Call for submissions: onedotzero seeks film talent

onedotzero, a London-based moving image and digital arts organisation, are seeking innovative short films, installations, interactive work and live audiovisual performances to showcase at the BFI Southbank, London, UK between 10-14 November 2010.

The critically acclaimed five-day festival onedotzero_adventures in motion, is billed as the first stop on onedotzero's extensive worldwide network of events, and is one of the longest-running, dedicated digital short film festivals in the world.


Over fourteen years the programme has expanded to embrace a wide range of digital motion arts and is acclaimed by artists, audiences and creative industries alike for providing a platform to explore new ideas and innovation through curated compilation screenings, features, exhibitions, live av performances, club nights, presentations and panel discussions.

onedotzero seeks film talent

Those submitting entries can do so under the following criteria.

Innovative shorts: work of under 30 minutes across music video, animation, motion graphics, narrative
shorts, artists moving image, documentary and generative art. Feature films: alternative feature-length work with a distinctive directorial approach for the big screen.

Live audiovisual performances: onedotzero has a passion for presenting narrative-driven live cinema, original VJ sets and unexpected collaborations between musicians and artists.

Installations: engaging audiovisual installation and compelling interactive experiences. Both existing work and proposals for new projects will be considered.

Free to enter, the deadline for receiving entries is 30 June 2010 by 5pm.

Full submissions guidelines and info can be found at http://www.onedotzero.com/submissions.

onedotzero recently co-curated Decode: Digital Design Sensations, an exhibition at the V+A Museum, London, which showcased the latest developments in digital and interactive design.

(Visit our sister site MacVideo for in-depth details and analysis regarding film and video.)



James Yuill new single and live datesUS trade agency to investigate Apple’s patent complaint

13-inch MacBook Pro receives Boot Camp updates

A couple of Boot Camp updates flew in from Apple's Support desk late Tuesday for owners of 13-inch MacBook Pro models released in mid-2010.

The patches are available for users running either 32- or 64-bit versions of Windows on their Macs, and fix an issue "that causes the Boot Camp Control Panel applet to display an error when the brightness tab is selected and an issue that results in no headphone sound."


The 32-bit update is 1.5 MB, and requires a 13-inch MacBook Pro running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, while the 64-bit version is 1.03 MB and supports Windows Vista and Windows 7. Both updates require the latest version of Boot Camp, 3.1, be installed.

Users can download the relevant update while running Windows via Software Update or through Apple's Support website. Apple has also kindly set up a step-by-step instruction guide for installation and verification, if you're into that sort of thing.

13-inch MacBook Pro receives Boot Camp updates



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Skobbler offers free Sat Nav iPhone app

Berlin based skobbler has teamed with the OpenStreetMap communities to offer a new UK and Ireland focused Sat Nav service free via the Apple iTunes App Store. The company hopes to make expensive Sat Nav and costly, out of date map updates a thing of the past with the launch of the service.

Skobbler navigation hit the number one spot in the US navigation app charts last week and has been the best-selling navigation app in Germany for more than six months. The UK/Ireland compatible Sat Nav comes in two versions, a free Lite version and paid version, which adds speedcam warnings.


Skobbler offers free Sat Nav iPhone app

"Skobbler is free because it uses the revolutionary OpenStreetMap (OSM) mapping system. OSM is an open source mapping system that was created by over 255,000 consumers (and growing), often referred to as the Wikipedia of maps," notes the company.

"The Wikipedia-like setup of OpenStreetMap allows you to improve the map yourself. When you recognise an error on the map, you can directly report it from the Skobbler app for correction to the OpenStreetMap community. If you want, you can even edit the map yourself with one of the popular OpenStreetMap web editors."

Compatible with iPhone 3G and 3GS, skobbler UK/Ireland Lite is available from the Apple iTunes App Store and requires the 3.0 Software Update or later.

Skobbler UK/Ireland Navigation - including speedcam warnings - costs 1.19.

Skobbler offers free Sat Nav iPhone app



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GoodReader for iPad adds VGA output, performance boost

GoodReader for iPad, Good.iWare's acclaimed all-purpose reader, has received an update to version 2.8, adding support for horizontal viewing of PDF files, VGA-out support, and a few other goodies.

GoodReader for iPad, which is largely identical to its iPhone counterpart, lets you view PDFs, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, HTML pages, high-resolution images, and more on your iPad. Its strength lies in its ability to quickly open and browse through large PDF and text files that other apps would normally have trouble with.


With its new horizontal page-turning feature, GoodReader can now offer a more natural book-reading experience, letting you flip pages just by swiping from left to right or vice versa. It also now lets you view double-page spreads for PDF files—a feature especially useful for viewing graphics that extend beyond a single page.

GoodReader has also been given a few minor editing abilities: you can now rotate PDF pages, which is great if you're reading an e-mailed document that had been scanned in the wrong way. It can also crop out unnecessary PDF page margins, letting you fit more text onto a screen for easier reading.

GoodReader has also received a performance enhancement in the form of pre-caching; subsequent pages are rendered while you are viewing your current page, allowing for quick page turns. Last but not least, GoodReader now supports VGA-out for all supported documents, letting you view your documents on computer monitors or projectors using the iPad's dedicated adapter.

GoodReader for iPad 2.8 is available at the App Store for 59p and runs on iPad running OS 3.2 or later.



Photo gallery: iPad launch Apple Regent Street Store, LondonMumford & Sons new single and dates

Design Council offers £100,000 to help promote designers

The Design Council has announced new support to help designers get the message across to clients about the benefits of design and hopefully drive up demand for design services.

The support comes in the form of small grants for design organisations to help improve the reach and impact of the existing initiatives around the country which promote the benefits of design. The Design Council says that the grant will support the design organisations to work with their members to promote design, build skills and capability and create a ‘drumbeat’ for design nationwide.


Design organisations are being invited to apply for grants (of around 1,000 to 5,000) to help them improve the reach and impact of their existing activities which target design buyers and users. Starting on 1st July 2010, applications will be invited from national and regional not-for-profit organisations for grants, which will be awarded in September to support events and other initiatives in the current financial year. It is anticipated that up to 100,000 will be distributed in total, with a maximum of 10,000 to any one organisation.

‘We know that design has a vital role to play in translating ideas into brands, products, services and systems, and is at the heart of some of the world’s most successful businesses," says David Kester, chief executive of the Design Council. "The challenge for the new government is to secure economic growth, and as Vince Cable has already made clear, that will come primarily from the private sector. We intend to do our best to help talented designers be at the forefront of promoting design as a key ingredient in securing that economic revival.’

Applications for the Design Council grant can be made by any not-for-profit organisation, including those who are partners in the UK Design Alliance. An application form will be available on the Design Council website at the beginning of July and the closing date for submissions is 1st August 2010. Interested organisations are being invited to send the Design Council an expression of interest and seek advice and guidance from the Design Skills team at the Design Council at any stage in advance of submitting an application.

The grant will be payable between September 2010 and March 2011 and applications must be for activities that take place during this period.



Mumford & Sons new single and datesCygnett readies range of iPhone 4 cases for UK launch

Apple's new ad terms: anti-competitive or competitive?

The word "anticompetitive" gets thrown around a lot in business. While it's got a specific legal meaning, it's often appropriated to mean any advantage of one company that's perceived as "unfair." But, of course, business is all about having advantages over your competition--and fairness is all in the eye of the beholder. Recent changes to Apple's terms of service, forbidding certain types of companies (most obviously Google) from collecting analytical data via iPhone apps, have many waving the anticompetitive banner. But is this this change anticompetitive or just competitive?

The change in question resides in Section 3.3.9 of the iPhone developer agreement, which is the deal that must be accepted by anybody who wants to sell iPhone programs in the App Store. The new rules read as follows:


3.3.9 You and Your Applications may not collect, use, or disclose to any third party, user or device data without prior user consent, and then only under the following conditions:

First, it's important to note that these terms hardly ban advertising, nor do they place a blanket moratorium on the collecting of analytics--they just require that developers collect only certain types of data, disclose the collection to users and pass that data on to ad networks that meet certain qualifications as a company.

anti-competitive or competitive?

There are a number of factors that play into why Apple may be reluctant to let that information out of its hands. App Cubby founder David Barnard nails a lot of them in an excellent blog post, especially in terms of Apple wanting to retain control over the data and why Apple is arguably a more trustworthy custodian of personal information than Google.

The new terms also jibe with what Steve Jobs said when he was asked about the issue at the D8 conference earlier this month. When questioned about a metrics firm called Flurry Analytics, which earlier this year had essentially outed the iPad via metrics collected from devices running on Apple's campus, Jobs said:

So we said, we're only going to allow these analytics that don't give device information and that are solely for the purposes of advertising. [...] In other words, if a developer needs to put some analytics in their app that sends some information out to an advertiser, so that they can make some money--because we're not going to be the only advertiser; there's others, and we're not banning other advertisers from our platforms--they can do that. But they can't send data out to an analytics firm who's going to sell it to make money and publish it to tell everybody that we have devices on our campus that we don't want people to know about.

Companies like Flurry aside, it's also hard to ignore that there's a pointy end to this stick, and it's aimed directly at rival Google. Remember, the search giant is first and foremost an advertising platform--that's where it makes its bread and butter. There's a reason that Google's bid to acquire mobile advertiser AdMob raised regulatory flags: the company holds a huge amount of sway in the advertising market. In fact, it was Apple's acquisition of rival Quattro Wireless that paved the way for the goverment's OK on the AdMob deal.

But Google and Apple have found themselves increasingly in competition, especially in the mobile arena, and Google's competing Android operating system would seem to eliminate AdMob from qualifying as an "independent" ad network.

anti-competitive or competitive?

That got AdMob's CEO, Omar Hamoui, to pen an irate blog post about the move:

Let's be clear. This change is not in the best interests of users or developers. In the history of technology and innovation, it's clear that competition delivers the best outcome. Artificial barriers to competition hurt users and developers and, in the long run, stall technological progress.

The reason that much of the concern here has been amplified is that this isn't the first move Apple's made to restrict who can play in its sandbox--earlier this year, the company changed its agreement terms to prohibit developers from creating iPhone apps using Flash. As antithetical as both of those moves might be from a purely technical perspective--if it can be done, why shouldn't it be done?--the business angle can't be ignored.

I think Hamoui's argument boils down to the fact that Apple has enforced the change via contractual changes as opposed to merely "letting the best platform win." And if Apple is truly adding this sort of language just to knock out a tough competitor so that it can sell more iAds, that's unfortunate. But at the same time it's hard to blame Apple for not wanting to provide a major competitor in the smartphone market with detailed information about Apple's own customers. Especially when the competitor in question has long been honing its skills in creating targeted advertising.

Consider the flipside perspective, too. What if it were Apple honing in on Google's lucrative search advertising business, building up profiles on Web searchers via Safari and displaying targeted ads within the browser during Google searches? Or selling the search behavior of Safari users to Microsoft so that it could improve Bing at Google's expense? I can hardly imagine Google would be happy about Apple using Google search data to threaten its bread-and-butter business. In fact, whatever deal Google and Apple have struck for Safari's search bar probably already prohibits that kind of behavior. Does that sound anticompetitive to you? Or is it just the sign of a company protecting its crown jewels from a fierce competitor?



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Facebook adds IPv6 support

Facebook said onThursday that it was offering "experimental, non-production" support for IPv6, the long-anticipated upgrade to the Internet's main communications protocol.

The news about Facebook's IPv6 support was expected; Facebook told Network World in February, that it planned to support native IPv6 user requests "by the midpoint of this year."


In a presentation at the Google IPv6 Implementors Conference, Facebook's network engineers said it was "easy to make [the] site available on v6."

Facebook said it deployed dual-stack IPv4 and IPv6 support on its routers, and that it made no changes to its hosts in order to support IPv6.

Facebook also said it was supporting an emerging encapsulation mechanism known as Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP), which separates Internet addresses from endpoint identifiers to improve the scalability of IPv6 deployments.

"Facebook was the first major Web site on LISP (v4 and v6)," Facebook engineers said during their presentation. Facebook said that using LISP allowed them to deploy IPv6 services quickly with no extra cost.

Facebook's IPv6 services are available at www.v6.facebook.com, m.v6.facebook.com, www.lisp6.facebook.com and m.listp6.facebook.com.

Facebook is following in the footsteps of Google, Comcast, Netflix and other leading Web sites that are early adopters of IPv6

The Internet infrastructure is migrating to IPv6 because it is running out of address space using the current protocol, which is known as IPv4. The Regional Internet Registries said in April that only 8% of IPv4 address are unallocated. The remaining IPv4 addresses are expected to run out by 2012.

IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses and can support 4.3 billion devices connected directly to the Internet. IPv6, on the other hand, uses 128-bit addresses and supports a virtually unlimited number of devices – 2 to the 128th power.

John Curran, president and CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), has been urging Web site operators to deploy IPv6. Curran set a deadline of Jan. 1, 2012 when all public facing Web sites must support IPv6 or risk providing visitors with lower-grade connectivity.

Other popular Web sites that are known to be working on their IPv6 deployments include eBay, which plans production-quality IPv6 services in mid-2011, and the U.S. federal government, which says that all components of its popular portal www.usa.gov are IPv6 capable.



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Cygnett readies range of iPhone 4 cases for UK launch

Cygnett, a manufacturer of iPhone, iPod and MP3 accessories, has announced a range of stylish new cases compatible with Apple's iPhone 4 revealed earlier this week.

The first case available will be the Cygnett SecondSkin, styled in black and clear colour ways. The soft, slim-fitting, silicon case is specially moulded to fit the new iPhone 4 and fits, like the name suggests, like a glove, while offering solid protection. The SecondSkin will be available for a SRP of 14.99


The following models will be available from the beginning of July.

SnapsDuo. Instantly change the look of your iPhone, while protecting edges against bumps and drops. Dual screen protectors guard the front and back surfaces against scratches. The SnapsDuo promises360-degree protection and includes two silicon frames, and one front and one back screen protectors for a SRP of 19.99.

Glam. Billed as a glossy patent leather design with plush microsuede interior and credit card pocket, the Glam is aimed at trend setters insists Cygnett. The Glam features a flip-down design for easy access and gives full access to iPhone screen, buttons, camera, charging and syncing functions for a SRP of 29.99.

Crystal. A clear case for iPhone 4, which promises protection that's super-thin and light-as-air, this barely noticeable. The clear shield hugs your iPhone providing protection without compromising the design of the new iPhone for a SRP of 14.99.

Cygnett readies range of iPhone 4 cases for UK launch

WorkMate. Billed as an xtra tough case for iPhone 4G, offering double-strength rubberised casing designed to absorb shocks and withstand falls in conditions more extreme than the norm. Ideal for the great outdoors, for working on a building site or playing sports, WorkMate has you covered for a SRP of 24.99.

OptiClear. Anti-glare screen protectors featuring sheer smudge-resistant coating promising less cleaning and clearer access to the touch screen and its many functions. OptiClear includes three front screen protectors and one protector for the back and a microfiber wipe. The protectors are easy to apply and remove without residue or screen damage insists Cygnett, and do not interfere with touch screen responsiveness. The OptiClear has a SRP of 9.99.

Frost. Billed as smooth yet durable, this vibrant case with an anti-fingerprint coating offers quality surface protection from fingerprints, dirt, skin oil, sweat and cosmetics. The Frost is a matt slim case for iPhone 4G, made from durable polycarbonate material, strong and scratch-resistant with a flexible snap-on design. Frost has a SRP of 19.99.

Lavish. A premium leather case, crafted from high-grade, ultra-soft lambskin. The Lavish comes with a flip-down design that protects and provides both style and function says the makers, for a SRP of 29.99.

Molecule. Change the look of your new iPhone 4 look in an instant. The tiny holes in Cygnett's Molecule case reveal your choice of colour. Simply slot in a new colour swatch that suits your mood, attitude or clothing says Cygnett. The Molecule comes with six interchangeable inserts - blue, purple, red, orange, grey and white - or you can even create your own for a SRP of 19.99.

All prices include VAT. All Cygnett cases for iPhone 4 come with a two year manufacturer's warranty and include a screen protector and microfibre cleaning cloth as standard. A list of UK Cygnett stockists can be found here.



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STM intros new range of best selling neoprene MacBook sleeves

Australian bag manufacturer STM Bags has introduced five bright new colours - black, burgundy, magenta, teal and orange - as part of their best-selling glove neoprene laptop sleeve range. Suitable for MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, and many netbooks, the gloves are available in three sizes: small (13-inch screens), medium (15-inch screens) and large (17-inch screens).

According to STM, the glove’s "top-load" design allows for an easy, one handed access and for those who carry backpacks, the laptop can be removed without removing the sleeve. All seems come double cross-stitched and taped to ensure durability, while a unique internal "zipper guard" promises to protect your MacBook from scratches, while adding a bit more padding.


Keen to stress STM's green credentials, the glove's come without throwaway stuffing or packaging. The STM glove range is available now at a SRP 16.95. Details of stockists can be found at www.stmbags.com. Founded in 1998 in Sydney Australia, STM Bags offers a full range of laptop bags and accessories, that aim to be ergonomically designed with high-density padding and shock-absorbing materials to ensure a good level of protection and comfort.

STM intros new range of best selling neoprene MacBook sleeves



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ARM shares surge after Apple bid rumour

The rumours that Apple wants to buy high-rated UK chip supplier ARM have returned with dramatic effect.

In early trading, ARM saw its shares surged to a record price of 3.62 ($5.30), a 32 percent rise in value, before rapidly falling back to a mid-afternoon price of around 2.95, about 7 percent higher. The last time its shares reached such heights was in 2002.


Where the rumour emerged this time is hard to say, but clearly some brokers took it seriously to hit the ‘buy’ button. Management of both companies have remained silent, which should not be taken as significant.

ARM shares surge after Apple bid rumour

The notion that Apple might want to bid up to $8 billion for ARM surfaced a month ago, a move dismissed at the time as unlikely to please competition authorities.

It’s would also be an odd move from a financial point of view. ARM makes money by licensing its designs to a range of companies and it’s hard to see how that would fit with the needs of a single vendor, Apple.

Where ARM does stand to gain from Apple is through the use of the company’s chips in the iPad, a product about which there is now such hysteria that almost anything connected to it gains by association. Equally, ARM’s business model should see its chips turn up in tablet computers launched by volume computer makers.

Apple recently bought the chip designer behind the A4 chip, Intrinsity, which it is believed to be behind the relatively primitive CPU core that runs the iPad.



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Why Apple's latest iPhone is not called '4G'

If you're wondering why Apple's latest phone is known as the "iPhone 4" instead of the more widely-used "iPhone 4G," it could be because the new device still relies on 3G connectivity.

The iPhone 4, which Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled on Monday at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), is a GSM-based device that will have a quad-band HSPDA radio that runs on AT&T's 3G HSPA+ network and that can attain maximum theoretical download speeds of 7.2Mbps. Realistically, of course, the new iPhone will have typical download speeds of around 1 or 2Mbps, depending on how strong AT&T's 3G network happens to be in a given area.


Why Apples latest iPhone is not called 4G

The fact that the iPhone 4 relies on 3G coverage for data delivery isn't at all surprising, since AT&T in the US has yet to commercially launch its 4G LTE network yet and has no plans to do so until at least next year. While there are no LTE networks currently live in the United States, Verizon has reported that its LTE network is delivering average downlink speeds in excess of 5Mbps, a significant improvement over the performance of today's 3G networks.

LTE, or Long Term Evolution, represents the next-generation standard in the GSM mobile data technology family. The next few months will mark the start of the LTE era in the United States, as Verizon plans to have its LTE network up and running in up to 30 major markets with many more to come in 2011. AT&T also plans to start deploying its LTE network commercially in 2011, meaning that the newest edition of the iPhone will likely be 4G-capable by the time it hits the market next June.

When LTE does launch next year, it could give Apple the opportunity to offer an LTE-capable iPhone on both Verizon and AT&T, especially since AT&T's exclusivity agreement with Apple is rumored to expire in 2012. Despite the fact that Apple and AT&T's relationship on the iPhone has been hugely profitable for both companies, Apple is likely enticed by the prospect of offering its device to Verizon's 93 million wireless subscribers.

The iPhone 4 will officially launch on 24 June.



WWDC 2010 LIVE FEED: Apple iPhone HD keynoteGwyneth Paltrow started mixing cocktails when she was just six

Pipetto announces 2010 line of tech-chic leather technology cases

Pipetto, a designer and manufacturer of Apple and BlackBerry accessories, has announced a stylish new 2010 collection. Pipetto’s Summer 2010 collection offers over 60 products, including accessories for iPhone, iPad, iPod, MacBook and Blackberry.

Pipetto claims to have bridged the gap between fashion and function with the new collection, to create products that are as stylish as they are functional. Each design also comes with a luxuriously soft micro-suede lining to gently protect screens and avoid marks and scratches on your device. The range comes in eight different genuine leathers, from satchel brown styles for a more classic look to contemporary styled petrol and gold snake print.


Pipetto’s Summer 2010 collection is available now, starting from 34.99 to 39.99 for phone and iPod cases and 99 to 139 for laptop sleeves. Pipetto accessories are available from Apple, Harrods, Selfridges, House of Fraser, Orange, and Amazon and by visiting www.pipetto.co.uk. Pipetto has already received numerous nominations for UK Gift of The Year 2010 in the UK Giftware Association – Luxury/Premium category.

Pipetto announces 2010 line of tech-chic leather technology cases

Pipetto announces 2010 line of tech-chic leather technology cases

Pipetto announces 2010 line of tech-chic leather technology cases

Pipetto announces 2010 line of tech-chic leather technology cases

Pipetto announces 2010 line of tech-chic leather technology cases



Martha Wainwright announces UK datesPhoto gallery: iPad launch Apple Regent Street Store, London

WWDC : iPhone timeline

The New York Times says that Apple is working on a new handheld device, which could be called the "iPhone." The device would combine "elements of a cellphone and a Palm-like personal digital assistant." Rumors continue to spread as Apple files iPhone-related trademarks and patents.

Dec. 18, 2006: An iPhone is announced, but not by Apple. Cisco's Linksys division announces a new family of iPhone products for Internet telephony.


Jan. 9, 2007: Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces the iPhone, ending close to a decade of speculation. The smartphone includes a 3.5-inch touchscreen, a digital camera and iPod features. It is priced at US$499 for a 4GB model and $599 model for an 8GB mode, with a two-year contract with Cingular (later AT&T).

Jan. 10, 2007: Cisco files a lawsuit against Apple in a U.S. court, accusing Apple of deliberately copying and using Cisco's registered iPhone trademark. The companies settle the dispute the following month.

June 29, 2007: The first iPhone goes on sale. Fans line up outside Apple and AT&T stores days in advance in the U.S. to be the first to get their hands on the device.

Sept. 5, 2007: Apple cuts the price of the 8GB iPhone by $200 to $399, and says it will sell the 4GB model while supplies last. Angry customers flood Apple with hundreds of letters demanding a refund. Jobs issues an open letter the next day apologizing to customers and says the company will issue a $100 credit toward purchases from Apple's retail or online stores.

March 5, 2008: Apple announces the iPhone 2.0 Software Beta, which includes the iPhone SDK (software developers kit), a set of APIs (application programming interfaces) to create iPhone apps. Apple also announces the App Store to make applications available to iPhone users.

June 9, 2008: Jobs announces the the iPhone 3G. The phone includes support for faster 3G (third-generation) broadband wireless networks. It goes on sale in 21 countries in July and breaks shipment records.

March 3, 2009: Apple announces the iPhone OS 3.0 beta with more than 100 new features, including cut and paste, voice memo recording, parental controls, peer-to-peer gaming and support for MMS (multimedia messaging service).

June 8, 2009: Apple announces the third-generation iPhone 3GS, which the company calls its "fastest, most powerful iPhone yet." The phone offers longer battery power, more storage, a faster processor and an improved graphics core. It also includes a number of long-awaited features such as a 3.2-megapixel auto-focus camera to shoot video. The phone ships on June 19.

April 8, 2010: Apple unveils the iPhone OS 4.0, with true multitasking. The company also announces a mobile advertising platform called iAd, which could allow developers to earn revenue by serving ads in applications for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

April 19, 2010: Enthusiast Web site Gizmodo previews the next-generation iPhone 4G after getting its hands on what its editors believe is a genuine prototype. Gizmodo bought the device for $5,000 after it was found at a bar not far from Apple headquarters. Apple does not comment on the device, but police documents later call the device an iPhone 4G prototype. The documents say that an Apple engineer Robert "Gray" Powell accidentally left his 4G iPhone in a bar, which came into the possession of Brian Hogan, a student. Gizmodo purchased the device from Hogan.



WWDC 2010 LIVE FEED: Apple iPhone HD keynoteMartha Wainwright announces UK dates

WWDC 2010 LIVE FEED: Apple iPhone HD keynote

Apple CEO Steve Jobs will take the stage at 6pm BST today. Speaking at the keynote address at Apple's WWDC event, Jobs is widely expected to unveil the latest iPhone handset (will it be iPhone HD? iPhone 4?). He's also expected to announce when the iPhone 4.0 OS update will be available, and rumour has it that the Mac mini and Apple TV could be in for a big and exciting revamp.

We'll be covering the event as it happens, so bookmark this page and come back in time for the action at 6pm BST.


WWDC Keynote - 2010



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Archive project will digitize WWII Enigma messages

During World War II, Britain's brightest minds routinely decoded encrypted German military messages, an effort believed to have significantly shortened the war and saved the country further devastation.

The mathematicians and cryptography experts at Bletchley Park broke the code used by Germany's Enigma machine, a complex encryption device used across the German military. By January 1940, Britain was decoding the majority of the Enigma-encrypted radio messages intercepted by its signal intelligence stations.


Since then, buildings on the 25-acre Bletchley Park estate have fallen into disrepair: At one stage the site was close to being demolished to make way for a supermarket and housing development, and efforts to raise money to preserve it have struggled.

Archive project will digitize WWII Enigma messages

Existing funds have been consumed by emergency infrastructure repairs such as keeping the roofs of buildings from caving in, said Simon Greenish, director and CEO of Bletchley Park Trust. Preserving the core of Bletchley Park's heritage -- the intercepted messages -- was far down the list of priorities, he said.

Archive project will digitize WWII Enigma messages

Those messages are still in the building's archive after more than six decades, neatly typed on trimmed slips of paper and glued into fragile, decaying books. Also in the archive are drawers full of maps and a system of index cards used to classify messages by subject.

With the archive building's roof among those that needed fixing earlier this year, the flimsy documents stored there "really ought to be properly dealt with," Greenish said.

Archive project will digitize WWII Enigma messages

That is starting to happen, with the launch of a project to digitize the documents in the archive and make them accessible to the public.

Hewlett-Packard has donated servers, storage and five of its latest enterprise-level Scanjet scanners to get the project going, said Laura Seymour, marketing manager for HP's LaserJet and enterprise solutions. The company has also assigned consultants to help train volunteers and Bletchley staff on the equipment.

Archive project will digitize WWII Enigma messages

Volunteers will use HP's Scanjet 7000 to scan the index cards used to classify messages. Once the cryptanalysts had decoded a message, a summary of it would be written on an index card and filed under a subject heading to make it easy to find groups of related messages. The cards -- which number in the tens of thousands -- are handwritten in cursive, often on both sides.

The Scanjet 7000 can scan both sides of the cards quickly in batches. The scanner can detect if a card has been incorrectly fed or if two cards are stuck together. A larger flatbed scanner, such as HP's N9120, will be used for the books containing the actual messages. The pages of those books will have to be turned by hand in order to scan them since they are too fragile for automated page-turning scanners.

Archive project will digitize WWII Enigma messages

Another bit of technology can help compensate if an index card's writing is fading. HP's Kofax Virtual rescan software inspects the material, then adjusts its brightness and contrast for clarity so that the image is more readable, said Mander Thiara, a specialist with HP's imaging and printing group.

Archivists are still deciding exactly how the digital archive will be structured. Once that is determined, volunteers will be recruited and trained on the scanners and software. Thiara said volunteers will use a touchscreen menu on HP's Scanjet 7000n in order to classify the material they are scanning and ensure it goes into the proper place in the digital archive. In addition to HP's software, the project will also use software from Digital Workplace, a company that specializes in large-scale document management software, Seymour said.

Eventually, the typed transcripts of the decoded messages will also be indexed using OCR (optical character recognition) technology, which means the messages will be searchable by keyword. That will be a boon for historians, who will not only have access for the first time to reams of messages, but also be able to quickly search them.

"You can start to do research and connect up names, places, phrases, which is exactly what we want in this because these messages never tell you a whole story, they tell you a bit of a story," Greenish said.

Among the messages at Bletchley Park are ones showing how the Germans were duped into believing the Allies were going to land elsewhere than Normandy, France, in June 1944, and the transmissions of British double agent Eddie Chapman.

Chapman was a womanizing safecracker. During the war, he was imprisoned on the Channel Islands. The Germans took over the islands and he volunteered to work as a spy in order to get hack home. Once back, he switched sides again, agreeing to work for Britain as a double agent.

When he transmitted messages to the Germans, Chapman -- whose German code-name was "Little Fritz" -- was supposed to include five letter "Fs" in a row to indicate he hadn't been discovered by the British.

In one message, Chapman forgot to include the Fs. But he then quickly sent another message, which was intercepted and decoded at Bletchley, where it now is glued in a book: "Sorry. Drunk over Xmas. Forgot FFFFF in last message. Fritz. Happy Xmas"

"You want stories, we've got stories," said Peter Wescombe, a volunteer archivist and one of the founders of the Bletchley Park Trust. "This is the kind of stuff we'll be able to keep for posterity."

Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com.



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Steve Jobs: Adobe raised stink over Flash first

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said on Tuesday that his company didn't begin the long-running feud with Adobe over Flash, but only reacted after its rival "started to raise a stink."

In an interview Tuesday night at the D8 Conference , Jobs told Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg that Apple didn't cast the first stone.


"We didn't start off to have a war with Flash, or anything else. We just made a technical decision that we weren't gonna put the energy into getting Flash on our platform," said Jobs. "We told Adobe, if you ever have this thing running fast, let us know, which they never did."

Apple decided to ban Flash from its iPhone before it introduced the first-generation smartphone in 2007, Jobs added, and told Adobe as much. Only later, claimed Jobs, did Adobe come out swinging.

"It wasn't until we shipped the iPad and it didn't use Flash that Adobe started to raise a stink about it," Jobs said. "That's why I wrote 'Thoughts on Flash,' We were trying to be real professional about this and not talk to the press. We didn't think it was a matter for the press. [But] we finally said enough is enough. We're tired of these guys trashing us in the press over this."

Jobs' hammered Flash in his April 29 missive, in which he cited several reasons for banning Adobe's popular technology, ranging from poor performance to security issues.

Adobe raised stink over Flash first

In the same letter, Jobs stuck to Apple's decision to also bar iPhone and iPad software created with cross-platform compilers, another point where Adobe and Apple are at odds.

Adobe's Flash Professional CS5 includes a cross-platform compiler that lets Flash developers easily create native iPhone and iPad applications, something that Apple refuses to allow. According to reports, that part of the companies' feud has attracted interest from antitrust regulators at the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.

Yesterday, Jobs said that consumers would ultimately decide whether Apple's Flash ban was the right decision.

"Sometimes you just have to pick the things that look like they're going to be the right horses to ride going forward," said Jobs, citing Apple's decision to dump the floppy drive from its original iMac in mid-1998 as an example. "Sometimes people call us crazy."

But he defended Apple's choice of technology horses.

"Flash looks like a technology that has had its day, but is waning," Jobs said, "and HTML5 looks like the technology that is really on the ascendency right now."

Apple has aggressively pushed HTML5 -- the next-generation of the underlying language used to create Web sites -- and its support for embedded video as the right substitute for Flash. But there, too, Apple faces resistance. Two weeks ago, Google debuted a new royalty-free video codec that will compete in HTML5 with the H.264 codec that Apple's backing.

Jobs didn't sound worried that any of these conflicts would upset the Apple cart. "It will all work itself out," he said, talking about consumers and how their choices, not Apple's decisions or Adobe's or Google's, make a product a success or failure. "[And] people seem to be liking the iPad."

On Monday, Apple announced it had sold 2 million iPads since the tablet went on sale in the U.S. March 12.

Adobe did not respond to a request seeking comment on Jobs' claims that Apple's rival started the public spat between the two firms.




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COMPUTEX: Over a dozen iPad-rivals shown at Computex

Companies showed off over a dozen new rivals for the iPad at Computex this year, including a nifty 10-inch touchscreen tablet that docks into a speaker from Compal Electronics.

The number of tablets at Computex Taipei 2010 pays testimony to the trend Apple set in motion in April. Now that the company has sold 2 million iPads in just under two months, PC vendors globally want a piece of the action.


In the weeks leading up to Computex, it appeared Google might sweep the show with Android-based tablets, but Microsoft swooped in with some key victories and the launch of Windows Embedded Compact 7 software for small devices.

Over a dozen iPad-rivals shown at Computex

One company that says it will make tablets using Android, Windows and the MeeGo software developed by Intel and Nokia, also showed off one of the neatest devices at Computex, complete with its own user interface (UI) and speaker-dock.

Compal Electronics, the world's second largest contract maker of laptop computers, unveiled a sleek Android-based tablet with a 10-inch touchscreen and a stereo speaker it docked into. The UI is similar to Acer's Shell UI, which works on Android smartphones. The UI simplifies navigation by making the home screen a room full of objects the user taps using the touchscreen. Tapping a stereo icon, for example, starts music playing.

Over a dozen iPad-rivals shown at Computex

Demand for tablets has risen thanks to the iPad, Compal CEO Ray Chen said at the show, adding that, "we have a lot of customers that are very interested in tablets."

The company's tablet uses Android version 2.1 and is on offer to PC vendors worldwide. Compal creates designs for vendors to choose from, then manufactures the devices at factories in China.

Over a dozen iPad-rivals shown at Computex

Acer, the world's second-biggest PC vendor, offered a glimpse of its own prototype Android tablet just prior to Computex, at a news conference in Beijing. It has a 7-inch display and a keypad, but Acer didn't say when it might be released or how much it will cost.

Several smaller Taiwanese and Chinese companies had Android-based tablets at their Computex booths, including Browan Communications, Firstone Technology, Digitran and FuJian Sanxi Electronics.

Over a dozen iPad-rivals shown at Computex

Arm Holdings, which designs the processing cores popular in Android devices, estimates there will be about 40 tablet devices made using Arm-based processors this year, and several e-readers.

"Android has become remarkably popular in a short space of time," said Tudor Brown, president of Arm, at a news conference in Taipei.

Three Android tablets were on display at Arm's private showroom at Computex: Foxconn's N928-1 with a 10-inch touchscreen, the Lifepad by Prowave with a 7-inch touchscreen, and Wanlida Group's Malata brand tablet with a 10-inch touchscreen.

Over a dozen iPad-rivals shown at Computex

Micro-Star International (MSI) also showed off an Android-based tablet PC called the Wind Pad 110 at a news conference, but the company will launch a Windows-based tablet first, a strategy some of its rivals also announced.

MSI's Wind Pad 100 has Microsoft's Windows 7 on board, a 10-inch display and a UI developed by MSI. It also features built-in 3G and Wi-Fi, GPS and HDMI high-definition video output. It will be available later this year.

Asustek Computer also debuted its first tablets, two Eee Pads running Windows software.

A tablet PC from Asustek with Android on board was displayed at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) early this year, but the device did not appear at Computex. Asustek Chairman Jonney Shih said he's not sure the market is ready yet for Android-based tablets.

Shih said the launch of the iPad has created a unique opportunity for tablet-style devices and he expects demand for such products to grow this year.

Apple launched the iPad on April 3 in the U.S. and last week started selling them overseas in markets including Australia, Germany, Japan and the U.K.

Computex is one of Asia's largest electronics trade shows. The exhibition usually offers a view of what products consumers will see on world markets later this year.



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Apple launches HTML5 Showcase page

Apple has launcheda new section of its Website dedicated to showcasing the capabilities of the next generation of Web standards that fall under the HTML5 umbrella.

The HTML5 Showcase includes seven different demos, each aimed at illustrating a specific capability of modern Web browsers, including video and audio playback, typography, image manipulation, "VR" panoramas, and 360-view presentations.


The new content is squarely, if not openly, aimed at silencing critics of Apple's decision to exclude Flash support from its mobile devices. In addition to a link to CEO Steve Jobs's "Thoughts on Flash" open letter, the text that accompanies the Showcase states that "[s]tandards aren't add-ons to the web. They are the web."

Apple launches HTML5 Showcase page

The demos only work on the most recent versions of Safari that can be found on Mac, iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices. Users of other browsers--including those based on WebKit,the same underlying HTML rendering engine used by Apple's browsers--are directed to download Apple's browser.

The Website acknowledges this fact, stating that "soon other modern browsers will take advantage of these same web standards." That's to be expected of Apple, which has a history of dropping legacy technologies in favor of driving adoption of upcoming ones. Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously quoted Wayne Gretzky's line "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been" on the occasion of the launch of the original iPhone; earlier this week at the D8 conference, he said "Flash looks like it had its day but it's waning, and HTML5 looks like it's coming up."

Still, the fact remains that, while HTML5 may be the future of the Web, it is at present an incomplete standard that is unlikely to become "officially sanctioned" until as late as 2022, although many browsers will support it in a meaningful way much earlier than that, and Apple's insistence on supporting it exclusively may well accelerate the pace with which other browsers adopt it. Consistency across browsers does not afflict Flash-based Websites as much, for the obvious reason that Adobe controls its development and evolution exclusively--which, however, is also the nature of the main criticisms levied against its closed and proprietary nature.

In addition, there are still many open questions about some of the technologies that will make up the standard: for example, the Mozilla Foundation, which maintains the Firefox Web browser, has so far refused to support the H.264/MPEG-4 video format because of its proprietary nature and the licensing issues that surround it. Should this decision become final, supporting HTML5 would mean effectively having to serve video in multiple, incompatible formats.

Nonetheless, Apple's new HTML5 Showcase illustrates that the company is betting big on the capabilities of its flagship Web browser. Judging from the demos, the future of HTML5 applications looks bright indeed.



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Opinion: Time for Apple to open up the iPhone

Ever since Apple introduced the App Store, someone or other has written weekly (perhaps daily) about why Apple’s tight control over the App Store is a bad idea. Every time an app is rejected or delayed, the teapot is stirred again.

This isn’t going to be one of those stories where I accuse Apple of being overly controlling and inconsistent with its App Store rejection policies. Nor am I going to demand, as many have, that Apple needs to stop filtering the App Store out of some free-floating sense of fairness and righteousness.


No, I’m here to say to Apple that while I understand very well the reasons for the company’s walled-garden approach to native iPhone OS apps, the strengths of that approach have now been surpassed by the bad publicity and reputation that Apple and its products are now getting in the market as a whole.

Many critics of Apple’s policies have suggested that developers will abandon the iPhone OS for more open platforms such as Android. Some of them have, and I’m sure more will follow. But I’m not convinced that the absence of some developers on the platform will really make the difference. As long as there are tens of millions of iPhone OS devices out there—and Apple keeps selling them at a fast pace—there will be developers who want to sell apps to run on them.

It’s those device sales that worry me. Not in the short term, but over time.

Time for Apple to open up the iPhone

Bad reputation

These days, when I talk to people who are not immersed in the minutiae of the technology industry, I notice a troubling trend: They tend to speak about Apple’s products with some affection, but it’s increasingly tempered with assumptions that the devices are largely incompatible with competing technologies.

In other words, Apple’s getting a reputation. Fair or not, once consumers begin to perceive the company as being overly controlling and devoted to lock-in—and don’t think that Apple’s competitors aren’t hammering the company on this point—it will start to be a drag on Apple’s hardware sales.

The other day I was talking to a colleague, a bright guy who obviously works in the technology and media industries, but isn’t on the technical side. He’s what I’d call a moderately informed tech consumer, and I was showing him my new iPad. His response to me was shocking: He said that he had been interested in buying an iPad, but needed to read PDF files, and since Apple only supported its own formats, he couldn’t buy one.

Of course the iPad reads PDFs, I told him. He was surprised. Can I load my own videos and music on it, or only stuff I buy from Apple? Sure, I told him, you can load your videos and music. I managed to bat down every single concern he had about the device. He didn’t mention Flash once, because running Flash in a browser wasn’t a priority for him, but Apple’s anti-Flash stance had helped reinforce his perception that the iPad was a closed-off device that only played back stuff purchased from Apple.

This kind of consumer perception is what can hurt Apple, if it spreads. And don’t think that every Android phone maker isn’t spreading it, and don’t think that every tablet maker won’t spread it as soon as they finally ship those tablets.



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Jailbreaking the iPad: What you need to know

The iPad has recently been jailbroken. Even if you've held off jailbreaking your other iPhone OS devices, the iPad's substantially faster hardware and difficult-to-define "3rd device" role make the best case yet for jailbreaking. A user- and developer-updated compatibility list will help you see what's safe to install on your iPad, and I'll list my favorite apps and extensions for your freshly jailbroken device.

Apple's App Store has become notorious for its restrictive and often arbitrary decisions about what does and doesn't make it into the store. We've seen many pieces of quality software get denied or kicked out of the App Store, sometimes for unclear or unknown reasons.


What you need to know

Many of these, however, have subsequently made their way into Cydia, the jailbroken app installer (note that the App Store works just fine on jailbroken devices, too). GV Mobile, a great interface for Google Voice, Dashboard, a clone of Mac OS X's Dashboard for iPad, and Wifi Sync, a paid application for performing iTunes syncs over Wi-Fi, are just a few examples. And there are plenty more programs and extensions that are available in Cydia that have never even been submitted to the App Store.

Besides these examples of nixed software, the world of jailbreaking also offers a multitude of tweaks that aren't available to the user on a normal iDevice, like changing system sounds or interface elements. While a much higher proportion of the software available through Cydia is free compared to what you'll find on the App Store, it does also contain paid software.

The iPad: What’s Changed?

Many people express concern about jailbreaking their iPhones because they don't want to sacrifice stability or speed on their phones. While the vast majority of jailbreak software is perfectly stable, it's true that this software doesn't go through the same level of grueling testing to which Apple subjects software that makes it into the App Store. And software that lets you run 3rd-party programs in the background, otherwise change the interface, and so forth, can have effects on your device's performance, so I can understand why some people are reticent about this.

However, the iPad's processor and memory are substantially more powerful than that of the current iPhones and iPod Touches. Its hardware makes it much better suited to effective multitasking, and its role in most peoples' workflow makes a good for jailbreaking, both because jailbreaking makes it more useful, and because it simply won't be used the same way as your phone.



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Orange to launch cheap Android mobiles

Mobile operator Orange is joining a growing list of European mobile operators offering cheap Android-based smartphones, in a bid to get more prepaid subscribers on data plans.

The operator will launch three Android-based smartphones this year, and the target price is 100 without a contract, according to a spokeswoman at Orange. The goal is to offer a variety of smartphones for consumers who can't afford high end devices like the iPhone, but want to use mobile Internet and data on their phone, she said.


The first smartphone, called Boston, has already been launched in Spain and will also be available in Austria, Slovakia and Romania. The phone is made by Gigabyte and has a 3.2-inch touchscreen, a 5-megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) and a 3.5 millimeter audio jack.

Two more devices, manufactured by ZTE and Huawei, will arrive later this year though Orange isn't ready to talk about details.

Orange isn't alone in launching low-cost Android-based devices. In June, Vodafone will start shipping the 845, according to Vodafone's UK website. Vodafone hasn't announced pricing, but it is a "low-cost" device, according a spokesman.

The 845 is based on Android 2.1 and has a 2.8-inch touchscreen, Wi-Fi and HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) connectivity, a 3.2-megapixel camera and GPS. It also comes preloaded with Vodafone's 360 services.

The device is manufactured by Huawei, but will come as a Vodafone-branded phone, and the initial plan is to make it available in 12 countries including the UK, according to Vodafone.

However, the most aggressive operator when it comes to cheap smartphones based on Android has so far been T-Mobile. At the end of last year, it started the low-cost Android trend with the launch of the T-Mobile Pulse. In May, it started shipping the T-Mobile Pulse Mini, which costs 99 with a prepaid subscription. Huawei makes both devices.

Vodafone will have to match the 99 price point with the 845, according to a research note from CCS Insight.

For operators, pushing low-cost Android devices is about increasing the use of data services among prepaid subscribers, in the process making more money and keeping subscribers from moving to another operator, according to Ben Wood, analyst at CCS Insight. Working with a big manufacturer like Huawei also makes it a fairly risk-free proposition for the operators, he said.

However, a huge challenge for the operators will be to get prepaid subscribers, who are used to texting and making calls on their phones, to also use data services, according to Wood.

That Huawei and ZTE are the ones putting the pressure on smartphone pricing shouldn't come as a surprise. The two companies have used the same tactic to successfully enter the network equipment market, according to Pete Cunningham, senior analyst at Canalys.



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iPhone manufacturer Foxconn says pay raises in China not about suicides

Foxconn has raised pay among workers in China by an average 30 per cent, but it says that the raise has nothing to do with a string of suicides that some experts say global media have misattributed to everything from poor working conditions to rapid modernisation.

Foxconn has been mulling a wage increase for months because brisk global demand for computers and other gadgets has kept factories throughout southern China buzzing, a company representative said, causing a shortage of skilled laborers. Some workers had already moved on to better paying companies.


Still, the suicides may have pushed up the time frame of the raise. A number of Foxconn's high profile customers, which include Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, have recently voiced concern.

Foxconn has been under fire following a string of 13 suicide attempts by workers at its factories in China so far this year, resulting in 10 deaths.

iPhone manufacturer Foxconn says pay raises in China not about suicides

The most recent was an apparent suicide attempt last week when a man slashed his wrists, according to a statement by police in Shenzhen.

But among the flurry of reports about Foxconn in the international media, one thing appears to have been missed: The suicide rate among the company's workers is well below the national average.

Between 2000 and 2006, China averaged 15.05 suicide-related deaths per 100,000 people in the country, according to a Nov. 2008 research paper published in The Lancet medical journal. The 10 deaths so far this year at Foxconn put it far below the national average considering it employs over 540,000 workers in China. The survey, of course, cannot address the specific stresses of working at Foxconn.

The suicides do not appear to have been caused by any of the major factors featured in recent media stories, according to Michael Phillips, director of the suicide clinic at the Shanghai Mental Health Center.

Writing in an editorial published Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal, he said a careful study of the suicides needs to be taken, and notes that most explanations of the problem don't measure up: Rapid modernization in China, for example, has actually coincided with a 57 per cent drop in the national suicide rate over the past 20 years, according to The Lancet paper, which he sent via email.

The study says the suicide rate may have actually fallen due to modernization, because of improved economic prospects for the poor, as well as a move to cities where the most common method of suicide, drinking pesticides, is more difficult because it's not as readily available as in the countryside. At Foxconn, 12 of the suicide attempts have been leaps from tall buildings.

Foxconn has staunchly defended its treatment of workers and given press tours of its main facility, the Longhua factory complex in Shenzhen, to show off sports facilities, dormitories and conditions along production lines. The company has also taken steps to prevent further suicides, including calling in Buddhist monks and psychiatrists to provide counseling, and installing nets on buildings designed to catch people attempting to jump.

iPhone manufacturer Foxconn says pay raises in China not about suicides

The situation at Foxconn has caused other Taiwanese contract manufacturers to take a hard look at their operations in China as well.

"We're very concerned about this situation at Foxconn," said Ray Chen, president and CEO of Compal Electronics, the world's second-largest contract manufacturer of laptop computers, during a press conference in Taipei. His company is looking into working conditions at its factories, but Compal has no plans to increase pay right now, he said. The company paid more than Foxconn prior to the suicide issue becoming a global topic, Chen said.

Phillips argues that one good that could come out of the attention on Foxconn is a renewed effort to build a suicide prevention strategy in China.

"China has yet to develop a national strategy to tackle suicide as a public-health problem," he said.

The best way to handle the current situation at Foxconn would be to conduct a careful study of precisely what happened, he said, including the importance of the working environment, potential "suicide clustering" effect caused by media attention and other underlying stresses or psychological problems that may have driven individuals to take their lives.



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HP to cut 9,000 jobs, automate enterprise service business

Hewlett-Packard has announced plans to cut 9,000 jobs as it restructures its enterprise services business and automates the services it offers enterprise customers.

The company has spent the last 20 months integrating EDS, the consultancy and services business it acquired in 2008.


As part of the restructuring, HP will consolidate the data centers and management platforms it uses to deliver enterprise services, taking the opportunity to automate many aspects of its work. That automation and consolidation will allow it to eliminate around 9,000 jobs, it said on Tuesday.

The job cuts will come over a number of years, and will force HP to take a charge of around $1 billion against revenue over the same period. HP expects the changes to result in savings of between $500 million and $700 million after reinvestment.

The first wave of the EDS integration focused on rationalising legal entities and eliminating redundancies, Cathie Lesjack, executive vice president and chief financial officer, said during a conference call Tuesday. As HP learned more about the business, it has discovered new ways to gain efficiencies, Lesjack said.

After closing on the EDS deal, HP announced plans to lay off about 24,600 workers over three years. HP said at the time it would replace about half of those positions. The cuts announced Tuesday are not part of those reductions, according to a spokeswoman.

Services industry will be defined by automation

Meanwhile, HP believes that over the next five to 10 years, the services industry will be defined by automation, which helps from both a cost and quality perspective, executives said.

"The real value to the client comes through automation," said Ann Livermore, executive vice president of HP's Enterprise Business division.

The expected savings will help HP expand its push into areas like private cloud infrastructure services and desktop-as-a-service, according to a statement.

The planned job cuts aren't as severe as they may look, according to Livermore.

Livermore noted that they will occur over multiple years, and that average attrition rates for services businesses is "usually in the high single digits." HP also plans to hire 6,000 workers as part of the new services initiative.

HP's move is a natural one given the market forces in play, according to one industry observer.

"This is part of a larger transition at work, with larger vendors establishing cloud-like automated data centers to serve as targets for application off-loading," said Redmonk analyst Stephen O'Grady.

HP made a big step in that direction in 2007, when it purchased data center automation vendor Opsware for $1.6 billion. The company feels good about its management software portfolio, but plans to make further acquisitions, particularly of the "tuck-in" variety, Livermore said.



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Intego warns Mac users of OSX/OpinionSpy Spyware threat

Mac software security specialists Intego has warned Mac users of a potential new threat. Intego claims to have discovered a spyware application that is installed by a number of freely distributed Mac applications and screen savers found online, without specifying the details.

The spyware - OSX/OpinionSpy - reportedly performs a number of malicious actions, from scanning files to recording user activity, as well as sending information about this activity to remote servers and opening a backdoor on infected Macs.


Intego warns Mac users of OSX/OpinionSpy Spyware threat

While distribution is limited, Intego warns Mac users to pay careful attention to which software they download and install, and rates the threat risk as 'high.'

In a press release Intego highlights the following potential dangers associated with the OSX/OpinionSpy spyware.

This application, which has no interface, runs as root (it requests an administrator’s password on installation) with full rights to access and change any file on the infected user’s computer.

If for any reason the application stops running, it is re-launched via launchd, the system-wide application and service launching facility.

It opens an HTTP backdoor using port 8254.

It scans all accessible volumes, analyzing files, and using a great deal of CPU time. It is not clear what data it copies and sends to its servers, but it scans files on both local and network volumes, potentially opening up large numbers of confidential files on a network to intrusion.

It analyzes packets entering and leaving the infected Mac over a local network, analyzing data coming from and being sent to other computers. One infected Mac can therefore collect a great deal of data from different computers on a local network, such as in a business or school.

It injects code, without user intervention, into Safari, Firefox and iChat, and copies personal data from these applications. Code injection is a form of behavior similar to that of a virus, and this malware “infects” applications when they are running to be able to carry out its operations. (It infects the applications’ code in the Mac’s memory, and does not infect the actual applications’ files on the user’s hard disk.)

It regularly sends data, in encrypted form, to a number of servers using ports 80 and 443. It sends data to these servers about files it has scanned locally, and also sends e-mail addresses, iChat message headers and URLs, as well as other data. This data may include personal data, such as user names, passwords, credit card numbers, web browser bookmarks, history and much more.

Given the type of data that it collects, the company behind this spyware can store detailed records of users, their habits, their contacts, their location and much more.

The application can be upgraded automatically, with new features added, with no user intervention, and without the user being aware of this. It occasionally asks users for information, via the display of dialogs, such as their name, or asks them to fill out surveys.

In some cases, computers with this spyware installed no longer work correctly after a certain period of time; it is necessary to force-reboot such Macs.

If a user deletes the original application or screen saver that installed this spyware, the spyware itself will remain installed and continue to operate.

More information can be found on the newly redesigned Intego Mac Security Blog.



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