23294610
submission
swandives writes:
More in the Oracle/Google patent infringement saga. Oracle says no court has ever found that APIs for software like Java are ineligible for copyright protection. The claims were made in its objection to Google's request that the court make a summary judgment on Oracle's copyright allegations. In early August, Google asked the judge to rule that Google doesn't infringe Oracle copyright in its implementation of Android. In an objection to that request, Oracle asked the judge to let the charge go to trial. Earlier, Judge Alsup denied Google's attempt to get a potentially damaging e-mail redacted. Looks like this one could take a while.
23277810
submission
swandives writes:
Imagine what would happen if all the Google engineers turned rogue and held the world’s Gmail accounts to ransom. Or if aliens attacked earth and wiped California off the map. Seems the folks over at Google's enterprise division have already considered these scenarios. CIO is running an article, as part of a larger interview with Google Enterprise director of security, Eran Feigenbaum. He's a fascinating guy — in his spare time he practises magic and mentalism and you may also have heard of him as Eran Raven, the contestant from NBC television show, Phenomenon.
23122476
submission
swandives writes:
Taiwanese chipset vendor MediaTek has developed a handset for use on China's upcoming fourth-generation (4G) mobile technology, LTE TDD. According to a company spokesperson, MediaTek is still testing the mobile phone, but is preparing to trial the device in China soon. The company claims it is the first LTE TDD phone. But because China's 4G networks are still undergoing trials, the device has yet to enter mass production.
LTE TDD (Long-Term Evolution Time-Division Duplex), also known as TD-LTE in China, is one of Two LTE variants. China has been the major supporter behind the technology and began large-scale trials using LTE TDD networks earlier this year.
23084074
submission
swandives writes:
Researchers from Pennsylvania State University and North Carolina State University have concluded a lot of the software written for Google's Android mobile phones falls short when it comes to user privacy and security. The findings come from a study into the top 1100 free applications available in the Android Market. It should be noted that the researchers didn't find anything malicious, but a surprising number of the programs used unique identifiers such as the phone's IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number — sometimes without obtaining permission to do so from the user. One concern is that these unique identifiers could be linked to Android users in databases, essentially providing a stealthy way to track what mobile phone users are doing online, similar to the tracking cookies stored by Web browsers. Unlike a tracking cookie, a mobile phone's IMEI cannot be deleted.
22972558
submission
swandives writes:
India's home ministry has asked its communications ministry to monitor social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook amid fears that the services are being used by terrorists to plan attacks.
The request suggests that the Indian government is trying to broaden the scope of its online surveillance for national security. Under new rules to the country's IT Act that came into force earlier this year, websites and service providers are required to provide government security agencies with information on private accounts, including passwords, on request without a court order.
22868086
submission
swandives writes:
TV infrastructure company ActiveVideo has won a US$115 million judgment against Verizon Communications for infringement of its patents.
ActiveVideo sells CloudTV, an infrastructure for delivering programming, Web content and applications to any TV set-top box and a variety of other home electronics, such as Blu-ray players. ActiveVideo sued Verizon in May 2010, alleging that the carrier violated four of its patents in the FiOS TV service that runs on Verizon's fiber-to-the-home network.
22688666
submission
swandives writes:
The first smartphone based on the new 'Mango' edition of Microsoft's Windows Phone platform has been unveiled in Tokyo .
The phone is the first of several handsets due over the next few months. Microsoft has been trying to break back into the lucrative smartphone market for a while now, but it has yet to happen.
