MediaDefender Used MiiVi to Trap Downloaders
The company that was hired by the MPAA to rein in leaks and catch downloaders of copyrighted material on BitTorrent networks is apparently the victim of a leak itself, with thousands of its own internal e-mails leaked to BitTorrent last week.
MediaDefender was hired by the Motion Picture Association of America to assist in its anti-piracy efforts. As part of the deal, the e-mails reveal, the company set up its own BitTorrent site named MiiVi. While its downloads were real, a program said to "speed" that download process was actually a Trojan horse.
Apple Details $100 iPhone Credit Offer
Apple will send its promised $100 store credit to early adopters of the iPhone by text message, the company said Friday.
Those eligible for the rebate must have purchased the phone before August 22, and have service activated. Those purchased between August 22 and September 4 are eligible for a full $200 cash refund under Apple's price protection policies.
Sales of Video Games, Hardware Up Sharply
Data from NPD indicates that video games and hardware sales in the US were up 46 percent in August from the previous year.
Nintendo's Wii again took the top spot, selling some 404,000 units. This was down five percent from July. Sales of the PlayStation 3 also fell to 131,000 units, down some 18 percent.
Kyocera Close To Acquiring Sanyo Cell Biz
Kyocera is apparently close to acquiring Sanyo's mobile phone unit, which would render it the world's seventh largest phone manufacturer.
Separately, Kyocera was the 10th largest and Sanyo the 11th largest in the world. The deal will also make Kyocera a bigger brand in the US, due to Sanyo's strong relationship with Sprint Nextel.
Google Shoots for the Moon With New Contest
Google said Thursday that it would award a $20 million prize to the first group able to safely land a robotic rover on the moon and transfer back a gigabyte of video and data successfully to Earth.
The Mountain View, Calif. search company partnered with the people behind the X Prize, which is the group that offered $10 million to build the first private, manned spacecraft to make it successfully into space.
Virgin America Taps AirCell for In-flight 'Net
Virgin America said Thursday that it had reached an agreement with AirCell to bring wireless broadband to its planes beginning some time next year.
The airline announced at launch in August that it will eventually provide wireless broadband Internet to its passengers, but had given no date as to its availability. The Internet will either be accessible via the wireless network or through the in-flight entertainment systems at each seat.
Cell Phone Study Finds No Short-Term Health Risks
A six-year study into the health risks from cellular phones in the UK indicates that while there are no short-term risks to health from phone usage, it is too early to say what long-term effects it may have.
The study, conducted by the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) Program, was the largest of its kind in the UK. It found that there was no substantial change in brain function or higher incidence of brain cancer correlative to the use of mobile phones.
Phone Manufacturers Get Broadcom Patent Reprieve
While upholding a ban on importing Qualcomm chips themselves into the US, an appeals court judge stayed the ban for individual phone manufacturers to continue shipping their phones here.
T-Mobile USA and AT&T joined five manufacturers in appealing the decision, which was handed down by the US International Trade Commission in June, and upheld by the White House in August. Sprint Nextel was missing from the decision, although the court's ruling also covered them as well.
Microsoft Debuts Mouse With Built-In Flash Memory
Microsoft thinks it has the answer for your USB slot shortage on your notebook - by combining a mouse with a flash memory card.
The Microsoft Mobile Memory Mouse 8000 includes 1 GB of storage in its transceiver. In addition, the same USB port is able to charge the mouse as well using a magnetic charger.
China: We're Being Spied On Via Net
Just a week after it was revealed that the Chinese may have been behind a cyberattack on the Pentagon in June of this year, the Chinese are now claiming "massive damage" from spying on its own computers.
Several "core, vital departments" have apparently been infiltrated. Chinese Vice Minister of Information Industry Lou Qinjian said that the government will counter with a tough response, including new censorship and Internet controls.
Sony Unveiling Four New Blu-ray Recorders in Japan
Sony is set to release four new Blu-ray disc recorders in November, along with the first to be able to record on the format's dual-layer discs.
The players range in price from 140,000 yen ($1,227 USD) to 200,000 yen ($1,752 USD). Sony will release the new models on November 8, and plans to produce about 40,000 per month for the market.
Microsoft Tries Again in Japan With Xbox 360
Apple Debuts Logic Studio
Apple unveiled a major upgrade to its Logic Pro professional audio program called Logic Studio, which includes several applications for under $500 aimed at helping create musicians audio projects.
Central to the suite is Logic Pro 8, which includes several enhancements over previous versions to simplify the audio creation process. A single-window interface is now central to the application, which will allow fast access to commonly used features.
Patch Tuesday: And Then There Were Four
Microsoft dropped one patch from its Patch Tuesday lineup, instead only releasing four patches, one of which was critical.
Based on the list provided by Microsoft last Thursday, it appears as if the company nixed the fix aimed at the company's SharePoint product. That patch would have repaired an issue concerning an elevation of privilege risk.
NAB: Say No to "White Space" Internet
Claiming to be acting on behalf of television viewers, the National Association of Broadcasters launched an effort to block measures to use so called "white space" for rural high-speed internet.
In early August, the FCC struck down a proposed device that would have utilized unused portions of TV spectrum to bring high-speed internet access to rural areas. The regulatory agency claimed that the device could not reliably find unused spectrum, and cause interference.
Ed's Bio
Ed Oswald is a freelance journalist from the Reading, PA area. Although he has written across a variety of subjects, Ed’s passion and focus has been on technology and gadgets. His work regularly appears on tech news sites BetaNews, PCWorld, and Technologizer, and has been syndicated to eWeek, Time’s Techland blog, VentureBeat and the New York Times.
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