Card skimmer found operating in the wild
It's like finding out there really are monsters under the bed: Over the weekend, a Seattle man visiting a WaMu ATM noticed there was something peculiar about the card-reader slot. There certainly was -- it was covered by a card skimmer with a battery, card scanner, and mini USB port.
The good news, as reported by Consumerist, is that this is pretty much the first time anyone involved has actually encountered a skimmer installed and operating (presumably; the investigation is ongoing) in the wild. The bad news is that the wee beastie was found not on some random gas-station cash machine, but on an actual bank-maintained ATM. Once upon a time we thought those might be safer from such tampering; so much for that security measure.
T-Mobile sharpening its Blade for May?
The generally reliable TmoNews is relaying information from "a trusted tipster" concerning the launch dates of various T-Mobile handsets. Eleven phones are mentioned with likely dates (not the G2, sorry). No one's safe trusting too heavily in launch dates much past midyear, but patient Sidekick 2009 (Blade) fans awaiting word on the smartphone release that's not the next iPhone and not the Pre have a date to obsess over: Wednesday, May 13. T-Mobile spokespeople had no comment on any portion of the launch-date list by press time.
Confirmed: Windows 7 users will have XP downgrade option
After a flurry of blog activity over the weekend, leading into today, concerning the extended availability of Windows XP, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to Betanews early this evening that general Windows 7 users will be given the option of downgrading right over Vista to Windows XP.
"This is not the first time that Microsoft has offered downgrade rights to a version other than its immediate predecessor," the spokesperson told Betanews, "and our Software Assurance customers can always downgrade to any previous version of Windows."
Zoho invites more cloud app users by embracing more IM protocols
For a number of reasons, some of them indeterminate, despite all the evolutionary pressure to move it to the next level of its evolution, instant messaging hasn't evolved as an application. One reason I've always suspected is that it's difficult for developers to find the impetus to devote the amount of effort required to evoke revolutionary change, on a platform that's offered to most customers for free. The counter-argument to that is that SMS isn't free, and yet it's stuck even further in the Stone Age.
If IM does resemble one ongoing revolution in application architecture, it's "the cloud" -- the nebulous, always-on service built to respond to user requests from wherever. Whereas at the beginning of the decade, services like AOL, Yahoo, and MSN used their respective IM platforms as weapons against one another, today's strategies -- which now includes Google -- have them opening up those platforms for generally unencumbered use by others. That hasn't exactly made Trillian for Windows and other multi-protocol IM clients the most perfect of applications just yet, but week after week, those of us who work in widely-dispersed offices do manage to get by somehow.
US and other 'advanced nations' trail in cell phone use
Denmark, Norway, and the US took the top three spots in the World Economic Forum's latest Global Information Technology Report. Rounding out the top ten were Singapore, Switzerland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands, and Canada, in that order.
Meanwhile, mobile phone penetration has boomed in developing countries in places like Africa and Latin America, "helping them to compensate for an often underdeveloped and flawed fixed telephone infrastructure and offering a promising tool to increasingly lift their citizens out or poverty and improve the efficiency of their markets and economies," said the just released report for 2008-2009.
TiVo Series 3 software update adds ads
In December, TiVo began to include advertisements in fast forward and pause states on its Series 2 DVRs. Yesterday, the ads reportedly began appearing on Series 3/TiVo HD units.
Users will have to upgrade their system software to version 11.0c for the advertisements to show up. TiVo community users who have received the update have not noticed any other changes besides these ads, which place a "more info about..." button on the pause screen.
PlayStation 3 takes top-selling honor in Japan, nowhere else
According to market research firmMedia Create, month-to-month sales of Nintendo's newest handheld, the DSi, have dropped 19.42%, PSP sales declined 17%, both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sales dropped 10%, and Nintendo Wii sales dropped 4.5%.
Even though the PlayStation 3's sales dropped further than the Wii's in March, Sony's console actually outsold Nintendo's by a margin of 47,000 units, according to statistics released by gaming magazine Enterbrain today.
FCC's Copps renews call for a network non-discrimination principle
As first reported by Broadcasting & Cable and confirmed by multiple other sources, in a breakfast-time speech last Friday before a conference of cable TV executives, the acting chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission called once again for the drafting of an amendment of sorts to its 2005 policy framework (PDF available here), adding one new principle to its existing list of four. The "Fifth Principle," as it may come to be known for years hence, would explicitly mandate that carriers provide non-discriminatory Internet access to all available services and applications.
The origins of the "Fifth Principle," as well as the belief that one was needed in the first place, dates back to the debate over the 2006 re-merger of AT&T with its own former "Baby Bell," BellSouth. While many lawmakers were debating how best to avoid the topic of addressing the efficacy of the merger, some were drafting proposed laws that would prevent the merged entity from disabling access to competitive services through its own network.
Suggested Google-Twitter tweets for Biz Stone
Oh, Biz Stone. A blog post about the swirling rumors of Twitter's acquisition by Google? Really? I mean, you were certainly coy enough -- the post is titled "Sometimes we talk" (cue hipster shrug) and includes an emphatically noncommittal "It should come as no surprise that Twitter engages in discussions with other companies regularly and on a variety of subjects."
My dear Mr. Stone, no. This is the brave new 140-character world you created, sir, and millions of Twitterers demand that you be pithier. So let's remove that post from your metaphorical tweetstream and go with something a bit more... in keeping? Naturally I tweeted for suggestions, and received the following:
OpenMoko sacrifices FreeRunner, employees for 'Plan B'
Taiwanese company First International Computer debuted its 400 MHz touchscreen GSM OpenMoko Neo FreeRunner Linux-based smartphone last year, as a fully open-source device for those users who like full customization. At OpenExpo in Bern today, OpenMoko's CEO Sean Moss-Pultz says the device has been cancelled, and in the wake of that announcement, the company dropped nearly half of its staff.
Moss-Pultz said the layoffs were of utmost importance for the company to stay in business and concentrate on its "Plan B." This plan, according to the CEO, involves a non-telecommunications device which is already in the company's pipeline. Unfortunately, he could not offer any further details as to the nature of the device.
AT&T's unionized workers poised to strike, with a ringtone to remind them
AT&T's contract with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) expired at midnight yesterday, and if the union's demands aren't met in contract re-negotiation, AT&T's wireline employees -- nearly 100 thousand in number -- will strike.
"Enough excuses!" exclaims the CWA's Web site, "If AT&T really wants to lower health care costs, it should get off our backs and get on our side for national health care reform."
Online columnist in trouble for reviewing pirated movie
There's continuing debate in entertainment circles today over the seemingly simple matter of whether Roger Friedman, a movie reviewer for FoxNews.com, was fired for having written and published a review of an unreleased film he admitted to having pirated online.
In his review of the upcoming Wolverine prequel to the X-Men series -- which the site has since deleted -- Friedman bragged about what he considered a time-saving measure, writing, "It took really less than seconds to start playing it all right onto my computer. I could have downloaded all of it but really, who has the time or the room?...It's so much easier than going out in the rain!" 20th Century Fox is both the producer of the film and the sister company of Friedman's publisher -- both are co-owned by News Corp.
Android overtakes iPhone as the OS with the most rumors
It seems like there has been a five to one rumor-to-product ratio related to Google's open source mobile operating system Android. Dell, Asus, and Acer were each rumored to be interested in using the operating system on netbooks, while LG, Samsung, Motorola, and Nokia all have been included in rumors of new Android phones.
Deutsche Telekom and HTC have thus far been the only reliable companies for cutting-edge Android-based products; so when a rumor about them comes up -- especially in The New York Times -- it warrants note. The latest rumor is based upon "confidential documents," stating that T-Mobile will be selling an Android-based home phone unit, and then a mobile Internet device based upon the OS.
Should AT&T be obliged to enable Skype for the iPhone?
With the P2P voice communication service Skype now available for Apple's iPhone, eBay's venture into the telecommunications field now is now deployed on the world's most prominent handset. Apple is supporting the application by making it available on the iTunes App Store; reports tout Skype as the single most downloaded free application on iTunes.
That's a problem for carrier partners such as AT&T, because the business model on which the iPhone is based presumes customers will be placing calls on the carrier's network, not through the Internet. Last Friday, AT&T fired a shot across Apple's bow, with its senior executive vice president for legal affairs, Jim Cicconi, stating for USA Today, "We absolutely expect our vendors...not to facilitate the services of our competitors."
Report: IBM-Sun discussions fall through late in the game
Reuters is reporting that acquisition talks between Sun Microsystems and IBM have collapsed after the smaller company rejected an offer said to be $9.40 / share or less. That reflects a substantial drop from the original offerings of $10-$11 / share, and a decrease from a reported offer of $9.50 / share late last week.
A Sun-IBM merger would have given the new entity a commanding share of the Unix server market and allied one of the Net's pioneering firms with a computing company that has weathered an impressive array of changes in the tech landscape. Sun, which has been cutting staff and otherwise tidying up for potential suitors, is not known to be in discussions with any other company.
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