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Tech Briefs (21 - 27 October 2013)

  3 min 31 sec to read

 Piracy Site IsoHunt to Shut Down   
IsoHunt, a popular website offering BitTorrents of mostly pirated material, is to shut down following a court settlement. The site’s owner, Canadian Gary Fung, has agreed to pay $110m (£68m) to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). MPAA chairman Chris Dodd said the move was a “major step forward” for legitimate commerce online. The site is currently still online, but will soon be shut. It is one of the most popular sites of its kind on the internet.
 
Al Gore Tried to Buy Twitter
Al Gore may not have invented the Internet, but he did try to buy one of its most popular social networks. The former vice president told Bloomberg Television on Thursday that he and former Current TV co-founder Joel Hyatt tried to buy Twitter. Gore’s interest in purchasing Twitter was first reported by The New York Times’ Nick Bilton in his just-released book “Hatching Twitter.” In the book, Bilton described a drunken scene at the St. Regis hotel in San Francisco in 2009, during which Gore met with Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone, pouring “copious amounts of wine and Patron tequila.”
 
Consumers Prefer iPhone 5S to 5C
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who emphasized high-end consumer gadgets over cheaper ones, may have been right all along. Last month, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook introduced the colorful iPhone 5c, a less-expensive version of Apple’s smartphone, to “serve even more customers” around the world. It turns out people so far are more interested in its pricier, feature rich cousin, the 5s. Customers are shrugging off the $99 iPhone 5c even as Apple spends heavily to advertise the handset, which is last year’s model repackaged in a colored plastic case. The 5c, which costs $100 less than the souped-up iPhone 5s, is Apple’s attempt to lure buyers in developing markets like China, where Samsung and other Android phone makers lead. Three surveys in the past two weeks said the company’s new high-end model is outselling the 5c by at least 2 to 1. 
 
You’ll Barely Notice the World’s Smallest USB 3.0 Flash Drive
When it comes to prolonging the life of your laptop, there’s no easier upgrade than adding an ultra-compact USB flash drive to expand its storage capacity-particularly if it’s got a small SSD on board. And a company called PKparis is now laying claim to the title of ‘world’s smallest USB 3.0 flash drive’ with its new K’1 that more than looks the part. Available in 32GB and 64GB capacities for $48and $89 respectively, the aluminum drives offer read and write speeds up to 140 MB/s, and they even include a tiny LED activity light. 
 
Google Shares Break $1,000 Barrier 
Google Inc shares jumped past $1,000 on Friday as investors bet on the Internet company’s continued dominance of the mobile and video advertising businesses despite aggressive competition from Facebook Inc and Yahoo Inc. Shares of the world’s No. 1 search company rose more than 14 percent to an all-time high of $1,015.46, swelling its market value by about $40 billion.

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