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Samsung Electronics board approves LCD unit spi...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:47:21 +0000

Samsung Electronics has moved a step closer to spinning off its Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) unit after its board of directors approved the plan.
The firm said it will launch the spun-off unit, Samsung Display Company Ltd, as a new corporation on 1 April.
The move, which still needs shareholder approval, comes amid slowing demand and falling profits for LCD products.
Samsung said it was planning to focus on new technologies to maintain its edge over the competition.
"The spin-off will allow us to make quicker business decisions and respond to our clients' needs more swiftly," said Donggun Park, executive vice president and head of Samsung's LCD business.
"Through enhancements in business competitiveness, we will continue to provide superior products and services for the market," he added.
'Commoditised business'

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It is unclear whether it's a good move or not - you never know until a few quarters have gone by”

Jasper KimAsia-Pacific Global Research Group[/indent]
LCD manufacturers worldwide have been going through a tough time in recent years.
Not only has demand for the product been slowing, increased supply has also seen manufacturers slash their prices in a bid to attract consumers.
Analysts said that the sector had lost its niche factor and that had hurt electronics makers.
"LCD used to be one of the cutting edge technologies but it is now a commoditised business," Jasper Kim, chief executive and founder of Asia-Pacific Global Research Group told the BBC.
"It can be replicated and reproduced easily," he added.
Samsung is the world's biggest TV and flat screen maker and is likely to be affected the most by a slowdown in the sector.
Analysts said while the move was part of Samsung's efforts to ensure that it remained highly competitive, it was too early to say whether it was a step in the right direction.
"It is unclear whether it's a good move or not - you never know until a few quarters have gone by," Mr Kim said.

US Cloud Computing Report Slams Brazil, India,...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:46:57 +0000

WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - A U.S. software industry report on Wednesday chided Brazil, China and India for policies it said threatened the future of cloud computing, but also took aim at developed countries such as Germany that did well on its inaugural scorecard.
The Business Software Alliance, which represents U.S. industry heavyweights such as Microsoft Corp, said Brazil finished last in its survey of 24 countries, earning only 35.1 points out a possible 100 because of its policies in areas such free trade, security, data privacy and cybercrime.
India, which has the world's second-largest software industry after the United States, and China, whose information and communications technology sector is expected to nearly double to $389 billion by 2015, also were in the bottom six, with scores of 50.0 and 47.5, respectively.
Cloud computing refers to providing software, storage, computing power and other services to customers from remote data centers over the Web. Demand for cloud-based software is rising rapidly because the approach allows companies to start using new programs faster and at lower cost than traditional products that are installed at a customer's own data center.
A major purpose of the report is to rally the international "technology community around the need for greater harmonization of laws so a truly global cloud can come about," said Robert Holleyman, president of the U.S. software group.
Without greater coordination of government policies, "the cloud could be chopped into little pieces," reducing the efficiency that comes from being able to move data and software services freely across borders, Holleyman said.
The 24 countries included in the survey represent 80 percent of the global information and communications technology industry. They were scored in seven areas, which also included intellectual property protection, infrastructure and support for industry-led standards to promote smooth data flows.
Japan was ranked highest with 83.3 points. It was followed closely by other developed countries including Australia, Germany, the United States, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and South Korea, which all scored in the high 70s.
While the report showed a "sharp divide between advanced economies and the developing world, even some of the high-ranking countries are walling themselves in with conflicting laws and regulations," Holleyman said.
European Union countries scored well, but "what's happening now in the EU is lawmakers and regulators are effectively putting their thumbs on the scale in ways that will make it difficult for non-European firms to compete," he said.
"There are concerns that Germany, for example, wants to put a wall around the country to limit the provision of cloud services to companies that are located in Germany."
Strong laws to protect privacy are important to give users confidence "that private information stored in the cloud, wherever in the world, will not be used or disclosed by the cloud provider in unexpected ways, the report said.
Tough security measures are also needed, but some countries such as China that have implemented Internet filtering or censorship regimes could thwart develop of cloud computing and the digital economy, the report said.
Brazil scored just 1.6 out of a possible 10 on policies to combat cybercrime, which is expected to become an increasing challenge as more and more information is aggregated in large data centers, making them tempting targets.
Japan and France earn perfect marks in that section, while South Africa came close with a 9.8.
Even though Brazil finished dead last in the report, Holleyman said he was more optimistic about the potential to persuade Latin America's second largest economy to make reforms than he was for China.
"There is probably more opportunity to make progress in Brazil by pointing out what we see as the gaps that exist currently and why Brazil's economy will slow down as result of these policies," Holleyman said.
"I think it's going to be a bigger challenge in some other markets, particularly China," he said.
China "not only has the 'great firewall,' that does not allow the transmission between people in China and the rest of the world. But it also has a policy to require non-Chinese cloud firms to enter into joint ventures with Chinese firms" on unfavorable terms for outsiders, he said.
India also appears to recognize it is in its interest to promote global cloud computing, Holleyman said.
The full report can been on the Business Software Alliance's website, at www.bsa.org/cloudscorecard

Microsoft rolls out a dramatically different lo...

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:00:42 +0000

By Mike Flacy | Digital Trends –

Announced on Microsoft’s The Windows Blog earlier today, the software company has officially announced the redesigned logo for Windows 8 after it was leaked on a Chinese site on Monday. While the color scheme is different than the leaked version, the design is definitely the same. Designed to emulate the Metro style of Windows 8, the monochromatic logo is much simpler than the Windows 7 logo which was previously mistaken for a flag according to the blog.
As explained by Samuel Moreau, the User Experience Director at Microsoft, he states “We wanted the new logo to be both modern and classic by echoing the International Typographic Style (or Swiss design) that has been a great influence on our Metro style design philosophy. Using bold flat colors and clean lines and shapes, the new logo has the characteristics of way-finding design systems seen in airports and subways.”
Moreau continues “It was important that the new logo carries our Metro principle of being “Authentically Digital”. By that, we mean it does not try to emulate faux-industrial design characteristics such as materiality (glass, wood, plastic, etc.). It has motion – aligning with the fast and fluid style you’ll find throughout Windows 8. Our final goal was for the new logo to be humble, yet confident. Welcoming you in with a slight tilt in perspective and when you change your color, the logo changes to reflect you. It is a “Personal” Computer after all.”
The logo most closely resembles the Windows 1.0 logo released in conjunction with the first version of the operating system during 1985. The 1985 logo uses a similar light blue color as well as shapes designed to emulate a window. This massive shift in Microsoft’s Windows branding pays homage to the logo that started it all, but pushes a minimal design similar to the direction Apple went during its logo changes over the years.
According to ReadWriteWeb, the color scheme and white cross pattern on the four frames is similar to flags within several countries. It’s similar to “the flag of the French city of Calais, the Estonian city of Pärnu, the former flag of Iceland, the flag flown by some ships of the Greek Navy and a classic Nordic Cross flag, still flown today over Shetland Province in Scotland.”
The new logo is already drawing various levels of criticism on the Web from technology blogs. Joe Wilcox at BetaNews called the logo a disaster and used imagery of the Titanic in his critique. Sean Ludwig at VentureBeat called the logo bland and that it could have easily been created within Microsoft Paint. Over at UnderConsideration, graphic designer Armin Vit simply called the logo a “real loser.” Devin Coldewey at Techcrunch shows off a humorous version of the new logo that uses the four light blue panels to incorporate the “Blue Screen of Death.” Graphic designer Julius Tarngpoints out that the logo is out of perspective, if the new logo supposed to emulate a square window.

While the logo was designed by Paula Scher at the international design consultancy Pentagram, this hasn’t stopped freelance designers from posting a large variety of logo redesigns on the official blog post. Various design suggestions include altering the perspective of the frames, putting the four colors back into the frames or even incorporating a range of Windows apps into the logo. People has been leaving comments describing the new logo ranging from “amazing” to “disaster” as well as consistently questioning why Microsoft is forgoing the iconic color scheme found within Windows logos dating back over two decades. Microsoft officials have yet to post any followup comments in response to consumer questions regarding the debated redesign.

Digital tools 'to save languages'

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:59:04 +0000

By Jonathan AmosScience correspondent, BBC News, Vancouver

Facebook, YouTube and even texting will be the salvation of many of the world's endangered languages, scientists believe.
Of the 7,000 or so languages spoken on Earth today, about half are expected to be extinct by the century's end.
Globalisation is usually blamed, but some elements of the "modern world", especially digital technology, are pushing back against the tide.
North American tribes use social media to re-engage their young, for example.
Tuvan, an indigenous tongue spoken by nomadic peoples in Siberia and Mongolia, even has an iPhone app to teach the pronunciation of words to new students.
"Small languages are using social media, YouTube, text messaging and various technologies to expand their voice and expand their presence," said K David Harrison, an associate professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College and a National Geographic Fellow.
"It's what I like to call the flipside of globalisation. We hear a lot about how globalisation exerts negative pressures on small cultures to assimilate. But a positive effect of globalisation is that you can have a language that is spoken by only five or 50 people in one remote location, and now through digital technology that language can achieve a global voice and a global audience."
Harrison, who travels the world to seek out the last speakers of vanishing languages, has been describing his work here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
With National Geographic, he has just helped produce eight talking dictionaries.
These dictionaries contain more than 32,000 word entries in eight endangered languages. All the audio recordings have been made by native speakers, some of whom like Alfred "Bud" Lane are among the last fluent individuals in their native tongues.

Mr Lane speaks a language known as Siletz Dee-ni, which is restricted to a small area on the central Oregon coast.
"Linguists came in and labelled our language moribund, meaning it was heading for the ash heap of history; and our tribal people and our council decided that wasn't going to happen. So we devised a plan to go forward to start teaching our dialect here in the Siletz Valley," he told the meeting.
Mr Lane has sat down and recorded 14,000 words for the online dictionary. "Nothing takes the place of speakers speaking to other speakers, but this bridges a gap that was just sorely needed in our community and our tribe."
Margaret Noori is an expert in Native American studies at the University of Michigan and a speaker of Anishinaabemowin, which is the sovereign language of over 200 indigenous "nations" in Canada and the US. These communities are heavy users of Facebook.
"What we do with technology is try to connect people," Prof Noori said. "All of it is to keep the language."
Dr Harrison says not all languages can survive, and many inevitably will be lost as remaining speakers die off. But he says the new digital tools do offer a way back from the brink for a lot of languages that seemed doomed just a few years ago.
He told BBC News: "Everything that people know about the planet, about plants, animals, about how to live sustainably, the polar ice caps, the different ecosystems that humans have survived in - all this knowledge is encoded in human cultures and languages, whereas only a tiny fraction of it is encoded in the scientific literature.
"If we care about sustainability and survival on the planet, we all benefit from having this knowledge base persevered."
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter

Google cookies 'bypassed Safari privacy pro...

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:57:09 +0000

Google has been accused of bypassing the privacy settings of users of the Safari web-browser.
The Wall Street Journal said Google and other companies had worked around privacy settings designed to restrict cookies.
Cookies are small text files stored by browsers which can record information about online activity, and help some online services work.
However Google says the story "mischaracterises" what happened.
Advertisers can use cookies to track online behaviour, helping them to target the commercials they show to internet users.
Some think this use of cookies erodes online privacy. In May, European Union laws are due to come into force which will restrict the use of advertising cookies.
But cookies are also essential to some web services like those Google offers.
Cookie control
The Safari browser is produced by Apple, and is the browser used by the iPhone.
By default Safari only allows cookies to be stored by the web page a user is visiting, not from third parties such as advertisers.
However, Stanford University researcher Jonathan Mayer found that advertisers were still able to store cookies on the computers of internet users browsing with Safari.
It was his discovery that formed the basis of the Wall Street Journal's story.
Many Google services use cookies, for example to remember when someone is signed in to a service, but they are also used by the firm to help personalise advertising.
It was when Google attempted to find a way to enable some of its services and personalised advertising to work on Safari that, Google says, it inadvertently stored cookies.
Side-stepping Safari
In a statement, senior vice president Rachel Whetstone said that last year the company had decided to "enable features for signed-in Google users on Safari who had opted to see personalised ads and other content".

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We are aware that some third parties are circumventing Safari's privacy features and we are working to put a stop to it”

Apple spokesman[/indent]
She added: "To enable these features, we created a temporary communication link between Safari browsers and Google's servers, so that we could ascertain whether Safari users were also signed into Google, and had opted for this type of personalisation."
Ms Whetsone said the company had created new systems to make sure the information it collected was anonymous, but this had led to unintended consequences:
"The Safari browser contained functionality that then enabled other Google advertising cookies to be set on the browser.
"We didn't anticipate that this would happen, and we have now started removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers. It's important to stress that, just as on other browsers, these advertising cookies do not collect personal information."
The Wall Street Journal reported that Google "disabled the code after being contacted by the paper".
Google declined to provide further comment to the BBC.
Privacy warning
Online privacy advocates were highly critical of Google's actions.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote: "It's time for Google to acknowledge that it can do a better job of respecting the privacy of web users."
Although much of the criticism has been directed at the search giant, the Wall Street Journal said that in addition to Google, a number of advertising companies had been using the work-around which had been known about for some time.
An Apple spokesman said in a statement: "We are aware that some third parties are circumventing Safari's privacy features and we are working to put a stop to it."

More charges for Megaupload in US case

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:56:03 +0000

US prosecutors have added wire fraud and additional criminal copyright infringement counts to their case against file-sharing site Megaupload.
New details have emerged as officials filed a 90-page superceding indictment against the company and its founder Kim Dotcom.
The site is accused of costing copyright holders more than $500m (£320m) in lost revenue.
The company says it was diligent in responding to pirated material.
In the indictment, the Department of Justice alleges that Megaupload organised the company's computer system's architecture around the "rapid and repeated distribution" of copyrighted works.
The company allegedly reproduced materials from other websites, including YouTube, and made them available on Megaupload.
User 'VV'
The new wire fraud charges are based on communications from the company to copyright holders.
In those emails, defendants falsely represented that infringing content had been removed when it had not been removed, Justice Department officials say.
The document also highlights one account holder that uploaded 16,950 files to sites the company owned, generating more than 34 million page views over the course of six years.
User "VV" was subject to numerous requests for removal, but records show no deletions of any of VV's uploaded files.
Megaupload paid user VV $3,400 through its rewards programme over the course of two years.
The indictment also contends that the site did not have have as many registered users as they claimed, and that of the 66 million registered accounts, only 5.4 million had ever uploaded a file to the service.
The Department of Justice has also added various properties, jet skis and jewellery to the list of assets subject to forfeiture.
Earlier this month, Mr Dotcom was denied bail in New Zealand.
He has denied the charges and has said he would fight an extradition application by the US.

York Facebook hacking student Glenn Mangham jailed

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:54:15 +0000

A software development student from York who hacked into Facebook has been jailed for eight months.
Glenn Mangham, 26, had earlier admitted infiltrating the social networking website between April and May 2011.
Mangham, of Cornlands Road, York, had shown search engine Yahoo how it could improve security and said he wanted to do the same for Facebook.
Sentencing Mangham, Judge Alistair McCreath said his actions could have been "utterly disastrous" for Facebook.
Alison Saunders, from the Crown Prosecution Service, described the case as "the most extensive and flagrant incidence of social media hacking to be brought before British courts".
Prosecutor Sandip Patel rejected Mangham's claims, saying: "He acted with determination, undoubted ingenuity and it was sophisticated, it was calculating."
Facebook spent $200,000 (£126,400) dealing with Mangham's crime, which triggered a "concerted, time-consuming and costly investigation" by the FBI and British law enforcement, Mr Patel said.
Electronic footprint
The prosecutor told Southwark Crown Court in London how Mangham had "unlawfully accessed and hacked into the social media website Facebook and its computers in April to May last year from his bedroom in Yorkshire".
Mangham had ultimately stolen "invaluable" intellectual property, which he downloaded on to an external hard drive, said Mr Patel.
Facebook discovered the infiltration during a system check even though the defendant deleted his electronic footprint to cover his tracks.
Mr Mangham's defence lawyer Tom Ventham had said his client was an ethical hacker who had a "high moral stance" and Yahoo had "rewarded" him for pointing out its vulnerabilities previously.
He added that when Mangham was arrested he made "copious" admissions to police about what he had done.
Passing sentence, Judge Alistair McCreath told Mangham his actions were not harmless and had "real consequences and very serious potential consequences" for Facebook.
'Not harmless'
"You and others who are tempted to act as you did really must understand how serious this is," he said.
"The creation of that risk, the extent of that risk and the cost of putting it right mean at the end of it all I'm afraid a prison sentence is inevitable."
Mr McCreath said while he acknowledged that Mangham had never intended to pass on any of the information he had gathered, nor did he intend to make any money from it, his activities were "not just a bit of harmless experimentation".
"You accessed the very heart of the system of an international business of massive size, so this was not just fiddling about in the business records of some tiny business of no great importance," he said.
A spokesperson for Facebook said they "applauded" the work of the police and Crown Prosecution Service in this case, "which did not involve any compromise of personal user data".
They added: "We take any attempt to gain unauthorised access to our network very seriously, and we work closely with law enforcement authorities to ensure that offenders are brought to justice."

Hi-tech cars: Driver distraction warning in US

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:50:37 +0000

US transport safety officials have proposed guidelines to limit driver distraction from gadgets built into cars.
The planned voluntary rules would cover "integrated electronic devices, including mobile phones".
Officials want distracting functions to be disabled when driving.
In 2010, US figures suggested that "distraction by a device or control integral to the vehicle was reported in 26,000 crashes".
The new proposals include goals to reduce the amount of inputs required to operate a device - the number of buttons to push - and reducing unnecessary visual information.
There are also guidelines requiring one-handed operation and a two second limit on "off-road glances" - the time spent looking at the device.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also wants built-in gadgets the driver can use to turn-off non-essential functions while the car is moving, and keep them disabled until the car is parked.
In particular they want to prevent manual texting, use of the internet/social media, entering addresses into sat navs and dialling long phone numbers.
Displaying more than 30 characters of text not related to driving should also be prevented, it says.
Electronic warning systems would be exempt from the rules, the NHTSA said.
The first phase of the plans only apply to built-in devices.
However, the NHTSA said that in later phases it might issue further guidelines on the use of "devices or systems that are not built into the vehicle but are brought into the vehicle and used while driving".
This could include "navigation systems, smartphones, electronic tablets and pads, and other mobile communications devices".
Official figures suggested that in 2010 electronic devices were involved in 47,000 distraction-related crashes.
NHTSA administrator David Strickland said consumers wanted more "tools and conveniences" but said the guidelines would help carmakers "develop electronic devices that provide features consumers want - without disrupting a driver's attention or sacrificing safety".
The NHTSA is currently consulting on the first phase of the proposals.

European Court of Justice blocks net-filtering bid

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:46:56 +0000

A social network cannot be required to install an anti-piracy filtering system, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled.
Belgian music royalty collecting firm SABAM wanted the social network Netlog to stop users infringing copyright.
But the court said the filtering required would contravene rights to freedom of business, personal data and freedom of information.
The judgement could have consequences for similar cases across the EU.
Netlog, a social network developed by Ghent-based Massive Media NV, says it has more than 95 million members throughout Europe.
Michael Gardner, head of the intellectual property practice at law firm Wedlake Bell, said: "The European Court appears to have ruled out the idea that operators of social network sites and ISPs can be forced - at their own expense - to impose blanket monitoring and filtering aimed at stopping infringements."
However he added: "The ruling doesn't stop rights owners seeking more limited injunctions against social networking sites or ISPs, but they will have to be more 'proportionate' in scope and effect."
The ECJ's decision will be used by courts across the EU where this aspect of European law is in question.
Filtered out
SABAM had asked a Belgian court to require that Netlog cease unlawfully making available works from its repertoire and face 1,000-euro (£828) fines for every day it failed to comply.

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We therefore welcome the greater legal certainties and protection granted by the court which are necessary to guarantee the openness of the internet”

European Internet Providers Association[/indent]
Netlog said SABAM was, in effect, requiring it to filter its content, indiscriminately monitoring all of its users - something they argued was contrary to the EU's E-Commerce Directive.
The case was referred to the European Court of Justice to decide the legality of such a filtering system
In its judgement the ECJ ruled that a system would be a "serious infringement" of Netlog's freedom to conduct its business "since it would require Netlog to install a complicated, costly, permanent computer system at its own expense".
But it also said there was a risk of infringing rights to the protection of personal data, as a filtering system would require "the identification, systematic analysis and processing of information connected with the profiles created on the social network".
Additionally it might also restrict freedoms to send and receive information, as the system "might not distinguish adequately between unlawful content and lawful content, with the result that its introduction could lead to the blocking of lawful communications".
Acta debate
This is the second judgement the court has made in this area involving SABAM. An earlier Court of Justice ruling in November sided with an ISP when it decided against what it said was, in effect, a request that it monitor traffic for illegally copied material.
The European Internet Providers Association said this latest ruling was a positive step: "We therefore welcome the greater legal certainties and protection granted by the court which are necessary to guarantee the openness of the internet."
The ruling comes amid fierce debate over anti-piracy measures contained in the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta) - an international treaty intended to help protect intellectual property rights.
The Open Rights Group, an organisation which opposes Acta, said in a statement: "It's good to see courts promoting our rights by swatting away plans to snoop on people's use of social networks.
"It is especially timely because, as seen in agreements like Acta, policymakers everywhere find it much harder to respect our rights when making intellectual property policy."
However Acta's supporters argue it is necessary to prevent the widespread infringement of intellectual property rights.

Apple wins over Motorola in 'slide-to-unloc...

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:46:55 +0000

Apple has won a patent dispute against Motorola Mobility regarding a "slide-to-unlock" feature on smartphones.
The judgement marks Apple's first patent victory over Motorola in any part of the world.
Patent consultant Florian Mueller said the ruling could affect patent disputes involving Android device makers worldwide.
Motorola said it planned to appeal and the judgement would have "no impact" on supply or future sales.
A spokeswoman for Motorola said: "Today's ruling in the patent litigation brought by Apple in Munich, Germany, concerns a software feature related to phone unlocking in select Motorola devices sold in Germany.
"Motorola has implemented a new design for the feature. Therefore, we expect no impact on current supply or future sales."
Apple said it would not be commenting on the decision.
'Global battle'
Motorola Mobility is in the process of being acquired by Google, and most of its handsets run on the search firm's mobile operating system, Android.
The Android system is Apple's closest rival in the mobile market.
Mr Mueller, a patent expert who has in the past consulted for Microsoft, described the ruling as a "very significant win for Apple against Android".
"After Google closes the acquisition of Motorola Mobility, the Apple-Motorola Mobility dispute will soon gain importance transcending that of the global battle with Samsung," he said.

The disputed patent is in relation to this iPhone feature

While this decision relates solely to activity in the German market, the decision could potentially help Apple with other patent disputes in other parts of the world, Mr Mueller added.
"Apple is already asserting the slide-to-unlock patent in different jurisdictions against all three leading Android device makers and might use it against even more of them going forward."
The patent in question - EP1964022 - relates to the process of unlocking a smartphone by simply swiping a finger from one area of the screen to another.
A second patent ruling, which covers a method of scrolling through pictures in a photo gallery on mobile device, was also due on Thursday but was postponed by the court.

Producer designer Geoff McCormick strips down an iPhone to explain patents

Yahoo Japan dips on reports of asset swap talks...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:51:00 +0000

Shares of Yahoo Japan fell 5% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on reports that talks regarding the swap of Yahoo's Asian assets had hit a stalemate.
Yahoo owns a 43% stake in China's Alibaba group, which it acquired in 2005 for $1bn (£636m), and a part of Yahoo Japan.
It had been negotiating a complex swap-deal that was expected to save it billions of dollars in taxes.
However, various reports indicated that no agreement had been reached.
"I think the deal is either dead or it's going to take a lot longer to complete, which means we don't have a near-term catalyst; hence the selloff," said Brett Harris, an analyst with Gabelli & Co.
'Another year of turmoil'

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The honeymoon is already over. Yahoo is probably looking at another year of turmoil”

Colin GillisBGC Financial[/indent]
The stalemate in talks has come as a huge surprise.
Analysts and industry experts had expected the deal to be formalised, not least because trading in Alibaba's shares at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has been suspended since 9 February.
The reported failure of the talks is a big blow for the Yahoo, which has been seeking to restructure its operations in a bid to boost its flagging fortunes.
The swap-deal, worth almost $17bn according to some estimates, was not only expected to save taxes, but also provide Yahoo with billions of dollars in cash.
Analysts said unless an agreement is reached soon, Yahoo may see its problems escalate further.
"The honeymoon is already over,'' said Colin Gillis an analyst with BGC Financial. "Yahoo is probably looking at another year of turmoil.''
More trouble
To make matters more complicated, Daniel Loeb, of hedge fund ThirdPoint, which owns more than 5% of Yahoo, launched a campaign to install his own directors on the firm's board.
"Installing the hand-picked choices of the current board does nothing to allay investor fears that Yahoo is poised to repeat the errors of its past,'' Mr Loeb wrote in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr Loeb's move comes just days after Yahoo announced changes to the board after Chairman Roy Bostock and three board members quit.
Their exit followed that of Jerry Yang, Yahoo's co-founder, who resigned from its board last month.
Yahoo said it had sought suggestions for new directors from several shareholders.
"We have received constructive suggestions from several of our major shareholders and, therefore, it is especially disappointing that Mr. Loeb has chosen a potentially disruptive path, just as the company is moving forward under new leadership to aggressively increase the value of Yahoo,'' the firm said in a statement....bbc

Apple iPad China sales and shipments threat in...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:44:14 +0000

A Chinese company is to ask customs officials to block shipments of Apple's iPad both into and out of the country.
If the request succeeds, it could affect global sales as China is a key manufacturing base for the company.
The move follows a long-running dispute between Apple and electronics firm Proview over ownership of the iPad name.
Last year Proview won an initial judgement in a mainland Chinese court, which Apple has appealed against.
Proview said it is contacting officials across China with a view to blocking sales of the product.
Proview lawyer Xie Xianghui said: "We are now working on a request to China Customs to ban and seize all the import and export of the iPad products that have violated the trademark."
'Worldwide rights'
Local media reports said that several dozen iPads were taken from shelves in the city of Shijiazhuang just south of Beijing.
In a statement Apple said: "We bought Proview's worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago.
"Proview refuses to honour their agreement with Apple in China and a Hong Kong court has sided with Apple in this matter. Our case is still pending in mainland China."
While this dispute continues, it is widely anticipated that Apple will announce the launch of the next version of the iPad in March.
The speculation has not been confirmed by Apple. The company is notoriously close-lipped about future releases....bbc

Hackers target Microsoft India's online sto...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:22:09 +0000

Microsoft India's online store was forced to close after an apparent hacking attack from a group calling itself Evil Shadow Team.
For a while after the attack, reports said screen shots of customers' details were posted on the site before it was taken offline by the company.
Microsoft said it was "investigating a limited compromise".
Customer data was found unencrypted on the site, the purported hacker told Reuters news agency.
Microsoft would not confirm that data was not encrypted and in a statement said: "We are diligently working to remedy the issue and keep our customers protected."
A message on the site apologised to customers for the shutdown.
"The Microsoft Store India is currently unavailable. Microsoft is working to restore access as quickly as possible," the message said.
WPSauce first reported the breach according to a Times of India report.
When the online store was hacked, the site had the picture of the Guy Fawkes mask, an image usually associated with the hacker group Anonymous, reports say.
High profile victims of Anonymous have included websites associated with the CIA as well as UN websites.

India probes Google, Yahoo for possible forex v...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:20:49 +0000

Reuters

(Reuters) - India's government is investigating whether local units of U.S. Internet giants Google Incand Yahoo Inc may have violated the country's foreign exchange laws, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Notices have been sent to the Indian units that they are being investigated for potential violations, the paper said, citing a senior official at a division of India's federal finance ministry, which monitors foreign exchange transactions and money-laundering activities.
A spokesman for India's finance ministry declined to confirm whether notices have been issued toGoogle and Yahoo.
"We have an obligation to our shareholders to set up a tax efficient structure and our present structure is compliant with the tax rules in all the countries where we operate," a Google India spokeswoman said in a statement, adding Google has not received any notice.
Separately, Google and Yahoo are among nearly two dozen Internet companies already under fire from India's government and courts which want them to better police their sites for offensive content posted by users.
Google and Facebook removed some content from Indian web sites earlier this month after a court directive warning them of a crackdown "like China" if they didn't take steps to protect religious sensibilities.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said on Tuesday the government would never censor social media, signaling to tone down pressure on the Internet sites.
(Reporting by Maneesha Tiwari in Bangalore and Manoj Kumar in New Delhi; Editing by Paul Tait and Ranjit Gangadharan)

Chinese company to seek ban on iPad import, export

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:19:38 +0000

By JOE McDONALD | Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese company said Tuesday it will ask customs officials to ban imports and exports of Apple's iPads due to a dispute over ownership of the trademark.
All of Apple's iPads are manufactured in China, meaning global sales of the popular tablet computers might be affected if authorities agreed to enforce such a request by Shenzhen ProviewTechnology.
The dispute with Proview, which won a court ruling that it owns theiPad name in China, has resulted in authorities seizing iPads from retailers in one city. Proview said it has asked for enforcement in 30 other cities.
"We are now working on a request to China Customs to ban and seize all the import and export of the iPad products that have violated the trademark," said Xie Xianghui, a Proview lawyer. He gave no indication when the request might be filed.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, defended its ownership of the iPad name.
"We bought Proview's worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago. Proview refuses to honor their agreement with Apple in China," said an Apple Inc. spokeswoman in Beijing, Carolyn Wu.
Wu declined to comment on the possibility of Proview requesting a ban on iPad imports and exports.
China is Apple's fastest-growing market. Its iPads and iPhones are manufactured by a contractor, Taiwan-based Foxconn Technologies Group, at factories in southern China.
Shenzhen Proview Technology registered the iPad trademark in China in 2001. Apple bought rights to the name from a Taiwan company affiliated with Proview but the mainland company says it still owns the name in China. A Chinese court rejected Apple's claim to the name in China last year. Apple has appealed.
"Our case is still pending in mainland China," Wu said.
Chinese rules allow trademark owners to request seizure of goods that violate their rights, according to Stan Abrams, an American lawyer who teaches intellectual property law at Beijing's Central University of Finance and Economics.
The rules were enacted partly in response to foreign pressure for Beijing to stamp out rampant unlicensed copying of foreign movies, music and designer clothes. Abrams said exports can be seized under rules meant to prevent manufacturers in China from sending unlicensed copies to other markets.
"All of these things that Proview can do, whether it's going to court or Customs, these are the things that we want to see," Abrams said. "So it's definitely ironic."
Chinese news reports say Proview, which makes computer displays, is deep in debt and needs a big settlement from Apple.
Proview has yet to make an offer to settle, said Xie, the company's lawyer.
"We are now focusing our work on upholding rights and haven't made negotiation proposals to Apple yet," he said. "As for the reasons, you should ask Apple."
Shenzhen Proview Technology is a subsidiary of LCD screen maker Proview International Holdings Ltd., headquartered in Hong Kong.
Apple bought rights to the iPad name in 2009 from a Taiwan affiliate, Proview Taipei, that registered it in various countries as early as 2000.
A Chinese court ruled in December that Proview is not bound by that agreement. It rejected Apple's complaint that Proview was violating its rights.
Apple might be able to sue the Taiwan company on contract grounds for selling name rights it didn't own, Abrams said. But he said a victory in such a suit would not give Apple rights to the name on the mainland.
"This kind of thing happens, but it's a mistake and it's a really bad one in this case," Abrams said. "They're paying for it now."
___
AP researchers Yu Bing and Zhao Liang contributed.

Paralysed woman to walk London Marathon using r...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:17:43 +0000

By Trevor Mogg

Paralysed in a horse-riding accident in 2007, Claire Lomas was told by doctors that she would never walk again.
But thanks to a special robotic suit, the 31-year-old Brit is now back on her feet. Lomas, who has been wheelchair-bound since her accident, is so excited by recent developments that she’s decided to take on a challenge that even most able-bodied people would balk at — a 26-mile marathon.
The ReWalk suit, described as a powered exoskeleton that provides user-initiated mobility, will help Lomas complete the course, taking place in London on April 22. Her immediate challenge is learning to walk using the robotic suit in the limited time she has left between now and the day of the event.
“It is physically hard work and incredibly frustrating at times to get the technique right, but when I make progress, it gives me a fantastic feeling,” Lomas told the Telegraph in a recent interview.
ReWalk’s creator, an Israel-based tech company called Argo, says on its website that a user can control the robotic exoskeleton through subtle changes in their center of gravity. Crutches are recommended, to provide extra stability and safety.
The technology comprises a number of motors and gears strapped to the user’s lower body, while sensors attached to the upper body help to control the motion. A computer, together with a rechargeable battery power source, is located in a backpack. Once mastered, a user can even use ReWalk to climb stairs.
When ReWalk detects the user moving their weight onto one foot, it raises the opposite leg and carries the user forward. Lomas says that she’s currently working on getting the rhythm right.
“I keep wanting to look at my legs to see what they are doing,” she told the Telegraph. “There is so much to think about and the weight shift is subtle. You have got to learn how to do that and to do it efficiently – it is really frustrating at first. If you don’t get it right, the leg won’t lift. You can’t just strap yourself in and go, you have to work at it.”
With the London marathon only a short time away, Lomas is working hard to get ready. By completing the course — which she thinks could take up to three weeks — she hopes to raise in the region of $78,000 (£50,000) for spinal research.
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

iPad 3 launch date of March 7 looking likely

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:15:38 +0000

By Trevor Mogg

A website that called it right with the iPhone 4S’s launch date says that the iPad 3 will be unveiled on Wednesday March 7.
In a report on its website Monday, iMore said that “according to sources who have been reliable in the past,” Apple will launch the third generation of its popular tablet in a matter of weeks, a device which it says will feature a 2048×1536 Retina display, a quad-core A6 processor and possibly 4G LTE networking.
The rumored launch date ties in with a recent AllThingsD report which said it had information suggesting that Apple would unveil the eagerly anticipated device in the first week of next month.
The AllThingsD report also said that the event would be held in the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, a location not unused to big Apple launches.
As for what to expect with the new model, speculation is, of course, rife. But in contrast to last year’s largely wayward rumors regarding what turned out to be the iPhone 4S, recent reports on the kind of things we can expect with the next iteration of the Cupertino company’s tablet have been more focused.
Besides the Retina display and quad-core processor, the iPad 3 is expected to have improved photographic capability and better battery life. If the recently released image of what was supposedly the back of the new device is anything to go by, then the actual look of the iPad 3 is expected to be pretty much identical to the current model.
Apple’s iPad dominates the tablet market, with the company shifting more than 55 million units since its launch in April 2010. No other company has come anywhere close to matching Apple’s strong sales with tablet devices of their own. Only Amazon, with its recently launched Kindle Fire tablet, has been able to sell a similar device in any significant number, though of course its simpler, cheaper offering is located at the opposite end of the tablet spectrum.

Iranians' Internet access blocked temporari...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:14:18 +0000

By Joseph Menn | Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Most computer users in Iran were blocked from accessing email, social networking and other services in recent days, U.S.-based Internet experts said on Monday, raising fears the government is extending the reach of its surveillance on ordinary citizens.
Internet service providers presumed to be acting at the Iranian government's behest began blocking the most common form of secure connections on Friday, according to the outside experts and Iranian bloggers. Traffic rebounded to normal levels on Monday.
The cutoff apparently affected all encrypted international websites outside of Iran that depend on the Secure Sockets Layer protocol, which display addresses beginning with https, according to Earl Zmijewski of Renesys, a U.S. company that tracks Internet traffic worldwide.
Google, which uses SSL for its Gmail service, reported that traffic from Iran to its email system fell precipitously.
Gmail use, which typically drops by about 80 percent at night, dropped by roughly 95 percent Friday and remained that low during daylight hours through the weekend before recovering Monday, according to Google's publicly posted access statistics.
Tor, a system for hiding the location of Internet users, saw a similar falloff first in the Iranian capital of Tehran and then throughout the country, said Tor executive director Andrew Lewman.
Though other countries, including Belarus and Myanmar, have blocked SSL access before, Iran is the largest country to have tried it, Lewman said. Egypt turned off the Internet completely a year ago during the uprising there, and China has done that in some regions.
It was unclear why the blocking stopped. Some Iranian politicians complained and businesses might have objected, but most tracking the situation said it was likely that the experiment had run its course.
"The government is testing different tools," said Hamed Behravan, who reports on Iranian technology issues for the U.S. government-funded Voice of America. "They might have wanted to see the public reaction."
Behravan said Iranian sites using SSL remained available, including banking sites.
Tor has been developing a version of its program that is encrypted but does not need an SSL connection, and it distributed that over the weekend to people inside Iran who reported that it worked well, Lewman said.
Iranian officials have said they do not intend to block all connections to the outside world from a new national system they are developing. But direct links could be made to run very slowly, Behravan said.
The new network could help Iran ward off spying or attacks from other countries and keep a closer eye on domestic activities.
The country already has built up one of the most sophisticated infrastructures for monitoring and controlling Internet content, with the ability to dig deep into communications and change various protocols.
During political protests in the past, Iran reduced bandwidth so that posting videos took hours.
With the SSL shutoff and recent remarks by officials, Behravan said the new network could launch within a month.
"I will not be surprised if it happens tomorrow," said Iranian computer scientist Arash Abadpour of Toronto, who blogs under the name Kamangir.
(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

New study: Users take tablets on a honeymoon, a...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:13:06 +0000

By Jeff Saginor | Digital Trends

On Monday, researchers from the marketing firm Rosetta released study findings in which nearly 900 tablet owners were asked about their experiences with the mobile devices, and a question that has been haunting each and every tablet user since the devices first went mainstream almost two years ago has finally been answered, namely: How many of us take our tablets into the bathroom?
The answer, surprisingly or not, is quite a few. The study found that almost 25 percent of tablet owners regularly use the devices while… otherwise preoccupied… and a full majority of users — 68 percent — also take the devices to the bedroom with them.
According to Jay Lichtenstein, a Partner in Rosetta’s Consulting Practice, “We expected usage in the living room, kitchen, etc., but didn’t expect such high percentages in the bedroom, bathroom and even outside the home (for example, on the patio). This data about device usage in different locations, combined with our device preference data, reinforced that tablets are not necessarily the primary devices for a lot of things; instead, it is an ad-on device so you can keep accessing info anywhere.”
While bedroom use is perhaps less surprising, given a tablet’s multipurpose role as e-reader and Web browser, the researchers did discover what they referred to as a “honeymoon” period with new tablet ownership. During this time, which can last from one to six months, owners tend to travel with their tablets more often, and use their devices for many varied tasks, exploring the tablets full potential — perhaps at the expense of their significant others. So if you were planning on giving a tablet as a gift to a special someone this Valentine’s Day — don’t say you haven’t been warned.
“Like in any relationship,” says Lichtenstein, “the pressure is on to keep consumers engaged and happy with their tablets beyond that initial infatuation period,” referring to the so-called honeymoon.
The study also found that after this initial excitement eventually wore off, users tended to revert back to more traditional methods of computing, with 47 percent preferring a PC to browse the Web, and 39 percent preferring a computer for online shopping.
Tablets reigned supreme over time for users reading books, magazines, and newspapers, and also to check email, perhaps signaling a trend that tablets are becoming less interactive and more unidirectional, such as books or TV. The popularity of tablet gaming, however, would seem to refute this theory, although even that seems to decrease over time; 34 percent of users reported gaming on their tablets in the first month, as opposed to 29 percent after 12 months, according to the study.
If these findings hold true, there are many implications beyond tech companies simply facing up to the facts and offering antibacterial touch screens: Tablet use, although explosive in the past year in terms of growth, seems to offer almost a novelty effect in terms of the end-user. If reading, something that consumers have been doing in a big way on the Amazon Kindle and other devices since at least 2007, is the primary use of a tablet after the initial 12 months, these devices are clearly not being used to their full potential. Unless tablet makers and independent developers can innovate in terms of new uses for tablets, this study seems to illustrate a point that perhaps the researchers failed to fully comprehend: Maybe tablets aren’t really the life-changing gadgets we in the tech community assume them to be. Take a look at the full infographic here.

Google Motorola bid approved in EU and US

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:10:12 +0000

US regulators have approved Google's $12.5bn (£7.9bn) bid for phone maker Motorola Mobility, hours after it won clearance from European authorities.
The European Commission ruled the deal would not raise competition issues in the market for operating systems for devices like mobile phones or tablets.
Regulators in the US agreed, although both authorities vowed to monitor the company and rivals' use of patents.
Approval from China, Taiwan and Israel is needed before the deal is completed.
Motorola split in two last year, prompting Google to bid for the section that makes phones and tablet computers in a bid to gain access to more than 17,000 of Motorola Mobility's patents.
'Important milestone'
EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement that regulators did not think the deal would diminish competition.
But he added: "The commission will continue to keep a close eye on the behaviour of all market players in the sector, particularly the increasingly strategic use of patents."
Last month, European regulators launched an investigation into whether Samsung was using some of its key patents to hinder competitors.
Google vice-president Don Harrison said in a blog post the EU approval was an "important milestone" which moved the company closer to closing the deal.
Android access
"As we outlined in August, the combination of Google and Motorola Mobility will help supercharge Android," he said.
"It will also enhance competition and offer consumers faster innovation, greater choice and wonderful user experiences."
The European Commission had originally intended to rule on the deal by 10 January but delayed its decision after requesting more information.
It wanted to examine whether Google might favour Motorola Mobility by making it harder for big-selling handset manufacturers, like Samsung or HTC, to use its Android operating system.
However, the commission concluded: "It is unlikely that Google would restrict the use of Android solely to Motorola, a minor player in the European Economic Area."...bbc