This colorful scene isn’t a view of a new luxury loft. It’s Rabot Towers, an abandoned public housing project in Ghent, Belgium. When the first stage of demolition removed the building’s exterior walls, the former blight became an unexpected beauty, captured here by photographer Pieter Lozie.
When Belgian prosecutors suggested that Belgacom was the target of foreign espionage, many blamed the NSA — it has a history of snooping on other countries, after all. Those accusations may have been off the mark, however. Der Spiegel has revealed documents leaked by Edward Snowden which hint that the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) was responsible. The intelligence agency reportedly tricked key Belgacom staff into visiting a malware-loaded website that hijacked their PCs. GCHQ could then spy on smartphones, map the network and investigate secure VPN connections. Neither Belgacom nor Belgium has responded to this latest Snowden leak, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the apparent evidence speeds up their investigation.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Internet
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Der Spiegel (translated)
Europeans are already jittery about possible foreign surveillance of their communications; today, those worries have reached a fever pitch. Belgian government investigators now suspect that a recently discovered virus in the internal systems of Belgacom, the country’s telecom giant, was planted as part of state-backed cyber espionage. The malware’s sophistication, scale and strategic focus suggest an attacker with “significant financial and logistic means,” according to prosecutors. Neither side has officially named a culprit. Local newspaper De Standaard isn’t quite so reticent, however — it alleges that the NSA has been spying on Belgacom’s voice traffic for at least two years, and that the discovery was prompted by Edward Snowden’s leaks. Whether or not the NSA is involved, the damage may be limited. Belgacom scrubbed its systems clean this weekend, and it doesn’t believe that the attack compromised customer data.
[Thanks, Joachim / image credit: Diluvienne, Flickr]
Dan Cooper contributed to this report.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet
Via: Reuters
Source: De Standaard (translated), Belgacom
Post-industrial cities have long struggled to find new uses for the (often gargantuan) factory infrastructure that once made their towns boom. Usually, that means a park or a museum. But a few cities—like Genk, Belgium—have tried a more experimental approach, turning these decrepit sites into unusual creative spaces.
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I don’t know about you, but this is a dream come true for me. This vending machine in Belgium cooks and serves fries in 90 seconds flat. I’m moving as soon as I book a flight.
This is the world’s first coin operated vending machine that serves fresh fries. Or frites. Plus, this device cooks up your fries in hot beef fat instead of vegetable oil. Bacon fat would be better, but you can’t win ‘em all.
Just insert your €2.50 (~$3.36 USD) into the machine and in 90 seconds you’ll have hot fries, a fork and they are topped with your choice of mayonnaise or ketchup. At long last! Thank you technology.
[via The Guardian via Foodbeast]
We have seen and heard about some pretty zany vending machines in the past, and one of the most recent coverage involves a bra vending machine over in Japan (how come I am not surprised to hear of its country of origin? After all, Japan has the highest number of vending machines to its population ratio in the world), and this time around the focus would cross seas to Europe – where what you see above is a Belgian fries vending machine that has been specially adapted to use beef fat, and customers would need to fork out €2.50 a portion. Seems all right to us, considering how Belgian has laid claim to being the inventor of fries.
Touted to be Belgium’s first fully automatic fries machine, it is capable of preparing a 135g portion of chips in 90 seconds. Of course, you ought to take note that chips have already been sold in this manner in other countries, the machine here is located outside a supermarket in Brussels, and it has adopted the gold-standard animal dripping, in addition to vegetable oil, which might just be the first salvo fired against Belgium’s street fries vendors. Would you prefer to buy such food from a street vendor or a machine?
Belgian Fries Vending Machine original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Apple revised its warranty policy in Italy last year after being hit with a €900,000 fine for not complying with an EU-mandated two-year term, and it looks like those changes are now starting to spread further throughout Europe. The company has today revised the terms of its warranties in France, Germany and Belgium, specifying that customers are entitled to repairs and replacements of their Apple products for a full two years after purchase, and not just one as previously stated. No word yet on when the rest of the EU will see those changes, but it would now seem to be just a matter of time before other countries get the new terms as well.
Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops, Tablets, Mobile, Apple
Via: Electronista
Source: ZDNet, 9 to 5 Mac
Google has been on something of a tear spreading its Google Play media services around the world; don’t look now, but it’s picking up the pace. The search giant is expanding Google Play Music today to cover Australia, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Portugal. That small deluge of new countries can now shop for their favorite tunes as well as store up to 20,000 of them online for streaming, either on the web or on Android devices. Large swaths of the world remain uncovered by the service — ahem, Canada — but we’ll still welcome a big step toward cloud music for everyone.
[Thanks, Chris]
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Google
Source: Google Play (Google+)
Apple’s warranty plans have drawn the ire of a Belgian consumer watchdog agency, Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats. The group has filed a complaint against the company over how AppleCare is sold and marketed to customers, who in the EU by default are entitled to a free two-year warranty with any consumer electronics purchase. The complaint says Apple markets its warranties in a manner which doesn’t properly explain consumer rights to Belgian gadget shoppers.
The decision to pursue legal action comes only after Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats decided to join up with 10 other Europe-based entities to make complaints about how Apple operates its warranties, but now the group feels it is time to escalate to a court case after efforts to petition the Mac maker have gone unheard. The move also follows successful action in Italy regarding the same exact issue, a case which the Belgian watchdog cites as a precedent, noting that Apple not only had to pay a €900,000 penalty in that case, but also modified its practices for the Italian market.
Why all the fuss? There is lots of money to be made in value-added warranties, that’s why. It’s not clear exactly how much Apple makes via AppleCare, which offers consumers extended protection on their devices above Apple’s basic one-year warranty, for an additional fee. But it is likely a lot; added warranties are much higher profit than gadgets themselves, since many consumers never take advantage of their services at all, more than compensating for the few who do redeem them for expensive repairs or replacements. That’s why Apple isn’t moving to change its practices in the EU for anything short of a court order to do so, and why we may see others beyond the Belgian group pursue the same kind of action.
I’ve read plenty of crazy GPS stories, but this has to be the craziest of them all: a 67-year-old woman drove for 900 miles over the course of two days because of a GPS error combined with her complete lack of attention. Her actual destination was only 90 miles away. More »
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