YouTube Announces It Will Shut Down

On Sunday morning YouTube released a video titled “YouTube’s ready to select a winner.”  In it, employees from the video sharing site explain that, starting at midnight on March 31st, the site will go offline.  YouTube staff will then have the unenviable task of selecting the best-ever YouTube video, with a winner announced when the site went back up—in 2023.

“We are so close to the end,” Tom Liston, communications director at YouTube, explains in the video. “Tonight at midnight, YouTube.com will no longer be accepting entries.  After eight amazing years, it’s finally time to review everything that has been uploaded to our site and begin the process of selecting a winner.”

(MORE: The Future of YouTube: More Channels in More Places)

The video, reportedly made in collaboration with the Onion, features cameos from YouTube celebrities like Antoine Dodson, who rose to Internet fame for the viral “Bed Intruder” Auto-Tune video, Matt Harding of “Where the Hell is Matt? 2012,” and Charlie and his brother from “Charlie Bit My Finger.”  Each of them share their dream of winning the title of best-ever YouTube video.

Luckily for YouTube fans, it’s all a big April Fool’s Day joke.

MORE: Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ Is Now the Most-Watched YouTube Video of All Time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=H542nLTTbu0

Intel to turn up heat on smartphone segment in 2013 with new processors

Intel has said that its plan for 2013 is to focus on mobile processors for devices such as smartphones, tablets and ultrabooks. While speaking at a media briefing in Delhi, Director of Product Management & Pricing (Asia-Pacific) for Intel, Leighton Phillips said that both the fourth generation of Core processors and Atom processors from lntel, to be released in 2013, would improve power consumption and performance in devices.

Skype for Windows Phone 8 Preview gets HD video support with version 2.4

The preview version of the Skype app for Windows Phone 8 now supports HD video calling. Smartphones with an HD front-facing camera will be able to take advantage of this feature. Skype for Windows Phone 8 Preview version 2.4 is live for users to download.

The Skype 2.4 Preview for Windows Phone 8 brings with it the following features:

• Higher quality video calling, and up to 720P on supported devices and depending on network conditions
• Video calling in landscape mode
• Camera switching
• Enabled People Hub integration
• Switch accounts

Apple rolls out iOS 6.1.3 to solve lockscreen vulnerability

Apple has rolled out the iOS 6.1.3 update, which repairs the lockscreen bypass vulnerability on some iOS devices. Through a complex combination of button presses, hackers had shown they can bypass the password prompt an access the device's call log, contact list, and photo albums. Also, this update mentions about “Improvement to Maps in Japan”.

Facebook hackers also attacked Apple

Apple has revealed that it was also the victim of the same hackers that recently attacked Facebook. In a statement to The Loop, Apple has said that hackers infected systems being used by Apple employees with malware using an exploit in the Java plug-in for browsers. Ars Technica reports that the infection originated from the same source in both Facebook and Apple's case- an iPhone developer forum called iphonedevsdk.com (don't visit the site as it may still be infected).

Sources close to Reuters have revealed that the recent Twitter hack was also a part of the same cybercrime campaign. Apple has said that it has shipped a Java malware detection tool for Mac OS X users. Like Facebook, Apple has also claimed that even though the hackers did manage to successfully infect computers within the company, no user data or critical data had been found to be at risk.

Samsung Galaxy Star entry-level Jelly Bean smartphone expected at MWC 2013

Samsung is expected to unveil a budget Android device at MWC 2013. Christened as the Galaxy Star GT-S5282, the device is expected to be an entry-level smartphone, running 4.1 Jelly Bean.The expected specifications of the the Galaxy Star include a 3-inch QVGA display, a 2MP camera, 4GB built-in storage expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. In terms of connectivity options, the Galaxy Star is likely to support Wi-Fi, A-GPS and Bluetooth 4.0. A 1200mAh battery will power the device. Pricing of the device is still unclear.

Twitter shortens tweets with URLs to 118 characters

Twitter has announced some major changes to its t.co link wrapper. Now, the character limit for the tweets with URLs will be restricted to 118. If the website being linked has more secure “https” protocol, users now get only 117 characters to add commentary, where previously it was 119.