LG inks Sky deal for exclusive Now TV streaming access on smart TVs HD

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When LG invited us to an event in (thankfully) sunny London, we thought we'd be hearing about 4K, curved OLED and huge price tags. It wasn't about hardware at all, in fact, as LG announced it has partnered with Sky to add the Now TV movie and sport streaming service to its smart TV line-up. Starting in August, Now TV content will be exclusive to LG sets for "a minimum of 12 months." Those purchasing new home entertainment kit will get three months of free access to Now TV's movie catalogue, as well as three free 24-hour sports passes. If you're in possession of an LG smart TV from this year or last, or a 2013 era Blu-ray player or home cinema system, you may miss the introductory offer but will still be able to download the Now TV app. The only kicker is that Now TV doesn't currently broadcast HD content, so don't expect those movies to pop on your 84-inch 4K monster.

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Posted in: Computer

Lenovo's first Snapdragon 800 phone leaked as the K6 or X910 Mobile

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Despite the fact that Lenovo hasn't yet embraced the Snapdragon 600 SoC, it looks like the Chinese company's finally giving Qualcomm a proper chance with the latter's more powerful Snapdragon 800. Starting yesterday, several cheeky images of an unannounced dual-SIM Android phone -- codenamed K6 or X910 -- popped up in Lenovo's official Chinese forum. The photo after the break shows AnTuTu indicating the presence of the relatively new MSM8974 chip (with Adreno 330 GPU) plus a 1,920 x 1,080 display (which looks like a 5-inch panel to us); so unless the app made a mistake, what we have here could be Lenovo's upcoming flagship device.
While not much else has been said about the phone, one of the leaksters described it as thin and light, and that it felt good in hand. But to be honest, we're not too thrilled with the design ID here, especially with that K860-inspired back. What's interesting, though, is that according to a source of ours, the "X" in X910 may be a wildcard that depends on the kind of deal Lenovo made with Qualcomm. At this point, we've been told to assume it'll eventually become the K910, which would, sadly, make this phone an uglier successor to the Intel-powered K900. Either way, chances are we won't be seeing many of these outside China, anyway.

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Posted in: Computer

Geeksphone Peak+ up for preorder at €149 with Firefox OS 1.1, 1GB RAM Mobile

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Interested in jumping on the Geeksphone Firefox OS bandwagon? Its first consumer-oriented device, the Peak+, is up for pre-order and we now know a lot more about it. It doubles up the RAM to 1GB over its Peak and Keon developer siblings, while packing the same 4.3-inch qHD display, 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon CPU, 4GB of storage (with a microSD expansion slot), 8-megapixel rear camera and 1,800 mAh battery as the original Peak. It's also boasting the latest Firefox OS flavor, version 1.1, which brings faster boot times and fewer bugs, along with 25GB of cloud storage. You can reserve one at €149 for a limited time with delivery promised by mid-September -- so, if you've been looking go above the usual smartphone OS fray, check the source.

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Posted in: Computer

How would you change Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1?

­DNP Samsung Galaxy Note 101 review  Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1 promised plenty, but when we reviewed it, it didn't quite hit all of its marks. Maybe it was the high price when judged against its plastic chassis, or perhaps that our reviewer really wanted a better display than the 1,280 x 800 LCD that was provided. On the upside, the unit's multitasking prowess can't be dissed, but we did gripe that it was still using Ice Cream Sandwich rather than Jelly Bean. Still, we're sure plenty of people purchased this thing, so why not tell us what you liked and more importantly, what you would have changed?

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Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1 promised plenty, but when we reviewed it, it didn't quite hit all of its marks. Maybe it was the high price when judged against its plastic chassis, or perhaps that our reviewer really wanted a better display than the 1,280 x 800 LCD that was provided. On the upside, the unit's multitasking prowess can't be dissed, but we did gripe that it was still using Ice Cream Sandwich rather than Jelly Bean. Still, we're sure plenty of people purchased this thing, so why not tell us what you liked and more importantly, what you would have changed?

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Posted in: Mobile Phones

WSJ: Apple testing larger iPhone, iPad screens with suppliers

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Rumors that Apple is looking to super-size its upcoming iPhone and iPad lineups are gathering steam, thanks to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal. It cited Apple's suppliers in Asia, who said that Cupertino is testing a 12.9-inch iPad design and prototype iPhone screens larger than the current four inches. While Apple wouldn't comment, of course, that jibes with an earlier Reuters report, which claimed it was considering 4.7- and 5.7-inch iPhone screens. If accurate (and that's always a big if with such rumors), the report doesn't necessarily mean that products with larger displays will ever come to market -- Apple routinely changes specs and tests components during the development cycle. Still, it would be further evidence that the company's willing to bend on its one-size-fits-all screen size policy, which is something that the large-handed (or weak-eyed) among us might appreciate.

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Posted in: Mobile Phones

Apple reveals that developer portal was hacked, announces system overhaul

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Naturally, the company is taking the breach very seriously, and has said that it'll be rebuilding its entire developer system database and updating servers to prevent future incursions. Apple also assured developers whose developer accounts were up for renewal during the outage would not have their software pulled from the App Store. Furthermore, the company told MacWorld that customer information and app code was not compromised during the attack.
Naturally, the company is taking the breach very seriously, and has said that it'll be rebuilding its entire developer system database and updating servers to prevent future incursions. Apple also assured developers whose developer accounts were up for renewal during the outage would not have their software pulled from the App Store. Furthermore, the company told MacWorld that customer information and app code was not compromised during the attack.

Been paying attention to Twitter recently? You might have noticed Apple developers complaining about the company's developer portal, which has been out of service for a number of days. Today, Apple acknowledged the outage, explaining that the site was taken down to combat a security breach. "Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed," Cupertino told developers in an email. "However, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers' names, mailing address and/or email addresses may have been accessed."

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Mozilla thinking about separating profile folders for Firefox editions

Firefox users have two options currently to run different editions of the browser side by side. They can use one profile for all editions, or use separate profiles for each edition. The first option may be more comfortable as changes made to one edition are automatically available in all other editions as well, but it is also increasing the likelihood of issues that arise when a single profile is shared.
It is usually better to use individual profiles for each version of Firefox to avoid any issues that may otherwise arise from sharing profiles. While that means using the profile manager to make sure the right profile is launched each time, it is a one-time configuration change. I have detailed the process in this guide. What you need to do basically is to launch each version of Firefox with the -p profilename command, with each profilename pointing to a unique profile that is only used when that version of the browser is started.

This is however a move the user needs to undertake to use different profiles for each version of the browser.  A new bug was filed recently on Bugzilla in which the author suggested to automate that process to get more users to try out Nightly (and provide Mozilla with more test data).
While this may sound like a good idea, it may have its drawbacks as well. While some users may be inclined to install Nightly if it is set to use a different profile automatically, existing users may use Nightly less if profiles were to be separated. This comes partially from the fact that it is difficult to keep all data in sync automatically, so that it is available in all installed versions of Firefox.
If that is not the case anymore, Nightly may see less usage as users may prefer to use the stable version of the browser instead more often.
The proposal is mostly helpful for users and developers who want to run multiple versions of Firefox on the same system and do not know about the profile manager and its commands. That's however mostly a communication issue and not of the underlying system as it works just fine for that purpose.

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Cyber attacks a threat to world's stock exchanges

NEW YORK — Around half of the world's securities exchanges were the target of cyber-attacks last year, according to a paper based on a survey of 46 exchanges released on Tuesday.
The prevalence of attacks along with the interconnected nature of the markets creates the potential for widespread impact, said the joint staff working paper by the International Organization of Securities Commissions' (IOSCO) research department and the World Federation of Exchanges Office.
"There could be systemic impacts ... from cyber attacks in the securities markets, especially considering that our financial system is relying more and more on technological infrastructure," the report's author, Rohini Tendulkar of the IOSCO Research Department, said in an interview.
Among the exchanges surveyed, 53 percent said they experienced a cyber attack last year. The most common forms were Denial of Service attacks, which seek to disrupt websites and other computer systems by overwhelming the targeted organizations' networks with computer traffic, and viruses.
Other forms of cyber-crimes reported by the exchanges included laptop theft, website scanning, data theft, and insider information theft. None of the exchanges reported financial theft as part of the attacks.
"Cyber-crime also appears to be increasing in terms of sophistication and complexity, widening the potential for infiltration and large-scale damage," the report said, adding that a major attack could result in widespread public mistrust and a retreat from the markets.
In Britain, worries over hacking and other cyber attacks have pushed aside the euro zone crisis as the top risk for that country's banks, a senior Bank of England official said last month.
In the United States, exchange operators Nasdaq OMX Group and BATS Global Markets said in February of last year that they were targeted with denial of service attacks. In October 2011, NYSE Euronext's New York Stock Exchange's website was inaccessible for 30 minutes, according to an Internet monitoring company, but the exchange said there was no interruption of service.
And in 2010, hackers who infiltrated Nasdaq's computer systems installed malicious software that allowed them to spy on the directors of publicly held companies, Reuters reported.
There is limited data on the costs of cyber-crime to securities markets, but the paper said a number of studies have looked at the costs of cyber-crime to society as a whole, with estimates ranging between $388 billion to $1 trillion.
The exchanges in the survey said the direct and indirect cost of cyber-attacks cost them each less than $1 million last year.
A spokeswoman for BATS said on Tuesday the exchange operator invests heavily in proactive security technology, and has made some significant hires on the security side, though for competitive and security issues, she could not give more details.
Nasdaq and NYSE declined to comment.
The lack of widely available insurance against cyber-crime adds to the risk, as nearly four in five exchanges would have to bear the costs of a major attack themselves, the survey found.
The 58-page report said the survey of exchanges was the first of a series of surveys on cyber-crime across different types of securities market actors.

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Japan:Talking Robot To Be Sent Into Space

Japan is to send a talking robot into space to see how machines that communicate are able to work with humans.

The robot has been developed by scientists from the Kirobo project - named after "kibo" or hope in Japanese - and is capable of holding a conversation with people.
It is scheduled to be launched from the Tanegashima Space Center on August 4.
The spacecraft it will be carried on will dock with the International Space Station (ISS) where it will stay until the arrival in November of Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.
Wakata is the first Japanese commander of an ISS mission and, on arrival in orbit, he will converse with the robot in the first experiment of its kind.
The experiment is designed to test whether an autonomous robot can provide assistance to humans on space missions by communicating directly with them.
Yorichika Nishijima, manager in charge of the project to create the robots, said: "Russia was the first to go outer space; the US was the first to go to the moon; we want Japan to be the first to send a robot-astronaut to space that can communicate with humans."
The experiment is a collaboration between the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo, Robo Garage,
advertising and PR company Dentsu Inc. and Toyota Motor Corp.
During a demonstration, Fuminori Kataoka, project general manager from Toyota, asked Kirobo what its dream was.
"I want to create a future where humans and robots can live together and get along," it answered.
Because Kirobo does not need to perform physical activities, as it is only an experimental project, it is smaller than most robots that go into space.
Kirobo is about 34cm tall (13ins) and weighs about 1kg (2.2lbs).
Its land-based counterpart Mirata looks almost identical but is not designed to go into outer space. Instead, it has the ability to learn through the conversations it has.

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Microsoft Opens New Windows After System Revamp

Microsoft has released a preview version of an update to Windows 8 in an attempt to address users' concerns about the flagship operating system.

The company has back-pedalled on its original concept for Windows 8, which was built on a radical tile-based "Modern" user interface.
At a conference in San Francisco, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the tech giant would now make it easier to reach and use the older Windows "Desktop" interface.
"Let's make it easier to start applications the way we're used to," Mr Ballmer told the audience of software developers.
"What we will show you today is a refined blend of our Desktop experience and our Modern experience."
Microsoft made the preview of Windows 8.1 available for free as a download.
Windows 8.1 will allow people to boot up in Desktop mode. Users will also find a button that resembles the old Start button.
A common complaint about Windows 8 is that it hides features and functions, and replaces buttons with gestures and invisible click zones that have to be memorized.
Other new features of Windows 8.1 include more options to use multiple apps.
People will be able to determine how much of the screen each app takes while showing up to four different programmes, rather than just two.
Frank Gillett, an analyst with research firm Forrester, said that with 8.1 Microsoft is doing a better job of uniting the Desktop and Modern screens but the changes are superficial.
"They smoothed off some rough edges, but they don't fundamentally change the experience of having two experiences within one operating system," he said.
The preview version of Windows 8.1 is meant for Microsoft's partners and other technology developers but anyone can download it.
The release comes exactly eight months after desktops, laptops and tablets with Windows 8 went on sale.
The version of the Windows 8.1 update meant for the general public will come later in the year.

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Robot Footballers On The Pitch At RoboCup

More than 1,000 robots have rolled onto a football pitch in the Netherlands to show off their sporting skills.

The machines might not be able to bend the ball like Beckham, their attacks lack the pace of a Barcelona charge and they struggle to stay on their feet as much as some professional players do.
However, a WiFi internet connection allows them to communicate with their team mates and their built-in celebrations rival those of Peter Crouch, the former England player famed for his robotic dance moves. Organizers of the RoboCup tournament hope a team of all-star androids will be able to defeat the human World Cup winners by 2050, although team members at the event in Eindhoven admit more training is needed.
Marcell Missura, of the University of Bonn, said the robots' game was "starting to look soccer", but added: "To be honest, I think a three-year-old could win against any of the humanoid teams."
However, Dickens He, of the University of Pennsylvania, said: "There are no mistakes - a robot does what it is programmed to do."

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