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Nissan rolls out Leaf electric car in Japan (AP) : Technet |
- Nissan rolls out Leaf electric car in Japan (AP)
- China promises new support to solar development (AP)
- Samsung promotes chairman's son to president (AP)
- Flix on Stix video-rental kiosks would replace DVDs with USB drives (Ben Patterson)
- Netflix reportedly ‘in talks’ with TV studios for newer episodes (Ben Patterson)
- Prosecutors drop charges against Xbox modder (Digital Trends)
- FlickrExport 4 arrives for iPhoto, Aperture (Macworld)
- 4G Wireless Carriers Compared: Sprint vs. T-Mobile vs. Verizon (Digital Trends)
- Google social project may be dubbed Emerald Sea, integrate everywhere (Digital Trends)
- DirecTV offers basic packages to boost growth (Reuters)
- Ge.tt Offers Instant, One-Click File Sharing (Mashable)
- Android 2.2 dominates the scene; Pocket God hits the Market (Appolicious)
- AVG Free Update Bricks 64-Bit Windows 7 PCs (PC World)
- Amazon Says Government Pressure Didn't Lead to WikiLeaks Ban (PC World)
- Russian accused of mass-spamming charged in Wis. (AP)
- Google Chrome browser nears 10 percent share (Digital Trends)
- Amazon blocks out WikiLeaks, but denies U.S. pressure (Reuters)
| Nissan rolls out Leaf electric car in Japan (AP) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 10:00 PM PST YOKOHAMA, Japan – Nissan showed off its Leaf electric car Friday, trumpeting its zero-emission technology and practicality with video of the hatchback zipping through snow and water. The car, among the world's first mass-market electric vehicles, is already sold out until March 2011 because of limited production capacity. There have been 6,000 orders in Japan and 20,000 in the U.S. It arrives in Europe next year. "This day has finally arrived," a grinning Nissan Motor Co. Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said, before posing for photographs with Japanese customers who had placed orders for the Leaf. "The curtains are about to rise for a new era in the auto industry." Shiga said the Leaf will sell in Japan for 3.76 million yen ($45,000) but with a 780,000 yen ($9,000) government green incentive the price will come down to 2.98 million yen ($35,000). The manufacturer's suggested retail price in the U.S. is $33,600. Some states offer incentives and rebates for the electric car, and a taxpayer can claim a $7,500 federal tax credit for purchasing a Leaf in the U.S. The Leaf joins a small club of commercially available mass-produced electric vehicles. General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Volt — which costs $41,000 — goes on sale this month. The i-MiEV minicar from Mitsubishi Motors Corp. went on sale in Japan in April and costs 2.84 million yen ($34,000) with green incentives. The Leaf is rated at 99 miles per gallon in the U.S. The Volt gets 93 miles per gallon. Mileage has not yet been released for the i-MiEV planned for the U.S. market next year. The Leaf goes 200 kilometers (124 miles) on a single charge under Japanese regulation test conditions. The Chevrolet Volt goes about 35 miles (56 kilometers) on its battery before a gas engine kicks in and generates electricity to keep it going. Shiga acknowledged production won't keep up with demand for a while and some customers are going to have to wait months for the Leaf. The Leaf is now being produced only in Japan with production capacity at 50,000 a year but production is set to start in the U.S. and Great Britain in 2012 and capacity will rise to 250,000 vehicles, according to Shiga. Yoshihiro Maruyama, 67, a retired farmer, said he was not happy about having to wait until February for his Leaf but he was thrilled about being a future owner. "I wanted to be the first to drive it," he said, adding proudly: "You can charge this thing at home." Nissan also showed how it was working with apartment complexes and community groups to encourage widespread adoption of electric vehicles through car-sharing and partnerships with local governments. The big sticking point is the need for charging stations and other infrastructure. Rempei Matsumoto, author of a book about green vehicles, believes the Leaf is for now little more than an image perk for Nissan. Experimentation in electric vehicles dates back decades but their consumer use is expected to be limited for years, he said. "They can only be used for limited distances such as picking your kid up from kindergarten or going grocery shopping," he said in a telephone interview. A good compromise may be gas-electric hybrids such as Toyota Motor Corp.'s hit Prius which travels a limited distance on the electric motor but never runs out of a battery charge because it also has a gasoline engine. Toyota is introducing an electric version of the iQ ultra-compact in 2012 and is working with Tesla Motors Inc. on an electric RAV-4 sport utility vehicle. Honda Motor Co. sells three hybrids, the Insight, CR-Z and Fit, and plans an electric vehicle in 2012. Even Nissan, long upbeat on electric vehicles, has recently come out with its own hybrid, the luxury Infiniti M. The Leaf is designed to connect wirelessly to a data center so that owners can use their smart phones to remotely recharge it in situations when the car is parked at home. To highlight the green message, Nissan used recycled material for the interior, including seat covers that use synthetic cloth made of recycled plastic bottles. And the car is almost completely recyclable, it said. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| China promises new support to solar development (AP) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 08:40 PM PST | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Samsung promotes chairman's son to president (AP) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 07:20 PM PST SEOUL, South Korea – The son of Samsung Electronics Co.'s chairman has been promoted to president in a reorganization of top management posts at the conglomerate the giant technology company anchors. Lee Jae-yong, 42, who is being elevated from executive vice president at Samsung Electronics, would retain his chief operating officer title, Samsung Group said in a statement Friday. Samsung Electronics is a major force in the global electronics industry, where it holds the top spots in memory chips and flat screen televisions and ranks No. 2 in mobile phones behind Finland's Nokia Corp. The company is also the flagship corporation of the Samsung Group conglomerate, which consists of dozens of other businesses including shipbuilding, construction, leisure and finance. Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee's father founded the Samsung Group in 1938. The move to promote Lee Jae-yong, who also goes by Jay Y. Lee, was widely expected after Lee Kun-hee, 68, said last month that his son was set to move up the ranks. Investors appeared to welcome the news, sending shares in Samsung Electronics 3.3 percent higher in late morning trading to a record 887,000 won ($775). The announcement came about 30 minutes after trading started Friday. Samsung Electronics has at least 10 executives with the title of president, according to the group. Lee Jae-yong's promotion, however, has been closely watched given that he is a member of the conglomerate's founding family and widely expected to eventually to succeed his father. The promotion of Lee and other executives was an "organizational realignment to better prepare for the future in the rapidly changing business environment of the 21st century," the statement said. Lee Jae-yong "is expected to continue to strengthen the competitiveness of Samsung's strategic businesses and to lay the foundation for Samsung's future new growth businesses," the statement said. Lee Jae-yong, who has previously served as chief customer officer and vice president for strategic planning, graduated from South Korea's elite Seoul National University with a degree in East Asian history and has an MBA from Japan's Keio University. His father is a graduate of Japan's Waseda University. The younger Lee's promotion comes as Choi Gee-sung moves up to vice chairman from president while retaining his other title of chief executive officer. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Flix on Stix video-rental kiosks would replace DVDs with USB drives (Ben Patterson) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 03:12 PM PST The idea behind Flix on Stix sounds a lot like Redbox, the buck-a-night DVD kiosks that are seemingly taking the country by storm. But rather than stocking machines with hundreds of DVDs, Flix on Stix kiosks would store movies digitally, and you'd take your rentals home on a USB memory stick. Backed by vending-machine maker AVT Inc., Flix on Stix says it hopes to have its first kiosks up and running within three months, and plans to install about 20,000 kiosks within the next year — quite ambitious, given that Redbox is only now approaching the 30,000-kiosk mark. So, how would renting a movie from Flix on Stix work? Basically, you'd step up to a kiosk, browse for a movie (or a TV show, or even a game) using a touchscreen interface, pay with a credit card, and then plug in a thumb drive (your own, or one supplied by Flix on Stix) into the kiosk's USB port. The company has posted a YouTube video that walks us through the process:
Video transfers could take as little as a few seconds, Flix on Stix claims, or as long as … well, apparently that depends, with the kiosk demo showing estimated transfer times for a video (of undetermined size) ranging from 14 seconds for a USB 3.0 storage device to more than six minutes for an older, USB 1.0 drive. Given that the video appears to be little more than an early demo, I wouldn't take those estimates as gospel. The video also shows a (rather optimistic) pricing scheme for videos, starting at a buck for three days, $2 for six days, or up to $4 for 12 days — although again, I'm guessing those prices are just placeholders for now. Once you've got your rental on your USB thumb drive, you take it home, plug it into any PC or Mac (or even on a TV set-top box, although the company doesn't specify which set-top boxes would be compatible) and fire up the movie. Naturally, the video files would be protected in a "100% secure" cloak of encryption, all the better to appease participating movie studios. (My guess is that digital rentals will come packaged in their own custom video players — or at least, they ought to be.) The good news is that you wouldn't need to return Flix on Stix movies when your rental period expires; instead, the files would simply delete themselves when their time is up. Interesting, but clearly there are plenty of lingering questions. How much would movie (or TV or game) rentals cost? Which studios have signed on the dotted line? What kind of video quality would we be talking about? And how long would the USB transfers really take? (I already hear plenty of complaints about long waits at Redbox DVD kiosks, let alone a machine that requires you to wait a minute or more for a USB file transfer — and that's after you've settled on a movie.) Then again, you wouldn't have to deal with late fees, and you wouldn't need an Internet connection to watch a digital movie rental or TV show. That means you could rent a movie from a Flix on Stix kiosk in, say, an airport terminal, pop the USB drive in your carry-on, and watch the video on your laptop during the flight. This is all just academic, though, until Flix on Stix actually gets off the ground. The company says it hopes to have its first kiosks operational within 90 days; keep your eyes peeled. So, would you consider renting a movie at a kiosk that accepts USB drives, or would you rather just rent movies the old-fashioned way? Related: Company to Roll Out 20,000 Kiosks Offering Movie Downloads [Home Media Magazine] — Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Netflix reportedly ‘in talks’ with TV studios for newer episodes (Ben Patterson) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 10:28 AM PST It's looking more and more like Netflix and Hulu are on a collision course as far as streaming TV shows are concerned, especially in the wake of rumors that the DVD rental giant is hoping to entice the studios behind the biggest network TV hits to offer up their latest shows for streaming â€" reportedly for up to $100,000 an episode. Netflix isn't commenting about the rumored negotiations, which the New York Post (based on a source "familiar with the matter") claims are part of Netflix's bid to give Hulu a run for its TV-streaming money. Both Netflix and Hulu already offer thousands of streaming network TV shows, but as the Post points out, most of Netflix's TV offerings are for previous seasons, not the current one. Hulu, on the other hand, does offer current (but ad-supported) episodes, as well as previous seasons (along with the ability to stream shows to iPhones; iPads; and TVs, via set-top boxes and game consoles) for those who've signed up for the $8-a-month Hulu Plus service. While Netflix is known more for its streaming movie collection than for its TV shows, the DVD rental behemoth (which now wants to be known more as a streaming company than a by-mail DVD service) has been ramping up its online TV collection, inking (for example) a recent, head-turning deal for new episodes of "Saturday Night Live." And it just so happens that Netflix finally launched a streaming-only plan in the U.S. for $8 a month — the same price as Hulu Plus. Interesting. Landing newer episodes of popular TV shows would go a long way toward amping up Netflix's budding rivalry with Hulu. The New York Post claims Netflix is dangling $70,000 to $100,000 per episode in front of the TV studios that make the shows. Netflix is also making a full-court press for more (and newer) streaming movies, signing a deal Wednesday with independent distributor FilmDistrict for its latest titles, while spending upwards of $1 billion in August for the right to stream thousands of Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM movies. Standing in the way of the rumored TV deals, according to the Post, are the largest TV networks, which are said to claim that they, not the studios that make the shows, own streaming rights for the episodes. Meanwhile, TV production studios are feeling the heat from the big pay TV carriers, who (according to Reuters) aren't exactly eager to lose subscribers to the likes of Netflix. But if that's the case, why aren't the TV networks objecting to the current episodes that are streamable on Hulu? Well, probably because the parent companies of three of the biggest broadcast networks —ABC, Fox and NBC — each own a stake in Hulu. So, cord-cutters: Would you pick Netflix over Hulu Plus for your TV streaming if Netflix had more current episodes available? Or do you see Netflix and Hulu as complementary rather than competing? Related:
— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prosecutors drop charges against Xbox modder (Digital Trends) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 05:59 PM PST
But today, things got a whole lot better when the case was waved and Crippen walked free. Wired reports that prosecuting attorney Allen Chiu announced that the government "decided to dismiss the indictment…based on fairness and justice." The decision to dismiss the case came after Judge Philip Gutierrez lambasted the federal prosecutors for failing to adequately do their jobs. The judge argued that a crucial piece of the prosecution's evidence, a video tape of Crippen performing a modification, was possibly obtained under less than legal circumstances. He also pointed out that Crippen was never given the option to settle out of court, and also took issues with lead prosecutor Chiu, who admitted to leading the jury by claiming that even if Crippen were unaware his actions were illegal he could be found guilty. At one point, Gutierrez exclaimed, "I really don't understand what we're doing here." Earlier this morning, Gutierrez said that in order for Crippen to be found guilty, it would have to be proved that he knew he was breaking the law. In a piece of new testimony, the prosecution claimed he had, and in the undercover investigation Crippen had ran a counterfeit game. However, there was nothing of this in the report or earlier statements and Chiu reported he had failed to give the information to the defense. Â Upon this admission, the case fell apart. It's a somewhat surprising turn of events, given Gutierrez's previous denial of a "fair use" argument and the governments' apparent determination to make an example out of Crippen. Still, the judge clearly outlined the need to prove Crippen guilty of explicitly using the modified Xbox 360 for illegal purposes. Crippen reported he would be returning to school in the near future and hopes to become a teacher. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FlickrExport 4 arrives for iPhoto, Aperture (Macworld) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 02:00 PM PST Apple may have upped the Flickr ante in iPhoto '11, but avid photographers still need more control and convenience when sharing their work in Yahoo's galleries. Flickr tools for iPhoto power users are the domain of Connected Flow, and on Thursday the company released major upgrades to its FlickrExport plug-ins for both iPhoto and Aperture. New features for both editions of FlickrExport include support for multiple accounts, uploading to multiple photosets at once, setting a license before uploading, and a streamlined new interface. As for features exclusive to each edition, FlickrExport for iPhoto gained support for uploading videos and iPhoto '11, and its Aperture counterpart gets "metadata-only uploads." If you've uploaded photos from Aperture to Flickr, you can edit their metadata in Aperture and update just that data on Flickr instead of having to replace the photo itself. Free, feature-limited demos of both FlickrExport editions are available. A FlickrExport for iPhoto license costs £12 (about $19), while FlickrExport for Aperture is £14 (about $22). Both require Mac OS X 10.5.8 Leopard or later. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4G Wireless Carriers Compared: Sprint vs. T-Mobile vs. Verizon (Digital Trends) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 05:23 PM PST
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| Google social project may be dubbed Emerald Sea, integrate everywhere (Digital Trends) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 04:50 PM PST
The Q&A site Quora recently had an anonymous user explain that Google is in the process of testing the social initiative, which the source says is referred to as "Emerald City" within the company. The source also defended the impact of Google's coming feature, saying it "will launch as a major initiative across multiple services at once…it is by no means done and is extremely ambitious in nature." TechCrunch has a few inside Google sources who support the Quora statement, although they and site claim the codename is "Emerald Sea." Aside from the name gaffe, it sounds like speculation regarding the nature of the coming service is dead one. If everything we're hearing is correct, there will be no stand alone site. Instead, Google will be incorporating major social elements into its current features. Of course, what fun would a codename be if we all didn’t speculate about its meaning? Multiple sources are referencing a John Ringo novel by the same name centered around a protagonist who must convince mermaid-like creatures to ally with “the Freedom Coalition” and take down the fascist enemies of “New Destiny,” all after the technology apocalypse. Once source suggested Facebook may be Google’s own New Destiny, but despite any rivalry, that seems like a stretch. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DirecTV offers basic packages to boost growth (Reuters) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 03:52 PM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) – DirecTV Group plans to expand its customer base by offering cheaper TV packages with fewer channels and exploring new ways of bundling Internet access with its satellite TV service, the company's top executive said on Thursday. Chief Executive Mike White said at the company's investor day in New York that the satellite provider will try to grab market share from its cable rivals by offering fewer channels at a lower price in a pilot program next year in a few markets. "When you come up with fewer channels, you lower the price you get into a new segment," White said on the sidelines of the conference. He added that the packages will likely attract customers who are used to paying $30 a month for TV and not the more frugal $15-a-month customers that cable providers are losing. The plan could be similar to one proposed by Time Warner Cable Inc called 'TV Essentials.' [nN18105375]. As costs rise for carrying cable networks, White said the company might offer "a la carte" sports channels in 2011, meaning consumers can buy one channel at a time, like ordering Fox's The Big Ten Network, instead of an entire sports package. "We are going to have to look at that in 2011 because sports continues to rise at an unsustainable rate," White said. The company is also in talks with wireless wholesalers like Clearwire Corp,Harbinger and other companies about trying to strike a deal to provide broadband access to consumers in bundles, possibly under its own wireless brand. DirecTV is also discussing with movie studios about how to acquire premium video on demand, only a few weeks after movies are released in theaters. He said the movies would probably be priced between $20 to $30. DirecTV said it would reach an agreement on this premium video by next year. A GROWTH STORY The leading U.S. satellite television provider expects to add 200,000 net new subscribers in the United States in the current quarter. The company is on course to have more than 19.1 million subscribers by year-end, closing in on Comcast Corp's shrinking leadership in the U.S. pay-TV sector. Comcast had 22.9 million video customers at the end of the third quarter. DirecTV expects to have revenue of about $24 billion this year. Analysts' average forecast is $23.9 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The company expects to generate about $3 per share in free cash flow this year and post average revenue per user of $90. The company said on Thursday it expects to generate $30 billion in revenue and $5-plus per share in three years. It expects see operating profit growth in "low-to-mid" single digits in 2011 and mid-to-upper single digits growth in 2012 to 2013. The company forecast growth for its Latin American unit, saying it will have 8.7 million subscribers by year-end and revenue of $3.5 billion in 2010. DirecTV's Chief Financial Officer, Pat Doyle, said the company would continue its aggressive share buyback program, snapping up roughly $100 million in shares per week, or more than $5 billion a year in shares. Executives said that buying back shares remain the company's focus for the next two years and that paying a dividend to investors "does not make sense" at the moment. DirecTV, which competes with DISH Network, has grown in recent years by focusing on high-end pay-TV customers and by offering exclusive sports content such as the NFL Football Sunday Ticket. (Reporting by Yinka Adegoke and Liana B. Baker; editing by John Wallace and Andre Grenon) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ge.tt Offers Instant, One-Click File Sharing (Mashable) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 04:23 PM PST The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: Ge.tt Quick Pitch: Ge.tt makes it extremely simple to share your files. Genius Idea: File sharing is a ubiquitous practice on the web, but startup Ge.tt has released a tool for one-click, browser-based file sharing. This company offers a solution that doesn't require the user to install anything or even create an account. Ge.tt is as simple as it gets: Click the "Create share" button to select and upload files. Ge.tt has a few advantages over the myriad other file-sharing services, but its instant-sharing aspect is its killer feature. As soon as you click to upload your files, you'll see a Ge.tt URL -- there's no upload wait time -- to then post to Twitter or Facebook or send via e-mail. Your files are available in the browser immediately, which means recipients don't have to wait to access and download your shared files, either. Should you create an account, you'll then have access to all of your shared files and will be able to see live statistics on views and downloads. Each Ge.tt-uploaded file also supports a "view" option that allows anyone to look at all shared files, regardless of file type, in a browser without having to download files or worry about file extensions. The startup is based out of Copenhagen, Denmark and is currently entirely self-funded. Co-founder and CEO Tobias Baunbæk says the team launched its file-sharing product on November 1 and purposely decided to operate under the radar to gradually test its technology. That all changed last week when users shared Ge.tt on Reddit and Hacker News, leading to a glut of user interest and 5,000 signups -- an impressive feat considering users do not need to create accounts to use the service. Ge.tt's inadvertent success makes for a feel-good story, but it's one that is still in its first chapter. Should users continue to flock to this simple file-sharing service, investors are likely to take notice. The startup is working to release paid accounts with premium features in early 2011, says Baunbæk. The more long-term goal is to release an API, something Baunbæk says is already in hot demand.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, flyparade.
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Android 2.2 dominates the scene; Pocket God hits the Market (Appolicious) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 12:25 PM PST | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AVG Free Update Bricks 64-Bit Windows 7 PCs (PC World) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 03:57 PM PST If you haven't already downloaded the latest mandatory AVG 2011 Free software update, it may be best not to if you want your computer to turn on again. The December 1 update is causing 64-bit PCs running Windows 7 to totally breakdown. The problem appears to lie in the 271.1.1/3292 (432/3292) database update, which requires PCs that run the update to restart. Affected PCs will throw up a c0000135 error upon restarting, and fail to boot. AVG have since pulled the update so no more computers suffer, but if your computer got caught then all is not lost. AVG have released a handy set of instructions to follow, detailing how to disable the software if it bricks your system. AVG Forum users have also come up with a few tricks to forcing the system to boot, such as pressing F8 and removing the AVG update. All methods will need the Repair CD in order to re-install the software. [via Slashdot] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Amazon Says Government Pressure Didn't Lead to WikiLeaks Ban (PC World) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 06:50 PM PST Amazon Web Services (AWS) kicked WikiLeaks off its servers for breaking rules designed to ensure websites use their own content and that it won't injure others, and not due to pressure from the U.S. government, Amazon said Thursday. "AWS does not pre-screen its customers, but it does have terms of service that must be followed. WikiLeaks was not following them," Amazon said in a blog posting. "For example, our terms of service state that "you represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content… that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any person or entity," it added. A day earlier, U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman said Amazon stopped hosting Wikileaks after being contacted by the U.S. Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, a committee Lieberman chairs. Wikileaks drew controversy for the continued publication of classified U.S. documents, including videos and documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This time the classified documents in question were sensitive cables sent from and between U.S. embassies and the U.S. State Department. The cables contain embarrassing details about the U.S.'s relationship with governments around the world. U.S. officials had complained that information in the cables could compromise government personnel, while human rights groups had written to WikiLeaks asking them to exercise caution in the release and not name human rights defenders that might then face persecution by their governments. Amazon noted that WikiLeaks was publishing documents it does not own and that, "it is not credible that the extraordinary volume of 250,000 classified documents that WikiLeaks is publishing could have been carefully redacted in such a way as to ensure that they weren't putting innocent people in jeopardy," Amazon said in the blog posting. WikiLeaks said it asked the State Department to name the documents that might compromise individuals, which the U.S. refused, according to notes the group published. WikiLeaks also lambasted Amazon for its decision to kick it off AWS servers, saying it would now host its servers in Europe and questioning whether Amazon is fit to sell books. "If Amazon are so uncomfortable with the First Amendment, they should get out of the business of selling books," WikiLeaks said via Twitter. Amazon also made reference to the massive DDOS (Denial of Service) attacks against its servers, which WikiLeaks said reached 10 Gigabits per second on Nov. 30. "There were indeed large-scale DDOS attacks, but they were successfully defended against," Amazon said. WikiLeaks has released a slew of classified U.S. documents this year, hundreds of thousands of documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the U.S. State Department cables. More recently it said it would publish information from major U.S. banks to out corruption in the financial sector. The head of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange [CQ], is currently being sought by prosecutors in Sweden over rape accusations, which his lawyers have denied. Interpol has issued a wanted notice for Assange, saying he is wanted for questioning in Sweden. WikiLeaks has characterized the charges as a way to shut him up over the release of so many classified government documents. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Russian accused of mass-spamming charged in Wis. (AP) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 04:54 PM PST MILWAUKEE – A 23-year-old Russian man accused of running a worldwide spamming network, which Internet-security experts say on some days accounted for one of every three unwanted e-mails, is scheduled to appear in a Wisconsin courtroom to hear charges against him. Oleg Y. Nikolaenko, of Moscow, will be arraigned Friday in federal court in Milwaukee. He is charged with violating the CAN-SPAM act by intentionally falsifying header information in commercial e-mail messages and sending at least 2,500 spam e-mails per day, the minimum threshold for the charge. Prosecutors say his network may have sent up to 10 billion messages per day. The charge carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Nikolaenko was arrested last month at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. He is being tried in Milwaukee because that's where an undercover FBI investigator ordered Viagra through an e-mail distributed by Nikolaenko's alleged operation and received bogus herbal pills instead, said Lance Barnes, the FBI's supervisory special agent of the Milwaukee cyber squad. In the criminal complaint against Nikolaenko, prosecutors say authorities were tipped off to his involvement after another man pleaded guilty in Missouri federal court to a charge of conspiring to traffic in counterfeit Rolex watches. That defendant told investigators he solicited customers by paying spammers more than $2 million to send a barrage of e-mail ads. That information led the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission to a spamming operation in Australia, where investigators discovered the workers had exchanged e-mails with Nikolaenko. Subsequent digging linked Nikolaenko to one of the most sophisticated spamming networks in the world — "Mega-D," which investigators said accounted for 32 percent of all worldwide spam. Nikolaenko's attorney, Chris Van Wagner, said Thursday he hadn't seen the evidence and hoped to have access to it soon. "We intend to present a rigorous defense to whatever the government may have," Van Wagner said. Nikolaenko's arrest is unlikely to slow the flood of e-mails touting cheap drugs and male-enhancement pills, said Joe Stewart, the director of malware analysis for Internet-security company SecureWorks Inc. in Atlanta. The spamming industry is so lucrative that other spammers already are filling the void, Stewart said. The crippling of Mega-D "is not that significant for the average user," he said. "We need to take more of these guys down in order to have a lasting impact. This is a good start but there's a long way to go." Investigators say Mega-D was a botnet, short for "robot network," in which users' computers are infected with so-called malware that allows someone to remotely hijack the computer and have it blast out spam e-mails. The Mega-D network included more than half a million infected computers. Authorities who looked into the Australian spam network found e-mails and payment records linked to a Gmail account. Investigators subpoenaed the account records and found it was registered to Nikolaenko. The Gmail account also had a number of executable files bearing the fingerprints of Mega-D malware, according to the complaint. Stewart said Mega-D consistently ranked among the worst spamming offenders, at times accounting for as much as a third of all spams sent in a day. But output was lighter on some days than on others. The complaint noted that in late 2009 the network accounted for 12 percent of the world's spam traffic. However, one security company found a way to drive that traffic down to a fraction of a percent. FireEye Inc. in Milpitas, Calif., persuaded 12 to 15 Internet service providers to shut down the computers that were used to control the infected machines. Within days, the botnet's traffic was down to 0.1 percent. The victory was short-lived, though, as other spammers filled the absence within weeks, FireEye spokesman Phillip Lin said. "It's a bit of a cat-and-mouse race," Lin said. "The reality is, when there's money to be made in a criminal manner there will be criminals out there." That's the truly troubling side of spamming, he noted. Along with the annoying e-mails, the botnet technology can deliver malware that secretly records keystrokes so hackers can steal passwords and credit card numbers, along with other schemes that trick people into giving up personal information. Antivirus programs are helpful at sniffing out some infections, but Stewart and Lin both said the bad guys know which security tools are available and figure out how to evade them. So how can people protect their computers from malicious agents? Lin suggested users do the basics — update antivirus programs, install a firewall — but he said the real defenders should be Internet service providers, or ISPs. "If people want additional layers of security they should be demanding that ISPs be more aggressive about securing their networks," he said. "The really effective tools are at the ISP level." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Google Chrome browser nears 10 percent share (Digital Trends) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 05:38 AM PST Google is making some ground in the browser market. In Nov. 2010, the browser hit a 9.27 percent market share, up almost a full percentage point from October, according to a report from Net Applications. The gain came at the cost of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which dropped by nearly a full point to 58.41 percent. Mozilla Firefox suffered a drop, but it was insignificant drop of .02 percent to land at 22.81 percent and Apple’s Safari browser rose a fifth of a point to 5.57 percent. Chrome’s impressive month appears to have been caused by strong adoption of Chrome 7.0, the newest version of the browser. In a single month, 7.0 alone gained a 5.64 percent market share, the second largest monthly gain of any browser share since Net Applications began tracking. At this pace, 7.0 should almost completely replace 6.0 in two months time. Google’s new browser versions appear to have a quick adoption rate. Chrome 6.0 showed a similar two month replacement of 5.0. Another reason for the gain could be attributed to the launch of Google TV, which uses a version of the Chrome browser. However, the actual numbers don’t reflect that. Google TV runs Chrome 5.0, the share of which actually fell from .26 percent to .20 percent in November, which was the first full month Google TV devices were on the market. This data doesn’t bode well for sales of the Logitech Revue and Google-powered Sony TVs. Eweek points out that in November Google began running print ads in publications like the LA Times, which may have increased awareness of the browser. Are you a Chrome user? It appears to be the browser of choice for the tech savvy and the only one that’s showing much growth. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Amazon blocks out WikiLeaks, but denies U.S. pressure (Reuters) Posted: 02 Dec 2010 07:32 PM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc said on Thursday it has stopped hosting the website of WikiLeaks, which published sensitive classified U.S. government information, but it denied it was a result of pressure from lawmakers. "There have been reports that a government inquiry prompted us not to serve WikiLeaks any longer. That is inaccurate," the company said in a statement. "There have also been reports that it was prompted by massive DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks. That too is inaccurate. There were indeed large-scale DDOS attacks, but they were successfully defended against." Amazon said it stopped hosting WikiLeaks' website because it violated its terms of service, not because an inquiry by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee sparked anger about the release of thousands of classified U.S. government documents. Staff for the committee's chairman, Joe Lieberman, had questioned Amazon about its relationship with WikiLeaks on Tuesday and called on other companies that provide Web-hosting services to boycott WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks turned to Amazon to keep its site available after hackers tried to flood it and prevent users accessing the classified information. WikiLeaks said it is now being hosted by servers in Europe. In its statement on Thursday, Amazon said its Amazon Web Services (AWS) rents computer infrastructure on a self-service basis. AWS does not pre-screen its customers, but it does have terms of service that must be followed. "WikiLeaks was not following them. There were several parts they were violating," the company said. For example, it said under its terms of service, a customer must guarantee it owns or controls all of the rights to the content and that use of the content will not cause injury to any person or entity. "It's clear that WikiLeaks doesn't own or otherwise control all the rights to this classified content," Amazon said. "It is not credible that the extraordinary volume of 250,000 classified documents that WikiLeaks is publishing could have been carefully redacted in such a way as to ensure that they weren't putting innocent people in jeopardy." Amazon said that in four years it had hundreds of thousands of customers storing all kinds of data on AWS. "Some of this data is controversial, and that's perfectly fine. But, when companies or people go about securing and storing large quantities of data that isn't rightfully theirs, and publishing this data without ensuring it won't injure others, it's a violation of our terms of service, and folks need to go operate elsewhere." WikiLeaks slammed Amazon for dropping it, saying via the social media network Twitter that if Amazon was "so uncomfortable with the First Amendment (of the U.S. Constitution), they should get out of the business of selling books." (Reporting by Steve James; Editing by Richard Chang) |
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