Wednesday, May 1, 2013

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Mozilla fumes at British government surveillance spyware outfit

Posted: 01 May 2013 06:24 AM PDT

Big cheeses at the Mozzarella Foundation have delivered a Gorgonzola flavoured raspberry to the government spyware outfit Gamma International.

The open source browser maker was furious after it was revealed that Gamma was using Firefox as a disguise for its FinSpy software.

The disguised version of Firefox is installed and then accesses key-strokes, activate webcams and records Skype calls as Firefox, so that users don't delete it, Mozilla moaned.

FinSpy is used by governments to snoop on citizens and the product was outed by human rights group Citizen Lab.

Mozilla has sent Gamma a cease and desist letter today demanding that these illegal practices stop immediately.

Writing in its blog, a spokesMozilla said that not was the activity illegal, but the company take them seriously because they are deceptive, harm users, cause consumer confusion, and harm Mozilla's reputation.

"We cannot abide a software company using our name to disguise online surveillance tools that can be – and in several cases actually have been – used by Gamma's customers to violate citizens' human rights and online privacy," the blog said.

FinSpy did not affect Firefox itself or the way the browser operated and only uses the brand and trademarks to lie and mislead as one of its methods for avoiding detection and deletion.

When a computer user targeted by FinSpy looks at files related to the snooper, Gamma misrepresents its program as being 'Firefox.exe' and includes the properties associated with Firefox along with a version number and copyright and trademark claims attributed to Firefox and Mozilla Developers.

The tactic turned up in a spyware attack in Bahrain that targeted democracy activists and in spyware used in the run-up to Malaysia's upcoming elections. 

Windows 8 market share at just 3.84 percent

Posted: 01 May 2013 05:23 AM PDT

It is no secret that Windows 8 is off to a slow start and the latest market share data from Net Applications should raise a few eyebrows in Redmond.

Windows 8 is gaining traction, but growth remains painfully slow. In April its market share went from 3.31 percent to 3.84 percent. It gained 0.53 percent last month, but back in December it gained 0.66, so we appear to be seeing a negative trend. Windows 7, on the other hand, dipped just 0.01 percent, sitting at 44.72 percent share, reports TNW.

Given the horrific state of the PC market, the numbers come as no surprise, but they paint a bleak picture for both OEMs and Microsoft. Consumers seem content with Windows 7 and there is practically no incentive to upgrade to Windows 8. 

The PC market is mature and the upgrade cycle is slowing down to a snail’s pace, while consumers are choosing to spend their upgrade money on smartphones and tablets. The fact that XP still commands a massive 38.31 percent share speaks for itself.

Microsoft lost a little ground in overall OS share last month. Its market share dipped 0.11 percent to 91.78 percent, while OS X and Linux gained 0.07 and 0.04 percent respectively. 

Rumoured HP 10-inch tablet rocks Tegra 4

Posted: 01 May 2013 04:55 AM PDT

Hewlett Packard originally approached the tablet market with caution, but not enough caution it seems, as its first tablet was a complete flop. The WebOS based HP TouchPad launched in 2011 and it was discontinued just 49 days after it was launched. It was such a flop that it makes the Surface RT look good.

Now, though, it is starting to take Android tablets a bit more seriously. HP’s entry-level Slate 7 is hitting retail as we speak and now a fresh leak seems to be pointing to a high-end design as well.

The HP SlateBook 10 X2 tipped up in AnTuTu’s benchmark database and if the results are legit, it is quite a powerhouse, reports TabTech.de.

Based on Nvidia’s new Tegra 4 SoC clocked at 1.8GHz, it scored 27,259 in AnTuTu, which is a very impressive score indeed. Previous generation Tegra 3 devices usually scored half that, while even high end phones launched a couple of months ago top out at around 20,000.

Unlike the cheap and cheerful Slate 7, the HP SlateBook 10 X2 is a 10-incher, but we don’t know the resolution just yet, although such a powerful chipset is more than likely to be coupled with a hi-res screen. The benchmark also reports that the tablet is running Android 4.2.2, the latest available Android version.

If this is HP’s idea of entering the high-end tablet market, we must say we like it. The performance is definitely there and although we don’t know the full spec, the SlateBook is already looking like a winner.

France stops Yahoo having a Dailymotion

Posted: 01 May 2013 03:55 AM PDT

Search engine Yahoo has given up on a cunning plan to buy a majority stake in online video website Dailymotion after the French government said that it did not want the buyout to take place.

Dailymotion, which sounds like something you do at 10am with a copy of the newspaper, would have been the biggest deal in the 10-month tenure of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

She wanted to buy 75 percent stake in Dailymotion, which is owned by telecommunications company France-Telecom Orange, for something like $300 million.

But the government officials were outraged that one of the biggest French successes since the battle of Austerlitz was falling to a nasty company run by a nation which thought that sticking minced meat between two slices of bread was top level cuisine.

French government officials and France Telecom executives wanted to arrange a deal where Yahoo would take a 50 percent stake instead, and Yahoo would have to serve up proper food in the staff café. Yahoo said no way.

According to Reuters, YouTube wanted Dailymotion because it is the one of the most popular online destinations for video, although it lags far behind Google's YouTube. Nevertheless it would give Yahoo a foot in the door.

France Telecom-Orange acquired Dailymotion for $170 million through a two-phase deal, with the most recent transaction closing in January. Dailymotion's editorial and executive management operate independently of France Telecom-Orange. 

Qualcomm steps up Snapdragon branding campaign

Posted: 01 May 2013 03:52 AM PDT

Qualcomm is the leading supplier of mobile SoCs, but it is not content with its low key media image and it apparently wants to grow the Snapdragon brand.

Don’t expect to see any “Snapdragon Inside” stickers on your mobile, Qualcomm is focusing its efforts on TV - planning a Snapdragon branding campaign, complete with TV ads and a commercial for cinemas. 

Chief marketing officer Anand Chandrasekher recently showed off the ad to a crowd of analysts, saying that it will be showing soon at a theatre near you. It will also end up on TV within a few months, reports Reuters.

"We're trying to build an emotional bond with our customers," Chandrasekher said. "It's not our intention to compete with our customers' or partners' brands. ... Our brand should be accretive to big brands, not dilutive."

Although Qualcomm won’t compete with its partners, it will compete with the likes of Samsung, Nvidia and to some extent Apple. Chip branding and market development are nothing new in the PC world, but most smartphone makers have stopped short of making a big fuss about the chips they use in their devices. Motorola is the prime example, but with a bit of Qualcomm cash that might be about to change.

IBM creates film using precisely placed atoms

Posted: 01 May 2013 03:42 AM PDT

Scientists from IBM have created the world’s smallest film, made with thousands of atoms.

Approved by the Guinness World of Records, the film, aptly named “A Boy and His Atom,” uses thousands of precisely placed atoms to create nearly 250 frames of stop-motion action.

It's a story about a character named Atom who befriends a single atom and goes on a playful journey that includes dancing, playing catch and bouncing on a trampoline. Set to a musical track, the film is said to represent a unique way to convey science outside the research community.  

In order to make the film the atoms were moved with an IBM-made scanning tunnelling microscope, which lets scientists visualise the world all the way down to single atoms.

IBM said it weighs two tons, operates at a temperature of negative 268 degrees Celsius and magnifies the atomic surface over 100 million times.

Remotely operated on a standard computer, IBM researchers used the microscope to control a super-sharp needle along a copper surface to “feel” atoms. Only one nanometer away from the surface, which is a billionth of a meter in distance, the needle can physically attract atoms and molecules on the surface and thus pull them to a precisely specified location on the surface. The moving atom makes a unique sound that is critical feedback in determining how many positions it has actually moved.  

As the movie was being created, the scientists rendered still images of the individually arranged atoms, resulting in 242 single frames.

IBM said that, for decades, scientists have have studied materials at the nanoscale to explore the limits of data storage, among other things.

Using the smallest object available for engineering data storage devices - single atoms - the same team of IBM researchers who made the film also recently created the world's smallest magnetic bit. They were the first to answer the question of how many atoms it takes to reliably store one bit of magnetic information: 12.

DARPA seeks breakthrough on mobile wireless tech

Posted: 01 May 2013 03:33 AM PDT

Researchers at the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) believes a military mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) that lets 1,000-5,000 nodes connect simultaneously and securely is pretty much impossible.

Researchers have unsuccessfully used internet-based concepts in attempts to try to build MANET for the last 20 years.

Now, according to Network World, DARPA thinks they can only scale to around 50 nodes before network services become ineffective and is asking for new ideas to break MANET limitations.

In a statement, DARPA said while the internet created some far-reaching technical advances it can't cope with the requirements of MANET.

It said that MANET will not happen using existing protocols and concepts and someone is going to have to come up with something truly revolutionary to build one.

It is still an important technological goal. A MANET of a thousand nodes could support an entire battalion without the need for manual network setup, management and maintenance that comes from 'switchboard'-era communications.

This would give troops robust services such as real-time video imagery, enhanced situational awareness and other services that we have not yet imagined.

So DARPA thinks the only way to get it, is to scrap internet developments and go back to the drawing board.

DARPA says it intends to discuss the MANET concepts at a Novel Methods for Information Sharing in Large-Scale Mobile Ad-hoc Networks Symposium in August. It might be a good idea to have a Powerpoint with your ideas by then. 

Pirate Bay finds new home in St. Martin

Posted: 01 May 2013 03:22 AM PDT

The Pirate Bay has found a new home for its popular torrent website on the Caribbean island of St. Martin.

This is not the first time that St Martin has been the home of pirates. In the mid-sixteenth century, pirates, privateers and smugglers were attracted by the increasing volume of shipping, especially since cargo included Mexican or Peruvian silver. For more than 300 years the islands were used by those who actually said "Yo ho ho" and it was one of the biggest importers of parrots and peg legs.

After a complaint issued by Swedish prosecutors threatened the Icelandic domain the file-sharers have reappared with a new .sx domain name.

Iceland should have been a safe harbour for the Pirate Bay. The Icelandic domain registry even told TorrentFreak that it would not take action against the Pirate Bay unless specifically ordered to do so by Icelandic authorities.

However, while the Icelandic government did not make any moves against it, it seems that the Pirate Bay moved to avoid new action from Swedish prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad, who filed an official complaint on behalf of several movie, music and publishing companies.

The complaint called for the seizure of two of Pirate Bay's Swedish domains (thepiratebay.se and piratebay.se) as well as the company's new Icelandic domain, claiming jurisdiction because the owner, Fredrik Neij, was a Swedish national.

Although the court has not yet granted Ingblad's request, the Pirate Bay has taken defensive manoeuvres by moving to St. Martin instead.

St Martin is a small island 190 miles east of Puerto Rico with about 78,000 residents which know how to treat a pirate properly, but it is unlikely that the outfit will remain there.

Ingblad is likely file a new complaint against the .sx site and the Pirate Bay will continue registering domains in new countries to stay ahead. 

Apple claims "obsolete" iPhone is "vintage"

Posted: 01 May 2013 03:04 AM PDT

In a fit of marketing spin which should be seen as an insult to the intelligence of the American nation, Apple is peddling a phone it has dubbed "obsolete" in the rest of the world as "vintage" in the land of the free.

According to Trusted Reviews, from 11 June, the original iPhone 2G model will gain 'obsolete' status, which means the device will no longer be serviceable in the Apple care centres. The 'obsolete' status for the iPhone model applies in Canada, Asia, Europe, Japan and Latin America.

All this sounds fair enough - after all the Apple 2G is as dated as black turtle necks, but for some reason Apple does not want to admit that on its home turf.

Instead the first-generation iPhone will be given 'vintage' status, in the hope that the terminally dumb will want to buy it. They will even be given limited support to do so.  

Running iOS 1.0, the iPhone could be upgraded to iOS 3.1.3 but could not cope with anything more advanced than that.

Only Apple could take the word "vintage", which is normally applied to fine wines and cheese and stick it on a clapped out piece of junk which the rest of the world considers obsolete.

What is more amusing is that Apple clearly does not think that the rest of the world is dumb enough to fall for the marketing scam and it is not trying it on in nations where its customers are a little more discerning.

Apple is also rendering a large number of other technological gadgets 'obsolete'. These include the 17-inch and 20-inch iMac G5, the late 2005 Mac mini, and the 15-inch and 17-inch versions of the Apple PowerBook G4.

Also retired are the mid-2007 iMac, Mac Pro, late-2007 iMac, Xserve and AirPort Express Base Station. None of these are considered vintage and indeed some of them should probably be labelled "fire hazard." 

Fashion bag maker Intel redesigns the Atom

Posted: 01 May 2013 02:59 AM PDT

Fashion bag designer Intel has detailed plans to give its Atom chip a make over.

According to CNET, Intel plans an announcement on 6 May to announce the latest design for the Atom.

CNET's deep throats claim the new Atom will offer performance that gets closer to mainstream laptop processors and will be so far off the knee that the data centre will be visible.

It is the first time that the Atom has been redesigned since its launch in Netbooks five years ago. When the Atom processor appeared the world plus dog wanted one in their netbooks. When the netbook fad was replaced by the tablet, the Atom was left without a job. Chipzilla attempted to put them in tablets, mobile phones and supercomputers without much success.

The May announcement will be all about Silvermont micro-architecture, which will spawn Bay Trail and Merrifield processors for tablets and smartphones.

Intel has confirmed that its executive vice president Dadi Perlmutter will talk about Intel's next-generation Atom micro-architecture targeted at a range of market segments from low power tablets and smartphones, to microservers and the data centre.

The new Atom uses a higher-performance out-of-order design, just like Intel's mainstream Core processors, and a fast Intel graphics chip.

It will look a bit different from the usual Atoms we have come to know and shun on the mobile front.

Apparently it will integrate up to four processing cores based on the company's 22-nanometer 3D transistor design and will be battery friendly.

Intel had to do something. Windows 8 tablets are getting faster and should be better at multitasking applications. The current Atom calls its union rep when when it is asked to do more than one job at a time.

Hints from Chipzilla suggest that products with the Bay Trail processor should appear in time for the holiday sales. Android phones using Merrifield processors should emerge by early next year. 
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