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AfterDawn: News

LulzSec spokesperson 'Topiary' arrested

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 Jul 2011 12:38

LulzSec spokesperson 'Topiary' arrested Scotland Yard has announced that LulzSec spokesperson 'Topiary' has been arrested today.

A specialist cybercrime group raided a house in Scotland's Shetland Islands, arresting the 19-year-old.

Topiary, who is said to only be the spokesperson for the group and not actually involved in any of the "hacking," has given a handful of interviews in the past weeks.

The teen also gave interviews when he was a part of Anonymous.

LulzSec, despite disbanding last month, the group caused 50 days of mayhem, hacking police officials, corporations and revealing emails/passwords.




AfterDawn: News

Current free Fox TV shows to disappear behind pay wall

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 Jul 2011 1:14

Current free Fox TV shows to disappear behind pay wall News Corp. has confirmed today that it will delay free online access to new episodes of Fox programming for 8 days after its TV broadcast.

You can get earlier access to the shows, on-demand, if you have a Hulu Plus subscription or any other participating pay-TV service.

The paywall will begin on August 15th with the new seasons of the hit shows "Family Guy" and "The Simpsons."

Fox says the move is designed to "enhance the value" of pay-TV subscriptions, and it is the first broadcaster to do so.

ABC and CBS are also expected to start a paywall in the future, says Bloomberg.




AfterDawn: News

WD to launch two new raptor HDDs

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 Jul 2011 12:43

WD to launch two new raptor HDDs Western Digital has announced it will launch two new Velociraptor HDDs, offering 10,000rpm speeds to users who may not be ready to jump on the SSD bandwagon.

The 5th generation drives, released last year in 450GB and 600GB varieties, will now be available in 150GB and 300GB models.

Each drive will have native SATA 6Gbps support and 32MB of cache, replacing the older SATA II interface and 16MB cache.

Despite being HDD tech, the drives are still not too cheap, with the 150GB model starting at €120 ($175 USD) and the 300GB model at €144 ($210 USD).

The drives are available at a few retailers with greater availability in the next few weeks.




AfterDawn: News

Wal-Mart is back in the movie rental business

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 Jul 2011 12:15

Wal-Mart is back in the movie rental business Wal-Mart has announced it has gotten back into the movie rental business for the first time since early 2010.

The retail giant has begun streaming and renting movies online, day-and-date with their physical DVD counterparts.

Wal-Mart bought VUDU last year, and the companies now offer 20,000 titles.

A few devices that support VUDU are the PS3, Blu-ray players, Sony Bravia HDTVs and a number of set-top boxes.

Rentals cost $1-$5.99 at walmart.com.




AfterDawn: News

iPhone 5 coming September 5th?

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Jul 2011 5:09

iPhone 5 coming September 5th? According to multiple reports, the iPhone 5 will be announced next month with a September 5th launch date.

The early September launch will be for U.S.-only, however, with international launches being rolled out starting in October.

Allegedly, Apple is hiring more staff for next month, and AT&T has begun training employees for the upcoming release.

Apple broke its traditional June launch cycle for the iPhone, instead introducing iOS 5, OS X Lion and the iCloud.

It is still unclear if the iPhone 5 will be the only new model introduced by Apple, as many reports expect the company to also launch an "iPhone 4S," a slightly improved version of the current model which Apple will sell as pre-paid.




AfterDawn: News

Apple planning store in Grand Central (pics included)

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Jul 2011 1:20

Apple planning store in Grand Central (pics included) The MTA has showed off a rendering of the proposed Apple Store in Grand Central, which is expected to be approved today.

If approved, Apple will begin building immediately and have construction completed by December.

Apple bought out the space currently rented by Charlie Palmer’s Metrazur restaurant for $5 million, ensuring Palmer breaks his lease 8 years early.

The MTA says Apple will pay $1.1 million rent per year, a significantly higher amount than Metrazur which was paying $263,997.

Besides the space in the east balcony, Apple will take the vacant, adjacent balcony, as well. Overall, the company will occupy 23,000 square feet, making Grand Central its 3rd largest store.

Finally, the Authority also noted that popular hamburger joint Shake Shack would be moving into Grand Central, says the WSJ.





AfterDawn: News

HTC willing to work patent deal with Apple

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Jul 2011 12:53

HTC willing to work patent deal with Apple Following a year-long debate, Apple recently gained the upper hand in its patent debate with HTC.

In an early decision, an ITC Judge ruled that HTC was violating two patents owned by Apple.

HTC, may have its own case, however, as S3 Graphics recently won its lawsuit against Apple, with the ITC ruling Apple violated two patents owned by S3. HTC just completed an acquisition of S3 for $300 million.

Today, HTC CFO Winston Yung says the company may be willing to put all this behind them and settle out of court with a licensing agreement.

A settlement will likely include a one-time royalty payment and then ongoing licensing fees.




AfterDawn: News

Norway terrorist used video games to train

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Jul 2011 12:35

Norway terrorist used video games to train Anders Behring Breivik, the 32-year-old psychopath behind this week's tragedy in Norway, has detailed how he used video games to train for the massacre.

On Monday, Breivik set off a bomb outside of a government building then shot up a labor party youth camp, killing 93 people (mainly teenagers) in his spree.

In a 1500 page manifesto, the terrorist explains his use of Modern Warfare 2:

I just bought Modern Warfare 2, the game. It is probably the best military simulator out there and it’s one of the hottest games this year. I see MW2 more as a part of my training-simulation than anything else.


The killer published the manifesto, in English, giving a view into his violent philosophy and the extensive planning that took place before the attack. Breivik was considered extreme right-wing in his political stance.

Adds Breivik in the manifesto (via ITP):

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

AT&T: 2011 Android devices will all receive Gingerbread

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Jul 2011 12:22

AT&T: 2011 Android devices will all receive Gingerbread AT&T has noted this week that all Android phones released in 2011 will be updated to Gingerbread, a welcome development for consumers.

So far, those phones are the HTC Inspire 4G, LG Phoenix, Motorola ATRIX 4G, Pantech Crossover, Samsung Captivate and the Samsung Infuse 4G.

Google released Gingerbread (2.3) last December with the launch of the Nexus S, and the firmware has been updated to 2.3.4 since. However, the majority of current Android phones still do not have the update, especially if your phone was released earlier than this summer.

AT&T did add that some of the phones will get the updates OTA but others will require a manual download.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

BlackBerry maker to cut 2000 more jobs

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Jul 2011 2:20

BlackBerry maker to cut 2000 more jobs RIM, the company behind the BlackBerry line of smartphones, says they will cut another 2000 jobs, around 11 percent of their current workforce.

The new cuts are part of a broader plan to "focus on areas that offer the highest growth opportunities."

Officials will notify the employees in North America (and some outside of Canada and the US) this week, as part of their "cost optimization" program.

With the cuts, RIM will eliminate redundancies and reallocate the funds to areas that offer "the highest growth opportunity" in RIM's new plans.

All those fired will be given a severance package and outplacement support.

RIM has quickly moved from top U.S. smartphone vendor to third place behind Android and iPhone, as growth and popularity have sputtered.




AfterDawn: News

Zynga, Tencent team up for Chinese version of 'CityVille'

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Jul 2011 1:24

Zynga, Tencent team up for Chinese version of 'CityVille' Social gaming giant Zynga has announced today that they have teamed up with Tencent to begin offering a Chinese version of the popular 'CityVille' game.

Dubbed "Zynga City," the new game will be available via Tencent’s Pengyou service, in Chinese language, and with new elements that integrate Chinese traditional and pop culture, says BW.

Tencent is China's largest provider of online games, and Zynga is the largest social gaming company on Facebook with 271 million active monthly users playing games like CityVille, FarmVille, Live Hold Em Poker Pro and Empires & Allies.

CityVille, by itself, has 88 million monthly users on Facebook.

Zynga plans to IPO next month, raising $1 billion for itself with a $16-$20 billion valuation.




AfterDawn: News

Netflix gets crushed following earnings report

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Jul 2011 1:00

Netflix gets crushed following earnings report Two weeks ago, Netflix announced that it had separated its DVD and streaming services, which means if you want both, the price just increased substantially.

1-DVD-at-time unlimited plans will cost $7.99 per month, the cheapest it has ever been, but if you want unlimited streaming you will need to pay an additional $7.99. That is a $6 price hike if you subscribe to the current $9.99 mixed plan.

Tonight, the company's stock is being crushed following an earnings report that was "okay" at best.

The stock is down 10 percent as the company said it expects much slower subscriber growth into the future due to the price raise.

Additionally, the company put rumors to rest that it will be integrating with Facebook, saying they will indeed, but not in the U.S due to video sharing restrictions.

Furthermore, 75 percent of new subscribers were streaming-only, and Netflix says it expects they will have 12 million DVD+Streaming, 10 million streaming-only, and 3 million DVD-only customers by the end of the next quarter. In their mind, DVD-only subscriptions have "peaked" noted the rental company.




AfterDawn: News

OS X Lion breaks over a dozen Adobe products

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 Jul 2011 9:01

OS X Lion breaks over a dozen Adobe products Adobe has confirmed today that Apple's latest operating system, OS X Lion, breaks over 12 of their products, another stage in the ongoing saga between the two companies that began with Apple banning Flash from running on iOS devices.

The software company notes that most of its products are currently missing functionality in Lion.

Apple banned Flash from iOS devices like the iPhone, citing performance, security and battery life concerns.

Says Adobe of the Lion fiasco:

The cat is out of the bag! Mac OS X 10.7 aka Lion is roaming the streets and you brave Mac IT admins have been deemed Lion Tamers by the public at large. Or at least by me. I've managed a few OS compatibility assessments in my past and it is no easy task to gather up all the necessary info from the software publishers that are used in your environment, run/coordinate testing, etc.


Popular software affected include Acrobat, Adobe Drive, Contribute, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst, Flash Player, Lightroom, LiveCycle, Photoshop and Premiere Pro.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Apple considering launching white iPod Touch

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 Jul 2011 8:31

Apple considering launching white iPod Touch According to multiple leaked images, it appears Apple is at least considering launching a white iPod Touch 5th generation, perhaps as soon as September when the devices are expected to launch.

One analyst, Concord Security's Ming-Chi Kuo says both the white and standard black models will launch in tandem, like how Verizon did so with their iPhone launch earlier this year.

Furthermore, the device is expected to have a similar form factor to the current 4th generation model.

Like the iPhone, the Touch is also expected to see an upgrade to a dual-core A5 processor, and a better camera.

Leaked photo via 9to5:




AfterDawn: News

Firefox headed to Honeycomb tablets this year?

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 Jul 2011 7:48

Firefox headed to Honeycomb tablets this year? According to multiple sources, Mozilla's upcoming Firefox 8 may be headed to Honeycomb tablets by the end of the year.

The popular browser has been in alpha version for mobile devices for some time now.

Mozilla is planning to bring a "rich, touch-friendly, magazine-like feel to web browsing," including the Awesome bar and other tweaked UI features from the desktop version.

For the most part, the Honeycomb version will be a tweaked version of the mobile app, optimized for larger resolutions and screen sizes.

Here are a few mockups, via Laze:







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