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Google

Submission + - Google Denies Cables Targeted By Dalles Hunters (informationweek.com) 1

Submitted by ahier
ahier writes: Exposed data cables, boredom, and firearms present a general risk, but Google data centers aren't under fire as reports suggest.

Google says that reports that it has been forced to start burying the fiber optic cables that connect its Oregon data center to the rest of the world misconstrue what was supposed to be a general warning about protecting data cables.
Patents

Submission + - Apple Seeking Virtual Closet Patent (informationweek.com)

Submitted by Dotnaught
Dotnaught writes: Two Apple patent applications filed on Thursday indicate that the company is exploring technology to enhance the experience of shopping for clothing through social networking and mobile devices. One patent application that describes a Virtual Closet could help people keep track of their outfits, facilitate clothing sharing, and even indicate which items of clothing need to be washed.
Security

Submission + - Hacker accused of video extortion (informationweek.com)

Submitted by n4t3
n4t3 writes: A 31 year old parapalegic, dubbed the Sex Tape Hacker has been implicated in a complicated scheme of computer espionage and blackmail. Allegedly, Luis Mijangos would compromise his victim's machines through malware delivered in downloadable songs, then search those machines for amateur porn and key log for passwords to online email or bank accounts. It is suggested that in some cases Mijangos solicited his victims to create more porn by masquerading as a victim's love interest via email which he could then use to blackmail to his victims. Can anyone here provide more technical details about his methods? Its amazing to me how he could have compromised and tricked so many people.
Iphone

Submission + - iPhone Complaints To FCC, FTC Uncovered

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: InformationWeek has obtained Freedom of Information Act documents detailing FCC and FTC complaints about the iPhone. The Federal Communications Commission has received 72 complaints since 2009, mostly involving AT&T, and there are more than 450 Federal Trade Commission complaints. Many of the complaints want the government to take action against Apple for restricting its iPhone to AT&T, for refusing to allow Adobe's Flash technology on the iPhone and for refusing to approve certain iPhone applications, such as the Google Voice app. One complaint reads: "I am a Google Voice user. I am also an iPhone owner, using AT&T for my cell service. Apple/AT&T have blocked iPhone users from accessing a Google app to use Google voice effectively on the iPhone in order to allow AT&T to maximize call and SMS message fees it can charge users. I believe this is an unfair use of Apple's/AT&T's monopoly power over the iPhone market. I understand the FCC is already investigating. I want to register my dissatisfaction with the current marketing practice of Apple/AT&T in prohibiting consumers from using lawful, technologically beneficial software like Google Voice for the purpose of maximizing their own profit." Screen grabs of the FCC complaint reports are posted here.
Google

Submission + - Google Rewrites Docs To Fight Office 2010 (informationweek.com)

Submitted by Dotnaught
Dotnaught writes: For the past year and a half, Google has been rewriting and unifying the editing engines that power its Docs and Spreadsheets apps to deliver real-time collaboration, in the style of Google Wave, and to make imported Office documents look like the originals. To achieve document layout fidelity, the company's engineers had to create a new cross-browser rendering layer and a new collaborative data model. The result is a product that's far more capable of challenging Office than its predecessor. But the new Docs and Spreadsheets won't have offline functionality for several months.
Apple

Submission + - Steve Jobs Weighs In On Section 3.3.1 (taoeffect.com)

Submitted by Dotnaught
Dotnaught writes: Greg Slepak, founder of software company Tao Effect, wrote Apple CEO Steve Jobs to complain about Apple's mandate that iPhone applications be originally written in C/C++/Objective-C. Job's response was to endorse a post by John Gruber on the Daring Fireball blog. Jobs called it "very insightful," suggesting Gruber's prediction that third-party iPhone development tools are out might be right. Jobs sent a second reply that also doesn't bode well for third-party iPhone development tools: "We’ve been there before, and intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform."

Submission + - Memory Management Technique Makes Apps 20% Faster (informationweek.com)

Submitted by Dotnaught
Dotnaught writes: A paper to be presented later this month at the IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia, describes a new approach to memory management that allows software applications to run up to 20% faster on multicore processors. Yan Solihin, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NCSU and co-author of the paper, says that using the technique is just a matter of linking to a library in a program that makes heavy use of memory allocation.

Submission + - Photoshop 1.0 Recreated On iPhone (anscamobile.com) 2

Submitted by Dotnaught
Dotnaught writes: Photoshop co-creator Russell Brown asked Ansca Mobile to re-create Photoshop 1.0, originally introduced in 1990, for the iPhone. The resulting app, created in three days using the Corona SDK, was distributed to 50 attendees of an event celebrating Photoshop's 20th anniversary. Programmer Evan Kirchhoff in a blog post explains that Ansca took the project on to prove its claims about how Corona makes iPhone development faster.
Apple

Submission + - Apple's Change Of Heart (anscamobile.com)

Submitted by Dotnaught
Dotnaught writes: In a blog post, Walter Luh, co-founder of Ansca Mobile and a former employee of both Apple and Adobe, recounts how Apple once promoted Flash on the iPhone then changed its mind because Flash didn't provide the optimal user experience. "I think that Apple came to the same conclusion I’ve come to — namely that Flash has its strengths, but not when it comes to creating insanely great mobile experiences," he writes. Luh makes the case for mobile development using the Corona SDK, a Lua-based programming environment that strives to recapture the simplicity of early versions of Flash.

Submission + - Ansca's Corona Challenges Flash Lite (informationweek.com)

Submitted by Dotnaught
Dotnaught writes: Ansca Mobile, a start-up founded by engineers with experience at Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) and Apple, on Monday released the Corona 1.0 SDK, a tool for rapid mobile application development. The Lua-based framework is iPhone-only at the moment but support for Symbian and other platforms is in the works. For developers without Objective-C expertise, it offers an easy way into creating mobile apps.
Censorship

Submission + - Scientology Charged with Slavery, Human Traffickin (courthousenews.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: A formal complaint was filed in California last week by John Lindstein naming David Miscavige and, most importantly, the Church of Scientology International as defendants. He claims that for sixteen years (age 8 on) he was forced to work as a slave at Gold Base, a secret CoS site run by Golden Era Productions with 'razor wire, security guard patrols, surveillance posts and three roll calls each day.' The pay was $50 a week. The allegations include 'Violations of wage and hour laws as well as unfair/illegal business practices actionable under California B&P 17200 Et. Seq.' and are laid out on Infinite Complacency's blog with members of the group Anonymous praising the summons.
The Internet

Submission + - CBS Interactive Sued For Distributing Green Dam (informationweek.com)

Submitted by Dotnaught
Dotnaught writes: Solid Oak Software, maker of Internet filter CYBERsitter, on Monday filed a $1.2 million copyright infringement lawsuit against CBS Interactive's ZDNet China for distributing the Green Dam Internet filtering software. Green Dam was going to be mandatory on all PCs in China starting in July, but widespread criticism, including reports of stolen code, forced the Chinese government to reconsider. The lawsuit, if it succeeds, could force companies to give more thought to the risks of complying with mandates from foreign governments that violate US laws.
The Internet

Submission + - Google slammed as China, US quarrel over Internet (bdnews24.com) 2

Submitted by
H.M. Arif
H.M. Arif writes: "BEIJING, Thu Jun 25, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) — China on Thursday stepped up accusations that Google is spreading obscene content over the Internet, a day after US officials urged Beijing to abandon plans for controversial filtering software on new computers. The growing friction over control of online content threatens to become another irritant in ties at a time the world is looking for the United States and China to cooperate in helping to pull the global economy out of its slump. China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday accused Google's English language search engine of spreading obscene images that violated the nation's laws, less than 24 hours after disruptions to the company's search engines and other services within China. Spokesman Qin Gang did not directly say whether official action was behind the disruptions, but he made plain the government's anger and said "punishment measures" taken against Google were lawful. "Google's English language search engine has spread large amounts of vulgar content that is lascivious and pornographic, seriously violating China's relevant laws and regulations," he told a regular news conference. A spokesman for Google in China declined to comment. Separately, US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk on Wednesday voiced concerns over the "Green Dam" software in a letter to Chinese officials. "China is putting companies in an untenable position by requiring them, with virtually no public notice, to pre-install software that appears to have broad-based censorship implications and network security issues," Locke said in a statement. China says the "Green Dam" filtering software is to protect children from illegal images and insists the deadline of July 1 for new computers to be sold with the software will not change. An official at the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, which handles trade rows, said the ministry had no immediate response to the US criticism and referred questions to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which also had no comment. Critics have said the program, sold by Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co, is technically flawed and could be used to spy on users and block sites Beijing considers politically offensive. The proposed new rules raised fundamental questions regarding the transparency of China's regulatory practices and concerns about compliance with WTO rules, the U.S. officials said. GOOGLE DISRUPTED The software plan coincides with criticisms of Google by China's Internet watchdog and access disruptions in China to the U.S. company's websites. The watchdog last week ordered the world's biggest search engine to block overseas websites with "pornographic and vulgar" content from being accessed through its Chinese-language version. Late on Wednesday evening, Internet users in China were unable to open several Google sites for around an hour, and some reported disruptions throughout Thursday. A company spokeswoman at Google in the United States said the firm was checking reports of problems with access in China. The disruption — coming soon after Google was criticized by China — "seems beyond mere coincidence," said Mark Natkin, Managing Director of Marbridge Consulting, a Beijing-based company that advises on telecommunications and IT. Google's problems reflect the difficulties of foreign Internet firms competing in the world's biggest online market while facing controversy over censorship. Chinese officials have said their Internet moves are driven by worries about exposing children to disturbing online images, but an official newspaper reported on Thursday that a plan to recruit volunteers to scour the Internet for banned content and report to officials also has a political element. The Legal Daily reported that 10,000 volunteers sought by Beijing would also search for "harmful content" that includes "threats to state security," "subverting state power," and "spreading rumours and disturbing social order." Natkin, the consultant, said the official pressure was most unlikely to deter Google and other Internet companies from continuing to operate in China. "Google has to be looking at China as a long-term play," he said. "The allure of the Chinese market, not just for Google and not just for Internet companies, is so compelling, so alluring.""

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