Bitcoin's Future Could Be In Porn

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Facebook Home Means You'll Never Check Facebook Again (It'll Check You)

At a press conference Thursday, Facebook unveiled Home, a new smartphone software design it cryptically said “isn't a phone or operating system,” but is “more than just an app” and will deliver a "completely new experience."

That "new experience" doesn’t stop at the phone’s screen. What Home seeks to deliver is not only a Facebook environment for our phones, but also a Facebook environment for our lives.

With Home, Facebook has crossed the line between something people check -- that they have control over, and deploy according to their wishes and needs -- to become something that’s always on, checking in with us, fighting for attention, waving people we know in our face. Rather than a tool we use to talk to others, the phone, thanks to Facebook, has become something that communicates to us. And it’s Facebook that gets to do the talking.

Home, which will be available for download on a handful of smartphones next week, is essentially a Facebook-ified version of Google’s Android operating system, modified by Facebook engineers to place the social network at its core. A flow of updates from the News Feed will be the first thing people see when they turn on their phones -- the newly named “cover feed,” a slideshow of friends’ photos and status updates, will take over the phone’s primary screen, though users can swipe past to access other applications. Home also touts “chat heads,” a feature that brings together texting and messaging, replaces names with Facebook photos and lets users message within any application. Ads will be on their way to the cover feed soon, Facebook conceded. And though the social network didn’t say as much, technology observers, such as Om Malik, have pointed out that Home will let Facebook scoop up even more personal information about everything from our locations to our calls.

Google Reader Enthusiasts Angered By Google's Joke About Shutting Down YouTube

Google has always been known for its great April Fools' Day pranks. In fact, it was Google who arguably started the pranking tradition in the tech industry (which in 2013 includes Twitter, Netflix, Hulu and others). All the way back in 2000, Google first pranked users by telling them they had created a new program that allowed users to search with their minds. Google has generally gotten good press for its efforts. But they hit a bump this year.

For one of this year's pranks, Google made a video saying that it was going to shut down YouTube. What was meant to be a lighthearted joke -- over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month, YouTube isn't going anywhere -- turned into a bit of a PR issue. Pretending to kill YouTube seemed to remind many, or at least many who have Twitter accounts, that Google is actually killing Google Reader. Last month, Google upset a whole lot of devoted users when it announced that it is planning to discontinue the RSS reader, the unspoken reason being to focus users on Google+. Just when that fire had died down, Google found a way to reignite it.

Surface vs. iPad: 7 Things Microsoft's Tablets Have That Apple's Don't

Microsoft trotted out its new line of Surface tablets earlier this week at a press conference in California. Two versions will be available: one equipped with an ARM processor and running Windows RT, the other equipped with an Intel processor and running Windows 8 Pro. Prices for both tablets have yet to be announced.

Microsoft's competition in the tablet space is fierce, and no devices are as fearsome as the mighty iPad. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in April that 67 million iPads have sold since the device launched in early 2010,per the New York Times. Though Microsoft has a lot of catching up to do, it seems to be off to a solid start with the Surface.

Microsoft is leaving us in the dark on key details, such as the price and exact release date of the Surface, but so far we've seen a few tantalizing features that the iPad lacks.