Microsoft have quietly taken their So.Cl social network out of the beta testing stage this weekend, meaning it's now open for all intrepid tech tinkerers to try out.

The network (which has been in a private beta testing phase since December) is designed primarily as a research aid for students, and lets users create and share "rich posts" that contain links, and images, pulled together from Bing.

A cross between Google+ and Pinterest, So.Cl also lets users host "video parties", letting them communally watch YouTube videos.

Sign-up for the network is simple, using either Facebook or Windows Live logins.

However, be careful what you search for while using So.Cl; all search requests are shared in a public news feed amongst your friends, which could prove embarrassing if your searches aren't squeaky clean.

After recently changing hands for £8 million, the internet's most notorious domain, www.Sex.com, has undergone a bit of a redesign. Introducing the new Sex.com, which is basically Pinterest for porn.

Pulling together users' favourite saucy clips from around the web, it's pretty much a straight rip-off of Pinterest. But with more boobs, naturally.

It's not all just about settling down to look at a bit of blue one-handedly though. At Sex.com, it's about a sense of community too, according to the site's About Us page:

"Sex.com is connecting porn lovers from all over the world through shared taste & interests. We think that your favourite videos, pictures or pornstars can reveal a common link with others who share the same interests. Our goal is to create a better free porn world by connecting everyone in the world through the porn they love. Enjoy Sex.com!"

If you innocnectly thought this was the first "Pinterest for Porn", you obviously haven't been browsing the web long enough, you naive netizen, you. There's already a rival in Pornterest. So I'm told...

Via: Tech Crunch

Yahoo! have confirmed that it is to cut 2,000 jobs, equal to 14% of its workforce as they aim to transform into a "bold, new Yahoo!".

Restructuring has been long overdue at Yahoo! as it has gradually fallen from favour with web users who have migrated to services provided by Google and Facebook. A massive leap for the company, they are expected to save $375 million in the restructuring plans, with the cuts likely to affect marketing and development areas the hardest.

"Today's actions are an important next step toward a bold, new Yahoo!," said Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson.

"Smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better equipped to innovate as fast as our customers and our industry require.

"Our goal is to get back to our core purpose - putting our users and advertisers first - and we are moving aggressively to achieve that goal.''

The news follows reports that Facebook are counter-suing Yahoo!, having been accused of "basing its entire social network model" on Yahoo! architecture. Facebook struck back with a suit of its own, claiming Yahoo! have infringed on 10 patents belonging to Zuckerberg's empire.

Via: Wall Street Journal

HTC have announced that they are to close HTCSense.com for an undisclosed period of time, deleting customers' cloud stored data in the process.

Planning a major renovation for the service, HTCSense.com users have until the 30th April to back up their Messages, Contacts, Footprints and Call History data.

"Dear HTCSense.com customer, HTCSense.com is undergoing a renovation to improve the services and value we deliver to customers like you," reads the statement.

"Until the new services are ready, features previously available on HTCSense.com will be shutting down. If you have been using HTCSense.com to sync your Contacts, Messages, Footprints or Call History, you can download your data through April 30, 2012. After April 30, your data will no longer be accessible and will be deleted."

Launched in 2010, HTC are now urging users to head over to the Google Play app market and download an alternative back-up service.

It's all a bit mysterious and, frankly, a bit disrespectful to the users of the service. HTC haven't given any clear indication of what the new improvements will be, when they are ready, or what adequate alternatives there are to HTCSense.com in the meantime. We expect further Dropbox integration for the HTC One Range is imminent, but those who have used HTCSense.com since it launched back in 2010 may feel they've now been given the cold shoulder.

For more info, click here.

Friends Reunited, the once-leading social network that aimed to get you back in touch with old school pals, is preparing for a major relaunch.

While rekindling lost friendships will still be a major part of Friends Reunited, the revamped site will look to set itself apart from rivals like Facebook by focussing on national, nostalgic events, with users posting pictures and videos to strengthen memories of life-affirming moments.

With community sharing as important on the site as personal networking amongst friends, Friends Reunited use examples like the Royal Wedding and Live Aid 1984 as events that people will be keen to share their memories of, offering different perspectives on national events through personal photos and commentary.

"The new site will take you on a nostalgic journey through all of those "Remember when?" moments, using the power of iconic images," reads the press statement.

"From heart-warming personal memories, to the national goose-bump moments we all experienced together, the new Friends Reunited encourages you to search for anything you can remember. You can find, collect and share the memories you love with the people that were there too".

With a user-base still 7-million people strong, 2012 could prove a significant year for the once-mighty network.

The Pirate Bay are considering moving their servers into the sky aboard low-orbit, unmanned drones in an attempt to thwart the ground-based authorities looking to close the file sharing site down.

Looking to harness the power of super-small PCs like the Raspberry Pi, the site claims their new method would require aerial military action in order to see them closed down, evading earthbound piracy laws.

"With the development of GPS controlled drones, far-reaching cheap radio equipment and tiny new computers like the Raspberry Pi, we're going to experiment with sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air," explained the Pirate Bay team in the post.

"This way our machines will have to be shut down with aeroplanes in order to shut down the system. A real act of war."

"We're just starting so we haven't figured everything out yet. But we can't limit ourselves to hosting things just on land anymore.

"These Low Orbit Server Stations (LOSS) are just the first attempt. With modern radio transmitters we can get over 100Mbps per node up to 50km away. For the proxy system we're building, that's more than enough.

"But when time comes we will host in all parts of the galaxy, being true to our slogan of being the galaxy's most resilient system. And all of the parts we'll use to build that system on will be downloadable."

The first signs of paranoia-induced madness kicking in for the Pirate Bay team, or a genius (if crazy) way of circumventing the pressure they're facing from authorities on the ground? Either way one thing's for certain; their ship won't sink without a hell of a fight.

What can you get for a fiver these days? A couple of beers? Maybe a portion of fish and chips if you're lucky? Thanks to a new website called fivesquids.co.uk, your crisp £5 note may stretch a lot further than you'd think for.

The site is an open forum where enterprising folk can offer their services for free, provided they charge precisely £5 for whatever their touting.

All manner of wares and services are being offered through the site, from useful tech stuff like the advice of an SEO specialist for your website through to bizarre things like having a man with a parrot produce a quick clip plugging your business.

fivesquids.co.uk has had some high profile support too from the likes of Dragon's Den businessman Theo Paphitis, seeing the site grow "sevenfold in the last six months" according to their press release.

If you're a tech or social media fan, there's lots to sink your teeth into. Check below for five great tech fixes from the site.

o Convert up to ten videos into any format you want for £5

http://www.fivesquids.co.uk/Technology/8973/convert-10-videos-into-any-format-you-want

o Get help with all your business IT issues for £5

http://www.fivesquids.co.uk/Technology/7396/help-you-with-your-business-IT-issues

o Confused about QR codes? Get up to 20 QR codes created for websites for £5

http://www.fivesquids.co.uk/Technology/6691/make-20-QR-codes-for-websites-and-email-them-to-you

o Struggling with SEO? Get a full SEO report on your website/blog for £5

http://www.fivesquids.co.uk/Social-Marketing/5043/get-you-a-full-SEO-report-on-your-website--blog--eCommerce-

o Fix your java problems for £5

http://www.fivesquids.co.uk/Programming/7650/fix-3-of-your-java-questions-in-2-days

And here's a cheeky extra one for the lonely hearts out there:

o Fancy a Facebook boyfriend? Look no further...

http://www.fivesquids.co.uk/Social-Marketing/8524/be-your-facebook-boyfriend-for-a-week

The Pirate Bay have announced that they will no longer be hosting torrent files, and will instead now focus on providing file-sharers with magnet links.

Though one would assume torrent files are the bread-and-butter of the service, this new move will not cause any significant changes to the way visitors use the site. Magnet links will still let users share files through associated torrent platforms, but, as The Pirate Bay will no longer be storing any file information, and instead only the data in the links, it will be much harder for courts to accuse them of copyright infringement.

Pair this with the recent domain move from thepiratebay.org to thepiratebay.se (taking them out of US web jurisdiction), and the site's owners are now in a more powerful position than ever, despite having been refused an appeal to their charges for copyright infringement.

"Quite some time ago we decided to not host torrent files anymore," said Pirate Bay in a statement discussing the changes.

"In following with that decision, we decided to make Magnet links the default option for the Download buttons!

"We've just changed places on the links. Magnet is now default, Download torrent is now where the magnet links used to be. The reason is the same as always: Magnets are now good enough to use, and it's not as easy to block as .torrent files. Also it saves us a huge amount of bandwidth!"

As part of the changes, The Pirate Bay will be torrent free by 29th February, other than those torrents that only have 10 or less peers associated with them.

Via: Torrent Freak

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is to guest star in the milestone 500th episode of The Simpsons.

Approached by casting director Bonnie Pietila after Simpsons creator Matt Groening found that Assange was looking to be on the show, Assange recorded his lines in a secret location and did not meet the shows producers as his house arrest legal status in the US prevented him from travelling.

Whistle-blowing Assange is currently scheduled to appear at the US Surpeme Court on Wednesday, where he'll appeal potential extradition to Sweden where he is alleged to have committed sex crimes.

The shows producers spent quite some time discussing the potential appearance of the notorious internet figure, but came to the conclusion that the satirical nature of Assange's appearance does not have the potential to alter his legal situation.

The episode (which airs in the US on February 19th) sees Homer and Marge attempting to disappear from their regular lives after they discover the townsfolk of Springfield have secretly turned against them. While on the road they bump into Assange, who becomes a "new Ned Flanders" for the pair.

Picnik, the online image editing service, have announced that they are to close their website on April 19, 2012.

Users will need to download any images stored on the site before that date or lose them forever, though the Picnik team have put steps in place to make the process as easy as possible.

Photos can easily be downloaded into batched .zip files, or alternatively can be transferred across to Google's Google+ network.

Google bought Picnik back in 2010, and are now thought to be using the Picnik team to develop Google-branded image editing tools of their own. In fact, many of the image editing tools popular on Picnik are now being ported over to Google+

"Since joining Google in 2010, the Picnik team has been working on Picnik while helping to create photo editing magic in Google's products. But now we get to focus on even awesomer things," reads a post on the Picnik blog.

Available both in free and premium versions, those who have paid the $24.95 to use the premium service will recieve a full refund, regardless of the amount of time left on their current subscription plan.

Starling details of the arrest of Kim Dotcom, Megaupload.com founder, have been revealed following last week's closure of the file-sharing website.

Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, was said to be hiding in the saferoom of his New Zealand mansion, armed with a loaded shotgun, during the police raid. Swarms of helicopters circeld the property, while police cut through electronic locks to apprehend Dotcom.

Despite our staff clearly identifying themselves, Mr Dotcom retreated into the house and activated a number of electronic-locking mechanisms.

"Despite our staff clearly identifying themselves, Mr Dotcom retreated into the house and activated a number of electronic-locking mechanisms," New Zealand's Organized and Financial Crime Agency told Reuters.

Last week US federal prosecutors closed Megaupload for violating copyright laws. Prosecutors claim the website has cost copyright holders some $500 million (£320 million) in lost revenue, while Megaupload in their defence state that they were diligent in removing content flagged as pirated.

The FBI have described the action against the website as being "amongst the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States" and said it would target "the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime".

The hacking collective known as Anonymous have carried out a string of DDoS attacks on high profile websites after the file-sharing sites Megaupload and Megavideo were forced to close yesterday.

Hackers attacked the Motion Picture Association of America, the Universal Music website, the Recording Industry Association of America and a US Department of Justice website during a night of retaliation.

Anonymous took their @AnonymousIRC Twitter account to claim responsibility for the attacks, saying:

"justice.gov seems to be besieged by some pirate ships. Can't handle the pirates? Don't sail the proxeas."

Thursday saw the US governement department take down the Megaupload and Megavideo sites, calling the webmasters part of a "Mega Conspiracy, a worldwide criminal organization whose members engaged in criminal copyright infringement and money laundering on a massive scale."

Many believe the hacked websites are directly linked to the ongoing pressures to have the SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills passed by the White House. Each organisation linked to the websites struck by Anonymous have shown their support for the bills in the past.

"For #SOPA supporters their#SOPAblackout is today," the Anonymous Twitter feed also stated.

Tried to get onto Wikipedia today? If you're from an English-speaking nation, then you were probably presented with the image above, and not the free source of community-built knowledge that the web encyclopedia is known for. And it's going to stay that way until 5am (GMT) tomorrow too.

Why? In protest to controversial US anti-piracy bills: The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate partner, the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

The bills are intended to strengthen the position of intellectual property holders and content providers on the net, who argue their industries are being monumentally damaged by online pirates. Their argument is sound, but many feel the bills' combative methods are not; while the music, film and software industries may be protected by the SOPA and PIPA bills, Internet advocates fear the heavy-handed tactics proposed by the bills will lead to a stifling of free speech on the net.

The new legislation would support laws already in place to protect copyrighted material, like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). However, while the DCMA targets the removal of the infringing content, SOPA and PIPA set their sights on the platforms hosting the content, giving the Justice Department the power to hunt down even foreign websites, cutting their support (and often revenue streams) from US-based advertisers, ISPs and card companies.

It essentially means all webmasters worldwide would have to vigorously monitor their sites for infringing content, something that many feel not only crosses the line into censorship, but, in the case of massively popular websites, would also prove a gigantic policing task and resource hog. Start-ups couldn't defend against possible violations, and the Internet's growth would be cut short.

And while the legislation primarily targets foreign sites hosting the infringing content, even domestic US sites could face heavy penalties, just for linking to the foreign pages in question. On a community driven site like Reddit, which relies on the sharing of content and healthy, open forum it has created to survive, it could eventually spell the end.

As a result, many sites alongside Wikipedia (including BoingBoing, Mozilla, WordPress, TwitPic, MoveOn.org and Reddit) are putting a "blackout" blanket over their sites to illustrate the potential dangers of the bills. Other sites, like Twitter and Facebook, have not took part in the blackout, but have been equally vocal in opposition, while Google too has a protest doodle with the message" Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web" alongside it.

"Today Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition to this destructive legislation," said Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia co-founder.

"This is an extraordinary action for our community to take - and while we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world."

It's been an important few days in the fight against the bills. While no-one questions the fact that Internet piracy is a massive problem for the creative industries, even the White House has now began to withdraw support for SOPA, awaiting modifications for the legislation.

However the Senate is still scheduled to hold a procedural vote on PIPA on January 24th, which could yet see the bill instated.

If you think this is primarily a US concern, think again. The USA, in effect, could potentially hold the entire web to ransom, and where the US leads, the UK is sure to follow with similar legislation on our own domestic sites. With so many massive companies and media conglomerate's bank-balances tied to the success of PIPA and SOPA, there is heavy pressure for the bills to be passed.

The Internet as we know it could be about to change forever.

Jerry Yang, co-founder of web giants Yahoo!, has resigned after 17 years at the top.

One of the first massive web companies, Yahoo! was founded by Yang and David Filo in 1995, dominating the web until peaking in 2007 with their strongest revenues.

However, the Yahoo! fortunes began to wane in the wake of the Facebook era, and a series of poor business choices partly on Yang's behalf made the company stutter. Most importantly, Yang turned down a £31 billion offer for the company from Microsoft back in 2008, a poor decision considering the company is now thought to be worth around £20 billion.

Yahoo! will be hoping that Scott Thompson's rise to CEO will reinvigorate the company, with perhaps Yang's emotional investment in the company blocking much-needed restructuring efforts.

In a statement, Yang said that: "The time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo!. As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future."

My first tip for the new bosses? DROP THAT BLOODY EXCLAMATION MARK.

Via: Yahoo

Wikipedia have announced that they are to "blackout" their immensely popular web encyclopedia on January 18th in protest against proposed anti-piracy acts in the US.

After 72 hours of discussions between 1800 Wikipedia members, the decision to fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) with an unprecedented period of intentional downtime was confirmed.

Though SOPA is now thought to be beaten (with the White House pulling support for the bill), the Wikipedia community still fear the potential dangers of the PIPA bill, which could lead to widespread, damaging censorship on the net.

While online piracy is a major problem on the web, costing the creative industries in particular dearly (as well as software developers), many see the proposed bills as too heavy-handed in the almost-blanket like approach to censorship.

"PIPA is still extremely dangerous," said Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia co-founder.

"Today Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition to this destructive legislation. This is an extraordinary action for our community to take - and while we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world."

The Wikipedia blackout will begin 5AM GMT on Wednesday 18th January until 5AM GMT on Thursday 19th January.

A man has been arrested in connection with an attack on the personal website of Kiss bassist Gene Simmons.

24-year-old Kevin George Poe was arrested yesterday in Connecticut, believed to be a member of the hacking collective Anonymous, and was thought to have targeted the rock star's page back in October 2010.

The ten-foot-tongued axe swinger's site, www.genesimmons.com, was bombarded with tens of thousands of electronic requests over the course of five days, effectively crippling the page.

Poe is thought to have used a software tool known as a Low Orbit Ion Cannon to carry out the attack, which sounds more like a Star Wars death ray than a hacker's program. Those crazy kids sure know how to name stuff.

What may have been a laugh for Poe at the time probably isn't feeling like such a great idea now. He faces as much as 15 years in prison if convicted of charges of conspiracy and unauthorised impairment of a protected computer. Bet he wishes he really was Anonymous now.

Poe will now have to appear in a Los Angeles court.

Connected Health Store is a brand new website from the brains behind Shiny Shiny and our very own Tech Digest.

The new site will focus on the latest news from the worlds of health and technology, as well as the increasingly advanced gadgets and applications specially designed to keep track of what you're up to on a daily basis and keep your health and fitness in check.

Our sister-site Shiny Shiny has covered all kinds of health gadgets and apps over the years, from Jawbone's clever little UP wristband through to huge vibrating power plates, but now Connected Health will be the dedicated place for Shiny and Tech Digest readers to get a more in-depth look at the way the worlds of health and technology are colliding to create great products that could (as cheesy as it sounds) really improve our lives.

Check out the Connected Health Store, or follow updates from the site on Facebook and Twitter.

Wikipedia, the free online crowd-sourced encyclopaedia, is preparing to potentially switch off its American pages in protest to a bill on the verge of being passed by the US senate.

The bill in question is the "Stop Online Piracy" act. The senate claims that it will protect the country's rights holders and continue to battle against piracy trends. However Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales claims that implementation of the proposals in the bill will have a harmful affect on many websites that have no relation to acts of online piracy.

Wales therefore is in the process of consulting and rallying the Wikipedia editors across the US, threatening to to "blackout" the site in order to get US senators to re-think the proposals.

It wouldn't be the first time Wikipedia have used this approach. The online knowledge base made a similar move when the Italian government began to muscle in on the workings of the site.

"A few months ago, the Italian Wikipedia community made a decision to blank all of Italian Wikipedia for a short period in order to protest a law which would infringe on their editorial independence. The Italian Parliament backed down immediately," notes Wales.

Via: Torrent Freak/ Tech Radar

All those dodgy "sexting" snaps you've been storing on your smartphone may finally come to good use today, as anyone can now try their hand at running a porn site with sales of .xxx domains opening.

Until now, the ICM Registry (stewards of the top-level .xxx domain) have reserved the .xxx sites for big brands, but Tuesday December 6th marks the general sale of the domains, open to all.

"Availability of .XXX domain names on a first come, first served basis," said Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry. "The new .XXX domain functions as a responsible alternative for sites that offer adult entertainment content and related services. All .XXX sites are appropriately labeled and McAfee Malware scanned. This means Internet users have a clear indication in advance of a site's content and can surf the Internet with more confidence."

Somewhere in the region of 100,000 .xxx domains are going live on Tuesday.

The ICM Registry campaigned for many years to get the green-light for .xxx domains before getting approval earlier this year. However, major players in the porn industry have been sceptical of the move, fearing that it will further isolate and demonise their position on the web.

Tech gifts don't have to be about screen sizes or processing capabilities these days. In fact, they don't have to be physical gifts at all. You can put a smile on a loved one's face just by setting them up with one of the many ace online digital services and subscription packages that are tied into apps, download and streaming sites too.

From music packages like Spotify to productivity programs like Dropbox, there's something here for everyone.

When you're done here, be sure to check out the rest of Tech Digest's 2011 Christmas wishlists too.