10 Tech Things You Need To Know This Morning

TLDTodayGood morning. Here's the news.

• This new iOS app lets you view 80 different kinds of file formats on your iPhone or iPad.

• Here's data to prove that Kickstarter is a much more effective fundraising platform than Indiegogo. Kickstarter has more big money projects, taking in much higher donations on average.

• Despite all the reports you've seen, Facebook still does not support the animated GIF.

• Ad-blocking software is on the rise. "A recent report from the Web service PageFair said that on average 22.7 percent of visitors to 220 Web sites were using ad-blocking software, which automatically removes most ads from a Web page."

• Apple has allowed dating app Bang With Friends back into the app store, only now it's called Down.

• Gawker is experimenting with native advertising in its user-generated content sections (also known as comments).

• Tech companies are really ramping up their efforts to fight government surveillance.

• "Just about everything that you love about Netflix (its affordability, its variety, its ability to take risks) is made possible because of just about everything you hate about cable."

• Here's a video showing off the shell of a gold iPhone 5S.

• There's new evidence that indicates that life started on Mars and moved to Earth on a rock. "The oxidized mineral form of the chemical element molybdenum may have been a key to the origin of life. Molybdenum is believed not to have been present on Earth at the time life originated."

One last thing to know: If you follow me on Twitter in order to get your 10 Things every morning, you need to follow someone new! That would be Alyson Shontell. Starting Tuesday, she is going to begin producing this column on a daily basis. Her Twitter handle is @AJS.