Amazon changes Europe tax practices amid ongoing probe

Amazon will begin paying taxes in individual European countries instead of funneling sales through low-tax Luxembourg amid ongoing investigations into the tax strategies of American tech companies in Europe.

Amazon's new tax practices went in to effect on May 1, with local divisions in the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain already recording their own revenue, an Amazon representative said. The strategy shift, which was first reported by The Guardian, could result in a larger tax charges in certain countries.

In 200 years, rich humans will be cyborgs, says professor

Humanity is currently privileged to have choices.

We can watch every sci-fi movie and TV series ever made and decide which character we'd like our future selves to play when we become robots.

It's a lovely game.

However, one historian seems to believe that we'll be partial to becoming bad guys in "Doctor Who."

Yuval Noah Harari of the University of Jerusalem thinks that humans will choose to become cyborgs.As the Telegraph reports, he offered a rather chilling view of social progress.

oneBoard to rule them all? This smart keyboard PC runs Windows or Android

SHANGHAI -- As manufacturers turn almost every device into something smart and connected, Beijing-based AC000 has come up with a smart keyboard that actually makes sense. oneBoard has three versions available, one family, one office and one gaming. The game-centric model is the oneBoard Pro+, an 86-key finger tapper using Cherry MX Plum mechanical keys with either an ARM or an Intel Atom processor.

So you think you can't sing? Science says otherwise

Fox recently announced that "American Idol" won't get another season. Good riddance, I say. The show may have produced a few names with actual talent, but it felt like one of those reality shows where viewers get their jollies watching judges crush people's dreams like grapes in a stomping vat.

Etsy may face 'Handmade' rival from Amazon

A decade into its run on the Web, the crafts marketplace Etsy may soon face its biggest challenge yet.

E-commerce titan Amazon has been putting out feelers to sellers on Etsy, pointing them to an online form thanking them for their interest in "Handmade at Amazon." They're asked to fill out the form with information about their business and the items they sell -- from jewelry to gourmet goods to toys and games -- with a promise to keep respondents updated "while we set up shop."

Mozilla overhauls Firefox smartphone plan to focus on quality, not cost

Mozilla has revamped its Firefox OS mobile software project after concluding that ultra-affordable $25 handsets aren't enough to take on the biggest powers of the smartphone world, CNET has learned.

The nonprofit organization rose to prominence with the success of its Firefox Web browser a decade ago, but it's having trouble achieving the same success with its Firefox operating system for smartphones. According to a Thursday email from new Chief Executive Chris Beard, Mozilla has changed its strategy to a new "Ignite" initiative that emphasizes phones with compelling features, not just with lower price tags. It's also considering letting its operating system run apps written for its top rival, Google's Android.

NSA's collection of phone-call data could be cut off for a time

The National Security Agency's access to phone-call data may well be cut off -- at least temporarily -- after the US Senate failed to reach a compromise about a controversial NSA surveillance program prior to a crucial deadline.

The Senate failed Saturday to pass an extension of provisions of the USA Patriot Act that expire June 1 and have served as the legal justification for the NSA's current, wholesale collection of telephone data. The spy agency has said such collection is crucial in fighting terrorism.

Earlier in the same session, the Senate had killed a reform bill -- the USA Freedom Act -- passed by the House and backed by the Obama administration. That legislation would have allowed collection to continue, but in a newly restricted way designed to safeguard constitutional rights regarding privacy, while protecting national security.

The heated back-and-forth over the agency's surveillance programs has been going on for two years, since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked details of the programs to journalists. The Freedom Act would require the agency to seek a court order on a case-by-case basis to obtain call data from telephone companies -- rather than scooping up data itself in bulk and examining it with an OK from the special, secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Critics have said a new legal process would be too slow and would hamper the NSA's counterterrorism efforts. Reform supporters, however, have challenged claims about the current program's effectiveness in preventing terror attacks and have said the reform bill would help ensure individual liberties.

The Senate is set to reconvene after its Memorial Day recess for a rare Sunday session -- on May 31 -- to vote again on a Patriot Act extension, and possibly reconsider the Freedom Act. But any extension would need to be approved by the House, which isn't scheduled to meet again until after the June 1 expiration deadline. That means the NSA's phone-data collection could lapse altogether for a time.

Members of the surveillance community say a failure to renew the Patriot Act would threaten national security. The US would face "considerable risk and uncertainty," Bloomberg quoted unnamed officials as saying. And while advocating, Saturday, for a last-minute extension to the Patriot Act, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pointed to terrorism.

"This is a high threat period," McConnell said, according to blog Politico. "We better be ready next Sunday afternoon to prevent the country from being in danger by total expiration of the program that we're all familiar with."

Meerkat arrives on Android ahead of Twitter's Periscope

Meerkat, the popular service that lets users live-stream video to their Twitter followers, is now on Android, ahead of Twitter -- its top competitor and the very company it relies on to drive its service.

Meerkat brought its app to the Google Play store on April 30. The free app supports Android 4.2 and up and is currently in beta, so it might need to have some issues worked out before it sheds its beta tag. Meerkat hasn't said when it will launch an update to the app, but it has already proven somewhat popular, tallying between 100,000 and 500,000 installs, according to Google Play's wide-ranged tracker.

There is a bitter battle between Meerkat and Periscope to be the live-streaming option of choice for users. By getting to Android first, Meerkat is going for a first-mover advantage to nab users and keep them put.

In March, Twitter announced the launch of its own livestreaming platform, called Periscope. Like Meerkat at the time, Periscope was only available on iOS and Twitter said that an Android version was "in the works."

In the month or so that Periscope has been available, it's proven popular, according to Twitter. The company said on Wednesday during an earnings call that the livestreaming service had nabbed 1 million users within its first 10 days of availability. It's unknown how that has translated to Meerkat usage, but the tide seems to be turning against the livestreaming startup.