The Inquisitr » Technology

Lawsuit: iPhone app developer Storm8 stole phone numbers, user data

Kim LaCapria — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:10:07 +0000

A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday claims that popular App Store app developer Storm8 may have bypassed safeguards in order to obtain data such as phone numbers via games downloaded over 20 million times.

World War, iMobsters, Racing Live, Vampires, Kingdoms, Zombies Live, Rockstars Live and Ninjas Live are some of the iPod Touch and iPhone titles listed on Storm8’s website. Court documents point to “secret code” written into games to circumvent protections preventing apps from collecting data on unsuspecting users:

“…Storm8 makes use of the ‘backdoor’ method to access, collect, and transmit the wireless phone numbers of the iPhones on which its games are installed,” states the complaint, which was filed in US District Court in Northern California. “Storm8 does so or has done so in all of its games.”

The Register points to a column written back in August about privacy concerns and the iPhone. The columnist highlights data-gathering in Storm8’s Vampires Live mini MMORPG:

One of the best selling iPhone app is Vampires Live, a very cool game which is a take off from the current pop culture fascination with vampires. The app is built by Storm8 and is the 8th best selling iPhone app.

The game is essentially an massive multi-player online game which will use your 3G or WiFi connection. 3G is your data plan. So far so good. While playing vampires is fun, it does not involve exchanging phone numbers with other players. In fact, no one needs your phone number to play with you.

But guess what?

Without your permission, Storm8 harvests both your UDID, phone number, email and name (on registration).

(Examples of code.)

As you can see, the personally identifiable information which is the PNUM is being transmitted and I guess stored with Storm8’s servers. For non-technical types, PNUM is phone number and I changed the telephone number on the log to hide my personal number. I would not want just anyone to have my personal phone number. Worst of all, the information is transmitted unencrypted in plain text.

Storm8 is claiming that the data collection was unintentional and part of a “”a bug that has been fixed.” But the prosecution is skeptical, saying the developers used “very specific and specialized software code to do so.” The claimant in the case is hoping to obtain class action status.

[Source: The Register]

The OpenOffice Mouse, The Trabant of Desktop Peripherals

Duncan Riley — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:01:28 +0000

Introducing the OpenOffice Mouse, a new (we kid you not, see the picture) 18 button mouse that is going on sale with the backing on the OpenOffice people.

According to the media release, with “a revolutionary and patented design featuring 18 buttons, an analog joystick, and support for as many as 52 key commands, the OpenOfficeMouse is intended to provide a faster and more efficient user interface for OpenOffice.org applications such as Writer and Calc than the conventional icons, pull-down menus, and hotkeys presently permit.”

John McCreesh, Marketing Project Lead at OpenOffice.org, says that “the OpenOffice Mouse is a really cool addition to the desk of any keen OpenOffice.org user. The Mouse team have worked closely with experts from the OpenOffice.org User Experience project to deliver the full benefits of the world’s leading open-source office software to the fingertips of users.”

If you’ve ever wanted to understand the difference between free market capitalism and the economics of committee, you need to look no further again that the OpenOffice mouse. It’s the Trabant of desktop peripherals, supposedly practical but 20 years out of date with some bling to tart it up a bit.

Oh, and I can’t stop laughing: they’re seriously asking $75 for it.

Anti-piracy group raises the surrender flag

Steven Hodson — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:00:04 +0000

While it may be a long time before we see this type of thing happen in the US and Canada the people of Denmark can look forward to one less anti-piracy agency trying to sue everyone in sight for downloading music from the internet – legal or otherwise.

It appears according to a report over at TorrentFreak that the Danish anti-piracy group Antipiratgruppen has given up on trying to get illegal downloaders convicted as well as announcing the group will no longer take people to court.

Part of the reasoning behind the decision is as the Antipiratgruppen lawyer, Mary Fredenslund, is that the evidence required has to be strong and concrete in order to have people convicted and the organization apparently couldn’t convince the courts the lift the burden of proof in cases like these.

Defense attorney Per Overbeck says that in addition to these outcomes, cases against two of his clients have been dropped in recent years. “Antipiratgruppen has acknowledged that they can not get people convicted without either catching them in the act or threatening them to confess,” Overbeck said. “In practice, this means that without a confession there is no case,” he added.

Per Overbeck and Antipiratgruppen’s assessment that recent High Court rulings make it virtually impossible to get individuals convicted for illegal file sharing are supported by a recent Government report from the Ministry of Culture.

According to the report, IP-addresses can only be used to identify the person paying for the Internet subscription, not the person who actually downloaded the files. The courts have ruled several times that in terms of evidence, an IP-address alone is insufficient to prove guilt.

Source: TorrentFreak

It’s too bad we couldn’t see the same common sense be applied here in North America but with so many politicians being supported by entertainment industry trade groups common sense seems to be in short supply. When it comes to the courts they can only really go by the guidance of the laws as they exist – laws crafted by lobbyists and condoned by politicians.

Myka ION HD Player Provides Hulu And Boxee Access In A Nice Package

James Allen Johnson — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:27:10 +0000

The Myka ION HD player as the name would suggest provides NVIDIA ION graphics with Hulu and Boxee support all from one centralized location. The device also provides PC application support for XBMC and other options and provides the ability to “browse to any web site and play video content directly onto your TV.”

The base model starts at $379 with basic WiFi access, while Wireless-N and Blu-ray add-ons can quickly run the system price up to $644.

The systems regardless of model include a 1.6GHz dual-core Atom 330 CPU processor, while up to 4GB RAM and ten USB 2.0 ports are available. Video out options are also abundant in the form of VGA / DVI and HDMI with an eSATA connector, Ethernet and a bunch of useful audio outputs. [SlipperyBrick]

Daonolfix Trojan Sweeps Web

Duncan Riley — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:14:10 +0000

A relatively new trojan by the name of Daonolfix is sweeping forums in what early user reports suggest might make it the new Conflicker.

Daonolfix is part of the Win32/Daonol family of trojans and is capable of monitoring network traffic, stealing FTP credentials, preventing access to security Web sites, disabling access to system programs, and redirecting Web searches to sites hosting other malware.

The Daonolfix trojan is reported to be difficult to remove by anti-virus software as it recreates itself when deleted by standard anti-virus tools. If you are infected, Avira has a Daonolfix removal guide here. Microsoft advises that the best way to prevent infection is with the use of a firewall.

Louvre gets France’s first Apple Store

Kim LaCapria — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:24:35 +0000

Is the Carrousel du Louvre getting a Wok n’ Roll and Spencer Gifts, too?

A month after McDonald’s announced plans to besmirch the Carrousel du Louvre, the “upscale shopping mall” became home to France’s first Apple Store. Much like a chubby bunch of yanks outside a Walmart on Black Friday, throngs of French shoppers lined up outside the Louvre’s Apple Store, and just like when they’re obstructing Starbucks in SoHo and congregating en masse at the Broadway/Lafayette subway station, French people still have those big obnoxious backpacks when they’re still in France. Who knew?

Video below shows the hordes of French people waiting, the red-shirt-clad Apple Geniuses running into the store and high-fiving customers like a winning baseball team, and the massive crowd counting down (en Francais!) to the Apple Store’s grand opening fete. Interestingly, the store in Montpelier was ready to open first but waited in deference to the Parisian flagship.

Le Target can’t be far behind.

[Image]

Boxee Beta Set For December 7th Private Trial Release

James Allen Johnson — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:34:24 +0000

Boxee has officially been announced for a private beta release on December 7th 2009. The program is capable of streaming TV and movies to HDTV’s with a remote content option much like those featured on Hulu and Netflix. The program also offers music and photo capabilities and it works with Mac, Windows and Apple TV.

The new beta version is a drastic turn from the previously released alpha version with better shortcuts and overall navigation, a new search option for movies and TV show categories and a custom que to avoid constantly jumping between your choices and the main menu.

While an invite only beta is set for December 7th, the general public will have to wait until January 7th 2010 if they want to try out the program. [Electronista]

Chinese MMO will check your gender for you

Chris Greenhough — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:03:06 +0000

Chinese MMO King of the World has introduced a new Gender Identity System in a bid to stop male players playing as female characters, or vice versa. According to MMOsite, the game will use a webcam to check your ugly face to see if you’re a guy or girl.

Guys playing as girls is hardly unheard of in the world of MMOs, and now it seems King of the World wants to stamp this deceit out, before any more people end up spending nine months of their life chatting to a stunning Wood Elf and agreeing to meet up in real-life only to discover they’ve been wooed and promised the world by a hairy trucker from Lincoln called Bruce. Not that I’d know anything about that.

The game’s operator, Aurora Technology, argues that using real gender will cause female players to feel more respected. An admirable aim, but the flexibility and escapism offered by MMOs is, in my opinion, a core part of their appeal. What say you, reader?

[MMOsite, via Destructoid; image here]

It’s a see-through future according to Microsoft

Steven Hodson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:04:08 +0000

Back in July Microsoft made some waves in the tech blogosphere with its video that showed what they thought computing might be like come 2019. Well that old story looks like it might just have been the tip of the iceberg given what the folks a Microsoft Labs is playing around with these days.

Thanks to Long Zheng over at his istartedsomething.com blog he has some pretty interesting videos of speeches given recently by Craig Mundie at various big name colleges around the United States.

According to Mundie the future display for computers will be glass with multi-touch capabilities as well as voice and pen input.

Unfortunately I can’t find a way to embed the videos here so take a few minutes and watch them over Long’s site.

Brian May had hair demands for LEGO: Rock Band

Chris Greenhough — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:53:54 +0000

Queen guitarist Brian May had only one demand when signing up for LEGO Rock Band (aside from receiving a stack of money): that developer Traveller’s Tales get his famous perm right.

As you can see above, they got it right. Very right, actually. In fact, I doubt hair has ever been more right. No doubt about it: May’s LEGO Rock Band hair is rad. Turns out the man himself is rather pleased with it as well:

“I think my LEGO character is wonderful. I want one. We had discussions about the hair, there were a few emails. They had to negotiate to use my likeness, but it’s a nice thing.”

Not only that, but May scored a point over fellow venerable rock legend and Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott, who is totally jealous:

“Joe Elliott rang me up and said he was pissed off because they didn’t make one of him.”

Bless ‘em. Also, isn’t it nice to hear a rock star not bitching about their likeness in a music videogame?

[Yahoo, via Eurogamer]

Admit it guys, women are better at troubleshooting gadget problems than you are

Paul Short — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:51:17 +0000

A U.K. tech and gadget help line, appropriately called Gadget Helpline, did a study of 75,000 calls to their service recently and found that there’s a huge gender gap in how men and women approach problems they’re having with their gadgets. Some of the findings of the study are listed below:

1. 64% of male callers, vs. 24% of female callers had not read their instruction manuals before calling the service.

2. 12% of male callers, vs. 7% of female callers had actually forgotten to plug in or turn on their gadgets before calling.

3. Women spent 32% longer on the phone with the help line, but 66% of the staff at the service preferred talking with the women than with men.

Joanna Bawa, chartered psychologist and editor of the Usability News website, told the BBC:

“There is evidence of a gender divide in technology, although a lot of it comes down to interpretation. In general terms men treat technology as something to be understood and conquered while women are more motivated by appliances that benefit them.”

In other words, guys need to RTFM before picking up the phone.

The Gadget Helpline also mentioned that, unsurprisingly, syncing up gadgets to communicate with one another is one of the most common things people call for help with.

I guess the old attitude problem men have on road trips, where even though they have no idea where they’re going they still won’t stop and ask for directions, carries over to their gadgets as well. Not that I’ve ever done that or anything. Really, I haven’t.

Source: The Beeb.

Would you spend $30 on an app to decode your baby’s cries?

Kim LaCapria — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:46:49 +0000

This kind of seems like one of those things that sounds crucial when you’re expecting a baby, but after five minutes with an actual baby, you realize it’s probably totally pointless.

If you’ve ever dealt with more than one baby, you know some babies will sob rather calmly regardless of need while some will shriek like they’re being murdered when they want to be held or when they’ve got a half-teaspoon of moisture in their diapers. But Biloop Technologic claims that science supports their new “Cry Translator” iPhone app- from their website, a blurb about the studies that lead the the “96% accuracy” rate:

Dr. Antonio Portugal Ramírez, M.D. and Chief of Operations of Pediatric Services at Clinic Hospital Juaneda Menorca, Spain conducted a clinical study of the Cry Translator between December 15, 2008 and January 6, 2009. The objective of the study was to validate the diagnostic capability of the Cry Translator.

A total of 140 children from 0 to 2 years of age participated with a random sample of 104 children used in the analysis. Of those included in the test group:

> 54% of participants were male; 46% female
> 72% originated from Europe, 4% Sub-Saharan, 4% Orientals and 8% Latino Americans
> 77 % of the tests were conducted with children who visited the Clinic
> 33 % of the tests were conducted with children hospitalized in the Clinic

Is “Orientals” an acceptable clinical term? In any event, a reported “96% of the babies ceased crying after following the suggestions indicated on the symptom chart,” which does leave an average of 4% wailing babies even if you buy the app. Interestingly, one of the bigger health/science stories yesterday was that babies have just been shown to cry “in their native languages.” Not to worry- the Cry Translator maintains a high 96% accuracy rate for babies of all language backgrounds – even Orientals!

The “Cry Translator” is available for a steep $29.99 after 11/11, on sale for $9.99 before that date in the app store.

Repeat after Nintendo: there is no Wii HD

Chris Greenhough — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:11:05 +0000

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has, once again, categorically denied that Nintendo is planning a high-definition version of its Wii console.

The Wii HD rumor has been doing the rounds for what feels like about 643 years ever since 2007, when industry analyst Michael Pachter first prophesized the revised console. Since then, Nintendo has issued rebuttal after rebuttal, only for Pachter to occasionally pop up and say he sticks by his prediction. The latest Nintendo denial came in a Reggie interview at GameTrailers, where Fils-Aime was adamant about Wii HD:

“Michael continues to be the only one who believe this is going to happen. I don’t know how forcefully we can say there is no Wii HD.”

Naturally, even this is hard to accept as fact. If Nintendo did have a high-def Wii in the works, the company would keep it secret; after all, why harm sales of the Wii by telling consumers an improved model is coming up?

Plus, a Wii HD is not implausible. Nintendo has a history of releasing updated versions of its hardware, especially when sales begin to dwindle. This is precisely what is happening now, particularly in Japan and North America, where a revitalized PlayStation 3 is enjoying a resurgence.

So to conclude: WHO THE HELL KNOWS?

[Via GameTrailers]

Early Windows 7 Sales Eclipes Vista By 234%

James Allen Johnson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:00:44 +0000

The NPD Group have released early numbers for Windows 7 sales and they show that the new operating system is performing over two times better than the companies last OS, Windows Vista. Those numbers according to the firm include deep pre-order discounting, a strong marketing campaign and overall better reviews of the product.

While sales are up 234% those deep discounts used to secure pre-orders also cut into the companies earnings potention, allowing for an 82% increase in profits compared to Vista, still a nice chunk of change, but hardly comparative to the over two fold increase in sales.

According to Electronista:

Pre-order discounts dropped the average selling price of a Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade from its official $120 price down to $76. Windows 7 Professional’s average asking price dropped from $200 to $147, while only the Home Premium Family Pack was left virtually unchanged at $149.

Profit margins were also hurt by a distinct lack of new features found in Windows 7 Ultimate, a fact that made many power users gravitate towards cheaper version of the OS compared to those who purchased Vista Ultimate editions of the companies software which came with higher profit margins.

As more netbook manufacturers begin to switch over to the faster and lightweight OS and more PC sales contain the Windows 7 OS sales should continue to pick up with more manufacturers adapting the new operating system.

In any respect it’s a huge win for Microsoft, good job on finally getting it right guy.

Could Facebook breath new life into Instant Messengers?

Steven Hodson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:14:31 +0000

For as long as I have had a connection to the Web and the very first instant messenger, formerly known as ICQ, I have had an IM window open on one of my monitors. Whether it be through using one of the handy dandy IM programs that let you connect to multiple platforms or sticking with just the clients for my current two Internet Messengers of choice the ubiquitous IM chat window has been a part of my computing life.

With the advent of social media service like Twitter and Facebook though IM has kind of taken a back seat. It was further marginalized when Facebook launched their own in-house chat service. That could all change though if Facebook goes ahead with the rumored addition to their chat service that would allow it to work with any XMPP chat clients out there.

To clarify what XMPP means it boils down to a protocol referred to as Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol. Used by Google Talk XMPP is all but the defacto standard for messaging and presence on the web. Even Twitter used it for a short period of time before pulling it during its constant battle with the Fail Whale.

One might wonder why this is so important and could breath new life into Instant Messaging but for a really good answer one just has to read what Om Malik wrote about the news to understand why

Why is this news disruptive? Simple: So far in order to use the Facebook Chat to communicate, one needs to be logged into the Facebook website or mobile service. However, if the chat can be accessed on any device regardless of being logged into Facebook website, the usage of that IM is going to only increase. This would in turn mean tough times for older IM networks such as AOL’s AIM and Microsoft’s MSN.

To understand why independent Facebook Chat on the web (and on the wireless networks) is disruptive, just take a look at its amazing rise. It was prototyped in January 2007 at a Hackathon and become a real project in Fall 2007 with four engineers. In April 2008, the service went live for consumers and was available to 70 million Facebook users right now. As of last September 2009, nearly billion user messages were being exchanges every day with 1 GB traffic at its peak.

As Om notes this could spell trouble for messaging services like MSN but I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft isn’t working in a back room somewhere to try and build in XMPP support to Windows Live Messenger. The user base is just too big for them to ignore.

Age May Not Weary Them, But Do The Years Condemn The Old To Media Negativity? #Media140

Duncan Riley — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:55:03 +0000

Among the doomsayers and Luddites at Sydney’s Media140 conference (see my earlier review here) this week there were some positive people, some on stage, but more again in the audience.

Without the benefit of actually undertaking a study (fact gathering that apparently only heritage media can do according to many at the conference) there was something else that struck me about the rift between those subscribing to the Said Hanrahan view of the media landscape, and those who see a positive future: age.

It’s not a strict cut because there is some crossover, but those with a negative outlook were nearly exclusively mid 30s or older. Those with a more positive outlook went the other way, at least among the people I spoke to at the event.

Could it be that the digital natives get it, but the rest don’t, at least proportionately to their age, the older they are the less likely they get it?

Motive

To suggest that it may be age alone though might ignore motive vs knowledge. It is probably true that some simply feel threatened by the new and react to it based on a lack of understanding. But I struggle to believe that some of those I saw speak at the event didn’t know what was actually happening out there. You can’t ignore reports from the top newspapers and media outlets in the United States that cover the latest round of new media funding, the stories about out of work journalists being snapped up to work for the latest AOL venture (such as Politics Daily) or TPM expanding its team. The over used example of The Huffington Post expanding and doing investigative journalism is but one other example of many journalists finding work in new media.

But lets ignore the big firms for a moment and look at the other end of the pie: small scale blogging concerns. The Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal reported in April 2009 that the United States is “a nation of over 20 million bloggers, with 1.7 million profiting from the work, and 452,000 of those using blogging as their primary source of income. That’s almost 2 million Americans getting paid by the word, the post, or the click.”

Given that you can’t ignore the stats, who do you explain otherwise perfectly smart people in the Australian media telling fables about how there is no future for journalism without Government intervention or a paywall?

As I noted in the earlier post, the spin fails here because this is exactly what this is: spin. It’s a narrative of victimhood not based on the whole story, only parts of it. The problem of course is when you repeat something over and over again, sometimes it can become a self fulfilling prophesy

Post note: by way of definition, when an old media journalist says that the new media models don’t work, what he is actually saying is that the new media models don’t work for old media.

LG GW620 “Eve” Arrives In Canada Through Way Of Rogers

James Allen Johnson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:31:48 +0000

The LG GW620 may not be getting the press received by the Motorola Droid or for that matter even the HTC Droid Eris, but it’s still a great Google Android based Smartphone and with it’s Qwerty keyboard and sleek design it’s a great option for Canadian customers on the Rogers Wireless Network.

The LG Eve features a very cool Social Network Services (SNS) Manager that auto pulls all of your Bebo, Facebook and Twitter updates, while the device also provides plenty of picture taking capabilities with the devices 5MP autofocus camera that also provides facial recognition that can take your photos and tie them into your contacts list based on already established pics.

The LG GW620 also comes equipped with a 3 inch resistive touchscreen (yeah we wanted a capacitive screen too), Quad-band GSM, Triband 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and an accelerometer.

It’s cheap at $49.99, but with a three year contract it’s quite a commitment to make for both voice and data services. BTW, it’s already listed as out of stock. [SlashGear]

Here’s the official and somewhat creepy commercial for the LG Eve:

Game Boy inducted into National Toy Hall of Fame

Chris Greenhough — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:09:57 +0000

Over the past eleven years, The Strong Museum of Play has been busy establishing a National Toy Hall of Fame, to help us remember exactly why childhood is fun and adulthood is a horrible slog to the grave. The latest toy to be inducted? Why, it’s none other than the Game Boy!

Nintendo’s gaming handheld turned 20 earlier this year, and now sits alongside Scrabble, Checkers, G.I. Joe, Mr. Potato Head, and many others (including, erm, a cardboard box) as a National Toy Hall of Fame inductee. You can see the full list here.

The Game Boy isn’t the first piece of gaming hardware to enter the National Toy Hall of Fame – the Atari 2600 was bestowed that honor in 2007 – but it is a superb choice. Here’s The Strong Museum of Play’s reasoning for including the iconic gaming handheld:

“No video-game platform did more to put gamers “on the go” than Nintendo Game Boy. And go they did-bringing their gaming experience to school, to summer camp, and to the back seat of the family automobile. Over the past two decades, Game Boy has become synonymous with portable gaming fun.”

And so say all of us, etc.

[Museum of Play, via Kotaku]

And here you thought your home theater was ‘da bomb’

Steven Hodson — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:41:22 +0000

As more and more of us are rejecting the sometimes horrific experience of going out to the theater to watch movies many people are deciding to deck out a room in their homes as their own private movie theater.

After all who can really blame those of us with both the space and the money wanting to create their own idyllic movie watching experience, not to mention the amount of geek cred one can get from building it. Toxel.com has a nice spread of 12 of the coolest home theaters out of which I’ve picked my six favorites.

The Bat Cave Theater

The Star Wars Theater

The Stargate Theater

The Terminator Theater

The Matrix Theater

Indiana Jones Theater

Verizon Wireless Announces Prepaid Data Plans With USB760 Modem

James Allen Johnson — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:01:28 +0000

Verizon Wireless today announced new prepaid data plans that they hope will help draw in new customers looking for a simple plug and play cellular data solution.

The plans which begin on November 16th can be used with the Verizon Wireless USB760 modem and come in three flavors: Daily access of 75MB for $15, $30 for a weeks worth of access with 250MB and $50 for 500MB that must be used up in a one month time period.

The USB card also offers 8GB of available storage and is compatible with both Windows and Mac systems.

While it’s a nice move for Verizon, their rates are still undercut by Virgin Mobile who have been offering their own pre-paid data services for several months now.