Congress should scrap SOPA, PIPA and start over
The U.S. Congress should scrap two controversial copyright enforcement bills and start over with attempts to target foreign websites accused of infringement and counterfeiting, more than 70 groups have said.
With widespread concerns about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), Congress needs to "take a breath, step back, and approach the issues from a fresh perspective," the groups said in a letter to lawmakers, sent Monday.
Among the groups signing the letter were Amnesty International, the American Library Association, Consumers Union, Public Knowledge, Fight for the Future and Human Rights Watch. Many of the groups signing the letter have opposed SOPA and PIPA. The letter comes as the lead sponsor of PIPA has indicated he wants to move forward with copyright enforcement legislation. Read more...
HP releases Android TouchPad kernel, CyanogenMod to see improved features
Despite never officially releasing an Android-powered TouchPad, HP has gifted the Android kernel on which it based prototype versions of its tablet to CyanogenMod, the team behind the Ice Cream Sandwich port for the now cancelled device.
webOSNation reports that when HP was shipping out TouchPads faster than you could say ‘Firesale’, it mistakenly sent a few tablets running an older version of Android to customers, highlighting the fact it had tested the platform within its labs. Read more...
Microsoft employees raised $100.5m for charity in 2011, totalling $946m since 1983
Microsoft has announced that its employee giving campaign helped to raise $100.5 million last year, donating money to more than 18,000 community organisations in the US and around the world.
The figure, which includes Microsoft’s contribution via its company match, means that since 1983, the Redmond-based company has raised more than $946 million for nonprofits and organisations since the program started in 1983.
The company donations mirror the philanthropic efforts of Microsoft founder and former CEO Bill Gates, who has become well-known for his efforts in raising money and awareness for charities via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Read more...
Symantec expects Anonymous to publish more stolen source code
Symantec today confirmed that the pcAnywhere source code published on the Web Monday by hackers who tried to extort $50,000 from the company was legitimate.
A company spokesman also said that Symantec expects that the rest of the source code stolen from its network in 2006 will also be made public.
Symantec's acknowledgement followed the appearance late Monday of a 1.3GB file on various file-sharing websites, including Pirate Bay, that claimed to be the source code of the pcAnywhere remote-access software.
Download activity for the BitTorrent file has been moderately brisk: As of mid-morning Tuesday, Pirate Bay identified 376 "seeders," the term for a computer that has a complete copy of the file -- and about 200 "leechers," or computers that have downloaded only part of the complete torrent. Read more...
Chairman, 3 others out in Yahoo board shake-up
Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and three longtime board members are stepping down, submitting to the demands of many frustrated shareholders who blame them for contributing to the follies that have dragged down the Internet company's revenue and stock price.
The shake-up announced Tuesday continues a drastic makeover of Yahoo's leadership during the past month as the company negotiates to sell its Asian assets in a complex deal that could help ignite a long-promised turnaround.
After Yahoo hired former PayPal executive Scott Thompson as its CEO a few days into the new year, co-founder Jerry Yang resigned from the board and severed all other ties with the company that he helped start in 1995. Read more...
Transparent Screen app saves you from bodily injury while texting
Fond of texting while walking? Unless you're extremely nimble, you may have bumped into people, objects, or even stumbled. In extreme cases, you may have even bruised yourself or broken a few things. But if you have an Android device, you can use the Transparent Screen app to help you navigate even while you're glued to your gadget's display. Read more...
Halliburton to abandon BlackBerry, turn to iPhone
Oil field services company Halliburton plans to stop issuing BlackBerry smartphones to employees and switch over to Apple's iPhone, which it said was better suited to its needs, marking another setback for Research In Motion.
RIM's BlackBerry smartphones have long dominated corporate mobile communications with on-the-hip email and security credentials, but are increasingly challenged by Apple products and smartphones running Google's Android software.
"We are making this transition in order to better support our mobile applications initiatives," spokeswoman Tara Mullee Agard said in an email on Tuesday. Read more...
Did Google handicap malware defenses in Firefox and Safari?
In December a Google-funded security study slammed Firefox, putting Mozilla’s browser at the bottom of the heap when it came to protecting users as they surf. NSS labs quickly entered the fray to clarify some inconsistencies in the report and defend Firefox’s good name in the process.
NSS indicated that Chrome’s malware block rate had suddenly jumped to more than 50% right around the time that the original report was issued. Despite the fact that Firefox and Safari also rely on Google’s Safe Browsing API, their block rate remained stagnant at about 2 or 3%. Then, inexplicably, there was a dramatic swing in the days that followed the NSS Labs’ rebuttal. Chrome’s block rate dropped off a cliff, falling to just 20% — while Firefox and Safari’s rates more than doubled. Read more...
Is Sony’s PlayStation Network rebranding really necessary?
As device manufacturers eye the living room as the next great uncharted frontier (with an increasing nervousness about Apple’s impending TV set), they look for any “in” that they already have. Video game consoles provide as good of an entryway to the living room as there is.
We’ve already seen Microsoft expand the Xbox 360 software to include some TV integration, including voice control. Now Sony is preparing to make a similar shift, by transforming the PlayStation Network (PSN) into a full-fledged entertainment suite. To match that change, it will soon be rebranded as the Sony Entertainment Network.
The kicker is, the PlayStation Network is already an entertainment suite. In addition to playing and purchasing games, you can already rent and buy movies, stream music, and watch Netflix and Hulu Plus. Read more...