Tech Roundup: Jun 14, 2012
Better just got more better? Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this year aimed at showcasing their flagship next-gen MacBook Pro, now upgraded with Retina Display technology and saw the tech giant announce Mac OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6, which will see the light this fall. iOS 6's main highlights include entrenched Facebook integration, Siri for the new iPad, FaceTime over cellular networks and an indigenous 3D Maps solution for iPhone / iPad. It's worth noting that the latest mobile operating system will leave out the original iPad and the third-gen iPod touch. Even then it's not all. Though iPhone 3GS and 4 will get a taste of iOS 6, they are most likely to miss out on several key features owing to their hardware constraints.
Meanwhile, Google, days prior to the WWDC, announced a revamp of their popular Maps utility. The prominent among them encompasses offline maps for Android (already available as a Labs feature) and radical improvements to its 3D maps. It also has committed to keeping the service available in all platforms (including iOS) despite Apple's latest move to do away with the dependency altogether.
There is no information yet on Flame's origins, but the complexity of the attack and the presence of this 'suicide' code to remove itself from targeted systems suggest that Flame originated from a nation-state rather than a fringe group. The malware is primarily active on systems in the Middle East and North Africa, with the highest concentration of infections found in Iran and Israel. It is also now revealed that after examining an earlier version of Stuxnet (a US / Israeli-developed cyberweapon that began targeting Iranian nuclear facilities in 2009), Kaspersky lab's researchers find that a previously overlooked module within the virus is now providing the "missing link" between the two pieces of malware.
In other news:
Meanwhile, Google, days prior to the WWDC, announced a revamp of their popular Maps utility. The prominent among them encompasses offline maps for Android (already available as a Labs feature) and radical improvements to its 3D maps. It also has committed to keeping the service available in all platforms (including iOS) despite Apple's latest move to do away with the dependency altogether.
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The professional social network LinkedIn became a victim of a massive hack attack after a user in a Russian forum claimed to be behind the attempt that has purportedly revealed 6.46 million user passwords. Hours after investigation, the company confirmed that 'some' member passwords were stolen, but chose to remain mum on the exact number.
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Just when the US carriers are gearing up for Sammy's super-phone Galaxy S III, Apple made an unsuccessful attempt to thwart the phone from being sold by accusing the Korean electronics manufacturer of infringing its patents (slide to unlock and smart links features mainly). However, its efforts to ban it before the launch date seem to be in vain, with the judge overseeing the case having his calendar already full. But I get the feeling that this patent war is getting rather childish and puerile. Some innovations simply can't rest with an individual or a company, particularly when they are meant to achieve compatibility and interoperability.
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In a stark contrast, Twitter has announced that it's seeing increasing mobile revenues when its counterpart Facebook is struggling in the same space. It has revealed that its revenues through mobile apps and website recently surpassed non-mobile revenues. Also, the social network now handles 400 million tweets daily, up from the 340 million a day number back in April. Most recently, it unveiled a brand new events page - named Twitter Events, each event (denoted with hashtags in tweets) gets a unique landing page which can be a big boost to advertisers. One such can be found here. It has also introduced an expanded tweet feature where in it's possible to embed more content beyond the 140 character limit.
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Security firm Symantec has witnessed Flame malware removing itself from infected machines, overwriting the information with random characters to cover its tracks. This process was discovered late last week on Symantec's "honeypot" computers, or machines that are purposely infected with malware for the purpose of monitoring and studying its behavior. Symantec's blog post on the finding says the instigating file is called "browse32.exe" and it uninstalls all traces of the malware — including this file — and replaces it with randomly generated characters, effectively blocking any attempt to investigate its presence. The so-called 'suicide' code was not successful at removing Flame from Symantec's computers, and the company determined that this version of the code was created on May 9th, before information on the malware became public, and was used as recently as two weeks ago.There is no information yet on Flame's origins, but the complexity of the attack and the presence of this 'suicide' code to remove itself from targeted systems suggest that Flame originated from a nation-state rather than a fringe group. The malware is primarily active on systems in the Middle East and North Africa, with the highest concentration of infections found in Iran and Israel. It is also now revealed that after examining an earlier version of Stuxnet (a US / Israeli-developed cyberweapon that began targeting Iranian nuclear facilities in 2009), Kaspersky lab's researchers find that a previously overlooked module within the virus is now providing the "missing link" between the two pieces of malware.
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CERN has confirmed that the anomalous results which indicated that neutrinos travelled faster than the speed of light were caused by faulty machinery. The findings were reported on heavily last September, and since then scientists the world over have been trying to explain how the neutrinos broke one of the fundamental laws of physics. Earlier this year, there was word that the team behind the results had found possible faults in its test equipment, and the error has now been confirmed.
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In a breaking news today, Nokia has undergone a massive leadership shakeup and plans to lay off 10,000 jobs by 2013. Moreover, CEO Stephen Elop has reaffirmed his company's commitment to Microsoft's Windows Phone platform and plans to aggressively compete with Android by coming up with cheaper WP based smartphones.In other news:
- Microsoft has sold 600 million licenses of Windows 7 operating system till now.
- Micro-blogging giant Twitter gets a new bird logo, to no longer have the text 'twitter' in accompaniment.
- London Olympics will be broadcast live in 64 countries in Asia and Africa via YouTube.
- Rovio Angry Birds Space downloaded over 100 million times two months after its release.
- Google Chrome for Windows 8 Release Preview now available for download.
- Facebook launches App Center for discovering apps on iOS and Android that use FB integration.
- Sony Xperia Mini Pro gets Ice-Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) update, unveils low-end Android 4.0 smartphones.
- Apple to pay $2.25 million as settlement over iPad '4G' branding controversy in Australia.
- Bing to partner with Encyclopaedia Britannica for better search results, already embedding Qwiki videos.
- Google supplants Yandex to become the default search engine for Mozilla Firefox 14 in Russia.
- Facebook rolls out tighter Twitter integration.
- Android smartphones reach 900K activations per day.
- Tonio Lamborghini to launch luxury smartphones in Russia later this year.
- Nokia Maps to replace its Bing counterpart in Windows Phone 8, according to rumors.
- Amazon outs Cloud Player app for iOS devices to play music stored in Amazon cloud.
- Twitter rolls out Tailored Trends, reflect your location and interests.
- Ping to be cut off from the next iTunes release.
- Nokia 808 PureView smartphone makes India debut at Rs. 33899.
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