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Federal Trade Commission Offers $50,000 Bounty Reward to Whomever Can Stop Automated Phone Spam with First Ever “FTC Robocall Challenge”

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responding to what they say is a huge surge in automated phone calls, or, “robocalls,” by offering a cash reward and prizes to the person, or group of people, who can thwart these calls in the “FTC Robocall Challenge.” According to the FTC, complaints about robocalls skyrocketed to a high of 212,000 this past April, compared to the last high of 65,000 complaints in October of 2010.

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Uber Shuts Down on Taxi Service App in New York City

Uber, the popular iPhone app that allows you to schedule a private car or taxi through your mobile device, is closing the doors on its Uber NYC taxi service, just a month after opening it to beta. Citing too much ride demand for not enough taxi supply, the app makers said that they are hoping they will have better luck in the Big Apple in the coming year.

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iPhone 5’s iOS 6 Automatically Opts You In to Being Tracked by Advertisers by Default – Here’s How to Turn it Off

Perhaps iOS 6’s Mapplegate was simply meant to be a great distraction from the fact that Apple is now covertly tracking users through IFA (or IDFA) tracking technology with the iOS 6 update. While Apple had disabled the tracking of iPhone users by advertisers by disallowing app developers from using the data from Apple devices through the unique serial number permanently assigned to each device, it seems that iOS 6 has brought tracking back.

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Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore Author Robin Sloane Releases App Fish: a Tap Essay for the iPhone

An app as an essay, that is what is behind Robin Sloane’s, author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hours Bookstore, app, Fish: a Tap Essay. It doesn’t do anything like allow you to play games or find friends. It is simply an essay with some thoughts on the Internet, and the way that we treat and view online content.

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California Says “No Warrant Needed to Get Location-Based Data”, Can Other States be Far Behind?

California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill on Sunday that would have required a search warrant in order to obtain location-based personal information obtained through cell towers from mobile devices such as cell phones and tablets, and also GPS systems. The veto came with the message that Brown felt that information based on a user’s location is important to the processes needed by law enforcement.

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Justin Bieber Threatens Popular ‘Joustin Beaver’ App With Legal Action

It appears that Justin Bieber does not have much of a sense of humor, or at least his lawyers don’t. A popular app, Joustin Beaver, has prompted Bieber’s camp to send a cease-and-desist letter to app maker RC3, also requesting financial records pertaining to any revenue collected from the 99 cent app.

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Study Reveals that as Many as 16% of All Visits to Websites are from Bots, and 26% of All Traffic is “Aberrant”

Bots generate at least 10% of all online traffic, according to data released today by Solve Media, a company that provides security authentication solutions through CAPTCHA-based advertising technology. Solve Media indicates that they have seen a 400% increase in what they term ‘aberrant’ traffic across web-based services such as commenting, voting, registration, contact and commenting.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook Issues Open Letter, Apologizes for iPhone 5 iOS 6 Mapping Software

Apple CEO Tim Cook has issued an open letter apologizing for how badly the new Apple iPhone 5 iOS 6 Mapping app sucks. In the mapping apology, Cook acknowledges that with the stunning issues with the iPhone 5’s maps, which has been dubbed ‘Mapplegate’, Apple “fell short on their commitment” to “deliver the best experience possible to our customers.” However, he also claims that the more people use the map app, the better it will get, which somehow sounds like “we released it half-baked so that our users could be the guinea pigs who get the data into it.”

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Facebook Unveils Facebook Gifts, the New Way to Send Actual Gifts to Friends

Facebook unveiled their new online commerce plan, Facebook Gifts, and many hope that this will help the company’s slumping advertising revenue. Facebook introduced the new feature today, and it gives users the option to send gifts from 100 different merchants with which Facebook has partnered, including Starbucks, 1-800-Flowers, and Magnolia Bakery.

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List of Problems with the iPhone 5 Getting Longer

To iPhone 5, or not to iPhone 5? That is the question. User complaints and problems with the iPhone 5 seem to be growing daily. While no phone release comes without grumblings, Apple’s latest phone release seems to be rife with problems that has users less than pleased. Especially those who had to pay full price.

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Iran Creates Internal Internet for Iranian citizens, Blocks Gmail, Google, and, Eventually, Maybe Even the World Wide Web

The Iranian government has blocked Gmail and Google until further notice. In an announcement, that included sending a notice to citizens via text message, government officials stated that the services would be filtered, and indeed it appears that, while Google is accessible, it doesn’t actually work for searching purposes.

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Rumors of Facebook Privacy Leak Untrue, for Once. And How to Lock Down your Old Facebook Messages and Keep Them Private

It appears that rumors saying that Facebook has made private messages of millions of users’ public is just that – a rumor. The alleged privacy issue began with reports from the French newspaper Metro, and it spread like wildfire from there, and it wasn’t long before Facebook and the Twitter-sphere were abuzz with the rumor.

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iOS 6 Maps So Bad, Parodies and Tumblr Page Already Gaining Traction

Mapplegate is taking over the Internet world. Apple released their iOS 6 two days ago with one change in particular that has people buzzing – their new Maps app. Many are comparing this to Apple’s infamous 2010 “Antennagate,” when Apple released an iPhone with shoddy antennas, prompting a hasty PR cleanup job by then-CEO Steve Jobs.

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Blackberry Outage on Day of iPhone 5 Release, on Heels of Being Dropped by Yahoo

From the BlackBerry outage, to Yahoo giving it the boot, BlackBerry makers Research in Motion (RIM) have not been having the best week, and many are concluding that it is the beginning of the end for the beleaguered company. Whether it is the end, or just a series of unfortunate events, there is no doubt that they’re are struggling fiercely to stay afloat amidst market-dominating Apple, and their runner-up, the Android market.

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Pandora Stock Plummets Amid Rumors of Apple Streaming Radio

Streaming radio service, Pandora, may soon be regretting opening its music box. Apple is apparently sticking with what should be their official mantra, “anything you can do, I can do better,” after reports began to leak that they are working on a streaming radio option of their own. With this one announcement, Pandora shares went into a tailspin, plunging 19%.