Police return MacBook to man who kept tabs on thief's activities.

Joshua Kaufman, of Oakland, California, had his MacBook stolen from his apartment after a break in on March 21. When he realized the MacBook was gone, he took advantage of an anti-theft application called Hidden which let him see images from the webcam, as well as content on the screen.

He originally took the evidence to the police, but due to resource restrictions, they were unable to help him even though he had photos of somebody using his MacBook.

Kaufman then took his campaign online to a blog, where he posted several images he had gotten back from his MacBook. Oakland police got in contact with him soon after and got to the task of attempting to track down the individual in the photos, which didn't take long with the mountain of evidence Kaufman already had.

"Update: (May 31, 8:37 PM PST) ARRESTED! An Oakland police officer just called me to let me know that they arrested the guy in my photos! BOOYA! The police used my evidence (email which pointed to a cab service) that he was a driver and tricked him into picking them up. Nice work OPD!" he posted to his blog.

Muthanna Aldebashi is being held on a charge of suspicion of possessing stolen property. Kaufman got his MacBook back from police on Wednesday.

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DVD rental and video streaming heavyweight expects large price tag to retain TV Shows and Films.

A deal between Netflix and Liberty Media's Starz network is set to expire early next year. It was originally struck four years ago, costing Netflix $30 million. Starz has the online distribution rights to content from Walt Disney Co and Sony Corp's Sony Pictures.

Netflix now has more than 23 million customers in the United States. It's video streaming service has gained considerable popularity, largely due to its integration with many different platforms (game consoles etc.).

To renew a deal with Starz is certainly going to cost considerably more than $30 million. When asked if the deal could cost up to $200 million, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that would not be shocking.

"We are paying more for content every time we renew," Hastings said about striking new content agreements. "We view that as a positive." Netflix is aggressively pursuing content deals to keep customers happy, targeting popular content such as Glee.

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Google halts effort to access content in hundreds of GMail accounts.

Google Inc. revealed earlier this week that an attack on its GMail service originated from Jinan, Shandong province, China. Hackers attempted to break into hundreds of different GMail accounts, held by senior U.S. Government officials, Chinese activists and others.

Google said it detected and disrupted the attempts. "We recently uncovered a campaign to collect user passwords, likely through phishing," Google said on Thursday. "The goal of this effort seems to have been to monitor the contents of these users' emails."

South Korean officials also appeared to be targets of the campaign.

Google's announcement comes a year after it disclosed a cyberattack on its systems in China, an event that led to Google downsizing its presence in the market.

"Investors would like to see Google figure out a way to operate in China, and capitalize on the growth of the country," said Cowen and Co analyst Jim Friedland. "It's been a tough relationship. And this highlights that it continues to be a tough relationship."

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Chief Executive says door is open to licensing operating system to other companies.

When Hewlett-Packard Co acquired Palm, one of the biggest factors in that decision was the WebOS rights. The mobile operating system has been repeatedly praised for what it offers to the market, and its acquisition by HP gave the consumer electronics company a weapon in the mobile space.

Instead of just putting WebOS on HP products, the company is open to licensing its use to other companies too. "I happen to believe that WebOS is a uniquely outstanding operating system," said HP chief executive Leo Apotheker. "It's not correct to believe that it should only be on HP devices."

HP is preparing to launch its 9.7-inch TouchPad tablet, which is based on WebOS software. It hopes that WebOS will become the third most used operating system software in the space, behind Google's Android and Apple's iOS.

"Right now we are focused on getting it out in the market to gain the credibility," Apotheker said. "WebOS will also be adopted by many partners who provide services to small and medium businesses."

HP also plans to integrate WebOS into other products. It will, for example, load it to its printers that cost $100 or more.

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Groupon has filed for an IPO today, looking to raise $750 million in its first sale.

Trading under the ticker "GRPN," the gigantic daily deal site will likely go public within weeks.

The company has raised $1 billion from private investors after being founded in 2008 and has seen explosive growth since then.

CEO Andrew Mason did note, however, that the company has seen massive losses in the last two years and the losses will continue into the foreseeable future as they "continue to invest in growth."

In 2010, Groupon had revenue of $713 million and recorded a net loss of $456 million. For the first quarter of 2011, revenue exploded to $644.7 million, but losses remained, with a net loss of $147 million for the quarter.

Adds the CEO:

We anticipate that our operating expenses will increase substantially in the foreseeable future as we continue to invest to increase our subscriber base, increase the number and variety of deals we offer each day, expand our marketing channels, expand our operations, hire additional employees and develop our technology platform.

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The hacking group that took down PBS earlier this week has hacked Sony and posted the info online, adding another chapter to the long saga of security breaches that have plagued the company since April.

"LulzSec" posted that they broke into the servers of Sony Pictures Entertainment websites and stole personal info for 1 million customers.

The group then posted names, addresses, emails and passwords for some customers on the Internet, bashing Sony in the process.

Says the group:

From a single injection, we accessed EVERYTHING. Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks?

At 6 serious attacks and 102 million user's info stolen in 2 months, Sony has become a massive target for hacking groups and it has hurt the bottom line. The company said last month that the attacks would lead to a $170 million writedown in the current quarter.

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The Shanghai Daily has reported today that 17-year-old teenager Anhui Province Zheng sold his kidney to be able to purchase an Apple iPad 2.

Zheng sold his kidney for about $3000 USD, but says now that his health is worsening.

"I wanted to buy an iPad 2 but could not afford it. A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan," says the teen.

The hospital in which his surgery was performed did not meet safety qualifications for organ removal/transplants but claimed they knew nothing of the surgery after police probed them.

After selling the kidney, Zheng bought an iPad 2 and an iPhone but when pressed by his mother as to where he got them he explained the surgery.

The video is in Chinese but you can see his scar:

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