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BitTorrent site Demonoid shut down

2012-08-08T18:06:00.003+05:30

WEDNESDAY, 08 AUGUST 2012 18:06

Ukrainian authorities have taken down Demonoid.com, one of the world's largest torrent file-sharing sites.
Investigators from the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs raided the data centre that was hosting the website's servers.

Torrents allow users to download music, video and other internet content by downloading small bits of files from others' computers at the same time.
The shutdown is the latest news in a campaign against file-sharing sites.
It follows the US's closure of Megaupload, and several European ISPs (internet service providers) being ordered to block access to The Pirate Bay.
Demonoid was listed alongside both of these sites in The Notorious Markets List - a document drawn up by the US government at the end of last year highlighting services that "merit further investigation for possible intellectual property rights infringements".
It noted that Demonoid "recently ranked among the top 600 websites in global traffic and the top 300 in US traffic".
Back online?,
Users first became aware of the action on 26 July, when attempts to access Demonoid's site yielded a "server busy" message.
The Torrentfreak news site reported that Ukraine's Division of Economic Crimes acted after receiving a request from the international police organisation Interpol.
It said the local authorities then contacted Demonoid's ISP, Colocall, which decided to pull its service, and allowed investigators to copy data off its servers.
"Demonoid is known for its links to relatively rare content which may be harder to come by now," Torrentfreak's editor Ernesto Van Der Sar told.
"However, it's not going to stop the majority of people from sharing files as the most popular items are available though hundreds of other BitTorrent sites."
The action follows the arrest of one of Demonoid's administrators in Mexico last October. But despite the setbacks Mr Van Der Sar suggested it was too soon to consign the site to history.
"In 2006 The Pirate Bay came back online three days after it was raided, and in the years that followed it grew out to become the largest BitTorrent site," he said.

YouTube app vanishes from Apple's next version of iOS

2012-08-08T17:59:00.002+05:30

WEDNESDAY, 08 AUGUST 2012 18:00

The app for video clip service YouTube is missing from the next version of Apple's iOS6 operating system.
Apple said the app had been removed because its licence to produce the program had expired.

The Apple-made version of the YouTube app has been a staple on the iPhone's iOS since the device was first launched in 2007.
Apple said Google was developing its own version of the app which should appear soon.
'Worse experience'
The fourth test, or beta, version of iOS6 was released by Apple on 6 August. The final public version is expected to be ready in September prior to the rumoured launch of a new iPhone.
Soon after the software was released many tech news sites noticed it lacked the YouTube app, even though the Apple-made version of this program has been available for years.
Not all YouTube functions have disappeared from iOS6 beta, said Apple in its statement, as users can still play video by visiting YouTube with a web browser. They can also still upload films to YouTube from a phone or tablet.
Financial terms of the licensing deal that let Apple create the YouTube app have not been disclosed.
Apple would not be drawn on whether it would be replacing the YouTube app with another pre-installed video sharing service. It has already taken a similar step with Google maps, as iOS6 will use its own mapping app.
No date has been given for when Google's version of the YouTube app will appear.
"This is all about Apple removing Google from its operating system completely," said Stuart Miles, founder and head of tech news site Pocket-lint. He wondered if the end result of this strategy would be for Apple to drop Google as its default search engine on iOS.
"In a couple of years you will just ask Siri for results and you will not care where that comes from," he said.
Gaining control of the YouTube app was good for Google, he said, because it let it update and change the program as needed. It would also likely mean that ads would appear on clips.
"There's no reason why you won't start having pre-roll adverts," he said, "which is going to mean a worse experience for users."

Google tackles rogue Android app problem with new rules

2012-08-02T23:57:00.001+05:30

THURSDAY, 02 AUGUST 2012 23:56

Google is attempting to crack down on rogue mobile apps on its Android platform with stricter guidelines for developers.
The measures include a ban on using icons that are "confusingly similar" to that of existing products.

The search giant also issued rules on how advertising should appear in apps.
Since its launch, the Google Play store has featured a significant number of malicious apps, or counterfeit versions of popular games such as Angry Birds.
The new guidelines were announced in an email to developers who have 30 days to make sure their apps comply.
Developers who do not comply with the measures could see their products removed from the store.
The letter, published in full by the Android Central blog, said Google was "constantly striving" to make improvements.
"This requires us to update our policies when we launch new features, like subscription billing, and also when we see unhealthy behaviour, like deceptive app names and spammy notifications."
Dead Trigger
Unlike Apple's App Store, Google does not vet submissions to its catalogue, instead allowing users to flag up bad apps once they have been placed online.
Past examples of apps engaging in "unhealthy" behaviour include programs capable of sending sensitive user data to a remote server.
As well as dangerous apps, knock-off versions of popular paid products - often games - have frustrated developers.
Mobile developer Madfinger Games said piracy issues in the Android store had forced it to make its title, Dead Trigger, free to download.
"At first we intend to make this game available for as many people as possible - that's why it was for as little as buck," the company wrote.
"Even for one buck, the piracy rate is soooo giant, that we finally decided to provide Dead Trigger for free."
In an attempt to combat this, Google has said it was "restricting the use of names or icons confusingly similar to existing system apps in order to reduce user confusion".
It added: "We are providing more detail on the kinds of dangerous products that are not allowed on Google Play.
"For example, apps that disclose personal information without authorization are not allowed."
'Good first step'
Google said the new guidelines also gave clearer rules on what constituted a violation of its spam policy.
A further problem highlighted by users is the proliferation of intrusive and frustrating advertisements within free apps.
Google said that it would add a new section to address advertising behaviour within apps.
"First, we make it clear that ads in your app must follow the same rules as the app itself.
"Also, it is important to us that ads don't negatively affect the experience by deceiving consumers or using disruptive behaviour such as obstructing access to apps and interfering with other ads."
The guidelines have been welcomed by many Android developers.
"I think it's one of many steps, but it's a good first step to see them taking this sort of thing seriously," said Matthew Kennard, a mobile developer for UK-based One Result.
"Now they've released the Google Nexus phone, and the Nexus tablet, Google are thinking now's the time to get serious."

Facebook has more than 83 million illegitimate accounts

2012-08-02T23:47:00.001+05:30

THURSDAY, 02 AUGUST 2012 23:46

Facebook has said it believes there are now more than 83 million illegitimate accounts on the social network.
In company filings published this week, it said 8.7% of its 955 million active accounts broke its rules.

Duplicate profiles - belonging to already registered users - made up 4.8% of its membership figure.
User-misclassified accounts amounted to 2.4% - including personal profiles for businesses or pets - while 1.5% of users were described as "undesirable".
The estimate comes at a time of growing concern about the effectiveness of marketing on the platform.
Facebook defined duplicates as "an account that a user maintains in addition to his or her principal account."
It said profiles were "user-misclassified" if "users have created personal profiles for a business, organisation, or non-human entity such as a pet".
It added that "undesirable" accounts included those using fake names which were "intended to be used for purposes that violate our terms of service, such as spamming".
'Harm our business'
Facebook, whose business model relies on targeted advertising, is coming under increased scrutiny over the worth of its advertising model which promotes the gathering of "likes" from users.
"We generate a substantial majority of our revenue from advertising," the company said in its filing.
"The loss of advertisers, or reduction in spending by advertisers with Facebook, could seriously harm our business."
Last month, the BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones set up a fake company called VirtualBagel to investigate allegations of fake "likes".
His investigation found that the large majority of "likes" for the fake firm originated from the Middle East and Asia.
Many users appeared to be false, such as "Ahmed Ronaldo" - apparently a Cairo-based user who is employed by Spanish football club Real Madrid.
Last week, digital distribution firm Limited Press alleged that, based on its own analytics software, 80% of clicks on its advertisements within Facebook had come from fake users.
In a post on its Facebook page, the company said: "Bots were loading pages and driving up our advertising costs. So we tried contacting Facebook about this. Unfortunately, they wouldn't reply.
"Do we know who the bots belong too [sic]? No. Are we accusing Facebook of using bots to drive up advertising revenue. No. Is it strange? Yes."
After a surge of attention to the company, it has since removed the Facebook posting, and said Facebook was now looking into its concerns.

Indie video games get help from a 'big brother'

2012-08-02T22:05:00.003+05:30

THURSDAY, 02 AUGUST 2012 22:05

Every year, big name video game titles extend their franchise footprint across the gaming landscape with more explosions, deeper storylines or increasingly outrageous gameplay.

But recently, some smaller developers are having an important influence about what games are about, and are getting some help from a big-name "big brother" to take console games in a different direction.
Giant Sparrow is a small group of developers who got behind the vision of Ian Dallas, a graduate of the University of Southern California's game design program. Dallas had the offbeat idea of replacing the often busy landscape of video games with a totally white field and challenging players to explore their surroundings using paintballs to reveal the environment.
He and some of his friends began building the backbone for what would become "The Unfinished Swan," an upcoming game that is based on an "Alice in Wonderland"-styled motif, but features a swan that has escaped from an unfinished painting. Dallas says he wanted to open the minds of gamers and get them thinking about what they're doing as opposed to following an "excruciatingly detailed tutorial."
"This game is about what all of your buttons do," he said. "I wanted to create an experience of a total white space where you don't know anything and you're gradually discovering it on your own in a way that's very player directed."
He posted a trailer online and his game mechanic was featured at an indie gaming event in 2008 called Sense of Wonder, a gathering for new ideas and new talent for the gaming industry. What he didn't know was he was also showing what he could do to talent recruiters at Sony Santa Monica studios.
Dallas said he remembers getting a call from Sony and an offer to meet for coffee. By January 2009, he was fleshing out the rest of his story idea to fully develop his vision with help from Sony, the console-gaming giant.
Shannon Studstill, senior director of product development for Sony Santa Monica, said the studio has an incubation program for young game developers who show great potential and that they understand how the industry works.
She said the studios keep an eye on shows and gatherings for new ideas and fresh talent, then talk with people they like to find out what their thought process is like and what they want to achieve.
"From that, we start talking about the commercial viability of the product, which isn't always the case," she said. "You see what more is going on in that person's head, what is the strength of the idea and how important is it to that person to see that idea realized."
She said Sony Santa Monica gives these fledging teams a base from which to launch their idea and shoulders the burden of some of the more mundane, but necessary, management of game design. This way, the team can focus on developing their idea and not worry about who brought snacks for the day.
Studstill points to the success of thatgamecompany, a development team that produced critically applauded titles like "Journey" and "Flower" while working with Sony Santa Monica.
"We've gotten fan mail from people that have said ('Journey') has changed their lives," she said. "These people are sitting in front of their TVs crying or feeling extremely emotional in that moment. We take a lot of pride in that."
She said Dallas impressed her and Sony talent scouts with the strength of his idea and the conviction he had toward his game mechanic. Studstill said she thinks his game will be a success if they can get just one person to say "Unfinished Swan" has affected them.
"We really believed in where he wanted to take his creative idea," Studstill said. "The opportunity to get in on that and nurture it was pretty obvious early on." Dallas understands that his game is not typical and is more along the lines of "artsy" video games, like "Journey." But he also wants to carve out his own niche.
"We're looking to try to appeal to two different types of gamers," Dallas said.
"We're looking for the people who have played a ton of games and are a little bit jaded and are looking for something that feels kind of different. We're also hoping to appeal to people who don't play a lot of games at all ... and hoping to provide a different kind of experience."
The game is expected to be released later this year on the PlayStation Network.

iPhone 5 to be unveiled Sept. 12

2012-08-02T21:17:00.000+05:30

THURSDAY, 02 AUGUST 2012 21:18

Gadget fans waiting anxiously for the next iPhone to be released may be reaching the home stretch.
Apple, which has made no official announcement, is planning a September 12 event at which the next generation of the iconic smartphone will presumably be announced, according to multiple reports.

iMore, an Apple-oriented blog, was the first to report that "sources who have proven accurate in the past" said the phone will be introduced at an event that day and released nine days later. Observers are calling it the iPhone 5, although no name has been announced.
Others, including The Wall Street Journal's All Things D blog, followed with similar reports. Quoting anonymous sources at Apple, All Things D said an event is planned for the week of September 9. The 12th would be a Wednesday, which follows with previous Apple events.
A September release would be slightly ahead of Apple's established one-iPhone-per-year pace. But the iPhone 4S took longer than usual, its October unveiling coming about 16 months after the iPhone 4.
A fall iPhone release has been considered a foregone conclusion by most observers for months. Speculation has focused on a handful of expected new features, including a slightly larger screen, a smaller dock connector and NFC technology that would make it easier for shoppers to make payments through their phones.
iMore also says that the mythical "iPad Mini" will be unveiled at the event. Speculation has increasingly ramped up that Apple, faced by competition from Amazon's Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7 tablets, is making a smaller version of the iPad. The move would fly in the face of statements made by the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who favored full-size tablets. But Apple faces unprecedented competition in the space and may argue that screen technology that would have made a smaller iPad impractical before is now available.
On the smartphone front, Apple also faces a landscape that's arguably more challenging than it's seen in a while. The iPhone is still the most popular handset in the field, but the total number of phones running Google's Android operating system has been greater for some time.
And while competitors in the past have arguably spent the time between iPhone releases trying to catch up, many reviewers feel that several models among the current crop of Android phones have surpassed the 4S in terms of features and performance.
Notably, the Samsung Galaxy S III has topped 10 million in sales in two months -- a number it took the Galaxy S II five months to hit. Reviewers have praised its bigger screen, sleek design and a set of new features.
The iPhone 4S was, in some senses, a glorified update of the iPhone 4, with its advances coming in new software features and improved camera and display. It outsold its predecessor, although with anticipation high for the looming iPhone 5, sales have begun to flag.
According to its recent earnings report, Apple shipped 26 million iPhones from April to June, which was less than the 28 million to 29 million that Wall Street analysts had predicted. It was a steep drop from the 35.1 million that the company sold in the previous quarter.

NSA wants to hire hackers

2012-07-29T19:18:00.001+05:30

SUNDAY, 29 JULY 2012 19:18

Wearing a t-shirt and jeans, America's top spymaster -- National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander, also the head of the U.S. Cyber Command -- took the stage Friday at the nation's largest hacker convention to deliver a recruiting pitch.

"In this room, this room right here, is the talent our nation needs to secure cyberspace," Alexander told the standing-room-only audience at DefCon, a grassroots gathering in Las Vegas expected to draw a record 16,000 attendees this year. "We need great talent. We don't pay as high as everybody else, but we're fun to be around."
Alexander's appearance is a milestone for DefCon, a hacker mecca with an often-uneasy relationship with the feds. DefCon is the older, wilder and far less official sibling of BlackHat, a cybersecurity conference that wrapped up Thursday in Las Vegas.
BlackHat draws corporate infosecurity workers in suits. At DefCon, they switch to t-shirts and spend the weekend mingling with cryptographers, script kiddies, security researchers and a liberal smattering of military and law enforcement agents -- both in and out of uniform.
DefCon is famed as an elite hacking showcase. The registration badges alone are a technical feat, featuring a customizable circuit board and cryptographic scavenger-hunt puzzle. A hacker group called Ninja Networks set up a private cellular network to chat on during the show -- a stunt that drew admiring praise from Alexander during his talk.
Those are the kinds of skills the government needs, he said. Playing to his audience, Alexander rattled off a long list of tech-industry stars like Vint Cerf and Dave Aitel who did pioneering work on the federal payroll.
"We're the ones who built this Internet," Alexander said, citing the key role agencies like DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) played in the network's early days. "Now we're the ones who have to keep it secure, and I think you folks can help do that."
Related story: Former FBI cyber cop worries about a digital 9/11 To hammer the point home, the NSA set up a special recruiting site for the show: http://www.nsa.gov/careers/dc20/. It's not your standard government careers page. This one includes the line: "If you have a few, shall we say, indiscretions in your past, don't be alarmed."
The NSA is especially keen to draw in people like those holed up in a conference room just 20 feet away from Alexander's presentation, hunched over laptops and takeout cartons. They're competitors in Defcon's "Capture the Flag" battle, a kind of geek Olympics.
Hacking is usually a glamorless sport, but Defcon plays up the drama for its famed-in-nerd-circles CTF showdowns. In a darkened arena filled with rock music and colored laser lights, 20 competing teams fight for 48 hours to break into each other's servers and steal key information, called "flags," while holding off rival attackers. The winner will be announced Sunday evening during DefCon's closing ceremonies.
Coders from around the globe battle through a series of qualifying rounds to make it to the CTF. "These hackers here are the top of the world," one observer murmured in hushed tones, watching the teams bang feverishly on their computers a few hours after the contest's Friday morning kickoff.
The NSA would love to learn more about the exploits those CTF hackers are using. But do the hackers want to play ball?
The audience reaction to Alexander's talk was generally favorable. Organizers had to turn away hundreds of attendees from the at-capacity conference hall, and the crowd that made it in listened attentively to the general's talk.
One attendee near the front -- a corporate security researcher who specializes in defending against digital espionage -- said he came away impressed. More importantly, from NSA's point of view, he says he would consider checking out the agency's career options.
"I think it would be thrilling," said the researcher, who asked to remain anonymous. "I mean, that's the real deal. We're trying to protect our corporate IP. They're trying to protect the country and people. It would be absolutely awesome -- even though the pay is nothing."
Of course, not everyone was so easily won over. A few rows further back, a group of cynics kept up a running counterpoint to Alexander's talk.
"Sometimes you guys get a bad rep," Alexander said at one point. "From my perspective, what you're doing to figure out the vulnerabilities in our systems is absolutely needed."

Ouya, OnLive Shaking Up Video Game World

2012-07-28T19:44:00.002+05:30

SATURDAY, 28 JULY 2012 19:44

Ouya, the recently unveiled video game system, on Friday announced a content deal that will make OnLive's cloud gaming service available on the console when it launches next year.

Ouya has certainly gotten its kickstart. In fact, the company, which has been looking to Kickstarter to raise funding for the development of its open source-based console, has seen investments surpass the US$5.5 million mark. But the new content partnership may be just as important. OnLive, which is already available as an app for the Android operating system via Google Play, also recently announced that its service would be available via the Vizio Co-Star Google TV box.
This could very much be a game changing moment for the traditional video game market.
"The game business has been an example of the razor blade economy," said Billy Pidgeon, principal analyst with M2 Research. "The systems are typically sold with little profit and the money is made from selling expensive games. Freemium content works very differently, and it could still be a very big challenge in getting the install base to support it."
However, Ouya as the box and OnLive as the content do seem like a perfect marriage -- but many marriages see the couple fighting over money.
"While on paper the combination sounds good, there is still lots of money to be spent marketing new brands to gain some consumer traction," said P.J. McNealy, consultant with Digital World Research. "At the end of the day, they'll be competing against likely future offerings from the likes of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo -- all established brands."
Ouya and OnLive did not respond to our requests to comment for this story.
Changing the Game Industry
While the partnership with OnLive will give Ouya a huge library of titles, this new model still faces issues over whether it can keep the revenue stream flowing.
"They are rejecting the current console model of making money by having a closed system and taking advantage of the closed system to skim money off software sales," said video game industry analyst Mark Lewis Baldwin of Baldwin Consulting. "Without that revenue stream, I'm not positive how their financial model is supposed to work, and it therefore has me questioning it a little."
This could make partnerships with content, and the subscription revenue that could come with it, all the more important.
"Assuming there is a potential successful financial model, I think the OnLive partnership is probably critical," Baldwin told TechNewsWorld. "There is a revenue stream there, and it also puts Ouya at the forefront of where the game industry is probably going."
This could be a path that the current industry giants such as Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony are likely not happy to follow.
"This puts Ouya in a high-risk and high-reward situation," added Baldwin.
Thinking Outside the Set-Top Box
Ouya is also not alone in thinking outside the box as it looks to transform the game's market. Microsoft, Sony and even Nintendo have looked to content providers such as Hulu and Netflix to add value to their respective video game consoles.
Likewise, Apple and Google are looking at disrupting the traditional living room cable and satellite TV delivery methods with their set-top boxes.
Ouya is just looking to come into the market at the low end in a possible attempt to race to the top.
"Set-top boxes have started to heat up -- largely because the numbers of old Apple TV are pretty good and Apple's rumored to be entering a better product," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. "Even the Google TV box from Vizio appears to be doing well, as people continue to shift from traditional cable to on-demand downloads."
OnLive, which provides a very rich set of gaming experiences, is being added to a number of these properties as a fast way to meaningful content, added Enderle.
"It looks like there is demand out there, and we are just waiting for an iPod-like product to emerge and better define this space," he suggested. "It looks like one is possible, though, and now it is a race to see who gets there first -- and Apple is clearly in this hunt."
Many Will Enter
At this point, it looks as if many players will attempt to enter the market, but only few are likely to succeed. But those who have so far plunked down money via Kickstarter certainly believe in Ouya.
"The Kickstarter campaign is a lot of money, but not enough for a huge launch," said Pidgeon. "However, it does suggest there could be a significant launch, as everyone who contributed to the Kickstarter campaign will get one."
That should provide a significant install base for a new system -- something that could cause worry to the established hardware makers, at least as long as the system lives up to its potential.
"Ouya can't be very powerful at $99, and the specs show that it is not," added Pidgeon. "It also suggests that there could be many Chrome-based boxes that could provide streaming of games and other media on the Chrome platform."
Now that could be enough to cause worry, as it could truly disrupt the business, and it could paint the way to a shiny future for streamed content.
"Longer term, this technology and business model combination of hardware in the living room with a streaming service, will likely be one of the winners," predicted McNealy.

The Persistence of the Facebook Smartphone Myth

2012-07-28T19:37:00.002+05:30

SATURDAY, 28 JULY 2012 19:37

On Facebook's earnings call Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg seemed to deny that the company would be developing its own branded smartphone, presumably an effort to put to rest growing speculation -- mostly attributed to unnamed sources -- about a Facebook phone under development at HTC.

Building a smartphone, said Zuckerberg on the call, "wouldn't really make much sense for us to do."
As nitpickers will hasten to point out, that's not exactly a denial.
"Our mobile strategy is simple: We think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social," says an unnamed Facebook spokesperson in a statement provided to TechNewsWorld by Ana Brekalo of The Outcast Agency.
"We're working across the entire mobile industry, with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers, and application developers to bring powerful social experiences to more people around the world," adds the spokesperson.
While it's certainly not a confirmation, that statement also doesn't flat out deny that a Facebook phone is in the works.
Face Value?
If Zuckerberg's comments can be taken at face value, then there's simply no phone. End of story.
"Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook isn't making its own phone, choosing instead to focus on integrating with other OS platforms," Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices with Current Analysis, told TechNewsWorld. "I'm inclined to take Zuckerberg's word over rumors from 'people with knowledge of the matter' -- but that's just me."
However, Zuckerberg would not be the first chief to play coy about a project under development that his company was not yet ready to announce.
"I think there are people out there working on a Facebook-branded phone," technology consultant Eric Brown told TechNewsWorld. "It may not be Facebook [itself] and may not be 'approved' by Facebook, but I believe a manufacturer -- HTC, Kyocera, LG, etc. -- might be working on something like this to try to sell the idea to Facebook." A Good Idea
A Facebook phone could be a boon for a company that has emphasized the importance of the mobile sphere to its business model.
"I think it would be a good idea," said Brown. "Facebook already has brand recognition. Why not parlay that into a device that is Facebook-centric?"
Having its own smartphone, however, might require Facebook to do some fundamental rethinking, restructuring and reorganizing.
"Were Facebook to develop a phone, they would need to acknowledge it is a far different business model than their core and create organizational space to accommodate it," Kevin R. Bolen, a partner with the consulting firm Innosight, told TechNewsWorld.
"Dealing with manufacturing, suppliers, distributors, returns, inventory, seasonal sales cycles -- these are all concepts that are presently foreign to a social network management firm selling advertising," he explained. "Embracing these differences and building a dedicated environment and experienced leadership team to support the new business would be critical to their success."
What Facebook Would Have to Do
For a Facebook smartphone to succeed, according to Brown, it would have to be feature-rich and provide something truly new to the marketplace.
"To succeed long-term, any Facebook-branded phone would need to be a smartphone first and Facebook device second," he said. "To be successful, the device would need to invisibly integrate all the smartphone features with [the] Facebook system -- email, photo sharing, check-ins, etc."
In other words, it would have to go beyond other smartphones in its ability to leverage the strengths of Facebook's social platform.
"The standard features found in smartphones today are key, but I suspect Facebook would want to twist everything to tie into the Facebook ecosystem," said Brown. "The email/calendar/contact apps would most likely be tied into Facebook. A 'chat' and 'videochat' app would most likely be included as well -- both using the Facebook ecosystem."
There's plenty of competition in the smartphone marketplace, so a Facebook phone would have to stand out from the pack and be truly innovative in order to be able to capture any significant market share.
"Facebook's challenge will be to look beyond our current expectations and show us something unexpectedly valuable and exceed what we can get already with the Facebook app on an iPhone," said Bolen.

Jism 2 song - different feeling with Sunny Leone

2012-07-28T10:51:00.001+05:30

SATURDAY, 28 JULY 2012 10:46

Jism 2 Movie Song - different music feeling with Sunny Leone

2012-07-28T10:47:00.000+05:30

SATURDAY, 28 JULY 2012 10:46

Amazon CEO Bezos donates $2.5 million for same-sex marriage

2012-07-28T10:20:00.000+05:30

SATURDAY, 28 JULY 2012 10:19

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is backing same-sex marriage.

Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, donated $2.5 million to Washington United for Marriage, a coalition to uphold the state's same-sex marriage law. It is believed to be the largest individual donation to protect same-sex marriage.
The couple has doubled the organization's funds for the campaign to approve Referendum 74 in November. The measure will determine whether or not to legalize same-sex civil unions in Washington state.
"The extraordinary contribution from Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos will make an enormous difference for our campaign to defend Washington's marriage law," said WUM campaign manager Zach Silk in a statement.

Google 'in breach' of UK data privacy agreement

2012-07-28T10:10:00.001+05:30

SATURDAY, 28 JULY 2012 10:10

Google has admitted that it had not deleted users' personal data gathered during surveys for its Street View service.
The data should have been wiped almost 18 months ago as part of a deal signed by the firm in November 2010.

Google has been told to give the data to the UK's Information Commissioner (ICO) for forensic analysis.
The ICO said it was co-ordinating its response with other European privacy bodies.
In May 2010 it was revealed that Google had scooped up about 600 gigabytes of personal data from unsecured wireless networks while gathering images and location data for Street View.
The data was collected for years in 30 countries while Google compiled information for the mapping service.
Forensic checks
Google apologised for gathering the data and said it was a "mistake". The blunder led to legal action, fines and investigations around the world.
In the UK, Google gave an undertaking to destroy the data it was holding and issued a statement saying it had done so in December 2010.
However, said the ICO, Google had recently contacted it to report that some of the data it had gathered had not been deleted.
The company approached the ICO with the revelation to find out how it should act.
In response, the ICO told Google to hand over the data immediately "so that we can subject it to forensic analysis before deciding on the necessary course of action".
Possessing data that should have been deleted "appears to breach" the undertaking Google signed in November 2010, said the ICO in a statement.
"The ICO is clear that this information should never have been collected in the first place and the company's failure to secure its deletion as promised is cause for concern," it added.
Ireland's data protection watchdog also expressed displeasure.
Deputy information commissioner Gary Davis said the search giant's action was "clearly unacceptable" and demanded answers by Wednesday.
'Hugely embarrassing'
Peter Fleischer, Global privacy counsel, said in a statement: "Google has recently confirmed that it still has in its possession a small portion of payload data collected by our Street View vehicles in the UK. Google apologises for this error."
Emma Draper, head of communications at campaign group Privacy International, said Google should be "hugely embarrassed".
"The company's handling of the Street View episode has been a litany of disasters," she added.
"The fact that this latest one is the result of incompetence rather than deliberate misconduct will be of little comfort to Google users.
"The US Federal Trade Commission is going to come down hard on Google, and very few of their executives will deny that they deserve it."
The ICO's probe into the collection of wi-fi data was re-opened earlier in July when the privacy watchdog became aware of reports that a Google engineer had deliberately written software to obtain a wide range of material.

American Olympic Team & Christian Athletes to be Fed with Halal Meat

2012-07-27T21:41:00.001+05:30

FRIDAY, 27 JULY 2012 21:40

The 2012 Olympics is leaving a bad taste in many Athletes mouths since they found out the British assured food standard meat is 100% Halal! This is the deceit and hypocrisy of UK supermarket chains and slaughter houses which, whilst trumpeting the ‘Britishness’ of their products, surreptitiously purvey Halal meat to the general public and the Olympic teams.

Halal is the Islamic method of religious slaughter whereby a live animal has its throat slit whilst being blessed in the name of Allah and it can take up to six minutes to die.
In a investigation it was revealed that supermarkets, butchers and other retailers, restaurants, cafes and the food production and catering industry as a whole, all source from suppliers who serve Muslim as well as non-Muslim customers.
Some of these suppliers process all their meat to Halal standards. For example, all New Zealand lamb meet’s Halal standards. And all British lamb and chicken is Halal.
In these cases all processes still meet the same stringent animal welfare requirements it is claimed and some animals are stunned prior to slaughter whether the meat is sold as Halal or non-Halal but all is Islamically blessed so it can be used for both the Muslim and non-Muslim market.
The American Olympic national team are being forced fed by this crawl meat which is blessed with the same words used by the 911 hijackers in the cockpit as they crashed into the world trade centre, French Athletes from their national squad whose country has just suffered a Islamic terrorists killing, Jewish children outside a school are also being forced fed by London 2012 officials with Halal meat.
The meat is not Labeled in the UK, So shoppers and catering industry do not know they are in fact eating Halal. It’s hidden truth came out from email press statements made by several supermarkets that meat sourced in the UK is all pressed Halal so they can serve the 4% of the population with religious slaughter Islamically blessed meat.
India whose Olympic team might also object under religious grounds being Hindus and Spain, Denmark and Russia are just a few who could ask London 2012 organizers what are we eating as British Red Tractor meat according to all major supermarkets is in fact now slaughtered islamically to save packaging costs.
As the world looks at London, the British meat industry gets ready to show off some of it’s finest meat, forgetting to tell anyone that in fact there's not much that is British in the method it is slaughtered. The reason why the abattoirs are slaughtering most meat Halal now, is to sell the parts of the carcass that most British people 96% of them don't use, to other markets 4% Muslims who do use it.
This minimizes food waste, keeps prices down for customers and helps our farmers say’s meat retailers.
Christian Athletes who are being forced fed Islamic meat in the Olympic village like the American team!(Asiantribune.com)

Five Websites To Watch The 2012 Olympic Games Online

2012-07-27T21:21:00.001+05:30

FRIDAY, 27 JULY 2012 21:21

It’s the end of another four-year wait. After China’s spectacular opening ceremony back in 2008 (which raised so many bars in so many categories) we move to London for the 2012 Olympic Games. Once again, we get to watch the human spirit break barriers, renew records, inspire team work, and push us to go further than our bodies would possibly let us. And with the help of technology, we can actually catch all this and more from the comforts of our living room.
Here we are featuring 5 channels to catch videos, photos, news and highlights of your favorite Olympic events. While some are region-restricted, you will probably find at least the one channel that works for your region. Also included in all of them are event schedules, recaps of what happened in past Olympics, news and updates that affect the biggest sports event in 2012 and how you, the viewers can benefit from staying on their channel. Without further ado, let’s start keeping tabs of our favorite teams and athletes!

1. Official Olympic Channel

Watch the Olympic games as well as highlight clips live, right on your browsers, YouTube-supported tablets or smartphones, and without having to pay a single penny. During the Olympics, 64 territories in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa will enjoy live coverage of the Games on this official Olympics channel on YouTube, streamed by The International Olympic Committee (IOC). The channel will be providing more than 2,200 hours of the London 2012 Olympic Games live events, event highlights, news clips and medal finals – all with English commentary.

2. NBC Olympics

The NBC Olympics site offers live streaming coverage of the entire London 2012 Olympic Games online and on their mobile/tablet apps. All 32 sports and 302 events will be shown including live video feeds, highlights, event results, schedules, TV Listings, gold medal races and more. According to NBC, "Whatever is on schedule that day, if cameras are on it, we’ll stream it". That’s the good news.
The bad news is, NBC will only show the streamed videos on the Internet to users in the United States and U.S. Territories. Users outside of those covered locations will only have access to an extensive array of non-event videos.

3. Olympic.Org

Olympic.org is the official source to what is happening at the Olympics. It’s the mother of all sites to view your favorite Olympic sports. Here, you can get the complete low-down of what goes on in the Games: live results, medal ceremonies, event schedules, athlete bios, team stats, news, photos and videos.
There are 10700 photos and 1600 videos to keep you busy for now. Stream the greatest Olympic moments, the hottest of rivalries, and watch the legends make history in HD from London 2012 Olympics.

4. CTVOlympics YouTube Channel

What better way to stream videos about the Olympics than from Youtube itself. Even better, there is a dedicated Youtube Channel called CTV Olympics that gives Canadians, an incredible means to view Olympics outside of London. CTVOlympics.ca is an exclusive source for videos and photos related to Olympic athletes, participating countries, the teams involved, event schedules and eventually game results. You can watch this massive event live online on its official YouTube channel as it provides in-depth coverage, sports analysis, athlete bios, and Olympic content right on your browser to viewers in Canada.

5. The Guardian

The Guardian is also providing awesome coverage of the Londons 2012 Olympic Games and if you check out their Olympics 2012 section, you’d be treated to a ton of freebies. They are featuring interactive guides in which you can observe the torch route, get a virtual tour of the Olympic Park (and the Velodrome) and a ranked list of 50 of the best medal hopes for Britain. Get a recap of stunning moments in the Olympics as well as sports-by-sports guide and video highlights of the Games. There is even a section called Olympic diaries where you read the personal thoughts of the sportsmen and women who are out there rooting for gold for the country.

How all your iPhone apps could be hacked at once

2012-07-27T20:32:00.001+05:30

FRIDAY, 27 JULY 2012 20:31

The iPhone's baked-in security has improved dramatically over the past few years, which is great for Apple fans.
In a weird way, it's good for hackers too.

With the "bring your own device" phenomenon in full-swing, Apple has been successful at getting its iPhones and iPads into the hands of Fortune 500 companies and even many government agencies, including the White House and the U.S. military. To make those sales, Apple had to update its iOS mobile operating system with some of the industry's most robust security features.
That had a nasty unintended consequence: Many app developers no longer put their own safeguards in place, relying instead almost exclusively on Apple to ensure the security of their applications.
With thousands of apps in the iTunes App store all featuring the same exact security features, one single vulnerability could have a domino effect. "Security is now an afterthought for many app developers," said Jonathan Zdziarski, senior forensic scientist at viaForensics, in a presentation at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas on Thursday. "That means if you hack one, you can hack them all."
Apple declined to comment.
The tech giant made its first official appearance at Black Hat this year with a session on iOS's security features, but the dry presentation was little more than a public reading of a white paper Apple recently released. Presenter Dallas De Atley, Apple's platform security team manager, took no questions after his talk and quickly escaped out a side door.
A few rooms away, Zdziarski simultaneously delivered his workshop on "The Dark Art of iOS Application Hacking."
The scenarios Zdziarski outlined are scary, but they're also far-fetched.
To hack all the apps on your phone, a hacker would need to: 1) steal your iPhone, which isn't so hard, and 2) discover and exploit an iOS vulnerability before Apple does. That's proven to be very hard. It has happened before -- most notably when serial Apple hacker Charlie Miller found a way to sneak a rogue app into Apple's fiercely guarded iTunes store. (When he publicized the hack, Apple yanked his developer license.)
Still, so-called "zero day exploits" on iOS have been extremely rare.
Related story: Your eyeballs are hackers' next target "This isn't Chicken Little and the sky is falling," Zdziarski told CNNMoney. "But the message is if you don't add your own security to your app, you're highly susceptible."
To illustrate, Zdziarski live-demonstrated some of the vulnerabilities of a few popular iOS apps that don't add much more security above Apple's baked-in protections.
A bug in PayPal's app, for instance, allows a hacker to place malicious code in a stolen iPhone and get all the log-in information that a user enters. It's unlikely. The hacker would need about 20 minutes with the iPhone to do it before handing the phone back to the owner. But the point is it's possible -- and it shouldn't be. PayPal, a subsidiary of eBay said it is investigating the issue.
"The security of our users is a top priority for PayPal," the company said in a statement. "One of the benefits of using PayPal on a mobile device is that a user's financial information is stored in the cloud and not on his or her device. Therefore, even if a device is compromised a user's financial information is inaccessible." One vulnerable spot is Apple's lack of password confirmations any time a user returns to an app they've previously logged into. In one demo, Zdziarski tweaked an app's code and entered, "userIsLogged: 1." That "1" means "true" in this case, and the app was tricked into thinking the user had been properly identified.
Zdziarski's end goal wasn't to call out Apple, PayPal or any company in particular, he said. Rather, it was simply to warn developers not to be lazy when dealing with security in their iPhone apps.

Skype denies police surveillance policy change

2012-07-27T20:17:00.000+05:30

FRIDAY, 27 JULY 2012 20:17

Microsoft's online message, phone and video chat service Skype has denied making changes to its system "in order to provide law officers greater access" to its members' conversations.
It follows reports suggesting infrastructure upgrades had made it easier to hand on users' chat data.
Skype has now posted a blog saying the changes were made solely to improve user experience and reliability.

But it added it would pass on messages to law enforcement when "appropriate". 'Wiretap' patent
Concern about Microsoft's intentions were first raised over a year ago after the Conceivablytech blog revealed the firm had filed a US patent for Legal Intercept - a technology "capable of silently copying the communication between at least two entities" on Voip (voice over internet protocol) calls.
It specifically made reference to "Skype and Skype-like applications" despite being filed in 2009, 17 months before Microsoft paid $8.5bn (£5.4bn) to take over the service.
In May 2012 the issue was revived after security researcher Kostya Kortchinsky blogged that the firm had changed its "supernode" policy.
While in the past Skype had relied on users with high-spec systems to help its members' computers locate each other when a call was made, the firm had now switched to a system in which all such connections were made using in-house servers.
This prompted posts on some blogs linking the the move to the earlier surveillance patent which were then followed up by the news site Extreme Tech.
Reports in the mainstream media including articles by Forbes, and The Washington Post followed.
The latter said industry and government officials had told it that Skype "has expanded its co-operation with law enforcement authorities to make online chats and other user information available to police".
It said its sources had spoken to it "on the condition of anonymity".
Peer-to-peer calls
Skype's blog post said it was "false" to believe the changes it had made allowed it to monitor and record audio and video calls. It said that while its servers helped members locate each other and maintain quality, the actual call data usually bypassed its equipment going directly from one users' equipment to another.
"Skype to Skype calls do not flow though our data centres and the 'supernodes' are not involved in passing media (audio or video) between Skype clients," wrote Mark Gillett, the firm's chief development and operations officer.
But he added that group calls including more than two parties were an exception, "where a server aggregates the media streams (video) from multiple clients and routes this to clients that might not otherwise have enough bandwidth to establish connections to all our partners".
Instant messages
The Washington Post article had focused on written instant messages, rather than video/audio calls.
Mr Gillett denied Skype's moves had been designed to "facilitate law enforcement" but he did acknowledge the company would give the authorities access to messages if "a law enforcement entity follows the appropriate procedures" and the procedure was "technically feasible".
His post suggested it would be possible to pass on messages in some instances.
"In order to provide for the delivery and synchronisation of instant messages across multiple devices, and in order to manage the delivery of messages between clients situated behind some firewalls which prevent direct connections between clients, some messages are stored temporarily on our (Skype/Microsoft) servers for immediate or later delivery to a user," he wrote.
Skype's privacy policy acknowledges "IM messages are currently stored for a maximum of 30 days unless otherwise permitted or required by law".

Android phones hijacked via wallet tech

2012-07-27T20:11:00.004+05:30

FRIDAY, 27 JULY 2012 20:11

A skilled hacker has shown how to hijack a smartphone via a short-range radio technology known as Near Field Communication (NFC).
Charlie Miller created tools that forced phones to visit websites seeded with attack software.

The software on the booby-trapped websites helped Mr Miller look at and steal data held on a handset.
NFC is becoming increasingly common in smartphones as the gadgets are used as electronic tickets and digital wallets.
Beam guide
Mr Miller, a research consultant at security firm Accuvant, demonstrated the work at the Black Hat hacker conference in Las Vegas.
During his presentation, Mr Miller showed how to attack three separate phones - the Samsung Nexus S, the Google Galaxy Nexus and the Nokia N9.
To attack the phones Mr Miller wrote software to control a reader tag that works in conjunction with NFC. As its name implies, NFC works when devices are brought close together or are placed near a reader chip.
In one demo Mr Miller piped commands through his custom-built chip that abused a feature of the smartphones known as Android beam. This allows phone owners to send links and information over short distances to other handsets.
He discovered that the default setting in Android Beam forces a handset to visit any weblink or open any file sent to it. Via this route he forced handsets to visit websites that ran code written to exploit known vulnerabilities in Android.
"The fact that, without you doing anything, all of a sudden your browser is going to my website, is not ideal," Mr Miller told tech news website Ars Technica.
In one demonstration using this attack Mr Miller was able to view files on a target handset.
On the Nokia phone, Mr Miller demonstrated how to abuse NFC and take complete control of a target handset, making it send texts or make calls, via the weaknesses exploited by his customised radio tag.
Mr Miller said that to successfully attack phones they must be running a particular version of the Android operating system, be unlocked and have their screen active.
Nokia said it was aware of Mr Miller's research and said it was "actively investigating" his claims of success against its N9 phone. It said it was not aware of anyone else abusing loopholes in Android via NFC.
Google has yet to comment on the research.

Qualcomm Offers Devs Fastest, Priciest Android Tablet

2012-07-27T14:37:00.000+05:30

FRIDAY, 27 JULY 2012 14:36

Android devs can now get their hands on the fastest, priciest tablet so far that runs that operating system.
Based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, the Mobile Development Platform/Tablet (MDP/T) can be pre-ordered from Bsquare for US$1,300.

It is the first MDP in a tablet form factor, and the first to feature the quad-core APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 Pro. The tablet runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Why a $1,300 Tablet?
The MDP/T's price tag is at least twice that of any other tablet on the market, but "this sounds like a developer test model," Michael Morgan, senior analyst at ABI Research, told TechNewsWorld.
"It sounds like they're putting in everything that they can -- the best of what they have -- and are getting developers ready, if you will, for the next round of tablet technology."
Qualcomm "can see the power now for devices that may hit the market one to two years from now at a more reasonable price point in volume, say $700," commented Maribel Lopez, principal analyst at Lopez Research. "You as a developer can know what to plan for."
The MDP/T is designed to give devs early access for innovating, testing, optimizing and showcasing their apps and games, Qualcomm said.
The MDP/T's Muscle
The Qualcomm MDP/T's asynchronous 1.5 GHz CPUs provide longer battery life while running CPU-intensive apps, Qualcomm said.
The tablet uses the latest generation Adreno 320 GPU. This has new multimedia capabilities, including a computational camera, which lets devs tap directly into its computational capability through new application programming interfaces (APIs) such as OpenCL. That access enables next-generation use cases such as light-field cameras for mobile devices. Adreno 320 uses hardware acceleration to enable more realistic 3D graphics.
The Adreno 320 is more than twice as fast as the Adreno 225 GPU, which enables more complex shaders, more effects, and better gameplay in apps, Bsquare said
The MDP/T has a high-resolution 10-inch WXGA multitouch display. It has 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. It also has a 13 MP main camera with flash in the rear, and a 2 MP front-facing camera.
All the usual sensors -- accelerometer, gyro, compass, ambient light and proximity, and temperature and pressure, are in the MDP/T. The device also has a fingerprint reader.
Connectors available through a docking station include a full-size USB Type A; full-size HDMI Type A; UART; and Ethernet.
For $1,300, purchasers get the tablet preloaded with Ice Cream Sandwich, a microSD card, an HDMI-M to Mini-M cable, a micro-USB cable, a battery, a Quick Start guide, and 30 minutes of support.
Qualcomm tools for appdevs on the tablet can be downloaded from the company's site. These include the Vuforia Augmented Reality SDK, the Alljoyn P2P framework, the Adreno SDK and profiler, and HTML 5 mobile device APIs.
The MDP/T is ready for development out of the box. Devs just have to connect it to a PC through a USB port to begin work.
Bsquare did not respond to our request for further details.
What About the Consumer?
Whether Qualcomm will enter the consumer market is yet to be determined, although the company has hinted it will.
Perhaps Qualcomm might be onto a good thing. The market for tablets will remain strong over the next four years, and the installed base of tablets will exceed 780 million in 2016, predicted Strategy Analytics.
On the other hand, entering the consumer market could be painful.
"I'm not sure why anyone else would want to fight the consumer battle," Lopez told TechNewsWorld. "The device business, as Qualcomm knows, is tough. It's better to be an arms merchant than a soldier."

Mitt Romney stumbles at London Olympics

2012-07-27T14:29:00.002+05:30

FRIDAY, 27 JULY 2012 14:29

What was meant to be booster for Mitt Romney’s carefully choreographed overseas trip turned dreadful when he inadvertently tripped by criticizing some operational weaknesses in the London Olympics.

A peeved Prime Minister David Cameron retorted with an upper-cut--“This is an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere,” an allusion to Salt Lake City, which hosted Games that Romney, oversaw.
The diplomatic stir epitomized Romney’s characteristic goofing capacity seen during the long Primary season in the US when he got pummeled by the likes of Santorum and Gingrich for verbal gaffes. Many observers felt that Romney should not have called the British Olympic preparations “disconcerting” and questioned "whether Londoners would turn out to support the Games".
Romney was rudely specific when he stated in an interview with NBC: “The stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials that obviously is not something which is encouraging.”
The retort from Cameron resounded with a bang that seemed to have unnerved Romney who later tried to downplay his comments.
Avoiding verbal slips
Commentators had hinted prior to Romney’s road trip that verbal slips would be devastating. Yet that came on the very first leg of his trip. Next he will travel to Israel. His remarks quickly spread threatening the news cycle of his overseas trip, which is now in the equally treacherous Middle East --Jerusalem to meet with Israeli leaders on Sunday.
Later, in remarks before his meeting with the Labor Party leader, Ed Miliband, Romney was obviously more circumspect trying to walk back his comments.
“My experience with regards to the Olympics is it is impossible for absolutely no mistakes to occur,” he commented. “Of course there will be errors from time to time, but those are all overshadowed by the extraordinary demonstrations of courage, character and determination by the athletes. The Games are, after all, about the athletes, the volunteers and the people of the community that come together to celebrate those athletes.”
Said one London commentator—Romney thought that the Olympic athletes could cover up for the short-comings of the preparations that had been painstakingly done for years. The London Times pounced on the negativity of the comments. The headlines said “PM rebuffs Romney over readiness for Olympics,” and The Telegraph’s Web site splashed a story titled, “Olympics: David Cameron rejects Mitt Romney’s suggestion Britain is not ready.”
The peeved Cameron who was billed to meet Romney later, praised his country’s handling of the Olympic Games. “This is a time of some economic difficulty for the UK, but look at what we are capable of achieving as nation even at a difficult economic time,” he said. “I think we will show the whole world not just that we come together as a United Kingdom but also we’re extremely good at welcoming people from across the world.” Cameron added: “I will obviously make those points to Mitt Romney. I look forward to meeting him.”
Compounding the mistake
Romney seemed to have compounded his initial comment by questing what many saw as questioning the enthusiasm of the British public for the Games, which will feature a horse owned by Romney’s wife, Ann, competing in the dressage competition.
Romney went on regardless “Do they come together and celebrate the Olympic moment?” he asked about the British people. “That’s something which we only find out once the Games actually begin.”
Romney campaign staff had been doing everything. The remarks came as Romney’s campaign was trying to keep media accounts of the candidate’s visit on the positive side. They showed Romney with Foreign Secretary William Hague—sharing in an e-mail that their conversation was “broad and wide ranging,” and included issues like the importance of free trade, and the situations in Syria and Egypt and the Arab Spring.
The US televisions stations and media outlets had a field day as seen by some of the comments below. Thank heavens; it wasn't Obama committing the gaffe. If he had done it, it would've been treason, and weakness on American security, and "How is he connected to Bill Ayers, again??” My guess is that the propaganda ministry over at Fox will be deathly silent on this.
Each time I hear of another of Romney' s jaw droppers, I just imagine that he has lived his entire life putting one foot after the other in his mouth, but that he has carefully surrounded himself with sycophants who never give him any helpful criticism and yes him to death for fear he will stop picking up the tab or fire them.
Romney illustrates, again, why he is not fit to be President. Even if what he said is true, he should have enough sense to keep his mouth shut in public. He is arrogant, egotistical and clueless.
I think it's the Bain consultant at work -- even though he's been retired for some time now, we've been told. There's the criticism, the fix-it mentality, the interference with another's business (for better or for worse). I don't think these traits are necessarily what the job he's lobbying for needs.

New air traffic control system is hackable

2012-07-27T14:21:00.001+05:30

FRIDAY, 27 JULY 2012 14:21

Air traffic control technology is getting a major upgrade in the United States that is scheduled to be completed in 2014, but the new systems are susceptible to potentially dangerous manipulation, according to a security researcher.
The actual flaws might seem mild compared to everyone's worst fears and common Hollywood plot lines. Planes cannot be forced from the sky or dangerously redirected.

But the researcher says the system can be tricked into seeing aircraft that are not actually there. Messages sent using the system are not encrypted or authenticated, meaning anyone with the basic technology and know-how could identify a plane and see its location.
Computer scientist Andrei Costin, a Ph.D. student at Eurecom, gave a talk on the weaknesses of the new air traffic system at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday. He did not mention any known hacks of the system, but did demonstrate the potential negative scenarios.
Old radar systems are being replaced with a new technology called Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast system, or ADS-B. The traditional radars work by sending a signal that triggers an aircraft's responder to send back its position. The new system uses the global satellite navigation system to continuously broadcast the locations of planes. The information is sent to other aircraft and ground stations; the ground station sends the location to air traffic controllers.
The new system will open up this flight information to a new player: the general public.
"There are various applications which you can go to and basically see, online, in real time, all the airplanes which broadcast their information," said Costin.
According to Costin, the chance of these security holes being exploited for terrorism is unlikely, but he says they still have the potential to be used by pranksters, paparazzi and military intelligence organizations interested in tracking private aircraft or confusing air traffic control systems on the ground. Intercepting the messages, jamming the system or attacking it by adding false information does not require advanced technology; the necessary software-defined radio retails for under $800.
One of the technology's makers downplayed the threat.
"We are quite familiar with the theory that ADS-B could be 'spoofed,' or barrage jammed by false targets. There's little new here. In fact, just about any radio frequency device can be interfered with somewhat," said Skip Nelson, the president of ADS-B Technologies, which is one of many companies making these components. "I obviously can't comment on countermeasures, but you should know that this issue has been thoroughly investigated and international aviation does have a plan."
In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said it already has a process in place for addressing potential threats to the system, and it does conduct ongoing assessments of vulnerabilities: "An FAA ADS-B security action plan identified and mitigated risks and monitors the progress of corrective action. These risks are security sensitive and are not publicly available."
The FAA has sunk millions of dollars into the system. The benefits of the ADS-B are that it will show more precise locations of aircraft and pilots will have access to more information about surrounding aircraft while in the air. The FAA also says it is more environmentally friendly by making flight routes more direct and saving on fuel. Given the large time and financial investment, the FAA is not going to abandon the new technology. However, it isn't throwing out the old system completely, just in case.
"The FAA plans to maintain about half of the current network of secondary radars as a backup to ADS-B in the unlikely event it is needed," the FAA said in its statement.

Google brings faster Internet to Kansas City

2012-07-27T14:14:00.002+05:30

FRIDAY, 27 JULY 2012 14:14

Forget what Dorothy said about not being in a certain state anymore. It looks like Google is in Kansas. And Missouri too.
Google launched its long-awaited Google Fiber, the search giant's ultra high-speed network, Thursday in Kansas City, Kansas while also making a surprise announcement: the introduction of Google Fiber TV.
The two services will be available to Kansas City, Kansas, which was chosen last year after more than 1,100 cities applied to get the faster Internet.

But because the company was a little "ahead of schedule," Google also announced that the service will be available to some in Kansas City, Missouri as well.
The Fiber network offers speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second. That's 100 times faster than what the average American Internet user currently has. The company says the average speeds for downloads are 5.8 megabits per second.
The event also included a demonstration of Google Fiber TV. The system will allow households to watch all their shows in HD, record up to eight shows at once, store 500 hours of HD video on the cloud and even control multiple televisions through the search giant's new tablet, the Nexus 7.
The demonstration, which streamed on Google-owned YouTube, showed how a typical consumer could watch live TV, tens of thousands of shows on demand, pull videos from Netflix (if they're subscribers), search for content using just their voice and watch them across several platforms, including smartphones and PCs.
"You don't have to settle for old-style television anymore," said Milo Medin, vice president of Google Access. "It's not just Internet and it's not just TV. It's Google Fiber."
Google is offering the TV and Internet service for $120 a month for Kansas City residents, said Kevin Lo, general manager of Google Access. For those who just want the faster Web service, that'll cost about $70 a month. Depending on the length of the contract, subscribers can also get an initial $300 set up fee waived.
The search giant plans to provide the service free to schools, community centers, government buildings and libraries.
The company also announced that it will encourage users over the next six weeks to rally their neighbors to sign up for the service. This will determine which "Fiberhoods" (Google broke up neighborhoods into groups of about 800 people) will get access to the service first. The higher the interest, the sooner the availability.
"Together we will make Kansas City a place where bandwidth flows like water," Medin said. We're "looking forward to writing the next chapter of the Internet together, right here in Kansas City."

Twitter hit by technical fault on eve of Olympics

2012-07-27T14:02:00.000+05:30

FRIDAY, 27 JULY 2012 14:02

Parts of Twitter became inaccessible a day before thousands of fans are expected to start tweeting about the Olympic Games.
The Twitter.com site was unreachable for almost an hour, and continued to suffer intermittent faults thereafter.

In a status message posted after the fault was cleared, the micro-blogging service apologised for the problems.
It said it was caused by a simultaneous failure in its main data centre and the one supposed to provide back-up.
Twitter said it was investing heavily in its data centres to avoid such falling victim to another "infrastructural double-whammy".
During the interruption, Twitter was still accessible via its mobile site and other applications.
Twitter is expected to be one of the main social networks to be used by both fans and athletes during the Games.
Reliability and stability
Sporting events regularly attract the service's biggest audience.
During Spain's Euro 2012 win, there were over 15,000 tweets every second.
For London 2012, there are over 2,000 verified Olympians - past and present - that are signed up to use the service.
Downtime plagued Twitter during its early years, but subsequent investment meant the site has become more reliable.
Last month, Twitter blamed a "cascading bug" for causing "turbulence" on the service which made the site slow or inaccessible for about two hours.
At the time, Mazen Rawashdeh, the site's vice president of engineering, apologised to users but praised the site's recent reliability record.
"For the past six months, we've enjoyed our highest marks for site reliability and stability ever: at least 99.96% and often 99.99%.
"In simpler terms, this means that in an average 24-hour period, twitter.com has been stable and available to everyone for roughly 23 hours, 59 minutes and 40-ish seconds."

Samsung quarterly profit surges amid smartphone boost

2012-07-27T13:57:00.000+05:30

FRIDAY, 27 JULY 2012 13:57

Samsung Electronics has reported a record quarterly profit, boosted by a surge in smartphone sales and improved margins in its TV business.
Operating profit was 6.72tn won ($5.9bn; £3.8bn) in the second quarter, a 79% jump from a year earlier.
Samsung, which makes the Galaxy range of smartphones, overtook Nokia as the world's biggest maker of mobile phones earlier this year.

Analysts said Samsung's earnings were likely to rise further in the future.
"Given the situation that 60% of Samsung's profits come from smartphones and smartphone-related components, the growing profit in handsets sales will make up for the loss in TV or traditional electronic devices," said Kim Young-chan of Shinhan Investment Corp.
"Samsung's earnings will reach the peak in the third quarter."
Further dominance?
While Samsung has been increasing its share of the smartphone market, competitors such as Research in Motion, the maker of Blackberry phones, have not been doing as well.
At the same time, Apple, which is considered to be Samsung's biggest competitor, has yet to announce when it will launch the latest version of its popular iPhone.
Analysts said they expected the model to be launched in the final quarter of this year, which they said could help Samsung's cause.
Song Myung-sub of HI Investment & Securities said that the new iPhone was coming out in October, so it will not have much impact on Samsung sales in the third quarter.
"The expected sales of Galaxy S III this quarter are 6.8 million and for the next quarter we forecast 15 million phones to be sold."
"Just this area would bring 8tn won in sales increase."
According to report by research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung shipped 93 million mobile phones in the second quarter, accounting for 26% of the global market share.
Key risks
However, the firm also faces some risks, not least from the ongoing legal battles with Apple.
The two firms are fighting cases in multiple countries over claims of patent infringement.
The cases have resulted in some of Samsung's products, such as its Nexus smartphones and the Galaxy tab 10.1 tablet PC, being banned in the US.
However, some cases have also been decided in favour of Samsung. But analysts said that the disputes were still a problem for the company.
"The biggest risk Samsung is facing might be patent issues, as stocks can respond negatively to this uncertainty," said Mr Kim of Shinhan Investment Corp.
At the same time, the electronics maker is also facing slowing demand and falling prices for memory chips.
Samsung, which is the world's biggest memory chip maker, said that sales at the division had fallen by 6% during the quarter.
"Weak memory chip prices remain the biggest concern for Samsung in the third quarter," said Seo Won-Seok of Korea Investment & Securities.

Olympics puts mobile communications technology to the test

2012-07-27T13:48:00.001+05:30

THURSDAY, 27 JULY 2012 13:47

Telecoms firms say their networks will cope with the strain of the hundreds of thousands of spectators, workers and athletes using mobile devices across London's Olympic Park in East London.
Thirty mobile phone masts have been fitted across the 500 acre (2,000 square metre) site, 14 of them for inside stadiums and other buildings.

In addition, BT says it has created the UK's largest single wi-fi installation.
Content providers have also taken steps to limit data usage.
The nine venues on site can hold more than 160,000 spectators at any one time.
Twenty thousand members of the media are expected, and the Olympic village houses about 17,500 athletes and officials. They will be joined by thousands more workers and security staff.
The chair of the the body representing UK mobile operators and content providers described providing coverage to the Olympic Games as being similar to dealing with four simultaneous FA Cup Finals over a 17-day period.
"At peak time when one set of spectators leaves and another arrives you will have between 200,000 to 300,000 people on site," Stuart Newstead told the BBC.
"It's as well prepared as it can be. The key to the planning has been co-operation between the operators to maximise the laws of physics, allowing a far denser configuration of masts and antennas than normal to ensure as much capacity as possible."
Organisers say that means that everyone should be able to make calls, send texts, browse the internet and upload material to social networks even at the busiest times.
Wi-fi vouchers
To relieve strain on 3G data services BT has installed about 1,000 wi-fi hotspots.
Subscribers to BT broadband, O2 mobile and Tesco Mobile will be offered free access.
Vodafone, Three, Everything Everywhere and other subscribers will have to buy vouchers ranging in price from £5.99 for 90 minutes to £39 for 4,000 minutes.
Overseas visitors are offered a rate of 500 minutes for £28.
BT says it expects to be able to handle peak traffic of 1.7 gigabits per second: the equivalent of 13,200 webpage downloads every minute. "The technology we have put in place is built specifically for events with a high density of spectators," said a BT spokeswoman.
"We have done a huge amount of capacity planning work, including reviewing and learning from events like the World Cup, Royal Wedding and the Super Bowl,"
Spectators are forbidden from bringing in Mifi devices or using their tablets and phones to create personal wi-fi hotspots to connect other devices.
Data management
Content providers whose material is likely to be popular with attendees have been asked to strike a balance between the kind of material they want to offer and its impact on data usage.
"The BBC's iPlayer will adjust throughput speeds [affecting video quality] depending on the capacity available because the broadcaster is working with operators to control that," said Mr Newstead.x
"We have also encouraged developers including the creators of Locog's [London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games] official app to gather as much pre-loaded information as possible before the user arrives at the site."
Mobile phone and computer users are not the only ones using the wireless spectrum.
The Join In app is designed to download data before the user arrives Communications regulator Ofcom has licensed about 20,000 frequencies to allow:
Broadcasters to use wireless cameras, microphones and talkback systems Olympic organisers to use wireless timing and scoring equipment Olympic officials, team members, support staff and emergency services to have reliable communication systems.
To secure capacity it borrowed spectrum from the Ministry of Defence and has used frequencies freed up by the switch-off of analogue TV signals.
It says it will also have between 30 and 40 staff on site at any one time to check users do not suffer interference from either each others' equipment or deliberate jamming by malicious parties.
It also has spare frequencies that it can hand out to mitigate any problems.