Technology News

New password-snatching Mac Trojan spreading in the wild

2012-02-24T14:19:04Z

Exploits Java vulns and packs fake certificate

Security watchers warned on Friday that a new variant of a Mac-specific password-snatching Trojan horse is spreading in the wild.…

HP caught with SIX Windows 8 PC packages up its sleeve

2012-02-24T14:01:03Z

Home, Ultimate and Starter revamped?

Windows 8 is being re-packaged into six versions in a move that looks like it might kill off the four editions of the desktop client currently sold.…

So Much For That: Google To Offload Its Stake In Clearwire For $47M

2012-02-24T13:54:31Z

As Google inches closer to completing its Motorola Mobility acquisition, it made another strategic move in its mobile plans: today it announced it would sell its 6.5 percent stake in 4G operator Clearwire, for a value of $1.60 per share, or $47 million.

The sum represents a substantial discount on the share price of Clearwire, currently trading at $2.27, and a major discount on the $500 million it originally paid for the stake in 2008.

The news was confirmed in an SEC filing from Clearwire as well as a letter from Google explaining the sale, and comes a day after it was reported that Google would put Dennis Woodside, its VP of ad sales in the Americas, in charge of Motorola once its $12.5 billion acquisition of the handset maker is completed.

Sprint and Comcast, two other shareholders in Clearwire, are understood to have first refusal on the shares.

There is no specific explanation in Google’s letter for why it is selling the shares. Clearwire, a WiMAX operator, has had a long struggle competing against bigger mobile carriers in the U.S. At first, its unique 4G selling point set it apart from the pack, but as AT&T and Verizon have launched LTE services, that WiMAX network has looked a little less new.

It has needed a number of cash injections to help build out its network nationally, which has caused a lot of tension with its largest shareholder, Sprint. It has also undergone several management changes.

Having Google involved in Clearwire seemed to hint at the search and mobile giant also having ambitions to do more in offering wireless services to consumers directly – and indeed that is an area where Google itself has tried to buy spectrum at auction in the past. Perhaps with the Motorola acquisition nearly completed, the company has decided now to focus more on devices and services rather than delivery.

Hewlett-Packard Drops as Forecast Trails: San Francisco Mover

2012-02-24T13:06:15Z

Hewlett-Packard Co. dropped the most in six months after the company’s fiscal second-quarter profit forecast fell short of analysts’ estimates as consumers curtailed personal-computer purchases.

Dumb Buyer Beware: Chinese State Police Seize Hundreds Of Fake Apple iPhone… Gas Stoves

2012-02-24T13:54:14Z

Today I learned a gas stove branded as an iPhone cannot take Instagram pics, make phone calls and probably isn’t a real iPhone. But some consumers might not be as educated. Good thing the Chinese state police is always ready to enforce trademark infringement and recently seized 681 so-called iPhone gas stoves.

These stoves, produced by “Apple China Limited”, would likely be a hot seller in the official Apple merchandise store, giving Apple engineers and fanboys a humorous party conversation piece. Or, for Foxconn workers, it could be a great space heater.

M.I.C.gadget notes that each of the gas stoves are adorned with green Apple logo and even have a compliance certification label. But don’t be fooled, these are not real Apple products. But they’re still better than those fake Android stoves. Right, fanboys?

UK-French drone aircraft blueprints nicked at Paris station

2012-02-24T13:38:34Z

No botnet required for low-tech theft

Old-school crooks managed to steal documents related to secret plans to build a joint French-British drone aircraft after snatching a briefcase at a Paris railway station.…

Getting to grips with the dynamic datacentre

2012-02-24T13:38:05Z

(Recon)figuring it all out

Reader research Many companies have now undergone a wave of server consolidation, enabled by virtualisation.…

Apple fanbois forced to go on the pull by Motorola patent

2012-02-24T13:17:08Z

Germans won't get the message after iOS court defeat

Apple has switched off push notifications in Germany, responding to Motorola Mobility's successful patent lawsuit, so iCloud users in Germany will have to learn to pull together.…

Dublin Offices to Revive as Facebook, Google Add Space

2012-02-24T12:20:01Z

When Bill Clinton told American executives that they’d be “nuts” not to invest in Ireland, many were already ahead of the former president. U.S. companies were behind almost 40 percent of offices bought or leased in Dublin in 2011 and the trend is likely to accelerate this year.

HP, Dell warn of price hikes after Foxconn wage rise

2012-02-24T13:01:08Z

Consumer backlash passed on to, er, consumers

Tech giants HP and Dell have revealed that they are keeping a close eye on developments in the Chinese labour market and may even be forced to put up their prices if wages keep increasing in the region.…

Playfire Hits A Million Users Of Its Analytics For Gamers

2012-02-24T13:06:16Z

Playfire, a social network designed entirely for console and desktop video gamers launched in 2008. That makes it one of the older social networks, but unlike others of its ilk it has not rested on its laurels. Last year they re-worked the site to run entirely on automatically tracked data. Literally speaking, users can create a profile once and forget about it, allowing the site to track all their in-game activity. Their profile then delivers to them in-game stats, custom themes, favorite genre graphs, favourite games and many other features. This week they’ve hit a new milestone with a million users.

Now, that might not sound like a lot but you have to remember that this is a different environment to the web. Playfire tracks what gamers are playing on Xbox Live, PlayStation 3 and the PC and is one of the only companies in the world to have the technology to do that.

To use Playfire is very simple – you just enter your username or Xbox Live, PS3 or Steam. They then download all of the game data and track it every few hours from then on.

Raptr, which has raised raised $27M in funding, is the only other company which can do similar things. But despite raising 10x the cash than Playfire, the latter is bigger according to Compete. In addition Raptr doesn’t have full PS3 tracking, but Playfire does. That puts them in a pretty unique spot.

Playfire has raised $3.1 million from Atomico and angels including Michael Birch and William Reeve.

Currently Playfire collects data on everything gamers do in games. That amounts to 800 million pieces of data.

As CEO Kieran O’Neill told me: “There are so many different ways of using this to improve the lives of gamers: knowing what they like just by how often they play certain games, and using that data to find games they’ll love but haven’t heard of. We sit at the center of an industry where $50 billion is spent per year. We’ve had quite a lot of interest from games publishers and developers who are keen to work with us to use that data to build better games.”

Mainly gamers like building a cross-platform timeline to show off their games and achievements, following what their friends are playing and having banter over who’s better, and getting recommendations for which game to play next.

Players can be notified of new discussions, videos, news stories etc for the games they care about. They can follow friends and online buddies, and stay up to date with what their friends are playing, saying and doing. Privacy is controlled on the game console itself. Most people make it public as none of it is private or sensitive information, but it’s easy to turn it off.

Playfire was founded in 2007 by Kieran O’Neill, Seb Hayes and Ben Phillips.

Stock Chart Site TradingView Adds European Stocks and a Watch List

2012-02-24T13:00:13Z

TradingView, a social finance site that launched last September, has just been upgraded with some new features, including data on European stocks and U.S. stock futures.

The site was created by trading software company MultiCharts. Charts, after all, are often at the heart of stock discussions, so TradingView is a place where those charts are front-and-center. Users can create and share charts with up-to-date data, follow and comment on other charts, and also post their charts to Twitter and embed them on other websites.

Among TradingView’s new features are a watch list for tracking your most important stock prices on one screen, study templates to make it easy to add financial indicators to your chart, and color themes for adjusting the color of a chart with just one click. Asked which new features will make the biggest difference, COO Stan Bokov points to the new data and the watch list.

“New data coverage makes the site useful to a lot more people from all over the world, including Canada and Europe,” he says. “Users can now see data for markets that are relevant to them. Eventually we are hoping to extend coverage to data from all over the world.”

TradingView sees about 2,000 visitors per day, a number that has been growing steadily, Bokov says. And those visitors spend an average of 30 minutes on the site.

Joustin’ Beaver App Maker Served A Cease & Desist Order From Justin Bieber

2012-02-24T12:46:14Z

A mobile game created to parody Canada’s biggest teenybopper export in years was just asking for trouble, and that’s what it’s gotten: the developers behind ‘Joustin’ Beaver,’ a mobile game available for iOS and Android devices, have been served with a cease and desist order from lawyers representing Justin Bieber.

The game doesn’t use his music, but it does feature a Bieber-like beaver, named Joustin’ Beaver, who floats down a river knocking things down. It costs $0.99 to download.

In a letter to developers RC3, a lawyer representing Bieber, Aaron D. Rosenberg of Myman, Greenspan, Fineman, Fox, Rosenberg & Light, LLP, says that the developer has two days to take down the game before further legal action is taken.

“Please be advised, at no time has our Client, our Client’s parental guardian, or our Client’s designated representatives entered into an agreement with you or your related business entities, or otherwise granted permission to you or any third party, to create the App,” the Rosenberg writes. “Further, I am not aware that you made any inquiry or gesture to contact our Client’s representatives to obtain such authorization. Accordingly, you have no right to utilize our Client’s name, image, likeness, life story or identity in or in connection with the App.”

He also points out that “Exploitation of our Client’s name, likeness, image and renowned reputation in the industry to promote, advertise and market the App falsely implies that our Client has granted you certain rights to do so which, as you know, is not the case.”

Bieber has had a big presence in mobile, with a huge number of people following his exploits on Instagram, and so while all this sounds a bit ridiculous, you can see where some might possibly lead to confusion that either agreed to or had involvement with this particular game.

RC3 has responded: “The game is a parody and is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. Nowhere in the game is Justin Bieber’s name, photo, image, or life story mentioned.”

RC3 is keeping the game live for now — but those $0.99 download proceeds are going to start dwindling down fast if they don’t come up with a plan B.

'Nobody can resist the charming of iPAD'

2012-02-24T12:38:08Z

Plus 'The kids' app ecosystem needs to wake up'

Quotw This was the week when Microsoft decided that its new Windows logo should actually look like a window, resulting in this streamlined and modernistic (or uncolourful and mundane depending on your viewpoint) effort:…

Sony to strike gold with PS Vita - if it cuts the price

2012-02-24T12:25:09Z

Analyst says success comes for less than $200

Sony may shift more than $2.2bn worth of PlayStation Vita handheld consoles - some 12.4m units - by the end of 2012, it has been forecast. The catch: the price has to come down under $200.…

U.K. GDP Shrinks in Fourth Quarter as Firms Cut Investment

2012-02-24T13:19:28Z

The U.K. economy shrank in the fourth quarter as companies scaled back investment, underscoring the risks to a recovery that Bank of England Governor Mervyn King says will be “slow and uncertain.”

Hewlett-Packard’s Whitman Sees Windows 8 Tablet by Year-End

2012-02-24T10:23:34Z

Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman said the company will release a tablet computer based on Microsoft Corp.’s new version of its Windows software before the end of the year.

Apple chief thinks about his MOUNTAIN OF CASH a lot

2012-02-24T12:19:11Z

Cook's not dishing out surplus dough

Apple has given in to shareholder pressure on director voting, but is still thinking about what to do with its vast mountain range of cash.…

Syndicate

2012-02-24T12:00:07Z

Bullfrog classic revived

Review Cyberpunk's lasting appeal is often attributed to its familiar tropes: dystopian near-future settings, rapid technological advancements, massive societal upheaval and, of course, alienated loners living off-the-grid. But it's not the conventions that sustain the genre, but its allegories.…

Game Closure Turns Down Facebook & Zynga To Raise $12M For HTML5 Mobile Gaming

2012-02-24T12:05:09Z

Gaming is changing fast these days, especially in the browser. Sure, social games are great and everything, but there’s always been a sense that, as browser-based technologies mature, the opportunities that present themselves will make casual social, Facebook-only gaming look crayon scrawl. Inherently, one of the best parts of gaming is that it’s inherently social, and gamers want deeper, more interactive experiences — from console to free-to-play online games.

Of course, enabling deep, multiplayer experiences puts a lot of stress on the technology and the game’s engineers (coding, synchronizations, de-buggings, oh my!) — even with how far HTML5 has come, it’s still a pain in the butt and can be expensive. That’s where Game Closure entered the picture. We were the first to cover Game Closure back when they launched at the “demo day” of SSE Labs, Stanford University’s student-run startup accelerator. (Now known as StartX.)

At the time, Game Closure described itself as a gaming version of Heroku and Appcelerator, but, for the uninitiated, that means that the team has built a game development environment and SDK, which makes it easy for developers to create, host, and deploy HTML5-based, cross-platform, multiplayer games – on iOS, Android, and Facebook. But what’s really cool about this, especially given where the space was as recently as a year ago, is that the development environment itself doesn’t require additional software, plugins, etc., all you need is your browser.

Mobile and social gaming are already growing like weeds, so there’s an untapped market and lots revenue potential from all the new users on-boarding as those platforms scale, but there’s also a lot of fragmentation, resulting in an increasing demand (among both experienced and novice gamers) for cross-platform availability. To be successful, developers have to be there. That’s why we’ve been seeing the big players like Zynga and EA, who were once content with being one-platform wonders, not only scramble to launch on multiple platforms, but offer direct-to-consumer services, and increase their frequency at which they turn out viable, robust games.

Game Closure has, in part, made that latter obstacle their top priority, and last summer they’d gotten to a point where they believed they could realize cross-platform push with all the bells and whistles in as little as four to six weeks. (For context, this is a task which typically takes developers six months to a year to do.)

So, at Google I/O last summer the team launched its first game, called Popstar Defense, in about five weeks, as proof that its game development tools could be used to create a workable gaming experience, purely written in HTML5. The team has since released a few more games, with some going live, and while some of them have missed, they each represent a step closer to a more powerful gaming technology.

This caught the attention of investors, and less than six months after incorporating officially as a company, Game Closure closed a seed round from an impressive list of investors, including SV Angel, Yuri Milner, Joi Ito, Charles River Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners, and General Catalyst Partners. In addition to investing in Game Closure’s seed round, Joi Ito, who has served on the board of DeNA, advises Zynga and Twitter, and runs the MIT Media Lab, also joined the startup as an advisor.

But, we’ve heard that it’s not only investors who were interested in the startup. Quite a few of the big players are lacking in their HTML5 strategies, and Game Closure as a young company, looked like a good steal. In fact, the Game Closure CEO confirmed that the company has had “significant inbound acquisition interest” from Facebook, Zynga, GREE, Motorola, and several others. What’s more, our reliable sources close to the deal indicated that Zynga put out the highest bid, its acquisition interest pushing into the $100 million range.

The team turned down these offers, choosing to go it alone. And now a year from launch, the startup has grown to a team of 26 and is adding more coin to its coffers to support its independent exploits, announcing today that it has closed a $12 million series A round, led by new investor Highland Capital Partners, with contributions from existing investors, Greylock, Benchmark, General Catalyst, and CRV, bringing the startup’s total to just under $13 million.

Carter tells us that they were particularly excited by the fact that Highland Capital’s participation was led by Partner Andy Miller, who has quite a bit of mobile experience to his name, having sold Quattro Wireless to Apple for $275 million, whereupon he joined the company as VP of its iADs platform, and recently left Apple to join Highland.

As to what’s next, the team has recently added analytics and multi-language translation into its game development experience, and, going forward, is looking to add monetization structures to the mix. Right now it’s working with game studios to optimize their HTML5 and mobile gaming experiences, and in the future we might see them tack to a broader focus.

For more, check out Game Closure at home here.