Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts

Dell’s largest investor opposes buyout as too low






(Reuters) – Dell Inc’s largest independent shareholder Southeastern Asset Management said it plans to oppose the buyout of the personal computer maker, setting up a battle for founder Michael Dell who is leading the effort to operate the company away from public scrutiny.


Southeastern sent a letter to Dell’s board expressing its “extreme disappointment” in the offer price of $ 13.65 a share, it said in a regulatory filing.






It said it “currently intends to avail itself of all options at its disposal to oppose proposed transaction.”


Reuters had reported earlier that the Southeastern was unhappy with the offer.


The Memphis, Tennessee-based fund, which owns a 8.5 percent stake in Dell, said it values the entire company at about $ 24.00 per share.


The fund said it believes Dell board had several alternatives that would have produced far better outcome for public shareholders, including breaking up the company and selling the unit separately.


“Selling multiple business units to strategic buyers could easily exceed $ 13.65 per share,” it said.


A representative of Silver Lake declined to comment.


With Southeastern’s objections, shareholders representing 11 percent of the Dell shares not held by Michael Dell have now said they will vote against the deal.


Under the buyout’s terms, a majority of shares not held by Michael Dell must be voted in favor of the deal for it to proceed.


(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)


Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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TSX ends lower as ECB comments weigh; BlackBerry up






TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada‘s main stock index closed slightly lower on Thursday as a wave of negative sentiment after the European Central Bank warned about weak euro zone economies pulled down energy and financial shares, offsetting a rise in BlackBerry .


The Toronto Stock Exchange‘s S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> unofficially ended down 5.67 points, or 0.04 percent, at 12,755.92. Four of the 10 main sectors on the index were in the red.</.gsptse>






(Reporting by John Tilak)


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Exclusive: Microsoft and Symantec disrupt cyber crime ring






BOSTON (Reuters) – Software makers Microsoft Corp and Symantec Corp said they disrupted a global cyber crime operation by shutting down servers that controlled hundreds of thousands of PCs without the knowledge of their users.


The move made it temporarily impossible for infected PCs around the world to search the web, though the companies offered free tools to clean machines through messages that were automatically pushed out to infected computers.






Technicians working on behalf of both companies raided data centers in Weehawken, New Jersey, and Manassas, Virginia, on Wednesday, accompanied by U.S. federal marshals, under an order issued by the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.


They seized control of one server at the New Jersey facility and persuaded the operators of the Virginia data center to take down a server at their parent company in the Netherlands, according to Richard Boscovich, associate general counsel with Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit.


Boscovich told Reuters that he had “a high degree of confidence” that the operation had succeeded in bringing down the cyber crime operation, known as the Bamital botnet.


“We think we got everything, but time will tell,” he said.


The servers that were pulled off line on Wednesday had been used to communicate with what Microsoft and Symantec estimate are between 300,000 and 600,000 PCs currently infected with malicious software that enslaved them into the botnet.


The companies said that the Bamital operation hijacked search results and engaged in other schemes that the companies said fraudulently charge businesses for online advertisement clicks.


Bamital’s organizers also had the ability to take control of infected PCs, installing other types of computer viruses that could engage in identity theft, recruit PCs into networks that attack websites and conduct other types of computer crimes.


Now that the servers have been shut down, users of infected PCs will be directed to a site informing them that their machines are infected with malicious software when they attempt to search the web.


Microsoft and Symantec are offering them free tools to fix their PCs and restore access to web searches via messages automatically pushed out to victims.


The messages warn: “You have reached this website because your computer is very likely to be infected by malware that redirects the results of your search queries. You will receive this notification until you remove the malware from your computer.”


It was the sixth time that Microsoft has obtained a court order to disrupt a botnet since 2010. Previous operations have targeted bigger botnets, but this is the first where infected users have received warnings and free tools to clean up their machines.


Microsoft runs a Digital Crimes Unit out of its Redmond, Washington, headquarters that is staffed by 11 attorneys, investigators and other staff who work to help law enforcement fight financial crimes and exploitation of children over the web.


Symantec approached Microsoft about a year ago, asking the maker of Windows software to collaborate in trying to take down the Bamital operation. Last week they sought a court order to seize the Bamital servers.


The two companies said they conservatively estimate that the Bamital botnet generated at least $ 1 million a year in profits for the organizers of the operation. They said they will learn more about the size of the operation after they analyze information from infected machines that check in to the domains once controlled by Bamital’s servers.


Their complaint identified 18 “John Doe” ringleaders, scattered from Russia and Romania to Britain, the United States and Australia, who registered websites and rented servers used in the operation under fictitious names. The complaint was filed last week with a federal court in Alexandria and unsealed on Wednesday.


The complaint alleges that the ringleaders made money through a scheme known as “click fraud” in which criminals get cash from advertisers who pay websites commissions when their users click on ads.


Bamital redirected search results from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing search engines to sites with which the authors of the botnet have financial relationships, according to the complaint.


The complaint also charges that Bamital’s operators profited by forcing infected computers to generate large quantities of automated ad clicks without the knowledge of PC users.


Boscovich said he believes the botnet originated in Russia or Ukraine because affiliated sites install a small text file known as a cookie that is written in Russian on infected computers.


The cookie file contains the Russian phrase “yatutuzebil,” according to the court filing. That can loosely be translated as “I was here,” he said.


(Reporting By Jim Finkle; Editing by Claudia Parsons)


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BlackBerry eyes future beyond its new line of devices






TORONTO (Reuters) – Barely a week after launching an all-new, make-or-break line of smartphones, BlackBerry is already looking at a future in which it is a leader in “mobile computing,” Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said on Tuesday.


Heins said BlackBerry is aiming to reclaim its spot as an innovator in a world where smartphones already have the processing power to replace tablets and laptops.






The company, which changed its name from Research In Motion when it launched its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones a week ago, pioneered on-the-go email before losing ground to nimbler rivals with faster devices. It is now out to explore new territory.


“This isn’t just about smartphones and tablets,” Heins, who took over as CEO just over a year ago, said in an interview soon after the launch of the BlackBerry 10 devices.


“The architecture we have built is true mobile computing architecture. It’s not a downgraded PC operating system. It is a whole new innovation built from scratch. It’s built for mobile.”


While speaking at the Empire Club of Canada on Tuesday, Heins reiterated his message: “BlackBerry 10 is not just a device. It is a whole new mobile computing platform,” he said.


Despite a number of glowing reviews for the BB10 and reports of strong initial sales, however, some analysts and technology pundits are skeptical about BlackBerry’s chances of mounting a comeback, doubting its ability to sell either enough smartphones or manage to transform the way people work.


“The Street cares about how many units of these (devices) they’re going to sell and that is the balancing act,” said John Jackson, an industry analyst at consulting firm IDC.


Jackson said he can see a future in which the BlackBerry 10 operating system will allow users to control a vast array of devices, but added: “They need to sell devices to keep the lights on while they transform themselves into a next-generation computing platform.”


BlackBerry’s marketing head, Frank Boulben, said the company is moving quickly enough to do just that.


“The vision is going to start to materialize this year,” he said. “You will be able to plug the (Z10) device into a docking station at the office and then all you need is a keyboard, a mouse and a screen. Combined with cloud services this would mean you don’t need a laptop or a desktop.”


BlackBerry last week unveiled two versions of devices that run on the BB10 OS, a touchscreen smartphone dubbed Z10 and one with a physical keyboard called the Q10, betting they will help it win back some of the market share it has bled to the likes of Apple and Samsung Electronics.


IT’S ABOUT THE PLATFORM


On launch day, Heins spent the first 20 minutes of the event talking about the BlackBerry 10 platform, rather than about the new smartphone models themselves.


“Over the short term, yes, we have to be successful with the devices, we have got to win back the enterprises, we’ve got win back consumers,” he said. “But in the longer term, we have to understand where this company is going.”


Initial checks from analysts point to strong sales for the Z10 in its early launch countries of Canada and Britain. The Q10 device will not be on sale until April.


“We spoke to a range of U.K. vendors over the weekend who indicated BlackBerry’s Z10 sales were strong,” Barclays analyst Jeff Kvaal said in a note. “Some store locations were completely sold out of the Z10 device, while others had limited stock.”


Two of Canada’s largest wireless carriers, Rogers and Bell, say demand for the new devices is strong. Rogers said pre-orders for the Z10 device are already in the thousands, while Bell said customer pre-registration numbers for the new smartphone are unprecedented for a new BlackBerry device.


Analyst upgrades, coupled with the Z10 sales reports, have sparked a surge in BlackBerry’s shares this week. The stock is up more than 24 percent from Friday’s close of $ 13.03 on the Nasdaq.


The stock, which remains some 90 percent below its 2008 peak, fell more than 20 percent in the two days following the BlackBerry launch, partly on disappointment that the new devices will not hit the crucial U.S. market until next month.


ALL OPTIONS OPEN


At the launch, BlackBerry did not address its so far unsuccessful foray into the tablet market, but Heins said the company remains committed to this segment.


“I’m not getting out of the tablet business, I’ve asked my teams to build another one, but I need to make money from it. If the hardware doesn’t provide the margins I need, then it makes no sense in doing it,” he said.


BlackBerry’s PlayBook tablets debuted in 2011, but never gained traction against Apple’s iPad and other devices. The company was forced to write down the value of the devices and it has since sold them at sharply reduced prices.


Heins said BlackBerry will remain focused on expanding its business in mobile computing over the next two to four years.


BlackBerry’s QNX operating system, which forms the basis of its new BlackBerry 10 OS, already runs cars, nuclear reactors and manufacturing plants, and Heins said this opens new vistas for the company, although he gave no clear description of what they are.


“What we need to decide is where do we play? It could be a software play, a licensing play, an end-to-end horizontal play, we’ll figure that out,” he said. “In five years, yes we might still be in hardware, but we may not be in hardware … I’m not ruling anything out.”


“Mobile computing is not going to be decided in the next quarter … We have got to figure out as an industry how we get there. All I know is that I want us to be a leader there.”


(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Janet Guttsman; and Peter Galloway)


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Second-generation iPad mini could pack a display with 324 pixels per inch







Apple (AAPL) may be about to make up for delivering a disappointingly low resolution for its first-generation iPad mini display. BrightWire reports that supply chain sources have told Chinese website My Drivers that the next-generation iPad mini will indeed feature a 7.9-inch Retina display with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, or 324 pixels per inch. For comparison, consider that the original iPad mini delivered a resolution of just 163 pixels per inch, less than both the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle Fire HD and the Google (GOOG) Nexus 7, which both featured displays with resolutions of 216 pixels per inch. BrightWire’s report also backs up earlier rumors we’ve heard about Apple choosing AU Optronics to make an HD Retina display for its next-generation iPad mini.


[More from BGR: iOS 6.1 untethered jailbreak now available for download, compatible with iPhone 5 and iPad mini]






This article was originally published on BGR.com


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BlackBerry searching high and low in India, Indonesia






NEW DELHI/JAKARTA (Reuters) – Research in Motion Ltd must chart a tough course in its two key emerging markets of India and Indonesia: quickly launch cheaper handsets to woo lower-end subscribers while restoring its tattered brand among the countries’ status-conscious.


The company, which is rebranding itself BlackBerry after its best-known smartphone, has won millions of followers in these two Asian countries, mostly by selling cheaper handsets and offering service packages as low as $ 2 a month. So it’s unlikely that the Z10 model introduced last week, which operators in India expect to sell for around $ 750, will appeal to the users it must reach if it is to build market share.






“It’s clear that not only are India and Indonesia among the largest markets but in terms of future smartphone growth, they’re amongst the ones with the most potential,” said Melissa Chau, senior research manager at technology research group IDC in Singapore. “But the two devices that have been launched are not well aligned to the needs of these two markets.”


While the company does not break down its sales by country, data from IDC shows that Indonesia was BlackBerry’s biggest market outside the United States and Britain last year, while India was ninth.


ABI Research said that BlackBerry accounted for nearly half of Indonesia’s smartphone shipments in 2012. Compare this with a global share of just 5.3 percent. In India, the world’s second-largest mobile phone market, BlackBerry ranks third after Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Nokia.


In both countries, young people are drawn by low-cost handsets allowing them to communicate for free on the BlackBerry Messaging Service (BBM). Almost all carriers offer services for the device. Indonesia’s XL Axiata Tbk PT, for example, saw a 45 percent jump in BlackBerry subscribers last financial year after offering packages for as little as 20 cents per day.


But this picture is changing rapidly.


The rise of messaging services such as WhatsApp that are not confined to any single operating system and the proliferation of cheap Android devices have diluted the BlackBerry’s appeal.


Mickey Nayoan, a 32-year old product designer in Jakarta, swapped his BlackBerry for a Samsung phone six months ago and isn’t missing it.


“I survived without BlackBerry because there’s WhatsApp,” he said. “More and more people use it and so I don’t need BBM anymore.”


At the same time, higher-end users have deserted what is increasingly seen as a low-end brand.


“When they came up with the cheaper versions, that took the allure off the brand for many Indonesians who are very status-conscious,” said Ong Hock Chuan, a Jakarta-based communications consultant.


ANDROID MAKES INROADS


While BlackBerry remained the number one smartphone brand in Indonesia in the second quarter of last year, the most recent period for which rankings were available, Android overtook it as the most popular operating system, according to IDC.


IDC said when it released the data last September that this was partly because of delays in the launch of the BlackBerry 10. The Z10 is likely to launch in the second half of February in India and in late March in Indonesia.


Data from StatCounter, a website which estimates mobile web traffic, shows BlackBerry’s share in Indonesia falling from about 20 percent in 2011 to about 5 percent last year.


On the other hand, carriers and users say, glitches with BlackBerry services and a perception that the brand has lost some of its luster mean that it will be hard to sell the Z10 and a keyboard model, the Q10, even to better-off users.


“It really depends on how BlackBerry 10 performs. If it can fix problems of previous BlackBerry (services) it could succeed in the market,” said Hasnul Suhaimi, CEO of Indonesia’s XL Axiata. But for now, he said, “it will just be about people swapping out existing devices.”


To reverse this, BlackBerry must announce cheaper devices quickly, analysts say. BlackBerry launched handsets designed on its old platform for just such users in India and Indonesia last year.


“The Z10… is obviously a high-end product and India is not a market at that price point,” said Anshul Gupta, an industry analyst at technology advisory firm Gartner in Mumbai. “We don’t know exactly what will be coming here, but I would expect them to launch different models in India which would give them more traction.”


(Additional reporting by Henry Foy in Mumbai and Jeremy Wagstaff in Singapore; Writing by Jeremy Wagstaff; Editing by Emily Kaiser)


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The Next PlayStation: 5 Lessons I Hope Sony’s Learned






From wishful thinking to shockingly sudden all-but-certainty, Sony‘s next game system may be here at last (I’ll try to avoid calling it things Sony hasn’t, like “PlayStation 4″ or “Orbis”), apparently head-faking Microsoft to debut earlier than expected at what’ll no doubt be a media circus in New York (and online) come Feb. 20.


The event invite cleared my inbox last night accompanied by, well, see for yourself in Sony’s slick dubstep tease above. Sony labeled the event “PlayStation Meeting,” which is sort of like calling E3 “L.A. Occurrence,” but, well, marketing.






(MORE: How to Watch the Super Bowl Live Online)


At this point, your guess would have been as good as mine: probably the next PlayThing, because what else is Sony going to hype for three weeks and drag folks to from all corners of the earth? Still, I could have flown around the room on a broomstick: a PlayStation VitaPad, a PlayStation Phone (pPhone!), or heck, even Sony’s answer to Google‘s Project Glass (Sony GlassStation!).


But no, the Wall Street Journal went and spoiled the fun by claiming that, yes indeed, Sony’s going to give us a peek at its next games console and ship the thing later this year, probably around the holidays. I consider that slightly more plausible than hearsay since it’s the Journal, but bear in mind it’s still a claim based on unidentified sources (the Journal pulls the phrase “people familiar with the matter” off the shelf at least four times).


No surprise, the story’s taken off like a guy air-riding a horse, prompting a bunch of people to throw odd notions at the wall based on even sketchier sourcing. Instead of regaling you with tales of mystical multi-core processors pulling contextually meaningless speeds, why don’t we look back at some of the things I suspect we’d all agree Sony needs to do better the next time around.


Don’t launch at $ 500-$ 600. I still can’t imagine what Sony was thinking in 2006 (well, beyond “we can barely afford to build this franken-thing!”). Yes, everyone loved the PlayStation 2, and no, not enough to spend that kind of money on the PlayStation 3. No, I don’t know what the company ought to sell a new game console for, but I’ll refer you down the aisle to the Wii U: currently struggling at $ 300-$ 350. If Sony launches higher (and doesn’t include something like a free iPad), especially in a weak economy, it may find it’s looking for dance partners all over again.


(MORE: Are Weak Wii U Sales a Bellwether of Shifting Game Demographics?)


The new PlayStation Network (or whatever Sony rebrands it) needs to be seamless. None of this irritating “synchronizing trophies” business, waiting ages for features like background downloads or “cross-voice game chat is really coming!” except it’s really not. Also, while my lizard brain still sort of responds to the nerdy elegance of the PlayStation 3′s XrossMediaBar, after all these years there’s just something warmer and friendlier about Xbox LIVE. I have a roughly equal number of friends in both ecosystems, so it’s not that; I’ve just come to prefer navigating TV environments that feel a little less clinical. (The Journal says Sony’s new system is more social media-driven, so unless Sony’s launching a standalone answer to Facebook, I expect we’ll see the interface sporting newfangled riffs on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram/Google+/etc. integration.)


Resist the urge to go all three-ring-circus on us. Sitting through Sony/Microsoft pressers sometimes feels like watching Tim Robinson and Will Ferrell squeeze bottles of Cookie Dough Sport over their heads. Spare us the strobe lights and sizzle reels and maybe just level with us like we’re adults and not a bunch of Red Bull-amped teenage boys at a Lady Gaga concert.


Don’t make it all about the graphics. I mean sure, we all like pretty games, but 5x, 10x, 100x the PS3′s oomph…it’s now all kind of abstract and pointless given how sophisticated games already look today. I want to know what those extra cycles are going to do for me gameplay-wise, and I don’t mean visually, e.g. better “god-rays” or “subsurface scattering” or a gazillion bendable blades of grass. Can this thing sustain an artificially intelligent being that’d pass a Turing Test? And can you work that into a game that’s actually fun to play?


Don’t be the last kid to the party. Hello, stuff like Grand Theft Auto IV and Skyrim DLC. Microsoft scored coup after coup this round in terms of timed exclusive or outright exclusive content. And yes, I’m sure it cost the company a pretty penny, but gamers are going to go where the games they want to play live. If their sense is that’s not Sony, well, it’s not rocket science. And some of the dropped balls this round were doozies: Skyrim‘s one of the bestselling games of all time and it’s been out since November 2011. Bethesda just announced today that PS3 users can finally get their hands on the downloadable content in a few weeks, whereas Xbox 360 users have had at it for months.


MORE: 3 Things That Still Worry Me About BlackBerry


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Apple edges out Samsung for mobile phone sales lead in fourth quarter






SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc became the top mobile phone seller for the first time in the lucrative U.S. market during the fourth quarter of 2012, outshining arch rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, a report by Strategy Analytics showed.


Apple‘s share of the U.S. mobile phone market, including feature phones and smartphones, jumped to 34 percent from 26 percent, while Samsung’s share grew to 32.3 percent from 31.8 percent, the research firm said.






Samsung had been the top mobile phone vendor in the US since 2008, the firm said. Indeed, for the full year, Samsung still held the crown for mobile phone sales; it had a 31.8 percent share of the U.S. market in 2012, against Apple’s 26.2 percent.


Apple investors have recently been anxious about the future growth prospects for the company amid intense competition from Samsung’s cheaper phones, powered by Google’s Android software, and signs the premium smartphone market may be close to saturation in developed markets.


Overall, mobile phone shipments rose 4 percent to 52 million units in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 2012, driven by strong demand for 4G smartphones and 3G feature phones.


But in all of 2012, U.S. mobile phone shipments fell 11 percent to 166.9 million, Strategy Analytics said.


Apple sold 17.7 million iPhones in the U.S. in the fourth quarter, up 38 percent from the previous year, driven by aggressive marketing of its new iPhone 5 and steep carrier subsidies, the firm said. Samsung shipped 16.8 million phones during the same period.


In the international arena, Samsung Electronics, with a range of handsets, has overtaken Apple as the world’s top smartphone seller.


(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Bernadette Baum)


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OpenStack at Linux.conf.au 2013






I’m writing this blog post from Canberra Australia, while attending the Linux.conf.au (LCA) open source conference. Among the people who do these sorts of things, LCA has a well deserved reputation as one of the very best open source conferences in the world.


Geeks from across Australia and New Zealand, and from across the rest of the world, come together for a week in January (summer in this part of the world) to talk about everything from the intricate technical details of Linux kernel design to pushing the state of the art in file systems and issues deploying practical wireless cryptography. Softer but equally important topics such as Open Government, gender balance in technology, and international legal issues are also discussed. Read more about OpenStack at Linux.conf.au 2013 »






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TSX closes lower as RIM, Fed decision weigh






TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada’s main stock index closed lower on Wednesday, hurt by a fall in Research In Motion Ltd after it released its long-awaited BlackBerry 10 devices, and broad market weakness after the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to leave its stimulus program intact.


The Toronto Stock Exchange‘s S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> closed 36.12 points, or 0.28 percent, lower at 12,794.44. Nine of the 10 main sectors on the index declined.</.gsptse>






(Reporting by John Tilak; Editing by Peter Galloway)


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Survey shows strong consumer interest in BlackBerry 10, but few are willing to buy just yet






The good news for RIM (RIMM): Lots of people are interested in checking out its upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform. The bad news: Few are willing to commit to buying a BlackBerry 10 device at the moment. According to a new online survey of more than 1,100 Americans commissioned by mobile application specialist BiTE interactive and conducted by reputable pollster YouGov, 47% of Americans find “at least one of BlackBerry’s new features appealing,” although only around 13% say they’ll consider buying a BlackBerry 10 device.


[More from BGR: Apple’s 128GB iPad shows the world exactly what Apple does best]






[More from BGR: Apple unveils new 128GB iPad]


The survey found that the new Time Shift Camera, which lets users rapid-shoot multiple pictures of the same subject and then choose the best one from the bunch, was the most popular new BlackBerry feature, followed by BlackBerry 10′s new predictive keyboard. But as BiTE operations executive vice president Joseph Farrell notes, there’s a big difference between interest in new features and a commitment to spend money acquiring them. Farrell also thinks that RIM will still struggle to be relevant as long as app developers neglect BlackBerry in favor of iOS and Android.


RIM’s much anticipated BB10 launch is a major, and much needed overhaul for the one-time smartphone leader and all indications are that it has, at very least succeeded in convincing Americans to give BlackBerry a second look,” he says. “However, it is clear that while all the new features can catch the interest of Android and iOS owners, the key chink in RIM’s armor remains its apps ecosystem. RIM has made great efforts to catch up with iOS and Android in this regard, but it, like Microsoft, is likely to find this far easier said than done.”


BiTE’s full press release is posted below.



BlackBerry 10 Captures Attention of One in Two Americans


But only one in eight will actually consider buying a BB10 device


Los Angeles, January 29, 2013 – Ahead of the launch of Research in Motion’s long-anticipated BlackBerry 10 operating system and two new smartphones this week, nearly one in two Americans online (47 percent) finds at least one of BlackBerry’s new features appealing.


Despite interest in the new features only one in eight Americans (13 percent) will consider buying a BB10 device, and only one in 100 plans to get one immediately. The findings are according to a report from BiTE interactive, the native mobile application specialist for Fortune 1000 brands, which commissioned YouGov to poll the views of a representative sample of 1,127 American adults online.


Time Shift Camera wins most American hearts, especially with Android owners


RIM’s Time Shift Camera is the most compelling new BB10 feature for 16 percent of Americans. The Time Shift Camera takes multiple shots of a subject in a single picture and lets you choose the best composite image. 46 percent more women than men identify it as the most attractive new feature of BB10, while it is most appealing for one in five (21 percent) 18-34 year olds. The same age group is also the most likely to find one of the BlackBerry 10’s features appealing (66 percent). RIM’s new predictive keyboard feature is the most compelling new feature for only six percent of Americans while only one in 100 picked the new ‘flow’ interface.


The new BB10 features appeal to more Android (65 percent) than iPhone owners (56 percent).


“RIM’s much anticipated BB10 launch is a major, and much needed overhaul for the one-time smartphone leader and all indications are that it has, at very least succeeded in convincing Americans to give BlackBerry a second look,” said Joseph Farrell, EVP Operations, BiTE interactive. “However, it is clear that while all the new features can catch the interest of Android and iOS owners, the key chink in RIM’s armor remains its apps ecosystem. RIM has made great efforts to catch up with iOS and Android in this regard, but it, like Microsoft, is likely to find this far easier said than done. A lot of eyes will be on the new BlackBerry World from day one, as its success is pivotal to that of the BB10 devices as viable mainstream consumer handsets.”


iPhone owners least likely to jump to BlackBerry


According to BiTE interactive’s report, iPhone owners are the least likely to buy into BB10. Only around one in 10 (11 percent) have any interest in owning one of RIM’s new phones compared with around one in five (21 percent) Android owners. Overall, almost one in two (44 percent) Americans definitely will not get a BB10 device while a further one in four (27 percent) say they will likely not get one.


Joseph Farrell added, “RIM’s challenge is compounded by the fact that Google and Apple have already built up huge mobile user bases who, for the most part, have invested lots of time and money learning and using their platform of choice. To switch to any new platform, even between the two, means a new investment of time and resources that many do not wish to spend, let alone taking a perceived risk on the new BB10 platform, no matter how impressive some of the new technology is.”


Research methodology


BiTE interactive commissioned YouGov to poll the views of a representative sample of 1,127 US adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between January 23-25, 2013. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all US adults (aged 18+).



This article was originally published on BGR.com


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TSX little changed, RIM positioning offsets banks






TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada‘s main stock index finished little changed on Monday, as gains in the financial group were partially offset by Research In Motion Ltd shares, which sagged ahead of its critical BlackBerry 10 launch this week.


The Toronto Stock Exchange‘s S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> was down 0.72 of a point at 12,815.91. Half of the index’s 10 key sectors climbed higher.</.gsptse>






(Reporting by Solarina Ho)


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Twitter launches advertising services in Middle East






DUBAI (Reuters) – Twitter Inc launched advertising services in the Middle East and North Africa on Sunday as the social media firm seeks to exploit a tripling of its regional subscriber base following its widespread use during the Arab Spring protests.


Digital advertising is relatively undeveloped in the region, accounting for an estimated 4 percent of its total advertising spending, but a young, tech-savvy population and rising Internet penetration points to significant potential for growth.






“The two are interconnected – the rapid growth of our user base with the timing of why we want to help brands connect with that audience,” said Shailesh Rao, Twitter vice-president for international operations.


Twitter does not provide a regional breakdown of its more than 200 million users worldwide, but Rao said its MENA subscriber base had tripled in the past 12 months.


The company has recruited Egypt’s Connect Ads, which is ultimately owned by Cairo-listed Orascom Telecom Media and Technology, to launch advertising initially in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.


Pepsi and Saudi telecom operator Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) are among its confirmed clients, the company said.


Twitter says the products it promotes typically have an audience response rate of 1 to 3 percent, significantly higher than traditional advertising rate of 0.1 to 0.5 percent.


“Social media advertising is totally different because it relies on what people say. It’s about two-way, not one-way, communication,” said Mohamed El Mehairy, Connect Ads managing director.


(editing by Jane Baird)


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Yandex says new mobile app is blocked by Facebook






MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian internet company Yandex said on Friday its new experimental application to search on social networking sites from mobile devices was blocked by Facebook.


The Wonder app is a recommendation tool for devices using Apple’s iOS software that allows U.S. users of social networks to retrieve information from these sites by voice or by typing questions.






The application was released late on Thursday for users of Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare and Twitter but was blocked by Facebook three hours after the launch, a Yandex spokesman said.


He added that talks between Yandex and Facebook, aimed to establish the reason of the issue and resolve it, were to begin within hours. He gave no reason for the problem.


Facebook was not available for comment.


With the new app, Yandex wants to test the opportunities offered by social networks. If successful, the company will consider offering it to users in Russia and Turkey, he said.


Shares in Yandex, Russia’s most popular search engine, gained 0.8 percent in early trade on Friday.


(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Mike Nesbit)


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Microsoft profit dips on lower Xbox holiday sales






SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp reported a dip in fiscal second-quarter profit on Thursday, as weaker sales of its Xbox game system in the holiday quarter offset a solid start for its new Windows 8 operating system.


The world’s largest software company reported profit of $ 6.4 billion, or 76 cents per share, compared to $ 6.6 billion, or 78 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.






Overall sales rose 3 percent to $ 21.5 billion.


(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Richard Chang)


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Racy Victorian divorces online at genealogy website






LONDON (Reuters) – The original Mrs Robinson’s diary and scandalous suggestions about a former heir to the British throne are all part of the latest ancestral revelations to go online.


British genealogical website Ancestry.co.uk said on Tuesday it has put the transcripts of thousands of Victorian divorce proceedings online, which reveal the racy details of an era that most modern Britons consider to have been dominated by imperial duty, a stiff upper lip and formal familial relations.






The UK Civil Divorce Records, 1858-1911 date from the year when the Matrimonial Causes Act removed the jurisdiction of divorce from the church and made it a civil matter.


Before this, a full divorce required intervention by Parliament, which had only granted around 300 since 1668. The records also include civil court records on separation, custody battles, legitimacy claims and nullification of marriages, according to the website.


Primarily due to their high cost, divorces were relatively rare in the 19th century, with around 1,200 applications made a year, compared to approximately 120,000 each year today, and not all requests were successful due to the strength of evidence required.


The rarity of such cases, combined with the fact that it was wealthy, often well-known nobility involved, made the divorce proceedings huge public scandals, played out in the press as real life soap operas.


Famously high-profile divorces included that of Henry and Isabella Robinson, the inspiration for the novel “Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace”, by Kate Summerscale.


Henry Robinson sued for divorce after reading his wife Isabella’s diary, which included in-depth details of her affair with a younger married man.


The diary was used as court evidence and when reported by the media became a huge scandal, partly because of the language used within the journal. Isabella, however, claimed the diary was a work of fiction, which led to her victory in court.


Conservative MP and baronet, Charles Mordaunt, filed for divorce in 1869 from his wife Harriet who stood accused of adultery with multiple men.


The case became national news when the Prince of Wales was rumored to be among the men who had had an affair with her. This rumor was never proven and Lady Mordaunt was eventually declared mad and spent the rest of her life in an asylum.


“At the time, such tales often developed into national news stories, but now they’re more likely to tell us something about the double standards of the Victorian divorce system or help us learn more about the lives of our sometimes naughty ancestors,” Ancestry.co.uk UK Content Manager Miriam Silverman said in a statement on Tuesday.


When the divorce laws first came into effect, men could divorce for adultery alone, while women had to supplement evidence of cheating with solid proof of mistreatment, such as battery or desertion.


Despite this double standard, roughly half of the records are accounts of proceedings initiated by the wife. Many of the nullifications of marriages fall into this category, with failure to consummate the nuptials a common reason.


One such example in the records shows a Frances Smith filing for divorce in 1893 under such grounds.


In the court ledgers it is noted that the marriage was never consummated, with the husband incapable “by reason of the frigidity and impotency or other defect of the parts of generation” and “such incapacity is incurable by art or skill” following inspection.


(Reporting by Paul Casciato; editing by Patricia Reaney)


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BlackBerry Z10 Looks Like iPhone 5, Takes on Siri






RIM is set to announce the first devices running its new BlackBerry 10 operating system at an event on January 30. A lucky few, however, have already gotten their hands on what looks to be the new hardware, including German site TelekomPresse.


[More from Mashable: Watch These iPhone Knockoffs Get Bulldozed]






The site has the BlackBerry Z10, a touchscreen device with a similar look to some of the other popular smartphones out there — especially the iPhone 5.


Curious to see how the two compared, they put them side-by-side in the video above, running through both the physical design of both devices as well as some of their features.


[More from Mashable: RIM May License BlackBerry 10 to Other Manufacturers]


Notably, the video shows a Siri-like voice control functionality in BlackBerry 10, that we haven’t seen previously. As you can see in the test above, it beats Siri for speed.


SEE ALSO: RIM Adds 15,000 BlackBerry 10 Apps in a Weekend


While similar at first glance, design-wise the two phones do have some differences. The Z10 has a 4.2-inch screen, slightly larger than the iPhone 5’s 4-inch display. Both phones have a power button on top, however, the button on the BlackBerry is in the center of the top of the phone, while the iPhone’s is on the right on the device.


The volume controls are on the right side of the Z10, and left side of the iPhone 5. When it comes to power, the connection for the iPhone 5 is on the bottom of the device with the headphone jack, while the HDMI and USB connections on the Z10 are located on the left.


Check out the video above for a look at the full comparison of the two devices. Are you looking forward to BlackBerry 10? Can the new OS save RIM? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.


BlackBerry 10 Lock Screen


You unlock a BlackBerry 10 device by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.


Click here to view this gallery.


This story originally published on Mashable here.


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Putin orders Russian computers to be protected after spy attacks






MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian authorities to protect state computers from hacking attacks, the Kremlin said on Monday, after an Internet security firm said a spy network had infiltrated government and embassy computers across the former Soviet bloc.


Dubbed Red October, the network used phishing attacks – or unsolicited emails to intended targets – to infect the computers of embassies and other state institutions with a program designed to harvest intelligence and send it back to a server.






Putin signed a decree on January 15 empowering the Federal Security Service (FSB) to “create a state system for the detection, prevention and liquidation of the effects of computer attacks on the information resources of the Russian Federation”.


State computer and telecommunications networks protected by the cyber security system should include those inside Russia and at its embassies and consulates abroad, according to the decree, which was published on a Kremlin website on Monday.


The Russian Internet security firm Kaspersky Labs said last week that the computer espionage network, discovered last October, had been seeking intelligence from Eastern European and ex-Soviet states including Russia since 2007. (http://r.reuters.com/mag45t )


Many of the systems infected belonged to diplomatic missions, Vitaly Kamluk, an expert in computer viruses at Kaspersky Labs, said last week. He declined to name specific countries.


Kamluk said last week that the network was still active, and that law enforcement agencies in several European countries were investigating it.


Kaspersky Labs said the infiltrators had created more than 60 domain names, mostly in Russia and Germany, that worked as proxies to hide the location of their real server.


The FSB declined immediate comment last week when asked whether Russia had taken action to bring any suspected members of the espionage network to justice, or acted to improve Internet security in light of the discovery.


The FSB – the main successor agency of the Soviet KGB – requested a written query, to which it has not yet responded. The Kremlin declined immediate comment on Monday when asked whether Putin’s decree was linked to Red October.


(Reporting by Steve Gutterman and Thomas Grove; Editing by Kevin Liffey)


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Notre Dame football star says he was not in on hoax – ESPN






(Reuters) – Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o has denied ever being in on an elaborate hoax, telling ESPN he had believed his relationship with a woman who turned out to be an online fabrication was real.


The tragic story of his girlfriend and her injuries from a car accident and death from leukemia was one of the most widely recounted U.S. sports stories last year as Notre Dame made a drive toward the national championship game.






“I wasn’t faking it,” Te’o told ESPN in an off-camera interview on Friday, excerpts of which were posted on ESPN.com. “I wasn’t part of this.”


When asked whether he had made up the tale to support his chances of winning the Heisman Trophy, the highest individual honor for a college football player, Te’o replied: “Well, when they hear the facts they’ll know. They’ll know that there is no way that I could be part of this.”


The interview was Te’o's first since the sports blog Deadspin.com on Wednesday exposed the heart-wrenching tale of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, and her death as a hoax and that a friend of Te’o's named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was behind it.


Te’o told ESPN that Tuiasosopo called him on Wednesday and admitted he was behind the hoax and it was then Te’o was sure the woman had never existed.


“I don’t wish an ill thing to somebody,” Te’o said of Tuiasosopo, according to ESPN. “I just hope he learns. I think embarrassment is big enough.”


Outside Tuiasosopo’s home in Palmdale, California, on Thursday, a member of his family who did not identify himself told reporters they had no comment.


Te’o acknowledged in a statement on Wednesday that he had never met the woman in person, though he considered her his girlfriend and said he had been duped.


In the ESPN interview, Te’o said he tried to video chat with her several times, but she could never be seen on the other end. He also said he intentionally told people stories about her in a way that would make people believe they had met in person.


“I even knew that it was crazy that I was with somebody that I didn’t meet,” Te’o said.


NATIONAL PROMINENCE


ESPN said the interview was held at a training facility in Florida where Te’o has been preparing for the National Football League draft. The star linebacker was expected to be a high draft pick before the hoax was revealed.


Te’o sprang to national prominence last fall when he led Notre Dame to a victory over Michigan State within days of learning his grandmother and girlfriend had both died. The grandmother’s death was real.


The story grew to become a big feature in coverage of the team, which went undefeated in the regular season and reached the national championship game. Alabama defeated Notre Dame in the title game on January 7.


Notre Dame, one of the most powerful institutions in U.S. collegiate athletics, held a news conference within hours of the Deadspin.com article to say that Te’o had been duped.


Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said on Friday the Indiana university was comfortable, based on a private investigation it launched and on four years experience with Te’o, that he was the victim and encouraged Te’o to speak publicly.


(Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Eric Beech)


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Raspberry Pi creator says sequel unlikely in 2013







Raspberry Pi’s $ 35 Linux-based computer is a runaway success. Creator Eben Upton told ZDNet in a recent interview that his team thought they would sell 1,000 units when they were designing the mini PC, but sales have now topped 700,000. ”We honestly did think we would sell about 1,000, maybe 10,000 in our wildest dreams,” Upton said. “We thought we would make a small number and give them out to people who might want to come and read computer science at Cambridge.” On a slightly disappointing note to those hoping for an upgraded model in 2013, Upton said in the interview that the company has no plans to launch a sequel to the latest Raspberry Pi “Model B” this year.


[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]






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