Also, the end of Double Irish, how to remove those annoying Facebook Stickers, the end of Bono's megalomania, and how to write a song using autocomplete.

Millenials Don't Watch TV On TVs

http://youtu.be/BUBeU7WJ8xI

Millennials, that is Generation Y, or people born between 1982 and 2002, are changing the way they watch television. Gone are the days when families sat around the square box lurking in the corner of their front room; younger people now watch TV on a range of different devices without paying for cable.

We know this thanks to the latest figures from comScore, which detail the changes to the traditional TV viewing landscape. We discover that 24 percent of millennials don't pay for a cable TV subscription; 13 percent have cut the cord, while 11 percent have never paid for television, period.

Meanwhile, people aged 18-34 now spend one-third of their TV-viewing time watching on devices other than a television set, be it a PC, a tablet, or a smartphone. This is a much higher percentage than the 35-54 and 55+ age groups.

This is mixed news for the cable companies and TV networks. Yes, people are increasingly cutting the cord thanks to the burgeoning number of other ways of watching TV that now exist. But they're still consuming the shows they always have done, just in new ways. Therefore, the companies which start catering for those people will be the ones who succeed as we head into the future.

Dropbox Insists It Was Not Hacked

When will someone hack my dropbox account to download and leak my nude pictures? Always a bridesmaid...

— Michele McTierney (@MicheleMMusic) September 1, 2014

Dropbox insists that, contrary to multiple reports, it has not been hacked. This denial was issued after a list of usernames and passwords was posted to Pastebin with the claim that millions more would follow.

Some of the username and password combinations appear to be working, but Dropbox maintains that these were stolen from other, unconnected services, and that its systems remain secure. Whether you believe Dropbox or not, it cannot hurt to change your password just to be on the safe side.

Ireland Stops The Tech Tax Loophole

http://youtu.be/gzu5DCn_8pU

The Republic of Ireland has announced plans to end the tax loophole commonly referred to as the Double Irish. This tax loophole means companies headquartered in Ireland can funnel revenue through a country with more favorable tax rates. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, and many other tech companies have used this to their advantage in recent years. But no more.

Michael Noonan, Ireland's finance minister, recently told the Irish Parliament, "Aggressive tax planning by the multinational companies has been criticized by governments across the globe and has damaged the reputation of many countries. I am abolishing the ability of companies to use the ‘double Irish’ by changing our residency rules to require all companies registered in Ireland to also be tax resident[s]."

The loophole will continue to exist until 2020, giving these companies plenty of time to abandon Ireland in favor of another soft option.

How To Remove All Facebook Stickers

Facebook is currently rolling out the option to reply using stickers across the whole of Facebook. Which is more than a little annoying for those of us who prefer words. Thankfully, some bright spark has already developed a way of removing those stickers from your Facebook experience.

Unsticker Me [No Longer Available] is a browser extension that, as its name suggests, unstickers you. This essential extension by Rodney Folz is available on Chrome and on Firefox [No Longer Available], while the source code is available through GitHub for anyone to tinker with.

Bono Apologizes To All iTunes Users

Next he’ll be apologizing about long bathroom lines at concerts, and how much it costs to park. NOT YOUR PROBLEM, BONO.

— Susie Ochs (@sfsooz) October 15, 2014

Bono has apologized for forcing the new U2 album onto everyone by automatically adding it to their iTunes. Driven by the mistaken belief that U2 are still popular, Apple gifted Echoes to all iTunes users, whether they wanted it or not. Millions of people downloaded it, while the rest were offered a special tool for removing the album from iTunes.

During a video interview hosted on Facebook, a disgruntled U2 fan asked, "Can you please never release an album on iTunes that automatically downloads to people's playlists ever again? It's really rude." To which Bono replied, "Oops ... I'm sorry about that. I had this beautiful idea. Might have gotten carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that thing. A drop of megalomania, a touch of generosity, a dash of self-promotion, and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years might not be heard. There's a lot of noise out there. I guess, we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it." Bono? A megalomaniac? Never.

Jonathan Mann's Autocomplete Song

http://youtu.be/M8MJFrdfGe0

And finally, it's now entirely possible to write song lyrics using the autocomplete function on your iPhone and still end up with a masterpiece. We know this because that's exactly what Jonathan Mann, who releases a new song every day, has done.

Sure, some of the lyrics are nonsensical, but the song itself is fantastically listenable. Surely no one pays much attention to the lyrics these days anyway, so perhaps this is a method that a rock band which has run out of ideas could use. Someone like, I don't know, U2, perhaps.

Your Views On Today’s Tech News

Is traditional TV doomed? Which tax haven will tech companies choose next? Are you loving or hating seeing stickers used all over Facebook?

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: Schmilblick via Flickr