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Google

Google Didn't Delete All Street View Wi-Fi Data 150

Posted by Soulskill from the don't-trust-the-recycle-bin dept.
nk497 writes "Google is in more trouble over the Street View Wi-Fi data slurping incident. Two years ago Google admitted it had collected snippets of personal data while sniffing for Wi-Fi connections. The UK's data watchdog, the ICO, didn't fine Google, but did demand it delete the collected data. Following the FCC's investigation, the ICO double-checked with Google that the data was deleted, receiving confirmation that it had. Except... it hadn't all been deleted, Google has now admitted. That breaches the deal between the ICO and Google, and the watchdog has said it's in talks with other regulators about what to do next."
Security

How a 3-Year-Old Can Open a Gun Safe 646

Posted by timothy from the good-nightclub-act dept.
New submitter bupbin writes "We are providing a detailed report and analysis of eleven different popular gun safes produced by Stack-On, GunVault, and Bulldog to warn the public of the dangers inherent in some of these products because the manufacturers nor their major retailers will do so. In that report you can view eight different Stack-On models, one produced by Bulldog, and one manufactured by GunVault. A similar design defect is demonstrated in an inexpensive safe for storing valuables that is sold by AMSEC, a very reputable safe manufacturer in the United States. Unfortunately, their digital safe with their claim of a 'state-of-the-art electronic lock' can also be opened (literally) by a three-year-old because of a common mechanism used in the industry that is subject to circumvention."

Comment Re:LTE? How about Android and IPhone (Score 1) 299

by avatar139 (#40635735) Attached to: RIM CEO On What Went Wrong

So it was always their strategy to have crappy phones that didn't perform well when compared to iphones and androids, but would be better loved by the carriers, maybe?

Pretty much. Product design at RIM has really taken a back seat to creating and maintaining Carrier partnerships for quite a while now which pretty much killed their ability to compete as evidenced by the Carrier specific marketplaces.

Several features of the Storm (most notably on board wi-fi) actually got squashed because Verizon objected and that was really the last straw for the few remaining good product engineering guys who were still around, so RIM ended up having to redo a lot of the work that went into it at the last minute and the end result was a buggy mess in a piece of really badly designed hardware which to me signaled the beginning of the end for RIM.
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows Phone = Sucker's OS : Microsoft gives early adopters the shaft (jeshurun.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Looks like Microsoft are at it again, doing what they do best, which is screwing paying customer over. Greg Sullivan, senior product manager for Windows Phone has admitted to cnet today of knowing all along that the current version of Windows Phone, aka WP7 will not be upgradeable to Windows Phone 8. This could be very aggravating to customers who put their faith in the fledging platform, especially those who might own devices only a few weeks old.
Technology

Submission + - The Weather Channel Acquires Weather Underground (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Weather Underground found in 1995 by Jeff Masters has been sold to The Weather Channel for an undisclosed sum. One distinguishing feature of the Weather Underground is the large network of personal weather stations maintained by people all around the country. According to the New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/us/as-weather-channel-buys-weather-underground-fans-fear-change.html'>Fans Howl After Weather Site Buys Out Rival. Looks like another case of a large media organization buying a smaller, more innovative rival. Anyone brave enough to predict the impact of this move on the 10 million unique visitors per month that visit the Weather Underground or the approximately 20,000 or so who publish their personal weather data and/or photos from their weather webcams?
EU

EU Parliament Adopts eCall Resolution 212

Posted by Soulskill from the you-can-trust-us dept.
arisvega writes with news that the European Parliament has pass a resolution in support of eCall, an initiative to install devices in vehicles that automatically contact emergency services in the event of a crash. The resolution calls on the European Condition to make it mandatory for all new cars starting in 2015. "The in-vehicle eCall system uses 112 emergency call technology to alert the emergency services automatically to the location of serious road accidents. This should save lives and reduce the severity of injuries by enabling qualified and equipped paramedics to get to the scene within the first “golden hour” of the accident, says the resolution. The eCall system could save up to 2,500 lives a year and reduce injury severity by 10 to 15%, it adds."
Open Source

Open Source Morrowind Version 0.16.0 Released 98

Posted by Soulskill from the with-many-eyes-even-that-many-bugs-are-shallow dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The OpenMW team recently released a new version of their open source engine. While the project is not fully playable yet, the goal is to preserve Morrowind, provide modders a better engine and tool kit for creating their works, and make it cross-platform. Like most open source projects, they are always seeking new contributors. So, what do you think; what's the state of FLOSS games that are not first-person shooters?"

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: iGoogle replacement ? (google.com) 1

Submitted by obarthelemy
obarthelemy writes: With iGoogle scheduled to close, I'm looking for another web site that can be my home:

on a single web page, and in any browser (no browser-specific extensions please)

- display multiple mail and webmail inboxes (gmail, yahoo, hotmail, and pro POP/IMAP)
- display Google Reader feeds (or a collection of RSS feeds directly, but Google Reader would be much better)
- and Google Calendar
- and Google Tasks

I have no clue why Google is discontinuing their home page service, but if that's what they want, I'll make my home somewhere else ^^
Google

Google Killing Off Mini, Video, and iGoogle 329

Posted by Soulskill from the bulldozing-an-old-playground dept.
New submitter Trashcan Romeo writes "Three years ago, it accounted for 20% of all visits to Google's home page. Two years ago, Lifehacker readers voted it the best start-page service. Today it was announced that iGoogle will be retired — or in the company's parlance, 'spring cleaned' — on November 1, 2013." Google Video is also getting the axe this summer. It hasn't accepted new videos since 2009, and all of the old ones will be migrated to YouTube. The company is also getting rid of Google Mini, Talk Chatback, and their Symbian search app.
Cellphones

Submission + - Mozilla Vows Firefox OS Phones in Early 2013 (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "Mozilla has rebranded its 'Boot to Gecko' mobile operating system — which it's been working on for more than a year — as Firefox OS, to tie it with its popular browser. Smartphones powered by the new Firefox OS will be manufactured by Hong Kong's TCL Communication Technology, under its Alcatel One Touch nameplate, and by China's ZTE. The first such device won't ship until next year, however. Mozilla has also lined up several mobile carriers that have pledged support for Firefox OS, including Sprint in the U.S., Germany's Deutsche Telekom, Abu Dhabi's Etisalat, Smart Communications in the Philippines, Italy's Telecom Italia, Spain's Telefonica and Norway's Telenor. In a Monday blog post, Mozilla and its new partners touted Firefox OS's functionality, especially its ability to run on entry-level hardware.'Mobile operators will have the ability to offer richer experiences at a range of price points, including at the low end of the smartphone price range, helping to drive adoption across developing markets,' Mozilla asserted."
Microsoft

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Does you company use stack ranking to evaluate your performance? (vanityfair.com) 1

Submitted by jmcbain
jmcbain writes: I'm a former Microsoftie, and one thing I really despised about the company is the 'stack ranking' employee evaluation system that was succinctly captured in a recent Vanity Fair article on the company. Stack ranking is basically applying a forced curve distribution on all employees at the same level, so management must place some percentage of employees into categories of overperforming, performing on average, and underperforming. Even if it's an all-star team doing great work, some folks will be marked as underperforming. Frankly, this really sucked. I know this practice gained popularity with GE in the 1980s and is being used by some (many?) Fortune 500 companies. Does your company do this? What's the best way to survive this type of system?
Handhelds

Bill Gates: the Traditional PC Is Changing 552

Posted by Soulskill from the long-live-the-pc dept.
Billly Gates writes "Bill Gates, in an interview with Charlie Rose last night, defended the move to Metro-ize Windows 8 and focus solely on the tablet experience (here's the video — tablet talk starts around 28 minutes in). When asked how traditional PC users will react, he explained that the world is moving into tablets, and a new PC needs to have both experiences integrated together. Also, he defended the move to build the Surface while charging his competitors a bundle for Windows 8. He says users have access to both experiences, whether it is a signature Microsoft one, or from an OEM. Is the a sign the desktop is dead or dying?" Gates stopped short of saying the traditional PC is dead, but dodged direct questions about its future. This is a big change to the stance he has advocated in years past.

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