WSJ Says Amazon Working on a Smartphone With 3D Display

Is Amazon developing a phone? The WSJ reports that the giant retailer is developing a slew of devices from a smartphone that would use glasses free 3D technology.

The other devices are another phone and one audio only streaming device, which sounds like it could be a cloud connected device that would serve you subscription music. From WSJ:

Barclay's Phone Verification System Now Uses Voice Recognition

Barclay Wealth has introduced a verification system which could just get rid of remembering passwords from here on out. It will use biometrics to confirm who you say you are.

The system will  use the "Nuance Freespeech" system to shorten interaction times with customers and eliminate the need to re-verify them for every call. It will capture biometric data from a short 30 second conversation between the customer and call center employee. It will then match the voiceprint to the one on file which gives 95 percent accuracy and grants the user access to their account.

Apple Still Waiting On Sony To Complete The Trifecta For It's iRadio Service

Apple was reportedly supposedly close to locking down two major music labels for its iRadio streaming music service. The company was waiting on Sony to finish off the trifecta, but it turns out they're still waiting.

YouTube Launches Paid Channels

YouTube has introduced a pilot program for paid channels on Tuesday. It will now let a few dozen popular channels charge viewers a subscription fee of 99 cents or more per month according to the company in a blog post.

Facebook Home Hits 'About 1 Million' Downloads After Four Weeks

Facebook launched Facebook Home four weeks ago. Now, the company says that the downloads have reached about 1 million already.

“We’re at just about 1 million downloads on Home,” Facebook's Director of Mobile Engineering Cory Ondrejka told the group, a number which he says is about where Facebook wanted to be at this time.

Twitter Acquires Computing Startup Ubalo

Twitter acquired a little known computing startup called Ubalo. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"When we met the infrastructure folks at Twitter, we realized that it’s a company with brilliant people, strong momentum, exciting challenges and a promising future," Ubalo's co-founders wrote in a post on their website. "We quickly became enthusiastic about the possibility of collaborating with them and the impact we could have there." The deal was apparently finalized a few days ago.

Eight Hackers ACcused Of Stealing $45 Million From ATMs

Eight people have been accused as being part of a global cybercrime organization that's said to be responsible for the theft of $45 million from ATMs around the world. Seven suspects have been arrested while the eight was reportedly murdered in the Dominican Republic last month.

Future Samsung TV May Be Able To Bend And Twist

Samsung might be making a TV you can bend and twist to fit whatever viewing angle you want. According to a newly published patent from Samsung the filing describes a TV with a flexible display. Viewers could bend it using a remote control.

Microsoft Buying Nook For $1 Billion?

TechCrunch is reports Microsoft, who's already made a $300 million investment in Nook, want to double down and buy it now. Redmond wants to fork out $1 billion to acquire the digital assets of Nook Media LLC, which would be a separate Nook company that spun off from Barnes & Noble last year. Internal documents show that Microsoft is interested in the e-reader's ecosystem.

This Startup Wants To Predict Which Images Will Go Viral On Social Platforms (Video)

A company called Curalate will be able to predict which images will have the most success on social platforms with their latest product, which is a tad bit different from monitoring tools. Today, those tools can help monitor words, or names, across social platforms but not pictures. Curalate plans to fill that void.

Buzz Aldrin Says Humanity's Future Is On Mars (Video)

Buzz Aldrin is not content with man stepping on the moon. The next place to go is Mars. Aldrin's new book "Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration" landed in bookstores on May 7 and it charts out a course that could put astronauts on the surface of Mars by 2035.

How And Why Does Music Move Us? (Video)

Listening to music can evoke a ton of emotions. From happiness to sadness to melancholy and more. In the latest episode of "It's Okay to be Smart", Joe Hanson goes to the streets to test a recent hypothesis - our emotional relationship with music may be neurologically related to the perception of body language. Writes Hanson:

See A 3D Hologram Smile Of Your Unborn Baby (Video)

Are you an expecting parent? 2D ultrasounds are so passe, so go ahead and be completely blown away with some 3D hologram courtesy of Pioneer's new printing service. The only caveat? You'll need to head to Japan for your ultrasound.

Slot Machines Of Today Use Psychology and Design To Keep You Hooked (Video)

If you've ever played a slot machine before, you'll know that it can be very addictive. You'll want to come back for more. The promise of hitting a jackpot is always there. It's always just your luck. Your pure dumb luck.

Documents Suggests Feds Can Read Your Emails Without A Warrant

According to documents from the FBI and U.S. attorneys' offices, it claims that the feds can read your emails and other electronic communications without a warrant. (you can see the documents here).

Privacy. It's going to be a bigger issue in the times to come.

Guy Gets Sucked Out Of The Plane After Accidentally Deploying Parachute Too Early (Video)

Rule no 1 before jumping out of a plane? Wear a parachute. Rule no 2? Don't pull it out before you get out of the plane. This guy accidentally deployed them too early and he immediately got sucked out of the plane. That's one scary mistake no one's going to repeat for sure.

Promising Alzheimer's Treatment Proved To Be Ineffective

We've seen in a lot of sci-fi like movies how most diseases have been cured. It's imagining a perfect future where problems would be anything but medical. But today, we're still a long way more to go before we can get rid of most diseases.

Behind The Scenes Of How Jack Conte Made This Music Video From Scratch (Video)

Jack Conte made a music video entitled "Pedals" and it's filled with electronic music robot madness. Watch how he did all of this from scratch in the videos after the jump in one of the best behind the scenes clips we've seen this whole week.