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Submission + - Apple being sued over Passbook (venturebeat.com)

Submitted by realized
realized writes: Apple is currently being sued over four patents when it comes to passbook. The first two are in regards to "Information management and synchronous communications system with menu generation", and the second two titled "Information management and synchronous communications system with menu generation, and handwriting and voice modification of orders"

The company doing the suing is called Ameranth, a company that both Microsoft and Motorola have given strategic investments to.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Alkaline water – the real deal or snake oil? 3

Submitted by realized
realized writes: it seems more and more common that my friends are getting into these water ionizer which apparently can change the pH of a water from about 7 up to a 9.5 (more alkaline). There seems to be no real documentation and the only “news” I can find on the subject are press releases.
The companies selling these things operate on a pyramid. They have discussions and invite people in to “sell” the product. In these discussions you hear about friends of friends who were dying of stage 4 lung cancer and stopped all treatment but then started drinking this water and all of a sudden they are cured.
Has there been any actual scientific studies done on the benefits of drinking alkaline water (please don’t compare alkaline water to alkaline foods)? Is it just snake oil? Why are so many people spending anywhere from $3000-$6000 on these machines? Does it do anything to benefit the body?
Wireless Networking

Submission + - AT&T successfully sued after throttling customer in california (huffingtonpost.com)

Submitted by realized
realized writes: While everybody else is complaining about AT&T’s throttling, Matt Spaccarelli decided to sue, and won. The small claims court judge said “it wasn't fair for the company to purposely slow down his iPhone, when it had sold him an "unlimited data" plan.” And awarded Matt with $850 for his trouble. This could be good news for throttlers, who have reported being throttled after only 1.5gb or after watching a tv show on Netflix but still being well under 2gb of data usage.
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook Has 25 People Dedicated to Handling Gov Info Requests (forbes.com)

Submitted by nonprofiteer
nonprofiteer writes: A profile of Facebook's CSO reveals that his 70-person security team includes 25 people dedicated solely to handling information requests from law enforcement. They get thousands of calls and e-mails from authorities each week, though Facebook requires police to get a warrant for anything beyond a subscriber's name, email and IP address. CSO Joe Sullivan says that some gov agency tried to push Facebook to start collecting more information about their users for the benefit of authorities:

"Recently a government agency wanted us to start logging information we don’t log. We told them we wouldn’t start logging that piece of data because we don’t need it to provide a good product. We talked to our general counsel. The law is not black-and-white. That agency thinks they can compel us to. We told them to go to court. They haven’t done that yet.”
Blackberry

Submission + - RIM Trying to Woo Customers With Porn, Gambling Apps? (cio.com)

Submitted by
AZA43
AZA43 writes: "Everybody knows that BlackBerry-maker RIM is hurting these days. But is it hurting enough to try to attract new customers with the promise of porn and/or gambling apps? A new rating system added to RIM's BlackBerry App World store suggests that it just may be that desperate. The new "Adult" rating covers, "graphic sexual content, graphic nudity," " graphic violence," and gambling apps "as permitted by law." And that suggests RIM will allow this kind of content into App World, in stark contrast to Apple's no-porn-on-the-iPhone stand."
AT&T

Submission + - T-Mobile announces LTE network (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "In a beautiful twist of fate, T-Mobile USA has announced that it will be launching an LTE network in 2013 using the money and AWS spectrum that it obtained from AT&T after its failed acquisition. According to T-Mobile, this upgrade comprises of a three-phase process: free up 2G spectrum, move HSPA+ to formerly 2G spectrum, and deploy LTE on formerly HSPA+ spectrum. The end result will be a much faster network that can compete with AT&T and Verizon, and download speeds of up to 74Mbps in 75% of the top 25 markets in the US. International visitors should enjoy better roaming thanks to the deployment of PCS HSPA+, too — and finally, an AT&T LTE iPhone would also work on T-Mobile's upcoming network."

Submission + - Anonymous tricked twitter followers into helping w (gawker.com)

Submitted by realized
realized writes: According to gawker.com, the group known as anonymous has been tricking its twitter followers to help in the takedown of justice and fbi websites yesterday.. Apparently, once links the group posted to their twitter, facebook and irc channels were clicked, the unsuspecting user’s computer would then load a website version of the groups Low Orbit Ion Cannon. (LOIC).When Activated, it continues to reload the victim’s website over and over again. According to reports the link, was shared 4 times a minute

Comment AT&T going after Netflix, Hulu, and Slingbox u (Score 1) 215

by realized (#38644346) Attached to: Data Hogs: the Monsters Carriers Created
AT&T Has throttled me for the past 3 months. Mind you its very easy to get around it so it hasn’t affected me at all but I did notice something very interesting.

My first month I was throttled, I got the “you are reaching 5%” text the day after the first time I ever used Netflix.

A week later I used Netflix again, and I was throttled the next day. (this was at 3.1GB) Next billing cycle I was back to normal but got my first warning at 3.7GB and throttled at 4.2GB

This last billing cycle was right around the same.

However, my sister – and we live together, have the exact same billing cycle. She this month got the “you are reaching 5%” text at 2.1GB – the day after steaming from HULU.com

That’s right, I got my first warning at 3.7GB and she got hers at 2.1GB – we live in the same house, and have the same account!

There is lots of talk about AT&T being aggressive to all Netflix, hulu, and slingbox users (check xda etc) wehre as if you don’t use the services, they will still throttle you, but not as fast.

I think its funny how i got a warning at 3.7gb and my sister at 2.1gb - all because of hulu
Privacy

Submission + - Judge Doesn't Care About Supreme Court GPS Case (forbes.com) 1

Submitted by nonprofiteer
nonprofiteer writes: The Supreme Court is currently deciding whether or not law enforcement need a warrant before they put a GPS tracker on a person's car — http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/united-states-v-jones/. A judge in St. Louis doesn't seem to care about that, tho. He ruled last week that the FBI didn't need a warrant to track the car of a state employee they suspected was collecting a paycheck without actually going to work. (Their suspicions were confirmed.) While in favor of corrupt government employees being caught, it's a bit disturbing that a federal judge would decide a warrant wasn't needed while the Supreme Court has said the issue is unclear.
Government

Submission + - Why Politicians Should Never Make Laws About Techn (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "As the world gets more and more technical, we can't let Luddites decide the fate of dangerous legislation like SOPA, writes Deep End's Paul Venezia. 'Very few politicians get technology. Many actually seem proud that they don't use the Internet or even email, like it's some kind of badge of honor that they've kept their heads in the sand for so long. These are the same people who will vote on noxious legislation like SOPA, openly dismissing the concerns and facts presented by those who know the technology intimately. The best quote from the SOPA debates: "We're operating on the Internet without any doctors or nurses on the room." That is precisely correct,' Venezia writes. 'The best we can do for the short term is to throw everything we can behind legislation to reinstate the OTA (Office of Technology Assessment). From 1974 through 1995, this small group with a tiny budget served as an impartial, nonpartisan advisory to the U.S. Congress on all matters technological.'"
Android

Submission + - Transformer Prime to get ICS January 12, boot unlo (facebook.com)

Submitted by symbolset
symbolset writes: The maker of the wildly popular Transformer Prime Tegra 3 tablet Asus announces via their Facebook page that Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) will be available January 12th. In addition they are developing a boot unlocker which will void the warranty and break Google movie rentals, but will allow modding.

There's also announced an intermediate software update to improve the camera and touch experience, and they're dropping GPS from the feature list for poor performance.

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