Schools may soon buy the Surface RT directly from Microsoft for $199
If you find yourself wanting to snag a Surface RT for the upcoming school year you should check out the following deal. It’s bonkers. The most basic Surface RT goes for $499, but if you read on you can get it for three hundred dollars less at an insane price of $199. 
Yahoo reveals some data request numbers, urges for openness on secret FISA orders
Of the nine major tech companies at the heart of Eric Snowden’s revelations about an NSA spying program called PRISM, over the past week, Facebook, Microsoft, and most recently Apple have all opted to publish the total number of data requests they’ve received from the government. Today, they’re being joined by Yahoo, which announced that over the past six months it’s received between 12,000 and 13,000 such requests. Because of the Obama administration’s requirement to obfuscate the data, that number includes ordinary law enforcement requests and secret FISA orders, without a further breakdown.
FTW: Unofficial Vine app for Windows Phone gets Lens support, Live Tile in latest beta
If there’s one thing you can say about Windows Phone developers—they know the community and what they want. After our post last night, Rudy Huyn, the man behind the upcoming 6Sec app for Vine on Windows Phone, seems to have set him into full gear. A big update was posted today for his private beta users and it should set Windows Phone apart from the competition.
First up, we have the big one: full Lens integration. That’s right, when this app goes live in the Store (expected in a few weeks), the app will come with direct Windows Phone 8 camera support, meaning users can quickly launch their camera and hop into 6Sec to directly record their Vine.
As you can see in our video below, it works flawlessly… 
Sprint sues to stop Dish’s Clearwire acquisition plans
Dish scored a major coup in its efforts to scoop up Sprint acquisition target Clearwire last week when it won the support of Clearwire’s board. Today, Sprint is firing back in court with allegations that the proposed Dish deal would be illegal.
Oculus VR says plans won’t change, as it raises $16 million in venture capital for its virtual reality dreams
“I have a boss now, I guess,” says Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe. “The board.” On Monday, the virtual reality headset company announced that it had finished raising $16 million in Series A venture capital led by Spark Capital and Matrix Partners, adding a new level of management in the process. Both Spark and Matrix will have seats on the Oculus board of directors, guiding the company from here on out. Will new money and new directors change any of the startup company’s plans, though? Oculus says no.
90 Seconds on The Verge: Monday, June 17th, 2013
A face. A word. A message. A consequence. A fleeting glance before the storm. Then, an album. http://dlvr.it/3XF8mY
Calls To Action In Social Media & Blogs Really Work [Infographic]
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For me, calls to action have always been easier offline than online. It’s easy to ask someone to do something face to face, but online it can feel a little strange. I remember back in 2009 when the general attitude was that asking for retweets was completely cheesy. A lot has changed […]
The post Calls To Action In Social Media & Blogs Really Work [Infographic] appeared first on Bit Rebels.
http://dlvr.it/3XF7hZ
Microsoft Giveaway: Use your Bing Reward credits to win a Lumia 928 or Xbox 360
Looks like our contest isn’t the only way you can potentially win a Lumia 928. If you’re in the United States and use Bing as your primary search engine you should be using and taking advantage of Bing Rewards. You can potentially win a Nokia Lumia 928 and more through the Bing Rewards program. Details below. 
Microsoft offers Surface RT to schools for as little as $199
Microsoft is pushing to get the Surface RT tablet into schools, and it’s using a massive price cut and a giveaway to do it. On Monday, the company cut prices by more than 50% for its 32GB Surface RT, as long as schools buy the tablet before September. A Surface RT normally sells for $499 at retail, but Microsoft will drop the price to $199 for schools. That’s the same price at a Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire, and much less than the $399 price Apple charges schools for the 16GB iPad 2. With a Touch Cover, the Surface RT will be discounted to $249 — normally this combo sells for $599. And a Surface RT with a Type Keyboard cover, which is priced at $629 for everybody else, will be sold to schools for $289 in the promotion. At retail, the Surface…
TiVo prepping next-generation DVRs with new remote control, up to six tuners
While TiVo’s Premiere DVR hardware line is moving past its prime, signs indicate new, higher-performance models are headed to store shelves this fall. TiVo first alluded to “several” new devices earlier this year when petitioning the FCC to waive an archaic analog tuner requirement. Beyond supporting digital cable via CableCARD, TiVo intends some of these new products to also tune digital over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts via antenna. Whereas only the existing two-tuner Premiere currently offers this feature, sources tell _The Verge_ that OTA tuning will be supported by an upcoming four-tuner “Series 5” DVR. Further, via multiple sources, we’ve learned TiVo is prepping a beefy six-tuner DVR that can expand beyond the 2-terabyte storage limit,…
Texas first state to mandate warrants for email surveillance
Texas Governor Rick Perry has signed a bill into law that mandates law enforcement get a warrant to access emails. The bill (HB 2268), addresses the outdated 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), which allows law enforcement to obtain emails without a warrant if they are marked as “read” or if they are over 180 days old. In those situations, authorities only require a subpoena to gain access because they are considered abandoned. The bill signed into law today only covers Texans at the state and local levels from this dated understanding of digital communications, but it is said to be the first such law on the books in the US. Work is underway at the federal level, however, to modernize the ECPA: back in April a bipartisan…
USB Portable Humidifier Fits In Your Bag & Screws On A Bottle Of Water
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It seems everything is going high tech these days, but who would ever think that would even include a humidifier. I haven’t seen a humidifier since I was a little girl, but I know plenty of people who use them. It’s one of the ways you can keep your skin looking good […]
The post USB Portable Humidifier Fits In Your Bag & Screws On A Bottle Of Water appeared first on Bit Rebels.
http://dlvr.it/3XDhQR
WPCentral Photo Contest: Win a Verizon Nokia Lumia 928 with your amazing picture!
Okay folks, it’s been awhile since we gave away a brand new Windows Phone. So today we’re announcing a US-only contest (sorry!) with a chance to win a brand new, Nokia Luima 928 for the Verizon network.
How to win? It’s simple… 
The We Are JUXT Lumia 920 photography experience: Tips and tricks for getting the ideal photo
We briefly mentioned the Windows Phone partnership with We Are JUXT, a community of mobile photography enthusiasts (www.wearejuxt.com). Recently, ten of the most influential members of the We Are JUXT community were challenged to shoot exclusively with a Nokia Lumia 920.
The group were asked to shoot exclusively with the Windows Phone for an eight day period and share a few tips on how to take the best pictures. The end result: a respectable collection of tips on not only how to take better photos but how to approach mobile photography as a whole.
_Read on for these great tricks on how to better hone your mobile photo skills!_ 
NSA vets praise Snowden as a whistleblower, but fear he may take things too far
Edward Snowden, the federal contractor who exposed the NSA’s controversial PRISM surveillance program, has delivered a bit of vindication for three former top NSA officials who were once whistleblowers themselves. In a round-table interview with _USA Today_, Thomas Drake, William Binney, and J. Kirk Wiebe said that Snowden’s leaks have been a public service — but the trio also criticized Snowden for telling the press that the US launches cyber attacks against China. “I don’t think he had access to those programs, but somebody talked to him about it,” Binney, an ex-NSA technical director, said in the interview. “He’s transitioning from whistle blower to a traitor.”
