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| Text-to-911 moves ahead in the US as Verizon chooses partner vendor Fri, 04 May 2012 17:50:52 -0500 While text-to-911 has been in the works for some time, it’s looking like Verizon is taking another step towards building a nationwide emergency SMS apparatus, as part of the Next Generation 911 (NG911) upgrades. Those changes are set to also include improved location data for 911 calls as well. About a year ago, the Federal Communications Commission began proposing new rules to allow American residents to notify emergency services via text message. On Friday, the FCC praised Verizon for selecting a vendor, TeleCommunication Systems to help it build out the infrastructure. The service is expected to launch in 2013. Once complete, anyone in the United States with a cellphone will be able to text to the Public Safety Answering Points, as 911 call centers are formally known. "Verizon is at the forefront of 911 public-safety innovations, and today’s announcement is another step in making SMS-to-911 service available to those who cannot make a voice call to 911," said Marjorie Hsu, Verizon Wireless vice president of technology, in an interview with The Hill. The U.S. is a little behind in this respect—British mobile phone users have had access to EmergencySMS since 2009, as VentureBeat points out. Read the comments on this post |
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| Oracle-Google jury reaches verdict on all but one Java copyright question Fri, 04 May 2012 15:59:00 -0500 The jury in the Oracle/Google Java copyright case has ruled on three of the four questions it must answer, but a verdict has not been revealed because the presiding judge has sent jurors back to deliberate on the unresolved issue. As you know, Oracle accuses Google of infringing Java copyrights and patents in the Android mobile operating system. The copyright portion of the trial has ended. Jurors reportedly told Judge William Alsup that they have reached a decision on all but one of the questions, and a court hearing was held today in which Alsup and the two sides' lawyers discussed whether to hear a partial verdict and then move on to the patent portion of the case. Instead, Alsup told the jury to keep working on the copyright questions Monday, according to reports in ZDNet and other sources. Of the four questions, only three are consequential, because the fourth question was asked for advisory purposes to help Alsup make decisions that aren't left up to the jury. But it is one of the first three matters the jury has not ruled unanimously upon. Exactly which question is holding things up has not been revealed. The jury is ruling on whether Google violated the law by using 37 Java API packages, whether Google's use of documentation related to the Java API packages counts as infringement, and whether other violations occurred involving the use of source code, English language comments in Java files, and methods. Click here to read the full questions. If the jury is deadlocked Monday, it could still deliver a partial verdict, allowing the trial to move on to Oracle's allegations of patent infringement. Read the comments on this post |
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| Ignore your e-mail for more productive, less stressful workday Fri, 04 May 2012 15:45:00 -0500 Ignoring your e-mail may be essential to making your work pace less frenetic, according to a study done of workers at a scientific research center. While the study has some flaws, it speaks more broadly to the importance of taking control of how work time is spent, particularly when it feels dictated by outside sources. In the study, a group of 13 volunteers vowed to go on a no-e-mail diet for five days, with all new e-mails received during that period bypassing the inbox and a rule against sending any new e-mail. Researchers monitored both the heart rate of participants as well as the activity on their computer screens during the e-mail vacation and during a three-day control period of e-mail use. While heart rates remained virtually the same—they were actually a bit higher, which the researchers attributed to an increase in reported away-from-desk activity—the concrete benefit was that the workers spent almost twice as much time in each window on average (over two minutes per windows without e-mail, versus 75 seconds with it) and switched windows half as much (18 times per hour on average without e-mail versus 37 with it). These results suggest that having no e-mail to attend to improved workers' attention spans and made their days less intense. Qualitatively, the workers reported that their days without e-mail were refreshing because they were in the habit of letting it dictate their day. This highlights one of the study's weaknesses: people who feel like e-mail runs their life are going to sign up for a study that forces them away from it faster than Peter Bright would sign up for a week of free McRib sandwiches. The workers' colleagues reported no negative effects from the e-mail sabbaticals, though colleagues in the same office are easy enough to get in touch with. The authors also didn't find any difference in the time spent managing e-mail. Once the study participants came back after five days away, they spent the same time trawling through their inbox as they would have if they were managing it continuously. The study is small and limited in scope, and doesn't address benefits or drawbacks to people who have good or neutral feelings toward e-mail (if there are any such people). Still, those types may have less trouble stepping away, and could still see the same concentration benefits. Read the comments on this post |
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| Google may face massive fine from FTC for bypassing Safari privacy controls Fri, 04 May 2012 15:34:00 -0500 Google is said to be in the process of negotiating a fine with the Federal Trade Commission for circumventing Safari's privacy settings, according to Bloomberg. Citing an unnamed "person familiar with the matter," Bloomberg says Google faces being fined up to $10 million once the FTC files formal charges against the company, though unsurprisingly, neither Google nor the FTC has publicly commented. Google was found to be working its way around Safari's tool that allows users to block third-party cookies earlier this year in order to, well, "track" users with cookies. (The code used by Google was part of its program to place the "+1" button in advertisements.) At the time, the company issued a statement saying that the circumvention wasn't intentional, but privacy groups were still quick to file complaints with the FTC over Google's actions. That was quickly followed by a class-action lawsuit and an investigation by European regulators. According to Bloomberg's source, the FTC plans to charge Google with violating its consent decree with the US government that came out of the Google Buzz settlement. The company had agreed not to mislead users about its privacy policies or what it's doing with user data, and critics were quick to point out that circumventing a browser's privacy controls seem to fall under that umbrella. No expected timeframe was given for when the FTC will officially charge Google. Read the comments on this post |
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| Nokia being sued by investor for fraud after share price tumbles Fri, 04 May 2012 13:31:00 -0500 Nokia has been hit with a class-action lawsuit for failing to turn around its smartphone business in six months and reporting substantial losses for the first quarter of this year. Investor Robert Chmielinski says that between October 11th, 2011, and April 10th, 2012, Nokia engaged in fraud. Over that period Nokia CEO Stephen Elop made a number of confident statements about the prospects of the company's then-forthcoming Lumia range of Windows Phone handsets. On April 11th, however, Nokia issued a warning that its quarterly performance would be worse than expected. The company posted losses of ?1.34 billion ($2.17 billion) for the first quarter of 2012. Combine that with the $100 rebate for early Lumia 900 buyers—a move that knocked 16 percent off Nokia's share price—and the company's shares have taken a beating. As is customary, Nokia's forward-looking statements were all suitably disclaimed. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 has a "safe harbor" provision that protects companies from legal action should their forward-looking statements turn out to be untrue. Nokia included the necessary wording to indicate that the statements were dependent on market conditions and many other factors, and that reality might diverge from its predictions. However, Chmielinski argues that Nokia isn't protected, because Elop and other company officers knew that the forward-looking statements were false, and were not related to any business plan or projections. Chmielinski is claiming class-action status, with anyone who invested in Nokia in that six-month period included in the class. Nokia has issued a statement saying that it is aware of the lawsuit, believes it to be without merit, and is investigating further. Read the comments on this post |
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| Emergency Flash update fixes security bug being used to hijack PCs Fri, 04 May 2012 13:21:00 -0500 Adobe has released an emergency update for its Flash Player that fixes a security bug that's being actively exploited to hijack Windows computers running the ubiquitous software. The "object confusion vulnerability" resides in all Flash versions, including those for devices running Mac OS X, Linux, Google's Android OS, and Windows, Adobe said in an advisory published Friday. The bug "is being exploited in the wild in active targeted attacks designed to trick the users into clicking on a malicious file delivered in an e-mail message," it went on to say, citing reports received from Microsoft. The exploits target Flash on Internet Explorer for Windows only. While attacks are limited to Windows users and appear to be highly selective in who is targeted, people running other systems, particularly Macs, should install the security fix immediately. As the 600,000 or so Mac-using victims of the Flashback malware learned last month, Apple's OS X is becoming a viable target now that its market share has risen to levels that make it worth an attacker's time. The experience shows that determined hackers can exploit any unpatched platform and that complacency about installing updates is one of the biggest obstacles to securing a system. Those running Flash Player 11.2.202.233 and earlier on Windows, Mac, and Linux; versions 11.1.115.7 or earlier on Android 4.x; and versions 11.1.111.8 on Android 3.x and 2.x should update at once. To find out what Flash version a device uses, users can visit this link. Adobe still hasn't made its patching system as simple as it needs to be for it to be widely used, but it's getting better. Windows users now have the ability to receive updates relatively seamlessly, and a separate version of Flash for Google's Chrome browser for all operating systems also updates automatically. Those on other platforms still must manually install fixes. Users can download the updates here, except for Android users, who must get them from Google Play. Read the comments on this post |
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| Apple tests Samsung 32nm process on A5-equipped iPad 2 and Apple TV Fri, 04 May 2012 13:02:00 -0500 As noted recently by Chipworks, Apple is now shipping some iPad 2 models (and all third-generation Apple TV devices) with a 32nm A5 processor built on Samsung's power-efficient "high-dielectric metal gate" (HK+MG) process. These products give Apple a relatively low-volume test bed to ensure its architecture works well with the process, and extensive testing by AnandTech shows that the 32nm process offers significant power savings over the older 45nm process used for processors in other iOS devices. Apple's A4, A5, and A5X processors, used in the most recent iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch models, are built using the 45nm process. Effectively, 45nm is the absolute smallest size that can be used to create a transistor or other circuit element on a chip using a 45nm process. This also affects the minimum distance between elements as well. Read the comments on this post |
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| Researchers spot planet-eating white dwarfs Fri, 04 May 2012 12:45:26 -0500 Planets as small as Earth are hard to spot orbiting other stars; obtaining good data about their chemical composition is well beyond the abilities of our current instruments. However, a new study of four white dwarfs provides hints about the fate of planets like our own. It's not an especially happy one, as the astronomers found that the chemical composition of debris on the white dwarfs closely matches that of Earth. These observations, which will be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, focused on four "polluted" white dwarfs, which have traces of elements not usually seen in this type of star. B. T. Gänsicke et al. studied their ultraviolet spectrum using the Hubble Space Telescope, and determined they contained excessive amounts of silicon, aluminum, iron, and other elements, with abundances similar to those found on Earth. These results indicate that rocky debris has crashed onto the white dwarfs—debris that may possibly be from the destruction of a planet similar in composition to Earth. Read the comments on this post |
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| iOS app success is a "lottery": 60% (or more) of developers don't break even Fri, 04 May 2012 12:15:00 -0500 There is no shortage of stories about lone developers who made an app for the iPhone or iPad and had runaway success. But in the real world, the majority of app makers struggle to break even, according to a recent survey by marketing firm App Promo. Though the survey's methodology is a bit on the light side, numerous developers that we spoke to agree that the results—59 percent of apps don't break even, and 80 percent of developers can't sustain a business on their apps alone—are close to accurate. Read the comments on this post |
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| Getting started with Google's Cloud Print Fri, 04 May 2012 11:55:00 -0500 Sometime soon, you'll likely have something to print—and there's no guarantee you'll be at your home or office when the need strikes. You could make a reminder for yourself to print that e-mail or document the next time you're at your Mac or PC, or you could harness the power of the cloud to remove those traditional workplace boundaries and bring the printer to you. Cloud printing has been around for a few years now, and it's actually very easy to set up. Google is the reigning champ in this space, with a product aptly named Cloud Print. With a few minutes of setup, you can have your Android, iPhone, Mac, or PC printing to printers in faraway places—even FedEx offices—from wherever and whenever you wish. Read the comments on this post |
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