Microsoft has cut its last ties with MSNBC, dissolving its affiliation with the brand’s website. The breakup, announced Sunday night, comes after a 16-year partnership between the company and NBC. The latter is buying back its 50% share of the site for an undisclosed sum, according to numerous reports. The website will now move its headquarters from Redmond, Wash., to New York. Microsoft Pulls Out of...

Flash, specifcally mobile Flash, was effectively sentenced to death a while back. The first inklings came when Abode put out their own non-Flash media tool “Edge,” and then was confirmed when the company dropped 750 employees and halted all development of mobile versions of Flash, ostensibly forever. It’s not until now, however, that we’re seeing Flash really start to crumble. Android, once open to the protocol, will no longer be supporting Adobe Flash with its newest version, Jelly Bean. Flash Not Coming To Android Jelly Bean, Slowly Bleeding Out |...

Anxiously awaiting the arrival of those brand spanking new apps for your Xbox 360 console? Well, the wait is over. Video apps for Comcast Xfinity TV, HBO Go and MLB.tv have arrived on a number of consoles here at Engadget HQ. Major Nelson dropped the official word a little while ago, leaving you mere moments away from live and on demand television and baseball just in time for the start of the season. Keep in mind all three of these high profile applications feature Kinect integration — but don’t worry, you won’t be forced to swing any bats in your living room. Xbox 360 apps now live for Comcast Xfinity TV, HBO Go and MLB.tv —...

  This July major US Internet service providers will start assisting copyright holders in their fight against online copyright infringement. Major ISPs including Comcast, Verizon and Time Warner Cable will begin fulfilling their obligations under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding signed last year, which will see the providers send out copyright infringement warnings to their millions of customers. ISPs To Begin Punishing BitTorrent Pirates This Summer |...

One of the world’s largest file-sharing sites was shut down Thursday, and its founder and several company executives were charged with violating piracy laws, federal prosecutors said. An indictment accuses Megaupload.com of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. The indictment was unsealed one day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart online piracy. APNewsBreak: US prosecutors shut down one of world’s largest file-sharing sites, Megaupload – The Washington Post. Oh boy…this is kind of a big deal. A HUGE blow after yesterday’s awareness campaign about SOPA and PIPA. This is an example of what can happen to Google, Facebook, Youtube (Youtube especially), really any website that has even a picture of someone without expressed written permission. I’d said that yesterday was blown out of proportion a bit as they don’t really enforce the laws currently in place, but um…just kidding. Now the new question is…what’s the point of SOPA and PIPA if they already have the power to do this? Read...

The tech industry is abuzz about SOPA and PIPA, a pair of anti-piracy bills. Here’s why they’re controversial, and how they would change the digital landscape if they became law. What is SOPA? SOPA is an acronym for the Stop Online Piracy Act. It’s a proposed bill that aims to crack down on copyright infringement by restricting access to sites that host pirated content. SOPA’s main targets are “rogue” overseas sites like torrent hub The Pirate Bay, which are a trove for illegal downloads of movies and other digital content. Content creators have battled against piracy for years — remember Napster? — but it’s hard for U.S. companies to take action against foreign sites. So SOPA’s goal is to cut off pirate sites’ oxygen by requiring U.S. search engines, advertising networks and other providers to withhold their services. That means sites like Google wouldn’t show flagged sites in their search results, and payment processors like eBay’s (EBAY, Fortune 500) PayPal couldn’t transmit funds to them. Both sides say they agree that protecting content is a worthy goal. But opponents say that the way SOPA is written effectively promotes censorship and is rife with the potential for unintended consequences. Silicon Valley woke up and took notice of the implications when SOPA was introduced in the House of Representatives in October. But its very similar counterpart, PIPA, flew under the radar and was approved by a Senate committee in May. PIPA is now pending before the full Senate and scheduled for a vote on January 24, though some senators are pushing for a delay. SOPA explained: What it is and why it matters – Jan. 17,...