Volume 14, Issue 21 Atari Online News, Etc. June 1, 2012
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2012
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
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A-ONE #1421 06/01/12
~ Facebook Privacy "Vote" ~ People Are Talking! ~ Activision Settles!
~ Stuxnet Against the US? ~ Oracle Suffers Setback ~ Anonymous Comments!
~ Wii U, Sequels at E3? ~ ‘Flame’ Virus vs Iran! ~ Dutch Rejects ACTA!
~ Facebook To Buy Opera? ~ Final Windows 8 Tests! ~ Megaupload Lawyers!
-* Facebook Stock Closes Lower! *-
-* Playing Video Games With Your Mind! *-
-* Mitt Romney’s Official App America Gaffe! *-
->From the Editor’s Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
TOUT Tr re Oe ee ee ee ee
The U.S. presidential campaign is on - Romney versus Obama. Already the
gloves are off in what is already being predicted as the most negative
presidential campaign ever. And you know what, I believe it. Obama has
a lot to defend in the hopes to get reelected. I’ll be curious to learn
what his campaign’s "catch-phrase" will be this time around!
Still hectic around here these days. We’re still working to get my
in-laws ready to move into their new digs. It’s quite a chore to figure
out immediate needs to essentially start life all over again. Most of
the daily life needs that we all take for granted have to be determined,
a
L
nd obtained all over again. I don’t know how everyone is able to manage
it all, but they are, somehow.
Again, it’s another late release this week, so I’m going to finish off
this issue and let you have at it!
Until next time...
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Activision Settles with ’Modern Warfare 2’ Ma
kers!
TOW TT Te Wr ae Oe Oe We ae ee ae ee oe ee oe ee oe ee ee ee ee Wil U, Sequels Take Another Swing at E3!
Video Games You Play with Your Mind!
—>A-ONE’s Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
TOUT Wr Or Oe Or ee Oe ee ee oe ee ee
Activision Settles with ’Modern Warfare 2’ Makers
The makers of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" and game publisher
Activision Blizzard Inc. have agreed to lay down arms in a legal fight
over millions of dollars in royalties.
The two sides said Thursday that they had settled the matter out of court.
The terms were not disclosed.
Activision, a subsidiary of France’s Vivendi SA, said it doesn’t believe
the settlement’s one-time expense will materially affect its earnings
outlook for the current quarter or calendar year due to unexpectedly good
performance recently.
Jason West and Vincent Zampella, former heads of Activision game studio
Infinity Ward, had sued Activision for wrongful dismissal after the company
fired them in March 2010. The pair claimed they were fired to avoid paying
them bonuses and sought more than $36 million based on the game’s profits
following its release in November 2009. They later raised their claim to
over $1 billion.
Activision countersued, accusing them of conspiring to take their secrets
to rival Electronic Arts Inc. and breaching their contractual and financial
duties. Activision also said West and Zampella poisoned the atmosphere at
Infinity Ward against Activision, prompting dozens of developers to follow
them out the door.
[The pair later formed a new company called Respawn Entertainment LLC,
which is currently developing games for EA.
Two weeks ago, Activision and EA settled a lawsuit over whether EA unfairly
recruited th xecutives while they were under contract.
EA hailed the settlement between Activision and the game developers as a
victory.
"Activision’s refusal to pay their talent and attempt to blame EA were
absurd. This settlement is a vindication of Vince and Jason, and the right
of creative artists to collect the rewards due for their hard work," it
said in a statement.
Shares of Activision rose 9 cents to $11.83 in after-hours trading after
closing down 17 cents, or 1.4 percent, at $11.74. EA shares were unchanged
after-hours but had closed down 53 cents, or 3.8 percent, at $13.62 in the
regular session.
GI
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Wii U, Sequels Take Another Swing at
Is the Wii U right for you?
At last year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Nintendo captured most
of the spotlight by unveiling the Wii’s successor, a high-definition
console called the Wii U that utilizes a tablet-like touchscreen
controller. Attention alone wasn’t enough to declare a victory. Folks
weren’t, well, feeling it. Critical reaction was mixed, and the Japanese
gaming giant’s stock dropped.
"Nintendo has an uphill battle this year," said Morgan Webb, co-host of
the G4 gaming show "X-Play." ’’It’s really a branding problem. I think a
lot of people are still confused about the Wii U. They’re going to have a
hard time convincing people that this could be a better gaming experience
than the iPad."
At this year’s E3 convention in Los Angeles next week, Nintendo Co. will
attempt to assuage such concerns by introducing gamers to titles that will
be available for Wii U when it’s expected to launch later this year.
Previously, the "Mario Bros." creator only teased what was capable through
a series of technology demonstrations.
E3 comes at a time when the gaming industry could use a few good parties
and pep talks. The NPD Group, a research firm that tracks the U.S. sales
of game software, hardware and accessories, said that while consumers
spent more than $1 billion on games and accompanying gizmos in April,
retail sales fell 32 percent from a year ago, the fifth month of decline.
The continued interest in cheaper-to-produce mobile, social and
downloadable games is expected to be showcased more than ever before at
E3, a flashy extravaganza typically focused on building buzz for the
loudest and sexiest games. Zynga, the developer of social games like
"FarmVille" and "Words With Friends," will have a presence at E3 for the
first time.
"Every time I go to E3, I’m usually surprised," said Jay Wilson, lead
designer of the role-playing game "Diablo III." ’’I expect to be surprised
again. What I hope is that no matter what platform people are working on,
no matter what new area that they’re exploring, the most important thing
is gameplay. If a game provides great gameplay, the platform doesn’t really
matter."
Indeed, a strong line-up of games will be integral to the future success
of the Wii U, a lesson Nintendo learned the hard way after last year’s
lackluster launch of the 3DS, its glasses-free 3-D handheld device.
"X-Play’s" Webb thinks Nintendo could win over the E3 crowd if it
introduces innovative, unexpected, must-own games that appeal equally to
both hardcore and casual gamers.
Unless Nintendo’s fellow first-party publishers Sony Corp. or Microsoft
Corp. unveil new hardware or radical updates to their respective
PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles, the E3 spotlight for better or
worse will undoubtedly be shining back in Nintendo’s direction.
(Microsoft and Sony have previously shot down rumors they’d unleash new
consoles at this year’s E3.)
"The Wii U was announced last year, and that stimulates all kinds of
thoughts about what’s possible," said Mark Lamia, the studio head at "Call
of Duty: Black Ops II" developer Treyarch. "It’ll be interesting to see
what happens with the first parties. It’s always an exciting time when
rumors are in the air, and we see if E3 is the time when they become mor
than rumors."
Most other game makers will use the expo to hype new entries in their
seemingly never-ending franchises. There’s Activision’s "Call of Duty:
Black Ops II," Microsoft’s "Halo 4" and "Forza Horizon," Sony’s "God of
War: Ascension" and "LittleBigPlanet Karting," Ubisoft’s "Far Cry 3" and
"Assassin’s Creed III," as well as the revealing of several other new
chapters.
Some sequels at E3 are emerging from deep within the vault. Franchises
once considered extinct, such as invasion simulator "X-COM," stealthy
shooter "Hitman" and town builder "SimCity," will return to a vastly
different landscape. Will these once beloved series be r mbraced? It’s a
strategy that’s worked for some ("Twisted Metal") but failed others
("Syndicate").
Electronic Arts Inc. will show off such games as the real-world military
simulator "Medal of Honor: Warfighter," a new iteration of its "Need for
Speed" racing series and the sci-fi horror sequel "Dead Space 3." EA,
like many publishers, will also be talking technology, focusing on
advancements with its Frostbite graphics engine, digital distribution and
cloud computing
"Cloud competing isn’t rocket science," said Patrick Soderlund, executive
vice president at the EA Games label. "It is a great feature that we’re
embracing aS a game company. It’s just a natural evolution that I think
will be used in most of our products, to some extent."
Video Games You Play with Your Mind
The gaming controller of the future won't have joysticks or buttons; it’1l
wrap around your head. A number of companies like San Jose-based NeuroSky
are developing affordable, consumer-ready controllers that takes cues from
the electrical signals in a wearer’s brain to dictate onscreen action.
Here, a concise guide to the new smart technology:
How does it work?
The head-mounted controller reads the brain’s electrical activity much in
the same way that an electroencephalograph, or EEG, works. It then beams
that information via BlueTooth to a connected smartphone. NeuroSky, Inc.,
which has made news with a Star Wars-based children’s toy called Force
Trainer that let children suspend a ping pong ball in the air using a fan
and their brainwaves, sells a mind-control headset called MindWave Mobile.
Does it read your thoughts?
Not exactly. The technology only differentiates between between two
states: relaxed or concentrating. The controller can’t track "specific,
purposeful actions," says Timothy Hay at The Wall Street Journal. "Some
players of mind games might be underwhelmed that they don’t have total
control in the same way they could with a joystick."
What are the games like?
The NeuroSky controller comes with an interactive movie called MyndPlay,
an immersive experience that’s like the popular line of "Choose Your Own
Adventure" books, says Edwin Kee at Ubergizmo, because it allows users to
make choices that steer the movie’s plot in different directions. Another
company called Emotiv Systems, which offers a similar multi-sensor
device, packages a variety of popular titles like Call of Duty and World
of Warcraft, retinkered to work with their brainwave-sensing headset.
What else can it do?
Some psychiatrists think the technology could help improve mental health
for patients suffering from conditions like anxiety or post-traumatic
stress disorder. The attention required to use one of these brain
controllers actually has a calming effect on the mind, game designer Jane
McGonigal tells The Wall Street Journal. Another game called FocusPocus
helps players "become smarter" by using concentration techniques commonly
used to fight ADHD symptoms, says Ben Kersey at Slashgear.
Is the headsets and games available now?
Yes. You can order the MindWave Mobile headset from the company’s website
for $130. Compatible games can be downloaded at the site, and a few are
already available for Android and the iPhone.
A-ONE’s Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Dutch Parliament Officially Rejects ACTA
Legal Good news everyone! The Dutch parliament has just officially
rejected ACTA. In addition, parliament has also accepted an additional
motion which prohibits the government from signing similar agreements in
the future. It was originally the plan to wait for the ACTA vote in the EU
parliament, but a majority in the Dutch parliament felt that ACTA was too
dangerous not to throw into the bin right away, EU vote or no. I’m not
exactly sure what this means for ACTA as a whole, but it’s my
understanding that if one member state votes against ACTA - which we just
did - it’s effectively dead in the EU.
Facebook Closes Lower Once Again
After a brief reprieve in morning trading, Facebook’s stock once again
closed lower on Wednesday, nearly $10 below its initial public offering
price.
Shares of Facebook Inc. dropped 65 cents, or 2.3 percent, to close at
$28.19. It’s the third consecutive trading day the stock has dropped from
the previous close. It got some relief earlier in the day, going as high
as $29.55.
Wednesday’s close is down about 26 percent from the stock’s IPO price of
$38. Facebook began trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on May 18. The day
started with a delay due to trading market glitches and didn’t get much
better from there.
Still, the IPO raised $16 billion for Facebook and early investors, making
it one of the largest IPOs ever. But many investors were expecting the
stock to go higher on the first day. Instead, it went up less than
1 percent to $38.23 that day, before falling since then.
Wednesday was a down day for the broader market as well, with the Dow
Jones industrial average closing down 161 points. Other social media
stocks, such as Zynga Inc. and Yelp Inc., also headed lower.
Oracle Suffers Major Setback in Google Case
A U.S. judge dismissed Oracle Corp’s copyright claims against Google Inc.
for parts of the Java programming language, knocking out Oracle’s prime
vehicle for damages in a high stakes legal battle over smartphones.
The ruling on Thursday from a San Francisco federal judge is the latest
blow to Oracle in its lawsuit against Google. It is one of several
intellectual property cases between tech giants over smartphones and
tablets using Google’s Android operating system.
Apple is scheduled for trial in U.S. courts against Google’s Motorola
Mobility unit in June, and against Samsung in July. However, Oracle’s
lawsuit against Google, filed in 2010, was the first in the smartphone
wars to go before a jury.
The cas xamined whether computer language that connects programs and
operating systems - known as application programming interfaces, or APIs
—- can be copyrighted. In a trial that began last month, Oracle claimed
Google’s Android tramples on its rights to the structure of 37 Java APIs.
Google argued it did not violate Oracle’s patents and that Oracle cannot
copyright APIs for Java, an open-source or publicly available software
language. Android is the best-selling smartphone operating system around
the world.
Oracle sought roughly $1 billion on its copyright claims, but the jury
deadlocked on a key copyright issue. They then found that Google did not
infringe two of Oracle’s patents, which ended the trial last week before
damages could be considered.
Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge William Alsup had deferred a legal ruling on
the ability to copyright 37 Java APIs until after the trial.
His ruling on Thursday likely eliminates the ability of Oracle to seek an
immediate retrial against Google in San Francisco federal court.
Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said the company will "vigorously
appeal" Alsup’s order. "This ruling, if permitted to stand, would undermine
the protection for innovation and invention in the United States,"
Hellinger wrote in an email.
Alsup’s written order does not address whether all Java APIs are free to
use without a license - or whether the structure of any computer program
may be stolen.
"Rather, it holds on the specific facts of this case, the particular
elements replicated by Google were free for all to use," Alsup wrote.
Google spokesman Jim Prosser said the decision upholds the principle that
open computer languages are essential for software development.
"It’s a good day for collaboration and innovation," Prosser said.
The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Oracle
America, Inc v. Google Inc, 10-3561.
Here’s How the Stuxnet Virus Could Be Used Against the U.S.
The cat is out of the bag: The United States is the first known country to
carry out a sustained cyber attack with the intent of destroying another
country’s infrastructure. Earlier today, The New York Times’ David Sanger
confirmed America’s role in developing Stuxnet, the computer worm deployed
against Iran’s nuclear facilities in coordination with the Israeli
government. In interviews with curent and former American, European, and
Israeli officials, Sanger outlined the Obama administration’s decision to
use the sophisticated virus, code-named Olympic Games, which was
originally developed by the Bush administration.
For cyber security experts, the coming-out party of Stuxnet in 2010, after
it malfunctioned and spread across the world, was a worrying event. The
code itself is 50 times bigger than your ordinary computer worm and,
unlike most viruses, is capable of hijacking industrial facilities like
nuclear reactors or chemical plants. With its release, anyone could
download and manipulate the Stuxnet code for their own purposes. But now,
with America’s role confirmed, the fear is that a red target hangs on its
back. What if Stuxnet was used against the U.S.?
The prospect has long worried Sean McGurk, former director of Homeland
Security’s national cybersecurity operations center. Not only has the
Stuxnet technology been instantly democratized but it’s also highly
susceptible to being revers ngineered. In March, he aired his concerns
with 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft, before America’s role in creating Stuxnet
was confirmed:
Kroft: Sounds a little bit like Pandora’s box.
McGurk: Yes.
Kroft: Whoever launched this attack--
McGurk: They opened up the box. They demonstrated the capability. They
showed the ability and the desire to do so. And it’s not something that
can be put back.
Kroft: If somebody in the government had come to you and said, "Look,
we're thinking about doing this. What do you think?" What would you have
told them?
McGurk: I would have strongly cautioned them against it because of the
unintended consequences of releasing such a code.
What sort of unintended consequences? According to McGurk, it has given
countries "like Russia and China, not to mention terrorist groups and
gangs of cybercriminals for hire, a textbook on how to attack key U.S.
installations." Those types of installations include U.S. nuclear power
reactors, electric companies, and other industrial facilities controlling
everything from chemicals to baby formula, according to McGurk. And he’s
not the only one worrying.
In 2010, Dean Turner, director of the Global Intelligence Network at
Symantec Corp., told a Senate hearing that the "real-world implications of
Stuxnet are beyond any threat we have seen in the past." According to the
Associated Press, he said the virus’s risks go beyond industrial
infrastructure and include the loss of sensitive intellectual property
data, which can be silently stolen. So who would be able to carry out such
an attack? Apparently, quite a few people.
Ralph Langner, a German expert on industrial control systems, told Kroft
in March that even non-state actors could use such technologies.
Langner: You don’t need many billions, you just need a couple of
millions. And this would buy you a decent cyberattack, for example,
against the U.S. power grid.
Kroft: If you were a terrorist group or a failed nation state and you
had a couple of million dollars, where would you go to find the people
that knew how to do this?
Langner: On the Internet.
There were obviously powerful incentives to use the Stuxnet virus, which
according to The Times succeeded in destroying 1,000 to 5,000 centrifuges.
And of course, ever since the virus went public in 2010, the risk of a
third-party using Stuxnet technology for ill has existed. However, with
the confirmation that the U.S. broke the cyber threshold, the novelty of
using cyberwarfare to attack another country’s critical infrastructure is
gone. Should we expect Iran to refrain from striking back? As PC World’s
David Jeffers writes, "We now have to deal with the Internet equivalent of
a mustard gas or Agent Orange leak that has the potential to affect us
all." It’s undoubtedly a scary thought.
Iran: '’/Flame’ Virus Fight Began with Oil Attack
Computer technicians battling to contain a complex virus last month
resorted to the ultimate firewall measures cutting off Internet links
to Iran’s Oil Ministry, rigs and the hub for nearly all the country’s
crude exports.
At the time, Iranian officials described it as a data-siphoning blitz on
key oil networks.
On Wednesday, they gave it a name: A strike by the powerful "Flame" malware
that experts this week have called a new and highly sophisticated program
capable of hauling away computer files and even listening in on computer
users. Its origins remain a mystery, but international suspicion quickly
fell on Israel opening another front in its suspected covert wars with
archenemy 1
Tehran.
"This virus penetrated some fields. One of them was the oil sector," said
Gholam Reza Jalali, who heads an Iranian military unit in charge of
fighting sabotage. "Fortunately, we detected and controlled this single
incident."
The Flame virus a mix of cyberspy and hard-drive burglar has been
detected across the Middle East recently. But Iran’s linkage to the oil
network attack in April could mark its first major infiltration and
suggests a significant escalation in attempts to disrupt Iran’s key
commercial and nuclear sites. Iran is one of the world’s leading oil
producers.
Two years ago, a virus called Stuxnet tailored to disrupt Iran’s nuclear
centrifuges caused some setbacks within its uranium enrichment labs and
infected an estimated 16,000 computers, Iranian officials say. At least
two other smaller viruses have been detected in nuclear and industrial
centers.
The Flame program, however, is widely considered as a technological leap
in break-in programming. Some experts also see the same high level of
engineering shared by Stuxnet, which many suspect was the work of Israeli
intelligence.
"It is very complex and very sophisticated," said Marco Obiso,
cybersecurity coordinator at the U.N.’s International Telecommunication
Union in Geneva. "It’s one of the most serious yet."
Israel, a world leader in computer security, has never confirmed or denied
any involvement in Stuxnet or other viruses that have hit Iranian networks
nationwide.
Israel fears that Iran’s nuclear program is geared toward developing a
weapon that might be turned against it and Israel itself is believed to
have nuclear weapons.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly said that "all options are on the table,"
a phrase that is widely interpreted as meaning the possibility of a
military strike and other measures that could include cyberwarfare.
Already, Iran and Israel have traded accusations of carrying out
clandestine hits and attack conspiracies in locales stretching from the
Baku to Bangkok.
Iran claims Israeli agents are behind the slayings of at least five
nuclear scientists and researchers since 2010. Earlier this month, Iran
hanged a man convicted of carrying out one of the killings after allegedly
being trained by Israel’s Mossad spy agency. Israel denied any role.
Authorities in several countries, meanwhile, are investigating possible
Iranian links to bombings and plots against Israeli targets and others,
including a wide-ranging probe in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku.
On the cyber front, Iran says it has sharply boosted its defenses by
creating special computer corps to protect crucial online infrastructure.
Iran also claims it seeks to build its own Internet buffered from the
global web, but experts have raised serious questions about its
feasibility.
Iran’s Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ali
Hakim Javadi was quoted by the official IRNA news agency Wednesday as
saying that Iranian experts have produced an anti-virus program capable of
identifying and removing Flame.
"The anti-virus software was delivered to selected organizations in early
May," he said.
That would have been at least two weeks after officials say it penetrated
Iran’s Oil Ministry and related sites. Within hours, technicians decided
to close off the Internet connections to the ministry, oil rigs and the
Khark Island oil terminal, the jump off point for about 80 percent of
Iran’s daily 2.2 million barrels of crude exports.
Gholam Reza Jalali, who heads an Iranian military unit in charge of
fighting sabotage, told state radio that the oil industry was the only
governmental body seriously affected and that all data lost were later
retrieved.
"This virus penetrated some fields. One of them was the oil sector.
Fortunately, we detected and controlled this single incident," Jalali
said.
Obiso, whose agency is helping to direct the international response to
Flame, said the virus first came to the group’s attention in mid-April and
researchers have been working on unraveling its code since.
"We still think Flame has much more to show," he said.
The Russian Internet security firm Kaspersky Lab ZAO said the Flame virus
has struck Iran the hardest, but has been detected in the Palestinian
territories, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
It also has been found in Israel leading some Israeli security officials
to suggest the virus could be traced to the U.S. or other Western nations.
Experts describe it as a multitasking mole. It can wipe data off hard
drives, but also be a tireless eavesdropper by activating audio systems to
listen in on Skype calls or office chatter. It also can also take
screenshots, log keystrokes and in one of its more novel functions
steal data from Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones.
Israeli’s vice premier on Tuesday did little to deflect suspicion about
the country’s possible involvement.
"Whoever sees the Iranian threat as a significant threat is likely to take
various steps, including these, to hobble it," Moshe Yaalon told Army
Radio when asked about Flame. "Israel is blessed with high technology, and
we boast tools that open all sorts of opportunities for us."
Iran says is has previously discovered one more espionage virus, Duqu, but
that the malware did no harm Iran’s nuclear or industrial sites. Jalali
said Flame is the third.
Dozens of unexplained explosions also have hit the country’s gas pipelines
in the past two years. Officials have not linked them to cyberattacks, but
authorities have not closed the books on the investigations.
Megaupload Lawyers Move To Kill U.S. Internet Piracy Charges
Lawyers for popular file-sharing company Megaupload, accused of copyright
theft and internet piracy, have moved to have the case thrown out in the
United States and tens of millions of dollars of assets unfrozen, a U.S.
counsel said on Thursday.
Before it was shut down in January, Megaupload was one of the world’s most
popular websites, where millions of users stored data, either for free or
by paying for premium service.
The FBI claims founder Kim Dotcom masterminded a scheme that made more
than $175 million in a few short years by copying and distributing music,
movies and other copyrighted content without authorization.
Papers have been filed stating that U.S. federal authorities cannot charge
the company with criminal behavior because it is Hong Kong based, and also
that no papers have ever been formally served, the lawyer said.
Megaupload’s assets were seized and its executives in New Zealand and
Holland arrested in January on warrants issued by the FBI alleging money
laundering, internet piracy, and illegal file sharing.
But Megaupload’s U.S. counsel said the FBI had made a fundamental mistake.
"The law here in the United States is that you can’t indict and then serve
a company that does not have a presence in the United States," Ira Rothken
told Radio New Zealand.
He said the case against Megaupload and its executives should be dismissed.
"This case was flawed from the start, once this case gets dismissed it
cannot be fixed," Rothken said.
Megaupload chief executive Dotcom, 39, spent nearly a month in jail after
New Zealand police raided a luxury country estate and cut him out of a
safe room in which he had barricaded himself.
U.S. authorities have asked for him and three other executives to be
extradited.
Megaupload has always maintained that it simply offered online storage,
and that music and movie companies were given every opportunity to have
illegal material removed.
Dotcom is on bail after he convinced a court that he was not going to
abscond.
In the past week he has been allowed back to his mansion, and had travel
restrictions eased. A New Zealand judge also ordered prosecutors to give
Dotcom’s lawyers access to evidence collected against him and
co-defendants.
Rothken said he had also filed papers in the U.S. to unfreeze Megaupload
funds, which could be used by the defendants to defend themselves.
The FBI was not immediately available for comment.
Australian Facebook Cash Image Leads to Robbery
Two robbers have paid a visit to a house in south-eastern Australia, hours
after a teenager posted a photo on Facebook of a large sum of cash.
The masked men, armed with a knife and a club, struck the home of the
17-year-old girl’s mother in the country town of Bundanoon on Thursday,
police say.
Her mother told the men her daughter no longer lived there.
It is not clear how the robbers found the family address. The Facebook
image was at the grandmother’s Sydney house.
The men searched the house and took a small amount of cash and a small
number of personal objects before leaving.
Australia map
No-one was injured.
The girl had earlier posted a picture on her Facebook page of a "large sum
of cash" she had helped count at her 72-year-old grandmother’s home in
Sydney, 120 km (75 miles) north-east of Bundanoon.
Following the incident, police have issued a warning over the dangers of
posting sensitive information online.
Is Facebook About To Buy Opera To Create Own Facebook Browser?
A Facebook browser that would allow you keep up to date with your social
life from in-built plug-ins and features on the menu bar could be on the
cards. Pocket-lint has heard from one of its trusted sources that the
social networking giant is looking to buy Opera Software, the company
behind the Opera web browser.
According to our man in the know, the company could be about to expand
into the browser space to take on the likes of Google, Apple, Microsoft,
Mozilla and now even Yahoo, who has recently launched its own browser.
The move - which would no doubt send shivers of panic through Google -
although unlikely to affect Chrome’s continued growth in the short term,
would see the two tech giants battle it out on your desktop and mobile for
web surfing as well as social networking.
Opera already has a very good mobile browser, which has seen strong growth
in the two years it has been available. And Facebook’s buying the company
would save it having to build a browser from scratch.
Since the Facebook IPO, which netted the company over $16 billion, Mark
Zuckerberg’s organisation has plenty of cash to expand. It has also left
us in no doubt that it wants to get into the mobile sector more and more.
Owning its own browser to market data from users regardless of whether or
not they are actually on the Facebook website would be one such way of
doing that.
Opera claims to have around 200 million users across all of its platforms.
Google, Samsung Unveil New Version of Chromebook
BGoogle will try to win more converts to a computer operating system
revolving around its popular Chrome Web browser with a new wave of
lightweight laptops built by Samsung Electronics.
Tuesday’s release of the next-generation Chromebooks will give Google and
Samsung another opportunity to persuade consumers and businesses to buy an
unconventional computer instead of machines running on familiar software
by industry pioneers Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc.
Unlike most computers, Google’s Chromebooks don’t have a hard drive. They
function like terminals dependent on an Internet connection. The laptops
come with 16 gigabytes of flash memory the kind found in smartphones,
tablet computers and some iPods. Two USB ports allow external hard drives
and other devices to be plugged into the machines.
Chromebooks haven’t made much of a dent in the market since their debut a
year ago. In that time, more people have been embracing Apple’s iPad and
other tablet computers a factor that has contributed to a slowdown in
sales of personal computers.
The cool reception to Chromebooks has raised questions about whether
Google misjudged the demand for computers designed to quickly connect to
its dominant Internet search engine and ever-expanding stable of other
online services, ranging from email to a recently introduced file-storage
system called Drive.
"The Chromebooks have had less to offer than tablets, so they haven’t been
that interesting to consumers," said Gartner analyst Mika Kitagawa.
Google says it always intended to take things slowly with the Chromebooks
to give its engineers time to understand the shortcomings of the machines
and make the necessary improvements.
"This release is a big step in the journey to bringing (Chromebooks) to
the mainstream," said Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior vice president of
Chrome and apps.
The upgraded laptop, called "Series 5 550," is supposed to run
two-and-half times faster than the original machines, and boasts
higher-definition video. Google also added features that will enable users
to edit documents offline, read more content created in widely used
Microsoft applications such as Word and Excel, and retrieve material from
another computer at home or an office. More emphasis is being placed on
Chrome’s Web store, which features more than 50,000 applications.
The price: $449 for models that only connect to the Internet through Wi-Fi
and $549 for a machine that connects on a 3G network. Samsung’s original
Chromebooks started out with prices ranging from $429 to $499. Like the
original Chromebooks, the next-generation machines feature a 12.1-inch
screen display and run on an Intel processor.
Google Inc. and Samsung also are introducing a "Chromebox" that can be
plugged into a display monitor to create the equivalent of desktop
computer. The box will sell for $329.
The latest Chromebook and new Chromebox will be available online only,
beginning in the U.S. on Tuesday, followed by a Wednesday release in the
United Kingdom. The products will go on sale in brick-and-mortar stores
for the first time in still-to-be-determined Best Buy locations next
month.
The expansion beyond Internet-only sales signals Google’s determination to
attract a mass audience to its Chromebooks, just as it’s done with
smartphones running on its Android software. More than 300 million mobile
devices have been activated on Android since the software’s 2008 release.
Without providing specifics, Pichai said several other computer
manufacturers will release Chromebooks later this year. Google plans to
back the expanded line of Chromebooks with a marketing blitz during the
holiday shopping season in November and December.
One reason Google is confident Chromebooks will eventually catch on is
because the Chrome Web browser has attracted so many fans in less than
four years on the market. The company says more than 200 million people
worldwide currently are using the Chrome browser.
Like other laptop and desktop computers, the Chromebooks will have to
contend with the accelerating shift to the iPad and other tablets. The
iPad 2, an older version of Apple’s tablet line, sells for as little as
$399, undercutting the new Chromebook. Other low-cost tablets are expected
to hit the market later this year. One of them might even be made by
Motorola Mobility, a device maker that Google bought for $12.5 billion
earlier this month. Google so far hasn’t commented on Motorola’s future
plans for the tablet market.
The new Chromebooks also are hitting the market at a time when some
prospective computer buyers may be delaying purchases until they can check
out machines running on Windows 8, a makeover of Microsoft’s operating
system that is expected to be released in September or October. Microsoft
designed Windows 8 so it can be controlled through touch as well as
keyboards. That versatility is expected to inspire the creation of hybrid
machines that are part laptop, part tablet.
Microsoft Releases Final Test Version of Windows 8
Microsoft is nearly done with a much-anticipated overhaul of its Windows
operating system.
The software maker signaled the makeover is nearly complete with
Thursday’s release of the final test version of Windows 8.
Windows 8 is considered to be the biggest change in decades to Microsoft’s
widely used operating system. The software displays applications ina
mosaic of tiles and has been designed so it can run desktop, laptop and
tablet computers.
PC sales have slowed in the U.S. as consumers delay replacements and
instead buy mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. The
versatility of Windows 8 is expected to spawn a new generation of
computers that are part laptop, part tablet.
The latest test version of Windows 8 is available in 14 languages and
includes several improvements from a less-refined version released three
months ago. The upgrades include more ways to connect to other Microsoft
services, more security controls and more touch-screen features.
Microsoft Corp. hasn’t announced when Windows 8 will go on sale yet. Most
industry analysts expect the software will be available in September or
October.
With Windows 8 looming, more prospective computer buyers may delay their
purchases until the new operating system is available.
Microsoft is trying to discourage procrastination with a special promotion
that begins Saturday in the U.S., Canada and more than 120 other markets.
The program allows buyers of computer running on Windows 7 to upgrade to
Windows 8 Pro, when it’s available, for $14.99. Microsoft hasn’t announced
other prices.
Mitt Romneys Official iPhone App Misspells America
It looks like the Republican candidate is running for President of
"Amercia"
After President Obama won his first election with help from effective
social media campaigns, Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has been doing
his best to appear at the forefront of modern technology as well.
Unfortunately, while Romney has a bustling presence on both Facebook and
Twitter, his campaign’s recently launched official iPhone app called
"With Mitt" has one major problem: It misspells "America."
Where is "Amercia?"After downloading the free app which does little more
than overlay some pre-approved text graphics over your own photos, and
then ask for campaign contributions the very first screen that is
displayed boldly states "I believe in Amercia." Yes, that’s A-M-E-R-C-I-A,
rather than America. Social networks are already abuzz with the humorous
error, and thousands of comments are already flooding Twitter and Facebook
as both Romney and Obama supporters share a laugh.
The app has been available for some time now, but has not been taken down
or corrected at the time of this writing. Perhaps the Republican candidate
is planning on not only changing how we feel about our nation, but also
how we spell it. Either way, it’s embarrassing to say the least,
especially given that the app is meant to be used to spread Romney’s
message. In this case, it appears that message is "I don’t use
spellcheck."
Facebook To Let Users Vote on Privacy Changes
Facebook is letting its nearly 1 billion users vote on changes to its
privacy policy.
The previously announced changes include new sections explaining how it
uses people’s information. The updates also reflect recently added
features such as a new profile format called Timeline.
The new policy also opens up the possibility for Facebook to start showing
people ads on outside websites, targeting the pitches to interests and
hobbies that users express on Facebook.
The voting period starts Friday and runs through next week. The company
had announced the changes in May, a week before its initial public
offering of stock. Facebook’s highly anticipated IPO landed with a thud,
closing just 23 cents above its $38 offering price on its first trading
day. The stock has declined another 26 percent in the two weeks since
then.
This is the second time Facebook Inc. is letting users vote on policy
changes. The first time was in 2009 when Facebook was a much smaller,
privately held company with fewer than 200 million users.
It may be the last time, though.
Thirty percent of Facebook’s 900 million users, or 270 million people,
have to vote on the changes for or against to have the process be
binding. Otherwise, Facebook considers the vote "advisory."
That will most likely be the case. Facebook’s experiment in democracy
hasn’t panned out as expected. While thousands of people have left
comments on Facebook’s proposed changes, “our original intent was to get
high-quality," and not high-quantity comments, said Erin Egan, Facebook’s
chief privacy officer of policy.
Facebook said it is still interested in getting user feedback on its
policies, but it is reviewing how best to do so.
"While our participatory mechanisms may change, our commitment to greater
transparency, accountability and responsiveness will not," Facebook vice
president Elliot Schrage wrote in a blog post. "We will explore ways to
bring user suggestions and concerns before Facebook’s management."
To vote:
http://on.fb.me/IXVN6T
Judge Considers Idaho Anonymous Comments Lawsuit
A lawyer for a newspaper website argued Friday that people should be
allowed to post anonymous comments on its blogs without fear of being
identified and then sued.
But a Republican political leader in northern Idaho, who is seeking the
identities of three individuals who commented anonymously about her,
argued that she was libeled by a comment and has the right to sue for
damages.
District Judge John Luster in Coeur D’Alene said he would rule later on
whether a subpoena sought by Kootenai County Republican Central Committee
Chairwoman Tina Jacobson against The Spokesman-Review newspaper should be
quashed.
Jacobson is seeking the identities of three commenters, including one who
suggested in a posting that she might have stolen money from the GOP.
"We’re here for the rights of people to speak anonymously on the
Internet," said Duane Swinton, attorney for The Spokesman-Review, based in
nearby Spokane, Wash. "We’re here as an advocate for First Amendment
rights."
The newspaper has refused to turn over information about the commenters in
a libel lawsuit Jacobson filed in April.
Jacobson is not suing the newspaper. Instead, she is suing a commenter
who posts under the name "almostinnocentbystander," saying that handle was
used to post false statements about her handling of local GOP funds.
Jacobson alleges that the newspaper is withholding the commenter’s
identity.
Attorney Matthew Andersen, representing Jacobson, said his client has the
right to confront her accuser in court but cannot do so unless the
newspaper releases the identity.
"In Idaho, being called a thief is a per se libelous statement," Andersen
said. "She has been called a thief."
Andersen opened the hearing by asking if any of the anonymous bloggers
were in the courtroom and wanted to come forward. No one did.
According to the lawsuit, the commenter called "almostinnocentbystander"
stated on the newspaper’s website that Jacobson had $10,000 that was
missing from the Republican Central Committee.
The statement posted Feb. 14 prompted inquiries from two other commenters,
who go by the online handles "Phaedrus" and "OutofStatertater." They
questioned the substance of the claim. Jacobson’s subpoena also seeks
their identities as witnesses in the case.
The original commenter, "almostinnocentbystander," responded to the others
"with further allegations of missing funds, obstruction of the Republican
Party Central Committee treasurer’s report and embezzlement," the lawsuit
said.
The comments were posted on the newspaper’s blog, Huckleberries Online,
and were removed shortly after by the blog’s administrator, who noted that
the comment regarding the missing funds was an "unsubstantiated accusation
made against a local Republican official," according to court documents.
Jacobson is seeking damages of at least $10,000 from
"almostinnocentbystander." The lawsuit also asks a judge to issue a court
order barring that individual from committing future acts of libel against
Jacobson.
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