Wednesday, April 24, 2013

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NASA puts three more smartphones in orbit

Posted: 24 Apr 2013 04:21 AM PDT

NASA has put three more smartphones into orbit on board of an Antares rocket. The tiny satellites were built in a standard cubesat frame and they were built using off-the-shelf components. They may very well be the cheapest satellites ever launched, Gizmag reckons.

Cubesats are not a new concept, in fact they date back to the nineties, but the mobile revolution has made them quite a bit more sophisticated. Cubesats have a volume of one liter and they are basically cubes measuring 10cm across. This means that smartphones are a perfect match for cubesats, not only in terms of size. Smartphones are relatively rugged and they feature an array of useful components, including GPS receivers, cameras, accelerometers, radio transmitters and speedy processors with decent operating systems. They can simply do more for less. 

"Smartphones offer a wealth of potential capabilities for flying small, low-cost, powerful satellites for atmospheric or Earth science, communications, or other space-borne applications,” said Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology in Washington. “They also may open space to a whole new generation of commercial, academic and citizen-space users."

However, NASA’s choice of handsets might irk some Apple fans. First generation PhoneSats are based on the HTC Nexus One, while the second generation uses the Nexus S, built by Samsung. The latter one also has a few more sensors, gyroscopes and an S-band radio. NASA launched two first-gen satellites and a single second generation PhoneSat.

PhoneSats cost between $3,500 and $7,000 to build, making them incredibly cheap even as far as cubesats go. The satellites are expected to stay in orbit for about two weeks, so keeping them cheap sounds like a very good idea indeed. 

BBC finally admits that other operating systems exist

Posted: 24 Apr 2013 04:20 AM PDT

The era where Apple fanboys at the BBC use licence payer money to prop up Apple's tablet business, has finally come to a close.

In  July 2011  the BBC announced that it would release its iPlayer for mobile users for the first time. The catch was that if you wanted to use the iPlayer on your tablet you had to buy Apple gear.

At the time we asked the BBC why they were only supporting a single product, made by one company when they had previously favoured less exclusive arrangements, we were told that it was only a test and the iPlayer would be available for other operating systems soon.

We were not the only one to complain that the BBC was always launching Apps on Apple gear when there were more Android users out there.

Now, at last the BBC has launched its iPlayer Radio app for Android devices and the BBC's executive producer for mobile James Simcock insists that it is better than the iOS version.

The logic is that the wait means that you get a better player. The iPlayer Radio will not only give access to the BBC's radio stations but also to set the alarm to wake up with your favourite programme, swipe to access on demand content and videos and set programme reminders.

According to the BBC's blog , all of the usage date gathered from iOS has been used to streamline the design of the App for Android, a notification panel has been included and the alarm clock works even when the app isn't active.

We would have thought that it would have been better to have tested the iPlayer for Tablets on Android in the first place rather than the iOS which his much more fiddly and becoming a lot less popular rather fast. 

Police arrest man who tried to sell grandson on Facebook

Posted: 24 Apr 2013 03:44 AM PDT

Indian authorities have arrested a 47-year-old man who tried to sell his newborn grandson to a local businessman.

The two men reached the deal on Facebook, and the grandfather was apparently helped by two hospital employees who contacted the buyer and arranged the deal. They even agreed on a price, 45,000 rupees (roughly $830), but Indian cops swooped down and arrested the lot, reports news.co.au.

"All three people who conspired to sell the child have been arrested and we will be interrogating the businessman who paid the money to buy the baby," said Satish Malhotra, a senior police officer in Ludhiana.

The baby has since been returned to her mother, who filed a complaint against her father. She also bought him a T-shit, inscribed “World’s Worst Grandfather, runner up” in Hindi, we were not told.

The three suspects have been charged with kidnapping and they could face up to seven years in prison if found guilty. The same cannot be said of the buyer, but then again Indian justice works much like justice in the west – rich people who can afford good representation can get out of anything. 

Paypal in hot water with indie developer

Posted: 24 Apr 2013 01:54 AM PDT

Lab Zero Games, which raised over $800,000 online  so they could make more content for indie fighting game Skullgirls, is finding that it is at odds with its unwanted business partner Paypal.

Most of the contributions to Lab Zero's IndieGoGo campaign were paid via PayPal, but given the size of the amount, Paypal wanted the Skullgirls developers to "take on the risk" if a large number of backers decided not to actually pledge.

The studio could not guarantee this, of course, so Paypal simply froze the account, meaning that employees could not be paid.

All looked fairly grim. Lab Zero fought back with several complaints including one lodged with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As a result, Paypal agreed to open up the account, though they're still holding $35,000 as "collateral".

To be fair to Paypal, Lab Zero made a mistake when it decided to raise money to create a new character by having gamers vote on which one to build. After the result, some gamers who did not get the character they wanted threatened to withdraw their donation to the project.

According to Kotaku, Paypal did not want to be left having to issue shedloads of refunds for those who petulantly withdrew their investment because they did not get what they wanted.

As a result, Paypal has a lot of support for defending itself against the actions of the Fighting Game Community, even if it is a PR disaster.

As one gamer pointed out "Lab Zero, are the biggest victims here because of the whiny, spoiled, loudmouthed, useless Fighting Game Community" and another one pointed out that Paypal was protecting itself.

Still the situation has shown up weaknesses in using such financial systems to raise short term finance for IT projects. Suddenly you have a business partner that you did not expect calling the shots on some pretty important business decisions. 

ZTE pays Microsoft protection money

Posted: 24 Apr 2013 01:50 AM PDT

China's ZTE is paying Microsoft a royalty for devices it makes using Google Android and Chrome operating systems to make sure that it is not patent trolled out of business.

The company is the latest hardware manufacture to hatch a deal with Vole to avoid being sued.

Google and its Motorola phone maker unit is one of the few outfits which have refused to pay the Vole toll. Reaching agreement with ZTE means Microsoft now has patent deals in place with three of the five leading Android phone makers.

According to Reuters,  Microsoft is receiving cash from Samsung. LG and HTC. It has yet to strike a deal with Huawei but last week managed to get Hon Hai, the parent of Foxconn, to sign up.

Vole claims it has Android patent deals with about 20 device makers, and 60 percent of Android phones sold worldwide are covered by a Microsoft patent license.

At this rate it will probably make more out of Android than it will out of Windows Mobile software and will be laughing all the way to the bank even if its own software fails to attract any attention. 

LulzSec boss arrested in Australia

Posted: 24 Apr 2013 01:48 AM PDT

Australian cops,  along with troopers, have fingered the collar of the cobber they believe was the top dingo in the International hacker outfit LulzSec.

The unnamed 24-year-old, known online as Aush0k, resides in Point Clare on the Central Coast and works as a IT security professional. Hacks in Oz  have worked out that the guy's real name is Matthew Flannery and he is a low-level support consultant at Content Security.

Flannery claimed that he was the 'leader' of hacker movement LulzSec and now faces three counts of unauthorised access to a computer system. They seem to be ignoring the allegation of possession of a jolly jumbuck in his tucker bag for now.

He took advantage of a known exploit to access the website, then put a back door in to gain further access.

Flannery was alleged to have also defaced the site by posting an image and 'altered' the internal structure of the site.

The police said that Flannery was an IT professional and held a "position of trust" within his unnamed company, with access to "sensitive information from clients including government agencies". He had the potential to access data stored on the affected website but it did not appear he had done so.

They claimed that his knowledge and skills presented "a significant risk to the clients of the company for which he was employed had he continued his illegal online activities."

Flannery's boss said that this was rubbish. 

He has been bailed to appear May 15 at Woy Woy local court and must report to police three times a week. 

Assad fanboys stuff up the stock market

Posted: 24 Apr 2013 01:44 AM PDT

Hacker fanboys of the Syrian strongman Bashar Hafez al-Assad managed to cause more damage to the US stock exchange than sticking a bomb in a pressure cooker.

Sounding like a 1980s New Romantic band, the Syrian Electronic Army managed to crash Wall Street by hacking into AP and posting a tweet which claimed that President Barak Obama had been injured after two explosions in the White House.

The hack caused "pure chaos" on the US stock exchange, briefly wiping out $136.5 billion and leaving AP's Twitter feeds suspended.

The Syrian Electronic Army professes to be involved in arming Syrian Arabs with "science and knowledge" against campaigns from Arab and Western media to broadcast fabricated news about what is happening in Syria.

In fact the group, which appears to have ties with Anonymous, spends a lot of its time attacking sites which do not say that Assad and his Apple loving wife, are very nice people, who love their subjects.

But the fact that the Tweet could do such damage to the US stockmarkets with such a low level hack, shows the power that the cyber war group has. Also the ability of the US stockmarket to react without engaging a brain.

Apparently the share market is back to normal after losing 145 points. Other markets immediately followed suit, with the oil price falling and the US dollar weakening against the Japanese yen. Traders responded by pushing up the price of gold by $5 an ounce until someone thought to turn the TV on. 

Microsoft expands Surface availability to 29 markets

Posted: 24 Apr 2013 01:41 AM PDT

Redmond is expanding Surface RT and Surface Pro availability to a number of new markets, including major emerging economies. 

Writing in its blog, Microsoft said Surface tablets will start shipping in new markets in May and June. Additional details such as exact availability dates and prices will be disclosed at a later date. 

Surface RT will launch in Malaysia on April 25th, in Mexico by the end of May and in Korea and Thailand in June. This expansion will result in Surface RT being available in 29 markets. For those that are counting, it’s already available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Surface Pro will launch before the end of May in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Surface Pro will launch in Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, and Thailand before the end of June.

Surface Pro is currently available in the US, Canada, and China.

Microsoft insists that enthusiasm for Surface tablets has been fantastic, although sales figures paint a completely different picture. Last month it emerged that Microsoft managed to ship just 1.4 million units in the first three months of sales. 

Apple's Cook buys off angry shareholders

Posted: 24 Apr 2013 01:40 AM PDT

Apple's Tim Cook staged an "oh look there is a badger with a handgun" moment at yesterday's quarter results to distract angry shareholders from the slumping sales.

Faced with the fact that the company was going to make more losses thanks to its competition coming up with better products, more often, Cook decided to distract anyone angry about the figures by offering them cash to go away.

The news that Cook was giving Apple shareholders $100 billion by the end of 2015, partly by raising its dividend 15 percent and partly by increasing its share buyback program six-fold to $60 billion has managed to attract most of the headlines.

This lobbing of cash at investors meant that the real news, that Apple's growth has slowed and margins have decreased was soon forgotten.

In case you missed it Apple reported net income of $9.5 billion on revenue of $43.6 billion. That compares with net income of $11.6 billion on $39.2 billion a year ago. Apple's gross margins guidance for its current quarter came in below expectations. Such forecasts suggest increased competition on pricing.

What replaced this was that now Apple is less a hyper-growth startup-like company and more  a mature but robust technology corporation with the world's most lucrative dividend.

In the short term it should quieten those who are alarmed that Apple has gone from a shareprice which always went up, to a normal company.

With the large dividend in their back pocket, analysts were saying that Apple was a mature company that's now trying to get everyone to see it as one. Given that Apple is about as old as most of the big technology companies, such as Microsoft, this is a pretty silly thing to say.

Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management told Reuters that Apple is in the transition phase from growth to a value company. Growth companies tend to put every penny back in, but that is not the case with Apple here, he cryptically said.

But Apple has been sitting on a cash pile so big that the Duke and Duchess of Wessex can take a well earned skying holiday on its upper slopes. Rather than pouring that money into bribing angry shareholders the company would be better off pouring it into R&D.

But the announcement meant that after announcing falling profits and lower margins, Apple's shares actually rose five percent, something few other companies would be able to pull off on the back of such bad news.

However Apple is still a company whose cash cows, the iPhone and iPad, are being readied for the slaughter house and it needs some new technology badly to save it from oblivion. Cook has in the past year presided over three straight quarters of missed revenue expectations.

Cook tried on Tuesday to drum up enthusiasm around the product pipeline by teasing that "some really great stuff" potentially in new product categories was coming later this year and in 2014.

Of course he did not say what. That will be up to the Tame Apple Press to churn out shed loads of dull speculation for the next few months. 

GiffGaff network suffers outage

Posted: 23 Apr 2013 03:22 PM PDT

GiffGaff, the O2 supported phone network, has had network problems starting from between 7-8pm and still continuing - but only just acknowledged.

Some members have noted that GiffGaff's service has been out for over three hours as of 10PM GMT. 

Voice, SMS, and data have all been out for some time, though data seems to have come back at time of publication.

GiffGaff has said: "Sorry - we are still having a few issues with the network we use, members aren't able to receive / make calls or send texts, members can still receive texts. We're working on the fix, please bear with us, for updates check the community".

On Twitter, customer @miimii_Original said: "Giff gaff need to fix their bulls**t network I mean you're a part of O2 and they've been there already why you gotta go down too", while @hannah_mayhew said: "Giffgaff is a pile of w**k. Send my texts you a**hole!"
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