Latest news

A Federal Communications Commission (FCC) official has said both the case of Google's accidental WiFi snooping and the hack which exposed information of over 100,000 iPad users on an AT&T website are "worrisome in their own way." Google recently admitted to accidentally sniffing Internet traffic on unencrypted wireless networks while its Street View cars were snapping pictures in more than 30 countries.

"Whether intentional or not, collecting information sent over WiFi networks clearly infringes on consumer privacy," Joe Gurin, the FCC's chief of consumer and governmental affairs, wrong in a blog post. He went on to remind readers of the risks of using open networks.

Recently AT&T also has admitted that a group called Goatse Security was able to (rather easily) extract the e-mail addresses and cellular ID numbers of more than 114,000 iPad owners by exploiting a web application on the AT&T site. Among the affected users were celebrities and government officials, such as White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

"The iPad incident appears to be a classic security breach – the kind that could happen, and has happened, to many companies – and is exactly the kind of incident that has led the FCC to focus on cyber security," Gurin wrote.

Google Inc. is working with the U.S. State Department, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Commerce Department and European officials to help build a case arguing that censorship acts as a trade barrier, according to Robert Boorstin, Google's director of corporate and policy communications. The company shut its Chinese-language search engine this year because of a cyber attack and concerns about censorship.

The U.S. has been mulling such a WTO case as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has promoted Internet freedom as a basic human right in modern times. In the European Union, Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda, has described the Chinese firewall as a trade barrier as long as it served to block communication for Internet users.

"Google believes very strongly, as do other companies, that censorship is a trade barrier," Boorstin said during a discussion hosted by the Media Access Project. He said the company wants to demonstrate that censorship means fewer search pages, and that limits the capacity for a company like Google to go to the Chinese and be on a level playing field with services like Baidu.

Google Inc.'s YouTube video sharing service is to test offering a news feed this summer. On YouTube's official blog, a post highlights some of the latest videos on YouTube that relate to news, or make the news, such as videos showing violent attacks in Kyrgyzstan and oil washing up on a beach in the Gulf Coast.

"Videos uploaded to YouTube by both amateur reporters and professional journalists move through the media ecosystem with a sophistication and speed greater than ever before," the blog reads. "But with 24 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, how can people more easily find the latest breaking news videos on our site? And how can media organizations better leverage this content to expand the scope of their reporting and keep us all better informed?"

Working with the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, a YouTube News Feed will track news as it breaks on YouTube. The news feed will provide a stream of breaking news with a focus on strong visuals and non-traditional sources.

The news feed back be found on the CitizenTube website, which is YouTube's news and politics blog. It has only briefly been used by the company to track news, such as the Iranian election protests in 2009 and for Los Angeles wildfires.

Game retailer GameStop is listing Microsoft's Kinect for Xbox 360 peripheral for $149.99. The Kinect was dated for a November 4, 2010 release date today at the Microsoft E3 Press Conference, but Microsoft said it will not set an official price for the product at E3 this year. The GameStop website allows users to pre-order the item now, limited to one per household.

"Official pricing has not been announced by the publisher. This is an estimate only and subject to change," the product page reads. "If the price decreases between the time you place your preorder and the release date, you'll receive the lowest price."

The site also lists Xbox 360 bundles that include the Kinect. A bundle with an Arcade console and Kinect is $299.99 and an Elite console with Kinect is $399.99, but there is no sign of the slim Xbox 360 on the site yet.

Also news of a second slim Xbox 360 model emerged later in the day. The second console which is currently in the works will cost $199.99 and will replace the Arcade unit, while along with the Elite console, is to be discontinued.

ModMyI has reported today that AT&T sources have leaked some news on the availability of different colorways for the Apple iPhone 4, and it appears the white model will not be available at launch.

The attached picture, which was emailed to AT&T supervisors, says the iPhone 4 will only be available in the black colorway at launch, for both the 16GB and 32GB models.

Apparently, the white versions will be available "later in the summer."

Pre-orders for the device begin tomorrow, with launch set for June 24th.

The iPhone 4 has a 3.5-inch multi-touchscreen with a 640x960 resolution, runs the iOS 4.0 and has a 1GHz Apple A4 processor. The new OS allows for multitasking.

Additionally, the iPhone 4 has a 5MP standard camera and a 1.5MP front-facing camera for video conferencing.

LaptopMag has started its first ever Android Cup this week, pitting 16 Android smartphones against each other in a bracket voted on by any user visiting the site.

The first match, if it can even be called a competition, is between the new HTC Incredible and the Samsung Behold II.

HTC's Incredible has a 3.7-inch multi-touch AMOLED screen, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, Android 2.1 (for now) and an 8MP camera. The phone also has the popular HTC Sense UI layer, and an optical trackpad.

The Behold II was Samsung's second ever Android phone. It has a 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen with a small 480x320 resolution, a slower 528-MHz processor and a 5MP camera. The smartphone only runs Android 1.5, and has TouchWiz and Cube UI layers.

As of posting, the Incredible is winning 97 percent to 3 percent, with over 2300 votes cast.

On June 4th, Sprint launched the HTC EVO 4G to rave reviews. A few days later, the carrier announced that the HTC device had broken the carrier's launch day sales record, even selling "three times" as many units as the Palm Pre and Samsung Instinct did combined on their respective first days.

Additionally, calls to over 20 retailers showed that the phone was sold out, practically everywhere.

Within days, however, the U.S. third biggest carrier apologized for overstating the figures.

MobileCrunch is reporting today that there was an under-the-radar part of the story, in which a Sprint employee was fired for posting unofficial sales numbers online, using the company's inventory system.

News Corp announced that it has made a deal with e-reader company Skiff, which facilitates the distribution of newspaper and magazine content to e-reader devices. Skiff also has its own unreleased e-reader hardware, but the News Corp deal does not include it.

Instead, News Corp is only interested in the software distribution platform. The aquisition empowers News Corp to disttibute its own content to e-reader devices, and also to smartphones, tablets and similar gadgets, as it continues its quest into paid online content.

Chairman Rupert Murdoch has been vocal about charging for online content, hoping that the subscription model adopted by the Wall Street Journal works with more of the company's outlets. To aid with this goal, News Corp announced an investment in Journalism Online on Monday.

Journalism Online helps companies to charge for content in a variety of ways, including subscription models and processing micropayments for article views.

Last week, AT&T confirmed that 114,067 iPad 3G owners had their email information leaked to the Web, with the data being stolen by a group calling themselves Goatse Security.

The group published the emails, which included prominent politicians, celebrities and even military officials.

AT&T said at the time that only email addresses were leaked, however, with any sensitive data like credit card numbers not being compromised.

Today, AT&T has sent out emails to customers, apologizing for the data breach, and giving more information on what happened.

The carrier made sure to note that all other sensitive data was unaffected, and that they should be on note that their emails could get hit for extra spam or possible phishing attempts.

The full letter here, via MacRumors:

Beginning on July 1st, Starbucks will begin offering unlimited free Wi-Fi in all of its 6700 U.S. locations, in an effort to bring more potential customers into the coffee shops.

The company adds that the Wi-Fi will "eventually include a new network of news and entertainment content exclusively for customers."

Starbucks has been losing customers to McDonald's, which offers free Wi-Fi, and cheaper priced coffee, as well.

The chain had offered Wi-Fi, but only two hours a day for free, and you had to register. On average, laptop/netbook users at Starbucks spend one hour using the wireless, currently, says CEO Howard Schultz.

McDonald's has offered free, unlimited Wi-Fi at all 11,500 U.S. locations since January.

Google Inc.'s video sharing website, YouTube, and the prestigious Guggenheim Museums have partnered to search for creative online videos. The pair have launched a competition, announced on Monday, which will allow anybody to submit a video through a channel set up for it.

The competition is called "YouTube Play. A Biennial of Creative Video", and it will select 20 videos from the community to presented at the Guggenheim in New York on October 21. "Creative online video is one of the most compelling and innovative opportunities for personal expression today," said Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation director Richard Armstrong.

"'YouTube Play' demonstrates this is within the reach of anyone who uses a computer and has access to the Internet." The 20 chosen videos will also be projected at museums n Berlin, Bilbao and Venice. Entrants must submit a video up to 10 minutes and a written statement to YouTube.com/play.

A jury of top artists, filmmakers, designers and musicians will select the 20 winning videos from 200 finalists. Entrants can submit creative videos with art, animation, graphics, narrative or non-narrative videos and entirely new art forms, on any subject of their choosing.

Today was a very big day for Microsoft at the E3 event, with the company announcing a Slim Xbox 360 console, the official launch of the Kinect motion control system and ESPN live and on-demand content through XBL.

Flying under the radar however, with all the headline grabbing news, was the addition of a "search" function to the Netflix application through the Xbox 360 console.

The addition of search makes the console the first of the current-generation systems to have such a function, adds Marc Whitten.

Says Whitten: "We're proud of our continued innovation with Netflix. We were the first gaming console to bring instantly streaming movies from Netflix right to the living room. The first to let you update your Netflix instant Queue without a computer. And Xbox LIVE remains the only place you can share the fun with up to seven friends in a Movie Party. Starting this November, Xbox 360 will offer Netflix search. Just type what you’re looking for, immediately search from thousands of titles you can watch instantly, and update your Queue, all right over Xbox LIVE. We’re making your entertainment easier to discover."

An internal memo from U.S. retailer Target has revealed that the price of non-slim Xbox 360 models is to be cut by $50 on Tuesday. Microsoft unveiled a new slimmer Xbox 360 console with a 250GB HDD and internal 802.11n WiFi for $299, the same price point as the Xbox 360 Elite console that comes with a 120GB HDD.

The Target memo about the price cuts reads...

Due to an announcement made Monday 6/14, the following Xbox Game Consoles will be Price Cut by $50 effective Tuesday 6/15:
207/21/2 (Xbox 360 ARCADE CORE HARDWARE): $199.99 to $149.99
207/21/4 (Xbox 360 ELITE CONSOLE): $299.99 to $249.99
207/21/7 (NFC Xbox 360 COD MODRN WRFE2 LTD ED): $399.99 to $349.99
207/21/8 (Xbox 360 FINAL FANTASY XIII BND): $399.99 to $349.99
207/21/9 (TC SPLINTER CELL BUNDLE): $399.99 to $349.99
Source: Kotaku

The new Xbox 360 console will be available in stores later in the week, after Microsoft revealed it started shipping on Monday.

At Microsoft's E3 Press Conference today, it was revealed that a deal with ESPN will bring live sports and on-demand content to Xbox Live. The exclusive deal with Microsoft will bring 3,500 live and on-demand sports events including college football, college basketball, Major League Baseball, NBA basketball, soccer and more. Giving a demonstration of the Xbox Live ESPN features was Josh Elliot and Trey Wingo of SportsCenter,

They showed how ESPN on Xbox Live can take advantage of the new Kinect motion sensing system when it is launched in November. While watching a game, it was demoed how telling the Xbox 360 which side you want to join (in the demonstration, "Xbox: Join USC") displays how many people are cheering for each side.

Saying "Xbox: Replay" replayed a touchdown from the game, while real-time polls and trivia will also be displayed to enhance the experience. ESPN.com content can be accessed to bring up highlights, game scores, statistics and other information that is available.

Most of the 3,500 sports events that will be delivered through Xbox Live from ESPN will be available in High-definition. One of the most welcome parts about the ESPN deal is it will bring content to Xbox Live Gold members at no extra charge.

Microsoft revealed at its E3 Press Conference today that the Kinect motion-control system will be launched on November 4, 2010 in North America. The company demoed using the controller-free user interface for Xbox Live content, including using sound as well as motion as controls. No price details were given yet.

The Xbox console can recognize and sign in a user that simply waves at it. An additional wave launches the Kinect Menu. The Kinect Menu is populated by Kinect Adventures, Netflix, Zune, Facebook, Friends, Avatar Editor and Last.FM.

Using hand controls, a user can select a movie to watch on the Xbox 360, and also use his/her hands to drag a bar to seek through the video content. Simply saying "Xbox: Pause", will pause the video, while "Xbox: Play" will resume it. "Xbox: Stop", will exit the video and go back to the menu.

Just as with movies, you can use your voice and hands to control music content, instructing the Xbox to play music and then using hand movements to go back and forth between tracks or albums. Microsoft's goals is to make all of your entertainment needs controller-free, not just gaming.