Today in Tech News Digest, Twitter at war with Turkey, Google reading your Gmail, BlackBerry attacking leakers, Sony revealing Project Morpheus, Google comparing foodstuffs, MS-DOS giving up its secrets.

Twitter At War With Turkish Government

The best responses to Turkey’s Twitter ban: http://t.co/YeQqs4HxoM pic.twitter.com/JnrOJviaSh

— HootSuite (@hootsuite) March 26, 2014

Turkey recently banned Twitter, with the Turkish government deciding the social media site was a disruptive influence on the country's citizens. Twitter isn't giving up without a fight, however, and is taking decisive action to try and get the ban overturned.

In an official blog post, Twitter spells out what it's doing to try and restore access to Twitter in Turkey. Having "been engaged in discussion with Turkish authorities to hear their concerns," Twitter has now filed petitions for lawsuits challenging the ban.

In the meantime, Twitter has suspended related accounts that violated its own rules, and blocked access to another account within Turkey. Twitter also sought to emphasize that it hadn't given "the Turkish government any user data like email or IP addresses."

Twitter sees itself as a paragon of free speech, and in both Egypt and Tunisia during the "Arab Spring" it was used as a vital communications tool. To retain that title it needs to fight for access to be restored in Turkey. Which is clearly proving rather difficult.

Google Admits It Can Access Your Gmail

fwiw, over the years friendly former googlers have advised me to avoid gmail for reporting about google http://t.co/ha15hBRM2W

— Eric Rosser Eldon (@eldon) March 26, 2014

Google has openly admitted it can access your Gmail inbox, but assures users it hasn't yet done so and probably never will do. The admission came in a statement from Kent Walker, Google general counsel, who was directly responding to an accusation made by Michael Arrington, the former editor of TechCrunch.

Arrington accused Google of spying on his emails after the controversy surrounding the revelation that Microsoft searched through a blogger's Outlook to catch a former employee alleged to have leaked screenshots of Windows 8.

The interesting part of Walker's statement reads, “While our terms of service might legally permit such access, we have never done this and it’s hard for me to imagine circumstances where we would investigate a leak in that way.” So Google can but won't. Apparently.

Sad day. Officially got rid of my Blackberry. Took it behind the shed and Old Yeller'd it. Poor guy never felt a thing. Probably works now.

— Dan O'Toole (@fs1otoole) March 27, 2014

BlackBerry may have a dwindling number of fans despite hardware such as the BlackBerry Z10 being really rather good, but the company is refusing to go easy on those who remain loyal. That is if you accept that leaking information about forthcoming products suggests loyalty. TechCrunch certainly thinks so.

BlackBerry CEO John Chen has promised to pursue legal action against the “party who stole confidential information about a future BlackBerry product and made that information public.” Which is likely referring to the leak of BlackBerry OS 10.3. You'd think the company would be grateful that someone anyone is interested.

How Sony Revealed Project Morpheus VR

http://youtu.be/pWMp_o03qH4

With Facebook acquiring Oculus VR, virtual reality systems are suddenly mainstream news. But the Oculus Rift isn't the only option, as there is also Project Morpheus, Sony's VR hardware that will be coming to the PlayStation 4 in the next few years.

Project Morpheus was revealed at GDC, and Sony has now released the full video of the unveiling, as embedded above. Those interested in the potential for VR should watch the video and then take part in the current We Ask You discussion asking, "Is virtual reality is going to change the world?" A geeky T-shirt is up for grabs!

Compare Foodstuffs With Google

google-food-comparison

People who are interested in the nutritional information of the food they're about to eat can now use Google to compare different foodstuffs. While it won't work for every component of a meal, or on international versions of the search engine, this clever innovation could be a significant time saver for those on a diet.

MS-DOS Source Code Secrets

In case you missed them, I've collected all the #Microsoft #Word #MSDOS #source code gems I found: http://t.co/OWhWqoMwg3

— Leon Zandman (@leonzandman) March 26, 2014

And finally, Microsoft recently freed the source code for early versions of MS-DOS and Word for Windows. And it didn't take long for that source code to be picked apart to reveal the secrets hidden within.

A Windows programmer by the name of Leon Zandman collected all the hidden gems he could find in the source code of both programs into a Storify document (as discovered by Vyralize). A God complex and plenty of curse words are revealed.

Tech News Digest… Breaking News Into Bite-Sized Chunks.

Image Credit: Jennie via Flickr