“Threshold” to be Called Windows 9, Ship in April 2015  —  Microsoft tries to put Windows 8 in the rear-view mirror  —  At the BUILD developer conference in April 2014, Microsoft will discuss its vision for the future of Windows, including a year-off release codenamed “Threshold” that will most likely be called Windows 9.

Hackers Steal Card Data from Neiman Marcus  —  Responding to inquiries about a possible data breach involving customer credit and debit card information, upscale retailer Neiman Marcus acknowledged today that it is working with the U.S. Secret Service to investigate a hacker break-in that has exposed an unknown number of customer cards.

Smart TVs, smart fridges, smart washing machines?  Disaster waiting to happen  —  This is a Samsung smart fridge, and it lets you run Twitter on your fridge for who on Earth knows what reason.  —  Samsung  —  If you believe what the likes of LG and Samsung have been promoting this week at CES, everything will soon be smart.

Beats Music launches in US on Jan. 21 for $10 monthly, $15 monthly for families through AT&T, no free tier  —  Beats Music Enters Online Streaming Market  —  SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Jimmy Iovine, whose career as a recording engineer, producer and music executive stretches from John Lennon to Lady Gaga …

Queries to DuckDuckGo increased over 2.5X after Snowden revelations, totaled 1B for 2013  —  Anonymous search tool DuckDuckGo answered 1bn queries in 2013  —  The ‘anti-Google’, which searches the web without tracking or monitoring the user, now answers 4m queries a day

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact puts top-end specs into a 4.3-inch body (hands-on)  —  CNET Editors' Take  —  Sony is jumping on the bandwagon of making smaller, more pocketable versions of flagship phones, much as we've already seen from Samsung and HTC.  Unlike its rivals however, Sony seems to be doing the mini phone right.

Semiconductor designers researching “self assembling” circuits using nanomaterials  —  Designing the Next Wave of Computer Chips  —  PALO ALTO, Calif. — Not long after Gordon E. Moore proposed in 1965 that the number of transistors that could be etched on a silicon chip …

How and when the iMac and Mac Pro can go Retina  —  Three major factors have probably prevented a proper 2×-in-each-dimension “Retina” version of today's 27″ iMac and standalone Thunderbolt Display, which would need to be 5120×2880 pixels:  — Nobody makes general-purpose LCD panels with that resolution today.

Stop Trying to Judge CES  —  Pepcom festivities came to a screeching halt as some of the 4k televisions were showing the BCS championship game, which became a nailbiter in the closing minutes.  Florida finally closed out the game with a 34-31 win over Auburn and the nerds went back to looking at iPhone cases and wearables.