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Piracy

Submission + - Spain to Clamp Down on File Sharers (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "A bill that would allow Spain’s authorities to close down illegal websites with limited judicial oversight has caused anger among the country’s Internet users. The law, known as Sinde’s bill (after the current culture minister Ángeles González-Sinde) is designed to close the loophole that sharing sites such as Roja Directa have exploited. If you go to the website today, you will find a pithy warning against Internet piracy, courtesy of the U.S. authorities. The U.S. has exerted considerable pressure on Spain over what it sees as Madrid’s failure to tackle Internet piracy. A banner with the seals of the U.S. Department of Justice, plus two other bureaucracies, informs Internet users that the Spanish domain name, formerly a hub of illegal sports content, has been seized in accordance with U.S. copyright law. But if you do a search, it takes very little to realize that Roja Directa is alive and kicking."
Android

Submission + - German Researchers Find Security Hole in Android (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "German researchers have made a startling discovery. A large number of Google Android smartphones are vulnerable to attack from uninvited perpetrators, who can access your contacts, calendar and private photos, according to three researchers from Ulm University in southern Germany. The finding follows the recent press around Apple and Google collecting user data. While such revelations are becoming commonplace in today's new world of always on, always connected smartphones, the seriousness of what the researchers found is not to be underestimated. By accessing your contacts and calendar, raiders could naturally steal such information, but they could also use such information to figure out when you might be home, for example. They could also alter stored email addresses without you even noticing, and intercept communication. In a blog post, the researchers said that they set out to see if it's possible to launch an impersonation attack against Google services. "The short answer is: Yes, it is possible, and it is quite easy to do so," they wrote."
Privacy

Submission + - Confusion Surrounds U.K. Cookie Guidelines (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "The Information Commissioner’s Office has, with just over two weeks to go, given its interpretation on what websites must do to comply with new EU regulations concerning the use of cookies. The law, which will come into force on 26 May 2011, comes from an amendment to the EU’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive. It requires U.K. businesses and organizations running websites in the U.K. to get informed consent from visitors to their websites in order to store and retrieve information on users’ computers. The most controversial area, third party cookies, remains problematic. If a website owner allow another party to set cookies via their site, and it is a very common practice for internet advertisers, then the waters are still muddy. And embarrassingly for the Commission — it's current site would not be compliant with its new guidelines as it simply states what they do and does not seek users’ consent."
Security

Submission + - Apocalyptic Terrorist Threat to GPS “Fancifu (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "A report by the U.K.’s Royal Academy of Engineering on the vulnerability of the GPS system has caused something of stir with apocalyptic visions of a cyber-hell. “Cyber terrorists could cripple banks, send ships floundering on to rocks and bring death to the roads at the click of a mouse,” wrote one British newspaper. The report’s author, Dr. Martyn Thomas, dismissed such reporting as hype. He said aim of the report, “Global Navigation Space Systems: reliance and vulnerabilities” was to highlight the “dangerous over-reliance” on satellite navigation and timing signals, which are vulnerable to disruption, either from natural events such as solar storms, or jamming. While most people think of GPS as a navigation system such as your in-car navigation, it is also used in data networks, sea and air transport, railways and emergency services. It is also a global, synchronized, highly-accurate clock which is used in systems like high frequency trading.
Dr. Thomas described the threat to the national infrastructure by over reliance on GPS as “dangerous, although not very dangerous. However we are on a path that might lead us there if we do not take steps.”"
Science

Submission + - The Car Faster Than a Speeding Bullet (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "Formula 1 is seen as the apogee of engineering excellence and automotive power. So it says something that in Bloodhound SSC—the car that, if all goes well, in 2013 will shatter the current land speed record—the Cosworth Formula 1 engine is just the fuel pump. “We are creating the ultimate car; we’re going where no-one has gone before,” said Richard Noble, the project director. The car, which Mr. Noble says takes £10,000 a day just to keep it ticking over, will be powered by not one, but two other engines. The smaller one, the EJ200, is normally found in the British Royal Air Force’s Typhoon jet. Its job is to get the 13.4 meter long car up to 350 mph. That’s when the big one kicks in. The big one is the 18-inch diameter, 12-foot-long Falcon rocket, the largest of its kind ever made in the U.K.. Its job is to catapult the car through the sound barrier to its maximum speed of 1,050 mph. That is, literally, faster than a speeding bullet."
Software

Submission + - A Second is a Long Time in Finance (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "One complaint made of the modern stock market is that it is concerned too much on the short term. A second is a long time in cash-equities trading. Four or five years ago, trading firms started to talk of trading speeds in terms of milliseconds. But in recent weeks trading geeks have started to talk about picoseconds in what is a truly mind-boggling concept: a picosecond is one trillionth of a second. Put another way, a picosecond is to one second what one second is to 31,700 years."
Hardware

Submission + - Net Neutrality Debate in Europe Is ‘Over&rsq (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "Is throwing net neutrality under the bus the price of a modern European telecom network? While the debate over a free and open Internet has raged in the U.S., it appears in Europe that the argument is largely over; net neutrality lost. What we are now arguing about is where to draw the line, not should we draw one at all. The debate spans a spectrum that on the one end says all bits are created equal and free and should be treated thus, through the mid-point that says telcos should be able to manage services on their own networks (prioritizing some kinds of packets over others) and offer so-called tiered services (the more you pay, the better the service), right over to the view espoused by Hannes Ametsreiter of Telekom Austria, that it is my network so I say what happens on it. In the U.S., this has assumed the role of a debate over free speech. In Europe, it has been rather more prosaic."
Social Networks

Submission + - Facebook Could Be Accessed by Every GSM Phone (wsj.com)

Submitted by pbahra
pbahra writes: Facebook could potentially be accessible by every GSM phone in the world, dramatically widening the social network’s global reach after the release of Facebook for SIM by the Amsterdam-based digital security firm Gemalto. According to the GSM Association, there are more than 5 billion GSM connections in the world. The latest subscriber figures for Facebook put it at over 500 million subscribers. The tiny application runs in the phone’s SIM card, rather than on the phone, and gives users access to all of the text-based services on Facebook, such as friend requests, status updates, wall posts or messages. It also offers unique functions: people can sign up for this service and log-in directly from the SIM application. Interactive Facebook messages pop-up on the phone’s screen so people can always share up-to-the-minute posts and events. Users can also automatically search their SIM phonebook for other friends and send them requests.
Games

Submission + - Video: LG Unveils World's First 3D Phone (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by pbahra
pbahra writes: LG Electronics Inc. unveiled the world's first full 3-D smartphone, called the Optimus 3D, as well as a new tablet at an event on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. With the Optimus 3D, consumers will be able to watch 3-D videos without wearing special glasses as well as capture 3-D content themselves via a special double camera on the back of the phone.In order to make it easier for consumers to share 3-D content online, LG said it has struck a partnership with online video channel YouTube, which is owned by Google Inc.The Optimus 3D is powered by a dual core chip—like most of the smartphones launched in 2011—but it also benefits from a dual channel and a dual memory, which LG said would make it faster for users to switch back and forth between tasks and improve speed when loading web pages. The Optimus runs on Google's Android operating system and has a 4.3-inch screen.
Software

Submission + - Ballmer Surprise Appearance at Nokia Announcement (wsj.com)

Submitted by pbahra
pbahra writes: The biggest surprise of the day was not Nokia CEO Stephen Elop’s announcement of a love-in with Windows Phone 7, it was the appearance on-stage of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. That was a shock and a reflection of just how much is riding on this for the Redmond-based software giant. Microsoft may not have quite as much riding on this deal as Nokia, for whom this may be the last role of the dice, but they have certainly pinned their hopes to it. The biggest laugh of the day was reserved for the poor journalist from a website called “All About Symbian”. As the One analyst sitting next to me quipped, “better get a new job then”. Actually, the last laugh is his. He has already bought “All About Windows Phone”.
Microsoft

Submission + - Nokia goes over to the dark side (nokia.com)

Submitted by Rexdude
Rexdude writes: In a shocking move, Nokia has announced that Windows Phone 7 will be its focus going forward. Symbian/Qt/Meego will continue for a while, but Nokia now plans a 'new ecosystem' with Microsoft, while murdering what it already has. Rejoice, iOS/Android fanboys.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft and Nokia sign partnership (guardian.co.uk) 2

Submitted by ifchairscouldtalk
ifchairscouldtalk writes: Mobile phone maker Nokia announced a broad strategic partnership with Microsoft in the effort to rebuild its fortunes, troubled by stiff competition from Apple and Android phones. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said that Windows Mobile 7 will be Nokia's primary smartphone platform. Although Nokia will not immediatly abandon Symbian powered phones and MeeGo is said to be part of a "longer-term market exploration", Alberto Torres, who has led the development of MeeGo, is leaving the company. Shares in Nokia fell by more than 10% in early trading in Helsinki.

Submission + - Nokia and Microsoft form cell phone partnership (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Nokia has joined forces with Microsoft in an attempt to regain ground lost to the iPhone and Android-based devices.

The deal would see Nokia use the Windows phone operating system for its smartphones, the company said.
Microsoft

Submission + - Nokia sells out (nytimes.com) 1

Submitted by videoBuff
videoBuff writes: Nokia, current cell phone market leader whose dominance is crumbling, signs up to use Microsoft Windows 7, whose market share is only 2%. Nokia will junk its Symbian and Linux efforts. Guess who made this "brilliant" decision? Mr. Stephen Elop, former Microsoft executive, who joined Nokia as CEO on Sep 2010. Goodbye Nokia, you just made yourself irrelevant.

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