GLENN’S SHOWNOTES
Steve Jobs: Billion Dollar Hippy
9:30pm Thursday, May 03 2012
Replay : 2:00pm Fri, May 04 on ABC1
About The Program
A brand that defines cool consumerism, Apple has become one of the biggest corporations in the world. Its game-changing products tap into modern desires. Its leader, Steve Jobs, was a long-haired college dropout with infinite ambition, and an inspirational perfectionist with a bully’s temper.
A man of contradictions, he fused a Californian counterculture attitude and a mastery of the art of hype with explosive advances in computer technology. Insiders including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak tell extraordinary stories of the rise, fall and rise again of Apple with Steve Jobs at its helm.
Featuring interviews with actor and Apple enthusiast Stephen Fry, worldwide web inventor Sir Tim Berners- Lee and branding guru Rita Clifton, Steve Jobs: Billion Dollar Hippy decodes the formula that took Apple from suburban garage to global supremacy.
Mac Flashback hijacked $10k a day: Symantec
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/299028,mac-flashback-hijacked-10k-a-day-symantec.aspx?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=iTnews+All+Articles+feed
Flashback contained an ad-clicking component that allowed the attacker to generate revenue. Symantec now believes making money from the trojan was the Flashback creator’s “end goal”.
The trojan effectively “hijacked” advertising clicks that were intended for Google.
Symantec showed an example where an ad click worth 0.8 cents was hijacked by Flashback.
“This ultimately results in lost revenue for Google and untold sums of money for the Flashback gang,” the company said.
Federal Court overturns Optus TV Now decision
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/298540,federal-court-overturns-optus-tv-now-decision.aspx?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=iTnews+All+Articles+feed
Optus has confirmed it will suspend its TV Now service ollowing the Federal Court’s decision to hold the telco liable for copyright infringement over its service.
Fiona Phillips, executive director with the Australian Copyright Council said a market-based approach to evolving cloud technologies could still overcome any potential copyright infringement issues with cloud service providers and rights holders.
She said service providers would have to ensure business models for future services included an ability to purchase the required licenses for copyrighted material.
An Optus spokeswoman said the company would assess all of its options, including a potential appeal to the High Court. It has 21 days from today to seek leave for such an appeal.
Apple Introduces us to “Gifting” iTunes Purchases via NFC
On April 26, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that introduces us to gifting iTunes purchases via NFC or email. Apple’s patent generally relates to digital media content and electronic devices being configured to transfer information from one user’s account to another user’s account. Apple will also allow users to share iTunes Playlists – though at a cost being that it’s in context with “gifting,” as Apple calls it.
Near field communication (NFC)
Apple spits Chomp’s Android app search
http://www.crn.com.au/News/298725,apple-spits-chomps-android-app-search.aspx?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=CRN+News+feed
Chomp, the app search engine developed by two Australians that Applebought in February, no longer searches Android apps.
Android users of the app began reporting last Thursday that Chomp no longer worked on Android devices,
The software helps iOS device users search via the web or Apple devices over 550,000 iPhone apps and 170,000 ‘native’ iPad apps It used to also help search around 400,000 Android apps.
Apple’s security “10 years behind Microsoft”
http://www.crn.com.au/News/298524,apples-security-10-years-behind-microsoft.aspx?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=CRN+News+feed
Eugene Kaspersky, founder and CEO of internet security firm Kaspersky “Apple is now entering the same world as Microsoft has been in for more than 10 years: updates, security patches and so on,”
“For many years I’ve been saying that from a security point of view there is no big difference between Mac and Windows,” Kaspersky said at the Info Security 2012 conference.
Historically, the company’s products have been relatively safe from malware, but that’s changing, according to Kaspersky – his company has seen more malware aimed at Macs.
File-sharers look to VPNs to overcome Pirate Bay ban
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17922214
people are increasingly turning to virtual private networks (VPNs) to anonymise their free sharing of music and movies, a new study has suggested.
Sweden’s Lund University indicated that there had been a 40% rise in the number of 15 to 25-year-olds using such services since 2009.
The Pirate Bay has advised visitors to make use of VPNs. It would be illegal to do so to download pirated files.
In its first public response since five of the UK’s big ISPs agreed to block their subscribers from the file-sharing site, The Pirate Bay remained defiant.
“As usual there are easy ways to circumvent the block. Use a VPN service to be anonymous and get an uncensored internet access, you should do this anyhow,” it said.
Some industry experts now believe that VPNs could become publishers’ next target.
The music industry has changed its focus over the last year, away from targeting individual file-sharers to shutting off access to sites via domain name service blocking – meaning anyone typing in the address of a torrent site will not get through.
To achieve this, content providers must come to an agreement with internet service providers to block access or force the block via the courts.
Crackdowns against The Pirate Bay have now been enforced across Europe and are imminent in Britain.
Motorola wins Xbox and Windows 7 ban in Germany
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17924190
The sales ban covers the Xbox 360 games console, Windows 7 system software, Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player.
It follows a ruling that Microsoft had infringed two patents necessary to offer H.264 video coding and playback.
A US court has banned Motorola from enforcing the action until it considers the matter next week.
The restriction was put in place after Microsoft claimed that Motorola was abusing its Frand-commitments – a promise to licence innovations deemed critical to widely-used technologies under “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” terms.
A hearing is scheduled for 7 May, although the judge may issue his ruling at a later date.
The German case is also likely to be considered by the European Commission.
Ikea goes green with a cardboard digital camera
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17869436
Having snapped 40 photos, users can dispose of it along with any other recyclable materials.
The device is a part of a campaign around Ikea’s PS at Home project, aimed at getting buyers to share images of their furniture on the chain’s website.
Called Knappa, the camera will not be sold but rather given away to consumers in selected stores around the world.
It was created by a Swedish designer Jesper Kouthoofd, runs on two AA batteries, and connects to a computer with help of a swing-out USB connector.
Nintendo reports first annual loss as Wii sales suffer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17852137
The company reported a net loss of US$533m for the year,
The company had also been selling its 3DS handheld device below cost during the year thanks to a price cut it was forced to make in response to intensifying competition in the sector.
But it hopes to reverse this situation later this year and plans to launch a new 2D version of its Super Mario Bros. game this August.
While sales of Nintendo’s Wii console have been slowing of late, the company still shifted 9.84m units for the year to March 2012 and has sold over 95m in total.
some analysts believe that competition from online social-networking games and smartphone apps is denting the console market irrevocably.
“The games console market is declining altogether because mobile phone devices are allowing casual gamers to play much more easily wherever they happen to be,” said Stuart Miles, head of Pocket-lint.
Tax office at a loss as to Google’s finances
GOOGLE has paid no tax on an estimated $940 million in web search advertising revenue generated locally, instead routing its Australian online ad sales through an Irish subsidiary, Google Ireland.
This week, Google Australia reported a net loss of $3.9m on operating revenue of $201m for the year ended December to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.
Tax authorities don’t get a look at income generated within Australia by its search advertising business, which is booked offshore through the Irish entity. In turn, Google Ireland is managed from Bermuda.
Google Australia continues a loss-making trend: in 2010, it reported a net loss of $3.1m on operating revenue of $151m; in 2009 it incurred a net loss of $4.4m on $110m in revenue, while in 2008 it had a loss of $8.8m on revenue of $90m.
Its preference for channelling income through low-taxing nations has attracted examination of the US Internal Revenue Service.
A Google spokesman yesterday said on its tax situation: “Google complies fully with all relevant tax rules in all the countries in which it operates, including in Australia.
Tax authorities don’t get a look at income generated within Australia by its search advertising business, which is booked offshore through the Irish entity. In turn, Google Ireland is managed from Bermuda.
Its preference for channelling income through low-taxing nations has attracted examination of the US Internal Revenue Service.
Aus investigates digital price discrepancies
The Australian parliament has launched an inquiry into the pricing of digitally distributed content.
Stephen Conroy, hope that the publicity generated by the inquiry will cause companies to better align the price of digital content with markets such as the United States and Europe,
The terms of reference for the inquiry are being finalised by Mr Conroy but it will begin later this year and be conducted by the House of Representatives standing committee on infrastructure and communications.
ERIK’S SHOWNOTES…
Optus, Vodafone to build 500 joint sites
Mobile carriers Optus and Vodafone Hutchison Australia have joined forces to fill mobile coverage blackspots in metropolitan areas and strengthen their respective networks.
The joint venture will see the carriers share some of their existing mobile towers while also bearing the cost of building 500 new sites over four years in capital cities, Geelong in Victoria and the central coast in New South Wales.
The agreement would ultimately provide Optus with an additional 1000 sites, for a total of approximately 5000 free-standing and standalone mobile sites. Vodafone, on the other hand, would get access to around 900 sites from the venture.
It comes as the extension of a 2004 agreement that initially saw the carriers share 3G infrastructure.
Bill Morrow, the newly appointed chief executive of VHA, told iTnews a joint governance board would be appointed to determine the location of the new sites where it was deemed suitable for both carriers.
But he denied the move was aimed at competing with Telstra’s existing mobile reach.
“I wouldn’t look at it as a ‘beat [Telstra]’ and I’m telling my executives that. Telstra is not our focus, it’s the customer,” he said.
However, it is believed the joint venture was aimed at also narrowing the gap in coverage between Optus and Telstra mobile networks.
Though the venture is focused on metro areas for the time being, Morrow said the venture could provide for greater regional access in future.
“In the five major cities of the country, it’s important everyone have their own network and where it makes sense we’ll do some tower sharing to address those local communities,” he said.
“Outside of that, there’s a slightly different environment where we see, very much the same way with Optus, where we have to minimise the cost in those areas. While Telstra has spent a lot of money in the past out there, to do that three times affects the economic profit pool and that’s why you have to come up with a different solution.”
Analysts from Ovum and Telsyte said the primary motivator for the agreement came in saving the capital cost of building mobile sites while accelerating network rollouts for both carriers.
“In expanding mobile networks the most costly part is site acquisition and readiness; three to five times the cost of the equipment deployed on the sites,” Telsyte telco analyst Chris Coughlan told iTnews.
“This expanded JV essentially halves the cost of this activity. For sites that are existing will shorten the time to establish equipment on sites.”
Optus said it would be able to accelerate its planned LTE rollouts by 12 to 18 months, particularly in capital cities.
Vodafone, which has traditionally been hesitant to unveil a solid LTE roadmap, would not share details on potential changes to its plans.
However, Morrow – who led the 4G rollout at US carrier Clearwire – said he had a “strong view” on the plans and would look to more comprehensively fill those out in the near future.
Vodafone builds roaming network
The venture, the cost of which neither company has disclosed, is expected to provide the greatest benefits to Vodafone.
Under the deal, the third largest carrier would also gain roaming access to Optus’ network for the first time from April next year, providing 96 percent population coverage.
The company currently claims to cover 94 percent of the population with 3G coverage. Former VHA chief Nigel Dews told investors in February that the company had focused on providing its fastest speeds to 87 percent of the population while offering “usable, good coverage” up to 96 percent coverage.
3 Mobile customers have roamed onto Telstra on a national scale while Vodafone has offered a similar capability for 2G coverage in regional Victoria and Tasmania.
It is the first time Vodafone customers will roam onto another Australian 3G mobile network outside its own infrastructure.
The agreement comes as VHA looks to end its existing relationship with Telstra under the eight-year-old 3GIS contract, which saw 3 Mobile share its 3G network with Telstra while allowing customers to roam onto the largest carrier.
Vodafone has also gained access to another 900 sites from the end of the 3GIS agreement, which is due to end in August this year.
The carrier, which continues to struggle financially after network woes stretching back to late 2010, is more than two-thirds the way through a network upgrade and replacement program that would amount to $1 billion investment since its merger with 3 Mobile.
Morrow said no discussions were held with Telstra to re-negotiate or begin a new venture.
The venture is subject to approval by the competition watchdog. A spokesman for the government organisation could not be contacted at time of writing.
Updated 1.30pm: Clarified Vodafone’s roaming capabilities.
Copyright © iTnews.com.au . All rights reserved.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/299217,optus-vodafone-to-build-500-joint-sites.aspx?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=iTnews+Technology+feed
RIM chief: physical BlackBerry keyboards not going away
Research in Motion CEO Thorsten Heins moved to reassure the BlackBerry faithful that it was not killing off the physical keyboard, as had been reported widely by some after a touch screen prototype device with a virtual on-screen keyboard was shown off by the company.
In a rare question and answer session with media at the company’s BlackBerry World conference in Orlando, Florida on Wednesday in the US, the chief executive officer said the BlackBerry maker had never stated it would kill off the physical keyboard.
“We know what our strengths are,” Heins said. “We won’t lose our focus on the physical keypad. It would just be wrong, just plain wrong for us to do this.”
Speculation the company would be abandoning the physical keyboard in favour of an on-screen virtual keyboard first came about when it unveiled a prototype smartphone with no physical keyboard on Tuesday in the US.
The prototype device was given to developers at the Blackberry World conference so that they could make their apps compatible with RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry 10 operating system, which is due to be launched later this year on a new set of smartphones.
Ben Grubb travelled to BlackBerry World in Orlando, Florida as a guest of RIM
BlackBerry stunt at Sydney Apple store ‘too little, too late’
A stunt by BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) designed to make fun of Apple has backfired on the ailing company, say commentators.
RIM today owned up to being responsible for an extended protest outside Apple’s Sydney CBD store last week after online sleuths traced the source of the publicity stunt.
But the marketing ambush comes as too little too late, says Tiphereth Gloria, social media strategist at VML Australia
“The punch line – which is the fact that Blackberry is behind it – is what makes it fail because Blackberry is not associated with any kind of success,” she says.
“If they had run this around the initial uptake of the iPhone 3GS a couple of years ago, it might of had some relevance.”
The company was then forced to deny that it paid bloggers to report on the stunt after it emerged that the man who managed to capture the protest on video, Nate ‘Blunty’ Burr, had previously posted a glowing three-part review of the BlackBerry Playbook.
“Bloggers were not paid for this campaign or told what to say,” they said. “Neither RIM, nor any agencies on RIM’s behalf, have ever paid Blunty.”
Burr’s YouTube video of the protest spread across the internet and people immediately suspected Samsung, which is about to release its Galaxy S III smartphone and has previously staged marketing stunts near the Apple store.
But it was the BlackBerry manufacturer that admitted to being behind the mystery viral campaign today after days of speculation.
“We can confirm that the Australian ‘Wake Up’ campaign, which involves a series of experiential activities taking place across Sydney and Melbourne, was created by RIM Australia,” RIM said in a statement.
Many assumed that Samsung was the company behind the stunt because they are Apple’s largest rival in the smartphone market, while BlackBerry has been steadily losing its market share.
“That loss has accelerated a lot in the last six months … the only competition for Apple is Android,” says Gloria.
Samsung yesterday denied any involvement in the campaign before RIM came clean.
“As a market leader in smartphones we think Australians have already woken up to the multitude of choices available, but kudos to whoever is behind the campaign,” said the company in a statement.
Internet sleuths first raised the alarm bells last week when they worked out that the mysterious countdown on the Wake Up website did not line up with the release date of the Galaxy S III, as it was originally thought.
Blogger and MacTalk contributor James Croft examined the source code of the Wake Up website and found a Doubleclick account identifier that linked it to RIM’s Australian website.
“Clearly the evidence is starting to stack up in favour of them [RIM] being behind the whole mess,” Croft wrote on his blog yesterday.
RIM’s protest at the Apple store involved a flash mob of black-clad demonstrators shouting at customers to “wake up”.
Other facets of the campaign involved people dressed in black standing outside Channel Seven’s Sunrise studios in Sydney’s CBD holding signs of the slogan, and this morning a speedboat sporting the logo reportedly raced around Sydney Harbour. The slogan has even been spotted on a flashing roadworks sign in Rushcutters Bay, Sydney.
‘Wake Up’ can be seen at the bottom of the swimming pool at Icebergs, a sports club in Bondi Beach, as well as on numerous billboards across Sydney and Melbourne, including one near the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The campaign also has a website, featuring nothing but the slogan ‘Wake Up’ and a countdown timer, which has been timed to the release date of BlackBerry’s new operating system BlackBerry10. The stunt also coincides with the BlackBerry world conference, which is currently taking place in Florida.
Blackberry was once the device of choice for executives due to its email capabilities, and was even gaining some consumer cachet up until to a few years ago. This dropped off dramatically following the rise of touchscreen smartphones running iOS and Android, both of which have strong email features.
RIM Australia says a ‘reveal’ will take place on May 7 that will “aim to provoke conversation on what ‘being in business’ means to Australians”.
with Ben Grubb, who is currently in Florida as a guest of RIM for its BlackBerry World Conference
British ISPs forced to block The Pirate Bay
Britain’s High Court has ordered the country’s internet service providers to block file-sharing website The Pirate Bay.
A High Court judge told Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media to prevent access to the Swedish site, which helps millions of people download copyrighted music, movies and computer games.
Music industry group BPI welcomed the order by justice Richard Arnold that the service providers block the site within the next few weeks.
BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said sites like The Pirate Bay “destroy jobs in the U.K. and undermine investment in new British artists.”
The service providers said they would comply with the order. A sixth provider, BT, has been given several weeks to consider its position, but BPI said it expected BT would also block the website.
Providers who refuse could find themselves in breach of a court order, which can carry a large fine or jail time.
The announcement follows a February ruling by the same judge that the operators and users of The Pirate Bay have “a common design to infringe” the copyright of music companies.
In Australia, the movie industry sued ISP iiNet in an attempt to force it to prevent customers from downloading illegal material from the web, but the courts have consistently ruled in favour of ISPs. Last month the High Court’s five judges unanimously dismissed the film industry’s final appeal, but experts say ISPs will still need to take some action to prevent piracy.
The Pirate Bay has been a thorn in the side of the entertainment industry for years. In 2010, a Swedish appeals court upheld the copyright infringement convictions of three men behind the site, but it remains in operation.
The website, which has more than 20 million users around the world, does not host copyright-protected material itself, but provides a forum for its users to download content through so-called torrent files. The technology allows users to transfer parts of a large file from several different users, increasing download speeds.
Defenders of such sites say old creative industry business models have been overtaken by technology that allows music, movies and games to be acquired at the touch of a finger on computers, tablets, phones and other devices.
Both O2 and Virgin said banning orders against copyright-breaching sites had to be accompanied by other measures that reflected consumers’ behavior.
O2 said in a statement that “music rights holders should continue to develop new online business models to give consumers the content they want, how they want it, for a fair price.”
AP
LIKE A VOSS: Winklevoss twins leave Facebook in past, found new company
AFTER a seven-year legal battle with Facebook, the Winklevoss twins are finally moving on, starting up a venture capital company.
Winklevoss Capital will provide funds to start-ups, CNBC reported.
The twins did not disclose what projects Winklevoss Capital would be funding, or how much money they had, but said the focus would be on “early-stage disruptive start-ups”.
“We’re looking for companies… where we can add both capital and operational experience and sort of make an impact and work with the entrepreneurs to build their team,” Cameron Winklevoss said.
The twins, who made a name for themselves after a seven-year legal battle with Mark Zuckerberg and whose story featured in the movie The Social Network, claim their notoriety had positively affected their dealings.
We do have that experience,” Tyler Winklevoss said. “We were there at the beginning of the Web 2.0, so I think we bring a little bit more than dollars to the table, and so far we’ve found that that’s resonated with the companies we’ve looked at.”
The twins settled with Facebook in June where they were granted $65 million settlement.
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000086832&;play=1
American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies That the Government Tells
Publisher’s Summary
In this explosive account of wrongful acts and ongoing cover-ups, Jesse Ventura takes a systematic look at the wide gap between what the American government knows and what it reveals to the American people.
For too long, we the people have sat by and let politicians and bureaucrats from both parties obfuscate and lie. And according to this former Navy SEAL, former pro wrestler, and former Minnesota governor, the media is complicit in these acts of deception. For too long, the mainstream press has refused to consider alternate possibilities and to ask the tough questions. Here, Ventura looks closely at the theories that have been presented over the years and separates the fact from the fiction.
In Ventura’s eyes, the murder of Abraham Lincoln and the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King all need to be reexamined. Was Watergate presented honestly, or was the CIA involved? Did the Republican Party set out to purposefully steal two elections on behalf of George W. Bush? Has all the evidence been presented about the 9/11 attacks, or is there another angle that the media is afraid to explore? And finally, is the collapse of today’s financial order and the bailout plan by the Federal Reserve the widest-reaching conspiracy ever perpetrated?
©2010 Jesse Venture and Dick Russell (P)2010 Tantor
http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_4?asin=B003C22VGO&;qid=1336028400&sr=1-4
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