About
Accounts
Friends
Click here to check if anything new just came in.
April 15 2012
dress road09 520x245 photo
Curious what everyone is up to at Coachella? Check Coachellagram,a very cool collection of Instagram photos from this year’s epic music festival in Indio, California created by the brilliant minds at Fueled, a...
April 14 2012
kickstarter 520x245 photo
Crowdfunding site Kickstarter has allegedly banned transmedia artist Rachel ‘Haywire’ Marone after one of her projects received too much comment spam from what she describes as a ‘cyberstalker’ almost a...
shutterstock 56179150 520x245 photo
For this month’s TNW iPad Magazine, we’ve focused on the sharing economy and the rise of collaborative consumption. Whether you’re sharing your living space on Airbnb, your time on TaskRabbit,...
April 13 2012
Facebook partially supports CISPA, but is talking with “key lawmakers” about changes
While the US government getting involved in Internet affairs is nothing new, it has only been three months since SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) kicked up dust and called attention to some potential threats to our civil liberties.
CISPA, which has been called “the new SOPA” by Demand Progress, is now just starting to rear its ugly head and Facebook has opened up about it:
The company states that “Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR 3523), would make it easier for Facebook and other companies to receive critical threat data from the U.S. government. Importantly, HR 3523 would impose no new obligations on [Facebook] to share data with anyone.”
The problem here is that the new legislation would allow Facebook to share sensitive personal information with the government in the name of protecting cybersecurity. In retort, Facebook stated that it has “no intention of doing this and it is unrelated to the things [Facebook] liked about HR 3523 in the first place.”
In other words, Facebook is basically saying “trust us.” The problem is, online privacy is truly being put at risk with this bill and Facebook is notoriously open about sharing, so it’s not surprising that the company is behind it. Facebook does say, however, that it has been “engaging directly with key lawmakers” about “potential changes to the bill.”
From Facebook:
The overriding goal of any cybersecurity bill should be to protect the security of networks and private data, and we take any concerns about how legislation might negatively impact Internet users’ privacy seriously. As a result, we’ve been engaging directly with key lawmakers as well as industry and consumer groups about potential changes to the bill to help address privacy concerns.
Along with Demand Progress, The Center for Democracy and Technology also has some serious concerns with CISPA. You can read Facebook’s complete message here. For more, check out TNW’s post on what you need to know about CISPA.
April 12 2012
2012 04 12 10h52 23 520x245 photo
The conservative political group American Majority Action (AMA) has spent $1,000,000 on new software that it intends to distribute to local ‘Tea Party’ groups to help them run election efforts on...
james boyle by daniel erkstam 520x245 photo
Duke University Law professor and Creative Commons advocate James Boyle found out that the two most downloaded files on Hotfile are open source softwares, TorrentFreak reports. If he is right, this would...
Photoxpress 92158 520x245 photo
Dutch entrepreneurs Khuram Hussain and Waseem Sadiq are at it again. After co-founding social email service Inbox2 – one of the finalists of the 2010 The Next Web Startup Rally...
Photoxpress 8805548 520x245 photo
Nearly two years ago, German multimedia software company Nero filed an antitrust case against patent licensing body MPEG-LA. This organization basically licenses patent pools, covering essential patents required for use...
2012 04 10 17h58 02 520x245 photo
Connotate today announced that it had completed a $7 million series B round, claiming advancing momentum, and touting its recent acquisition of Fetch Technologies. According to Crunchbase, the company had raised...
cuban 520x245 photo
Entrepreneur, investor and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has invested in social gaming company Mention Mobile a second time, after backing the startup with an initial $250,000 about six months...
Photoxpress 1312251 520x245 photo
‘Marley’, the documentary about legendary reggae artist Bob Marley, directed by Kevin Macdonald, will be available for streaming on Facebook in the United States. Not only that, but the Facebook...
April 11 2012
Screen Shot 2012 04 11 at 8.33.09 AM 494x245 photo
Verizon Wireless has announced plans to start charging customers a $30 upgrade fee, even when they’re already eligible to upgrade under the terms of their contract. This makes Verizon the...
Photoxpress 16279035 1 520x245 photo
As just announced by Bloomberg on Twitter, the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) is proceeding with a lawsuit against Apple and a handful of publishers – including Hachette, HarperCollins,...
Photoxpress 10638343 520x245 photo
Almost a year ago, daily deals site Groupon launched an online ticketing deals marketplace in partnership with Live Nation / Ticketmaster. Dubbed GrouponLive, the joint-venture between the two companies lets...
Leak suggests T-Mobile USA will launch the HTC One S on April 25
The first hint of the arrival of HTC’s new One series of smartphones in the US has emerged, with leaked screenshots from T-Mobile suggesting that the operator will launch the HTC One S as early as April 25, according to Tmonews.
Unfortunately there’s no mention of dates for the One X and the One V, the other devices in the series, at the stage, according to the screenshots that are said to come from the operator’s employee training program. However, HTC is widely expected to bring the three devices to market at some point this month.
The imminent launch of the range, which was unveiled in February at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, comes at a time when HTC has reported a troubling set of weak earnings for the first quarter of 2012.
Amongst the figures, the Taiwanese firm saw net revenue for the three month period decrease 35 percent year-on-year, while net profit plunged by 70 percent.
HTC believes that by concentrating on ‘hero’ phones, it can reverse its decline and intensify competition in the smartphone market again. The One S is very much a key to that and it will be interesting to observe the reaction that its launch receives in the US.
The One range gained glowing praise from The Next Web’s news and mobile editor Matt Brian, who gave them a spin in Barcelona and can’t wait for the full release:
Playing with the devices, it is clear to see that HTC is back to its best, offering sleek, sexy devices that have the necessary power and features to make consumers consider them from their competition.
For those outside of the US, there’s no word on when the three devices might arrive in overseas markets, but we’ll keep you posted with more details as we find them.
Nokia acknowledges Lumia 900 issue, plans software update and $100 discount
Nokia has confirmed an memory management issue that is affecting some Lumia 900 devices and is preparing a software update to fix it. All customers and future customers will receive a $100 discount to cover any possible issues, making the phone free to buy for the next 10 days.
The glitch is said to have left a number of owners of the Windows Phone-based device unable to connect to the Web, according to AllThingsD. As it is related to software, and not hardware, the issue can be fixed by an over-the-air update, which will be available from April 16. Affected customer can also switch their device to a new, unaffected one by visiting an AT&T store.
Software update coming soon to Nokia Lumia 900 addressing memory management.Customers receive automatic $100 credit. ow.ly/ackhM
— Nokia US (@NokiaUS) April 11, 2012
“We’re already manufacturing devices with the new software,” Nokia Inc. President Chris Weber told AllthingsD. “Those are being shipped to AT&T stores.”
The credit is being offer to those who buy a device before April 21 and, given that the cost of the phone is only $100, it essentially means that the phone will be free until then. That discount cleverly turns the tables on the problem, giving consumers more reason to consider a Lumia 900 despite the problem.
“The customer always comes first, and I think we’re showing it here,” Weber said.
Nokia’s addition expense for offering the phone for free comes less than a week after it was revealed that the budget for the US advertising campaign with AT&T is a massive $150 million.
Though the company deserves credit for acknowledging the issue and acting fast to fix and compensate those affected, the issue is somewhat of an embarrassment given the noise it had made around the Windows Phone-based device.
The beginning of the month saw the Finnish firm roll out an campaign that trashed its competitors by drawing attention to their faults, branding other smartphones as ‘beta test phones‘ that are not complete or reliable on release.
Issuing a software update and $100 off discount is something that would arguably fall under beta, we think, but Nokia deserves credit for its response.
DOJ’s ebook pricing case against Apple and 5 other publishers could start tomorrow
Apple and publisher Macmillan are preparing to be sued by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) over alleged ebook price fixing as soon as tomorrow, according to a Bloomberg report that cites sources “familiar with the matter”.
The DoJ is suing Apple and five publishers for allegedly colluding to raise the price of ebooks, as was revealed at the start of last month. According to Bloomberg’s sources, Apple and Macmillan and the four others refute the charges and have resolutely refused to discuss a settlement with the DoJ.
The organisation’s anti-trust division is said to have left the door open for further talks this week, but Bloomberg claims that Penguin is yet another publisher said to be ready to take the matter to court.
The action is being taken over claims that the parties came together to establish an increased standard price for e-books that would be used for titles sold by Apple, Amazon and all other Web-based retailers. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs is reported to have spearheaded the move towards an “agency” based system, which gave Apple a 30 percent share of sales while ensuring that prices remained consistent across the Web.
Further, rather incriminating details of the plan can be found in comments published in Jobs’ biography, written by Walter Isaacson:
We told the publishers, ‘We’ll go to the agency model, where you set the price, and we get our 30 percent, and yes, the customer pays a little more, but that’s what you want anyway.
The move saw Amazon forced to abandon its aggressive price slashing and cooperate in order to retain its suppliers, as Jobs further explains in the biography:
They went to Amazon and said, ‘You’re going to sign an agency contract or we’re not going to give you the books
The publishers are reported to have explained that the switch to agency pricing was designed to introduce “enhanced competition in the industry by allowing more electronic booksellers to thrive.”
Amazon had been criticised by rivals for its former pricing policy, which sometimes saw it sell titles for less than it paid for them, in order to gain customer traction. However, elements of that policy could be retained if, as reported, a compromise of an agency approach with an option to allow some discounts wins support.
April 10 2012
shutterstock 54497056 520x245 photo
It’s clear the Internet is changing our lives, oftentimes faster than we can see. But how is the openness of the Internet shaping our future? How is its innate interconnectedness...
us soldier 520x245 photo
Over the weekend, AT&T began unlocking devices for customers that have completed their contracts, as we reported, but they are now unlocking the Apple phone for a very special type of...
April 09 2012
photo 11 520x245 photo
Why do you Like a brand on Facebook? Why do you tell your friends to download an app? Why do you feel comforted every time you order your favorite cup...
Maybe Soup is currently being updated? I'll try again automatically in a few seconds...
