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Prince Online Museum revisits the musician's web history
The late, great Prince may have declared that the internet was over, but he was its biggest fan in some ways. His websites were frequently grand projects that pushed the limits of both web design and digital music. And now, it's easy to see this effort first-hand. Former Prince webmaster Sam Jennings has launched the Prince Online Museum, a timeline-based trip through some of the musician's websites over the past 20 years.
Amazon Prime Video is now a standalone monthly service
You no longer need to pay $100 in one shot to get a year of Amazon Prime. The retail giant now offers a monthly option for its full Prime service at $10.99 per month, with the option to cancel at any time. More interestingly, it broke out its Prime Video service for $8.99 a month if folks want streaming but don't need free shipping, music streaming and other perks. With the service, Amazon appears to be making a concerted effort to take on Netflix, which recently increased its price for new users from $8.99 to $9.99.
Iowa GOP website exposes voter records for 2 million people
The Iowa caucuses may be over, the state's Republican party still has its hands full. Wall Street Journal reports that the website for the Republican Party of Iowa had a security flaw that exposed voter information for around 2 million people. Names, phone numbers, addresses, birth dates, party affiliations and voter records for registered Republicans, Democrats and Independents were all part of an unencrypted database left open on the site. Voter records don't list who someone voted for, only if they voted. However, the leaving personal details out for the taking is certainly troubling.
The next phase of Engadget's evolution
A year and a half ago, I told you that Engadget's editorial mission was going to change. Since then, we've delivered on that promise, telling stories about how and why technology is affecting the world we live in. Our editorial evolution continued, but the site remained largely untouched. It's time our visuals caught up with our vision. And unlike Darwin, we didn't need any birds to show us the way.Welcome to Engadget 5.0.
New website showcases profiles of people of color working in tech
One way to address the lack of diversity in tech is to expose kids to computer science as early as possible. That's exactly what Ruth Mesfun is doing. She studied how to teach CS, so she could conjure up a curriculum and launch a new class for the Excellence Girls Middle Academy, an all-girls, majority-black middle school in Brooklyn. She has also created a website called "People of Color in Tech" with her developer friend Michael Berhane, so her kids can find role models to look up to. The website features interviews of engineers, designers and other people of color in the industry, and Mesfun and Berhane hope to to add two more profiles every week.
Healthcare.gov users get privacy controls as enrollment nears
Following an Associated Press report in January, the government-run Healthcare.org website scaled back its sharing of user data with third parties. Now, the site will let users opt out entirely as the next round of enrollment opens November 1st. Thanks to a new "privacy manager" feature, the Obamacare online portal allows folks to ensure details like age, income and ZIP code are kept away from advertisers and out of analytics use. It'll also disconnect from the site's social media tools. The website will also allow users to employ their browser's Do Not Track options to keep pesky advertisers at bay while accessing healthcare info on the site. "The internet is constantly changing, and we have an obligation to keep evolving alongside it," Healthcare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan wrote in a blog post. "We'll keep reevaluating our own privacy notice, the tools we use, and how they intersect with the evolving landscape of privacy on the web." [Image credit: KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images]
Medium overhauls its collaborative publishing platform
Medium's management unveiled a radically redesigned publishing platform on Thursday including a host of new formatting and production features. These new writing tools include the ability to include Twitter-style @-mentions, additional text formatting options (including drop caps to start paragraphs) and a slick "TK reminder" that prompts users before publishing that they've forgotten to finish a thought and left a TK reminder in the text. Additionally, the company is rolling out a mobile publishing app for both iOS and Android, as well as a developers API so that the CMS can be integrated into other sites and apps. Medium has also made it easier to import existing blogs and publications into its custom domain system. Even the company logo received an refresh.
Kardashian website security flaw exposes data for over 600,000 users
The Kardashian's new mobile apps may be extremely popular, but the websites recently launched alongside those offerings had a major flaw. An open unsecured API provided developer Alaxic Smith access to the names and email addresses of hundreds of thousands of subscribers when poked around Kylie Jenner's site -- over 600,000 on that site alone. What's more, Smith discovered that the same API was used across the other sister's sites, too. However, no payment info was accessible due to the fact that the sites themselves don't handle any funds, leaving that up to app stores and third-party services.
Solar system simulation makes sweet planetary music
Designer Luke Twyman's solar system simulation doesn't have intricate graphics or a load of features to explore, but it can do what many others can't: sing. Called SolarBeat, it plays a music box-like tune while the planets -- represented by dots -- revolve around the sun. It's been around since 2010, but Twyman redesigned it after the Dawn spacecraft reached Ceres' orbit. The new version has more controls you can use to adjust the speed of the music (which will also speed up or slow down the revolution of the planets), bass, echo, flutter and scale. There's also a counter keeping tabs on how many Earth years have passed since you started playing the simulation. Our only complaint is that it stops playing when you switch tabs, so you can't use it as a background music while going about your day. [Image credit: ChrisGorgio/Getty]
MLB's Advanced Media arm inks deal to create content for NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball Advanced Media, MLB's interactive and online broadcast arm, have come to terms on a deal that would give the NHL access to the same Emmy award-winning production assets that the MLB enjoys. The six year deal would effectively create "a fully integrated global hub of digital content that encompasses video, live game streaming, social media, fantasy, apps, along with statistical and analytical content." Basically, all the cool stuff that baseball fans enjoy at MLB.com is coming to hockey fans at the start on next year.
Microsoft has a TwinsOrNot app for Windows Phone devices
Microsoft's been big on facial recognition lately. After promising that the technology can be used as a log-in option for Windows 10, it launched a website that guesses your age based on your features (HowOld.net) and another that takes a stab at whether the people in two different photos are twins (TwinsOrNot.net). More recently, the company has launched a mobile app version of TwinsOrNot for Windows Phone devices. You know, for those times when you quickly need to know if your power brows really make you look like Cara Delevingne. Or if you and your BFF are slowly morphing into a single person like Zooey Deschanel and Katy Perry in the image above.
'Logjam' browser vulnerability fix will block thousands of websites
Researchers have discovered a new browser and website encryption vulnerability called Logjam, and there's good news and bad news. On the plus side, the vulnerability has largely been patched thanks to consultation with tech companies like Google, and updates are available now or coming soon for Chrome, Firefox and other browsers. The bad news is that the fix rendered many sites unreachable, including the main website at the University of Michigan, which is home to many of the researchers that found the security hole. Ironically, that site (which has since been patched) and other government and educational sites are supposed to be secure -- so what went wrong?
Tom Cruise once helped NASA redesign its website
In the early 2000s, Tom Cruise was working on movies like Mission Impossible II, Minority Report and The Last Samurai. However, when he wasn't busy playing a lead role, he also had a penchant for telling the world's biggest space agency how it could make its website better. That's according to former NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe, who was told to update the agency's 2002 site because it took visitors "three clicks to oblivion."
Microsoft thinks it can guess your age using facial recognition
Since we're right smack in the middle of Microsoft's BUILD dev conference, the company's showing off one of it's Azure APIs with a site you can put to the test. How-Old.net allows you to upload a picture before the site recognizes faces and analyzes them to determine their age. No, I'm not 41... I'm 31, and that picture is from over two years ago. Other folks here at Engadget received results closer to their real age, but it made us wonder: why not use a web cam to snap a picture under current conditions. You know, after I've had a chance to apply my daily dose of wrinkle remover. Perhaps that option on the way.
Google Apps bug exposed personal data of nearly 283,000 website owners
According to a cadre of Cisco security researchers (via Ars Technica), a Google Apps bug inadvertently caused nearly 283,000 WHOIS registration records -- which can include the domain owner's name, address and other contact information -- to be made public even though those owners expressly wanted that data to stay private. Erm, oops. If you were one of the people affected by this accidental dose of transparency, Google should have already contacted you, and the search giant also says that the issue that caused this whole mess has already been closed.
Echo of Soul unveils new NA website
Echo of Soul is quickly becoming known around these parts as a title that is talking big talk prior to its North American debut, and now the Korean fantasy game has a new website to match these boasts. The US version of the website has now gone live, with information, art, community hub, and the vitally important beta sign-up button. It also has a short section on the game's mobile app that will feature access to chat and trading. Echo of Soul's North American beta test is planned for sometime this spring. [Source: Aeria Games press release]
FCC eyes quicker responses to service complaints with new website
If you're ready to air those grievances with your current cable, internet or phone service, the FCC has a new site to collect those complaints. The Commission's Consumer Help Center provides a list of common gripes concerning both broadcast and cable TV, radio, emergency communications and access for those folks with disabilities -- in addition to the aforementioned topics. It also provides tips on how to resolve the issue(s), and if you'd like, you can file a complaint without perusing the list to see where yours fits. Once submitted, each grumble is assigned a tracking number that will allow you to keep tabs on its status. They're sent directly to each network or service provider, and require a written response in 30 days that you'll get a copy of, too. [Photo credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images]
WildStar releases Voyage of the Nomad, plans story rollout
Carbine Studios has just announced new content for WildStar... well, for the WildStar website, anyway. Voyage of the Nomad, a short story that "recollects the tale of the Cassians' first steps into the vast world of deep-space exploration," will go live on the official site's story page today. And it won't be a lone entry. Carbine plans to publish 11 such tales starting today and running every other Tuesday until the plots are played out. "The stories will unfold chronologically, until they reach the events that players have already experienced in WildStar's main story," says the press release. Hey, at least the lore-fiends among the greater MMO playerbase will be happy!
Shards Online opens website with 24 hours left on Kickstarter
As of this writing, Shards Online has 24 hours remaining on its Kickstarter program and has yet to break a quarter of its funding goal. Odds are that it's not going to hit that marker, although fans are encouraged to jump in and donate while the campaign is still running. But the team at Citadel Studios isn't giving up on the project and has launched a website for the game devoted to all things related to Shards Online. Despite what you may have suspected from the last paragraph, the page is not currently fishing for donations. The team will be holding the game's first community roundtable discussion on June 13th, starting at 8 p.m. EDT, when the developers will discuss what comes after Kickstarter and why there are no plans to ask for funding on the site directly. It'll be worth watching if you're a fan of the game -- and if you're a fan and still haven't donated, now is the time to do so. [Source: Citadel Studios press release]
Eternal Crusade delivers sneak peek of new website and founder's program heroes
Behavior Associate Producer Mathieu Fecteau penned a new producer's letter today in which he showed off both a mock-up of the upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade website and some concept art of the founder's program heroes. The website will be launched in the early summer, Fectaeu said. "I'm really proud of the direction the design is taking. Ghislain Barbe (Art Director) helped by Nicolas Brunoni (Lead UI/HUD) and I are working closely with Turbulent to get something immersive, dynamic and appealing for our dear crusaders!" As for the founder's program heroes, the sketches provided in the producer's letter merely give an idea of what they will look like when comleted. Fecteau said that all factions will have heroes, special units that are sent out for certain situations, but are "mostly aesthetic."
