So, how was your weekend? If you spent it offline, this round-up post is for you to catch up with the news and interesting reads that surfaced over the past two days.
In the news
- Thanks to a recent code revision to the Chromium project, it appears Google has plans to bring Android’s Google Now to the desktop, arriving by way of Chrome’s own desktop notifications.
- You can still view Instagram photos on Twitter, using a simple IFTTT recipe.
- Android users seeking USB drivers for Windows are targeted with malware infecting both PCs and mobile devices.
- Twitter’s photo filters may already be live, as employees test them in new iOS and Android apps.
- Square has integrated Apple’s Passbook and introduced gift cards for iOS app users.
- Facebook data suggests that Microsoft has sold 4.2 million Windows Phone handsets since October.
- Heckbent on blocking out YouTube, Iran launches its own Web video service: Mehr.ir.
- Negotiations in Dubai are stuck in the reeds, as the US pushes to guide UN conference on Internet regulation.
Good reads and discussions
- Bringing the start menu back to Windows 8 is bad news
- Copyright: Holding back the torrent
- How Greek startups are doing their part to beat the crisis
- Sooner: A gorgeous wheel-based to-do list app for iOS
- Nine nonprofits and social enterprises creating incredible communities online
- Behind the rise of the 3D printing revolution
- The future of money: New paradigms for the checkout, banking & currency
- 19 handy Google tricks that you weren’t aware of
- Why 2013 will be the year of the Internet of Things
Noteworthy stories from elsewhere
- Gabe Newell: Living Room PCs Will Compete With Next-Gen Consoles [Kotaku]
- Billion-Dollar Flop: Air Force Stumbles on Software Plan [The New York Times]
- Ask any entrepreneur: The freelance economy is a sucker’s game [Pando Daily]
- Tech Is Making Meetings Worse, It’s Time For Digital Hat Racks [TechCrunch]
- Disruptions: How My Smartphone Emptied My Pockets [The New York Times]
- 25-GPU cluster cracks every standard Windows password in <6 hours [ArsTechnica]
Shareables
- Forget the Internet of Things, this is the Skateboard of Awesome
- Syrian rebels build a homemade tank featuring an apparent PlayStation controller for the turret
Image credit: Morne de Klerk / Getty Images.
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