The Federal Communications Commission has approved a proposal introduced by Chairman Tom Wheeler to explore ways to subsidize broadband Internet connectivity for poor Americans. The plan would help “pave the way for sweeping changes to a $1.7 billion phone subsidy program… known as Lifeline and initiated in 1985 under President Reagan,” reports The New York Times. Opposition to expanding the program is largely based on concern that the expansion would possibly generate more fraud. To address these concerns, the FCC is introducing new record-keeping requirements for service providers this summer, and has “adopted stricter measures to ensure eligible households claim only one subsidy of $9.25 a month,” explains NYT.

Hulu has officially changed the name of its paid tier as part of a branding update meant to help streamline its service. The $8 per month subscription tier is now simply called Hulu, rather than Hulu Plus. The company will still offer a free tier under the same name. Hulu hopes the change will help it compete with streaming leader Netflix. “While the change in name comes with no other changes to the platform, it comes at a time when things are looking up for the service,” Digital Trends points out. “Paid subscriptions are up 50 percent over last year, according to CEO Mike Hopkins, and video streams in the first three months of 2015 were already up 77 percent.”

Getty Images announced that its premium 360-degree imagery — from the Cannes Film Festival to the FIFA World Cup — would be made available for the Oculus VR platform. “The 360° View by Getty Images collection will offer a deeply engaging virtual reality experience of enchanting creative stills, alongside some of the world’s biggest moments in news, sports and entertainment,” notes the press release. The collection is currently available in the Oculus 360 Photos app on the Oculus Store, and will offer streaming content for the Oculus Rift when it launches Q1 2016. It can already be experienced with the Gear VR Innovator Edition for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy S6.

IBM has designed a new website for the Wimbledon tennis tournament, which begins in London on June 29. The site will feature Slamtracker, a predictive analytics dashboard that provides real-time stats and game play analysis such as the speed of serves and number of winning shots. “Slamtracker also mines data from past Grand Slam tournaments to give competitors’ historical head-to-head match-ups, as well as determining what each player must do well to win the match based on their previous clashes,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “IBM’s data analysis tools will pinpoint historical records in near real-time to Wimbledon staff, who will then post the content on social networks.”

Intel has purchased Vancouver-based Recon Instruments with plans to integrate it into its New Devices Group. Recon is known for its high-tech eyewear designed for sports enthusiasts. Recon’s Jet glasses, for example, feature a video camera and the ability to project inside the lens info such as the distance and time of a run or bicycle ride. “Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, who took the job in May 2013, has vowed not to miss opportunities in wearable technology the way Intel fell behind in chips for smartphones,” reports The Wall Street Journal. Recon will continue selling its products from within Intel. “We’ll be able to bring our technology and innovation to completely new markets and use cases where activity-specific information, delivered instantly, can change the game,” wrote Recon CEO Dan Eisenhardt.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that a series of executive changes would take place at the company, including the departures of former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, and senior level execs Kiril Tatarinov, Eric Rudder and Mark Penn. Meanwhile, Windows head Terry Myerson will take on added responsibility. As part of the company’s shift from devices and services to productivity and cloud computing, Nadella has appointed a team to oversee the restructuring of Microsoft’s three engineering groups — Windows and Devices, Cloud and Enterprise, and Applications and Services. Continue reading Microsoft CEO Announces Departures, Corporate Restructuring

YouTube announced that it is launching a new service called YouTube Newswire with social news agency Storyful. While the two companies have been working together in different capacities since the Tahrir Square protests in 2011 (and News Corp.-owned Storyful was contextualizing YouTube videos even before that), the new service plans to provide a curated and verified feed of newsworthy global events published on the video site. The goal is to help provide journalists with additional resources regarding breaking news, including first-hand eyewitness accounts. Continue reading YouTube and Storyful to Partner on Verified Eyewitness Videos

Tech companies including Adobe, Apple, Dropbox, Sonic.net and Yahoo earned top ratings in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s annual report on data collection practices, while others such as WhatsApp and AT&T landed at the bottom. The report analyzes how companies handle government requests for customer data. The companies are evaluated “based on factors including their transparency to consumers about data requests and data retention, as well as their public positions on so-called back doors that grant government agencies access to customer data,” reports The New York Times. The EFF’s latest report suggests that tech companies are generally improving in this area.

At this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, the first new versions in five years of music-based videogames “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” were on display. “Guitar Hero Live” by Activision Blizzard offers the opportunity to play in front of crowds that react to the performance. “Rock Band 4,” by Harmonix and Mad Catz Interactive, focuses more on the guitar solos. “Both are attempting to revive a business that seemed dead in 2010 after the market was bombarded with more than 20 games between the two franchises, plus plenty more knock-offs, in a span of just five years,” suggests The Wall Street Journal. “The big question is whether the original music-game model is dead or finally ready for a comeback.”

Snapchat is partnering with Live Nation Entertainment to bring its Live Stories feature to festivals and concerts. Starting today with the Electric Daily Carnival in Las Vegas (a popular electronic dance music festival), Live Stories will capture content at Live Nation events to share with specific communities through Snapchat. Live Stories, which provides video and photos from event attendees for a 24-hour period, has become a lucrative advertising platform for Snapchat. And its branded geofilters have become an added bonus for advertisers. Continue reading Snapchat, Live Nation Partner to Offer Music Fest Live Stories

Google-owned Nest plans to start shipping a new plug-and-play, Wi-Fi security camera next week. The $199 Nest Cam is the first security product to result from Nest’s purchase of Dropcam last summer. The Nest Cam is physically reminiscent of the last Dropcam (although a bit slimmer), features infrared LEDs for night vision, and has been upgraded from 720p to 1080p. “The Nest Cam uses a cloud-based DVR to store video,” explains TechCrunch. “If you want to record and store video (rather than just stream it) you’re looking at paying $100-$300 a year on top of the cost of the device. 10-days of video archiving will cost $10 a month; 30-days of archiving will cost $30 a month.”

Japanese telecommunications corporation SoftBank and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group plan to start selling a robot called Pepper on June 20. The $1,600 robots will be manufactured by Foxconn Technology Group of Taiwan. Alibaba and Foxconn are investing for 20 percent stakes each in the joint venture, while SoftBank will hold 60 percent. SoftBank envisions Pepper “as a companion for the elderly, a teacher of schoolchildren and an assistant in retail shops and offices,” notes The Wall Street Journal. Originally designed by Aldebaran Robotics, a French subsidiary of SoftBank, Pepper can read body language, human voices and facial expressions. There are already about 200 free apps for the robot.

The Federal Communications Commission has accused AT&T Mobility of misleading its wireless customers regarding unlimited data plans by slowing their service without notification. As a result, the FCC announced that it plans to fine AT&T $100 million. According to the agency, AT&T delivered slower service than advertised after its customers had used a certain amount of data. The slow-down impacted the ability to stream video, use mapping services and more. The move raises questions about future actions now that the FCC is treating Internet services more like utilities. Continue reading FCC Plans to Fine AT&T $100 Million for Slowing Data Speeds

Fox Sports and NextVR plan to demo live streaming of virtual reality coverage during the U.S. Open golf championship. “At the tournament’s VIP tents, approximately 100-300 visitors daily will have the opportunity to view the live stream of what Fox Sports believes might be the first live VR experience with multi-camera coverage,” writes Carolyn Giardina for The Hollywood Reporter. “Five spherical camera rigs will be placed at vantage points around the course in order to allow fans to visit these sites in real-time.” The experience will also be live-streamed to Fox Sports locations in Los Angeles, New York and Vancouver. The NextVR portal will feature highlights for Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR users.

More than 10,000 gamers have signed a petition requesting that Nintendo not release a game it showed during this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. The gaming giant, which has abandoned its splashy E3 press conferences in favor of more low-key presentations, apparently failed to introduce enough new games for its fans. The harsh reaction led to the petition regarding a lackluster new “disgrace of a game” in the “Metroid” series. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata issued an apology on Twitter and vowed to improve future efforts. Continue reading Nintendo Presentation at E3 Draws Strong Backlash from Fans