Google is now under investigation by the FTC for its use of a computer code that bypassed Apple’s Safari privacy settings to track users’ online activity for targeted ads.
“The investigations — which span U.S. federal and state agencies, as well as a pan-European effort led by France — could embroil Google in years of legal battles and result in hefty fines for privacy violations,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“We will of course cooperate with any officials who have questions,” a Google spokeswoman said. “But it’s important to remember that we didn’t anticipate this would happen, and we have been removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers.”
Last year, Google made an agreement with the FTC to not misrepresent its privacy practices. The trade commission is looking into whether the use of the code violated this agreement. If Google is found at fault, the company could face hefty costs — up to $16,000 per violation, per day.
It’s official: Sprint has ended its agreement with wireless startup LightSquared, saying it “continues to be supportive of LightSquared’s business plans,” according to a statement released on Friday.
Sprint has returned $65 million in prepayments to LightSquared, but would be open to a deal in the future if LightSquared can work with the FCC to resolve potential GPS interference issues “impacting its ability to offer service on the 1.6 GHz spectrum,” explains the release.
The startup recently hired a high-powered legal team to challenge regulators who aim to shut down the company due to interference concerns. According to AllThingsD, the team is led by former Bush administration solicitor general Ted Olson, and Eugene Scalia, son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
“We will do all we can to ensure that LightSquared does not lose billions of dollars in investments due to a precipitous, arbitrary reversal by the government,” Olson said in a statement.
Apple is reportedly combining its Macbook Pro and MacBook Air lines with its latest 13- and 15-inch Macbook Pro models becoming much thinner, according to a report from Chinese tech blog Digitimes.
The source said the Pros have gone into production and are also dropping their optical drive support.
The new design has multiple advantages. “Specifically, it would allow Apple to bring the quick boot and instant-on capabilities of the MacBook Air to its wider notebook lineup, and it would also significantly improve battery life,” according to VentureBeat. “It could also help Apple gain an advantage over Intel and the many Ultrabook manufacturers trying to mimic the MacBook Air design.”
For those customers looking for a powerful production machine, a preferred alternative may be the 17-inch MacBook Pro model, “which likely won’t get the ultra-thin treatment,” adds VentureBeat.
Chinese manufacturer TCL Corporation has developed an LCD TV screen that measures 110 inches and features 4,096 x 2,160 resolution and 3D with active-shutter glasses.
According to the press release, additional specifications of the China Stardisplay include “multi-touch technology, intelligent and dynamic backlight technology, ultra-high brightness of 800nits, and 92 percent NTSC color gamut.”
The company has donated two of the giant HDTV screens to the Great Hall of the People at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
However, it has not been announced whether or when TCL may market the screens.
“China will replace Japan and South Korea as the world leader in TV display screens in terms of manufacturing and R&D in three to five years, and will provide a higher level of quality and more cost-effective products to the global community,” says Gu Zhihua, director of the flat panel display center at Fudan University.
As noted in our ETCentric CES coverage, the cost of 3D printing is coming down and may soon be entering mainstream adoption.
For example: “The price has come down enough that Ted Griffiths offers 3D printing services at his Buckley mailroom business, one of the first examples of a retail 3D printing,” reports the Bonney Lake-Sumner Courier Herald in Washington.
“I’m working very closely with (printer manufacturer) 3D Systems,” said Griffiths, the owner of Diane’s Mailroom. “They have equipment that costs in the millions of dollars. I’m networked with them, so if anyone comes in with a really big 3D modeling job, I can just upload it to them and they’ll ship it out.”
Griffiths has an in-house 3D printer in the back corner of the store, and maintains a computer station with 3D modeling programs (including Blender and AutoCAD). Customers can rent time at the station for $15 an hour.
“I think what we’re going to see here is some Do-It-Yourself engineers who come in to work on their designs on our station,” Griffith said. “And they can build the prototype right here from our printer.”
ETCentric staffer Philip Lelyveld predicts that there will soon be a Kinkos-like national service for 3D printing.
A team of scientists led by the University of Rochester and North Carolina State University have achieved a first in particle transmission.
The scientists “sent a message using a beam of neutrinos — nearly massless particles that travel at almost the speed of light. The message was sent through 240 meters of stone and said simply, ‘Neutrino,'” reports ScienceBlog.com.
“Using neutrinos, it would be possible to communicate between any two points on Earth without using satellites or cables,” notes Dan Stancil, professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and lead author of the research paper. “Neutrino communication systems would be much more complicated than today’s systems, but may have important strategic uses.”
Neutrinos have the potential to dramatically impact modes of communication since “they can penetrate almost anything they encounter.” The article sites examples such as possible advances for submarine communication over long distances through water, and even communication “with something in outer space that was on the far side of a moon or a planet, our message could travel straight through without impediment.”
The experiments are costly and require a great deal of equipment. However, this research may be the first step toward practical applications.
As George Gerba noted when he submitted this article: “Next — video anywhere… Really anywhere…”
The latest Apple rumor suggests the company is gearing up to release a smaller version of its popular iPad.
A Samsung official has reportedly told the Korea Times that Apple plans to release an iPad mini with 7.85-inch screen. The official claims the smaller version will use Samsung-made displays.
“Despite its ongoing patent battles with Samsung, Apple will reportedly buy $11 billion worth of parts from the South Korean electronics giant this year,” reports Digital Trends. “Part of that $11 billion will go toward the purchase of smaller touch-screen displays.”
“The contract is expected to rise to $11 billion by the end of this year as Apple is planning to release a smaller iPad, probably with a 7.85-inch screen, and to sell more of its MacBook Air PCs using Samsung’s faster solid state drive (SSD) storage,” the official said.
Sony has announced the Alpha a57 DSLR as a replacement for its Alpha a55 intended to compete with the Nikon D5100, Canon EOS Rebel T3i and other mid-range cameras.
“Using a 16.1MP CMOS sensor, the Alpha a57 shoots 10 frames-per-second at the full 16-megapixel resolution and 12 frames-per-second at an 8-megapixel resolution,” reports Digital Trends. “When using manual aperture control, the a57 can shoot 8 frames-per-second at the full resolution.”
“The Alpha a57 also captures full HD 1080p video (AVCHD) at 60fps or 24fps and the camera offers object tracking to make sure moving subjects stay in focus,” notes the post. “Utilizing LCD technology, the Alpha a57 uses a 1,440,000 dot electronic viewfinder rather than a ‘through-the-lens’ optical viewfinder. The camera operator can also utilize the 3-inch, bottom-hinged LCD screen on the back of the a57.”
The interchangeable lens camera will be available by April for $700 (body only). Sony also plans to offer the SLT-A57K, an $800 version that includes a 18-55mm zoom lens.
At the National Association of Broadcasting conference, International Research Park (IRP) will debut a 200-inch glasses-free projection TV from Japan.
“The first U.S. demonstration of a 200-inch, glasses-free 3D projection system will be presented by the Japanese national research lab, National Institute for Information and Communication Technology (NICT),” reports TVNewsCheck. “As the world’s largest display of its kind, the viewing zone for the demonstration is large enough for 30 people to optimally view 3D images without eyewear.”
“IRP, presented by NAB Labs, is a venue designed to highlight advanced projects underway in academic, government and commercial research laboratories worldwide,” notes the article.
IRP will be in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center during the NAB Show, April 16-19.
Other IRP demos scheduled: “hybrid TV broadcasting proposals (including converged broadcast/wireless-telecom systems), multi-sensory media presentations, 4K video streaming, high-dynamic range and multi-spectral video, enhanced media accessibility for visually and aurally impaired users, 2D and 3D multi-viewpoint video, advanced file-based workflows, advanced interactive gesture control and data visualization technologies.”
Double Fine was seeking $400,000 on Kickstarter for its new adventure game, but met with some surprising results.
“After raking in the first million within 24 hours of the announcement of the project on Kickstarter, game developer Double Fine and Tim Schafer have just closed out the funding round on the crowd-sourced fundraising tool and collected exactly $3,336,371 over a 35-day period,” reports Digital Trends.
The new funds will allow the company to release the game on more platforms and multiple languages.
Originally intended only as a PC game, current plans now include Mac, Linux, iOS and Android versions.
“Since Double Fine has proven that a game can be completely financed by fans, other game developers are likely going to flock to the fundraising platform with new projects,” notes the post. “Phil Fish, designer of the upcoming XBLA-exclusive release ‘Fez,’ is contemplating a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a new game that won’t be headed to the Xbox platform… Since Fish won’t be able to collect revenue from sales of ‘Fez’ until the game is approved and released on the Xbox 360, he can raise the money required for the new project within a month on Kickstarter rather than wait three to five months to get paid by Microsoft.”
Incapsula, a provider of cloud-based security, released a study of 1000 sites that shows only 49 percent of Web traffic comes from people who are browsing.
The rest of the traffic is “non-human,” comprised of: search engines — 20 percent, “spies” collecting competitive intelligence — 19 percent, hacking tools — 5 percent, scrapers — 5 percent, and spammers — 2 percent.
These “non-human” sources do not appear in analytics and can seriously impact website security and performance as they eat up so much bandwidth.
“Incapsula offers a service aimed at securing small and medium sized businesses,” notes ZDNet. “It has a global network of nine data centers that analyze all traffic to a customer’s site and blocking harmful exploits in real-time, while also speeding up page loading times through cached content closer to users.”
The RIAA and a number of ISPs — including AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon — plan to monitor their traffic and directly address those users who are infringing.
RIAA chairman Cary Sherman explains that “each ISP has to develop their infrastructure for automating the system.” Sherman says the traffic monitoring is scheduled to start July 12.
The major labels will monitor BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer networks looking for copyright infringement. Transgressions will be reported to the ISPs who will contact customers and issue a warning or two.
If the infringements continue, the ISP could throttle or “curtail” a connection.
“Still, there are several holes in the policing scheme the copyright holders and the ISPs have set up,” reports Ars Technica. “Peer-to-peer services will be the most affected here, and materials downloaded using a VPN, downloaded from an obscure torrent site, or downloaded from media portals will likely be unaffected.”
The BBC is reportedly planning a download-to-own service it hopes will compete with iTunes.
“But the producers, through their umbrella organisation pact, have so far declined to give their outright blessing, citing uncertainty over revenue share, exclusivity and the potential for cannibalising DVD sales,” reports paidContent. “They have asked for more detailed assurances.”
Project Barcelona plans to make more BBC content available on multiple platforms while promising producers a greater share per episode than the iTunes model.
Some independent producers reportedly do not want to provide exclusive rights to Barcelona. If the BBC eventually earns suppliers’ support, it will still require approval from the regulating BBC Trust.
“If approved, Barcelona could lay groundwork for a pay-for BBC in a post-analogue, post-linear world,” suggest the article. “But, so far, it concerns only the download-to-own market — a model that may yet diminish as streaming alternatives, which provide cloud-based access but not ownership, grow in popularity.”
Google has updated its Google News, adding more integration with Google+. The +1 icon now enables commenting by opening a small sharing box.
As is the case with all Google+ posts, the sharing box can be set for public view or only for the individuals or circles a user creates on the social network.
It also remains possible to not add any comment at all, but rather simply “+1” the news story as before.
In a related article, The Verge reports that Google has integrated Google Docs for all Google+ hangout conversations.
“The change is the latest example of Google’s evolving social strategy, as the company attempts to better integrate Google+ into its more established products,” reports SlashGear. “Earlier this month, senior VP of engineering Vic Gundotra described the social network as part of a greater strategy, dismissing claims that it had been a failure and instead arguing that it was a type of glue that could better draw together different elements of Google’s range.”
“Whether streamlining sharing directly from the Google News page increases adoption of the social network is enough to boost usage remains to be seen,” adds the post.
Philip Bloom comments on a Kickstarter project for the Digital Bolex, a modern update to the motion picture camera first launched in 1927.
“Launched at SxSW this is one of most interesting camera concepts I have seen…a Digital Bolex, shooting 2K Raw with a 16mm equivalent sensor recording in DNG, TIFF or JPEG sequences AND with XLR inputs for recording audio,” Bloom writes.
Additional features include: 2048 x 1152 resolution (Super 16mm mode) and 1920 x 1080 pixels (16mm mode); frame rates up to 32fps at 2K, 60fps at 720p, 90fps at 480p; Kodak CCD sensor; 12 bit color depth (4:4:4); lens C-mount standard (optional: PL, EF, B4).
According to the project’s Kickstarter page, more than $287,000 has been raised thus far and 91/100 of the first Digital Bolex D16s sold in less than two days.
Bloom’s post includes a 26-minute audio interview with creators Joe Rubinstein and Elle Schneider.
Initial backers have an opportunity to get the camera for $2,500 (retail is expected to be about $3,300). The target release date is August. For you camera fans out there, this could be worth watching and/or backing.