Netflix’s bet on data and the death of Friendster: top stories you should read

Ah, technology. As popstars and Netflix have discovered, advances in computing can mean big business — be it a smoother sound in your next number one hit or the potential to gather reams of data about your audience so you can predict the next sure-fire success. But it also has a dark side: the complicated world of computer crime is growing steadily and trends pass rapidly — even the biggest success story can quickly become old news. These pros and cons just are some of the issues mentioned in this week’s round up of some of the top tech stories on the web.

The incredible rise and fall of a hacker who found the secrets of the next Xbox and PlayStation — and maybe more

He claims to have access to everything from unreleased games to prototypes of upcoming consoles, but can this hacker be believed? Like the author who wrote it, the reader is left trying to separate the fact from fiction: but Dylan (a.k.a. SuperDaE) was raided by the police and reportedly hunted by IP crimes teams for everything from accessing protected info to illegally ordering a next-gen developer kit. He knew things about the recently unveiled Playstation 4 controller before it was launched and has shared screenshots of what appears to be the inside of Microsoft’s confidential databases to prove his mettle, but has he really done what he says he has?

Giving viewers what they want

Netflix’s first original series, House of Cards, has broken industry norms by bypassing networks and releasing all the episodes at once. But it did something else interesting too: it drilled into user data and predicted what would be a hit before they even started filming.

Seduced by ‘perfect’ pitch: how Auto-Tune conquered pop music

If you’ve been wondering how pop artists can sound so perfect on their albums but so bad in real life, this piece will enlighten you. The Verge investigates how Auto Tune is making unnatural perfection the new goal, how the software got its start and why the stars will keep using it.

An autopsy of a dead social network

Ah, Friendster. Like Myspace, the site has become a reminder of what happens when social networking goes bad. But what killed it? The answer may lie in cost-to-benefit ratios and the fact that membership exodus isn’t gradual — users may resist the move depending on how many friends they have on the service. But in Friendster’s case, an unwelcome redesign and some technical challenges may have sealed its fate.