Apple, Inc. confirms acquisition of Shazam

Wednesday, December 13, 2017 On Monday, US-based tech company Apple, Inc. confirmed acquisition of UK-based song identification application Shazam. According to reports, the deal is worth US$400 million. “We are thrilled that Shazam and its talented team will be joining Apple […] and we can’t imagine a better home for Shazam to enable us to […]

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40 million credit cards compromised

Saturday, June 18, 2005 MasterCard International announced Friday that multiple instances of fraud have been tracked back to CardSystems Solutions, Inc., a company that processes credit card transactions and other payments. Customer names, banks, and account numbers of up to 40 million cardholders have been exposed, of which about 13.9 million are MasterCard-branded cards, the […]

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Elvish, Klingon and Na’vi: Constructed languages gain foothold in film

Monday, December 28, 2009 The release of the movie Avatar, written and directed by James Cameron, has generated increased interest in the field of constructed language, also known as conlang. Cameron asked American linguistics professor Paul Frommer to develop a language spoken by the extraterrestrial people in the film known as the Na’vi. Author J. […]

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American children’s show Reading Rainbow ends 26 year run

Thursday, September 10, 2009 Reading Rainbow, an American children’s television series is to stop showing on television. It ceased to be shown on Friday after a 26 year long run because of a funding shortfall of several hundred thousand dollars needed to renew the broadcast rights. The PBS show has more than two-dozen Emmy awards, […]

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Eurovision ’04 winner Ruslana discusses her paths as singer, spokesmodel, stateswoman and source of inspiration

Monday, March 30, 2009 First becoming famous in her native Ukraine in the 1990s, long-haired self-described “Amazon” Ruslana gained international recognition for winning the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest with her song “Wild Dances,” inspired by the musical traditions of the Hutsul people of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains. In the five years since, Ruslana has decided […]

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More dog and cat food recalled in the United States

Wednesday, April 18, 2007 Natural Balance Pet Foods has recalled some of its wet and dry food for cats and dogs after several owners said that their pets were becoming sick. The company urges owners to stop feeding their pets the food immediately. The brands recalled include Venison & Brown Rice Dry Dog Food and […]

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Elephants Dream: Free content 3D film released to the Internet

Friday, May 19, 2006 The 3D animated short film Elephants Dream, formerly known as Project Orange, was released to the Internet yesterday. The film is available under the Creative Commons Attribution License, allowing anyone to download, modify and distribute it. The 10-minute film has been called “the first open source movie” by NewsForge. Not only […]

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New Zealand to get new postal codes

Tuesday, May 30, 2006 New Zealand Post is set to new bring in four digit postal codes for New Zealand, at a cost of $80 million (NZD). The New Zealand Herald reported that a new postal code system will be revealed Wednesday, May 31. There will be 1800 different zones and an automatic mail sorter […]

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