Archive for the ‘Technology News’ Category
OnLive, a company that provides console-quality games streamed over the internet, has announced the launch of its app for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. The OnLive app allows portable device users to play console games that they normally would not have access to.
OnLive calls its service “cloud gaming,” and it offers access to nearly 200 console and PC games without having to install them locally. The company’s servers do all of the hard crunching and processing of the game remotely, and then stream it to users’ devices. This method allows relatively slow mobile devices to play high-end games that usually require much more computing power. Users have the ability to stream the games to their devices over Wi-Fi or 4G LTE cellular networks, though the service will obviously work much better with faster connections.
The company says that over 25 games in its library, including top-tier titles like L.A. Noire, have already been adapted to the touchscreen controls that smartphones and tablets require. The rest of the games can be played with the optional Universal OnLive Wireless Controller that connects to a device over Bluetooth and costs $49.99. The OnLive service has built-in syncing across multiple devices, so users can play a game on their tablet, and then pick up where they left off on their PC with the OnLive PC app.
The OnLive app is available for free in the Android Market now and is expected to hit the iTunes App Store in the near future. The Universal OnLive Wireless Controller is expected to be available in the U.S. and UK in the near future as well. Games can be rented or purchased for play on the service, and OnLive also has subscription options available.
Steve Jobs,” the authorized biography of Apple’s co-founder and former chief executive written by Walter Isaacson, was the bestselling book on Amazon.com this year, according to the online retailer’s website.
That’s an impressive accomplishment considering the book was published in late October, and had less than two months to rise to the top. Jobs died Oct. 5.
Intriguingly though, while the Steve Jobs biography was one of the bestselling e-books for the Kindle, it was not THE bestselling book. That honor went to “The Hunger Games,” a young adult book originally published in 2009 that is set to become a major Hollywood movie release in March 2012.
The Steve Jobs biography was the No. 3 bestselling book for the Kindle. It was also beat out by John Grisham’s “The Litigators,” which was also published in October.
One more interesting note from the bestseller list: The parody not-for-kids book “Go the F– to Sleep” was the No. 10 bestselling print book on Amazon for the year. This is interesting because proofs of the book went viral on the Web before it was published. It turned out that rather than spoiling the surprise, the proofs fueled sales in a very big way.
Microsoft on Tuesday began wooing developers for a February opening of its first “app store” for computers powered by the US technology giant’s Windows software.
The Windows Store will open in late February when Microsoft releases a test version of its next-generation Windows 8 operating system.
It will take on Apple and Google in the booming market of fun, hip or functional programs built for smartphones, tablets, or computers.
“I think we are going to do great,” Windows Web Services vice president Antoine Leblond said as he gave developers and press a preview of the store in a San Francisco art gallery.
“The reach of Windows is absolutely huge and can’t be matched,” he continued, noting that the Microsoft operating system powers a half billion computers around the world.
Independent developers understandably devote their limited resources to making programs for platforms that promise the most potential customers, and Windows would outshine Apple gadgets and Google Android devices in that regard.
However, Windows has a meager presence when it comes to smartphones and tablets, where third-party applications such as games are typically bought.
A Google executive recently said the cloud computing market in 2012 will focus more on mobile devices and social networking in order to keep pace with businesses’ interests. Amit Singh, vice president of Google Enterprise, told eWeek that the cloud trend next year will try to move businesses more into the realm of teamwork from the era of individual production.
With the move more into social networking, Singh said Google is trying to push forward the integration ability of its social networking website Google+. Singh said businesses will start using more of a BYOD, or bring your own device, approach when it comes to using mobile devices at work. Peter Coffee of Salesforce.com said he sees the cloud helping users break through with features and capabilities they may not have had before, such as the ability to create a document on one device and view it on another.
“People do not want to be burdened by what device is holding a piece of content,” said Coffee, who added that having content that is device-neutral will be important for everyone in the business world.
Gartner’s predictions for the future of cloud computing agrees with Singh’s prediction, adding that by 2016, 50 percent of cloud-based email users will rely on a browser, tablet or mobile device instead of a desktop.
Google on Tuesday announced that more than 10 billion applications had been downloaded worldwide in its software store Android Market.
In a company blog post, Google said Android Market reached the milestone with a growth rate of one billion app downloads per month after app downloads hit 6 billion in July.
Partnering with some Android developers, Google also unveiled a ten-day celebration with a selection of apps for only 10 cents each day since Tuesday.
We can’t wait to see where this accelerating growth takes us in 2012,” said Eric Chu, director of Android developer ecosystem, in the blog.
Google has been gearing up to close the gap with Apple in the mobile market. Thanks to the broader availability of smartphones and tablets running Android, the software’s mobile market share is expected to be twice as Apple’s iOS in 2011, according to data from several research companies.
In July, Apple said app downloads had surpassed 15 billion in its App Store.
New Zealand already has lush rainforests and sandy beaches, bungee jumping and scuba diving, gourmet restaurants and lively night life, even a thriving tech community that has drawn investment from the likes of Peter Thiel. (Of course, they drive on the left side of the road, but hey no place is perfect).
Now the country has something else the rest of the world does not: Facebook’s new Timeline feature.
New Zealand is getting first crack at the major redesign of the profile page. Key to the decision: It’s English speaking and very far away from Silicon Valley.
That’s according to Sam Lessin, product director of Timeline, who told the New Zealand Herald: “We chose New Zealand to be first — and I’ll probably get in trouble for saying this — primarily because it is an English-speaking country…. It’s far away from our data centers, so we can monitor speed and performance.”
It may also have something to do with the country having about 4.4 million people, 2 million of whom are on Facebook.
And just how long will the rest of the world have to wait?
“We’re definitely taking our time with this one,” Lessin said. “It will give people a chance to get excited about what they can do with it.”
via LA times
A court error on Friday offered a brief glimpse at information that Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics have tried to shield from the public during their high-stakes patent litigation.
The material appears to be less important for what it says about the companies than what it reveals about efforts to keep court proceedings secret.
In denying Apple’s bid to stop Samsung from selling its Galaxy smartphone and tablets in the United States, District Judge Lucy Koh’s ruling inadvertently included details she had intended to black out. The judge’s staff quickly realized the error, sealed the electronic document and posted a redacted version four hours later.
The fuller version, which Reuters obtained while it was publicly available, did not expose the technical inner workings of the iPad — or anything close. Rather, it contained internal company analysis about the smartphone market, as well as some details about Apple’s patent licensing relationships with other tech companies.
The lawsuit, which Apple filed in April in a San Jose, California, federal court, says Samsung’s Galaxy products “slavishly” copy the iPhone and iPad. The South Korean electronics maker says Apple’s arguments lack merit.
The case is scheduled for trial next year. The Friday ruling means Samsung can continue selling Galaxy products for now.
Sealing documents has become standard in intellectual property cases. Investors, academics and other observers have expressed concern that some judges too readily accede to litigants’ claims that documents contain trade secrets and must be kept private.
Judges have wide latitude in granting company sealing requests, and Koh has granted all of Apple and Samsung’s requests to keep documents secret in the case.
Some crucial legal briefs from both companies were kept entirely secret for months, and then released with redactions. After an inquiry from Reuters last week, Koh issued new guidelines so that redacted briefs become public much sooner.
Timothy Holbrook, an intellectual property professor at Emory Law in Atlanta who reviewed Koh’s Friday ruling at Reuters’ request, said there did not appear to be any trade secrets among the blacked-out portions.
“Most of it just seems like it was sealed out of an abundance of caution,” Holbrook said.
In an email on Monday, Koh declined to comment on a pending case. Representatives for Apple and Samsung also declined to comment.
SMARTPHONE, TABLET BATTLE
The California case is just one battleground in Apple and Samsung’s bruising legal war, which includes more than 20 cases in 10 countries as they jostle for the top spot in the smartphone and tablet markets.
Global tablet sales are expected to explode to more than 50 million in 2011. Apple, which has sold more than 30 million iPads so far, is expected to continue to dominate the market in the near term.
While Amazon.com has also entered the fray with its Kindle Fire tablet, Samsung’s Galaxy line-up is widely deemed the closest rival to the iPad in terms of capability and design.
In her 65-page ruling denying Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction against Samsung, Koh attempted to redact nearly two dozen sentences or short fragments. But because of a formatting characteristic in the prior electronic version, the redacted material can be viewed by copying text from the PDF and pasting it into another document.
The version now available to the public cannot be viewed in such a manner.
According to the redacted portions, Apple’s own studies show that existing customers are unlikely to switch from iPhones to Samsung devices. Instead, the evidence suggests an increase in sales of Samsung smartphones is likely to come at the expense of other smartphones with Android operating systems, Koh wrote.
In arguing against the injunction, Samsung — which is also a huge components supplier to Apple — said Apple’s supply cannot keep up with market demand for smartphone products. Koh recounted the argument in the redacted portions of the ruling.
But Koh then called Samsung’s argument “dubious,” given rebuttal evidence presented by Apple regarding its ability to keep up with demand in the long term.
The redacted portions also refer to licensing deals that Apple struck with other high-tech companies over one of its key patents. Issued in December 2008, the patent covers the method of scrolling documents and images on Apple’s touch-screen devices.
Apple has already licensed the patent to IBM and Nokia, according to the ruling. A technology blog, The Verge, first reported this detail on Saturday; the blog said it had been shown two statements that were redacted from the ruling.
Scant information has previously been made available about Apple’s licensing deals with Nokia or IBM.
While Apple and Nokia publicly announced a patent settlement for an undisclosed sum in June, they did not divulge any specifics, except to say the agreement resolved all litigation between the companies and that Apple would make a one-time payment to Nokia and pay future royalties. At the time, the settlement was viewed as a victory for Nokia.
There appears to be no reference to any patent-licensing deal for mobile technology between IBM and Apple either in news archives or company regulatory filings.
“Apple doesn’t license much, and it could be that they don’t want people to know who the licensees are,” said Holbrook, the IP professor.
Representatives for IBM and Nokia did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.
Samsung was also offered a royalty license during negotiations with Apple in November 2010, the ruling says, five months before Apple wound up suing Samsung in the United States.
Apple has brought claims against Samsung based on design patents — which protect the look and feel of a device — and so-called “utility” patents, which cover engineering innovations.
A footnote in the ruling says “it does not appear” that Apple and Samsung discussed design patents during their negotiations that preceded the lawsuit.
Yet since much of Koh’s opinion covers design patents, the mistakenly released data does not reveal much about the inner workings of the technology, said Holbrook.
“There was nothing I saw that was shocking, just stuff that is not (otherwise) available to the public,” he said.
The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846.
(Reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco and Carlyn Kolker in New York; Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington; Editing by Martha Graybow and John Wallace)
via reuters
Though Android Ice Cream Sandwich is only available for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus right now, it’s done enough to make us Android 2.3 users pretty dissatisfied with our perfectly decent OS. If reports are accurate, the update floodgates should be set to open – starting with the Google Nexus S.
The Google Nexus S is the former lead Android device and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus’s immediate predecessor. It’s a decent phone, with a 4-inch Super AMOLED display and a 1GHz single-core processor. It didn’t rock people’s world half as much as the Galaxy Nexus has, though.
Still, one of the key benefits of Google Nexus S ownership over the past 12 months or so has been priority updates – and that seems to be the case even with the next gen Android Ice Cream Sandwich too.
According to a number of Google+ postings, Google is in the process of testing its new OS on its old Nexus S device. How is it doing this testing? By using its own employees as guinea pigs, of course.
If you’re keen to try out the new Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone, then Nokia is offering you the chance to get your hands on a handset for free thanks to the Nokia Amazing Collective. And you could even win some great gifts and free prizes, so why not sign up today at Nokia UK Facebook?
The Nokia Amazing Collective has been set up by Nokia UK to give people across the country the chance to try out the Nokia Lumia 800 free. All you have to do to be in with a chance is visit the Nokia UK Facebook page, click on the Join The Amazing Collective link at the left-hand side of the screen and then answer eight easy questions about your current smartphone usage.
Places on the Nokia Amazing Collective are limited, so sign up as soon as you can, if you want to take part and try out the first Nokia Windows Phone. You could be enjoying your own Nokia Lumia 800 handset before you know it and win some great prizes. And it’s all completely free, so why not sign up now?
More than three quarters (77 percent) of Brits prefer to buy CDs, DVDs and games online, says KPMG.
Research by the audit and taxation firm of 9,600 consumers in 31 countries revealed the UK has been quicker to adopt online shopping than other countries as the global figure for those that prefer to purchase these goods online is 65 percent.
However, when it comes to mobile banking, the UK is lagging behind with just 27 percent of Brits admitting to using their mobile phone to check their back accounts compared to 52 percent globally. This has surged dramatically since 2008 when the global figure was just under 20 percent.
Nearly three quarters (74 percent) said they were more likely to purchase flights and holidays online, while 60 percent also prefer to buy their groceries online, compared to just 21 percent in the US.
Nearly nine in ten (88 percent) Brits have downloaded an app for their mobile phone, while just over half (53 percent) of UK web users say they store their data online, which is less that the global average of 65 percent.
“From buying goods on their mobile phones to keeping up with friends on social networks, consumers are increasingly reliant on a range of technologies that perform important – yet often overlapping – tasks,” Tudor Aw, KPMG’s European head of technology, told the BBC.
A district court has denied fruit themed Apple’s attempt to get Samsung’s products banned in the US.
US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California denied Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction against Samsung, according to the Wall Street Journal. The two rival companies are scheduled to go to trial in the case on 30 July, 2012.
This gives Samsung a long time to sell its hardware, and critically, the holiday sales period that surrounds Christmas.
Last week Samsung was somewhat victorious in Australia when it ensured that it could provide local shoppers with its gear in that country, after having seen off other similar challenges from Apple.
The US market, though, is much bigger than the Australian market, making this a key victory for Samsung and probably something of a blow to Apple, which has always said that it vigorously defends its designs, designs that it claims Samsung has copied.
“It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas,” Apple said both when it launched its legal action against Samsung and ever since.
We’ve asked Samsung for comment.
Source: inquier
He is the “other Steve”, but to geeks around the world, he is the real deal; the man who practically invented the personal computer and changed the world. Steve Wozniak, supreme geek of the 1970s and the maker of the Apple II computer which brought about a worldwide computer revolution, was in Bangalore on Saturday to speak to a bunch of young entrepreneurs and achievers of the Young Presidents Organisation who wanted to hear the story of the most-loved technology brand in the world — Apple.
Wozniak co-founded Apple Computer (now Apple, Inc) in April 1976 along with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne. Both Apple I – the company’s first product – and the hugely successful Apple II (arguably the world’s first fully-loaded personal computer) were designed by Wozniak making him – and not Jobs – the darling of geeks around the world.
obs may have created the Apple brand, but it was Wozniak’s initial work on the company’s first two products that made Apple a multi-million dollar company within a year of its founding. Now 61 years old, Wozniak is still an Apple employee with a minimum pay and goes around the world representing the company – giving speeches and mentoring young engineers.
Wozniak took time out during his Bangalore visit to speak to Sunday MIDDAY. Excerpts from the interview:
What brings you to India?
Oh, I was invited by the Young Presidents Organisation to address their group (in Bangalore) and they had gotten in touch via all my speech-people. This is the first time I have come to India; in fact, this is the first time I have been invited which is strange because about two years ago, I did three keynotes all around the world for Infosys (Infosys Technologies, the Bangalore-headquartered software firm). And I kept telling all the top executives that I would love to come to India some day and I never got an invitation until this one.
When you see these young guys in India, do you believe they will break the mould of India being the backoffice hub for the world when it comes to developing world-changing software products?
Yes, I do. And I have a reason. I see a lot of technical enthusiasts, a lot of engineers in Silicon Valley. I see a lot of Indian people. I see a lot of people from Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore. But look at the Indians. They are bright, they are enthusiastic, they are hard-working. They have all the attributes to become successful in Silicon Valley. Some of the great engineers and technologists in Apple and all the other big companies like Google and Microsoft are Indians. So clearly they have got some inner skills and abilities. I think then it just means having a sense of clarity and the level of confidence, and they could make it big.
But is being at Silicon Valley so important for technology innovation?
Not at all. Microsoft did not start in Silicon Valley; it started way up north in Seattle. Nor did Apple. And they could have been anywhere in the world. Infosys is “elsewhere in the world” company. So there are ways that technology companies can start off today with the Internet. A lot of our (Apple’s) developers are anywhere in the world. And we hire engineering groups in India; in Russia, everywhere.
What is it about America then that all these young geeks set up businesses and they become super-successful… Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Twitter…
You know, there are already a lot of people around you that have done it. And that gives you the confidence to feel you can do it too and not feel scared.
Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, with Senator Charles Schumer and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who inscribed a wall at the company’s Madison Avenue sales office on Friday. -Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
Facebook announced on Friday that it planned to open an engineering office in New York City in early 2012, establishing the company’s first such outpost beyond the West Coast.
At a gathering in Facebook’s sales office on Madison Avenue, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Senator Charles E. Schumer joined Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, in hailing the move as a testament to the city’s growing technological profile.
“We want the next Facebook to start here,” Mr. Bloomberg said. High-tech jobs in the city have grown by more than a third over the past five years, the mayor added, noting his goal to make New York “the world’s No. 1 hub for information technology and social media.”
Several companies in Silicon Valley have established a presence in Manhattan in recent years, and this year, Twitter and Yelp opened local offices.
Ms. Sandberg would not estimate how many workers the new Facebook engineering office might employ, but said the company as a whole planned to add thousands of jobs in the next year. The new office will be led by Serkan Piantino, an engineering manager who previously oversaw the team behind the company’s News Feed.
“This isn’t a satellite office,” Mr. Piantino said. “This is going to be a core part of our engineering stack.”
HTC has officially released Rhyme in the Indian market today. Priced at INR 27,499 (MRP – 29,990), it has been available for a much lower price of INR 24,800 for quite some time. But, we believe that it going to change soon. All the major cellphone manufacturers are correcting their pricing to take the increasing load of poor rupee value and it has impacted the pricing pattern deeply.
Results are clearly before us, a single core Gingerbread smartphone with 3.7 inch display has been priced in the range of some time old Samsung Galaxy S II, which features a dual core processor and 4.27 inch Super AMOLED Plus display along with several other great features.
To refresh your memory, HTC Rhyme features a 5MP rear camera, 0.3MP front shooter, 768MB RAM and 1GB internal memory with 1600 mAh battery. Rhyme package in India comes with Charm indicator, and tangle free headset in the box.
Unveiled with much fanfare at its global even in London in October, Nokia’s Asha phones were announced in India. The phones, Asha 300 and Asha 200, run on Symbian S40 operating software. They are a crucial part of Nokia’s strategy in India and African countries. While Asha 200 will be available from mid-December, Asha 300 will hit Indian market in early January.
Security Researchers have revealed that the hackers behind the Duqu Trojan horse virus, a sibling of Stuxnet, have shut down their operation and wiped all of their command and control servers, leaving very little for security experts to investigate further.
Kaspersky Labs analysed a number of Duqu command and control servers and discovered that the virus was in operation from as early as November 2009, despite it having only been discovered in October of this year. This is a worrying revelation, as it means that computers and servers might have been infected for years with malware that still has yet to be discovered.
The researchers also found that a global cleanup took place earlier this year on 20 October, a day or two after it was revealed to the world that the virus existed. All of the command and control servers were wiped clean, right back until the 2009 infection, leaving little trace that anything had ever happened.
This is interesting, as it means that the hackers behind the virus were particularly intent on keeping it a secret and effectively pulled the plug as soon as a whisper of it got out to the public. The fact that the people behind Duqu could do this so quickly and effectively raises questions about how powerful they are and how much money and how many personnel they have at their disposal. Since Duqu’s relative Stuxnet is widely believed to have been created by a government, it is not unreasonable to think it likely that Duqu had similar origins.
Some things the researchers did find, however, include the likelihood that the servers were hacked through brute-forcing the root password, as opposed to the OpenSSH 4.3 zero-day theory, and the hackers upgraded OpenSSH 4.3 to version 5 immediately after gaining control of the servers, suggesting there is some importance in the newer version of the software.
Source: The Inquirer
Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange has warned, “You’re all screwed,” when it comes to smartphone and gadget monitoring and surveillance.
Users of the Iphone, Blackberry and Gmail are among those who are supposedly ‘screwed’ because more than 150 organisations can monitor data on mobile devices. Assange made the statement at a press conference while unveiling the Wikileaks ‘Spy Files’ project.
Wikileaks said, “Mass interception of entire populations is not only a reality, it is a secret new industry spanning 25 countries.”
“It sounds like something out of Hollywood, but as of today, mass interception systems, built by Western intelligence contractors, including for ‘political opponents’ are a reality.”
Assange said, “Who here has an iPhone? Who here has a BlackBerry? Who here uses Gmail? Well, you’re all screwed.”
“The reality is, intelligence contractors are selling right now to countries across the world mass surveillance systems for all those products.”
The organisations apparently have the ability to track devices, intercept messages and listen to phone calls, according to The Press Association.
It might sound like a complete invasion of privacy but the goings on are legal according to Assange and are leading to a “totalitarian surveillance state”.
He said the US, UK, Australia, South Africa and Canada are all developing “spying systems”, and the data is collected and sold on to “dictators and democracies alike”.
The publication of the ‘Spy Files’ consisting of 287 documents in collaboration with the web site spyfiles.org is a “mass attack on this mass surveillance industry,” added Assange. µ
Source: The Inquirer
The mighty Angry Birds has come to the Nokia Lumia 800 and it’s better than ever. Looking fantastic on the stunning 3.7-inch AMOLED screen, we’ve recorded a quick hands-on video preview to whet your appetite for our full Angry Birds on Nokia Windows Phone review, coming tomorrow.
We doubt there are many people left that haven’t heard of Angry Birds, but if you’re one of them, here’s the deal. A pack of evil green pigs has run off with your eggs and it’s up to you, the angry birds, to take the battle to the swine, smash their defences and bring home the eggs and bacon.
While this amazing game has long been one of our favourites and by far the best smartphone game you can play, it looks better than ever now thanks to the stunning Nokia Lumia 800, with the gorgeous 3.7-inch AMOLED ClearBlack screen showing the great cartoony graphics to their best effect.
We’ve got a full review of Angry Birds coming for you soon, but to tide you over until then, we’ve recorded a quick hands-on video of Angry Birds on the Nokia Lumia 800, giving a glimpse into how great the game looks on the Nokia Windows Phone, thanks to the unbeatable Windows Phone 7.5 OS.
Facebook.com founder Mark Zuckerberg smiles at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Facebook has agreed a settlement with the US’ Federal Trade Commission that will see it being subject to independent privacy audits for the next 20 years.
The company yesterday settled complaints that it disregarded its users’ privacy and agreed to establish a raft of measures to better protect its 800m members’ data.
The agreement will also mean the social networking site will have to seek users’ consent for certain changes to privacy settings.
“I’m the first to admit that we’ve made a bunch of mistakes,” co-founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a lengthy post on the company’s official blog.
He said a few “high-profile” mistakes, such as changes to the service’s privacy policy two years ago, “have often overshadowed much of the good work we’ve done.”
To ensure that Facebook did a better job, Mr Zuckerberg said the company had created two new corporate privacy officer positions to oversee Facebook products and policy.
In its complaint, the FTC said that Facebook had repeatedly violated laws against deceptive and unfair practices.
For example, it said Facebook promised users that it would not share personal information with advertisers, but it did.
Tue company has often been criticised for its privacy practices since its founding in a Harvard dorm room in 2004.
In September the Data Protection Commissioner here began an audit of Facebook’s operations outside of North America, following complaints from a group called ‘Europe Versus Facebook’.
The group made 22 complaints about the way the website retains user information and as Facebook has its European headquarters in Dublin it came under the remit of the Irish data commissioner.
If Facebook is found to have violated any of the provisions of its settlement with the FTC, the company is subject to fines of $16,000 (€12,044) per day for each violation, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said.
“Nothing in this order will restrict Facebook’s ability to innovate,” said Leibowitz. But, he added, “Facebook’s innovation does not have to come at the expense of consumer privacy.”
Under the settlement, Facebook is barred from being deceptive about how it uses personal information, and is required to get permission before changing the visibility of the personal information users have posted.
Facebook noted that it had reversed some of the privacy settings at issue in the FTC’s complaint prior to the settlement, including restoring users’ ability to limit who sees their Friends List.
It also said it fixed a problem more than a year ago which had “inadvertently” allowed advertisers to obtain the user ID numbers of some Facebook members.
In a statement, Facebook said that the settlement “strikes the right balance between innovation and regulation, and gives us the ability to introduce new sharing, connecting and control features that will continue to improve Facebook.
Samsung defeats Apple in court
Posted on: November 30, 2011
A Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 tablet on display at a trade fair in Germany at the start of September
Samsung Electronics will be allowed to sell its latest Galaxy tablet computers in Australia during the crucial Christmas shopping season after it won a rare victory against Apple and overturned a sales ban in the country.
The decision by a federal appeals court in Australia comes after setbacks for Samsung in Europe, where Apple successfully sued to block sales of Samsung’s tablets in Germany, Europe’s largest market. Samsung has also had to modify some of its smartphone features for the European market following a temporary sales ban on its three Galaxy smartphones in the Netherlands.
Samsung and Apple are locked in about 20 legal disputes in nine countries including the US, South Korea, Japan and the UK, and analysts said this latest verdict should bolster Samsung’s position in these cases. “The ruling shows that Apple’s claims on design are relatively weak while Samsung can fight back with its patents on 3G technology,” said Jae Lee at Daiwa Securities.
The intensifying legal wranglings between the two companies highlight their complex relationship. Samsung is an important supplier of parts for Apple products, but the South Korean company is also the biggest maker of smartphones based on Google’s Android platform and therefore Apple’s biggest competitor in smartphones and tablets.
In Australia, Apple was granted an injunction in October, temporarily blocking sales of the Galaxy 10.1 tablet. Federal Court Justice Lindsay Foster on Wednesday reversed the sales ban but granted a stay until Friday. Apple will have to go to the High Court to extend the period further.
via FT
Saudi Telecom boosts 4G network
Posted on: November 30, 2011
Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has added 200 new locations in five cities across the Kingdom to its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network as part of its ambitious growth plans.
STC said it was the first operator in the region to launch and adopt the 4G technology and presently covers key areas including Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Jubail, Al Khobar, Al Ahsa.
The LTE network offers download speeds of more than double that of 3G and is designed for data, rather than voice.
STC said it has further increased the 4G coverage with deployment in new locations at Makkah, Madinah, Abha, Khamis Mushayt, Dhahran.
With this expansion, the total locations covered in the Kingdom have exceeded 600 offering users the best coverage in addition to higher speeds than the existing ones available in other networks, it added.
The Saudi company said it has ambitious plans to deploy advanced technologies during the next phase taking customers from 2G and 3G to the mobile Broadband networks: HSPA+, 4G LTE with unprecedented speeds where new expansion of the 3G advanced network offers speeds reaching 84 mg/sec while the 4G advanced technology offers speeds starting with 100 mb/sec reaching to more than 1000 mb/sec during the next few years.
STC began deploying this new technology since the beginning of 2010 when it announced the successful trials of the technology making it is the solution for mobile telecommunications in the next era.
This technology enhances the capacity and effectiveness of the networks with real speeds reaching more than 100 mbps when receiving data, it added as per trade arabia.
Samsung has already commenced the shipping of the Bada 2.0 operating system based smartphone internationally. France will be the first country to get this smartphone following closely with delivery of the smartphone in countries like Germany, Italy and Russia.
Considering these countries, it is expected that the Samsung Wave 3 smartphone will hit the Indian markets by mid or the end of week two in the month of December.
Samsung Wave 3 is priced at Rs 19,600. It will feature a wide variety of new capabilities which were missing from the earlier version that includes multi-tasking, WiFi Direct (which allows Wi-Fi devices to share content without the need for wireless access points such as routers), Near Field Communication (NFC), and voice recognition.
The handset will come with latest Bada 2.0 operating system which is considerably faster than previous Bada devices. Bada 2.0 will also support HTML5 and improved Flash functions, thus offering enhanced usability and web experience.
The new Samsung Wave 3 features a 4 inch Super Amoled display with 480 x 800 pixel resolution. It will run on a 1.4 GHz processor and have an improved TouchWiz user interface that would ensure a better user experience. Along with that for shutter bugs, the Wave 3 carries a 5 megapixel camera at the back with LED flash, capable of recording 720p HD videos
Google Maps get new features
Posted on: November 30, 2011
Google’s free online mapping service has begun helping people navigate inside airports, transit centers, and major shops in the United States and Japan.
The latest version of Google Maps for smartphones powered by Android software began providing detailed floorplans marked with blue dots showing where users are to within several meters.
Google Maps for Android enables you to figure out where you are and see where you might want to go when you’re indoors,” Google Earth and Maps vice president of engineering Brian McClendon said in a blog post.
The California-based Internet titan partnered with large retailers, airports and transit stations to launch the feature and said it planned to continually add new floorplans of public buildings around the world.
“When you’re inside an airport, shopping mall, or retail store, a common way to figure out where you are is to look for a freestanding map directory or ask an employee for help,” McClendon said.
“With the release of Google Maps 6.0 for Android, that directory is brought to the palm of your hands, helping you determine where you are, what floor you’re on, and where to go indoors,” he said.
Businesses interested in adding floor plans to Google Maps were invited to upload the information at maps.google.com/floorplans.
Government regulators are sharing some alarming information about Facebook: They believe the online social network has often misled its more than 800 million users about the sanctity of their personal information.
The unflattering portrait of Facebook’s privacy practices emerged Tuesday in a Federal Trade Commission complaint alleging that Facebook exposed details about users’ lives without getting legally required consent. In some cases, the FTC charged, Facebook allowed potentially sensitive details to be passed along to advertisers and software developers prowling for customers.
To avoid further legal wrangling, Facebook agreed to submit to government audits of its privacy practices every other year for the next two decades. The company committed to getting explicit approval from its users – a process known as “opting in” – before changing their privacy controls.
The FTC’s truce with Facebook, along with previous settlements with Google and Twitter, is helping to establish more ground rules for online privacy expectations even as Internet companies regularly vacuum up insights about their audiences in an effort to sell more advertising.
“I’m the first to admit that we’ve made a bunch of mistakes,” Zuckerberg wrote. “In particular, I think that a small number of high-profile mistakes … have often overshadowed much of the good work we’ve done.”
Facebook has overcome its missteps in the past to emerge as the world’s largest social network and one of the Internet’s most influential companies since Zuckerberg created the website in his Harvard University dorm room in 2004.
No website has been as successful as Facebook at getting people to voluntarily share intimate details about themselves. Zuckerberg has emerged as the Internet’s chief evangelist for sharing, partly because he believes it can help make the world a better place by making it easier for people to stay connected with the things and people that they care about.
Nokia hasn’t been shy promoting the Lumia 800, but it cranked things up even higher in London, UK, last night with a huge animation projected onto a 120m high building on the banks of the River Thames. Millbank Tower saw electro producer deadmau5 pumping out an exclusive set while its 800 windows – specially vinyl-clad for better graphics – were painted by light from 16 projectors across the water. Check out the video
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