Google cloud platform can now be managed from a phone

Google is testing a version for Android smartphones and tablets of a console that will help its customers monitor services in the cloud while on the move.

Following the beta launch of the Cloud Console for Android, Google said a version for Apple's iOS operating system is expected to launch later this year.

Using the app, users can set up alerts, manage Google cloud platform resources and access health graphs to gain insights into the performance and availability of their cloud-powered applications on Google's Cloud Monitoring feature, wrote Michael Thomsen, a product manager at Google, in a blog post Monday.

The console also integrates with Cloud Monitoring to enable automated incident tracking when system metrics deviate. Users can, for example, ask to be alerted if Google Compute Engine instances cross their expected load of 50 percent CPU for one hour. Google's Compute Engine runs large workloads on virtual machines hosted on Google infrastructure.

"When investigating an issue, you often need to check the health and properties of your resources, such as running state, zone or IP," Thomsen said. Users can also do a number of core operations such as changing the App Engine version or starting or stopping a Compute Engine instance. App Engine is Google's platform-as-a-service for running applications.

The beta version of Cloud Console for Android is available for download on the Google Play store.

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IBM to pump $3 billion into new IoT business unit

Hungry for a bigger piece of the Internet of things market, IBM will invest US$3 billion over four years to establish a new business unit dedicated to providing IoT systems and services to enterprises.

"We're only at the very beginning of an amazing revolution. If we thought we were dealing with big data now, we haven't seen anything yet," said Erick Brethenoux, IBM director of analytics.

IBM General Manager Chris O'Connor will oversee the new unit, which will initially court enterprises in travel, logistics, insurance, public utilities, transportation and retail, Brethenoux said.

IBM will also tailor a new cloud service, the IBM IoT Cloud Open Platform, providing a way for enterprises to build their own data-driven systems, Brethenoux said. Over time, it will also develop specialized packages for specific fields like the insurance industry.

IBM will offer a customized section of its Bluemix platform service, to be called the Bluemix IoT Zone, where developers will be able to create specialized business logic to handle and analyze data streaming from IoT devices and sensors.

It will also work with partner companies in a range of industries to align more closely in all aspects of IoT, from hardware to data. It has signed deals with AT&T, chip design company ARM, and semiconductor manufacturer Semtech.

Another partner is the Weather Company, which will provide access to a rich trove of data to it can be ingested by other systems. Predictive maintenance systems could use weather records and predictions to determine when equipment needs to be serviced, for instance.

By 2021, as many as 28 billion IoT devices will be installed around the world, IDC has estimated. General Electric has predicted that IoT systems will add up to $15 trillion to global annual Gross Domestic Product over the next 20 years.

IoT is just the latest area IBM is targeting to breath new life into its business, which has been struggling as sales from some of its traditional on-premises products, particularly hardware, decline. Just last month it said it would invest $4 billion in cloud, mobile and analytics technologies.

It is working with engine manufacturer Cummins to collect real-time performance data from its products. And SilverHook Powerboats uses IBM services to analyze telemetry data from its boats, according to IBM. Whirlpool is working with IBM to better predict when its appliances will need to be serviced.

Work IBM has done in its Smarter Planet and Smarter Cities initiatives has equipped it for the emerging IoT field, it says. Many of these engagements require network-connected remote instrumentation and analytics systems, Brethenoux said.

The Police departments of Durham, North Carolina, and Memphis, Tennessee work with IBM to collect data that canhelp them better target crime hotspots. And Carnegie Mellon University and the U.S. General Services Administration are working with IBM to build IoT systems that can cut energy costs in their buildings.

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Samsung, LG make up in dispute over broken washing machines

Samsung Electronics and LG have ended a six-month dispute over broken washing machines during the IFA electronics show last year.

The South Korean arch-rivals said Tuesday that a consensus had been reached among top executives from both sides that it was time to focus on improving their products and services for the customers, according to a joint statement.

Both companies will drop charges and inform the authorities about the agreement.

Samsung first sued some LG executives last September for allegedly damaging the door hinges of three "Crystal Blue" washing machines on display at two separate retail stores in Berlin before the trade show. LG countersued Samsung for fabricating and hiding the evidence, and also blamed the poor quality of the rival products.

South Korean prosecutors raided LG's Seoul headquarters in December and probed the company's top executives including Jo Seong-jin, the head of the home appliance division. In defense, LG released last month video footage of Jo testing different Samsung machines displayed in stores, claiming it was not a move to harm but a regular practice to test the rival's products.

Recently, South Korean smartphone makers have faced stiff competition in the global market, specially challenged by less expensive Chinese devices. Samsung has released its latest premium flagship smartphones - Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge with a curved-screen - hoping to lift its smartphone profits, which plunged in the past quarters. The Suwon-based company also froze the salaries of all its workers, its first since 2009, in efforts to improve its bottom line.

The two companies have also decided to stop an ongoing feud between their sister affiliates, Samsung Display and LG Display, over allegations of theft of OLED technologies.

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GitHub recovering from massive DDoS attacks

Software development platform GitHub said Sunday it was still experiencing intermittent outages from the largest cyberattack in its history but had halted most of the attack traffic.

Starting on Thursday, GitHub was hit by distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that sent large volumes of Web traffic to the site, particularly towards two Chinese anti-censorship projects hosted there.

Over the next few days, the attackers changed their DDoS tactics as GitHub defended the site, but as of Sunday, it appears the site was mostly working.

A GitHub service called Gists, which lets people post bits of code, was still affected, it said. On Twitter, GitHub said it continued to adapt its defenses.

The attacks appeared to focus specifically on two projects hosted on GitHub, according to a blogger who goes by the nickname of Anthr@X on a Chinese- and English-language computer security forum.

One project mirrors the content of The New York Times for Chinese users, and the other is run by Greatfire.org, a group that monitors websites censored by the Chinese government and develops ways for Chinese users to access banned services.

China exerts strict control over Internet access through its "Great Firewall," a sophisticated ring of networking equipment and filtering software. The country blocks thousands of websites, including ones such as Facebook and Twitter and media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Bloomberg.

Anthr@X wrote that it appeared advertising and tracking code used by many Chinese websites appeared to have been modified in order to attack the GitHub pages of the two software projects.

The tracking code was written by Baidu, but it did not appear the search engine—the largest in China—had anything to do with it. Instead, Anthr@X wrote that some device on the border of China's inner network was hijacking HTTP connections to websites within the country.

The Baidu tracking code had been replaced with malicious JavaScript that would load the two GitHub pages every two seconds. In essence, it means the attackers had roped in regular Internet users into their attacks without them knowing.

"In other words, even people outside China are being weaponized to target things the Chinese government does not like, for example, freedom of speech," Anthr@X wrote.

GitHub has not laid blame for the attacks, writing on Saturday that "based on reports we've received, we believe the intent of this attack is to convince us to remove a specific class of content."

The attackers used a wide variety of methods and tactics, including new techniques "that use the web browsers of unsuspecting, uninvolved people to flood github.com with high levels of traffic," GitHub said.

In late December, China cut off all access to Google's Gmail service, after blocking Facebook's Instagram app, and the phone messaging app Line. A month prior, it appeared many non-political sites supported by the U.S. content delivery network EdgeCast Network were blocked. EdgeCast may have been a casualty because its cloud services are often used to host mirror sites for ones that have been banned.

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Relive the N64 glory days and play this browser-based Super Mario 64 re-creation

The Nintendo 64 remains my favorite console for a variety of reasons, even though it's been over 18 years since its North American release. If you have a similar affinity for the N64, you'll want to check this out: A developer named Roystan Ross created a fully playable re-creation of the first level to Super Mario 64.

The Super Mario 64 revival serves as a demonstration for Ross's Super Character Controller project for Unity. Ross worked to make it a fairly faithful re-creation, but he left out "some really minor stuff that nobody cared about like red coins or the Wing Cap or the Big Bob-omb,"  and replaced them with "crowd pleasers like giant springs and coin blocks."

The game works with several game controllers, Ross says, such as those for the Xbox One and Xbox 360, as well as Sony's DualShock 3 and 4 controllers. 

As of this writing, the Web version appears to be offline. Ross offers a downloadable version of the game, though, and offers builds for Windows, OS X, and Linux. If you're a Unity developer, you can also download the project files and get a look at the source code.

Have fun, and enjoy this little flashback to an earlier era in gaming.

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India backs open source software for e-governance projects

India has said it will use open source software in all e-governance projects, though it did not rule out the use of proprietary software to meet specialized requirements.

A policy document released by the federal government over the weekend makes it mandatory for all new e-governance projects and upgrades of existing legacy systems by federal agencies and participating states to first consider free and open source software (OSS) alternatives.

Federal and state agencies must make it mandatory for suppliers to give OSS a preference over proprietary or closed source software while responding to requests for proposals. "Suppliers shall provide justification for exclusion of OSS in their response," according to the policy statement posted to the website of the Ministry for Communication & Information Technology.

The Indian government has outlined its Digital India program that aims to make government services accessible online to citizens in their localities. The need to expand these services quickly at a low cost has likely prompted the decision in favor of open source in the country.

The government has also cited "strategic control" over its e-governance applications and systems from a long-term perspective as one of the reasons it was backing open source.

"It is a well drafted policy though policy researchers will always have possible improvements," said Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, a research organization in Bangalore. Instead of coming up with a new definition for free and open source software, the policy should have used the definitions available at the Free Software Foundation and Open Source Initiative websites and adopted licenses approved by these organizations, he added.

The policy should also require that the software be made available on a public code repository except in cases where there are some security concerns, Abraham said.

The federal government had previously declined to take a stand in favor of open source, leaving the choice to its agencies, but the National Policy on Information Technology, 2012 had mentioned the promotion of "open source and open technologies" as one of its objectives.

Some states have backed open source software on ideological grounds or to cut costs. Kerala, for example, had decided to promote free and open-source software in education as way back as 2006.

The government in its new policy has, however, provided for exemptions in certain specialized domains for which OSS may not be available, or if there isn't expertise in the particular area in open source. The requirement for OSS may also be waived if the deployment is strategic and urgent.

Google, which has shown interest in collaborating with the government in its e-governance projects, said it did not have a comment on the policy. Microsoft, which targets the government market, including with its cloud services, did not immediately comment. In a bid to woo Indian government customers, the company offered in September to host cloud services including Azure and Office 365 in the country.

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5 secret Chrome app launcher tips and tricks that speed up everyday tasks

The Chrome app launcher is more than a glorified version of the Windows start menu. It packs a surprising amount of Google-y power that can speed up a wide variety of tasks on a Chromebook—and Windows, if you install the Chrome launcher. 

Use the power of the built-in search button

Remember, Google killed the caps lock key when it designed the Chromebook keyboard. In its place is a dedicated Search button, which actually does a ton of things besides merely searching Google. Though it does that well, you can also use the Search button whenever you want to go to a new site. Instead of manually opening a new tab or typing Control-T, just hit the Search button and start typing.

The Chrome app launcher is also the main hub for using Google search.

Your Chromebook will pull up suggestions from your search history, bookmarks, frequently-visited sites, and—of course—Google's auto-suggestions from the Internet and Chrome Web Store. Hit Enter and you'll go to the first result.

After using this method to navigate the web, Windows or OS X will suddenly start to feel slower by comparison... though the Chrome app launcher offers the same functionality on those operating systems. There's no fancy native keyboard shortcut on non-Chromebooks, though.

Get a calculator and unit converter all-in-one

The app launcher doubles as a calculator.

Forget grabbing your smartphone or picking up a calculator for those pesky math calculations. Instead, just hit that Search button on Chromebooks and start typing to get an instant answer. Calculations will show up right in the app launcher box, without the need to wait for a new tab to open.

The keyboard commands are pretty straightforward: Use the forward slash for fractions and division, the x for multiplication, and the period for decimals.

Hit Enter to open a new browser tab with a full-blown calculator, which you can use for performing additional calculations with your answer. You can get the same magic with unit conversions, handy for cooking or measuring something. Unfortunately, the Chrome app launcher doesn't yet handle currency conversions. 

Your Chromebook can automatically perform unit conversions as well.

Open apps with your voice

Siri and Google Now have made speaking commands to smartphones a routine occurrence. Hit the Search button and say "Ok Google," then speak your command.

Use the "Ok Google" voice command to speak your search queries or other commands.

 There are also several recognizable voice commands that will perform a function, such as setting a timer, or creating a reminder that will sync to Chrome on any device. Sure, you might feel weird yelling at your computer, but it's sometimes faster to get information using your voice.

Tricks for opening apps

Fancy tricks aside, the Search button always takes you to the seemingly benign app launcher. But there are a few other hidden gems hidden within the app launcher itself.

For example, when you right-click (accomplished by tapping two fingers on the Chromebook trackpad) on an app's icon, you'll find some additional options. You can open a Chrome app in its own window, for instance, which is useful if you want a desktop-type experience by having different apps and web services running discretely.

Launch an app as a window, so that it looks like a standalone, desktop application.

Right-clicking on an app in the launcher can also help you perform some regular maintenance, such as fully removing the app from Chrome. If you click App Info, you'll get geeky developer stats and can also designate whether you want the app always to open as a regular tab, a pinned tab, in its own window, or maximized.

Sync your app folders

If you like to organize your apps into folders, enable a Chrome flag to make them appear on other Chromebooks synced to your account.

Just like on a smartphone, Chrome's app launcher lets you drag and drop your apps into folders for a tidier approach. Your folders don't carry over to other computers, however—unless you manually enable a Chrome flag that lets you sync your setup across multiple Chromebooks, as well as Windows PCs and Macs that have the Chrome app launcher installed.

To enable this, type chrome://flags in the omnibox. Then, look for the flag labeled enable-sync-app-list. Next time you sign in to a friend's Chromebook or pick up a new one, you won't have to reorganize where your apps live in the launcher.

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GNOME 3.16 is here with reimagined notifications and visual upgrades galore

The final version of GNOME 3.16 is here, and this is no mere bug fix release.

The latest version of the GNOME desktop offers a revamped notification system along with visual improvements, updated applications, and a trio of new application previews. In total, GNOME 3.16 includes a whopping 33,525 changes made by over one thousand people.

If you haven't given GNOME a try in a while, you should. GNOME and the GNOME Shell desktop interface have improved dramatically from the initial GNOME 3.0 releases.

Notifications redesigned

The latest version of GNOME offers a revamped notification system. Notification banners now appear more to the center of the screen under the top bar, making them more noticeable and less likely to interfere with applications while you're using them. Those notification pop-ups are still actionable, so you can click them to take the default action or click the buttons on them to perform other actions.

GNOME 3.16's redesigned notifications.

The old dedicated message tray has been removed. Instead, notifications that have already popped up appear in the calendar drop-down window. Click it to see notifications as well as event reminders, times for other locations in the world, and a calendar for the current month. The GNOME Project plans on adding weather information and birthday reminders to this drop-down interface in the future, making this drop-down a one-stop place to see exactly what's happening.

It's a bit like the centralized notification interfaces you'll find on most platforms these days, from Windows 10's Action Center to Chrome's notifications interface to similar features on Android and iOS.

Foursquare, cats, and scroll bars

GNOME 3.16 offers other improvements too. The desktop interface has a more modern look, with more use of dark gray colors. Scroll bars now automatically hide for a minimal look, a bit like Google Chrome's scroll bars.

GNOME 3.16's Files app.

The Files application saw some work, with larger previews in the grid and list views and a pop-up interface for quickly tweaking view settings. There's a new, easier-to-discover undo function, so you can delete files just by pressing the Delete key—you can always undo that later, after all. The Image Viewer also received tweaks, with less interface chrome and more room for looking at your pictures.

The Maps application saw a variety of improvements, and it's now possible to check in with Foursquare. There's a new sliding-blocks game called Taquin that comes with built-in cat image puzzles.

The Boxes application is also improved, making it easier to work with and use virtual machines on GNOME. Automatic codec installation has been integrated into the GNOME Software application, and various applications saw other performance and bug improvements. Soon, you should be able to install fully sandboxed applications that will work on any Linux distribution from the Software application.

GNOME 3.16's new Calendar, Characters, and Books apps.

You'll also find preview versions of Calendar, a calendar application that can show information from your online calendar accounts; Books, an e-book viewer; and Characters, a character map application for quickly inserting characters that don't appear on your keyboard.

Want to stay up to date on Linux, BSD, Chrome OS, and the rest of the World Beyond Windows? Bookmark the World Beyond Windows column page or follow our RSS feed.

Take it for a test drive

GNOME 3.16 will soon be coming to a Linux distribution near you. If you'd like to try it yourself, you can grab an official GNOME 3.16 live demo image and burn it from a CD, put it on a USB drive, or boot it on a virtual machine. For more details, examine the official GNOME 3.16 release notes.

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Windows 10 Preview coming to more phones: Is yours on the list?

If you have a Nokia Lumia smartphone, your chances of running the Windows 10 Preview are looking up: According to Microsoft's Gabe Aul, the company is set to open up Windows 10 Preview builds to a broader range of phones.

The Windows 10 Preview program opened up to smartphones back in February, but the initial preview builds worked only on a small number of Lumia devices. The reasons for this limited rollout were technical—Microsoft had to select phones with an OS partition large enough to handle Windows 10 until it had finished a partition-resizing feature known as Partition Stitching.

Partition Stitching is now ready to rock, according to Microsoft, so the Windows development team was able to expand the preview to include support for additional Lumia devices. 

The expanded compatibility list includes 36 Lumia models, including the Lumia 1020 and Lumia 1520. The full list from Microsoft follows below:

Lumia 1020
Lumia 1320
Lumia 1520
Lumia 520
Lumia 525
Lumia 526
Lumia 530
Lumia 530 Dual Sim
Lumia 535
Lumia 620
Lumia 625
Lumia 630
Lumia 630 Dual Sim
Lumia 635
Lumia 636
Lumia 638
Lumia 720
Lumia 730
Lumia 730 Dual SIM
Lumia 735
Lumia 810
Lumia 820
Lumia 822
Lumia 830
Lumia 920
Lumia 925
Lumia 928
Lumia ICON
Microsoft Lumia 430
Microsoft Lumia 435
Microsoft Lumia 435 Dual SIM
Microsoft Lumia 435 Dual SIM DTV
Microsoft Lumia 532
Microsoft Lumia 532 Dual SIM
Microsoft Lumia 640 Dual SIM
Microsoft Lumia 535 Dual SIM

Microsoft stresses that this is a "preliminary" list and is subject to change: The company may add or remove models from the compatibility list as it fixes bugs—or finds new ones.

Microsoft hasn't said when it plans to release the next build of Windows 10, but when it does, check back with Microsoft to see if it's added support for your device.

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Intel could strengthen its server product stack with Altera

Intel's chips dominate servers in data centers, but the possible acquisition of Altera could help the company provide a wider variety of custom chips designed to speed up specific applications, analysts said on Friday.

Intel is in talks to acquire Altera, which has a market capitalization of $10.4 billion [B], according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Intel and Altera declined to comment on negotiations or any deal.

Altera makes FPGAs, which are specialized chips that can reprogrammed to run specific tasks at much higher speeds than CPUs. Intel makes Altera's FPGAs in its factories and has also mentioned plans to use FPGAs with its server chips.

Intel's Data Center Group is the company's most profitable group, and its growing data-center product stack includes CPU, memory, networking and storage gear. But server designs are changing, and many tasks are being off-loaded to co-processors like graphics processors and FPGAs. Intel wants to keep growing in the server market, and Altera could partly fill a product gap, analysts said.

Intel wants to grow its co-processor and custom chip portfolio, and buying Altera saves them from developing FPGAs internally, said Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights and Strategy.

"It would be hard for Intel to build their own FPGA and make it competitive. They could do it, but how much time? It took them about a decade to become competitive in GPUs," Moorhead said.

Intel could license FPGA technology from Altera like it does now, but bringing the technology in-house could accelerate the release of custom server chips, Moorhead said.

Moreover, taking Altera FPGAs off the market could hurt competing server chip platforms from ARM and IBM, which are viewed as alternatives to Intel's x86 chips, Moorhead said.

Intel has been adding more capabilities to servers with its own components, and tying Altera's FPGAs to the CPU and other parts could bring more functionality to servers, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research.

Altera's acquisition might also have a secondary benefit to Intel's factories, which could be kept busy manufacturing FPGAs, McCarron said.

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Kleiner Perkins cleared of sex discrimination against Ellen Pao

A jury has found mostly in favor of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in a historic lawsuit accusing one of Silicon Valley's best-known venture capital firms of sex discrimination.

The jury found against Ellen Pao on three out of four claims, including whether her gender was a factor in Kleiner Perkins's decision not to promote her, according to reporters tweeting from the courtroom Friday.

There was some confusion after the verdict was read, however, because the jury of six men and six women did not reach a sufficient majority on one question: whether Kleiner Perkins retaliated against Pao by terminating her employment after she complained that she was discriminated against.

Pao could still be eligible for damages based on that claim, a Wall Street Journal reporter tweeted.

At least nine of the 12 jurors need to agree on the claim, and only eight of them did so. So the judge sent them back to continue their deliberations, according to reporters in the courtroom.

Still, most of the verdict has gone against Pao, including her central claim that she was discriminated against based on her gender. The verdict will not be final until the jury decides on the claim of retaliation.

The jury has taken two days so far and had to answer more than a dozen separate questions on the verdict form. There was an audible gasp in the courtroom as the first "no" was read by the court clerk, reporters in the courtroom said.

The trial has gripped technology industry watchers for the past month, fueling the debate about gender discrimination in Silicon Valley and shining an often unflattering light on one of tech's oldest and most successful venture capital companies. Kleiner Perkins had a hand in the formation of Google, Twitter, Amazon.com, Uber and dozens of other high-flying technology companies.

Pao filed her lawsuit two years ago, alleging that she was a victim of sexual discrimination at the firm and that Kleiner Perkins retaliated against her when she complained about her treatment.

A former junior partner at the company, Pao said a pervasive culture of sexism prevented her from being promoted to senior partner, a role in which she would have made far more money.

Kleiner Perkins was run "like a boys club," Pao's lawyer reportedly told the jury in closing arguments this week, and "no woman was going to challenge them."'

But lawyers for Kleiner Perkins painted a very different picture, and one the jury believed. They portrayed Pao as a resentful, prickly employee who found it hard to get along with her coworkers. The real reason she wasn't promoted, the firm contended, is that she lacked the experience and the drive to be a top investor.

Pao was seeking up to $16 million in lost wages. Judge Harold Kahn of San Francisco Superior Court, where the case was heard, ruled this week that Pao would also be eligible for punitive damages if the jury concluded she was treated maliciously. That could have increased her damages by a further $144 million, USA Today reported.

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FCC will vote next month on plan to share valuable 3.5GHz spectrum

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will vote April 17 on a spectrum-sharing plan for a band that could serve the military, mobile service providers and individuals.

The CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) would open up frequencies from 3550-3700MHz to three classes of users, including owners of new mobile devices who could use the service like they do Wi-Fi. The FCC vote comes after several rounds of study and public comment on the proposal for more than two years.

In that time, growing demand for wireless spectrum has boosted pressure on the government to share or auction off some of the many frequencies it exclusively controls. Bandwidth-hungry services like streaming video and audio, plus wireless links for a growing array of connected devices, are expected to eventually place strains on the spectrum currently allocated to wireless data.

The CBRS plan could lead to better wireless data performance for users in crowded places like stadiums, as well as better rural broadband services and new spectrum for industrial uses not suited to Wi-Fi or LTE, according to the FCC. It could also be a proving ground for a spectrum-sharing approach that might be applied to other government bands.

The 3.5GHz band is used mostly by Army and Navy radar systems and satellite equipment. The CBRS plan calls for them to share the band with effectively unlicensed access that anyone could get just by buying an authorized mobile device. But the FCC would also auction off licenses to service providers, who would enjoy some protection from interference by the unlicensed users.

A cloud-based Spectrum Access System would keep track of the existing radios and the licensed services in order to manage interference. But large swaths of the country that previously would have been reserved for the incumbent users are much smaller in the latest version of the plan, thanks in part to improved technology. Those so-called exclusion zones previously would have covered much of the country's east and west coasts, home to a majority of the population, but now are 77 percent smaller, the FCC says.

The exclusion zones could disappear completely if there were a service that could sense protected users nearby and automatically prevent interference, the agency says. It envisions that as a second phase of the technology but would seek proposals for both a Spectrum Access System and sensing services at the same time. It's not likely either of those technologies would be approved before next year.

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UN to appoint watchdog to focus on privacy in digital age

The Human Rights Council of the United Nations has voted in favor of a resolution backed by Germany and Brazil to appoint an independent watchdog or 'special rapporteur' to monitor privacy rights in the digital age.

The council said Thursday that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, including the right to privacy.

The proposed appointment of the rapporteur is likely to be mainly symbolic as the official's functions will be mainly advisory. But it reflects continuing concerns around the world about privacy in the wake of disclosures of U.S. surveillance by former National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden.

The resolution refers to the deep concern of the Human Rights Council at the negative impact on the exercise of human rights of surveillance or interception of communications both within countries and abroad, and of the collection of personal data, in particular when carried out on a mass scale.

German officials said in October 2013 that U.S. intelligence agencies may have spied on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone. There were also reports that the U.S. also spied on Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff among other political leaders.

The vote on Thursday was clearly prompted by concern over U.S. surveillance practices and the security of digital information, said the American Civil Liberties Union. The civil rights group said this was evident from ACLU's meetings with the sponsors of the resolution and from the text of the document.

"Our hope is that the Human Rights Council resolution marks the beginning of a serious global reckoning with mass surveillance and its effects," said Eileen Donahoe, director of global affairs at Human Rights Watch in a statement.

The new watchdog will, among other things, report on alleged violations of the right to privacy, and raise awareness concerning the importance of promoting and protecting the right to privacy, with a special reference to challenges arising in the digital age. The council has called upon all states to cooperate with the rapporteur, including by providing the information requested.

In November last year, a U.N. panel approved a resolution that would have the General Assembly call on states to respect and protect the right to privacy in the digital age.

The draft resolution, titled "Right to privacy in the digital age," also had Brazil and Germany as the main sponsors.

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In Japan, smartphone apps time spring's cherry blossoms

For centuries in Japan, poets have both lamented and extolled the fleeting beauty of cherry tree blossoms, the quintessential symbol of spring.

Today, people are turning to apps instead of verses to enjoy the blooming, which can be as brief as a week. One way to celebrate the blossoms is through "hanami," which means "flower viewing." It refers to picnicking under the blossoms, often with copious amounts of alcohol. It's a national pastime.

Such is the country's passion for cherry blossoms, known as "sakura," that the state-run Japan Meteorological Agency once deployed a supercomputer that crunched temperature, elevation and other data to predict when and where they begin and peak. Articles still discuss the agency's mathematical equations to predict the pink explosions.

The agency provided cherry blossom forecasts for over half a century, based on sample trees and historical records, but stopped in 2009 to focus on other services. Since then, companies have stepped in with forecasts of their own and now compete to produce the best smartphone apps for timing hanami.

One of the latest is a crowdsourced feature called Sakura Channel, part of the popular Weathernews Touch app for iOS and Android, which has been downloaded 13 million times. It provides forecasts, based on user reports, for when cherry blossoms will bloom at 700 famous viewing locations across Japan. Users can see hanami calendars and get alerts about when their favorite groves of cherry trees will burst into pink-white flowers.

They can also choose from preferences such as public parks, cherry-lined roads and spots known for nighttime revelry under the boughs. A "sakura simulator" shows a low-res view of pink petals gradually taking over cities such as Tokyo as users click through the calendar from late March through early April, the usual season for sakura.

The app was developed by Weathernews, a climate information company that has also distributed about 1,000 spherical "pollen robot" sensors that can detect airborne pollen, useful for forecasting the hay fever season.

"Our app is special in that it uses information from ordinary people. About 8 million users are sending us photos and weather reports of every sort," a Weathernews spokeswoman said.

"Some other developers simply tell you whether trees are blooming or not in each prefecture, but about 11,200 users across the country are sending us information about local cherry trees and we take advantage of that input."

Weathernews has also introduced a "virtual hanami" feature showcasing time-lapse photos taken with smartphones and panoramic videos of cherry blossoms captured with Ricoh's 360-degree Theta m15 camera.

Not to be outdone, Navitime Japan is offering twice-daily cherry blossom updates for more than 1,000 sites across the country. It has added the information to its popular smartphone and feature phone apps, which help Japanese navigate subway and train connections as well as roads and highways. They also provide location-specific info such as the availability of parking spots, and of course travel directions.

Japanese websites, meanwhile, abound with information on where to see blossoms, from timetables of current predictions compared to average flowering dates to lists of live cams trained on petals.

For instance, Weather Map, which began issuing predictions in 2010, has PC and mobile sites with detailed information including temperature charts, blooming graphs and a map of Japan showing the front of cherry blossoms moving up the archipelago from south to north. It uses observations of about 50 sample trees to make predictions, according to a Weather Map spokeswoman.

It also has a cherry blossom outlook and maps for most cities. The site predicts the flowers will be at full bloom in Tokyo on March 31 after opening three days earlier than the average date. The traditional cherry "weathervane" for the capital is a grove of old cherry trees at Yasukuni Shrine, a politically controversial Shinto sanctuary that honors soldiers killed in past wars.

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At Facebook, a sharpening focus on virtual reality

In 10 years, there may be no need to check Facebook's site to see what that friend overseas is up to. You might just pick up a pair of goggles, reach out and hold her hand at her birthday party.

You won't have to actually be there. The experience could be made possible through virtual reality.

Facebook sees it as a radical and important technology that in the not-too-distant future could provide new ways to help people connect and transport them to places that are out of reach or don't even exist. Providing those experiences is among Facebook's ambitious long-term goals, along with providing Internet access through aerial drones and deepening its artificial intelligence technology to better understand what people want.

Take the birthday scenario: Using a future headset from Facebook's Oculus VR division, it might be possible for a person to watch a three-dimensional video of the event, move around the room, and with specialized sensors, touch his friend. It would be a dramatic play on the concept of teleportation, letting someone feel like they're somewhere when they're not. But Facebook just might be able to pull it off.

The company bought Oculus VR last year for roughly US$2 billion, baffling observers. Now, Facebook's VR ambitions are coming more into focus. On Thursday, Facebook and Oculus executives laid out their vision for the future of virtual reality and gave some clues about possible applications of the technology at Facebook's F8 developer conference in San Francisco.

"Moments of bringing people together is what we're trying to do at Facebook. It's the core of our mission," whether those are real or virtual, said Mike Schroepfer, chief technology officer at the company, during a keynote talk at the conference.

The company is already tinkering with virtual presence. At the event, attendees could strap on the Samsung Gear VR, made in partnership with Oculus, and see a real-time, 360-degree view of Facebook's campus in nearby Menlo Park. Facebook had six GoPro cameras set up on the campus and stitched together the views from them to create the experience.

The concept of virtual presence is not new, and virtual reality has had its share of stumbles over the years. Virtual Boy, the gaming console released by Nintendo in the mid-nineties, sought to provide a more immersive experience than other consoles of the time, transporting users into the game with a screen that covered the gamer's entire field of vision. But many users just got headaches or became nauseated. Virtual Boy was only out for a year before it was discontinued.

Will it take a social networking company to do it right? The details of Facebook's VR plans aren't clear. But it's clear that Facebook sees virtual reality as an extension of social networking, and perhaps more. Until now, many of the ideas about consumer uses of virtual reality have revolved around gaming and entertainment, like the ability to watch a concert in a full 360-degree view. Facebook has broader goals.

In time, virtual reality could expand the experience of the Facebook timeline, with new ways for people to interact with each other, said Michael Abrash, chief scientist at Oculus, during a talk on Thursday at F8.

Schroepfer, Facebook's chief technology officer, shared a video of him blowing out the candles on his 40th birthday. Virtual reality could let others share and partake in that experience, he said.

We're at the point now where the technology is on its way to making that possible, and it's becoming cheaper, Abrash and Schroepfer said. The Oculus Crescent Bay headset, for example, provides a 360-degree field of view by connecting with a camera that knows when you turn around. You can explore a chamber in an imaginary castle like you would explore an unfamiliar place in real life.

Trying out Crescent Bay at F8, I found myself reaching out with my hands, wanting to grab things like a dragon's tail or some other unreal creature. But the system could not register my hand movements; instead I ended up grasping the wall in front of where I was actually standing.

That lack of tactile feedback is an aspect of the technology that needs to be improved. Also, the ability to see your virtual self, possibly as an avatar, is an area ripe for development, Abrash said.

Crescent Bay is one prototype of the device Oculus has been working on for years, called the Rift. Some early versions of the Rift have shipped to developers and to early Kickstarter backers, but it hasn't gone on sale yet.

Facebook focused on virtual reality at F8 to get developers interested in the concept and inspire them to create applications.

Attendees seemed excited about Facebook's plans to provide social, immersive VR experiences. At least a few were cautiously optimistic that the company could pull it off.

"They seem determined," said Patrick Bottne, CEO at AppSpotr, which provides tools to help developers build apps.

Meanwhile, other companies are also becoming active in virtual reality, sensing a market. Competitors include Sony, with Project Morpheus, Microsoft, with HoloLens; and perhaps even Google, which is said to be developing a virtual reality version of Android.

But Facebook is well-positioned to produce something that gains mainstream acceptance, partly because of its acquisition of Oculus and its ties to the larger developer community, said Brian Blau, an industry analyst at Gartner who has been tracking virtual reality for more than 20 years.

It might just take a while for something big to happen, he said. "What will the killer app for VR be 10 years from now? The truth is we don't know yet," he said.

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Facebook's Like button can still easily be gamed

Facebook's Like button is a pervasive feature of the Web, a way to gauge the popularity of a website or piece of content. But researchers have found it's easy to inflate the numbers, undermining its value as an accurate measure of popularity.

The problem of bogus Likes has been around for some time, and Facebook has released updates to its software over the last couple of years to cut down on fraudulent ones generated by spammers.

But researchers with McGill University's School of Computer Science in Montreal say the social networking company still hasn't fixed several major problems with the feature. This week, they released a research paper outlining the problems, which they first told Facebook about in early 2013.

"Those Like numbers may be faked," said Xue Liu, a professor of computer science at McGill, in a phone interview. "There are easy ways to generate those fake Likes, and unfortunately on the Internet, a lot of companies and economic benefits are related to the number of Likes now."

Facebook officials couldn't be immediately reached for comment. The research is important because companies may be making marketing spend decisions based on Likes. There are thriving marketplaces for people to buy fake Likes, which can cost around US$30 for 1,000.

Also, average Facebook users may not be aware of exactly what kind of actions generate a Like. It's generally assumed that a single user can only generate one Like, but that's not actually the case. Sharing a link on Facebook from a source with an embedded Like button increases the count by one.

If the same user comments on the post, the Like button continues to rise. A demo video shows how a spammer could write a script that posts a piece of content on Facebook and then adds nonsensical comments, each of which causes the Like count to tick up once.

In that example, 30 Likes were quickly generated. The researchers found it was possible to generate up to 20 likes per minute by creating a post, adding fake comments, deleting the post and repeating. Those actions didn't trigger a rate-limiting feature in Facebook that might have frozen the account for a while.

The flaw has been around for years and is apparently rooted in outdated Facebook APIs that are still used by many websites, including CNN, ABC News, The Huffington Post and The Economist, according to their research paper.

What's useful about their method is that it can generate a high number of Likes using only a single account. It means that spammers wouldn't need to take the time and expense of creating a high number of zombie accounts that would likely be detected and removed by Facebook.

Another demonstration video shows how a Like—which is essentially a soft endorsement—can appear out of context and may actually be contrary to a user's real opinion.

The researchers created a fake Web page for demonstration purposes that promoted disgraced investor Bernard Madoff. The website had an embedded Like button. If the site's URL was shared on Facebook, anyone who commented on it would increase the page's Like count, even though it's doubtful anyone would truly endorse it.

But people who visited the Web page would have seen an ever-rising Like count, giving the impression that the site is worthy. Other large online services, such as YouTube and Quora have worked around this contextual problem by adding "dislike" or "downvote" buttons.

The researchers also found if a Facebook user deletes a post, the Like count doesn't correspondingly drop.

Facebook wraps a lot of data into the little number next to the Like button. The company is straightforward about it in its documentation, saying that a Like includes not only the people who hit the button, but also the number of times the URL has been shared and the number of comments. But some people may not know that.

The paper was also co-authored by Xinye Lin and Mingyuan Xia of McGill's School of Computer Science.

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Foxconn to enter information security realm with joint venture

Foxconn Technology Group isn't satisfied with just making iPhones, and plans to break into the information security market through an upcoming joint venture.

On Thursday, the Taiwanese manufacturing giant announced it would set up in May a joint venture with Korea's SK C&C, an IT services provider, to develop information security systems for the Chinese market.

The venture will be based at one of Foxconn's factories in China, where it has hired over a million workers to assemble electronics for vendors that include Apple, Microsoft and Sony.

Electronics manufacturing has long been the core business of the company. Business from Apple is estimated to contribute 40 to 50 percent of Foxconn's revenue.

Foxconn, however, wants to move beyond contract manufacturing, and target new opportunities emerging in the tech industry.

Last June, company CEO Terry Gou said it would expand into cloud computing, networking technologies, in addition to robots and electric cars.

Earlier this week, Foxconn struck another partnership with Chinese Internet giant Tencent to develop Internet-connected electric vehicles. Gou said he hopes to make cars priced lower than US$15,000.

Thursday's deal with SK C&C will also involve the two companies working together on healthcare, finance and improving manufacturing processes, Foxconn said in a statement.

SK C&C already provides IT services in a wide-range of sectors, including telecommunication, finance, energy and logistics among others. In June, Foxconn bought a 4.9 percent stake in the Korean company for about $370 million.

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About 25 US states oppose sale of RadioShack's customer data

Several state consumer protection agencies in the U.S. have joined the state of Texas in objecting in bankruptcy court to the proposed sale by RadioShack of personal information of its customers.

In a filing Wednesday, the state of Texas said it had received support from 21 governmental consumer protection entities to its objection last week to the planned sale of personally identifiable information (PII) of 117 million RadioShack customers.

The state of Texas had earlier objected to the sale citing both the in-store and online privacy policies of the consumer electronics retailer. "All versions of the privacy policy contain an unequivocal provision that consumer PII will not be sold," state officials said in a filing to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

The state said it had arrived at the number of customers likely to be affected from the deposition last week by a representative of RadioShack. Customer lists and other customer-related information have been included as assets to be sold in the asset purchase agreement, it added.

Hilco Streambank, an adviser for asset sales in bankruptcy cases, has listed on its website 13 million email addresses and 65 million customer names and physical address files, among RadioShack assets for sale.

The states of Oregon and Pennsylvania also said in filings Wednesday that they were supporting the objection by Texas. On Monday, the state of Tennessee had also backed the plea.

"There can be no doubt that the information to be sold is exactly the information that Congress intended to be included in its new definition of personally identifiable information," Oregon Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum, wrote in a filing. "It defined that information in order to specially protect it."

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III wrote in a filing that the sale of PII is impermissible because it violates applicable non-bankruptcy law.

New York's Attorney General Eric. T. Schneiderman warned in a statement that his office is committed to taking appropriate action to protect New York customers if RadioShack sells customer data. New York hasn't signed on to Texas' challenge.

The state consumer protection organizations opposing Radio Shack's move are from Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin.

RadioShack filed for bankruptcy protection in early February. The company could not be immediately reached for comment on the actions by the states.

AT&T has also asked to be heard before the disposal of the assets because of customer and other information collected on its behalf by RadioShack, as a reseller of AT&T phones and service plans.

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Android flaw puts personal data at risk for millions

Nearly half of Android devices are vulnerable to an attack that could replace a legitimate app with malicious software that can collect sensitive data from a phone.

Google, Samsung and Amazon have released patches for their devices, but 49.5 percent of Android users are still vulnerable, according to Palo Alto Networks, which discovered the problem. Google said it has not detected attempts to exploit the flaw.

A malicious application installed using the vulnerability, called "Android Installer Hijacking," would have full access to a device, including data such as usernames and passwords, wrote Zhi Xu, a senior staff engineer with Palo Alto.

The company wrote two exploits that take advantage of the flaw, which involves how APKs (Android application packages) are installed.

The vulnerability only affects applications that are installed from a third-party app store. Security experts generally recommend using caution when downloading apps from those sources.

Apps downloaded from third parties place their APK installation files in a device's unprotected local storage, such as an SD card, Xu wrote. From there, a system application called PackageInstaller finishes the installation. The flaw allows an APK file to be modified or replaced during installation without anyone knowing.

An attack would work like this: A user downloads what appears to be a legitimate application. The application asks for certain permissions on the device. During that process, Palo Alto found it was possible to swap or modify the APK file in the background because the PackageInstaller fails to verify it, Xu wrote.

After clicking the install button, "the PackageInstaller can actually install a different app with an entirely different set of permissions," he wrote.

Android devices do not need to be rooted for the attack to work, although rooting does make devices more vulnerable.

When the flaw was discovered, in January 2014, close to 90 percent of all Android devices were affected. That has since dropped to 49.5 percent, but many devices have not been patched.

Palo Alto's exploits were successful against Android versions 2.3, 4.0.3 to 4.0.4, 4.1.x, and 4.2.x. The 4.4 version of Android fixes the issue. Some Android 4.3 devices may still be affected, however, since some manufacturers have not patched yet, Xu wrote.

Google has published a patch here, and Amazon recommends downloading the latest version of the Amazon AppStore, which will update its Fire devices, Xu wrote.

Palo Alto has also developed an Android app that will detect if a device is still vulnerable.

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Google said to prep billing payment service for Gmail

Google reportedly is creating a service to let people pay their bills from their Gmail accounts.

The service, currently dubbed Pony Express, would ask users to provide personal information, including credit card and Social Security numbers, to a third-party company that would verify their identity, according to a Re/code report on Tuesday.

Google also would work with vendors that distribute bills on behalf of service providers like insurance companies, telecom carriers and utilities, according to the article, which was based on a document seen by Re/code that describes the service.

It's not clear whether Pony Express is the actual name of the service or if Google will change the name once it launches. It's planned to launch by the end of the year, according to the report.

A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

A handful of vendors such as Intuit, Invoicera and BillGrid already offer e-billing payment and invoicing software. Still, a Google service, especially one within Gmail, could be useful and convenient to consumers if the company is able to simplify the online payment process.

A benefit for Google could be access to valuable data about people's e-commerce activities, although there would be privacy issues to sort out. Google already indexes people's Gmail messages for advertising purposes.

Plus, the service could give Google an entry point into other areas of payment services. The company has already launched a car insurance shopping service for California residents, which it plans to expand to other states.

It's unclear who Google's partners would be for the service, but screen shots published by Re/Code show Cascadia Financial, a financial planning company, and food delivery service GreatFoods.

Pony Express would also work in Google's new Inbox app for email, the report said. It's unclear whether the service would use Google's Wallet payment system or have its own platform.

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Bullhorn's new CRM tool mines email for deeper relationship insight

There are many metrics that can be used to try to predict the success of a customer relationship, but sometimes it's better to simply let history speak for itself. That, in essence, is the premise behind Bullhorn's new Pulse CRM tool, which mines a company's email interactions over time to uncover fresh insights.

Pulse is a new, stand-alone software-as-a-service product that's designed to give user companies instant insight into the health of their relationships with customers and other contacts. Using a built-in email-tracking system, Pulse automatically mines email communications and analyzes them in real time.

What it delivers is cross-department visibility into who knows who, who has the longest-standing or highest-quality relationships, and who engages most deeply with a contact or organization, for example.

Underlying the new tool's capabilities are Bullhorn's passive email-tracking system and integration with Outlook, Office 365 and Gmail, as well as with social platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Pulse can complement any sales force automation tool, including those from companies such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics and Oracle.

Equipped with the resulting data, organizations can use Pulse to create a map of their employees and infer both relationships and customer health, said Art Papas, Bullhorn's CEO.

"Say we've got a big potential customer," he said. "I can see if our account manager has any significant relationships with key people there; if not, we may need to reassign the account to someone else."

Companies could even divide up sales territories based on the quality of existing relationships among the staff rather than arbitrary geographic lines.

Originally launched with a focus on the staffing and recruiting industries, Bullhorn completely revamped its platform in 2013. Today, its "mobile-first" offering supports more than 1,500 API integrations, processes 1 billion transactions per week and sustains 99.993 percent uptime, said the company, which claims a client base of 10,000 organizations and 350,000 users.

Pricing for Pulse is still being finalized but will be on a per-seat basis, Papas said.

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US FCC faces lawsuits against proposed net neutrality order

U.S. broadband industry trade body USTelecom and Internet provider Alamo Broadband filed Monday lawsuits against a controversial U.S. Federal Communications Commission proposal to reclassify broadband providers, which could be the harbinger of similar lawsuits from Internet companies.

The FCC voted by 3-2 in February to approve new net neutrality rules that would help ensure the uninhibited flow of Internet traffic. It aims to reclassify broadband as a regulated public utility, thus prohibiting providers from selectively blocking or throttling or offering paid prioritization of traffic.

The new rules aim to regulate both wireless and wireline Internet services on the lines of traditional telephone companies, which are required to deliver service at "just and reasonable" rates and interconnect with each other. Small broadband providers will, however, be exempted from some of the new rules temporarily.

The FCC order has not yet been posted to the Federal Register, the daily journal of the U.S. government. But USTelecom (United States Telecom Association) said it was filing the review petition "out of an abundance of caution" to meet the 10-day period provided for an appeal, just in case the FCC order or its declaratory ruling part is treated as final after its release on March 12, the organization said in a filing Monday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

USTelecom said that if the court decides that the "trigger date" is 10 days after publication in the Federal Register, the trade body will file an appeal at that time. The FCC said in its March 12 release that its order would become effective 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

The trade body, whose members include AT&T and Verizon Communications, said it was asking for a review of the order as it was "arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion." The regulation of broadband by the FCC as an utility, by invoking Title II of the Communications Act, is not legally sustainable, USTelecom President Walter McCormick said in a statement.

"Our member companies conduct their business in conformance with the open Internet principles," he added.

The FCC could not be immediately reached for comment.

Alamo filed a similar petition in the in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The Elmendorf, Texas, provider has asked the court to set aside the FCC order and declare it illegal, according to a copy of the filing obtained by The Washington Post.

The FCC adopted in 2010 the Open Internet Order, which prohibited broadband providers from blocking or unreasonably discriminating against content providers or applications for network access, but this was largely overruled in January last year by the Columbia Circuit court in a lawsuit filed by Verizon.

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Google catches bad digital certificates from Egyptian company

Google said Monday an Egyptian company issued digital certificates that could have been used to intercept data traffic to its services, which did not appear to have been abused.

The incident is the latest example of longstanding problems around the issuance of digital certificates, which are used to encrypt data and verify the legitimacy of websites.

Google detected on March 20 that unauthorized digital certificates had been issued for several of its domains by MCS Holdings, a Cairo-based networking and security company, wrote Adam Langley, a Google security engineer.

The unauthorized certificates would have allowed MCS Holdings to spy on communications between Google and users on its network. Langley wrote that Google does not, however, believe the certificates were used for that purpose.

"We have no indication of abuse, and we are not suggesting that people change passwords or take other action," he wrote. "At this time, we are considering what further actions are appropriate.

Both Google and Mozilla, the developer of the Firefox browser, were instructing their browsers to block a higher level digital certificate—known as an intermediate one—which was used by MCS Holdings to issue the unauthorized ones.

The intermediate digital certificate was issued to MCS Holdings by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), a nonprofit organization that is administered by the Cyberspace Administration of China. CNNIC is a Certificate Authority, which is a considered a trusted organization that verifies digital certificates.

All Web browsers were coded to trust the certificates CNNIC issues, wrote Mozilla's security team in a blog post, which means the unauthorized ones issued by MCS Holdings would not trigger a warning.

Google contacted CNNIC when it detected the unauthorized certificates, Langley wrote. CNNIC said that MCS Holdings was only supposed to use the intermediate certificate to generate other certificates for the domains it owns.

Instead, MCS Holdings put the CNNIC intermediate certificate into a firewall, which was designed to inspect traffic that is encrypted by SSL/TLS. Many companies and organizations terminate encrypted traffic at a proxy so they can inspect it for security reasons.

But such proxies aren't supposed to have the power to generate certificates for other domains, Langley wrote. CNNIC, he wrote, "delegated their substantial authority to an organization that was not fit to hold it."

CNNIC told Google it would revoke the certificate. MCS Holdings couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Security experts have long warned of the problems with wrongly issued digital certificates. To combat the problem, Google has pushed its Certificate Transparency project, which is aimed at quickly detecting SSL/TLS certificates that have been mistakenly issued or acquired by hackers.

Many major online services are also using a technique called certificate key pinning to bolster security. It allows online services to specify which certificate authorities have issued valid digital certificates for their sites and reject ones that haven't come from known authorities.

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India's Supreme Court strikes down law against offensive online content

India's Supreme Court has struck down as unconstitutional an Internet law that provided for the arrest of people sending online messages considered offensive or menacing.

The court struck down on Tuesday section 66A of the Information Technology Act, describing it as vague, and said it did not fall under reasonable restrictions on free speech.

The decision by the Supreme Court follows a bunch of lawsuits that alleged that this section of India's cyberlaw was a threat to free speech in the country, and had led to arbitrary arrests.

"This is a clear win for democracy and free speech," said Mishi Choudhary, a lawyer focused on technology. She added that the Supreme Court had proven to be "very tech-savvy."

One petition filed in 2012 by a student, Shreya Singhal, asked India's top court to strike down section 66A, saying it violates Articles 14, 19 and 21 of India's Constitution which are concerned with basic rights including freedom of speech. Singhal's lawyer described the section as vague and arbitrary.

Section 66A made it punishable by a fine and imprisonment of up to three years if a person used a "computer resource or a communication device" to transmit a message that is "grossly offensive or has menacing character." It also makes it an offence if a person transmits information known to be false to cause, among other things, hatred, enmity or ill will.

The law was used to target a variety of online comments, ranging from attacks on controversial politicians to remarks that were considered to be religiously offensive.

The federal government was not immediately available for comment on the court order. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet are known to be tech-savvy, and have used Twitter and other social media to promote themselves and the government's programs.

"It would have been nice if Modi had on his own scrapped the law," said Choudhary. "It was a great opportunity that he missed."

The Supreme Court has, however, upheld the right of the government to block content on the Internet in certain cases.

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MagicLeap teases its augmented reality tech—and it looks awesome

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Fake patient data could have been uploaded through SAP medical app

SAP has fixed two flaws in a mobile medical app, one of which could have allowed an attacker to upload fake patient data.

The issues were found in SAP's Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Unwired, which stores clinical data about patients including lab results and images, said Alexander Polyakov, CTO of ERPScan, a company based in Palo Alto, California, that specializes in enterprise application security.

Researchers with ERPScan found a local SQL injection flaw that could allow other applications on a mobile device to get access to an EMR Unwired database. That's not supposed to happen, as mobile applications are usually sandboxed to prevent other applications from accessing their data.

"For example, you can upload malware to the phone, and this malware will be able to get access to this embedded database of this health care application," Polyakov said in a phone interview.

They also found another issue in EMR Unwired where an attacker could tamper with a configuration file and then change medical records stored on the server, according to an ERPScan advisory.

"You can send fake information about the medical records, so you can imagine what can be done after that," Polyakov said. "You can say, 'This patient is not ill'."

SAP fixed both of the issues about a month ago, Polyakov said.

The German software giant also fixed another flaw about a week ago found by ERPScan researchers, which affected its Mobile Device Management software, a mobile client that allows access to the company's other business applications.

The issue was a server-side buffer overflow that could cause a denial-of-service attack, according to an advisory. That may not seem serious, but that server software accepts supply-chain reports from the field and is also used by executives to get access to business-critical data, Polyakov said.

"If you can disable the mobile server for at least an hour, the supply chain of the company can be stopped, so you can imagine how bad it can be for a company," Polyakov said.

The vulnerability is not remotely exploitable, so an attacker would need to have access to a SAP Mobile Device Management client, he said. But that would be accessible from inside the company and possibly from third-parties, he added.

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Uber ties with Internet arm of large media group in India

Beleaguered by Indian regulators and bad publicity, Uber Technologies has struck a marketing and distribution deal with the Internet business arm of a powerful Indian media conglomerate, the Times Group.

For Times Internet, which already runs a shopping site and some media sites including the Web editions of the Times newspapers, the collaboration provides an opportunity to play a role in the booming market for ride-hailing smartphone apps.

Uber said in a blog post Monday that the deal involved an investment, but a spokesman declined to comment further. Times Internet will invest Indian rupees 1.5 billion (US$24 million) in Uber, according to the Economic Times, a group publication, which cited people familiar with the transaction.

"Marketing and distribution are a key part to our strategy for success in India and there is no better partner and platform for this than Times Internet with its print, radio, OOH [out-of-home], and digital marketing platforms that reach over 200 million Indians," according to Uber. The ride-hailing company hopes to benefit from advertising across Times Internet's platforms, the Uber spokesman said.

Describing India as its second largest and fastest growing market, Uber said its partnership with Times Internet is in line with similar deals to address local markets, such as with Baidu in China, America Movil in Latin America and American Express in the U.S.

Uber said in December that Baidu will invest in the company and also enable users of Baidu Map and Mobile Baidu, Baidu's flagship mobile search app, to connect easily with Uber drivers.

Regulators in Delhi banned Uber's service and asked it to conform to new radio taxi rules after the alleged rape of a woman passenger by a Uber driver late last year. The company is also facing problems in other countries like South Korea where its local operations chief and drivers are under investigation for breaking local rules. In Germany, its UberPop service was banned by a court in Frankfurt as it was found that private drivers operate the service with their own vehicles without the required licenses.

The Times Group is a powerful partner for Uber, as it controls some very influential media sites, which focus on new technologies and issues related to their adoption and regulation.

The competitive ride-hailing market has already seen a round of consolidation with the largest player, ANI Technologies' Ola, acquiring a smaller rival for $200 million. Ola has recently updated its app to allow users to order for food delivery.

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Android's smart lock now detects when you carry your phone

Google is adding a feature to Android's smart lock that could significantly cut down on the number of times users need to enter a passcode to unlock their phones while they are out and about.

On-body detection uses the accelerometer in the phone to detect when it's being held or carried by a person. If enabled, the feature requires a passcode the first time the phone is accessed but then keeps the device unlocked until it is placed down.

That means, for example, that someone walking down the street won't have to unlock their phone every time they take it out of their pocket.

The feature doesn't appear to have been announced by Google, but it began appearing in some phones on Friday.

Like the other elements of smart lock, it should be used with caution as it can't detect who is carrying the phone.

"If you unlock your device and hand it to someone else, your device also stays unlocked as long as the other person continues to hold or carry it," reads a message displayed on phones with the new feature.

The smart lock feature was introduced with Android 5.0 Lollipop and allows users to set zones around trusted places, such as a home or office, and WiFi or Bluetooth devices, such as a computer or car radio. When the phone is in those zones it will remain unlocked once it's been unlocked the first time.

It can also recognize faces and remain unlocked when it sees a trusted face.

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About-face: Spurred by Apple, Swiss warm to smartwatches

In Switzerland, "smartwatch" is no longer a dirty word.

The wearable computers have been gaining respect this week at Baselworld, the annual showcase for the Swiss watch industry, only a year after they were 'machina non grata.'

In 2014, there were few smartwatches to be seen at the show. But TAG Heuer has become one of the latest Swiss watchmakers to embrace the idea, joining industry giant Swatch.

The sea change means connected timepieces, at least at the high end, will now be more about design, craftsmanship and luxury, instead of just functionality.

Swiss executives still express caution over smartwatches, especially due to the bother of having to recharge them daily, and because of their brief shelf life—part of the disposable nature of consumer electronics.

"They have the name of smartwatches, and OK they're smart, but all the Swiss watches are smart," sniffed Swatch's Francois Thiébaud, president of the Baselworld Swiss Exhibitors Committee, at an opening press conference. He went on to relate how he recently bought a Sony smartwatch only to discover it wouldn't work properly because he doesn't have an Android smartphone.

His comments reflect the old guard of Swiss watchmaking, but it's an attitude that's rapidly changing.

"We want to build long-lasting products, but with the advantage of connected features as well," Ronnie Bernheim of manufacturer Mondaine Watch said.

"We want to build long-lasting products, but with the advantage of connected features as well."

Mondaine's Helvetica 1 smartwatch has a simple, round, white face just like those of its analog predecessors that are based on a Swiss railway clock design. But it also has activity and sleep trackers set in a sub-dial at the 6 o'clock position. It's due out in the fall, but pricing has yet to be announced.

Calling it a "connected chronograph," Swiss manufacturer Breitling showed off its B55 Connected, a timepiece for aviators that can link to an iPhone app via Bluetooth. The app can adjust alarms, time zones and other settings while receiving flight chronograph data from the watch. Breitling hasn't given a price yet, but since it's aimed at people who fly planes it probably won't be cheap.

Meanwhile, hybrid offerings known as Horological Smartwatches, from the Swiss makers Frederique Constant and Alpina, combine classic analog faces and hands with an activity and sleep tracker platform called MotionX, which can synchronize with Android and iOS smartphones. The Frederique Constant will start shipping in June, priced from 950 euros (US$1,019), but pricing and availability for the Alpina have yet to be revealed.

Paving the way for Swiss watchmakers is the Apple Watch, which ships in April and will retail from $350 to $17,000 for its most ostentatious incarnation.

"The key reason for the changed mindset was the market entry of Apple: clearly, this company is taken seriously from a marketing/branding perspective, and everybody knows that Apple can revolutionize markets," Pascal Koenig, an analyst with Zurich-based Smartwatch Group, said via email.

Image: Vector (screenshot)

A smartwatch from London-based watchmaker Vector.

"With pricing that reaches well into the premium segment, executives from the traditional watch industry realize that smartwatch technologies do not only impact the low-cost watch segment."

Non-Swiss manufacturers are also joining the parade. Italy's Bulgari presented at Baselworld its Swiss-made Diagono Magnesium concept watch. It's an elegant, mechanical timepiece that also has an NFC (near field communication) chip which can be used to unlock doors, start car engines and make payments. It can be paired with a smartphone and linked to credit card information and passwords.

Also introduced at Baselworld were sleek smartwatches from Vector, a London-based maker. The Luna ($349) and Meridian ($199) have classic analog stylings along with activity and sleep tracking, smartphone links for social media notifications, waterproofing to depths up to 50m and, best of all, a 30-day battery, achieved through the use of monochrome LCD screens and a its own smartwatch OS.

Koenig believes smartwatches will profoundly change the entire watch industry, instead of being a complementary market as some Swiss officials have seen it. One thing is likely—the success or failure of the Apple Watch will be a huge factor in the extent to which traditional watches continue to get smart.

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Report: Amazon's upcoming Unlocked initiative will offer paid apps for free

Amazon staked its reputation on its rock-bottom prices, but according to a new report, it's about to undercut the entire Android app market. According to TechCrunch, Amazon Unlocked will be a new section of the Amazon Appstore, and will offer a number of otherwise paid apps and games for free—complete with any in-app purchases the app may offer.

TechCrunch likens it to "Amazon Prime for apps," though it looks to be an extension of the existing daily free app promotions Amazon runs on the its Appstore.

If nothing else, Amazon Unlocked will give users a good reason to give Amazon's app market another look. But developers stand to get a boost here, too, and not just through increased promotion. TechCrunch notes that developers can leave Unlocked, and when they do, users will have to begin paying for in-app purchases again.

Put another way, Amazon Unlocked gives app developers an opportunity to make money off of their apps, even after giving it away for free.

TechCrunch, which learned about Amazon Unlocked through a leaked internal presentation, says there's no timetable for Unlocked's rollout, and that participating developers can't discuss the program at the moment since they're under a non-disclosure agreement. 

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About-face: Spurred by Apple, Swiss warm to smartwatches

In Switzerland, "smartwatch" is no longer a dirty word.

The wearable computers have been gaining respect this week at Baselworld, the annual showcase for the Swiss watch industry, only a year after they were 'machina non grata.'

In 2014, there were few smartwatches to be seen at the show. But TAG Heuer has become one of the latest Swiss watchmakers to embrace the idea, joining industry giant Swatch.

The sea change means connected timepieces, at least at the high end, will now be more about design, craftsmanship and luxury, instead of just functionality.

Swiss executives still express caution over smartwatches, especially due to the bother of having to recharge them daily, and because of their brief shelf life—part of the disposable nature of consumer electronics.

"They have the name of smartwatches, and OK they're smart, but all the Swiss watches are smart," sniffed Swatch's Francois Thiébaud, president of the Baselworld Swiss Exhibitors Committee, at an opening press conference. He went on to relate how he recently bought a Sony smartwatch only to discover it wouldn't work properly because he doesn't have an Android smartphone.

His comments reflect the old guard of Swiss watchmaking, but it's an attitude that's rapidly changing.

"We want to build long-lasting products, but with the advantage of connected features as well," Ronnie Bernheim of manufacturer Mondaine Watch said.

Mondaine's Helvetica 1 smartwatch has a simple, round, white face just like those of its analog predecessors that are based on a Swiss railway clock design. But it also has activity and sleep trackers set in a sub-dial at the 6 o'clock position. It's due out in the fall, but pricing has yet to be announced.

Calling it a "connected chronograph," Swiss manufacturer Breitling showed off its B55 Connected, a timepiece for aviators that can link to an iPhone app via Bluetooth. The app can adjust alarms, time zones and other settings while receiving flight chronograph data from the watch. Breitling hasn't given a price yet, but since it's aimed at people who fly planes it probably won't be cheap.

Meanwhile, hybrid offerings known as Horological Smartwatches, from the Swiss makers Frederique Constant and Alpina, combine classic analog faces and hands with an activity and sleep tracker platform called MotionX, which can synchronize with Android and iOS smartphones. The Frederique Constant will start shipping in June, priced from 950 euros (US$1,019), but pricing and availability for the Alpina have yet to be revealed.

Paving the way for Swiss watchmakers is the Apple Watch, which ships in April and will retail from $350 to $17,000 for its most ostentatious incarnation.

"The key reason for the changed mindset was the market entry of Apple: clearly, this company is taken seriously from a marketing/branding perspective, and everybody knows that Apple can revolutionize markets," Pascal Koenig, an analyst with Zurich-based Smartwatch Group, said via email.

"With pricing that reaches well into the premium segment, executives from the traditional watch industry realize that smartwatch technologies do not only impact the low-cost watch segment."

Non-Swiss manufacturers are also joining the parade. Italy's Bulgari presented at Baselworld its Swiss-made Diagono Magnesium concept watch. It's an elegant, mechanical timepiece that also has an NFC (near field communication) chip which can be used to unlock doors, start car engines and make payments. It can be paired with a smartphone and linked to credit card information and passwords.

Also introduced at Baselworld were sleek smartwatches from Vector, a London-based maker. The Luna ($349) and Meridian ($199) have classic analog stylings along with activity and sleep tracking, smartphone links for social media notifications, waterproofing to depths up to 50m and, best of all, a 30-day battery, achieved through the use of monochrome LCD screens and a its own smartwatch OS.

Koenig believes smartwatches will profoundly change the entire watch industry, instead of being a complementary market as some Swiss officials have seen it. One thing is likely—the success or failure of the Apple Watch will be a huge factor in the extent to which traditional watches continue to get smart.

16.00 | 0 komentar | Read More