Hasta La Gadget!

It was yesterday that a Chinese court ruled against Apple, asking them to fork out 1.03 million yuan (when converted, it would equal to $165,000 thereabouts) to a group of writers who put in claims that their work was pirated, and subsequently sold through the App Store. A judge from Beijing’s Second Intermediate People’s Court, after looking through the facts and figures of the case, held Apple liable for the sale of unlicensed works by eight local writers, where these works were then repurposed as apps and distributed via the App Store. The Wall Street Journal reported that the fine will be meted out to the group of writers as well as a couple of companies involved in the case.

This is a far cry from the a revised claim that was filed in February earlier this year, asking for 23 million yuan ($3.65 million), which is nearly twice as much as the original complaint’s 11.9 million yuan ($1.89 million) claim. Well, at least some money is better than no money at all, right? After all, $165,000 for Apple is somewhat akin to loose change.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Bill Gates’s Children Banned From Using Apple Products, MacBook Air And MacBook Pro Rumored For Refresh In June 2013,

If you had asked me that day as I posed for the iPhone, I would have told you that satin is a definite part of my dream wedding dress.
Read More…
More on Wedding Dresses

George R.R. Martin seems to have had a good Christmas.

It’s been a mixed time of year for him over the past few years. In 2010, the Song of Ice and Fire author spent Christmas Day in hospital with an e-coli infection. In 2011, USA Today named him author of the year.

This year, he was named author of the second best fantasy novel of the 20th Century by Locus magazine.

Read More…
More on Christmas

BLU has given its Vivo 4.3 a boost to the Vivo 4.65 HD, an unlocked smartphone with decent specs and a lowish price tag. The handset includes a handful of improvements over the Vivo 4.3, and boasts a 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED display after which the phone gets its name. The phone is slated to begin shipping in January, and is priced at $300.

The Vivo 4.65 HD features a MediaTek MT6577 Cortex A9 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. The rear camera is 8-megapixels and offers HD video recordering. The handset features 3G and HSPA conenctivity, as well as dual SIM support; the handset is unlocked. There’s no Jelly Bean here, unfortunately, with the device running Ice Cream Sandwich.

BLU’s CEO Samuel Ohev Zion offered this statement. “We are thrilled as we continue to add to the successful series of VIVO smartphone devices using Super AMOLED Technology displays, resulting in remarkably bright and vivid color reproduction, with the best viewing experience available on a mobile phone today. BLU is determined to continue to bring the best technology and specs available on mobile devices, with several incredible product launches coming in the first half of 2013.”

The launch will be followed in Latin America and unspecified parts of Asia. According to the press release, the handset will be available at “major US retailers” in January, although no stores have been listed. While the specs don’t make the handset stand out among some of the other contenders that will be arriving in early 2013, it’s a nice price for someone wanting an unlocked phone with a large display.

BLU announces unlocked VIVO 4.65 HD, will start shipping next month is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In McAfee Lab’s latest annual report, it details how it views the security of the Internet throughout 2013. Perhaps surprisingly, the company says to expect a decline in attacks from Anonymous, with a possibility of a few big attacks as it peters out into relative obscurity. In its place will be more centralized, targeted groups with specific causes and goals.

This isn’t to say that we will see Anonymous disappear, according to McAfee, but rather that we will see it decline as cohesive groups bound by specific causes fling attacks against organizations and companies conflicting with them. Examples provided include hacktivists, ecoterrorists, and anti-globalization supports.

Says McAfee Labs: “Sympathizers of Anonymous are suffering. Too many uncoordinated and unclear operations have been detrimental to its reputation. Added to this, the disinformation, false claims, and pure hacking actions will lead to the movement’s being less politically visible than in the past. Because Anonymous’ level of technical sophistication has stagnated and its tactics are better understood by its potential victims, the group’s level of success will decline.”

Other expected issues in 2013 include a combination of smaller malware nuisances and scams, as well as large, destructive malicious malware that launch digital attacks against platforms and infrastructure, with the goal being to create destruction rather than illicitly harvest money. Another problem expected to boom is so-called randsomware, which provides a government emblem and purports that the user must pay a fine because child pornography and other nastiness was detected on their computer, both scaring and scamming people out of hundreds of dollars.

[via ars technica]

Anonymous’ attacks will decline in 2013, says McAfee Labs is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.