Apple loses momentum

Posted on July 23, 2014 by - News

gala_appleThe fruity cargo cult Apple is slowing down and will look to its old enemy IBM to pull its nadgers out of the fire.

Yesterday the company posted a smaller-than-expected six percent rise in quarterly revenue.

The Tame Apple press, desperate to find something good in the figures said that revenue surged 28 percent in greater China despite stiff competition in its third-largest market. What they failed to say is that 28 percent of sod all is still sod all.

Apple sold 35.2 million iPhones in the June quarter, a rise of about 13 percent that was in line with analysts’ projections.

Chief Executive Tim Cook told analysts on a conference call that Apple’s Chinese performance was “honestly surprising”. Unit iPhone sales jumped about 48 percent and Mac computer sales rose 39 percent in the June quarter.

But Apple has never been a particularly big seller in the Android dominated Chinese market and for Jobs’ Mob to make serious money it would have to increase its sales by several hundred percent to be any use.

Again the Tame Apple Press stepped in to say that this quarter is always light because there is a new phone coming out which means people are not buying the old one. But signs are that Apple is putting its hopes on larger screen phones, ignoring the fact that its rivals have been there already.
The figures also show a different story. Apple forecast revenue of $37 billion to $40 billion this quarter, weak compared with Wall Street’s outlook for $40 billion or more — Apple does not believe the new phone will make that much difference.

Some of the dafter Apple press have even suggested that the company will be turned around by entering the wearable device market with the iWatch.

Apple reported sales of $37.4 billion in its fiscal third quarter ended June, falling short of Wall Street’s expectations for about $38 billion.

Sales of iPads, which like smartphones are coming under growing pressure from Android rivals, at 13.3 million fell a little short of analysts’ projections for more than 14 million. Net income jumped 12.2 percent to $7.75 billion.

Lasers promise quantum breakthough

Posted on July 23, 2014 by - News

laserDartmouth scientists and their colleagues have emerged from their smoke filled labs with a laser that uses a single artificial atom to generate and emit particles of light.

The laser may play a key role in the development of quantum computers.

According to the journal Physical Review B, which we get for the spot the neutron competition, the new laser is the first to rely exclusively on superconducting electron pairs.

Alex Rimberg, a professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth said that the fact the laser only uses only superconducting pairs means that that electrical energy can travel without any resistance or loss of energy.

The artificial atom is made of nanoscale pieces of superconductor which you can make part of an electrical circuit on a chip, something you can’t do with a real atom. It means that there is now a much clearer path toward interesting applications in quantum computing.

Light from the laser is produced by applying electricity to the artificial atom. This causes electrons to hop across the atom and, in the process, produce photons that are trapped between two superconducting mirrors.

With the new laser, electrical energy is converted to light that has the ability to transmit information to and from a quantum computer.

“With a quantum computer, you have to get the information from point A to point B,” he says. “A computer that does a calculation but has no way of getting the information anywhere else isn’t particularly useful. Our laser might offer an easy way of producing the kinds of weird quantum states of light that could be used to carry quantum information around.”

British people tell Cameron to stick his net filters

Posted on July 23, 2014 by - News

David CameronWhile the British Prime Minister David “one is an ordinary bloke” Cameron is adamant that people want their internet censored by him to “protect their children” the population of Blighty is telling him where to shove it.

Broadband customers are overwhelmingly choosing not to use parental-control systems foisted on ISPs by the government. Take-up in the single digits for three of the four major broadband providers even though many have to opt into an uncensored internet.

An Ofcom report has revealed that the vast majority of new customers are not opting for the filters and the whole thing was an expensive waste of time.

Only five percent of new BT customers signed up, eight percent opted in for Sky and four per cent for Virgin Media. TalkTalk rolled out a parental-control system two years before the government required it and has had much better take-up of its offering, with 36 per cent of customers signing up for it.

Ofcom said about 40 percent of British homes would likely have children in them, but noted that customer demographics varied by ISP. BT said about 20-25 percent of its customer base has children “of a relevant age.”

Ofcom noted that previous research showed about 42 percent of British homes with children already had parental controls of some sort before the rollout. BT noted that about nine percent of its customers – which it said works out to 40 percent of its customers with young children use a device-based filter rather than the network-level filter.

In other words, those who wanted to “protect the children” had already done it and did not need any help from David Cameron. Probably these same people hire baby sitters and do not leave their children in pubs when they want a quiet night in.

Ofcom admitted that filters are easily ignored, but suggests it requires a “dedicated and technically competent user, supported by a range of advice available online”. Actually you can get around some of the filters can be dodged by using basic proxy services, including Google Images or Google translate.

All up, it is looking like most people do not want to be protected by David Cameron and are ignoring his attempts to censor what they watch.

Putin the thumbscrews on Western tech companies

Posted on July 22, 2014 by - News

imperial_russiaTsar Vladimir Putin is taking his revenge on the US for bringing in sanctions against its Ukraine activity by cutting back on the use of American technology.

Apparently Putin is cross about the sanctions which froze the business assets of some of his closest business supporters. He thinks he should be allowed to supply missiles to pro-Russian supporters to use how they see fit without any world sanctions.

It looks like Putin is taking out his frustrations on US companies like Microsoft and IBM and ordering the country to be less reliant on Yankee tech.

Russia’s executive secretary of the commission for the State Duma, Andrey Chernogorov, was quoted as saying, “This all has to do with sanctions. Given the current international tensions, substituting imports with local software and hardware becomes the key to ensuring self sufficiency.”

The State Duma is currently in the process of drafting a bill which would seek to replace products from Microsoft and IBM in favour of software and hardware made by local companies.

It looks like the Russians will eventually only buy products that do not need to be imported or have licensed components.

It is not clear how that will play out yet. Probably some support or pressure to move to Open Source products. That might work well with the software, but hardware dependence on US, made in China, goods will be harder to shake.

Apple wants gazillions of big screens for iPhones

Posted on July 22, 2014 by - News

gala_appleFruity cargo cult Apple has asked its manufactures between 70 million and 80 million of its two forthcoming large-screen iPhones by the end of the year.

The Wall Street Journal has found sources which claim that Apple has predicted the numbers of people wanting iPhones with 4.7-inch (11.9-cm) and 5.5-inch (14-cm) displays is much larger than the initial order last year of between 50 million and 60 million for iPhone 5S and 5C models.

Foxconn and Pegatron plan to start mass producing the 4.7-inch iPhone model next month, and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, whose parent is Foxconn, will begin making the 5.5-inch version exclusively in September.

The Journal was full of the normal predictions about what the iPhone will deliver designed to create some hype in what is actually product similar to what is already out there.

But the numbers suggest that Apple seriously believes that it is on to a money spinner that will eclipse the sales of all other iPhones.

This is a bold statement, given that the smartphone market is saturated and developing markets have only shown slight interest in joining the Apple cargo cult.

Both iPhone 6 screens are expected to use in-cell touch panel technology, built into the screen and allowing for thinner construction than with standard touch panel films, that was introduced with the iPhone 5.

It is possibly this reason, rather than growing worldwide sales, which means that Apple has ordered so many. Word on the street is that there could be difficulties with in-cell production technology for the larger 5.5-inch size.

Apple has ordered shedloads more products because some will not work. Although this sounds sensible, it does mean that a lot of material will be junked. What might worry Apple is that if faults are not detected before they end up in the shops it might create a reputation for unreliability.

Autonomy chief financial officer wants to block HP settlement

Posted on July 22, 2014 by - News

HPAutonomy’s former chief financial officer is seeking to block the maker of expensive printer ink, HP from settling three shareholder lawsuits over its troubled purchase of the British software company.
Sushovan Hussain, said the “collusive and unfair” settlement in which HP officials are wrongly absolved of a $8.8 billion writedown.

Hussain, said the “collusive and unfair” settlement, if approved by a federal judge, would let HP “forever bury from disclosure the real reason for its 2012 write-down of Autonomy.

“This motion reveals the depth of the corruption that permeates the settlement,” the spokesman said. “The shareholders who have borne the losses get nothing, and learn nothing about what really happened.”

He said that it ignored HP’s destruction of Autonomy’s success after the acquisition.

The June 30 accord called for HP shareholders to end efforts to force current and former officials, including Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman, to pay damages to the Palo Alto, California-based company over its disastrous $11.1 billion Autonomy purchase.

Instead, the shareholders agreed to help HP pursue sue former Autonomy officials like Hussain and former CEO Michael Lynch.

HP announced the $8.8 billion writedown in November 2012, just over one year after buying Autonomy, and claimed it as down to accounting fraud and inflated financials by Autonomy executives.

HP spokesman Howard Clabo shrugged and said that Hussain’s opposition to the settlement is baseless. He thought that at the end of the process, the jury will conclude that Hussain engaged in a multi-billion dollar fraud.

Stop taking a pizza the action, Italy tells Google

Posted on July 22, 2014 by - News

OgleItaly has given Google 18 months to sort out how it treats and stores user data.
According to the Italy’s data protection regulator has been investigating Google as part of a European drive to reform the internet giant’s privacy practices.

There was concern after Google consolidated its 60 privacy policies into one, combining data collected on individual users across its services, including YouTube, Gmail and social network Google+. It gave users no means to opt out.

The Italian watchdog barked that Google’s disclosure to users on how their data was being treated remained inadequate, despite the company having taken steps to abide by local law.

The Rome-based regulator said Google would not be allowed to use the data to profile users without their prior consent and would have to tell them explicitly that the profiling was being done for commercial purposes.

The watchdog snarled that requests from users with a Google account to delete their personal data be met in up to two months.

A spokesman for Google said the company had always cooperated with the regulator and would continue to do so, adding it would carefully review the regulator’s decision before taking any further steps.

Google also agreed to present a document by the end of September that will set a roadmap of steps to comply fully with the Italian regulator’s decision.

If it does not it could cost Google a million euros in fines, which is such a small part of Google’s income it is a wonder if it will care. There are criminal proceedings which could get a few Google executives in the dock. Google executives have been in the dock before in Italy and it ended badly.
Regulators in France and Spain have already fined Google for breaking local laws on data protection, underscoring growing concerns across Europe about the volume of personal data that is held in foreign jurisdictions.

In Britain, the ICO regulator gave Google until September 20 last year to make changes to bring the policy into line with local law.

Apple installed back doors into iOS

Posted on July 22, 2014 by - News

gala_appleThe fruity purveyor of expensive smartphones, Apple, might have to explain to its users why it installed back doors into its gear.

Security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski has revealed that Apple might have deliberately installed security holes in all of their iOS devices.

In his talk to the HOPE security conference Zdziarski demonstrates “a number of undocumented high-value forensic services running on every iOS device” and “suspicious design omissions in iOS that make collection easier.” He also provides examples of forensic artefacts acquired that “should never come off the device” without user consent.

Zdziarski said Apple did that all the while it shored up the security in the rest of the iOS to make it harder to break in.

The irony is that according to Zdziarski the iPhone is “reasonably secure” to a typical attacker and the iPhone 5 and iOS 7 are more secure from everybody except Apple and the government.

For example, he has noticed that just because you lock your Apple device, it does not mean that your device’s data is encrypted. The only way to encrypt it is to shut it down. This means that as long as your device is on, you are “at risk of spilling all data”.

Commercial forensic tools will be able to perform deep extraction using these backdoor services.
He thinks Apple might have bowed to the demands of the security services and law enforcement to install such security holes to make it easier for them to break in with a warrant.

Apple has stated that it will be transparent when faced with government requests, but Zdziarski thinks that this is still a breach of customers’ trust. The back doors are obviously undocumented and not mentioned to customers at all.

Tor used to distribute Ransomware

Posted on July 21, 2014 by - News

Al CaponeA new breed of Crypto ransomware which uses Tor to hide its antics has hit the streets.

Critroni has been flogged on underground forums for the last month or so and is now being used by the Angler exploit kit.

Security experts say that it is the first crypto ransomware seen using the Tor network for command and control.

It is bad news. The ransomware landscape has been ruled by CryptoLocker and that bit of code has proved really hard to defeat. CryptoLocker encrypts all of the files on an infected computer and then demands that the victim pay a ransom in order to get the private key to decrypt the data.

Coppers in the United States and Europe took down the GameOver Zeus malware operation, one of the key mechanisms that attackers were using to push CryptoLocker. Since then security researchers spotted advertisements for the Critroni ransomware. Critroni also is known as CTB-Locker, and was first used in Russia.

You can pick up Critroni ransomware for $3,000 and researchers say it is now being used by a range of attackers, some of whom are using the Angler exploit kit to drop a spambot on victims’ machines.

Once on a victim’s PC, Critroni encrypts a variety of files, including photos and documents, and then displays a dialogue box that informs the user of the infection and demands a payment in Bitcoins in order to decrypt the files.

Victims have 72 hours to pay up. The ransom payment is usually about $300, for victims in the US, Canada and Europe.

One of the unique features of Critroni/CTB-Locker is that it uses the C2 function hidden in the Tor network Tor for its command-and-control infrastructure.

Fedor Sinitsyn, senior malware analyst at Kaspersky Lab said that the executable code for establishing Tor connection is embedded in the malware’s body.

Embedding Tor functions in the malware’s body is difficult from the programming point of view, but it helps to avoid detection.

Critroni is in English and Russian right now, so it is expected that countries which use those languages will be a target.

 

Russians hack Wikipedia entry on flight MH17

Posted on July 21, 2014 by - News

imperial_russiaAs it looks like the missile that downed flight MH17 was fired by pro-Russian separatists armed by Tsar Vladimir Putin, another war is breaking out on the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia.

Tsar Putin’s government has been caught out removing sections of Wikipedia which accuse it of providing the missiles that were used to down the civilian airliner.

The Twitter bot which monitors edits made to the online encyclopaedia from Russian government IP addresses has spotted that changes are being made to a page relating to the crash.

A user from within the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) changed a Russian language version of a page listing civil aviation accidents to say: “The plane [flight MH17] was shot down by Ukrainian soldiers,” which is what Tsar Putin wants you to think.

This replaced text, written an hour earlier, which said MH17 had been shot down “by terrorists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic with Buk system missiles, which the terrorists received from the Russian Federation.”

The government was caught by an automated Twitter bot called congress-edits was created to monitor for changes made from US Congress computers and immediately tweet them.

That source code powering that project was made public, allowing the creation of RUGovEdits which performs a similar role in Russia.

Tsar Putin has denied any responsibility over the shooting down of the jet, which should have been an end to the matter. He said that the “government over whose territory it occurred is responsible for this terrible tragedy.”

If you read that literally he is saying that the Ukrainian government was responsible for him having to arm the separatists, and also had to face blame for the trigger happy nutjobs mistaking a passenger plane for a Ukrainian government cargo plane.

Normally it is the US government which tinkers with Wikipedia entries with staff of Congress members often having a crack at improving their boss’s image.

Microsoft once offered an engineer money to update articles on two competing standards.

ICCAN suspends Domain Registry of America

Posted on July 21, 2014 by - News

sputnikICCAN has stepped in and banned the Domain Registry of America from flogging Domain names at least until October.

Domain Registry of America is run by Brandon Gray, sometimes under the handle of NameJuice.

What Domain Registry of America have been doing for the last decade is send out “renewal” notices using snail mail to people who are not their customers. They get the expiration dates correct so it looks legitimate. They also use important-looking stationary with lots of American flags and official language implying that you are already a customer.

A lot of people are suckered into thinking that the company’s name implies that they are somehow the official gatekeeper of domain names in the land of the free.

Inexperienced website owners fill out the paperwork, send in their credit card numbers, and transfer their domain name to Domain Registry of America and have to paying a higher fee for the domain name.

While these sorts of antics are legal in the US, the blogsphere is full of people complaining about the company. While many will welcome the ban, others will be wondering why it took ICANN so long. Others are alarmed that the ban is not permanent.

Gray got finally caught out under a couple of clauses in the 2013 registrar contract with ICANN by subjecting Registered Name Holders to false advertising, deceptive practices, or deceptive notices.

Apple blames Intel

Posted on July 21, 2014 by - News

gala_appleApple has been forced to delay its coming 12-inch MacBook because the chipmaker Intel keeps delaying its Broadwell chip.

To be fair Apple has not confirmed plans to launch a 12-inch MacBook yet, but that is normal. But it is also normal to know when the product is likely to be shipped and this one is going to be late.

The news of a 12-inch MacBook emerged in October and trusted KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo said the device would combine the portability of an 11-inch MacBook Air with the productivity of the larger 13-inch version. The analyst claimed that Apple put its Retina display onto this 12-inch MacBook.

Taiwan’s Economic Daily News claims that with Intel’s delays with Broadwell, Apple will have to push back the launch date.

It claims that Apple will not be able to ship its purported 12-inch MacBook Air until late 2014 or early 2015.

The problem is the technical issues that Intel is having with its  14-nanometer Broadwell chips. The chips in question have faced numerous delays and the problems are not going away.

Word on the street is that Intel’s U series Broadwell chips destined for Apple’s upcoming MacBooks may not ship until February next year.

Apple was supposed to release this model in autumn, with mass production set to commence in the third quarter. The 12-inch MacBook will boast a redesigned chassis with an ultra-thin profile, as well as a revamped trackpad that would ditch the fan and the mechanical trackpad button.

Apple’s MacBook will not be the only major release affected by Intel’s continued Broadwell delays. Several other Apple products may face similar hurdles. The first Broadwell chips designed for iDevices are not expected to start shipping until early 2015, while those designed for the Retina MacBook Pro and the iMac may not ship until mid-2015.

All this means is that Jobs’ Mob will not have any major product launches for ages.

Intel goes Pentium, Core i3 nuts

Posted on July 21, 2014 by - News

Intel-logoChipzilla has released eight new Pentium and Core i3 desktop microprocessors.

The Pentium G3250, G3460, Core i3-4160 and i3-4370 are being geared for PC’s. Intel also released Pentium G3250T, G3450T, Core i3-4160T and i3-4360T which are low-power models.

According to Tom’s Hardware all processors are 100MHz faster than their predecessors, which is a barely noticeable three to four percent improvement in clock speed.

The prices are pretty much the same for previously released Pentiums and Core i3s, particularly after Intel cut the price of existing Core i3-4360 SKU by 7 per cent, from $149 to $138, and the price of the Pentium G3450 was slashed by 13 per cent from $86 to $75.

The new Pentiums products are produced on 22nm manufacturing process, and they come with two CPU cores, running at 2.8 GHz – 3.5 GHz.

The Pentiums have 3 MB of L3 cache, integrated HD graphics, and provide the basics like VT-x Virtualization and SSE4. The Pentium G3250 and G3460 have 53 Watt TDP, and the G3250T and G3450T are rated at 35 Watt. The official prices of Pentiums range from $64 to $85.

It seems priced to complete with the AMD A6-6400K and A8-5500 APUs.

Core i3 microprocessors have support for Hyper-threading feature which means they can run twice as many threads at once. The i3s are generally clocked higher than the Pentiums, and they have GPU upgraded to HD 4400 on the i3-41xx series, and to HD 4600 on the i3-43xx series.

Low power Core i3-4160T and i3-4360T run at 3.1 GHz and 3.2 GHz, and have 35 Watt TDP. The standard power Core i3-4160 and i3-4370 operate at 3.6 GHz and 3.8 GHz but fit into 54 Watt thermal envelope.

All Core i3 models have the GPU clocked at 1.15 GHz, and they support DDR3-1600 memory. Core i3-4160 and i3-4160T have the official price of $117. The Core i3-4360T and i3-4370 are more expensive, and they are priced at $138 and $149.

 

Axe falls at the Volehill

Posted on July 18, 2014 by - News

Microsoft campusCorporate axemen have been stalking the corridors of Redmond and have so far claimed the heads of 18,000 employees, in the largest staff cull at Microsoft.

The cuts are the first major change made by Satya Nadella, the company’s new chief executive, who said Microsoft needed to be more nimble and focused.

The job cuts are 14 percent of its work force and most of them will come from the Nokia mobile phone business Microsoft acquired this year.

More than two thirds of the up to 18,000 jobs that Microsoft said it would cut will come from Nokia groups, or from overlap at Microsoft resulting from the deal.

Ironically morale at the Volehill had improved since Nadella took over, which might not have happened if people realised that job cuts were on the table.

Nadella has pledged big changes and make some quick decisions releasing Microsoft’s lucrative Office applications for the iPad. And he departed from past practice at the company by making its Windows operating system free for mobile devices to improve its market share.

But Microsoft has become bureaucratic and slow moving and has nearly double the 127,000 employees it had a decade ago. Apple has 87,000 and half of them in its retail stores.

 

Hype begins for new iPhone

Posted on July 18, 2014 by - News

gala_appleIt seems that the fruity cargo cult Apple has started the hype for the launch of its new iPhone.

While other outfits have to pay for their advertising, Apple manages to attract huge attention for its product launches thanks to its fans in key newspapers.

This morning it was “leaked” that Hon Hai has begun mass production of Apple next-generation iPhone.

You can tell if a story has been written with the idea of marketing Apple products on the sly, because they are full of marketing phrases such as “game changing” and “wildly popular.”

While the worst offender is traditionally the New York Times, Reuters has also sacrificed its credibility with unethical marketing plugs.

This morning, someoneat Reuters wrote this:

“Mass production of a 4.7-inch successor to the wildly popular iPhone 5 series of smartphones will begin during the third week of July.” Firstly, the iPhone 5 was not “wildly popular” in comparison to other smartphones, secondly the 4.7 inch screen size is pretty backward.

So far the so called “next-generation” iPhone appears to be thinner than the earlier models but has no especially interesting software, in fact it will be playing catch-up until a 5.5 inch model is released later.

It does seem clear that manufacturing of the latest iPhone has begun. A report from a China state-run news service said Hon Hai is planning to hire 100,000 workers.  Of course Apple’s Tame Apple press suggest this will be to “meet future demand for the gadget.”

Pegatron also began recruitment of over 10,000 workers for its mainland facilities to manufacture the phone, according to the Economic Daily News report.

This hype  is going to get worse until the first queues start to form outside the Apple cathedrals of delight. But with mass production started, the chance of a leak is much higher and we will soon know what it looks like.