04.07.14

Links: Privacy Erosion and Other Technological Erosions of Rights

Posted in News Roundup at 7:52 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

With technological transitions come the powers to emancipate or to oppress

Privacy

• CryptoPhone use increases

• Ethical Privacy Choices

  Here’s a lit­tle rant I post­ed to an IETF mail­ing list thread on whether the IETF should move its public-facing ser­vices to private-by-default mod­e. Some­one post­ed a re­ply sug­gest­ing that “the us­er gets to choose the de­gree of se­cu­ri­ty that they con­sid­er appropriate”.

• Yahoo fixes Flickr invitation bug that leaked real names and email addresses

  Privacy flaw on photo sharing website initially dismissed as ‘working as designed’ and not making sensitive data available

NSA/GCHQ

• Massive New NSA Facility in Utah Ordered to Reveal Its Secrets…About Water Use

• US Defense Secretary seeks to convince Chinese of American integrity in cyber-space

• Does nationality still matter in tech buys today?

  It does apparently to the U.S. government, which reportedly will be scrutinizing Lenovo’s move to buy IBM’s server business to ensure it doesn’t lead to a backdoor access to U.S. national secrets and infrastructure.

• How Many Watch Lists Fit on the Head of a Pin?

  Rahinah Ibrahim is a slight Malaysian woman who attended Stanford University on a U.S. student visa, majoring in architecture. She was not a political person. Despite this, as part of a post-9/11 sweep directed against Muslims, she was investigated by the FBI. In 2004, while she was still in the U.S. but unbeknownst to her, the FBI sent her name to the no-fly list.

• ‘US annexed the whole world through global spying’ – Assange

  The media has been overwhelmed by talk of Crimea joining Russia, but all are ignoring the fact that the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence alliance, principally the US, has annexed the whole world through their spying, said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

  Speaking at the WHD.global conference on Wednesday, Assange – who has been living under asylum in Ecuador’s embassy in London since 2012 – pointed out that there is a need for independent internet infrastructure for countries to maintain sovereignty to resist US control over the majority of communications. The annual conference is dedicated to global surveillance and privacy matters.

• GCHQ, NSA ‘infiltrate’ social media to spread disinformation – report

  American and British intelligence hope to take advantage of social media platforms, like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, in an effort to spread disinformation and propaganda, as well as potentially foment public protests, recent Snowden leaks claim.

• How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations

• Brazil: Not the Web We Want

  Brazil’s internet bill of rights is more concerned with advancing national interests than internet freedom.

• Sparks fly over US plan to shift Internet role

  But it comes amid growing international pressure for Washington to step back from what some countries claim is a dominant role in the Internet.

  Tensions have been exacerbated by the outcry over leaked documents showing the National Security Agency’s vast surveillance capabilities, feeding concern that the US manipulates the Internet for its own purposes.

Germany

• Merkel Ally Says US Assurances on NSA Spying ‘Insufficient’

• ‘US assurances on NSA spying insufficient’

  Reports last October – based on disclosures by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden – that Washington had monitored Merkel’s mobile phone caused outrage in Germany, which is particularly sensitive about surveillance because of abuses under the East German Stasi secret police and the Nazis.

Europe

• US Criticises European Anti-Spying Internet Proposals

• A difficult breakup between US, internet

  It could be a difficult breakup between the US government and the internet.

  A plan unveiled last month would see the US relinquish its key oversight role for the internet, handing that over to “the global multistakeholder community”.

  US officials say the move is part of a longstanding effort to privatise the technical oversight of the internet.

• US claims EU plans to build ring-fenced network may ‘break global trade rules’

  European Union plans to build a separate communications network to prevent data from passing over US networks is being opposed by the US, which claims that it would breach international trade laws.

  The opposition of the US to the plans comes at a delicate stage of negotiation between the US and EU over a trade treaty that would give more power to multinational organisations – including communications companies – to sue national governments over claimed breaches of trade rules.

Snowden

• Snowden, Poitras honored with Ridenhour truth-telling award

• Edward Snowden and filmmaker Laura Poitras receive Ridenour Prize for truth-telling

• Edward Snowden and filmmaker Laura Poitras receive a prize for truth-telling

• Metadata monitoring more intrusive than eavesdropping, Snowden and Greenwald warn

  Edward Snowden and reporter Glenn Greenwald, who brought to light the whistleblower’s leaks about mass U.S. government surveillance last year, appeared together via video link from opposite ends of the earth on Saturday for what was believed to be the first time since Snowden sought asylum in Russia.

• Snowden, Greenwald say monitoring ‘metadata’ is more intrusive

CIA

• Former CIA Director Calls Female Senator Too ‘Emotional’ On Torture Report

  Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has chaired the Senate’s Intelligence Committee for five years. So when she suggested last month that investigators should make public a report on the U.S.’s interrogation techniques because it would “ensure that an un-American, brutal program of detention and interrogation will never again be considered or permitted,” one might have seen it as the strong words and fair assessment of a person who has deep experience on the issue.

• Hayden Faults Administration, Not CIA, on Benghazi Talking Points

  Former deputy CIA director Michael Morell told the House Intelligence Committee this week that despite reports from the chief of station in Libya that no protests occurred outside the American diplomatic facility in Benghazi prior to the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack on it, he edited the administration’s talking points to include references to such protests. His CIA analysts in Washington believed they had occurred, and the station chief, after all, was 500 miles away in Tripoli.

• When the barrels of guns are lifted, truth vanishes – Kristinn Hrafnsson

  For the public revelations that the CIA and NSA were spying on the committee that was supposed to have oversight of their activities should be of great concern as it is a major breakdown in the system of checks and balances that should be inherently present in a healthy democracy. Despite all of the Snowden revelations there is also no indication that the NSA has changed its practices or made changes to how they carry out operations. By not publishing information that the public has the right to know the media has also failed and according to WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson, it is: “… an absolutely disgusting break with all the basic principles of journalism that I know of. And they claim that this is done upon the request of the US authorities for the security concerns. That is not acceptable.” Unfortunately today, he says: “We have submissive and lame editorial boards that will simply do as they are told.”

Venezuela, Cuba

• Low Intensity War Challenges National Independence of Venezuela

  Over the past six weeks the so called salida ya [exit now] strategy launched by the Venezuelan opposition has developed, in part, into a low intensity war against the democratically elected government of President Nicolas Maduro. This essay will examine two strategic objectives of the Bolivarian revolution that serve as pillars of resistance to the anti-democratic elements of the counter revolution: the struggle to preserve national independence and the campaign to develop and expand the communal structures that are the organized expressions of popular power.

• Report: US Agency Created ‘Cuban Twitter’ To Foster Dissent

Syria

• US thinks UK is complacent about role in world

• CIA operatives operating inside Syria with U.S. trained rebel units

  The first cell of Syrian rebels trained, armed and financed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Jordan have reportedly began crossing over the Syrian border, according to the Guardian newspaper.

Torture

• An ‘emotional’ debate over Bush/Cheney-era torture policies

  The Senate Intelligence Committee last week easily approved a measure last week to declassify part of its report on Bush/Cheney-era torture policies. As Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the committee’s chairwoman, explained, making the findings public is important to “ensure that an un-American, brutal program of detention and interrogation will never again be considered or permitted.”

• The Torture Report’s Long, Winding Road

  Any encouragement that torture opponents may take from an initial step toward releasing part of a long Senate report on CIA abuses during the Bush-43 years is tempered by the fact that the declassification process may be glacially slow and still leave much hidden, writes Nat Parry.

• The Ethics Of NBC Letting George W. Bush Be Interviewed By His Daughter

  Last February, the world caught a glimpse George W. Bush’s paintings through work of a hacker named Guccifier. The paintings were amateurish and charming and slightly embarrassing for a former president. They famously included self-portraits of him bathing.

• Watch: U.S. senator gets so angry at Cheney’s torture defense that he offers to waterboard him

  Dick Cheney has defended torture techniques so many times that a frustrated U.S. senator has finally offered to waterboard the former vice president.

  “The accusations are not true,” Cheney told college television station ATV last week. “Some people called it torture. It wasn’t torture.”

• Liz Cheney: Stop ‘political’ investigation of torture and focus more on Benghazi

  Fox News contributor Liz Cheney on Sunday argued that a United States Senate report on Bush-era torture was “political” and that lawmakers should spend more time investigating President Barack Obama’s role in failing to prevent terrorist attacks in Benghazi.

• Tony Blair ‘knew everything about CIA interrogation programme’

• Extraordinary Decisions: Italy’s High Court and the Bush Administration

  The year President George W. Bush left office, Jane Mayer published “The Dark Side,” a scathing, revelatory piece on the Bush administration’s unscrupulous detention and interrogation policies during the administration’s War on Terror. Mayer’s account reports the dubious legal foundations for the policies and contains detailed descriptions of the numerous human rights abuses the executive branch justified in the name of national security.

• ‘Good Daughter’ vs ‘Crazy Liberal’: Juan Williams, Liz Cheney Battle Over CIA Torture Report

  ormer Wyoming Senatorial candidate Liz Cheney and Fox News analyst Juan Williams clashed on Fox News Sunday over the upcoming Senate report on the CIA’s use of enhanced interrogation techniques (torture, to those of you scoring at home), with Cheney arguing congressional oversight already exists and the report is a Democratic hit job, and Williams responding that the politicization of counterterrorism has prevented oversight efforts.

• Pelosi: Cheney is proud of CIA misrepresentations

• Pelosi: Cheney is ‘proud’ of ‘tone’ he set at CIA

  Former Vice President Dick Cheney is “proud” of the “tone and attitude” he set at the CIA, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, amid growing tension between the Agency and the Senate Intelligence Committee over the declassification of a Bush-era torture report that the Senate says will show the CIA misled the American public.

Drones

• New bill would force Barack Obama to publish US drone strike casualties

  A bipartisan Bill that would force President Obama to reveal casualties from covert US drone strikes has been put before the US Congress.

• Delays in Effort to Refocus C.I.A. From Drone War

• Musharraf allowed drone strikes in FATA: NYT

  In the skies above Yemen, the Pentagon’s armed drones have stopped flying, a result of the ban on American military drone strikes imposed by the government there after a number of botched operations in recent years killed Yemeni civilians.

• Bush, Musharraf struck deal for drone strikes: NYT

  US President Bush and his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf had a deal allowing drone strikes in the tribal areas as a covert operation, run by the CIA, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

Racism

• The undeclared political war between Latinos and Asians

  A political war may be developing between Latinos and Asians in California over attempts to undo the state’s 18-year-old ban on race-conscious admissions policies at the University of California.

Censorship

• Australian civil servants ordered to fink on colleagues who criticize gov’t online

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Both Apple and Microsoft Compare Their Corporate Causes to Religion

Posted in Apple, FSF, Google, Microsoft at 6:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Steve Jobs calls competition (litigation) with Android a “holy war” whereas Bill Gates calls undermining Linux a “Jihad”

TECHRIGHTS is the recipient of various smears that claim the site or its authors to be something that they are not (misrepresentation). We wrote many articles about it about 5 years ago, having seen smears as bad as “Taliban”. A very common pattern of smears is to call your rival/opponent in a debate “religious” about an opinion, as in dogmatic and detached from logic (there are other similar labels like “tinfoil hat” or “conspiracy theory”, as noted years ago). The FSF, despite being mostly atheistic, is a regular recipient of the “religion” smear (Stallman’s parodies of religion may contribute to this). Microsoft sometimes smears Free software by characterising it as a religion and we, as vocal Novell critics, received similar smears from Novell apologists/staff (Microsoft Linux is still alive by the way and it is spreading to Google). Calling/labeling “religious” those who are non-religious makes no sense. It’s a cheap shot and those who use such cheap shots are often the ones who are irrational and detached from an alternative (opposing) point of view. When logic doesn’t work in an argument, then cheap shots get used, or ad hominem attacks.

Now, similar arguments have been made by some Apple “fanboys” (a label in itself) when they were accused of following Apple like it’s a religion (or cult, i.e. small religion). Those jokes about Apple being followed like a religion and Jobs being treated like a Messiah are not so far fetched anymore. And why?

The proponent of "thermonuclear" action turns out to have referred to his war on Android/Linux as a “holy war”.

Holy?

Really?!

Holy crap.

To quote CNBC: “Steve Jobs warned Apple’s leadership a year before his death that the company he founded faced an “innovator’s dilemma” over the growing threat from Google and promised a “holy war” on smartphones running its Android software, according to evidence shown in court on Tuesday”

This is almost as bad as Bill Gates' allegory/wording when he asked “where are we on this Jihad?” (referring to Microsoft’s war against Linux inside Intel).

Next time you see Free software proponents being referred to as “religious” or something along those lines remember the words of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. They themselves seem to define/characterise their companies as religious movements.

It is clear why Apple is so afraid of Android, as now revealed by documents from inside Apple [1], noting that people are moving to Android and never coming back to the “holy” Apple (not even if they work for a company that’s a partner of Apple [2]). The other Steve from Apple (Wozniak) is now an Android user and he likes to brag (publicly) about Android phones, which based on some new study [3] are technically better and more stable.

People need not have a religious-type faith to choose GNU/Linux or Android; they do, however, need to have a strong belief in Apple in order to choose an overpriced iPhone. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. iPhone becomes victim of Android’s success, makes Apple worry

   Internal Apple documents show that the company’s sales department is anxious about growing competition from Android-powered devices amidst declining iPhone sales, Re/code said in a report.

2. Why I’m glad I never abandoned Android for an iPhone

   I’ve written about and reviewed mobile phones for almost a decade and a half. Everything from flip phones, to BlackBerrys, to today’s hottest Android models, and yes, Apple iPhones, have passed through my hands. That experience is why, more than anything, I’ve ultimately settled on Google Android as my smartphone platform of choice.

3. Android more stable than iOS: Study

   For long we have been hearing strories that Android is unsafe, unstable, while iOS is reliable. But new data that has emerged will totally change the picture. A study conducted by Crittercism, a performance monitoring company has revealed that while iOS 7.1 is the most stable version of iOS to date, its Android counterpart is far more stable.

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Microsoft’s Manipulation of the Media Demonstrated

Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 5:26 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Amplifying the lies

“Mind Control: To control mental output you have to control mental input. Take control of the channels by which developers receive information, then they can only think about the things you tell them. Thus, you control mindshare!”

–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]

Summary: Seeding a lie in the press, or confusing readers by means of semantics, still a top skill championed by Microsoft and its PR agencies

MICROSOFT places more emphasis on PR and AstroTurfing than it does on technical work. One former Microsoft marketer created a firm that manages Microsoft-friendly think tanks (Black Duck, his proprietary software firm, is speaking ‘for’ FOSS this month [1]). Microsoft has been very effective when it comes to perception distortion (they call it “perception management”), so we need to counter this.

Just as Microsoft was openwashing Azure and is still openwashing it in the Microsoft media (trying to make it synonymous with openness although it is proprietary with surveillance), the company is now openwashing .NET. We decided to research this and find out how and why the press played along with this charade of PR, so we ended up with a sort of ‘post mortem’ of how it all came about. Simon Phipps, the President of the OSI (and hence an authority when it comes to classifying real Open Source), has already chastised Microsoft numerous times in recent weeks. Not only did he rebut claims that Microsoft DOS and other abandoned Microsoft products were open-sourced (they were not) but he also wrote about Microsoft's serious abuses of privacy in Hotmail, connecting that to the latest deceiving charade from Microsoft. Phipps writes: “it emerged that Microsoft, in pursuit of a copyright misuse mediated by an employee, discovered some of the evidence was to be obtained in someone else’s Hotmail account. Since the terms of use allow the company to read whatever mail it wishes, it went in to the mailbox and took a look. But many people felt “legal” was not equivalent to “ethical,” especially from a company trying to frame a competitor for the same attitude with its “Scroogled” campaign.”

So it’s clear that the OSI (or at least its President) was not particularly impressed by any of Microsoft’s latest PR stunts. Microsoft’s software is not just proprietary software but also spyware by design (in collusion with the NSA). We can assume that .NET inherits those same issues.

Phipps, who used to work at Sun (and hence promoted Java) writes: “Open-sourcing Java gave it a new lease on life. Why, then, did Microsoft insist on keeping .Net closed? My guess is it was a matter of leadership philosophy. Plenty of staff in Microsoft understood the power of open source to harness developer passion. It had to be a senior hand holding them back.”

The more important question is, why did a lot of the press call this move open-sourcing? We did a thorough search, going back in time, attempting to pinpoint where it all started; we have reviewed dozens of reports and sorting the reports chronologically (e.g. [2-12]), it’s easier to see how it’s basically seeded by Microsoft-friendly sites with deceiving headlines. It was more like a PR campaign where gratis gets equated with libre, components and the whole get blurred (there is no clarification to that effect), and platform dependence (Windows only) is not even discussed. As Phipps put it in his personal blog: “The caution relates to the news that Windows for mobile will be free of charge. Whilst unarguably a big move, it’s not open source — the license terms still restrict how you can use the software. This is important, as whilst a “first hit is free” approach to getting people using mobile Windows might bring some results, the key to sustained innovation and therefore sustained increase in the user base comes from removing the need to ask for permission before you can innovate.”

Therein lies another source of confusion. Some exploited the simultaneous announcement of gratis and libre to bamboozle readers — a tactic championed by Microsoft boosters posing as reporters, .NET-oriented news sites (there is not even an illusion of objectivity in Gates-funded papers and sites edited/managed by longtime friends of Microsoft), and dubious people like Brian Fagioli (writing for an historically Microsoft-friendly site), who appears not to know that Android has Linux in it but has started covering FOSS some months ago (and not done so well). This is the same guy who, based on our analysis at the early stages of the controversy, started pushing the “Mozilla CEO is anti-gay” line (we had seen no such coverage before he did that, just positive coverage about Eich becoming the CEO). Later we saw Microsoft-friendly news sites amplifying the same message, discrediting the Mozilla Foundation and also rewriting history of Netscape, not just Mozilla (we omit all the links which relate to this as we don’t wish to feed them). Never mind if those who were most vocal against Eich were themselves notably (if not extremely) anti-gay rights [13]. Microsoft itself is notoriously homophobic (against lesbians and gay males, not just marriages of them) — to the point of being sued by its own staff. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Eighth Annual Future of Open Source Survey Finds OSS Powering New Technologies, Reaching New People, and Creating New Economics

2. Build 2014: Microsoft makes .NET Compiler Platform Roslyn open source

3. Microsoft open sources .NET compiler platform “Roslyn” and announces open source .NET Foundation initiative

4. Microsoft Makes ‘Roslyn’ Compiler Open Source

5. Microsoft releases Windows Library for JavaScript as open source

6. C# Compiler Released As Open Source

7. Windows Library for JavaScript (WinJS) now open source, released under Apache 2.0 license

8. Microsoft releases new developer tools, makes open source .NET commitment during the second day at Build Conference

9. Microsoft releases new developer tools, makes open source .NET commitment at Build Conference

10. Microsoft Build 2014: Microsoft open sources a slew of software with .NET Foundation

11. Microsoft announces open source compiler platform ‘Roslyn’ and .NET Foundation initiative

12. Microsoft offers .NET libraries to open source

13. The Hypocrisy Of Sam Yagan & OkCupid

    OkCupid received a clear benefit, media attention, for trashing Eich. But their co-founder and ultimate CEO has shown strong anti-gay tendencies in the past. That’s hypocrisy, and worse.

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Newegg Beats Patent Troll, Sony Becomes DMCA Troll, NSA/PRISM Dropbox Blocks Accounts Based on Suspicion

Posted in Intellectual Monopoly at 4:48 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Buildings around Sony HQ in Tokyo

Summary: New examples of so-called ‘IP’ being used to oppress society, censor society, and perform extensive surveillance on it

THERE IS some real criticism of the so-called “IP” (intellectual monopolies) movement these days, even in some of the corporate press. TechDirt points out that Newegg has just crushed a patent troll [1]. The problem, however, is that the media mostly tackles the issue which is trolls (tackling one patent at a time) rather than cover the real issue, which large corporations don’t want fixed (right now they lobby against patent scope reform at SCOTUS).

It’s not just about patents, either. Copyright monopolies are getting more draconian over time and according to [2,3], the company which attacks Android using patents (Sony) is now attacking Open Source films using bogus DMCA requests. Over the years we have covered many other reasons to avoid anything from Sony. Now there is yet another reason. This abuse is systematic, not an “oops”. Simon Phipps (OSI) said he had tried to upload the original video (“Sintel”) and was blocked, whereupon he appealed and asked others to do the same. British law and British politics mostly overlook these serious abuses [4] which are monopolies on ideas and works. British politicians are generally quite horrible; they serve corporations, not people. Just look how many British politicians lobbied against net neutrality in the European Parliament last week.

“What we have right now is the criminalisation of more and more digital activities which were perfectly legitimate activities before digitisation.”Not too long ago, a business of a German living in New Zealand was shut down using an illegal raid along with abuses of surveillance and police powers (and literal stealing of people’s personal and business data [5]). Dropbox, which was on the leaked PRISM slides as “coming soon” (Microsoft was first in PRISM’s slides/timeline), plays ball with those who are abusing powers [6], using suspicion alone as justification for suspension and/or censorship. This also means that Dropbox is accessing all files that people are uploading. Copyright provides/equips Dropbox with a convenient excuse for doing so, showing again that copyright, surveillance and censorship typically go hand in hand. Dropbox is definitely something to boycott (better now than later).

The world needs to learn how to share. Corporations need to learn how to cooperate. What we have right now is the criminalisation of more and more digital activities which were perfectly legitimate activities before digitisation. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Newegg and friends crush a patent troll

   MacroSolve is a company that got a lot of (generally negative) attention when it turned full-blown “patent troll” in 2011, suing dozens of companies (including small app development shops) over patent No. 7,822,816, which it claims covers using questionnaires on a mobile app.

   Now, a coalition of defendants led by Newegg and Geico Insurance has stopped MacroSolve in its tracks. MacroSolve has dismissed all remaining cases, and it has admitted that it can’t proceed to go forward with a trial that was scheduled to take place this June in East Texas.

2. Sony issues fraudulent takedown for Blender’s open source movie

3. Sony Demands Removal of Open-Source Indie Short ‘Sintel’ From YouTube

   Sony Pictures has demanded the removal of the CGI short film Sintel from YouTube due to a claim of copyright infringement. One small problem: they don’t actually own anything in the film.

   Sintel, a film by Colin Levy which has been featured before on Cartoon Brew, was created by the Blender Foundation, the non-profit organization which promotes the free, open source 3D software Blender. The crowdfunded short was made using entirely original materials, and was licensed as Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, which means that anyone can freely share the movie.

4. Defend your digital rights in the European elections this May

   While Nigel Farage and Nick Clegg kicked around old political footballs like immigration on Wednesday night, there was a glaring omission from the debate: digital rights.

5. 1,103 Megaupload Servers Gather Dust at Virginia Warehouse

   Millions of users lost access to their personal files when Megaupload was raided, and there’s little chance that they will have them returned in the near future. Despite efforts from both Megaupload and its former hosting company to negotiate a solution, the servers are still gathering dust in a Virginia warehouse.

6. Dropbox will block if you shared ‘pirated’ files

   A tweet that appeared late last night took everyone by surprise. The tweet talked about a DMCA notice that blocked a file from being shared on a Dropbox user’s account.

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Chromebooks News: Chromebooks Gain at Microsoft’s Expense, Chromebooks for $99 Today at Best Buy (When Trading in Windows XP System)

Posted in News Roundup at 4:14 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

• Chromebook sales skyrocket! Watch out Microsoft!

• Chromebook shipment reaches 2.1 million, making dent in Windows PC market: Study

• Market Research Shows Chromebooks Doing Very Well Indeed

  As 2014 began, several prominent analysts were taking aim at recent media reports that have allegedly miscast how well Chromebooks–portable computers based on Google’s Chrome OS platform–are doing in sales terms. “There has been a ton of misreporting as many lazy reporters and bloggers have characterized this as all sales, which it wasn’t, or even consumer sales, which it most assuredly was not,” Stephen Baker of the NPD Group,

• Intel reveals Braswell chip for Chromebooks

  The second day of IDF Shenzhen conference in China saw the unveiling of a new processor dubbed ‘Braswell’ by Intel; other announcements included a 64-bit Android kernel and the QVOD media box.

• Chromebook adoption gains traction

  An estimated 2.1 million Chromebooks shipped in 2013 with nearly 89% of total shipments reaching North America, according to market intelligence firm ABI Research. As Chromebook shipments expand globally, ABI Research forecasts an increase of CAGR 28% to 11 million in 2019.

• Get an Acer C720 Chromebook for $99

  That’s just one possible deal you can get from Best Buy when you trade in your old Windows XP system, which is good for a $100 credit.

• Best Buy offering $100 credit to those who trade in Windows XP computers

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Android News: CyanogenMod Rebranding, Source Code Releases, Games, Devices, and Tablets

Posted in News Roundup at 4:11 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

CyanogenMod

• CyanogenMod reveals new branding that represents openness, security and customization

  Well, folks, it looks like CyanogenMod, Inc. is starting to shape up to look like a real legit company. The company has already made big deals with phone manufacturers and successfully raised a good deal of money to help in their endeavors, and now they are making some changes to the way they present themselves.

Source Code

• Sprint Announces G2 KitKat OTA Update (Version ZVB), LG Shares Open Source Kernel Files

  Sprint LG G2 owners may not have too much longer to wait for Android 4.4.2 to arrive. Sprint has posted details on an upcoming OTA update, which should roll out in stages starting today. The version is ZVB, and it contains little aside from all the delicious goodies that come with KitKat. To clarify, the developers have also packed in a fix for an audio issue with the pre-installed NextRadio app. Yeah, all eyes are on Android 4.4.2 here.

• Sony Posts Open Source Kernel Files For The Xperia T2 Ultra (D5303, D5322, And XM50h)

• Sony Makes Xperia Z2 And Z2 Tablet Open Source Kernel Files Available For Download

  Sony may not have the best track record when it comes to making its phones available across a wide number of carriers in the US, but it has no problem sharing its open source kernel files on a timely basis. The company officially announced the Xperia Z2 a month ago at Mobile World Congress, and now much of the handset’s internal code is available for download on the web.

Ballnux/Samsung

• Samsung launches Galaxy Tab4 series

• Qualcomm is a big winner inside Samsung’s Galaxy S5

• David Ortiz’s Selfie With Obama Was a Samsung-Branded Stunt

Google

• Google’s alleged Silver program would showcase the best of Android at carrier stores

  Google could have big plans in store for the way that it and other smartphone makers sell and advertise their best Android phones. According to a series of slides allegedly shown inside of Google and leaked to Android Police, Google is developing a program called Android Silver, which would find carriers dedicating a section of their store to some of the top Android phones, each of which would come with some significant advantages over phones that weren’t offered as part of the Silver program.

• Android makes changes to Google Play Developer Program policy

• Google to Launch Improved Android Camera App, Report Says

  Citing “sources aware of Google’s plans,” Engadget said Google is currently testing the new app, which will be pushed to Android users as a separate update, and won’t be part of the forthcoming Android 4.4.3 update.

• Google gives a sneak peak at Project Ara development

  Project Ara (Phonebloks) and modular pieces of tech in general are gaining steam. So far, we’ve known that we will be able to swap specified parts of our smartphones, which will result in longer lives for our phones and less waste as a result of our tech lusts. Today, Google revealed some of the work that was going on behind the scenes with their ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects) group. The Ara team members (read ‘nerds’) took the time out to demonstrate the sliding ‘blocks’ of their prototype or very early build of the devices, and they have not deviated a whole lot from the initial drafts, but there were significant bits of information included.

KitKat

• Android 4.4 KitKat gobbles 5% of all Android devices

  The latest flavor of Android is slowly eating up more Android devices, according to the latest stats from Google.

• KitKat developer tablet previews 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805

  The Intrinsyc Mobile Development Platform Tablet (“MDP/T”) uses an updated Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 SoC running Android 4.4 (KitKat). According to a TrustedReviews overview of the Snapdragon 800 family, the 805 is set to ship this summer, but Intrinsyc says it’s shipping the MDP/T now for $799. So consider this a sneak preview, or as Intrinsyc calls it “early access” to the Snapdragon 805.

Humble Indie Bundle/Equiso/Games

• Humble Indie Bundle 9 For PC & Android

• Humble Bundle for Android and PC 9 goes live

• Humble Bundle for PC, Android: Knights of Pen & Paper, Type:Rider

• Equiso Play Is An Open Source Console For Android Gaming

  There are already quite a couple of Android gaming consoles out in the market today such as the OUYA and the Mad Catz M.O.J.O. to name a few. These devices offer an alternative gaming platform that is considered cheaper than the Xbox or PlayStation consoles. Equiso Play is another upcoming Android gaming console that aims to make it into the market this year.

• New open-source Android gaming console Equiso Play now up on Kickstarter

  There are plenty of Android-powered game consoles already out for consumers to get their hands on and another one up on Kickstarter called Equiso Play. This new one definitely has the potential to be a great product from what we’ve seen of it already.

• Android Candy: Control-Z for Your Phone!

Embedded/Devices

• Google Glass moves with speed thanks to open source

  The software stack for the Glass builds upon the Android platform, and hence, on top of the Linux Kernel. It was indeed customized for Glass and is available as google-glass-kernel-source.

• Android BSPs target Atom E3800 reference board

  Insyde Software and Timesys have each released enhanced Android BSPs supporting Intel’s “Bayley Bay” evaluation board for the Intel Atom E3800 SoC.

Tablets

• ‘Akash tablets’ to hit market soon

  Under the ministry of human resource development, government of India’s one laptop per child (OLPC) project ‘Akash tablet’ will be available in market in 3-4 months at a cost of around Rs 2,500. The tablet which will be the first of its kind to have a dual book and dual board as it will use both Android as well as Linux operating systems will perform the job of both, a tablet and a computer. It will be the cheapest tablet in the world.

• Tablets A Bulk Commodity

• Intel: Small Cheap Computers The New Normal

  Small cheap computers naturally fit with GNU/Linux because they are easier to sell without M$’s “tax”.

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Windows XP Will Die Today, New Articles Advise Users to Move to GNU/Linux

Posted in News Roundup at 3:59 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

• What can you do after Windows XP loses support?

  Before installing a Linux system even in a dual boot install, make sure you back up all your files in case something goes wrong! There are many different versions of Linux. I have one computer with a recent version of Ubuntu, which is one of the more popular versions of Linux.

• The Unexpected Present from Microsoft

  Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP in a week’s time, on the 8th of April 2014. The number of users who still use Windows XP is astonishing. Let’s be honest – XP was the best and the most stable of all the releases of that Redmond corporation.

• R.I.P. Windows XP 2001-2014. What can you do now?

  There is an alternative to tossing your computer or paying for expensive upgrades. The solution I’ve been talking about for at least a decade is to make the switch to a GNU/Linux operating system. Now, you’ve got a reason to make that switch and it’s never been easier.

• Win XP usage down but not out as support cutoff deadline looms

  Windows XP usage on the web is decreasing as the venerable operating system edges ever closer towards its “end of life” from Microsoft support next week.

• More INQUIRER readers will switch from Windows XP to Linux than to Windows 8

  MORE INQUIRER READERS that have Windows XP will switch to Linux than Windows 8 when support for Windows XP ends next week.

  In The INQUIRER’s recent poll we asked, “Which operating system will you use after Windows XP support ends on 8 April?”

  One third will move to Windows 7, which according to latest Net Applications figures still has nearly half of the PC market.

• Windows XP Is Almost Dead, Here Are 3 Linux Alternatives

  The support for Windows XP is ending on April 8 and the operating system from Microsoft will be slowly killed and suffocated by viruses and malware. It’s conceivable that some of those users will chose a Linux OS and everybody know that they are hundreds of options.

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Links 7/4/2014: Games

Posted in News Roundup at 3:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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