Die Aktie des in Richardson in Texas domizilierten Mobilfunkanbieters MetroPCS steht aktuell unter hohem Verkaufsdruck. Kreisen zufolge plant der US-Telekomkonzern Sprint kein unmittelbares Gegenangebot für MetroPCS im Zusammenhang mit dem Vorhaben der Deutschen Telekom, ihre Tochter T-Mobile USA mit den Texanern zu fusionieren.
Notebooks belasten bei ihrer Herstellung die Umwelt so stark, dass sich diese "Ökoschuld" auch nicht durch die hohe Energieeffizienz dieser Geräte wieder ausgleichen lässt. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt eine Studie des Öko-Institutes Freiburg.
Samsung macht den Musik-Streaming-Dienst Spotify fit für seine Smart-TV-Geräte. Das Angebot von Spotify umfasst aktuell rund 18 Millionen Titel und dürfte eine interessante Bereicherung für manchen Samsung-Kunden darstellen.
Die Migros Bank setzt künftig auf die modulare Plattform-Technologie Application Security Technology (AST) der IT-Security-Spezialistin Kobil. Die Lösung sei in der Lage auf allen Plattformen und allen Gerätetypen zu arbeiten und eröffne Banken neue Einsatzmöglichkeiten auch ausserhalb des klassischen e-Bankings, wie Mobile-Payment, Secure Messaging sowie Mobile-Commerce Services, heisst es in einer Medienmitteilung.
Mit dem iPhone 5 hat Apple auch eine neue, kleinere Steckverbindung für das Smartphone eingeführt. Wer sein bisheriges iPhone-Zubehör weiterverwenden möchte, muss daher einen Adapter kaufen. Dieser kostet allerdings rund 35 Franken - kundenfreundlich sei dieser Preis nicht, kritisierten Konsumentenschützer.
Fast jeder zweite befragte Internetnutzer glaubt, dass Ergebnisse in Suchmaschinen nicht auf seine Surfgewohnheiten zugeschnitten sind. Demnach finden 59 Prozent der Internet-Nutzerinnen und Nutzer individualisierte Inhalte und Empfehlungen im Internet nicht hilfreich. Gleichzeitig gaben 43 Prozent - fälschlicherweise - an, dass Suchergebnisse nicht auf sie persönlich zugeschnitten sind.
Microsoft hat seine Updates zum Oktober-Patchday veröffentlicht. Insgesamt wurde sieben Patches für Office, Lync, SQL-Server und Windows veröffentlicht, sechs davon werden mit der Priorität "hoch" eingestuft, einer als "kritisch".
Der zweitgrößte PC-Hersteller der Welt, Lenovo, wird zum Start des neuen Microsoft-Betriebssystem Windows 8 mit einer neuen Produktfamilie von Hybrid-PC auf den Markt kommen. Diese Geräte können wahlweise wie ein Tablet mit den Fingern auf dem Display oder wie ein Laptop mit Tastatur und Maus bedient werden.
Microsoft-Chef Steve Ballmer bekommt wieder nicht den ganzen möglichen Bonus für das vergangene Geschäftsjahr. Der Verwaltungsrat des Softwarekonzerns bewilligte 620.000 statt der möglichen 1,37 Millionen Dollar, wie aus Unterlagen zur gestrigen Aktionärsversammlung hervorgeht.
Um dem gestiegenen Technikwissen und den unterschiedlichen Erwartungen ihrer Kunden gerecht werden zu können, will Swisscom ihre Shops neu gestalten. Das Konzept setzt auf individuelle Beratung und die Möglichkeit, Produkte und Dienste direkt vor Ort zu erleben, wie es in einer Aussendung heisst. Bis 2014 sollen sämtliche Standorte im neuen Design erscheinen.
SchrodingerZ writes "Two Americans have won the 2012 Nobel prize in Chemistry for their work in cell research. Their work involves the discovery and manipulation of the G-protein-coupled receptors, which detect signals outside the of cells they inhabit. 'The human body has about 1,000 kinds of such receptors, which enable it to respond to a wide variety of chemical signals, like adrenaline. Some receptors are in the nose, tongue and eyes, and let us sense smells, tastes and vision.' The winners are Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K. Kobilka. Lefkowitz works at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and is a professor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Kobilka is a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. Their research has helped create newer and more effective drugs with fewer side effects. More on G Protein-coupled Receptor research can be found in the Journal of Biological Chemistry."
wiredmikey writes "The U.S. Supreme Court said this week it will let stand an immunity law on wiretapping viewed by government as a useful anti-terror tool but criticized by privacy advocates. The top U.S. court declined to review a December 2011 appeals court decision that rejected a lawsuit against AT&T for helping the NSA monitor its customers' phone calls and Internet traffic. Plaintiffs argue that the law allows the executive branch to conduct 'warrantless and suspicionless domestic surveillance' without fear of review by the courts and at the sole discretion of the attorney general. The Obama administration has argued to keep the immunity law in place, saying it would imperil national security to end such cooperation between the intelligence agencies and telecom companies. The Supreme Court is set to hear a separate case later this month in which civil liberties' group are suing NSA officials for authorizing unconstitutional wiretapping."
itwbennett writes "ICANN wants to store more data (including credit card information) about domain name registrations in its Whois database, wants to hold on to that data for two years after registration ends, and wants to force registrant contact information to be re-verified annually — moves that are applauded by David Vladeck, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. The E.U.'s Article 29 Working Group is markedly less enthusiastic, saying ICANN's plans trample on citizens' right to privacy."
redletterdave writes "After one Taiwanese newspaper snapped and printed a satellite photo of a top-secret military base from the new Maps application running on an iPhone 5, the defense ministry of Taiwan on Tuesday publicly requested Apple blur the sensitive images of the country's classified military installations. The top-secret radar base, located in the northern county of Hsinchu, contains a highly-advanced ultra-high-frequency long-range radar that military officials say can detect missiles launched as far away as the city of Xinjiang, which is located in northwest China. The radar system was obtained via U.S.-based defense group Raytheon in 2003, and is still being constructed with hopes to be completed by the end of this year. 'Regarding images taken by commercial satellites, legally we can do nothing about it,' said David Lo, the spokesman of Taiwan's defense ministry, in a statement to reporters. 'But we'll ask Apple to lower the resolution of satellite images of some confidential military establishments the way we've asked Google in the past.'"
The Bad Astronomer writes "Using the newly-commissioned ALMA radio observatory, astronomers have taken detailed images of one of the most amazing objects in the sky: the red giant R Sculptoris (abstract). As the star dies, it undergoes gigantic seizures beneath its surface that blast out waves of gas and dust from the surface. These normally expand into a spherical shell, but the presence of a nearby companion star changes things. The combined orbits of the two stars fling out the material like a garden sprinkler, forming enormous and incredibly beautiful spiral arms. Measuring the size and shape of the spiral shows the last eruption was 1800 years ago, lasted for nearly two centuries, and expelled enough material to make a thousand earths."
Hugh Pickens writes "According to Joan Lowy of the Associated Press, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has alerted the auto repair industry that tens of thousands of car owners may be driving vehicles with counterfeit air bags, which fail to inflate properly or don't inflate at all. Although no deaths or injuries have been tied to the counterfeit bags, it's unclear whether police accident investigators would be able to identify a counterfeit bag from a genuine one. The counterfeit bags typically have been made to look like air bags from automakers, and usually include a manufacturer's logo, but government investigators believe many of the bags come from China. Auto dealerships that operate their own body shops are usually required by their franchise agreements to buy their parts, including air bags, directly from automakers and therefore are unlikely to have installed counterfeit bags. But only 37 percent of auto dealers have their own body shops, so many consumers whose vehicles have been damaged are referred by their insurance companies to auto body shops that aren't affiliated with an automaker. Safety officials will warn millions of Americans that the air bags in over 100 vehicle models could be dangerous counterfeits, telling them to have their cars and trucks inspected as soon as possible. Dai Zhensong, a Chinese citizen, had the counterfeit air bags manufactured by purchasing genuine auto air bags that were torn down and used to produce molds to manufacture the counterfeit bags. Trademark emblems were purchased through dealerships located in China and affixed to the counterfeit air bags, which were then advertised on the Guangzhou Auto Parts website and sold for approximately $50 to $70 each, far below the value of an authentic air bag. The NHTSA has made a list of automobiles available that may be at risk for having counterfeit air bags."
scibri writes "One side is accused of supporting ethnic cleansing; the other of being intellectually naive. Geneticists and economists are struggling to collaborate on research that explores how our genes influence and interact with economic behavior. Top economists are publishing a paper that claims a country's genetic diversity can predict the success of its economy. To critics, the economists' paper seems to suggest that a country's poverty could be the result of its citizens' genetic make-up, and the paper is attracting charges of genetic determinism, and even racism. But the economists say that they have been misunderstood, and are merely using genetics as a proxy for other factors that can drive an economy, such as history and culture."
hypnosec writes "The German Government has gone a bit too far trying to be transparent, inadvertently revealing that German police monitor Skype, Google Mail, MSN Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, and Facebook chat when necessary. The revelations, spotted by the annalist blog, come from a report of expenses incurred by the Federal Ministry of the Interior following a parliamentary inquiry. The report contains lots of tables and as many would find those boring, some highlights: On page 34 and page 37 of the report line item 486 and 265 respectively, represent decoding software for Google Mail, MSN Hotmail, Yahoo Mail for prevention and investigation."
Nerval's Lobster writes "According to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's latest shareholder letter (not exactly a gripping read), Microsoft sees itself as a 'devices and services company.' The subsequent 1,200-odd words hammer that point, mentioning software such as Office and Windows 8 largely in the context of tablets and other hardware — and while Ballmer acknowledges the 'vast ecosystem of partners' building a 'broad spectrum of Windows PCs, tablets and phones,' he leaves the door wide open to Microsoft building its own toys in-house. If one takes Ballmer's words at face value, it seems that Surface, the tablet Microsoft's building in-house and promoting as a 'flagship' Windows 8 device, isn't so much a lark but the harbinger of the company's future direction. Whether Microsoft's decision to build its own devices affects its long-term relationship with Dell, Hewlett-Packard and other manufacturing titans remains to be seen. Perhaps Ballmer can take some comfort from Apple, which profited enormously by pursuing the 'we build everything in-house' route. But it's indisputable that a devices-centric approach is new ground for Microsoft."
Earlier this year, the Free Software Foundation announced a hardware endorsement campaign for hardware that respects the rights of its owner (no DRM, runs Free Software, support for open formats, no or freely licensed patents, etc.). Now, they've announced that the Lulzbot AO-100 3D Printer is the first device to pass certification and be endorsed by the FSF. Source code to both the hardware and software is available, naturally.