New York says 'I do' to gay marriage: Senate passes law allowing same-sex couples to tie the knot

Gay couples celebrated in the streets after the 62-member, Republican-controlled state Senate approved the bill 33 to 29and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed it into law.New York dramatically voted to allow same-sex marriage last night, becoming the biggest state to legalise gay marriage handing activists a breakthrough victory.The legislative session went into overtime as conservative lawmakers fought for changes to enhance protection for faith-based groups opposed to recognising gay marriages.
After the bill passed in the Assembly, it was unclear if the bill had secured enough support to pass in the Senate.The decision followed weeks of contentious debate and negotiations between Governor Cuomo and the GOP-controlled Senate.After a several undecideds moved to support the bill - including Republican Roy McDonald who famously defended his decision, saying 'f**k it, I don't care what you think. I'm trying to do the right thing' the balance was tipped.

Nevada Passes Law Authorizing Driverless Cars

The State of Nevada just passed Assembly Bill No. 511 which, among other things, authorizes the Department of Transportation to develop rules and regulations governing the use of driverless cars, such as Google’s concept car, on its roads.As Stanford Professor Ryan Calo notes, this is a big step forward in ensuring that safe, driverless cars become a reality.

Cameron victory on Greek bailout: EU chiefs cave in and rule out cash grab from Britain

David Cameron last night won a key victory to save British taxpayers from paying any extra money to bail out Greece.After crunch talks in Brussels, the Prime Minister faced down a German bid to force the UK to pay up.Mr Cameron read the riot act to EU leaders, arguing that it would be ‘quite wrong’ for the UK to contribute to the rescue act.EU president Herman Van Rompuy caved in late last night and agreed that the conclusions of the Brussels summit would rule out any cash grab from Britain.
Britain has already contributed £12.5billion to the bailouts of Ireland, Portugal and Greece, through both the EU and the IMF.The ruling means that Britain will contribute around £1billion to the bailont through the International Monetary Fund but will be spared another raid on the public purse from the EU.Last night a Downing Street source said: ‘This is the right result for the British taxpayer.’ The communique to be signed by all 27 EU leaders today will confirm that only IMF and eurozone nations will pay.
It came after a fraught day in which the Germans had tried to force Britain into a corner.Asked if the EU-wide European Financial Stability Mechanism would be excluded from the bailout, worth £100 billion, Mr Van Rompuy said: ‘Yes.’Amid signs that EU nations outside the single currency might be asked to cough up, the Prime Minister’s aides had rushed to seek assurances from Germany that the UK would not be railroaded into contributing.

Perform This Way (Parody of "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga)

Google ordered to halt Street View filming in India amid security fears

Google has been barred from taking pictures of streets in India for its popular Street View service until it obtains approval from the federal government.Police confirmed the company would be allowed to resume filming only after it produces security clearances from the Home Ministry and Ministry of Defence.'We have security concerns. There are a lot of sensitive establishments in Bangalore and those pictures would be available in the public domain,' the official added.India is especially sensitive about detailed photographs and locations of key buildings being made public since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which ten gunmen rampaged through city landmarks, killing 166 people.Google India launched its Street View service in Bangalore in late May and plans to include other cities as well.The California-based company has so far not produced any clearance despite claiming to have it, a Bangalore police official said.In Switzerland the company is appealing a court ruling that obliges it to ensure all faces and vehicle license plates are blurred before pictures are uploaded to the Street View service.But Street View has raised privacy concerns in many countries.The service allows users to click on virtually any spot in a city to zoom into a series of street-level pictures taken by cars mounted with 360-degree cameras.In Germany, Street View went online after a months-long battle with authorities who insisted that citizens had the right to have images of their properties blurred. Only 20 German cities are pictured on Street View and in April, Google announced that it was removing all of its vehicles from the country.In March, the company was fined £90,000 in France because the cars used to take photographs for Street View illegally collected personal data from Wi-Fi networks, something it has apologised for.

Apple to launch iPhone 5 in September with new high resolution camera

Apple is planning to release an iPhone 5 as early as September.

The company is also reported to be testing a version of the iPad with a higher resolution screen.The release of the iPhone 5 in just a few months could add millions more sales to the technology firm’s range of smartphones. The iPhone is Apple’s top seller.The model is likely to include a faster computer chip and a more advanced camera.When the iPhone 4 was launched in June last year, stocks ran out within hours and demand crashed the Apple website.The new phone could be called the iPhone 4G or 4S, with many similarities to the £500 iPhone 4.Technology experts are also adding a cheaper version of the iPhone range which will be aimed at boosting its market share in developing countries.But the speedier processor will allow programs to load quicker and the phone will be able to better compete against the BlackBerry and Samsung handsets that use Google’s Android software.An 8-megapixel camera would be an update on the 5-megapixel camera currently used in the iPhone 4.Experts have said that if Apple introduced a more basic mid-range phone the computer giant's share of the the smartphone market could explode as the number of users grows this year and in 2012.Details were made public in San Francisco by Apple’s chief executive Steve Jobs.Two industry sources later said that the screen resolution on the updated iPad will be a third higher than that of the iPad 2.

Google prepares to ditch its trademark 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button

But now it seems the technology giant is ditching its trademark 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button.'I'm Feeling Lucky' was designed to take users directly to the first search result, bypassing the search results page.For more than ten years it has proved an essential part of Google's search engine.There has been no official word yet confirming whether or not it will be permanently removed.Google is currently testing out a new user interface design in Finland and the button is conspicuous by its absence.'I'm Feeling Lucky' was first created to reflect Google's confidence that its top search result would almost always be the one being looked for.As Google continues to break new ground at a tremendous rate, perhaps the button is part of an older online mindset.But since the launch of the Google Instant search last year, the button only works if the user first disables the instant search fuction.The works, which are all out of copyright, date from between 1700 and 1870 and have been selected by the library to be digitised by search engine giant.Earlier today it was confirmed that the company has struck a deal with the British Library to put 250,000 books online.The material - some 40million pages - will cover the period that saw the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Battle of Trafalgar, the Crimean War, the invention of rail travel and the and of slavery.Google voice search has been available for some time on mobile devices, but now everyone will have the option of searching via voice command from a regular laptop or desktop.The only thing needed is a microphone (either plugged in or internal will do) and Google Chrome.And last week Google unveiled a new feature allowing users to conduct Internet searches searches on their personal computers simply with the sound of their voice and without touching a keyboard.

Ministers plan for the 'death of the euro' as Greek crisis threatens future of single currency

Britain is preparing for the collapse of the euro, a Treasury minister warned last night.If Greece's debt crisis forces it to quit the eurozone, it would have 'a very significant economic impact' on Britain, said Mark Hoban, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury.Officials said British banks stand to lose £8billion if the Greek economy goes under.It came as former foreign secretary Jack Straw led MPs from all sides in predicting the death of the single currency, warning: 'Is it not better that it happens quickly rather than a slow death?’He said the Government should be honest and admit the single currency is on the brink of collapse. He told the Commons: 'The eurozone cannot last. In its current form [it] is going to collapse.'The International Monetary Fund also warned that the Greek debt crisis could threaten the stability of the entire eurozone, Britain's biggest trading partners.Mr Hoban admitted the Government was preparing contingency plans for a euro meltdown with the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority.He refused to say whether ‘the eurozone will stay intact’, a coded reference to Greece ditching the single currency. But he added: ‘This crisis demonstrates the huge strain the eurozone is under. That’s why it was right for us to stay out of the eurozone.‘The Treasury, together with the Bank of England and the FSA, are monitoring the financial system, including the euro area, on an ongoing basis. Many scenarios are considered.’‘Continued instability in the eurozone could be one of the factors that could hold back the recovery of the British economy.’

So you think you can dance? Young boy shows amazing skills on Xbox Kinect game as he wows watching shoppers