As part of its push to stream more video to Internet users in China, Alibaba has made a $4.6 billion offer to acquire the 81.7 percent it does not already own of YouTube-like video site Youku Tudou. Alibaba CFO Maggie Wu said the deal would be paid in cash. “Ownership of Youku Tudou would help Ma deliver U.S. films and drama series to more than a third of China’s population as Alibaba battles Baidu Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. for the attentions of Internet users,” reports Bloomberg. “The deal comes after he toured Hollywood to meet with studio executives, took control of a Chinese movie studio and invested in the latest ‘Mission: Impossible’ film.”

City-owned power utility Chattanooga Electric Power Board is introducing 10-gigabit municipal broadband connections for about $300 per month. The service is almost 1,000 times faster than the average U.S. broadband connection. Tennessee’s “Gig City” will also add 3- and 5-gigabit connections to its current 1-gigabit offering. EPB claims the new fiber optic network is the “world’s first” to offer community-wide 10-gigabit Internet service. “Chattanooga was one of the first cities to bypass large commercial Internet service providers and start offering city-run gigabit-speed fiber services for its citizens back in 2008 — about five years before Google Fiber brought comparable speeds to Kansas City,” notes Wired.

Two years after government contractor Edward Snowden famously leaked secret NSA documents, another release of classified information has occurred. This time, The Intercept — which is staffed by journalists who previously worked with Snowden — has published what it claims is a comprehensive breakdown of the U.S. government’s military drone program. The report, featuring documents provided by another whistleblower, offers details regarding U.S. strategy to kill foreign targets in Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen — and highlights the unintended consequences involved with drone wars. Continue reading Leaked Documents Offer Details of U.S. Military’s Drone Wars

CBS chief exec Les Moonves says that discussions with Apple about TV programming for a streaming service will likely lead to a deal, but he does not know when. The tech giant pushed the launch of its planned live Internet TV service until 2016, reportedly due to stalled discussions with media companies regarding licensing agreements. Moonves indicated that his network is also having similar licensing discussions with companies including Facebook and Netflix. “CBS, with popular shows like ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Criminal Minds’ is one of the key elements to a live subscription service that Apple hopes to use to revolutionize TV,” according to Bloomberg.

A six-part docu-series titled “Sherman’s Warriors” will debut this Sunday following the “Sunday Night Football” telecast. Each episode of the series, which follows former Green Bay Packers coach Mike Sherman leading the Nauset Warriors high school football team, will run “6-8 minutes, accompanied by 1-2 minute behind-the-scenes clips,” explains Variety. “NBC Sports plans to launch about a half-dozen original series produced for digital platforms in the next year.” The various series will cover “different categories, including special packages of highlights and exclusive interviews.” Content will be made available for desktop, mobile, smart TVs, and via Yahoo and Comcast’s Watchable service.

Apple could be liable for up to $862.4 million in damages after losing a patent lawsuit to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), which protects the University of Wisconsin’s patents and intellectual rights. A jury in Madison, Wisconsin this week “found the iPhone maker used technology owned by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s licensing arm without permission in chips found in many of its most popular devices,” reports Reuters. Apple denied any infringement regarding its A7, A8 and A8X processors used in iPhones and iPads, and argued that the 1998 WARF patent for improving chip efficiency was invalid. Earlier this year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected Apple’s bid to review validity of the patent.

The Department of Justice and FBI are investigating whether daily fantasy-sports sites such as DraftKings and FanDuel are operating in violation of federal law. FBI agents have reportedly been in contact with fantasy sports customers to begin the probe. “Congress in 2006 prohibited financial companies from transferring money to online gambling sites and several were shut down,” notes The Wall Street Journal. “But so-called games of skill were exempted.” While DraftKings and FanDuel have been operating under the exemption, government agencies are looking “to determine whether daily fantasy games are a form of gambling.” Major media companies are among the investors in the booming industry.

Apple is introducing 4K Retina screens for its 21.5-inch iMacs and 5K resolution for its 27-inch iMacs. Displays also tout a 25 percent increase in color gamut. Larger iMacs will feature enhanced graphics capabilities and Intel’s new Skylake processor. And now that the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus offerings include the ability to record 4K video, an updated iMovie supports 4K footage and 1080p HD video at 60 fps. The company has also redesigned its Magic line of keyboards, mice and trackpads to include new features, including the ability to recharge batteries with the same Lightning plug used by the iPhone. Continue reading Apple Goes All Retina with iMac Displays, Updates Peripherals

Snapchat has decided to permanently shut down its Snap Channel, which lunched in January as the company’s move toward self-generated original content. A number of employees will be impacted by the move, including former Fox exec Marcus Wiley, who was hired as head of programming. Snapchat removed Snap Channel from the Discover platform a few weeks ago with a promise to relaunch. “But upon careful examination of what that would entail money-wise, that plan has been scrapped,” reports Deadline, “with Snapchat hitting pause on its original programming efforts via Snap Channel and re-examining its overall original content strategy.”

The first version of music app Aurous, billed as the Popcorn Time for music, debuted this past weekend. The software allows users to stream pirated music for free. TorrentFreak applauds the Spotify-like interface and ad-free model, but criticizes the limited library and inability to create playlists. And while Aurous promised earlier to use the BitTorrent network, it is instead pulling MP3 files from external services. A player named TorrentTunes, on the other hand, is using the BitTorrent network and features more advanced discovery options, but is also lacking in content. Whereas Popcorn Time was able to compete with Netflix on the content front, Aurous and TorrentTunes reportedly fail to compete with Spotify.

During a product unveiling in New York last week, Microsoft introduced new devices including a Surface Book laptop, the company’s latest Surface Pro tablet, big-screen Lumia smartphones that plug into displays for PC capabilities, and a $249 wearable fitness band. The press event also showcased Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented reality headset. While a focus on CE devices represents a shift for the software giant, hardware serves an integral role in a new corporate strategy that revolves around the Windows 10 operating system, designed to run on a variety of different devices. Continue reading Microsoft Unveils New Devices with Emphasis on Windows 10

Amazon is throwing its hat into the IoT ring with a new service for developers through its Amazon Web Services division. The beta service, named AWS IoT, was introduced during the company’s annual AWS conference in Las Vegas. It is designed for developers looking to link Internet-connected devices — from smoke alarms and other household appliances to smartwatches and fitness trackers — with other hardware devices and applications housed on remote servers. The idea is that devices would communicate with each other and take commands from computers. Continue reading The Internet of Things May Be the Next Frontier for Amazon

Qualcomm, which has been soliciting bids for its Vuforia business in order to reduce costs and focus on mobile efforts, announced yesterday that it has sold its augmented reality platform to Massachusetts-based Internet of Things company PTC for $65 million. The deal is expected to close later this year. “Vuforia’s technology lets people use their smartphone or tablet to bring advertisements, toys and other real-world objects to life,” explains Re/code. “The effort has attracted a notable base of developers, but augmented reality remains more of a novelty than a big business.”

Google currently fields more than 100 billion searches per month. For the first time, mobile devices have surpassed PCs as the device of choice for performing Google searches worldwide. “The shift to mobile has prompted Google to rethink its core business, which places ads based on keywords typed into the company’s search engine,” explains The Wall Street Journal. “New types of devices, from phones to tablets to cars to wearables, will require new ways of searching.” Since many of these devices do not necessarily rely on typing text, Google is looking at technologies such as voice and image recognition moving forward.

It’s official. In the largest technology takeover in history, PC tech giant Dell will purchase cloud computing company EMC for $67 billion. Michael Dell is funding the deal with MSD Partners, Silver Lake and Temasek Holdings. He will become chairman and CEO of the combined company, which will be privately held. Joe Tucci is expected to step down as chief exec of EMC once the transaction closes between May and October of 2016. EMC presently owns 81 percent of virtualization software and services company VMware. Dell plans to pay $24.05 per share in cash, plus tracking stock in VMware. Continue reading Dell to Acquire EMC, Keep VMware as Publicly-Traded Company