The passwords and login credentials of 47 U.S. federal agencies have reportedly been leaked online. The NSA and departments of Defense, Energy and Treasury are among the agencies affected and now potentially at risk of cyberattack. A CIA-backed data-mining startup called Recorded Future discovered the data breach. “Two-factor authentication is an option offered by various online services, including Facebook, Gmail and PayPal, to heighten individual security and provide a second layer of defense,” reports ZDNet. “However, as of early 2015, 12 of the U.S. agencies — including the Departments of State and Energy — which have lost credentials online do not stipulate the use of two-factor authentication when users access their systems.”

Last week, Amazon rolled out its new Treasure Truck, which carries discounted products ranging from paddleboards to steaks. Consumers can order the items online and accept deliveries when the Treasure Truck is in their area. The idea is to attract shoppers with special deals available only for a short window and make deliveries as soon as possible. “Amazon’s mobile application will tell shoppers what’s on the truck each day and list pickup times and locations in Seattle, where the company is based,” notes Bloomberg. “While Amazon has daily deals and flash sales on its website and has experimented with temporary physical stores, the marketing stunt effectively merges them.”

According to a recent study, the number of consumers in North America who are cutting the pay TV cord in favor of OTT streaming video services is growing. TiVo subsidiary Digitalsmiths reports that 8.2 percent of survey respondents were no longer paying TV subscriptions as of 2014, a 1.3 percent increase over the previous year. Interestingly, an impressive 45.2 percent indicated that they downsized their cable or satellite TV bundles during the same period in the wake of paying for services such as Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Instant Video (a trend referred to as “cord shaving”). Continue reading Research Points to Increase in Cord Cutting and Cord Shaving

Verizon’s upcoming Internet TV service, expected to launch sometime this summer, may encourage brands to sponsor your binge watching. According to Verizon exec Marnie Walden — who described the new service as a “mobile-first video product” — the company plans to offer live and on-demand programming in addition to content from digital networks such as AwesomenessTV. Rather than passing the additional data costs for such a service to customers or programmers, Verizon is turning to advertisers. “Ad-sponsored data is part of the product offering,” said Walden. Continue reading Ad-Sponsored Data to Be Part of Verizon’s Internet TV Service

The Huffington Post announced plans to expand its video capabilities with a new 24-hour online video network called HuffPost 24. The announcement arrived just days after Verizon closed its $4.4 billion acquisition of Huffington Post parent company AOL. The network’s range of programming will be made available via apps, the HuffPost website, OTT platforms and as VOD. HuffPost Films and HuffPost TV divisions will also be established to produce content for the new network and beyond. Video GM Nathan Brown is currently hiring as part of the the new initiatives. Continue reading HuffPost Announces Online Video Network, Film and TV Units

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti told a crowd at the Cannes Lions advertising festival this week that his company is experimenting with ways to bring the BuzzFeed brand to TV and possibly movies. “We want to do TV, but we want to do it in a different way,” he said. “We resisted for a long time. People kept pitching us TV shows but we didn’t know anything about TV, and our special powers came from having a closer relationship with our audience.” BuzzFeed may begin testing initial concepts on platforms such as YouTube and Facebook before making the transition to TV, suggests The Wall Street Journal. “If you could figure out a way to say people are really connecting… why can’t you make a TV show that’s informed by that?” Peretti asked.

Thousands of independent record companies that rely on Apple as a source of income have agreed to licensing terms for the tech giant’s new music service. “We are now delighted to say that we are happy to endorse the deal with Apple Music as it now stands, and look forward to being a big part of a very exciting future,” said Martin Mills, founder of Beggars Group, whose acts include Vampire Weekend and Adele. Merlin, an organization that negotiates digital rights for small labels, also backs the agreement. “For independents, the negotiations with Apple are seen as a victory, allowing thousands of small labels to be part of Apple Music and earn money when people listen to their songs,” notes The New York Times.

LG has officially unveiled a new smartphone designed specifically for music fans interested in prioritizing their listening experience. While the overall specs are not comparatively of the highest order, the phone features 1-watt speakers, a pair of premium earphones, and a Focus Mode setting for temporarily turning off calls and texts. The LG Band Play phone also includes “a 5-inch 720p HD display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor, 13MP camera, a 5MP front-facing camera, 2GB of RAM, and a 2,300mAh battery,” reports Ubergizmo. The new phone will launch this week in South Korea for about $355. Availability in the U.S. has yet to be announced.

Microsoft has announced the rollout of Office for Android phone. The launch, “which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint designed for the Android smartphone experience, follows earlier efforts at bringing Office to Android tablets, as well as support for Office on iOS devices, Windows and OS X,” reports TechCrunch. The Office apps allow users to review and edit files, deliver presentations from their phones, and easily retrieve documents stored on services such as Box, Google Drive and Dropbox. The apps will be pre-installed on mobile devices from more than 30 manufacturers, including LG, Samsung and Sony. Word for Android, Excel for Android and PowerPoint for Android are available for download on Google Play.

Lenovo entered the PC stick market this week with the unveiling of its Ideacentre Stick 300, scheduled to launch in the U.S. this fall for $129. The Ideacentre, which can plug into displays to provide PC capabilities such as videoconferencing and Web browsing, features an Intel Baytrail processor, 2GB of memory and 32GB of storage, according to Digital Trends. The pocket-sized stick will run Windows and offer Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. It also includes an HDMI port, MicroUSB 2.0 port, an SD card reader and its own tiny built-in speaker. Lenovo’s offering will compete with existing products including Intel’s $150 Compute Stick.

Microsoft used its E3 media event last week in Los Angeles to present its vision of the future of immersive entertainment with a “mixed reality” demonstration of the popular video game “Minecraft” seen through its HoloLens headset. The demonstration at the Shrine Auditorium exhibition hall lasted only a few minutes but its impact continues to resonate. Although Microsoft has provided few detailed plans, its early demos and comments made at E3 and other conferences suggest a future that is something more than a virtual or augmented reality. Continue reading Microsoft: Mixed Reality is Future of Immersive Entertainment

Amazon announced that it is introducing limited support for high dynamic range content on its Amazon Instant Video service. The HDR support will initially launch for Amazon Prime members in the U.S. with the full original series “Mozart in the Jungle” and the pilot episode of the original “Red Oaks.” Netflix announced earlier that it also plans to support HDR video this year, starting with its original series “Marco Polo.” However, most consumers have yet to purchase televisions that support HDR, so it may take a while for the technology to gain mainstream adoption. Continue reading Amazon Prime Instant Video Intros HDR Support for New Series

In a first for HBO, the premium cable network is promoting its new original series “Ballers” and “The Brink” by offering free access to select full episodes on Facebook. The premiere episodes, to remain on the social platform for a limited time, became available yesterday, three days after their debuts. “According to HBO, the episodes will not be available on YouTube or any other third-party digital platform, nor will they be available on cable, satellite or telco TV services (except to HBO subs),” reports Variety. “In addition to Facebook, the episodes are also available on HBO Now — its recently introduced over-the-top service — and HBO Go, for pay-TV customers.”

FBR Capital Markets suggests that Netflix would attract a bigger 24-hour audience than each of the major broadcast television networks within a year, if the streaming service were part of the Nielsen ratings. “One major caveat: Nielsen TV ratings cover, at most, up to seven days of VOD and DVR viewing — and exclude online-video views, which networks say are an increasing part of the pie,” explains Variety. “Moreover, TV networks provide a different blend of content, such as live sports, that Netflix doesn’t.” While Netflix claims it is not concerned with ratings, since it does not sell traditional TV ads, FBR analysts note that the comparison is meant to illustrate the growing popularity of Netflix.

Having a Facebook account is no longer a requirement for sending Facebook messages. Users can now sign up for the Facebook Messenger mobile app by simply entering their cell phone number. “Messenger, which boasts 700 million users, is one of a suite of mobile apps that CEO Mark Zuckerberg is keen to grow to one billion users or more,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “Others include a second messaging app, WhatsApp, and photo-sharing app Instagram. WhatsApp has 800 million users, making it and Messenger the world’s two most-used messaging apps, according to market-research firm GlobalWebIndex.”