Also, looking forward to the Internet Slowdown, Windows XP edges 1% closer to death, play Star Citizen for free, the new Raspberry Pi Web browser, and the wearables we narrowly avoided.

Was iCloud Responsible For The Fappening?

http://youtu.be/ygmHWRvjB-w

Hundreds of photos of celebrities in varying states of undress have been leaked online in an event being euphemistically referred to as The Fappening [NSFW]. The majority of the images were leaked on 4chan on Sunday night, with a strong suggestion there are more still to be revealed. People affected by this include Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

The nature of the leak and how these previously private photos came to be exposed to the world isn't yet clear, but Apple's iCloud service is currently the prime suspect. Apple is currently investigating, with a spokesperson telling the Wall Street Journal, "We take user privacy very seriously and are actively investigating this report."

Even if iCloud is responsible, there are a number of different explanations for this leak. Apple's servers could have been hacked directly, individual iCloud accounts could have been hacked, or, as seems most likely, a collector already in possession of this haul of celebrity nudes was hacked via another method.

We may never know the truth, but with Apple set to unveil the iPhone 6 on Sept. 9, the company needs to act quickly to refute any untrue claims and/or plug any holes present in iCloud. In the meantime be very careful about what you store in the cloud, whether or not you're using Apple's servers.

http://youtu.be/3GaqfNOTUSQ

You can now donate money to your favorite YouTube stars via digital tip jars embedded on their channels. YouTube has been testing this feature since June, and it has now been spotted in the wild by Android Police. Fan funding is initially only available in the U.S., Australia, Japan, and Mexico, but is expected to be rolled out further in the coming months. Cha-ching!

Sept. 10 Is The Internet Slowdown

http://youtu.be/_cZC67wXUTs

September 10 has been named the Internet Slowdown by net neutrality campaigners. The effort is designed to show mainstream users what they should expect if we give up on the idea of net neutrality. No Internet traffic will actually be slowed down, but participating sites will "cover the web with 'loading' icons" to get the message across.

Evan Greer, the campaign manager for Fight for the Future, told The Daily Dot, “The loading symbol is something that we all can understand. It’s something we all get, and we know that we don’t like. It’s something that we’d see a heck of a lot more of if we lose net neutrality.”

Windows XP Is Taking An Age To Die

http://youtu.be/1iln4CUDS2s

Windows XP IS losing its userbase, but it's proving to be an extremely slow process. According to Net Applications (via TechCrunch), the global market share for Windows XP has dropped from 24.82 percent in July to 23.89 percent in August. Microsoft ended support for Windows XP in April, but these figures suggest there are a lot of people refusing to even contemplate upgrading to a newer operating system. Yes, even Linux.

Play The Star Citizen Alpha For Free

http://youtu.be/Ok_JC-ClscY

You should be able to play an early trial version of Star Citizen for the next few days. That's assuming the code [dragonflight2k14] originally intended for attendees of DragonCon 2014 still works, and that your PC meets the rather hefty minimum specs required. Thanks, Reddit. And do let us know in the comments section below if this worked for you.

The Raspberry Pi Gets New Web Browser

https://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/7251228/type/dlg/sid/UUmuoUeUpU54900/http://vimeo.com/104919646

The Raspberry Pi has a new default Web browser. Epiphany for Raspberry Pi, as produced by Collabora, adds improved HTML5 support, a JavaScript JIT, faster scrolling, and hardware-accelerated video decoding. Epiphany for Raspberry Pi should work on "all but the most JavaScript-heavy sites." A bit like Google Chrome, then.

The Wearables We Could Have Had

http://youtu.be/qbK-Bo3k9KQ

And finally, while some of the wearables currently coming onto the market leave a lot to be desired, they're all more palatable than the wearables being designed in 1992. As you can see in this video of footage from Beyond 2000, designers of the time got it very, very wrong. Thankfully.

I guess we should all remember this video when the Apple iWatch fails to live up to expectations.

Your Views On Today’s Tech News

What do you think is the most likely explanation for the celebrity nudes leak? Will you be donating money to your favorite YouTube stars? How long do you think it will take before Windows XP truly disappears?

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.

Image Credit: Bronx. via Flickr