(Reuters) - Italian police have been carrying out checks at the Milan offices of Facebook to assess whether it regularly declared its income in Italy, an investigative source and the U.S. company said on Friday.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Italian tax police visit Facebook's Milan offices
(Reuters) - Italian police have been carrying out checks at the Milan offices of Facebook to assess whether it regularly declared its income in Italy, an investigative source and the U.S. company said on Friday.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Trojan bypasses two-factor authentication, steals $46.5 million
A sophisticated, multi-layered trojan dubbed "Eurograbber" is estimated to be responsible for siphoning over €36 million -- or about $46.5 million -- from the bank accounts of unsuspecting Europeans. In a case study (pdf) performed by Versafe and Check Point Software Technologies, researchers reveal how the trojan works.
Sony is quietly testing a web-based PlayStation Store
Sony has started testing a new version of their PlayStation Store that’s accessible online. The destination offers a selection of movies, television shows and games available for purchase and download. It’s called Sony Entertainment Network and it’s online right now despite the fact that the company has yet to make a public announcement about it.
T-Mobile to kill smartphone subsidies in 2013, offer value plans only
In addition to yesterday's news that they'll be selling Apple products starting in 2013, T-Mobile also announced it is shifting to an unsubsidized "Value Plan" system exclusively. The company says customers will be able to either pay full price for cell phones up front, make an initial ~$99 payment and finance the rest with a number of $15 to $20 monthly payments that are explicitly spelled out on their bill, or bring in their own unlocked device.
Microsoft will begin actively promoting Outlook.com next week
Microsoft is planning to actively promote Outlook.com as an option for Hotmail users starting next week. The company will send out emails to current Hotmail members urging them to upgrade and use display-style ads to help lure in new users.
Anonymous member convicted for DDoS against PayPal, others
A jury has convicted 22-year old Anonymous hacktivist Christopher Weatherhead for playing a lead role in organizing a series of distributed denial of service attacks against PayPal (and others) in 2010. Weatherhead's cohorts, Peter Gibson, Jake Bichall and Ashley Rhodes, were also accused of and plead guilty to participating in "Operation: Payback" -- a 10-day DDoS attack which crippled PayPal (and others) for several hours. PayPal claims the stunt cost it a whopping £3.5 million, or about $5.6 million, in damages.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Samsung promotes son and heir closer to top job
(Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co pushed the anointed heir of the company Chairman closer to the top job on Wednesday as the it cemented a global lead in smartphones with a stock price that is close to record highs.
Twitter, Facebook and Venmo SMS vulnerability publically disclosed
If you use Twitter and have your account set up to tweet via SMS, this story will likely be of particular interest to you. A new vulnerability has been revealed that allows an attacker to post directly to an account so long as they know the mobile number associated with said Twitter account.
Gmail 2.0 for iOS arrives with multiple account support
Google has pushed out an update for its iOS Gmail app that introduces an entirely new look along with a variety of new features and improvements across the board. Arriving a day after another update for Android users, version 2.0 finally brings multiple account support to iPhones and iPads, enabling users to login to up to five Google Accounts from the menu and switch between them with a couple of taps.
Steve Jobs biopic to debut at the Sundance Film Festival next year
Sundance Institute has announced that jOBS, the biopic of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, will premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2013. The film will be shown out of competition on the last night of the event in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.
The movie, written by Matt Whiteley and directed by Joshua Michael Stern, is said to chronicle the life of Jobs from his teenage years through the next 30 years of his life. It also features Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, J.K. Simmons and Matthew Modine.
InterAxon promises $199 brain-sensing headband in 2013
At LeWeb 2012 today, crowdfunded startup InterAxon announced plans to begin selling Muse -- its brainwave-sensing headband -- to consumers in spring 2013. For anyone interested procuring a Muse of their own, they'll have until December 7 to make a contribution to the startup's Indigogo crowdfunding campaign. Currently, offers of $135 or higher will guarantee contributors at least one headband of their own when the device finally ships.
Monday, December 3, 2012
On the run, software guru McAfee says left Belize, won't surrender
(Reuters) - U.S. anti-virus software guru John McAfee said on Monday he has left the Caribbean country of Belize where police want to question him in connection with a neighbor's murder, and will not turn himself in.
Electronic Arts reveals PC system requirements for Crysis 3
Crysis 3 was officially announced way back in April following a premature leak on EA’s Origin the week before. We already know a great deal about the title and the storyline at this point and Crytek even offered up some free alpha trial keys last month but one thing that has remained a mystery up until now was system specifications.
Gamers are no longer in the dark on this category as Crytek has revealed the minimum, recommended and high performance requirements for the PC version of Crysis 3. As you likely have already guessed, you’ll need a pretty beefy system in order to play the game with all of the eye candy enabled.
AMD Radeon HD 8000 series could be delayed until Q2 2013
AMD’s “Sea Islands” graphics card lineup is set to arrive as the Radeon HD 8000 series in the second quarter of 2013, according to supply chain sources talking to DigiTimes. The Taiwanese website says Southern Islands’s successor was originally scheduled to land by the end of the year, but was pushed back as AMD focuses on its ongoing business reorganization. Other reports had pegged the launch for Q1 next year, which would have been in line with this year’s retail launch of the Radeon HD 7970 in January.
Ericsson seeks U.S. import ban on Samsung products
(Reuters) - Swedish telecoms gear maker Ericsson has filed a request with the U.S. International Trade Commission to ban U.S. imports of products made by South Korean group Samsung,
Samsung rumor roundup: Galaxy S IV, cheaper Note 2, 13.3-inch tablet
Samsung’s Galaxy S III has served the company well for many months, launching the Korean firm into direct competition with Apple’s popular iPhone. It’s a powerhouse Android handset but as is typical in the tech industry, enthusiasts always have their eyes set on the horizon in search of the next big thing (no pun intended).
Intel could lower power requirements on Ivy Bridge chips
We already know that Intel is planning to significantly reduce power consumption on next generation Haswell processors (down to as low as 10 watts) but a new rumor making the rounds this morning says we won’t have to wait that long before we see power requirements drop.
Microsoft introduces browser-based Windows 8 app creator
A recent Microsoft Research Connections blog post outlines some changes that have been made with regards to the tools that developers can use to create apps for Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8. Up to this point, developers were required to build the app on a computer using a special set of development tools.
Ouya developer consoles to ship on December 28 alongside SDK
Ouya, the company behind the self-titled gaming console that gained a considerable amount of fame and donations thanks to a month-long stint on Kickstarter, is reportedly right on schedule. The device’s founders have said the console will ship to early backers (developers) as planned on December 28.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Australia crackdown on Google taxes seen holding investment risks
(Reuters) - Australia faces an uphill battle to capture a greater share of tax revenue from multinationals such as Google and needs to work with its trading partners to avoid scaring away investors with an image as a high tax nation, tax lawyers and specialists say.
Saban buys control of Israel's Partner Communications
(Reuters) - U.S.-Israeli media magnate Haim Saban agreed to buy a controlling stake in Israel's second largest telecoms operator, Partner Communications (PTNR.TA), to expand into the market for bundled phone, internet and television services.
Chinese bid for A123 may raise security risks: Senators
(Reuters) - A Chinese company's attempt to take over government-backed battery maker A123 raises serious national security concerns, a bipartisan group of lawmakers said this week, adding to growing congressional opposition to the deal.
SAP co-founder sells shares worth more than $155 million
(Reuters) - SAP's co-founder Hasso Plattner sold shares in the German business software maker worth 120 million euros ($155.74 million), divesting a portion of his overall stake, the company said on Friday.
Weekend tech reading: Is the UN taking control of the Internet?
Is the UN about to take control of the internet? The future of the web will be decided in a dark room by UN politicians and authoritarian governments -- at least according to Google and some other opponents of the International Telecommunication Union’s plan to reform its 25-year-old guidelines. Leaked documents have shown that ITU members are interested in adding more internet regulations to the ITU’s mostly telecommunications-focused rules, something critics worry will let countries justify repressive filtering of the internet or upset the current balance of power by pushing more regulation.
Bing Maps gets 121 terabytes of new satellite and aerial imagery
Microsoft has once again updated Bing Maps to include even more satellite and Global Ortho imagery. The company announced on their official blog that 121 terabytes of new data have been loaded into Bing Maps, which is of course also accessible through the Windows 8 Maps app.
Toshiba announces 4TB self-encrypting enterprise hard drives
Following up on Western Digital's recent announcement, Toshiba has unveiled its own high-capacity MG series hard drives. To start, the company will offer four drives with a top capacity of 4TB, including two SATA variants, the MG03ACA400 and MG03ACA400Y, as well as two SAS models, the MG03SCA400 and MG03SCP400.
EBay's double tax base prompts calls for investigation
(Reuters) - Britain and Germany may have missed out on a combined $1 billion in sales tax since online marketplace eBay picked a tiny Luxembourg office as its base for EU sales, a shift that lawmakers say should now be investigated.
Dishonored beats sales expectations, deemed a new franchise
With a fresh console generation around the corner, many large publishers have been hesitant to release new properties, especially those that lack mass appeal, but Bethesda's gamble on Arkane Studios' first-person stealth action title seems to have paid off.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Voice calls over LTE consume twice as much power as 2G calls
Results from a recent study by wireless testing and measurement firm Spirent Communications reveals that voice calls over LTE (VoLTE) consume up to two times as much power as a standard 2G call. This isn’t exactly great news for phone makers and wireless carriers alike but we can expect things to get better over time.
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