FBI’s Background Investigation on Steve Jobs

The FBI has released its 191 page investigation on Steve Jobs! The file consists of a background investigation that was conducted in 1991 – when Jobs was considered for an appointment to the President’s Expert Council in the Bush I White House, an advisory committee on foreign trade. The file also has records of a bomb threat against Jobs in 1985.

The issue of Steve Jobs’ character has come up on numerous occasions including his biography by Walter Isaacson. For Apple fans Steve’s tendency to be abrasive and aggressive is not something new (probably).

With some other interesting facts, the report also says that there are a considerable number of people that Jobs apparently upset during the years leading up to this FBI investigation.

To create products like the iPhone and iPad, and empire like Apple is not typically done by killing everyone with kindness and constantly differing to the needs and opinions of others.  Jobs was not someone running for sainthood, he was an entrepreneur. If anyone became that popular and successful, one would get his share of the same treatment.

In the document is also mentioned Jobs previous Top Secret security clearance which is his time a Pixar and the work the company did for the NSA (1980s). The clearance was revoked then in 1990.

As is usually the case with FBI investigations, Jobs probably have been asked who should be interviewed; it is interesting who was on the list. It is not clear who these quoted folks are, but if they were among the people Jobs referred the agents to then he did not know his friends very well. Given the number of derogatory comments throughout the report, it seems that Jobs’ friends at the time were not quite so friendly.

The report is available on FBI’s web site, here.

KahelOS 020212 Desktop Edition out now!!!

KahelOS, the Linux distro based on Arch Linux, brings out its desktop edition. It comes with GNOME configured as the default desktop environment beforehand, a GNOME Office productivity suite,the Epiphany web browser and so many similar GNOME apps. KahelOS also maintains a rolling-release model of updating software packages using its parent's repositories like ArchLinux. This distro is in the form of a live DVD including a graphical installation program. So, what does KahelOS 020212 entail???

KahelOS 020212 adds new features to the earlier installer version, specially catering to advanced Linux users with a wish to have the freedom of manual partitioning the system with an added capability to resize to NTFS and Linux partitions.
It is GUI Friendly and an automatic dual-boot-with-windows option is also added for ease.

• The other new features include
• Updated to bluefish-2.2.1-1
• Updated to dia-0.97.2-1
• Updated to evolution-3.2.3-2
• Fixed “Full Name” Issue on the User Information
• Fixed Localization
• Added a community-driven digital distribution service for gamers
• Added broadcom-wl driver

For the full list of changes,see KahelOS 020212 Changelog.

Zorin OS 5.2 Ultimate released!!!

The Zorin OS Team has released Zorin OS 5.2 Ultimate, the flagship version of Zorin operating system specially made for Windows users. This release features the GNOME 2.X Classic environment in place of the Unity shell by Ubuntu. Find out what all the new release features...

Zorin OS 5.2 has a variety of updates to Zorin OS 5 Ultimate which includes -security updates

• upgraded programs
  
• a brand new window border theme
  
• an updated icon theme
  
• an overhauled sound theme that features a fresh, new start-up sound
  
• the zRam patch that improves performance under RAM-heavy workloads

Moreover,you get both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Zorin OS 5.2 Ultimate for a nominal cost of €10 for a download and €15 for a DVD .
Know more on Zorin OS 5.2 Ultimate

Sabayon Linux 8 is here...

Sabayon Linux, the Gentoo-based distro provides the user with an easy-to-use workspace with an attractive look, perfect hardware detection and numerous updated software packages brings out its latest version yet.It is available featuring several desktops like KDE, GNOME, LXDE, Xfce and Enlightenment.

Sabayon Linux 8 features

• Faster, cleaner and more evolved than any other rolling distro out
• Up-to-date system  while maintaining full Gentoo Portage compatibility within minutea
• Performance focussed with GCC 4.6 with Graphite Loop Transformation infrastructure and Link Time Optimizations enabled
• Upadted to Linux Kernel 3.2
• Offers additional Server-oriented Linux kernels like OpenVZ, Vserver, Generic Server
• Natively supports the btrfs filesystem besides ext4, aufs, and others

Read the complete Sabayon 8 Changelog..

The Subscriber Count of your YouTube Channel Could Go Down

Got a video channel on YouTube? You might see a drop in the subscriber count of your YouTube channel in the coming days.
Google is doing a clean-up and they’ll remove all closed and inactive YouTube accounts from the total subscriber counts . That is, if ‘zombie’ accounts have been following you on YouTube, they won’t be counted as subscribers anymore.
The YouTube team says that once the subscribe count numbers are adjusted, YouTube channel owners can expect an average drop of 4% or less. You might see a higher drop in subscriber numbers if your YouTube channel has been around for a longer period of time because you’ll have relatively more ‘closed’ accounts in your subscriber list.
To learn more about your YouTube subscribers, go to youtube.com/analytics and check the “Subscribers” link under Engagement Reports. It shows your subscriber count by geography, by date and how your various video uploads have affected, positively or negatively, your YouTube growth.

Microsoft Personal Data Dashboard lets you decide how Microsoft uses your data

 

Google has its Google Dashboard, which offers a view into the data associated with your Google Account and lets you change your Google Privacy Settings. Though not so well-known and exhaustive, Microsoft too offers a Personal Data Dashboard that lets you view and manage some of your online personal information and gives you options to opt out where possible.

Microsoft Personal Data Dashboard

The My Profile tab in the Microsoft Personal Data Dashboard, lists down personal information about yourself, which you, yourself may have filled in while creating a Live account. If you wish you an edit and update your details here.

The My Data tab, lists your Interests, Bing searches and Microsoft newsletters which you may have subscribed too. Based on your Interests, Microsoft Advertising delivers targeted advertising to you. You can also add, delete or confirm the mentioned topics. The Bing search section lists your search keywords and the search results you clicked while signed into Bing. From the Newsletters tab, you can unsubscribe from any newsletter or subscription in this view by hovering over the newsletter and clicking unsubscribe. A nice way to centrally manage all your Microsoft newsletters.

Under the My Choices tab, you can choose to opt-out of the personalized advertising experience. You can choose to not receive personalized ads on websites that use the Microsoft Advertising Platform, by not allowing it to use your information like Bing Searches, Interests and Profile. In the Microsoft Email Communications section, you can opt out of receiving email promotions or disallow sharing of your data with Microsoft Partners.

Microsoft is working on adding more services to this Personal Data Dashboard and given the heightened awareness of privacy issues now, among users, we hope that it will make the dashboard complete in all respects and very soon too!

Opt out of Microsoft Advertising

Many of Microsoft’s  Websites and online services are supported by Microsoft Advertising. To deliver targeted ads, Microsoft places a persistent cookie on your computer. Using this persistent cookie, Microsoft identifies you and delivers ads accordingly. Apart from delivering relevant ads, this information is also used to try to ensure that you do not see the same advertisements over and over again.

But if you want, you may opt-out of receiving targeted ads from Microsoft Advertising by visiting its opt-out page too. This page not only lets you opt out on a particular computer or browser but also from any computer even after you have signed in to Windows Live.

You will also see the details of the cookie stored on your computer. Pretty transparent, in my opinion!

Incidentally, if you want to opt out from receiving interest-based advertising you can do so here. On this page, you can also find out which participating companies have currently enabled customized ads for your browser.

Opt out and maintain your privacy when using Google Services

Google’s change in its Privacy terms has been a cause of concern for many. Google has also responded to the wide-spread out-cry about this with the suggestion that you not log in to you Google account, if you have privacy concerns:

You don’t need to log in to use many of our services, including Search, Maps and YouTube. If you are logged in, you can still edit or turn off your Search history, switch Gmail chat to “off the record,” control the way Google tailors ads to your interests, use Incognito mode on Chrome, or use any of the other privacy tools we offer, says Google. You can use as much or as little of Google as you want. For example, you can have a Google Account and choose to use Gmail, but not use Google+. Or you could keep your data separate with different accounts, for example, one for YouTube and another for Gmail.

Prevent Google from tracking your activities

While you can always use a browser like Browzar to surf the web privately, there are also a few steps you can take, if you want to continue using your existing browsers and yet stay private, as far as is possible. To do so, you will have to log in to your Google account and change a few settings.

Turn off search personalization

Google tries to personalize your search results based on your past searches on Google, using Cookies. This search history personalization includes searches you’ve done and the links you’ve clicked on. If you have clicked links of a particular site more often, it may show you links from that site more often.

To turn off search personalization, visit this page which lets you pause and remove your Web History from your Google account. Here you will also see a list of all your earlier searches.

If you click on Pause, your web tracking will be paused, but your web history will not be erased. So check the check-box and click on Remove all Web History.

Confirm with an OK. This will Pause and remove your web history.

Turn off personal results

You can also you turn off personal results. This will also disable other personalization features. You will then be however unable to search across content shared by your friends. If this does not matter much to you, you might want to turn it off. To do so, open your Search Settings.

In the “Search plus Your World” section, select “Do not use personal results.” Click Save.

Searches which are part of the Search plus Your World, like results from Google+ shared by your friends, Picasa albums, Google products, Search History, will no longer appear in your search results.

Opt out of ad personalization

Google actually crawls your email to serve targeted advertising to you, depending on what you write in your mail. You can opt-out of ad personalization using Google Ads preferences page. Visit this page to do so. Do note that you have to opt out of two types of ads.

Opt out of Ads on Search and Gmail:

Opt out of Ads on the web:

After opting out, you’ll still see relevant ads, but Google won’t use additional information to personalize those ads on Google search and Gmail. 

Opt out of Gmail Chat History

Google stores all your chat logs. But you can opt of Gmail chat history. Such chats that have been taken off the record aren’t stored in your Gmail chat history, or in the Gmail chat history of your contact.

To take a chat off the record in Gmail and iGoogle, and prevent Google from saving their logs, click the Options link in the bottom of the chat window and select Go off the record.

Opt out of Google Analytics

Many websites including this one uses Google Analytics to track web traffic and related statistics. But if you wish, you can opt out of websites logging your visits. For this you can use the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on released by Google.

This plug-in works on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari. The add-on communicates with the Google Analytics Java Script to indicate that information about the website visit should not be sent to Google Analytics.

Opt out of YouTube

You can also opt of Google tracking your YouTube video searches, targeted advertising and viewing patterns. To do so, log in to your YouTube account and click on the Videos tab. Next click on History and select the check-box and click on Clear all viewing history.

Next click on Search History. Here, select Pause History. You can also select the check-box and click on Clear all search history.

You can also click on your Settings and click on Privacy.

Next un-check the Please use my account to provide me with relevant advertising check box and click on Save Changes. This will prevent Google from tracking you and providing you with relevant advertising.

If you need to reverse any of the changes made in your Google account anytime, you can do so, by opting back into the feature/s.

You can use Internet Explorer in inPrivate mode, Chrome in Incognito, etc, to avoid your browser saving Cookies and browsing history. In any case, you could also maybe make a habit of clearing  your Cookies more often, especially before using Google.

I am sure there may be more settings where you could opt-out to try and maintain your privacy, while using Google services. If you do know of any more, please do share them here for the benefit of others.

Incidentally, you may also want to check out Microsoft Persornal Data Dashboard, which lets you decide how Microsoft uses your data.

Facebook IPO filing expected within weeks, could reach $100B valuation

Facebook is making plans to file papers for an initial public offering as early as next week with a valuation that is expected to range between $75 and $100 billion, a new report claims.

After putting off an IPO for years, the world's largest social networking website is nearly ready to submit its papers, people familiar with the matter revealed to The Wall Street Journal. The deal will likely raise as much as $10 billion dollars for the company, sources added.

Facebook is reportedly close to picking investment bank Morgan Stanley to arrange the deal as the "lead-left," the title reserved for the bank that takes the lead in a financial transaction, such as an IPO. That would come as a blow to Goldman Sachs, which had originally been favored for the role. Sources did say, however, that Goldman would likely play a significant role alongside its rival.

According to the report's sources, Facebook may file documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission as soon as next Wednesday, though they noted that company executives may also wait to file until a few weeks later.

The IPO is expected to take place between April and June. If Facebook does manage to raise $10 billion on the deal, that would give it the fourth-largest IPO for a U.S. company, behind Visa, General Motors and AT&T Wireless. The company would also supplant Google as the biggest U.S. internet offering. The search giant, which has come into increasing competition against Facebook, raised $1.9 billion when it went public in 2004.

With a $100 billion valuation, Facebook would be worth almost one-fourth of Apple's current market capitalization of $417 billion. By comparison, Google was worth $188 billion as of the close of market on Friday.

Facebook is believed to have managed $3.8 billion in revenue last year, according to research firm eMarketer. While the company's revenues might not yet reflect those of a $100 billion company, investors are likely to place a high value on the fact that the website has become a household name with its more than 800 million users, 500 million of which visit the site daily.

Tipsters said Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, who was coached by late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, put off an IPO because of concern that it would adversely affect the company's culture. A former Facebook employee revealed last year that Zuckerberg had modeled his "aggressive" early management style after Jobs.

Facebook eventually ran up against a government regulation that would require the company to publicly disclose its financial information once it had more than 500 shareholders. As such, Zuckerberg reportedly decided that an IPO was a better option than releasing financial information while remaining private.

The IPO will take place within a difficult economic climate, but analysts expect it to attract plenty of interest.

"The excitement around Facebook is still enormous," Max Wolff, an analyst at GreenCrest Capital who specializes in researching companies going public, told the Journal.

Peter Falvey, co-head of the technology banking group at Morgan Keegan & Co., admitted that the recent IPO environment "hasn't been particularly strong," but he noted that, with "the recent stock market strength and maybe some green shoots in the economy, there could be a fortuitous window for Facebook."

Apple and Facebook have maintained a delicate friendship in recent years. Though a Facebook app was one of the first applications on the App Store when it launched in 2008, an official iPad version didn't arrive until a year and a half after Apple released its touchscreen tablet. Jobs said in 2010 that Facebook had demanded "onerous terms" for compatibility with Apple's Ping social music discovery service. According to one report, talks between the two companies went on for 18 months before eventually breaking down.

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How Google’s New Privacy Policy Will Affect You

You’re on the way to a meeting. Traffic seems to be slowing. A text comes in: “You’re going to be late. Take the next exit for alternate route.” It’s from Google.

This is not Google’s version of Siri. It’s a result of the company’s push to use data it collects from you in novel ways that could be helpful, or unsettling.

“That’s not something I want my computer telling me. It’s creepy,” said Kurt Opsahl, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights advocacy organization located in San Francisco.

“Google has always collected information. That hasn’t changed,” Opsahl said. “But information that was once siloed will now be co-mingled.”

Google’s new policy replaces more than 60 existing product-specific privacy documents, for services including Gmail , YouTube and Google Docs. Google says the unified terms will provide better search results and serve up ads that are more likely to be of interest. By combining your history across products, it will have more data to work with.

Connecting the dots

Further, Google will merge data from the products you use and then analyze it to make new assumptions. That example of getting a text when you are running late is from a Jan. 26 email that Google itself sent to users. If you have an Android phone, Google already knows your location. If you keep appointments in Google Calendar, it also knows where you are trying to go. By cross-referencing that data with its traffic information service, Google can send you that alert.

Opsahl also pointed out that there are many people who have more than one Google account, such as one they use for business and one for personal communication. If data from different accounts are pooled into one Google repository with your name on it, that could cause problems.

“If Google received a warrant to disclose documents, and your business and personal docs are intermingled — that’s a problem,” he said. “Some would like to say, “No, thank you” and keep their accounts separate.”

“Google should make it easy for people to set up and manage separate accounts if they wish to do so,” Opsahl said.

Trouble ahead

While the new policy doesn’t eliminate users’ ability to set up different accounts under different names, Google intends to use data such as search history, whom you contact most frequently and your location to serve you better without regard for the partitions you may have created. “In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products,” Google said.

The policy change could create problems for those who go by different names. Google’s new text reads:

“We may use the name you provide for your Google Profile across all of the services we offer that require a Google Account. In addition, we may replace past names associated with your Google Account so that you are represented consistently across all our services.”

Google+  requires real names while YouTube does not. Starting March 1, your real name could appear across Google products. If you’re hardworking accountant Jim by day and posting your Glee-inspired musical renditions on YouTube by night, you might have some explaining to do.

Take it or leave it

But Google has taken an-all-or-nothing position. “If you continue to use Google services after March 1, you’ll be doing so under the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. If you’d prefer to close your Google Account, you can follow the instructions in our help center,” reads Google’s FAQ page. Google says it remains committed to its data liberation policy, meaning you can request a copy of all of your data to use elsewhere when you close your Google account.

To get a glimpse of what Google knows about you, visit your Dashboard. Login to Google, go to “Account Settings,” select “Products” and then “Login to dashboard.” You’ll see a listing of the products you use and your most recent activity for each, including the last Web page you visited, your top three contacts and how many Google docs you’ve created.

Imagine the ways that data could be used — is it a “beautifully simple, intuitive user experience,” as Google says, or just plain creepy?

5SE3WWJFUY9D

What to Make of RIM Appointing Thorsten Heins as CEO

It is a pretty big change for Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie to step down. During the conference call this morning RIM’s new chairman of the board Barbara pointed out that the appointment of Thorsten Heins was supposedly came from Mike and Jim. That is leading some to think that he is essentially a puppet for RIM’s previous CEOs but it is way too early to judge. On the other hand there are some things that he has made very clear.

• He thinks RIM is on the right course for success and does not need drastic changes to the strategy Jim & Mike started when they decided to acquire QNX 18 months ago
• He drives a BMW motorcycle which is part of his German heritage (I respect him just for that!)
• Thorsten believes that RIM needs to double down on consumers with marketing targeted towards them which they started with the Be Bold campaign. Hopefully a new CMO will be selected soon.

The most important part of Thorsten’s announcements as CEO was the fact that he plans on streamlining the R&D, prototyping, and release schedules. That means RIM will no longer try to innovate during the release cycle which is what has caused them delays in the past. He plans on enforcing accountability and deadlines and confirmed that PlayBook OS 2.0 is coming in February. I agree that this is one of the biggest changes that needs to happen at RIM. They need to drive changes to market faster than ever before. They can no longer do their old 18 months from announcement to release cycle. They need to deliver consistant solid results and focus on their strengths.

Hopefully Thorsten is the right guy to deliver on RIM’s promise! He definitely will have a busy 2012.

RIM's new CEO is willing to entertain BlackBerry licensing proposals

Running through this morning's conference call again, Research In Motion's shiny new CEO, Thorsten Heins, had a lot to say about about BlackBerry's large-scale strategic direction, particularly previous hints that they would be willing to license the operating system to other manufacturers.

"Now, on the licensing piece, I'm absolutely confident that BlackBerry 10 will prove itself as a platform. If there is requests coming towards Research In Motion to talk about licensing that platform to other companies, I will entertain those discussions, I will listen, I will assess the business opportunity for RIM, and if it makes sense strategically and tactically to go down that path, then I will make the decision together with the board. It's not my focus one. My focus one is strengthen RIM's business based on their integrated approach because there's not many companies out there that have this. One is the other fruit company that has it, and one is us, and I want to leverage this. This is a very, very strong asset to have. A former colleague of mine once said 'trust you're successful in business when you're in the nervous system of your customers'. You can translate this into 'you're successful when you have the biggest value contribution to your customer's business', and this is where BlackBerry is, and this is where I want to stay, and this is what I want to build upon."

It's certainly not news that RIM is willing to flirt with cross-platform arrangements, what with the Android player running on the BlackBerry PlayBook, and iOS support on the way in RIM's enterprise management console. Historically, RIM had even shoehorned most of the OS into Windows Mobile, and with the relatively recent Bing partnership, it wouldn't be surprising to see another cross-over emerge for Windows Phone. 

Still, Thorsten made a point to say that this isn't a high priority, and that he has a ton of confidence in BlackBerry 10 to be able to stand on its own, thankyewverymuch. What do you guys think - is there a chance at a BlackBerry Connect revival?

Mac platform faced 58 malware threats from Q2 to Q4 2011

Mac OS X endured 58 separate malware attacks from April 2011 to December 2011, a small fraction when compared to Microsoft's Windows operating system, according to a new summary from a security research firm.
Security lab F-Secure released its 2011 Mac Malware Summary earlier this week, noting that Apple's platform had faced "several dozen" new threats throughout the year. To calculate the figures, the firm counted unique variants of malware that occurred during the second, third and fourth quarters of 2011.
"We prefer a more conservative approach when counting malware. The more generic and family based, the better," the report noted.
According to the summary, a total of 58 malicious software variants were detected during the period. Trojan-downloaders made up the bulk of the attacks with 29 variants during the period. Backdoor malware was the second-most common with 15 separate instances detected.
The report pointed out that the number of malware attacks remained small when compared to Windows malware, though it did note that last year's number was "definitely something" when compared to the number of Mac threats seen in previous years.

June was the busiest month for Mac malware with 12 known threats, followed by October with 11 instances.
"As we correctly predicted back in May, Mac malware has not scaled continuously due to market share, but rather, is more the result of opportunist "bubble economies" that have produced new threats in fits and starts," researchers said, adding that they expect "more of the same" for 2012.

Last spring, a malware emerged that billed itself as MACDefender anti-virus software. Apple eventually dealt with the issue with a security update. A Russian online payment site was later linked to the MACDefender scam.
Another Mac OS X trojan was discovered posing as a phony Flash Player last September. An updated version of the software even sought to disable Apple's built-in anti-malware capabilities.
Apple added a daily malware definitions check to Mac OS X last year in order to preempt possible attacks. In some cases, updates to the malware definitions have managed to head off threats before they became functional.
As for the iPhone, iOS remained relatively unaffected by malware last year. Security researchers found Apple's mobile operating system to be untouched last August, even as threats to Google's Android mobile operating system grew rapidly.

What Are SOPA and PIPA And Why All The Fuss?

Knowing that Wikipedia would go dark for 24 hours in protest to SOPA and PIPA, I took the precaution of printing it out last night. Just kidding. Wikipedia is huge. I wanted to say just how big it is, but when I went to Googleto look up “size of Wikipedia,” most of the relevant results directed me to articles on Wikipedia which, of course, is dark for the day.

Google didn’t go dark but it did black out its logo and has a link to “Tell Congress: Please don’t censor the web!” with a link to an online petition.

What are SOPA and PIPA and why are people upset?

This is all because of two pieces of legislation: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and its Senate companion bill, the Protect IP Act (PIPA).  The purpose of these bills is to make it harder for sites — especially those located outside the United States — to sell or distribute pirated copyrighted material such as movies and music as well as physical goods such as counterfeit purses and watches. Even most of SOPA and PIPA’s strongest opponents applaud the intentions of the legislation while deploring what it might actually accomplish.

Although its sponsors have said that they would amend the bill, as currently written, SOPA would enable the U.S. Attorney General to seek a court order to require “a service provider (to) take technically feasible and reasonable measures designed to prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site.” Until this weekend, one of the ways to do that would have been to cut the DNS (domain name server) records that point to the site, but that provision is likely to be removed after the Obama administration weighed in on the issue over the weekend, saying “Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small.” The administration also echoed concerns raised by a number of security experts, including some anti-malware companies that the bill could disrupt the underlying architecture of the Internet.

The White House statement coincided with sponsors agreeing to remove the DNS blocking provisions. Still, the bill could require search engines like Google to delete any links to the sites.

These are not partisan bills. SOPA and PIPA have proponents and opponents on both sides of the aisle.

The bill would require sites to refrain from linking to any sites “dedicated to the theft of U.S. property.” It would also prevent companies from placing on the sites and block payment companies like Visa, Mastercard and Paypal from transmitting funds to the site. For more, see this blog post on Reddit.

The problem with this is that the entire site would be affected, not just that portion that is promoting the distribution of illegal material. It would be a bit like requiring the manager of a flea market to shut down the entire market because some of the merchants were selling counterfeit goods.

The bill would also cut off funding by prohibiting payment services from cooperating with infringing sites.

Opponents say it would create an “internet blacklist.”

As CBSNews.com said in its analysis, there are existing laws, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) that require operators to remove specific infringing content. SOPA and PIPA would go after entire domains. Also see Declan McCullagh’s How SOPA would affect you:FAQ on CNET News.

Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley

These bills have pitted the entertainment industry against the technology industry. “Hollywood” has a legitimate interest in protecting its intellectual property. Not only are profits at stake but so are jobs. Thousands of Americans make their living by dreaming up content and selling it to the world and piracy does in fact take money out of their pockets.  Silicon Valley has invested billions in creating companies that freely distribute information. While Google and every other Silicon Valley company must respect copyrights, they thrive on helping people find what they want. If, suddenly, every web site that had links to other sites had to worry that they could be in violation of the law by linking to a “banned” site, it could put undo pressure on these companies. There is also worry that SOPA and PIPA could be abused and lead to censorship for purposes other than intellectual property protection.

Are the protests having any effect?

Shutting down Wikipedia for a day or blacking out the Google logo won’t stop these bills in their tracks, but they have raised an enormous amount of awareness about the issue. As a result, it is likely that these bills will continue to be amended and, though they may pass in some fashion, they are likely to be quite different than they were when first proposed.

Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang resigns

Yahoo announced the resignation of its cofounder Jerry Yang today, stating that he is leaving to pursue other interests.
Yang started Yahoo in 1995 with David Filo, developing the site as an Internet guide based on work the two created as students at Stanford in 1994. Yang had served on Yahoo's board of directors since its founding, and acted as the company's chief executive from 2007 through 2009, when he was replaced by Carol Bartz.
In an official statement, Yang said his time at Yahoo "encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life."
He added, "As I leave the company I co-founded nearly 17 years ago, I am enthusiastic about the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer and his ability, along with the entire Yahoo! leadership team, to guide Yahoo! into an exciting and successful future.”
Thompson formerly helped PayPal to dramatically expand its operations; he was named Yahoo's chief executive earlier this month after the company dramatically fired Bartz as CEO over the phone last September.
Yahoo's Internet directory service rapidly lost ground to Google search, and the company has been unable to win back share even after buying Overture, which owned the business model Google used to achieve its success in selling paid search placement.
More recently, Yahoo has been beaten in advertising by Facebook. In 2008, Microsoft attempted to buy the company for $44.24 billion, an unsolicited bid the board rejected, claiming that it substantially undervalued the company and was not in the interest of its shareholders. Today, Yahoo's entire market capitalization is $19.14 billion.

ASUS offers refunds and extended warranties to piqued Prime customers in the UK

If the Ice Cream Sandwich update, bug fixes and piles of apologies from the folks at ASUS just aren't cutting it and you happen to live in the UK, then we've got some good news for you. You are free to take your Transformer Prime back to the shop for a full refund. Don't expect turn around and pick up that updated TF700T with your haul, though, it won't be hitting shelves in merry ol' England till at least June. If you choose to keep your dockable tablet, ASUS will offer an extended warranty of 18 months, just to soothe your panicked mind that wakes you with night terrors about GPS issues and unknown serial numbers.

Apple Store launch:Mess in China

As promised , selling of the iPhone 4S in China and in other countries has begun. No Apple product was launched without long lines and frustration but all the expectations have been exceeded now. Some fights were breaking out near the Apple’s “main store in Beijing” between the people who just wanted to buy the phone. Some of them waited overnight in the freezing cold (-9 degrees) to become the first to purchase the phone. 

The store was pelted with eggs too from a crowd of about 500 people. Reason of the action was that opening the store was delayed by at least an hour. Apple had advertised that the store would open at 7 a.m. and at 7.15 a.m. people began crying “Open the door!” and “Liars!” The conflict was significant enough to attract the attention of police; it temporarily cordoned off the shop. The company has become a victim of its own success...

Therefore Apple has decided to postpone the retail availability of its iPhone 4S at the stores in Beijing and Shanghai. People can get the device through Apple’s Web site or buy at China Unicom and other authorized resellers.

An Apple spokesman told: “The demand for iPhone 4S has been incredible, and our stores in China have already sold out. Unfortunately, we were unable to open our store at Sanlitun due to the large crowd, and to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, iPhone will not available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being.”

 

Relationship between Apple and T-Mobile

As the American carriers have begun selling Apple’s hit device, T-Mobile has been left out of the “game.” At the Consumer Electronics Show CEO of the company admitted today that the lack of the iPhones has hurt its ability to retain subscribes, particularly high-value-contract ones.

Last October, when the iPhone 4S  came to some carriers, expressing interest to Apple, T-Mobile posted a blog, saying it was Apple’s decision that they “still don’t have the iPhone.”

Chief technology officer of T-Mobile Neville Ray believes that the iPhone never made it to T-Mobile because of the unique band of spectrum (AWS), which it uses for its wireless network. That would have required extra work to ensure the iPhone ran correctly on the network. But the next chipset that Apple is going to use will overcome the hurdle. He claims that he has seen the roadmap of chipsets that Apple plans to use and it has that capability. Ray said: "The next chipset will support AWS; the challenge that existed in the past will go away." Though Apple can ignore that capability and not strike a deal with T-Mobile.

No matter T-Mobile get the iPhone or no, it is widely believed that the next version of the  Apple phone will run on LTE (Long Term Evolution) which is where the other major carriers are headed.

Top 5 Compact Android Phones

The Android OS created quite a buzz in the smartphone segment and now it is the most widely used Mobile phone OS in the planet surpassing the likes of Apple’s iOS and Windows from Microsoft.

Initially Android powered Smartphones were big in size and price, but now the scenario has changed. Increase in completion has led to the decrease in prize as well as size of phones.

Now there is a considerably sized mid segment Android market which caters to a large majority of users. Advancements made in technology have enabled phones to become more compact. Today we take a look at some of the smallest Android Smartphones available that can easily fit in your pocket.

1. Samsung Galaxy Y

Undoubtedly the star of 2011, the Galaxy Y has created a whole new plethora for Smartphones that are small, affordable and stylish without compromising on any kind of functionality of the Android OS.

 

The Galaxy Y has everything from 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, 2 Mega Pixel Camera, full touch screen 3 inch display and so on. This amazing phone is very small and can easily fit into our palms. The phone is priced at just Rs7100.

2. Spice Mi 310

Spice has got its tactics right with the Mi 310. The phone runs on Android 2.2 Froyo version and is equipped with a small 3.2 inch full capacitive touch screen based display. The phone is a mixed bag in terms of reviews.

 

 

It has a poorly rated 2 mega pixel camera but has a lot of quality elements comparable to bigger brands. Connectivity options like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G internet usage is available. On the flip side, it is available only in a somewhat boring brown tone. The Spice Mi 310 is priced cheaply at just Rs 6915.

3. Micromax Bling 2

The shiny and lustrous appearance does make the cute Bling 2 a choice for the fairer sex. The phone is very compact but sports interesting tech specifications like a fully blown 600 MHz processor, Android 2.2 Froyo OS and up to 16 GB of expandable memory.

The phone is very interestingly priced at just Rs 6200 and you get an awesome designer case designed by ace designer Satya Paul along with the phone for this price.

4. Sony Ericsson W8

The lightweight W8 from Sony Ericsson has a small 3.0 inch capacitive touch screen based display and houses a 600 MHz processor that does an effective job in managing the phone.

However, the Android OS found in the W8 is Eclair which is now an outdated Android OS. The phone is good for music buffs though and is priced a little high at around Rs 9600.

5. LG Optimus Net

LG has always been a pioneer in compact phones in the entry level segment and the Android segment sure did keep that tradition with the Optimus Net which has a 3.2 inch touch screen display in addition to the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS.

The phone packs in an 800 MHz processor in addition to the 512 MB of RAM. It is quite a decent package for a small phone. The Optimus Net retails for around Rs 9900.