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Friday, June 10, 2011

Latest data breach strikes at financial security (AP) : Technet

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Latest data breach strikes at financial security (AP) : Technet

Latest data breach strikes at financial security (AP)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 04:07 PM PDT

By PALLAVI GOGOI, AP Business Writer Pallavi Gogoi, Ap Business Writer – Fri Jun 10, 7:07 pm ET

NEW YORK – Citigroup's disclosure that the names, account numbers and email addresses of 200,000 of its credit card customers were stolen strikes at the core of modern-day financial life — the ways people buy groceries and pay the power bill.

It's only the latest major data breach. In just the past three months, hackers have penetrated 100 million Sony PlayStation accounts, the networks of Lockheed Martin and the customer email databases of a company that does marketing for Best Buy and Target.

But half of all Americans, 154 million people, have a credit card. The Citi attack is a reminder that the technology used to protect their information was built by humans, security analyst Jacob Jegher notes — and it can be breached by humans, too.

"People rely on the safety net of a bank to take care of their information," says Jegher, a senior analyst at Celent, a research firm that focuses on information technology in the financial industry. "Unfortunately, that net has a lot of holes."

Citi says all of the customers whose information was stolen will receive a notification letter, and most of them will get a new card, although it has declined to say exactly how many. The bank says its enforcement division and authorities are investigating.

The victims will have to endure the hassle of updating the credit card numbers on any number of online accounts, but they probably won't lose any money. For one thing, federal laws protect credit card customers from fraud beyond $50, and in most cases, the bank that issues the card will cover up to that amount.

And the Citi hackers didn't get to the three-digit numbers that appear on the backs of credit cards, a security feature known as the CVV code. That means the hackers, or whoever they might sell the information to, would have trouble making direct charges.

The danger is that someone might use the information that was compromised to mount a sophisticated "phishing" attack, in which criminals send out convincingly designed emails pretending to be from the bank and gain access to account information.

The relatively small number of accounts taken from Citi, which has 21 million credit card customers in North America, suggests the hackers used spyware that captured the data of customers who logged in to its website to conduct online banking, one expert says.

"The thing in the Citi case which is good is they detected it quickly and shut it down," says Dave Jevans, chairman of security firm IronKey Inc. and chairman of an anti-phishing nonprofit group made up of 2,000 government agencies and companies, including Citi.

"They've got systems that are going to look at the data leaving the network and are able to see that somebody's sending information out," he adds. Banks are ahead of most other industries in this regard, he explains, and other businesses will have to catch up.

CVV codes can't be stored with a simple magnetic swipe of a credit card, and the businesses that process payments are not allowed to store the codes after a transaction, so they provide another defense against fraud.

Deloitte, the audit and consulting firm, said in a report last year that security threats to customer account and other information were on the rise. The good news: Companies are taking notice.

The number of companies that said they didn't spend enough on security fell to 36 percent in 2010 from 56 percent the year before. The survey found that 67 percent of U.S. banks are making encryption, a process to protect digital information, a top initiative.

Still, Deloitte also reported that of all nations, the United States had the most financial institutions that were still "catching up" on security, as opposed to being ready or "on plan." And the number of high-profile attacks in recent weeks is frightening.

Tyler Lesthaeghe, a senior at Iowa State University, got a call from Citi on a Saturday morning two weeks ago and was told that his credit card number had been stolen. No fraudulent charges were made, and he received a new card two days later.

Lesthaeghe's case appears unrelated to the attack that Citi disclosed Thursday. Credit card information can be stolen in ways other than a direct attack on the bank, from sophisticated attacks elsewhere in the network that processes card payments to a corrupt waiter who writes down the numbers.

He says he expects this sort of thing to happen more often in the Internet age and checks his credit report regularly and his account statements every month.

"You have to be diligent about it," he says. "It seems like large amounts of credit card numbers are getting stolen. It's kind of scary to hear that."

Security experts say there are several steps you can take to protect yourself:

_Check your credit report regularly to make sure stolen information isn't being used to open new accounts. That scenario is unlikely in the Citi case because the hackers didn't get enough information, but it's good to check anyway.

"Where consumers have to be very concerned is when information like their date of birth, their Social Security number or their mother's maiden name is breached," says Tom Osherwitz, chief privacy officer at ID Analytics.

Everyone is entitled to a free annual report from each of the three major credit reporting companies, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Those reports can be accessed at annualcreditreport.com, which also explains how to set fraud alerts. Ordering one every few months and rotating the companies essentially allows you to check your credit regularly for free.

_Vary the user names and passwords on your online accounts, and make sure to change any user names and passwords that match those in an account that may have been hacked.

_Third-party services will monitor accounts established in your name and alert you to something suspicious. If you decide to pay for one, make sure it covers all three credit bureaus and tells you about all activity in a timely manner. Otherwise, it's not worth the money.

_If you are the victim of identify theft, report it to the authorities. Details on how to do that are at onguardonline.gov, a security site developed by several federal agencies.

___

Associated Press Writers Eileen AJ Connelly and Joseph Pisani in New York and Ryan Nakashima in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Pandora raises IPO offering price range (AP)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 11:08 AM PDT

– Fri Jun 10, 2:08 pm ET

NEW YORK – Pandora raised the price range of its initial public offering Friday by at least a third and boosted the number of shares to be sold by as many as a million, demonstrating again a seemingly insatiable demand from investors for a stake a new slate of Internet companies.

The popular online radio service may raise as much as $176.3 million with the new offer.

Proceeds for Pandora Media Inc. could reach about $72 million if the shares price at $12. Selling stockholders would get up to $104.2 million.

Pandora raised the price range for the shares to between $10 and $12, up from the initial $7 and $9 it was seeking. Pandora and the selling stockholders are also now offering up to 14.7 million shares, up from 13.7 million earlier.

The IPO from Pandora, based in Oakland, Calif., comes amid a sizzling market for the latest generation of Internet companies. These include daily deals site Groupon Inc., which has filed to go public and professional networking service LinkedIn Corp., which has already completed its IPO.

Shares of LinkedIn, issued at $45 in mid-May, soared above $100 before noon on the day they hit the market and closed at $94.25 on a trading volume of 30 million shares. Shares are now trading above $72.

Pandora got its start in 2000 as a music recommendation service, then known as Savage Beast Technologies. It changed its name in 2005 when it launched an Internet radio service that lets people stream music over the Web. Users can create custom stations based on songs, genres or artists.

Joseph Kennedy, a former salesman for automaker Saturn Corp. and executive for online banker E-Loan, has been Pandora's CEO since 2005. He owns 4.2 million Pandora shares. Other stockholders include venture capitalists Crosslink Capital, Walden Venture Capital and Greylock Partners and newspaper and magazine publisher Hearst Corp.

Pandora offers a basic, ad-supported service for free. Users can pay for a service with no ads that allows them to skip more songs they don't like and listen to songs in higher sound quality. Most listeners still use the free service.

The company plans to use the proceeds from the offering to pay accrued dividends on its redeemable convertible preferred shares and for general corporate purposes.

The underwriters are Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Citi, William Blair & Co., Stifel Nicolaus Weisel and Wells Fargo Securities.

Tests show wireless network could jam GPS systems (AP)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 02:52 PM PDT

By JOELLE TESSLER, AP Technology Writer Joelle Tessler, Ap Technology Writer – Fri Jun 10, 5:52 pm ET

WASHINGTON – New government test results show that a proposed high-speed wireless broadband network being launched by a company called LightSquared could jam GPS systems used for aviation, public safety, military operations and other uses.

The results released this week by a federal working group come amid mounting concern that LightSquared's planned network could cripple GPS systems embedded throughout the nation's infrastructure. And they raise questions about whether the government will allow LightSquared to turn its network on as scheduled next year.

In January the Federal Communications Commission gave LightSquared approval to build a nationwide fourth-generation wireless network that would compete with super-fast systems being rolled out by AT&T and Verizon. The new network will wholesale access to other companies that will rebrand the service under their own names.

The FCC sees the LightSquared network as one part of a broad government push to bring high-speed Internet connections to all Americans. It would cover at least 92 percent of the U.S. by 2015.

But the company's plans have set off alarm bells among GPS equipment makers and the many government agencies and companies that rely on GPS systems, because LightSquared's network would use airwaves right next to those already set aside for GPS. They warn that sensitive satellite receivers — designed to pick up relatively weak signals coming from space — could be overwhelmed when LightSquared starts sending high-powered signals from as many as 40,000 transmitters on the ground.

"LightSquared's network could cause devastating interference to all different kinds of GPS receivers," said Jim Kirkland, vice president and general counsel of Trimble Navigation Ltd., which makes GPS systems.

Faced with these concerns, the FCC has made clear that LightSquared cannot launch its network until the interference problems are resolved. It is requiring the company to participate in a technical working group with GPS manufacturers and users to study the matter. That group conducted GPS interference tests using LightSquared equipment in Las Vegas last month and will report the results to the FCC next week.

The agency will then seek public comments on the matter. In a statement Friday, the FCC said it "will not allow LightSquared's commercial service to proceed if that would cause widespread harmful interference with GPS."

In the meantime, other test results are coming out.

Results compiled by a working group of the National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing — a government organization that advises and coordinates among federal agencies that rely on GPS technology — found potential for widespread GPS interference. The tests showed that wireless signals from LightSquared's planned network interfered with GPS receivers used by the Coast Guard and NASA and caused Federal Aviation Administration GPS receivers to stop functioning altogether.

The tests — most of which were conducted by various federal agencies at Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in April — also caused GPS receivers used by New Mexico state police and by fire and ambulance crews to lose reception. In addition, GPS receivers built into farm equipment made by John Deere lost signals, as did most General Motors' OnStar navigation systems.

Last week RTCA, a nonprofit group that advises the FAA, released the results of its own interference tests and found that LightSquared's use of airwaves closest to the GPS spectrum would cause a "complete loss of GPS receiver function" over large metropolitan areas.

Despite the test results released so far, the FCC insists the interference questions are far from settled. "Some of the tests to date may have relied on different assumptions, metrics and mitigation assumptions, and so may not accurately reflect the potential for interference as a result of how the network may be operated," the agency said.

LightSquared executive vice president Jeffrey Carlisle said he remains confident that the company's new network and GPS systems can co-exist. After all, he noted, findings of interference do not come as a surprise. What matters, he said, is what can be done about the interference.

Among the solutions outlined by the government working group: modifying LightSquared's antenna patterns and reducing the power levels of its base stations; limiting the slices of airwaves that LightSquared can use or moving the company to a different part of the spectrum; and installing better filters on GPS receivers to screen out LightSquared's signals.

GPS makers and users are particularly concerned about the final option since they say it could take many years — and possibly billions of dollars — to upgrade all of the GPS receivers in use.

Watch real life Angry Birds fly through the sky near Barcelona (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 06:33 PM PDT

By Tecca tecca – Fri Jun 10, 9:33 pm ET


Have you ever wondered what Angry Birds would look like in real life? Recently in Terrassa, Spain (just outside of Barcelona), cell phone carrier T-Mobile made an advertisement featuring your favorite furious fowls as you've never seen them before, complete with exploding pigs.

The video shows a rather impressive real life setup just like you would expect to see in the game. Players use a phone hooked up to a huge screen to fling the birds, which is a pity — we would have much rather seen a giant slingshot.

Sadly, not everything you see in the video is real. As with most videos these days, computer graphics were used to add that final touch. You can get a better feel for how they put this add together by checking out this video.

[Via: CNET]

Post by Jacob Bolm

More from Tecca:

Video: The biggest news from Nintendo at E3 2011 (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 06:03 PM PDT

By Barb Dybwad, Tecca barb Dybwad, Tecca – Fri Jun 10, 9:03 pm ET

Nintendo made a big splash at this year's E3 with both an action-packed press keynote and its enormous booth on the show floor. Tecca TV took a look at the highlights from Nintendo at the event, including a new Wii U touchscreen controller for its upcoming follow-up to the Wii console, a blockbuster holiday lineup for the Nintendo 3DS, and a number of special goodies in honor of the 25th anniversary of the classic Legend of Zelda franchise (are we really that old?!).

Check out the video above and let us know: what were some of your favorites from Nintendo this year at E3?

More from Tecca at E3:

Delaware police interview teen about Congressman Weiner (Reuters)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 08:28 PM PDT

– 1 hr 16 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Police in Delaware said they interviewed a teenage girl on Friday about whether she had contact with Representative Anthony Weiner, who is under pressure to resign for sending lewd pictures of himself to women over the Internet and then lying about it.

"Detectives were made aware of alleged contact between Congressman Anthony Weiner and an area teen. Detectives have conducted an interview with the teen and she has made no disclosure of criminal activity nor inappropriate contact by the congressman," Police in Wilmington, Delaware, said in a statement.

The New York Times quoted a Weiner spokeswoman as saying he had exchanged at least five private Twitter messages with a 17-year-old Delaware girl who had heard him speak in Washington.

"According to Congressman Weiner, his communications with this person were neither explicit nor indecent," spokeswoman Risa Heller told the Times.

Weiner has vowed to remain in office, although at least seven of his fellow House of Representatives Democrats have publicly called on him to resign. Congressional aides say other lawmakers are hoping he quits, but a poll released on Thursday showed 56 percent of adults in his district in New York City believe he should stay.

"I betrayed a lot of people and I know it. I'm trying to get back to work now and try to make amends to my constituents and of course to my family," he told the New York Post on Thursday.

Fellow Democrats in Congress have been distancing themselves from the onetime rising star.

After vehemently denying for more than a week that he sent a picture of his bulging boxer briefs to a woman in Seattle, claiming he was the victim of hacking, Weiner tearfully admitted to lying about the scandal on Monday when he said he had inappropriate exchanges with six women, some after he was married.

(Writing by Peter Cooney; Reporting by Dave Warner; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Anonymous Arrests Unlikely To Shift Threat Landscape (NewsFactor)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 02:09 PM PDT

Jennifer LeClaire, newsfactor.com Jennifer Leclaire, newsfactor.com – Fri Jun 10, 5:09 pm ET

Spanish police on Friday celebrated the arrest of three men who are allegedly part of the computer hacking group that launched cyberattacks against Sony's PlayStation Network, among others. Spain's National Police said the three were among the local leadership of an international network known as Anonymous, a group of so-called hacktivists who use denial-of-service attacks to bring down web sites.

Anonymous gained fame last year when it issued a hit list of web sites hostile to WikiLeaks. The group went on to attack PayPal and MasterCard, which had stopped donations to WikiLeaks after the U.S. government shut down the site.

Understanding Hacktivists

"The escalating number of attacks and the continuing ability of hackers to apparently be able to get into corporate and government web sites with impunity has really shaken a lot of people up," noted Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

"That said, the efforts of groups of independents like the Anonymous group or even WikiLeaks seem to have their roots in the traditional methodology of the hackers that we remember with some fondness from the 90s and later. These are people who were either personally or politically motivated and a bit sociopathic, but their aims are somewhat beyond mere filthy lucre."

The More Serious Threat

Although there's plenty of attention to the arrest of the trio of Anonymous hackers, King said there's a much more formidable presence in the hacking world that's accounting for a greater number of financially damaging attacks. Specifically, he pointed to this week's attack on Citigroup and systematic lootings of intellectual property that are reportedly being supported by Asian and Eastern European governments.

On Thursday, Citigroup reported it "recently discovered unauthorized access to Citi's account online." Citigroup said the hack affected about one percent of its North America bank-card customers. And Google is making headlines in recent weeks with accusations that China is hosting hackers who are tapping into Gmail servers.

"Frankly, I find the danger from financially motivated groups to be considerably larger than anything Anonymous or WikiLeaks is doing," King said. "And it's easier for governments to go after groups like Anonymous because they are operating out in the open. They are wearing little masks. They are making a big deal out of what they are doing and kind of thumbing their noses at the powers that be, so it makes them an easy target."

No Major Deterrent

As King sees it, law enforcement going after groups like Anonymous is almost the equivalent of cops arresting the usual suspects for small crimes while the bigger danger is organized crime rings operating behind the scenes with high levels of sophistication.

"For the government of Spain it's a feel-good moment, and for the three guys they arrested it's not such a feel-good moment," King said. "But I don't expect these arrests to have any material impact either on Anonymous or on the level of threats that living and working online are experiencing these days."

Electronic Arts merging big games, gadgets (AFP)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 06:58 PM PDT

by Glenn Chapman Glenn Chapman – 2 hrs 47 mins ago

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – US videogame publishing titan Electronic Arts is merging blockbuster titles with social play, popular new gadgets and downloadable content in a changing world of interactive entertainment.

"Historically, as a publisher, you developed a game, packed it on a disk, shipped it and then started work on your next game," said EA vice president and managing director of Southern Europe Pascal Brochier.

"The Web has helped us expand with multi-player and downloadable content to extend incredible gaming experiences," he continued during an interview at the Electronic Entertainment Expo this week in Los Angeles.

"Multi-platform enables us to follow gamers where they want to be."

Crowds of industry insiders and press jockeyed for behind-closed-doors glimpses at eagerly-awaited EA releases such as "FIFA 12" and "Mass Effect 3."

Long queues formed for looks at hot shooter title "Battlefield 3" and a new installment to racing franchise "Need for Speed" that for the first time gets virtual drivers out of their cars.

EA is taking the beloved "Star Wars" science fiction saga to a new frontier in the form of a "massively multi-player online" game that people around the world will be able to immerse themselves in using personal computers.

More than a million people signed up for a test phase of "Star Wars: Old Republic," which EA is due to release later this year.

EA has been focusing its resources on fewer, bigger games and working to adapt versions of titles to popular smart gadgets.

"I think we are in a very sweet spot in the sense that we embraced multi-platform fairly early on," Brochier said of EA's strategy of publishing versions of games for a variety of consoles and other devices.

"You can start 'FIFA' in the living room on your TV and then engage with it on the go," he continued. "The iPad, iPhone, social gaming... It's not the same play, but it is the best football game available."

EA last week launched an Origin.com online shop for videogame offerings.

Origin will have exclusive limited edition copies of hot games, including "Battlefield 3" and "FIFA 12," as well as upcoming titles such as "Alice: Madness Returns" made by the California company's partners.

Origin will eventually let people see what friends are playing and where, according to EA.

"We're committed to offering consumers direct access to great content and community in a way they have never experienced before," said EA chief executive John Riccitiello.

Origin will also link to smartphones to let people connect and play games such as "Scrabble" and "Battlefield 3" with friends on the move.

"We think the growth of this industry is correlated to the social element of it," Brochier said.

He saw social games as being in their infancy with much potential to grow.

Popular online social games such as "Farmville" or "Words With Friends" tend to be "asynchronous" with friend's not playing together when moves are made.

Brochier believed social play would become more real-time and personal.

For example, EA released a "Need for Speed" title that challenges a player to complete a course and then shows a shadow of that car as a competitor when a friend takes on the same virtual track at another time.

"I definitely think elements that allow you to share are the future," Brochier said. "We are going to start seeing socially relevant experiences."

In the coming months, EA will launch a "Sims Social" game on Facebook that lets people play a version of the virtual world game that features friends at the social network and evidently allows for activities such as flirting.

EA has reportedly sold about 140 million copies of "Sims" videogames.

"It is not just technology, you have to have great content," Brochier said above the din of the packed EA booth. "A lot of companies have exited the business; it is difficult to have content and technology."

Game rental service will allow T-Mobile customers to try Android apps before buying (Appolicious)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 11:52 AM PDT

Digital Detectives: Custody Battle Leads to Facebook Double-Sting (Time.com)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 06:20 PM PDT

RIM investor seeks change; PlayBook going global (Reuters)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 03:22 PM PDT

By Alastair Sharp Alastair Sharp – Fri Jun 10, 6:22 pm ET

TORONTO (Reuters) – An investor in Research In Motion wants a shareholder vote on whether the company's two leaders can retain shared roles as chairmen of the board and chief executives, in the latest headwind to hit the BlackBerry maker ahead of next week's results.

The call to limit the roles held by co-founder Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie adds to RIM's woes as it struggles to present itself as a legitimate third option in a smartphone race increasingly dominated by tech giants Apple and Google.

The setup "makes it more difficult for the board of directors in general to ask management difficult questions," Northwest and Ethical Investments' vice-president of ethical funds, Bob Walker, told Reuters.

The proposal from Northwest and Ethical, which holds more than half a million RIM shares, calls on the company to split the roles and amend its bylaws to ensure the chair is an independent board member, RIM said in a regulatory filing on Friday.

Balsillie resigned as chairman in March 2007 and stepped down from the board in February 2009 following a stock options accounting scandal but returned, along with Lazaridis, as co-chairman in December 2010.

Northwest and Ethical said that decision "contradicts the company's own statement, widely acknowledged best practice, and regulatory expectations," the filing showed.

Northern Securities analyst Sameet Kanade, who in late April wrote an open letter seeking a change in RIM's management structure, said he was not surprised by the move, but had expected it to be made by a larger shareholder.

"Ideally, RIM takes proactive measures to fix an internal matter rather than a forced change such as this which further distracts focus away from a critical issue, the continual drop in market share due to lack of a competitive platform," he said.

Investors want RIM to come up with a credible response to Apple's iPhone and iPad, and to smartphones based on Google's Android operating system.

RIM said on Friday it will launch its PlayBook tablet computer -- its attempt to compete with the iPad -- outside North America within the next 30 days.

The PlayBook launched to some troubling reviews in the United States and Canada in April, amid complaints that the company had rushed the gadget to market.

RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, said the PlayBook will soon hit shelves in Britain, France, Germany, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and India, among other countries.

The company gave no precise dates for the international launch nor detail on price. For North America, the PlayBook matched the price tag of equivalent WiFi-only iPads, at $499 for a model with 16 gigabytes of storage, $599 for a 32 GB version and $699 for 64 GB.

But analysts warn RIM risks repeating the tepid North American start, with limited marketing clipping its potential.

"RIM could have done a better job of building excitement," said Canalys analyst Tim Shepherd, who is based in England.

"I doubt the average person in the street has even heard of a BlackBerry PlayBook here," he said.

RIM gave neither pricing nor exact dates for the PlayBook launch beyond North America.

RIM has already disappointed investors by slashing sales and earnings forecasts soon after revealing a weak earnings outlook.

A class action lawsuit filed last month claims RIM misled investors by not disclosing that product delays would hurt earnings.

Its shares have lost almost half their value from a February peak and sit at a two-year low. They closed 2.8 percent lower at $36.56 on Nasdaq on Friday, and down 2.3 percent at C$35.82 in Toronto.

Northwest and Ethical's Walker said the fund would have raised its concerns regardless of RIM's recent troubles.

"It's a structural issue for us. Even if the share price was healthy, at this stage we'd still file this resolution," he said, adding that the fund had not yet sought support for the vote from other investors.

RIM reports first-quarter earnings next Thursday after markets close and holds its annual meeting in Waterloo on July 12.

The company called on shareholders to vote against the resolution, saying independent board member John Richardson already acts as the de facto head of the board.

It also said there was no law in the United States or Canada requiring it to separate the roles.

(Additional reporting by Euan Rocha; editing by Janet Guttsman and Rob Wilson)

Apple files motion to join developers in Lodsys suit (Appolicious)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 12:59 PM PDT

Lodsys Mobile-App Suit Prompts a Challenge from Apple (NewsFactor)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 02:09 PM PDT

Mark Long, newsfactor.com Mark Long, newsfactor.com – Fri Jun 10, 5:09 pm ET

Apple has filed a motion in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Texas requesting permission to intervene as a defendant in a Lodsys lawsuit that alleges mobile-app developers are infringing on its patents. Although Apple has a license to the patents in question, Lodsys claims the agreement only allows Apple to act as an "agent" and developers are ultimately responsible for licensing the technology from Lodsys.

Third-party developers pay Apple a percentage of their app sales as compensation for their use of the disputed technology. Because of this, Apple has a direct interest in protecting the value of its technology, services and relationships with developers. "In fact, the mere allegation [of third-party patent infringement] significantly threatens to diminish Apple's rights and those relationships," Apple's attorneys wrote.

It appears that Apple is stepping up because the lawsuit threatens the developer ecosystem it has created, said Al Hilwa, director of applications software development at IDC. "If a patent claim is made on software that a platform owner like Apple makes available to developers, then a win by the claimant could bring many new claims," Hilwa explained.

The Case for Intervention

If Lodsys wins the case, Apple would be vulnerable to lawsuits by developers seeking restitution because of the percentage of sales they have paid Apple for the right to use the patent-protected technologies. Furthermore, a loss of this case might result in developers no longer being able to use Apple's licensed products and services, which would significantly diminish the value of Apple's development ecosystem.

A win by Lodsys would threaten the entire sense of safety that developers feel as they use the platform and its runtime APIs, Hilwa observed. "It is understandable that Apple would interfere," he added.

Additionally, it's possible that Apple itself is infringing on the patents and may have been asked to license the intellectual property in question, Hilwa observed. "So a small win against small developers may be leveraged against Apple," he noted.

Claims and Counterclaims

Apple claims it already holds a license under which it has the right to offer products and services that embody the Lodsys patents. However, developers relying on Apple's assurance "do so to their own detriment and are strongly urged to review Apple's own developer agreements to determine the true extent of Apple's responsibilities to them," Lodsys advised in a blog last week.

Lodsys maintains it's the third-party developers who are ultimately responsible for securing the right to build apps based on technologies protected by its patents, as well as any infringement. On the other hand, Apple's attorneys maintain that their proposed defense and counterclaim would be "based on the doctrines of exhaustion and first sale deriving from Apple's license to the patents in suit" should the court permit the company to intervene.

Still, Lodsys said its contract with Apple explicitly states that the device maker is nothing more than an "agent" of the developer with respect to the distribution of mobile apps and the operation of the App Store. "Through that construct, and in several other ways, Apple has specifically absolved itself of any legal responsibility it has with respect to third-party patent infringement by application developers," Lodsys said.

iTunes Match may be a compromise for the music industry and P2P file sharing (Digital Trends)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 06:20 PM PDT

Molly McHugh Molly Mchugh – Fri Jun 10, 9:20 pm ET

iTunes MatchApple's answer to music streaming is finally upon us, and now iCloud will assume the responsibility as iTunes for the Web, as well as MobileMe replacement. It's a feature a long time in the making and one every Internet company is trying to offer, and iCloud's familiar UI and price tag (or lack thereof) will likely give it a nice comfortable cushion to launch on.

What will cost you is iTunes Match. For a $25 annual fee, iTunes Match will grab all your non-iTunes-purchased (or otherwise obtained…) music, find its information in the iTunes Store. It will pull this data, and sync it with your cloud-based music library while also converting those files to a 2456 Kpbs DRM-free AAC format, making it available on all your iOS devices. This also means you don't have to go through the painful process of manually uploading your non-iTunes-purchased music file by file.

The entire cloud-based music storage and player has gotten a lot of attention lately for its impact on record companies. Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player both struggled to find compromise here: Google has yet to get song permissions and Amazon got sued for failing to do so and using music anyway. There were reports that the music industry wanted Google to use its music player as a sort of watchdog for P2P file sharing. So at first glance, it may seem like music industry execs would be horrified that iTunes Match will convert many an illegally downloaded song and wrap it up with everything its paid-for version gets. Instead, record companies are seeing how this could benefit them. It's speculated that Apple is cutting labels a deal in order to offer iTunes Match, in lieu of the royalties they would have made off of the (alleged) illegally downloaded songs.

If this is true, it may be the biggest step toward compromise in 21st century music yet: Users aren't being forced to quit P2P file sharing, Apple isn't policing anyone or punishing them for failing to buy songs on iTunes, and record companies will get to see a profit from content that they see as routinely being stolen from them. Of course, record labels will still lose far more than they get – but it's better than nothing.

What there's still disagreement about is the long-term habits iCloud and iTunes Match could have on consumers. Some believe – maybe naively – that this will cause users to pirate music less, and find value in subscription services. People will again start paying for music – not how they used to, but instead via services like iCloud and iTunes Match. Others seem a bit more realistic: People are smart enough to realize this means they can continue to download music and pay a fraction of the price for the bonus features iTunes Match offers. Think about it: If you download all your music – say 1,000 songs a year – and pay the $25 iTunes Match yearly fee, it's as if you're buying a little more than one album.

Regardless of its effects on how we consume music, this type of solution could be a nice middle ground between the labels, provider services, and users.

Apple recalls some Verizon iPad 2 tablets (Reuters)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 05:07 PM PDT

– Fri Jun 10, 8:07 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc is recalling some of its iPad2 tablets that is designed to run on Verizon's network for connectivity issues.

"Duplicate MEID codes were flashed onto an extremely small number of iPad units for the Verizon 3G network," an Apple spokeswoman said but declined to say how many units were impacted by the issue.

Verizon declined to comment.

MEID, which stands for mobile equipment identifier, is a unique number that is used to identify a mobile device when it connects to the network. Two devices cannot have the same MEIDcode.

Apple is replacing the affected units that were already sold with new ones.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta, editing by Bernard Orr)

Sony Updates Consumer Video Editing Software With 3D (PC Magazine)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 08:44 AM PDT

Michael Muchmore - PC Magazine Michael Muchmore - Pc Magazine – Fri Jun 10, 11:44 am ET

This week Sony updated its consumer video-editing application, Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11, with the ability to edit and preview 3D video content. The new version adds support for MVC and MPO 3D file formats, and lets digital movie editors preview 3D productions without the need for 3D display setups.

The software sells for $99.95 and is available at sonycreativesoftware.com. It still includes all the 2D high-definition and standard-definition video-editing capabilities. The software can output movies to formats accepted by devices and services such as the Sony PSP, Apple iPod, YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook.

"The easier it becomes to capture high-definition video on mobile devices, the more people are interested in editing that footage into movies that they can send to their family and friends," said Dave Chaimson, vice president of global marketing for Sony Creative Software. "Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11 provides professional-level tools and expanded support that allow consumers to create videos and share them with others in their social networks."

Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11 also adds audio event effects, a new title, and text plugin with animations, a new video effect plug-in SDK, and GPU-accelerated AVC encoding (using either Nvidia or AMD hardware), to speed work with the popular AVC HD video format. Dialogs for creating new movies, rendering, and movie creation have also been improved for better ease of use and productivity.

To learn more about Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11 or purchase it online, head to Sony Creative Software's site. The software runs on Windows XP SP3 and later, and is available in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese editions.

IBM circuit heralds era of better mobile gadgets (AFP)

Posted: 10 Jun 2011 01:48 PM PDT

– Fri Jun 10, 4:48 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – IBM announced Friday it has designed a circuit the thickness of an atom that ramps up the ability of mobile gadgets to receive signals or even scan people for hidden weapons.

IBM scientists created the circuit from graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms in a honeycomb structure considered the thinnest electronic material.

"This research breakthrough has the potential to increase the performance of communication devices that enable people to interact with greater efficiency," said IBM Research science and technology vice president T.C. Chen.

"Just a few days before IBM commemorates its 100th anniversary, our scientists have achieved a nanotechnology milestone which continues the company's century-long pursuit of innovation."

The graphene circuit works as a type of broadband frequency mixer that could improve performance and lower cost of smartphones and other devices with wireless connections, according to IBM.

The circuits have the potential to enable mobile phones to get signals in places where that isn't possible today and even enable security scanners or medical X-ray machines to be more effective with less radiation danger.

IBM said governments and big companies were eager to develop the technology but it was not clear when it might be made commercial.

The company was founded on June 16, 1911 in New York State, where it now has its headquarters in the town of Armonk.
at 9:55 PM

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