GLENN’S SHOWNOTES

iPhone 5 Flaw Lets Anyone See Your Contacts, Photos

Basically, as described by videodebarraquito on his YouTube page, the method involves going to the emergency call screen, tapping the power button, dialing the GSM international emergency number 112, canceling, holding down the power button again for a second or two and hitting “Emergency Call” again.
The phone then unlocks for a moment. Hitting the home button immediately gives the user access to the contact list, calling app, voicemail and photos, all without entering the passcode.
Other apps were not accessible, The Verge said.

This isn’t the first time the passcode lock has been bypassed on iOS devices. Similar locking flaws were discovered in iOS 4 and iOS 5, and for a time the passcode lock on an iPad 2 could be bypassed using the magnetic Smart Cover.
Apple quickly fixed all three bugs with software updates. The company will probably patch this flaw with an incremental update within a week or two.

Vodafone pushes 4G to 67 Mbps

Vodafone has kicked off tests of its 1800 MHz 4G network in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, recording peak downlink speeds as high as 67 Mbps.

He noted these were strictly test speeds, and that users on the live network should expect downlink performance more in the range of “2 Mbps to 40 Mbps”.

Apple hit by hackers

Unknown hackers infected the computers of some Apple workers when they visited a website for software developers that had been infected with malicious software. The malware had been designed to attack Mac computers, the company said in a statement.

The malware was also employed in attacks against Mac computers used by “other companies,” Apple said, without elaborating on the scale of the assault.

But a person briefed on the investigation into the attacks said that hundreds of companies, including defense contractors, had been infected with the same malicious software, or malware.
The attacks mark the highest-profile cyber attacks to date on businesses running Mac computers.

Sony’s PlayStation 4 announced after long wait

Sony introduced its latest game console at an event in New York City on Wednesday evening. The PS4 will focus on “multidimensional” gaming and has superior hardware to improve the player experience, said Andrew House, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, at the event.

The PS4 runs on an eight-core x86 CPU and an improved graphics processor, delivering a combined 2 teraflops of performance. The console includes 8GB of memory and a local hard drive. Sony also introduced a new DualShock 4 gaming controller with a range of tracking and connectivity features to improve gaming quality on PS4.

Sony did not announce the chip supplier for the PS4, but it is rumored to be Advanced Micro Devices.

Sony hasn’t been specific in offering an exact release date, but they have confirmed that it will be available in time for the 2013

rumored starting price of around US$429 has been corroborated by several sources familiar with the movements of Sony.

PlayStation 4

PS4 promises games that can be experienced whenever, wherever and however you want, thanks to a system specially built to cater to the needs of the best developers in the world.
You’ll be able to play digital titles as they download from PlayStation Store, and update PS4 even when it is switched off.
Immediately pick up any saved game where you left off – the “suspend mode” of PS4 gets rid of loading times and lets you carry on by simply pressing the power button.
Gaikai technology will let you instantly try out sections of any game that catches your eye on PlayStation Store.
Check out what your friends are up to and see the games, TV shows, movies and music recommended especially for you on the newly designed PS4 menu screen.
Broadcast as you play via Ustream. If you get stuck, your mates can join in to help you or offer comments in real time.
You can use a variety of applications, such as a web browser, while you play a game.
Your favourite PS4 games will be playable on PlayStation Vita via Wi-Fi with Remote Play.
Meanwhile, the new PlayStation App lets you turn your smartphone into a second screen – for example, to let you view a map or see how a friend is tackling the same part of a game.

DUALSHOCK 4

A new, built-in sensor will enable highly sensitive motion control.
You’ll be able to interact with games in new ways thanks to a touch pad on the front of the controller.
Additional sound effects will come from an inbuilt speaker; a headset jack lets you hear these in detail as well as chat with friends.
The controller’s familiar dual analog sticks have been enhanced to provide better precision.
New, curved L2 and R2 buttons will give you greater control.
Upload images and video to Facebook with a tap of the new SHARE button.
An LED Light Bar on the top of the controller will match the colour of in-game characters so players can keep track of each other. You’ll also be able to spot when a character has been injured, for instance.
A new camera has been developed alongside the controller, and tracks the location of DUALSHOCK 4 via its LED Light Bar.

Foxtel streams live sports with iPhone, iPad app

Foxtel has announced that Fox Sports channels 1, 2 and 3 have been added to its Foxtel Go iPhone and iPad app, allowing fans to access NRL, rugby union and cricket matches on their devices.

The app will broadcast a number of live sporting events live including The Ashes cricket tests between Australia and England, the British and Irish Lions rugby union tour and every match in the 2013 Super Rugby season, the company said.

In addition, there will be five live matches shown during each round of the NRL Telstra Premiership.

The Go app can be downloaded from the Apple marketplace for free by Foxtel customers

However, the Go app is not available to customers who use Optus TV or Foxtel on T-Box.
Foxtel’s executive director of product, Jim Rudder, said that in the future the app will be available on Android, Macintosh and PCs.

Platform Device	Min Speed	Max Speed
iPad / iPhone 3G	155mb p/hr	300mb p/hr
iPad / iPhone WiFi	435mb p/hr	910mb p/hr

More questions? Check out Foxtel Go FAQs in Support.

Kogan launches new Android low-cost tablets

The Australian manufacturer and online retailer will sell the Agora Mini 8and Agora 10in tablets from today, with prices starting at $119 and $179, respectively.

The new Agora-branded tablets come with dual core processors and are available in 8GB and 16GB variants.

Google may be considering retail stores

Google is working on plans to open retail stores in the U.S. where the company would sell Google-branded hardware, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal’s unnamed sources did not say where the stores might be located or if they would even open this year.

On top of the phones and tablets, Google also has Chromebook laptopsand home entertainment devices to sell. It also has its Google Glass, computerized eye glasses in the works. There are also dozens of smartphones powered with Google’s Android mobile operating system

Microsoft’s Outlook.com comes out of preview phase

The service, which claims 60 million active users since the preview was released last July, will soon start to upgrade Hotmail users to the new service,

Users won’t have to switch to an @outlook.com address if they prefer not to, he added.

Microsoft is also launching a large-scale marketing campaign to promote the service worldwide, stating that it is confident that Outlook.com is ready to scale to a billion people.

New US$60m undersea cable between Aus and NZ to improve capacity

Telstra, Vodafone and Telecom will build a new US$60 million submarine cable between Auckland and Sydney to provide greater capacity and connectivity for New Zealand.

The three companies have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) to co-invest in the cable, which is currently going by the name Tasman Global Access (TGA).

The cable will have a design capacity of 30Tbps and will include three fibre pairs, with designs to be finalised over the next few months and the cable to be completed in mid to late 2014.

Australia and New Zealand are currently serviced by two other undersea cables – the Tasman 2 and the Southern Cross, which is owned by Telecom New Zealand, SingTel Optus and Verizon Business.

Standards Australia unwraps e-waste standard for ANZ

The joint standard, “AS/NZS 5377:2013 Collection, storage, transport and treatment of end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment,” was announced today by Standards Australia. It builds upon existing environmental protections and international agreements, setting up processes required to reduce the amount of e-waste going to the landfill, the standards body said.

“The standard will help to divert e-waste from landfill by providing a rigorous process for its collection, storage, and recycling,” Standards Australia’s CEO, Colin Blair, said in a statement.

Senator Don Farrell, federal parliamentary secretary for sustainability and urban water, said the standard complements the Australian government’sNational Television and Computer Recycling Scheme, which provide free pick-up of computers, hard drives, keyboards, printers and televisions to households and businesses.

“Householders and businesses can drop off unwanted e-waste products confident that the valuable materials they contain will be recovered, and that any hazardous materials will not enter the environment,” Farrell said.

http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/waste/ewaste/

Chubby Checker sues HP over penis app

Rock’n’roll singer Chubby Checker is suing HP over an app that used his name as a euphemism for penis size.

The Chubby Checker app – which appeared on websites for Palm OS devices – claimed to guess the intimate measurement based on shoe size.

Lawyers acting for the singer are seeking $500m (£323m) in compensation, saying the app has done “irreparable damage” to his reputation.

HP said it removed the app as soon as it received a complaint from lawyers.

“He’s hurt,” his lawyer Willie Gary told Associated Press.
“He worked hard to build his name and reputation over the years.
“We cannot sit idly and watch as technology giants, or anyone else, exploits the name or likeness of an innocent person with the goal of making millions of dollars.”

SHAYNE’S SHOWNOTES

Microsoft quietly raises prices of Mac Office by up to 17%

Microsoft has quietly raised prices of Office for the Mac as much as 17% and stopped selling multi-license packages of the application suite.

The move puts Office for Mac 2011 on the same pricing schedule as the new Office 2013 for Windows. The price increases and the disappearance of the multi-license bundles also makes Microsoft’s Office 365, a software-by-subscription deal the company has aggressively pushed, more competitive with traditional “perpetual” licenses.

It’s not clear when Microsoft raised prices. The oldest search engine cache Computerworld found with the new prices was Feb. 2, so the company boosted them before then, likely on Jan. 29, the day it launched Office 2013 and Office 365 Home Premium. Microsoft did not mention the changes to Office for Mac in its press releases that day, or otherwise publicize the move on its Mac-specific website.

The single-license Office for Mac Home & Student now costs $140, a 17% increase from the previous price of $120. Office for Mac Home & Business, an edition that adds the Outlook email client to Home & Student’s Excel, PowerPoint and Word, runs $220, or 10% higher than the older $200 price.
The new prices are identical to those of Office 2013 for Windows, as are the percentage increases.
Microsoft has also disposed of the multi-license editions it once sold: A three-license package of Home & Student that cost $150, and a two-license bundle of Home & Business priced at $250. To buy three licenses of Home & Student would now cost a customer $420, a 180% increase, while two licenses of Home & Business would run $440, or 76% more than the missing multi-license bundle.

Posterous Will Shut Down On April 30th, Co-Founder Garry Tan Launches Posthaven To Save Your Sites

http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/15/posterous-will-shut-down-on-april-30th-co-founder-garry-tan-launches-posthaven-to-save-your-sites/

It was just a matter of time before Twitter shut the blogging platform Posterous down, afteracquiring the company last March. The team had already been folded into the flock, but this means that nobody has to worry about pesky service interruptions of keeping the service’s diminishing number of users happy. The site will be shutting down on April 30th, but it’s not a completely sad story.

ERIK’S SHOWNOTES

Last published by Erik Franco on 02/21/2013 in All Company
iPhone 5 and 4S Top Samsung Galaxy S III in Worldwide Smartphone Shipments in 4Q 2012
Wednesday February 20, 2013 6:30 am PST by Ben Lovejoy
Back in November, research firm Strategy Analytics estimated that Samsung’s Galaxy S III had topped the list of worldwide smartphone shipments for the third quarter of 2012, taking advantage of a lull in iPhone 4S sales ahead of the iPhone 5 launch to claim the crown.

Unsurprisingly, the firm’s latest figures published today find that Apple easily reclaimed the title for the fourth quarter of the year with the iPhone 5 seeing shipments of 27.4 million units for 12.6% of the market.

Hackers take a bite out of Apple

Cyberattacks a ‘substantial’ concern
RAW VISION: The Obama administration says the US will continue to strengthen its defenses and discuss cyber theft with top Chinese officials following a security report that blamed China’s military for recent cyberattacks on key industries.

Apple says it has been hit by hackers who wormed their way into the California company’s system but failed to steal any data.

Apple has more on its hands than the attack on itself.

Hackers infected the Macintosh computers of some employees, the company said in an unprecedented disclosure that described the widest known cyber attacks against Apple-made computers to date.


“We identified a small number of systems within Apple that were infected” … Apple. Photo: AFP


Unknown hackers infected the computers of some Apple workers when they visited a website for software developers that had been infected with malicious software.

Episode 329 – Aussie Tech Heads Shownotes