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Study: Web users worry about snooping businesses (AP) : Technet |
- Study: Web users worry about snooping businesses (AP)
- Sony probing claim hackers stole user information (AP)
- App for mobile phones helps diagnose concussions (AP)
- How to back up multiple computers (Yahoo! News)
- 17-year-old sells his kidney for iPad 2 (Yahoo! News)
- Should You Build That Website You've Been Talking About? [FLOWCHART] (Mashable)
- Washington weighs security after "serious" Google allegation (Reuters)
- Pandora files terms for $109.5 million IPO (Reuters)
- New Composites Could Revolutionize Wireless Power (LiveScience.com)
- ATT official: phone health risk needs more study (AFP)
- Zuckerberg: Contract for Facebook ownership 'fake' (AP)
- Why Are There No Apps for Android Tablets? (ContributorNetwork)
- Fox News capitalizes on iOS success, launches visually-focused iPad app (Appolicious)
- Convergys to sell Cincinnati cell holdings to AT&T (AP)
- Apple's iCloud logo revealed. Hint: it's shaped like one of those things in the sky (Digital Trends)
- Toshiba's Thrive tablet to go on sale in July (Reuters)
- HP Wants To License webOS To 'Special' Partners (NewsFactor)
- Sony Hacked Again, Group Claims (PC Magazine)
| Study: Web users worry about snooping businesses (AP) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 09:04 PM PDT NEW YORK – It's not Big Brother, but "big business" that Internet users are more worried about. A new survey found that nearly half of Internet-connected Americans age 16 and older worry about businesses checking what they do online. By comparison, 38 percent worry about the government doing so. Not that those concerns are stopping people from using the Internet for shopping, social networking and a smattering of other activities. The latest study from the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California found that 82 percent of Americans use the Internet, the same as in 2009. On average, they spend more than 18 hours a week online — for browsing the Web (79 percent), for banking (47 percent) and for social networking and video-sharing (46 percent). In the decade that the Digital Future researchers have been tracking Americans' Internet use, social networks were born, and many of them all but died (anyone remember Friendster?). People have gotten used to migrating more of their activities online and accessing the Internet from more devices than ever. "When we started our work 11 years ago, the Internet was almost completely PC-based. We used to compare it with TV," said Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future. People would use the Internet — dial-up service, back then — the way they watched TV: sitting down in front of the screen for 30, 60 minutes at a time. Not any more. "We think PCs are slowly going away" except for the heaviest users, such as those using it for computer-assisted design, editing or heavy writing, Cole said. "Wireless, mobile Internet is becoming the Internet for most people." Among other findings in the survey, conducted from April 27 to Aug. 30, 2010: • Of the 18 percent of Americans who are not using the Internet, 7 percent cited cost as a reason. A quarter said they don't go online because they don't find it useful or have no interest. And 37 percent said they didn't have a computer or Internet connection. • 21 percent of non-users said they were excluded from communications among their friends and disadvantaged in obtaining information for work, studies or hobbies as a result of not going online. Still, 66 percent of them said they are not likely to go online within the next year. • 68 percent of adult Internet users go shopping online. Books and gifts are the most popular categories, followed by clothes and travel. • People are still worried about privacy when shopping online, though fewer respondents said they were very concerned or extremely concerned than the year before: 48 percent compared with 54 percent in 2009. • Email is still nearly universal. Even the texting generation uses this somewhat antiquated method of communication: 98 percent of Internet users under 17 said they email, compared with 95 percent of those aged 18 to 24. The lowest level of email usage, 94 percent, was among 45 to 54-year-olds. The latest survey of 1,926 people aged 12 and older has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points. A separate survey, from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, found recently that 13 percent of adult Internet users have used Twitter, up from 8 percent in November 2010. A higher percentage of African Americans and Latinos use Twitter than white people — 25 percent, 19 percent and 9 percent, respectively. The Pew survey was conducted April 26 to May 22 among 2,277 adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. |
| Sony probing claim hackers stole user information (AP) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 06:02 PM PDT LONDON – Sony has been hit by a second massive data breach, hackers claim, another potential embarrassment for a company that is struggling to restore its image following the loss of millions of credit card numbers through its PlayStation Network. The hackers, who call themselves LulzSec, said they pulled off what they described as an elementary attack to highlight Sony's "disgraceful" security. "Every bit of data we took wasn't encrypted. Sony stored over 1,000,000 passwords of its customers in plaintext, which means it's just a matter of taking it," LulzSec said in a statement. "They were asking for it." Sony Pictures, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, said Thursday it is aware of the LulzSec statement. "We are looking into these claims," said Jim Kennedy, executive vice president of global communications for Sony Pictures Entertainment. The data — which includes passwords, email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses, dates of birth — was posted to the LulzSec website and appeared to be at least partially genuine. The Associated Press called a number listed by LulzSec as belonging to 84-year-old Mary Tanning, a resident of Minnesota. Tanning picked up the phone, and confirmed the rest of the details listed by LulzSec — including her password, which she said she was changing. "I don't panic," she told the AP, explaining that she was very seldom online and wasn't wealthy. "There's nothing that they can pick out of me," she joked. Several other people contacted by the AP confirmed that their passwords had been published online. Many were angry and distressed. "If this is so, I'm very upset," said Elizabeth Smith, from Tucson, Arizona. "I'm very disappointed that Sony would not protect things like that." Like several others contacted by the AP, Smith said she often entered online sweepstakes — including ones she described as being affiliated with Sony. Neither she nor anyone else reached over the phone said they'd heard from the company about the apparent breach. Sony Corp. is already is facing questions over why it did not inform consumers more quickly after a massive cyber-attack in April targeted credit card information through its PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment network, compromising more than 100 million user accounts. At the time, experts warned the attack emboldened hackers and made them more willing to pursue sensitive information. It is unclear who the members of LulzSec are, or where they're based. The group didn't immediately reply to emails sent to their website's administrative and technical accounts or to a Twitter message posted to the Web late Thursday. The group's website -- which has a pared-down, 1990s look -- was only registered on Wednesday, according to an Internet records search. The site's registrant is listed as being based in the Bahamas. LulzSec recently claimed responsibility for hacking the website of the PBS television network to post a fake story in protest of a recent "Frontline" investigative news program on WikiLeaks. For the past two days, the group has been mocking Sony via Twitter and alluding to a hacking operation. Posts on the microblogging site through an account linked to the group at times chastise "silly Sony" and "You Sony morons," saying "everything we have will be published in multiple ways to ensure maximum embarrassment and exposure for (Sony) and their security flaws." ___ Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd Raphael G. Satter can be reached at http://twitter.com/razhael |
| App for mobile phones helps diagnose concussions (AP) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 07:12 PM PDT |
| How to back up multiple computers (Yahoo! News) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 05:19 PM PDT
The same, but different A cheaper, faster, and easier solution is to grab a big storage device for a couple of hundred dollars, and then back up every computer to it. Mac, Windows, or both?
Download EASEUS Todo Backup and install it on every computer. It's free for home use, but business use will require a (reasonably priced) license. Plug your external drive into the first Windows computer and open Todo Backup. Select Backup from the list, and press Next. Select "Disk and partition backup" from the next screen, and press Next. You'll then be asked to enter a "Task/plan name." Each computer must have a unique name in the application; give them obvious and logical designations like "Office" and "Home Theater" to keep things sorted out. Once you've given the backup a name, click Next, and choose which of that computer's drive(s) to back up. Most computers only have one hard drive, so just check the box next to "Disk1" and click Next. If you want to back up multiple disks, put checks next to each of them. On the final screen, select your portable drive as the backup location. Click Next, then Next again, and the backup will begin. When it's finished (which might take a long time, especially if there is a lot of information to be backed up), simply plug your external hard drive into the next computer and repeat the process.
Because a Time Capsule is wireless, your Mac computers can back up to it all the time. Once Time Machine is turned on, in fact, your data will be continuously backed up whenever your computers are turned on. Apple's penchant for seamless and invisible functionality certainly comes through here. The other, cheaper option is to buy a large hard drive that's specially formatted to work with Mac OS X. Simply plug it into each Mac in turn, and run Time Machine to back up your data. It's not as convenient as the Time Capsule, but it's quite a bit less expensive. If you're comfortable with reformatting hard drives, it's even cheaper to buy an unformatted 2TB external drive and reformat it to HFS+. If you have a mix of machines One solution is to buy a regular 2TB external hard drive for around $100, and then use the Mac OS X Disk Utility to format half the drive for Mac and half for Windows. This isn't particularly hard, but make sure you only attempt it with a new hard drive because this process will delete everything on it. Once you have your dual-format drive, you can proceed to use both methods we've described here to back up your computers. One other option is to use a network attached storage (NAS) device, which works a lot like an Apple Time Capsule but for every computer in your house or office via your network. The only problem is, setting up a NAS can be complex. Still, if you want to dive in, grab a NAS like the Netgear Home Media device. Be sure to read all of the documentation, and be aware that Time Machine doesn't play nicely with every NAS. Post by Sebastian Anthony [Image credit: Karin Dalziel] More from Tecca:
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| 17-year-old sells his kidney for iPad 2 (Yahoo! News) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 03:20 PM PDT
Apple lovers are known for their somewhat radical devotion to any new products the company introduces, but selling body parts to afford them is definitely something new — and scary. According to Global Times, a youngster in China's Anhui province wanted a new iPad 2 tablet so badly he was willing to part with a kidney to be able to afford it.
The young organ donor carried out these plans without the knowledge of his mother, who was surprised to see her son awash in new, expensive electronics. After discovering what Zheng had done, she promptly alerted authorities, who have been attempting to track down the buyers ever since. More from Tecca: |
| Should You Build That Website You've Been Talking About? [FLOWCHART] (Mashable) Posted: 01 Jun 2011 06:30 PM PDT So you've got a great idea for a website. That makes you and about 17 bajillion others. When it comes to committing to building a site or app, there are a ton of factors to take into consideration. Even if you have a killer idea or two, you still need skills, chops, and a web-savvy posse to help you execute and promote your site. [More from Mashable: How to Decide Whether Your Business Needs an App [INFOGRAPHIC]] Here's a handy flowchart from creative marketplace Vitamin Talent to help you decide whether it's time to build an awesome website, time to go back to school, time to hire a dev or two, or time to go back to the drawing board. If this flowchart is really lighting a fire under your most recent website idea, you can also check out our lists of resources for devs and web designers and free sites for learning how to code. [More from Mashable: Is There a Social Media Tech Bubble? [INFOGRAPHIC]] Click image to see larger version. [Source: Vitamin Talent] This story originally published on Mashable here. |
| Washington weighs security after "serious" Google allegation (Reuters) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 07:20 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Washington scrambled on Thursday to assess whether security had been compromised after Google Inc revealed a major hacker attack targeting U.S. officials that the Internet giant pegged to China. "These allegations are very serious," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. "We take them seriously; we're looking into them," Clinton told reporters a day after the Internet giant said it had disrupted a campaign aimed at stealing passwords of hundreds of Google email account holders, including senior U.S. government officials, Chinese activists and journalists. Google's announcement fuels debate in Washington over China's intentions in cyberspace, which the United States has identified as a potential flashpoint for future conflict. Neither Google nor the U.S. government has said the Chinese government was behind the attacks, and the U.S. State Department said it had not raised the issue with Beijing. Google only said the attack appeared to originate in China. Beijing nevertheless reacted angrily to Google's charge, saying it was "unacceptable" to blame Beijing and allegations that China supports hacking "have ulterior motives." Clinton said Google told the State Department before it made its public announcement on Wednesday, and the FBI was investigating, with Google. The White House said it had no reason to believe official government emails were hacked in the Google incident, and officials at many agencies stressed that government employees were directed not to use private accounts to discuss sensitive issues. "Rule number one is: don't do anything stupid," one national security official said. Some government agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, block employees from accessing personal accounts from work. But there is no blanket ban and other agencies do allow it. Still, the government will check whether senior officials' private accounts were targeted, officials said. "I don't believe we're aware that anyone was affected in this building," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. "We'll continue to look into the possibility that some individuals here may have been affected." Some analysts said the hacking incident could make the federal government nervous about extending contracts to Google, even though those email and communication services come with a higher degree of security than the email services that were compromised. Google is competing heavily with Microsoft Corp in that space. "I would think this is a negative for Google," said Tavis McCourt, an analyst from Morgan Keegan. DUELING IN CYBERSPACE Google's latest salvo looked likely to bring Internet policy to the foreground in the U.S-China relationship, where Washington and Beijing have staked out sharply contrasting approaches to censorship, freedom of speech and cybersecurity. The United States was drawn in last year when Google temporarily shut its Chinese-language portal over censorship concerns and a cyberattack it said was traced to China. Clinton also has accused Beijing of facing a "dictator's dilemma" as it seeks to control technologies that are fueling growth and free speech around the world. The dispute over the Internet has at times amplified existing strains in the U.S.-China relationship on everything from human rights and trade to intellectual property rights. Google executives, speaking at the company's annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, said the company stood behind its decision to pull its search operations out of mainland China because of censorship, even though the company maintains other operations in the country. "We have made the appropriate change based on our rules and our culture" said Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. "It's a pretty strong response and it's a had a lot of repercussions throughout the world," he said. Google executives did not comment on the recent email hijacking campaign, though Chief Executive Larry Page reiterated the company's assertion that the attacks were conducted by stealing passwords rather than by breaching the security of Google's systems. The latest Google hacking attempt follows a series of high-profile hacking cases that have hit U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin, entertainment giant Sony and others. A U.S. official familiar with progress on the investigation said there was increasing suspicion the Lockheed hack originated with "someone in China." China, often the first to be blamed, says it is being unfairly accused by countries that are simply unhappy at how Chinese growth is swiftly eroding Western economic, military and geopolitical dominance. The United States has warned that a devastating cyberattack could result in real-world military retaliation, although analysts say it could be difficult to detect its origin with full accuracy. "Folks tend to tie a lot of the hacking activity to China, but ... my sense is that you're moving into a realm (where) you can't always say it's a state actor," Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead told Reuters in an interview. The White House and the State Department have appointed officials to oversee cybersecurity issues. The Pentagon probably has the most developed strategy in the U.S. government, with a Cyber Command and thousands of people in different divisions of the military dedicated to matters of cybersecurity and cyberwarfare. But some analysts said the latest incident did not appear particularly professional. "This looks like a fairly crass attempt at intelligence-gathering," said John Bassett, a former senior official at Britain's signals intelligence agency GCHQ and now associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. "It's incompetent in that the intruders were spotted quickly. The targeting looks wholesale and rather random ... It feels like an effort by B-team players that's gone badly wrong. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Phil Stewart, Mark Hosenball, Sarah Lynch and Andrea Shalal-Esa in Washington, Peter Apps in London and Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Eric Walsh) |
| Pandora files terms for $109.5 million IPO (Reuters) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 06:56 PM PDT (Reuters) – Online radio company Pandora Media Inc filed terms for $109.5 million IPO on Thursday, as it moves ahead with an offering that could tap into the recent investor enthusiasm for Internet stocks. The company and its owners will sell 13.68 million shares at $7 to $9 apiece, according to an amended filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Pandora will sell 5 million of the shares. At the mid-point of the proposed range, the offering would fetch $109.4 million, more than the $100 million the company had used as a preliminary amount in its first filing in February. Oakland, California-based Pandora, which runs an online service that allows users to stream free music based on feedback from the listener, was launched in 2005. Pandora, unlike other online streaming services, uses algorithms based on the Music Genome project -- a database built by teams of musicians that analyzes songs -- to select a playlist for its users. The Hearst Corp, which beneficially owns 5.73 percent of the company, is expected to sell 4.4 million shares, the filing said. Earlier on Thursday, online daily deal site Groupon Inc filed with U.S. regulators to raise up to $750 million in an IPO, the latest in a series of Internet IPOs including LinkedIn Corp and Russia's Yandex. Pandora, which had 94 million registered users as of April 30, more than doubled its revenue in the first quarter on strong advertising sales and steady subscription growth. The Internet-radio company, which makes money mainly from selling airtime to advertisers and also from premium subscriptions under the Pandora One banner, reported fiscal 2012 first-quarter revenue of $51 million. The company expects to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "P" after the offering. Underwriters are being led by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Citi. (Reporting by Himank Sharma in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das) |
| New Composites Could Revolutionize Wireless Power (LiveScience.com) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 06:25 PM PDT You might be reading this on a wireless Internet connection, and whether you're on a laptop or an iPhone, you're most likely relying on a battery or plugged into a wall outlet. Another path for your power — wireless charging — is far less efficient, but a Duke University study may change that. The study says "metamaterials" — a term it uses for composite materials with unique properties — could facilitate the wireless transfer of power to electrical devices with much less waste. While much electricity can be lost during the transfer from power source to device by a wireless charger, metamaterials would keep much of that energy intact as they conduct and refocus it. One example of a metamaterial, the study says, would be an array of copper conducting loops. Users would place the array at a given point between the device and its power source, and electricity would be transferred directly through it. Metamaterials could have real-world applications within two to three years, said Yaroslav Urzhumov, an assistant professor who headed the Duke study. While there are a number of wireless charging devices on the market — including the popular Powermat, which offers wireless charging for phones and iPods — Urzhumov says using metamaterials would allow for a significant increase in both range and power. "Our proposition is an extension of the magnetic induction-based, near-field coupling technology," Urzhumov told InnovationNewsDaily. "It is based on the same fundamental principle, Faraday's law of induction; however, it ramps up the power-transfer efficiency by increasing the mutual inductive coupling between the transmitter and the receiver." By ramping up the efficiency, metamaterials could help charge bigger appliances and gadgets, including electric automobiles, Urzhumov said. They could even allow people to charge devices underwater. An advantage of metamaterials, Urzhumov said, would be to combat the problem of corrosion. "Exposing metals to the aggressively oxidizing environment leads to fast corrosion and subsequent loss of contact," he said. Even with such a breakthrough, though, Urzhumov thinks wireless electricity will remain a niche sector. "I don't think electrical power transfer will be 100 percent wireless, ever," Urzhumov said. "We know that the most efficient power-transfer device is a good old conductor." This story was provided by InnovationNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow InnovationNewsDaily on Twitter @News_Innovation, or on Facebook.
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| ATT official: phone health risk needs more study (AFP) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 04:49 PM PDT RANCHO PALO VERDES, California (AFP) – An AT&T official on Thursday called the health risk of cellphones a serious issue meriting more research but downplayed new studies warning of a link to a type of brain cancer. Two days after World Health Organization cancer experts warned that electromagnetic fields generated by cellphones are "possibly carcinogenic to humans," the US telecoms giant's Ralph de la Vega said the data was not especially new. "This is a serious issue," said De la Vega, chief executive of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. But "the WHO didn't do any new study," he added, saying their study was one year old. "The industry should not have too much to worry about; nevertheless, we should continue to study" the issue, he said at the All Things Digital D9 conference in California. Experts of the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer presented their evidence at a conference in Lyon, France on Tuesday that suggested mobile phone users may be at increased risk of glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer. Although they cautioned that the scientific evidence showed only a possible link, not a proven one, they recommended the most intense phone users make use of texting and hands-free devices to reduce exposure to the dangerous fields. "There is some evidence of increased risk of glioma" and another form of non-malignant tumor called acoustic neuroma, said IARC scientist Kurt Straif. The global wireless industry group CTIA-The Wireless Association disputed the significance of the report, citing possible "bias" and "data flaws" in the studies. |
| Zuckerberg: Contract for Facebook ownership 'fake' (AP) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 03:51 PM PDT BUFFALO, N.Y. – Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says emails and a signed document that form the basis of a New York man's lawsuit claiming part ownership of the social networking phenomenon are fakes. Zuckerberg's statements were included in papers filed Thursday by his attorneys in federal court in Buffalo. The attorneys want expedited access to the original materials, copies of which were filed with Paul Ceglia's lawsuit, and to examine Ceglia's computers and electronic media. "The contract is a cut-and-paste job, the emails are complete fabrications and this entire lawsuit is a fraud," attorneys for Zuckerberg and his Palo Alto, Calif.-based company wrote. "Zuckerberg has now declared under oath that he did not sign the contract attached to Ceglia's complaint and that he did not write or receive any of the purported emails." Ceglia's lawsuit, first brought in 2010 and refiled in April, relies largely on a two-page "work for hire" contract bearing the names of both men. Ceglia, of Wellsville in Allegany County, says he and Zuckerberg signed the contract after Zuckerberg, then a Harvard University student, responded to his Craigslist help-wanted ad for work on a street-mapping database he was creating. According to the lawsuit, Ceglia paid Zuckerberg $1,000 to work on the street-mapping project and gave him another $1,000 after Zuckerberg told him about his Facebook idea, with the condition Ceglia would get half if it took off. The emails document discussions about the arrangement, according to Ceglia. One of Ceglia's attorneys, Dennis C. Vacco, said he welcomes the Facebook attorneys' request for expedited discovery but disagrees with their characterization of the documents. "We're very happy to see that they agree with us in moving this process along as quickly as possible," Vacco said. Facebook's latest filings include findings by forensics examiners hired to analyze Ceglia's submissions. One called the work-for-hire contract an "amateurish forgery." "Those so-called expert opinions have been provided without examining the actual contract which is at issue in the case," Vacco responded. Ceglia seeks a 50 percent share of Zuckerberg's interest in the company, which has more than 500 million users worldwide. In March, Forbes magazine estimated Zuckerberg's net worth at $13.5 billion. |
| Why Are There No Apps for Android Tablets? (ContributorNetwork) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 04:24 PM PDT Contribute content like this. Start here. The iPad 2 has more than 65,000 apps for it, in the App Store. And that's not counting iPhone / iPod Touch apps, which can be scaled up to fit its display. How many apps do we have in the Android world, for our tablets? There are only a few dozen in the Android Market's "Featured Tablet Apps" section. And while that's probably not all the tablet apps out there, not all of those are even designed for tablets; many are just Android phone apps that work OK on a larger screen. It's clear that we're facing an app shortage, for people who bought an Android tablet like a Xoom or an Asus Transformer. But why, when there are so many for the iPad ... and when Android phones are catching up to the iPhone, app-wise? To find out, let's look at two things: Who's writing the apps, and why they write them. These are the developers in your neighborhood Imagine, if you will, that we're watching an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and he's going to take us on a tour of where our apps are made. (Which, he totally would've if he were still alive today.) Where do you suppose we'd end up? Apple answers that question on its website, profiling indie, academic, and corporate app developers in an entertaining video tour. Some were Mac app developers, who found that writing for iOS was a natural use of their talents. Some worked for a company like AOL, which decided it had to have a presence in the App Store. And some were drawn in during the iPhone's Gold Rush, looking to sell apps right when the App Store opened. I have a feeling that if you profile Android developers, you'll see basically the same motivations. Some like the technology, and enjoy making it do stuff; some work for a company that tells them to; and some simply want to make money. The problem is, the differences between the App Store and the Android Market make the latter much less appealing to many of those developers. This is why we can't have nice things Android apps are written in Java, which is an easy programming language that's often taught in college. Add to that how it's just a $25 flat fee to put your apps on the Android Market (compared to $99 per year on the App Store), and you see why Android beats out iOS in its number of free apps. So that's your "like the technology" contingent, right there. But what about the people who see the design possibilities? Who see a tablet's screen as a canvas, and want to create their masterpiece? Which platform do you think they'd like better, the quirky one with the ugly apps or the shiny, pristine Apple one? People like that write apps for the devices they have, and they're buying a lot more iPads. Add in the fact that there's less money being made on the Android Market, and that doesn't leave too many developers who aren't writing the official CNN app (or something). The problem is even worse with Android tablets than with Android phones, because fewer people are buying them and buying apps for them. What are people buying? iPads ... and the Nook Color, which doesn't even run the tablet version of Android. Maybe things will pick up once Amazon releases its rumored tablet, but I won't be holding my breath. Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008. |
| Fox News capitalizes on iOS success, launches visually-focused iPad app (Appolicious) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 05:00 PM PDT |
| Convergys to sell Cincinnati cell holdings to AT&T (AP) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 05:01 PM PDT CINCINNATI – Business services outsourcing provider Convergys Corp. says it will sell its holdings in cellular partnerships in the Cincinnati area to AT&T Inc. for about $320 million in cash. Convergys received limited partnership interests in Cincinnati SMSA and Cincinnati SMSA Tower Holdings as a result of its 1998 spinoff from Cincinnati Bell Inc. Convergys says the two properties make up the cellular partnerships. Convergys expects the sale to generate net after-tax proceeds of about $250 million. Cincinnati SMSA provides wireless communications in central and southwestern Ohio and northern Kentucky. Cincinnati SMSA Tower Holdings is a cellular tower holding company for Cincinnati SMSA. The companies say regulatory approvals are not required because Dallas-based AT&T is acquiring remaining minority interest in partnerships it already controls. They expect the sale to close in July. |
| Apple's iCloud logo revealed. Hint: it's shaped like one of those things in the sky (Digital Trends) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 08:16 PM PDT
Apple Insider has had its face pressed up against the window of the building and in the process spotted a large banner in the lobby. On the banner are three logos – one for the forthcoming Lion operating system for Mac PCs, another for the latest version of its mobile operating system – iOS 5, and one for its cloud-based music offering – iCloud. As for the cloud, well, it looks a bit on the cumulus nimbus side, and consists of a simple black outline on a silver background. It's nice to be able to finally put a face to a name. Earlier today it was reported that Apple had signed a deal with the last of the four major music companies, Universal Music, giving the green light for the launch of iCloud next week. Deals have already been struck with Sony, EMI and Warner Music Group. Details of the forthcoming cloud-based music service, such as whether consumers will have to pay to use it, are currently scant, but all will no doubt be revealed next week. Apple's iCloud offering will line up alongside similar existing services from Google and Amazon. Those two companies, however, have not yet signed deals with the music companies, which has left them somewhat restricted in what their respective services can offer consumers. Users of their services, for example, have to spend time loading their music onto remote servers, whereas it's thought that, thanks to the deals with the music companies, users of iCloud will simply have their hard drives scanned thereby allowing users to access digital copies of their music on Apple servers. |
| Toshiba's Thrive tablet to go on sale in July (Reuters) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 04:51 PM PDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Toshiba Corp is the latest company to jump into the rapidly growing tablet market with a 10-inch device called Thrive, priced slightly lower than Apple Inc's dominant iPad 2. The Toshiba tablet goes on sale in the United States on July 10th. Other companies, including Research in Motion Ltd and Hewlett-Packard Co, are also entering the market. Toshiba's Thrive, a wifi-only device with the base model starting at $429, is primarily aimed at consumers who use tablets at home, said Jeff Barney, general manager of digital products for Toshiba America. The devices -- which run on Google Inc's Honeycomb version of the Android platform -- can be pre-ordered starting June 13 at retailers such as Best Buy Co Inc, Amazon.com Inc and other electronic retailers. Global tablet sales are expected to explode to more than 50 million in 2011. Apple, which sold nearly 15 million iPads in nine months of 2010, is expected to continue to dominate the market in the near term. And as in the smartphone market, Apple's chief rival is expected to be Android platform, which is free to license and is being used on a number of tablets. Barney said that, while Apple does have the best-selling product in the space, there is plenty of demand for other models. "In the smartphone arena somehow the Android handsets have found a way to compete," he said. "There is a market out there of folks who want to buy non-Apple products." Thrive, which has a removable battery, plays high-definition videos and is designed for Web browsing, games and electronic books. Toshiba plans to launch additional tablet models later this year and could include devices with a high-speed mobile connections, Barney added. (Reporting by Poornima Gupta; editing by Andre Grenon) |
| HP Wants To License webOS To 'Special' Partners (NewsFactor) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 02:03 PM PDT As Hewlett-Packard works to capitalize on its inherited webOS by installing it on more products, the technology giant will also seek out select hardware partners to license the operating system. Two company executives indicated Wednesday that they believe webOS, which became HP's property when it bought the foundering Palm last year, can still generate interest in a PC market dominated by Microsoft's Windows and a mobile market dominated by Google's Android and Apple's iOS. Outstanding System "I happen to believe that webOS is a uniquely outstanding operating system," HP CEO Leo Apotheker said Wednesday at The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. "It's not correct to believe that it should only be on HP devices. There are all kinds of other people who want to make whatever kind of hardware they make and would like to connect them to the Internet. We'll make it available to enterprises and to SMBs. It will run on lots of HP devices." Apotheker's comments about webOS, published in an online transcript by the Journal, came in a discussion with the paper's Walt Mossberg and in response to questions from an audience member. The CEO, who took charge of HP last September, said he regretted the company did not try to market webOS sooner, saying, "It would have made life easier." Speaking on the same day at a different conference, the top HP executive in charge of webOS, Jon Rubinstein, said "HP is more than willing to partner with one or two special companies," but ruled out making it open source for anyone who wants it. At Qualcomm's Uplinq conference, Rubinstein, a former Apple vice president, said "if someone wants to put a real focus on contributing and building the webOS ecosystem, that would be something we're interested in," PC World reported. HP plans to install webOS on its high-end printers as well as on computers -- initially working in conjunction with Windows -- and on the company's TouchPad tablet due this summer. It also runs on a selection of smartphones, including the Pri, Pixi and Plus. A Long Shot But HP may face a tough road in boosting interest from manufacturers, app developers, and customers. According to the latest U.S. smartphone data from Nielsen Mobile Insights, webOS commands just a four percent share of the market, tied with Nokia's Symbian and trailing market leader Android (36 percent), Apple (26 percent), and Research In Motion's BlackBerry (23 percent). "If they do have a shot, it's a long one," said Charles King, principal analyst for Pund-IT. "The smart money seems to be on Android and Apple, with entrepreneurial mobile vendors embracing Google, and Microsoft coming up from behind via Windows 8." The idea of licensing webOS to others, King said, "is intriguing, but for that to be compelling, HP will first have to drive market interest/momentum with products of its own." |
| Sony Hacked Again, Group Claims (PC Magazine) Posted: 02 Jun 2011 10:55 AM PDT Sony has been hacked again, according to a group that recently infiltrated the servers at PBS. A group that identifies itself as Lulzsec claims to have hacked into SonyPictures.com and compromised the personal information of more than 1 million users. "Among other things, we also compromised all admin details of Sony Pictures (including passwords) along with 75,000 'music codes' and 3.5 million 'music coupons,'" Lulzsec wrote in a note posted to Pastebin.com. Lulzsec is the same group that infiltrated PBS servers to post fake news and password dumps. The news comes the same day that Sony brought the Sony PlayStation store back online and appeared on Capitol Hill to say there was no "clear evidence" that hackers accessed credit card information on its PlayStation Network. The company, however, said it and other tech companies are vulnerable to future attacks absent any action from Congress. Sony has been conducting an "intensive investigation" into the hack that took down its PlayStation Network for almost a month and in looking "deeply" at the logs related to the hacked databases, "we have found no clear evidence that there was any access made to the credit card information, and we found plenty of evidence that that data was not accessed," Tim Schaaff, president of Sony Network Entertainment International, told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. Almost a week after the PSN went down, Sony confirmed that hackers had obtained personal information from the network, which possibly included credit cards. The company later said that credit card information was encrypted, but it could not rule out the possibility that it was obtained by the hackers. Schaaff said Thursday that as its investigation continued, the information it recovered about credit card data "has changed." In speaking with credit card companies, there are "no signs of unusual activity related to this breach," Schaaff said. Still, despite pointing fingers at clandestine cyber-group Anonymous, Sony still does not know who hacked into its system. "We're working with law enforcement to try and figure that out," Schaaff said. Last month, Sony said one of its SOE servers included mention of Anonymous. Though a group spokesman has denied involvement, it has launched distributed denial of service attacks against Sony for suing PS3 hackers. When asked if Sony regrets pursuing PS3 hackers given that those lawsuits possibly prompted the PSN hack, Schaaff said it points to a larger problem of how companies protect their content. But if Sony hadn't gone after those hackers, it "would've played out" at another company, he said. "We are all under attack." Furthermore, without comprehensive privacy legislation from Congress coupled with industry-wide best practices, the tech industry is vulnerable to future attacks, Schaaff speculated. In written testimony, he said Sony supports federal data breach legislation that would require companies to inform customers about any breaches in a timely and consistent manner, regardless of the state in which they reside. "Without further assistance, we're all going to have a world of hurt in this Internet economy and we would appreciate your assistance," Schaaff told the subcommittee. Jeanette Fitzgerald, general counsel with Epsilon Data Management, which recently had a data breach of its own, said it also supports federal legislation that would replace the patchwork of state laws governing data protection with one, federal law. Rep. Mary Bono Mack, chair of the subcommittee on commerce, manufacturing, and trade, said "Americans need additional safeguards to prevent identity theft, and I will soon introduce legislation designed to accomplish this goal." Her bill will focus on three guiding principles: companies and entities that hold personal information must establish and maintain security policies to prevent the unauthorized acquisition of that data; information considered especially sensitive, such as credit card numbers, should have even more robust security safeguards; and consumers should be promptly informed when their personal information has been jeopardized. In the Senate, John Kerry and John McCain have teamed up to introduce a bill that would provide Internet users with a commercial privacy bill of rights. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
It's very easy to 
If you only have Windows computers
The student, a 17-year-old high school student named Zheng, told a local newspaper "I wanted to buy an iPad 2 but could not afford it. A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan." The "broker" was true to his word, and after the operation was completed on April 28, Zheng received his 20,000 yuan, which equates to a little over $3,000.
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