Who’s got your back online?
Twitter may be full of a bunch of followers, but the social networking site has proved itself a leader when it comes to protecting its users’ privacy.
In an annual survey of who’s got your back, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Twitter three and a half gold stars out of four. New to the list this year, Sonic.net was the only four-star company.
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-privacy-transparency-policies-online-20120531,0,4835458.story
Google warned to change search results or face court over antitrust issues
Europe’s antitrust chief has given Google until 2 July to offer changes in its search results and advertising rules or face the threat of being taken to court and potentially huge fines.
Joaquin Almunia, the head of competition policy, has set out in a private letter the European commission’s concerns on how Google’s dominance – where in Europe it has about 90% of searches – could be harming competition.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jun/01/google-european-commission-search-results?cat=technology&type=article
Stuxnet revealed: U.S. and Israel developed, lost control of Iran cyberwar campaign, NYT says
It’s been rumored for some time that the Stuxnet virus, which attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2010 before escaping and wreaking havoc on the public Web, was a joint effort between the U.S. and Israel. But, aside from security firm reports, their connection was mostly speculation — until today.
A lengthy New York Times report this morning confirms that Stuxnet was indeed an American and Israeli project, and it also reveals some fascinating details about the first major cyberwar effort in the world.
http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/01/stuxnet-us-israel-iran/
Social Meets Search with the Latest Version of Bing, Available to Everyone in US Today
A few weeks ago, we introduced you to the most significant update to Bing since our launch three years ago, combining the best of search with relevant people from your social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. After the positive response to the preview, the new version of Bing is available today in the US atwww.bing.com. You can now access Bing’s new three column design , including the snapshot feature and social features.
According to a recent internal survey, nearly 75 % of people spend more time than they would like searching for information online. With Bing’s new design, you can access information from the Web including friends you do know and relevant experts that you may not know letting you spend less time searching and more time doing.
http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2012/06/01/summer-of-doing.aspx
Delivering the Windows 8 Release Preview
Today, Windows 8 Release Preview is available for download in 14 languages. This is our final pre-release, and includes Windows 8, Internet Explorer 10, new Windows 8 apps for connecting to Hotmail, SkyDrive, and Messenger (and many more), and hundreds of new and updated apps in the Windows Store. Since our first preview release last September, millions of people now use the pre-release product on a daily basis and millions more have been taking it through its paces, totaling hundreds of millions of hours of testing. We genuinely appreciate the effort that so many have put into pre-release testing, and of course, we appreciate the feedback too. Direct feedback and feedback through usage contributed to hundreds of visible changes in the product and tens of thousands of under-the-hood changes.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/31/delivering-the-windows-8-release-preview.aspx
ETSI chooses Apple-inspired proposal for new 4FF nano-SIM standard
Despite objections and criticism over the different proposals for a new 4FF (nano-SIM) standard, Apple’s nano-SIM proposal appears to have been adopted by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).
Announcing the news on its official website, ETSI said that an agreement was made for the UICC (what we know as a SIM card), at its Smart Card Platform Technical Committee meeting in Osaka, Japan.
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/06/01/etsi-chooses-apples-proposal-for-new-4ff-nano-sim-standard/
New Netflix iOS app capitulates to bandwidth caps
Carriers like Verizon and AT&T are trying to convince Netflix to pay for the bandwidth its subscribers consume on their networks. Today Netflix delivered a rather oblique response. It’s giving its iPhone customers the option of turning off cellular access to Netflix completely and instead rely on old-fashioned Wi-Fi to deliver their movies and TV shows.
http://gigaom.com/mobile/new-netflix-ios-app-capitulates-to-bandwidth-caps/
The Rumored iPhone 5′s Four Inch Front Panel Can Nearly Swallow An Old iPhone Whole
Another day, another iPhone 5 leak. This time we’re looking at a four-inch long front panel of what appears to be a new iPhone. This panel suggests a longer, 16:9 style body and screen and lines up with previous news of alonger iPhone casing with a Micro USB port on the bottom.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/31/the-rumored-iphone-5s-four-inch-front-panel-can-nearly-swallow-an-old-iphone-whole/
In Ad Network Nightmare, Microsoft Making ‘Do Not Track’ Default for IE 10
Microsoft announced Thursday that the next version of its browser, IE 10, will ship with the controversial “Do Not Track” feature turned on by default, a first among major browsers, creating a potential threat to online advertising giants.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/ie10-do-not-track/
Google’s Sundar Pichai confirms that offline Google Drive ‘coming in five weeks,’ hints at ad-supported Chromebook
During the closing session here at D10 in California, Google’s on Senior Vice President of Chrome & Apps Sundar Pichai was joined by Susan Wojcicki (SVP of Advertising at Google) at Walt Mossberg. Sundar was able to drive the majority of the conversation in the realm of Chrome and Chrome OS, and quite a few interesting nuggets were dropped. For one, he made an offhand comment that “offline Google Drive [is] coming in five weeks,” a clue that it’ll be revealed and launched in full at Google I/O next month.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/31/google-sundar-pichai-offline-google-drive-cheaper-chromebook/
On Facebook, ‘Likes’ Become Ads
On Valentine’s Day, Nick Bergus came across a link to an odd product on Amazon.com: a 55-gallon barrel of … personal lubricant.
He found it irresistibly funny and, as one does in this age of instant sharing, he posted the link on Facebook, adding a comment: “For Valentine’s Day. And every day. For the rest of your life.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/technology/so-much-for-sharing-his-like.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
