 Good morning, I'm Kristen Filetti and welcome to News Desk on SiliconANGLE TV for Friday, March 15, 2013. Here's your SiliconANGLE Daily Roundup. Controversy continues to swirl around Google's decision to retire Google Reader. Today, there's less rage, and many Google Reader fans are simply asking why. It's a valid question, especially after seeing Google Reader traffic data released by the BuzzFeed network. Using information from a set of tracked partner sites that collectively have over 300 million users, they discovered that Google Reader is still generating a tremendous amount of referrals. Even more interesting is that Google Plus generates a tiny fraction of the traffic that Google Reader did. Recent changes to Google Reader make tracking referrals harder than it's been in the past, so the disparity between the two Google products is likely understated. Why shut down a product that's currently more effective than Google's main focus, Google Plus? Would it not be more advantageous to roll Google Reader into Google Plus? That's what the Google Reader die-hards want to know. Other than the initial blog post about the impending demise of Reader, Google has made no comment. Looking to capitalize on the anger felt by Google Reader loyalists, Dig announced plans to build an RSS Reader of their own. A spokesperson from Dig attempted to reassure Google Readers saying, we hope to identify and rebuild the best of Google Reader's features, including its API, but also advance them to fit the Internet of 2013 where networks and communities like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, and Hacker News offer powerful but often overwhelming signals as to what's interesting. Dig claims that it already had plans to build a Reader later this year, but the announcement by Google made the Dig Reader a priority. The company wants Google Reader enthusiasts to help shape the new product they've invited users to visit dig.com. Once again, federal prosecutors are attempting to make it clear that being a hacker doesn't pay. Fresh on the heels of the indictment and eventual suicide of Reddit co-founder and hacker Aaron Swartz, a new high-profile indictment has been announced. Matthew Keyes, the social media editor for Reuters, will be prosecuted for conspiring to hack a Tribune company website with the infamous hacker group Anonymous. The indictment alleges that in December of 2010, Keyes provided members of Anonymous with login credentials for a computer server belonging to the Tribune company and encouraged the hacker group to disrupt the website. Keyes' employment status with Reuters is unclear, but according to a Reuters employee, if it's determined that he worked with Anonymous while employed with the news agency, he would have been in violation of the company's trust principles, which is grounds for immediate termination. There's no word yet on the possible sentencing if he's found guilty of the alleged charges. Get ready for the hashtag wars. Known primarily as a way to link content on Twitter, Facebook is now working on its own version of hashtagging. The social media company is experimenting with using hashtags to group conversations. How it will be implemented, if at all, is still unknown. It's possible that the feature could be part of graph search, allowing users to search with hashtags to see all posts about similar topics. Hashtagging was originally a Twitter user invention used to link tweets with other similar object tweets. It caught on and was eventually embraced by the company. They now encourage big brands like Coca-Cola and General Electric to invent hashtags as a branding opportunity. Many advertisements that ran during the Super Bowl and during the Academy Awards featured hashtags. If Facebook rolls out its own hashtag solution, it's unclear how it would affect the usage of hashtags as marketing tools by businesses. Some analysts suspect that Facebook is interested in the advertising budgets already in place for such hashtag marketing campaigns. And it's thought that if they roll it out successfully, they'd be very likely to siphon some of those funds away from Twitter. Facebook wants users to enjoy all the new features they add to the Facebook app for Android, so much so that they released an update that will ensure it. The social media company is pushing an update directly to users rather than going through the Google Play Store. Users who install the update must agree to the app permissions, which include a brand new one. The app wants permission to download files without notification. This lets Facebook send you the updated app as soon as it becomes available. Once downloaded, it will hound you with reminders to install it until you do so or until you completely uninstall the app. The Google Play Store lets users know when updates to apps are available, but not as urgently or persistently as Facebook's new direct method. It might be seen as overbearing to some users, but it almost guarantees that every Android user will have the most current version of the Facebook app at all times. Nvidia could have powered the PS4, but Sony wasn't willing to show them the money. Tony Tussami, senior VP of content and technology at Nvidia said that there was some negotiation between the graphics chip provider and the console maker, but at the end of the day it didn't make sense to do business with them at the price they were willing to pay. The graphics chip created for a console is a graphics chip that won't be created for another piece of the company's business, and Nvidia learned about the opportunity cost of providing chips to consoles. It powered the original Xbox as well as the PS3. Sony partnered with AMD to provide graphics chips for the PS4, and it's rumored that the next generation Xbox will be using AMD as well. Redbox Instant by Verizon officially launched to the public yesterday. It's a hybrid approach to movie rentals with a few important distinctions that may help it compete against competitors like Netflix and Amazon Video. The service costs $8 a month, and for that users receive access to 4,600 movie titles that can be streamed over the internet, plus four monthly Redbox DVD rentals. Users can supplement their streaming video selection with an additional 4,000 titles that can be purchased or rented. Netflix users often complain about not being able to find newly released movies on the surface, and many users express their willingness to pay extra to watch new releases. Redbox Instant does exactly that, where the standard titles are available for the monthly subscription price, and users can opt to pay more for premium titles. When asked if Redbox Instant would follow the trend of creating original content and exclusive content, CEO Sean Strickland said that such talk was premature. There's been no announcement yet by any game console about plans to include a Redbox Instant by Verizon app, but analysts suspect that such partnerships are in the works. Microsoft has sold nearly 1.5 million surface devices, and people with knowledge of the company say surface tablet sales have fallen short of initial predictions. Since their debut, Microsoft has sold little more than a million of the surface RT version and about 400,000 surface pros. Brent Phil, an analyst at USB AG, had initially projected that Microsoft would sell 2 million surface RT devices in the December quarter alone. The surface's poor reception adds to challenges facing Microsoft's Windows unit, which brings in a quarter of the company's revenue. The devices are Microsoft's first direct attempt to grab a slice of the surging tablet market, seeking to take on companies including Google and Apple. Surface's slow uptake may be due in part to a lack of applications. Microsoft declined to say how many are available for surface RT, though its app's marketplace has launched some, has excluded some high profile offerings, including the Facebook app. Learning a new language is largely determined by how well you can say the right things at the right time. Google Translate has announced a new feature, which it claims will make communicating translational phrases to memory easier. Phrasebook for Google Translate jump starts the slow language learning process by allowing users to save their most useful phrases for easy reference later on. Google says that by revisiting the useful phrases in your phrasebook from time to time, you can turn any brief translation into lasting knowledge. Phrasebook is available for use now, and Google has given users the option to provide feedback about the new feature through the Send Feedback option at the bottom of the Google Translate homepage. And that's your SiliconANGLE news roundup for Friday, March 15th, 2013 for in-depth breaking analysis and all the latest information on tech innovation. Join us daily here at Newsdesk on SiliconANGLE TV. Have a great St. Paddy's Day weekend.