Apple patents a bendy iPhone, Android TV replaces Google TV, the FBI maintains North Korea hacked Sony, David Cross looks to BitTorrent, Bill Gates drinks human waste, and a basketball referee makes the wrong call.

Apple Patents Intentionally Bendy iPhone

Felt my iPhone 6 bend in my pocket. Then I realized it was a pop tart and I don't have a iPhone 6.

— jRon (@jaren_aaron) January 8, 2015

Apple has successfully patented a phone which can be bent without damaging the internal components. The patent was filed in 2011, with Apple Insider spotting that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has now awarded the patent to Cupertino.

Patent No. 8,929,085 covers "flexible electronic devices" which can be bent, folded, and deformed without negatively impacting the structure and its component parts. This would mean making every single part of the phone, from the screen to the battery, malleable to a certain degree.

The two main advantages of this technology would be a) less chance of damage being inflicted if the phone was dropped onto a hard surface, and b) the opportunity to use pressure sensitive buttons (squeezing the phone triggering certain functions).

There has been no shortage of wags pointing out that Apple has already released a bendy phone in the form of the iPhone 6 Plus. On a more serious note, an intentionally bendy iPhone is unlikely to be released anytime soon, but by winning the patent, Apple could certainly start working towards that goal.

Google TV Is Dead, Long Live Android TV

Another year, another stab at the TV from Google/Android.

— Chris Brandrick (@chrisbrandrick) January 6, 2015

Google TV is no more, with Google having dispensed with its previous foray into creating a smart television platform in favor of something new, exciting, and very, very different. No wait, it's just Android TV, which is an evolutionary step up from Google TV rather than anything revolutionary.

Google TV will no longer be updated, leaving existing owners with technology that will become increasingly outdated as time goes by. The Google TV developer tools will also no longer be available, leaving existing owners with nothing but the apps which already exist. Android TV will now power many of the smart TV sets due to be released in 2015.

FBI Maintains North Korea Hacked Sony

The FBI said IP addresses used by North Koreans, not IP addresses within North Korea.

— Rob Graham (@ErrataRob) January 7, 2015

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) maintains North Korea is responsible for the hack on Sony Pictures which eventually led to The Interview being released online rather than in movie theaters. The FBI named North Korea as the culprit soon after the incident occurred, but the veracity of these claims has been questioned ever since.

According to Wired, FBI director James Comey has revealed a little more about why the bureau is so confident North Korea is to blame. Speaking at a Fordham Law School cybersecurity conference, Comey said:

In nearly every case, [the Sony hackers known as the Guardians of Peace] used proxy servers to disguise where they were coming from in sending these emails and posting these statements. But several times they got sloppy. Several times, either because they forgot or because of a technical problem, they connected directly and we could see that the IPs they were using … were exclusively used by the North Koreans. They shut it off very quickly once they saw the mistake. But not before we saw where it was coming from.

This does appear to be solid evidence suggesting North Korea was at least involved in the operation, but it's a long way from being the smoking gun required to convince the general population.

David Cross Releasing Movie On BitTorrent

David Cross is the latest artist using BitTorrent to sell his work to the public. Cross, an actor and comedian best known for Mr. Show and Arrested Development, is distributing his new movie Hits via a BitTorrent Bundle.

Hits will be available on a pay-what-you-want basis, with Cross offering a similar deal through a Kickstarter campaign designed to raise enough funds to get the flick into theaters. This is therefore about offering people a choice, which is all most punters desire.

Cross cites Louis C.K. and Thom Yorke, the latter of whom made a sizable fortune from his own BitTorrent Bundle, as inspirations for this new way of doing things. Whether Hits is actually any good or not is open to debate.

Bill Gates Drinks Human Waste

With 2.5 billion people around the world not having access to safe sanitation, figuring out a way to quickly turn human waste into clean drinking water would be a huge step forward for society. And Bill Gates knows which boffins to trust when it comes to this stuff.

To demonstrate his trust in these engineers, this video shows Gates drinking water sourced straight from the Janicki OmniProcessor. This machine turns sewage sludge into clean drinking water, electricity, and ash, all of which are highly valuable commodities.

Basketball Referee Makes Wrong Call

And finally, while we all know people who are perpetually glued to their phone regardless of what they're doing or to whom they're speaking, this guy takes the biscuit.

This is a basketball referee who appears to take a phone call during a game. Play carries on around him, but his attention is clearly focused elsewhere.

This is highly unprofessional, and surely no phone call is so important it needs to be taken during a basketball game. Unless it was Apple offering him a new bendy iPhone, obviously. [H/T CNET]

Your Views On Today’s Tech News

Would you want to own a bendy smartphone? Do you believe North Korea hacked Sony? Would you ever drink water extracted from human waste in under five minutes?

Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.