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In latest attack, hackers steal Citibank card data (AP) : Technet |
- In latest attack, hackers steal Citibank card data (AP)
- SEC cans Web campaign to buy beer company (AP)
- Apple eases rules on iPad, iPhone subscriptions (AP)
- Video: The biggest trends from Microsoft at E3 2011 (Yahoo! News)
- E3 2011: Hands-on with Uncharted 3 multiplayer (Yahoo! News)
- Eventbrite Launches an iPad Box Office (Mashable)
- Top Democratic women dodge tough call on Weiner (AP)
- Google buys AdMeld in latest Web acquisition: report (Reuters)
- Nintendo's task: The Wii, again, more, better (AP)
- IOS 5 has some - but few - iPhone 3GS limitations (Digital Trends)
- The Twitter User Who Exposed Weiner (The Daily Beast)
- Wii U demos show off secrets, 360-degree views (AP)
- Android app Little Photo offers plenty of options for shutterbugs (Appolicious)
- New York court rejects suit against America Movil (Reuters)
- Alternate Apps: Echofon vs. TweetDeck (Yahoo! News)
- Hands on with Toshiba's 10.1-inch Thrive tablet (Digital Trends)
- Microsoft loses U.S. Supreme Court case on patent (Reuters)
- Fusion-io shares jump in market debut (AP)
| In latest attack, hackers steal Citibank card data (AP) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 08:34 PM PDT NEW YORK – About 200,000 Citibank credit card customers in North America have had their names, account numbers and email addresses stolen by hackers who broke into Citi's online account site. Citigroup Inc. said it discovered that account information for about 1 percent of its credit card customers had been viewed by hackers. Citi has more than 21 million credit card customers in North America, according to its 2010 annual report. The New York-based bank, which discovered the problem during routine monitoring, didn't say exactly how many accounts were breached. Citi said it was contacting those customers. The bank said hackers weren't able to gain access to social security numbers, birth dates, card expiration dates or card security codes. That kind of information often leads to identity theft, where cyber criminals empty out bank accounts and apply for multiple credit cards. That can debilitate the finances and credit of victims. Citi customers could still be vulnerable other problems. Details about their bank accounts and financial information linked to them could be acquired using the email information and account numbers hackers stole. Federal regulators have taken notice and are asking banks to improve security. "Both banks and regulators must remain vigilant," said Sheila Bair, chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. She said federal agencies, including the FDIC, are developing new rules to push banks to enhance online account access. The Citi data breach was the latest in a series of recent high-profile data attacks against a number of major firms. --On June 1, Google Inc. said that the personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including senior U.S. government officials, military personnel and political activists, had been breached. --On May 30, broadcaster PBS confirmed that hackers cracked the network's website and posted a phony story claiming dead rapper Tupac Shakur was alive in New Zealand. --On May 28, defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. said it had detected a "significant and tenacious attack" against its computer networks. The company said it took swift and deliberate actions to protect the network and the systems remain secure. --In April, media and electronics company Sony Corp.'s PlayStation Network was shut down in April after a massive security breach that affected more than 100 million online accounts. --Also in April, hackers penetrated a network operated by a data marketing firm Epsilon. The company handles email communications for companies like Best Buy Co. and Target Corp. The number of data breaches in the last two months sets a "high water mark," said John Ottman, CEO of Application Security Inc., a New York-based firm that specializes in securing databases, the big repositories companies use to organize account information and other data. "Attackers have realized that most organizations have not properly protected databases," Ottman said. Cyber attackers have a variety of less-dangerous motivations, from mischief to online activism. For example, a group identifying itself as LulzSec claimed credit for the fake PBS article calling it retaliation for a documentary about WikiLeaks, the website that publishes classified documents. But often such data breaches are an attempt to steal personal data, which is likely the case with Citi. Hackers also will pose as legitimate companies in a tactic known as "phishing," where they try to get users to supply additional information like social security numbers and email or bank passwords to get access to their financial information. The fact that the Citi hackers only got a few pieces of personal data on customers may limit what crooks can do with the information, said Susan Grant, director of consumer protection at Consumer Federation of America, a consumer advocacy group. "But any ID theft is worrisome for consumers," Grant said. She believes companies are responsible for protecting their customers' information from internal and external abuse. In an emailed statement, Sean Kevelighan, a spokesman for Citi said the bank is contacting affected customers and enhancing procedures to prevent a similar security breach from happening again. "For the security of these customers, we are not disclosing further details," he said. ----- Kelvin Chang reported from Hong Kong. Peter Svensson from New York, and Nyia Hawkins from Washington contributed to the report. |
| SEC cans Web campaign to buy beer company (AP) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 06:05 AM PDT WASHINGTON – It seemed like an innovative way to buy a beer company: Start an online campaign to purchase the iconic Pabst Brewing Co. and sell shares on Facebook and Twitter to cover the $300 million cost. Michael Migliozzi II and Brian William Flatow found 5 million people who said they would invest a total of $200 million. But the federal government halted the venture after it informed the two men of one major oversight — they neglected to register the public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a violation of federal law. The SEC said Wednesday that it reached a settlement with the two advertising executives. The men, who never collected any money, agreed to stop selling shares to the public. The case spotlights a growing challenge for regulators, who must patrol business online ventures and ferret out scams disguised as stock offerings. The SEC has an entire enforcement unit devoted to Internet surveillance with a staff of more than 200 people. The CyberForce has flagged numerous instances of unregistered securities sales online. But Scott Friestad, an associate director in the SEC's enforcement division, called the beer campaign "fairly new." He said he couldn't recall another instance of someone selling shares online to buy an existing company. By law, public stock offerings must be registered with the SEC before their promoters begin to sell shares. When they register to sell shares in a company, they must provide information about the company's financial condition and other data to help investors decide whether they should buy in. Migliozzi, 45, and Flatow, 41, neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in agreeing to the SEC's "cease-and-desist" order. Their lawyer, Steven Berkowitz, said the two were old friends from the ad business who came up with the idea as "an interesting experiment in crowdsourcing." Crowdsourcing is a way of organizing large groups of people by using the Internet and social media. "It never dawned on them" that they needed to register the offering without any shares being sold, Berkowitz said. They launched their campaign to buy Pabst in November 2009 and got an "overwhelming response," Berkowitz said. The company, which sells Schlitz, Pabst Blue Ribbon and Old Milwaukee, had been owned for about a decade by a charitable foundation and was seeking a buyer at the time. Migliozzi and Flatow spread the word on Facebook and Twitter. And they created the BuyaBeerCompany.com web site, which included a countdown timer showing how much money had been pledged. Prospective investors were told to hold off sending money until the company had $300 million in pledges. Once they reached that goal, promoters would contact them to collect the money and proceed to buy Pabst. In return, investors would receive a certificate of ownership and beer equal in value to what they had contributed. The campaign drew quick interest. The web site reported receiving pledges of $14.75 million in just the first three weeks, the SEC said. The BuyaBeerCompany web site continued to seek pledges until April 2010, when the SEC notified Migliozzi and Flatow of the possible violation. Berkowitz said he then advised them to take the web site down and suspend the campaign. Pabst was sold to C. Dean Metropoulos, a food industry executive, in June 2010. |
| Apple eases rules on iPad, iPhone subscriptions (AP) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 03:45 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO – Apple has eased the subscription policies for its hot-selling iPad and iPhone in a move that should help newspaper and magazine publishers make more money from mobile devices. The change will make it easier for publishers to sell subscriptions for the devices outside Apple's online store. That's important to publishers because they have to give Apple 30 percent of the revenue from subscribers signed up through the store. Publishers also aren't guaranteed that they would get valuable data about their customers when subscriptions are made through Apple's outlet, known as the apps store. Apple did not give a reason for making the change. It does allow Apple to avoid legal trouble if regulators decided that the policies represented an attempt to control prices in still-developing market for mobile subscriptions. Apple finds itself in a position of power because the iPhone and the iPad are among the world's top-selling devices. Apple sold more than 25 million iPads since they went on sale 14 months ago. Apple's concession will likely ease the tensions building among publishers that disliked the idea of relinquishing so much revenue and control to the world's most valuable technology company. Apple's original rules, announced four months ago, seemed intent on funneling as many subscriptions as possible through its apps store. The policy required publishers to offer a one-click option within the iPad or iPhone application to subscribe at a price that is at least as good as offers made elsewhere. Now publishers won't have to provide that one-click option. They can also offer discounts elsewhere and still make more money because they won't have to share revenue with Apple. Publishers, however, won't be able to link to offers elsewhere from their apps. The greater flexibility also ensures that publishers will be able to sell iPad and iPhone access as part of bundled subscriptions that include deliveries of print editions and apps for rival smartphones. It wasn't clear under the old rules whether such bundles would have been considered a discount. The New York Times, for instance, has been selling subscriptions to read news on the iPhone and the iPad since March. The packages cost $15 to $35 every four weeks and are bundled with website and print subscriptions. The Times had planned on adding a one-click subscription option from the mobile apps by June 30 to comply with Apple's original rules. The Times declined comment Thursday on Apple's revised rules. Apple has not disclosed how many subscriptions have been sold. The New York Times Co. said in April that it had attracted more than 100,000 digital subscribers; it did not say how many were using iPhone or iPad apps. Newspaper and magazine publishers are particularly enamored with the iPad and other tablet computers because they believe the format will provide a digital bridge as fewer people read their print editions. For newspapers, the declining print circulation has been accompanied by an even deeper drop in print advertising, which has depleted their revenue during the past five years. Apple is promoting newspaper and magazine subscriptions in the next update of the software that runs the iPad and iPhone. Due out this fall, the software will feature a digital newsstand that automatically adds the latest editions on the user's subscription list. |
| Video: The biggest trends from Microsoft at E3 2011 (Yahoo! News) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 05:51 PM PDT
Check out the video above and let us know: what were some of your favorites from Microsoft this year at E3?
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| E3 2011: Hands-on with Uncharted 3 multiplayer (Yahoo! News) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 05:08 PM PDT
Uncharted 3 will include a rather large multiplayer offering, just as its predecessor did, and I had a chance to take it for a spin on the E3 show floor. The controls and overall feel of Uncharted 3's multiplayer appears to be largely unchanged from its predecessor. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as Uncharted 2's multiplayer modes were generally well-received, and helped to build a fanbase that the series hadn't touched with the single-player-only focus of the original Uncharted title.
Turning a corner and coming face-to-face with an enemy meant one of two things, depending on if the enemy was a computer opponent or one being controlled by an opposing player. Human players reacted quickly, as you would expect, and I met my end at the hands of several of them repeatedly. However, if I was lucky enough to have stumbled across an artificial assailant, I would always come out on top. The decision to mix human and computer enemies together creates a stark contrast between the two, and made me feel a bit less responsible for the match outcome. Hopefully the sloppy multiplayer AI can be straightened out a bit before the game's release.
Uncharted 3 will undoubtedly be another solid title from Naughty Dog, and the multiplayer demo that Sony was showing off here at E3 should be an indication that multiplayer fans also have a great deal to look forward to. Uncharted 3 debuts November 1, 2011, and is a PlayStation 3 exclusive.
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| Eventbrite Launches an iPad Box Office (Mashable) Posted: 08 Jun 2011 07:57 PM PDT Eventbrite has sold more than 31 million event tickets online. Now it also wants to sell them at the door. The company announced the release of an iPad-based box office on Tuesday. "Eventbrite At The Door" is an app that allows merchants to accept payments, print tickets and collect attendee data on-site. [More from Mashable: New Web Comedy Focuses on Startups & Entrepreneurship [VIDEO]] Eventbrite will begin testing the free app with about six partner locations before releasing a publicly available version. These test venues will use a wireless printer and a credit card swiper attachment, but Eventbrite CEO Kevin Katz says that eventually he hopes to partner with Square once they release an API. An iPad box office solution is appealing to a range of venues. It's obviously more portable and more feasible in outdoor situations than the box office software some venues use now (whether it's cheaper depends on if the Eventbrite's cut of the ticket sales is greater than the thousands of dollars venues pay to use current box office software). More importantly, however, it scales down to small events that don't have any box-office infrastructure. For instance, a college student could throw a kegger and print tickets at the door. [More from Mashable: How SCVNGR's First National Brand Partnership Scored Big During March Madness] The advantage of doing this with Eventbrite instead of a cash box is not just the ability to take credit cards, but also a way to keep track of who attends an event. When making a transaction, the app asks the ticker vendor to enter an email address for the customer. That's valuable information for marketing future events. Users have been able to easily track pre-purchased Eventbrite tickets at the door since the company released its ticket-scanning app Easy Entry in May 2010. Square has made it easy for anyone to make credit card transactions. But will small event planners feel the need to bring the two capabilities together? According to Eventbrite co-founder (and Kevin's wife) Julia Hartz, it's something they already do -- making the most of ticket sales. "Eventbrite At The Door is a really natural extension of how to capitalize on any type of ticket sale that can occur," she says. "That was very much where event organizers were missing out on revenue or collecting the revenue and not being able to connect with their customers afterward."
This story originally published on Mashable here. |
| Top Democratic women dodge tough call on Weiner (AP) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 08:44 PM PDT WASHINGTON – Pursed lips. Frosty glares. Polite demurrals. Icy silence. Women in politics are grappling with the distinctly unfunny choice of restraining themselves or letting rip what they really think about Rep. Anthony Weiner's X-rated online conduct and whether he belongs in Congress. They'll be vexed by the question awhile longer because the 46-year-old Democrat from New York City told the New York Post on Thursday he won't resign. The scandal presents a maddening choice for these female leaders, none shy, between speaking out or keeping quiet about behavior that, at best, is disrespectful of women. "You're right, I don't like" questions about Weiner, Sen. Dianne Feinstein said with a smile. Feinstein, D-Calif., was elected in 1992, known as "the Year of the Woman." She said she's shocked and saddened by the matter, which grew worse as the week went on, and she wished she could say something lighthearted about it. Does she think Weiner should resign? "I'm not getting into that," she demurred. It was an apt illustration of the bind in which female lawmakers, particularly Democrats, find themselves as Weiner's tawdry saga unfolds. They represent a party trying to position itself as the best choice for women in the lead-up to the 2012 congressional and presidential elections, yet the most senior among them have not called outright for Weiner's resignation. Most, in fact, have said nothing publicly at all. Weiner admitted four days ago that he had Tweeted sexually charged messages and photos to at least six women and lied about it. How to answer the obvious question — should he quit? — remains a frustrating one for Congress' women, more so the longer Weiner clings to office. "My sense is they want him to make the decision himself," said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. "That is the way the institution works." Historically, that's true, because party leaders don't like to be sullied by the unfortunate behavior of their troops. Leaders don't want to risk their own clout on a public call for resignation that might be ignored. That's a real possibility with Weiner, who's brash and intractable and a robust fundraiser. Weiner told the Post he's not resigning and he was going to try to make amends with his family and constituents and, perhaps, get some work done. There's a smaller chance that he could ride out the scandal and win re-election despite any attempts, emphasized by Democrats this week, to redistrict him out of Congress when new political lines are drawn for 2012. A new poll found that 56 percent of voters in his district, which covers parts of the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, said he shouldn't resign. One-third of those surveyed in the NY1-Marist poll said he should quit and 12 percent said they were unsure. In private phone calls, Democrats have made clear to Weiner that staying would be tough on him and his wife of a year, Huma Abedin, who's pregnant with the couple's first child. On Wednesday, Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa., became the first of a half-dozen Democrats to say he should leave office. For Democratic Rep. Kathy Hochul, the newly elected successor to a New York Republican who resigned after the release of a shirtless photo he sent to a woman he met online, Weiner's situation is "probably the definition of irony." Hochul stopped short of saying he should quit. The top women in the party and Congress have not gone as far as Schwartz. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, the first woman to serve as House speaker, said in a statement that she's "disappointed" in Weiner and called for an ethics committee investigation. Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the new chief of the Democratic National Committee has said nothing, but concurs with Pelosi, a spokesman said. Her predecessor as head of the party, Tim Kaine, a Senate candidate and former Virginia governor, has said Weiner should step down. Female senators weren't eager to discuss Weiner. Sen. Patty Murray, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said tersely Wednesday that "of course" Weiner's troubles make it harder to elect Democrats to Congress. Murray said Thursday she thought she was answering a different question. Asked about the pressure on Weiner to resign, the Washington Democrat pointed out that he's a member of the House. "I don't even know him," Murray said. ____ Associated Press writer Carolyn Thompson in Amherst, N.Y., and Kimberly Hefling contributed to this report. |
| Google buys AdMeld in latest Web acquisition: report (Reuters) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 04:44 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Google Inc has bought online advertising technology company AdMeld for $400 million, according to an influential technology blog. The deal, which was reported by TechCrunch citing multiple unnamed sources, would mark Google's latest effort to bolster its business in the market for graphical, display ads, where it competes with rivals including Yahoo Inc and Facebook. Four-year-old AdMeld counts Discovery Communications, FOX News, Hearst Television, and The Weather Channel among its clients, according to its website. It has raised $30 million in funding from investors including the Foundry Group, Spark Capital, Norwest Venture Partners and Time Warner Investments, TechCrunch cited multiple unidentified sources as saying. Google, the world's No. 1 Internet search engine, declined to comment. Google has been on an acquisition spree, spending $1.8 billion on more than 40 companies in 2010. The vast majority of Google's revenue, which totaled roughly $29 billion in 2010, comes from small ads that appear alongside its search results. But the company has stepped up efforts to tap into the display advertising market. In October, Google said its display advertising business was generating revenue at an annualized run rate of $2.5 billion. |
| Nintendo's task: The Wii, again, more, better (AP) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 06:37 PM PDT NEW YORK – The upcoming Wii U — part tablet computer, part game machine — could help Nintendo surpass its rivals once again. Yet investors so far are skeptical, with unknowns such as the price. The company's stock has fallen 10 percent since the Wii U's unveiling this week. Expectations for the new machine have been high following the original Wii's roaring success. Wii U, which will go on sale next year, features a motion-sensing controller with a tablet-like touch screen and high-definition graphics. Of these, only the tablet screen feature will be unique to the Wii U. Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 already offer high-definition and motion controls. Scott Steinberg, CEO of video game consulting company TechSavvy Global, said people were expecting an innovation that's "so far ahead of the competition that it can position Nintendo as a leader again." Instead, he said, people got "a whimper, not a scream." Then again, people were also skeptical in 2006, when Nintendo Co. went against conventional wisdom with its Wii. The quirky, cheap game console relied not on high-end graphics and complex buttons to lure in hardcore players, but on simple motion controls to lure in everyone. The Wii's then-revolutionary technology lets players stand up and bowl, play tennis and drive a virtual car simply by flailing a wand in front of their TV. It has sold more than 86 million units, at least 30 million more than either the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360. Whether Wii U will replicate the Wii's success or fade like the Virtual Boy (if you don't remember it, it's for good reason) will depend largely on its price. Nintendo will also have to convince customers that they need another dedicated gaming device in the age of iPads, Facebook and "Angry Birds." "People are getting harder to impress," Steinberg said. "They are expecting more for the money. They already have a number of systems in their home that are performing well." With Wii U, Nintendo is catching up with its rival console makers by offering a system that runs high-definition graphics, an essential feature in 2011. Sony and Microsoft also began selling their own motion controllers late last year. The Wii U's tablet-like controller, however, is novel. Although Nintendo says the idea behind it came long before the iPad's debut in April 2010, the ensuing tablet craze couldn't hurt. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter called the console brilliant and believes Nintendo will have no problem selling it, as long as it costs less than $300. "I was really, really surprised at the stock price reaction," Pachter said. "I thought it was really cool." Pachter said he had to hold the device in his hands before understanding its significance: "They integrated a tablet into a console." No one else has done that. The Wii U's controller is a mix between Nintendo's family of DS touch-screen handhelds, complete with stylus, and a traditional console game controller with two joysticks and trigger buttons. It's a little bulky — a bit like holding a hardcover book by its top and bottom edges. In Nintendo's demonstrations at E3, a game called "Shield Pose" has players blocking suction-cup arrows fired by pirates from different directions in rhythm to a beat. The accelerometer inside the controller knows if you are blocking in the right direction. Other games make use of the controller's ability to have a different perspective on the same world. In one, the Wii U controller operates a spaceship and is in a shoot-em-up battle with players on the ground. Those players, holding traditional controllers, have to look at a split-screen view on the TV for their perspective. In offering new experiences through the Wii U, "not only do we want to bring back those people who have left Nintendo, we also want to create a new group of core users," said Katsuya Eguchi, manager and producer of software development at Nintendo. "I think we can do that with the new controller, but it will be hard to bring back those people who've moved onto Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, unless we offer something a little bit different," he said in Japanese through a translator at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. Some analysts worry that traditional video games have to compete for attention and dollars with smarter-than-ever phones, quick games such as "FarmVille" and tablet computers including the iPad. That is not necessarily true. Clicking on a field of virtual crops to harvest on "FarmVille" is not quite the same as spending two hours as U.S. special forces fighting Cold War-era enemies in "Call of Duty: Black Ops." It's not the same as immersing yourself in the Mushroom Kingdom with the Super Mario brothers. Nonetheless, demand for the Wii has dropped in recent years. Even the much-hyped Nintendo 3DS, the glasses-free handheld 3-D gaming system, has been selling slower than expected. Pachter believes a big reason for Nintendo's stock price drop this week is not Wii U but Sony's decision to price PlayStation Vita, its newest handheld gaming device at $249, the same as the 3DS. With the economy that's still on the rocks, money speaks. The lack of an announced price for Wii U, Pachter said, "makes people worried that it'll be 500 bucks." ____ AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima and AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang in Los Angeles contributed to this story. |
| IOS 5 has some - but few - iPhone 3GS limitations (Digital Trends) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 05:50 PM PDT
There are those that walk among us not crazed enough to need every need a new iPhone every time the hardware is upgraded, and now it sounds like they will very minimally pay for it. According to 9to5Mac, all the big new features work flawlessly: Twitter, the Notifications Center, and Newsstand function just as they do for iPhone 4s. Unfortunately some Safari upgrades were available, and neither were photo editing features. Some are mentioning the lack of tabs in the browser, but that is an iPad-only update. There is some a little extra lag time on some operations, but it's extremely minor. But the best news is that iCloud functioned as it should. There wasn't any serious concern it about this being an issue, but it's reassuring to hear that one of Apple's big releases will work just fine with the legacy model. Of course, iPhone 3G users out there are left completely in the lurch: IOS 5 will not function on the older-generation models. Check out the video below to see a simultaneous iOS 5 walk-through on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS for yourself.
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| The Twitter User Who Exposed Weiner (The Daily Beast) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 06:07 PM PDT |
| Wii U demos show off secrets, 360-degree views (AP) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 06:30 PM PDT LOS ANGELES – A look at the eight individual interactive experiences — not actual full-fledged games — that Nintendo used to demonstrate the new Wii U system's 6.2-inch touchscreen controller, which features the ability to detect motion and interact with what's depicted on a television display, at this week's Electronic Entertainment Expo: Japanese Garden: This computer-generated video of a bird traveling through a Japanese garden flaunted the console's high-definition capabilities. As the bird soared through the lush virtual environment, the seasons changed, showing off the summer's shining sunlight, fall's descending leaves, spring's blossoming plants and winter's drifting snow. Chase Mii: In this cat-and-mouse game, up to four players worked together on a split-screen TV display using Wii remotes to capture a single player who is evading them inside of a maze reminiscent of a "Mario Bros." realm. The pursuant used the Wii U tablet, which provides a tactical advantage by allowing that person to see the other players. Battle Mii: With a cartoony "Metroid" style, this three-player third-person shooter game pitted two players on the ground using Wii remotes against a combatant operating a virtual spaceship with the Wii U controller. The land-based players were confined to a meandering labyrinth, while the adversary in the spaceship could soar above the battleground. Shield Pose: In this single-player game, the Wii U controller is used as makeshift shield to catch plungers shot by pirates from various angles in a rhythmic order, similar to "Parappa the Rapper" and "Rhythm Heaven." After catching the plungers that were seemingly fired from the TV display, the player had to shake the controller to clear the shield. HD Experience: This segment demonstrated what a "Legend of Zelda" title might look like in high-definition with a scene featuring adventurer Link entering a temple and encountering a giant spider. Controls on the touchscreen allowed users to change camera angles, toggle lighting and switch the view between the controller's screen and the TV display. Panorama View: In this technical demonstration, the Wii U controller broadcast standard-definition footage from a vehicle traveling through the city streets of Kyoto, Japan. Using the controller's gyroscopic technology, the view from the vehicle changed when the controller was tilted in various directions, providing a 360-degree glimpse on the tablet. Measure Up: The goal of this geometric game was to draw specific lengths with the stylus on the Wii U controller's touchscreen, beginning with a simple 1.5-inch line then progressing to more complicated shapes, angles and squiggly lines. Players were scored on how exactly accurate their drawings were in actual length as well as order. New Super Mario Bros. Mii: Similar to "New Super Mario Bros. Wii," this side-scrolling game allowed multiple players to transverse the Mushroom Kingdom. The new additions include the ability to play as a Mii avatar and use the Wii U controller to display the game, though the tablet's buttons, not the touchscreen, must be used to control a character. ___ Online: |
| Android app Little Photo offers plenty of options for shutterbugs (Appolicious) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 03:30 PM PDT |
| New York court rejects suit against America Movil (Reuters) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 03:55 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former shareholders of an Ecuadorean cellular-telephone company are contractually barred from bringing a $900 million suit against Mexican telecommunications company America Movil SAB, New York state's top court ruled on Tuesday. In a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeals held the former shareholders -- Centro Empresarial Cempresa S.A. and Conecel Holding Ltd -- were barred from bringing fraud and breach-of-contract claims by a general release they entered into in 2003, when they sold their remaining shares in Telmex Wireless Ecuador LLC for about $64 million dollars. "Having executed this release, plaintiffs cannot now claim that defendants fraudulently misled them regarding the value of their ownership interests in TWE unless the release was itself induced by a separate fraud," Judge Carmen Ciparick wrote for the court. In 1999, the plaintiffs, shareholders in Consorcio Ecuatoriano de Telecomunicaciones S.A. Conecel, a struggling Ecuadorean telecom company, approached billionaire Carlos Slim Helu about investing in Conecel. The following year, Slim's company, Telmex Mexico, pumped $150 million into Conecel and became its majority stakeholder. The plaintiffs retained a minority interest. Following the transaction, all the parties held their interests in Conecel through a new company, Telmex Wireless Ecuador LLC. In 2000, America Movil was spun off from Telmex Mexico, which plaintiffs say triggered their right to negotiate an exchange of their shares in Telmex Wireless Ecuador for shares of Movil. The plaintiffs claim they repeatedly asked Movil for financial information about Conecel and Telmex Wireless Ecuador, but never received the information. They also say Movil misrepresented the value of Conecel. Allegedly left with "no practical alternative," plaintiffs sold their shares to a subsidiary of Movil at a preset price, according to the suit. As part of this transaction, the plaintiffs agreed not assert claims against Movil and its CEO -- as well as Slim, Conecel, Telmex Mexico and their subsidiaries -- arising from the sale and ownership of the shares. "EYES OPEN" In 2008, the plaintiffs filed suit accusing Movil and the defendants of fraudulently inducing them to sell their Telmex Wireless Ecuador shares. They claimed that, if they had exchanged rather than sold the Telmex shares, they would have had more than $900 million in Movil stock. Last year, a divided panel in a lower appellate court held the plaintiffs' suit was "barred by the general release they granted defendants in connection with the sale of their interest." The Court of Appeals agreed. "Here, according to the facts alleged in the complaint, plaintiffs knew that defendants had not supplied them with the financial information necessary to properly value the TWE units, and that they were entitled to that information. Yet they chose to cash out their interests and release defendants from fraud claims without demanding either access to the information or assurances as to its accuracy in the form of representations and warranties," Ciparick wrote. Steven Selsberg of Mayer Brown, who represented the defendants, said his clients denied the plaintiffs had any right to exchange shares in the first place. "The court absolutely got the right result. It was a business deal that everyone went into with their eyes open," he said. Kathleen Kundar of Fox Horan & Camerini, who represented the plaintiffs, declined to comment. The Appellate Case is Centro Empresarial Cempresa S.A. v. America Movil, Court of Appeals, No. 93. (Reporting by Noeleen Walder; editing by Jesse Wegman and Andre Grenon) |
| Alternate Apps: Echofon vs. TweetDeck (Yahoo! News) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 11:53 AM PDT
Echofon and TweetDeck are both enormously popular Twitter clients for Macs. (TweetDeck has a Windows version, but Echofon does not.) Echofon's service is free, although you can also buy the client for $20 to do away with ads. TweetDeck is a free service that was recently purchased by Twitter. Echofon and TweetDeck both allow you to run a desktop client to monitor your Twitter activity, but the two clients approach that task in different ways. Let's see how the Mac desktop versions of both apps stack up. Muting a friend Echofon's solution to this problem is fast and elegant. Simply click the person's name and choose Mute. That person is now stripped out of your feed, without the socially awkward need to stop following them. You can do the same with hashtags, so if an annoying hashtag game has popped up in your social stream, you can cut it out entirely. TweetDeck filters out users and phrases using Filters, which you can find under Settings. You can filter out individual users or any mentions of specific words. For example, if you're burned out hearing about the latest Friday video, you can filter out the words "Rebecca Black." Echofon's interface for muting is faster and simpler than TweetDeck's. However, TweetDeck has more power behind Filtering, since you can exclude search terms instead of just users and hashtags.
TweetDeck lays out each of these columns side by side, so that you're viewing a huge page of Tweets. You can design new custom columns based on search terms, users, and hashtags. These columns get organized however you'd like, and it's easy to delete columns that you don't want. The difference between Echofon and TweetDeck's approach to handling columns is mostly a matter of aesthetics. Echofon's is cleaner, simpler, and more elegant. By comparison, TweetDeck's display gives you all of the information up front in a powerful display that's completely under your control. Picture and video handling
Echofon's media handling is simply better than TweetDeck's. It's a small difference, but having an in-client preview before you click any link makes Echofon much more convenient. Of course, if a truly offensive image shows up in your Twitter feed, you'll see the preview without any chance to avoid it; then again, in TweetDeck, you'd be clicking on the full-size version without any warning. Which to choose? It's worth noting that TweetDeck offers integration with other social networks, like Facebook. Echofon just doesn't have any such service. If you're a light Twitter user, we'd suggest Echofon. If you want all of your Twitter information as soon as you pull up the client in multiple columns at once, TweetDeck remains king. Post by Michael Gray More from Tecca:
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| Hands on with Toshiba's 10.1-inch Thrive tablet (Digital Trends) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 06:20 PM PDT
ExteriorFor starters, the Thrive measures in at 10.1-inches – slightly larger than the iPad 2 and the same size as Samsung's Galaxy Tab. That said, the Thrive is noticeably thicker, about 0.27 inches thicker. And at 1.6 pounds, it weighs about 0.3 pounds more than either the iPad 2 (1.33 pounds), or the Galaxy Tab (1.25 pounds). Toshiba justifies the extra bulk with other offerings – like full-sized USB 2.0 and HDMI ports – that are a definite plus over the mini versions squeezed into other devices. The company hopes customers will think of Thrive as the "most useable tablet" – not the thinnest or the lightest.The Toshiba crew also had on hand a Motorola Xoom – another Android 3.1 tablet – which is both thinner and slightly lighter (by 0.1 pounds) than the Thrive. But we have to admit that the Xoom felt strangely heavier and more cumbersome than did the Thrive. (Had they had an iPad 2 or a Galaxy Tab for comparison, the difference would not likely have gone in Thrive's favor.) Part of Thrive's weight illusion is due to the tablet's weight distribution, according to Toshiba. It also has to do with the ridged rubber backplate of the Thrive, which makes the device easy to grip comfortably, without feeling like it's constantly about to slip out of the fingers, as do some other tablets in this size range. The Thrive ships with a black backplate, which is easily removable. This enables users to quickly access the battery pack, and swap it out for another. A replacement Thrive battery will sell for about $90. Toshiba also hopes the removable backplate will allow the Thrive to appeal to customers looking for a more customizable tablet, as the company will offer five different colored backplates, which will sell for $19.99.
Ports and displayIn addition to the full-size USB and HDMI ports, the Thrive also sports a full-sized SD card reader, micro-USB jacks, a 3.5mm headphone port and a docking port for routing out video and audio from the device to its accessories. Thrive also comes loaded with a set of solid speakers, which are helped out by audio-enhancing software that comes pre-loaded in the device. While the enhancements did improve Thrive's sound quality, it seemed superfluous to make them option. Why not just make the sound better from the start? The Thrive's 16:10 screen sports 1280 x 800 resolution, and Toshiba boasts its IPS-like wide-angle viewing capabilities. At indirect viewing angles, in bright indoor light, the screen was still easily viewable, though it didn't have quite the crispness of an iPad 2 display. Another welcome addition is the ambient light sensor, which automatically adjusts the screen's brightness when the lighting changes – a feature found in many other tablets.
SoftwareMercifully, the Thrive's software package is more or less standard Android Honeycomb, and lacks the widgets and pesky skins with which some companies choose to clutter their devices. Toshiba does include some useful apps, like a customer File Manager that was intuitive to use, and makes finding, opening and moving files around on that tablet a breeze. Apps open and run with ease, and scrolling from screen to screen was smooth as homemade butter – all of which is due to the Nvidia's heavy-lifting1GHz Tegra 2 dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM.
Will the Thrive thrive?Critics of the Thrive will likely point to its complete lack of 3G capabilities. But since most people are shown to use their tablets at home, the Wi-Fi-only specs of the Thrive are likely more than sufficient for the average user. What nobody can hate on, however, is the price. The Thrive will come in three models: an 8GB version for $429; 16GB for $479; and a 32GB for $579. That̢۪s cheaper than most comparable devices (the 16GB Wi-Fi-only iPad 2 retails for $499, for instance), and the relative inexpensiveness of the Thrive could prove its saving grace.Toshiba says the Thrive is part of its "continuous computing initiative," as they call it, which means the table is intended to be a secondary device that compliments other computers. And that seems about right to us. The relative beefiness of the Thrive will turn away consumers looking for the lightest, thinnest thing they can get their hands on. But with a fair price and respectable specs, the Thrive is a solid device for the average consumer, and is on-par with the Xoom. Will it knock Apple off its tablet throne? Not a chance. It could, however, turn your mom into a Android fanatic, which, for some of us, is worth more than the Thrive's weight in gold. |
| Microsoft loses U.S. Supreme Court case on patent (Reuters) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 09:06 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp suffered a defeat on Thursday when the Supreme Court upheld a record $290 million jury verdict against the software giant for infringing a small Canadian company's patent. The justices unanimously agreed with a U.S. appeals court ruling that went against the world's largest software company in its legal battle with Toronto-based i4i. The high court refused to adopt Microsoft's lower standard to replace the long-standing requirement that a defendant in a patent infringement case prove by clear and convincing evidence that a plaintiff's patent is invalid. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft had argued that a lower standard of proof involving a "preponderance of the evidence" would make some "bad" patents easier to invalidate while promoting innovation and competition. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote the opinion, said the court rejected Microsoft's contention that a defendant need only persuade a jury of a patent's invalidity by a preponderance of the evidence. When Congress has prescribed the governing standard of proof, its choice generally controls, she said. The Obama administration and i4i opposed Microsoft's position and said Congress had accepted the standard in effect for the past 28 years and the Supreme Court should uphold it. The legal battle began in 2007 when i4i sued Microsoft. A federal jury awarded $290 million to i4i after finding that Microsoft, in 2003 and 2007 versions of Word, its word processing application, had infringed i4i's patent relating to text manipulation software. A U.S. appeals court upheld the award, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office upheld the validity of the i4i patent. Microsoft continued to dispute those decisions, but removed the contested features from its current software. In appealing to the Supreme Court, Microsoft said it wanted a new trial. But the justices ruled against Microsoft. The case is not entirely over, however, since Microsoft also has a challenge to the patent pending at the patent office and may have to pay other potential licensing fees, said Michel Vulpe, i4i's founder and chief technology officer. "We're very pleased that the court did the right thing," and that the decision was unanimous, Vulpe told Reuters. SIGNIFICANT BUSINESS CASE Loudon Owen, i4i's chairman, said in a statement, "This is one of the most significant business cases the court has decided in decades." Microsoft has said it is the largest patent infringement verdict ever affirmed on appeal. It has also said it had set aside money for the verdict, so it was not material to its earnings. "While the outcome is not what we had hoped for, we will continue to advocate for changes to the law that will prevent abuse of the patent system and protect inventors who hold patents representing true innovation," Microsoft spokesman Kevin Kutz said in an email statement. Max Grant, a patent law attorney at Latham & Watkins, said that by upholding the status quo "the Supreme Court wisely left alone a complex area of the law that balances many competing interests." Microsoft's share price dipped when the decision was announced but quickly recovered and was little changed at $23.93 in afternoon trade. Sotomayor wrote that any decision to change the standard in patent infringement cases would have to come from Congress. She noted that the standard of clear and convincing evidence was almost 30 years old and had been left untouched during previous congressional patent system reforms. Google Inc, Yahoo Inc and trade groups such as the Computer & Communications Industry Association supported Microsoft, while Bayer AG, 3M Co and groups representing biotechnology companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers backed i4i. The case was decided by eight of the nine Supreme Court members. Chief Justice John Roberts, who owns Microsoft stock, recused himself from the case. The Supreme Court case is Microsoft Corp v. i4i Limited Partnership and Infrastructures for Information Inc, No. 10-290. (Additional reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Ted Kerr and John Wallace) |
| Fusion-io shares jump in market debut (AP) Posted: 09 Jun 2011 08:22 AM PDT NEW YORK – Shares of Fusion-io, a maker of fast, chip-based "hard drives" for servers, are climbing in their market debut after the initial public offering priced above expectations. Shares priced at $19 each, above early expectations of $13 to $15. That price valued the company at $1.48 billion. The company and its shareholders sold $234 million in stock. Fusion-io Inc.'s flash memory products allow companies to store lots of data and access it quickly. Resellers include Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp. Facebook is its biggest customer. Stephen Wozniak, one of the founders of Apple Inc., is Fusion-io's "chief scientist." It's the latest U.S. technology company to trigger strong demand from IPO investors. Shares are up nearly 29 percent at $24.47 in midday trading. |
The Uncharted series by developer Naughty Dog has been a major system seller for Sony's PlayStation 3. 
The game mode on offer pitted me and about 5 other players against a mixed team of human AI opponents. Our task was securing 3 pieces of treasure that randomly spawned in unpredictable locations. Picking up a treasure meant that 2-handed weapons like shotguns and assault rifles were no longer usable, and my character had to rely on one-handed weapons to fend off opposing players. Running was also hindered while carrying treasure, making me an easy target for anyone with a clear line of sight.
The game's visuals are right on par with the previous release, and the single multiplayer map that was available looked just as good as anything in Uncharted 2. The character models and the environment were very detailed, and several of the random items in the environment were destructible. The lighting was especially impressive, and actually saved my life several times by giving away the positon of enemies that were casting shadows.
Using Twitter on a personal computer is still a little rough. You need a web browser open and must return to that browser to check your Twitter account occasionally. Desktop Twitter clients alleviate that need by keeping an eye on your Twitter account, updating itself with new posts and even popping up new message notifications on your screen. Twitter clients offer options that aren't native to Twitter's website, like allowing you to "mute" specific followers.
Mentions, searches, and columns
TweetDeck has no in-client preview for any media, which means you're clicking blind and trusting the people you follow not to prank you with horrible links or videos. Both images and videos get an in-client window to view inside TweetDeck, though.
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