Today in Tech News Digest, the Internet needs a bill of rights, Xbox Live suffers a Titanfall outage, the ASUS Chromebox sells well on Amazon, Neil Young's PonoPlayer is a Kickstarter hit, Apple releases iOS 7.1, and Barack Obama appears on Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis.

Berners-Lee Wants Web Bill Of Rights

"My dream is that one day we'll be unable to skip a car advert before we can watch a video of kittens wrestling." - Tim Berners-Lee, 1991.

— Michael Spicer (@MrMichaelSpicer) March 12, 2014

Tim Berners-Lee, the man who essentially invented the World Wide Web, has called for a bill of rights to protect the open and free tenets of the Internet. Berners-Lee is using the 25th anniversary of his proposal to create the Web in order to push this agenda.

The idea for an online bill of rights forms part of a wider initiative called the Web We Want. People from around the world are invited to help draft an "Internet Users Bill Of Rights," which can then be formally proposed to governments in order to safeguard the future of the Web.

Berners-Lee told The Guardian, "We need a global constitution – a bill of rights." He then explained, "Unless we have an open, neutral internet we can rely on without worrying about what's happening at the back door, we can't have open government, good democracy, good healthcare, connected communities and diversity of culture. It's not naive to think we can have that, but it is naive to think we can just sit back and get it."

For this to work as Berners-Lee hopes, apathy towards things such as copyright laws, digital rights management, government surveillance, and the loss of privacy needs to end. It's a tough ask, but when Berners-Lee speaks, we should probably listen.

Xbox Live Outage Hits Titanfall Launch

So is it safe to say that Xbox Live didn't get ready for Titanfall?

— Tim Stevens (@Tim_Stevens) March 12, 2014

In a show of truly poor timing, Xbox Live was down for some users for several hours on the same day that Titanfall was released on Xbox One in North America. Titanfall being a huge release for Xbox and a game that can only be played online.

Microsoft is making it clear the issue isn't related to Titanfall, suggesting it's nothing more than a coincidence. Apparently. Users still not able to sign-in to Xbox Live are advised to "power cycle" their Xbox Ones. Which literally means turning it off and on again.

ASUS Chromebox Bestseller On Amazon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdfpJgvL9Aw

The ASUS Chromebox is now available to pre-order through various online retailers. According to OMG! Chrome! after just a few days on sale at Amazon it has become the number one bestseller in desktop computers.

This isn't the first Chromebox -- the desktop version of the Chromebook -- to have gone on sale, but the combination of a low asking price ($179.99) and the increasing popularity of Chrome OS means this model is gaining a lot of attention.

PonoPlayer Hits Target In Under 24 Hours

Here's the PonoPlayer. It looks like C3-PO's dick. pic.twitter.com/F0jCr7okKz

— Eamonn Forde (@Eamonn_Forde) March 12, 2014

Neil Young's PonoPlayer, which we previously mocked on these very pages, has already hit its funding target on Kickstarter. At the time of writing over 3,000 people have pledged more than $1 million to ensure this audiophile's iPod-alike becomes a reality.

"A fool and his money are easily parted." -- Thomas Tusser, 1573.

Apple Releases iOS 7.1 Update

http://youtu.be/pT6gduvgR-w

Apple has released iOS 7.1, an update which both fixes various issues and adds some new features. The update is available for the iPhone 4 and onwards, the iPad 2 and onwards, the iPad mini, and the iPod Touch 5th Generation and onwards.

Between Two Ferns With Barack Obama

And finally, Barack Obama has appeared on Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis. The clip, which sees Obama promoting the controversial Affordable Care Act, is already a huge online hit thanks to being shared on social media.

The impact of this video, made by Funny Or Die, is such that thousands of viewers followed the trail and ended up on HealthCare.gov. Making it the number one source of referrals at the moment. Job done, Mr. President.

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

Image Credit: Kristina Alexanderson via Flickr