Surveillance, ICANN transition dominate Brazil NETmundial meeting

A global Internet governance conference in Brazil concluded Thursday with a strong focus on countering surveillance, including asking for a review of the implications on privacy of existing practices and legislation.

The meeting also spoke of the need for consensus among global stakeholders in the development of international Internet-related public polices and Internet governance arrangements.

A large issue before Internet users, organizations and governments is planning the transition after the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration ends its oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which expires in September next year.

The non-binding outcome of the meeting at San Paulo also stressed on the protection of intermediaries, and called for cooperation "among all stakeholders" to address and deter illegal activity, consistent with fair process. The meeting did not take a stand on net neutrality that many activists were demanding and listed it among the issues that need to be better understood and further discussed in appropriate forums.

The two-day Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance, also called NETmundial, was largely influenced by disclosures by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden since June last year of large-scale surveillance of the Internet by the agency and spying on foreign leaders, including Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff.

Nnenna Nwakanma, Africa Regional Coordinator of the World Wide Web Foundation, thanked Snowden in her speech during the opening ceremony Wednesday. She reminded the audience that Rousseff had said at the U.N. General Assembly in September last year that "in the absence of the right to privacy, there can be no true freedom of expression and opinion and there is no effective democracy."

In the event, a new paragraph was added in the final statement that asked that the "procedures, practices and legislation regarding the surveillance of communications, their interception and collection of personal data, including mass surveillance, interception and collection, should be reviewed, with a view to upholding the right to privacy by ensuring the full and effective implementation of all obligations under international human rights law."

The statement, however, fell short of the demand of some activists that the text should address the surveillance by the U.S. including the participation by Internet companies. Documents released by Snowden had alleged that Internet companies like Facebook and Google had given the NSA real-time access to content on their servers. The companies denied their participation in the project called Prism.

The meeting also demanded a role for all stakeholders in deciding the transition of ICANN to a new governance model. The discussion about mechanisms for guaranteeing the transparency and accountability of the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) functions after the U.S. government role ends must be through "an open process with the participation of all stakeholders extending beyond the ICANN community," according to the final statement.

"Now, let's all focus on implementation of #netmundial Roadmap based on #netmundial2014 Principles driven by our newly born NETMundial spirit," ICANN president Fadi Chehadé wrote in a twitter message after the conference. Rousseff decided on the NETmundial conference after a meeting with Chehadé.

The statement also recommended that Internet governance should promote open standards by consensus and the standards should be consistent with human rights.

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Why Japanese watchmakers have no time for smartwatches

If the Rufus Cuff smartwatch is anything to go by, some people want a lot of hardware on their wrists.

The crowdfunded watch is truly massive: 8 centimeters wide, with a 3-inch touchscreen, Wi-Fi, GPS and other features that make it seem like a smartphone strapped to your arm. The US$279 behemoth might look unwieldy to some, but backers love it. They've pledged over $230,000 to Rufus Cuff's Indiegogo fundraising campaign, more than meeting its goal of $200,000.

From grassroots campaigns to big manufacturers like Samsung, Sony and possibly Apple, smartwatches are starting to compete with traditional timepieces for wrist real-estate. The smartwatch industry was worth about $700 million in 2013 and is expected to reach $2.5 billion this year, according to Zurich-based research firm Smartwatch Group.

It seems like everyone's getting in on the game—everyone, that is, except major watchmakers in Japan who have prided themselves on innovation, revolutionizing the industry in the 1970s and 1980s with quartz wristwatches.

It's certainly not for lack of high-tech chops. At the Baselworld watch trade show in Switzerland earlier this month, Casio showed off its latest designs for its super-rugged G-Shock brand.

The G-Shock Gravitymaster ensures it's showing the right time by picking up terrestrial radio signals as well as satellite GPS signals. Other G-Shocks are also connected, but to mobile devices. The DJ turntable-inspired G'Mix uses Bluetooth links to control music playback on a smartphone or to receive the correct time from a phone.

G-Shocks are evolving, and can still take the hard knocks they were designed to withstand when the brand was inaugurated 31 years ago. But while some Casio watches have smartwatch-like features, Casio sees a clear divide between its timepieces and wearable computers.

"As long as a watch can provide a new convenience to customers, we'll aggressively pursue new technology to be incorporated into the watch," said Shinji Saito, a product planner at Casio's Hamura R&D Center in Tokyo where G-Shocks are put through punishing tests.

"But the bottom line is, a watch is a watch and we think it should be able to display time whenever customers glance at their wrists."

The idea of having to recharge a smartwatch's battery for it to tell the time doesn't sit well with Casio, which launched its first wristwatch, the digital Casiotron, 40 years ago.

Swiss watchmakers have also scoffed at power-hungry wrist computers, with TAG Heuer CEO Stéphane Linder telling The Financial Times, "The idea of having to charge luxury watches kills the dream a bit."

Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek has his own reservations about the smartwatch craze, recently commenting that he doesn't think fans of wristwatches would enjoy having to do frequent software updates that smartwatches can require.

Meanwhile, there were virtually no smartwatches on display at the Baselworld trade fair.

Current smartwatches on the market are smartphone wannabes and are trying to copy their functions, Casio's Saito said. He believes their ultimate goal is to become a smartphone for the wrist—not unlike the Rufus Cuff.

Japan's other major watchmakers also produce dazzlingly cutting-edge timepieces, but smartwatches are a non-starter for them.

Seiko has evolved its Astron, which debuted in 1969 as world's first quartz watch, into a GPS-linked, solar-powered device that supposedly loses only one second every 100,000 years.

The manufacturer, which brought Japan's first wristwatch to market a century ago, has promoted accuracy and advanced features across its mechanical, quartz, kinetic and solar movements. But it has no plans for a smartwatch, and wants to focus on watches that impart passion, reliability and beauty, a Seiko spokeswoman said.

Citizen's latest flagship, the Satellite Wave F100, also synchronizes with orbiting timekeepers. The company said it spent two years developing a new movement to shorten the satellite signal reception time, claimed to be the fastest in the world, by one second.

Citizen is a diversified manufacturer that also makes digital blood pressure monitors, thermometers and pedometers. But it has no time for the smartwatch fad.

"Rather than being a watchmaking process, smartwatches are like making iPhones or computers," a Citizen spokeswoman said. "Our basic stance is that we want to produce watches, and that's why we don't make smartwatches."

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Pinterest launches Guided Search to navigate you through its 30 billion pins

Everyone's favorite virtual pin-board wants to introduce you to more than just decorated mason jars, apartment envy, and wedding inspiration. Pinterest launched Guided Search on Thursday, a new mobile-first tool that taps into Pinterest's massive user collection to bring the things you're really looking for right to the forefront.

"Guided Search helps you find things when you didn't know how to ask the question in the first place," Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann said during a launch event at the company's San Francisco headquarters. And with more than 750 million boards containing more than 30 billion pins, we're going to need all the help we can get to weed through the whimsical noise.

Silbermann stressed that about 75 percent of Pinterest's traffic now comes from mobile devices, so a truly mobile-first search tool is essential to the visual bookmarking site's future. The design team wanted to create a one-handed experience with minimal typing, which strays from typical search methods.

Hands-on with Guided Search

Guided Search starts by suggesting things to search for that are popular with other pinners.

While you still start with a traditional search bar, Guided Search gives you an initial selection based on what other users are searching for. As you type, it will give you results right off the bat with just a few letters. A carousel with category-based guides displays results right at the top, which you can scroll through horizontally to tailor your search. Terms are split by individual query—searching for "antique table," for example, splits it up into "antique" and "table"—so you can modify your search by removing or adding terms from wherever you are instead of going back to square one (perhaps swapping "antique" for "modern" after you realized that this aesthetic works better in your home). 

One of the most dynamic demos shown at the launch was a food-related search that really displayed how well Guided Search can, well, guide you through the process of discovery. For example, plugging in the term "veggie" leads to several different guides, ranging from "burger" to "gardening" to "tray." Selecting "burger" leads to more suggestions, this time on the type of veggie burger you'd like. The process can help you narrow down your search query in a way that you wouldn't ordinarily get from your first search. 

Pinterest presents results alongside a suggestion of terms to search for next. 

Of course, it's Pinterest, so pins and boards are always the focus. Pins are boldly displayed underneath the scrollable carousel of guides, and you can tap on any pin to see it in full scale or add it to your board.

Find pins for all the things 

Besides search, the Pinterest team has looked to perfect two other major functions: Related Pins and Custom Categories. Related Pins have been a staple for a while, but now more than 90 percent of existing pins have related content. That way, when you add a pin, Pinterest can present you with similar pins it thinks you'll like. Related Pins are already pretty accurate, but the more people pin, the better they'll get.

"We're just one tap, one scroll away from things you might enjoy picked by other people," said Silbermann. 

Anoter feature rolling out soon is Custom Categories, which will let users add new categories based on their own boards.

Although Guided Search, Custom Categories, and Related Pins aren't game-changing features, these are all subtle changes that make a huge difference in the mobile Pinterest experience.

The latest version of Pinterest with Guided Search is now available for iOS and Android devices; it's coming soon to the web version of Pinterest.

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Megaupload seeks return of millions in frozen Hong Kong assets

Megaupload, the defunct file-storage site, is asking a Hong Kong court to release millions of dollars in assets as part of efforts to allow its former users to reclaim their data.

The company's assets were frozen by Hong Kong at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice around January 2012 after its operators, including founder Kim Dotcom, were indicted by U.S. prosecutors for allegedly profiting from large-scale copyright infringement.

On Wednesday, the High Court ordered Hong Kong's Department of Justice to respond to Megaupload's filing by June 4.

Megaupload attorney Ira Rothken said in a phone interview the move is part of a long-running effort to allow Megaupload to restart its servers so users can reclaim their data, unavailable since the site was shutdown.

The company has maintained that Hong Kong should have never seized the assets since the U.S. did not properly serve Megaupload with a criminal summons. U.S. federal criminal procedures dictate that a summons can only be served within the U.S., and the company was registered in Hong Kong.

Rothken said Megaupload waited more than two years to file such a request to give time for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to rule on whether consumers can get their data back. The court has not addressed the issue since 2012, Rothken said.

"We are deeply concerned that as the days go by that consumers are being further and further prejudiced because they don't have access to their data," Rothken said. "We believe that the servers that still exist could be eroding."

Allowing consumers access to their data will cost money for bandwidth and hosting, Rothken said. But the greatest cost is having a qualified e-discovery contractor copy the servers to preserve the data as evidence at trial. The estimates Megaupload has solicited have been in the millions of dollars, he said.

Some of Megaupload's data is gone. One of its hosting providers, LeaseWeb in the Netherlands, repurposed servers allocated to Megaupload after efforts to secure payment were unsuccessful.

Rothken said Megaupload doesn't have "full transparency" on what data remains, although many servers that were located on the U.S. East Coast and Canada remain stacked in warehouses, with the U.S. DOJ in "instructive control," he said.

The U.S. is seeking extradition of Dotcom and his colleagues, Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk. All remain in New Zealand where an extradition hearing is scheduled for July.

The men are charged with criminal copyright infringement, money laundering, racketeering and wire fraud.

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Qualcomm could face SEC probe over Chinese bribery allegations

Qualcomm's activities in China could result in regulatory penalties for the chip vendor, this time from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over bribery allegations.

The company is already facing an anti-monopoly probe from Chinese authorities for allegedly overcharging clients. But on Wednesday, Qualcomm said that the SEC may also consider penalizing the company, as part of an anti-corruption investigation.

The SEC's Los Angeles Regional Office has made a preliminary decision to recommend that the SEC take action against Qualcomm for violating anti-bribery controls, the company said in its second quarter report. The accusations involve Qualcomm offering benefits to "individuals associated with Chinese state-owned companies or agencies," the report added.

Both the SEC and the U.S. Department of Justice have been probing the company over alleged violations of the nation's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

In cooperation with those official investigations, Qualcomm said it's found instances of preferential hiring, and giving gifts and other benefits to "several individuals" with China's state-owned companies. The gifts and benefits amounted to less than US$250,000 in value.

If the SEC takes action against Qualcomm, penalties could include giving up profits, facing injunctions, and other monetary penalties, the company said. Earlier this month, Qualcomm filed a submission with the U.S. regulator, countering any claims of wrongdoing.

Qualcomm is facing the investigations at a time when China is increasingly become a bigger part of its business. The nation is the world's largest smartphone market, and more Chinese device manufacturers are expanding globally.

Last year, however, Chinese regulators began investigating Qualcomm due to complaints from industry groups. The company was allegedly abusing its market position and charging higher fees for its patent licensing business. In November, Chinese authorities conducted two surprise raids of Qualcomm offices in China for documents.

Chinese regulators could decide to penalize Qualcomm by confiscating financial gains made, and even imposing a fine of 1 to 10 percent on its revenues for the prior year, the company said in its quarterly report.

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We Heart It turns off Twitter sharing following spam

A social network for sharing image collections has turned off sharing on Twitter after a large spam run referenced the service.

Spammy postings on Twitter contained the phrase "If I didn't try this my life wouldn't have changed" followed by a link. Some posts included a tag referencing Weheartit.com, an image-sharing service.

On Wednesday, We Heart It wrote on Twitter that "we've temporarily disabled sign-in and sharing via Twitter while we look into an issue. Please sign-in via email in the meantime."

We Heart It enabled sharing with Twitter in January. Items that people "heart" are autoposted to a person's Twitter account.

Twitter appears to have swiftly dealt with the problem. Some of the links, which used the bit.ly URL shortener service, were being flagged as potentially malicious by both Twitter and Bit.ly.

The high number of posts on Twitter containing the links indicate that a large number of Twitter credentials may have been captured then abused by spammers, possibly by worm-like malware that gathered many accounts over a short time.

Twitter could not be immediately reached for comment.

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AT&T: Phone buyers are hanging up on subsidies

Installment plans for cellphones are starting to squeeze out the time-honored practice of paying a subsidized price up front, AT&T says.

Buying installments is catching on in a big way, according to AT&T's first-quarter financial results Tuesday. About 2.9 million people signed up for the carrier's Next plan, in which subscribers pay for a phone in monthly installments and can trade it in for a new model after a year. That was more than 40 percent of AT&T's postpaid customer additions or upgrades for the quarter.

Paying in installments is an alternative to buying phones at a price subsidized by the carrier, the way most U.S. consumers have done it up to now.

AT&T introduced Next in July 2013 amid a flood of new plan options among U.S. carriers that was led by T-Mobile USA. Only 15 percent of AT&T's new subscribers and upgraders signed up for Next in the fourth quarter last year, so the plan seems to be gaining momentum. However, some of the uptake in the first quarter came from an offer that let customers upgrade their phones early, the carrier said.

U.S. carriers sell most of their phones at subsidized prices to draw customers in and then lock those subscribers into two-year contracts. With installment plans, subscribers still have to pay off their phones if they change carriers before they've made all the payments, but the monthly cost of the phone—about US$15 to $50 on Next—is spelled out on each bill. After 20 payments, the handset's paid for. AT&T says consumers like having a more "transparent" way to pay for their devices.

"Many customers have been choosing to move off the subsidy model," Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said on a conference call Tuesday. AT&T thinks this trend will continue but it's not ready to drop the subsidy model yet.

"I wouldn't suggest it would be eliminated as long as there's a significant number of customers who enjoy and prefer it," Stephens said.

If you're wondering where those trade-in phones go, Stephens said AT&T can sell them to customers of its prepaid plans, use them to fulfill insurance plans that cover phone replacement, or sell them on the wholesale market, as it began doing last year. The fact that AT&T uses the GSM family of network technologies, which is used around the world, helps it get good prices for the used phones, Stephens said.

AT&T's Mobile Share plans also are growing more popular. About 45 percent of its postpaid subscribers are on the plans, which let customers pay for one monthly bucket of data and use it on multiple devices. A lot of shared-plan users are buying big buckets, too: 46 percent of them have plans with 10GB or more per month, the carrier said.

Changes are coming in AT&T's prepaid business, where customers pay ahead of time for what are typically less expensive plans. With its acquisition of Leap Wireless out of the way, AT&T plans to relaunch that company's Cricket wireless brand in the second quarter, folding its own prepaid operations into that business, Stephens said. He estimated it would take about 18 months to move customers off the former Leap network, which uses CDMA, and onto AT&T's GSM-based system.

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Bing for schools out of pilot stage, promises ad-free search

Microsoft is throwing open an advertisement-free version of its Bing search engine to all eligible kindergarten to 12th grade schools in the U.S., after completing the pilot stage of this program that was first run in five large public school districts.

The company is promising students an ad-free and safer search. After the no-charge "Bing in the Classroom" program is activated, Bing searches from within the school network will not have any advertisements, and will automatically and strictly filter to help block adult content. Microsoft will also disable the use of student searches for targeted advertising.

Microsoft's catch-them-young strategy seems to have paid off as the program has grown to include hundreds of districts covering over 4.5 million kids in more than 5,000 schools, the company said Wednesday.

The company is offering students credits under the Bing Rewards program for searching with Bing from their home or mobile device. Students can choose which school to support with the credits, and once the school has earned 30,000 credits, a Surface tablet with Type Cover is sent directly to it.

"We created Bing in the Classroom because we believe students deserve a search environment tailored for learning," said Matt Wallaert, creator of the program, in a statement. Classrooms should be ad-free both online and offline, he added.

Like Google, Bing runs an advertisement business around search. Bing's search share grew to 18.2 percent while search advertising revenue grew 34 percent, Microsoft said in January. Digital analytics firm comScore reported this month that Microsoft sites had 18.6 percent of the share of search in the U.S. in March in comparison to 67.5 percent for Google sites.

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Toshiba, SanDisk NAND flash memory shrinks to 15-nanometer process

Partners Toshiba and SanDisk have developed 15-nanometer process technology for NAND flash memory widely used in smartphones and tablets.

The development is the first in the world and will replace the second-generation 19-nm process technology when production begins at Toshiba's plant in Yokkaichi, Japan, Toshiba said.

Process technology refers to the method and size in making chips. NAND flash memory is a storage medium that does not need power to retain data.

The 15-nm process technology will be applied to 128 gigabit (16GB) NAND flash memory with two bits per cell, Toshiba said.

By using a high-speed interface, the new chips increase the data transfer rate to 533 megabits per second, which is 1.3 times faster than the 19-nm process technology.

The Yokkaichi plant in Mie Prefecture near Osaka will begin mass production of the chips at the end of April, Toshiba said.

In a separate announcement, SanDisk said the technology will be available as its 1Z-nm process node, promoting what it called the world's smallest, most cost-effective 128-gigabit chips.

"Our 15-nm technology will be utilized across its broad range of solutions, from removable cards to enterprise SSDs," a SanDisk spokesman said in an email.

"The benefit for the customer is that the technology provides a lower cost structure compared to the previous node, which is 1Y-nm."

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With "Baidu Inside," the Chinese firm takes aim at hardware market

Printers, air quality monitors, and weighing scales aren't exactly in the realm of Baidu, China's largest search engine. But that's starting to change under a new company initiative that seeks to bring Baidu technology to smart devices, including household appliances.

Called "Baidu Inside", the company's latest project is to offer hardware vendors access to Baidu's technologies in cloud storage, voice assistants, facial recognition, and mapping, among others. And already, the company is promoting a growing number of products.

On Monday, one of Baidu's partners, electronics maker Haier, demoed an air quality monitor that can synch remotely with a smartphone over a Wi-Fi connection. Other products shown include fitness wristbands and a wireless printer built using Baidu tech.

The "Baidu Inside" project comes at time when increasingly more household electronics makers are turning to smart devices. Through sensors, modems and software, the products can be controlled remotely via smartphones and also be used to track user's habits.

It represents a potentially big market for Baidu. Besides its search engine, the company also offers a wide range of Internet services such as online video, mapping, and music streaming. In addition, the company wants to become a top site for users to download mobile apps.

But Baidu has struggled to expand in China's mobile Internet market, according to analysts. Many of the most popular apps come from rival companies and Google dominates China's mobile operating system market with its Android OS.

By launching its "Baidu Inside" initiative, the company could be trying to corner a growing sector of the Chinese market. Some of the products displayed on Monday were prototypes, but others are already on sale including a weighing scale that can track a user's health.

Although some of the products on sale come from little-known vendors, Baidu has also partnered with larger players like Huawei, ZTE, Asus and Canon.

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