News written by James Delahunty (March, 2012)

Optical cables will help with cable length, data bandwidth.

Intel said on Monday that optical cables for Thunderbolt ports will be made available later this year. It had always intended to use optical cables, but because of the high cost of fibre optics, only copper cables are available for now.

Copper cables are good for a few meters in length, but a switch to optical cables will be required for tens of meters. Thunderbolt ports are built into some Macs, and Lenovo and other PC manufacturers will include it in Windows notebooks later this year.

It was co-developed with Apple to provide high-speed data transmission to rival existing standards and eventually consolidate many different types of data connections into one. Thunderbolt promises transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps.

Switching to optical cables will eventually help with data transfer rates and the distance between devices, but it also means that external devices will definitely need their own power source, as copper cables offer up to 10 watts of power that can be used by them.

Records of approximately 10,000 people were compromised.

Last week, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) was made aware of a website breach that potentially exposed some data on users. While it stressed it did not keep records of women who received termination services, it did have records of people who requested information on abortion, contraception, pregnancy, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and sterilisation.

The Metropolitan Police's e-Crime Unit took up the case and quickly arrested 27-year-old James Jeffery, of Wednesbury in the British West Midlands. According to reports, he had bragged on Twitter about the breach, and threatened to release information to the public.

Over the weekend, Jeffery told a Westminster Magistrate's Court hearing that he decided against releasing the details because he thought doing so would be wrong. He targeted the website (including defacing it with an anti-abortion message) because two women he knew he knew had decided to get abortions.

He admitted to two offences on the Computer Misuse Act, was released on bail and will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court at a later date.

European Commission and Department of Justice (DoJ) collaborating.

Both the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) are investigating whether Apple Inc. and a group of e-book publishers collaborated to raise prices across the industry. The European Commission is open to settling that antitrust complaint but only after the allegations are fully dealt with.

Meanwhile, European Commissioner for Competition, Joaquin Almunia, has told the media that the EC is working with the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on another similar case involving the e-book market.

"Because the e-books market is growing very fast, we are worried about the development of practices that do not exist for physical books, such as collusion between publishers on prices," Almunia said. "This possibility of a settlement is only open in the case the publishers will be ready to remove all our objections."

In the EU, Apple and several publishers will have the option to offer concessions in order to avoid fines or being forced to admit wrongdoing in the market, but Almunia said there are no settlement talks right now, and appears determined to get an answer on whether or not the companies did conspire to fix prices.

EU documents spill beans on cross-licensing talks.

Documents related to the European Commission's review of Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility show that Apple Inc. and Motorola held cross-licensing talks in 2011. The two firms even discussed the "scope of any potential settlement," following Motorola's sale to Google.

Had such talks been successful - or if any further negotiations are - it could potentially benefit all manufacturers of smartphones running an Android operating system.

Apple is currently entangled in litigation worldwide with manufacturers of Android-powered smartphones, which Apple has long argued copies extensively from its own iPhone software.

Finland decides to wait on European Union.

The Finnish government has said it is postponing the approval of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in the country until the European Union clearly backs the treaty.

Last month, the European Commission referred the controversial treaty to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to be examined. The court will probe whether provisions in ACTA infringe on freedom of speech, or any fundamental rights afforded to citizens of all states in the European Union.

The decision to send ACTA to the ECJ actually came after the European Council (consisting of the head of state/government of each of the 27 member states of the European Union) unanimously backed it at a summit in December.

The referral to the ECJ was in response to protests and opposition to ACTA in EU member states.

Twitter buys microblogging site.

Founded in 2008, the Posterous platform is popular due to its slick, simple interface. Twitter decided to bring some of that engineering, innovative and design talent onboard, announcing its acquisition via the company blog.

"Today we are welcoming a very talented group from Posterous to Twitter. This team has built an innovative product that makes sharing across the web and mobile devices simple?a goal we share. Posterous engineers, product managers and others will join our teams working on several key initiatives that will make Twitter even better," a blog post reads.

It also said that the service will will remain up and running without disruption and that users will be given ample notice if Twitter makes any changes.

Users looking to backup their content or move it to another service will be given clear instructions for doing that in the coming weeks.

Disappointed iPhone 4S owner sues Apple.

A New York man has filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the advertisement's for Siri are deceptive and misleading. Frank Fazio bought his iPhone 4S in November last year after seeing advertisements showing Siri being used.

"Defendant's advertisements regarding the Siri feature are fundamentally and designedly false and misleading," the complaint reads. "Plaintiff would not have paid the price he did for the iPhone 4S had he not seen these representations."

The suit specifically mentioned ads showing Siri helping users to locate restaurants, make appointments, tie a tie and even learn guitar chords. Fazio found that Siri just didn't work as advertised in his own experience, and so the lawsuit describes the iPhone 4S as "merely a more expensive iPhone 4."

"When Plaintiff asked Siri for directions to a certain place, or to locate a store, Siri either did not understand what Plaintiff was asking, or, after a very long wait time, responded with the wrong answer," the lawsuit states, though it does acknowledge that Siri is still in beta.

Sixth grade student sues for unlawful search of Facebook account.

She has the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and is identified in court documents only as "R.S." According to the complaint, the girl was punished on two occasions by the school for comments she had made on her Facebook profile.

She was pressured into handing over the account details by school officials. "R.S. was intimidated, frightened, humiliated and sobbing while she was detained in the small school room" as she watched a counselor, a deputy, and another school employee pore over her private communications.

It started when the girl felt that a school hall monitor was picking on her, and she used her Facebook profile to remark that she hated the monitor. She did not use school computers to make the post, according to the lawsuit.

When the school principal was made aware of the message, the girl received detention and was forced to apologize to the hall monitor. When she took to Facebook again to ask who turned her in, she was punished with suspension and missed a class ski trip, according to the complaint.

But the real problem came in a third incident when a guardian of another student complained that R.S. had had a conversation about sex through Facebook. She was then forced to give up her Facebook and e-mail account login details in a meeting with a deputy sheriff, school counselor and an unidentified school employee.

Data on over 73,000 subscribers exposed.

A hacker group called The Consortium has claimed responsibility for the hack, which includes details on over 73,000 subscribers. The data includes user names, e-mail addresses and passwords. The group also said it took data of 40,000 credit cards.

The site has been taken offline while an investigation is being carried out by Manwin, a Luxembourg-based firm that maintains the Digital Playground website.

"This company has security, that if we didn't know it was a real business, we would have thought to be a joke - a joke that we found much more amusing than they will," wrote The Consortium in a log posted on the web.

Subscribers to the site were contacted and notified of the data breach.

Kim Dotcom claims U.S. government officials had Megaupload accounts.

He told TorrentFreak that those who used Megaupload included members of the United States Senate, and the Department of Justice (DoJ). He is currently out on bail, despite FBI protests, and is fighting in New Zealand courts against extradition to the United States.

"Guess what ? we found a large number of Mega accounts from US Government officials including the Department of Justice and the US Senate," Kim told TorrentFreak. "I hope we will soon have permission to give them and the rest of our users access to their files."

He told TorrentFreak that his main concern now was that users get back access to their own data. "Megaupload's legal team is working hard to reunite our users with their data," Dotcom said. "We are negotiating with the Department of Justice to allow all Mega users to retrieve their data."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has pledged to help legitimate users of MegaUpload retrieve their data.

Lawsuit focuses on ten patents.

Yahoo said the patents are related to methods and systems for advertising on the Internet. This is the latest case in a growing number of high-profile patent-related lawsuits in recent years, and it comes after Facebook announced plans for an initial public offering that could value the service at $100 billion.

"Unfortunately, the matter with Facebook remains unresolved and we are compelled to seek redress in federal court," Yahoo said in a statement.

Facebook staff say they learned about the lawsuit in the media. "We're disappointed that Yahoo, a longtime business partner of Facebook and a company that has substantially benefited from its association with Facebook, has decided to resort to litigation," said Facebook spokesman Jonathan Thaw.

Yahoo said last month that it was seeking licensing fees from Facebook over the patents relevant to the case, and pointed out that other companies had already agreed licensing terms with Yahoo. Talks were held between both firms but quickly collapsed, leading to speculation that Yahoo would go to court.

Spotify finally entering Europe's largest market.

The music streaming service is already available in the United States and many European countries. Until now, it was widely believed that Spotify stayed out of the German market due to possibly high licensing costs. Gema, the group responsible for collecting royalties in Germany, has a reputation for being very aggressive.

Spotify's rival, Grooveshark, had to pull out of Germany this year over licensing costs. At the Reeperbahn music conference in Hamburg in 2010, Spotify was brought up in a debate. A representative for Gema, Alexander Wolf, said bluntly that if Spotify wanted to launch in Germany, it would need a dramatic change to its business model.

Since then, Spotify had gained many premium subscribers willing to pay a monthly fee to get rid of time limits and adverts. Some major music companies also have equity in Spotify, and may have forced Gema to ease up its stance.

The service has added German albums to its catalog, pushing its number of available tracks to 16,000,000. "It's the third largest music market in the world and is a very important market," Jeff Levick, the firm's chief sales officer told the BBC.

Critical patch for Windows operating systems included.

Microsoft is preparing to push out patches on Tuesday, one of which carries a critical rating due to a risk of remote code execution on Windows operating systems. An update for that bug will be pushed out for seven versions of Windows through Microsoft's update service.

Other fixes will tackle possibly privilege elevation attacks or denial of service bugs in other products, including Visual Studio and Expression Design.

Final chapter of BioWare's popular franchise got off to a great start.

In North America, the game sold 890,000 copies following its launch, according to Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello. He revealed the sales figure at the Wedbush Technology, Media and Telecommunications Conference in New York late last week.

International figures for the title were not disclosed, but will undoubtedly be substantial.

In addition to strong launch sales for the title, GameSpot also reported a tie ratio of 40 percent for customers who purchased a DLC download code. This tie ratio at the register is the highest in EA's history, according to Riccitiello.

The game has received generally positive reviews from critics and gaming outlets, though there has been many complaints about the ending filling Internet forums.

UK video game retailer faces administration.

Shares of GAME took a nosedive on Monday after the firm told shareholders that their investment in the chain could be worthless. "It is uncertain whether any of the solutions currently being explored by the board will be successful or will result in any value being attributed to the shares of the company," the firm stated to investors.

GAME is still in talks with suppliers while sending some customers away to other stores to buy the latest releases, such as Mass Effect 3, and is seeking alternative sources of funding.

Shares in GAME had lost 94 percent of their value during the past year before Monday. It operates from 1270 stores in 9 European markets and Australia, and employs 10,000 staff. In two weeks time, the firm needs to make a large payment. Failure to do so could result in administration.

Recently, GAME has been shutting some of its stores and moving into digital distribution, hoping to avoid the fate of others in the music business in the past decade.

Japanese doctor wanted to show off Ferrari.

The 50-year old is charged with driving at 124km/h (77mph) in a 40km/h (25mph) zone. The evidence is a video he posted himself of the incident on YouTube. Angry YouTube users reported the video to police. The man reportedly said he simply "wanted people to understand the beauty of a Ferrari."

The video shows the car leaving an underground car pack and driving along highways and coastal roads in Fukuoka, southern Japan, for six minutes last April.

Police began investigating the video in May.

The camera was positioned behind the driver. Police determined the speed by calculating the distance covered in specific time frames.

He now faces a fine of up to $1,220 (£778) if convicted, or possibly could be landed with six months in prison.

Microsoft demos promising speech translation software.

The software synthesizes speech in a foreign language but keeps it in a voice that sounds like yours. It was demonstrated at Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, campus on Tuesday by research scientist Frank Soong.

He was able to show the software reading out text in Spanish using the voice of his boss Rick Rashid, and then demonstrated a Mandarin translation using the voice of Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie.

"For a monolingual speaker traveling in a foreign country, we'll do speech recognition followed by translation, followed by the final text to speech output [in] a different language, but still in his own voice," said Soong.

The new software could be used to help students learning a foreign language too. The system needs about an hour of training to develop a model capable of reading out in a person's voice.

Hear demonstrations of translations at MIT's Technology Review website.

Google paid out $120,000 for Chrome hacks.

The company had put $1,000,000 on the line for successful hacks against the Chrome web browser. For a full hack of Chrome, escaping the Sandbox by exploiting Chrome code and gaining control over a fully patched system, Google offered $60,000, while offering lesser amounts for other breaches.

Chrome had been successfully compromised during the week by Russian researcher Sergey Glazunov. On Friday, it was compromised for a second time by a teen hacker identifying only as PinkiePie.

He said he had worked for the past week and half on perfecting his attack, in which he used three previously unknown vulnerabilities to gain full access to a Dell Inspiron laptop running a patched Windows 7 operating system. All three vulnerabilities lay in code native to Google Chrome and therefore he qualified for a $60,000 pay day.

Google has already patched against both attacks shown at Pwnium.

"Congratulations to PinkiePie (aka PwniePie) for a beautiful piece of work to close out the Pwnium competition!" an advisory accompanying the update for Windows, Mac, and Linux versions of Chrome stated.

Apps send out your phone numbers, e-mail addresses, GPS coordinates and more.

An app collecting data on your phone should only need to do so if its critical to functionality, or at least that's what conventional wisdom would suggest. In reality, some smartphone apps send data to remote servers that has nothing to do with how the app operates in the first place.

A report in the UK's The Sunday Times probed 70 of these applications using MiddleMan software to monitor data transfers. Of the 70 apps, "twenty-one transmitted the phone number, six sent out email addresses, six shared the exact co-ordinates of the phone and more than half passed on the handset's ID number."

While the privacy policies and terms of these apps probably do all mention that they collect such data, most do not give an indication of where the data ends up. Using its MiddleMan software, the Sunday Times got a peak at the destinations.

Fifteen of the apps (one of which is a wallpaper app named "Cute Dog", passed on the phone number of the device to an LA-based advertiser, while a Flashlight app sent the user's email address and phone number to Delhi, India.

Lawsuit makes disturbing allegations against store workers.

It was filed by Lisa Blazek against U.S. Cellular, after she worked in a store in the city of Spencer, Iowa from 2007-2010. In it, she alleges that employees at the store would immediately search through customers phones for naked or sexually explicit images.

"If photos of that nature were found, they would show them throughout the store," the complaint reads. "Many times I would be called over to look at something only to find out that it was a sexual picture on a customer's phone."

She said the pictures ranged from simple nude photos to blatant sexually explicit material.

Her claims are denied by lawyers who are representing the company and four employees named in the lawsuit. It was filed last year.

Blazek claims her experience in the store was that of non-stop harassment, and that it only got worse once she complained. She claims her work hours were changed so she wouldn't be on shift with the worst offender, but that no disciplinary action was taken.

After she brought it to the attention of higher ups, a company investigator accused her of having a relationship with one of the alleged harassers and attempted to coerce her into abandoning her complaint altogether. Eventually, she quit her job, and is now seeking compensation for lost pay, health benefits, emotional distress and additional punitive damages.

Google reportedly warning app developers.

It was reported that the search giant threatened to remove developers' software from its store unless they accepted payments exclusively using Google's payment service. While developers for Apple's Store have no choice but to use Apple's iTunes payment service, apps for Android often accept from a variety of sources, such as PayPal.

Recently, the Android Market was absorbed into Google Play, a music, movies and app store similar to iTunes. After this changes, reports that Google had changed its payment policies and was now threatening app developers emerged.

Google told the BBC that it has not changed its policies for Android apps, and that the distribution agreement always made developers use the Google Wallet service. It did not reveal whether it has started to enforce that requirement.

The Android Market / Google Play does allow for in-ap purchases to be made using alternative payment services. This means that, for example, Amazon does not have to sue Google Wallet and give Google a cut for every item it sells with its Android app.

Geotagged photos pose a risk, Army says.

It has warned that smartphones often geotag photos automatically with GPS information, which can give away the exact location of a unit. In 2007, four US Army helicopters were destroyed in Iraq after geotagged photos featuring them were posted online.

The Army also warns that this information could be dangerous to soldiers at home who use Facebook and other social media services. "Do you really want everyone to know the exact location of your home or your children's school?" Staff Sgt Dale Sweetnam of the Online and Social Media Division said.

"Before adding a location to a photo, soldiers really need to step back and ask themselves, 'Who really needs to know this location information?'"

Facebook's Timeline has also posed a new problem for the Army, revealing soldiers' routes and habits publicly to anyone who is interesting in knowing. It's for these reasons that the British Army has banned the use of all mobile phones in operational zones, and also warns soldiers about taking geotagged photos at home.

Microsoft Applied Sciences group shows simple low-lag concept touchscreen.

Users of touchscreen devices will have noticed the slight lag/delay between when they touch the surface with their finger tips, and when that touch actually registers with the device. This is particularly evident when using drawing / painting applications, when you have to drag your fingertip across the screen.

Microsoft Research has shown a very simple concept touch display with two orders of magnitude less latency than current systems. The video is not graphically rich and the demonstration is quite basic, but it gets the point across.

Proview targets distributors.

The company claims to own the rights to the iPad trademark in China, and is currently engaged in a court battle with Apple Inc. over the sale of iPads in the country. Apple is appealing a court decision that sided with Proview, with a decision expected from the Higher People's Court in Guangzhou within the next few weeks.

Proview isn't waiting on the court however. It fired off a letter to distributors in China, warning them about the consequences of selling the Apple product in the region.

"Anybody who continues to do so will be seen as intentionally infringing rights and the company will adopt the most severe measures by taking legal action," the company said in an open letter to distributors.

According to Chinese media, Proview is seeking up to 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in compensation from Apple for trademark infringement, and has indicated that it would favour an out of court settlement.

Metropolitan Police e-Crime Unit questioning man in hacking case.

The hack was aimed at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), though the group has insisted that no medical or personal information on women who received treatment had been accessed by hackers. However, details of people who requested information from the website was reportedly compromised.

Police were alerted to the attack on Thursday, while claims later appeared on Twitter suggesting that the culprit had names of women who had undergone terminations and was threatening to release them,

The Metropolitan Police e-Crime Unit arrested a 27 year old man in Metropolitan Police e-Crime Unit, and he is now in custody at a West Midlands Police station.

"The website does store details (names, addresses and phone numbers) of people who have requested information from BPAS via the website, including those making personal inquiries as well as health and education professionals, the media and students." BPAS said in a statement.

"These may have been inquiries relating to contraception, pregnancy, abortion, STI testing and sterilisation. Relevant authorities were informed and appropriate legal action taken to prevent the dissemination of any information obtained from the website. While the confidentiality of women receiving treatment was never in danger, this episode was taken very seriously indeed."

Report suggests Microsoft informed partners that it is dropped a disc drive in its next console.

That's according to MCV, anyway, who also claim to have confirmed a 2013 launch date for the hardware. The revelations come from an MCV source who said the briefings were issued under the "strictest NDA" they have encountered.

The console reportedly will work with some kind of interchangeable solid-state card storage, but its unknown whether it will be proprietary technology or a widely established standard.

MCV suggests that the new Xbox may even show up at E3 this year, which would make sense if a 2013 release target is accurate.

When MCV contacted Microsoft about the report, the company didn't exactly deny it, and just referred to how the Xbox 360 has extended its lifespan.

"Xbox 360 has found new ways to extend its lifecycle like introducing the world to controller-free experiences with Kinect and re-inventing the console with a new dashboard and new entertainment content partnerships. We are always thinking about what is next for our platform and how to continue to defy the lifecycle convention. Beyond that we do not comment on rumors or speculation."

Bill is so vague it could be used against Wikileaks, Pirate Bay etc.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (H.R. 3523) was introduced by Rep. Mike Rogers and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, and is one of many bills proposed in the U.S. Congress to address the growing threat of cyber attacks.

The bill allows companies or the government free rein to bypass existing laws in order to monitor communications, filter content, or potentially even shut down access to online services for "cybersecurity purposes."

"The language is so broad it could be used as a blunt instrument to attack websites like The Pirate Bay or WikiLeaks," the EFF warns.

"Under the proposed legislation, a company that protects itself or other companies against 'cybersecurity threats' can 'use cybersecurity systems to identify and obtain cyber threat information to protect the rights and property' of the company under threat. But because 'us[ing] cybersecurity systems' is incredibly vague, it could be interpreted to mean monitoring email, filtering content, or even blocking access to sites."

The bill defines "cyber threat intelligence" and "cybersecurity purpose" to include "theft or misappropriation of private or government information, intellectual property, or personally identifiable information."

Apple told it cannot pursue infringement claims, for now.

The iPad-maker had brought a case against Eastman Kodak Co. for alleged patent infringement relating to a Kodak patent that lets consumers preview digital photographs on an LCD screen. On Thursday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper said it would be inappropriate to allow Apple to continue pursuing patent infringement claims against Kodak, since the photography giant is in bankruptcy.

He also denied a request from Apple to file a new patent infringement lawsuit against Kodak over more patents.

Apple had sought to lift a stay freezing a patent lawsuit pending in a federal court in Rochester, New York. The Judge denied the request, but conceded that the case needs to be resolved soon, but not in a way that interferes with Kodak's efforts to sell its patent portfolio.

"I would request that the parties report to me on their efforts to come up with a procedure that truly works," he said.

Apple has been accused by Kodak of attempting to slow the patent sale process, which is vital for Kodak.

FBI delays shut down of malicious DNS servers.

The DNSChanger malware does what it says in its own title, it changes the DNS settings of infected computers to use malicious ones instead. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took action against the malware last November, and originally set a March 8, 2012 deadline to shut down the DNS servers.

Unfortunately, four months later, there are still close to 500,000 infected computers using the malicious DNS servers. Clearly, the owners of the computers have not the slightest clue that anything is wrong.

Those responsible for the DNS servers were using them to block antivirus programs and operating system updates, while also redirecting users to rogue servers to be defrauded. The FBI, realizing that so many machines were using the malicious servers, replaced them with valid DNS servers and set a deadline for users to restore their original DNS settings.

The FBI hosts a PDF file with information on the DNSChanger malware and associated botnet, while also giving you instructions on how to check if you were infected and restore DNS settings if needed. The PDF can be gotten from FBI.gov.

Microsoft reveals U.S. sales figures.

The company said that U.S. retailers sold 426,000 units of its Xbox 360 console during the month of February, citing data from NPD.

The result means that Microsoft retained more than 40 percent market share for the 12th straight month, while spending on all Xbox products (hardware, games, accessories etc.) hit £383 million in February.

Overall hardware sales in the video games industry were up month-over-month, but overall sales were down year-over-year, again. Software, hardware and accessory sales came in at $1.06 billion, down 20 percent from the same month in 2011.

Hardware was down 18 percent YoY to $381.4 million and software got smacked down 23 percent to $464.4 million. Accessory sales were down 16 percent to $215.2 million.

Samsung aims at Apple products again.

The South Korean firm sent an e-mail to media outlets with a grid highlighting some of the things its Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet can do while the new iPad cannot.

Over the past several months, Samsung has blasted Apple products and fans of them with a series of television advertisements. The media attack culminated in a 90 second super bowl spot which shows Apple fans breaking out a line waiting for a new Apple product to switch to Samsung instead.

Now Samsung has fired off an e-mail to media outlets with the following grid, comparing some of the things the Galaxy Note 10.1 can do, that the new iPad cannot while creating content.

Valve actually just working on new user interface for Steam.

It had been reported that Valve was working on a Steam console to rival products from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, but the company has denied the rumors and said it is not making a console any time soon.

"We're prepping the Steam Big Picture Mode UI and getting ready to ship that, so we're building boxes to test that on," Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi said to Kotaku.

"We're also doing a bunch of different experiments with biometric feedback and stuff like that, which we've talked about a fair amount. All of that is stuff that we're working on, but it's a long way from Valve shipping any sort of hardware."

The Verge reported that Valve was working on a console in partnership with various hardware manufacturers, suggesting that Valve would define specs and software for devices made by a wide range of CE firms. As evidence, patents for configurable controllers were cited.

Major Hollywood studios want Hotfile to go the way of MegaUpload.

According to court papers, unsealed this week, the Walt Disney Company, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros are looking to U.S. courts to force file-locker service Hotfile offline. On their behalf, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed a motion for a summary judgement which might enable action to be taken against the host without requiring a lengthy trial.

The movie studios claim that over 90 percent of files downloaded from Hotfile are copyright infringing, and that nearly every Hotfile user is engaged in infringement. It has drawn attention to Hotfile's "indistinguishable" business model to the fallen MegaUpload, in particular, its affiliate system.

Hotfile pays users based on how many times their files are downloaded (and other factors, such as location and file size). The movie studios argue that this encourages the uploading of infringing content.

Hotfile disagrees and argues that it removes copyright infringing content when it is reported. It claims safe harbour protections afforded to web services under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), as does YouTube and many other websites where users upload potentially infringing content.

New Apple iPad incapable of using 4G networks outside U.S. and Canada.

While 3G networks operate on the same band around the world, and 2G networks use just a few separate bands, things are more complicated with Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks. LTE, which Apple has built support for into its new iPad, has more than 32 different recognized bands, depending on the region.

Even in the United States, customers on AT&T and Verizon Wireless will need to use different models of the new iPad to work properly. Both carriers have deployed LTE networks in the 700MHz band, but are still far apart enough to require different hardware.

In the European Union, the 800MHz band is harmonized for LTE across all members (while 2.6GHz is harmonized internationally, but not used by either U.S. carrier). Even at that, some regions, such as the United Kingdom, don't have LTE networks operating in the 800MHz band. Also, in the UK, the 700MHz band is reserved for Freeview TV.

The Register guesses that the UK will receive a variant of the AT&T iPad, so it can use a 3G network on the 2.1GHz band. Apple then will have to focus on improvements made to the new iPad's display to lure customers outside the United States and Canada.

Russian researcher gets nice payday from vulnerability he found in Chrome.

Sergey Glazunov, who is familiar with Chrome bug hunting, uncovered a remote code execution vulnerability in Google's Chrome web browser. He demonstrated how he could use this vulnerability to escape the Chrome sandbox and run unauthorized code on a full-patched Windows 7 system.

His award comes as part of the Google Pwnium competition. The search giant has put $1,000,000 on the line for breaches of its browser's security.

"Congrats to long-time Chromium contributor Sergey Glazunov who just submitted our first Pwnium entry. Looks like it qualifies as a ?Full Chrome? exploit, qualifying for a $60k reward. We?re working fast on a fix that we?ll push via auto-update. This is exciting; we launched Pwnium this year to encourage the security community to submit exploits for us to help make the web safer. We look forward to any additional submissions to make Chrome even stronger for our users."
- Sundar Pichai, a senior vice-president at Google

As time of writing, the remaining prize fund is $940,000. The Pwmium webpage reports that there have been two successful exploits of Chrome, the other being the reported VUPEN breach of the browser at this year's Pwn2Own contest. The vulnerability used by Glazunov is reported to already be patched, though of course, Google has no idea what VUPEN did to break its browser security.

GDC panel gives indication of PlayStation Move popularity.

Sony's Field Developer Support Engineer, Gabe Ahn, revealed during a GDC panel that Sony shipped 10.5 million PlayStation Move controllers to retailers. The firm typically does not give figures on units actually sold to consumers.

The 10.5 million figure is also made up of shipments of both PlayStation Move controllers and Navigation Controllers combined, which does water it down somewhat considering the Navigation Controllers rely on the PlayStation Move controllers.

Ahn's claim that PlayStation Move's attach rate works out to be about one in every six PlayStation 3 consoles also doesn't quite add up, for the above reason.

He did comment that the company is happy with how Move is doing so far, and is continuing to explore what it is capable of.

PayPal threatened to cut off payments for certain types of erotic content.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU, CA), American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, Authors Guild and the National Coalition Against Censorship were among groups that sent a joint-letter to PayPal over a new policy the service is enacting relating to certain types of erotic literature.

Specifically, PayPal threatened to cut off payments to accounts of online publishers who marketed books featuring incest, rape or bestiality. While the topics may not be appealing to most people, the EFF and others argue that PayPal has no right to abuse its position in order to enforce censorship.

"As scholars and booksellers can attest, these are themes prevalent in many forms of literature, from Grecian myths to the Bible," an EFF post on the matter reads.

The digital rights group said it is not the first time a payment service has attempted to interfere with access to lawful speech, citing the decision by Mastercard, Visa and PayPal to block donations to WikiLeaks. "Financial service providers are an important part of the chain of intermediaries upon which online communication depends."

Where are the benchmarks?

Yesterday, Apple Inc. unveiled a new iPad with 4G (for the United States and Canada only), a new Retina Display screen and a new A5X chip with quad-core graphics. It went on to claim that the A5X delivers 4x the performance of Nvidia's Tegra 3 chip.

Immediately there was some chatter online about how Apple had shown no proof of this claim. The slide which showed a simple chart putting the A5X chip at 4x the performance of the Tegra 3 completely lacked any footnotes or information on benchmark testing at all, and the Apple staff didn't offer up an explanation either.

"We don't have the benchmark information," said Ken Brown, a spokesman for Nvidia. "We have to understand what the application was that was used. Was it one or a variety of applications? What drivers were used? There are so many issues to get into with benchmark."

Brown said that Nvidia will get its hands on a new iPad and put the A5X to the test against other tablet PCs.

Justice Department warns that it is preparing to file a lawsuit.

Apple Inc. and five book publishers are in the sights of U.S. antitrust regulators over alleged anti-competitive price fixing practices in the electronic books market. The five publishers involved are Simon & Schuster Inc. (CBS Corp.), Hachette Book Group (Lagardere SCA), Penguin Group (Pearson PLC), Macmillan and HarperCollins Publishers Inc. (News Corp.)

The case stretches back to 2010 with the debut of the first iPad from Apple, which quickly became a competitor for Amazon's Kindle line of e-readers. Amazon had been charging low prices ($9.99 for new releases) in order to push up purchases of its electronic readers.

Publishers were concerned about Amazon selling e-books at such low prices (often sold for less than Amazon paid for them) because consumers might become accustomed to the lower prices. Also, publishers feared being in the same situation as record labels were when iTunes picked up stream, but Apple insisted on keeping single song costs at 99c, and that Amazon offering consistently steep discounts might discourage other traditional retail partners from offering e-books altogether.

Talks reportedly break down between web giants.

BusinessInsider is citing a source familiar with negotiations between Yahoo and Facebook. Talks have been ongoing between the two after Yahoo approached Facebook over alleged patent infringement. Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson now favors taking legal action against Facebook over the matter, according to the source.

The patent dispute comes down to aspects of Facebooks advertising and social networking services, which Yahoo claims to own patents related to.

"Yahoo! has a responsibility to its shareholders, employees and other stakeholders to protect its intellectual property. We have invested substantial resources into these innovations. Recognizing that, other major web and technology companies have already licensed some of these technologies. We must insist that Facebook either enter into a licensing agreement or we will be compelled to move forward unilaterally to protect our rights."

BusinessInsider cites a second source, reporting that Yahoo will seek a percentage of Faceboook's revenue going forward.

CORRECTED: Original article inaccurately stated that Chrome was the only browser that survived Pwn2Own 2011. Mozilla pointed out to us that Firefox had also remained secure at the Pwn2Own 2011 contest.

VUPEN defeats Chrome's sandbox.

The Google browser was first to fall victim at this year's Pwn2Own contest, despite not being hacked at the 2011 contest, along with Mozilla's Firefox browser.

VUPEN researchers used two zero-day flaws in its attack, which saw the Chrome browser defeated in less than five minutes. Chaouki Bekrar, head of research at VUPEN, said the pair of vulnerabilities got them complete control over a patched 64-bit Windows 7 machine.

"We had to use two vulnerabilities. The first one was to bypass DEP and ASLR on Windows and a second one to break out of the Chrome sandbox." Bekrar said.

He admitted that Chrome was the first to be targeted in order to send a message that no software is completely safe as long as there are people who are determined to find a way to exploit it. The exploit used by VUPEN was against the default installation of Google Chrome, which according to Bekrar, means that whether third party code was targeted or not is irrelevant.

Business Software Alliance calls on the U.S. government to take action.

India is one of the world's fastest growing economies and therefore provides one of the biggest opportunities for U.S. tech firms for exports. A new policy being enacted by the Indian government could hurt trade with the United States, trade associations have warned the Obama administration.

The Indian government plans to require that domestic electronic goods be given preferential treatment in its purchases, and to use its regulatory powers to force government licensees to follow suit with the policy. This plan is clearly in conflict with India's obligations under the World Trade Organization.

The BSA, and the Telecommunications Industry Association have written to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Commerce Secretary John Bryson with their concerns.

The warning will not fall on deaf ears either. The United States' trade deficits have reached appalling levels in recent years, and the trade gap in advanced technology was approaching $100 billion last year, according to Reuters.

Eurogamer reports on leaked Play.com image.

The leaked Play.com image, that you can see at Eurogamer, showed details on four new titles for Sony's new handheld console. The new titles were Monster Hunter Portable 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Nights, Tales Of Innocence R and Final Fantasy Type-0 HD.

Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) console got two titles from the Grand Theft Auto franchise during its lifetime; Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.

Sony is due to host a PlayStation Vita web broadcast this Friday, where it will announce new titles for the PS Vita, adding some credibility to the "leaked image" initially.

However, the suggestion from readers and from other gaming sites is that the image may be a fake. I guess only Friday will tell, but check out Eurogamer regardless.

Deutsche Telekom sets new world record.

The German telecommunications giant announced that it achieved a usable bit rate of 400Gbps over a single channel of its fibre optic network. Each optical fibre can carry up to 48 channels, adding up to a potential throughput of 24.67Tbps.

The experiment - which transmitted data between Berlin and Hannover and then back again (734km) - achieved a maximum of 512Gbps. Reducing the data needed for error correction, Deutsche Telekom reported 400Gbps of usable data.

The previous record was set last year by researchers in the United States and Canada, and it achieved 186Gbps.

Much of the speed gained, according to Deutsche Telekom, was due to improvements to the software used for forward error correction. It said the improvements can now be made without having to dig up fibre optic lines and lay new cables.

"Whenever we can do something where the biggest part of the infrastructure remains untouched, it means great progress becomes possible," Deutsche Telekom's T-Labs manager Heinrich Arnold told BBC News.

Facebook apologizes for inconvenience caused.

The mega-popular social network was unreachable for European users for a couple of hours on Wednesday. The firm's smartphone and tablet apps were also unusable.

With over 850 million users worldwide, when Facebook goes down, a lot of people notice very quickly. On Twitter today, #facebookdown became a trending topic very quickly.

"Today we experienced technical difficulties causing the site to be unavailable for a number of users in Europe," the company said in a statement. "The issue has been resolved and everyone should now have access to Facebook. We apologise for any inconvenience."

Far from being just a minor inconvenience to Facebook addicts, the social network has other reasons to make sure it rarely ever goes down. Facebook Connect, for example, is a service which allows websites to enable users to login with their Facebook credentials instead of having to create new accounts. If users are unable to use Facebook's login service, it now affects thousands more websites than just Facebook itself.

Antisec group accuses Panda Security of assisting law enforcement.

A Panda Labs website which markets anti-malware products was defaced briefly on Wednesday, with the front page replaced with a message reading, "Love to Lulzsec/Antisec fallen friends".

The group behind it has accused Panda Security of assisting law enforcement in several arrests made last month. Panda Security said it was investigating the intrusion, but that no information of customers was ever at risk. It said an external server hosting some of Panda Lab's content had been targeted. It's official frontpage has since been restored.

"Pandasecurity.com... has earned money working with law enforcement to lurk and snitch on Anonymous activists. They helped to jail 25 Anonymous in different countries and they were actively participating in our IRC channels trying to dox [obtain personal information about] many others," a message left had read.

BBC News asked Panda Security's technical director, Luis Corrons, about involvement in last month's arrests. He denied that Panda Security was in any way involved.

"If I could have had the opportunity I would love to have collaborated with the law enforcement officers to arrest those people - but we didn't in this case," he said.

Apple posts colorful TV ad.

The new iPad was unveiled today by Apple Inc., touting support for 4G LTE networks. Under the hood its A5X chip with quad-core graphics powered some impressive demos of HD games and applications running on the new tablet, but Apple wanted to pay special attention to the screen.

The new screen features Retina Display as predicted, and 44 percent more color saturation compared to the iPad 2. This delivers great improvements in the picture quality, and the clarity of text.

Apple's first new television ad for the new iPad focuses on these qualities over the quad-core graphics or 4G capabilities.

Apple shows off new iPad with LTE, touts sales figures. Firm also shows off new Apple TV.

Apple showed off its new 4G LTE iPad today (9.4mm thin, 1.4lb), with data rates up to 73Mbps (on LTE, HSPA+ at 21Mbps and DC-HSPDA at 42Mbps). It can also be used as a personal hotspot, if supported by provider.

The new iPad can avail of LTE provided by AT&T, Verizon, Rogers, Bell or Telus in the United States. Different bands of LTE means different devices for different networks, however. For 3G, that shouldn't be a problem.

Of course, the new iPad has a Retina Display (2048x1536) screen. Apple's Phil Schiller pointed out that the new iPad displays 1 million more pixels than a 1080p image and boasts 44 percent more color saturation than the iPad 2.

Under the hood it is powered with an A5X chip with quad-core graphics. Apple claims the A5X is twice as fast as the Tegra 3, and offers 4 times the performance.

Apple CEO touts company's ongoing success.

Tim Cook took to the stage today and told the audience that Apple sold 316 million iOS devices (iPod, iPad, iPhone) in 2011, with 62 million sold in the fourth quarter alone.

He also said that the App Store has reached 585,000 apps available, and passed the 25 billion download mark. The 25 billionth app was downloaded by a customer in China.

Apple's iCloud service also passed a milestone of 100 million users recently, and now iTunes movies are also supported, allowing customers to re-download movies they have purchased (1080p included.)

The change is aimed at the new Apple TV device.

Scheme would let customers trade discs for digital copies.

Warner Home Entertainment Group President Kevin Tsujihara outlined the "disc to digital" scheme at a Morgan Stanley event in San Francisco. Basically, the initiative would see customers return discs they previously bought to stores in exchange for a digital copy on cloud storage.

Online retailers would also provide links to downloadable copies of disc contents. Tsujihara also talked about the possibility of having a digital copy of a movie automatically added to an online library when you play a purchased disc for the first time.

Such a scheme might make use of UltraViolet, an industry-backed standard cloud-based film library.

Movie studios are trying to come up with new initiatives in the digital space to lure customers away from piracy, and also from popular streaming services such as Netflix and Lovefilm. Such streaming services are used widely by consumers, but generate far less revenue for movie studios.

Broadcasters sue Aereo, citing copyright violation concerns.

The firm is due to launch an Internet TV service starting in New York. The service allows customers to view broadcast TV over the Internet from anywhere they have access.

The broadcasters claim that, "Aereo will infringe their copyrights by making available technology which enables consumers to access broadcast television via a remote antenna and DVR," the Internet TV firm wrote.

"Aereo does not believe that the broadcasters' position has any merit and it very much looks forward to a full and fair airing of the issues."

Aereo is scheduled to launch its new service in New York, starting on March 14. In a blog post, the firm says that consumers are legally entitled to access broadcast television via an antenna and they are entitled to record television content for their personal use.

Mannheim court rejects two patent claims.

The court announced on Friday that it has dismissed two cases brought by Apple and Samsung. The cases are just two of dozens around the world concerning patents related to smartphones and tablet PCs as competitors struggle for market share.

Apple had claimed that Samsung was violating a patent covering "slide to lock" functionality, while Samsung's patent claim against Apple concerned 3G/UMTS-essential patents.

Samsung's reaction was predictable mixed. It applauded the court's decision to scrap the "slide to lock" patent claim made by Apple, but was disappointed that its 3G/UMTS patent case was dismissed also. The South Korean consumer electronics giant has said it will appeal the case to the Higher Regional Court in Karlsruhe.

Apple did not comment on the Mannheim court's decisions.

Apple sued Samsung last April, claiming that it had "slavishly" cloned its iPhone and iPad in the Galaxy line of smartphones and tablet PCs. The lawsuit prompted several more on separate continents involving the who heavyweights.

Over 20,000 SIM cards disabled for spamming.

Action taken by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and network providers have led to the blocking of over 20,000 SIM cards in the United Kingdom, which have been used to send large amounts of spam. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) estimates that eight million spam messages are sent in the UK every day.

The ICO admits that the latest action against mobile spam is just beginning to scratch the surface of the problem. The office was granted new powers six months ago to address the growing issue.

Spam texts can generate millions of pounds for those involved in spreading them. Far from trying to phish credit card information, many of the messages intend to provoke a user to respond. "Once they spammers have trapped your number they will then sell it into the claims industry," David Clancy, investigations manager at the ICO, said.

"First users will pay £1, £1.50 for that phone number. A month later it will be distributed to lots of organisations for 50p, 20p, 10p a time. It makes a lot of money."

The ICO's new powers enable it to execute search warrants when there is reason to believe spam texts are being sent. It can also compel mobile operators to hand over information, and issue fines of up to £500,000 for offences.

Sources say Sony won't opt for a successor to the Cell chip powering its PS3 in its next generation home console.

Kotaku is citing industry sources in its report. It comes after Forbes reported chip-maker AMD would provide the graphics chip for the PlayStation 4 console, after turning to Nvidia for the PS3.

The Cell chip in the PS3 gained considerable media attention before the console's launch in 2006, with Sony suggesting that the chip would power multiple devices around the home, providing for shared computational power between them.

Not long after the PS3 was on the market however, there were reports of game developers finding the Cell tedious to develop titles with. Cell also failed to gain the kind of momentum and integration into consumer electronics that Sony had envisioned.

Already there is speculation mounting about what exactly will power the PS4. One suggestion is that AMD will provide for both CPU and GPU in the PS4 by way of AMD Fusion architecture, which could go over well with developers. id Software's John Carmack has already given a nod of approval to AMD Fusion-style architecture for the future.

Regulator seeks to work with industry to tackle high mobile bills.

Ofcom recognised that customers on contract plans were vulnerable to bill shock for a variety of reasons. It's own research suggests that 1.4 million people in the UK have experienced unexpectedly high phone bills, and came to the conclusion that the majority of cases could be avoided if providers just implemented a few simple measures.

The regulator identifies the main causes of bill shock as..

• Downloading data, primarily while travelling outside the EU, but also when using data in the UK (for example, customers using smartphones which may download data without the customer realising, or not realising how much data they are using);
• Using mobile voice services in the UK, mainly by exceeding inclusive allowances or calling numbers outside of allowances; and
• Lost or stolen phones ? where the number of consumers affected is low, but the level of financial harm can be substantial.

Google's new privacy policy gets attention in Europe.

The European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Viviane Reding, said on Thursday that data protection institutions within the European Union have found Google's new privacy policy in breach of European laws. Her comments come after the French data protection group, CNIL, questioned the legality of the new broad privacy policy across multiple Google services.

"They have come to the conclusion that they are deeply concerned, and that the new rules are not in accordance with the European law, and that the transparency rules have not been applied," Viviane Reding told the BBC in the UK.

"Protection of personal data is a basic rule of the European Union. It is inscribed in the treaties. It is not an if, it is a must."

Google argues that it is just simplifying its privacy policy by consolidating 60 guidelines into a single one that applies to many Google services, such as Google+ and YouTube. Users do not have an option to opt out of the changes.

Reding was asked how the new privacy policy may violate laws in the European Union, and responded: "In numerous respects. One is that nobody had been consulted, it is not in accordance with the law on transparency and it utilises the data of private persons in order to hand it over to third parties, which is not what the users have agreed to."