Technology archive for 2011-05-25

Christian Zibreg / 9 to 5 Mac:iPad 2, iPhone 4 set India, Ukraine and Russia on fire ahead of Friday launch (Brazil and Chile, too)  —  With Russia from love.  Russian tourist Alex Shumilov camped outside New York's Fifth Avenue Apple Store to be the first to buy an iPad 2.  Image credit: PCMag.com

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:Google Maps For Mobile Crosses 200 Million Installs; In June It Will Surpass Desktop Usage  —  Today at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York City, Google's Marissa Mayer sat down with our own Michael Arrington.  She's an old pro dealing with Mike — she's actually been to every event we've ever put on.

PlayStation Network security concerns aside, Sony's latest bundle is actually a pretty good deal.

The other day my ZDNet blogging colleague David Gewirtz posted a tip on how to improve the iPhone battery life 'by, like, a billion percent' (I think Gewirtz might be exaggerating just a little...

Stopping spam is an almost futile effort if the focus continues to be on spam filtering and botnet takedown, according to a research team from the University of California, San Diego, the University of California, Berkeley, The International Computer Science Institute and Budapest University. These measures are simply like cutting the head off of a hydra monster, because spammers quickly find ways to replace lost resources.

adeelarshad82 writes "Russian company ElcomSoft is claiming to have cracked the 256-bit hardware encryption Apple uses to protect the data on iOS 4 devices, and is offering software that allows anyone to do it. ElcomSoft can now gain full access to what is stored on a gadget such as the iPhone 4. This includes historical information such as geolocation data, browsing history, call history, text messages and emails, usernames, and passwords." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Having trouble keeping Sony's slim VAIO S series laptops straight? It's okay, we are, too, especially now that the company's unveiled the SA series, a 13.3-inch ultraportable that's poised to go toe to toe with the skinny Lenovo ThinkPad X1. Although it's got almost the same magnesium-and-alloy chassis as the VAIO SB series we saw at CES, the SA is a hair thinner, at 0.95 inches, and comes standard with AMD Radeon HD 6630 graphics and 1GB of video memory, 1600 x 900 resolution, a 500GB hard drive, fingerprint reader, and a Blu-ray drive. You can also trick it out with a dual channel solid-state drive, which promises to help let you work up to 16 hours unplugged if you combine it with a $100 sheet battery. The catch: you'll have to fork out a minimum of $3,105 just to snag one with an SSD.If the SA's $1,375 starting price is more than you're willing to spend, there's still the SB series, though the $999 base model naturally has less impressive specs, including 512MB of video memory, 1366 x 768 resolution, a DVD player, and a Core i5 -- not Core i7 -- processor. For what its worth, its color options now include pink and navy, if that floats your boat more than the high-end SA's black, silver, and brown palette.In other news, Sony's also taking orders for the VAIO F Series, which comes in two flavors: one with a 16-inch 3D display with a 2D-to-3D conversion button, starting at $1,840, and a 16.4-inch 2D model with a more modest $799 base price. But if you want a 2D display[..]

Kellex / Droid Life:New Blockbuster App for the DROID Charge Also Hates Rooted Users, Blocks Movie Access  —  Just after Google I/O finished and Android 3.1 started popping up on XOOMs across the nation, we quickly realized that its newly announced movie service was not so root-friendly.

Summer is just around the corner, which means it's time for device manufacturers to release their high-profile Android devices all at the same time to pre-empt the iPhone 5 hype machine.

First, Apple releases a support note admitting that Mac Defender is indeed a problem, providing instructions on how to clean it, and announcing an upcoming patch to prevent it. Then a new version of the malware appears almost immediately, one that automatically runs its installer (if you haven’t already disabled Safari’s Open “Safe” Files After Downloading setting), without requiring your administrative password.

A U.S. senator calls on Google and Apple to require location apps to have privacy policies.

Sony has updated its S Series ultraportable and F Series desktop replacement adding Intel's second-generation Core processors and other new features.

Spotify, a popular European music streaming service, could launch on Facebook in as little as two weeks.

The days of the "try-buy" gaming model are limited thanks to the onslaught of free and ad-supported mobile gaming apps available.

Rumors regarding Pioneer's AppRadio hit the web last month, promising unparalleled iDevice integration for our automobiles. Pioneer has finally unleashed the double-DIN device, and it's everything we thought it would be. There's an 800 x 400 6.1-inch multitouch capacitive display, Bluetooth connectivity, and it teams up with your iPhone or iPod touch (running iOS 4.2) via a 30-pin connector and Pioneer's AppRadio app. There's full iPod music control and Google Maps integration, and specially formatted apps from Rdio and Pandora. Pioneer suggests a price "below $500" when it goes on sale June 22nd. We're going hands-on with the new stereo as we speak, so peruse the PR after the break and stay tuned for pics and impressions.Continue reading Pioneer unveils its AppRadio, integrates iOS into your automobilePioneer unveils its AppRadio, integrates iOS into your automobile originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 16:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Matthew Lasar / Epicenter:How Will States Tax Internet Downloads?  Congress May Decide  —  Here's an interesting conundrum, posed by Representative Dennis Ross (R-FL), at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing held on Monday:  —  “Imagine you are sitting in Dulles airport in Virginia, waiting for a flight back to Florida,” Ross began in his opening remarks.

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:Chill Out!  Spotify on Facebook Is Cool, Not a Game Changer.  —  Are Facebook and Spotify linking up?  Entirely possible.  —  But before we get too excited about the prospect, here's what a Facebook/Spotify pact would likely look like: Instead of using Spotify's software to play music …

Hugh Pickens writes writes "he NY Times reports that a global petition drive has started to add Wikipedia to one of UNESCO's world heritage lists joining such historic monuments and natural sites as the Great Barrier Reef, the Great Wall of China, and the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur. 'The basic idea is to recognize that Wikipedia is this amazing global cultural phenomena that has transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people,' says Jimmy Wales. 'Too often, people think about us purely in terms of technology, when this is about culture, high tech and learning.' Getting Wikipedia listed will be an uphill battle although a petition drive has already started. It will have to negotiate a complicated approval process and overcome the skeptical regard of Unesco and heritage consultants to be considered for recognition. Susan Williams, the head of external media relations at Unesco in Paris, said a bid by a digital entity like Wikipedia would be unprecedented. 'Anyone can apply,' says Williams, who added that she was not aware of Wikipedia's plans. 'But it may have difficulty fulfilling the criteria.' The problem is that to be included on the World Heritage List alongside the Great Wall of China, Wikipedia must be found 'to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius,' which it's not says Adam Chen. 'We like dorking around on Wikipedia as much as the next person,' writes Chen. 'But Wikipedia resembles less the masterpiece of a genius than the fixation of an[..]

BOSTON (Reuters) - Apple Inc is fighting what security experts say may be the most pernicious types of computer virus to ever target its line of Mac computers.

AALBORG, Denmark (Reuters) - How much interaction with a robot are we prepared for and is that interaction different if the robot appears to be a person?

SHENZHEN/PARIS (Reuters) - Microsoft's new Windows Phone platform won instant support from major manufacturers on Wednesday when China's ZTE and Taiwan's HTC Corp pledged to launch smartphones running the software.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The prospect of a mammoth $12 billion investment by iPhone maker Foxconn Technology Group has sent Brazilian government officials scrambling to rethink the country's industrial policy.

A federal court has issued a subpoena to Infosys that seeks information on the Indian outsourcer's use of the B-1 visa.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday he's not trying to allow kids under 13 on the social networking site, that Facebook isn't developing any gadgets and he's too young to worry about his legacy.

PlayStation Network users on Wednesday reported getting e-mails from Sony with details on how to enroll in a promised free identity theft protection program with insurance of up to $1 million.

Cyber crooks are infecting popular mobile platforms through malicious applications and, unfortunately, no mobile platform is immune from the destruction it can cause.

If you still haven't given in to your hankering for a PlayStation 3, you might want to check out this promotion Sony is teasing. The company just announced a limited edition PS3 bundle pairing Call of Duty: Black Ops with a 160GB console. For $299, Sony's also throwing in the First Strike content pack -- not too shabby, considering that's the standard price for a bare console. Depending on your proclivities, that may or may not trump a complimentary RC toy or Michael Jackson singalong, but if you're a first-time buyer with a taste for first-person shooters, it should be right up your alley. No word on when, exactly, it will go on sale, except that it's "coming soon."Sony announces 160GB PlayStation 3 bundle with Call of Duty: Black Ops originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 16:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  Sony  | Email this | Comments

Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Microsoft Report Blog:Mac malware authors release a new, more dangerous version  —  Yesterday, 25 days after the Mac Defender malware began to appear in the wild, Apple finally responded.  In a technical support note, “How to avoid or remove Mac Defender malware,” the company posted instructions for users to follow …

NetApp reported a strong finish to its fiscal year and upped the outlook for the next quarter.

Gold, sapphire crystal, and leather combine to make a Nokia phone that is both unique and, well, expensive.

In three weeks, we'll see the first Chromebooks, the Samsung Series 5 and the Acer Wi-Fi Chromebook, here's what to expect.

A top AT&T exec says the company will have 70 million points of presence covered by LTE by the end of the year. That tally equates to more than 15 more markets.

Microsoft is said to be working on an overhaul of its Windows Live SkyDrive storage service. There's no official word as to whether it will be ready this year or some time after Windows 8 ships.

Georgina Prodhan / Reuters:HTC CEO says Windows Mango phones in development  —  (Reuters) - Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC plans to bring out phones based on Microsoft's new Mango Windows phone software, which was launched on Tuesday, HTC Chief Executive Peter Chou said on Wednesday.  —  Microsoft hopes a host …

Hours after Apple owned up to a fake security software scam campaign, the "scareware" gang released a new variant with a streamlined installation process that doesn't require a victim's password, a French antivirus firm said today.

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Peter Wayner test-drives five leading JavaScript servers and finds the results compelling though still a work-in-progress. 'I enjoyed the challenge and stimulation of rethinking everything I know about the server, but I still found myself hesitant to push these new ideas too far or too fast. The speed of experimentation and development is heady and exciting to the open source crowd, but it will probably seem scary to corporate developers who like the long, stable lives of tools from Microsoft or Oracle. Some of these platforms will probably morph three or four times over the next few years, something that won't happen to the good, old JSP standard in the Java world,' Wayner writes in review of Node.js, Jaxer, EJScript, RingoJS, and AppengineJS." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Spotify may still be in tough negotiations with record labels to bring its streaming music service to the US, but the Swedish company has managed to score a powerful stateside ally, reportedly striking a partnership with Facebook. Neither party is dropping any cash on the deal -- set to be called either "Facebook Music" or "Spotify on Facebook," according to Forbes's anonymous sources -- which will let members of the social network stream songs at the same time as friends and share their listening habits with those in their social circle. The service is reportedly currently in testing and could be launched in a fortnight, but its arrival in the US still hinges on those ever important label deals. In the meantime, we'll all have to share our listening habits the old fashioned way: by posting on our friends' walls.Spotify and Facebook partner up, send Europe a friend request? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 16:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  Forbes  | Email this | Comments

We've been waiting on wireless 4G technology to expand coverage across the United States since telecoms began promoting it years ago. Finally, we're starting to see results.

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:The Top 10 VC Firms, According To InvestorRank  —  Any seasoned investor knows that past performance is not indicative of future returns.  That is as true with public stocks as it is with venture capital firms.  But if someone were to ask you to rank the top VC firms today based on their probability of success, how would you do it?

Dell is expanding their manufacturing plant in Chennai, India to increase their mobile export quantities. LG is hoping to make a dent in Samsung's dominance by coming up with 45 handsets in 2011....

A conversation I had in a coffee shop today with Bernie, a typical Kindle user, convinced me that the Kindle has already won the ebook war.

PARIS (Reuters) - Google Inc Chairman Eric Schmidt and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg warned governments to tread lightly on Internet regulation because moves to tame its rough edges risked hurting its virtues.

We're not quite sure why Microsoft didn't make mention of it during its big event yesterday, but the company has now confirmed that its forthcoming "Mango" update will also bring with it another big addition to the Windows Phone scene: a web-based Marketplace. That will of course let you browse and buy apps right from your favorite web browser, and then have them installed on your phone ("via SMS or email," apparently). You'll also be able to take advantage of various social networking tie-ins to share apps with your friends, and the Marketplace will hang onto your download history so you can easily reinstall all of your apps if you switch phones -- and, yes, you can count on plenty of Bing integration as well.Microsoft to launch web-based Windows Phone Marketplace alongside 'Mango' originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 15:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  Windows Phone Developer Blog  | Email this | Comments

Joe Mullin / paidContent:HuffPo Lawyers Can't Get ‘Idea Stealing’ Lawsuit Thrown Out  —  The class-action lawsuit filed by Jonathan Tasini isn't the only questionable legal claim that The Huffington Post is fighting off right now.  Last year—that is, six years after The Huffington Post was founded …

BlueStacks has been on the path to streamline support for Android OS apps on Windows-based devices. With some newly-secured venture capital, it's still on track.

DeviceGuru writes "In-Stat is questioning whether dedicated streaming media players like the Roku player, Boxee Box, and Google TV boxes will be around for long. The reason, says In-Stat, is that IP-streamed video is becoming a standard feature of TVs and Blu-ray players. Passing fad? Not according to this blog post at DeviceGuru, which argues that we're talking about a disruptive market, not a mature one, and that TVs and Blu-ray players can't possibly provide the flexibility to serve as the platform for delivering rapidly evolving technologies to the early adopters who represent the testbed for all this innovation." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Verizon Wireless said LG's Revolution, an LTE-ready smartphone, will be sold in stores and online Thursday for $249.99 and a two-year service plan.

May 21 didn't turn out to be the end of the world. But it did bring a reminder that the world is an increasingly risky place for mobile devices.

Sprint and Motorola have a little special something up their sleeves, and are holding a luncheon to show off their latest "collaborations" on June 9th. Since big bosses CEO Dan Hesse and Sanjay Jha will be in attendance, and the event will be held during Apple's WWDC, we have a feeling this is going to be something big. Whatever this project is, it's been kept under the radar very well -- until now. We're hearing buzz about a Tegra 2-powered device planned for a launch next month; different reports have come out over the last few days claiming Sprint will finally take a turn sporting a Tegra 2 Android -- the yin to the EVO 3D's yang, we suppose -- sometime next month.The device may be called the Motorola Photon 4G, a name that first appeared in a WiFi certification form (seen after the break) a month ago. According to the rumors, Sprint was ready to launch its own version of the Atrix 4G back in March, but stalled the phone's release in order to make a few design changes. Some of these changes supposedly include a 4.3-inch display, Gingerbread pre-installed, and a look that closely resembles the EVO 4G (it would even come with a kickstand). The Photon 4G is a probability for the event, but note that the invite mentions "collaborations," implying there will be more than one product to showcase. This could mean a Xoom with WiMAX is just about ready for primetime -- or perhaps it's something else magical and unexpected. No matter what's hiding in Hesse's pocket on June 9th,[..]

It's not the technology, stupid. The most important innovations on cloud platforms are going to happen at a business level - reshaping business to fight new competitive threats and grab new...