Science &EnTech News !

Droid Bionic owners beware: Not all Motorola Lapdocks are created equal

2011-09-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

As I sat in the theater at the AT&T developers conference just before CES this year, Motorola announced the Atrix. A decent looking, crazy-powerful phone that was coming to help shore up AT&T’s lineup now that Verizon was getting the iPhone. Cool enough phone, I thought, but what makes it special? My question was answered almost immediately when among the accessories for the phone came an entire laptop. The Motorola Lapdock is a cool idea by anyone’s imagining, albeit not their best seller. To help with this, Motorola stated that the Lapdock accessory would become available for all future Android smartphones (as would WebTop).

Fast forward to this week, when Verizon’s Lapdock-worthy smartphone finally made it to market. The Droid Bionic is powerful enough when you consider it is the first dual-core 4G LTE smartphone. Add onto it that one of the accessories turns it into a laptop, and you’ve got a pretty cool handset for the student on the go or the savvy jetsetter, right? As it turns out, there’s a kind of hitch.

Upon receiving the Bionic, one of the first things I wanted to do was stick it in the Lapdock for the Motorola Atrix and give it a whirl. The Lapdock’s larger screen, 10+ hours of battery life, and the ability to browse on a proper web browser are pretty appealing features to have with you on the go. Plus the Lapdock is smaller than a Chromebook or Macbook Air, and just as light. A funny thing happened when I tried, though. It turns out that the HDMI port and the MicroUSB ports are flipped backwards compared to the Atrix.

This means that if you have an Atrix dock, or if you tried to get one on the cheap from eBay, or maybe you decided to make the switch from AT&T to Verizon because they have a phone that supports this $300 accessory, you’re out of luck.

Why have Motorola and/or Verizon chosen to do this? What benefit could there be to have an entirely separate product that is imperceptibly identical until you try to use it on something else? I find it hard to believe that the profit margins would be affected so badly that it was decided that a different model was needed to keep those tricky consumers from trying to sneak one by.

Neither Verizon nor Motrola have offered a statement to explain the reason for this, but for now be careful when ordering a Lapdock for your Motorola smartphone, because it might not be the right one.

The Linux Foundation taken offline following security breach

2011-09-11T13:02:00.000-07:00

On or around August 12 the servers used to maintain and distribute the Linux

operating system were compromised. No one noticed for over two weeks allowing

malware to fill those servers accessed through kernel.org. Since then kernel.org has

been down for maintenance as site administrators try to understand how the attack

was possible and what damage it did.

Now it seems the breach has extended beyond kernel.org. On September 8 a new

breach was discovered across The Linux Foundation‘s group of sites. That includes

LinuxFoundation.com and Linux.com, and any subdomains those sites run.

If you visit either domain at the moment you will be presented with a message explaining

what has happened. The decision to take all servers offline was done in the “interest of

extreme caution and security best practices.”

If you were a member, or have an account on The Linux Foundation or Linux.com sites,

then expect to be receiving an email shortly. The breach is thought to have compromised

usernames, email addresses, passwords, and any personal information stored with the account.

The advice being given is to check the password you used with that account is not being

used for other logins in use. If it is, then change the password immediately for those accounts.

The services offered by The Linux Foundation, which include Linux.com,

Open Printing, and Linux Mark, will be restored as and when the breach has

been neutralized and new security measures put in place. I wouldn’t be

surprised to see a forced password reset happening in the coming days or weeks.

How the iPhone will ruin your love life

2011-09-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

Your iPhone has a feature called auto-correct and that's fine, dandy and useful

— except when it results in humiliation and canceled dates.

You see, the auto-correct feature is there to help prevent typos.

It automatically offers a suggestion when it thinks you've misspelled a

word and substitutes it for whatever you've typed out, unless you tap

an "x" button to ignore the suggestion.

Yes, this means that the feature sometimes has a mind of its own and changes what you're trying to say entirely.
Most people first encounter this quirk when they find themselves talking about ducking when they're trying to curse up a storm, but there are definitely plenty of other similarly annoying "corrections" which will make your life difficult. The talented folks at CollegeHumor have created a video to demonstrate just how bad this can get — and how it could put a damper on romance.
Take a look at it below, but heads up! There are a few words in this video which might offend the more sensitive listeners — or bosses who might be within earshot.

John Wiley eyes greater share of e-book sales: CEO

2011-09-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

Publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc said it is planning a major digital push to grab a bigger slice of the lucrative e-book market, which is witnessing an explosive growth, fueled by the popularity of tablets and e-readers.
"Some of the larger publishing houses have 25-30 percent of sales from e-books. We hope to achieve those levels," Chief Executive Stephen Smith told Reuters in an interview.
E-books represent 11 percent of the company's professional/trade (PT) unit sales, which account for 23 percent of overall revenue, and their sales saw strong growth at Amazon Inc's Kindle store and Apple Inc's iBookstore.
"In the first quarter of this year, we have seen a three-fold rise in e-book sales at our professional and trade segment," Smith said. "We expect to see e-books becoming a much larger proportion of our revenue."
The 204-year old company -- which started off as a publisher of 19th century American authors like Washington Irving, Herman Melville, and Edgar Allan Poe -- is now known for brands such as "For Dummies" instructional texts, "Frommer's" travel guides, "Betty Crocker" cookbooks and Wiley-Blackwell academic journals.
Digital sales, which include e-books and other products and services, accounted for 40 percent of the company's total revenue across all its segments in fiscal year 2011.
Digital sales comprised 59 percent of scientific/technical/medical/scholarly (STMS), 10 percent of PT, and 16 percent of global education revenue. While e-books make up 16 percent of STMS, 7 percent of PT and 5 percent of global education revenue.
The company's STMS unit, its largest by sales, was the first to migrate to digital in 1995 followed by its global education unit.
Wiley also signed sales agreements with Amazon Germany, ChristianBooks.com, and Blio in the first quarter to push e-book sales.
Its larger rivals include McGraw-Hill Companies Inc, Reed Elsevier Plc, Pearson, Axel Springer AG.
ALLIANCES & ACQUISITIONS
While growth in Asia, which accounts for about a fifth of the company's revenue, continues to be strong, Wiley is also looking to enhance its digital content through services acquisitions, partnerships and in-house development.
"We are finding sources of growth in more mature markets in North America and Europe particularly through expansion of services," Smith said.
Smith, who is undergoing cancer treatment, said the company is looking at technology to speed its digital transition and move to "content-based services" and it is "vigilantly looking at strategic opportunities at the right price."
Wiley is interested in acquiring companies that helps build capabilities in search technology, content enrichment, semantic tagging, distance learning, curriculum development, test preparation, among others.
The company generated $270 million of free cash flow in 2011 and said it is "comfortable making large acquisitions."
Wiley's $1.12 billion buy of UK's academic journal and reference book publisher Blackwell Publishing in 2007 was its most recent and largest acquisition in its history.
The Hoboken, New Jersey-based also reaffirmed its profit outlook of $3.15-$3.20 for the year on mid-single digit revenue growth. At constant U.S. dollar rates, the company expects to add 10 cents a share to profit.
With regards to Apple taking a 30 percent cut on sales through its App Store, the company said it is "absolutely not coordinating with our competitors regarding negotiations with Apple on any terms or pricing."

AT&T fights back at U.S. challenge of T-Mobile deal

2011-09-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

AT&T Inc and T-Mobile USA fought back against the Justice Department's challenge to their proposed merger, arguing the deal would "usher in more intense competition."
AT&T and T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, argued in a federal court filing on Friday that the massive $39 billion deal would free up spectrum and create new capacity for Americans whose mobile devices are transmitting increasingly large amounts of data.
"The Justice Department's complaint fails to come to grips with the significant efficiencies this transaction will generate," the companies said in their filing.
In the brief, AT&T asked the court to allow its purchase of T-Mobile to go forward and to require the Justice Department to pay its costs in the challenge.
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit aimed at stopping the deal last week, saying the acquisition of T-Mobile USA, the No. 4 carrier, by AT&T, the No. 2, would harm competition in the wireless market and lead to higher prices.
The department, in particular, seemed determined to preserve T-Mobile as an innovative, discount carrier that held down wireless prices.
Responding to that concern, AT&T said "T-Mobile is not a unique or material competitive constraint on AT&T."
"T-Mobile has not been a meaningful or unique innovator in terms of network development and deployment, nor is it likely to become one in the foreseeable future," AT&T said in the filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The deal partners took issue with the Justice Department's review of the effect of the merger on a national basis instead of on a local basis. They argued that more than 90 percent of U.S. consumers currently have at least five wireless carriers to choose from in their local markets.
They also disputed the method the Justice Department used to analyze the deal, saying it was too simplistic.
If the merger goes through, AT&T will unseat Verizon Wireless as the No. 1 U.S. mobile carrier. Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc.
"We continue to believe this transaction as currently proposed is anti-competitive and harmful to consumers," Justice Department Spokesperson Gina Talamona said. "We will respond further in our court filing."

Apple wins German court ruling on Samsung tablets

2011-09-09T16:43:00.000-07:00

- Apple Inc scored a symbolic legal victory in efforts to keep its lead spot in the tablet computer market when a German court upheld a ban barring Samsung's local unit from selling its Galaxy 10.1 tablets in Europe's biggest economy.
Samsung, which said it will appeal the decision, and Apple have been locked in a global battle over smartphone and tablet patents since April.
Samsung's Galaxy devices are seen as among the biggest challengers to Apple's mobile products, which have achieved runaway success.
Samsung said it was disappointed by the ruling and that it believed the ruling restricts design innovation and progress in the industry.
It said it would explore all legal options, including continuing to aggressively pursue Apple for what Samsung said are a violation of its wireless technology patents around the world.
Craig Cartier, analyst at consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan, said that while Friday's ruling would not greatly affect Samsung it could set a precedent for other courts and have repercussions for patent battles worldwide.
"There has been an arms race in the patent world which has led to a high valuation of patent portfolios, including Nortel's $4.5 billion patent auction," Cartier said.
"Companies may start to question if patent values are simply another bubble waiting to burst."
STILL FOR SALE
The temporary injunction upheld by the court on Friday bars Samsung Germany from selling the Galaxy 10.1 tablet in Germany.
But retailers such as consumer electronics chain Media Markt will still be able to sell the device by selling off existing stock or getting new supplies from the South Korean group's parent Samsung International.
Media Markt said it was too early to say what the verdict would mean for its business.
Patent expert Florian Mueller said in his blog www.fosspatents.com that the sales ban in Europe for Samsung Germany has no practical consequences.
The German subsidiary is also barred from selling the tablets in Europe, excluding the Netherlands where Apple requested a separate injunction.
Giving the ruling, Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann said in court in Duesseldorf that the overall impression of the tablet was too similar to the design of Apple's iPad.
"It (the tablet) is distinguished by its smooth, simple areas," Brueckner-Hofmann said.
By contrast, a Dutch court ruled last month that it found no infringement for Samsung's tablets.
Apple repeated its usual statement saying that: "This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas."
In a global intellectual property battle, Apple has claimed the Galaxy line of mobile phones and tablets "slavishly" copied the iPhone and iPad and has sued the Korean company in the United States, Australia, Japan and Korea as well as in Europe.
Samsung, whose tablets are based on Google Inc's Android software, has counter-sued Apple.
On Thursday, Apple also filed a suit against Samsung in Japan, seeking to ban sales of some of its gadgets there.
That same day, smartphone maker HTC said that it extended its lawsuit against Apple to include more patents the Taiwanese company acquired from Google as legal battles become increasingly common in the hi-tech industry.

NBC News Twitter account hacked

2011-09-09T16:34:00.000-07:00

Hackers compromised the NBC News Twitter account today and sent several fake

tweets from the account about an attack on Ground Zero reminiscent of the attacks

of September 11, 2001.

"Breaking News! Ground Zero has just been attacked. Flight 5736 has crashed into

the site, suspected hijacking. More as the story develops," was the first tweet this afternoon.

It was followed by two others, including one that started "This is not a joke."

The fourth tweet said "NBCNEWS hacked by The Script Kiddies."

An e-mailed NBC News statement said: "The NBC News twitter account

was hacked late this afternoon and as a result, false reports of a plane attack

on ground zero were sent to @NBCNews followers. We are working with

Twitter to correct the situation and sincerely apologize for the scare that could have

been caused by such a reckless and irresponsible act."

A search for the NBC News Twitter profile shortly thereafter displayed the message

"This user does not exist."

It's unclear who the Script Kiddies are. The profile for the Script Kiddies--a term

used to describe novice hackers--also appeared to have been removed from Twitter.

The hacking comes after a similar problem with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's

Twitter account, which was used to tweet blatant spam yesterday. Wozniak told CNET

that he wasn't aware of his account being hacked but that he would change his password.

"I really don't use my Twitter account," he wrote in an e-mail. "I should. It's a good thing.

But it's down on my priority list and I'm too short of time."

Twitter spokeswoman Lynn Fox, contacted in regards to the Wozniak incident,

said the company does not comment on individual accounts.

AT&T responds to Justice Department lawsuit

2011-09-09T16:28:00.000-07:00

AT&T filed a response to the Justice Department's lawsuit to block the merger with

T-Mobile USA today, claiming the agency fails to understand the benefits of the deal

and isn't painting an accurate picture of the competitive environment.

The Dallas telecommunications giant largely brought up the same arguments it first

made to regulators: that the deal would allow AT&T to gain access to more spectrum,

let the company provide wireless broadband access to more people, and that it would

provide more competition in an already competitive industry. The filing also contains

specific responses denying multiple claims made in the Justice Department lawsuit.

"The Department of Justice's complaint fails to come to grips with the significant

efficiencies this transaction will generate," AT&T said in its filing. "(The) complaint

similarly fails to depict accurately the state of competition in mobile telecommunications

today, the dynamic nature of the wireless industry, or the pro-competitive and

pro-consumer impact of this transaction."

AT&T also took exception to the use of the term, the "Big Four," since there it

argues there are usually more than four competitors in each market. The term,

however, is often used in the industry to refer to the four nationwide carriers.

Consumer advocate groups and smaller companies led by Sprint Nextel have

used this argument in their push to stop the deal.

AT&T also argued that blocking the deal will do little to help T-Mobile, which

continues to lose customers and doesn't have the necessary spectrum to move

to a 4G network. It said that competition would actually be hurt if T-Mobile were

left alone because parent Deutsche Telekom has said it wouldn't invest in the business.

The company added that T-Mobile's "disruptive pricing" plans aren't affecting AT&T now.

"Blocking this transaction will not help T-Mobile or its customers," AT&T said in its filing.

AT&T has long sought to position the merger review to look at competition on a

market-by-market basis, where it claims multiple competitors exists. But the Justice

Department has opted to look at competition in a national level, with one out of

the four national players getting swallowed up by another.

AT&T, however, also expressed its willingness to work with the agency.

"At the same time, we have been and remain interested in a solution that addresses

the DOJ's issues with the T-Mobile merger," the company said in an e-mailed

statement alongside the filing.

The deal was put in serious jeopardy after the DOJ surprisingly filed its suit last week.

While not dead, most analysts believe there's a significantly lower chance that AT&T

will be able to push the deal through. The telecom giant has been left scrambling

to find a compromise, including the promise to bring back 5,000 outsourced call

center jobs and sell off significant chunks of T-Mobile as concessions.

AT&T and the Justice Department are scheduled to present their case to Judge Ellen Huvelle

during a hearing that starts on September 21

AT&T also said in the statement that it remains confident that it would close the deal.

Google tells users in Iran to change their passwords

2011-09-09T16:22:00.000-07:00

Google is telling people in Iran to change their passwords and take other security precautions in the

wake of an Internet attack in which the google.com domain was spoofed.

We learned last week that the compromise of a Dutch company involved with verifying the

authenticity of websites could have put the Internet communications of many Iranians at risk,

including their Gmail," Eric Grosse, Google's vice president of security engineering,

wrote in a blog post last night.

"While Google's internal systems were not compromised, we are directly contacting

possibly affected users and providing similar information below because our top priority

is to protect the privacy and security of our users," he wrote.

Specifically, Google recommends that users in Iran change their passwords;

verify their account recovery options; check the Web sites and applications that

are allowed to access their Google account; check Gmail settings for suspicious

forwarding addresses or delegated accounts; and pay attention to warnings that

appear in the Web browser and don't click past them.

An Iranian hacker has taken credit for breaking into a Dutch certificate authority

named DigiNotar and fraudulently creating more than 500 Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

certificates used to authenticate Web sites, including one that was used in the wild to trick

people into thinking they were visiting a legitimate Google site when they weren't.

Google confirmed last week that users in Iran were primarily affected by the attack.

Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Windows and Adobe now blacklist DigiNotar certificates.

Mozilla also is asking certificate authorities to take certain actions designed to prevent

such problems from happening.

Digital certificates are supposed to serve as proof that a Web site is the site it claims

to be when a Web surfer uses an "https" connection. But the 600 or so companies

that provide the certificates have differing levels of security and no standard process

for automatically revoking fraudulent certificates.

AOL Said to Discuss Deal With Yahoo Advisers

2011-09-09T15:26:00.000-07:00

AOL Inc. (AOL) Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong is talking with advisers to Yahoo! Inc.

to gauge its interest in combining the companies after the ouster of CEO Carol Bartz,

according to two people familiar with the matter.

Armstrong is discussing options for a combination aimed at strengthening the two Internet companies,

said the people, who wouldn’t be identified because the talks aren’t public.

He has talked with private equity firms and investment bankers from Allen & Co.

working with Yahoo, one person said.

Armstrong had been interested in a merger with Yahoo last year and was rebuffed while Bartz was at the

helm, one person said. Her departure prompted him to reconsider the option, and, under one scenario

now being considered, Yahoo would acquire AOL and Armstrong would become CEO

of the combined company, the person said.

Yahoo is unlikely to be interested in a deal for AOL at this time given the company’s losses

and declining revenue, according to one person familiar with the matter.

AOL’s market value is about $1.6 billion, while Yahoo’s is about $18.2 billion.

Graham James, a spokesman for AOL, and Kim Rubey, spokeswoman for Yahoo,

declined to comment.

AOL and Yahoo have been struggling to compete against Internet companies such as Google Inc.

(GOOG) and Facebook Inc. AOL has lost almost $800 million since it was spun off from

Time Warner Inc. (TWX) in 2009. The Internet pioneer has struggled to make money from

online advertising as its profitable dial-up Internet access business declines.

AOL is also using Allen & Co. to consider its strategic options.

How your social network can protect your credit card

2011-05-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

The payment service WePay launched a new online ticket store this week that competes in some ways with EventBrite. It's a logical addition to the growing service. But that's not what's interesting about WePay.

I'm seeing payment services companies like this popping up a bit more than I would have expected, given the serious regulatory and security issues involved in handling money in bulk (see Dwolla and Venmo). Talking about that with WePay founder Rich Aberman led to a fascinating discussion about how the company hopes to keep its fraud rate low enough to stay in business. Here's how: It will use online social-network strength, in addition to old-fashioned antifraud methods, to spot bad transactions before they get authorized.

As we've learned recently--thanks, Sony--there's a healthy supply of valid credit card numbers available to bad guys. Even Social Security Numbers aren't too hard to come by. Using various collections of numbers and identifiers to verify that the person on the other end of a Web transaction is the person who owns the credit card being used is standard antifraud practice. It's not nothing, but it's far from foolproof, and credit card companies bake a substantial percentage of transaction write-offs into their balance sheets to account for all the fraud that gets through. Aberman says these old antifraud technologies don't go far enough for a new company like his, which is trying to compete in part by having a lower proportion of uncollectable and criminal transactions.

WePay has launched a ticket sales service on top of its payment processing infrastructure.

(Credit: WePay)

It is much harder to fake a social network identity than it is to fake ownership of a number in a database somewhere. Real people have real friends and behave online in ways that are quite different from fake online identities that have fake connections and do fake things like "friend" indiscriminately and send out links to spam or phishing sites. It is thus harder to create or steal a social identity than an individual one. If you tie a credit card number into a social-network identity, you can use that fact to reduce online fraud. As Aberman wrote to me after our meeting, "We are using your online identity to verify your identity in the real world."

Facebook, for its part, uses its knowledge of users' social networks to fight fraud and tamp down account theft and hijacking. Users coming in from computers they've used before, and acting in consistent ways with their groups, don't see Facebook's escalating authorization systems, but start to act oddly (fraudulently) or log in from a computer in Peru one day when yesterday you logged in from Ohio, and you'll get introduced to Facebook's social verification system, which uses your knowledge of your network of friends to make sure you are the person whose account you are logging in to. Fred Wolens, Facebook policy associate, told me the social verification system has been "iterated" to be more reliable for users than it was when it was first rolled out.

Wolens says Facebook doesn't keep scores on individuals rating their authenticity or trustworthiness. Rather, he says, assessments are made when needed. "We have systems to determine what is a fake account or not. For each interaction we look at a number of different things."

Facebook keeps this data to itself at the moment, but it could, in theory, become a major player in the authorization space for other companies like WePay. It's more likely, though, that it will keep this information internal, and use it to make its own payments system more robust.

WePay's Aberman says that the goal for any payment processing company is, "to own the credit card info, and protect it." By running WePay transactions through a social filter--requiring someone using a credit card to go through a social verification process, either overtly or behind the scenes--it may just be able to do a better job of account protection. It's a smart move.

It also indicates just how much power social networks are gaining in our financial lives. Facebook stands to gain from this the most, but Twitter, LinkedIn, and even e-mail providers like Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google could end up profiting from what may become a new and important part of payment authorization to fight fraud. If social verification does become an important part of online transactions, it will shift power away, a bit, from the credit card issuing companies. And for consumers, again as it has been throughout most of our history, the ease with which we navigate the financial world will depend not just on what we know, but who.

Google's top five standoffs

2011-05-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

When PayPal filed its lawsuit against Google yesterday for poaching a key executive for its mobile-payment business, it got us thinking about the growing list of enemies Google has made over the years.

Sometimes Google takes heat for doing the right thing, as it did in China. After wrestling with censorship, the company chose to shut down its Google.cn site and redirected users to the uncensored Chinese-language Google.com.hk domain in Hong Kong.

But Google has also managed to alienate regulators, both in the United States and abroad. And as the company pushes into new markets, it's found a passel of new rivals with which to do battle.

So here, then, are the top five confrontations (not scientifically selected) in which Google has managed to mire itself:

Apple: While Google's then-CEO Eric Schmidt sat on the board at Apple, Google developed its Android mobile phone operating system. It may not have seemed like a conflict of interest to Schmidt for the three years he served as a director. But the Federal Trade Commission raised some questions, even after Schmidt resigned. And Apple? It's CEO, Steve Jobs, felt betrayed enough that he reportedly railed on Google at an internal meeting, saying, "We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake, they want to kill the iPhone."

Yahoo deal: In 2008, Google was forced to back down from plans to create a search advertising partnership with Yahoo. The defeat, a rare one in Google's brief history, came as the company overreached, according to regulators and advertisers. The deal would have further strengthened Google's already massive lead in search advertising. It misjudged the opposition the deal engendered.

Street View: Shortly after launching Street View in 2007, Google caught flack from governments and privacy advocates for displaying photographs that included people's faces and car license plates. It creeped out users, showing people walking into adult bookstores and inadvertently flashing their underwear at Google's cameras. The company even acknowledged Google collecting e-mails, passwords, and URLs from Wi-Fi networks while the company was snapping images for its Street View service. The company continues to address the fallout from privacy concerns sparked by Street View.

Google Books: The company boldly sought to digitize every book ever written, making the world's literature available to anyone interested in any title. Quickly, the ambitious effort took heat for attempting to profit from books without the permission of copyright owners. When Google reached a settlement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, another batch of opponents stepped forward, complaining that Google would amass too much control as the only organization in the world with a license to scan and display books that have gone out of print but were still protected by copyright laws. In March, Google lost a round in that fight when a New York federal judge rejected the settlement.

Rogue online pharmacies: Earlier this month, Google disclosed a $500 million charge in its first quarter to cover the potential cost of resolving an investigation by the Department of Justice, reportedly for accepting ads from rogue online pharmacies in violation of federal law. The eye-popping amount suggests to some legal scholars that Google knew it was taking business from companies that broke the law. Google took steps to curtail advertising by illicit pharmacies in February 2010 and even won praise from the Obama administration in December for making efforts to block those ads. Now the company just needs to resolve the lingering dispute with the Justice Department.

Obama appointing Twitter CEO to advisory group

2011-05-30T12:46:00.000-07:00

Just months after becoming Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo will also be joining a presidential advisory committee.

Last night, President Obama announced his intent to appoint Costolo to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC). Costolo became the CEO of

Twitter in October, taking over from site co-founder Evan Williams. Prior to becoming CEO, Costolo served as Twitter's chief operating officer.

The president also announced plans to appoint to the committee Scott Charney, corporate vice president for Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group, and David DeWalt, McAfee president.

"I am proud to appoint such impressive men and women to these important roles, and I am grateful they have agreed to lend their considerable talents to this Administration," President Obama said in a statement accompanying his plans for appointments. "I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead."

The NSTAC has been in place for more than 25 years. Its main charge is to provide the U.S. government with important advice on the "availability and reliability of telecommunication services." The committee is made up of several high-powered executives, including John Stankey, CEO of AT&T Business Solutions, Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint Nextel, and Ivan Seidenberg, chairman and CEO of Verizon.

The addition of Twitter's CEO to the telecommunications committee speaks to how important the service has become to global communications. Not only is the site useful for communication between average people, but when news breaks, Twitter has become the first place to find information. In fact, news of the killing of Osama bin Laden was revealed on Twitter before any major news outlet published a story. The raid was even unwittingly live-tweeted by a Pakistani man close to Bin Laden's compound.

Obama's newest appointments comes just a few months after he held a dinner with 12 of the country's top tech executives, including Apple CEO Steve Jobs, then-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz. Acknowledging the importance of social networks today, attendees also included Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Costolo.

W3C officially opens HTML5 to scrutiny

2011-05-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

The World Wide Web Consortium has reached an important point in the long journey to standardize HTML5, the next version of the Hypertext Markup Language used to describe Web pages.

HTML5 officially reached "last call" status this week, which means the W3C believes it's got a version of the specification mature enough for organizations to decide whether to express support. But changes still could come: "In practice, last call announcements generate comments that sometimes result in substantive changes to a document," the W3C said in announcing that HTML5 reached last call.

Hypertext Markup Language is a key plank of the World Wide Web technology created by Tim Berners-Lee, who remains involved as the W3C director. "We now invite new voices to let us know whether these specifications address a broad set of needs," he said in a statement.

But HTML5 also is a sore point for the group. HTML has steadily gained in importance as the Web grew far beyond its early roots. But the W3C largely abandoned HTML after releasing version 4.0.1 in 1999.

The W3C focused instead on an incompatible technology called XHML 2.0. That project didn't catch on among Web developers and browser makers, though; the latter formed their own group called the Web Hypertext Applications Technology Working Group (WHATWG) to advance HTML outside the W3C.

The W3C's work formed the foundation of HTML5 and some other related HTML specifications, and the W3C ultimately rejoined the effort. There's still a philosophical tension between the W3C and WHATWG, though: the W3C is working methodically to standardize HTML5 in 2014, but the WHATWG has abandoned HTML version numbers altogether in a shift to a more fluid, constant development process. The projects are still closely linked, though; the same person, a Google employee named Ian Hickson, is editor of both specifications.

HTML5 itself brings a number of changes.

One high-profile feature is an attempt to promote video and audio to the first-class status graphics enjoy rather than relying on plug-ins such as Adobe Systems' Flash Player. HTML5 video is conflicted, though, when it comes to the encoding technology used to actually stream video over the Web: browser makers Mozilla, Opera, and Google are fans of a Google project called WebM, which Google has released as royalty-free and open-source software. Apple and Microsoft, however, prefer the more mature and accepted but patent-encumbered H.264 encoding technology.

Another major feature of HTML5 is Canvas, a receptacle for a range of 2D graphics that can handle everything from computer-generated bar charts to an online game playing field.

HTML5 also tackles some thorny issues at the heart of browser makers' lives: how to digest, or parse, Web page code. HTML5's parser technology is based on a very broad examination of how HTML is used in practice on the Web, and the effort is intended to ensure that Web pages will look the same with different browsers. Accompanying the effort is a consistent way of handling errors in Web page coding, so those pages look the same, too.

The new standard also gets a range of new tags to label sections of a document more descriptively: section, header, and article, for example. That effort grew out of the recognition that many programmers had to resort to more laborious procedures to handle the same document structures over and over.

HTML5 promotes another piece of plumbing, the DOM (Document Object Model), to an official status. Ordinary people shouldn't have to care about the DOM, but they will care about what it's involved with--JavaScript programs that use the DOM to interact with Web page elements, for example. That's key to the much more sophisticated, dynamic Web pages often called Web apps.

HTML5 isn't the only HTML standardization work under way. Other HTML standards include geolocation, offline data storage, background processing, and a direct browser-server communication conduit called WebSockets.

On top of that, HTML5 often refers to a much broader collection of new Web features--WebGL for 3D graphics, Cascading Style Sheets for formatting and now animation, and fast JavaScript for more advanced Web app programming, for example. The W3C, while enthusiastic about much of that new work, generally sticks to the strict, narrow definition of HTML5.

For a look at what comes next in standardization, the W3C has released a schedule of upcoming steps in handling feedback, bugs that are filed, and moving on to the next stage.

For example, the W3C hopes to address all HTML5 objections by January 31, 2012.

In addition, with HTML5 reaching last call status, the W3C now plans to turn more attention to future features it calls HTML.next.

A final, important point: although the HTML5 standardization process is very drawn out, it's not charting some future ideas. More often, it's codifying the present, settling down practices already supported in browsers and used on the Web. So in many regards, HTML5 is already here.

Mozilla eyes changes 'to keep our users safe' !

2011-04-17T08:49:00.000-07:00

Mozilla is reviewing a final draft of its baseline policies

to address problems in the way that Internet certificates

are issued.

The browser maker wants certificate authorities (CAs)

that issue certificates to adopt a standard that's been

dubbed "Baseline Requirements for the Issuance and

Management of Publicly-Trusted Certificates" ,

published by the Certificate and Browser Forum

and still in a final draft.

Mozilla consultant Kathleen Wilson said on a Mozilla

development forum that CAs will have until May 25 to

review the draft.

She said that from June 30, Mozilla software will refuse

certificates signed with the troubled MD5 hash algorithm

for intermediate and end-entity CAs, and "will take this

action earlier and at its sole discretion if necessary

to keep our users safe."

In late 2008, security researchers had already exploited

weaknesses in the MD5 algorithm to forge fake certificates.

Sony milestones: 50 million PS3s, 8 million Moves !

2011-04-17T08:39:00.001-07:00

Sony's PlayStation 3 console and PlayStation Move

motion-gaming peripheral have hit milestones,

the game company announced today.

According to Sony, it has shipped 50 million PlayStation 3

consoles worldwide since the console's launch in November 2006.

The tally includes shipments through March 29. In addition,

Sony announced that there are 75 million registered

PlayStation Network accounts around the world.

Since Sony launched the PlayStation 3, sales have continually

been on the upswing. A page on its corporate Web site

reveals that Sony shipped 3.5 million PlayStation 3 units

in its 2006 fiscal year, 9.1 million shipments in its 2007 fiscal

year, 10.1 million in 2008, and 13 million in 2009.

Last month, the company said it had shipped shipped

47.9 million PlayStation 3 units worldwide.

By comparison, Microsoft announced the worldwide

sales milestone of 50 million Xbox units back in January.

In a less direct comparison, Nintendo announced in

December that it had sold 34 millions Wii units in the

United States.

But Sony didn't just stop at the PlayStation 3.

The company also revealed that it has also

shipped 8 million PlayStation Move units since

that accessory's launch in September.

However, Sony's Move controller is trailing behind

Microsoft's motion alternative, Kinect. That device,

which lets people control on-screen action with only the

movement of their bodies, sold 8 million units last

year--less than two months after it went on sale.

Last month, Microsoft announced that it sold 10 million

Kinect units through February.

And impressive as those figures may be,

the Kinect and PlayStation Move have a long way

to go to catch up to Nintendo's own motion-gaming

peripheral, the Wii Remote. Back in October,

the game company said it had sold 65.3 million

Wii Remotes worldwide since the Wii's launch in November 2006.

Apple patent hints at 'Spaces' coming to iPad !!

2011-04-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

A new Apple patent filing unearthed by Patently Apple points

at an interesting prospect for productivity hounds

on the iPad: bringing the multi-desktop "Spaces" feature

found in Mac OS X to the realm of the touch-screen tablet.

Called "device, method, and graphical user interface for

manipulating workspace views," the 2009 application,

which went live on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's site

yesterday, describes a device with a touch screen that has

"a plurality of workspace views." When enabled, the idea is

to let users jump around to their various screens with finger

gestures, turning the 10-inch screen into a just a window

of a larger work space.

The various toggles for surfing around these work spaces are

described as gestures, including pinching in various parts of the

screen as well as a five-finger tap and pinch.

Similar gestures appeared, and still grace the iPad in the form

of a feature that had been made available to developers since an

early beta of iOS 4.3. Apple had experimented with allowing users

to not only jump back to the home screen with a five-finger pinch,

but also pull up the multitasking bar with a four-fingered swipe,

and even jump between open applications by swiping multiple

fingers across the screen.

This functionality never made it to the build of iOS 4.3 that

went out to users, though can still be enabled by marking the

iPad as a development device within Apple's Xcode software.

Some developers with applications that made use of multi-finger

gestures complained that the feature could send finger-happy

users skipping off to another application by mistake.

What's interesting about this patent is that it's not just single

applications that are being described as taking up the whole view,

it's full on desktop work spaces. Patently Apple suggests this is

Apple considering bringing the full version of Mac OS X to a tablet,

versus the company's iOS software based on the patent's image

section alone, which depicts OS X screenshots in the examples.

The other curious tidbit to be gleaned from the application is that

Apple is exploring gestures that can be assigned to specific parts

of the screen. This adds an extra layer of complexity to what

users need to learn, but extends some of the gestures used on

tablets in a similar fashion to what the company has done

on the multitouch trackpads found on MacBooks and

with its Magic Trackpad accessory.

The important thing to point out here is that this is just a patent

application, and is in no way a surefire bet that the company

plans to bring the functionality to existing devices.

Even so, it does give a hint at some of the additional things the

company's Mac OS and iOS platforms can share with one another,

something that's going to be of keen interest to users of both

in the run-up to 10.7 Lion and the next major version of iOS,

the latter of which is expected to be unveiled at Apple's WWDC

event in June.

AT&T offers new tools for finding lost phones !!

2011-03-31T14:48:00.000-07:00

AT&T announced a new equipment protection plan today that

bundles insurance, support, and phone location services

for $9.99 per month. Most of the carrier's current handsets (PDF)

will be compatible with the AT&T Mobile Protection Pack,

though iPhone and iPad users will have to resort to other

solutions like Apple's MobileMe and Find My iPhone/iPad.

Customers who sign up for the service will get:

Mobile Insurance (formerly called Wireless Phone Insurance) will replace handsets that disappear through loss or theft, become inoperable through accidental or liquid damage, or suffer from mechanical and electrical failure after the manufacturer's warranty expires. Of course, this includes "approved claims" and you'll be subject to a deductible of $50 or $125 depending on your device.
Enhanced Support will go beyond normal customer service to offer setup advice and troubleshooting over the phone or online. And if they choose to do so, customers can give customer service reps remote access to select devices.
Mobile Locate will give customers the option to locate a lost phone in real time, find the last five locations of the handset, and get directions to each place. They also can make the phone sound an alarm every 3 minutes even if it's in silent mode and remotely lock the device with a PIN. Of course, to use these features the phone will need to be turned on and in an AT&T service area.

Though the insurance is nothing new and you'd think that the

Enhanced Support could come for free, the Mobile Locate features

are welcome and the monthly price seems right. We wish, however,

that AT&T could join Sprint and RIM in offering remote wipe as

well.

Google denies working on facial-recognition app !!

2011-03-31T14:44:00.000-07:00

Google says it's not working on an application that would

allow users to identify others by snapping a picture of their

face with a cell phone camera.

A report posted by CNN earlier today claimed the company

was at work on such an application, but faced privacy hurdles

in readying it for market. The story contained an interview with

Google's engineering director for image recognition development,

Harmut Neven, which CNET has confirmed was genuine.

CNN's original story remains up with no changes.

As for the validity of the idea, which a Google spokesperson

referred to as "speculative," the company already provides an

image-recognition tool called Goggles, which is available both on

the company's Android mobile OS, as well as on Apple's iOS.

It can grab text, and identify products, landmarks, works of art,

book covers, bar codes, all of which can be searched for on Google.

The company has also tied the feature to its translation

service to let users read captured text that's in a foreign language.

Google has also long been involved with facial-recognition efforts,

building the technology into both the software and Web-based

versions of its Picasa photo platform. When toggled by users,

it can go through a library of photos and identify people who

show up in multiple photos. On the Web version of the software,

this is handled entirely through Google's servers.

Earlier this week Google entered a settlement agreement

with the Federal Trade Commission over last year's launch

of its Buzz service, which has lead to the company agreeing to

establish a "comprehensive privacy program." In terms of imaging,

Google had also gotten in hot water with privacy groups when it

rolled out its Street View technology, which provided raw photos

with faces and license plates, two details that were later removed.

Twitter kills wildly unpopular QuickBar !!

2011-03-31T14:38:00.000-07:00

The only real surprise is that it took this long: Twitter has released

an update to its iPhone app that eradicates the QuickBar,

a pop-up display of rotating "trending topics" that users

seemed to find almost universally annoying and nonhelpful.

Twitter claimed that people did, in fact, interact with the heavily

maligned feature, which was initially released earlier this month.

"Rather than continue to make changes to the QuickBar as it exists,

we removed the bar from the update appearing in the App Store

today," a post on the Twitter blog explained. "We believe there are

still significant benefits to increasing awareness of what's

happening outside the home timeline. Evidence of the incredibly

high usage metrics for the QuickBar support this."

With insidery tech circles dubbing the feature "dickbar" in

reference to Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and the oft-derogatory

alternate meaning of his first name, it was clear that even

if ordinary users didn't care, some influential people thought

it was a terrible user experience.

"We will frequently experiment by trying new things,

adding new features, and being bold in the product

decisions we make," the blog post added. "After testing

a feature and evaluating its merits, if we learn it doesn't

improve the user experience or serve our mission,

we'll remove that feature."

The direction of Twitter's product development is likely

to make a few twists and turns these days, given the company's

recent changes in management. Twitter co-founder

Jack Dorsey recently returned to the company as executive

chairman, while fellow co-founder Evan Williams has stepped

away from full-time participation there. Costolo,

hired as chief operating officer, replaced Williams as CEO last fall.

Facebook feature converts profiles to business pages !!

2011-03-31T14:32:00.000-07:00

Facebook users ready to move from a personal profile

to a business page can now make the switch through a

new process offered by the company.

Sparing people from the chore of building a business page from

scratch, Facebook's Profile To Business Page Migration tool can

provide a head start by just converting an existing personal profile.

The process is geared for a variety of business types and

categories, including local companies, larger organizations,

public figures, causes, and even individual products.

The migration works by converting all of a user's friends into

fans and moving over his or her profile photos. All other content,

including wall posts and extra photos, won't come along

for the ride. After choosing the appropriate business category,

a user can specify a name, subcategory, and a few other items.

Once the business page is live, the user can then fill in any other

necessary details.

Be aware that the conversion is a one-way trip.

Once it's finished, you can't transform your business page

back into a personal profile. Facebook advises users who

need to save content from their personal profile

to download the information through the data downloader

feature that the company set up last year.

You'll find more details on the conversion process and

tips on maintaining a business page at Facebook's Help Center.

Though this new conversion may benefit business users,

Facebook isn't just offering it out of the goodness of its heart.

The company warns that having a personal profile for anything

other than a single individual violates its guidelines.

For such profiles, Facebook suggests converting them

to business pages, otherwise users could lose access to

their own content.

Liquid Contact Indicators removed from iPad 2 !

2011-03-31T14:24:00.000-07:00

According to French Apple site Hardmac, Apple's infamous

(to some) Liquid Contact Indicators--sensors responsible for

allowing Apple technicians to determine if your device has had

substantial contact with liquids--are not present in the newly

released iPad 2.

Many problems have come about because of Apple's liquid

sensors, even resulting in lawsuits, and causing Apple to

adjust how it handles indicators that have been activated.

As a manager in an Apple Store a couple years ago,

when the first Liquid Submersion Indicators,

as they were named then, were included on the original iPhone,

we were told that the sensors were a fool-proof way

to know if a device had been under liquid.

The policy at the time was to consider any device with a tripped

sensor (a bright pink or red color) as accidental damage and

therefore not covered by AppleCare. Despite claims from some of

our customers that the sensor was falsely triggered by humidity or

by nothing at all, we stuck to the policy (and created a few

intense customer service issues).

The times have changed, though. Now, Apple has relaxed

its stance on the indicator, and in the case of the new iPad 2,

dropped it altogether. Hardmac's analysis of Apple's iPad

AppleCare replacement policy is as follows:

If the glass screen is cracked (on line) without any trace of shock.
If there is dust behind the glass.
If one (or more) pixels is defective, whether it is white, of another color, or off.

Though jailbreaking your iPad can cause software issues,

Apple will still service your device for the above

hardware defects. If you are experiencing software

issues with a jailbroken device, be aware that the first

thing an Apple technician will do is restore your device

to its factory settings.

As usual, be sure you've got a current backup of your iPhone,

iPad, or iPod before bringing it in for service.

Phishing scam masquerades as Adobe upgrade !

2011-03-31T14:14:00.000-07:00

Phishers use all kinds of come-ons to lure their victims.

But one persistent piece of spam tries to trick people by

offering an upgrade to Adobe Acrobat.

Detailed by security provider Cloudmark in a blog posted

yesterday, this type of advertising spam e-mails users

a notice to upgrade to the new Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Those who click on the link are directed to a Web site

touting the benefits of the software.

The Web site domain name contains the word "adobe,"

says Cloudmark, as an attempt to give it some kind of legitimacy.

But of course, it's just another malicious site designed

to capture personal information.

Once on the phony site, the user is prompted to provide

contact details and credit card information, which naturally

then fall into the hands of the cybercrooks behind this scam.

This particular spam campaign is hardly new, according to

Cloudmark. Security vendor MX Lab picked up on it last

July and then again in September, all with the same message

and intent.

In September, MX Lab reached out to MailChimp,

the e-mail service provider that the spammers used to send

out their messages. Once alerted, MailChimp suspended the

account. But the recent outbreak of the same scam shows that

cybercrooks can easily move from one provider to another.

Adobe is aware of this particular Adobe Reader upgrade

scam and has in the past cautioned people to watch out for it.

Of course, Adobe Reader is a free product, so the request

for credit card information should be a tip-off that something's

not right here. But the phony Web site does describe the

product as offering the ability to create and edit PDF files,

something only available in the paid version of Acrobat.

So some people who want the full product could be fooled.

And as with most scams, the bad guys come out ahead even

if only a tiny percentage of unsuspecting users swallow the bait.

Win $1 million for perfect game in MLB 2K11 !

2011-03-31T14:02:00.000-07:00

Loosen up your arm and take to your Xbox 360 or PlayStation

3--there's $1 million on the line.

Starting tomorrow, Take-Two Interactive and Major League

Baseball Properties are kicking off the Major League

Baseball 2K11 Perfect Game Challenge, which will

award $1 million to the first gamer to throw a perfect

game in the recently released MLB 2K11.

A perfect game is one of the most impressive feats in baseball.

A single pitcher takes the mound and retires all 27 batters

without a single opposing player reaching base.

Just 18 pitchers in the modern era have thrown

a perfect game, making it one of the most exclusive

clubs in all of sports.

In order to win the $1 million, gamers must buy either

the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 version of MLB 2K11.

They then must start a video recording that commences

at least five seconds prior to turning on the television or game

console. After choosing their desired team match-up,

they need to keep the video rolling as they throw a perfect game

without making any pitching substitutions,

calling a coach to the mound, or pausing the game.

If a player throws a perfect game, MLB 2K11 will display a code

on the screen that must be input on the 2K Sports Web site.

Once the game company can verify the perfect game

by watching the video (which must be sent to 2K Sports

via snail mail), they will win the $1 million.

Though it is extremely rare to throw a perfect game,

it's not impossible.

Last year, 2K Sports awarded Wade McGilberry of Semmes,

Ala., $1 million for being the first to throw a perfect game

in MLB 2K10.

The Major League Baseball 2K11 Challenge opens at 9 p.m.

PT tonight and runs through September 28.

Entrants must be 13 years of age or older to win the prize.

Skype in the Classroom graduates from beta !

2011-03-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

Skype in the Classroom, a video networking service for educators worldwide, is officially out of beta, the company said today.

The service, which has been in beta since December, allows educators to collaborate with others around the world over video. The VoIP provider said it developed the service "in response to, and in consultation with, the growing number of teachers using Skype to help their students learn."

To set Skype In the Classroom apart from the company's basic service, teachers can use the tool to find fellow educators who may be teaching on the same topic. It can also be used to expose kids to guest speakers or collaborate on projects with other classes.

Teachers can search through the service using age groups, location, and subjects of interest, Skype said.

In some ways, Skype is trying to be the next generation's "pen pal" service. For decades now, students have had pen pals around the world with whom they would communicate during a school year. It was effective at helping them learn more about the world, but it was rather impersonal. Skype, it seems, wants to change that.

The company cited one project under way between two classrooms--one in France and the other in Canada--that used Skype to enhance the pen pal relationship students previously had.

"Before arranging the first video call, our students exchanged letters and e-mails but we decided to bring the two classes together face-to-face over Skype video to enrich their relationship," Christophe Fetat, one of the teachers involved in the project, said in a statement. "The result was amazing. Students were really engaged to discuss different topics."

That project is one of more than 40 started via the service. More than 4,700 teachers are already checking it out. The figures were growing by the minute today.

Skype isn't alone in trying help teachers enrich their classrooms through technology. The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, for example, launched a social network for educators last year. The program, called EDge, helps teachers collaborate on best practices, create lesson plans, and upload multimedia content for others to use in their classrooms. It's free to join.