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Patents

Submission + - Apple Yanks Toddler's Speech-Enabling App

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: 'The bullies seem like the powerful people, but the secret of the real world is they're at the peak of their power at 15 and 16,' said an Apple employee in the company's 'It Gets Better' video. Unfortunately for four-year old Maya, the real world 'bullies' she faces include Apple, the world's most valuable company. TIME reports that Maya's speech-enabling 'Speak for Yourself' app was yanked from the App Store by Apple due to an unresolved patent dispute at the behest of Prentke Romich Company (PRC) and Semantic Compaction Systems (SCS), makers of designated communication devices (not iPad apps). 'My daughter cannot speak without this app,' writes Maya's Mom Dana. 'She cannot ask us questions. She cannot tell us that she's tired, or that she wants yogurt for lunch. She cannot tell her daddy that she loves him.' If you're so inclined, Dana suggests you drop a note to appstorenotices@apple.com.
Movies

Submission + - The Expendables 2 Videogame outed by Aussies (playerattack.com)

Submitted by dotarray
dotarray writes: Would you play a game starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger? It looks like Ubisoft hopes you will, with the Australian Classification Board seemingly outing video game plans for upcoming film The Expendables 2.
Linux

Submission + - The rise of Linux: trust and selfishness (bbc.com) 1

Submitted by
village fool
village fool writes: "Hey, everybody see the BBC article, "The rise of Linux -
Why trust and selfishness helped the open source system succeed" at
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18419231

Apparently, it is a "rare interview" in case Linus Torvalds wins the Millennium Technology Prize. Interesting take on trust, selfishness (not selflessness) and affordable failure (Raspberry Pi)"

Submission + - Why are hearing aids so expensive 7

Submitted by
solune
solune writes: "Ipad 2 or 3: $399 or $499

Dell laptop computer: around $600

Smartphone, non-subsidized: $200 — $800+

Not to mention all the T.V’s, game consoles, etc, all around sub $1k prices... ...yet, a decent hearing aid for my mom will go upwards of $3000! WTF?

Excuse me if I sound a little pissed, but it seems to me with the shrinking electronics, better capabilities, and technological advancements, not to mention the rapidly increasing potential user base, quality hearing aids should be coming in a *lot* cheaper than what we can find.

Adding fuel to my fire is the fact, a hearing aid will greatly improve my mom’s—not to mention millions of others out there—life a lot more. Currently she suffers from frustration and isolation with having to ask people to “speak up”, and nodding her head to things her kids and grandkids say.

We’ve tried the cheapies, and they’re fraught with problems.

So, can someone tell me why a hearing aid should be so expensive?"
Your Rights Online

Submission + - Can you resell your smartphone or computer, federal court says no (theatlantic.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Supreme Court will soon hear a case that will affect whether you can sell your iPad — or almost anything else — without needing to get permission from a dozen "copyright holders." Here are some things you might have recently done that will be rendered illegal if the Supreme Court upholds the lower court decision:

1. Sold your first-generation iPad on Craigslist to a willing buyer, even if you bought the iPad lawfully at the Apple Store.
2. Sold your dad's used Omega watch on eBay to buy him a fancier (used or new) Rolex at a local jewelry store.
3. Sold an "import CD" of your favorite band that was only released abroad but legally purchased there. Ditto for a copy of a French or Spanish novel not released in the U.S.
4. Sold your house to a willing buyer, so long as you sell your house along with the fixtures manufactured in China, a chandelier made in Thailand or Paris, support beams produced in Canada that carry the imprint of a copyrighted logo, or a bricks or a marble countertop made in Italy with any copyrighted features or insignia.

Here is what's going on.

The Supreme Court case concerns something called the "first-sale doctrine" in copyright law. Simply put, the doctrine means that you can buy and sell the stuff you purchase. Even if someone has copyright over some piece of your stuff, you can sell it without permission from the copyright holder because the copyright holder can only control the "first-sale." The Supreme Court has recognized this doctrine since 1908.

The first-sale doctrine is one thing that makes it lawful to sell almost any good. The companies that have gone to court and sued over selling their "copyrights" include a watchmaker and shampoo producer. They have gone to court arguing that one part of the Copyright Act — which gives them a right against unauthorized imports — invalidates the first-sale doctrine.

In 1998, the Supreme Court ruled that the first-sale doctrine applies to any product manufactured in the United States, sold in the U.S., even if the first sale by the copyright holder was abroad and the item was imported back into the U.S. This decision was unanimous and rejected the interpretation preferred by the U.S. government's lawyer — and the biggest copyright holders.

The legal confusion today concerns only products made abroad.

Continuing a long string of similar cases, the Supreme Court will review a New York federal court decision that decided, in short, that the first-sale doctrine does not apply to any copyrighted product manufactured abroad. That case concerns textbooks.
China

Submission + - How Technology Promotes World Peace

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Ayesha & Parag Khanna write in the Atlantic that there are many important differences between the US-China relationship today and the US-Soviet relationship before the outbreak of the Cold War, but one is that the US and China are deeply intertwined through geo-economic interdependence and the rapid and the global diffusion of technology is accelerating these changes. "As the global economy has become more integrated, states have greater interest in cooperating and less interest in conflict, which can lead to a kind of mutually assured economic destruction," write the Khanna. "If military power is inherently competitive — the stronger your army and the weaker your neighbor's, the more powerful you become — then economic power is more cooperative. After all, much of America's power today is economic, but that power would decrease if China's economy collapses." This economic inter-dependence, the theory goes, promotes peace but technological power is also cooperative in this way, perhaps even more so. For example, medical research crosses borders as do the pharmaceuticals or treatments that research can produce. China can increase its power by developing better solar panels — perhaps in part by building on foreign technologies — then turn around and sell them to other high-energy-consuming states, making us all better off. Like economics, technology doesn't just increase cooperation, it is the cooperation. "The increasingly integrated global system is shaping the states within it, much as individual powers shape the system. The question is thus not who controls technology, but the way in which we develop, guide, and control it collectively.""
Verizon

Submission + - Verizon Share Everything (vzwshop.com)

Submitted by Githaron
Githaron writes: Verizon's new pricing model is coming June 28th. The new plans will include unlimited talk and text with a limited shared data pool. Up to 10 devices can be added to the plan.

The base cost per device varies with the most expensive being $40 for smartphones and the cheapest being $10 for tablets. In addition to the base cost per device, the plan requires the unlimited talk, unlimited text, and shared data pool to be purchased at $50 for 1GB, $60 for 2GB, and $10 per 2GB at each level thereafter up to 10GB. Overages will cost a hefty $15 per 1GB. With Verizon's still ridiculously high prices, one upside is that tethering is now included in the cost.

For those of you grandfathered into unlimited data plans, you can keep your plan as long as you do not purchase any more subsidized phones.
Science

Submission + - Why Smart People Are Stupid (newyorker.com) 1

Submitted by
nicholast
nicholast writes: "A good piece by Jonah Lehrer on newyorker.com about why smart people are often more likely to make cognitive errors than stupid people. Examines research about the shortcuts that our brains take while answering questions, and explains why even the smartest people take these shortcuts too."
China

Submission + - Pro-ACTA Site Says "Get The Facts" (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by
Glyn Moody
Glyn Moody writes: "We hear a lot about politicians and countries rejecting ACTA, but not so much from the treaty's supporters. Here's a new site, called "ACTA Facts", which invites Europeans to "get the facts" on how wonderful ACTA really is. Judging by its content, this one will be about as successful as Microsoft's "Get the Facts" campaign a few years ago, which tried to dissuade people from using GNU/Linux. For example, a new report linked to by the site claims that ACTA could "boost European output by a total of €50 billion, and create as many as 960,000 new jobs." Unfortunately, that's based on numerous flawed assumptions, including the idea that countries like China and India are going to rush to join ACTA, when the treaty is actually designed as a weapon against them, as they have already noticed."
Social Networks

Submission + - Ask slashdot, Privet chat server 1

Submitted by lister king of smeg
lister king of smeg writes: I am wanting to build and setup a chat server that i can run on a Linux based preferable Debian/*buntu (where i have the most experience). I want the traffic to be encrypted between my sever and clients, it would be nice to have file transfer capabilities between clients. It needs to use a protocol that has clients for windows linux mac android and ios seeings as my friends all have devices on those platforms. Does anyone know of a descent easy to administer configuration, or any suggestions or advise on what use or how to configure such a set up? Also this may end up on a virtual machine seeings as i have a limited number of available physical boxes and several other internet facing projects i am going to be working on so it needs to be as light weight as possible.
Wireless Networking

Submission + - Fixed-Mobile Convergence: Integration Key for Service Providers (broadbandconvergent.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The acronym, FMC (Fixed Mobile Convergence) is being thrown around a lot lately. It is the predicted technology bundling strategy that consistently points to fixed wire-line merging with mobile wireless. The combination is an inevitable surety as consumers continually look for ways to connect to content from any device, while doing it with the simplest access possible. This is what service providers who offer traditional wire-line broadband must contemplate for future revenue growth while staying consumer competitive and relevant.
Your Rights Online

Submission + - Police using YouTube to tell their own stories (yahoo.com)

Submitted by stevegee58
stevegee58 writes: Posting videos posted on YouTube allegedly showing police misconduct has become commonplace these days. Now the police themselves are posting their own videos to refute misconduct claims.

"After a dozen Occupy Minnesota protesters were arrested at a downtown demonstration, the group quickly took to the Internet, posting video that activists said showed police treating them roughly and never warning them to leave.

But Minneapolis police knew warnings had been given. And they had their own video to prove it. So they posted the footage on YouTube, an example of how law enforcement agencies nationwide are embracing online video to cast doubt on false claims and offer their own perspective to the public."
Hardware

Submission + - TSMC to spend $10B building 450mm wafer factory (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: With demand for processors growing and costs rising, using larger wafers for manufacturing is highly desirable, but a very expensive transition to make. TSMC just announced it has received approval from the Taiwan government to build a 450mm wafer factory, with the total cost of the project expected to be between $8-10 billion.

The move to larger wafers isn’t without its risks, though. Building new facilities to handle production is the easy part. The industry as a whole has to overcome some major technical hurdles before 450mm becomes a viable replacement for the tried and tested 300mm process. TSMC’s chairman Morris Chang has stated the next five years will be filled with technical challenges, suggesting 450mm wafers may not be viable until at least 2017.
Bitcoin

Submission + - With euro zone problems, Bitcoin experiencing boost in legitimacy (vice.com)

Submitted by derekmead
derekmead writes: Despite being used for drugs and beef jerky, Bitcoin is finding legitimate purposes. Bitcoin’s decentralized convenience means international efficiency, in areas where local restrictions on money transfers to foreign companies make legal businesses cumbersome. “I’ve been able to have cash in my bank account in a matter of hours using Bitcoin, rather than three days with traditional banking,” one British businessman in China told Reuters.

In embattled Europe, Bitcoin offers some a viable alternative against central banks, said a Greek owner of an island bar and restaurant who accepts payment in Bitcoin. “I don’t put money in the banks,” Gerald, who did not give his surname, told Reuters. “I trust the euro as a note, but I don’t trust banks. I don’t want them making money out of my earnings.” Indeed, Europe’s financial woes are caused an unprecedented surge of interest in the alternative currency, as the continent loses economic credibility with each new bailout, according to a report by the Financial Post.
Programming

Submission + - Diablo 3 Banhammer Dropped Just Before RMAH Goes Live (cinemablend.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: One thing Diablo 3 has that many other games do not is a "Real Money Auction House" (RMAH) that was set to go live today for players with two factor authentication. Of course, mere hours before that, Blizzard publicly announced they would follow through on their promises. Accounts they have identified as cheaters and botters have been banned "by the thousands." No official number is out but the news is indicating that as people get off of work and return home to their bot-wives and bot-kids they may find themselves without a valid Battle.net account (possibly tied to other games like SCII and WoW). Blizzard has also included many fixes to remove/dissuade many other exploits but if their past arcane attitude toward the "gamers of the game" is any indication, thousands will be unhappy.
AMD

Submission + - HSA Foundation founded by AMD, ARM, Ti, Imagination, and MediaTek (pcper.com)

Submitted by
Phopojijo
Phopojijo writes: "To wrap up his “The Programmers Guide to a Universe of Possibility” keynote during the 2012 AMD Fusion Developer’s Summit, Phil Rogers of AMD announced the establishment of the HSA Foundation. The foundation has been instituted to create and maintain open standards to ease programming for a wide variety of processing resources including discrete and integrated GPUs. Founding members include ARM, Texas Instruments, Imagination, MediaTek, Texas Instruments, as well as AMD. Parallels can be drawn between this and AMD’s “virtual gorilla” initiative back from the late 1990’s."

Submission + - U.S. Govt. Appears to Have Nabbed Kurupt.su Carding Kingpin (krebsonsecurity.com)

Submitted by tsu doh nimh
tsu doh nimh writes: The Justice Department on Monday announced the arrest of a Dutch man wanted for coordinating the theft of roughly 44,000 credit card numbers. The government hasn’t released many details about the accused, except for his name and hacker handle, "Fortezza." But data from a variety of sources indicates that Fortezza was a lead administrator of Kurupt.su, a large, recently-shuttered forum dedicated to carding and Internet fraud. Krebsonsecurity.com provides some background on Fortezza, who "claimed to be 'quitting the scene,' but spoke often about finishing a project with which he seemed obsessed: to hack and plunder all of the other carding forums."
Security

Submission + - Flame Malware Could Smuggle Out Data From Airgapped Computers Via USB Stick (forbes.com)

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: Malware that spreads via USB stick is an old trick. But researchers say they've spotted a more unique capability in the Flame malware recently tied to the creators of Stuxnet: piggybacking stolen data on the USB drives of oblivious users to smuggle it out of machines without an internet connection.

Instead of simply uploading stolen data to a remote server as traditional spyware does, Flame was also capable of moving the target information–along with a copy of itself–onto a USB memory stick plugged into an infected machine, wait for an unwitting user to plug that storage device into an Internet-connected PC, infect the networked machine, copy the target data from the USB drive to the networked computer and finally siphon it to a faraway server. “It turns users into data mules,” says Bogdan Botezatu, a senior malware analyst at Bitdefender, the firm that discovered Flame's USB drive technique.
Music

Submission + - Ask Slashdot : Best Headphones, Earbuds, Earphones...etc? 1

Submitted by alexbgreat
alexbgreat writes: Given that the users of Slashdot are by far some of the best-qualified most discerning opinion-givers I've ever seen, what do YOU think is the best set of head-mounted loudspeakers for the money, with a cost of less than $50? Some features of these that would be stupendous to have (descending order of importance) : Noise Isolation (Not cancellation), flat/near flat response (I need to be able to hear bass, but I don't need my eardrums blown. I'm looking at you, Beats by Dr. Dre), Long-term comfort (Earbuds usually hurt for me), Durability. Over-ear is preferred to anything on- or in-ear. Boom mics are permissible, as it could very well see time as a broadcast intercom headset.

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