Apple hat nach dem Sieg im kalifornischen Patentprozess gegen Samsung ein Verkaufsverbot für acht Smartphone-Modelle des südkoreanischen Rivalen beantragt. Darunter sind vier Varianten des Telefons Galaxy S2, wie aus veröffentlichten Gerichtsunterlagen hervorgeht. Es ist für Samsung sehr wichtig als günstigeres Topgerät.

Im Zuge des Konzernumbaus will Sony offenbar seine DVD- und Blu-ray-Sparte Optiarc schliessen. Die Produktion optischer Laufwerke werde im November eingestellt, die Tochterfirma bis Ende März abgewickelt, berichteten die Zeitungen „Japan Times" und „Asahi Shimbun" unter Berufung auf Verantwortliche des Konzerns.

Der Aussenwerbekonzern Clear Channel ists in der Schweiz mit digitalen Werbeflächen in Shoppingcentern aktiv geworden. Das neue Produkt wird direkt beim Verkaufspunkt, dem Point of Sale, platziert, heisst es. Werbekunden könnten solcherart sehr schnell und einfach auf aktuelle oder saisonale Verkaufsförderungsmassnahmen aufmerksam machen.

Der Kampf der beiden Smartphone-Giganten ist noch lange nicht ausgestanden, auch nicht nach dem Urteil in Kalifornien. Denn in anderen Kernmärkten neben den USA liefen und laufen noch viele weitere Prozesse. Wer in dem Streit letztendlich als Sieger hervorgehen wird, ist ungewiss und von Land zu Land verschieden.

Die Aktionäre des Internet-Urgesteins AOL erwartet ein dicker Scheck. Das Management schüttet wie versprochen die 1,1 Mrd. Dollar (878 Mio. Euro) aus dem Verkauf eines Patentpakets aus.

Um manuelle IT-Prozesse zu automatisieren sowie den Verwaltungsaufwand und Installationszeiten zu reduzieren, nutzt das Schweizer Ingenieur- und Vermessungsbüro Osterwalder, Lehmann - Ingenieure und Geometer (Olig) in Männedorf und Thalwil am Zürichsee eine Dell-Kace-K1000-Verwaltungs- und eine Kace-K2000-Bereitstellungs-Appliance.

Nach dem Milliarden-Urteil im Patent-Prozess Apples gegen Samsung hat nun auch Google ein Statement abgegeben. Gegenüber The Verge erklärte das Unternehmen, dessen Betriebssystem auf Samsungs Smartphones und Tablets läuft, dass man mit den Partnerunternehmen zusammenarbeite, um Kunden innovative und leistbare Produkte bieten zu können.

Mit der Verknüpfung von Daten aller Art - und der auf diesen Informationen basierenden, personalisierten Werbung - macht der Softwarehersteller Google den allergrößten Teil seines Umsatzes. Soweit die unumstrittenen Fakten, die dem Unternehmen bei so manchen KritikerInnen den Ruf einer "Datenkrake" eingebracht hat.

Der deutsche Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (vzbv) hat Facebook wegen laxer Datenschutzbestimmungen abgemahnt. Mit dem im Juli eingeführten App-Zentrum, das die Apps von Fremdanbietern nach Kategorien sortiert anzeigt, verschlechtere Facebook den Datenschutz, erklärte der vzbv am Montag.

Die Schweizerische Post hat eine zentrale Informationsplattform zur SuisseID lanciert. Das neue «inoffizielle Anwenderportal» ist seit heute online. Die neue Webseite will der Initiatorin zufolge einen umfassenden Einblick in die aktuellen Anwendungen der SuisseID bieten, des elektronischen Identitätsausweises im Internet.

redletterdave writes "Google Crisis Response, one of Google's thousands of active projects that merges various Google tools like Maps, Docs, Forms and Earth, posted a new webpage on Monday dedicated to Tropical Storm Isaac — soon to be Hurricane Isaac — in an effort to disseminate helpful information about the hurricane's path, its forecasted track, and how local residents can stay safe during this emergency situation. Google's Crisis Map for Hurricane Isaac allows the user to set up and see public alerts from weather.gov, flood gauge forecasts, surge zones, evacuation zones and routes, barrier resources and relevant YouTube videos for each impacted area."

astroengine writes "Scientists are beginning to sketch out plans for NASA's new Mars rover Curiosity to climb Mount Sharp, but future robots may have a more direct way to access the planet's history books. Recent discoveries of 'skylights' and lava tubes on the surface of Mars, as well as the moon, are sparking the development of robotic probes that can descend into caves and explore tunnels. 'Geology works in layers, so how many layers can you see? Well, we know there are sinkholes on Mars. Those sinkholes expose potentially hundreds of feet of layers, so if you could lower something down and examine those layers and explore a tunnel underneath, or anything of that sort, the science that can be done with that is just phenomenal,' Jason Derleth, senior technology analyst with NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts Program, told Discovery News."

coondoggie writes "If you have been on a commercial airline, the phrase 'The use of any portable electronic equipment while the aircraft is taxiing, during takeoff and climb, or during approach and landing,' is as ubiquitous but not quite as tedious as 'make sure your tray tables are in the secure locked upright position.' But the electronic equipment restrictions may change. The Federal Aviation Administration today said it was forming a government-industry group to study the current portable electronic device use policies commercial aviation use to determine when these devices can be used safely during flight."

Hugh Pickens writes writes "Since 1900, the life expectancy of Americans, driven by improved hygiene, nutrition, and new medical discoveries and interventions, has jumped from 47 years to almost 80 and now scientists studying the intricacies of DNA and other molecular bio-dynamics may be poised to offer even more dramatic boosts to longevity but there is one very basic question that is seldom asked according to David Ewing Duncan: How long do you want to live? 'Over the past three years I have posed this query to nearly 30,000 people at the start of talks and lectures on future trends in bioscience, taking an informal poll as a show of hands,' writes Duncan. 'To make it easier to tabulate responses I provided four possible answers: 80 years, currently the average life span in the West; 120 years, close to the maximum anyone has lived; 150 years, which would require a biotech breakthrough; and forever, which rejects the idea that life span has to have any limit at all.' The results: some 60 percent opted for a life span of 80 years. Another 30 percent chose 120 years, and almost 10 percent chose 150 years. Less than 1 percent embraced the idea that people might avoid death altogether (pdf). Overwhelmingly the reason given was that people didn't want to be old and infirm any longer than they had to be, even if a pill allowed them to delay the inevitable. Others were concerned about issues like boredom, the cost of paying for a longer life, and the impact of so many extra people on planetary resources and on the environment. But wouldn't long life allow people like Albert Einstein to accomplish more and try new things? That's assuming that Einstein would want to live that long. As he lay dying of an abdominal aortic aneurysm in 1955, Einstein refused surgery, saying: 'It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.'"

nmpost writes in with a story about how hard it is to be a successful PC company in today's world. "Hewlett-Packard Co. used to be known as a place where innovative thinkers flocked to work on great ideas that opened new frontiers in technology. These days, HP is looking behind the times. Coming off a five-year stretch of miscalculations, HP is in such desperate need of a reboot that many investors have written off its chances of a comeback. Consider this: Since Apple Inc. shifted the direction of computing with the release of the iPhone in June 2007, HP's market value has plunged by 60 percent to $35 billion. During that time, HP has spent more than $40 billion on dozens of acquisitions that have largely turned out to be duds so far. HP might have been unchallenged for the ignominious title as technology's most troubled company if not for one its biggest rivals, Dell Inc. Like HP, Dell missed the trends that have turned selling PCs into one of technology's least profitable and slowest growing niches. As a result, Dell's market value has also plummeted by 60 percent, to about $20 billion, since the iPhone's release."

Zothecula writes "For millennia, face paint has helped soldiers avoid being seen by enemy forces. Recently, however, a team of scientists from the University of Southern Mississippi announced that a new type of face paint may soon also be able to protect against the heat of bomb blasts and other explosions. Additionally, a clear version of the paint could be used by civilian firefighters."

tsu doh nimh writes "A new exploit for a zero-day vulnerability in Oracle's Java JRE version 7 and above is making the rounds. A Metasploit module is now available to attack the flaw, and word in the underground is that it will soon be incorporated into BlackHole, a widely used browser exploit pack. KrebsOnSecurity.com talked to the BlackHole developer, who said the Java exploit would be worth at least $100,000 if sold privately. Instead, this vulnerability appears to have been first spotted in targeted/espionage attacks that used the exploit to drop the remote control malware Poison Ivy, according to experts from Deep End Research. Because Oracle has put Java on a quarterly patch cycle, and the next cycle is not scheduled until October, experts have devised and are selectively releasing an unofficial patch for the flaw."

bs0d3 writes "The Pirate Bay team is going to be making the RIAA angry, with the launch of a new ad-supported VPN service. PrivitizeVPN is available for free from The Pirate Bay. Instead of earning revenue through subscription as ipredator does, PrivitizeVPN comes packaged to install the Babylon search bar (adware). PrivitizeVPN appears to be available for Windows users only at the moment. The Pirate Bay staff has a long history of promoting services that have no logs; e.g. , you can't get in trouble if your anonymized IP is subpoenaed by government officials. Although PrivitizeVPN is being released silently, with no press coverage, no official statement, and no comments from The Pirate Bay of any kind, people are assuming that PrivitizeVPN will have the same familiar data protection policies. A backup download location has been setup here for people who have limited access to the Pirate Bay domain."

Nerval's Lobster writes "On August 24, a California court ruled in favor of Apple in its patent-infringement case against Samsung, hitting the latter with a $1.05 billion fine. Tech pundits spent the weekend chattering about the possible repercussions of the decision, which Samsung will surely appeal. One of the biggest issues under discussion: how Apple's victory will affect Google Android, the operating system that powers the majority of Samsung's mobile devices, and itself a player in the patent-infringement actions shaking the tech world. For its part, Google made every effort to create some distance between Android and the smoking ruins of Samsung's case. 'The court of appeals will review both infringement and the validity of the patent claims' the company wrote in a widely circulated statement. 'Most of these don't relate to the core Android operating system, and several are being re-examined by the US Patent Office.' Google didn't end there. 'The mobile industry is moving fast and all players—including newcomers—are building upon ideas that have been around for decades,' the statement continued. 'We work with our partners to give consumers innovative and affordable products, and we don't want anything to limit that."

An anonymous reader writes "Remember the Internet Tax Freedom Act? The whole point was to prevent the government from ever taxing the Internet. But that's the proposal from the FCC — and backed by companies like Google, AT&T and Sprint. Would you pay a buck or two extra for fast access — or vote for someone who thinks you should? 'If members of Congress understood that the FCC is contemplating a broadband tax, they'd sit up and take notice,' said Derek Turner, research director for Free Press, a consumer advocacy group that opposes the tax."

hypnosec writes "OpenStack Foundation, backed by virtualization players like Rackspace, Red Hat and IBM, is going to get a unexpected new member – Vmware. According to a post on the OpenStack Foundation Wiki, the agenda of the Board of Directors meeting on August 28 includes the Gold membership of VMware as one of the topics. VMware is not the only one applying for Gold membership as Intel and NEC are also standing in line for their memberships as well."

angry tapir writes "File-sharing service Dropbox is now offering two-factor authentication, a system that makes it much harder for hackers to capture valid credentials for a person's account. Dropbox, one of the most widely used web-based storage services, said last month it planned on introducing two-factor authentication after user names and passwords were stolen from another website and used to access accounts."

snydeq writes "Regardless of where you stand on Anonymous' tactics, politics, or whatever, I think the group has something to teach developers and development organizations,' writes Andrew Oliver. 'As leader of an open source project, I can revoke committer access for anyone who misbehaves, but membership in Anonymous is a free-for-all. Sure, doing something in Anonymous' name that even a minority of "members" dislike would probably be a tactical mistake, but Anonymous has no trademark protection under the law; the organization simply has an overall vision and flavor. Its members carry out acts based on that mission. And it has enjoyed a great deal of success — in part due to the lack of central control. Compare this to the level of control in many corporate development organizations. Some of that control is necessary, but often it's taken to gratuitous lengths. If you hire great developers, set general goals for the various parts of the project, and collect metrics, you probably don't need to exercise a lot of control to meet your requirements."

Hugh Pickens writes "Biologist David P. Barash writes in the LA Times that as a scientist he has been participating in a deception for more than four decades — a benevolent and well intentioned deception — but a deception nonetheless. 'When scientists speak to the public or to students, we talk about what we know, what science has discovered,' writes Barash. 'After all, we work hard deciphering nature's secrets and we're proud whenever we succeed. But it gives the false impression that we know pretty much everything, whereas the reality is that there's a whole lot more that we don't know.' Teaching and writing only about what is known risks turning science into a mere catalog of established facts, suggesting that 'knowing' science is a matter of memorizing says Barash. 'It is time, therefore, to start teaching courses, giving lectures and writing books about what we don't know about biology, chemistry, geology, physics, mathematics.' Barash isn't talking about the obvious unknowns, such as 'Is there life on other planets?' Looking just at his field, evolutionary biology, the unknowns are immense: How widespread are nonadaptive traits? To what extent does evolution proceed by very small, gradual steps versus larger, quantum jumps? What is the purpose of all that 'junk DNA"? Did human beings evolve from a single lineage, or many times, independently? Why does homosexuality persist? According to Barash scientists need to keep celebrating and transmitting what they know but also need to keep their eyes on what science doesn't know if the scientific enterprise is to continue attracting new adherents who will keep pushing the envelope of our knowledge rather than resting satisfied within its cozy boundaries."