Latest news

Concluding their study on piracy in the nation, the Swiss government says downloading unauthorized music and movies will remain legal, as the piracy actually pays for itself and does not cause enough damage to be made illegal.

The report says around 30 percent of all Swiss citizens have regularly pirated music, movies and games over the last 15 years.

However, says TF, "these people don't spend less money as a result because the budgets they reserve for entertainment are fairly constant. This means that downloading is mostly complementary."

Finally, the conclusion is as long as you are only downloading for personal use and not for monetary gain, you will be protected by the law.

Somewhat funnily, the study also says copyright holders should adapt to their present situation where piracy is a fixture.

CD Projekt RED co-founder Marcin Iwinski has said this week that DRM does not work, and should be stopped.

The studio is behind the hits The Witcher and the new The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

As an example, the studio says with no DRM on The Witcher 2, the company has already sold over 1 million legal copies.

Iwinski says he has seen all different types of DRM and anti-piracy measures since the 90s but none has ever worked:

Whatever we used was cracked within a day or two, massively copied and immediately available on the streets for a fraction of our price.

CD Project RED decided to go a different route, and that ended up being a two-part solution. First, their games now include extras, like soundtracks, books, walkthroughs and more. Secondly, the company has been on a "long-term" mission to educate gamers on the positives of buying legal games.

Apple has confirmed it has removed the Match.com app for violating store rules.

The developer added a direct link within the app to the dating service, a direct violation of Apple's policies for in-app subscriptions, says AI.

To quote the store's policy: "Apps can read or play approved content that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app, as long as there is no button or external link in the app to purchase the approved content."

Match.com undoubtedly created in the app in such a manner as to get around Apple's 30 percent revenue cut.

To get their app re-introduced to the Store, Match.com will need to re-work the in-app subscription run through Apple's servers, therefore giving them back their revenue cut.

According to multiple sources, Facebook has acquired the location-based social service Gowalla.

Neither company would comment on the rumor.

Gowalla, which was made popular due to its "check-ins," recently redesigned its mobile apps to move towards "user-generated place recommendations."

Says the CEO Josh Williams: "We wanted to go back to our passion, which is inspiring people to visit new places and visit the world through the eyes of someone they trust."

Gowalla was beginning to feel the heat from check-in services like FourSquare and from daily deal behemoths Groupon and Google. Additionally, Facebook had added its own "Places" location-based deals service, but recently shut it down.

Dell has discontinued sales of its Steak 7 tablet, following less than stellar sales.

The computer company recently discontinued its Streak 5 tablet/smartphone hybrid, citing the same reasons.

Earlier this year, CEO and founder Michael Dell said the Android tablet "market has not developed to the expectations they would have had," suggesting the company is waiting for Windows 8 next year to jump back in the tablet market.

Currently, Dell offers the Inspiron Duo tablet/netbook combo, and its Venue Pro smartphone as its only Android and Windows Phone 7 offerings, leaving its mobile offerings very thin.

The company has a 10-inch Dell Streak Pro available in China, as well, but nowhere else.

(Pic via Verge)

Hyperkin, the console accessory maker has made their much-anticipated SupaBoy handheld Super NES available for purchase on Amazon.

As the company describes it: "The SupaBoy will play original SNES cartridges on a built-in 3.5" LCD screen and is designed to look like an original SNES controller including a D-pad, face buttons, as well as right and left shoulder buttons. The SupaBoy also includes two front loading ports that are compatible with full-size SNES controllers and video/audio out, allowing up to two players to play the SupaBoy on a regular TV screen."

The feature list:

Two seven-pin ports in front for wired controllers
SNES controller design
Screen size (diagonal): 3.5 inches
2.5 Hours battery life
Measures: 8.5 x 4 x 1.5 inches
Weight: 11.5 ounces
Stereo sound
AV Out
Headphone jack
Adjustable volume control

The device is selling for $80 on Amazon, right now.

Sony Reader Wi-Fi cut to $129.99.

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.

With ad-support, the Kindle Touch sells for $139.

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."

Regulators probe use of Carrier IQ software.

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.

Announcement made in New York City.

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."

Facebook is expected to start selling shares to the public in 2012 in one of the most anticipated IPOs in recent years. It reportedly posted about $500 million in net income for the first half of the year, with revenue doubling to $1.6 billion compared to last 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 German media said that opposition groups in Beirut have confirmed that the iPhone ban is genuine.

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.

Judge dismisses Apple injunction demand.

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.

In June, Google acquired the large advertising optimization platform for publishers, AdMeld, for $400 million in cash.

The company launched in 2007 with $30 million in venture capital.

In July, the U.S. DOJ requested more info from Google over its acquisition, for anti-trust purposes.

Today, the DOJ has approved the acquisition:

We're pleased that the U.S. Department of Justice has today cleared this deal. We'll close the acquisition in the coming days and then start the real work-building improved products and services that help our publisher partners to make more informed decisions across all their ad space, and to grow their revenues.

The move is the third major acquisition for Google in the online ad space, with the search giant paying $3.1 billion for DoubleClick in 2007 and $750 million for AdMob in 2009.