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Spotlight falls on Sony's troubled cybersecurity (AP) : Technet |
- Spotlight falls on Sony's troubled cybersecurity (AP)
- China calls US culprit in global 'Internet war' (AP)
- Police could figure out Weiner guilt or innocence (AP)
- How to get started with your Kindle (Yahoo! News)
- TechLife on superhero taser gloves, robot presidents, iPhone apps for the unborn and more (Yahoo! News)
- Cyberattacks also targeted Gmail rivals: Trend Micro (AFP)
- $15 Program Tracks Stolen MacBook, Nabs Thief (NewsFactor)
- Imagining the next-generation gaming experience (Digital Trends)
- Nokia shares continue slide after outlook downgrade (AFP)
- Syrian government enacts countrywide internet black out (Digital Trends)
- Noisy box at Okla. airport causes evacuations (AP)
- Xperia Play to receive 20 new optimized titles (Appolicious)
- American Tower taxes probed (Investor's Business Daily)
- Judge won't stop Dish airing free Disney movies (Reuters)
- Paramount brings Star Trek reboot to video games (Digital Trends)
- Phone 7 Developers Limited To 20 Apps Per Day (NewsFactor)
- Free and easy security scanner for IIS, ASP.Net, SQL, and Windows servers (InfoWorld)
| Spotlight falls on Sony's troubled cybersecurity (AP) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 07:39 PM PDT LONDON – Another massive data breach at Sony has left hackers exulting, customers steaming and security experts questioning why basic fixes haven't been made to the company's stricken cybersecurity program. Hackers say they managed to steal a massive trove of personal information from Sony Pictures' website using a basic technique which they claim shows how poorly the company guards its users' secrets. Security experts agreed Friday, saying the company's security was bypassed by a well-known attack method by which rogue commands are used to extract sensitive data from poorly constructed websites. "Any website worth its salt these days should be built to withstand such attacks," said Graham Cluley, of Web security firm Sophos. Coming on the heels of a massive security breach that compromised more than 100 million user accounts associated with Sony's PlayStation and online entertainment networks, Cluley said the latest attack suggested that hackers were lining up to give the company a kicking. "They are becoming the whipping boy of the computer underground," he said. In a joint statement from Michael Lynton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Amy Pascal, Co-Chairman, Sony Pictures Entertainment on Friday night acknowledged the breach and said the company had taken action "to protect against further intrusion." "We have also retained a respected team of experts to conduct the forensic analysis of the attack," the statement said. It did not go into details about specific actions that will be taken to prevent future security breaches. It wasn't clear how many people were affected. The hackers, who call themselves Lulz Security — a reference to the Internetspeak for "laugh out loud"_ boasted of compromising more than 1 million users' personal information — although it said that a lack of resources meant it could only leak a selection on the Web. Their claim could not be independently verified, but several people whose details were posted online confirmed their identities to The Associated Press. Lulz Security ridiculed California-based Sony for the ease with which it stole the data, saying that the company stored peoples' passwords in a simple text file — something it called "disgraceful and insecure." Several emails sent to accounts associated with the hackers as well as messages posted to the microblogging site Twitter were not returned, but in one of its tweets Lulz Security expressed no remorse. "Hey innocent people whose data we leaked: blame Sony," it said. Sony's customers — many of whom had given the company their information for sweepstakes draws — appeared to agree. Tim Rillahan, a 39-year-old computer instructor in Ohio, said he was extremely upset to find his email address and password posted online for "the whole world to see." "I have since been changing my passwords on every site that uses a login," he said in an email Friday. "Sony stored our passwords in plain text instead of encrypting the information. It shows little respect to us, their customers." He and others complained that they had yet to hear from the company about the breach, news of which is nearly a day old. John Bumgarner, the chief technology officer for the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit — a research group devoted to monitoring Internet threats — was emphatic when asked whether users' passwords could be left unencrypted. "Never, never, never," he said. "Passwords should always be hashed. Some kind of encryption should be used." Bumgarner, who's been critical of Sony's security in the past, said the company needed to take a hard look at how it safeguards its data. "It's time for Sony to press the reset button on their cybersecurity program before another incident occurs," he said. ___ Online: Sony Pictures' Twitter account: http://twitter.com/sonypictures Raphael G. Satter can be reached at: http://twitter.com/razhael |
| China calls US culprit in global 'Internet war' (AP) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 09:01 AM PDT BEIJING – The Chinese military accused the U.S. on Friday of launching a global "Internet war" to bring down Arab and other governments, redirecting the spotlight away from allegations of major online attacks on Western targets originating in China. The accusations Friday by Chinese military academy scholars, and their urging of tougher policing of the Internet, followed allegations this week that computer hackers in China had compromised the personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including government officials, military personnel and political activists. Google traced the origin of the attacks to the city of Jinan that is home to a military vocational school whose computers were linked to a more sophisticated assault on Google's systems 17 months ago. China has denied responsibility for the two attacks. In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States had raised its concerns with China over the latest allegations. He said the allegations were serious but made no comment on reports of China's involvement. Writing in the Communist Party-controlled China Youth Daily newspaper, the scholars did not mention Google's claims, but said recent computer attacks and incidents employing the Internet to promote regime change in Arab nations appeared to have originated with the U.S. government. "Of late, an Internet tornado has swept across the world ... massively impacting and shocking the globe. Behind all this lies the shadow of America," said the article, signed by Ye Zheng and Zhao Baoxian, identified as scholars with the Academy of Military Sciences. "Faced with this warmup for an Internet war, every nation and military can't be passive but is making preparations to fight the Internet war," it said. While nuclear war was a strategy of the industrial era, Internet war is a product of the information age, the article said. Such conflicts stand to be hugely destructive, threatening national security and the very existence of the state, it said. China needs to "express to the world its principled stance of maintaining an 'Internet border' and protecting its 'Internet sovereignty,' unite all advanced forces to dive into the raging torrent of the age of peaceful use of the Internet, and return to the Internet world a healthy, orderly environment," the article said. China already heavily filters content and blocks numerous foreign websites, a system known as the "Great Firewall of China." The police employ a large force of Internet monitors to scour the Web for content deemed illegal or subversive, and those users transmitting sensitive contact can be charged with sedition or other crimes. A number of foreign governments say they've been targeted by hacking attacks from China, although Beijing routinely denies undertaking such operations and says it too is a victim of such activity. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters attacks such as the one alleged by Google were a primary reason why the State Department had for the first time created a cyber-security coordinator. The FBI said it was investigating Google's allegations, but no official government email accounts have been compromised. Google said all the hacking victims have been notified and their accounts have been secured. |
| Police could figure out Weiner guilt or innocence (AP) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 09:01 PM PDT NEW YORK – There's one way Rep. Anthony Weiner could show that he didn't send a salacious photo to a female college student from his Twitter account: Ask law enforcement to investigate. The New York congressman has so far declined to ask for an investigation into the photo, saying it's not a worthy use of government resources. The U.S. Capitol Police said it would not launch an investigation unless requested. In asking a private security firm to investigate instead, Weiner won't be able to prove his innocence by obtaining logs from Twitter showing where his account was accessed from. Twitter says it requires a subpoena or court order to hand over such information. A subpoena or court order would have to be initiated by police or the FBI, not private detectives. The scandal, which erupted last weekend, has been fueled by Weiner's initial refusal to answer questions about it. Although he started explaining his side Wednesday in a series of media interviews, some of his answers were perplexing. Weiner was clear about one thing: He says he didn't send the picture, which was addressed to one of his Twitter followers, identified by news outlets as Genette Cordova. If he didn't send it, that points to someone else using his account at Twitter or at yFrog, the photo-sharing site that stored the picture, according to conservative website BigGovernment.com, which first reported on the tweet. Sites such as Twitter usually keep logs of which Internet addresses are used to access an account, sort of like an online guestbook. It doesn't contain names, but these numerical Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses identify computers and phones. Weiner was tweeting on Friday night, when the picture was posted. If the log book shows that the post with the picture came from a different address than the one associated with his legitimate, hockey-related tweets, that would strongly suggest Weiner's innocence. "Oftentimes, if there's a situation where an account has been taken over, we can tell that the IP address has changed — it's not the one we'd expect to find," said Lt. Charles Cohen, head of the cybercrime investigations at the Indiana State Police. One obstacle is that websites don't have to keep logs of Internet addresses, and those that do keep them for differing amounts of time. Twitter and yFrog didn't respond Thursday to questions about how long they keep Internet address information. The editorial board of the Daily News of New York said it believes Weiner when he denies sending the photograph, but it said his refusal to let law enforcement investigate is suspicious. If Weiner did send the message, the use of yFrog could explain why it was visible to others, instead of just Cordova. Twitter allows users to send a "direct message" that is visible only to the recipient, much like an email. Yfrog doesn't offer that option. In a setup that could be confusing, it prompts users to send pictures to other Twitter users, but the resulting tweets aren't private. Weiner has been equivocal about whether the photo is of him, leaving open the possibility that he shot the picture and uploaded it to his yFrog, where a hacker found it and tweeted it. An examination of Weiner's computer or phone would probably show whether he shot the picture. It's also possible that yFrog has a copy of the picture, even though Weiner said he deleted it Friday night. The photo file could contain data that identifies the camera. Again, if it doesn't match Weiner's camera, he would be in the clear. If the investigation does point to a hacker, identifying the culprit could be challenging, depending on how well he or she covered her tracks. Logs from Twitter or yFrog could yield an Internet address, but computers and phones switch Internet addresses regularly. Someone accessing the account from a public hot spot or a prepaid cellphone would be virtually untraceable, Cohen said. Cohen has investigated cases of public officials who have had their Facebook accounts hacked by people who apparently got hold of their passwords. That can happen if someone uses a public computer and forgets to log out afterward, he said. It's also possible a hacker could simply have guessed Weiner's password, either to Twitter or yFrog. Hackers can also gain access to Twitter and Facebook accounts through the wireless signals of people who log in while on a public, unencrypted hot spot, Cohen said. This became drastically easier last fall, when a programmer released a software add-on for the popular Firefox browser that provides automatic access to Facebook and Twitter accounts of nearby people. The software requires little technical know-how. The add-on doesn't expose passwords, but allows hackers to do whatever a user can do, such as post status updates, pictures and tweets. |
| How to get started with your Kindle (Yahoo! News) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 06:22 PM PDT
If you're new to the Kindle, getting up and running with your favorite reading material is easy. Ready, set, go Some laptops and older computers may not provide enough power to the USB port to charge your Kindle. In that case, you'll need to plug it into a wall outlet using the AC adapter. Once your Kindle is fully charged, the LED light near the micro-USB port will change from yellow to green.
From the home screen, press the Menu button and verify Whispernet is turned on. Next, use the 5-way controller to scroll down the options list, and select the Settings option. Once inside the Settings page, select the Register option. You will need to enter your Amazon username and password to complete the registration process. If you don't currently have an account, sign up for one simply by visiting the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon's website. A separate password for the device itself can also be set from the Settings menu. Make purchasing from the Kindle Store fast and easy by setting up a payment method with Amazon. The Kindle uses Amazon's 1-Click payment method, which requires a credit card, debit card, or Amazon gift card. You'll need to visit the Manage Addresses and 1-Click Settings page to do this. Simply enter your default shipping address, as well as your credit or debit card info. In order to apply a gift card to your Kindle account, visit your account page. Shopping the Kindle store From the home screen, push the menu button and select Shop in Kindle Store. From there, you'll be taken to the Kindle Storefront, where you'll be able to select from the tens of thousands of titles available. Search for specific titles or authors that interest you, or browse the available selections by genre. Just looking for the cream of the crop? Check out the Kindle's New York Times Bestsellers List or the Kindle Top Sellers. These are great places to start your Kindle shopping experience. When you make a purchase from the Kindle Store (both on the web and from your device), it is stored in your Amazon library. Your purchases can be sent wirelessly to your device or downloaded to your computer and transferred via the micro-USB cable. Try before you buy The Kindle is an amazing device for those who love to read on the go, but you don't have to be a jet setter to appreciate what a device like the Kindle has to offer. It's lightweight, portable, and easy on the eyes. Welcome to the world of electronic reading in the 21st century! Still have questions about the Kindle? Check out our Kindle topic page for the latest tips, tricks, features, and news. Post by Michael Arcand More from Tecca: |
| Posted: 03 Jun 2011 04:19 PM PDT
This week we discuss the technology-enabled return of a stolen MacBook, superhero taser gloves coming to LA law enforcement, a robot signing the Patriot Act, the computer error that set 450 violent felons free (doh!), and an iPhone app that is literally for your fetus. Be sure to check out the detailed show notes below to find more information on all the stories we covered. Somehow, it's already time for E3 next week, so be sure to check out our special E3 preview edition of TechLife too for what to expect at this year's gaming industry bonanza. And of course as always, we would love your feedback on this week's edition of the show! Please let us know your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to tune in next Friday for another episode of TechLife on Tecca TV! Show notes
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| Cyberattacks also targeted Gmail rivals: Trend Micro (AFP) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 03:37 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Internet security firm Trend Micro warned on Friday that cyber attackers have attempted to infiltrate Web-based email services run by Microsoft and Yahoo! as well as Google. As US federal agents investigated a Gmail spying campaign uncovered by Google, Trend Micro said that Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail have been similarly targeted. "There has been a variety of recent attacks on popular Webmail platforms," Trend Micro senior threat researcher Nart Villeneuve said in an online post. "In addition to Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail have also been targeted. While the attacks appear to have been separately conducted, these have some significant similarities." Google said Wednesday that a cyber spying campaign originating in China had targeted Gmail accounts of senior US officials, military personnel, journalists, Chinese political activists, and officials in several Asian countries, mainly in South Korea. According to The Wall Street Journal, the US officials targeted included White House staff. The newspaper, citing an unidentified US official, did not identify any of the White House officials whose personal email accounts were allegedly targeted and the White House said no official accounts were compromised. On Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US government was looking into Google's "very serious" allegations and her spokesman said Friday that the United States had raised its concerns with China. China has denied any involvement and said any suggestion that it supports hacking attacks was a "total fabrication" with "ulterior motives." Google security team engineering director Eric Grosse said in a blog post that the goal of the attacks "seems to have been to monitor the contents of these users' emails." The campaign appeared to originate in Jinan, capital of the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, Grosse said, and targeted the personal Gmail accounts of hundreds of users of Google's free Web-based email service. Attacks on Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail also appeared aimed at being able to secretly read messages and possibly find ways into other people's accounts, according to Trend Micro. Along with monitoring accounts, attackers appeared intent on mining computers to find out what kind of software was used. "Once the attackers know what software are installed on a target's computer, including antivirus products, they can craft a precise attack targeting any vulnerable software," Villeneuve said. "Such an attack will then have a high probability of success." |
| $15 Program Tracks Stolen MacBook, Nabs Thief (NewsFactor) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 02:21 PM PDT Call it digital sleuthing in the high-tech age. A man's MacBook is stolen. He activates a $15 application, snaps photos of the alleged thief, posts them on a blog, and, two months later, the computer is retrieved and the suspect is arrested by the cops. The Oakland, Calif., cops didn't immediately spring into action, though. The case got a huge boost from social media. Help from Twitter According to the blog kept by Joshua Kaufman, whose Apple MacBook was stolen from his Oakland, Calif., apartment on March 21, he reported the crime immediately and then began collecting photos of the person using his computer with the help of Hidden, an app that lived up to its name. He posted on his Tumblr blog photos of a man sleeping, using the computer, and driving (with the laptop open). But the crime was given low priority, evidently because the value of the computer is relatively low compared to other goods, until Kaufman started tweeting the photos to 6,000 followers after he got a fix on his computer's location. Tweets linking to Kaufman's blog, This Guy Has My MacBook, spread to reporters, including this one, and the story soon started appearing on web sites and blogs. ABC News said that when its Good Morning America reporter called the Oakland Police Department, checking if the blog was a hoax or just a promotion, the cops reopened the case and in short order lured the suspect to an arrest. Citing police, ABC identified the suspect as Muthanna Alde-Bashi, a 27-year-old cabbie from Alameda. The computer was recovered and returned to Kaufman, who hasn't revealed details about himself or commented beyond his blog posts and tweets. The story is great publicity both for U.K.-based Hidden, which offers computer protection plans ranging from $15 per year for one computer to $395 for up to 100 computers for businesses, with theft-recovery assistance included. It's also good publicity for Apple, showing the loyalty of its users, and for Twitter. But as much it may teach users to protect their hardware, the story could also serve as a warning to thieves to beware of tracking software. Cat's Out of the Bag? Consultant Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group said that while a professional thief may wipe a computer's memory, knowing there are programs such as Lo-Jack that may track them, "casual thieves typically aren't known for their long attention spans or their avid interest in either tech publications or news shows." Cybersecurity expert Graham Cluely of Sophos said most computers are stolen by "opportunistic thieves rather than tech-savvy criminals. However, if, say, a new version of Mac OS X included Find My Mac software as standard, then thieves might become more clued up and begin to disable it, if possible." Enderle said the low price of laptops has made them a low priority for thieves because the secondary market is weak. "What that means is professional thieves pick other things that are more valuable and more easily transported -- jewelry, money, etc.," said Enderle. "Laptops are generally stolen by opportunists, the same folks who steal GPS devices. Also, often it is the personal information (for identity theft) that is the more valuable part of the laptop anyway." |
| Imagining the next-generation gaming experience (Digital Trends) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 04:57 PM PDT
Both Sony and Nintendo are finally talking about their next-generation gaming consoles, and next week's E3 show promises to reveal even more details. Over the last few months, I've been playing with OnLive, which is being built into some of the next-generation of PCs. We've seen the social aspects of gaming drift out of MMOs like World of Warcraft into first-person shooters, and most of the game console makers have started exploring the various aspects of community gaming. But where is this all going? With the E3 gaming conference coming up fast; let's explore the next generation of gaming.
Multi-platformOne of the coolest aspects of OnLive is that you can start a game on any PC, then play on a variety of PCs while retaining your current state of play. In other words, you can start it at home, and on your break, finish it at work. Granted, this doesn't work with MMOs unless everyone else wants to wait for you, but in linear games where you are working against a storyline, it is a great way to progress. With MMOs, you can enter a game from any PC once you log in and download the client (which can take several hours). OnLive also allows you to at least observe a game on an iPad, but you can't play it yet, and I'm not aware of any MMOs that allow that yet. Xbox Live has games for Windows 7 Phones, but they are different than those for the Xbox itself. Meanwhile, Sony is allowing some older PlayStation games to work on its upcoming Sony Ericsson phones.Clearly, vendors are exploring multi-platform gaming, but no one has it right yet. However, you could tweak different aspects of a game to fit varying devices and interfaces, and cause an online game to span devices. That is where I think the industry will eventually head. For instance, in World of Warcraft you could create new races of characters that would be controlled through the more limited phone, tablet, or TV interfaces, but still participate in large group events while having different missions to complete. You could create new pets that players can level up through the phone or tablet, but then get the benefit of the enhanced pet when playing off the PC, or take over a friend's pet, giving it more intelligence and purpose (at least we'd hope you'd play better than a NPC). You could allow players to earn gold at a faster pace by taking over the NPCs, allowing them to move more naturally in a game, with controls catered to a smaller device. You could even take over birds and drop in on friends for an in-game chat. But the point is that with the increasing variety of devices and a rich game environment, people can play together collaboratively just by adjusting aspects of the game to fit the device that is connecting to it.
We are seeing folks like Skifta take your phone or tablet and turn it into a remote control. I expect we'll have apps that will turn it into a richer game controller as well. You could then reconfigure the screen to address unique aspects of the TV-based game and better shift between tasks. For instance, in Halo, when you took over a Hog or one of the flying machines, the phone or tablet display could show instruments and use its accelerometers to shift to more of a wheel or stick as a control interface. Granted, this would likely require some advancement in touch screens to reduce latency for first-person shooters, but for puzzle games it could be very useful. Clearly, as a controller for existing and upcoming game consoles, the tablets and smartphones would be very powerful today. |
| Nokia shares continue slide after outlook downgrade (AFP) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:31 AM PDT HELSINKI (AFP) – The world's top mobile phone maker Nokia saw its share price slump again Friday, three days after it dramatically downgraded its second quarter outlook and said it could no longer provide a full-year forecast. Slightly before 2 pm (1100 GMT) Friday, the mobile phone giant's share price had dropped 4.50 percent to 4.50 euros on a Helsinki stock exchange down 1.68 percent. Following Tuesday's announcement, the company's shares had closed down a whopping 17.5 percent, and they continued to slide Wednesday, although a rumour that Microsoft had agreed to buy the Finnish company appeared to have softened the blow, and the shares ended down 0.76 percent. The continued slide Friday, after trading stopped Thursday for a public holiday, was not unexpected, Pohjola Bank analyst Hannu Rauhala told AFP. "It's quite normal that the share price continues to go down a couple of days" after a profit warning, he said. The ongoing drop, which has left Nokia's share price at the lowest level since early 1998, before it became the market leader, followed its announcement its second quarter sales would be far worse than previously expected and that it could no longer give a full-year forecast. Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop, who joined the company from Microsoft last year, said Tuesday the Finnish company's sharp outlook downgrade was part of a rocky transition period as it phases out its Symbian smartphone platform in favour of a tie-in with Microsoft Phone. The mobile phone maker said it hopes to regain lost ground when it starts shipping its first Microsoft handsets at the end of this year. The sharp drop in Nokia's share price in recent days has meanwhile fueled speculation that the world's leading mobile phone company is ripe for sale. "It's normal there's speculation that somebody is interested in buying Nokia," considering the low share price, Rauhala said, adding possible matches included Microsoft, Apple or Google. He said however he did not know whether Nokia would be willing to sell. Nokia has rejected a report Wednesday that Microsoft had agreed to buy Nokia for $19 billion (13 billion euros). |
| Syrian government enacts countrywide internet black out (Digital Trends) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 08:33 PM PDT
According to a government sponsored website, all service including 3G, DSL and Dial-up had been cut off—even in government institutions. Only a handful of website's remain accessible. The massive blackout is possible due to the countries' reliance on a single internet service provider. These strict control measures were enacted by the government in direct response to the rising protests in the country. Close to 50,000 protesters took to the streets today, crying out about the deaths of children and calling for the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. Since the anti-government protests began in January, 73 children have died; many from gunfire. More than 1000 Syrians have died since March. The blanket of censor was most likely an attempt to impede cyber-coordination. This case may be "the first known instance of total internet shutdown", according to the Washington Post, though it is definitely not the first instance of the government's heavy hand against the internet. The Syrian government has used many tactics to spy and steal sensitive information such as passwords, in an attempt to thwart protestors attempt communicate and coordinate. The government has also been using social media to spreed propaganda and encourage spamming pages of protestors. The Syrian Electric Army has made hacking software available for followers to attack anti-regime websites. Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and similar countries have also been cracking down on networks to keep people from organizing. Just last week it was reported that Iran is planning a project to completely unplug itself from the global internet, creating a state run internet that can be easily controlled. One has to wonder, even at this stage of outlandish tyranny, how big and how far will these types of controls get? |
| Noisy box at Okla. airport causes evacuations (AP) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 04:33 PM PDT OKLAHOMA CITY – The suspicious and noisy package that caused evacuations at an Oklahoma City airport Friday contained a bullhorn that played Christmas music, some wiring and part of a cell phone, officials said. Will Rogers Airport spokeswoman Karen Carney said the wiring and cellphone parts were what alerted security officials when the taped-up cardboard box arrived on an incoming flight from Houston. It was discovered at a baggage claim carousel around 9:15 a.m. Airport officials called police after hearing sounds coming from the box and everyone was ordered out of the ticket lobby and baggage-claim levels. That caused 30 flights to be cancelled or delayed and affected nearly 2,500 passengers, she said. A bomb squad determined the package was harmless, and the FBI said the box's owner missed his flight and was apologetic. No criminal charges were expected. Officials gave the "all-clear" signal just before 2 p.m., enabling passengers to leave the terminal and flights to resume, Carney said. Water was brought in for the evacuated airport workers and travelers who had to stand outside in 90-degree heat, Carney said. Many were sent to a parking garage for shade. "It was hot and there were no bathrooms," said Norma Jean Ashford, a cashier at the CNBC News Store near the ticket lobby. Still, she added, "it's better to be safe than sorry." The box wasn't picked up because its owner missed the flight, FBI spokesman Clay Simmonds said. Simmonds said the man arrived on a later flight and apologized. "I think next time he'll probably get to the airport a little earlier," Simmonds said. An Oklahoma City Police Department bomb squad blasted the box with a high-powered water cannon "to render it safe, and make it safe for investigators to check and see what's in it," Sgt. Gary Knight said. Authorities halted departing flights at about 9:45 a.m. Police also stopped inbound vehicle traffic north of the airport, Carney said. One of the passengers packed into the terminal was Jason Jobson, 38, who estimated that thousands of people were inside. "It was standing room only. It was packed," said the Shawnee, Okla., resident who was returning from a research conference in Washington via Chicago. Jobson said a wall of security guards blocked the exit so people couldn't leave, but everyone was fairly well-behaved. "Everyone was speculating and making cracks about what was going on," he said. "If it was a bomb, I was more concerned about being injured since we were all sequestered." After being told it might be a few hours before he could get inside the airport, Alan McKinney headed to a local gas station to buy several six packs of beer. The 54-year-old from Burkburnett, Texas, was among about 20 stranded travelers waiting with their luggage in a parking lot near the airport. "It's an icebreaker," McKinney said as he offered the beverage to his fellow travelers. "When you have beer, there's no stranger." Lynn Woodward, who arrived in Oklahoma City from Chicago, said she passed the time by reading her Kindle. Woodward, 56, was traveling with her husband and adult daughter from New York for a relative's wedding in Oklahoma. Her son was stuck in Dallas. "I'm glad there is security, but I think security has gone overboard," she said. "Since 9/11, it's gotten really hard to travel." ___ Associated Press reporter Sean Murphy contributed to this report. |
| Xperia Play to receive 20 new optimized titles (Appolicious) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 11:06 AM PDT |
| American Tower taxes probed (Investor's Business Daily) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 03:25 PM PDT The cellular operator said it's received a subpoena from the SEC seeking documents related to its tax practices. American Tower (NYSE:AMT - News) said it will cooperate with the request for documents since 2007. Last month, the company's board OK'd steps to reorganize as a real estate investment trust in 2012. At the time, it said converting to a REIT was the best cash distribution and tax strategy. It fell 5.8% to 51.21. |
| Judge won't stop Dish airing free Disney movies (Reuters) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 04:01 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge has denied Walt Disney Co's attempt to block Dish Network Corp from distributing popular movies including Disney's "Toy Story 3" and "Alice in Wonderland" for free as part of a year-long promotional giveaway of its Starz channels. The New York judge rejected Disney's request for a preliminary injunction against Dish without explanation in a one-line order issued on Thursday. Disney filed a copyright infringement suit against Dish in May, accusing the satellite television provider of devaluing the rights to its movies and interfering with its licensing strategy. The media giant said it would suffer "irreparable harm" if the court did not intervene and stop Dish from providing free access to Starz in honor of its 30th anniversary. Disney argued that it had only granted Starz permission to air the movies under the condition that Starz would be on a premium tier with television distributors. Starz filed its own lawsuit in Colorado state court in May, accusing Dish of breaching the "pay television" provisions of its contract. Both Disney and Starz said they sent cease-and-desist letters to Dish to stop the giveaway, which began in February, but Dish refused to do so. Dish responded in its own court filing that Disney had failed to show sufficient urgency or immediate harm for the court to block the free promotion before a trial occurs in the case. The company pointed to Disney's four-month delay in filing the lawsuit. Dish also argued that its 30th anniversary promotion is permitted under a Starz licensing agreement. "Dish Network pays hundreds of millions of dollars for the right to distribute Starz content to our customers, which includes the rights to a number of Disney movies," Dish said in a statement in May, describing the dispute as one that should be between Starz and Disney. Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Starz, a subsidiary of Liberty Media, is also seeking a preliminary injunction against Dish. A Colorado judge has yet to rule in that case. The Disney case is Disney Enterprises Inc et al v. Dish Network LLC, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 11-2973. (Reporting by Terry Baynes; Editing by Tim Dobbyn) |
| Paramount brings Star Trek reboot to video games (Digital Trends) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 11:43 AM PDT The shadow of the Star Trek franchise is enormous, not just in film and television (where it has generated nearly a dozen feature films and half a dozen TV series) but in technology and gaming as well. Star Trek's original flip-open communicators were an inspiration for the mobile phone; the ubiquitous "pads" that littered Trek series from the 80s and 90s are in some ways the predecessors of today's iPad and Android tablets. And Star Trek has an enormous history in computer gaming: some of the first true computer games were actually Star Trek games designed to run on time-sharing mainframe computers, and innumerable Trek titles have littered the shelves, hard drives, and game consoles of gamers for generations. Now, Paramount has decided its time for another: Paramount Digital Entertainment has confirmed it plans to launch a new game for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PCs a year from now, subbed simply Star Trek. The new game will be based on J.J. Abram's successful 2009 reboot of the Trek franchise that recast iconic characters from the original television series and set them off on an alternate timeline where they can have new adventured relatively unencumbered by the enormous legacy of the canonical Star Trek universe. The game will feature co-op play with players cast in the roles of Kirk and Spock; Paramount promises the game will deliver a stand-alone story where the characters have to work together to (of course) save the galaxy from a "legendary" enemy race. The game's story is from God of War writer Marianne Kraqczyk, in collaboration with Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who are now leading the Trek film franchise. "Star Trek challenges the boundaries of co-op gameplay with a galactic adventure that gamers and fans have never experienced," said Paramount Digital Entertainment president Tom Lesinski, in a statement. "Working closely with the Star Trek filmmaking team throughout development, the game is sure to deliver AAA production values, a wide variety of gameplay, and all the action you would expect from the hit franchise." The game is under development at Digital Extremes (responsible for BioShock 2 and Unreal Tournament). Paramount is promising a first look at the title at next week's E3 Expo in Los Angeles. |
| Phone 7 Developers Limited To 20 Apps Per Day (NewsFactor) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 02:20 PM PDT Microsoft is restricting the certification of new mobile apps for Windows Phone Marketplace to no more than 20 a day per developer. The move is the latest sign that Microsoft's mobile-app strategy continues to be about positioning the marketplace as a source of high-quality mobile software. Microsoft's aim is to maintain a balance between choice and customer experience by enabling customers to see a broader and more representative assortment of new Windows Phone 7 apps, noted Windows Phone blogger Todd Brix on Thursday. "In recent weeks a handful of companies have individually published hundreds of apps in a matter of a few days," Brix wrote. "While these apps meet our certification requirements and give consumers a wider selection of content, we're also finding that publishing them in bulk degrades our customers' experience." A Consistent Strategy Microsoft recently began culling some of the mobile apps that large development companies have delivered to Windows Phone Marketplace because the software giant believes they need further work. Brix noted that the removed apps can be resubmitted once their content has been fully refined. "Microsoft is doing the right thing grooming the app portfolio," said Al Hilwa, director of applications development software at IDC. "They absolutely need to reduce duplicative apps [given that] the quality of the store is a key value to the user." Microsoft is also betting that the vast majority of Phone 7 developers will appreciate not having their offerings becoming lost in the deluge that a few big developers have been unleashing on a daily basis. And unlike its mobile-app rivals Apple and Google, the software giant is downplaying the value of bulking up to be competitive in the smartphone arena. Hilwa agreed that the focus on numbers shouldn't be the end game. "They said they are revamping the app store for Mango, and I am guessing they will handle some of these issues better when that happens," Hilwa said. Revenue Per App To further shape the app mix at Windows Phone Marketplace, Microsoft intends to establish developer guidelines to help content creators build "compelling apps that offer localized or targeted experiences without having to create dozens of unique apps," Brix wrote. "As we move toward Mango, we'll continue listening and doing everything we can to deliver on our commitment to transparency, choice and quality." According to IHS Screen Digest, revenue at the world's top four mobile-application stores is forecast to rise 77.7 percent to $3.8 billion this year -- with Apple's App Store expected to account for 75 percent of all mobile-app sales. If Microsoft's strategy succeeds with Phone 7 users, however, it could help the software giant generate more revenue per app than its bulked-up rivals. On the downside, Nokia isn't expected to be a major Phone 7 handset producer until 2012, and Microsoft's lack of a tablet OS will limit the software giant's mobile-app sales through the remainder of this year. According to Gartner, Apple's iPad played a critical role during 2010 in helping the App Store deliver nearly 90 percent of all mobile-app downloads among the mobile market's top four players. |
| Free and easy security scanner for IIS, ASP.Net, SQL, and Windows servers (InfoWorld) Posted: 03 Jun 2011 03:00 AM PDT San Francisco – Microsoft has just released version 2.0 of its Web Application Configuration Analyzer. A free download, the Web Application Configuration Analyzer scans IIS servers, hosted applications, and SQL Server instances for common security issues and misconfigurations. Version 2.0 contains 159 rules, each of which is a specific security check that generates a Passed, Failed, or Indeterminate outcome in the resulting report. Rules are broken down into three separate categories: General Applications, IIS Applications, and SQL Applications. The rule checks were determined by Microsoft's own Information Security & Risk Management review team, whose job it is to harden pre-production and production servers within Microsoft. These checks are now being shared with the public. It's nice to know what Microsoft, one of the most attacked companies in the world, recommends doing on its own Web, application, and SQL servers to defeat hackers. Each rule category can be expanded to reveal the underlying rule details. |
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