Fast Chat: Twitter Launches Political Index, But Does It Mean Anything?

Rapidshare, an online service that allowed users to share (often illegal) files with each other and the public, has reportedly fired some 75 percent of its workers after struggling to handle legal issues and a significant decline in popularity.

[Source: TorrentFreak]

YouTube has announced on its eighth birthday that over 100 hours — more than four days — of video are uploaded to its servers every minute. The company announced in March that it has more than 1 billion monthly active users, putting it in the same category as its Google (its parent company) and Facebook.

[Source: YouTube]

Yahoo’s board of directors has approved the acquisition of the Tumblr microblogging service for $1.1 billion, AllThingsD reports. The decision is said to have been unanimous, with no competing bids for Tumblr.

[Source: AllThingsD]

Yahoo Japan suspects that some 22 million user IDs have been leaked, Reuters reports. The associated accounts have not been otherwise compromised — passwords and information that might be used to reset them are said to be safe — and Yahoo Japan is said to have prevented someone from accessing its administrative system.

[Source: Reuters]

Autodesk has acquired Tinkercad, a startup that makes CAD files editable and ready for 3D printing for an undisclosed sum. Tinkercad’s technology and website will transfer to Autodesk, and the service’s free option has been “supercharged” to offer more functionality.

[Source: Tinkercad]

Valve engineers fired from the company in February have continued work on “CastAR,” a wearable augmented reality device that was cancelled at the same time, the Verge reports. The device is currently at an early stage; it will likely seek funding on Kickstarter in the future, according to the report.

[Source: The Verge]

The company’s board will meet on Sunday night to decide whether or not to approve a $1.1 billion offer for the blogging site, sources told AllThingsD. [Source: AllThingsD]

The press received invites to a product-related press event in New York on May 20. A source told Bloomberg that it is regarding updates to the photo sharing site. [Source: Bloomberg]

The streaming version of the red, DVD-dispensing kiosks will launch on Google TV in the next few weeks. Soon after, the company, which is a joint venture between Redbox and Verizon, will look to add support to Roku. [Source: GigaOm]

It may live in the shadow of Curiosity, but NASA’s older rover has driven further than any other object on the surface of another body in our solar system. It’s cruised 22.22 miles, but that’s still short of the 23 miles a Soviet Union rover drove on the moon in 1973. [Source: The Verge]

Bang With Friends (hidden slightly by the name BWF Official) has been removed from the App Store by Apple. So for the time being, iPhone users who want to hook up on the go are out of luck. [Source: CNET]

A new study looked at “the geography of Twitter” finds that, “There is a strong difference in the geographic profiles of Twitter and mainstream media and that the intensity of discourse mentioning a country does not necessarily match the intensity of discourse emanating from that country in social media.” [Source: Poynter]

It’s being reported that Sony is going to appoint Chief Executive Osamu Nagayama as the new chairman of the company. The appointment will be finalized at the next board meeting on June 20. [Source: Reuters]

Panasonic has decided to cut 90% of Sanyo’s 2,500 workforce over the next three years. In addition, it may decide to absorb the company it acquired in 2010 entirely. [Source: Reuters]

Rumors have been circulating about Yahoo’s possible buyout of Tumblr. Now CNBC has tweeted that Yahoo will hold a “product-related” event where CEO Marissa Mayer will speak. [Source: @CNBC]

At Google’s I/O 2013 today Google gave some statistics about Google Play’s revenue. One standout is that in-app purchases are rising significantly, going up 7 times as much as there were this time last year. [Source: TechCrunch]