'Clippy' alive? Siting raises questions, fears

If Clippy isn't buried here, who--orwhat--is?

(Credit:Screenshot of Microsoft promo video by Edward Moyer/CNET Center for Investigative Reporting)

In a mysterious turn of events worthy of Elvis Presley,"Clippy,"everyone's least favorite talking paper clip cum animated software assistant, appears to be the star of a new Microsoft initiative--despite the fact that he's supposedly been dead since 2004.

GeekWire's Todd Bishopspied the fastenerin what he reports is--gasp!--Microsoft's new training tool for Office, a game called Ribbon Hero 2. Clippy even appears to get top billing--the game's official name, Bishop reports, is Ribbon Hero 2: Clippy's Second Chance (a title that's sure to send shivers down the spine of many an Office user).

It's not the first time the aroma of conspiracy has wafted around the cloying length of wire. A month after Clippy'ssupposed 2001 oustingfrom Microsoft's flagship software suite (and his supposed move to jobs as a cab driver and a UPS deliveryman), a duo of crack CNET investigative journalistsrevealedthat the fastener had somehow made his way into Office XP.

Just last year, a promotional video for Office 2010 showed whatappeared to be Clippy's grave site, replete with a deceased date of 2004.

It's not clear why Microsoft would stage the paper clip's death, but it's equally unclear how said clip would manage to return from the grave. As evidence of Clippy's continued existence, Bishop points to the video below, supposedly the work of Microsoft, and tothis blog itemby one"Doug Thomas,"supposedly an employee of the software giant. We offer them for your own examination and speculation, while we investigate the issue further.

Another question that arises is: If Clippy is in fact alive, who--orwhat--was buried in his place? Most unclear of all, however, may be the question: Why on Earth would Microsoft let Clippy--let alone anundeadClippy--helm a training video for Office?

Perhaps our readers can help clear things up by offering their theories in the comments section below.

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Anonymous to target Iran with DoS attack

Anonymous says its next target is Iran.

The hacker group Anonymous has its next denial-of-service (DoS) target in sight: Iran, CNET has learned.

Members of the loosely organized group are planning"Operation Iran,"an attack designed to shut down Iranian Web sites beginning Sunday, according to their latestonline proclamation. May 1 is International Worker's Day.

"The people of Iran have the admiration of Anonymous, and the entire world,"the statement says."We can see that Iran still suffers at the hands of those in power. Your former government has seized control, and tries to silence you. People of Iran--your rights belong to you."

The operation seemed to already have begun late today with Web page defacements ostensibly targeted at Iranian hackers. Anonymous left messages on several Web sites that had allegedly been previously attacked by the Iranian Cyber Army, includingthe siteof a Canadian information systems firm and the site of aUkrainian dancing group, according to an observer on an Anonymous Internet Relay Chat channel that members use to coordinate their operations.

Anonymous is known for its renegade cyberattacks in defense of perceived underdogs or to support freedom of expression or other anti-establishment causes. In defense of whistle-blowing site WikiLeaks, the group targeted PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, and other companieslate last yearthat had stopped enabling WikiLeaks to receive contributions.

Earlier this month, Anonymoustargeted Sonyin protest of the company's treatment ofSony PlayStationhacker George Hotz. Hotz and Sony have since settled the lawsuit Sony filed, and Anonymous has denied any involvement in arecent serious breachthat exposed information of millions of Sony PlayStation Network customers.

Other Anonymous targets have been:Broadcast Music Inc., the Church of Scientology; the governments of Egypt, Iran, and Sweden; the Westboro Baptist Church; conservative activist billionaires Charles and David Koch andtheir companies; as well as security firm HBGary Federal, which had reportedly been working with the FBI to identify the leaders of Anonymous.

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Google sued over Android data location collection

Two Michigan women are suing Google over location data collected by Android devices, a week after Apple was named in a lawsuit citing privacy violations with theiPhonelogging similar data.

The $50 million lawsuit against Google seeks to stop Google from selling phones with software that can track a user's location, the Detroit Newsreported today.

The lawsuit was filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Detroit on behalf of plaintiffs Julie Brown and Kayla Molaski, who are seeking class action status for the suit. Their lawyer, Steven Budaj, argues in the complaint that the tracking of Android owners' location"puts users at serious risk of privacy invasions, including stalking."

Google acknowledgedlast week that it collects location information--including GPS current location, timestamps, nearby Wi-Fi network addresses, and device IDs--from Android devices but said it was not traceable to a specific individual. Users can disable the GPS feature, but then they won't get as much function out of maps and other location-based services.

Google representatives did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the lawsuit this afternoon.

Thelawsuit against Applefiled in Florida last week also seeks class action status and accuses Apple of violating privacy laws, as well as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by keeping a log of user locations without offering users a way to disable that.

The matterfirst came to lightlast week when two researchers said they had discovered that the iPhone collects and logs current and historical location information without user permission or warning, and stores it unencrypted on the device.

In addition to the lawsuits, the controversy has prompted lawmakers toseek an FTC probeof the issue and questions from attorneys general in Connecticut andIllinois.

After a week of silence, Apple finally spoke up about the matter,explaining in an FAQthat it was collecting the data to get more accurate location data for eventual use in a traffic database and blamed a software bug for storing an excess amount of it on the devices.

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Study: Google to take Apple's app crown by July

(Credit:Distimo)

Apple frequently touts the number of applications available to iOS users, which now sits north of 350,000. But that number could be in danger of coming in second place to rival Google in just a few months time.

In a new report by market research firmDistimofor the last month of activity on Apple's various App Stores, the BlackBerry App World, GetJar, Google's Android Market, Nokia's Ovi Store, Palm's App Catalog and Microsoft'sWindows Phone 7Marketplace, the group found Google and Microsoft's efforts to be growing the fastest.

"If all application stores maintain their current growth pace, approximately five months from now Google Android Market will be the largest store in terms of number of applications followed by the Apple App Store foriPhoneandiPad, Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, BlackBerry App World and Nokia Ovi Store,"the firm said in its findings."The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace will also be larger than the Nokia Ovi Store and BlackBerry App World prior to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace being available for even a full year."

Distimo's research found that Google has already made headway on attacking Apple on the volume front, pushing past the App Store with 134,342 free applications versus the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch's 121,845 free applications. The firm estimates that Google will be 40,000 applications short of evening out with Apple's overall volume by the end of June, and will catch up completely in July.

Distimo notes that any growth estimates are gauged on the past three months of activity across the ecosystem, which"could easily accelerate or slow down."

Not included in that calculation are sales and app volume counted from Amazon'srecently-launched Appstore, which is not to be confused with Apple's"App Store"(ason-going litigation points out). Amazon launched it'scurrentlyAndroid-only mobile application store near the end of last month, which would make it too late to included in this round of tracking. Amazon's store contains many of the same apps available on the Android Market, though could end up building up a library of exclusives over time.

Along with the volume tracking, Distimo's report released a year's findings about Apple's App Store for the iPad, which it says reached 75,755 applications at the end of March. 30 percent of those applications are free, the firm said, with the average price for paid apps hitting $5.36.

Interestingly enough, that $5.36 number is up from the early days of the store, when the average was $4.34 per paid application. Distimo says the trend is unusual, since other application stores tend to have a lowering average price as app volumes get higher."This is likely because the games category (which has generally had a high in-app purchase adoption rate) has lost some of its prominence to other categories,"the report said.

Based on Distimo's data, books reign as the supreme category on the iPad as of the end of March, with 16,712 book applications. Games come a close second at 13,861 applications. From there it drops off to education, followed by entertainment and lifestyle applications. Worth a mention here is aseparate studyfrom forecast firm Simba released earlier today, which found that nearly 40 percent of iPad owners haven't used the device for reading e-books. Most said they used their computer as a primary reading device.

Related:Android Market saw greatest surge in 2010

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Seized Web sites won't end up like drug dealers' cars

When the government seizes a dope dealer'scar, it can then put the auto up for auction. But what happens when agents seize a Web domain?

ICE Director John Morton

(Credit:Greg Sandoval/CNET)

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) said today that those sites seized for trafficking in counterfeit and pirated goods will now serve to help spread the government's message that"unfairly devalue America's contributions, compromise American jobs, and put consumers, families, and communities at risk."

The Obama administration and the U.S. Congress have declared war on online piracy and law enforcement agencies have seized over a 100 sites in the past year. Of that group, 65 domain names now direct visitors to a public service announcement.

For example, visitors to Dvdcollects.com, a domain seized in November 2009, will now be redirected to an announcement on ICE"s YouTube page. According to ICE, plenty of people are seeing these messages.

"There have been over 45 million hits to the seizure banner that notifies visitors that a federal court order has been issued for the domain,"ICE said in a press release.

ICE is one of the agencies that has been tasked with taking down sites accused of illegally distributing intellectual property. The agency said, however, that before it can start using the seized Web sites for its own purposes, it must give interested parties time to contest the forfeiture.

Interested parties can file a petition with a federal court, ICE said in its statement.

More to come

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Kibot the robot entertains kids, spies on them

A child tries out Kibot the robot playmate during a launch event in Seoul.

(Credit:AFP Photo/Jung Yeon-Je)

Korean children, alreadyfast becoming a robot-friendly lot, have a new companion in Kibot, a monkey-faced bot that can read fairy tales, sing songs, take pictures, and make video calls via a display embedded in its tummy.

Wireless operator KT Telecom started delivering the multitasking monkey today for 485,000 won ($447), plus wireless packages that can be purchased in 12- or 14-month installments.

"It's really cute,"said my 9-year-old friend Stella, a co-worker's daughter who visited CNET's offices today."I would get one if it was in blue."(No luck; for now, it only comes in pink and gray).

Kibot (short for"kid's robot") isn't just for kids, however. Parents can also remotely control the 8-inch-tall wheeled robot via mobile phone and, using Wi-Fi, monitor their children (a feature that made Stella a tad apprehensive).

"If I was sleeping, it wouldn't be that comfortable if I knew someone was watching me,"she said."It would be freaky."

Big brother (or father) concerns aside, Stella thinks therobot playmate--which is aimed at kids younger than she is, 3 to 7--would be a hoot to have around.

She was especially excited by the video chat function, which lets kids make calls via the 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera simply by touching an RFID card bearing the picture of a familiar face (Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, and so on) to the device.

Kibot, which runs on a rechargeable battery and is manufactured by iRiver, has plenty of other tricks up its sensor-enabled sleeves, too.

It responds to gestures, like pats, by turning and pleasantly saying,"It feels good."When it encounters an obstacle, it can change direction to avoid it. It can take pictures and record and play back customized voices. It even serves as a language tutor for Korean and English. About the only things it doesn't do, seemingly, are scratch its head and swing from branch to branch.

Kibot has a 3.5-inch display in its tummy.

(Credit:KT Telecom)

TheKibot home page (in Korean)offers about 300 children's songs, fairy tales, and animations. Upon purchasing Kibot, buyers automatically get 55 pieces of content; they can then select and download 10 additional pieces of media free of charge each month.

Robots and kids are not a new combination, of course. Telepresence robots havehelped sick children attend school, and bots havebabysatand been used toteach autistic childrensocial skills andassist youngsterswith motor deficits.

While KT Telecom is touting Kibot as an entertainment and communications hub and not a therapeutic device, it's also promoting it as a socialization tool.

"Before going to bed, my child puts Kibot by his bedside, and looks at it, and then falls asleep,"said a mother of a 4-year-old boy."Actually, he used not to fall asleep without me beside him. Nowadays, strangely enough, he sleeps alone well."

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Russian police free kidnapped Kaspersky son

The kidnapped son of Kaspersky Lab's founder has been freed and five suspects are in custody in connection with the abduction, according to a Russian media report today.

Russian law enforcement officials freed Ivan Kaspersky, the 20-year-old son of Chief Executive Eugene Kaspersky, through a special operation with company security forces, according to theInterfax news agency.

"He has been freed without ransom,"a spokeswoman for the Moscow-based antivirus company told the news agency.

The younger Kaspersky, a fourth-year student of mathematics and cybernetics at Moscow State University, was kidnapped Tuesday morning on his way to work at InfoWatch, a company owned by his mother, Natalya Kaspersky, according to the English version ofPravda.ru. Someone claiming to be his abductor later reportedly phoned the father and demanded $4.3 million.

No further information about the suspects was available, and Kaspersky representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Google denies 'traceably' tracking Android devices

Google acknowledged today that it collects location information from Android devices, but downplayed concerns about privacy by saying the information is not"traceable to a specific user."

That claim, it turns out, depends on the definition of"traceable."

According to detailed records provided to CNET by a security researcher, Android phones regularly connect to Google.com and disgorge a miniature data dump that includes time down to the millisecond, current and recent GPS coordinates, nearby Wi-Fi network addresses, and two 16-letter strings representing a device ID that's unique to each phone.

Apple, whichcame under fire this weekafter reports that approximate location data is stored in perpetuity on iPhones, also collects it through the Internet. It acknowledged (PDF) to Congress last year that"cell tower and Wi-Fi access point information"is"intermittently"collected and"transmitted to Apple"every 12 hours, but has refused to elaborate. (See CNET'sFAQon the topic.)

(Credit:Declan McCullagh/CNET)

Assembling a database of locationscan raise privacy concerns. While Android's device ID isn't a name or phone number, it uniquely identifies each phone and is linked to its whereabouts, which means that Google might be able to trace the location of an Android phone over months or even years. Less is known about what data Apple collects, including whether a unique device ID is transmitted.

A Google spokeswoman said she would not immediately be able to respond to a list of questions posed by CNET this afternoon. The company's statement says:"We provide users with notice and control over the collection, sharing and use of location in order to provide a better mobile experience on Android devices. Any location data that is sent back to Google location servers is anonymized and is not tied or traceable to a specific user."

"It's not tied to a user,"saysSamy Kamkar, who provided the Android connection logs to CNET."But it is a unique identifier to that phone that never changes unless you do a factory reset."

An Android setup screen references these ongoing location updates, saying that choosing to enable location services allows Google to"collect anonymous location data,"even when"no applications are running."But that disclosure does not acknowledge that a unique device ID is transmitted. (Seea screen snapshot.)

It's difficult to know how significant the privacy risks are. That depends in large part on whether Google anonymizes the location information and device ID that it collects from Android devices -- and, especially, how long data are kept.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of theElectronic Privacy Information Center, is skeptical of Google's claim that the data are not"traceable"to a specific person."If you can link a person's address with their activity,"he says,"bingo! It's personal data."

Excerpts from Android connection-logging done by Samy Kamkar. CNET has redacted his device ID and Wi-Fi MAC address. Click for a larger image.

Requesting cell phone location information from wireless carriers hasbecome a staple of criminal investigations, often without search warrants being sought. It's not clear how often legal requests for these records have been sent to Google and Apple, and whether the companies have required a judge's signature on a search warrant, the most privacy-protective approach, or settled for less.

The Android device ID can be tied to a person without a minimum of number-crunching, said Kamkar, a onetime hacker with a colorful past. Google can determine that"this is probably their home address because they're there at 3am every single day,"he said. And"this is probably their work address because they're there between 9am and 5pm every day."

Even though police are tapping into the locations of mobile phones thousands of times a year by contacting AT&T, Verizon, and other carriers, the legal ground rules remain unclear, and federal privacy laws written a generation agoare ambiguous at best. The Obama Justice Department has claimed that no warrant is required for historical location information. (CNETwas the firstto report on warrantless cell tracking in 2005.)

"I think it's important that people know what's happening"inside their phones, Kamkar said.

Like iOS devices, Android phones do collect location information in a local file. But they seem to erase it relatively quickly instead of saving it forever. Swedish programer Magnus Erikssonhas highlighteda portion of the Android source code suggesting a maximum of 50 cell tower locations are retained, which a source close to Google indicates is correct.

Here are the questions, still unanswered, that CNET posed to Google this afternoon:

I've been looking into this a bit more. It appears that Android phones send an HTTP POST data packet to Google, specifically this URL: http://www.google.com/loc/m/api

Included in the POST packet are a series of strings, including:

- carrier name

- time packet was sent down to the millisecond

- MAC address, name, signal strength of the WiFi network in use

- MAC address, name, signal strength for other visible WiFi networks

- lat/long GPS coordinates of the phone

- other lat/long pairs and times associated with them (showing motion)

- Two 16-byte strings that are uniquely tied to that Android device

The last field is the important one. It doesn't include a name or phone number, but it is traceable to a specific user. If I'm at a certain home address every evening, and at a certain work address every day from 9am-5pm, it's pretty clear who I am. :)

So my questions are:

- Why doesn't Google randomize those two 16-byte strings (let's call them the device ID) on an hourly or daily basis?

- Given a street address or pair of GPS coordinates, is Google able to produce the complete location logs associated with that device ID, if legally required to do so?

- Given a device ID, is Google able to produce the complete location logs associated with it, if legally required to do so?

- Given a MAC address of an access point, is Google able to produce the device IDs and location data associated with it, if legally required to do so?

- How long are these location logs and device ID logs kept?

- If they are partially anonymized after a certain time, how is that done, and can those records be restored from a backup if Google is legally required to do so?

- How many law enforcement requests or forms of compulsory process have you received for access to any portion of this database?

- Why have you assembled this location and device ID database? My current theory is that it shows traffic on Google Maps where street data would be otherwise unavailable (a very useful feature, but one that doesn't appear to require keeping fixed device IDs).

- How are the device ID strings calculated?

- Did Alma Whitten approve this form of device ID logging? If not, what internal process did you use to vet any possible privacy concerns?

- If Google knows that a Gmail user is connecting from a home network IP address every evening, it would be trivial to link that with an Android phone's device ID that also connects via that IP address. Does Google do that?

- Does Android store only a maximum of 50 cell records and 200 WiFi records?

Disclosure: McCullagh is married to a Google employee not involved in this issue

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Software firm says e-mails stolen in server breach

Ashampoo, a German maker of Windows utilities and security software, warned this week that customer names and e-mail addresses were stolen and could be used in targeted malware attacks.

"Hackers gained access to one of our servers. We discovered the break-in and interrupted it instantly,"Ashampoo Chief Executive Rolf Hilchner wrote ina messageon the company Web site earlier this week.

Billing information, including credit card and bank account numbers, was not affected, he said, adding that German law enforcement is investigating but"unfortunately, the traces of the well-concealed hackers currently disperse abroad."

Attackers often send e-mails with malware-laden attachments to e-mail addresses found in the databases they breach, pretending to be a confirmation of an order from the company, Hilchner said.

The company did not disclose how many customers were affected.

People should be cautious about opening unsolicited or unexpected e-mails, even from companies they know, and keep antivirus software up to date, he said.

The news comes two weeks after dozens of big companies in the United States, including Citibank, Chase, Capital One, Walgreens, Target, Best Buy, and Verizon, warned customers about the potential for targeted phishing attacks in the wake of adata breachat e-mail marketing service provider Epsilon.

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Your iPhone's watching you. Should you care? (FAQ)

A peek at location data stored on an iPhone.

(Credit:Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

Researchers announced today that they found what look like secret files on theiPhonethattrack user locationand store it on the device, without the permission of the device owner. It's unclear what the data is used for and why Apple has been collecting it in iOS products that carry a 3G antenna for nearly a year now.

Alasdair Allan, senior research fellow in astronomy at the University of Exeter, and writer Pete Warden, who discovered the log file and created a tool that lets users see a visualization of that data, say there's no evidence of that information being sent to Apple or anybody else. Even so, the pair note that the data is unencrypted, giving anyone with access to your phone or computer where backups may be stored a way to grab the data and extrapolate a person's whereabouts and routines.

To help users understand more about the data that's being collected, what the risks are, and what they can do about it, CNET has put together this FAQ.

Who are the researchers and how did they find this?
Warden, who used to work at Apple (though not on the iPhone), and Allan had been collaborating on some location data visualization projects, including a visualization of radiation levels over time in Japan after the earthquake, when Allan discovered the file on an iPhone."After we dug further and visualized the extracted data, it became clear that there was a scary amount of detail on our movements,"they wrote in ablog post.

When did this start and what devices are tracking this data?
According to Allan and Warden, the tracking did not begin until iOS 4, which was released in late June 2010. This was the first version of iOS to drop support for devices like the original iPhone, with devices like the iPhone 3G and second-generationiPod Touchgetting a more limited feature set. Along with iPhones, 3G-enabled iPads are also keeping track of the data, though it's unclear if this is true for people who have 3G devices without active cellular subscriptions.

The tracking data itself was actually discovered last year.A toolby French programmer Paul Courbis, that's similar to the one released by Allan and Warden, is able to plot up to 10,000 of these data points from the database file to a Google Map. The issue was known in forensics circles but not widely, Allan and Warden said in a news conference this afternoon at the Where 2.0 conference in Santa Clara, Calif. An application they released that allows people to see what data is on individual devices makes the abstract tracking concept more real.

Did they contact Apple on their findings?
The researchers said they had contacted Apple's Product Security team, but hadn't heard back.

Where is this data being stored?
The database of location information is stored primarily on your phone, though due to the iOS device backup system in iTunes, these files can also end up on your computer. When iTunes saves these backups, which are set by default to be stored every time you sync an iOS device, the data file goes along with it.

(Credit:Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

What's curious is that this log can extend across multiple devices as long as those devices use the same restore point. Allan and Warden noted that the database used as part of the project spanned an iPhone 3GS and an iPhone 4, the latter of which had used a restore point.

The researchers have more technical details and the downloadable application to see a visualization of the data collected from your phone over timehere. The application does not work with iPhones on Verizon, the researchers said.

What's inside this data?
A database of cell tower coordinates and timestamps to indicate when your device was connecting with them. This includes what operator you're on and the country code. The research also found that Apple was tracking data about what Wi-Fi networks you were connecting to, which also included slightly less accurate location information, but continued to track that data by time. The researchers' visualization app shows large blue dots for frequent activity and smaller red or orange-colored dots for less frequent activity. However, it's unclear exactly what is triggering the logging, they said.

Is there an easier way to see that information than a giant database form?
Yes, Allan and Warden created an open-source software program that is able to go through the data from the database file and turn it into a visualization of what towers your device connected to based on the dates and times. The pair say the application intentionally cuts down on the accuracy of this data to keep the software from being used for bad things. You're also likely to see points in places you haven't been, since the tracking tools within the iPhone make use of nearby cell towers to triangulate location."As a data geek I was excited to have this data set, but I don't want anyone else to have this data,"Allan said.

What is the harm with this data being collected and stored on the device?
"By passively logging your location without your permission, Apple {has} made it possible for anyone from a jealous spouse to a private investigator to get a detailed picture of your movements,"the researchers wrote in theirFAQ.

While acknowledging that there is no need to panic, the researchers noted that if someone gets hold of the device, they can access the unencrypted data."Your cell operator has this information,"they said in the news conference. Anyone who wants it has"to get a court order to get that from a provider. But now, all you have to do is lose your phone in a bar."

Apps on the device cannot access the data, because it is"sandboxed,"the researchers said. However, it could be accessed by software on the computer that holds the backup, they said.

How do I protect this data from being seen by others?
The data file itself is completely unencrypted, meaning anyone who gets hold of it can access the data freely. On the iTunes side, there's an option to encrypt your backups, which will keep someone who gets access to a backup file while rummaging through your hard drive from being able to dig through it and pull out the database file.

To enable that feature, click on the device icon when it's plugged into iTunes, then check the"Encrypt iPhone Backup"item in the"Options"area. As for your iPhone, oriPadwith 3G, your best bet is to keep someone else from getting it in the first place, and then using Apple's free"Find My iPhone"app to do a remote wipe if it's lost or stolen.

Turning on the backup encryption feature within iTunes can keep those who get access to the file from digging through it to pull out location information.

(Credit:Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

How do I turn this tracking off?
Right now there's no way to turn the tracking off, since it's a baked into the operating system. Turning off GPS will make the device less functional for location-based services such as mapping.

Can Apple do this?
According to the iTunesterms and conditions, yes. The company pretty clearly spells out its right to"collect, use, and share"location data any time it pleases. From the document:

Location-Based Services
Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device. This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services. For example, we may share geographic location with application providers when you opt in to their location services.

Some location-based services offered by Apple, such as the MobileMe"Find My iPhone"feature, require your personal information for the feature to work.

The location notifier in iOS, which lets users know if an application is using your location.

(Credit:Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

That said, the company made a big kerfuffle about making third-party application providers--as well as the built-in Google Maps application--alert users when location was being used by including an arrow in the status bar that is required to appear whenever the phone is sending or receiving location data. This feature came as part of iOS 4, which is when the company began the tracking process.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs also made it apointduringan interviewat the D8 conference last year that privacy was a topic of utmost importance to the company."Before any app can get location data, they can't just put up a panel asking if it can use location, they callourpanel and it asks you if it's OK,"Jobs said."That's one of the reasons we have the curated App Store. A lot of the people in the Valley think we're old-fashioned about this. But we take it seriously."

Why is Apple doing this?
Apple has not responded to requests for comment. Allan and Warden suggest the company has been using this tracking technology as a precursor to extended location-based services it plans to add as a part of a future version of iOS.

Backing that claim up is an Apple patent applicationthat surfacedback in February, which showed that Apple was considering a service called"Places."Based on the filing, the service would offer Apple device owners a way to locate one another using GPS. While there are third-party applications like Loopt, Foursquare, and Beluga that let people do this, such a feature would presumably be a built-in part of the phone, and rely on geodata logging for any past history features.

"There are legitimate use cases here, but the matter underscores the need for vendors to be clear about what data they collect and what they are doing with it,"said Kevin Mahaffey, chief technology officer of mobile security provider Lookout in a call with CNET.

Is Apple the only one doing this?
Android does not appear to do this, sources familiar with the platform said. A Google spokeswoman said the company had no comment on the matter. A Microsoft representative told CNET that the company's Windows Phone platform does not store location history, and that the"Find My Phone"service only keeps the phone's most recent location.

CNET asked Research In Motion and Nokia whether their devices track behind-the-scenes location data, but has not yet heard back from them. These platforms let users track their own movements with GPS apps, though it's unclear whether there's tracking going on behind the scenes.

Coming back to the greater issue about location grabbing, Apple is not the first company to collect data without users knowing. Google got in hot water last year after admitting that it wascollecting datafrom non-password-protected Wi-Fi networks for three years as part of its Street View project. As the Street View car with the camera on top would drive around, collecting imagery, it was also sniffing out information about nearby open networks. Following the privacy probes that came as a result of the disclosure, Googlestopped the practiceback in October.

Any questions we didn't cover? Feel free to leave them in the comments, or shoot us an e-mail and we'll try to get them answered.

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New imaging technique could personalize cancer therapy

Susannah Gal (left) and Susan Bane have devised a new imaging technique to view specific proteins in action.

(Credit:Jonathan Cohen)

Two professors at Binghamton University in New York are using a novel imaging technique to observe the behavior of an enzyme--calledtubulin tyrosine ligase, or TTL--as its behavior can suggest whether certain cancer cells might grow more aggressively than others.

Though they are not developing actual therapies,Susan BaneandSusannah Galsay their research couldhelp further personalize targeted cancer therapies.

"Potentially, we could put {a tumor sample} in our labeling system and say, 'Yes, that has a problem with the TTL system, and therefore you should be more aggressive with it,'"says Gal, whose work is funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences."Or we could say, 'That's probably OK, so you can treat it with normal chemotherapy.'"

The enzyme TTL involves microtubules, which both help chromosomes line up correctly during cell division and provide part of the scaffolding of a cell's structure. Those microtubules are made of proteins called tubulin; the enzyme carboxypeptidase clips an amino acid called tyrosine off the ends of some of these proteins, and later the enzyme TTL puts that tyrosine back on.

Bane says it's unclear why tyrosine is clipped off only to be reattached, but it's clearly an important part of the cell's cycle:"We do know that if you don't have that enzyme, you'll die."

In some cancer cells, that cycle of removing and reattaching tyrosine is disrupted, with too many tubulins lacking tyrosine altogether. Tumors made of those cells, Bane says,"tend to grow more aggressively."

Berkeley Lab published the first 3D model of tubulin in 1998.

(Credit:Berkeley Lab)

Being able to watch this cycle, then, could provide profound insights into the nature of a particular person's cancer and how to treat it. But watching these microtubules divide is tricky; most fluorescent markers don't distinguish between tubulin and other protein molecules and will bond to any of them. Typically, markers that can distinguish between them are so big that they block the view of the protein being studied.

This is where their new imaging technique comes into play. To mark only tubulin, Bane and Gal dressed it in a"hat"--a special derivative of tyrosine that Bane created for the project--and then introduced a fluorescent molecule that lights up only when it bonds with that special tyrosine, allowing researchers to distinguish tubulin from other objects in the cell and watch how it behaves.

In 1998, after 30 years of work, scientistscompleted 3D imagingof the atomic structure of tubulin. Today, Bane and Gal hope that being able to watch tubulin in action might will provide significant insights into how to treat an individual's specific tumor more effectively.

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Cyber attacks rise at critical infrastructure firms

Cyber attacks are on the rise in critical infrastructure companies, a new report shows.

(Credit:CSIS/McAfee)

Cyber attacks on critical infrastructure companies are on the rise, with a jump in extortion attempts and malware designed to sabotage systems, like Stuxnet, according to a new report.

While attacks are increasing, many companies aren't doing enough to protect their systems and are instead rushing to adopt new technologies--such as Smart Grid--without ensuring they adequately secure against cyber attacks, concludes"In the Dark: Crucial Industries Confront Cyberattacks."

The report, due to be released on Tuesday, was commissioned by McAfee and written by theCenter for Strategic and International Studies(CSIS). It includes results from an electronic survey of 200 IT security executives from firms that provide oil, gas, electricity, water, and sewage services in 14 countries during the last quarter of 2010.

Security at power companies has been a concern for decades, but the issue rose to prominence with the emergence last year of the Stuxnet malware, which exploits holes in Windows systems and targets a specific Siemens SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) program with sabotage. After dissecting the malware,experts saythey believe it was written to target nuclear facilities in Iran.

"Stuxnet changed the game in our awareness,"Phyllis Schneck, vice president and chief technology officer for public sector at McAfee, said in an interview."Attacks are being developed directly for the capability of creating events on a physical infrastructure."

About 70 percent of the survey respondents said they frequently found malware designed to sabotage their systems during 2010, and nearly half of those in the electric industry said they found Stuxnet on their systems. It was unknown if any of the systems were impacted as a result of Stuxnet, but close to 60 percent said their firms had launched special security audits because of the malware.

The threat from sabotage includes electrical smart grids, which are being quickly adopted without adequate security measures in place,according tothe U.S. Government Accountability Office and independent security experts. Fifty-six percent of the respondents whose companies are planning new smart grid systems also plan to connect to the consumer over the Internet. But only two-thirds have adopted special security measures for the smart grid controls, the report said.

"We could end up with a grid connected to peoples' homes that is not properly secured from a cyber attack,"said Schneck."If that system could be turned against itself, that is a disaster waiting to happen."

Another trend happening with critical infrastructure companies is extortion. One in four survey respondents said they had been victims of extortion through cyber attacks or threats of attack with the number of companies subject to extortion increasing by 25 percent over last year. India and Mexico had particularly high rates of extortion attempts, the report found.

"That could be an attempt to crash the network or it could be a denial-of-service attack,"or threats to collapse the power grid, said Stewart Baker, a fellow at the CSIS.

Modest security improvements
In general, the report showed increasing levels of attacks and concern about attacks, but modest improvement in security. About 40 percent of the respondents said they believed that their industry's vulnerability had increased and nearly 30 percent said they did not think their company was prepared for a cyber attack.

"More than 40 percent of the executives we interviewed expect a major cyberattack within 12 months--an attack, that is, that causes severe loss of services for at least 24 hours, a loss of life or personal injury, or the failure of a company,"the report said. That worry was most intense among executives from India, Mexico, and China.

Things have changed significantly from even one year ago. In 2009, nearly half of the respondents said they had never faced network intrusions or large-scale denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Now, about 80 percent of respondents said their firms had been targeted by at least one big DoS attack and 85 percent had seen network intrusions. One-quarter reported daily or weekly DoS attacks and one-quarter said they had been victims of extortion through network attacks or the threat of such attacks.

Despite the increase in threats and the executives' concerns about them, companies aren't beefing up their security much. Energy firms, for instance, increased their adoption of security technologies by only a single percentage point, to 51 percent, and oil and gas companies by three percentage points, to 48 percent. Brazil, France, and Mexico are lagging in their security responses, adopting only half as many security measures as the leaders in security--China, Italy, and Japan, according to the report.

China and Japan, which both report high levels of formal and informal interaction with their government on security topics, are among the countries with the highest confidence levels that laws will prevent or deter attacks in their countries. Meanwhile, respondents in the U.S., Spain, and U.K. reported little to no contact with their government on security. While all of the Japanese respondents' firms had been audited by their government for security, only 6 percent of those in the U.K. had been.

Companies seem to have a relatively high degree of mistrust for foreign countries. About 60 percent blame nation states and other governments for being behind attacks. The United States was named as the country of most concern for 2009, followed by China, the country called out in the attacks on Googlelast year. China took the top spot last year, according to the survey, which was conducted before reports began surfacing late last year that linked the U.S. to Stuxnet.

Speculation that the U.S. was behind Stuxnet, with some help from Israel, is backed by reports in The New York Times, includingone that saysSiemens gave U.S. researchers the opportunity to identify holes in its software.

Summing up the report's conclusions, Baker of the CSIS said he was worried that the people tasked with making sure we have gas, water, and electricity in our homes and offices aren't doing enough to protect that critical infrastructure.

"The message is that our industrial control systems are very, very vulnerable to attack and the security we have installed today is insufficient to protect us,"he said."I'm concerned that (the industry) is not getting that message, despite having the evidence in front of us."

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Paul Allen talks Gates, guitars on '60 Minutes'

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen gives a wide-ranging interview to"60 Minutes"correspondent Lesley Stahl tonight on CBS TV that offers a peek into the life of the more reclusive of the software giant's co-founders.

Allen recently penned a book that focuses on Microsoft's early years, as well as Allen's efforts as a philanthropist and entrepreneur."Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft"is also a book that has been criticized as taking cheap shots at his Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whom he accused of trying to take ownership stakes from Allen's share of Microsoft while Allen was battling cancer.

"It's not about {revenge},"Allen told Stahl in the interview."I just felt like it's an important piece of technology history and I should tell it like it happened, and I hope people understand and respect that."

Allen also showed Stahl around his estate, including a tour of his airplane collection, which features the first private space rocket, a yacht with its own submarine, andan extensive guitar collectionwith contributions from greats such as Mick Jagger, Peter Gabriel, Bono, and the guitar on which Jimi Hendrix played"The Star-Spangled Banner"at Woodstock.

Also,"60 Minutes Overtime"featuresrare footage of a 2007 interviewwith Allen and Gates in which they take a stroll down memory lane. Despite their current contentious relationship, this glimpse catches them reminiscing on their old teenage stomping grounds, including a look at where they learned the building blocks of computer programming before they founded Microsoft.

The full"60 Minutes"segment:

"60 Minutes"also talked with John Cook and Todd Bishop of the tech blog Geekwire.com about whether Allen's book was part of a vendetta against Gates.

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iPad 2 killer feature: The 2X factor

TheiPad2 is"winning"with two double-your-fun hardware features. Buh-bye iPad 1.

My iPad 2. Buh-bye iPad 1.

(Credit:Brooke Crothers)

After using the iPad 2 for a few weeks, I can now say the upgrade was worth it. Even waiting in line with the huddled Los Angeles masses, yearning for the iPad 2, was worth it.

Allow me to insert a brief parenthetical by saying I wouldn't be completely honest if I didn't mention there's always a psychological need to justify the purchase of a pricey gadget. Not unlike seeking absolution for a sin. That said, I'm pretty sure this review passes the objective, dispassionate analysis test.

Let's move on. At the time of purchase, there was very little to choose from (Apple stores then were still handing out claim tickets). So, I was bamboozled (I'll play the victim) into buying the $829 Verizon 3G model with 64GB of memory (white). I upgraded from the original iPad with AT&T 3G.

Double the memory:This was apparent almost immediately when I first picked up the iPad. Going from a meager 256MB in the original iPad to 512MB in the iPad 2 makes a difference. Think about the terabytes (petabytes?) of advice over the years from"tech experts"that implore people to upgrade their PC's memory to get better performance. Well, it's true. More memory provides more space for more apps to reside in, which can then be accessed by high-speed system RAM.

I'll give one easy, everyday example. Web browsing is more fluid. I know this has something to do with the upgraded processor (which I'll get to below) but more memory is also playing a big role here. More specifically,Safari's version of tabbed browsing on the iPad 2 works better (no, it's not literally tabbed browsing but it's similar). When you jump between Web pages, a page that you haven't visited in a while often doesn't have to reload. That's a boon when I'm doing productivity-related stuff--and otherwise makes browsing more enjoyable.

Double the cores:the iPad 2's A5 processor is a dual-core processor, compared with the single-core A4. This, by far, is the most significant aspect of the iPad 2 and often overlooked or downplayed because it's considered too techie. (What's a core?) I remember when I bought my first dual-core PC (an HP nc6400 business laptop). For me, it was the single biggest step up in PC performance I had ever experienced. The iPad isn't quite that breathtaking but it's close.

It's not difficult to understand why. Two processing units are usually (though not always) better at handling demanding task loads than one. Would you rather have a four-cylinder Ford Ranger or an eight-cylinder F-350 hauling a big load? Not a perfect analogy but you get the idea. (Want proof?Check out these benchmarks, particularly the"multithreaded"tests).

And this applies to just about everything you do on the iPad. Launching, multitasking, Web surfing, multimedia (photos, movies). You name it.

One more feature I'll mention. So far, Verizon 3G has been more consistent for me than the AT&T 3G I had on the iPad 1. While I had no major complaints about the AT&T 3G, it's apparent that the Verizon 3G on the iPad 2 delivers in places that I know for a fact were dead spots for AT&T. So, I'm glad (so far) that I went with Verizon.

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Best Buy: Delays on DVD rentals boost sales

The agreement by Netflix and other top video-rental services to wait 28 days before renting newly released DVDs appears to be boosting disc sales--as much as 30 percent in some cases, say two national retailers.

A Best Buy ad shows how the company is trying to play up its access to new releases ahead of Netflix and Redbox.

(Credit:Best Buy)

Representatives from retail chains Best Buy andHastings Entertainmenttold CNET during the past week that disc sales and even rentals are up for movies that aren't available at Netflix or Redbox during what has come to be known as the"sales-only window."

"On sales of specific titles, we've seen our market share go up over time and degradation of sales has slowed {as a result of the 28-day window},"said Allen Hughes, merchant director for Best Buy, the man who handles disc sales for the chain of consumer-electronics stores.

Last August, Jeff Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner, parent company of Warner Bros. Pictures,credited the sales-only windowwith lifting DVD and Blu-ray sales at Warner Bros. Pictures, especially for the first four weeks after a title has gone on sale.

The sales-only window got its start in January 2010, when Netflix and Warner Bros. Home Entertainmentannounced an unprecedented deal. Netflix would delay renting the studio's newly released movies and then would use the money saved from purchasing new releases to acquire more content for its streaming-video service.Redbox soon agreedto honor a sales-only window and two other Hollywood film studios, NBC Universal and 20th Century Fox, alsoadopted similar windows.

The windows were designed to help protect sales of DVDs as well as Blu-ray discs, a physical format that is still growing. Overall disc sales for the entire industry, however, have declined for several years. Much of the problem can be traced to consumer tastes, which are shifting towards rental rather than ownership.

A year after the Netflix-Warner deal was struck some retailers say they're encouraged by the results. If the trend continues, Netflix might be able to use the sales-only window to pen similar agreements with other TV and film companies and that could help the company acquire more streaming content. In many tech circles, the thinking is that the Web will become a dominate means for film distribution.

The transition from physical disks to the Internet, however, will not occur over night, according to John Marmaduke, CEO of Hastings Entertainment, a retail chain that sells books, DVDs and CDs out of 146 stores in 21 states. He said there's still big demand for physical media, he said.

To learn how the sales-only window has impacted business, Hastings' managers analyzed 24 titles with similar box office receipts--half with the 28 day window and half without--to try and make an apples-to-apples comparison, according to Victor Fuentes, vice president of merchandising. The company tracked sales performance after four weeks and then again after eight weeks. Rentals were tracked at six weeks.

Sales for films that were protected by a sales-only window were 32 percent higher for the first four weeks than the group of films that were without a window, Marmaduke said. At the eight-week mark, the numbers were similar. The sales-only category was 29 percent higher for that period. For rentals, discs with the window fared better by 28 percent. Pricing and advertising strategies were the same for both categories, Fuentes said.

"We weren't surprised to see this kind of performance,"Marmaduke said, adding that the way to fix DVD sales isn't a mystery. He said allowing Redbox to sell new releases for 99 cents would naturally make it harder for others to sell and rent movies at higher prices.

"This isn't brain surgery,"Marmaduke said."We saw the impacts that 99-cent rentals had on sell through. It doesn't take a great leap to figure out how that affects business."Marmaduke noted that the sales-only window was much criticized by tech pundits and that there's been a lot written by the death of the DVD.

"DVDs are still a $12 or $14 billion business,"he said."What people from the tech world often do is confuse themselves with the entire marketplace."

Critics of the sales-only window predicted that Netflix would alienate a large number of subscribers and in the end the scheme would fail to raise disc sales. They argued that consumers no longer want to collect movies and are unwilling to pay traditional prices to buy or rent. Techies also maintain the Internet has become the main entertainment hub in a growing number of households and that's where they will look to obtain movies as well.

It's still early yet in the development of Web TV but there's no arguing that almost none of that has occurred yet. Netflix's decision to adopt a moratorium on rentals of new releases doesn't seem to have slowed the company's growth whatsoever. Last year, Netflix increased the number of subscribers by over 60 percent from 2009, thanks mostly to the popularity of its streaming service. At the same time, most TV and film viewing still occurs via traditional outlets like DVDs, cable and broadcast stations.

At Best Buy, managers believe Internet distribution will be big but still see a viable market for sales and rentals of discs, according to Hughes. He declined to share the same kind of data that Hastings offered but did provide an example of how the sales-only window was helping his company.

He said that if, say, a million discs were sold in the United States for a newly released title and Best Buy stores were responsible for 15 percent of those total sales, then typically for films with a sales-only window, the company might see 20 percent market share later on (note: the figures used by Hughes were just to illustrate his example).

(Credit:Greg Sandoval/CNET)

No doubt, helping to drive some of the increases is that Best Buy is doing its best to play up its access to new releases. Not only has the company"aggressively priced"new releases, marking them down 10 to 15 percent in some cases, but in the company's online and offline ads for newly released titles it prominently notes that customers won't be able to acquire the videos from Netflix or Redbox until 28 days later.

Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said only a relatively small percentage of subscribers seek new releases. He remarked that the sales-only window provides the company with extra resources to acquire streaming content while also benefiting its suppliers, the major film studios.

But when you talk about the future of physical media, it's hard to imagine a comeback--at least to the lofty revenue numbers it once generated. For years, home video sales outpaced box office. At the same time, all the major players are staking out turn in Internet distribution.

Netflix is doubling down on Web streaming. Time Warner and Comcast are pushing TV Everywhere, a service that enables subscribers to view cable content over the Web. Google, Wal-Mart, Apple and Amazon also compete in Web video.

Marmaduke says studios shouldn't let themselves be won over by all this technology, and remember what's missing from all the Web-video talk is profits.

"The most important reason not to give up on the DVD is that the studios have to make money,"Marmaduke said."Digital hasn't done it for them. When media goes digital it's a race to the bottom. The studios shouldn't make the same mistakes the music industry made. They should be more concerned about their profit model and less concerned about how they look in the {news} media."

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WebOS 3.0 beta leaked--looks good, interesting

This looks better than the iPad's or iPhone's notification system, doesn't it?

(Credit:PreCentral.net)

A few weeks ago, HP released its WebOS 3.0 SDK to developers. Devs who get a prerelease version of an OS are generally bound under a strict"don't show people what we have"agreement, but that hasn't stopped one from doing just that, sendingPreCentral.net a copy, which they ran in emulationto put the OS through its paces. And it looks decidedly cool.

As one might expect from a beta of a touch-basedtabletOS,the new version of WebOS, which is destined for HP's announced TouchPad tablets and likely a new generation of Pre smartphones, looked something like iOS for theiPadin some ways (for better or worse).

That said, it also appears to have a few innovative features that improve over Apple's implementation, such as a three-paned e-mail view, better organization of browser windows, and an excellent-looking notification system.

In addition, 3.0 interestingly abandons Google's pervasive maps in favor of Microsoft's Bing maps. The new map app, like most of the others, is seen in the video after the jump, and it's impressive.

Facebook photo access is apparently built in, which is a smart move, and the photo and video album organization looks pretty slick.

But photos and videos might take a backseat to QuickOffice, as HP has stated that it's gearing the TouchPad to business users primarily. Though the version in the current SDK beta doesn't appear to work properly, it's telling that HP is including it. Apple's tablet users can currently edit Office docs on their iPads, but only with the addition of word processing and spreadsheet apps like Pages and Numbers, which are available in the App Store for $10.

It's important to note that the OS is running on a regular computer in an emulated environment, so there's no telling how it will run on the actual TouchPad hardware. In addition, it is a beta, meaning we can't fairly give it a full judgment yet.

Still, we're impressed with what we've seen. It's a contender, and easily has the ability to outperform Google's so-far half-baked tablet offerings, and could maybe even give the iPad a run for its money--if it can bring in the developers. We've considered that WebOS has the potential as a dark horse in therace for tablet dominance, and this unofficial preview rather underscores the point. We can't wait to see what HP hasn't shown us yet.

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Voice control comes to Facebook, recipes

At last, the face has taken control of Facebook--well, the mouth part, at least. Once theFirefoxfans atFiresay demonstrated that hands-free browsingwas possible, it was only a matter of time before the technology was co-opted by the Facebook hive mind.

The original Firesay was a Firefox extension that allowed for Google searching, limited browsing, and even launching specific Hulu videos through voice commands. The new Firesay InPage is an attempt to broaden the reach of the voice-browsing concept, albeit slowly, by offering new voice controls for Facebook and KitchenPC. Right now,the Facebook apponly allows users to snap a Webcam pick by uttering a few quick words, while the other offers an introductory platform for hands-free cooking atKitchenPC.com.

Firesay's Facebook Webcam app in action.

(Credit:Video screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET)

Currently,Firesay InPageis a two-trick pony with the further limitations of only being availableon Chrome. You'll also want to be runningWindows Vistaor better.

But the start-up behind the concept is promising much more to come. Led by CEO Ehud Halberstram, who was formerly on Microsoft's Phone 7 team, the company isNuiti, and it's not only looking to expand their roster of apps and compatible sites. There's also something in the works calledFiresay VoiceAds. Here's Nuiti's pitch to advertisers on the concept:

With our patent-pending Firesay VoiceAds, users can talk with your ads, repeat your messages and better remember them. You win improved campaign performance, stronger brand awareness and invaluable information for your campaign. Your audience wins you.

Not sure how excited I am about that concept, but I am rooting for Nuiti to keep expanding its user-focused voice apps in the hopes that one day I'll be able to write these articles while perfecting my juggling routine.

Here's a quick video on InPage:

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U.S. Navy getting closer to arming ships with lasers

The U.S. Navy's solid-state, high-energy laser.

(Credit:U.S. Navy photo by John F. Williams)

"Fire the laser!"may sound like something straight out of"Star Wars,"but that phrase could one day be common on U.S. Navy ships.

Northrop Grumman and the Office of Naval Research recently concluded a series ofsuccessful solid-state laser defense firing testsaboard the decommissioned Spruance-class destroyer USS Paul F. Foster (a remotely driven self-defense test ship). The Maritime Laser Demonstrator zapped away at an assortment of objectives at the Pacific Ocean Test Range off the central California coast, including land-based targets and remotely driven small boats that traveled at various speeds.

It was the first time a laser of such strength had been fired from a moving ship at sea. This is also the first system to be integrated with a Navy ship's radar and navigation system, ensuring a much higher level of accuracy. The U.S. Navy collaborated with the Office of the Secretary of Defense's High Energy Joint Technology Office and the Army's Joint High Powered Solid State Laser program to bring this once-imagined weapon to life.

A small boat on fire after getting pew-pew'd.

(Credit:US Navy)

"The results show that all critical technologies for an operational laser weapon system are mature enough to begin a formal weapon system development program,"Steve Hixson, vice president of space and directed energy systems at Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector, said in a statement."Solid-state laser weapons are ready to transition to the fleet."

The next step is"the engineering, manufacturing, and development phase,"according to Northrop Grumman. The Navy plans to outfit up to eight classes of ships in the fleet with this next-generation weapon, but these beams aren't quite ready to replace traditional weapons systems, according to Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Nevin Carr. Nevertheless, these lasers sure could cause a bad day for smaller craft.

In the video below, we see just exactly how little time it takes for a laser to melt away critical components on a small boat. After a few seconds of maintaining laser contact, a fire erupts in the engine, causing total loss of power on the rogue ship.

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Anticipating a faster MacBook Air

For those waiting patiently on an update of the MacBook Air, the first hints of its potential performance can be found in a Samsung laptop and the 13-inch MacBook Pro.

2010 MacBook Air.

(Credit:Apple)

Apple is expected to update the MacBook Air (MBA) this summer with Intel's"Sandy Bridge"processor, asCNET has reported. And there's really only one question on most people's minds: what kind of performance will a new MBA get you? (We already know more or less what the price will be.)

Luckily, there's some circumstantial evidence out there now. Exhibit A is the ultrathin Samsung series 9 NP900X3Aand recent CNET benchmarks.

Why this laptop? It uses Intel's latest ultra-power-efficient 1.4GHz Intel Core i5-2537M Sandy Bridge chip--the same kind of low-power silicon the upcoming 11.6-inch Air is expected to use.

That said, let's get the caveats out of the way first. The Samsung configuration tested uses 4GB of memory, while the tested 2010 Air uses 2GB. Another proviso applies to Intel's Sandy Bridge HD 3000 graphics (which the 2011 Air will likely use). Here's what CNET Reviews' Scott Stein said:"these graphics are better than were ever possible on thin-and-lights using last year's Intel integrated graphics, but they're not quite as good as the Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics on the {current} MacBook Air."

And the benchmarks bear this out in some cases, as shown in the charts below.

The Samsung Series 9 NP900X3A offers a glimpse of potential'Sandy Bridge' 11-inch MacBook Air performance.

(Credit:CNET Reviews)

Systems tested.

(Credit:CNET Reviews)

But those aren't the only relevant benchmarks. The Sandy Bridge-packing 13-inch MacBook Pro (MBP) shows the performance that a mainstream Sandy Bridge processor can deliver and may approximate a future 13-inch MacBook Air.

Why is it comparable? That MBP model comes with Intel HD 3000 graphics and is, therefore, indicative of the performance of a 13-inch Sandy Bridge MacBook Air. (The 15-inch MacBook Pro employs AMD Radeon graphics and is not a good yardstick.)

The question is, how far will Apple push the performance envelope on the Sandy Bridge 13-inch Air to get it close to the MacBook Pro 13-incher? In trying to answer that question, let's not forget that Apple currently uses a relatively fast low-power Core 2 Duo processor in the top-line Air: the SL9600 running at 2.13GHz with 6MB of cache memory.

So, what might be a suitable follow-on to that chip? Intel is now shipping the Core i7-2649M (4M Cache, 2.30 GHz) which, at 25 watts, is a power-efficient chip but not as power-frugal as the 17-watt ultra-power-efficient Core i5 Sandy Bridge used in the Samsung Series 9. The point: higher wattage typically means better performance.

'Sandy Bridge' MacBook Pros versus 2010 MacBook Air. Though likely faster than a Sandy Bridge MBA, this is another indicator of Sandy Bridge performance.

(Credit:CNET Reviews)

As I've written before, moving Intel's Sandy Bridge chip into the MacBook Air would finally break a processor logjam that's existed for more than three years now. Though the Air has been updated several times over the last three years, it has stuck to the same basic Intel chip technology since its inception in 2008.

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Apple investigating Verizon iPad 2 3G issue

(Credit:CNET)

An issue that requires someiPad2 owners with built-in Verizon 3G toreboot their devicesto re-enable 3G after turning it off is being looked into by Apple.

In a statement by an Apple representative released toAll Things Digitaltoday, the company said it is aware that some iPad 2 owners with the Verizon 3G model are having connectivity issues and is investigating it. The number of those affected is"small,"the company said.

Complaints began mounting on an Apple Support Discussions board in the days following the release of the iPad 2 with some users finding that the software switch to turn the 3G antenna on and off was not reactivating without first powering down the unit.

The Verizon version of the iPad 2 is the first iPad to ship with CDMA service. Verizon's 3G service is also offered on the CDMA version of theiPhone 4, which went on sale earlier this year. Both devices use the same software mechanism to turn the 3G modem on and off.

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Apple patent hints at bezel displays for iPhone

(Credit:U.S. Patent and Trademark Office)

AsiPhone5 rumors have trickled over the past month, one that'spopped up repeatedlyis a screen so big it nearly does away with the bezel. That's the area around the display, and right before the very edge of the device that sits as unused space.

But such a screen might be at odds with a new Applepatent applicationunearthed byPatently Apple. The patent outlines a secondary display embedded within the bezel that would extend what's happening on the main screen to the surrounding area.

The applications for such a design are broad, from notifications and other indicators to a display area that apps can make use of to extend the user interface. Such features could be handy on a small screen where even given a high-pixel density, total real estate is limited by the casing itself.

The patent description spells this much out:

To assist a user in providing inputs, traditional devices use the display to provide indicators to the user regarding where and how to provide a touch input. For example, a traditional device may display a virtual button on a touch screen to indicate that a user can touch that portion of the screen to provide an input. However, providing such indicators occupies space on the touch screen that could otherwise be used for displaying visual content.

The patent describes this functionality including not just phones, but media players like theiPod, PDAs, laptops, and cameras.

To add to this, the patent says the touch-sensitive area could spill onto this secondary display, effectively opening the device up to a broader array of gestures and types of interactions. The impact on gaming alone could be especially big, with games that make use of onscreen controls choosing to instead go with an off-screen touch pad.

As Patently Apple notes, this is not the first such Apple patent to discuss bringing touch controls to off-screen areas of gadgetry.One in 2006detailed one for iPods that would use the surrounding area to map playback controls depending on the application in use. This was months ahead of the release of the iPod Touch, which would negate the need for this by making use of a touch screen instead.

More recently, two patents that were actually granted early last year (unlike the one in this story, which remains a pending application), included a bezel that could be set up tocontrol functionssuch as volume, screen brightness, and navigation.

Another patentdepictedadding touch sensitivity to the back of atablet(such as the iPad) to give users an extra, off-screen area for controlling what was happening onscreen.

As with all other patent-related posts, it's worth taking these illustrations and ideas with a grain of salt, as they are not guaranteed to become a part of shipping products. Nonetheless, many have, which can make them fascinating.

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Justice Department opposes digital privacy reforms

The U.S. Justice Department today offered what amounts to a frontal attack on proposals to amend federal law to better protect Americans' privacy.

James Baker, the associate deputy attorney general, warned that rewriting a 1986 privacy law to grant cloud computing users more privacy protections and to require court approval before tracking Americans' cell phones would hinder police investigations.

This appears the first time that the Justice Department has publicly responded to a set of digital privacy proposalsunveiled last yearby a coalition of businesses and advocacy groups including AT&T, Google, Microsoft, eBay, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Americans for Tax Reform.

Baker told (PDF) a Senate committee that requiring a search warrant to obtain stored e-mail could have an"adverse impact"on criminal investigations. And making location information only available with a search warrant, he said, would hinder"the government's ability to obtain important information in investigations of serious crimes."

James Baker, associate deputy attorney general

(Credit:U.S. Senate)

Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, seemed to agree. It's crucial, he said,"to ensure we don't limit (law enforcement's) ability to obtain information necessary to catch criminals and terrorists who use electronic communication."He also suggested that requiring warrants would lead to"increased burdens on the court system."

The question at hand is rewriting theElectronic Communications Privacy Act, or ECPA, which was enacted in the pre-Internet era of telephone modems and is so notoriously convoluted, it's difficult even for judges to follow.

TheDigital Due Process coalitionhopes to simplify the wording while requiring police to obtain a search warrant to access private communications and the locations of mobile devices--which is not always the case today. Under current law, Internet users enjoy more privacy rights if they store data locally, a legal hiccup that could slow the shift to cloud-based services unless it's changed.

Baker did make it clear that the broader Obama administration does not--at least not yet--have a position on how ECPA should be changed. An interagency task force has been meeting, but has not reached a consensus or produced a recommendation, and the Commerce Department has taken a position (PDF) that's more favorable toward privacy and business interests.

But the Justice Department, Baker said, was concerned that requiring more judicial approval would hinder investigations."Speed is essential,"he said."If Congress slows down the process, this would have real-life consequences, particularly where human life is involved."

Caption: The odd ways a 1986 privacy law provides less (or more) protection to an e-mail message, depending on what stage it's in.

(Credit:Ryan Radia/CEI)

Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and chairman of the Judiciary committee, said that current law has"shortcomings"that need to be addressed.

"It's very clear from the hearing today that Senator Leahy is interested in moving an ECPA reform bill,"said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at theCenter for Democracy and Technology, which is coordinating the Digital Due Process coalition."CDT has had great success in keying up this issue and giving members of Congress a proposal that has moved the process forward."

Ross Schulman, counsel to theComputer and Communications Industry Association, said he was optimistic that the Justice Department might alter its stance:"It doesn't mean that DOJ's final position would be to oppose (proposals) such as search warrants for electronic data."Google and AT&T referred questions to the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Also today, a group of conservative and libertarian groups sent a letter (PDF) to Leahy and Grassley urging them to move"immediately"to"extend the Fourth Amendment's protections against the unreasonable search and seizure of digital documents and other electronic information."It was signed by groups includingTechFreedom, theCompetitive Enterprise Institute, FreedomWorks, and the Liberty Coalition.

"The current standards are messy, inconsistent, and unclear,"saysJulian Sanchez, a research fellow at the libertarianCato Institute, which is not part of either group."I think DOJ has realized is that this is largely severable from the question of whether you...establish consistency in favor of uniformly protecting privacy--or uniformly permitting easier government access."

Baker, the associate deputy attorney general, also offered two suggestions: that any ECPA rewrite might include"the disclosure by service providers of customer information for commercial purposes,"and that the practice of telecommunications companies charging fees for the time it takes to process routine police requests should be curbed.

The second suggestion, Sanchez suggested, might end up being used by the Justice Department as a bargaining chip"to splinter the telecom-civil libertarian coalition."

As for the first suggestion, Marc Rotenberg, director of theElectronic Privacy Information Center, said his group never joined the Digital Due Process coalition because it was"unwilling to address that issue which, we believe, for users is straightforward and obvious."

"ECPA amendments should cover commercial use of user data,"Rotenberg said.

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Here's how the Justice Department's testimony squares with the coalition's principles:

Digital Due Process Coalition Principle No. 1An Internet or telecommunications provider may"disclose communications that are not readily accessible to the public only with a search warrant issued based on a showing of probable cause."

Justice Department's response (PDF): A warrant is too restrictive because"if a person stores documents in her home, the government may use a subpoena to compel production of those documents."In addition,"not all federal agencies have authority to obtain search warrants."Finally, there's the potential"adverse impact on criminal as well as national security investigations if a probable cause warrant were the only means to obtain such stored communications."

Digital Due Process Coalition Principle No. 2:Police may access"prospectively or retrospectively, location information regarding a mobile communications device only with a warrant."

Justice Department's response: For less precise information from cell towers, a"requirement of probable cause has hampered the government's ability to obtain important information in investigations of serious crimes."A warrant should be used only for"prospective E-911 Phase II geolocation data,"typically"derived from GPS or multilateration."

Digital Due Process Coalition Principle No. 3:Police should be allowed to access"prospectively or in real time, dialed number information, e-mail to and from information, or other data currently covered by the authority for pen registers and trap and trace devices only after judicial review and a court finding"that specific and articulable facts show it's relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation. That's a lower standard than a search warrant's probable cause requirement, but in practice perhaps not that much lower.

Justice Department's response: It"makes sense that a person using a communication service should be able to consent to another person monitoring addressing information associated with her communications."(In a 2006 brief to the Sixth Circuit in Warshak, the DOJ argued there could be a terms of service exemption:"The Fourth Amendment allows a third party to consent to the search of another's container when the owner expressly authorize{s} the third party to give consent...Any expectation of privacy can be waived, even in a service available to the public.")

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