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Earth

Submission + - Police close Climategate investigation (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: The Norfolk Constabulary has closed its investigation into the November 2009 release of private emails between researchers at the Climatic Research CentreLink text at the University of East Anglia in Norwich after failing to identify those responsible. Despite not being able to prosecute any offenders, the police have confirmedLink text that the data breach “was the result of a sophisticated and carefully orchestrated attack on the CRU’s data files, carried out remotely via the internet”. The investigation has also cleared anyone working at or associated with UEA from involvement in the crime.
The hacking resulted in the release of more than 1,000 emails and shook the public’s trust in climate science, though independent investigations after the breach cleared the scientists of wrongdoing.
Government

Submission + - Judge steps down over US 'enemy' comment in Megaupload case (gigaom.com)

Submitted by
vu1986
vu1986 writes: ""On Tuesday, the chief judge of the New Zealand district court that must decide if Dotcom can be extradited announced that Judge David Harvey had surrendered the case and would be replaced. The move comes after reports that Harvey said ”We have met the enemy and he is [the] U.S.” at a recent conference in relation to the current state of copyright law.""
Google

Submission + - Google Fiber to launch next week (gigaom.com)

Submitted by
vu1986
vu1986 writes: ""Google announced plans to build the gigabit network back in February of 2010 and thousands of municipalities competed to be the future home of the planned network. In March, it selected Kanas City as the first location for Google Fiber.

Google said it wanted to build out the network so it could see what people might do with a full gigabit connection, but I also think this is Google’s answer to the ISP’s continued whining about how much networks cost to operate and how providers like Google or Netflix should pay them for delivering traffic across the ISP’s networks."
http://gigaom.com/2012/07/18/google-fiber-to-launch-next-week/"
Cloud

Submission + - VMware, EMC Shakeup Hints At Data Center's Future (informationweek.com)

Submitted by
gManZboy
gManZboy writes: "What's really behind the leadership switch that will see Paul Maritz become EMC chief strategist and Pat Gelsinger become VMware CEO? It's EMC's need to push its vision for the software-defined data center.

The EMC/VMware vision for a "software-defined data center" takes a conservative approach. Think of it as pulling existing legacy systems into one management console without worrying about the IT changes a cloud environment demands, like letting employees self-provision their computing capacity or imposing a strict environment limited to x86 servers. The software-defined data center message lets EMC/VMware cater to both legacy and newly built, cloud-oriented, applications without VMware or EMC needing to tell customers which camp they should be in. Here's a close look at the pieces that EMC and VMware need to work closely on together, to make such a data center a reality."
Censorship

Submission + - How Close Is America to a Closed Internet? (vice.com)

Submitted by
pigrabbitbear
pigrabbitbear writes: "Three years after Facebook-friendly dissidents took to the streets of Tehran and made techno-optimists giddy about the Internet’s liberating potential, things have gotten bleak. Once again, the mullahs are taking on democracy-minded netizens — but nowadays, the government is the one getting creative with technology. And they’re winning, doing things to Internet access that makes China’s “Great Firewall” seem tame."
Science

Submission + - Higgs data offers joy and pain for particle physicists (nature.com)

Submitted by scibri
scibri writes: So now that we've pretty much found the Higgs Boson, what's next? Well:

“There’s going to be a huge massacre of theoretical ideas in the next couple of years,” predicts Joe Lykken, a theoretical physicist at Fermilab. The data has shored up the standard model, but technicolor is dead and supersymmetry is starting to look pretty ropey now. Theorists are now poking at the mathematical chinks in the standard theory in the hopes of being the first to find a deeper truth about how the Universe works.
Businesses

Submission + - What Happened To Secrecy At Apple? (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes: "In May, Apple CEO Tim Cook attended the AllThingsD Conference and promised fans that Apple would do better at plugging its leaks. Two months later, Apple's product pipeline couldn't be more transparent. Photos of iPhone and iPad components are constantly springing up, and we even know details about the specifications and features of these future devices. With the ubiquity of smartphones and the Internet, will Apple ever truly surprise us with a left-field product ever again?"
Security

Submission + - Kaspersky Lab Defeats Patent Troll (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: A patent suit filed in 2009 by IPAT (Information Protection and Authentication of Texas) targeted nearly every security vendor you can imagine. The list included Kaspersky Lab, along with Microsoft, AVG, Check Point, Comodo, ESET, F-Secure, Symantec, McAfee, PC Tools, Sophos, Trend Micro, Webroot, and several others.

The suit was filed in the Eastern District of Texas, a haven for patent trolls looking to make a quick buck via legal extortion. The lawsuit alleged that they were infringing on IPAT’s patents by, "...making, using, providing, offering to sell, and selling (directly or through intermediaries), in this district [Eastern Texas] and elsewhere in the United States, hardware and/or software for protecting and/or authenticating information."

What's interesting is that while many chose to settle and pay licensing fees, Kaspersky held its ground. "Back in 2008 I said to our lawyers that there would be no backing down – we would go to court and fight it out with them," Kaspersky Lab CEO Eugene Kaspersky said.

The firm, much smaller and with fewer resources than giants including Symantec, Microsoft, Check Point, and others, put up a strong fight and came out victorious following a three-year court battle.

"It was our first experience of a patent legal battle and we decided to stand our ground and stand up for our rights," Kaspersky said. "Now we are mulling over ideas to strike back at the trolls. Not only are they extorting money, more importantly they are endangering technological progress."
Linux

Submission + - Raspberry Pi adds Raspbian Linux OS (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by asavin
asavin writes: The creators of the Raspberry Pi credit card-sized computer have added a new version of the Linux operating system.

The Raspbian OS is a free operating system based on Debian Linux software.

The dedicated Raspbian OS has been in development since March 2012 and is now available for download.
Idle

Submission + - Medieval "Lingerie" From 15th Century Castle Could Rewrite Fashion History (ecouterre.com)

Submitted by fangmcgee
fangmcgee writes: Archaeologists have unearthed several 500-year-old bras that some experts say could rewrite fashion history. While they’ll hardly send pulses racing by today’s standards, the lace-and-linen underpinnings predate the invention of the modern brassiere by hundreds of years. Found hidden under the floorboards of Lengberg Castle in Austria’s East Tyrol, along with some 2,700 textile fragments and one completely preserved pair of (presumably male) linen underpants, the four intact bras and two fragmented specimens are thought to date to the 15th century, a hypothesis scientists later confirmed through carbon-dating.
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook Loses Users, Users Happier With Google+ (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by
benfrog
benfrog writes: "Facebook has lost what (by the standards of their userbase) is a modest number of users over the last six months, perhaps being one of the causes of a fall in their stock price. In the meantime, a study shows that (both) Google+ users are more satisfied with the site than Facebook users, who are (understandability) upset about the number of recent UI changes, the amount of advertising, and other elements, according to a statement accompanying the study. Figures also show dramatic growth in Google+ usage."

Submission + - Audi's New e-Bike (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by asavin
asavin writes: One of German motorcar manufacturer Audi's new concepts is the Audi e-bike Wörthersee. Neither a pedelec nor a conventional bike, but is best described as a high-end pedelec"

The bike allows users to switch between pedalling or electric, reaching speeds of up to 80 km/h (50 mph) with a peak output of 2.3 kW, a new high point for e-bikes.
Apple

Submission + - Earliest known photos of an Apple iPad prototype (networkworld.com)

Submitted by colinneagle
colinneagle writes: Thanks to some digging through some Apple/Samsung court filings, we also have a better grasp as to when Apple's work on tablet prototypes began. What's more, I was able to dig up some photos of one of Apple's early tablet mockups from the early 2000s.

In December 2011, Samsung deposed Apple Senior VP of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive. While the full transcript of that deposition was filed under seal, a portion of it was recently released as part of a declaration from Apple's counsel regarding a Samsung motion seeking to file certain documents of the case under seal.

During the course of the deposition, Ive at one point is shown photos of a three dimensional mockup of a tablet that Apple produced as part of the discovery process. It's referred to as the 035 mockup or prototype.

Ive is then asked if he'd seen the mockup before, and if so, when.

He responds that he has seen the 035 mockup before and adds:

"My recollection of first seeing it is very hazy, but it was, I'm guessing, sometime between 2002 and 2004, some but it was I remember seeing this and perhaps models similar to this when we were first exploring tablet designs that ultimately became the iPad."

So the takeaway is that Apple was tinkering with tablet prototypes as early as 2002.
Android

Submission + - Android Malware Is Booming (net-security.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Trend Micro's January prediction that some 11,000 pieces of Android malware will be detected by June this year has proved completely inaccurate, as the number of malicious applications in the wild for Google's mobile OS has exploded and now reaches over 25,000. 48 percent of all these malicious apps are premium service abusers, followed by 22 percent that are adware and a 21 percent of data stealers. This unexpected boom in Android malware made the researchers revise their expectations for 2012, and they believe that we might be looking at a total of 129,000 different malicious apps by the end of the year.
Network

Submission + - O2 Compensates Users With 10% Refund After UK Network Outage (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by AlistairCharlton
AlistairCharlton writes: Millions of O2 customers who were left without service will be refunded with a ten percent discount from their September bill.

After a national network outage saw 7.6 million customers left without service, O2 said that a refund, equivalent to ten percent of customers' monthly bill, will be handed out to effected customer.
Programming

Submission + - Twitter Is Officially Killing the API (silicon-news.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Several blog posts on the Twitter development blog, statements issued, app updates and the now-tarnished Twitter-LinkedIn deal following the micro-blogging service cutting LinkedIn off from using its API all strongly support the fact that Twitter is phasing out its API in lieu of forcing users to use its own access methods to drive ad clicks and monetization. But is the service shooting itself in the foot by killing off custom user-facing apps, automated publishing methods and other niche apps in favor of the bland stock app?
Privacy

Submission + - Hidden government chemical signature laser scanners coming. (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by reubenavery
reubenavery writes: Everything about you will be written all over your face. Via Gizmodo:

Within the next year or two, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will instantly know everything about your body, clothes, and luggage with a new laser-based molecular scanner fired from 164 feet (50 meters) away. From traces of drugs or gun powder on your clothes to what you had for breakfast to the adrenaline level in your body. According to the undersecretary for science and technology of the Department of Homeland Security, you might start seeing [these scanners] in airports as soon as 2013. And, since it’s extremely portable, will this technology extend beyone the airport or border crossings and into police cars, with officers looking for people on the street with increased levels of adrenaline in their system to detain in order to prevent potential violent outbursts? And will your car be scanned at stoplights for any trace amounts of suspicious substances? Would all this information be recorded anywhere?
Science

Submission + - "Exercise" Shown to Improve the Performance of Lab-Grown Muscle Implants (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: We all know that you need to exercise if you want to develop your muscles. As it turns out, however, exercise also makes lab-grown muscle implants more effective when introduced to the body. Scientists from North Carolina’s Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have discovered that after being gently expanded and contracted, implants placed in lab animals were better able to stimulate new muscle growth than implants that were left “unexercised.”
Iphone

Submission + - New iPhone on track for fall release, 4G LTE and NFC confirmed (bgr.com)

Submitted by zacharye
zacharye writes: There are several reports suggesting that Apple has begun final production of its next-generation iPhone already, but we have learned from a trusted source that this isn’t quite true. Apple goes through multiple stages before a product is manufactured, and two of these include the “engineering verification test” stage and the “design verification test” phase. Apple’s sixth-generation iPhone is currently in the EVT3 stage, the third revision of the engineering test stage, and has not yet entered the DVT stage. 4G LTE and NFC are also confirmed to be included in Apple's next iPhone...

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