Continue reading Hybrid2 public bike concept promises to help power city buses

Filed under: Transportation

Hybrid2 public bike concept promises to help power city buses originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: Cellphones

LG's BL40 Black Label phone captured in the wild -- alongside a kid sibling originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Filed under: Cellphones

LG's BL40 Black Label phone captured in the wild -- alongside a kid sibling originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Recent visitors to the Web site of Malaysia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs may have come away with something other than a better understanding of Malaysian foreign policy or the country's visa requirements. The Web site was compromised by an unknown attacker and used to redirect visitors to another site containing malicious code.

The attackers added invisible iframes -- which apparently directed visitors to Web sites that could contain malware or redirect them to other sites that did -- to the home page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Web site. The Web site has been fixed, according to Websense Security Labs, which reported the problem in a recent security bulletin. Details of the links contained in the iframes, as well as details of the malicious code that was used on these sites, were not available.

Websense Security Labs could not immediately be reached for comment.

An iframe, or inline frame, is an HTML tag used to embed one HTML page inside another. The embedded HTML page can be made invisible on the screen, hiding them from users.

The incident with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Web site highlights the need for Malaysia's government to improve the security of its Web sites and other online systems, said Meling Mudin, an independent security researcher in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Malaysian authorities need to spend more time educating organizations about security issues and help them to find people with the right skills for the job. "The problem with our government is that people are being transferred left and right, and administrators that know how to do their work end up doing paper work, and vice versa," he said.

Taiwanese DRAM makers Powerchip Semiconductor and Winbond Electronics both gained concessions from banks to ease their fiscal pain on Wednesday, a further sign they could survive the global DRAM downturn.

The deals could also delay consolidation among Taiwan's DRAM makers. The government moved earlier this year to establish a new chip maker, Taiwan Memory Company (TMC) to speed consolidation among the island's cash strapped chip makers, but the plan appears to be in limbo as officials decide on the best way to move forward.

TMC was originally supposed to consolidate suffering DRAM makers into one big company. Now, officials say TMC will focus on developing new DRAM technology for Taiwanese memory chip makers, and will not bail companies out.

The revised plan addresses the long term intellectual property problem in Taiwan's DRAM industry, but it does not settle fiscal problems for chip makers nor the banks that have loaned them billions of dollars. Government officials have said they will wait until TMC formally submits its business plan to them before commenting further on Taiwan's DRAM industry.

Banks and chip makers on the island appear to be moving forward on their own.

On Wednesday, a group of Taiwanese banks agreed to extend the repayment deadline for Powerchip, formerly Taiwan's biggest DRAM maker, on loans reported to be worth NT$63 billion (US$1.91 billion). The new six-month grace period ends December 30, 2009, Powerchip said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company only has to make interest payments on the loans until then.

This is the second loan extension banks have granted the chip maker. The previous one was brokered by government officials to help ease problems for DRAM makers early this year. The due date on that deal passed on June 30.

The new loan extension will help shore up Powerchip's financial situation. The debt-laden company last month convinced holders of US$158.05 million in convertible bonds to settle for company stock shares instead of cash for a portion of the repayment. A company executive said another corporate bond, NT$2 billion, said to have been due this month, will also not pose a problem for Powerchip.

"That doesn't actually come due until next year," said Eric Tang, a vice president at Powerchip.

Powerchip was also boosted by a US$125 million loan from Kingston Technology, a DRAM module maker and chip distributor, earlier this month. The cash will go a long way in easing its financial burden. Analysts had estimated the company's cash position had fallen to just NT$500 million after the settlement on the US$158.05 million convertible bond.

Winbond Electronics, the smallest of Taiwan's big five DRAM makers, said it signed an NT$3.7 billion syndicated loan agreement on Wednesday with a group of Taiwanese banks. The company will use the funds for loan repayments and for working capital, it said in a statement.

Taiwan's DRAM makers have faced tough times amid the global recession due to slumping demand for their chips, which are mainly used in computers. Over-investment in new factories a few years ago caused a chip glut, leading to falling DRAM prices and mounting losses for producers. Most Taiwanese DRAM makers have reported continuous losses since the middle of 2007.

DRAM prices remain low, hindering the ability of companies to make money.

Taiwan's five biggest DRAM makers reported a combined net loss of NT$159.49 billion last year, more than a four-fold increase over a net loss of NT$36.99 billion in 2007, according to data companies filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Revenue in 2008 totaled NT$179.17 billion, down from NT$255.94 billion.

Last month, the company chosen by Taiwan Memory Company (TMC) as its main foreign technology partner, Japan's Elpida Memory, secured an investment from TMC as well as funds from the Development Bank of Japan, boosting its cash position.

TMC will invest ¥20 billion (US$213.4 million) in Elpida, while the government backed bank will inject ¥30 billion in the company, according to Elpida. The DRAM company will use the cash to install new production line technology able to increase the number of chips rolling off production lines while lowering costs by 20 percent.

"Our business restructuring plan will not hinder the elimination of the excess supply in the industry," Elpida said in the statement.

Excess supply has been the fear many analysts and industry watchers raise as DRAM makers obtain new sources of cash from business partners and banks. Many DRAM makers have shuttered factories amid the global recession, but could reopen them if chip prices increase, and thereby flood the market with cheap DRAM again. The scenario would be good for users because it would keep DRAM cheap, but it would be devastating for companies trying to return to financial health after a two year chip glut.

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Another Security Tip For Twitter: Don't Use “Password” As Your Server Password  —  With all the chatter about the current security issues surrounding Twitter, its workforce and the cloud-based Google apps they use, a new security issue has popped up that makes it trivially easy for anyone to access the Twitter servers directly.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Microsoft exec says Apple asked them stop airing Laptop Hunters ads originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Google on Wednesday rolled out the My Location feature for Google.com on the iPhone. Now, when you visit Google.com from the Safari browser of an iPhone sporting 3.0 software, you'll be greeted with a hyperlink urging you to enable My Location.

The My Location feature, which launched for Google Maps for Mobile in 2007, traditionally smacked a blue circle in the map, indicating your rough whereabouts. Since then, it's been integrated into Google Mobile App on iPhone. On Google's iPhone search page, it pulls down your location from the cloud and returns search results relevant to your physical context. Instead of typing in a city or ZIP code to narrow results, the My Location feature will take charge.

The My Location feature looks like it will remain fixed on the Google home page so you can easily update it as you move around. You can disable it at any time from the Preferences menu.

Search with My Location for Safari currently works for English speakers in the U.S. and U.K., with multilingual and multinational support coming soon.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Speaking of which, O2 will no longer have exlusive iPhone dibs in the UK — Mobile Today, the British site, reports that “the move is set for as early as September” to allow Brits to buy phones via Orange and T-Mobile.

Apple lawyers tried to get Microsoft to stop its “laptop hunters” ads — The version recounted by Techflash is that Apple told Microsoft’s chief operating officer, Kevin Turner, that they had dropped prices below what was in the ads. Turner’s version is that the price drops were on the order of $100, a fraction of the difference in price between Windows and Mac laptops.

LG’s newest Black Label cellphone sports a super-wide screen — PC World reports that the phone’s’ display is longer and thinner for its size than the 16:9 screens found on many new TVs and monitors.

GetJar gives its app store an intelligible logo — App clearinghouse GetJar is riding Apple’s 1.5 billion app download announcement by bragging about its own half-billion downloads. But that’s since 2004, five times as long as it took Apple to rack up three times as many downloads.