Pleshti

iPhone 5 sales top 5M units over first weekend, Apple says

2012-10-16T00:06:00.009-07:00

Eager fans wait for the iPhone 5 at Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Ave. in Manhattan.

Apple said it sold 5 million iPhones over the weekend, topping the mark set by last year’sÂ iPhone4S by 1 million units.

The Apple frenzy continued its memorable run with lines snaking out of some of its most high-profile stores on Friday as consumers eagerly snapped up the company’s latest smart phone. The figure, however, isn’t quite as high as some analysts expected, with one notably callingÂ 6 million his “worst-case scenario”Â for first-weekend sales.

Still, theÂ iPhone 5Â reestablishes Apple’s dominance in the smartphone business. While Samsung Electronics may lead the market in total smartphones sold, no other company can garner the kind of excitement and anticipation for a new product, and few companies can reap the sheer amount of profit that Apple can with the iPhone.

The success comes despite criticism that the iPhone 5 isn’t a ground-breaking upgrade from the previous version, and that its key features – a bigger display and a 4G wireless connection — are elements that should have been included in theÂ iPhone 4S.

More embarrassing is Apple’s own maps application, whichÂ contains a number of errors, distorted images, and a lack of detailsin different locations that have many wishing the company hadn’t booted Google Maps off ofiOS 6.

Still, the phone garnered strong reviews and the lack of a major change in its aesthetics or the map flap haven’t hurt demand. Apple said that more than 100 million devices have upgraded to iOS 6, the latest version of its mobile operating system.

Wall Street had higher expectations, with estimates as high as 10 million units sold over the first weekend. The company could sell as many as 50 million units in the fourth quarter, according to J.P. Morgan.

Still, it remains to be seen whether the long-term demand for the iPhone continues with the competition stepping up its game. Samsung has already gone after Apple with a few advertisements taking shots at the iPhone 5, while Microsoft is readying the launch of its Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 campaign.

On Thursday, the Apple will release the iPhone 5 in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

iPhone 5 sales top 5M units over first weekend, Apple says

How push notifications can save your app from getting dumped

2012-10-16T00:06:00.007-07:00

Generally, I’m not a fan of apps shooting push notifications out to my phone.

No, “Words with Friends,” I don’t care that I’m about to forfeit my game. There’s a reason I stopped playing it. I don’t need an alert any time I get a new friend on Facebook.

But apparently, notificationsÂ doÂ make a difference when it comes to engagement, and sometimes they’re what keeps an app from getting deleted off the phone or being one of the myriad of unused “zombie” apps left ignored on a smartphone. With many of these apps now relying on the “freemium” model of charging for premium content, constant use is vital. Sure, you spend a lot of money getting someone to download your app, but how do you keep them using it?

“You’re going to see this battle for engagement instead of just a battle for downloads,” said Josh Martin, an analyst at research firm Strategy Analytics.

Urban Airship, which provides the notification platform for many apps, including CNET’s own app, provided me with some data on how notifications actually boost engagement. The company looked at the percentage of people who continued to open an app after a period of time between one and six months.

Predictably, the percentage dropped over time, but those with push notifications performed significantly better than those that opted to not have notifications. By the sixth month, 31 percent of people who downloaded the app still opened it if notifications were in place, compared with 14 percent for regular apps.

Of course, Urban Airship has a vested interest in people using notifications, so I approach the stats with a healthy dose of skepticism. Push notifications are relatively new, after all, and it wouldn’t be difficult to show progress after such a short period. Plus, can you imagine if all of your apps starting sending notifications?

“If all apps use it, does it become white noise?” Martin said. “That becomes a concern over the long term.”

Urban Airship acknowledges that risk, and is active in educating developers on how and when to apply notifications. The company is sensitive to apps going overboard on the notifications, which can send them straight into the delete category.

“You’re basically interrupting people,” Brett Heiggelke, chief marketing officer of Urban Airship, told me. “It’s like the six o’clock dinner phone call, will they appreciate it? Because if not, they’ll shut off the notification and even kill the app.”

Still, Heiggelke believes notifications will be key to getting people back to all sorts of apps, including games and even retail brands.

Heiggelke pointed to snowboard gear maker Burton’s app as an example of notifications done right. Rather than just a simple app with directions to a local store or a catalog of its equipment, the app offers a “Pow Alarm” that provides alerts when fresh powder hits a local resort. Users can select their favorite ski resorts, how much powder should trigger the alert, and what days work best.

“It’s branding at its best,” Heiggelke said, adding that marketers need to think differently when applying notifications to their apps.

Urban Airship is working to make its notifications more targeted and relevant to consumers.

Games, meanwhile, are increasingly dependent on notifications to keep people coming back. Many use the freemium model, and need to build a high enough interest level that the gamer will actually fork over real money for virtual goods.

Whether it’s a notification of new levels, or showing an alert when the person hasn’t played in a while, social games in particular have been leading the charge with finding new ways to utilize notifications.

Zynga has been particularly good at pioneering the use of notifications, Martin said, and he expects the social-gaming company to continue to do so.

“They’re leading the market in terms of innovation,” he said.

Notifications may be hot because there are no other real answers to the issue of engagement. As such, don’t expect them to go away.

Just in case, I’m bracing myself for the avalanche of alerts on myÂ iPhone.

How push notifications can save your app from getting dumped

Friend mining: Facebook preps for social search future

2012-10-16T00:06:00.005-07:00

No other company in the world holds as much personal data as Facebook, which puts it in an ideal position to cull data from your friends and friends-of-friends, and even those you don’t know, to bring you answers to your deepest questions. Such as, “What sushi restaurants have my friends gone to in New York in the last six months and Liked?”

Ok, maybe that’s not your deepest questions, but it’s the example that FacebookÂ CEO Mark Zuckerberg used during an interviewÂ at the TechCrunch Disrupt SF conference earlier this month when he was talking about the intersection of Facebook and search.

“Search engines are evolving” to “giving you a set of answers,” Zuckerberg said. “Facebook is pretty uniquely positioned to answer a lot of questions people have.”

You could call Facebook’s notion of search “friend mining,” extracting specific answers to question by mining the immensely data-rich social graph. Zuckerberg was coy about when Facebook would launch a more capable search engine, but allowed, “At some point we will do it. We have a team working on search.” His remarks certainly got the attention of Facebook watchers and Wall Street analysts, who have been speculating about how Facebook, with its nearly one billion users, could harness all that personal data and generate Google-like revenue from search.

“People have been waiting for years for Facebook to jump in to search,” said Jed Williams, a senior analyst with interactive media research firm BIA Kelsey. “This is such a big opportunity.” Search is an $18 billion business in the U.S. alone, according toresearch firm eMarketer.

The company is taking small steps. On Friday,Â the company began tracking search activityÂ in addition to everything else users do on site.

At this point, people don’t associate Facebook with search, despite the fact that the company says it processes 800 million queries a day. The vast majority of those queries is people searching for other people, rather than the kinds of search queries common to Google and Microsoft Bing.

You can search the broader Web from within Facebook, but Facebook doesn’t make that task easy. Type ‘sushi’ into the Facebook search bar, for instance, and you’ll get a list of Facebook pages about sushi, based on popularity and which ones your friends ‘like.’ Then, lower on the page, a little box lets you search outside Facebook’s walls viaÂ Bing, with which Facebook has a partnership.

According to August 2012 ComScore search data, Google had 66.4 share of the U.S. market and Bing 15.9 percent. Yahoo, which also uses Bing search, has 12.8 percent. Microsoft wouldn’t disclose how much traffic it gets via Facebook.

While Bing has Facebook integrated into its search engine — so that what your friends like on Facebook shows up alongside your Bing search results, and you can easily post to Facebook to ask a question — presumably Zuckerberg’s search team is working on something that would derive a set of answers from Facebook first and wouldn’t require a visit to Bing.

Quora, Yelp, FourSquareÂ

To hear Zuckberg talk, Facebook’s search sounds partly like Quora on steroids. Quora,Â founded by former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo, let’s users post questions that people can answer. FacebookÂ launched a similar service, a minor foray into a social-type of search, in 2010, but has since killed it.

Like Wikipedia, Quora’s value comes from those who decide to participate. But Facebook wouldn’t need people to weigh in before it gives you useful answers to all sorts of questions — because, in effect, they already have. They’ve ‘liked’ restaurants, movies, bands and perhaps a page for theÂ Toyota Prius. They ranted and raved about services. They’ve told Facebook where they work, lived, and on and on and on. And they’ve been doing it for years, with no sign of slowing.

Facebook’s job is to determine what data points matter for what type of question. That’s no small task. Eventually, Zuckerberg envisions a question-answer-search service that not only answers basic questions about which restaurants your friends have ‘liked,’ but one that can offer up meaningful responses for less straightforward questions, such as this example Zuckerberg gave: “Which of my friends or friends of friends work in a company that I might like to work at?” That’s not a particularly tricky question when you think about what data Facebook has and how it could mine it to deliver useful answers. To answer the question Facebook would need the right set of data, data you would see on another social networking site, the business-focused LinkedIn.

Yelp also offers cluesÂ about what Facebook’s possibly cooking up on the search front. Michael Pachter, a Wedbush Securities Internet analyst, even suggests that Facebook could take on Yelp big time. While Facebook currently doesn’t have Yelp-like reviews, Pachter points out that it could amass them quickly.

“If I write on Facebook that I had a phenomenal meal, Facebook could have a text box pop up that would ask me if I would like to rate it, give it a thumbs up,” said Pachter. “It could be a full-fledged Yelp.” And that would give Facebook more data points, including from its bazillions of images, for its friend-mining version of search, providing a big opportunity for snagging local ad dollars.

Yelp, which like Facebook was founded in 2004, has seenÂ its business skyrocket with the spread of mobile phonesÂ – and that’s something that Zuckerberg is surely keenly aware of as he oversees Facebook’s challenging shift to mobile.

The importance of mobile is why Danny Sullivan, editor SearchEngineLand.com and a CNET contributor, says he expects Facebook search to resembleÂ Foursquare’s ‘explore’ button. That lets users search for, say, nearby restaurants or stores based on your location and other criteria, including where you’ve checked in previously. Foursquare also surfaces recommendations based on users reviews, and it shows where your friends have checked-in, what reviews they have written.

Searching for revenue

The crowd that’s super excited by Facebook and search is Wall Street. Facebook’s beaten up stock, still roughly 40 percent off its IPO price of $38,Â has been on the rise ever since Zuckerberg’s interview. It closed Friday at $22.86 a share, up about 30 percent from its low of $17.55. One reason cited is Zuckerberg’s enthusiasm for search, which, rightly or wrongly, Wall Street equates with Google and fat profits. GoogleÂ made $2.79 billionÂ in the last quarter, dwarfingÂ Facebook’s earnings.

For sure, Facebook social search offers a big money opportunity on several fronts. The market for local mobile ads alone — think Facebook adding Yelp and Foursquare-like features — is expected to hit $1.3 billion this year alone and quadruple over the next few years, according to research firm BIA Kelsey.

More broadly, Facebook could start selling ads — or its so-calledÂ Sponsored StoriesÂ – against queries. One possibility, according to Pachter, is that Facebook could let advertiser drop deals into search results based on keywords. If you’re planning a trip to Hawaii, for example, you could ask the question, “Where’s a good place to visit in Hawaii?” Facebook could then mine your friends’ status updates and photos to bring you their past vacation haunts. Facebook could then insert Hawaiian hotel packages in these results.

Whatever Facebook comes up with as it builds out its search products, it needs to tread carefully when it comes to new ways of using user data. Ultimately, it’s all about making a search that becomes a seamless part of the Facebook user experience. Because, if it’s not, Facebook will have some unhappy users — and then it will have fewer friends to mine.

Friend mining: Facebook preps for social search future

Apple supplier Foxconn confirms worker riot at Taiyun factory

2012-10-16T00:06:00.003-07:00

Foxconn, a contract manufacturer to Apple, closed a northern China factory for the day followingan early Monday riotÂ that, according to the company, began as a fight between workers. Details remain scarce.

The company said several people were injured and sent to the hospital after the incident, and that some were also detained by police. The factory in question employees about 79,000 workers.

Other reports, however,Â described a riot possibly involving as many as 2,000 peopleÂ and, by one account, potentially sparked when a guard struck a worker. Photos posted by a user on the Chinese Internet service Baidu depictedÂ lines of helmet-clad riot policeÂ surrounding what appeared to be workers and rooms littered with detritus and glass from broken windows.

Earlier this month, a Shanghai Evening Post journalist claimed to haveÂ gone undercover at the Taiyun plant. He described his orientation, plant security and his job, which was supposedly to manufacture the back plate of theÂ iPhone 5.

Back in March, the head of human resources at the Taiyun factory reportedly told a South Korean newspaper that Foxconn had “just got[ten] the order” for the iPhone 5. That was just a few weeks after aÂ reported strike involving hundreds of workersÂ over a pay dispute at the Taiyun plant.

We’ll update this story as we know more.

Apple supplier Foxconn confirms worker riot at Taiyun factory

Kim Dotcom: Inquiry ordered into 'unlawful spying'

2012-10-16T00:06:00.001-07:00

An inquiry has been ordered into whether New Zealand intelligence staff engaged in unlawful spying prior to the arrest of Megaupload owner Kim Dotcom.

The country’s Prime Minister John Key said some communications were obtained “without statutory authority”.

Mr Dotcom is fighting extradition to the US where he faces accusations of copyright theft on a huge scale.

In June, an NZ court ruled that a search warrant used for a raid on Mr Dotcom’s home was illegal.

The court also said that Mr Dotcom should be allowed to see evidence on which his extradition hearing will be based – a decision US authorities have appealed against.

‘Public trust’

The latest statement from Mr Key will be seen as another blow to the integrity of the US case.

The prime ministerÂ asked for an investigationÂ into “circumstances of unlawful interception of communications of certain individuals” working for the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), the country’s main intelligence agency.

He added: “I expect our intelligence agencies to operate always within the law. Their operations depend on public trust.

“I look forward to the inspector-general’s inquiry getting to the heart of what took place and what can be done about it.

“Because this is also a matter for the High Court in its consideration of the Megaupload litigation, I am unable to comment further.”

Mr Dotcom, writing on his Twitter account, backed the inquiry call.

“I welcome the inquiry by @JohnKeyPM into unlawful acts by the GCSB,” he wrote. “Please extend the inquiry to cover the entire Crown Law Mega case.”

Works of art

Authorities arrested Mr Dotcom and his colleagues at his country estate in January, confiscating computers and hard drives, works of art and cars.

His website Megaupload – which allowed users to upload and share large files – was also forced to close.

The FBI accuses Mr Dotcom of leading a group of employees responsible for earning more than $175m (Â£110m) since 2005 by copying and distributing music, films and other copyrighted content without authorisation.

Mr Dotcom – also known as Kim Schwartz – insists his website was merely an online storage facility.

Since his arrest, he has gathered some high-profile support, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Despite his ongoing legal battles, Mr Dotcom said a new version of Megaupload, called Megabox, was “90%” complete.

He said “lawyers, partners and investors are ready” to back the site which is expected to launch before the end of the year.

Kim Dotcom: Inquiry ordered into 'unlawful spying'

How to wait in an iPhone 5 line

2012-10-16T00:05:00.019-07:00

(CNN)Â – Want to get an iPhone 5 on Friday?

You’ll probably need to wait in line. Or pay someone to do it for you.

Hipster-looking shoppers already have plopped down in folding chairs outside Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York.

And in San Francisco, a man working through a micro-tasking company (more on what that means in a second) has been diligently waiting in line, for a price, since Monday.

“You’re going to wait here until Friday? God watch over you,” a stranger told that person, who was using a service called TaskRabbit,Â according to his Twitter feed.

Massive demand awaits Friday’s iPhone 5 sale

TaskRabbit nabbed the first-in-line spot to try to promote its online service that allows people to pay someone else to do a menial task for them. In this case,Â according to CNET, you can find people online who for about $40 to $150 will stand in line to purchase the iPhone 5 on your behalf.

That sort of idea isn’t all that new, and line-standers also are offering their services on craigslist. “If you are looking to buy the iPhone 5 when it is released, but not looking to stand in the line. I’ll do it for you!” wrote one person in Los Angeles. “I’ll get in line at 6 a.m. for 40 bucks. Camp overnight for 70,” wrote another stander, this one from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Other people are posting craigslist ads asking others to stand in line for them. One such ad, in Los Angeles, says the patron will offer the stander “a reasonable amount” … “and on top of that, I’ll even buy you breakfast.”

For those who don’t want to spend even more than the hefty price tag for the iPhone, but do want to pick up a phone on Friday, perhaps the line is the way to go.

Unless you hopped online within the first hour or so last Friday, pre-ordered iPhones aren’t expected to arrive for weeks.

But plan to get up early on Friday morning.

While opening-day iPhone lines vary by location — what passes as early enough at a Radio Shack in Nevada may not work for an Apple store in New York –Â analysts generally say advanceÂ consumer demand for the iPhone 5 is outpacing previous models.Â Early reviews of the phoneÂ have been positive.

Apple recently announced it had received 2 million pre-ordersÂ for the new phone, which is taller, faster, lighter and slimmer than the previous model, the iPhone 4S. That’s about double what the company experienced for the previous iPhone, Apple said.

That could foreshadow long lines. Or it could mean more consumers are skipping the line-waiting game and, instead, have chosen to order the phone online.

iPhone 5 pre-order shipping dates pushed back

The line waits are part exercise in extreme consumerism, part homage to Apple.

Last year some of the line-standers made pilgrimages to Apple stores in part out of a sense of tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died a week before the phone went on sale. Fans set up mini-memorials in his honor at some Apple stores.

To get a sense of what the most dedicated Apple fans are willing to go through,Â check out this chart from The Atlantic, which shows the longest Apple gadget waits.

If you’re just in the market for purchasing the new iPhone, not the in-line circus, there are several other stores that plan to carry the iPhone 5 on Friday.

They include AT&T, Sprint and Verizon stores, as well as select Best Buy, RadioShack, Target and Walmart locations. Check with stores in your area for details.

Still want to brave the Apple store? Doors open at 8 a.m. local time Friday in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK. The iPhone 5Â will roll out to 22 more countriesÂ on September 28.

How to wait in an iPhone 5 line

Fighting pandas set to join World of Warcraft

2012-10-16T00:05:00.017-07:00

Warcraft’s online gaming world is about to get a bit bigger.

The next expansion for World of Warcraft, known as Mists of Pandaria, goes live on Tuesday.

The expansion introduces the continent of Pandaria and its many inhabitants, including martially-adept pandas, to the game.

The Asian-themed game is seen as an attempt to shore up WoW’s dwindling subscriber base and cement its popularity in China.

Competition time

In early August it was revealed that the number of people playing World of Warcraft has dropped to its lowest level since 2007.

In 2010, WoW claimed to have more than 12 million players but in June 2012 this had dropped to nine million. About half of these subscribers are believed to be in China.

WoW creator Blizzard has tried several different strategies to keep people playing the game. It has introduced a version that is free to play in the early stages of the game. In addition, it let subscribers get a free version of its other hugely popular title Diablo 3, if they signed a 12-month contract for WoW.

Part of WoW’s decline has been put down to growing competition from other top tier games that have launched in recent months. Titles such as Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, Diablo 3, Runescape and many other free to play games have all drawn players away from the ageing title.

Mists of Pandaria is the fourth expansion for the massively multiplayer online game. Those who buy the expansion will get the chance to play as one of the Pandaren – the fighting pandas. The game also introduces a new character class to the game – the monk who uses martial arts rather than weapons to fight.

As with other expansions, Blizzard is overhauling many other parts of the game at the same time as introducing Pandaria. The expansion will let players control ever more powerful characters; will see changes to the way characters improve their abilities; introduce short challenges for high level characters and let players pit their in-game pets against each other.

Fighting pandas set to join World of Warcraft

Apple Maps in iOS 6: What you need to know (FAQ)

2012-10-16T00:05:00.015-07:00

Welcome to Apple’s maps

(Credit: Screenshot by Kent German/CNET)

It’s only been a day sinceÂ iOS 6Â went live, but the world has sounded with a Greek chorus of complaints over the new Maps app made by Apple.

In case you don’t already know,Â iOS 6Â makes a big change in yourÂ iPhone, iPad andÂ iPod Touch‘s mapping features. It removes the Google Maps app that long you’ve long used and replaces it with Apple’s home-baked mapping service. At first, you may not notice the change since the app’s icon, and much of the interface looks almost the same. Once you try to use it, though, you’ll see differences straight away.

Maps woes in Apple iOS 6: How bad? (pictures)

1-2Â ofÂ 16

Scroll LeftScroll Right

In our initial anecdotal testing for CNET’sÂ iPhone 5Â andÂ iOS 6Â reviews, we noticed both good and bad points. On the upside, the new turn-by-turn directions were intuitive and pretty reliable, and the 3D flyover feature was lovely. Yet, we also found that search results weren’t quite as robust and transit directions weren’t an option at all.

It was a decent effort for a first pass, but now that Apple Maps are being crowd-tested by millions of new iOS 6 users around the world, problems are becoming more apparent. Put simply: there’s plenty of icing, but the cake ain’t finished baking. So where does that leave existing iOS users who want to upgrade to iOS 6 — and prospective iPhone 5 buyers who will get it by default? In this FAQ, CNET will tell you everything that you need to know.

The 3D maps are amazing.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Q: What does the new Maps app add that the old Google app did not?

A:Â Most importantly, turn-by-turn directions. Up until now, you had to reply on paid, third-party apps for that feature, even though Android users had been getting it for years. So that’s a big plus.

ForÂ iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, andÂ the new iPad, iOS 6 also adds 3D views and a flyover feature (with the latter it’s like you’re zooming over a city in a low-flying airplane). Both features are more entertaining than useful, but they pack a pretty big wow factor, at least for the first few minutes.

Other little touches include the capability to physically reorient the map with two fingers and see reviews of points of interest.

Q: What does the new Maps appÂ losecompared to the old one?

A:Â The number one thing is Google’s database. Apple Maps sources its location information from Yelp, which so far is less reliable than Google’s offering. For example, in hisÂ iPhone 5 review, CNET’s Scott Stein found that a search for coffee showed him only Starbucks and not a locally owned shop across the street. Also, a search for Mac repair did not turn up a business that has always showed on Google Maps. This issue should get better, but for now it’s not great. Losing Google’s database also means you lose Street View.

Also, you totally lose mass transit directions, which always existed on Google Maps. Though there is a button with a tiny bus icon, it shows only a list of third-party transit apps (so why include the button at all?). If you already own such an app it will appear at the top of the list, and when pressed, kick you out to that app. Otherwise, you’ll be directed to the iTunes App Store to download a title. That’s not really helpful for a few reasons.

With Apple Maps comes turn-by-turn navigation

(Credit: Screenshot by Kent German/CNET)

First off, switching to a third-party app for transit directions takes you out of the mapping feature. That means a lot of switching back and forth between the transit instructions and the map of the surrounding area (Google Maps had it all on one screen). Also, the third-party apps don’t always tell how to get to the transit stop and then on to your final destination. Again, Google Maps told you the whole story.

Granted, only people who take transit will care about this feature. But the point is that Apple has removed a useful feature that you formerly got for free. Some of the third-party options are great, and they may even be better than Google Maps, but you now have to jump through an extra hoop. And more importantly, some of those other apps will cost you.

Q: Can I go back to the old Maps app?

A: Sort of. At this point, a real Google Maps app like you used to have is not available.

But as Matt ElliottÂ explains here, you can point your iPhone’s browser to maps.google.com and get that same mapping information, complete with business listings, directions, public transit data, and even bike routes. What you’re missing is street view and use of the compass to help direct you.

Q: What do I lose with maps.google.com compared to the old Google-powered maps app in iOS 5?

A:Â Since it’s not an actual app, it will be a much different experience than what you had before. The interface is changed, though not negatively so, and the performance will depend on the speed of your connection. Of course, that was also the case with Google’s app, but the browser is a different feature so performance will vary.

You also lose a fair number of features including Siri integration, address book integration, and, as mentioned, Street View.

Q: Are Apple’s turn-by-turn directions accurate?

A:Â In initial testing, they’re reliable. When we put Apple Maps against Google Maps on an Android phone and maps.google.com, we didn’t notice any significant problems. There were some issues — for example, it misplaced us by a few blocks and it wasn’t as accurate in directing us to a destination, but it performed well on the whole. We’re going to keep testing, though, and remember that we tested in San Francisco, in the back yard of Google and Apple and one of the most mapped cities on Earth. Your experience may be different.

Talk about a bumpy landing.

(Credit: theamazingios6maps.tumblr)

Q: Where is Apple getting its actual map data?

A:Â Apple’s maps come mostly from longtime GPS player TomTom, which also supplies some apps to Google. Some maps lack the detail we had on iOS 5 — see our slideshow andÂ CNET UK’s comparisonÂ – but outside ofÂ a misplaced museumwe haven’t see many problems in San Francisco. Still, we hope that Apple fills in the gaps soon.

Q: What about the satellite view?

A:Â Even after one day, we’ve seenÂ an abundance of screenshotsÂ showing quirky things like a roller coasterÂ Manhattan BridgeÂ or aÂ pockmarked Toronto airport. These mistakes won’t affect your navigation, and we remember crazy satellite images from Google Maps, but some of the mistakes are pretty hilarious.

Q: Is Apple Maps really as bad as people are saying?

A:Â It depends on what you value. If mass transit directions or Google Street View were must-haves, this may be more of a downgrade. Ditto for contextual local searches.

On the other hand, you now have free turn-by-turn directions, which was never a [free] option on the iPhone before. And the properly 3D-mapped cityscapes are stunning — again, if you live in a location that’s mapped well.

Another big factor: where you’re using it. Some areas have very good 3D, local listings and accuracy. Others, not so much.

Q: Has Apple said anything about this?

A:Â Without admitting to any issues, Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told us the feature is still being improved:

Apple Maps in iOS 6: What you need to know (FAQ)

Facebook friends mapped by Wolfram Alpha app

2012-10-16T00:05:00.013-07:00

More than 400,000 people have used an app that analyses the information they have put on Facebook.

The app, by Wolfram Alpha, shows Facebook users their account activity in the form of pie charts, graphs and maps.

Pie charts reveal the ratio of their friends’ relationship statuses and maps plot their locations by global city.

If the user has included their date of birth the app will also tell them what the weather was like that day.

Wolfram Alpha works directly from data already online to provide a definitive answer to a question rather than providing links to other websites like a traditional search engine.

British physicist Stephen Wolfram came up with the idea. In aÂ blog post he describedÂ the function of the app as “personal analytics for Facebook”.

“I’ve no doubt that one day pretty much everyone will routinely be doing all sorts of personal analytics on a mountain of data that they collect about themselves,” he wrote.

“I think I could spend ages doing it. And coming back at different times to see what’s changed.”

The platform also reveals a user’s most popular posts and generates a word cloud in which the most frequently used words are displayed the largest.

Users can choose to clip and share their graphs on various social networks including both Facebook and Twitter.

The report can be generated by typing “Facebook report” into theWolfram Alpha search box.

Facebook friends mapped by Wolfram Alpha app

iPhone 5 finally hits the streets. Join CNET's live coverage

2012-10-16T00:05:00.011-07:00

Media circus: Hours before the iPhone 5 goes on sale, the facade of Apple’s 5th Avenue store in Manhattan is obscured by a giant black cloak. Much of the view is also blocked by a row of satellite trucks parked in front.

What can you say about a device that has been written about as much as theÂ iPhone 5, other than to note that it’s finally here and lots ofÂ people across the globeÂ seem to want it?

The smartphones, which are thinner, lighter, and faster than previous versions, are due to go on sale at 8 a.m. local time in multiple countriesÂ (read CNET’s review).

CNET reporters and photographers will be on hand at Apple’s flagship Manhattan store on Fifth Avenue, which is expected to see long lines that include a group of more than a dozen protesters fromÂ Occupy Wall Street.

We’ll cover similar events at Apple’s Grand Central store in New York and other Apple stores in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Calif., and Paris. On hand for CNET in New York this morning is Greg Sandoval at the Fifth Avenue store and Shara Tibken and Sarah Tew at the Grand Central Station store.

The iPhone will also go on sale this morning at Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Radio Shack. Retail outlets of AT&T, Verizon and Sprint will also sell the device.

For a final check of the prices: Apple is selling unlocked 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models for $649, $749, and $849 respectively. With a two-year contract from a participating carrier, the same models go for $199, $299 and $399.

In the United States, Apple is supposed to have the weather on its side. The forecast for much of the country is dry with moderate temperatures. Perfect shopping and line sitting weather.

Check in often as we’ll be updating this blog regularly.

Alex Cardenas proudly walks first into the Grand Central Station store.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

7:50 a.m. ET Grand Central Store:Â Grand Central houses NYC’s newest Apple store, but it’s also a busy hub for commuters taking the trains to work. Many are stopping at the steps to Apple’s store to ask how long the line is and what the wait is like. One man said he just was curious about how many people would wait, while another asked if it would be possible to be helped in the store today for something else. Store employee tells him he’s welcome to wait in line, but it’s not going to be quick. The man opted to leave and come back another day.

7:48 a.m. ET Grand Central Store:Â Apple started moving the first people in line to wait on the balconies along the Store. Excitement has picked up as customers get closer to open at 8 a.m. Yousra Atmen, Karim Haraoui and Zakaria Reda traveled all the way to NYC from Morocco, just to buy the new iPhone 5. They’re each getting one phone for themselves and say just want to have the newest Apple device possible. Atmen, 24, says she loves how smart the devices are.

iPhone 5 goes on sale at Grand Central Apple Store (pictures)

1-2Â ofÂ 14

Scroll LeftScroll Right

7:47 a.m. ET, NYC Fifth Ave. store:Â So that’s how they did it. Michael Marrero, 23, just told me the secrets to line sitting more than a week at an Apple store. Marrero started camping out last Thursday the 13th. He and some of his fellow line sitters rented a minivan and used to it to stay out of the rain and cold. There wasn’t enough room for everybody and the rules of the line mandate that someone always be waiting in line to watch belongings and guard the turf. He said that the group took a chance and illegally parked the van most of the time. Amazing. In this city and no tickets. Let’s hope he’s as lucky with his iPhone 5.

7:45 a.m. ET, NYC Fifth Ave. store:Â 15 minutes to go before the doors open. Time to stake out a spot in the media line.

7:32 a.m. ET, NYC Fifth Ave. store:Â Apple employees are handing the prized tickets. Those guarantee the bearer that there will be an iPhone available for purchase. I think people here value these things. Every time I turn my camera towards anyone here, they immediately flash their tickets.

Jessica Mellow flashes her sure-thing tickets outside the Fifth Avenue Apple store in NYC.

(Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET)

7:25 a.m. ET, NYC Grand Central Store:Â Starting the line outside last night is causing a little confusion this morning about who’s actually first. Shivanand Majraj, a 28-year-old NYC bouncer and college student, said he was first to arrive at about 7:30 p.m. last night, but he’s now about third in line. Instead, Alex Cardenas, 38, is now at the head of the line. Both say they’re buying iPhones because they love Apple products. Majraj, who has owned every iPhone, is dumping his unlocked 4S on T-Mobile’s service for a new iPhone 5 under contract with AT&T. Cardenas is also opening a new contract for his son, with his son getting his old 4S.

7:22 a.m. ET, NYC Fifth Ave. store:Â Steve Wozniak, one of Apple’s co-founders just sent a nice e-mail reply to an interview request. I wanted to know what he expected from the iPhone 5 and Apple had met those expectations. Woz says he’s been super busy but did wait all night for the phone. He said he did get the phone “with some difficulties.”

This is the rest of what he said: “From what I can tell, the iPhone 5 is a different size with a different SIM card and different power/data connector. It also has some camera/photo improvement/fix. It also has LTE. I don’t know of other differences so it’s mainly the size.Â iOS 6has many new features but I already had that on myÂ iPhone 4S. One question that I’ll have to get answered when I return is whether the Verizon iPhone 5 is a world phone model.”

The magic ticket, outside the Grand Central Station store in NYC.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

7:15 a.m. ET, NYC Grand Central Store:Â It’s pretty steamy for the line in New York’s train station. Customers started waiting last night outside the building but couldn’t enter Grand Central until the terminal opened this morning at about 5:15 a.m. They’re now lined up along the hot train tracks, a big contrast from NYC’s cool weather outside. Apple store employees are keeping them hydrated with plenty of bottled water.

7:12 a.m. ET, NYC Fifth Ave. store:Â There is a lot of police. I don’t remember seeing this many at previous Apple product releases here. Is that because more than a dozen members ofOccupy Wall StreetÂ began camping out two nights ago? They were here protesting Apple’s labor practices but I don’t see them in line. They may be out of view.

7:05 a.m. ET, NYC Fifth Ave. store:Â Here we go. The line is building fast at Apple’s flagship store in Manhattan. When I got here 90 minutes ago, the end of the line barely went a quarter of the way down 58th street away from 5th Ave. If you know the area, then you know that’s barely past the entrance to FAO Schwarz. Now, the line is all the way down the block.

Members of the New York City Police Department patrolled near the Cube at the iPhone 5 launch this morning.

(Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET)

Paris:Â Hours before Apple stores open in the U.S., early shoppers in Paris already had their iPhones in hand. (And some showed up to air gripes they have with Apple. You can read more here: “Apple fans and critics converge in Paris for iPhone 5.”

Mikhail Vorobyev, one of the early customers to buy an iPhone 5 at Apple’s store in Paris, shows off his new purchase.

iPhone 5 finally hits the streets. Join CNET's live coverage

Apple loses German patent court case

2012-10-16T00:05:00.009-07:00

A German court has dismissed Apple’s allegation that Motorola and Samsung infringed some of its multi-touch patents.

The Mannheim court rejected Apple’s claim the two firms had copied how its devices handled data according to how many fingers touched a gadget’s screen.

Apple has 30 days to appeal against the court’s decision.

The Mannheim case is one of several patent trials Apple is involved with in Germany.

Apple filed separate legal claims against Motorola, now owned by Google, and Samsung over what are known as “touch event” technologies. Rather than examine Apple’s claims separately, the German court brought both cases together and issued a joint verdict.

In a blogpost, patent expert Florian Mueller saidÂ ”touch event” technology was widely used in tablets and smartphones. If the court had backed Apple, its rivals would have had to “rewrite, recompile and reinstall many apps” that used this technology, he said.

The Mannheim ruling is not the first time that Apple has also lost a case on the “touch event” patent. It lost a case against HTC in the UK over the same technology. A Dutch court also rejected Apple’s claims that its patent was being abused.

In a separate case being heard in Munich, the court backed Apple’s claim that Motorola had infringed its patent on what happened when users scrolled to the end of a page, document or list – a technology known as “overscroll bounce” or “rubber banding”.

Apple loses German patent court case

Google Search and Gmail censored in Iran

2012-10-16T00:05:00.007-07:00

Iran has restricted access to Google’s email service, Gmail, and search engine.

A firewall already prevents Iranians from freely accessing many Western websites.

The latest move coincides with protests throughout the Muslim world – including some in Tehran – against an anti-Islamic film posted on Google’s video-sharing site YouTube.

The BBC has not yet received a response from the Iranian embassy in London.

A government deputy minister announced the upcoming ban, on Sunday on state television.

“Google and Gmail will be filtered nationwide, and will remain filtered until further notice,” said an adviser to Iran’s public prosecutor’s office Abdul Samad Khoramabadi.

The announcement was also sent out as a text message on mobile phones.

The unsecured version of the search engine, which is much easier to eavesdrop on, remains accessible.

The BBC Persian service says: “Google search website is accessible, but is not functioning properly. Google services which need a secure SSL [Secure Sockets Layer] connection are out of reach in Iran.

“Any attempt to get access to those services leads the user to a never-ending waiting phase, where nothing comes up.”

Users can only access Gmail accounts by using virtual private networks (VPNs), which allow web surfing behind heavily encrypted firewalls.

Many Iranians already use VPNs to bypass the government’s restrictions on other blocked Western websites, said Mahmood Tajali Mehr, an Iranian telecommunications consultant living in Germany.

“This is just a move by the Iranian governement towards a so-called nationwide intranet, to control all the traffic from the outside, and authorities are saying they will implement it in about three years.

“But every school child knows how to bypass restrictions by using VPNs, it’s very common in Iran.”

Temporary block?

It is not the first time Iranian authorities have cut access to Google services.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei decided to create a special council to protect Iran from “harm”

Both Google Search and Gmail were restricted in February, ahead of parliamentary elections in March.

Mr Mehr said that he did not think the services were going to stay restricted for long.

“This is just a propaganda tool to demonstrate that Iran is doing something against the US, but it is unlikely to last longer than a few days.

“The current trouble with the anti-Islamic film is helping the government with this propaganda.

“The state is saying that the people are asking to block these services because of the film, but there haven’t been such protests as in Pakistan and elsewhere, only small organised protests, so my personal feeling is that it has nothing to do with the film.

“Especially keeping in mind that YouTube has been blocked for some time already.”

Google’s YouTube site has been censored since mid-2009, following protests and allegations of vote fraud after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The websites of several Western media organisations such as the Guardian, BBC and CNN are also blocked in the country, and a number of other web services, including Facebook and Twitter, are often censored.

In March, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered officials to set up a body tasked with defining policy and co-ordinating decisions regarding the internet, called the Supreme Council of Virtual Space.

Google Search and Gmail censored in Iran

Samsung says it will drag iPhone 5 into legal war

2012-10-16T00:05:00.005-07:00

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

It appears that Apple’sÂ iPhone 5Â isn’t going to escape the ongoing legal battle with Samsung Electronics.

Samsung said it would add the recently unveiled smartphone — which has already seenÂ record pre-sale figuresÂ and which will hit stores tomorrow — to a list of products accused of violating its patents, according toÂ Reuters, citing U.S. court documents.

Samsung confirmed to CNET that it would pursue theÂ iPhone 5.

Samsung says it will drag iPhone 5 into legal war

Women of Wikipedia edit planned

2012-10-16T00:05:00.003-07:00

The Wikipedia profiles of women in technology and engineering will be updated at an “edit-a-thon” held at the Royal Society next month.

The profiles chosen to be updated will all be of historical figures.

Those unable to attend the session in London on 19 October will be able to take part online.

The event has been organised as part of annual celebrations to celebrate the legacy of Ada Lovelace.

She worked with mathematical engineer Charles Babbage on his “analytical machine” in the early 19th Century.

The machine, which was designed but never actually built, is considered to be the foundation for modern computers.

Ada Lovelace day aims to raise the profile of women currently working in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Among the profiles being considered for the edit-a-thon are Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, a crystallographer who discovered the chemical structure of oil component benzene, and Dr Elsie Widdowson who oversaw the introduction of vitamin supplements to food during World War II rationing.

At the time of writing, another candidate, Mary Buckland, was mentioned only in her husband William’s Wikipedia entry although the pair worked together as palaeontologists finding, recording and identifying fossils in the 1800s.

Leading ladies

Uta Frith, professor in cognitive development at UCL and a fellow of the Royal Society, will be leading a panel discussion after the edit-a-thon.

“The Wikipedia idea struck a real chord in me because I read about a year ago that the typical person who writes entries for Wikipedia is a man. That really started alarm bells ringing because we don’t think about it – who is doing all this work?” she said.

Prof Frith is concerned about the visibility of women in the fields of science and technology.

“Can you immediately come up with a handful of names of female staff in technology? Is that because there aren’t any or because they’re sort of invisible?” she said.

“It’s a catch-22 – if you can’t find them easily in a place like Wikipedia, you won’t know anything about them. You’ll think they are not important.”

Prof Frith told the BBC she intended to personally create a profile for Mary Buckland at the event, although one has since been created already.

“She did the most exquisite anatomical drawings of fossils, we have some of them at the Royal Society,” she said.

“I hope this event will be the start of many more, where we can also improve the visibility of living female scientists.”

Women of Wikipedia edit planned

IPhone 5 sale draws huge crowds

2012-10-16T00:05:00.001-07:00

Hundreds joined the iPhone 5 line outside Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Jessica MellowÂ waited in line for more than 180 hoursÂ – that’s eight straight days — for an iPhone 5. She was woken up by cops, “showered” in a torrential downpour, and watched two taxis collide right in front of the growing crowd outside Apple’s gleaming retail cube on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.

On Friday morning,Â AppleÂ (AAPL,Â Fortune 500)Â finally delivered the prize she andÂ thousands of line-sitters around the worldÂ were after. The iPhone 5 went on sale at 8 a.m. local time on Friday in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK.

Mellow among the first to snag a phone at her Apple outpost. The No. 1 person in line — Hazem Sayed, whoÂ arrived more than a week agoÂ to promote his social media startup — said the wait “was definitely worth it.”

The iPhone 5 is virtually guaranteed to be Apple’s all-time bestseller.Apple took more than 2 million pre-ordersÂ in the first 24 hours, shattering last year’s iPhone 4S record, and analysts forecast that it willsell as many as 10 million unitsÂ by Monday morning. Apple’s early inventory is already sold out: Online orders placed now won’t ship for three to four weeks.

Those hoping to snag an iPhone 5 right now will need to brave a retail line. Apple’s stores typically have the best stockpiles, but they also draw the longest lines. By Friday morning, Apple’s Fifth Avenue flagship had a line that stretched down an entire city block and wrapped around.

Apple’s lines traditionally draw a mix ofÂ marketers, Apple zealots and more casual fans. Natalie Lopez, 32, joined the line at 5:30 a.m. Friday.

“I’ve got the original iPhone. I’ve been sitting on it for 5 years. I’m just excited to upgrade it to something new,” she said.

Alex Brooks upgrades his Apple phone every cycle and typically sells the old model. (AnÂ iPhone 4S can still snag well over $200Â on many resale sites.) He said he’s excited about trading up for aÂ lighter, thinner, faster phone.

A few people hovering around hoped to capitalize on all those cast-off phones. One man, who said he was in town visiting from Israel, held up a hand-scribbled, neon pink sign: “I’ll buy your old I-phone. Pay CA$H.”

The crowd at the Apple Store at Grand Central Station was quiet but large about 40 minutes ahead of opening time. The line snaked from the Main Concourse, down hundreds of feet of corridor, to a sign for the exit at 48th St. and Park Avenue. A handful of iPhone hopefuls stepped right up to the marble staircase that leads to the Apple Store — and appeared bewildered when pointed down the corridor toward a long and growing line.

People were still jumping in line at 7:30 a.m. One twentysomething man arrived breathless, asking, “Is this the line for the iPhone 5?”

“It’s the line for the express train to Poughkeepsie,” a security guard quipped.

Several people at the back of the line were heard asking each other, “Do you know how many iPhones they have today?” Everyone shrugged.

Many people in line at Grand Central were passing the time using other Apple gadgets like Macs and iPhones.

A variety of other retailers — including carriersÂ AT&TÂ (T,Â Fortune 500),VerizonÂ (VZ,Â Fortune 500)Â andÂ SprintÂ (S,Â Fortune 500)Â – will also have the iPhone 5 available for sale on Friday, but their stashes could go fast.

A total of zero people were in line at a Radio Shack less than a block away from Grand Central shortly before the iPhone was slated to go on sale.

Representatives at severalÂ Best BuyÂ (BBY,Â Fortune 500)Â locations in Manhattan said the stores were still receiving their shipments on Thursday afternoon, and that they therefore didn’t know many units would be available for purchase Friday morning.

An employee at one Best Buy location in the NoHo section of lower Manhattan said that store is opening at 8 a.m. ET, but the iPhone 5 “will probably be sold out for anyone who didn’t pre-order.”

The carriers’ stores might be a better bet. A Verizon shop several blocks away from Apple’s Fifth Avenue store had around 100 people in line shortly after 8 a.m., and was admitting customers two at a time. Are there enough phones for everyone?

“It’s looking pretty good right now,” a store employee said while scanning the crowd. “The line’s notÂ tooÂ long.”

Apple’s iPhone 5 release comes nearly one year after Apple’s iPhone 4S, the model that introduced the world to Siri. The thinner, faster iPhone 5 is Apple’s first hardware overhaul in several years.Â Reviewers have praisedÂ the phone’s bigger screen, zippy processor, stellar camera and elegant packaging, but two major changes sparked blowback.

Apple’sÂ redesigned “Lightning” connectorÂ will require a pricey adapter to link up with old accessories (and itÂ won’t work at all with some of them), and early adopters have almost universally blasted Apple’s new Map app, which replaced the more-polished Google Maps. A satirical Tumblr,Â theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com, popped up on Thursday to highlight the ludicrously inaccurate suggestions the new app often makes.

Apple’s fans were undaunted.

“I heard maps isn’t so great, so that’s pretty disappointing, but I’m sure they’ll make it better,” Lopez said.

IPhone 5 sale draws huge crowds

How to get an iPhone 5 with unlimited data

2012-10-16T00:04:00.009-07:00

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Unlimited data plans haven’t quite gone the way of the dinosaur, but they’re lurching toward extinction. Want to stay free from tracking the gigabytes of data your new iPhone 5 is sucking down? Here’s a rundown of your dwindling options, listed in order from the easiest to the most agonizing.

1. Get Sprint.Â The last remaining national iPhone carrier to offer unlimited data to both new and current customers isÂ SprintÂ (S,Â Fortune 500). So whether you’re upgrading from a previous Sprint phone or switching carriers, you can get an iPhone 5 on Sprint without worrying about going over a data limit.

2. Keep your legacy AT&T plan.AT&T hasÂ done away with unlimited data for new customers, but millions of existing AT&T subscribers are still holding onto their legacy unlimited plans. If you’re one of them, you can upgrade to the iPhone 5 and keep your plan — unlimited data and all.

If you’re not, then no unlimited data for you. (Next!)Â AT&TÂ (T,Â Fortune 500)Â only offers tiered plans to new customers or current subscribers who have given up their unlimited data plans. The tiered plans come in two flavors: individual orÂ “Mobile Share,”Â the latter of which allows customers to share one pool of data among multiple devices.

Those customers clinging to unlimited data plans may not have to monitor their gigabytes, but they also won’t get everything the iPhone has to offer. The new iOS 6 operating system that comes with the iPhone 5 offersApple’sÂ (AAPL,Â Fortune 500)Â FaceTime video chat service over the cellular network for the first time, butÂ AT&T has restricted that feature. It’s only available to the company’s Mobile Share customers.

3. Buy an iPhone 5 at full price and keep your legacy Verizon plan.Like AT&T,Â VerizonÂ (VZ,Â Fortune 500)Â hasÂ killed off unlimited data for new customers. But Big Red took

How to get an iPhone 5 with unlimited data

Apple promises maps app will 'improve'

2012-10-16T00:04:00.007-07:00

Apple has responded to fierce criticism of its mapping software, saying the application will “improve”.

The mapping software angered users who said it was riddled with inaccuracies, misplaced towns and cities and omitted key landmarks.

Apple said it appreciated all the customer feedback it was receiving about the app and would work hard to improve it.

The problems emerged a day before the global launch of its iPhone 5 handset.

Hundreds of people have camped out for days to ensure they are among the first to buy one of the smartphones. At Apple’s flagship store on London’s Regent Street almost 1300 people were in line for one of the phones.

The mapping system comes with updates to Apple’s phone operating system and is bundled in with the iPhone 5.

Lost towns

Apple embarked on the development of its own mapping software after deciding it no longer wanted to use Google’s equivalent. Apple’s own system has been created using data from navigation firmÂ TomTom and others.

In a statement Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said the launch of Apple Maps was a major undertaking for the firm.

Rory Cellan-Jones compares Apple’s new map app with Google maps

“We are continuously improving it, and as Maps is a cloud-based solution, the more people use it, the better it will get,” she said.

“We appreciate all of the customer feedback and are working hard to make the customer experience even better,” added Ms Muller.

Apple was also planning to work closely with external developers to put the work they have done on apps for local transport into the mapping software, she said.

It is unclear whether this will be enough to mollify users who took to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other social media networks to mock the failings of the mapping application.

The BBC received a lot of complaints about Apple’s maps, with users saying that some towns, such as Stratford Upon Avon, were missing and others were in the wrong place.

In addition some places, including a train station, were shown to be in the ocean and many others were wrongly labelled.

Before the release of the iOS6, Apple’s updated mobile operating system, many developers had warned about the poor quality of the mapping app. It was particularly poor, they said, at finding local businesses via search.

Apple seems to be aware of a need to beef up its mapping expertise. Many tech news sites noted that Apple had placed a lot of adverts on its jobs site for mapping experts in the past week or so.

There is not currently a Google Maps app available in Apple’s App Store, although Google’s system is still accessible via the phone’s web browser.

Apple promises maps app will 'improve'

Microsoft releases fix for IE bug

2012-10-16T00:04:00.005-07:00

Microsoft has released a temporary software fix for a bug in its Internet Explorer web browser.

Cybercriminals used the flaw to install the Poison Ivy trojan on users’ computers.

This piece of malware can steal data or take remote control of a PC.

MicrosoftÂ said in a blogÂ the Fix It tool was “an easy, one-click solution that will help protect your computer right away” but “not intended to be a replacement for any security update”.

Microsoft said there had been an “extremely limited number of attacks”.

Before releasing the fix, the company had suggested workarounds such as disabling Active X controls and Active Scripting or downloading its Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit.

Another suggestion had been to change the security-zone settings on the browser to “high” and run IE in a restricted mode.

So-called zero-day, or newly discovered, vulnerabilities are rare. According to security company Symantec, only eight such bugs were spotted in 2011.

Symantec research manager Liam O Murchu said their novelty made them dangerous.

“Any time you see a zero-day like this, it is concerning,” he said. “There are no patches available. It is very difficult for people to protect themselves.”

The flaw, present in all versions of Internet Explorer except IE 10, was spotted by Luxembourg-based security expert Eric Romang, when his PC was infected by Poison Ivy last week.

Microsoft releases fix for IE bug

US patent office seeks aid to spot bogus patent claims

2012-10-16T00:04:00.003-07:00

Members of the public are being asked by the US Patent Office to help weed out bogus patent applications.

It wants the public to contribute to a website that will spot applications for patents on technologies that have already been invented.

People will also be able to flag up applications on the site which they think are bogus.

The site runs Google software to finds examples of older inventions – “prior art” – to filter out fake claims.

Trivial tech

The website, called Ask Patents, will be run by US firm Stack Exchange that has a track record of operating Q&A websites.

“Our hope is that Ask Patents will reduce the number of patents mistakenly granted for obvious, unoriginal non-inventions, especially around software,” said Stack Exchange boss Joel SpolskyÂ in a blogpost about the site.

In the past some individuals and organisations have used the award of a patent to win cash from firms that do not have the financial resources to launch legal action against such claims.

Mr Spolsky said that although US patent clerks worked hard they typically had less than 22.5 hours so spend on each application.

This made exhaustive searches for all prior art all but impossible and meant many “trivial” patents slipped through.

He said Ask Patents would be a “collaborative effort” that would let anyone examine patent applications.

“It is opening up a process that has been conducted behind closed doors for over 200 years,” he wrote.

The site will also act as a repository of prior art to make it easier to spot when applications are filed for innovations that already exist, or have already been granted.

In an interview with technology magazine Ars Technica, Mr Spolsky said he thought that searching for prior art would be the trickiest part of the whole project.

“However,”Â he told the tech news site,Â ”the truth is, there are probably hundreds of patent applications every week that aren’t true inventions.”

US patent office seeks aid to spot bogus patent claims

iPhone 5: The wait is over

2012-10-16T00:04:00.001-07:00

(CNN)Â – For the most devoted Apple aficionados, it’s been a long week.

But as Thursday night became Friday morning around the world, some of those diehards who spentÂ hours waiting in lineÂ were greeted with open doors at Apple stores and other retailers selling the new iPhone 5.

Announced September 12, the iPhone 5 features a bigger screen, lighter and slimmer frame, faster processor and, for the first time, 4G LTE wireless connections.

If a handful of tech writers were unimpressed with the specs, that didn’t translate into lack of consumer interest.

Apple took 2 million pre-orders for the phone in the first 24 hours they were available last week, and some analysts thinkÂ it could sell more than 10 millionÂ by Monday.

Tokyo fans line up for iPhone 5

Conan’s waiting for the iPhone 5

Assessing Apple’s new iPhone

Evolution of the iPhone

That first-day total was double the number of iPhone 4S pre-orders the company took last year, and an initial Friday shipping date was quickly pushed back. People who pre-order the phone now, or did so in the past few days, could be waiting more than three weeks for their phones to ship.

For those who opted to get personal, the doors at Apple retail stores open at 8 a.m. local time Friday in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK. The phone will roll out to 22 more countries on September 28.

Gallery: The world’s hottest smartphones

Despite morning rainfall in Tokyo, hundreds of eager customers lined up outside an Apple store in the city’s Ginza shopping district. Store employees handed out umbrellas to waiting customers, some of whom came sporting face paint to celebrate the occasion.

“It’s almost like a festival, people just camping in the center of Ginza, just drinking and playing and talking to each other,” said Taiyo Nakashima, a 34-year-old web designer. “It’s not really just buying the phone, it’s just enjoying the party, really.”

In Sydney, Australia, customers camped out in tents and folding chairs. Cheers erupted when the store’s doors opened.

Todd Foot told CNN affiliate Network Ten that he waited for more than 70 hours to get Australia’s first iPhone for sale and review it online.

In Hong Kong, the situation was calmer. To avoid chaotic crowds,like those seen in Beijing in January, the Apple store in central Hong Kong was only selling the new iPhones to customers who had reserved a device online.

The busy store still had extra security and measures to control crowds in place.

The most popular single smartphone since the existence of such a device, the iPhone has sold more than 244 million units around the world since then-CEO Steve Jobs unveiled it six years ago.

In a sign of the continued reverence for Jobs around the world, the Madame Tussauds in Hong Kong is set toÂ unveil a wax figure of his likeness next week.

According to research firm IDC, the iPhone and its iOS operating system make up 16.9% of the worldwide smartphone market, coming in behind the cluster of phones running the Android operating system, which account for 68.1% of the world’s smartphones.

The iPhone 5 is 18% thinner and 20% lighter than the current version, the iPhone 4S. It has a 4-inch screen, measured diagonally, compared with a 3.5-inch screen on previous versions of the phone. It is the same width as the iPhone 4S but taller, and the iPhone 5 is made entirely of glass and aluminum.

iPhone 5: The wait is over

Japanese defense panel: Cyber attacks can be basis for military self defense

2012-10-15T01:57:00.017-07:00

A Japanese defense ministry panel defined the country’s “cyberspace” as part of its territory, on par with land, air, sea and space

A Japanese military panel on Friday released a new set of guidelines for dealing with cyber attacks against the nation, saying that in certain circumstances they could warrant a military response.

The panel, assembled under the Ministry of Defense to consider responses to such attacks, said that they could endanger core infrastructure of the military, as well as national infrastructure and private concerns. It defined cyberspace as “a ‘territory’ where various activities such as information gathering, attack, and defence occur, on the same way as land, sea, air and space.”

While careful to state that online attacks should be considered on a case-by-case basis, the panel made clear Japan’s right to respond to hostile attacks against its infrastructure. It called for a new cyber-military group that would exist separately from the country’s existing ground, sea and air forces.

“It is difficult to define the relationship between cyber attacks and military attacks, and whether or not a specific situation is a military attack or not should be determined by considering the individual, specific circumstances, but if a cyber attack takes place as part of a military attack, this can be considered to fulfil the first condition for invoking the right of self-defense,” a report issued by the panel read.

Japan’s constitution officially forbids it from using force to settle international disputes, but the country operates a large and well-equipped military, as well as hosting large numbers of U.S. troops, planes and ships. While the recommendations released Friday are not official policy or legally binding, they are a rare public statement from the ministry on the issue of cyber defense.

“This is the first time the Defense Ministry has consolidated its stance on cyber attacks,” said ministry spokesman Daisuke Kono.

The panel called for Â¥21.2 billion (US$270 million) in funds for new cyber defense activities, the bulk of which would be devoted to monitoring Japan’s networks and establishing a system for quickly responding to attacks.

It said that considerations for future meetings will include establishing a legal framework for dealing with online attacks, the establishment of a cyber defense group, and cooperation with industry and other countries.

Japanese defense panel: Cyber attacks can be basis for military self defense

Baig: Apple iPhone 5 makes glowing first impression

2012-10-15T01:57:00.015-07:00

SAN FRANCISCOÂ - Over the past several weeks and months, I can’t tell you how often I’ve gotten the question, “When is the new iPhone coming out?’” We now know the answer to the question. Apple announced a brand new iPhone 5 today. The obvious follow-up question: “Is it worth it?”

My true answer must wait until I’ve had a chance to put the iPhone 5 through its paces, and details are still emerging as I sit in the audience at Apple’s event here. But the new iPhone looks awfully inviting from my vantage point. Like many people, I’ve had an iPhone 4 that has frankly grown stale. But I also postponed the purchase of a new smartphone — waiting to see what Apple would do.

The new iPhone 5 has the same retina display as on its predecessor. But Apple finally upped the screen size to 4 inches, up from the 3.5-inch display that was on all its predecessors. That permits a fifth row of app icons on the home screen. It’s still a smaller screen than the display on many rival Android devices. But the extra real estate is welcome, just the same.

Apple says the new device a little taller than its earlier models and is the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever made — 18% thinner, in fact, than its immediate predecessor, the iPhone 4S. And the iPhone 5 is one-fifth lighter than the 4S. It is made entirely of glass and aluminum.

GRAPHIC:Â A leaner, more powerful iPhone

VIDEO:Â Talking Tech: iPhone5

And yes — as had been rumored and as I had hoped — the iPhone 5 can tap into speedy wireless 4G LTE networks. Apple will be working in the U.S. with AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless, as well as several other carriers in Canada and overseas.Apple says users will get up to 8 hours of 3G talk time off its battery.

The iPhone 5, in black or white aluminum, ships Sept. 21 in the U. S. and will be available for preorder on Friday. Prices: $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB, $399 for 64GB. (With a contract, the iPhone 4 will be free; iPhone 4S, $99.)The new iPhone runs off a zippy A6 chip, Apple says, meaning you can launch photos, music, and various apps much quicker. I’m anxious to compare this to its predecessors.It has an improved iSight camera that Apple says increases performance in low light. Apple says it can capture pictures 40% faster than before.

Apple’s Phil Schiller joked about the pictures you can take with the new camera: “Kids look happier.” (I’ll let you know if I’m happier after taking my own pix.) With the new phone, you can also capture panorama images. On stage, Apple showed a stunning 28-megapixels panoramic image of the Golden Gate Bridge.Apple also improved the front-facing FaceTime camera. And the phone has three microphones, and what the company says are better speakers.

Apple has incorporated new “wideband audio” technology to bolster sound by filling up more of the frequency spectrum.Now a controversial topic: iPhone has used the same 30-pin connector that has been on the iPhone since 2003. Of course, there are now lots of other ways to connect — Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi syncing. And now Apple is evolving the connector to something called Lightning, playing off the name of Apple’s other emerging connector, Thunderbolt.

The new connector is 80% smaller and Apple is working with Bose, JBL and others. But what of all the accessories you have that use the older connector, like those in your car. Apple is coming out with an adapter that would let you hook up those other devices. But this is a potential inconvenience, and it’s not yet known if Apple will throw in the adapter for free or charge for it. Either way, it’s just something else you have to worry about taking with you — and not losing.At the core of the new iPhone, of course, is the previously announced iOS 6 software upgrade.

Apple is late to the party with turn-by-turn audio directions, a feature that has been on Android phones for a while. (Third-party developers have helped fill the void on the iPhone up to now). But better late than never, and the built-in Maps and directions in iOS 6 are very sweet. You can zoom in to get virtual photo-realistic tours of an area through Maps. During the event, Apple zoomed in on London’s Big Ben.IOS 6 made enhancements to Notification Center and Safari. Through iCloud Tabs, you can access webpages that were open on your computer back home. Among the new Mail features is the ability to make certain senders your VIPs, so you can easily access their mail amidst all the junk.I’m particularly high on another iOS 6 addition called Passbook, a repository for boarding passes, coupons and such.

You can even display your boarding pass from the iPhone lock screen.With iOS 6 comes Shared Photo Streams. As the name suggests, it’s a way to share images with friends.Apple has also made improvements to Siri, letting you ask the phone’s chatty virtual assistant for sports scores, movie recommendations and to launch apps.Facebook has been implemented throughout iOS 6.

And you can make a FaceTime call over the cellular data network — previously it was just Wi-Fi. Apple says there are more than 200 new features in iOS 6.Separate from the iPhone5 announcement, Apple spent some time talking about its handsome new versions of iTunes for iOS and for computers. Among the enhancements: You can now see the contents of your music library and playlists at the same time. One potentially useful, if not overly exciting, feature is called Up Next. Yes, it lets you know what’s about to play next (though you can rearrange the order).

Apple improved the new mini-player that appears when you’re doing something else on your computer. You can search from within the mini-player.iCloud is built right into iTunes, so you can pick up watching a movie right where you left off. Apple says is coming out with a new iPod Nano that’s 38% thinner, multi-touch, has an FM tuner with live pause and a 2.5-inch display. Widestream video is coming back. Bluetooth has been added. And it has the all-new Lightning connector.

Apple says it will offer up to 30 hours of battery life.Changes are also coming to the iPod Touch, especially popular with gamers. The new 5th generation version is just 6.1mm thin, almost as thin as the Nano. It weighs 88 grams. And it has the same 4-inch retina display as on the iPhone 5. It has a faster dual core chip (the A5, not the A6 in the new iPhone) and superior graphics. 6.1mm thin, almost as thin as the Nano. It weighs 88 grams.

And it has the same 4-inch retina display as on the iPhone 5. It has a faster dual core chip (the A5, not the A6 in the new iPhone) and superior graphics.

Baig: Apple iPhone 5 makes glowing first impression

Intel unveils all-in-one desktop that doubles as a 27-inch tablet

2012-10-15T01:57:00.013-07:00

The Adaptive All-In-One’s display panel weighs 14 pounds, though Intel is trying to slim it down

Intel used itsÂ Developer’s ConferenceÂ in San Francisco to unveil a desktop computer prototype that has a display that can double as a 27-inch tablet with a four-hour battery life.

Slate producers like Samsung, with itsÂ Galaxy Note II, and Apple, with itsÂ expected iPad Mini, are down-sizing the tablet’s classic 10-inch form factor. But Intel must think that there’s room to push the form at the other end of things.

[ Also on InfoWorld:Â 5 storage servers battle for business; find out which one prevails in Test Center's NAS shoot-out. | Keep up on the day's tech news headlines with InfoWorld'sÂ Today's Headlines: Wrap Up newsletter. ]

Called the Adaptive All-In-One, the 2.5-inch thick unit has 1080p HD resolution and has the guts of a personal computer, including optical drive, input/output ports and high-performance graphics processor. On the desktop, it plugs into a dock that charges its battery and connects it to peripherals such as a keyboard and mouse. Its touchscreen can be used both on and off the dock.

The display panel weighs 14 pounds. That may have been portable in the days of theÂ Osborne I, but it’s not very portable by today’s standards. Intel recognizes that deficiency and is working with screen and battery manufacturers to slim down the units, Ernesto Martinez, a client innovation engineer at Intel who helped develop the prototype,Â told MIT’s Technology Review.

All-In-One computers aren’t anything new, and in recent times they’ve been gaining popularity. Apple has been flogging the form for years with its iMac line and just this week HP introduced a slick new addition to the category, theÂ SpectreONE.

Some tablet makers have also dipped their toes in the detachable screen waters. For example,Asus’ Transformer tabletÂ line has a dock that transforms the slates into a mini-laptop.

With ideas like the Adaptive All-In-One, Intel hopes to pump some excitement into a PC market that seems to get moreÂ moribund with each passing quarter. For the quarter ending in June, for instance, Gartner reported that PC shipments declined 5.7 percent. IDC’s estimates for the period were even worse: a 10.6 percent drop.

“The traditional desktop is a box that’s beige, black, or brown. Most likely it’s under the desk,” Intel Innovation Segment Manager Lynda Grindstaff told Technology Review. “Our adaptive all-in-one [design] is going to change the way that people interact with their desktop PCs.”

That kind of optimism about a form factor has been heard from Intel before. A year ago when it announced the Ultrabook — its answer to the MacBook Air — it predicted the form would grab 40 percent of consumer sales by the end of this year. Nearly nine months into the year, the form hasbarely made a dentÂ in the languishing PC market.

Intel unveils all-in-one desktop that doubles as a 27-inch tablet

New Nintendo video game system set for Nov. 18 launch

2012-10-15T01:57:00.011-07:00

Nintendo plans to jumpstart its holiday sales with the Nov. 18 release of its new Wii U high-definition video game console. Retailers have begun taking pre-orders for the system.

Buyers will be able to choose between two Wii U models:

– A basic 8-Gigabyte white model ($299.99) with one wireless motion-sensitive GamePad tablet controller, AC adapter, HDMI cable and sensor bar.

– A 32 GB deluxe black model ($349.99) with GamePad and charging cradle, stand and Nintendo Land game.

The Wii U systems also will include a new built-in Nintendo TVii service that consolidates a household’s TV programming options onto the GamePad’s 6.2-inch touchscreen display.

“For us, it was a natural extension of what we have seen with our relationship with Netflix,” says Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America president . “Having the integrated second screen really created the opportunity for us to disrupt this entertainment space the way we’ve disrupted the gaming space.”

Nintendo expects to have 50 games includingÂ New Super Mario Bros. UÂ andÂ Wii Fit UÂ available between the system’s Nov. 18 launch and the end of March 2013.

The new Wii U pairs a more powerful high-definition console system with the new GamePad controller, which sports two joysticks and traditional buttons, along with a built-in gyroscope, accelerometer and camera.

“I think Nintendo just took a giant leap forward on innovation,” says Paul Raines, CEO of video game retail chain GameStop. “No one has a tablet that plays with a controller. No one had high definition and backwards compatibility with old Nintendo titles. That is pretty exciting stuff.”

With its dual-pronged pricing, Nintendo has hit a $299 price point “that won’t scare people,” says Analyst P.J. McNealy of Digital World Research. However, the game company will need to “clearly explain the value proposition” of the $349 model to consumers, he says.

The Wii U launch should help kickstart lagging sales of video game systems and games, he says. The $17 billion console game industry has seen nine straight months of sales declines, according to market tracking firm The NPD Group. “The excitement around new consoles, starting with the Wii U, is only going to get louder and bigger,” he says

Nintendo has sold 96 million units of the Wii U’s predecessor since its debut in 2006. While its video quality did not match that of high-def competitors PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, the Wii was the first to truly bring motion gaming to consoles. Since then, the Xbox 360 and PS3 have added motion controllers. “Think about 2006, the Wii sold out for three holiday seasons in a row,” McNealy says. “I can easily see that happening again for this holiday.”

Fils-Aime announced the Wii U’s price and availability during a media event broadcast online Thursday. As part of the presentation, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg took the stage and announced that several of Activision’s games will be coming to Wii U.

Its mega-hit franchiseÂ Call of Duty: Black Ops IIÂ will let two play the game cooperatively or competitively with one using the GamePad and another watching on the TV screen. “The Wii U really has stepped it up into a different paradigm,” he says.

New Nintendo video game system set for Nov. 18 launch

Google adds another cool tool to search: Kevin Bacon

2012-10-15T01:57:00.009-07:00

Forget using Google’s more powerful search operators, the best ones are the most fun ones. We’ve seen “tilt” and “do a barrel roll,” but over the past day or so, the company has added another cool new search operator: Bacon number.

No, it’s not a label that meatpacking companies assign to their pork products. It’s actually a new tool that calculates the connection between actors and actresses and the most famous actor never to have been nominated for an Academy Award.

Or as we know it: the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

To use it, type in the words “Bacon number” (without quotes), followed by an actor or actresses name. Google will come back with how closely he/she has been to Kevin Bacon.

Bruce Willis and Kevin Bacon may never have worked together, but they have both worked with Bill Murray. That means the connection is made between two films. The higher the number, the looser the connection.

Never heard of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon concept?Let Wikipedia explain:

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, It’s a variation on “six degrees of separation” which posits that everyone in the world is no more than six acquaintance links from anyone else on Earth. That idea moved into the pop culture mainstream when it spawned a popular play and movie by the same name. It later morphed into a parlor game, wherein movie buffs challenge each other to find the shortest path between an arbitrary actor and the amazingly well connected Hollywood veteran Kevin Bacon.

Knowing he was part of a wider game, Good Guy Kevin Bacon actually started a charitable organization namedÂ SixDegrees.org. What a guy.

Google adds another cool tool to search: Kevin Bacon