Amazon and Samsung are running away with the Android tablet market

Following the successful launch of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, Android vendors saw a beacon of hope in a market that had been dominated by Apple’s (AAPL) iPad since 2010. The Android tablet space has since become flooded with hundreds of products from a wide-range of companies, but there are only two companies that matter.[More from BGR: ‘Apple is done’ and Surface tablet is cool, according to teens]According...

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Academy Launches Oscar App on Android, Amazon

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The Academy launched its official Oscars app on Android and Amazon on Thursday, expanding its initiative to direct fans' attention from the television to the second screen.The app, already available on the iPad and iPhone, was made available for free on the Google Play store and the Amazon app store, the Academy said. According to iTunes, the iPad app was updated earlier...

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Report links drug agents to Secret Service prostitute scandal: NBC

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two drug enforcement agents "facilitated a sexual encounter" between a prostitute and a Secret Service agent before an international summit in Colombia last April, NBC News reported on Thursday, citing a Justice Department investigation.The two Drug Enforcement Administration agents also admitted paying for the sexual services of a prostitute, and used their government-issued...

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"Hebrew Hammer" sequel profits from crowdfunding campaign

"The Hebrew Hammer vs. Hitler," the sequel to 2003's "The Hebrew Hammer," will begin filming next year, after an innovative crowdfunding campaign that's raised $35,000 on Jewcer.com, the filmmakers announced Tuesday.Adam Goldberg will return in the lead role, with principle photography expected to begin in May 2013.In the film, Goldberg's character, now married and enjoying the good life in suburbia,...

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Instagram says no plans to put user photos in ads

Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc, said on Tuesday it has "no plans" to incorporate user photos into ads in response to a growing public outcry over new privacy policies unveiled this week.Instagram Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said in a blog post that users had incorrectly interpreted Instagram's revised terms of service, released on Monday, to mean that user photos...

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Sberbank to buy Yandex online payments service: source

 Sberbank, Russia's top lender, plans to buy Yandex.Dengi, an online payment service owned by Russian search engine Yandex, a source familiar with the matter said.Sberbank declined to comment. Yandex, which was not available to comment, was expected to hold a news conference on Wednesday.Sberbank, which accounts for a third of overall lending in Russia, has been expanding in the consumer credit...

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Tubular raises $2.5 million to serve burgeoning YouTube industry

Tubular, a small San Francisco start-up that provides analytics for YouTube content creators, has raised $2.5 million in venture capital in the latest sign of how far the business ecosystem has evolved around the Google-owned video repository.YouTube was once known as Wild West of online video, but over the past two years Google has focused on raising the quality of YouTube content through a series...

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Instagram tests new limits in user privacy

 Instagram, which spurred suspicions this week that it would sell user photos after revising its terms of service, has sparked renewed debate about how much control over personal data users must give up to live and participate in a world steeped in social media.In forcefully establishing a new set of usage terms, Instagram, the massively popular photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc, has...

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New UC logo: Marketing blunder? Or is storm of criticism overblown?

The University of California – one of the most prestigious public universities in the world – redesigned its logo to stay abreast of the times and attract new students. But the move last week appears to have accomplished just the opposite, and university officials are trying to figure out what to do next. The venerable university system has been hit with a New Media revolt that includes insults...

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Parents fight for release of son jailed in Mexico

MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida family is fighting to get their son, a Marine veteran, released from a prison in a dangerous area in Mexico while facing charges that he carried across the border a shotgun with a barrel that's an inch too short. Jon Hammar and his friend were on their way to Costa Rica in August and planned to drive across the Mexican border near Matamoros in a Winnebago filled with...

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California man accused of plotting to aid al Qaeda denied bail

RIVERSIDE, California (Reuters) - A California man arrested in Afghanistan on charges he plotted to help al Qaeda and Taliban militants was denied bail on Tuesday despite claims by his lawyers that injuries he suffered during capture diminished any threat he posed if freed on bond. The Afghan-born defendant, Sohiel Omar Kabir, 35, is accused with three younger men arrested last month outside Los...

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Australian radio station says no wrongdoing in royal prank call

PERTH, Australia (Reuters) - The Australian radio station behind a prank phone call to a London hospital that was treating Prince William's pregnant wife Kate said on Saturday it had done nothing wrong and no one could have foreseen the tragic outcome. There has been renewed soul-searching over media ethics after Jacintha Saldanha, 46, the nurse who was duped by the station's call to the King Edward...

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Police suspect LA man was lured into NYC ambush

NEW YORK (AP) — Someone wanted Brandon Lincoln Woodard dead — bad enough to apparently lure him to a midtown Manhattan block for what looked like a professional hit. But who shot Woodard in the back of the head and why remained a mystery on Tuesday as police studied security videotape of the unidentified gunman and delved into Woodard's checkered past for clues. The brazen slaying of the 31-year-old...

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