, and it is a shame that so few have been able to test it.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced the sequel to their popular micro PC, the Raspberry Pi.

The new, updated Raspberry Pi 2 has an improved processor and double the RAM but keeps the amazing price of $35.

"It's a major leap forward in terms of computing power for users," says Mike Powell, a technology development manager for Pi distributor Element14. "A whole wave of new applications are now possible."

The Pi 2 has a quad-core, ARMv7 processor with a clock speed of 900MHz and 1GB of RAM. The original "Model A" Raspberry Pi had a single core ARMv6 processor at 700MHz with 512MB RAM.

Since its inception, the Pi has been aimed at students that are looking to learn coding. With the added RAM and processing power, there will certainly be the ability to use more power-intensive programs now.

Samsung has sent out press invites for an "Unpacked" event in which the company will reveal an upcoming Galaxy flagship device.

The event will take place on March 1st in Barcelona. Samsung has used 'Unpacked' to unveil Galaxy Note and Galaxy S flagships in the past.

In the past weeks, there have been 'leaks' and rumors about the S6, which is expected to depart from a plastic case to a more premium metal design. Additionally, there are rumors that the device will have a curved display, similar to last year's Galaxy Note Edge.

Besides the phone, Samsung is also expected to release a round smartwatch.

Reportedly, Alibaba has invested $10 million in Ouya, the Kickstarter darling that never made a splash with consumers.

Ouya, which started by building tiny Android-based set-top consoles for gamers, has mostly migrated to becoming a software provider, and that means that Alibaba is planning to integrate the Ouya operating system and its 1000 game strong lineup into their own set-tops.

When Ouya first hit Kickstarter, it was an instant hit, reaching $8.5 million in funding in 2012. However, the set-top saw a few delays and by the time it came out, the PS4 and Xbox One were just months away from hitting shelves. Within months, Amazon and Nvidia also killed Ouya by offering casual gaming on the big screen, at the same price and with more features.

Since overhauling and getting out of the hardware business, Ouya has partnered with Madcatz and Xiaomi who have integrated the software into their more popular hardware. Certainly, Alibaba could help increase that existing network, as well.

Rap mogul Jay Z is preparing to buy his own music streaming service.

The rapper and entrepreneur is currently in the process of buying the Scandinavian music streaming company Aspiro for $56 million.

Through his company, Project Panther Bidco Ltd, Jay began looking into Aspiro for some time ago and found the service to be "an innovative high-quality company with strong future growth potential."

Aspiro, which is not a household name in the U.S., has two ad-free services; WiMP and Tidal. WiMP is available in Europe while Tidal offers high-def audio and music videos in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Late night talk show host Conan O'Brien released a hilarious video yesterday of NFL stars Marshawn Lynch and Rob Gronkowski playing the upcoming 'Mortal Kombat X' for PS4, ahead of tonight's Superbowl.

In the segment, which is part of the comedian's "Clueless Gamer" series, the players fight to the death, and their reactions to fatality moves are notably funny.

Check out the full video here:

Finnish startup Jolla has started a second funding campaign for its Jolla Tablet on Indiegogo, adding more storage.

The original campaign closed in December, with $1.8 million in funding. Buyers of the original tablet can upgrade for $25, or new buyers can purchase for $249.

In addition to the upgrade to 64GB internal storage, the device also has a larger battery (4300mAh to 4450mAh) and has added a gyroscope and compass sensors. Finally, the device has a microSD slot with 128GB support but with a major caveat: "Due to Microsoft's licensing limitations cards over 32GB that are formatted in Jolla Tablet will not be readable with Windows computers or devices that advertise microSDXC support (cameras/phones/tablets)." Jolla has not paid to license exFAT for the OS.

The Jolla Tablet has a 7.85-inch display with 2048x1536 resolution, a 64-bit quad-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz, 2GB RAM and dual 5MP/2MP cameras.

Get the tablet here: Indiegogo