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AfterDawn: News

Part of Samsung Galaxy S III specs leak via Amazon

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 23 Apr 2012 6:38

Part of Samsung Galaxy S III specs leak via Amazon While its launch is not for another week, it appears someone over at Amazon Germany has leaked at least part of the specs for the Galaxy S III device.

If accurate, the device will have a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED display, 16GB of storage, and a massive 12MP rear-facing camera.

The site lists the retail price at ?599, which is almost $800 USD, likely in-line for an unlocked, unsubsidized model.

Past rumors have the phone being powered by Android 4.x and a Samsung Exynos quad-core processor.

View the teaser trailer for the device here: Samsung subtly calls Apple fans 'sheep'




AfterDawn: News

Dropbox now allowing for public sharing of files

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 23 Apr 2012 5:53

Dropbox now allowing for public sharing of files Dropbox has announced today that users can now share their videos, pictures and documents with the public. The other users do not even need Dropbox accounts.

Says the company: "Dropbox links allow people to easily view documents, photos, and videos in a beautiful full-browser display without any setup. Business presentations, home movies, and even entire folders can be opened and viewed instantly without having to sign in, download anything, or open files separately."

In the mobile application, as well as the web-based and desktop versions, there will be a new "Get Link" button which will give users the ability to create unique links to the desired file or even folder.

If you are a Dropbox user, you will have the option to save the file to your own Dropbox locker or to your computer/mobile.

"Anyone with the link gets access to a snazzy page where they can view (but not edit) your stuff," adds the company's blog post. "Our gallery pages give your photos, videos, and even docs the gorgeous, full-browser view they deserve. This means that people who follow your link can see pictures, look at presentations, and watch home videos without having to download and open them separately."




AfterDawn: News

Samsung subtly calls Apple fans 'sheep'

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 23 Apr 2012 5:38

Samsung subtly calls Apple fans 'sheep' Samsung has upped the ante for its next Galaxy smartphone with a teaser trailer taking aim at other smartphone makers.

The company will unveil its new device at an event on May 3rd in the UK.

While the device is not expected to be called the Galaxy S III, the nickname is as good as any for the device which will be a successor to the popular Galaxy S II flagship.

In the teaser trailer, the company says: "Truly smart technology becomes a natural part of life. Where a galaxy fits perfectly into your hand, your view of the world grows ever wider as you gain the power to explore it freely and swiftly. With technology that fits in this easily, you can now standout from...everyone else."

The "everyone else" is an overlay over pictures of sheep.




AfterDawn: News

Galaxy Nexus reaches Sprint, Google Wallet included

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 22 Apr 2012 7:46

Galaxy Nexus reaches Sprint, Google Wallet included The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is now available to Sprint users.

Like its CDMA counterpart on Verizon, the flagship Android 4.0 phone will have LTE support but unlike the Verizon version, the Sprint model will give access to Google Wallet, an NFC app which turns the phone into a virtual wallet.

The device will sell for $200 with contract, and is available now.

One catch with the phone being LTE, however, is that Sprint does not actually have an LTE network yet. The company is transitioning from WiMax to LTE and the network will only be available in 10 cities over the summer before rolling out more widespread in 2013.

In terms of Google Wallet, the mobile payment system is fully supported and Google will even give you $50 for activating within a week of buying the phone.




AfterDawn: News

350,000 infected PCs to lose Internet access in July

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 22 Apr 2012 7:12

350,000 infected PCs to lose Internet access in July The FBI has made it clear today that all Internet users should check their PCs for infection by the "DNSChanger" malware, which is expected to leave 350,000 people without Internet past July 9th.

The malware is a DNS redirector, and at its peak infected over 4.2 million computers.

Last year, the FBI took down an Internet "fraud ring" via a sting operation dubbed "Operation Ghost Click." Six Estonian nationals were arrested after the operation, with the malware allegedly bringing them $14 million in revenue.

As DT explains, the malware worked as follows: "When you click on a link to a website or type in its URL, your computer sends a request to a DNS server, which translates the URL into the appropriate IP address. The IP address is sent back to your browser, which can then find the website in question. The DNSChanger would hijack the requests of infected users and redirect the requests to their own DNS servers. Their DNS servers would then translate the URLs into an illegitimate IP address and trick the browser into displaying a different website. Essentially, trying to access YouTube could send you to a porn site."

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

LightSquared makes a payment, gets reprieve until 2014

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 22 Apr 2012 5:34

LightSquared makes a payment, gets reprieve until 2014 Inmarsat has confirmed it received a long overdue payment from LightSquared and will in turn suspend further payments until 2014.

The payment of $56 million will give the company some time as it hopes for regulatory clearance. LightSquared is looking to create a mobile network using Inmarsat's spectrum.

In February, LightSquared's plans took a huge hit when the FCC proposed that the new network would interfere with important GPS services used by the military, airlines and even truck drivers. The statement came after a year of testing.

The company is backed by Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners, which invested $2.4 billion of the company's $4 billion in assets into LightSquared. Falcone is likely to file for bankruptcy if clearance is not given, soon.

Inmarsat will now defer $129 million in payments until 2014, to give the company a reprieve.




AfterDawn: News

Nokia loses German patent case

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 22 Apr 2012 4:15

Nokia loses German patent case Nokia has lost its German court case this week, another blow to the company's reputation.

The court in Mannheim found the Finnish-based mobile giant violated patents owned by IPCom, the German patent firm.

Overall, the ruling is quite useless, however, as Nokia no longer uses the methods or the phones affected: "We respectfully disagree with this decision, but almost all of these phones predated the grant of the patent in February 2011 and our products today use different methods. The judgment does not rule whether Nokia's current mobile devices infringe the patent."

The news comes on the heels of the company's quarterly earnings, which were terrible. For the Q1, Nokia posted a net loss of $1.2 billion on revenue of $9.72 billion. Revenue fell 30 percent year-over-year and the company had a profit of $451 million in the same quarter last year.

Most harsh for the phone maker was smartphone sales, which dropped by 55 percent to $2.23 billion. Overall mobile phone device sales fell 40 percent to $5.5 billion.




AfterDawn: News

Verizon fully backs Windows Phone

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 22 Apr 2012 3:47

Verizon fully backs Windows Phone Speaking during his company's earnings call, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said the carrier is committed to the Windows Phone platform.

The CFO believes the company can help Windows Phone grow as a platform, in the same way it did with Android when it was in its infancy.

Verizon currently only offers one Windows Phone device right now, but they are planning to offer a plethora, soon.

Says Shammo: "We helped create the Android platform from the beginning and it is an incredible platform today, and we are looking to do the same thing with a third ecosystem." The CFO's comments hold weight since Verizon did not get the iPhone until last year and had already been moving away from BlackBerry, leaving Android as the system it pushed the hardest.

Verizon will likely do something similar with Windows Phone, although the situations are different. The carrier offers the market leaders, which consumers have grown comfortable with. Windows is still the "new kid," despite strong marketing from Microsoft.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

RIM hires firms for potential asset sale

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 22 Apr 2012 3:11

RIM hires firms for potential asset sale RIM has hired two firms this week to take care of a restructuring plan that will likely include asset sales.

Additionally, the BlackBerry maker is likely looking into seeking joint ventures or patent licensing.

To help turnaround their struggles, the RIM board of directors will look to boost revenue from the BlackBerry 10 operating system and potentially open up its proprietary network to others. At one time, RIM was looking to add up to $4 billion in revenue from deals with carriers.

Says a source (via Reuters): "This is a very mature strategy and RIM was very far down the road with a lot of those discussions with carriers."

RIM has seen an accelerating decline since 2009, when it controlled over 50 percent of the U.S. smartphone market. The number is now just above 11 percent, as consumers have moved past the outdated hardware and software to the greener pastures of iPhones and Android devices.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

France will fine you $99,000 for tweeting election data

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 22 Apr 2012 2:17

France will fine you $99,000 for tweeting election data Until 8PM today, French politicians and citizens are forced to remain quiet, by law, about the presidential race.

The candidates can not give speeches or interviews, distribute fliers or update their campaign Web sites or Facebook pages, says the NYT.

Media outlets, citizens, or anyone else in France are also banned from publishing any data, including exit polls. Anyone caught doing so can be fined 75,000 euros/$99,000 USD.

Of course, the polls and other data have been released on Twitter and elsewhere since the quiet period began on Friday. French president Sarkozy has been a critic of the outdated laws, as well, saying: "We're not going to prohibit people from going on the site of The New York Times to learn the results. Are we going to put up a digital border? Are we going to jam computers? What world are we living in, ultimately?"

The results will be released tonight in France.




AfterDawn: News

Report: Porn accounts for 30 percent of all Internet traffic

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 22 Apr 2012 2:03

Report: Porn accounts for 30 percent of all Internet traffic ExtremeTech is reporting today that porn is the biggest driver of Internet traffic.

The site surveyed data pulled from Google's DoubleClick Ad Planner and found that the top adult site on the Web, Xvideos, brought in 4.4 billion page views each month.

Reddit, one of the most popular non-adult sites on the planet, brings in 2.8 billion views each month.

Additionally, porn surfers stay on the site longer than they do on average sites. Assuming a video resolution of 480x200, ExtremeTech estimates that 50GB of data is being downloaded every second from that site, alone.

Overall, the site estimates 30 percent of the data transferred across the web is due to porn sites, beating out warez sites, cyberlockers and streaming sites like Netflix.




AfterDawn: News

Analyst: iPhone 5 is coming in October

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 22 Apr 2012 1:38

Analyst: iPhone 5 is coming in October Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has thrown his prediction out on when the next iPhone is coming.

Munster, known for his accurate analysis on Apple, says the device is likely coming in October, one year after the release of the iPhone 4S.

The device will be physically redesigned for the first time in years, and will include LTE support, as expected.

Despite Qualcomm stating this week it will have supply constraints on certain 28mm chips, Munster says this should not affect Apple whatsoever.

Outside of the redesign and LTE, there is little else known about the upcoming device, its hardware or its software.




AfterDawn: News

Macs still widely infected by Flashback Trojan

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 22 Apr 2012 12:57

Macs still widely infected by Flashback Trojan Dr. Web, the Russian firm which first broke the story of the Flashback botnet running rampant on Macs, has said this weekend that the infection is not shrinking as claimed, and is instead growing.

Several security companies, like Kaspersky and Symantec, had claimed this week that the botnet is shrinking but Dr. Web says that number is still around 650,000, at least.

Symantec, makers of Norton, confirmed Dr. Web's figures later in the day despite their earlier miscalculation. On Wednesday, Symantec said the botnet had shrunk by 60 percent to 140,000 machines infected, while Kaspersky said 30,000. After discussions, Symantec had this to say: "We've been talking with them about the discrepancies in our numbers and theirs. We now believe that their analysis is accurate, and that it explains the discrepancies."

Apple has already patched the Java vulnerability that led to the exploit and is working on a "Flashback removal tool" to help those already infected.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

YouTube loses court case in Germany over music video clips

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 21 Apr 2012 3:07

YouTube loses court case in Germany over music video clips YouTube has lost a case in a Hamburg court this week over music video clips.

The ruling states YouTube is now responsible for the content users post to the site. Additionally, the ruling wants Google to add filters to the site that will identify content users post whose rights are held by GEMA, the German royalty collection group.

YouTube's response: "Today's ruling confirms that YouTube as a hosting platform cannot be obliged to control the content of all videos uploaded to the site.

"We remain committed to finding a solution to the music licensing issue in Germany that will benefit artists, composers, authors, publishers and record labels, as well as the wider YouTube community."


GEMA represents 60,000 German song writers and musicians.




AfterDawn: News

AT&T, T-Mobile have fastest data, Sprint fails horribly

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 21 Apr 2012 2:03

AT&T, T-Mobile have fastest data, Sprint fails horribly PCW has posted their latest smartphone data speed tests, and AT&T and T-Mobile were the clear winners.

Taking measurements of service from 13 cities - Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., the site took average 3G and 4G speeds.

AT&T's 4G LTE network had the fastest downloads speeds and its 3G speeds came in second. T-Mobile's HSPA+ 21 3G speed was far and away the fastest while its HSPA+ 42 4G service was competitive against Verizon and AT&T.

Verizon had the widest service but its LTE could not keep up and its 3G certainly could not, either.

At the lower end, Sprint performed awfully, having fractions of the speeds of T-Mobile and AT&T and Verizon in all categories.









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