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Even with the full details of ACTA having long since been made public, EU officials continue to deny public access to vital information about whether signing it would violate the law.

Although the majority of ACTA negotiators were from EU members, and the EU even sent representatives to the ACTA signing ceremony, a review of the treaty's legal ramifications is required before it can be ratified.

The review process is underway, with a presentation of analysis from the EP Legal Service to the Committee on International Trade (INTA) is scheduled on November 23. However, that analysis will not be released to the public.

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, a non-profit group advocating against ACTA, sent a letter to INTA Chairman Vital Moreira protesting this secrecy. They believe it violates EU law.

They wrote:

On 21 June 2011, the coordinators of the INTA committee decided to ask the Parliament?s legal service an opinion on ACTA. This decision was illegal for two reasons. First, the ACTA text had already been published, the discussion should have taken place in public. Second, coordinators can prepare decisions, but can not take them.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has started a new ad campaign targeting the brand new Super Mario 3D Land video game for the Nintendo 3DS.

The group seems to be up in arms over Mario's "Tanooki" racoon suit.

Says PETA:

Tanooki may be just a 'suit' in Mario games, but in real life, tanuki are raccoon dogs who are skinned alive for their fur. By wearing Tanooki, Mario is sending the message that it's OK to wear fur.

Nintendo was quick to respond to the campaign:

Mario often takes the appearance of certain animals and objects in his games. These have included a frog, a penguin, a balloon and even a metallic version of himself. These lighthearted and whimsical transformations give Mario different abilities and make his games fun to play. The different forms that Mario takes make no statement beyond the games themselves.

Nokia Music, the music playback app for Windows Phone 7 devices, has added "Pandora"-like intelligent playlists based on the owner's own music collections.

The service comes via a deal with The Echo Nest and is called "Mix Radio."

Mix Radio scans the owner's existing collection (on their desktop, not just what is on the device) and then puts together customized radio stations from your music and Nokia's 15 million-strong music catalog.

From then on in, your "Taste Profile" will allow you to create new radio stations from tracks, artists or albums.

The service will be available on the new Lumia 800 starting tomorrow.

(Pic via Slash)

Yesterday, Android Open-Source Project software engineer Jean-Baptiste M. "JBQ" Queru posted that they were pushing the Android 4.0.1 Ice Cream Sandwich source code to the git servers.

As of today, the code is fully available.

Reads the post:

Hi! We just released a bit of code we thought this group might be interested in.
Over at our Android Open-Source Project git servers, the source code for Android version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is now available.

Here's how to get it:Follow the instructions at http://source.android.com/source/downloading.html Check out the
'ics-release' branch:repo init -u
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest -b android-4.0.1_r1
That's it! However since this is a large push, please be aware that it will take some time to complete. If you sync before it's done, you'll get an incomplete copy that you won't be able to use, so please wait for us to give the all-clear before you sync. This is actually the source code for version 4.0.1 of Android, which is the specific version that will ship on the Galaxy Nexus, the first Android 4.0 device. In the source tree, you will find a device build target named "full_maguro" that you can use to build a system image for Galaxy Nexus. Build configurations for other devices will come later.

Unfortunately we still don't have our Gerrit code review servers back online. That remains our top priority though, and we hope to have them back soon.

Facebook has confirmed today that it is investigating into a giant wave of gory and pornographic images that have been posted to the social networking site.

The pictures, links and videos include manipulated pictures of celebrities in sex acts, bestiality and violent acts, sometimes performed on animals.

Says Facebook:

We have recently experienced an increase in reports and we are investigating and addressing the issue. We are always working to improve our systems to isolate and remove material that violates our terms. Protecting the people who use Facebook from spam and malicious content is a top priority for us.

The wave continues to grow as users click on the spam virus unknowingly, thus sending the content to more friends by accident.

Concludes security firm Sophos:

It's precisely this kind of problem which is likely to drive people away from the site. Facebook needs to get a handle on this problem quickly, and prevent it from happening on such a scale again.

A service for reselling legally purchased music downloads, called ReDigi, launched in October month after several months in beta. Now they are faced with a likely legal challenge from the RIAA claiming copyright infringement. A lawsuit has yet to be filed, but the RIAA has sent a threatening letter to ReDigi.

The letter lays out a somewhat complicated case against ReDigi's service which involves two separate claims. They make two different claims against ReDigi. First they claim the fact ReDigi's sales are for copies of the original song, which is not allowed by law.

They also argue offering 30 second previews of songs offered for sale constitutes a violation of the copyright holder's performance right. This claim is significantly weaker. In fact, it's so weak as to be laughable. While royalty collection groups have made a similar claim for years, lawsuits have never been filed because of how weak it is.

Copy or Derivative Work?
Let's look at the first, more serious, claim first. The RIAA letter states (via Ars Technica):

Samsung has decided not to pursue an injunction to ban sales of the iPhone 4S in South Korea. The decision will not affect litigation in other countries.

In response to Apple patent lawsuits around the world which put Samsung's ability to sell Android smartphones in question, Samsung has sued to ban the iPhone 4S based on patent claims of their own.

The South Korean launch of the iPhone 4S was last Saturday, which would mean a request to ban it would likely have already been filed by now if it were coming.

The Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, quoted a senior Samsung executive who said:

We concluded that we should engage in legal battles with Apple only in the global market, but not in order to gain more market share in Korea.

This is probably less significant than you might think. While it is certainly true South Korea is a key smartphone market, it's also where Samsung is based. That has numerous implications for Apple's legal strategy.

Despite all the success Samsung continues to have in the smartphone business, the iPhone continues to be the most popular phone in the US.

According to figures released by the NPD Group, not only was the iPhone 4 the most popular smartphone in Q3, but the iPhone 3GS retained its place at number two. What that means is that not only does the iPhone continue to lead sales of premium smartphones, with the iPhone 3GS Apple also has the most popular budget model.

This is significant if you consider there are a number of Android phones available for a similar price which are technologically superior to the iPhone 3GS. It also puts Apple's lawsuit campaign against various Android vendors, particularly Samsung, into perspective.

It's hard to imagine how it would be possible to sell more iPhones. Apple already has problems keeping up with demand. What Samsung, HTC, and others are doing isn't taking Apple customers. They're expanding the market, which clearly benefits Apple.

Retailers in the US appear to be preparing to capitalize on the wealth of smaller and cheaper Android tablets on the market to help spark sales on Black Friday.

It's hard to say whether that will ultimately be better for Android or Apple. There are a lot of cheap Android tablets, but there are reasons those tablets are cheap.

Companies like Amazon or Barnes & Noble can sell pretty good hardware for around the same price as it costs (less in Amazon's case) because they are using them to push other revenue streams. Those companies are the exception, not the rule.

If you want to gauge what a realistic price for a tablet being sold for profit instead of a sales tool, you should look at the models sold by Samsung or Asus, or newer Archos models. Tablets from those companies start at $300.

Looking through a list of Black Friday sale items, there are certainly some of those tablets represented, but there are also a few big deals likely to leave a bad impression on the buyer (via AndroidGuys):

Razer, the company behind the upcoming 17-inch Blade gaming laptop has said today that two prototypes have been stolen from their R&D lab in California.

The company says they are working with authorities and is urging fans not to purchase the laptops online, or via classified ads.

What makes the Blade a "gaming laptop" is the fact that it has customizable keys that require custom software from developers.

Additionally, the laptop has an LCD panel next to the keys that serves as either a multi-touch controller or to show in-game stats like lives, ammo, etc.

The Razer Blade has a 17-inch display, an Intel Core i7 at 3.5GHz, 8GB DDR3 memory and a GeForce GT555m with 2GB GDDR5. The laptop will sell for $2800.

For the first time since 2004, album sales have actually increased although revenue continues to fall.

Thanks to Spotify, discounts and major releases like Lady Gaga, the music industry is on pace to see its first sales growth in over half a decade.

On exec was very happy with the figures, Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy (Vivendi owns Universal Music Group):

There's a clear rebound in music sales this year. We don't want to claim victory. But the music industry may be at a turning point.

Overall sales, which include record albums, digital downloads, compact discs, some vinyl LPs and cassettes, are up 3 percent, to the tune of 255 million albums sold, says Bloomberg.

Levy says he believes across-the-board lower prices has helped the cause, with most new albums now launching at $9-$10 compared to $14-$20 in the early 2000s.

In 2000, boy bands lead the charge to a record 785 million units sold and declines have been steady since.

Spanish blog TecnoDroidVe has posted screenshots of the upcoming Google Music download service.

Currently, Google Music is a free cloud streaming service that allows you to upload your music and access it from anywhere with an Internet connection, including your Android device.

The blogger says he stumbled upon the non-operational store from his HTC Inspire 4G.

In the store, you can see recommendations for artists and a "free song of the day," similar to other music stores.

The store is expected to be announced officially on Wednesday although potentially without music from Sony or Warner, two of the Big 4 labels.

Inaccurate predictions about new Apple products are nothing new. Apple's secrecy about new products is legendary.

At the same time, when the iPhone 4S came out it was striking just how wrong everybody was about it. While there were rumors of a new iPhone 4, normally reputable sources were indicating a redesigned iPhone with a new shape and bigger display was on the horizon.

So how did everybody get it so wrong?

According to Business Week they might not have. An unnamed source claims to have had a prototype of the mythical new iPhone in his hands.

Their source, whose story they admit has not been corroborated to date, claims the new iPhone had a bigger display and thinner profile than the iPhone 4S. He also says it may have been cancelled by Steve Jobs over concerns it would fragment the iPhone line.

It's hard to guess whether any of this is true at the moment, but it does fit in with reports from as recently as September.

At the time, it was rumored there would be two new iPhones coming out. The first was said to be basically what Business Week describes and the second was expected to be an upate of the iPhone 4 to be sold in developing markets like China.

This weekend we reported that Apple was recalling its 1st generation iPod Nano music players in the U.S. and sending all those affected replacements.

It was unclear, however, if users would be sent the same model (which launched in 2005) or a new media player, which is now in its 6th iteration.

Today, Apple has made it clear that they will be shipping out the same model (1st Gen) and that turn-around time is 6 weeks.

Original article:

Apple has announced this week that it is recalling its first generation iPad Nano in the U.S.
The devices, which launched in September 2005, apparently have a rare overheating issue.

Apple is telling users to stop using their devices immediately and the company will replace them for free.

Battery overheating issues on the 1G iPod Nano is not a new issue, and the replacement program is expanding to add the U.S. It is currently available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Reads the post:

Iran has confirmed today that their computer defense systems have been hit by the super-virus dubbed "Duqu."

Last year, the "Stuxnet" worm successfully knocked out the Iranian nuclear centrifuges, the devices used to enrich uranium.

Says Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Iran's civil defense program:

We are in the initial phase of fighting the Duqu virus. The final report which says which organisations the virus has spread to and what its impacts are has not been completed yet.

All the organisations and centers that could be susceptible to being contaminated are being controlled.

Duqu, unlike Stuxnet which actually altered the speed of the centrifuges causing them to break down, seems to be aimed at gaining remote access to computer systems.

Security firm Symantec had this to say about Duqu (via The Telegraph):

It is apparent to Symantec that the authors of this new threat had access to the Stuxnet source code, not just Stuxnet binaries.