Anything & Everything

BET Awards App Wields Fun Social Gaming Mechanics [VIDEO]

2012-06-27T12:38:00.000+05:30

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[More from Mashable: 5 Free iPhone Gardening Apps for Your Green Thumb]

The 12th Annual BET Awards ceremony airs July 1, and fans and celebrities are already preparing for the broadcast with the show’s first-ever mobile app. The app for Android and iPhone was released this month and features gaming elements tied to voting for the show’s nominees and predicting the order of performers.

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One game lets users vote with the slide of a finger, by shooting disks into a moving goal. The more disks a user makes in 15 seconds, the more votes he or she will tally for a specific nominee. The high scorers for each nominee will have their Twitter avatars and handles featured in the game's top-left corner for all users to see.

"Our audience really loves the prospect of being famous, so that's a theme we think about a lot when we develop new products," Brandon Lucas, BET’s VP of mobile, told Mashable ahead of the app's launch.

The Line-Up, is a fantasy sports-style game. Users can predict the order of the award show’s performers, compare their lists with friends and celebrities as well as look at it during the broadcast to see if they've won any prizes. Both games allow players to share their scores and line-ups to Facebook and Twitter.

The app also includes a clickable timeline of every BET Awards, videos of memorable moments, in-depth artist profiles and curated tweets.

"Our main goals in doing this app were to deepen our viewers’ connection to the show and to give them more reasons to tune into the live broadcast," Lucas says.

SEE ALSO: App Lets Rappers Record Songs, Put Them Up for Public Vote

The Black Entertainment Television Awards honors African-Americans in music, movies and sports.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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A battle for Internet freedom as UN meeting nears

2012-06-27T08:46:00.000+05:30

WASHINGTON (AP) — A year after the Internet helped fuel the Arab Spring uprisings, the role cyberspace plays in launching revolutions is being threatened by proposed changes to a United Nations telecommunications treaty that could allow countries to clamp down on the free flow of information.

For months, dozens of countries have been meeting behind closed doors to debate changes to the 24-year-old treaty. The U.S. delegation to the World Conference on International Telecommunications to be held in Dubai this December has vowed to block any proposals that could permit online censorship or undercut the Internet's current governing structure.

Yet those assurances have failed to ease fears that bureaucratic tinkering with the treaty could imperil Internet freedom and diminish its role in economic growth, according to legal experts and civil liberties advocates who have been tracking the discussions.

Russia, for example, has proposed language that requires member states to ensure the public has unrestricted access and use of international telecommunication services, "except in cases where international telecommunication services are used for the purpose of interfering in the internal affairs or undermining the sovereignty, national security, territorial integrity and public safety of other states, or to divulge information of a sensitive nature," according to a May 3 U.N. document that details the various proposals for amending the treaty.

The wording of this provision could allow a country to cite a U.N. treaty as the basis for repressing political opposition. The provision also appears to contradict Article 19 of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says people shall have the right to access information "through any media and regardless of frontiers."

A senior U.N. official said Friday the amended treaty will not create any barriers to information online, but acknowledged that the Russian proposal has not yet been rejected. Any proposals that cannot be agreed to by all member states will not be included in the final document, said Hamadoun Toure, secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, the U.N. agency that oversees the treaty.

An amended treaty would be binding on the United States if it is ratified by the Senate. But approval is not automatic. The treaty, known formally as the International Telecommunications Regulations, is sure to be scrutinized by lawmakers wary of its potential impact.

The ITU does not operate like the U.N. Security Council, where the United States has the power to veto resolutions to which it objects. The ITU works on a consensus basis. Proposals can be stopped from serious consideration if enough countries voice their objections. More than 190 nations will attend the Dubai conference and the U.S. delegation is seeking support for its positions at the preparatory meetings that will continue until the conference convenes.

"It is important that when we have values, as we do in the area of free speech and the free flow of information, that we do everything that we can to articulate and sustain those values," Philip Verveer, deputy assistant secretary of state and U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy, said in an interview.

The drafting and debating of proposals in preparation for the Dubai conference have taken place largely in secret. Public interest groups have criticized the process and said it runs counter to development of sound public policy. In response to calls for transparency, two research fellows at George Mason University's Mercatus Center launched the website WCITLeaks.org earlier this month as a way to make leaked documents available publicly.

The secretive nature of the talks has sparked rumors the U.N. is plotting to take control of the Internet. Toure has called the takeover rumors "ridiculous."

Independent, nongovernmental organizations including the Internet Society, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and the Worldwide Web Consortium have for years served as the Internet's governing bodies. They handle core tasks like network and domain name administration and establish Internet policies, standards and rules based on input from the public and private sectors. This system allows the Internet to evolve organically and react rapidly to changes in technology, business practices and consumer behavior, according to open Internet advocates.

Yet for countries still grappling with how communications have been transformed by the Internet, ITU and the treaty are viewed as the best avenues for plugging themselves into the global information economy. For developing nations that don't have an effective broadband infrastructure, bureaucratic and regulatory measures can allow them to benefit financially from the Internet traffic that electronically crosses their borders.

But treaties are static instruments that often are unable to adapt and adjust to the fast pace of Internet innovation, said Sally Shipman Wentworth, senior manager for public policy at the nonprofit Internet Society. "Further, we do not believe that we should simply take the 1988 regulatory model that applied to the old telephone system and apply it to the Internet," she said.

A proposal offered by a European association of telecommunications network operators would put pressure on content providers such as Google, Facebook and Netflix to offset the costs of delivering Internet traffic to end-users. That traffic increasingly includes bandwidth-hungry video, and the proposal from the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association essentially argues that the investment needed to expand and improve data delivery should be borne by the operators and the content providers.

Verveer called the proposal unworkable and said it would have unintended consequences, such as blocking Harvard, MIT and other universities from putting courses online at no cost to users in places where access to education is already limited. "If it became necessary to pay in order to make these courses available, they would predictably become less available, which would be very unfortunate," he said.

Even what appear to be minor alterations to the treaty can have far-reaching consequences. A coalition of Arab states has proposed expanding the treaty's definition of telecommunications by adding the word "processing." The change, if made, would expand the treaty's reach and "essentially swallow the Internet's functions with only a tiny edit to existing rules," Robert McDowell, a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission, said late last month at a congressional hearing.

___

Online:

International Telecommunication Union: http://www.itu.int/en/Pages/default.asp

WCITLeaks: http://wcitleaks.org

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New York City's Getting a Tech Upgrade

2012-06-27T05:21:00.000+05:30

New York City is looking to double down on its status as a technology-first metropolis as city officials announced this week five new initiatives with the goal of expanding New York's booming tech sector.

The initiatives, introduced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and developed in partnership with the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, include a variety of plans to further develop broadband access and incorporate technology into the City's public policy:

[More from Mashable: Judge Dismisses Apple vs. Google Smartphone Patent Case]

1. ConnectNYC: Small and medium-sized companies in buildings with poor broadband wiring will compete with one another to win free "fast-track wiring" from the City. The competitions will be based on need -- those businesses that can prove they need faster, more reliable broadband connectivity in order to keep growing will get fast-tracked. The City is ironing out a partnership with Time Warner Cable to do the actual wiring.

2. WiredNYC: A building certification program that will grade and record broadband infrastructure in more than 300 office buildings over the next two years, which the city believes will make the commercial real estate market more transparent. You can think of it as the city's restaurant health grading system for high-speed enterprise broadband.

[More from Mashable: Insane Electric Superbus Goes 150MPH in Exquisite Luxury [VIDEO]]

3. NYC Broadband Connect Map: The City will collect data from various sources to develop a "crowd-sourced, dynamic map" that will show the availability and speed of broadband throughout the five boroughs. The idea? To clearly show Internet providers where the demand for better services exists.

4. Broadband Express: The City will reduce "regulatory hurdles" (read: bureaucratic red tape) to make life easier for Internet Service Providers seeking permits for street operations and other expansion projects. The City believes the program could "facilitate nearly 25,000 broadband-related permits" over the next two years.

5. CitizenConnect: A public-private partnership to spur mobile app developers to create new software to help New Yorkers access job listings and other "worker support programs" by setting up development competitions. Many of those services are already available online, but the City believes that mobile apps will increase their use as mobile devices have "much higher penetration" in New York City than other Internet-capable devices, such as computers at public libraries.

SEE ALSO: New York City Now Fastest-Growing Tech Hub [INFOGRAPHIC]

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg framed the five initiatives in terms of economic development.

“The growing technology industry is diversifying the City’s economy and creating the jobs of the future,” said Mayor Bloomberg in a press release.

“To support those jobs, we need to help the industry get the resources it needs – whether that means more qualified engineers or broadband connections. But encouraging investment in broadband will help more than just the tech sector – it will make sure more businesses and more New Yorkers can get connected.”

Rachel Sterne, the City's chief digital officer, told Mashable that New York City has been working closely with leaders in other cities to share ideas on integrating technology into public policy.

"I think it's a testament to the enormous momentum in the technology sector here that many cities do look to New York City for guidance," said Sterne.

"We find that the exchange of ideas is always very helpful. We've realized we have a shared goal of realizing our digital potential. We've shared our lessons learned and our plans - access to technology, bridging the digital divide, opening up data sets, education measures such as Cornell NYCTech as well as how we use digital media to engage with the public."

How else can technology change cities? Share your ideas in the comments.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Nikada

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Sony, Panasonic to cooperate on OLED televisions

2012-06-27T02:19:00.000+05:30

TOKYO (Reuters) - Rival Japanese television makers Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp said Monday they will cooperate to make OLED (organic light emitting diode) sets as they battle Korean rivals Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics for pole position in the next-generation TV market.

The race to garner a lead in OLED, widely touted as the successor to liquid-crystal displays, will depend on which company is able to mass produce screens at a price that will attract consumers to the new technology.

Sony and Panasonic said in a statement they will develop technologies to fabricate the screens and aim to establish a mass-production process in 2013.

Both Samsung and LG Electronics have displayed 55-inch OLED prototypes, with the sets expected to go on sale this year at a rumored price tag of as much as $10,000, or about four times the cost of an equivalent LCD model.

An executive at LG Display, a flat-screen maker 38 percent owned by LG Electronics, told Reuters earlier an internal study indicated consumers would start buying OLED TVs once the price falls to 1.3 to 1.4 times that of an LCD set.

Shipments of OLED TVs may reach 2.1 million sets in 2015 from just 34,000 this year, according to research firm IHS Inc.

Hammered by their Korean competitors in LCD TVs, Sony and Panasonic stand a better chance of competing in the next generation market by combining their OLED technologies and development budgets. Losses on TVs at Sony have mounted to around $12 billion in the past decade.

Sony pioneered OLED technology, which boast sharper images and do not need backlighting, selling the world's first OLED TV in 2007. It halted production of the $2,000 screens three years later amid the post-Lehman global downturn. Sony still makes OLED screens costing as much as $26,000 for high-end customers.

Panasonic plans to invest about 30 billion yen ($373 million) in its Himeji plant in western Japan for a test production line of OLED panels, an industry source told Reuters last month.

Shares in Sony, which makes Bravia TVs, and Panasonic, which sells TVs under the Viera brand, fell in Tokyo on Monday. Sony dipped 2.4 percent with Panasonic down 0.6 percent.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Matt Driskill)

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Samsung sees higher Q2 handset earnings; U.S. supply crunch to ease

2012-06-26T22:36:00.000+05:30

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co expects sales of its new Galaxy S III, launched at the end of last month as a main rival to Apple's iPhone, to top 10 million during July, making it the South Korean group's fastest selling smartphone.

It also predicted earnings from its handset division would be higher in the current second quarter than in January-March, countering market concerns that tight supplies of the new Galaxy model and the weak global economy would pressure earnings at Asia's most valuable technology firm.

Shares in Samsung dropped 4.2 percent on Monday to a four-and-a-half month low, after more brokers cut their quarterly profit outlook, citing concerns over its chip and telecoms businesses. The benchmark KOSPI stock index was down 1.2 percent.

"The overall market condition was challenging due to euro zone issues and tight supply of components ... but (our) second-quarter results will be better than the first quarter," JK Shin, head of Samsung's mobile division, told reporters.

Profit from Samsung's mobile division nearly trebled in January-March to $3.6 billion, accounting for 73 percent of group operating profit.

"Looking beyond its current weakness in the chip sector, it appears investors are also worried that global macroeconomic woes may eat into handset sales in the second half," said Han Seung-hoon, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities.

OUT OF STOCK

Samsung kicked off global sales of its Galaxy S III on May 29, but shipments have been affected by the tight supply of parts such as the handset casing for the pebble-blue model.

In the United States, where sales were launched last Thursday, major carriers including Sprint Nextel Corp, T-Mobile and AT&T have not been able to offer the Galaxy with 32 gigabytes of memory, partly due to tight supply.

"Due to overwhelming demand for the Galaxy S III worldwide, Samsung has informed us they will not be able to deliver enough inventory of Galaxy S III for Sprint to begin selling the device on June 21. We are working closely with Samsung on a delivery schedule to support our launch," Sprint said on its web site. It has yet to start shipping pre-orders for the 32 GB version.

"We're getting far better reviews on S III than we did with its predecessors globally ... and supply simply can't meet soaring demand. We've sent executives and staff to almost all our (component) suppliers to ensure a smooth offering and hopefully things will get better from next week," Shin said.

Samsung launched its first Galaxy model two years ago in a rush to counter Apple's iPhone success. Then, Samsung's smartphone market share was below 10 percent. It has since overtaken Apple, and the company said in late April that new Galaxy smartphones would "substantially contribute" to second-quarter results.

Analysts have downgraded estimates for Samsung's second-quarter smartphone shipments in recent weeks, predicting that sales of the latest Galaxy model have triggered a steeper than expected drop-off in sales of earlier products. They also cited tight supply of the S III model and growing competition from low-end manufacturers such as Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp.

Shin said Samsung was also doing well in the low-end segment of the smartphone market.

JPMorgan cut its forecast for Samsung's second-quarter smartphone shipments by a tenth to 50 million units.

Samsung sold 44.5 million smartphones in January-March - equal to nearly 21,000 every hour - giving it 30.6 percent market share. Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones, taking 24.1 percent market share.

(Additional reporting by Joonhee Yu; Editing by Richard Pullin and Ian Geoghegan)

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Galaxy S III sales to hit 10 million next month

2012-06-26T18:47:00.000+05:30

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. expects worldwide sales of the latest Galaxy smartphone to surpass 10 million in July.

Samsung's mobile business president Shin Jong-kyun said on Monday that the Galaxy S III will reach the milestone two months after its launch.

The estimate reflects robust demands from mobile operators. Unlike Apple Inc., Samsung does not disclose sales figures to consumers.

The Korean company says the S III will be released by nearly 300 mobile carriers around the world by the end of July.

Samsung overtook Nokia as the world's biggest mobile-phone maker in 2011 and competes with Apple for the top smartphone maker position. It aims to double its smartphone sales this year to nearly 200 million phones.

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Neuroshima Hex tops Android Games of the Week

2012-06-26T15:01:00.000+05:30

This was another wonderfully varied week of releases. There is something for everyone in this excellent line-up of very different titles, from board games to physics puzzlers, from stylish platformers to quirky endless runners. Topping off this list is the fantastic strategic game of Neuroshima Hex. We’ve also got the latest from Kairosoft, Noodlecake Studios, and even a rather uncharacteristically cool game from MTV Networks. What are you waiting for? Dive right in! Here are this week’s top Android games.

Well, here is an unusual choice to top off this list. Neuroshima Hex, from Big Daddy’s Creations, is simply the digital version of the tactical board game of the same name. It’s been on iOS for a while now, and it’s finally been released for Android. The game is played with hexagonal tiles on a hexagonal board, and it involves strategically battling things out with up to four other players between four different armies. This game oozes style, and is one of the coolest strategy games around. Definitely don’t judge this game before you play it, even if board games aren’t your thing. At least check out the lite version first.

This adorable little physics puzzler is the latest to be ported to Android via Noodlecake Studios and their “Game a Week Project.” The foozles are simply fuzzy little creatures who can take the shape of a circle or a square – a change which you affect with a simple tap. All you have to do is get all the meanie red foozles off the screen while making sure that all the yellow ones survive. You do this through rolling and using the environment to your advantage, and good timing is key. The art style and other aesthetics are chock-full of whimsy, and there’s no reason not to give this one a shot.

This is a fascinating and stylistic new platformer, brought to us (shockingly) by MTV Networks of all places. You play as Oscura, and your duty is to protect a very important lighthouse which keeps dark forces at bay. When the lighthouse shatters, it’s up to you to collect all the light again. Objects in the foreground are silhouetted against very colorful backdrops, keeping with the light vs. shadows motif. All of the jumping and movement controls are mapped to simple, mostly intuitive gestures, keeping the interface nice and clean to avoid distracting from the great visuals. Anyone looking for a cool platformer should look no further.

This is the latest and greatest Android release from simulation masters Kairosoft. Like Game Dev Story and the rest, it’s up to you to run a specific business, this time focusing on a clothing shop. It’s up to you to grow your business from a small store to a mega popular brand, as usual. Your duties will include running employment, positioning mannequins, and even watching the fashion trends of the world. The usual incredibly colorful and appealing pixel art style of Kairosoft is present, and this is another solid entry in their game library. It’s a bit on the expensive side, but there’s always the lite version of the game to give you a good demo.

This is a very amusing new endless runner type title from GameResort. In it, you fly your alien saucer over rural America, abducting animals and farmers from their homes. As you abduct specimens and collect coins with your tractor beam, you’ll have to avoid buildings and structures, which would cause your ship damage. You do this by swiping around to aim the beam. On smaller devices, your finger can get in the way of this and make things frustrating, but on a tablet, it’s great. There is a huge focus on the in-game currency, used to unlock an absurd amount of things. In-app purchase coins are supported of course, but the game is wacky, fun and free, so definitely check it out.

This is a rather interesting title from developer Inaya Team. It’s not necessarily well designed, per se, but it is a very cool concept. Essentially, this is a gauntlet of completely unconnected random puzzles and riddles. There is little to no instruction available to you as each puzzle/riddle is presented, and it’s up to you to find patterns or type out answers using only one single hint. This game will probably be frustrating to you unless you’re a big time puzzle aficionado who just loves a good challenge. I thought it was pretty awesome, if a bit ungraceful, but I recognize it will not be for everyone. There is a lite version to check out first though, so have at it!

Find more great Android games here

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Smartphones put writing on the wall for paid texts

2012-06-26T12:01:00.000+05:30

Text messaging, the simple telecoms service that turned into a global phenomenon, is under threat from free smartphone services and operators need to find alternative revenue streams, analysts say.

The short message service, or SMS, started as a way to use spare telecoms capacity but has become a key cash generator for operators, while offering users a cheap way to keep in touch with friends and family and avoid the expense of voice calls.

But the surge in Internet-enabled smartphones in recent years has led to the rise of free voice, video and text messaging applications that are threatening to send SMS into oblivion.

According to technology research firm Ovum, SMS contributed about 57 percent of non-voice revenues for telecom companies globally in 2009 but this is projected to fall to 47 percent this year.

Ovum estimates the rise of alternative messaging services has slashed $8.7 billion from the revenues of telecom operators worldwide in 2010 and $13.9 billion in 2011.

"SMS in the next few years will contribute less and less to non-voice revenue for operators," said Neha Dharia, a consumer telecoms analyst at Ovum.

"Consumers now have the ability to send text messaging through a variety of ways, such as IM (instant messaging), messaging apps, social networks and so on," she told AFP.

"These products offer greater features and are competitively priced or even free. SMS is a more expensive option in certain markets and the interface is not as user friendly or intuitive as other messaging products in the market."

The surge in mobile Internet, driven by the explosion in smartphones and tablet computers, was a major topic at the four-day CommunicAsia fair that ended in Singapore on Friday.

Mobile devices are on track to replace conventional computers as the primary means to connect to the Internet, speakers said, and offer access to the likes of Yahoo!, Google and Facebook, among others, with their own instant messaging features.

At the same time applications such as WhatsApp, Viber, Tango and the iPhone's Facetime offer free voice and video calls and message services when there is wireless connection.

The changeover has already begun.

Data from Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority showed users in the tech-savvy city-state sent and received a record 2.46 billion SMSs in September 2011 but the number has since been falling and was down to 2.21 billion in March.

"I use it (SMS) a lot less these days," said Joscelyn Tan, 35, a corporate marketing specialist for an electronics company in the city-state.

"WhatsApp is so convenient. Plus it's free and a lot more fun with all the 'emoticons'. I used to have to pay for extra SMS, not anymore," she added.

But it remains a slow process in some of Asia's biggest telecommunications markets.

In a Pew Research Centre survey of mobile phone users in 21 countries last year, Indonesians reported the heaviest SMS usage, with 96 percent saying they regularly send texts.

The vast majority of Indonesia's 240 million people cannot afford smartphones and buy old-model Nokia handsets, which can cost as little as $15, making text messaging a primary means of communications.

But even so the country is also one of the world's biggest BlackBerry markets -- in large part because of its wildly popular instant messaging services.

With a mobile phone penetration rate of nearly one handset for every Filipino, SMS messaging has become an important part of Philippine culture and politics.

Official data shows an average of 15 text messages -- a mix of jokes, chain messages, political or showbiz rumours, uplifting quotes and invitations -- are sent each day by each user, making Filipinos among the world's biggest users.

As well as being harnessed to organise "people power" political protests, text messaging also allows Filipinos to communicate cheaply with relatives who are part of the nine million-strong work force abroad.

Maurie Dobbin, managing director at TeleResources Engineering, said SMS is likely to decline as people increasingly switch to smartphones.

"When the smartphone penetration in these Asian markets comes up... we will see a dramatic impact on SMS traffic," Dobbin told AFP on the sidelines of CommunicAsia.

Smartphones represented only 12 percent of all mobile phones in use globally last year, but accounted for 82 percent of data traffic, said Dobbin, adding that telecom operators needed to adjust as revenues from SMS decline.

"They do need to be more than a dumb pipe," Dobbin said. "They need to be providing value to their customers... their business model needs to change and they need to introduce new products into that."

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IT security problems shift as data moves to 'cloud'

2012-06-26T08:14:00.000+05:30

The Internet "cloud" has become the hottest topic in computing, but the trend has created a new range of security issues that need to be addressed.

The cloud is associated with things like personal emails and music which can be accessed on computers and a range of mobile devices.

But the US military and government agencies from the CIA to the Federal Aviation Administration also use cloud systems to allow data to be accessed anywhere in the world and save money -- and, ostensibly, to enhance security.

Microsoft, Google, Amazon and others are major players in the cloud, which seeks to transfer some of the data storage issues to more sophisticated data centers. Firms like Oracle, SAP and Salesforce.com offer cloud services for business.

Strategy Analytics forecasts US spending on cloud services to grow from $31 billion in 2011 to $82 billion by 2016.

But some experts say security implications of the cloud have not been fully analyzed, and that the cloud may open up new vulnerabilities and problems.

"If past is prologue I don't think any system is absolutely secure," said Stelios Sidiroglou-Douskos, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

"The analogy most people give is having a lock on your door. It's not a guarantee no one will break in, but it's a question of how much time it will take, and if your lock is better than your neighbor's."

In a cloud environment, "this makes the job of the attacker so much harder, which means the amateur hacker might be obsolete," said Sidiroglou-Douskos, who is working on a US government-funded research project to develop "self-healing" clouds.

-- POTENTIAL GOLD MINE FOR CYBERCRIMINALS --

But if a system is breached, analysts say, the amount of information lost could be far greater than what is in a single computer or cluster.

"You can have better defenses" in the cloud, "but if an attack happens, it's highly amplified," says Sidiroglou-Douskos.

The four-year MIT project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency seeks to develop systems that automatically fix data breaches in a manner similar to "human immunology," says the researcher.

A number of cloud security breaches have raised concerns, including attacks on the Sony PlayStation Network, LinkedIn and Google's Gmail service. One hacker recently claimed to have stolen credit card numbers from 79 major banks.

"Crimes target sources of value. Large company networks offer more targets to hackers," says Nir Kshetri, a professor of economics who studies cybercrime at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

"Information stored in clouds is a potential gold mine for cybercriminals."

Kshetri said in a paper submitted to the journal Telecommunications Policy that when questions come up, "the cloud industry's response has been: Clouds are more secure than whatever you're using now. But many users do not agree."

-- 'FAKE CLOUDS' --

Marcus Sachs, former director of the Sans Technology Institute's Internet Storm Center, said the cloud may be more secure but also opens up new questions.

"In the cloud, you don't necessarily know where your data sits," Sachs told AFP.

"That doesn't make it less vulnerable to attack, but there are questions when it comes to (an) audit, or if you want to take the data back or destroy it, how do you know you've erased it?"

Sachs said that analysts have also discovered "fake clouds" which are offered as low-cost alternatives but are in fact operated by "criminal groups which monitor and steal the data."

"We have seen instances of this not in the US, but in the former Soviet Union and in China," he said.

Still, the cloud market is burgeoning, with companies and government agencies moving to either "public" clouds that are easily accessed or so-called "private clouds" that are segregated from the Internet.

Some analysts say other issues need to be resolved about cloud computing, such as who is liable if data is lost, and how data can be accessed for government investigations.

Outages have recently affected Apple's and Amazon's cloud services, causing some websites to be affected.

"Privacy, security and ownership issues in the cloud fall into legally gray areas," Kshetri says.

Sidiroglou-Douskos said there is no single answer for people or companies choosing between cloud systems and holding the data themselves.

"If you are trying to protect yourself from the government, then having it in the public cloud makes it easier for them to get it," he said.

"If your main worry is a hacker in Russia, maybe (cloud) infrastructure is better for your own security."

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Internet life in spotlight at global TED gathering

2012-06-26T04:56:00.000+05:30

The TED conference, known for taking an innovative look at cutting-edge issues, will delve into whether the Internet is making the world more open or closed at a gathering in Scotland on Monday.

The theme of this year's TED Global will be "radical openness" as talks on and off stage in Edinburgh explore the implications of crowd sourcing, blogs, smartphones and other culture-changing features of the Internet Age.

"Is the world more open or not?" TED Global curator Bruno Giussani asked rhetorically while discussing the concept-shaping presentations and discussions at the coming event.

"You have forces going in both directions; what are the implications for society, governance and us as individuals?"

Specifics of talks at the five-day gathering were kept secret, but the eclectic line-up of speakers ran a gamut from US Navy Admiral and NATO Supreme Commander James Stavridis to Chinese blogger Zhao Jing and singer Macy Gray.

In trademark TED style, each speaker is challenged to give "the talk of their lives" in 18 minutes.

Those slated to take the stage include a bio-fuel guru, the founder of a startup that lets people rent their vehicles to neighbors, a film visual effects maestro, and a musician who became a sensation by turning the Google+ social network video "hangout" sessions into interactive concert venues.

"People who are pushing the boundaries will be looking at the impact of technology and what it changes," Giussani said.

The talks will cover "anything from designing for the bottom of the pyramid -- poor people in developing countries -- to how technology is used by (hacker group) Anonymous or governments," he said.

Talk topics will include a criminologist's study of "future crimes" -- offenses that haven't happened yet -- and the invention of a camera that can see around corners.

Organizers of the prestigious annual conference in California in 2005 launched a global version of the event imbued with a more international mindset and attention to world affairs.

"While the TED conference in California represents the roots and core of TED, TED Global represents the expansion of the wealth of ideas around the world and bringing that community into the conversation," Giussani said.

TED's long-stated catchphrase is "Ideas worth spreading."

Issues in play at the conference are expected to include how best to get Internet technologies into the hands of "the next billion people" and whether governments have what it takes to keep pace with Internet-driven change.

"We are certainly not the ones to tell you how the future is going to be," Giussani said with a smile.

"This is about creating the space for collective, creative and constant brainstorming about how we are going to get there."

Along with political figures, scientists, technologists, dancers, authors and scholars, TED Global promised to include surprise presentations focused on "digitally driven openness."

Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conferences started 28 years ago in California as annual enclaves where elite thinkers got together to explore life from challenging or unusual perspectives.

The nonprofit Sapling Foundation behind the conferences began making recordings of talks available online as podcasts in 2006, then began streaming videos free at a TED.com website the following year to reach a global audience.

TED talks have legions of followers on the Internet and have been broadcast on television stations around the world.

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US judge dismisses Apple, Motorola patent suits

2012-06-26T01:39:00.000+05:30

An American judge has dismissed lawsuits lodged by Apple and Motorola against each other for copyright infringement.

"To suggest that (Apple) has suffered loss of market share, brand recognition, or customer goodwill as a result of Motorola's alleged infringement of the patent claims still in play in this case is wild conjecture," Judge Richard Posner wrote in a 38-page ruling issued from a federal appeals court in Chicago.

"The parties have failed to present enough evidence to create a triable issue," added the judge, who also threw out a similar suit against Apple by Motorola Mobility unit, now a Google subsidiary.

The cross-firing complaints were filed in October 2010.

Apple -- the manufacturer behind the iPhone -- accused Motorola of violating patents related to multifunction phones, particularly with regard to touchscreen technology.

Motorola's suit addressed Apple's iPhone, the iPad tablet, iPod Touch and select computers of violating 18 patents, targeting in particular the Apple Store, an application vendor, and the service MobileMe, which allows Apple product users to synchronize calendars, address books, email and more across various gadgets.

Posner's decision is likely to end similar suits the companies have lodged against each other in other American courts, but the legal battle continues in various other countries.

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Google Celebrates Gay Pride With Easter Egg

2012-06-25T22:04:00.000+05:30

Google is celebrating Gay Pride with a charming Easter egg. A rainbow ribbon appears below the search bar when you Google Gay Pride, LGBT, gay, lesbian, NYC Gay Pride and SF Gay Pride.

[More from Mashable: Google Announces Sharp Price Cuts for Google Maps [VIDEO]]

The Mountain View, Calif. based company has a history of creating whimsical Easter eggs, often hidden in its search function. You can find 10 examples of its hidden gems in the below gallery.

[More from Mashable: Is This the Smartest Google Doodle Yet?]

Google is also known for its pro-gay rights stance. In a rare expression of political opinion, Google publicly expressed its opposition to California's Prop. 8, a constitutional amendment that took away the right of same-sex couples to marry, in a 2008 blog post written by co-founder Sergey Brin.

"While there are many objections to this proposition -- further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text -- it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 -- we should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love."

SEE ALSO: 28 Joyful Gay Pride Instagram Photos

What's your favorite Google Easter egg?

Enter "Google Gravity" in the search bar. Hit "I'm feeling lucky" (if you have Google Instant enabled, it's on the right hand side of the suggested searches). Then watch your world fall down.

Click here to view this gallery.

Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, rhythmbehavior

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Young Entrepreneur Council Building Network of Youth Startup Founders

2012-06-25T18:32:00.000+05:30

Scott Gerber, founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, was hard at work founding his second company when he realized something was missing that could help him achieve his dream.

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"I made every possible mistake one could make as a rookie entrepreneur," said Gerber of his first company. "After it failed, my mom said it was time to go get a real job, but to me that wasn't possible. I wanted to take the lessons I learned from my first company and put them into a new business. Soon, I figured out what would help move me forward -- a group of like-minded peers."

That's when the idea for the Young Entrepreneur Council, an invite-only non-profit that brings together some of the sharpest young minds in the startup and entrepreneur world, was born.

[More from Mashable: Judge Dismisses Apple vs. Google Smartphone Patent Case]

The YEC is a club wherein the membership consists of some the most well-respected young minds in entrepreneurship. The YEC is no snobbish country club of elite upper-class startup owners (membership dues are only a few hundred dollars every year to "keep the lights on," said Gerber); it's a place where ideas are exchanged, connections are made and, possibly most importantly, mentorship happens.

"I finally said 'Wow, wouldn't it be great, what if we could give back and get from one another in a way that makes the community at large realize entrepreneurship as a viable career path,'" said Gerber.

The YEC's main goal is making entrepreneurship, considered a too-risky career choice by many parents of Generation Y youth, seem like less of a dangerous leap. The YEC is also behind #FixYoungAmerica, a drive to bring Congress's attention to entrepreneurship issues, and other partnerships designed to promote entrepreneurship as a career choice.

SEE ALSO: Can We Fix Young America With Technology and Entrepreneurship?

When Gerber was starting to build the YEC, he met Ryan Paugh, who's something of a cult legend in the online community-building world. Paugh founded Brazen Careerist, where he served as community manager and built a vibrant network for Gen Y youth to share career and job-seeking advice.

Gerber and Paugh immediately hit it off, and Paugh began helping Gerber build the YEC network on the side while pulling full-time duty at Brazen. Now, Paugh is switching gears -- he'll be joining the team full-time as chief of staff and co-founder while still serving in an advisory role at Brazen.

"I graduated and took the first job I could get because I just wanted to get out of parents' basement and pay back my student loans," said Paugh, who worked for a pharmaceutical company before building Brazen.

"It just so happened that I was wrong that corporate jobs are stable. Maybe they were 10 years ago, and maybe that's why we're seeing a shift, but as I'm looking now at people who graduate and can't find work, I think entrepreneurship is just as unsteady as the corporate world and hopefully that's pushing people back towards it."

Gerber echoed Paugh's comments.

"Automatization, globalization and the recession have changed everything," said Gerber. "I believe that means entrepreneurship, which some people equate with 'risk-taking' even though a good entrepreneur mitigates risk, is becoming a more popular career choice again. The playing field has changed."

The YEC is all about "making entrepreneurship less of a lonely place," said Paugh, while pointing to a private online message board where members can brainstorm, swap ideas and support one another through stressful events, such as startup launches. The YEC also organizes special networking events and offers members one another's contact information "on speed dial," as Gerber put it, a service which he believes adds a "concierge feel" to membership.

"One of the most amazing and robust communities I've been a part of is the private forum for YEC," said Paugh.

"It's open and honest, and it doesn't allow preaching and selling," said Gerber of the YEC community. "It's about helping, it's about learning from others. What we offer is a peer-to-peer group for younger entrepreneurs."

The YEC has accepted just a hair more than 400 members out of more than 10,000 requests to join. Once inside the YEC, members are often immediately sold on the value. Several have donated $10,000 or more -- many times the annual dues.

"Most people say they get value of [their annual dues] within 30 days or less," said Gerber. "We keep it reasonable because it's a non-profit, and we're not overcharging the young and the collegiate. We refer to the YEC as a family, we want members that were actively going to be participating in the big picture of this."

"We want members who feel invested," added Paugh. "And a small price tag does make people feel more invested. We have people in the community that love the organization enough to own it."

How does one get access to this Justice League of young entrepreneurs? That's the "secret sauce" of the organization, said Gerber.

"How do you define a successful entrepreneur?" asked Gerber. "That's now our proprietary [code], an algorithm if you will. Are they seeded? Funded? Have they exited? There are so many different ways to look at it. Our standards of exclusivity are not a barrier to say 'You're not good enough,' but rather, the power of giving knowledge to others should come with a sense of responsibility."

Up next for the Gerber, Paugh and the YEC? They're developing a platform that aims to become the go-to spot for crowdsourced entrepreneurial know-how by connecting youth who aspire to become entrepreneurs with well-established startup owners for mentoring opportunities.

"Our goal is to be the center of it in the sense that we want to aggregate the best of the best," said Gerber.

"Every program we do with the YEC is meant to fulfill social need and promote free enterprise. I think you can do well and do good at the same time. Unemployment is a disaster, and if we can create a series of programs that are free and create a level of access never seen before from a variety of people that have done well before, I think we can create something pretty powerful."

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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8 major features to look forward to in Windows Phone 8

2012-06-25T14:49:00.000+05:30

Smartphone owners have a lot to get excited about in 2012.
Microsoft has just announced its next-generation mobile phone operating system Windows Phone 8, Apple is working on brand new voice recognition and mapping features for iOS 6, and Google is gearing up for some big mobile platform announcements at its I/O developers conference on June 27.
Apple and Google are caught up in a cutthroat race to outdo each other in the mobile software platform. The launch of Windows Phone 8 will finally see Microsoft coming to the party with devices and operating systems that can finally compete.

The smartphone wars are no longer a two-horse race, and that’s exciting for consumers who will ultimately benefit from increased competition.
So what do Windows Phone users have to look forward in Windows Phone 8 (WP8), “the most advanced mobile OS Microsoft has ever made”?
1. Multi-core processor support
Windows Phone 7 hasn’t really played nicely with dual-core processors but WP8 will add support for dual-, quad-core, octo-core and theoretically anything up to 64-cores. For consumers that means faster phones with better multitasking.
2. Bigger, sharper screens
Consumers can also expect the next generation of Windows Phones to have bigger, higher resolution displays. Microsoft is introducing two new screen resolutions (1280x768 and 1280x720) which will enable manufacturers to create handsets with high-definition 720p displays.
3. More flexible storage
WP8 will offer support for removable MicroSD cards, giving users the ability to store more photos, movies, music and data on the phone and allow them to easily transfer the information to a PC.
4. NFC wireless sharing
Wireless sharing is coming to WP8, enabling consumers to share information over short distances. Microsoft explains “ In Windows Phone 8, it helps make sharing photos, Office docs, and contact info easier—just tap your phone another NFC-equipped device.”
5. Internet Explorer 10
WP8 smartphones will have the same web browser that’s coming to Windows 8 PCs and tablets, Internet Explorer 10. The browser offers faster and more secure web browsing plus “advanced anti-phishing features like SmartScreen Filter to block dangerous websites and malware.”
6. Wallet
Microsoft’s forthcoming Wallet hub is the company’s answer to Google’s NFC payments and Apple’s soon-to-be-released Passbook app. WP8’s digital Wallet combines both services enabling consumers to store debit and credit cards, coupons, boarding passes and pay with a tap of the phone using a secure SIM produced by your carrier.
7. Better maps and directions
Microsoft is ditching Bing Maps in Windows Phone 8 and replacing it with Nokia’s more advanced mapping solution. The partnership will provide WP8 users with turn-by-turn directions (in 110 countries) and the ability to use maps offline when there is no data connection.
8. Cooler apps and games
The Windows Phone Marketplace hit a milestone of 100,000 apps, and to celebrate Microsoft and Nokia are introducing some much-requested apps including official apps from Chase and PayPal, Zynga games Words with Friends and Draw Something, plus Asphalt 7: Heat and N.O.V.A. 3 Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance. Consumers can also expect a new wave of more advanced apps to arrive on the WP8 platform in the near future.
Additional features on WP8 include more personalized start screens and the integration of VoIP service Skype.
In an email to Relaxnews, Nokia said, "we are excited by the possibilities that Windows Phone 8 brings. It will now share the same core OS technologies as Windows 8, providing a platform for accelerated innovation. It also includes a new UI, new app capabilities, IE10, new hardware support such as NFC, a choice of three display resolutions, SD cards and multi-core processors. With support for 52 languages and with apps available in over 180 countries Windows Phone becomes a global experience with Windows Phone 8."
Windows Phone 8 is due to arrive, along with brand new devices, before the end of 2012.

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More Travelers Take Their Tech With Them [STUDY]

2012-06-25T11:12:00.000+05:30

World travelers are changing their technology-totting ways, an Intel survey says. Today, more travelers are carrying their laptops, smartphones and devices with them to the airport despite hefty security and baggage fees.
About 44% of the Intel-commissioned survey's 2,500 participants said they feel anxious traveling without their devices. Can social media and Internet access improve a vacation? Around 87% of the young adults surveyed said "yes" -- they were "happier" on tech-connected trips.

[More from Mashable: Facebook Names the Most-Social Landmarks in the World [INFOGRAPHIC]]
"The primary thing we saw was that there's a very stark contrast between the way people used to travel and the way that they travel today," Mike Fard, Intel Ambassador, tells Mashable. "We found people have a few must-haves on their trip."
SEE ALSO: 6 Ways To Disconnect From Social Media
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Survey participants were 18 to 66 years old. About 64% of respondents said they often sacrifice personal appearance -- leaving their blowdryers, toiletries, clothes and shoes -- to make room for their devices. Jet-setters also said they would forego "comfort and hygiene" to be close to a power source -- such as sitting on the floor for outlet access.
Though many individuals expressed trips are generally better with technology, participants also said they suffered anger and anxiety when traveling with technology. Individuals said they suffer from "outlet outrage," when there's no power source to plug into.
Survey responders also expressed having constant anxiety about losing their mobile phones on trips. These anxiety-ridden travelers said they feel more jitters about losing their "mobile computing device" than their wedding ring.
Fard explains that, with technology, "people find that they're more empowered than ever to be able to do the things that they want to do at any time whether it's planning, getting feedback from family, asking people questions." So, all that anxiety might be worth it.
The company will use the survey results to create next-generation laptops and ultrabooks that are light and compact. Future ultrabooks and laptops will be built with long-lasting batters, travel-friendly power cords, and extra security measures.
Intel also made this fun graphic about new tech travel norms:
Do you travel with your devices? Share with us in the comments if you suffer separation anxiety with your tech.
Images courtesy of Intel
This story originally published on Mashable here.

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VA looking to technology to reduce suicide risks

2012-06-25T07:54:00.000+05:30

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Veterans Affairs Department hopes to reduce the risk of suicide among veterans by making greater use of video conferences between patients and doctors and by gradually integrating its electronic health records with those maintained by the Defense Department, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told mental health professionals Wednesday.
Among active-duty troops, there has been an uptick in suicides this year — about one a day, compared with one every 36 hours in previous years, The Associated Press reported earlier this month. Among veterans from all of the nation's wars, about 18 each day commit suicide.

Shinseki said the video conferencing would reduce the distance patients have to travel and make it easier to fit appointments within a busy schedule. He also pointed out that more veterans were communicating with the department's staff through online chats and text messages, and that the department is encouraging the trend because it lessens the stigma that some patients feel when they seek treatment.
"Shame keeps too many veterans from seeking help," Shinseki said at a suicide prevention conference.
Shinseki oversees a department that members of Congress have criticized heavily in recent months for overstating how frequently patients are able to see a doctor or other mental health professional. An inspector general's investigation found that nearly half of the veterans seeking mental health care for the first time waited about 50 days before getting a full evaluation. Meanwhile, the VA had been reporting that the vast majority of evaluations were being conducted within 14 days.
Shinseki said the path toward suicide often begins before soldiers take off their uniforms, and that's why he hopes to integrate the electronic health records used by the VA and the Defense Department by 2017. He specifically cited one soldier's suicide to make his case that the two departments need to do a better job of maintaining and sharing information, noting that the solider knew he was experiencing mental distress and asked to retire rather than go back to Iraq. That request was denied.
Shinseki said that upon the soldier's return from Iraq his military records contained no entries of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. His enrollment in the VA also did not reflect that he was in distress.
"VA should have received ample warning about the mental health burden this veteran was carrying," Shinseki said. "There was no handoff between our departments that would have enabled us to track and treat this veteran or any other veteran today."
VA officials note that the suicide rate among veterans has remained rather constant since 2005, while it has increased slightly for the general public. Also, as many as two-thirds of the veterans who commit suicide are not enrolled in VA health care.
"We can't influence and help those we don't see," Shinseki said.

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College president 'prostitution' site ruled legal

2012-06-25T04:26:00.000+05:30

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A website that authorities say two aging professors used to run a multistate prostitution ring is legal, a state judge has ruled, highlighting the difficulties that prosecutors face in using decades-old laws to combat a modern phenomenon.
The ruling comes as prosecutors were scheduled to present to a grand jury their case against former University of New Mexico President F. Chris Garcia, who is accused of helping a physics professor from New Jersey oversee a prostitution website called "Southwest Companions."
State District Judge Stan Whitaker ruled that the website, an online message board and Garcia's computer account did not constitute a "house of prostitution," the Albuquerque Journal reported.
Whitaker also said the website wasn't "a place where prostitution is practiced, encouraged or allowed."
The ruling means that prosecutors will now have to decide how to proceed with a case involving Garcia, retired Fairleigh Dickinson University physics professor David C. Flory and others.
They were arrested last June on a criminal complaint charging them with promoting prostitution. Flory, a retired physics professor at the New Jersey school and has a home in Santa Fe, is accused of buying the site in 2009.

Garcia's attorney, Robert Gorence, said Garcia was satisfied with the judge's decision and felt vindicated. A woman who answered the phone at Flory's Santa Fe residence said he had no comment.
Investigators said the prostitution ring had a membership of 14,000, including 200 prostitutes. Members paid anywhere from $200 for a sex act to $1,000 for a full hour. Prostitutes were paid with cash, not through the website, according to police.
But the ruling also showed the difficulty that prosecutors have in trying prosecute owners of websites that promote or facilitate prostitution because of laws created long before the Internet age, experts say.
"Most state laws only address street walkers and brothels and are so narrowly written that it's hard to prosecute these new cases," said Scott Cunningham, a Baylor University economics professor who has written about technology and prostitution.
For example, Cunningham said, Craigslist withstood lawsuits and challenges by law enforcement agencies and district attorneys' offices to shut down its erotic services section and only closed them later for publicity reason.
To change laws, Cunningham said, some states will have to pass laws that outline step-by-step regulations on websites.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Mark Drebing said prosecutors' options are limited because New Mexico has laws on the books for computer fraud and use of computers and the Internet for child pornography, but none geared toward prostitution.
Drebing said no decisions have been made about how prosecutors intend to move forward with their case.
___
Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras.

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Score big with these Android soccer games

2012-06-25T00:50:00.000+05:30

Soccer has become one of my family’s favorite sports. All the boys play and we try to catch as many matches on TV as we can. With Euro 2012 at the knockout stage, soccer is on everyone’s mind. Here are some cool soccer games for Android, so get on your cleats, pull out your Android, and let’s see if we can score.
This was one of the first games I purchased for my Android. Soccer Superstars is packed with lots of soccer action. You select your team and then decide what you want to play. Your options are exhibition game, league play, season mode, cup mode, and dramatic mode. There are six groupings of teams based on location. Also, on each team you can have one “super player.”

Before you start your match you can then check out your opponent’s info, set up strategy settings, general match settings such as time, difficulty, weather, and then of course your own team management. The game is played from the third-person point of view and you control players with a virtual joystick. Once you select season or cup mode, there is a whole number of different team management options which makes the game much more challenging and in-depth.
This is a massive game in terms of content and size. After the initial download, you will need to download an additional 1.2GB. FIFA 12 by EA Sports is probably one of the most complete and realistic soccer games for Android with 22 officially licensed leagues, 500+ licensed teams and more than 15,000 players. The game is played from the third-person point of view and you control your player via a virtual joystick and buttons.

FIFA 12 has a lot of different playing modes. There is a daily challenge you can do, plus league and cup play. You can work on your skills or on penalty shoot-outs in the practice arena. When you play a match, you can select uniforms, stadium, weather and even ball color. There is large number of in-game achievements to earn and even a trophy area where to can admire your hardware. Listening to the in game announcers is just as fun as playing the match itself.
Magnetic Sports Soccer is a simple and fun soccer game. The game will remind you of the old foosball table games. You control one player at a time. Simply pull back the player and aim to hit the ball. The harder you pull back, the harder the kick. The players are magnetic so the metal ball will eventually find a player. Taking some time and planning your moves will go a long way.
The game allows for single player and multiplayer games. Within the multiplayer options, you can play two players on one device or online. The lite version of the game only has quick match options for single players. The full version of the game has OpenFeint, 30 achievements, multiple playing fields, four levels of difficulty, and you can publish scores on Facebook.

Real Soccer is another very realistic soccer game for Android. For first-time players there is a nice tutorial so you can learn how to play. The game boasts 350 teams and 14 league championships. As with the others, the game is played from the third-person point of view and you control your players with a virtual joystick. Real Soccer 2012 is free, but there are a number of in-app purchases you can make to unlock different stadiums, ball styles, teams, matches and stamina upgrades.
The game has a number of different game options. You can play a quick match or a single-player game. It is in the single-player game that you can access different cup and league play. There is also a training area so you can work on your skills. There is a section called “Lucky Shot” where you can win some in-game items. The other main area is the editor, where you can change players, teams, stadiums and so on. One thing I did find was the game took a while to load up, even over Wi-Fi.
Top Eleven is a social, team management game that has been very popular on Facebook. To play this game, you will need to log-in in with your Facebook account. For new players, the game begins with a tutorial to cover the basics. This is a game for those who like the strategy and the details involved in managing a soccer team.
As this game is free and based on Facebook, there is a huge social aspect to the game, as well as in app purchases. In the game you will create your own soccer team and play against friends and other players in leagues, cups, champion leagues or friendly matches. The games that are played are scheduled which will allow you to manage and deal with your time on the “off days.” Things you will need to deal with include injuries, retirements, morale, player rest, salaries, contracts and much more. This really is a very complex and deep game.
Discover more great Android games here

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Federal Signal to sell technology business to 3M for $110 million

2012-06-24T21:47:00.000+05:30

(Reuters) - 3M Co will expand its traffic safety division by paying $110 million for the electronic tolling business of Federal Signal Corp, a safety and transportation systems maker, sending Federal Signal shares up 18 percent in early trading.
Federal Signal, which had outstanding debt of $235.6 million as of March 2012, said it would use the proceeds to reduce debt.

The technology business, known as FSTech, contributes about 13 percent of Federal Signal's total revenue. Revenue at the business was $28.5 million for the first quarter of 2012.
FSTech, which employs about 500 people, develops hardware and software for applications used in electronic tolling, parking and access control, and electronic vehicle registration.
Electronic tolling, already a $3 billion market, is expected to grow by double digits as cash-strapped governments turn to tolls to fund highway infrastructure.
3M, which expects to spend $1 billion to $2 billion on deals this year, said the transaction should close by the end of the year. It has said deals are more likely to be small "bolt-on" acquisitions than transformative ones.
"I think the price and growth expectations right now are a little bit more realistic than they were over the last year or two," 3M CFO David Meline told an investor conference this month.
Jefferies & Co Inc advised Federal Signal on the deal.
Federal Signal's shares jumped 18 percent, or 86 cents, to $5.60 on the New York Stock Exchange, where they were the leading percentage gainer. 3M stock gained 0.9 percent to $88.32.
(Reporting by Nick Zieminski in New York and Bijoy Koyitty in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane and Maureen Bavdek)

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Samsung’s Galaxy S III launches today in the U.S. – sort of [updated]

2012-06-24T18:01:00.000+05:30

Samsung‘s highly anticipated Galaxy S III smartphone is now finally available in the United States — sort of. Samsung announced on Thursday morning that its new flagship smartphone is available on T-Mobile’s website starting today, and in select T-Mobile retails stores as well. Though Sprint announced earlier this month that it would launch the Galaxy S III on June 21st, supply constraints have delayed the carrier’s plans. Samsung notes that the phone will come to AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular in the “next several weeks.” The company also said that it intends to donate $1.5 million to the World Wildlife Fund to celebrate the launch of the Galaxy S III, which it pitches as having a design inspired by nature. Samsung’s press release follows below.

UPDATE: A note from AT&T: “Manufacturer supply constraints of the 4G LTE Samsung Galaxy S III have caused a delay to expected pre-order shipments. Customers who were previously quoted a delivery date of June 21st should now expect their device to arrive no later than Monday, June 25th. We currently estimate future pre-orders to arrive within 10 business days based on available supply. Impacted customers will receive both an SMS and email notifying them of this change.”

Samsung Galaxy S® III Available Starting Today
Samsung celebrates launch of “The Next Big Thing” in smartphones with expansive marketing campaign, consumer experiential event, and
$1.5 million donation to World Wildlife Fund
New York City — June 21, 2012 —The Samsung Galaxy S® III has officially launched in the U.S. The premium content sharing smartphone is available online starting today on T-Mobile’s Web site and in select retail stores. AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and U.S. Cellular will have the Galaxy S III in-store and online within the next several weeks.
The Galaxy S III celebration kicked off in New York City last night with a star-studded event hosted by actress Ashley Greene. Five hundred Samsung fans were granted access to an experiential event held at Skylight Studios in the trendy SoHo district to test drive the sharing capabilities of the Galaxy S III, get their picture taken with NBA stars Steve Nash, Kevin Love and Stephen Curry and share those once-in-a-lifetime experiences thanks to the Galaxy S III. Capping the night off was a special surprise performance by Skrillex.
Taking its inspiration from nature, Samsung Mobile designed the Galaxy S III features to respond intuitively and naturally to human use and interaction. It balances ergonomics with intuitive use so that the device becomes an extension of the user. To celebrate the launch of the Galaxy S III, Samsung Telecommunications America will donate $1.5 million to benefit the World Wildlife Fund (www.wwf.org), which strives to build a future in which people live in harmony with nature. Samsung fans can share with the world which animal species they love by voting at www.facebook.com/samsungmobileusa and at the various launch events being hosted June 20-22. Samsung will announce the donation on its Facebook page and tap into its community of nearly 7 million fans on Facebook.com/samsungmobileusa to help raise awareness of the WWF initiatives with posts throughout the week.
The launch of the Galaxy S III is being supported by the largest and most innovative marketing and advertising campaign ever conducted in the U.S. by Samsung Mobile. The campaign leverages technology to engage consumers in new and interactive ways and reward Galaxy S III owners.
·         With sharing as a key feature of the Galaxy S III, Samsung is rewarding new owners with premium content via Samsung Share-to-Go Stations across the nation at no cost. Leveraging the NFC technology incorporated into the Galaxy S III, Samsung customers are able to download content directly to their device with a simple tap of their phone to the smart board or kiosk. Content is stored on the device so it can be viewed at any time.
·         This summer, Samsung is launching an interactive cinema 3D game experience at theaters across the country. The Samsung Galaxy SIII Cinema Game allows the audience to uniquely interact with a 3D phone on-screen and move the images with hand motions to score points.
·         This weekend, the Times Square Share will give consumers on the streets of New York, the first opportunity to share photos and video with the Galaxy S III. Consumers that perform actions such as playing air guitar or showing off dance moves can watch their video on the Samsung Big Board in Times Square and on Samsung’s social media channels.
·         Samsung presents Beacon, a mobile-only magazine and content hub with the latest news, tips, information and entertainment designed for people who’ve left the desktop behind. Beacon will offer daily news and features curated from more than 1,000 sources across the Web, as well as exclusive stories and downloadable content in the form of music, video, and e-books and magazines.
“Once again, we are putting the ‘Next Big Thing’ in consumers’ hands. The Galaxy S III introduces a completely new way of sharing and socializing that no other mobile phone can,” said Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Telecommunications.
About The Galaxy S III
SHARING & SIMPLICITY
The sharing services and capabilities of the Galaxy S III connect people to the experiences and content that influence their daily lives. This smartphone harnesses the potential of Samsung’s diverse ecosystem of consumer electronics by enabling sharing of content with multiple devices, among large groups or with another device. The process of pairing the Galaxy S III for these sharing services takes little to no set up.
·         AllShare Play – Galaxy S III automatically locates Samsung HDTVs, laptops and other devices on the same WiFi network that are ready to receive video files. Users remotely access files from devices on other networks.
·         Group Cast – Share and collaborate on documents, presentations or images without loading the file separately
·         Share Shot – Send still images from Galaxy S III’s 8 megapixel camera to other phones up to 200 feet away
·         S-Beam – One touch transfer of large video or document files without using Wi-Fi cell signal or data service
·         S-Voice™ – Control commonly used services (music player, camera, alarm) with words instead of touch
·         Smart Stay – Tracks eye movement to keep device screen lit anytime the user is looking at the display
·         Burst Shot – Rapid-fire image capture (three images per second) with zero shutter lag
·         Pop Up Play – Watch any side-loaded video content while operating any application in full-screen at the same time
NEW SMARTPHONE STANDARD
The Galaxy S III creates a true industry first by delivering the same design and user experience across the carrier variants while also offering the customized services of each of the five U.S. carriers. Design highlights include:
Lightweight and Sleek: weighs 4.7 ounces and measures an ultra-thin 8.6 mmHD Super AMOLED™ Touchscreen: 4.8-inch display with minimal bezel maximizes viewing areaDual-core 1.5 Ghz CPU & 2GB internal RAM: high-speed performance and seamless multi-tasking2100 mAh Battery: get more video, music and Web on a single chargeImpressive Expandable Memory: store and swap out microSD cards as large as 64GB
ACCESSORIES PORTFOLIO
A host of premium Galaxy S III accessories, including convenient docking options, convergence solutions and an array of colorful cases and covers, will be available for all Galaxy S III smartphones.
Available now:
·   Universal Multimedia Desktop Dock
·   Spare Battery Charging System
·   Universal Vehicle Navigation Mount
·   Protective Flip Cover in Pebble Blue, Marble     White, Light Blue, Green & Pink
·   Protective Cover in Transparent Blue, Transparent Pink, Opaque Blue & Opaque Green
·   Ultra Slim Cover in Transparent Blue, Clear
·   C-Pen
·   HDTV Smart Adapter with 11 Pin Adapter Tip
Available in the coming weeks:
AllShare Cast HubPremium Audio Dock
For more information on Samsung Galaxy S III, visit www.facebook.com/samsungmobileusa

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Google sets out to save dying languages

2012-06-24T14:29:00.000+05:30

Google has set out to save the world's dying languages.
In an alliance with scholars and linguists, the Internet powerhouse on Wednesday introduced an Endangered Languages Project website where people can find, share, and store information about dialects in danger of disappearing.
"People can share their knowledge and research directly through the site and help keep the content up-to-date," project managers Clara Rivera Rodriguez and Jason Rissman said in a Google blog post.
"A diverse group of collaborators have already begun to contribute content ranging from 18th-century manuscripts to modern teaching tools like video and audio language samples and knowledge-sharing articles."

The website at endangeredlanguages.com is designed to let users upload video, audio, or text files and encourages them to memorialize recordings of rare dialects.
Only half of the approximately 7,000 languages spoken today are expected to survive past the end of this century, according to an Endangered Languages video posted at Google-owned video-sharing venue YouTube.
"Documenting...languages that are on the verge of extinction is an important step in preserving cultural diversity, honoring the knowledge of our elders and empowering our youth," Rodriguez and Rissman said.
"Technology can strengthen these efforts, by helping people create high-quality recordings of their elders (often the last speakers of a language), connecting Diaspora communities through social media and facilitating language learning."
Google's philanthropic arm seeded the project, leadership of which will be ceded in coming months to the First People's Cultural Council and the Institute for Language Information and Technology at Eastern Michigan University.
The Endangered Languages Catalog (ELCat), sponsored by the University of Hawaii, will also be contributing to the project.

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Fresh iPhone Apps for June 21: Fish Heroes, Centipede Origins, Trivial

2012-06-24T11:07:00.000+05:30

It was another big game night in the iTunes App Store, with a new set of interesting titles for your consideration going into the weekend. Leading the haul is Fish Heroes, a 3-D take on the popular Angry Birds formula, followed by a re-imagining of the classic arcade title Centipede, Centipede Origins. Finally, there’s a Trivial, a trivia game that integrates with Facebook to allow players to take on their friends and families.

Okay, it’s another Angry Birds-alike title in which you fling animals at other animals and structures. Let’s go ahead and get the similarities out of the way. Where Fish Heroes is different, and worth a look, is that it places players in a 3-D world. Your goal is to use various kinds of fish with different powers to take down sharks, and the goal is to use the fewest fish to beat each level.

Fish Heroes mixes up the genre first by throwing various kinds of sharks into the mix, each of which must be dealt with in different ways. Its levels are also built in such a way as to require a lot of strategic thinking to get the best scores, and are often challenging in a different way than most similar titles. There’s also Game Center support for achievements and leaderboards.

At one time or another, everybody has likely played the classic arcade title Centipede. In it, players control a defense tower that shoots enemy bugs as they streak toward the bottom of the screen and attempt to kill you. Centipede Origins reimagines the game in touchscreen-compatible form with a whole new art style, putting you in control of a gnome that has to fight off bugs to protect his homeland.

Centipede Origins also awards players with coins that can be spent on power-ups at the opening of each level to boost your abilities. You can obtain special powers as well as different gadgets, and each has a different effect on the battlefield. You’re scored on how many bugs you can take down as they come at you in waves, and those scores can be shared on Game Center leaderboards.

Challenge your Facebook friends and family members to trivia competitions with Trivial. The app users your Facebook connections to help find you opponents, and then lets you challenge them to quick, timed matches of eight questions each. The game is asynchronous, so your opponent doesn’t have to be playing at the same time as you to accept your challenge.

Trivial holds itself apart from other trivia game titles by allowing players to buy and use power-ups in their games. You’ll earn coins each day automatically, and can purchase more, then trade them for items that can give you an edge – slowing down the timer to keep your score high or eliminating false options from the list of choices. Your scores are tracked in the app, and the better you do, the higher you’re in-game IQ goes on your profile.

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SKorea sees big demand for fastest mobile network

2012-06-24T07:10:00.000+05:30

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea is forecasting blistering growth in the use of a network technology that gives the fastest speeds for connecting to the Internet from a mobile device.
South Korea, already known for having the world's speediest fixed-line broadband Internet, was not the first to use the fourth generation mobile technology known as Long Term Evolution. The United States already eclipses South Korea in the number of LTE smartphone users.
But the proportion of the population using it is higher and rising faster in South Korea than in any other part of the world as mobile operators are making a big push to attract subscribers.
Some 7 million South Koreans, or about 14 percent of the population, are already using LTE smartphones. That is forecast to jump to about 30 percent of South Koreans within a few months. The proportion in the U.S. is less than 5 percent.

Based on subscriber targets laid out by South Korea's three mobile operators, the number of South Korean smartphone users accessing the Internet with LTE is expected to reach 15 million by the end of this year.
South Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute said the number of LTE smartphone users will surpass 33 million in 2013.
That explosive growth means that by next year, most South Korean mobile phone users will be able to download multimedia content and stream videos at a faster speed than other countries.
Companies offering LTE claim it can stream data as much as five times faster than 3G networks. Those claims are often based on test conditions and the actual performance is likely to be less than that though still noticeably faster than 3G.
South Korea's smartphone market was kickstarted by the iPhone's launch in 2009 and expanded at a furious rate. The number of smartphone users reached 26 million as of April, allowing over half of the population to surf the web and download mobile applications on the go.
Around 20 million of them are still using the 3G mobile communication network, which gives a moderate Internet speed and will work fine for most basic functions, such as web surfing.
Market experts and industry officials believe smartphones that support the 4G mobile communication standard will become mainstream in South Korea as early as the end of this year and well before other countries.
That is not necessarily because South Koreans have insatiable demand for high-speed mobile Internet.
In the saturated mobile market, the main operators SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. are splurging on marketing expenses to attract new subscribers.
They are giving generous subsidies to LTE smartphone subscribers while cutting down on subsidies for older devices.
"South Koreans usually get a new mobile phone in every one and a half or two years. When they get a new handset, they get the latest phone in part because device subsidies are given to the new models only," said Song Young-keun, a senior researcher at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute.
With Apple Inc. yet to give access to LTE on its iPhone, most LTE handsets are manufactured by South Korean companies: Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc. and Pantech Co.
Although Apple's iPad supports LTE in the United States, the tablet computer is not compatible with South Korean LTE networks.
The country's small size also allows quick completion of nationwide network coverage. All three operators completed nationwide LTE coverage earlier this year.

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Struggling BlackBerry maker begins job cuts

2012-06-24T04:07:00.000+05:30

TORONTO (AP) — Struggling BlackBerry maker Research In Motion said Wednesday it has started laying off employees as part of a restructuring plan aimed at saving about $1 billion this year.
RIM said in May that there would be "significant layoffs" this year. On Wednesday, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company said it has "reduced some positions as part of its program and may continue to do so as the company methodically works through a review of the business."
RIM declined to provide numbers, but will offer an update when it reports quarterly financial results on June 28. RIM had about 16,500 employees in early May. The company cut 2,000 jobs last July.
The once iconic BlackBerry company is facing the most difficult period in its history. RIM is preparing to launch a new operating system —Blackberry 10— later this year, just as North Americans are abandoning BlackBerrys for iPhones and Android phones.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said he expects RIM to cut about 6,000 employees. Misek said RIM's revenue base will not cover its costs. He said the company needs to be flexible as it releases its new BlackBerry 10 phones.
He expects the layoffs to be related to RIM's older software and manufacturing platforms.
"They can't jeopardize the company," Misek said. "They have to give BlackBerry 10 a number of shots. If they release a BlackBerry 10 device and it's a good device, but it does OK, they'll want to pull off an even better device shortly thereafter, and if you don't have an appropriate cost structure you might wipe out your cash before you have an opportunity."
RIM once dominated the corporate smartphone market but failed to adapt to the emerging "bring your own device" trend, in which employees use their personal iPhones or Android devices to work instead of relying on BlackBerrys issued by their employers. As the movement caught on, Apple's iPhone made the BlackBerry look ancient.
RIM's future is far from certain as its flagship devices rapidly lose market share to flashier phones. With more than $2 billion in cash, bankruptcy seems unlikely in the near term, but RIM's U.S. share of the smartphone market fell sharply from 44 percent in 2009 to 10 percent in 2011 according to market researcher NPD Group.
RIM's hopes hang on BlackBerry 10. The upcoming software is meant to offer the multimedia, Internet browsing and apps experience customers now demand.
RIM's stock dipped 41 cents, or 3.9 percent, to close at $10.33 in Wednesday's trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

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Xbox Live to translate in-game rewards to real-life rewards this fall

2012-06-24T00:14:00.000+05:30

Details are virtually non-existant, but the possibilities go on for miles (and are awesome)
Once a novelty, in-game achievements are now pretty much a part of every major video game. They're a different way to play, a new way to reward players who accomplish impressive in-game feats. All an achievement (or trophy, as they're often called) offers is an in-game toast to celebrate the accomplishment and bragging rights with your friends.

Or, at least, that's all achievements offer until this Fall, when Xbox Live is rolling out a new mechanism to give players real-life rewards for their in-game feats, per a tweet from theXbox LIVE Rewards account.
Unfortunately, that's the only bit of news we've gotten so far — just one hell of a tease. But it's not hard to imagine exactly how such a program might work. Say you're playing the new Devil May Cry and you rack up a nice string of achievements for decapitating 100 demons in row. You might be able to then redeem those achievement points for discounts, contest entries, or possibly even physical goods such as a DmC sticker or t-shirt.
This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca
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