Category: News

If you’re waiting for the days of a “toll-free” mobile internet, you may not have to wait much longer. Speaking at a Morgan Stanley investor conference on Wednesday, AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said he expects content providers and app developers soon to starting paying the network freight for their content, FierceWireless reported.

Content providers could do this through direct payments to carriers, Stephenson said, but according to Fierce, he also said they could subsidize data costs through some kind of advertising revenue share. The end result, though, would be the same: content providers who pay would see their traffic exempted from customers’ mobile data caps.

Randall Stephenson

Stephenson comments come a week after reports that arch-competitor Verizon Wireless is in discussions with ESPN for just such a toll-free data deal. What seemed like a crazy suggestion from AT&T and other carriers last year, now looks like it might become reality. But is it a reality we really want?

A content provider-subsidized internet would be appealing to many consumers, especially those on AT&T and Verizon since carriers have hunted the unlimited data plan to the point of extinction. Imagine streaming Netflix movies and ESPN games to your heart’s content without ever worrying about exceeding your data cap or incurring overage fees.

But as I pointed out last week there could be some major unintended — or if carriers are being really cynical, intended — consequences to adopting these kinds of subsidy models. Legally mobile operators aren’t subject to the same net neutrality guidelines as the wireline broadband providers, but if mobile carriers created two separate classes of mobile data traffic they could upset the delicate balance that makes the mobile internet the mobile internet:

… there are enormous consequences to such a deal. The biggest and most obvious consequence is that it favors one provider’s content over another. If all access is created equal, then no content has an inherent advantage over another — which is the whole idea behind the wireline network neutrality rules the FCC established in 2010. But if consumers know they can get ESPN’s content without incurring any additional charge, they’ll naturally gravitate toward that content.

There’s an even bigger risk that ESPN’s competitors won’t just get penalized in the eyes of the consumer. Their traffic flow could be penalized as well. Embedded deep within Verizon’s network are policy servers that can distinguish an ESPN packet from any other packet. Not only could Verizon use that technology to exempt ESPN traffic form data plans, it also could use that technology to prioritize ESPN’s traffic from all others. The  [Wall Street] Journal’s story didn’t mention anything about traffic shaping, but you can bet its high on the list in any negotiation.

What’s particularly noteworthy about Stephenson’s comments, though, is the mention of using advertising as a former of subsidy currency. Stephenson could just be talking about inserting carrier-generated advertising into their app ad engines as compensation for their free ride on the network. But the other implication is that AT&T wants a true revenue share, taking a cut off the top of any revenue generated from YouTube ads or any Netflix subscription used on mobile.

This is an old idea the mobile industry first proposed way before the advent of the smartphone – in an age when the mobile internet was still a walled garden and carriers its gatekeepers. The idea was that operators would become equal partners with content providers, and that’s a scary proposition. I doubt that content providers want to give the gate keys back to the carriers.

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Google has been rumored to be working on a new version to Google Maps and last night the world stumbled across a sign-up page for it, giving the rumor more credence. With this discovery, we now have an idea of what Google has in store for us with the new version. Even though the sign-up page was removed just as quickly as it went up, some pictures and information was still gathered from it. In the pictures, we can see that Google’s new version of Maps is taking on the Google Now card look, as well as improving areas of functionality. 

The new features include a, “smarter search box” for all your quarries, there is also a feature that allows you to compare travel options, to find the best route for your destination. One of those options is the Flight Search, which helps you find a flight, ticket prices, and travel times. Google has also added some of the features from Earth in to the new version of Maps, giving it a 3D look in some areas. I wonder if the recent addition of Street View in Google Earth has a connection here because there was no mention if these features will be coming to mobile, however that is always subject to change.

I’m sure all of this will be announced today during the Keynote at I/O today, which can be watched live here as it happens starting at 9am PST. Our own Rob Nazarian is there to bring you the news as it happens. For now you can check out the pictures below for a better look of what’s most likely coming. 

Source: Droid Life

Come comment on this article: New Google Maps sign-up page goes live for a brief moment and gives us a glimpse of new features in the process

Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo has revealed their portfolio of devices for the summer months which includes a new Sony Xperia A device. The Japanese version seems to be a bit different from the device carrying the same name that recently slid through the FCC on its way to U.S. carriers. The Japanese version sports a 4.6-inch screen, 1.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chip, and runs Android 4.1. This seems to put it as more of a mid-tier device whereas the U.S. version mirrors the top-tier Sony Xperia Z, only with a removable battery.

In addition to the Xperia A, NTT DoCoMo is also adding Sharp’s Aquos Phone Zeta and Aquos Pad, two devices that incorporate new, thinner displays. The Zeta device comes with a 4.8-inch full HD screen while the Aquos Pad is a 7-inch tablet that is approaching a full HD display resolution. Other manufacturers got their devices added to the portfolio, like the Panasonic Eluga and the 5.2-inch Fujitsu Arrows NX. All of these devices from Sharp, Panasonic and Fujitsu will come with Android 4.2.

source: NTT DoCoMo
via: phoneArena

Come comment on this article: Japan’s NTT DoCoMo releases summer 2013 device portfolio including Sony Xperia A

One of the stranger announcements at the PS4 event was Sucker Punch’s new inFamous game titled inFamous Second Son. It appears to be set in a dystopian London, not unlike the setting in V For Vendetta, where super powered vigilantes fight against overbearing law enforcement.

Now, we don’t know much about the game yet, but the team at Sucker Punch took a few minutes ouf of their day to talk with Game Informer about PS4 development, and what they like about developing for Sony’s new machine.

inFamous Second Son is expected to launch alongside the PlayStation 4 later this year.

Hiding in New York No. 7 — Made in China, 2012. Photo: courtesy of Eli Klein Fine Art, © Liu Bolin

Liu Bolin’s images invite a game akin to Where’s Waldo?. In some of the Chinese artist’s incredible photos, it’s clear where he is standing; in others, like the one above, it’s much harder to spot the outline of his body at all. It’s for this that Bolin has been called “The Invisible Man.”

Liu Bolin: The invisible manIn today’s TED Talk, Bolin shares the meaning behind these images — that they are a way to examine the relationship between culture and its development, and to speak for those who are rendered invisible by the Chinese government, by consumer culture or simply by the circumstances of history.

“From the beginning, this series has a protesting, reflective and uncompromising spirit,” says Bolin.  “I think that in art, an artist’s attitude is the most important element. If an artwork is to touch someone, it must be the result of not only technique, but also the artist’s thinking and struggles in life.”

In this talk, Bolin shows us the very first image in the series, taken in November of 2005. He reveals many, many more images too, giving a peak into his process of being painted into the background — which can take anywhere from 3 to 4 hours to 3 to 4 days. The talk ends with a timelapse, showing how Bolin disappeared into the TED stage. Watch the talk now »

Meanwhile, in this gallery, Bolin shares many more of his fantastical and powerful images, courtesy of Eli Klein Fine Art.

Hiding in the City No. 92 — Temple of Heaven, 2010. Photo: courtesy of Eli Klein Fine Art, © Liu Bolin

Teatro alla Scala, 2010. Photo: courtesy of Eli Klein Fine Art, © Liu Bolin

Hiding in the City — Mobile Phone, 2012. Photo: courtesy of Eli Klein Fine Art, © Liu Bolin

Hiding in the City No. 91 — Great Wall, 2010. Photo: courtesy of Eli Klein Fine Art, © Liu Bolin

Hiding in the City — Family Photo, 2012. Photo: courtesy of Eli Klein Fine Art, © Liu Bolin

Hiding in the City No. 86 — Bird’s Nest, 2009. Photo: courtesy of Eli Klein Fine Art, © Liu Bolin

Hiding in the City No. 16 and No. 17 — People’s Policeman, 2006. Photo: courtesy of Eli Klein Fine Art, © Liu Bolin

Dragon Series — Panel 3 of 9, 2010. Photo: courtesy of Eli Klein Fine Art, © Liu Bolin

Hiding in the City No. 71 — Bulldozer, 2008. Photo: courtesy of Eli Klein Fine Art, © Liu Bolin

Hiding in the City No. 94 — In The Woods, 2010. Photo: courtesy of Eli Klein Fine Art, © Liu Bolin

Read a Q&A with Bolin from TED2013, in which he talks a bit more about his process »

For more information on Liu Bolin, and to see much more of his work, head to his site at Eli Klein Fine Art »

There may not be any new hardware announced at Google I/O, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any surprises. Multiple sources have told us that Google is going to bring Google+ into Google Apps as a back-end communications system, allowing you to talk to co-workers while simultaneously working on a document.

Sources say that as cloud-base collaboration is becoming more and more important, Google is looking to introduce Google Circles and other concepts like Google Hangouts to its Apps users. You can already use Google+ within Google Apps for Business as a collaboration and sharing tool, but it doesn’t extend into the apps themselves.

We are told that Google Talk would give way to a new kind of a “unified messaging” product where focus is less on voice and more on data and video. More details will arrive later: make sure and check out our live blog here for the official news when it arrives.

These new Google+ social features are a good way to help reinvent the enterprise apps. The company has already been making some changes Like checking for sharing permissions for a Google docs when you email a link to people), but we will see something bigger in a few hours.

A good application of Google+ would mean company wide circles which would in turn allow easy communication and sharing of docs. This would put them in competition with Yammer, HipChat and other such products.

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For those of you who have the AT&T version of the HTC One, HTC has released their excellent backup tool (fittingly named HTC Backup) as a standalone application on the Play Store. For whatever reason AT&T did not include this backup tool with their version of the One, opting to use Google’s standard backup function.

Now One users can get HTC Backup from the Play Store for free. Once downloaded all you need to do is sign in with your HTC account and let the app back up and restore your phone through Dropbox. Again, if you do not have the AT&T variant of HTC’s flagship device then this is irrelevant to you. Hit the break for a Play Store link and let us know in the comments what you think of HTC’s tool.

Play Store Download Link

Come comment on this article: HTC Backup now available for AT&T users as free download from Google Play

The divorce proceedings between Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are ongoing, and now Ashton’s millions are being thrown into the pot.

Kutcher, who began Grade-A Investments with two partners, says he doesn’t owe Moore as much as she’s asking for because he made several million after they were already separated. The fund helps tech start-ups and is currently valued at $100 million.

“Ashton and Demi are still not divorced, and no settlement has been agreed, even though they have been in negotiations for over a year. Ashton made a lot of money after they married, but he doesn’t believe he owes her as much as she is asking for,” a “source” told the New York Post.

Kutcher reportedly owns a 20% share in the fund and under California’s laws, Moore is entitled to half of that: a cool $10 million. And while there’s been no comment on the developments from either party, it’s sure to be a wrench in the works as the pair try to dissolve their marriage.

The “Two And A Half Men” actor is now the highest-paid sitcom star, pulling in $24 million last year after he replaced Charlie Sheen.

If the internet seems a bit quieter today, it’s probably because the initial rush has died down from Daft Punk’s early release of their new album Random Access Memories. Boy, that was a hell of a Monday.

While you’ve been listening to the new album two, three, four, maybe a dozen times since then, redditor fkobbe has been doing something magical. What happens when you sync Random Access Memories with Daft Punk’s 2066 film Electroma (which didn’t originally feature any Daft Punk music)? ELECTR.A.M., that’s what.

[F Kobbe via reddit]

Dr. Robert Lieberman, novelist and director of the film, “They Call it Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain,” recently participated in an “At Google” talk, discussing the film.

The late Roger Ebert included the film among his top documentaries of 2012.

More recent At Google talks here.

F-Secure has released its latest mobile threat report for January to March 2013. Highlights include an increase in threat families and variants of almost 50 percent over the previous quarter, and that Android is still the most targeted mobile OS.

Android threats accounted for 136 of the 149 detected during the period, the other 13 being aimed at Symbian. No threats were reported for iOS, Blackberry or Windows Mobile. The report notes a particularly worrying trend towards the commoditization of malware, either by making premium rate calls or stealing bank details. 114 out of 149 threats found were profit motivated. The authors state:

The Android malware ecosystem is beginning to resemble that which surrounds Windows, where highly specialized suppliers provide commoditized malware services. Two key examples of this trend surfaced in the first quarter of 2013 in the form of “Stels” and “Perkele” malware. Besides commoditization, targeted attacks and spam operations involving Android malware are also making strides in the mobile threat scene.

There has been an increase in targeted attacks against particular groups such as human rights activists. Our old friend the 419 scam in the form of fake job offers remains popular too. The report breaks down threats by type with Trojans being by far the most common at just over 61 percent of all those detected.

As the report notes these trends very much echo those seen on the Windows platform.

In a way, Android is experiencing the same fate as Windows where its huge market share works in both good and bad ways. Such popularity certainly translates well in terms of sales, but it also appeals to the maliciously-minded crowds. Malware authors see plenty of opportunities yet to be explored on the relatively new and growing platform.

Whilst the actual number of threats is still quite small compared to those seen for Windows, the findings do show that mobile devices are firmly in the sights of malware developers.

Photo Credit: style-photography.de/

Tennessee software developer Bitsum has released Process Lasso 6.5 and Process Lasso 6.5 (64-bit), a major update of its performance tool for keeping PCs running smoothly by intelligently managing system processes.

Version 6.5 represents a major overhaul for the software, with Bitsum promising that it’s been “considerably optimized, profiled, tested and polished”. The latest build also features a smattering of new features and improvements.

The overhauled code has resulted in Process Lasso reducing its memory footprint and process utilization even further than before, with the promise of improved performance as a result. Another performance tweak sees logging performance optimized thanks to the introduction of a new “flat file” log format.

This change has been accompanied by new log file rotation, which allows old log files to be archived, improves the “pruning” of existing log files and results in a reduction of the current log’s file size, resulting in faster loading when accessed via the program’s graphical front end.

One minor GUI tweaks sees a new option added to the View menu allowing users manage the columns shown under the Active Processes tab (users can also right-click the tab itself to select these). The GUI also now shows hard page faults by default, and reports these in the Page Faults column, which now ignores soft page faults.

The update also includes numerous minor tweaks, fixes and changes to the program core as well as the GUI — a full list can be found in the program’s release notes, which also reveal that compatibility with Windows 2000 and XP pre-SP2 machines has been restored in the 32-bit build thanks to a shift to the VC9 platform toolset.

Process Lasso 6.5 and Process Lasso 6.5 (64-bit) are both available as free downloads for PCs running Windows 2000 or later. The program functions in trial version mode for the fully featured Pro version before reverting to a cut-down Free build for personal and non-commercial use.

At Google I/O 2012, Google introduced the world to Android 4.1, or Jelly Bean. It later updated Jelly Bean to version 4.2. Now at Google I/O 2013, it looks like Google will be updating Jelly Bean again to version 4.3.

The Verge reports that a page on Google’s Android developer Web site referenced Android 4.3 before being removed. It was still available via cache for a while with a listing for security enhancements in the newest version of Android, but nobody was actually able to catch what those security enhancements were.

Regardless, we still know next to nothing about Android 4.3. Knowing it exists is a start, but there’s not been much in the way of leaks in regards to new features. Some are suggesting that the latest update will just be a minimal update with support for Bluetooth Low Energy and better OpenGL for Embedded Systems 3.0. The latter jibes with other rumors suggesting that Google will announce some new gaming initiatives for Android at the conference.

It’s important to note that Android 4.3 will most likely still be called Jelly Bean. Android boss Pundar Sichai already said that Google wouldn’t be showing off a new version of Android so a small update to Jelly Bean is the only thing that makes sense. Those looking for Key Lime Pie (or Kandy Kane) will have to keep waiting.

Last week, Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries came under fire for comments he had made years ago. The comments, brought up in a recently published book about marketing, conveyed that Abercrombie & Fitch’s target audience is “cool and popular kids” – a category into which fat people apparently can never fall. Jefferies is quoted as stating the stores do not sell female clothing for larger women in order to protect the Abercrombie & Fitch brand from being seen on people who “don’t belong.”

The comments caused an uproar online and reignited debate about body image issues, exclusionary marketing, and weight-related health. Now, one man has taken it upon himself to remake the Abercrombie & Fitch brand on his own.

YouTube filmmaker Greg Karber (gkarber) scoured a Los Angeles Goodwill store for A & F apparel, which he then handed out to homeless people on Skid Row. He’s calling on viewers to donate their old A & F clothing to homeless shelters and share their experiences through social media using the #FitchTheHomeless hashtag.

Zoe Saldana appears in a lovely cover shot on the front of next month’s Allure Magazine, but the headline is what’s getting the most attention this week.

The line reads, “Zoe Saldana: 115 Pounds Of Grit And Heartache”, and many are upset that the magazine would choose to publish an actress’s weight where anyone can see it. Maureen O’Connor of The Cut says that presenting that number as a healthy weight to young women isn’t a good idea, and reinforces an unhealthy celebrity image.

“Since numerical representations of weight rarely grace the covers of women’s magazines, we conclude that this number must be special,” she wrote. “Since 115 isn’t a large enough number to suggest defiance, we conclude that 115 is a number meant to represent an attractively tiny weight. Delicate and tiny, making her “grit” all the more charming. Just a tiny little pretty thing, but boy, little missy packs a punch! A rare catch, that 115-pounder, same size as the prize tuna fish.”

Many celebrities have spoken out against the way the media treats women in Hollywood; Ashley Judd wrote a strong article last year after photos of her looking “puffy” surfaced online and she was blasted for either having plastic surgery or for gaining weight, both of which were untrue according to her.

Allure has had no comment on the headline, nor has Saldana. The article discusses the actress’s sexuality, however, and includes a photo of her posing in the nude.

Continue reading…

AppGlu announced the release of its new Trek Episode Guide app for Android, which it will be showcasing at Google I/O.

The app was developed with ArcTouch on the AppGlu platform. ArcTouch is known for creating the official Star Trek PADD app for iOS.

“We are very excited to be a part of Google I/O, where Android app developers come together to learn about state-of-the-art app development,” said AppGlu CEO Adam Fingerman. “As we launch our new Android development resource center we’re giving Android app developers an exclusive invitation to try AppGlu for free, and also providing the full Trek Episode Guide source code as an exemplary app that’s built with AppGlu.”

You can get an invitation code here.

At AppGlu’s booth at Google I/O, attendees will be able to create a “new” episode featuring their own photo “Trek-ified” to look like an alien. This will be published instantly to the app. They can also enter a drawing to win one of 25 pairs of tickets for Star Trek Into Darkness.

The app is available in Google Play here.

Former Nokia consultant Heikki Sarajarvi loves everything about being out at sea. Unfortunately, four of his smartphones didn’t share the enthusiasm and all fell apart from sea-spray alone. Sarajarvi, fed up by wimpy smartphones, enlisted the help of sixteen others (including eight former Nokia employees) to form Adaia. Adaia’s sole purpose is to build a sea-ready Android phone that still looks slick and performs well.

Come comment on this article: Former Nokia consultant launches Adaia, aiming to make the first fully seaworthy Android phone