Global Tech: Silk Road Reloaded, Getting Rich From Fake Sports, Xiaomi's Move to Higher End

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GLOBALTECH TODAY Covering the 57 million square miles outside Silicon Valley.

January 16, 2015 For more, visit Bloomberg.com/global-tech >>

Silk Road Is Dead. Long Live Silk Road Reloaded By Jordan Robertson Silk Road, the infamous $1.2 billion Internet black market, was more than a highly successful bazaar for drugs, guns and hacking tools. Even as its alleged founder is on trial following the site's seizure by law enforcement in 2013, the website lives on as a case study in online organized crime and offers a blueprint that darknet entrepreneurs continue to follow. The original Silk Road, which required a special program called Tor to access, was so influential that several copycats have adopted its name. Silk Road 2.0, which popped up after the original shut down, copied its predecessor so faithfully before it, too, was raided by police - from the administrator's pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts to the logo, a green camel - that the sites were virtually indistinguishable. A new entrant called Silk Road Reloaded is the latest to carry the mantle. Read the rest of this story. Related: U.S. Agent Wondered If Silk Road Had Multiple 'Dread Pirates'.

BEST OF BWEST Branson: How Virgin Galactic Can Connect World to Web  Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson discusses Virgin Galactic's plans to help launch satellites. Watch the video >>

GET SMART Give Up Sex or Your Mobile Phone? Third of Americans Forgo Sex Almost a third of Americans would rather give up sex for a year than part with their mobile phone for that long, according to a survey by The Boston Consulting Group.  How Fake Sports Are Turning Man Cave Dwellers Into Millionaires Enormous TV screens with live National Football League feeds cover the walls of the ballroom at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas. Couches and bar stools are scattered around the 14,520-square-foot space, which is playing host to the FanDuel Fantasy Football Championship. By 5 p.m., the fantasy-sports betting site will give away $7 million in prizes. Musk Says Texas Leading Candidate for Mass-Transit Test SiteTexas is a leading candidate for a testing facility for the Hyperloop, a high-speed mass-transit system, said Tesla Motors Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.   Google Glass Development Will Be Overseen by Ex-Apple ExecGoogle's Glass project is leaving the company's research lab and becoming a stand-alone entity. The computerized spectacles is being moved under the leadership of Tony Fadell, who heads digital thermostat maker Nest Labs . Xiaomi Moves Into Higher End of Phone Market With New Devices Xiaomi released its biggest, most expensive smartphones as the Chinese manufacturer challenges Samsung Electronics and Apple at the higher end of the mobile-device market. Read more news at Bloomberg Global Tech >>

BIG DATUM 17% How much U.S. holiday sales of the latest game consoles rose.

INSIDE THE VALLEY The PC Equation Intel's first-quarter forecast sparked concern that consumers aren't returning to the personal-computer market. The industry is struggling to attract enough consumers with new slim laptops designed to compete with tablets and smartphones. Read the full story >>

GLOBALTECH is brought to you from the desk of: Marcus Chan Technology Editor for Bloomberg.com mchan239@bloomberg.net @mchan Mark Milian Technology Writer/Editor for Bloomberg.com mmilian@bloomberg.net @markmilian Jordan Robertson Technology Reporter for Bloomberg.com jrobertson40@bloomberg.net @jordanr1000 Follow Bloomberg Technology on Twitter Like Bloomberg News on Facebook