Kim Dotcom today said on Twitter that Megaupload user data in Europe has been "irreversibly lost" because it was deleted by a Netherlands-based server hosting company called LeaseWeb.

"VERY BAD NEWS: #Leaseweb has wiped ALL #Megaupload servers. All user data & crucial evidence for our defense destroyed 'without warning,'" Dotcom tweeted.

Dotcom said LeaseWeb informed his team today that Megaupload servers were deleted on Feb. 1, 2013. "Our lawyers have repeatedly asked #Leaseweb not to delete #Megaupload servers while court proceedings are pending in the US," Dotcom tweeted. "We asked the DOJ to release some of #Megaupload's frozen assets to buy ALL servers. They refused." The lost data includes "[m]illions of personal #Megaupload files, petabytes of pictures, backups, personal & business property," Dotcom wrote.

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Australia's national science agency is printing out magnified 3D copies of tiny insects in a bid to study them more closely. [Read more]    

A 40-channel version of the new holographic display. Daniel Smalley

Three-dimensional films and TVs may seem cutting-edge, but existing technologies all require optical tricks to create the illusion of depth (in some cases, very old tricks). The only truly 3D display technology we have, holography, has primarily been limited to displaying static images. That situation has slowly begun to change, but the existing technology is complicated and expensive, and it suffers from a slow refresh rate.

Now, some researchers have come up with a completely different method of creating the light pattern necessary to build a holographic image. The functional units in their device can be manufactured for pennies: the researchers suspect they could build a large holographic display for as little as $500, one that could potentially be driven by a commodity PC sporting a suite of high-end graphics cards.

The key to building a hologram is the ability of photons to interfere with each other, creating patterns where some regions have constructive interference and become bright, while others experience destructive interference and go dark. A carefully crafted diffractive can bend and redirect light so that this interference pattern recreates patterns of light that look as if they just reflected off the surface of a three-dimensional object. Most importantly, this 3D appearance is retained even as the viewer's perspective shifts around the surface.

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It's the same camera it's always been, but a firmware update will now make it possible to share your living pictures on the go. [Read more]    

A new free Android photo-snapping app lets your feline friend take its own self-portraits. [Read more]    

The social network has kicked off the global rollout of a new feature for attaching photos in comment threads. [Read more]    

IV's launched another lawsuit against Google-owned Motorola Mobility over patents, the latest in series of lawsuits in recent months. [Read more]    

The software giant's bug bounty program aims to fix security flaws, bugs, and vulnerabilities even before products are released. [Read more]    

In 2013, Cisco calculates that companies could produce $613 billion of mostly incremental profit by harnessing the growing networked world of people and things. [Read more]    

Longtime P2P fan Chuck D and Public Enemy give fans a new song and offer a remix contest, delivered via BitTorrent's new Bundle technology. [Read more]    

'Give us your disks!' bellows Chocolate Factory.

Google has followed in the footsteps of Amazon by making it easier for businesses to load in masses of data to the company's cloud platform.…

A US publisher is pricing a sci-fi video game for iPhones and iPads at more than double the cost high-end titles are usually sold for on those devices.

What incredible feat of crowd-funded engineering got Steve Wozniak to gush on Gizmodo? Here's a hint: It fits in your wallet. [Read more]    

Prototype glasses equipped with near-infrared LEDs can fend off facial recognition systems by blinding them with science. [Read more]    

A wave of game controller hardware is headed to iPhones and iPods later this year. CNET breaks down some key games that would work better with them. [Read more]    

Sporting a 4.7-inch handset and a dual-core processor, the Optimus F7 will be available for Boost customers on June 27 for $299.99. [Read more]    

But way forward for cloud sceptics 'not identified'

Adobe dropped the D-bomb during a Q2 conference call with analysts after admitting some customers are "disappointed" it decided to murder future copies of its boxed Creative Suite.…

Naturally this requires sex, drugs, and firearms

International fugitive, criminal suspect and self-described eccentric millionaire John McAfee has released a tongue-in-cheek video explaining how to uninstall the security software that still bears his name.…

The Wi-Fi Alliance announces its Wi-Fi Certified ac certification program, which aims to guarantee the interoperability of 802.11ac-enabled devices regardless of their hardware vendors or type of clients. [Read more]    

Podcast Brit physics heartthrob yet to conquer US - plus actual tech views