Google purges apps that sent premium SMS messages with victims handsets.
Google has removed several cloned games uploaded by developer Logastrod that included malicious code. Logastrod used popular gaming titles in the attack, presenting them as free downloads from the Android Market.
In reality, when a user downloaded them to an Android device, they started sending SMS messages to premium line numbers, potentially costing the victim a lot of money.
The list of cloned games, according to Sophos, is as follows:
EU regulators request more information from Google.
The European Commission, tasked with overseeing and enforcing competition rules in the European market, revealed that it has halted its review of Google's proposed $12.5 billion buyout of Motorola Mobility. The regulators have requested more information from Google.
The deal requires approval from regulators on both sides of the pond, with the Department of Justice in the United States also set to probe it. Google will acquire over 17,000 patents from the deal.
"The European Commission has asked for more information, which is routine, while they review our Motorola Mobility acquisition,"a Google spokeswoman said. "We're confident the commission will conclude that this acquisition is good for competition and we'll be working closely and co-operatively with them as they continue their review."
Analysts expect that the European Commission will sign off on the deal, with the only real potential sticky part being concerns over whether Google will favour Motorola Mobility over other manufacturers of smartphones that run the Android operating system.
Symantec leads India to possibly malicious server.
Indian authorities are investigating the server, which Symantec found to be actively communicating with computers infected with Duqu, a mysterious and complex piece of malicious software that experts warn appears to be written with infrastructure targets in mind (power plants etc.)
It became public when Symantec reported it on October 18. A research lab had contacted the security firm over a mysterious computer virus that appeared to be similar to Stuxnet, and which has since been described as a possible successor to Stuxnet.
The Stuxnet malware is widely believed to have wreaked havoc on Iran's nuclear facilities by messing with industrial control systems made by Siemens.
Now the Duqu malware is gaining considerable attention from governments and investigators in the private sector. The Indian server, located in Mumbai, might provide crucial information on the virus. If not enough to give a hint of its origin, it might give a hint of its intent.
Web Werks, which hosted the virtual private server, has made an image and provided it to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to analyse.
The Council of Ministers has called for the principles of Net Neutrality - that all traffic on networks be treated equally - to be made into law. The council is pressuring the European Commission to start making moves in that legislative direction.
The Council of the European Union consists of ministers from all 27 member states of the EU. The agenda of the Council determines what minister attends from each state, so anything to do with agricultural policy would dictate that a member states' minister for agriculture attend, for example. The Council acts as a legislative body alongside the European Parliament.
The European Commission ordered a study to be carried out by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (Berec) into abuses of network neutrality, which turned up examples such as ISP's blocking VoIP services, or giving automatic prioritization to its own services.
"EU member states have today called an open internet a priority for national parliaments. Net neutrality has fast become a key cause of our times,"Monique Goyens, director general of the European Consumers' Organisation (BEUC), said.
Microsoft announced today that more TV entertainment-focused apps are available from Xbox Live, including the long-awaiting support for YouTube content on the Xbox 360 console, something that has been available on the PS3 for years.
Xbox is currently undergoing a makeover with Microsoft working to bring TV and other entertainment content from around the world to Xbox Live. The goal is to morph the Xbox 360 console into a general entertainment hub, and not just have it seen as a video games console.
Along with the announcement of YouTube support, Microsoft also announced new U.S. content from Verizon FiOS, iHeartRadio, MSNBC.com and TMZ. In Canada, Rogers on Demand content is not available, while in the UK, Xbox Live has gotten content from blinkbox, MSN Video and MUZU.tv
HTC said on Tuesday that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has postponed its final ruling in HTC's lawsuit against Apple. The ITC had scheduled a ruling for December 6, but now is expected to deliver it on Monday, December 19 instead.
The Taiwanese phone maker said there was no reason given for the extra delay in the case. HTC has failed to have injunctions put on Apple products that it claims infringe patents it holds, while it also defends itself from the same allegations.
The case has been seen as a wider dispute between Google and Apple, as some patents in question acquired by HTC from Google. Apple has long stated that Android phones simply copy the iPhone.
It has brought several manufacturers of Android-based devices to court around the world, with the highest profile cases involving Samsung Galaxy-branded tablets and smartphones.
The charity group says it wants to provide more help to people with suicidal tendencies through Facebook. In March, it partnered with Facebook to setup a system under which the social network is notified by users about messages that cause concern. Facebook would then pass on the details to the Samaritans, who attempt to contact the user by e-mail.
In the United States, Facebook has improved this system, putting potentially suicidal users in direct contact with support workers. Users who feel suicidal can talk to a trained crisis representative through Facebook's PM system, which might feel like a more familiar environment to talk for vulnerable people.
"This is the next stage,"Nicola Peckett, head of Samaritans communications, told the BBC.
"We would love to be able to do live chat on Facebook. It is a goal for us. It's just that we don't have the technology or the resources to do it yet."
Lifeline has revealed that it currently deals with about 50 people each day who it became aware of through Facebook.
Bloomberg has cited sources with knowledge of Microsoft's plans in reporting that the Redmond-based software giant is head-hunting for a television executive to help with development of original content for Xbox Live.
The move is part of Microsoft's wider efforts to turn the Xbox platform into one of general entertainment, not just associated with gaming. According to Bloomberg's sources, Microsoft hired Tom Schneider of Stratis LLC to conduct the search, and that former NBC executives, Marc Graboff and Jeff Gaspin, were approached.
Microsoft is in the middle of rolling out TV services through Xbox Live with content from partners including Time Warner Inc., HBO, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Sony Corp's Crackle.
Original programming is seen as a way to differentiate the Xbox Live TV services from similar services offered by competitors, including Apple Inc. and Google.
Skype 2.6 for Android has been announced, bringing the ability to send photos, videos or files to friends and family from your Android device over Wi-Fi or 3G.
The update also brings optimization for Android devices that are powered by NVIDIA's Tegra 2 chipset, improving battery life and video quality. These improvements will be seen with Android devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola XOOM and Acer Iconia Tab.
More Android devices have also been "whitelisted" for video support by Skype's Engineering Team. Latest additions to the list include the HTC Amaze 4G and Motorola DROID RAZR.
"We're excited about these new enhancements, adding even more value to the things you can already do on Skype for Android like video calling, sending and receiving instant messages for free or making phone calls to mobiles and landlines worldwide at great Skype rates." Skype's announcement reads.
"We've brought this out just in time for the upcoming holiday season, so you can share your special moments with your loved ones."
Apple announced that it has launched an official iTunes store for Brazil. The service includes content from local artists including Ivete Sangalo, Marisa Monte and the digital debut of Roberto Carlos' catalog.
Brazilians also have access to over 20 million songs, and over 1,000 movies to rent or purchase in HD from all major movie studios.
Apple is also bringing the iTunes Store to 15 additional Latin American countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.
All music on iTunes comes in iTunes Plus, Apple's DRM-free format with high-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, while iTunes in the Cloud lets you download your previously purchased iTunes music to all your iOS devices at no additional cost, and new music purchases can be downloaded automatically to all your devices.
More than 300,000 conned customers entitled to a cut.
Innovative Marketing, responsible for rogue software such as Winfixer, Drive Cleaner, and XP Antivirus, agreed to surrender $8 million to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). More than 300,000 people had been duped into buying the rogue anti-virus and system cleaning applications from the company.
Most customers can expect to get about $20 back from the FTC, but the amount paid out really depends on the level of financial loss in each individual case.
Users duped into installing scareware (or who have it dropped to their system by malware) often use their credit card to pay to remove non-existent threats, or to fix fictitious problems with their computers. The groups responsible for the software have been targeted around the world by Microsoft and law enforcement agencies.
The FTC is now warning that its refund programme might be targeted by rogue elements, who will use it as part of phishing scams. It has reminded the public that it never requires customers to pay money or provide any information before redress checks can be cashed.
Sony won't face more financial hurt from its decision to cut OtherOS through a system update.
A Judge in Northern California has dismissed the remaining charges in a class-action lawsuit against Sony over the removal of the OtherOS functionality from the PS3 console. The Japanese firm cut the OtherOS feature through a system update, citing security concerns.
The lawsuit sought to include all PS3 owners who purchased the console between the launch day, and March 27 of last year. However, most of the initial charges it made against Sony were dropped quickly by the judge.
The lawsuit argued that Sony breached its sale contact by disabling OtherOS.
The judge had allowed the plaintiffs to argue that Sony broke the law by effectively forcing users to choose to install the firmware update and lose OtherOS, or decline the update and lose access to the PlayStation Network, but the judge's decision shows the plaintiffs failed to argue this point successfully.
"The flaw in plaintiffs' analogy is that they are claiming rights not only with respect to the features of the PS3 product, but also to have ongoing access to an Internet service offered by Sony, the PSN," the judge wrote.
Students on government loan schemes were the target of a phishing scam that duped them into handing over account details to a maliciously crafted website. Phishing refers to the practice of tricking users into handing over personal details or money to a rogue entity.
Damola Olatunji, 26, of Hamsterley Avenue, Manchester, and Amos Mwangi, 25, of Rochdale Way, Deptford, London, have been charged with conspiracy to defraud. Some of the students had between £1,000 and £5,000 stolen from them as part of the scam.
Both men have been remanded in custody until February 17, 2012. A total of five others have been bailed until March pending further investigation into their link to the scam.
As part of its broadband strategy, BT said it would upgrade 34 exchange areas in Scotland, bringing broadband to 277,000 homes and businesses. The investment will go to parts of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, providing speeds of up to 300 Mbps.
"It marks a major investment in infrastructure, which will give the country a tremendous boost," BT Scotland Director Brendan Dicksaid. "Next-generation broadband is essential for our nation's economic growth, so it's brilliant to be ending 2011 on such a high note."
UK communication regulator, Ofcom, recently said that the average connection speed across the UK is around 6.8 Mbps, and now BT's new network will be available for up to 685,000 users across the region.
Youhavedownloaded.com is a website setup to show what files have been downloaded using BitTorrent trackers by a specific IP address. The site claims to have almost 53 million "users" in its database, from 113,200 tracked torrents containing almost 2 million files.
When you visit the website, it will check you IP address automatically and present you with files it knows you downloaded. If it doesn't have your IP address in its database, then it will simply say, "Hi. We have no records on you."
If you have a friends' IP address, you can check to see if it knows any of their downloads. It even offers a widget for your website, blog or Facebook page that you can use to annoy your friends.
You can search any IP address, torrent hash or filename for results, or you can snoop on randomly-presented IP addresses that are in the database.
This won't go down too well for heavy torrent users who would rather keep their activities private, but it does raise questions about how easy it is to track this kind of information across BitTorrent trackers and other sources.
According to a DigiTimes report, Apple will make its next generation iPad available within about three or four months. The report cited sources in the supply chain, as OEM contractors are being sent new parts and components for the next iPad.
OEM production of the next iPad is expected to reach between 9.5 million and 9.8 million units in Q1 2012. Through 2011, Apple hopes to sell over 40 million iPads, having passed the 25 million mark after the first three quarters of the year.
Production of the iPad 2 tablet will remain high with about 14-15 million units in Q4 2011, but will drop to between 4-5 million in Q1 2012. Foxconn is set to begin production of the next generation iPad in January.
"Privates" is a video game that features cartoon soldiers wearing condom-like hats fighting off enemies, such as sperm, with lasers. It was designed to teach teenagers about sexually transmitted diseases, and it picked itself up a Bafta award in the UK in the secondary school education category in late November.
"I was completely and utterly gobsmacked," said Dan Marshall, of developer Size Five Games in Norbiton, which was commissioned to develop the video game. "I had managed to convince myself there was no chance Privates would win so when it did I was simply dumbfounded."
They tried to get the game made available on Xbox Live, but unfortunately its content broke the rules that games have to adhere to. "The original design document broke a vast number of Xbox's rules,"Marshall said.
"I sent a copy to the very nice people at Xbox, who loved it, but decided that the rules needed to hold steady."
The world's second largest mobile handset maker (by volume) announced on Sunday that it had set a new company milestone when annual sales of its mobile handsets passed 300 million units for the first time.
"We look forward to extending this success going into 2012,"JK Shin, President and Head of Samsung's Mobile Communications Business, was quoted as saying.
In 2010, Samsung's entire annual handset sales reached 280 million units.
The company has said that its Galaxy S smartphone series contributed significantly to the results.
Handset manufacturers have NFC capabilities in WP Mango.
Microsoft has confirmed that Windows Phone 7.5 Mango includes support for near-field communications, and that it is up to handset manufacturers when they want to use it.
"As far as I'm aware, NFC is supported by [Windows Phone], but needs to be enabled by the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). So, if any OEM wants to enable it, that can be done by all means."Will Coleman, product manager at Microsoft UK, told TechRadar.
"Think it's about just about timing, in the not too distant future there are some exciting things that will be coming through with NFC from Microsoft."
Nokia said previously that it did not have time to implement NFC in its first Windows Phone devices, the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 smartphones.
Indonesia's BTRI, the communications regulator, has told the Jakarta Post that it may have to ban BlackBerry Messenger and Internet services in the country, saying the data exchanged is "not safe."
Of course, this is simply not true, and the real point of contention for the Indonesian regulator is RIM's refusal to locate a BBM server within the country. As things stand, all messages sent and received using BlackBerry Messenger are handled by Canadian RIM servers.
The information is also encrypted, protecting it from prying eyes. This strong data protection system is one of the main reasons BlackBerry's have been a corporate success.
Saudi Arabia and India made threats of blocking the BBM service in the countries because RIM would not put BBM servers in them. Even if they did, the governments still couldn't decrypt the information without getting the key from the account holders' handsets.
The Google-owned online video giant posted some information on the changes made to the Video Manager on its blog. The updated Video Manager gets some new features that'll help you handle all your videos.
Some of the highlights of the changes made by YouTube include:
Simplified top and left navigation bars to help you get to the tools you need more quickly
Icons to indicate privacy status, if monetization is enabled and scheduled publish status
Badges to indicate whether videos are HD, Creative Commons and/or captioned
A new look that's consistent with YouTube's fresh coat of digital paint
YouTube also updated its suite of editing tools and improved the navigation used to get between these tools.
Read more...
Windows Defender Offline Beta targets rootkits and other hard-to-kill infections.
Microsoft's free Windows Defender products are aimed at keeping Windows computers malware-free. Like all security products, it is engaged in a cat and mouse game with malware cooks, who will always be a step or two ahead of the white hat efforts.
The worst types of malware infections, such as rootkits or bootkits (how to remove a bootkit), are difficult for security protects to exterminate because the infection targets the very core of the operation system, capable of intercepting and blocking/altering low level system calls.
These variants are written specifically to thwart efforts to locate and remove them (or even to act as an anti-virus against rival malware), and once booted into the system they can be extremely difficult to get rid of. A long-standing solution for these problems is to attempt removal before the operating system boots.
Some popular security products, such as Avast! Free AntiVirus, have boot-time scan abilities built in, but in order to set a boot-time scan, you actually have to be able to run the Avast utility and enable it. Even if you do enable it, malware can simply change the BootExecute, or any other registry key to prevent such scans being loaded on boot.
Arkansas Supreme Court overturns murder conviction of death row inmate.
Erickson Dimas-Martinez was convicted of murder last year for killing and robbing 17-year-old Derrick Jefferson in 2006. He received the death penalty for the crime, and was awaiting execution by lethal injection on death row.
However, Arkansas Supreme Court judges have had to overturn the conviction due to inappropriate tweeting by a juror while the trial was ongoing. Juror Randy Franco had posted several musings to Twitter during the trial. "Choices to be made. Hearts to be broken... We each define the great line,"one of his tweets read.
Dimas-Martinez' lawyers had appealed against the conviction as the judge had instructed the jury not to post comments on the Internet, or discuss the case using their mobile devices in court. The judge scalded Mr Franco about his actions shortly after becoming aware of them.
"I'm waiting for the other 11 to [jurors] to help me come to a conclusion... I have not seen death in my life, like, firsthand. So the talk of death is a little uncomfortable just because it's an unknown - it's an unknown area for me," Mr Franco told the judge.
U.S. judge sceptical of AT&T's reasoning for focusing on DoJ court case.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) said on Friday that it would move to stay or dismiss its lawsuit aiming to halt the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA, citing the carriers' decision to withdraw an application for approval from the Federal Communication Commission.
The DoJ's lead attorney in the case, Joseph Wayland, told U.S. district judge Ellen Huvelle that the DoJ doesn't consider it a real transaction until both companies file with the FCC for approval.
AT&T and Deutsche Telekom had hoped to focus only on the Department of Justice case for now. If both companies won in court, they would then refile with the FCC. The communications regulator moved in November to send the proposed merger to an administrative judge, widely seen as disapproval of the deal. The FCC confirmed its stance with the release of a damning staff report that dismissed the competition and economic claims made by AT&T to regulators when seeking approval.
AT&T's attorney Mark Hansen told Judge Huvelle that the issues being raised by the DoJ and the FCC are basically the same, saying that if they won the case in court, they would later refile with the FCC from a position of strength.
Indie devs concerned about new Metro-styled Xbox dashboard.
Representatives of the Xbox Live Indie Games community, told Eurogamer that the update shifts focus away from games considerably, and that it's even worse for Indie games.
"Microsoft take a back-seat approach and only really gets involved to take a cut of your sales and make the games slightly harder to find with each new dashboard update," said Brett Eveleigh, developer of Avatar Battle Bees.
"Not that anyone wants to go through the pain of retail/arcade style certification but it feels like Microsoft has abandoned the platform in favour of Windows Phone 7. But instead of admitting it they're brushing it under the carpet and hoping it'll go away."
There is currently an Indie Games tile on the mew Dashboard, but there are fears that this will phase out in time. Also, Indie games are not listed under New Arrivals or Genre tabs.
"For better or worse, the new Metro layout is an advertiser's dream," said Mommy's Best Games founder Nathan Fouts. "Every single main page now has an advertisement on it (you can't scroll away any more), there are dozens of secret little places to feature things, and it's easy to get lost."
YouTube acquires New York-based music rights management firm.
YouTube claims that smart copyright management is an important part of its mega-popular online video service, making it possible for songwriters and performers to be compensated fairly for the use of their works, while also enabling those works to be used in new ways.
The company has invested tens of millions of dollars in content management technology so far. Content ID, for example, lets rights owners identify user-uploaded videos that comprise of entirely, or partially their content. The rights owners can then choose to block them from YouTube altogether, gets statistics on them or opt to make revenue from them.
Now YouTube is adding to its content/copyright management toolkit with the acquisition of RightsFlow. The New York firm deals with the complex issues of licensing and royalty payment management.
"By combining RightsFlow's expertise and technology with YouTube's platform, we hope to more rapidly and efficiently license music on YouTube, meaning more music for you all to enjoy, and more money for the talented people producing the music," YouTube said.
"From music videos to live-streamed concerts, YouTube has become a launch-pad for both aspiring musicians and more established independent artists?which is why we have and will continue to invest in tools that make it easier for copyright owners to manage their content online."
Cyber criminals stole money from British students.
Students on government loan schemes were the target of a phishing scam that duped them into handing over account details to a maliciously crafted website. Phishing refers to the practice of tricking users into handing over personal details or money to a rogue entity.
According to Scotland Yard, some of the students had between £1,000 and £5,000 stolen from them as part of the scam. The e-Crime unit of the Metropolitan Police was alerted to the scam in August, and proceeded to work alongside the Student Loans Company, the banking industry and Internet Service Providers in its investigation.
A 26-year old man and a 25-year old woman were arrested in Manchester, a 25-year old man was arrested in Deptford in south London, a 49-year old woman and a 31-year old woman man were arrested in Stratford in north-east London and a 38-year old man was arrested in Bolton, Lancashire.
Officers seized computer equipment from the locations in Manchester, London and Bolton.
The company has the ability to disable and remove applications from the Windows Store remotely from Windows 8. Both Apple and Google retain the same power over their respective app stores, though Apple has never had to use the so called "Kill Switch."
The reason for its existence is security concerns. Apple's App Store screens all apps that are available and therefore it rarely has to remove one for violations. Even when it does remove an app, it doesn't ever use the Kill Switch to disable it on iOS devices remotely, even though it could.
Google, on the other hand, has been forced to wield the Kill Switch before. In June 2010, it used the Kill Switch against two Apps that has been available from the Android Market. They were put there by Jon Oberheide, co-founder and CTO of Duo Security, as part of research into vulnerabilities that let malware authors target Android.
During 2011, it used the Kill Switch against scores of malicious apps that had been sneaked onto the Android Market and downloaded by users.
Microsoft has also built in Kill Switch functionality to its Windows Store, for the same reason as both Apple and Google. "In cases where your security is at risk, or where we're required to do so for legal reasons, you may not be able to run apps or access content that you previously acquired or purchased a license for,"the Windows Store terms read.
The NYU-Poly website is reporting on an issue with how Skype calling works that can allow an attacker to retrieve the IP address of another user easily. Of course, callers using VoIP systems can obtain the IP address of another user when establishing a call with that person, but there are problems with how easily this can be done using Skype and any other user.
A malicious user could, for example, initiate a Skype call, block some packets and then quickly terminate the call. In that case, they could obtain the IP address of the target user with alerting them with any pop-up window or ringing sound.
To make it worse, the user does not have to be on a contact list, and the trick works even when a user has configured Skype to block calls from non-contacts. These days, IP addresses can be fed to a number of commercial geo-IP mapping services to determine location information, in cases.
Motorola complained to German courts that Apple failed to license intellectual property owned by Motorola Mobility. The patent covers a "method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system."
Apple said it would immediately appeal the decision; moving fast to stave off any attempt by Motorola Mobility to get sales blocked in the country.
Motorola licenses the patent in question to other firms on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, or Frand for short. The owner of a Frand-type patent is obliged to license it to third-parties since it is considered essential to an industry standard.
Apple had previously indicated it would be willing to pay a Frand-set fee to license the technology, and pay a similar rate for past use, but it tried to retain the right to contest the validity of the patent with a view to past damages, and lost.
Motorola had pushed its right to charge an above-Frand rate for Apple's use of the technology, stemming back four years to the original iPhone.
"We will continue to take all necessary steps to protect our intellectual property, as the company's patent portfolio and licensing agreements with companies both in the US and around the world are critical to our business," said Scott Offer, senior vice-president and general counsel of Motorola Mobility.
MP requests House of Commons discussion on violent games.
Keith Vaz, Member of Parliament for Leicester East, has called on the House of Commons to debate over the effects of violent video games. Vaz cited a recently published study that demonstrated effects on the brain from playing video games.
"Could we have a debate next week about the harmful effects of violent video games?"he requested. "Last week, the university of Indiana published research that showed that regularly playing those games resulted in physical changes in the brain."
Unfortunately, the study that Vaz is referring to is already being heavily criticised. The funding for the study came from The Center for Successful Parenting, which has a stated goal to change, "our culture to protect children from unhealthy media in all formats."
Critics say that the study is broadly anti-video games, but that didn't stop Keith Vaz from citing it anyway, as others surely will.
"At a time when parents are thinking of purchasing video games for Christmas, does the right honest Gentleman not think that it is important to hold a debate on this matter?" asked Vaz. "This is not about censorship - it is about protecting our children."
CEO distances Google from Carrier IQ at a conference in The Hague.
Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has insisted that the search giant has nothing to do with Carrier IQ, and does not use any of its software.
Since a researcher pointed out alarming information about the Carrier IQ software that was pre-installed on millions of Android and iOS smartphones, the situation has exploded into a saga that had gotten the attention of the U.S. Congress, and spawned at least one class-action lawsuit.
A video showing the Carrier IQ software logging information on a HTC smartphone running Android might have given some users the impression that Google itself is responsible for installing the software. Not the case, according to Schmidt.
"Android is an open platform, so it's possible for people to build software that's actually not very good for you, and this appears to be one,"Schmidt told the Internet freedom conference.
"It's a key-logger, and it actually does keep your keystrokes, and we certainly don't work with them and we certainly don't support it."
French court decision is disappointing for Samsung in global patent dispute.
Samsung said on Friday that it failed to convince a French court to impose a preliminary injunction on sales of Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4S. The update is the latest in an ongoing global patent war between both firms, which includes at least 30 legal cases.
Samsung has enjoyed some successes lately, with a U.S. court refusing to put in place an early sales ban on its Galaxy tablet products, and also seeing a sales ban in Australia overturned by the courts.
Following the French decision, Samsung said it still has to review the written grounds of the ruling and that it will continue to exercise all available options to protect its IP rights.
Apple has accused Samsung of slavishly cloning the iPhone and iPad with its Galaxy-branded line of smartphones and tablet PCs. It first sued Samsung in the United States in April. Samsung responded quickly, suing Apple for infringing on its own wireless technology patents.
Since then, the dispute has spilled over into at least ten countries.
The 23-year old British singer has provided both the top selling single of the year on iTunes, and the top selling album, earning herself the title of "iTunes Artist of the Year". She topped the charts for the year ahead of Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, LMFAO, CeeLo Green, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Coldplay and Jay-Z.
The 'iTunes Rewind' list marks out the year's most downloaded iTumes from Apple's music store, while not providing any sales information.
Other noteable achievements included Nicki Minaj being labeled the Breakthrough Artist of the Year, and Foo Fighters getting Album of the Year for "Wasting Light," the seventh studio album from the band.
Outside of music, Angry Birds was the top selling game for the iPad, and Doctor Who was the most downloaded TV show.
The company announced that it will launch the smartphone in Europe in 2012. The Android phone will launch in March, and will head to the United States and Asia afterwards.
The company also has plans for its near future in the smartphone business, aiming to sell 16 million units in the year to March 2006, with 5 million of those sold abroad.
"We are well aware of our powerful competitors," said Toshinori Hoshi, head of the company's mobile communications unit. "However, market shares are changing dramatically and if we launch into this fast-changing market, we believe we have a chance of a hit."
Panasonic is aiming for a very small chunk of the market, which IDC predicts will grow to 472 million units in 2011, an increase of 55 percent. By 2015, IDC sees the growth at 982 million units.
Panasonic's new handset features a 4.3-inch OLED screen, and is aimed at business users aged 30 and up.
Xbox Live terms of use update reflects changes made on Sony's PSN in September.
Microsoft has updated the Xbox Live terms of use to prevent customers from filing lawsuits against the company in the United States. The binding arbitration clause dictates that if a dispute arises and informal negotiations between both parties fail, customers are required to submit to binding arbitration.
By agreeing to the new terms of use, Xbox Live users give up the right to take Microsoft to court over the service, or to join a class action lawsuit. Disputes can be still handled in a small claims court however, if normal jurisdictional requirements are met.
Another notable change to the Xbox Live terms of use is the agreement to limit Microsoft's liability in any dispute to the cost of a single month of Xbox Live membership. For Gold users, this means you are limiting Microsoft's liability to $5, and for Silver users, you are limiting it to nothing.
"You can recover from us for all successful claims only direct damages up to a total amount equal to your Service fee for one month. You cannot recover any other damages, including consequential, special, indirect, incidental, or punitive damages and lost profits," the new terms read.
Serious vulnerability being exploited in targeted attacks.
Adobe has issued a security advisory outlining a serious vulnerability that could allow an attack to take control of an affected system. The bug affects Adobe Reader X (10.1.1) and earlier on Windows and Mac, and Adobe Reader 9.4.6 and earlier 9.x versions for Linux.
It also affects Adobe Acrobat X (10.1.1) and earlier versions for the Windows and Mac operating systems. The company confirmed that the vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild with attacks targeted against Adobe Reader 9 on Windows.
Adobe is urging users to stick to the X versions of both products, because Protected Mode in Reader X, and Protected View in Acrobat X, will prevent the exploit from executing through sandboxing techniques. Since the sandboxing works effectively against the exploit in the wild, Adobe will not address the issue until its next quarterly security updates, which are scheduled for January 10.
Adobe Reader for Android and Adobe Flash Player are not affected by this issue.
Nokia's Vertu sells high-end mobile phones for those who can afford to pay thousands for their handsets. Manufactured by hand in the UK, Vertu handsets use precious metals in their design, such as gold, sapphire (used for screen) and rubies. Even the lowest price handsets would still cost about $7,000.
According to a Financial Times report, Goldman Sachs has been appointed to oversee a sell-off as Nokia continues a process or re-shaping its global business. The report estimates that Vertu's annual revenue falls somewhere between €200 million and €300 million.
Vertu handsets came with a round-the-clock concierge service, with staff available constantly by just using a button on the side of the device.
The business is far from Nokia's core business, and now with Nokia's Microsoft partnership kicking in to gear, Nokia is disposing of peripheral businesses.
Nintendo denies report that Miyamoto wants a smaller role.
Wired reported that Shigeru Miyamoto intended to retire from his current position at Nintendo and take on a smaller role. "Inside our office, I've been recently declaring, 'I'm going to retire, I'm going to retire," Wired quoted Miyamoto as saying.
"I'm not saying that I'm going to retire from game development altogether. What I mean by retiring is retiring from my current position."
The news that Miyamoto, one of the world's most influential games designers, was going to step down came as a shock, but Nintendo moved on Thursday to squash the reports, insisting that there is no truth to them.
"This is absolutely not true,"said a spokeswoman for Nintendo. "There seems to have been a misunderstanding. He has said all along that he wants to train the younger generation. He has no intention of stepping down. Please do not be concerned."
Shigeru Miyamoto, 59 years old, has created some of the most popular games franchises, including Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda.
Xbox Live companion app for iPhone, iPad released.
Microsoft has released the official Xbox LIVE companion app for Windows Phone devices, and for Apple's iPhone and iPad devices.
This free app will allow you to stay connected to the Xbox LIVE community when you are away from your console. Some initial features for iOS include the ability to manage your friends list (invite new friends etc.), the ability to read and edit your Xbox Live profile, change your avatar features/items with the avatar closet and view/compare your achievement progress with friends.
The Xbox LIVE companion app for Windows Phone 7, released yesterday, has more features than the iOS version, such as Xbox Companion search powered by Bing, allowing you to search the unified Xbox catalog for movies, TV shows, music, games and apps using the Windows phone. You can learn more details about the movie, TV show, music or game that is playing on your console.
Software update addresses performance and usability.
A new software update for the Nokia Lumia 800 smartphone will roll-out over the next two weeks in territories the handset has been released in, The update promises to make some changes addressing performance and usability factors.
Nokia said the update will bring charging improvements, voicemail notification improvements and improved display switching in bright light. It also promises better audio quality after updating, and a change to improve mail replying for Microsoft Exchange 2003 users.
Nokia said another update is scheduled for early 2012 to bring more improvements to the Lumia software.
This current update will be downloaded through Microsoft Zune, and will be delivered in all the initial launch countries over the course of the next two weeks.
The CompactFlash Association has announced the new XQM memory card format, based on the recently adopted XQD specification. The XQD specification is based on the PCI Express specification, providing a solid base for performance scaling.
"The XQD format will enable further evolution of hardware and imaging applications, and widen the memory card options available to CompactFlash users such as professional photographers," said Mr. Shigeto Kanda of Canon, chairman of the board, CFA.
The form factor specifications dictate dimensions of 38.5 x 29.8 x 3.8mm. The target for actual write speeds currently is set at 125MB/s.
The CompactFlash Association will show off some XQD memory cards at the CP+ 2012 convention, set for February in Yokohama, Japan.
The industry's first monolithic 128Gb part can store 1 terabit of data in a single fingertip-size package with just eight die.
Intel Corporation and Micron Technology, Inc. have announced the world's first 20 nanometer (nm), 128 gigabit (Gb) multilevel-cell (MLC) device. The 20nm monolithic 128Gb device is the first in the industry to enable a terabit (Tb) of data storage in a fingertip-size package by using just eight die.
It also provides twice the storage capacity and performance of the companies' existing 20nm 64Gb NAND device, which Intel and Micron also announced mass production of. The 128Gb device meets the high-speed ONFI 3.0 specification to achieve speeds of 333 megatransfers per second (MT/s).
"As portable devices get smaller and sleeker, and server demands increase, our customers look to Micron for innovative new storage technologies and system solutions that meet these challenges," said Glen Hawk, vice president of Micron's NAND Solutions Group.
"Our collaboration with Intel continues to deliver leading NAND technologies and expertise that are critical to building those systems."
The South Korean consumer electronics firm said that sales of its televisions reached 5.7 million units during the month of November. It praised the long thanksgiving weekend in the United States for a large part of the record total.
On Black Friday, Samsung got its share of the additional $7.4 billion Americans spent compared to the 2010 total. The company sold 700,000 more units than in the month of October, or about 14 percent more. Samsung now feels that it is on track for its sales target of 45 million flat-screen TV units for the 2011.
Samsung's success comes as others in the TV business are struggling. Sony Corp warned last month of a fourth straight year of losses, with its TV unit responsible for losing $2.2 billion. Phillips Electronics has had to transfer its TV business to a joint venture setup with TPV Tecnology Ltd., based in Hong Kong.
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) John Stephens spoke at the UBS media conference in New York about the carrier's persistence with the proposed T-Mobile buyout, and the financial resources that it has to complete the deal quickly.
"We continue to move forward with our efforts to complete the T-Mobile transaction...and we will continue to pursue the sale,"Stephens said. He said that AT&T will use $10 billion it has accumulated on its balance sheet to prepare for the closing of the deal, and said the company al;so has a $20 billion bridge facility and $8 billion backup.
"So we clearly have an ability to close the deal very quickly and have those resources. That is the plan."
Stephens did not say how the company would get around regulatory hurdles, instead just insisting that any talks with the Department of Justice will not be made public. The DoJ has gone to court to halt the T-Mobile acquisition, finding that the deal would harm competition in the U.S. market.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has come to similar conclusions as the DoJ, prompting AT&T to withdraw its application for approval form the FCC last month.
A Southern China court has denied Apple's claim that a Chinese company has infringed its iPad trademark. The Intermediate People's Court in Shenzhen heard Apple's complaint against Proview Technology, which the iPad-maker says unlawfully uses the iPad trademark in its products.
Apple is betting heavily on the Chinese market, with executives saying that the company has not even scratched the surface in China when it comes to sales.
But the Cupertino giant has not had a very pleasant Chinese experience. It has had to battle counterfeiters in the region, who peddle millions of phony iPhones and iPads to consumers. It also has had to address the problem of fake Apple stores in the country.
Now a Chinese court has sided with Proview Technology over the use of the iPad trademark in China, and Proview itself is taking legal action against Apple for infringement, seeking $1.5 billion in compensation.
German patent firm threatens retailers with legal action.
IPCom said on Tuesday that it has requested that German mobile phone retailers stop selling phones made by HTC. It threatened to take legal action against any retailer that persists selling HTC devices, citing a 2009 injunction against the sale of a HTC smartphone.
The patent firm also went to the Mannheim court and requested that it fine HTC for ignoring the 2009 injunction. The court originally ruled in 2009 that a HTC handset infringed patents held by IPCom, issuing an injunction against sales. It set a penalty of up to ?250,000 for each time HTC failed to comply with it.
HTC appealed the verdict, but last week withdrew the appeal, prompting IPCom to push for enforcement of the injunction. However, HTC says the injunction only covered one HTC handset, and that is no longer solder in the German market.
Nintendo has said that sales of its 3DS handheld console will hit 3 million units in the Japanese market this week. The firm had released new software titles, including the Mario series, to prop up sales of the ailing gadget.
Nintendo admitted, however, that the holiday rush is started later than expected in the United States and Europe, citing poor economic conditions. Nevertheless, Nintendo is focused on keeping up sales of the 3DS after a strong Black Friday performance in the United States.
It projects a total of 4 million sales of the 3DS in Japan for its first year, and 16 million globally by March 2012. After cutting the price of the 3DS handheld in August, Nintendo is taking a loss on every unit that it currently sells, which is not an alien concept to other manufacturers of consoles but a rarity for Nintendo.
Nintendo's Wii home console sold 500,000 units on Black Friday in the United States. Still, it was overshadowed by a huge 960,000 Xbox 360 consoles sold in the week of Black Friday, setting the Microsoft console's best week of sales during its life.
Logitech has announced that it will begin delivering a software update of the Android 3.1 platform to Logitech Revue with Google TV. The update brings access to the Android Market, a simplified user interface, Logitech Media Player improvements and better search and browse capabilities.
If you're already a Revue user, simply ensure your unit is turned on and connected to the Web, and accept the update that pops up onto your TV screen. New customers are expected to receive this version automatically upon activation.
"In a world of infinite entertainment choices you need an easy way to discover the content you want to watch: Logitech Revue has you covered," Logitech's blog states.
"The Quick Search Box quickly vets TV content, Web video, Apps, Bookmarks, and the Web, so you can spend less time searching and more time watching. And the TV & Movies app allows people to easily search, watch and even rate more than 80,000 movies and TV episodes from cable, Netflix, Amazon and YouTube."
Microsoft has given details about the Windows Store, the primary source of Metro-style apps for the Windows 8 operating system. In the video below, Microsoft's Antoine Leblond explains the revenue sharing and the reach of the Windows Store when it launches.
Microsoft confirmed that the beta of the Windows 8 operating system will be released in February 2012. Research firm IDC expects that Windows 8 will be pre-installed to new PCs as early as August of next year.
The Opera browser has been updated for the Windows, Mac and Linux. Opera v11.60 brings improvements to the HTML 5 rendering engine, using less memory and loading secure web sites faster.
The address field in the browser has been updated to provide search suggestions as you type, like you see in the Google Chrome browser, and a new quick shortcut for adding websites to your "speed dial" selection in the web browser.
In a short 30 second video (not in English), Samsung shows what it imagines could be a tablet-like device in the near-future. The device is transparent, flexible and seemingly capable of outputting a quite decent 3D image too.
The video is yet another vision of the future posted for us all by the corporate world. Who knows when we could expect such devices, or if they will even come to fruition at all. Not that I doubt the technology can be developed, I just wonder if we'll even want or need it by then.
EU investigates Apple, e-book publishers over anti-competitive practices.
The European Commission, tasked with preventing anti-competitive behaviour in the European market, has revealed that it is investigating Apple Inc. and five publishers for breaching EU competition rules.
The investigation includes Apple, Hachette Livre, Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holzbrinck.
EU regulators will focus on alleged illegal agreements that restrict competition in the emerging market, with Apple's iBook store, likely to come under EU scrutiny.
The EU's antitrust probe comes after the UK's Office of Fair Trading carried out a similar inquiry. The UK office is now working with the European Commission to extend the scope of the e-book enquiry across the entire European Union.
The Commission carried out unannounced inspections on companies related to the inquiry in March of this year.
Last week, Rhapsody and Best Buy completed a deal which saw Napster subscribers and assets absorbed by the Rhapsody music subscription service. This was widely seen as the end of the Napster brand's controversial lifespan since it was first developed in 1998.
Now, a Napster spokesman told The Register that while Napster is more-or-less gone in the United States, the brand will still be used for music subscriptions in the United Kingdom and Germany, since Rhapsody has no presence in either market.
"There is no intention to close Napster in either Germany or the UK," he said.
Groups raise questions about rollout pace, coverage.
The Federation of Small Businesses and the National Farmers Union (NFU) have raised questions about the rollout of 4G broadband services in the United Kingdom. The groups are concerned that the rollout is taking too long, and that it will leave hundreds of thousands of rural users out.
For businesses and home users in rural areas, getting a decent broadband connection can be a nightmare. In the UK, 3G mobile broadband gave rural customers options they didn't have before, but for a lot of users, the speed and service quality was not what they had expected.
The BBC covers the story of Hayley Gaffney, who signed up for 3G broandband only to find it so slow she couldn't carry out normal tasks. "The internet was an absolute nightmare,"she said. "It just kept crashing because it was so slow."
"It was things like watching YouTube, uploading photos onto Facebook, just uploading the news feed on Facebook, getting my emails without getting them a few days later. Before it was so slow."
Now Gaffney is lucky enough to be part of a 4G broadband trial in Cornwall, which has boosted her speed to around 11 Mbps. "The internet really is amazing to what it was before," she said. Another 4G trial is taking place in central London currently, run by O2.
The South-Korean firm plans to setup a new flash memory chip plant in China, it's second overseas manufacturing site for the chips. The development will cost Samsung a handsome $4 billion, but it will help it to prepare for an expected boom in smartphone and tablet computers that will rely on flash memory for storage.
The global NAND memory chip market is estimated at around $22 billion this year, and is expected to rise around 20 percent to $26 billion in 2012, with growth continuing for years after. The new Chinese line will start operating in 2013, and will enable Samsung to, "meet fast growing demand from our customers and at the same time strengthen our overall competitiveness in the memory industry," according to Jun Dong-soo, head of Samsung's memory business.
China is expected to overtake the United States as the top market in the world for electronics products, driven by the growth of income levels in the region.
Samsung's move helps its position in the global market, but is seen as a move to cater to Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp, who have seen steady rises in their smartphone and tablet market shares.
The Samsung and Google-developed Galaxy Nexus smartphone will not include Google Inc.'s payment application, Google Wallet, on Verizon Wireless. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Verizon-branded phone will come without the app this month.
Google Wallet enabled smartphones users to make payments and redeem digital coupons with their phones.
"Verizon asked us not to include this functionality in the product," a Google spokesperson reportedly told WSJ, but did not elaborate on why Verizon Wireless made such a demand.
A good guess for the reasoning is Isis; a joint venture of AT&T Inc., T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless that will provide a service for customers to make payments and redeem offers using their smartphones. Isis is expected to begin trials in 2012.
EFF wants Jailbreaking to be considered acceptable, encouraged practice in the U.S.
Whether its smartphones, tablet PCs or video games consoles, the EFF wants it to be legal and safe to "jailbreak" the devices. Last week, it asked the U.S. Copyright Office to grant an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for the practice, and has explained its reasoning for it.
The EFF finds that jailbreaking has delivered in areas of innovation, security, privacy, usability and more, across all the devices it affects.
With video game consoles, the EFF cites the U.S. military supercomputers made up of PS3s. The low-cost (relative) of the PS3 clusters wired together, is enabled by using OtherOS, a feature originally available for all fat PS3 consoles. It allowed a user to install an alternative operating system on the console.
In 2010, however, Sony decided to kill off the OtherOS functionality with a network update, effectively removing an entire function that was available at the point of purchase for millions of customers. The EFF points out that the only way for those customers to regain the feature is to hack the console, and it wants exemptions to the DMCA to allow any owner of a PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii or other consoles, to run their own homebrew software or alternative operating system.
As part of its "Worldwide System Infrastructure Software 2012 Top 10 Predictions," research group IDC examined the Windows 8 operating system, and what it could expect from the market next year.
The group expects that Microsoft will have Windows 8 available to be installed in new PCs by August 2012, but it does not expect it to gain much attention from potential upgraders. "Windows 8 will be largely irrelevant to the users of traditional PCs, and we expect effectively no upgrade activity from Windows 7 to Windows 8 in that form factor,"IDC predicted.
It also predicted that while Microsoft might expect some success with the Windows Server 8 software, it will be another disappointed year for it in the tablet PC space, despite the Windows 8 launch with the Metro touch-screen user interface.
"This is a tall order for Microsoft, and while the x86 tablet strategy makes sense as a transitional solution for today?s PC users, it will be the ARM-based devices that need to shine and clear a high bar already set by Apple."
PlayStation 3 (PS3) just entered its sixth year on the market.
With six years passed for the console, Wii U confirmed and a new Xbox (or more than one) rumoured to be in development for release within the next couple of years, what is Sony's plan for the PS3?
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe CEO Jim Ryan said in the Official PlayStation Magazine UK that the company plans to aim for a younger audience, but not neglecting the needs of the core gamer. "I think you'll see us taking the console more towards a slightly younger demographic,"Ryan said.
"More family market. The core gamer will absolutely not be neglected. There's going to be tons of great stuff for the core gamer but from our own studio, third parties there's some quite interesting stuff happening in a number of areas which would allow us to open up a market that we accessed pretty successfully on both PS1 and PS2 but haven't yet got to on PS3."
Sony's PlayStation and PlayStation 2 (PS2) consoles both had a decade-long life-cycle, and Sony has repeatedly insisted the PS3 will be no different.
Mozilla could lose significant amount of revenue if Google walks away.
According to Mozilla's most recent financial statement (PDF), approximately 84 percent and 86 percent of royalty revenue for 2010 and 2009, respectively, was derived from a contract with a search engine provider.
That search engine provider is Google Inc., and that contract was due to expiry in November 2011. It accounted for around $100 million of Mozilla's $123 million in revenue in 2010.
Now it is not clear if Google will renew the contract with Mozilla at all, or if it will do so with drastically different terms. Mozilla has had a rough year, watching its Firefox browser drop from 25 percent of the market to 22 percent, while Chrome has reached 18 percent. It also lost a key manager, Mike Shaver, who left in September.
After Mozilla switched Firefox to an accelerated development schedule, it lost a lot of support among enterprise customers too.
Chief Exec to be charged with negligence in sales stampede.
A November 25 sale of BlackBerry devices had to be broken up by police after several people passed out and became ill in a crowd of 5,000. They were there trying to get a 50 percent discount at the launch of the latest BlackBerry in Jakarta.
The discount was to be given to 1,000 people, but after 5,000 showed up, things got out of hand. Police have said that Andrew Cobham, RIM's CEO in Indonesia, is responsible for the promotional event, and is being charged with negligence.
"The suspect has been banned from travelling overseas. He must go through the legal process here," said police investigator Budi Irawan. The maximum penalty for negligence is nine months in prison.
There are about two million BlackBerry users in Indonesia.
According to New York Times' sources, the Indian government has asked several major Internet companies to pre-screen content posted by users, and to remove content it deems disparaging or defamatory.
Staff from the Indian units of Google, Microsoft and Facebook are meeting with Indian telecommunications minister, Kapil Sibal, to discuss the issue.
Several weeks ago, Mr Sibal reportedly called legal representatives from ISPs and Facebook into his office in New Delhi. He showed them a Facebook page that maligned the Congress Party?s president, Sonia Gandhi, saying it was unacceptable and asking them to find a way to monitor what is posted.
He also told them that he expected them to use human staff to screen content and not rely on filters.
A recent survey by Yahoo/Nielsen found that 86 percent of smartphone owners use the device while watching TV, with a quarter of them regularly searching content related to the show. Watch with Ebay is a new feature on eBay's iOS application that aims to help users buy items related to what they are watching.
"The idea is to provide a new form of TV watching entertainment that includes the possibility of shopping and discovering interesting products people never would have discovered otherwise," said Steve Yankovich, vice president of mobile at eBay.
Users can enter the network provider and channel, items related to the TV show itself, or the actors, guests or sports teams involved will be displayed by the app.
Purchasing an item in a particular team on a TV show or movie is not something there is any help for yet, but that is an idea that is being kicked around the industry.
"We've seen that guys sitting around watching a sporting event will buy jerseys for the team they like,"Yankovich said.
Reform of rules regarding privacy could take up to two years to be delivered.
Under proposed new rules for the European Union market, firms that break privacy laws could be fined up to 5 percent of their annual turnover. This could amount to billions for multinationals that got on the wrong side of the law.
The European Commission is seeking to reform laws in the region related to privacy, some of which have been untouched since 1995. The ultimate goal would be to harmonize laws across the 27 member states, but there are differences of opinion among national governments that could take some time to settle.
The reforms are aimed at companies selling consumers' personal data on the market, or when private information is compromised from a digital service.
According to the Financial Times, one proposal is to call for all companies with more than 250 employees to dedicate staff to data protection issues, which is not a requirement currently in any EU country.
Mozilla tells its story in context of the history of the web.
Mozilla has published a short video, briefly describing the problems faced by users of the Internet as it grew and started to be influenced by both positive and negative elements
It focuses on its own part in the story, selling itself as a good guy in the battle for an Internet for everyone.
Brand-recognition efforts or whatever the case may be, the video is worth the few minutes of your life. You can't help but wonder if the video has anything to do with the rumoured end to a search deal between Mozilla and Google, which could result in significant revenue losses for the non-profit.
The Redmond-based giant has detailed the launch of an all-new Xbox 360 experience, the first group of new, custom applications from world leading TV and entertainment content providers.
"A new era in entertainment begins where all your entertainment is together in one place ? your games, movies, TV shows, music and sports," said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.
"With this update, Xbox 360 system owners will experience Kinect voice control integrated with Bing search, making your TV and entertainment experiences more social and personal than ever."
Thanks also the to Kinect device, you can use your voice to effortlessly find the games, movies, TV shows and music you want and discover the best offerings on Xbox LIVE, by simply saying what you're searching for. Beginning tomorrow and over the coming weeks, Bing on Xbox voice search will initially be available in English in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. for Zune video, Xbox LIVE Marketplace and select content partners.
Microsoft also gave the line-up of new content partners, and when their services will arrive on Xbox.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has seized yet more domain names, redirecting users to a notice that the domain has been seized for copyright infringement. The movie portals served a Korean audience, and so ICE has added a Korean translation to its notice.
The domain seizure was authorized by a US District Court, and now all 11 domain names are in the custody of the federal government. Domain seizures target websites found to be dedicated to copyright infringement activity, and sites selling counterfeit goods.
The domains in question, while operating in Korea, are all connected to World Multimedia Group, Inc., a Seattle-based company. Some of the sites seized offered access to downloads for a small fee.
Over 350 domain names have now been seized as part of the "Operation In Our Sites" actions against online piracy hubs and knock-off sellers.
The practice of DNS blocking has come under scrutiny lately for being ineffective and setting a dangerous precedent. You can find some information on getting around such blocks here.
Chinese site PCBeta posts up images of leaked Windows 8 build 8158.
Images include one of the Desktop with a charm bar located on the right side of the screen. It can be accessed by bringing the mouse pointer to the bottom-right-hand corner of the screen.
Another image seems to suggest that Microsoft has brought silent updates to Internet Explorer, which is something rivals like Google already have in their web browsers. The image shows the "About" Windows in Internet Explorer 10 with a checked option to "Install new versions automatically."
A public beta of Windows 8 is expected to be released next month, at the same time as the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) is underway in Las Vegas.
In areas where Charter Communications has deployed DOCSIS 3.0 technology (95 percent of its Internet service areas), the company is increasing the download and upload speeds of its broadband packages at no additional costs to customers.
The Charter Internet Express package will bump download speed from 12 Mbps to 15 Mbps, and increase upload speed from 1 Mbps to 3 Mbps. Charter Internet Plus download speeds, previously set at 18 Mbps download and 2Mbps upload, will be bumped to 30 Mbps and 4 Mbps, respectfully.
The fastest residential offering from Charter was 60 Mbps download. It will now be bumped to 100 Mbps, with 5 Mbps upload speed, and renamed as Charter Internet Ultra100.
"The Internet is changing the way we watch TV, communicate with our friends and family, and engage in social and professional networks. When you're posting content online, we know it's important to have a fast, reliable connection, and we're committed to enabling the rapid sharing of content," said Rich DiGeronimo, Charter Senior Vice President, Product and Strategy.
"With multiple connected devices in your home, you don't have to make tradeoffs with Charter Internet. You can use multiple gadgets simultaneously, and enjoy a rich experience with each one. The power of the Internet continues to grow, and Charter delivers more speed than ever."
Users of Facebook's iPhone app may have noticed that there were odd problems with comments on the service. A user could post a picture, and then notice that comments would be mixed up. Some of the comments, for example, could have been posted for completely different items.
The social network investigated the mix-ups and put out version 4.0.3 of the application. There's no indication that any of Facebooks other apps were affected by the same flaw.
The updated app is available from the iTunes app store. The description just reads, "Fixes an issue that caused incorrect comments to be displayed for certain photos." There doesn't appear to be any other changes in the update.
The zero-day flaw allows remote attackers to mess with users' status messages. It affects Yahoo Messenger right up to the recently-released 11.5.0.152-us version.
Bitdefender security researchers warned that this type of attack is dangerous due to basic trust principles. Your friends and family see your status update, and if it contains an innocent looking link, they would be a lot more likely to click-through than if they just received unsolicited spam.
The flaw is exploited when the rogue attacker simulates sending a file to a targeted user. The bogus file transfer tricks Messenger into loading an iFrame which then changes the status message to whatever the attacker wants it to be.
The iFrame comes over as a regular message from another Yahoo Instant Messenger user, even if the user isn't in the victim's contact list.
You should change your Yahoo Messenger settings to ignore people not on your contact list if you are worried about being targeted, but that won't stop your friends status messages from being changed, so stay vigilant.
Sony hopes abandonment of Flash for Mobile software won't stop it from running on Vita.
Adobe recently announced that it was ceasing the development of Flash for mobile devices, conceding that the HTML 5 standard is more than enough to do the same job, and also beats it with cross-industry backing.
The move came after Adobe had fought to make its software more efficient and secure on mobile devices, after then-Apple CEO Steve Jobs questioned its reliability on mobile devices.
Still, Flash is used with a huge amount of web services and Sony is still hoping that it will be able to bring Flash support to the PlayStation Vita handheld console. Muneki Shimada, head of software development at Sony Division 2, said the company is still in negotiations with Adobe over the possibility.
Unsurprisingly, AT&T did not react to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) staff report very enthusiastically. The report tore into the claims AT&T made to regulators about the positive outcomes from such a large merger, which would crate the largest wireless carrier in the United States.
"The report cherry-picks facts to support its views, and ignores facts that don't,"Jim Cicconi, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President of External & Legislative Affairs, said. "Where facts were lacking, the report speculates, with no basis, and then treats its own speculations as if they were fact. This is clearly not the fair and objective analysis to which any party is entitled, and which we have every right to expect."
Several of the main topics of the FCC report were addressed by AT&T. It claims that AT&T will expand its Long-Term Evolution (LTE) deployment from 80 percent of the population to 97.4 percent of the population without the merger ever happening. The report says this will occur because AT&T will be forced to do so by competition, despite documents and sworn declarations by AT&T to the contrary.
Apple recently pushed out a fix to help some iPhone 4S users who were experiencing some battery life problems. The reaction to the fix has been mixed, with some users saying it improved the battery and others saying it only seemed to make things worse.
The iPhone-maker pushed out a beta of iOS 5.1 earlier this week, which is also expected to include further measures to improve battery life, but already reports surfaced that the beta does not have any effect on the battery life issues either.
The problem, however, might not have anything to do with any major changes in iPhone 4S, and may be just a symptom of the smartphone packing more features. "iOS 5 may simply be using more data transmission or running more background processes to support its new features,"ABI Research mobile device expert, Michael Morgan, told Ars.
"There is also some potential impact of iCloud services."
Some users reported that turning off Siri's "raise to talk" feature, or reducing the number of services that sync data to the iPhone, can boost the battery life noticeably.
The price cut was made quietly, appearing on the Sony website very recently. The Sony Reader Wi-Fi had previously been $149.99 to buy. The Starter and Travel bundles have held their price of $205 each however.
The price cut is likely a reaction to the shipments of Amazon Kindle Touch. The Amazon Reader sell for $99, a whole third less than what the Sony Reader WiFi was selling for. Sony has used Amazon's reliance on ad-support to keep Kindle prices low, in its marketing for the Reader.
Amazon seeking federal standard for sales tax collection by states.
Speaking at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Amazon.com's vice president for global public policy called on lawmakers to give a federal answer to the questions surrounding the collection of sales taxes by individual states from online retailers.
Paul Misener said exemptions to the tax should be kept "very low" for fairness reasons. Amazon has battled many attempted by individual states to task it, and other online retailers, with the collection of sales taxes. The U.S. supreme court ruled in 1992 that businesses without a physical presence in a particular state, are exempted from collecting sales taxes for that state.
That has given online retailers, such as Amazon, a huge advantage over brick and mortar retailers. "Online retailers have, let's face it, an unfair advantage," said John Conyers, U.S. Representative for Michigan's 14th congressional district.
Republicans question a federal standard for the collection of sales taxes by individual states, likening it to a tax hike. Democrats, for the most part, disagree. "This is not a new tax we're collecting,"John Otto, an accountant and state representative from Texas, said. "It's a tax we've been unable to collect."
Germany's Bavarian State Authority for Data Protection has reportedly contacted Apple to question it over the use of Carrier IQ software. It comes as there are questions around Europe about the use of Carrier IQ software, with regulators in the U.K., France, Ireland and Italy also looking into the matter.
Apple had previously said that it used Carrier IQ in iPhones but has stopped support in iOS 5, and will remove it from all handsets with an update later. "We stopped supporting Carrier IQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update,"Natalie Harrison, a spokeswoman for Apple, said.
"With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information."
Thomas Kranig, head of the Bavarian State Authority for Data Protection, confirmed that it had contacted Apple about the issue. "We read in the press about the privacy concerns the software may pose and decided to ask Apple about the details,"he said.
Facebook says it is growing at an alarming rate, and will have to hire thousands of employees to keep up. The announcement was made by Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg in New York City, where she was joined by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Senator Charles Schumer.
She announced that the firm would hire engineers in New York City, where it has a presence on Madison Avenue with about 100 employees. Most of the social network's 3,000 employees are located at its headquarters in Palo Alto, California.
"We are trying to grow at a clip that will allow us to get the very best people and integrate them," Sandberg said. "We will be adding thousands of employees in the next year."
Lawmaker called for Federal Trade Commission probe into Carrier IQ saga.
Over the last couple of weeks, Carrier IQ has come under pressure from all angles over software that it provides to wireless carriers and manufactures to gather some usage information from smartphones. It was alleged that the software was capable of retrieving any metric from smartphones, even what keys were pressed.
Carrier IQ vehemently denies the allegations, and wireless carriers who admit to using their software say it gathers no personal data at all. Nevertheless, the reaction has been significant from all angles, with at least one lawsuit slapped on Carrier IQ already.
Now, Edward Markey, U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 7th congressional district, is urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the matter, and find out if Carrier IQ, or wireless carriers, violated the privacy of millions of Americans.
"Consumers and families need to understand who is siphoning off and storing their personal information every time they use their smart phone," Markey said in a statement.
HTML 5 will solve some security problems, and create new ones.
HTML 5 promises to allow the Internet to finally do away with plug-ins such as Adobe Flash and Java, which have been rife with security vulnerabilities over their lifespan. Plug-ins are used with browsers to add great functionality than is allowed by HTML, Javascrpt and so forth, such as embedding videos, games and other interactive content.
HTML 5 is built with such functionality in mind, and is being tinkered and developed with during the rise of Cloud services, which increasingly demand more from web browsers. Google's mail service, for example, uses HTML to allow users to perform tasks such as dragging and dropping files and contents into messages.
The emerging web standard also has a bright future in the mobile phone space. Adobe recently abandoned development of Flash for mobile devices, admitting that HTML 5 provided a much better solution and also enjoys industry-wide support.
However, HTML 5 also means that web browsers will be storing much more data than they currently do, and that gives cybercriminals every incentive to target it, according to James Lyne, director of technology strategy at Sophos.
Syria wants to control information coming out of the country.
German and Lebanese media sources have reported on a statement issued within Syria. The statement, from the customs department of the Syrian finance ministry, reportedly warned Syrians against using an Apple iPhone in the country and also reportedly outlawed the importing of the device.
Interestingly, there is no indication that the Syrian authorities have outlawed any other smartphones in the country. Lebanese news website el-Nashra reported that if any in Syria is found to be using an iPhone, then it will be confiscated and they will be prosecuted.
The United Nations (U.N.) estimates that as many as 4,000 people have died in Syria as a result of government crackdowns on protests since March. International media groups have been banned from the country during the unrest, meaning that videos and images taken with smartphones have become the world's eye on Syria.
Apple was dealt a strong blow in its global war against Samsung's Galaxy products when a U.S. Judge refused to block sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the United States. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, made the ruling late on Friday.
On the same day, the Australian High Court extended a ban on the sale of the tablet for another week at Apple's request, while it examines whether Apple can appeal against the lifting of the injunction by a lower court. Samsung was disappointed with the ruling in Australia, but will be very pleased with events in the United States before the crucial holiday season.
Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung in the United States, back in April, alleging that the South Korean consumer electronics giant "slavishly" clones its iPhone and iPad devices, in the Galaxy smartphone and tablet products.
There are at least 20 cases involving both companies globally.
"It is not clear that an injunction on Samsung's accused devices would prevent Apple from being irreparably harmed," Judge Koh wrote in Friday's decision, responding to Apple's claim that the Galaxy Tab seriously hurts sales of its products.
Zynga plans to sell 100 million shares at $8.95 to $10 per share, amounting to around 14.3 percent of the company. It hopes it will raised $925 million, which is less than the FarmVille-developer had previously planned to aim for.
The IPO would value Zynga between $7.7 billion and $9.04 billion. Electronic Arts has a market value of $7.73 billion, while Activision Blizzard Inc's sites at $14.21 billion.
Zynga was established five years ago, and got its success with viral games such as FarmVille. The games are free to play, but Zynga makes money by selling virtual items in the games to players.
Zynga's IPO follows that of Groupon Inc and LinkedIn Corp earlier this year. Both helped to revive a market for first-time share sales that had remained weak in recent years.
Best Buy, Rhapsody complete deal that spells end for Napster.
Music pirates today are arguably spoiled by mega-fast Internet connections, BitTorrent and file locker services; but in 1999, Napster was the King of free music. Teenage readers will only remember Napster as just another legitimate digital music service among, frankly, too many.
When Napster first launched in 1999, it acted as a P2P file sharing service for music, and quickly became a huge source of pirated music files. The recording industry erupted into chaos in response, as people all over the world opened their libraries of MP3 files to each other.
The centralized nature of Napster's network worked against it however, and just a couple of years after it came along, it was forced shut by court order. Following its death, dozens of new services popped up to replace it, learning from Napster's mistakes and riding on a massive explosive of new broadband connections around the world.
Since then, Napster has reformed and come back as a legal service. In 2008, retailer Best Buy put up $121 million to acquire Napster.
Last month it was revealed that Best Buy and Rhapsody had reached a deal that would see Napster subscribers and other assets transferred to Rhapsody. That deal has now been closed and Napster.com simply sends users to Rhapsody now, suggesting that it's curtains for the brand name that caused so much chaos.
App provides easiest way to search for under-fire software.
The Voodoo Carrier IQ detector, available from the Android Market, aims to provide as easy a way as possible to check if your Android-based device carries the Carrier IQ"rootkit" or not.
The app is unfinished and doesn't provide 100% reliable results just yet (description also warns that Anti-Carrier IQ fixes can generate false positives) but the developer has gone open source and is inviting enthusiasts to join him to update the app.
Nevertheless, the app has gotten more or less blanket positive reviews on the Android Market.
Samsung had hoped to release the tablet for sale today at 4pm.
High Court Justice John Dyson Heydon today extended a ban on the release of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, taking time to consider Apple Inc.'s request for permission to appeal the decision of a lower court that lifted the ban on the Samsung device late last week.
"A stay for one week will cost Samsung, in effect, one week's trade,"Heydon said, following a 90-minute hearing in Sydney. He acknowledged that the stay would hurt Samsung but "not to extend the status quo is likely to be injurious to Apple."
Samsung had hoped to push plenty of the tablets into the Australian market this weekend in time for the busy holiday season. It had previously stated that if it cannot get its product into the Australian market for the Christmas period, then it would cancel its launch in the country altogether.
"This is a critical period of time," Katrina Howard, Samsung's lawyer, told Justice Heydon. "Even one day can make a difference."
SOPA would threaten Internet freedom? - "Blatantly false", says lawmaker.
Lamar S. Smith, U.S. Representative for Texas's 21st congressional district, has come to the defense of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which has faced considerable opposition from some of the world's largest tech firms, and pretty much every consumer / digital rights group.
Smith chairs the House Judiciary Committee and is the lead sponsor of the bill. Writing in the National Review Online, Smith stressed that SOPA only targets websites that are "dedicated" to illegal activity, whether it be peddling counterfeit goods or pirated movies.
He argued that the United States congress could not just sit back and watch as some of America's most profitable and productive industries come under attack, to the tune of up to $100 billion per year. One of SOPA's main functions would be to block revenue to rogue websites, the majority of which would be located outside the United States, and vehemently rejected claims that legitimate websites would get caught in the middle.
"Websites like Facebook and YouTube that host user content are not 'dedicated to' illegal activity, and they certainly do not make a business out of 'facilitating' the illegal sale and distribution of counterfeit or pirated goods,"Smith wrote.
German Government is Deutsche Telekom's largest shareholder.
The Financial Times is reporting that Berlin is becoming increasing anxious over the uncertain future of AT&T's proposed $39 billion buyout of T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom AG. The German Government is the largest shareholder of Deutsche Telekom, with a 32 percent stake in the telecommunications giant.
Opposition to the merger is coming from all angles in the United States, with both regulators at the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) opposed to it on the ground that it would harm competition in the market, and potentially lead to job losses.
The FT report said that government officials in Berlin are resigned to the deal falling through, or to a radical reconfiguration of the acquisition to gain approval from regulators.
AT&T is reportedly holding discussions with a third party over the possible sale of a multibillion portfolio of assets. The disposal of certain assets could be looked upon favourably by the DoJ, depending on the circumstances.
Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimes has said that the 3DS handheld console has surpassed the year one sales of the Nintendo DS, after being on the market for eight months.
"In sales through this past Saturday - 8 months - [the 3DS] has outsold the full 12 months of the original DS," Fils-Aims said, to Time. "During that 12 months time, the original DS sold 2.37 million and we just surpassed that this past Saturday, so we've got real good momentum going into the holidays."
It hasn't been much of a secret that the Nintendo 3DS has failed to live up to the impact that the previous iterations of the hugely successful handheld device had. To push up sales, Nintendo is pushing on the software side, developing titles that will entice gamers, while also tweaking features of the 3DS.
Drives are designed for use in ultra-slim notebooks.
Samsung has announced volume production of new SSDs that support the Mini-Serial ATA (mSATA) interface. The new SSDs will be part of the popular Samsung PM830 product family that was introduced earlier this year. They use Samsung's 20 nanometer class NAND flash memory components, incorporating a toggle DDR interface.
Available in 64GB 128GB and 256GB capacities (32GB for caching), the SSDs utilize high-performance SATA 6Gb/s controllers based on Samsung's own technology, operating at the industry's highest sequential read and write speeds of 500MB/s and 260MB/s respectively, under optimal conditions.
"Samsung's compact mSATA SSDs will provide performance of the highest quality in helping to deliver the advanced ultra-slim PCs that consumers have been wanting," said Myungho Kim, vice president of memory marketing, Device Solutions, Samsung Electronics.
"Samsung plans to continue providing timely delivery of advanced SSD solutions, while preserving its leadership position in the SSD market for notebook PCs."
The Samsung mSATA SSDs feature an advanced hardware-based security solution including 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) protection, which will prevent unauthorized access to data on a lost or stolen notebook PC.
EU joins forces with Facebook, Google, Apple and more.
In total, 28 companies will develop an age-based rating system and vowed to strengthen privacy settings for users of web services. They also agreed to make it much easier to report inappropriate content on large web services.
"This new coalition should provide both children and parents with transparent and consistent protection tools to make the most of the online world," said Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda.
Other measures agreed to include enhancing cooperation among law enforcement and hotline authorities, and also to improve parental controls. In June, a European Commission report found that fourteen of the leading social networking sites do not do enough to protect children using their services.
European Union research has also shown that many children become active online around the age of seven, and that 38 percent of 9-12 year olds have social network profiles of their own. It also found that 26 percent of children access web services through games consoles (PSN, Xbox Live etc.) and over 30 percent now access the Internet using their phones.
Recall affects about 31,000 units in U.S., 1,000 in Canada.
Best Buy has announced a voluntary recall the Rocketfish Model RF-KL12 Mobile Battery Cases for iPhone 3G and 3GS after several disturbing complaints were made about the product.
Best Buy and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) received about 14 reports of the battery cases overheating in the United States, including three reports of minor burns to consumers and four reports of minor property damage.
The battery case is made of black lightweight, soft-touch rubberized material designed to hold the phone securely, and comes with a built-in battery. The model number "RF-KL12" appears on the front of the product?s packaging, on the packaging barcode, and in white print on the curved inner surface of the product.
It was sold exclusively at Best Buy stores in the U.S., Future Shop and Best Buy in Canada, and online between April 2010 and September 2011. It cost between $10 and $60.
Apple responds to questions from bloggers and rights group.
The iPhone 4S maker said that its new digital personal assistant, Siri, is not "anti-abortion" after bloggers and women's rights groups asked the company to explain why it cannot find abortion clinics. In some cases, Siri suggests pregnancy advice centers as an alternative when asked about nearby abortion clinics.
"Our customers want to use Siri to find out all types of information, and while it can find a lot, it doesn't always find what you want," spokeswoman Natalie Kerrissaid in a statement.
"These are not intentional omissions meant to offend anyone, it simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better and we will in the coming weeks."
Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, had written a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, saying that Siri is missing the mark when it comes to providing information about personal health issues such as abortion and contraception.
Siri has been bombarded with all kinds of questions from users who are posting the answers online. When asked what was the best mobile phone in the world, Siri replied: "Wait... there are other phones?," and informed users asking Siri to marry them that its "end user agreement does not cover marriage."
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google is in talks with U.S. retailers and shippers - including Macy's, Gap Inc and OfficeMax - to provide a service to help customers shop online. The report cited people familiar with the matter, who say Google stops short of selling directly to consumers.
The service would work in tandem with websites from retail partners. It would combine a product search feature that directs shoppers to those sites, with a new shipped service that Google will oversee.
A customer could check if a nearby store has a product they desire in stock. If it does, Google can then offer the customer an option to have the goods delivered to them for a fee.
According to the WSJ report, Google will trial the area in the San Francisco Bay area soon.
EFF wants Copyright Office to protect the act of "jailbreaking."
Whether you are jailbreaking your smartphone, tablet PC or video games console, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) believes you should be protected from any legal hassle brought under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
In a filing today with the U.S. Copyright Office, the EFF defended the "liberation" of electronic devices to run software from any source, not just that approved by the manufacturer.
"The DMCA is supposed to block copyright infringement. But instead it can be misused to threaten creators, innovators, and consumers, discouraging them from making full and fair use of their own property," said EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry.
"Hobbyists and tinkerers who want to modify their phones or video game consoles to run software programs of their choice deserve protection under the law. So do artists and critics who use short excerpts of video content to create new works of commentary and criticism. Copyright law shouldn't be stifling such uses ? it should be encouraging them."
EFF's requests are part of the Copyright Office's rulemaking process, convened every three years to consider exemptions to the DMCA's prohibitions on "circumventing" digital rights management (DRM) and "other technical protection measures" used to protect copyrighted works.
YouTube has introduced a new homepage and channel design today. Logged in users can now create their own personal, customizable YouTube Channel line-up, browse recommended channels based on their interests, link their YouTube account with Google+ and/or Facebook and customize their homepage feeds.
The online video giant also introduced an improved Channel design, focused on helping users find videos more easily. New Channel templates are aimed at casual uploaders who rarely add to their YouTube account, and also to users who have hundreds or thousands of videos for fans to wade through.
YouTube also applied a "fresh coat of digital paint" across the whole website, with a consistent gray background, bigger video thumbnails and a more streamlined watch page.
Nokia teams up with deadmau5 to bring iconic London tower to life.
Millbank was turned to darkness and each of the iconic tower's 800 windows were covered with vinyl. Using 16 powerful projectors located 300 meters away, across the river, 3D images were beamed onto the structure and put on a very neat looking show for spectators.
Remixes were played for the performance from producer deadmau5, which Nokia said "added the 4th dimension."
Surely the display looked stunning for anyone standing at the foot of the tower, but the video looks pretty awesome too.
Options abound for users of seized or blocked websites.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) started seizing domains last year, targeting BitTorrent websites and other sites that it linked to copyright infringement. The Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP legislation being debated in the United States also contain measures for taking out such websites.
In the UK, the largest ISP in the region, BT, has been ordered to block access to Newzbin2, a Usenet indexing website. Users of these sites are obviously outraged at the actions taken by authorities, and consumer rights / digital rights groups oppose the methods being used.
DNS blocking (hijacking) in particular has come under immense scrutiny. Public Knowledge has argued that DNS blocking creates conflicts between DNS servers on the Internet, make the system less secure and create potential for identity theft. ICE-seized domains use this method, where DNS servers direct users to the wrong web server, where they get a nice message from ICE.
In most cases, the website in question is still online and operating and anyone who has the right IP address can access it easily. For those that don't, there are some solutions to the problem.
Using BlockAID DNS
BlockAID is a public DNS service setup in response to domain seizures (also known as PeerDNS.) Using BlockAID means you will not be prevented from accessing a domain after it has been "seized," in the same way you would be if you were sticking to the DNS servers used by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), OpenDNS or Google's DNS servers.
Read more...
Google purges apps that sent premium SMS messages with victims handsets.
EU regulators request more information from Google.
Symantec leads India to possibly malicious server.
Pressure put on European Commission.
YouTube support finally official on Xbox 360.
Trade panel delays final ruling, again.
Samaritans inspired by U.S. measures.
Microsoft wants original shows on Xbox Live.
Skype announces update to Android app.
iTunes launches in 16 new countries.
More than 300,000 conned customers entitled to a cut.
Sony won't face more financial hurt from its decision to cut OtherOS through a system update.
Two men charged on fraud offences.
BT will invest £2.4 billion across the UK.
Website tracks your BitTorrent activity.
OEM contractors receiving new parts.
STD destruction game wins award.
Samsung sets new smartphone milestone.
Handset manufacturers have NFC capabilities in WP Mango.
Indonesian regulator cites "security concerns."
YouTube makes changes to its Video Manager tools.
Arkansas Supreme Court overturns murder conviction of death row inmate.
U.S. judge sceptical of AT&T's reasoning for focusing on DoJ court case.
Indie devs concerned about new Metro-styled Xbox dashboard.
Microsoft admits "kill switch" in Windows Store.
Flaws in Skype expose users.
Apple must license patent, and pay for past use.
CEO distances Google from Carrier IQ at a conference in The Hague.
French court decision is disappointing for Samsung in global patent dispute.
Panasonic smartphone is yet to be named.
Serious vulnerability being exploited in targeted attacks.
Nokia to sell Vertu luxury phone business.
Nintendo denies report that Miyamoto wants a smaller role.
Xbox Live companion app for iPhone, iPad released.
Software update addresses performance and usability.
Format based on XQD specification.
The industry's first monolithic 128Gb part can store 1 terabit of data in a single fingertip-size package with just eight die.
Samsung breaks record for TV sales in November.
Apple's China woes continue.
German patent firm threatens retailers with legal action.
Nintendo 3DS regains some momentum in Japan.
Update will roll out this week.
Opera 11.60 released.
Brand name lives on in UK and Germany.
Groups raise questions about rollout pace, coverage.
Verizon Wireless blocks Google's payments app.
EFF wants Jailbreaking to be considered acceptable, encouraged practice in the U.S.
PlayStation 3 (PS3) just entered its sixth year on the market.
Mozilla could lose significant amount of revenue if Google walks away.
App feature intended for use while watching TV.
ICE targets Korean download portals.
Chinese site PCBeta posts up images of leaked Windows 8 build 8158.
Charter boosts broadband speeds.
Facebook app had problems with commenting.
Yahoo Messenger flaw is unpatched.
Sony hopes abandonment of Flash for Mobile software won't stop it from running on Vita.
iPhone 4S battery concerns may not be alleviated.
Sony Reader Wi-Fi cut to $129.99.
Amazon seeking federal standard for sales tax collection by states.
Announcement made in New York City.
Lawmaker called for Federal Trade Commission probe into Carrier IQ saga.
HTML 5 will solve some security problems, and create new ones.
Syria wants to control information coming out of the country.
Judge dismisses Apple injunction demand.
IPO is one of the year's most anticipated.
App provides easiest way to search for under-fire software.
SOPA would threaten Internet freedom? - "Blatantly false", says lawmaker.
Surpasses first year sales of original DS.
Recall affects about 31,000 units in U.S., 1,000 in Canada.
Google in talks with U.S. retailers.
EFF wants Copyright Office to protect the act of "jailbreaking."
It's time to "get more into YouTube."
Nokia teams up with deadmau5 to bring iconic London tower to life.
Options abound for users of seized or blocked websites.
