techandbusiness

I'm kind of in love with Sony's little egg-shaped speaker, the SRS-BTV5. The tiny, tennis-ball-sized gadget is so cute, it really deserves a name other than the seemingly random series of characters. Maybe Veronica. It looks like a Veronica.

At least mine does, but that's probably because it's raven colored. I really wanted one of the bright pink ones — it just seems to go better with the spherical shape — but black still makes a statement, if a quieter one.

And by quiet, I'm referring to the design, of course — not the sound. Veronica actually plays fairly loud for a tiny ball. She's not going to sustain a house party, but a hotel room, definitely. Read more...

Windows Phone customers won't be shut out of seeing YouTube videos after all. After tussling over the YouTube app for Windows Phone, Google and Microsoft have settled their differences now that Microsoft has agreed to include ads in the app.

The YouTube app, like other major apps on Windows Phone, is actually made by Microsoft. But while YouTube launched ads on its the official apps on iOS and Android last year, the Windows Phone version doesn't have them. As a result, Google, which owns YouTube, hit Microsoft with a cease-and-desist letter.

After the letter was issued, Microsoft publicly commented that it would be happy to include ads in the next version of its YouTube app, but that it lacked the necessary technical tools that only Google has. Read more...

If you're going to get thrown off the field, you might as well go in style, right? This pants-less goal celebration definitely qualifies

It comes courtesy of Mario Djurovski, a Macedonian midfielder for Thai soccer club Muangthong United. After a sweet score, he drops trou, puts his shorts on top of his head and motions strangely toward the stands. The referee, as you'll see, is not impressed, and hits Djurovski with a red card

The clip created a fair amount of befuddled buzz on the sports Internet this week, so check it out for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments Read more...

Look alive, Simpsons fans — everyone's favorite animated family is getting its own expanded area at the Universal Orlando Resort. Woo-hoo!

The Simpsons franchise has had a presence at Universal Studios Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood since 2007. In 2008, The Simpsons Ride launched in both locations.

This summer in Orlando, Universal is expanding the world around the show and building a Springfield replica within the park.

Universal Orlando says there will be an outdoor attraction and a new ride — Kang & Kodos' Twirl 'n' Hurl. Krusty the Clown and Sideshow Bob will also join the Simpson family members as wandering characters. Read more...

When a baby was afflicted with a condition that blocked his ability to breathe, professors at the University of Michigan developed a 3D-printed splint that saved the child's life.

Baby Kaiba Gionfriddo was only six weeks old when he stopped breathing and turned blue, as explained in the video above. Doctors discovered Kaiba had severe tracheobronchomalacia, a condition that causes a collapse of the windpipe, blocking the body's flow of air. This rare condition affects only 1 in 2,200 babies.

When treatments failed to help, Kaiba's doctors went to the University of Michigan. That's where two professors — Dr. Glenn Green, associate professor of pediatric otolaryngology, and Scott Hollister, professor of biomedical engineering & mechanical engineering and associate professor of surgery — used pioneering technology to come up with a solution. Read more...

California-based company Barobo is all about robots. Their newest invention, Linkbot, is a modular robotic platform that lets you build and customize your own robot, block by block, like LEGOs

You start with a single bot. It's ready to go as-is, but you can add your own flavor by connecting two or more bots together into different shapes. What's especially cool is the hands-on coding feature, called PoseTeach, which allows you to program the bot with your hands on the outside instead of a keyboard. While you make adjustments on the outside, the Linkbot automatically writes and remembers the code itself Read more...

The roster of companies interested in acquiring a stake in Hulu is growing. In addition to The Chernin Group (in partnership with Providence Equity), Guggenheim Digital, DirecTV and Time Warner Cable — whose bids were reported on Thursday night and Friday morning — Yahoo, private equity firm KKR and talent agency William Morris Endeavor (in partnership with Silver Lake) have also placed bids, according to AllThingsD and Bloomberg.

AllThingsD reported earlier this month that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer had met with Hulu executives, but after the company dropped $1.1 billion on Tumblr and another several million for gaming platform PlayerScale earlier this week, it seemed that the company might not go ahead with a bid. But that appears not to be the case — and even after the Tumblr acquisition, Yahoo has around $4 billion in cash to spend. Read more...

If there's one thing gamers have been clamoring for, it's more badger simulators. And by "more," we mean "one singular" badger simulator, because to our knowledge, there is no such genre.

SEE ALSO: 10 Exciting Indie Games We Can't Wait to Play

That's about to change, thanks to Swedish indie studio Might and Delight, makers of the charming 2012 platformer Pid. In its new game, Shelter, a player assumes the role of a mother badger, who must forage for food and protect her cubs from the dangers of — wherever badgers live. Cleveland? I don't know.

The studio dropped a video (watch above) of some early gameplay, and in general, people have been reacting online with: "What the f ... oh. Oh, this is kinda cool!" Read more...

This Memorial Day holiday weekend in the U.S. kicks off the start of the summer travel season. You might have a trip or two meticulously planned and carefully entered into your Google Calendar for the summer vacation months. But what if your travel destinations were crowdsourced — partially dictated by someone else?

A New York couple is ready to hit the road, depending on the whims of family, friends and random people in a crowdsourced road trip.

Meet John Ellis and Laura Preston. They call themselves "The Democratic Travelers." Akin to their democratic nickname, the couple is spending a year driving across the United States and stopping at destinations that people suggest and vote for on the John's and Laura's "The Democratic Travelers" website Read more...

Rumors of an Apple iWatch have started to surface again, now suggesting that an Apple-branded smart watch will be hitting store shelves in late 2014.

In a note to investors, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said he expects Apple to release an iWatch, but not necessarily anytime in the very near future. Kuo, who has successfully predicted other Apple launches, says Apple will start production on the device middle of next year, with a likely launch date toward the end of 2014.

According to a recent report on 9to5 Mac, Kuo says the watch will have a 1.5-inch to 2-inch display and will use biometrics – much like a prototype of a Toshiba smart watch we saw at CES this year – to keep it secure. This means the watch can to determine who is wearing it. Biometric functionality would also allow the watch to be used as a fitness-tracking device, similar to FitBit. Read more...

AT&T's prepaid GoPhone brand will now support the iPhone 5 and other LTE/HSPA+ devices.

Although iPhone users have been able to sign up for voice service using GoPhone, this is the first time AT&T is opening access to the data network for those customers. This is also the first time the company has offered LTE support for its prepaid GoPhone SIMs.

AT&T offers three service plans that support the iPhone and other LTE/HSPA+ devices, but only the $65 a month plan includes data (1GB a month).

Users can also purchase individual data packages that run $5 a month for 50MB, $15 a month for 200MB and $25 a month for 1GB. Read more...

App.net, an ad-free social platform popular with developers, has reached a big milestone: 100,000 registered users.

The network launched in August 2012 to users willing to join for $50 per year. Since then, ADN, as it is often called, unveiled a new pricing structure of $36 per year or $5 per month. As it has evolved, the service most recently rolled out a free tier of invite-only accounts for paid members to distribute.

Free users can follow a maximum of 40 users and receive 500MB of storage onsite. Paid accounts can follow an unlimited number of users, receive 10GB of storage and have the ability to provide new users with free-tier accountsADN has provided 5,000 free invites to Mashable, and we'd like to extend these invites to you! Read more...

With the smartphone increasingly becoming the tool of choice for many shoppers, businesses with their own mobile apps are quickly learning this is an excellent way to get a leg up on the competition.

Branded apps, which give retailers a direct link to their consumers' smartphones, are gaining in popularity among shoppers. Recent studies show that consumers spent six times as much time using retailers' apps this winter than they did a year ago, while more than 60% of affluent shoppers view brands with mobile apps more favorably.

Despite this opportunity to connect with consumers, many businesses are missing the mark due to poorly conceived and developed apps. Ed LaFoy, a mobile developer for digital consulting firm Table XI, warns of five mistakes businesses should avoid when creating their own branded app. Read more...

Lord Voldemort and Gandalf the White (formerly Grey) are the two baddest wizards in town. After all, they've bypassed that whole death thing with Horcruxes and coming back from the dead

And with Dumbledore out of the way, it's only these two vying for the top spot in the land of magic. So who would win in a supreme battle between He Who Has No Nose and He Who Has a Long Beard? YouTuber BrotherhoodWorkshop pitted the wizards against each other in an epic LEGO battle inside Ollivander's Wand Shop

Hopefully, Gandalf can "Avada Kedavra" Voldemort all the way to Middle-earth, so Harry Potter and gang can get back to Hogwarts ASAP Read more...

The New Yorker's new Strongbox feature claims to be an online safebox for whistleblowers to submit documents safely and anonymously. The system, based on open source DeadDrop software developed by the late Aaron Swartz, has invited comparisons to Wikileaks

Can Strongbox really deliver on its promises? Can it be as successful and secure as Wikileaks' system was?

"I think Wikileaks is the gold standard for reasons that most other leaking systems hardly understand," said Jacob Appelbaum, a famous hacker who has been working with Julian Assange for years.

Wikileaks' submission system has been offline since late 2010, when the mysterious hacker who developed it — known as "The Architect" — left Wikileaks and took the system with him, as explained in Andy Greenberg's This Machine Kills Secrets. Read more...

Ron Paul doesn't own RonPaul.com. Ron Paul wants RonPaul.com. Ron Paul isn't getting RonPaul.com

Paul has lost his World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) petition to get RonPaul.com from Paul supporters who run a fan site at the domain

Paul filed the petition earlier this year, arguing it confuses Paul supporters who think it's an official website. RonPaul.com's owners previously offered to sell Paul the domain for $250,000 or to give him RonPaul.org for free. Paul didn't accept either offer (Paul's campaign website was CampaignForLiberty.org).

WIPO found RonPaul.com's owners have a right to the domain for multiple reasons: First, Paul did not trademark his name. Second, RonPaul.com's owners are providing value with their community of Paul supporters. Third, the owners were not acting in "bad faith," i.e. cybersquatting to sell the domain. Read more...

Standardized testing has long been a hot-button topic among educational circles. But a veteran teacher is now taking a very open position against the concept by resigning from her job — and telling everyone about it on YouTube

The video, which was posted on Tuesday under the account I Quit You Can't Fire Me, is quickly going viral. Her resignation claims how students and teachers alike can be affected by state-mandated curriculums and tests. The woman, a 4th grade teacher for the past 15 years, says that at one point, she was excited to contribute so powerfully to the lives of children — but over time, she believes the educational system has changed for the worse Read more...

Morgan Freeman set the Internet atwitter this week when he briefly fell asleep during a live TV interview alongside Michael Caine in support of their new film Now You See Me.

But, as it turns out, there's a perfectly logical — and awesome — explanation for Freeman's doze-off. Here's what the actor had to say in a Facebook post late Thursday night:

Regarding my recent interview, I wasn't actually sleeping. I'm a beta tester for Google Eyelids and I was merely taking the opportunity to update my Facebook page.

Now it all makes sense. And if you missed it, here below is the original video clip from Freeman and Caine's interview with Tacoma Fox affiliate Q13. Watch as he drifts off then quickly regains consciousness and tries to feign interest in Caine's rambling story about magic tricks: Read more...

The never-dull story of Kai the Hitchhiker took a dark turn last week when the viral hero was unexpectedly arrested on murder charges. Since then, a small handful of online campaigns have tried to drum up support for the man who famously referred to himself as "homefree" — not homeless — and set him back on his untethered way

Kai, less frequently known by his given name of Caleb McGillvary, was arrested at a Philadelphia bus terminal last Thursday. He is charged with killing a 73-year-old lawyer named Joseph Galfy, Jr., in Galfy's home in Clark, N.J. Police found Galfy's body in his house last Monday after he and McGillvary met in New York City. The cause of death was determined as blunt force trauma Read more...

On the heels of Yahoo's $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr, Hulu is suddenly snapping up bids left and right.

According to The Los Angeles Times and Reuters, both the Chernin Group, in partnership with Providence Equity, as well as Guggenheim Digital Media, have placed bids for the streaming video service. The Chernin Group is run by former News Corp. executive Peter Chernin. Ross Levinsohn, who served as interim chief executive officer of Yahoo before Marissa Mayer took the helm last year, is now the chief executive of Guggenheim Digital Media, which owns a number of media assets including trade publications Adweek and The Hollywood Reporter. Read more...