New Google Play terms ban non-store app updates
Google has amended the policies of its Play app store for Android to prohibit third-party app update mechanisms, in a move seemingly designed to put the kibosh on a contentious feature being tested by Facebook.
As of Friday, the "Dangerous Products" section of the Chocolate Factory's Google Play Developer Program Policies - which prohibits such things as Trojans, viruses, and spyware - now includes an additional sentence:
An app downloaded from Google Play may not modify, replace or update its own APK binary code using any method other than Google Play's update mechanism. Read more...
Bellevue College looks to online software to help autistic students collaborate
Bellevue College in Washington has deployed online learning software to help students with autism improve their small-group collaboration skills.
Fifty Bellevue students in an Autism Spectrum Navigators program have been taking advantage of a discussion board feature inside Canvas, a learning management system from start-up Instructure.
The Navigators program, now nearing the end of its second full year, has deployed the Canvas software for the past year, giving Bellevue students and teachers access to assignments, grades and other materials as well as collaboration through text, audio and video from desktops, tablets and even smartphones and tablets.
"We've had Canvas this entire year and we've seen a lot more confidence and interaction with students," Sara Gardner, manager of the Navigator program, said in an interview. "We use a social justice model instead of a medical one [for dealing with autism], so we aren't aren't trying to fix our students and rather are trying to use the technology to put students together to communicate better and...support them with skills." Read more...
Apple to stage ‘Tech Talks’ roadshow
After selling out its worldwide developer conference (WWDC) at a speed usually reserved for hit counters on Psy videos, Apple has hinted that those who want to get up close and technical with it will soon be served locally.
We're working on the basis of the tiniest of hints here, as the company has issued a statement about the WWDC sellout that offers this tiny, wee nugget of information: Read more...
AP Twitter hack prompts fresh look at cyber security needs
Getting hacked on Twitter is fast becoming a rite of passage for big corporations, but Tuesday's attack on the Associated Press could be a tipping point and shows that social networks must do more to keep their users safe, security experts said.
Wider use of two-factor authentication, which can involve an access code being sent to a user on a second device such as a smartphone, is one possible solution. Such a mechanism could be introduced selectively, some experts said, for high profile accounts such as celebrities and large corporations. Read more...
Developers find multiple changes in BlackBerry 10.1
The next update to BlackBerry’s latest operating system is expected to deliver a number of new features and changes. BlackBerry 10.1 made its way to developers this week ahead of a public launch with no fewer than 14 new features in tow according to fan site Crackberry.
The publication came up with the following list of changes in the update based on user feedback from their forum: Read more...
Largest bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, ‘throttles’ trading to tame price swings
The largest bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, is in a continuing battle with miscreants trying to manipulate the price of the virtual currency.
Early Monday, Mt. Gox wrote on its Facebook page that it was once again struggling with a very large distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack. The exchange said earlier this month it has been hit by attacks upwards of 80Gbps, which it believed were intended to swing bitcoin's price.
The virtual currency can be bought on exchanges around the world. But Mt. Gox's market tends to set the price of bitcoin since it is has the highest volume of trades and users. Confidence in the bitcoin market is somewhat dependant on Mt. Gox's ability to keep its exchange running smoothly. Read more...
Amazon: We’re expanding into TWO HUNDRED countries
Amazon's Android software store will soon be available across 200 countries - many of which don't have official access to Amazon's Android hardware - as the bookstore continues its quest for world domination.
While Google limits itself to selling apps across 134 countries (and even the UN only boasts 193 members) Amazon will be hawking its Android catalogue across 200 countries - despite selling its Kindle Fire (Android) hardware in only a fraction of them. So residents of Australia, Canada, India and Brazil will be able to download the bookseller's wares, along with those based in the Vatican City, and in fact just about everywhere else, assuming they've a credit card with which to pay. Read more...
Microsoft betting on smaller Windows 8 devices and subscriptions
Microsoft's current financial team has been laying out the company's future strategy, and is hoping that a new rash of smaller Windows 8 PCs and cloud revenues will secure Redmond's future.
During a call with financial analysts after reporting Microsoft's financial results for its third fiscal 2013 quarter on Thursday, departing CFO Peter Klein said that traditional PC shipments continue to decline and forecasts of a double-digit drop in sales next year remains probable. But the forthcoming Haswell and Atom processors from Intel and smaller PCs running Windows 8 cheaply should help Microsoft retain its operating system footprint, he said.
"We build Windows 8 with touch and mobility at the center of the experience, which positions us well in this new era," Klein opined. Read more...
On eve of departure, Otellini looks back on four decades with Intel
Just a month away from retirement, Intel CEO Paul Otellini has reflected on his four decades with the company during his last quarterly earnings call with analysts and reporters.
Otellini is not going out on a high note, with Intel reporting a sharp drop in profits Tuesday thanks mainly to the slumping PC market. But despite finding little success in the smartphone and tablet markets, Otellini said Intel creates opportunities for itself by staying ahead of the fast-moving tech industry, and that this will drive the company forward in the future.
"Even as I prepare to pass the baton to a new generation, I know Intel's story is not completely written," Otellini said.
Intel's future is not entirely clear, but the company is putting more focus on mobile products and manufacturing technology, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64. Read more...
Hands up who wants 3D finger-controlled fridges? That’s the spirit
The companies betting that we'll want to manipulate everything electronic around us with a wave of a hand are already laying claim to various types of body movement.
The technology to detect gestures is included in laptops and televisions shipping right now, but like the touchscreen phone world, it is riddled with patent applications.
Just as no one except Apple can make a phone with a "slide to unlock" feature, no one except PointGrab can make a TV that mutes when a finger is placed on one's lips. No one except EyeSight can recognise a gesture without taking the background into account, at least until the lawyers get to work. Read more...
Lawmakers question patent complaint process at ITC
The U.S. Congress should limit the ability of patent holders that don't make products to file infringement complaints at the U.S. International Trade Commission because of a huge increase in cases there, representatives of some companies told lawmakers Tuesday.
Patent assertion entities (PAEs), companies that own patents but don't make products, are using the patent complaint process at the ITC to "coerce settlements" from other companies, said Russell Binns Jr., associate general counsel at networking vendor Avaya. In many cases, PAEs -- often called patent trolls -- don't want the ITC to use its power to bar the importation of infringing products, but instead, they want to use the ITC to drive settlements in corresponding court cases, he said.
Patent complaints are costing U.S. companies billions of dollars, Binns told the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee's intellectual property subcommittee. Read more...
Senate’s big immigration bill seeks to crackdown on offshore outsourcing
The U.S. Senate's comprehensive immigration bill would make major changes to the H-1B visa that are certain to upset some and likely please others. The H-1B changes would likely most upset India's offshore industry.
IT service firms that rely heavily on H-1B and L-1 visas would be hit with new rules intended to "crack down" on the use of H-1B visas "to outsource American jobs," according to an outline of the bill prepared by senate staff.
This bill has the potential of disrupting offshoring outsourcing firms, saddling them with visa fees of as much as $10,000, and the eventual limitation of H-1B and L-1 workers to 50 percent of an employer's workforce. More than half the U.S.-based workforces of many offshore firms are foreign workers holding temporary visas. Read more...
Google search manipulation starves some websites of traffic
Google's placement of its own flight-finding service in search results is resulting in lower click-through rates for companies that have not bought advertising, according to a study by Harvard University academics.
The study provides data for how Google's placement of its own services amid "organic" search results may hurt competitors, which is the focus of an ongoing antitrust case between Google and the European Union.
How paid and non-paid search results are displayed has a powerful sway over consumers, the study found. Ben Edelman, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, and Zhenyu Lai, a Harvard doctoral candidate, looked at when Google began inserting its own Flight Search feature, launched in December 2011, into search results. Read more...