Google seems to be expanding their push to roll out Google Fiber. Just days after announcing that Austin, Texas would be Google's second Fiber city, ArsTechnica is reporting that Google is working to acquire iProvo, a fiber-based ISP owned by the city of Provo, Utah.

In order to bring Fiber to Provo, we've signed an agreement to purchase iProvo, an existing fiber-optic network owned by the city. As a part of the acquisition, we would commit to upgrade the network to gigabit technology and finish network construction so that every home along the existing iProvo network would have the opportunity to connect to Google Fiber. Our agreement with Provo isn't approved yet-it's pending a vote by the City Council scheduled for next Tuesday, April 23. We intend to begin the network upgrades as soon as the closing conditions are satisfied and the deal is closed.

Provo has a lot to gain from this. Not only would the city no longer have to finance the build-out of the network, Google is offering the same free 5Mbps/1Mbps connection as they have in Kansas and Austin. Google is also offering up free Gigabit connections to 25 different local public institutions, including schools, hospitals, and libraries.

The Name Your Own Price Mac Bundle 2.0 is much like the Humble Bundle. People can choose what ever price they would like for the pack of apps, 10 percent of which goes to charity. Every buyer, no matter the price, gets three apps, while you have to beat the average price to get all ten.

For the cheap--err, thrifty--among us, you'll get:

• Elmedia Player Pro - $20 - Flash Video Utility
• HoudahSpot - $29 - Spotlight Addon
• PhotoBulk - $10 - Watermark and Photo Utility

If you beat the average--note, it's better to do it now as the average will continually rise as more people beat it to get all ten apps--you'll get these additional apps:

• DiskTools Pro - $80 - Hard Drive Utility
• CrossOver 12 - $60 - Run Windows Software
• Snapz Pro X - $69 - Screenshot and Video Utility
• Paperless - $50 - Document Manager
• Mac Blu-ray Player - $60 - Blu-Ray Player Software
• Gemini - $10 - Duplicate File Locator
• Musictube - $11 - YouTube Music Player

All told, the entire pack is worth $399. The sale ends in just over 7 days, so you should buy soon. The current average price is $8.07, though many people have exceeded that price.

Microsoft is pushing out a major upgrade to Microsoft account security by offering the option of two-step verification. As of late, many different online services have started to offer two-step or two-factor authentication to help keep online accounts more secure.

Two-step verification usually takes a bit longer to allow access to an account, but it makes it much more difficult for a hacker to brute-force your password. To login after two-step verification is enabled, you'll be required to enter your password and a code that was sent to either an e-mail or cell phone on file.

You'll be able to enable two-step verification at Microsoft's website, though the option might not be immediately available. For more information about Microsoft's two-step implementation, check out their blog post.

CEO of Aereo, Chet Kanojia, has responded to the threats issued by CBS and FOX over Aereo not being shut down. CBS and FOX have threatened to move to a subscription platform, such as cable, if they are not successful in their lawsuit to stop the antenna-renting Aereo.

"They're independent businesses, they can choose to do what they wish to," Kanojia said. "Can you disenfranchise over 54 million people over what they can rightfully do today?"

Broadcast TV networks have become major players in the TV game mostly due to their wide--and free--availability. Their wide audiences have also brought in massive amounts in advertising dollars, something they'll be hard-pressed to want to give up. Kanojia believes that this will ultimately result in CBS and FOX staying free broadcast networks.

Twitter has expanded its advertising options available to advertisers. According to Twitter, the company has added the ability for advertisers to target users based upon keywords used in a user's recent tweets. Twitter says that this is "an important new capability -- especially for those advertisers looking for signals of intent -- because it lets marketers reach users at the right moment, in the right context."

This new feature is similar to Google's advertising offers in that they can reach users that are using certain words. Google offers the ability for advertisers to have ads shown when keywords are used in a search query.

An interesting application of this new option would be a local concert venue geotargeting tweeters who post about an upcoming band. Twitter notes that users shouldn't see much of a difference on their side. The only change will be the promoted tweets will be more targeted.

Google has announced plans to implement malware warnings for downloads in Google Chrome. Google is calling these newly expanded warnings "Safe Browsing malicious download warnings." Software that falls into a specific set of criteria, as defined by Chrome, will be flagged as possibly malicious.

To further safeguard you while browsing the web, we recently added new measures to protect you and your computer. These measures will identify software that violates Chrome's standard mechanisms for deploying extensions, flagging such binaries as malware. Within a week, you will start seeing Safe Browsing malicious download warnings when attempting to download malware identified by this criteria.

These specific forms of malware operate by "misusing Chrome's central management settings" or by manipulating Chrome preferences to re-enable silent installs. Of course, you should never download something from a source you don't trust, especially a binary package. A good anti-virus and malware protection plan will only get you so far.

Apple's stock continues to fall as more and more reports of decreased demand roll in. Today, Apple's stock dropped by almost 6 percent, slipping to under $400 for the first time since December 2011. Apple stock has since rallied slightly and is back at $401.70 at the time of writing.

A major contributor to today's decrease in value is a report by DigiTimes stating that iPad mini shipments could be down by as much as 30 percent quarter-over-quarter. Another contributor is Cirrus Logic, supplier of the audio chips in Apple products, failed to meet expectations, leading many investors to believe Apple's demand is also down.

We'll know just how bad Apple performed when they release their financial results next week.

It's no doubt that Google Glass is the hottest tech topic of 2013 - it has overshadowed smartphone launches, and made headlines internet wide whenever an appearance in the public is made. This morning Redmond Pie stumbled across what appears to be the first unboxing of Google's coolest project to date.

YouTuber Dan McLauglin managed to get his hands on a Google Glass set and like any good techie, he has posted a full unboxing video for all of us to drool over. The video while low quality even at 720p, lends some insight into what we can expect when the device goes retail later this year.

Below is a video that shows Glass being used in the real world at an indoor go kart track. While the entire project is quite impressive, the video stabilization capabilities of Google Glass really impressed me the most. This has been something I have been worried about since the project's first announcement.

Someone is having just a bit too much fun with the new HTC One. HKEPC decided to overclock the HTC One to 1.72GHz, using liquid nitrogen to keep the CPU cool. Once overclocked, HKEPC ran some benchmarks on the device to see how much extra performance they could squeeze out of the newest HTC smartphone:

So just what were they able to achieve with the super-cooled and overclocked device? 11585 in the 3DMark Ice Storm benchmark. Impressive:

For comparison, a normal HTC One receives about 10,000 marks on the same benchmark, so we see about a 10 percent improvement in score. However, it's not very practical to be walking down the street with an LN2-cooled phone. You wouldn't be able to touch the device because of its temperature.

Yesterday we saw AT&T begin taking pre-orders on Samsung's long anticipated Galaxy S4, and tomorrow Sprint will follow suit ahead of its April 27th release. T-Mobile also confirmed that it will begin taking pre-orders for the S4 on April 24th.

T-Mobile customers will be able to purchase the Galaxy S4 for an upfront cost of $149 with 24 monthly payments of $20 when tied to the company's new Simple Choice Plan, which starts at $50 a month. AT&T is offering the device for $199 with a new two year contract.

Sprint customers can pick up the device for $249.99 with a new two year contract, but will receive a $100 credit which brings the price more in-line with T-Mobile's price range. I am still stuck deciding between Samsung's Galaxy S4 and HTC's aluminum unibody One.

Recent research at the University of Illinois has led to a breakthrough in lithium-ion battery technology. Researchers have developed a lithium-ion micro-battery that leaves all of its competition in the dust in both size and recharge rate.

A team headed up by professor William P. King has devised a new fast-charging cathode using 3D micro-structure, which resulted in an anode of similar design. When paired up, the result is a unit that is being touted as the most powerful battery in the world.

The new Li-ion micro-battery bucks current trends and avoids the usual tradeoff between longevity and power and has a footprint of just a couple of millimeters. This will ultimately lead to batteries for mobile devices that are 30 percent smaller, could broadcast radio signals 30 percent farther and could recharge in minutes compared to hours.

During Intel's first quarter earnings call, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said that Windows 8 touch devices including laptops will see a massive price drop in the coming months when the company releases its new quad-core Bay Trail chip. He said that new innovative designs will allow future touch devices to sink into the $200 price range.

"If you look at touch-enabled Intel-based notebooks that are ultra-thin using [Bay Trail] processors. Those prices are going to be down to as low as $200... Bay Trail is going to be a great product in that segment of the market and enable stunning performance relative to what the competition can bring."

Being billed as the most powerful Atom processor ever, Bay Trail is a complete redesign of the Atom micro architecture and is said to bring Atom chips closer to the performance levels of mainstream Intel processors.

After several websites released rumors that HP's Slate 7 UK launch would be delayed until June, the company has just released an official UK launch date of May 1st. This date is in line with HP's original scheduled launch date which puts all rumors of delays to rest.

The Slate 7 features a 1024x600 display, 1GB of RAM, and is powered by a dual-core Arm Cortex A9 processor. Running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the Slate 7 will retail for 129 pounds, but after VAT, the cost will be much closer to 200 pounds.

There is still no word on when the US will see a Slate 7 launch, but with other more powerful 7-inch Android tablets at a better price point already being available, does it really matter?

Gottfrid Svartholm, one of the co-founders of everyone's favorite torrent website The Pirate Bay, has been indicted on charges of hacking along with three others. Svartholm is said to be the mastermind behind a series of cyber intrusions into Nordea Bank and the Swedish federal tax agency.

In a statement, prosecutor Henrik Olin had the following to say:

"A large amount of data from companies and agencies was taken during the hack, including a large amount of personal data, such as personal identity numbers of people with protected identities."

These charges come completely independent of a recent sentence of one year in prison that was passed down to Svartholm after a series of shady happenings where Cambodian authorities managed to deport him back to Sweden. These new charges carry a much longer sentence than just one year.

Next week Australia will see Huawei release a phone only rivaled in size by Samsung's Galaxy Note series of so-called phablets. The Ascend Mate is a 6.1-inch Android based smartphone that can only be described as a hand full of phone.

Featuring a 6.1-inch 720p IPS+ display, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage, the phone will be powered by Huawei's own quad-core 1.5GHz processor. A monstrous 4050mAh battery and an 8 megapixel camera round out the phone/tablet mutation. Huawei has skinned Android Jelly Bean 4.1 with a custom launcher dubbed "Emotion UI", which appears to make use of so called "Me Widget."

The standard Android app folder is ditched in favor of placing all your apps on the home screen similar to how Apple handles multiple apps. Australian consumers will be able to purchase the device next Monday for $429 AUD through Harvey Norman, which also includes a Boost starter pack, that runs on Telstra's phone network.

Western Digital has today made backups of your precious data even easier by unveiling their WD SmartWare Pro app. The backup app automatically backs up file changes to a local drive when it happens, and it can schedule backups to the drive and a Dropbox account.

You can be even more cautious, and backup the Dropbox account to the external HDD. The nifty backup app isn't limited to WD-branded drives, so any external storage will do. You'll spend $30 on a three-computer SmartWare Pro license, which isn't too bad for your data backup needs.

According to a couple of venture capitalists, Apple's reputation is beginning to change and their employees aren't willing to stick around. One investor said: "More generally there is a growing level of dissatisfaction among Apple executives and employees, and a greater willingness to explore leaving".

Another VC told Business Insider that his firm has seen a big uptick in resumes coming in from current Apple employees. Business Insider's source spoke with some of these job-seekers, where they said that the startups are paying more, and that "Apple culture has started to change with the new leadership on top".

A month ago, top Apple reporter and analyst John Gruber of Daring Fireball said that retention has become "the single biggest problem that Apple faces, and almost nobody is talking about it". He added:

I think if there's going to be a problem coming up with big new things I think it's more likely a draining of really bright engineering and design talent at the rank and file level.

Microsoft holds patents that are hurting other companies making products based on Android and Chrome, but now Foxconn's parent company, Hon Hai, has licensed Microsoft's patents for Google's operating systems.

Hon Hai makes many Apple products, and between their many subsidiaries, they are responsible for the manufacturing of 40% of consumer electronic devices in the world. The deal they struck with Microsoft will see them enjoy the licenses of patents for phones, tablets and TVs and will see Microsoft receive royalty payments.

We haven't even had our hands grace the next-gen CPU that is Haswell yet, but Intel are already talking about their chipset destined for 2014 - Intel's 9-series chipsets.

These chipsets will support Serial ATA Express, which is based on the PCI Express protocol and will pave the way for some seriously high-bandwidth storage devices. Intel's 9-series chipsets will include core-logic sets such as Z97 and H97, and will support SATA Express by default. There will also be an all-new Intel device protection technology with boot guard built into the chipset, enhancing the security against low-level malware attacks on the upcoming next-gen platform.

What can we expect from SATA Express on Intel's 9-series motherboards? Well, we should see a cost-effective means to deliver interface speeds between 8Gb/s and 16Gb/s compared to the 6Gb/s maximum that the SATA III specification allows now. The specification will define new device and motherboard connects that will support both the current SATA devices, and the new SATA Express devices.

We know the PC industry is in a state of pain, but it looks like the largest chipmaker is hurting, too. Intel have just posted their latest earnings report, revealing that their quarterly profits for Q1 2013 are down 25% year-over-year.

For Q1 2013, Intel made $2.045 billion in profits, down from $2.738 billion last year. Intel CEO, Paul Otellini, said in a statement:

Amidst market softness, Intel performed well in the first quarter and I'm excited about what lies ahead for the company. We shipped our next-generation PC microprocessors, introduced a new family of products for micro-servers, and will ship our new tablet and smartphone microprocessors this quarter.