Blizzard Entertainment reveals the next World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria

Blizzard Entertainment has announced the fourth World of Warcraft expansion, titled Mists of Pandaria.

Speaking today at the sold-out BlizzCon fan event in Anaheim, Calif., Blizzard’s vice president of creative development Chris Metzen revealed the upcoming expansion set to deafening applause. Each new expansion is financially a big deal for Blizzard, which generates a billion dollars a year in World of Warcraft revenues.

Whenever the company starts to lose subscribers, it pumps up the user … Continue Reading

Anonymous releases private police information in name of Occupy Wall Street

Anonymous, a hacker collective that has aligned itself with the Occupy Wall Street protests, leaked information it stole from four police and government websites today.

More than 600 MB of data from the International Association of Chief of Police, or IACP, (website still down) was released, according to a press release from Anonymous. It included internal documents, membership rosters, home addresses, passwords, social security numbers and more.

Along with the IACP data, Anonymous revealed 1000 … Continue Reading

How the enterprise is adopting tablets (infographic)

It’s no secret enterprises have begun to adopt tablets with the same fervor of consumers. Since the debut of Apple’s iPad in Jan. 2010, the integration of tablet devices into our lives and work has progressed rapidly — so fast that it’s sometimes hard to put in perspective how quickly got here.

The exclusively obtained infographic below breaks down how far workforce adoption of tablet technology has come — and where it’s headed. (The graphic … Continue Reading

Steve Jobs claimed he had “cracked” the code for an integrated Apple TV

Apple is planning an easy-to-use, advanced television, according to comments made by the late Apple founder Steve Jobs to his biographer.

“I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use. It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud,” Jobs reportedly told the biographer, Walter Isaacson.

“It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.”

The comments, made to author Walter … Continue Reading

Blizzard announces Diablo III will be free with World of Warcraft annual pass

Subscribers to World of Warcraft’s annual pass will get a free digital copy of Diablo III, one of the hottest blockbusters coming in 2012.

Mike Morhaime, head of Blizzard Entertainment, made the announcement today at the 2011 BlizzCon fan event in Anaheim, Calif. This move is one that only a company like Blizzard, which rests comfortably upon millions upon millions of dollars in revenue a month on World of Warcraft subscriptions alone, can offer.

In … Continue Reading

iPhone 4S pre-orders available in 22 more countries today

Pre-orders for the iPhone 4S are available in 22 more countries today, giving a huge new batch of customers their first opportunity to get their hands on the highly-anticipated device.

More than 3 million iPhone 4s pre-orders were processed in the U.S. during the first week, and the first-week the device was available, actual sales topped 4 million.

Apple’s senior vice president, Phillip Schiller, said in a statement this week, “iPhone 4S is a hit … Continue Reading

The “world’s most wanted hacker,” Kevin Mitnick, has gone straight (interview)

Kevin Mitnick was once labeled the world’s most wanted hacker. Back in 1992, he tangled with a mystery hacker named Eric, setting off a duel that led to a chain of events that spun out of control.

After a FBI manhunt, he was caught in 1995 with the help of security expert Tsutomu Shimomura, who wrote about the experience with New York Times writer John Markoff. Mitnick spent five years in jail, including eight months … Continue Reading

Steve Jobs wanted to revolutionize textbooks next

After revolutionizing the digital music business, smartphones and tablets, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was planning to take on an unlikely project: textbooks.

Jobs apparently wanted to hire textbook writers to create interactive digital versions of their books for the iPad, the New York Times is reporting based on information from the upcoming Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson.

The Times was one of many news organizations that got its hands on the biography last … Continue Reading

Your cell phone doesn’t give you cancer, 18-year Danish study shows

You’re as likely to get cancer from using your cell phone as from drinking coffee. Say what? That’s right, cell phone radiation is not dangerous.

The results of a an 18-year study by researchers in Denmark, tracked the incidence of certain cancers among cell phone users, and found that cell phone owners, and those who did not own cell phones were equally likely to get cancer.

The study, which was led by the Danish Center … Continue Reading

The Android Market has published half a million apps

The Android Market has published more than 500,000 mobile applications — though the powers that be have removed around 37 percent of published apps.

By contrast, Apple’s App Store for its iOS devices has published 600,000 apps; around 24 percent of those applications were later removed.

These stats are current as of the end of September. Published apps are constantly being culled for a number of reasons, including quality, unaddressed bugs and incompatibility with the … Continue Reading

CrowdStar finally makes a game for hardcore strategy fans (er, dudes)

CrowdStar has built its reputation on Facebook by making casual games that appeal to females, from Happy Aquarium to It Girl. But the company is trying a tack today with the launch of its first hardcore strategy game, Wasteland Empires.

The game is available now as a beta test on Facebook. The social network has hundreds of millions of largely female casual gamers, but game publishers are recognizing that the Facebook also has plenty of … Continue Reading

NATO leader uses Facebook and Twitter to call for end of Libyan war

NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), Admiral James Stavridis, called for the end of the Libyan war on his Facebook and Twitter today, showing just how important social media is becoming in times of conflict.

Social media has gained footing in political and wartime communications. When the revolution in Egypt first broke out, that country’s now ousted leader, Hosni Mubarak, tried to shut down the Internet to prevent citizens from organizing against him on social … Continue Reading

How one YouTube channel is changing the future of education (video)

Have you ever considered how a simple, free technology such as YouTube videos could drastically improve a global problem such as education?

Sal Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, is something of an expert on the topic. In this video, he talks about the future of higher education in the U.S. and how to increase access to and quality of education. The remarks were made to education influencers from around the world, including university heads, … Continue Reading

Why women should pick science & math degrees over liberal arts

“What a pistol!” was the universal sentiment voiced around the office after we shot this video with Penny Herscher.

Herscher is a tech CEO (FirstRain is her company); she and I first came into contact on Twitter when I was bemoaning the state of female entrepreneurship. I thought lady founders were wasting their talents on dating- and fashion-related startups, while Herscher contended that more women founders was better than the alternative, regardless of the startup’s … Continue Reading

Siri takes the spotlight in slick iPhone 4S TV commercial

Apple has begun airing its first television ad for the hyped iPhone 4S, but instead of focusing on improved hardware, the ad’s emphasis is all about Siri, the phone’s handy “personal assistant.”

The iPhone 4S has been a smashing success in the sales department, with more than 4 million units sold in the U.S. in its first three days of availability. Apple’s big three selling points for the new device are the 8-megapixel camera that … Continue Reading

Netflix Chief Executive says “we simply moved too quickly”

Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings admits that his company screwed up many times over the last few months. He made the statement in an interview with the New York Times published Thursday.

In July, the video rental company decided to raise subscription rates by 60 percent on its DVD-by-mail service, which caused a huge uproar among its 25 million monthly subscribers. In September, Hastings announced that the company was spinning off its DVD-by-mail business into … Continue Reading

Al Gore doubts AT&T/T-Mobile merger will go through

As AT&T continues to fight a legal battle with the Department of Justice to move forward with its ambitious T-Mobile takeover, former Vice President Al Gore expressed skepticism about the massive deal going through in its current form.

Speaking at the AsiaD conference in Hong Kong yesterday, Gore said that it’s rare for the DOJ to fight so strongly against a merger, reports This is my next.

“Well … it’s going to be reviewed,” Gore … Continue Reading

Verizon profits more than double in Q3, thanks to more contract subscribers

Verizon had a gangbuster third quarter, with profits more than double last year’s third quarter, the company said today.

While rival AT&T added more new wireless customers in total (2.1 million versus Verizon’s 1.3 million), Verizon landed almost triple the number of more lucrative postpaid customers, who have on-going cellular contracts. AT&T added just 319,000 postpaid customers, compared to Verizon’s 882,000, a 51 percent jump over last year.

Verizon reported profits of $1.38 billion for … Continue Reading

Groupon will IPO in 2 weeks at an $11.4B valuation

Groupon is set to go public on November 4, 2011.

After months of hemming, hawing, adjusting statements and balking at the closing IPO window, the company will offer its shares for public trading. They will be listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol GRPN.

Groupon hopes to set the share price between $16 and $18 and is attempting to raise around $621 million. This fundraising will leave the company valued at $11.4 billion, down from … Continue Reading