Hasta La Gadget!

Welcome to Thursday folks, just one more work day before arriving at the weekend. Today we had next to nothing about the Apple vs. Samsung trial, except for the news that a similar South Korean trial has been frozen for fear of it becoming too similar to the one being held here in the US. The lack of Apple vs. Samsung news leaves room for far more interesting things, however, like space! The Curiosity rover sent back a color panoramic shot of the surface of Mars along with its first full resolution image, and it’s a pretty awesome sight. Sadly, it wasn’t all exciting news for NASA today, as the Morpheus moon lander failed during a flight test and exploded into flames. Luckily no one was hurt, but this is still a pretty big setback for the folks at NASA.

OUYA’s Kickstarter campaign wrapped up early this morning, and if you missed your chance to pledge, you’ll be pleased to know that the Android-based console is available for pre-order starting today. Google was hit with the largest FTC fine in history today over its breach of Apple’s Safari browser, and we tell you why Google’s new Gmail Search feature won’t result in your more private emails being shown to everyone in view of your computer screen. The Google Translate app for Android added image translation functionality today, and the makers of Cyanogenmod 9 have officially released the stable version for the Galaxy Nexus.

Apple Stores will now price match on the iPhone 4 and all models of the iPhone 4S, and a new Microsoft job listing seems to suggest that the next Xbox will be arriving within the next 18 months. The ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TL may be launching with 4G LTE capabilities in Germany and Austria within the month, Samsung has unsurprisingly denied any interest in acquiring RIM once again, and the Sony Xperia tablet suffered yet another leak today. Finally, the international community is considering outlawing cyber-attacks in times of war, the Nikon 1 J2 camera became official (and subsequently became available for pre-order), and HTC may be announcing a Windows Phone 8 device next month, so keep an eye out for more news on that.

As is typically the case, we’ve also got a handful of original articles for you to peruse this evening, with Chris Davies examining the problems with Windows 8 tablets, and providing a warning to those who think that they’re actually purchasing a product when they pledge money to a Kickstarter. Chris Burns has a review of the new Samsung Galaxy Beam, and he also goes hands-on with Google’s official Nexus 7 cover, so be sure to have a look at those. Enjoy the rest of your evening, everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 9, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google will pay a $22.5m fine to the FTC after tracking Safari browser users who had opted out of cookies, the largest fine ever levied by the Commission but still a drop in the internet ocean for the search giant. The settlement, rumored back in July, will also require Google to deactivate any tracking cookies inappropriately placed on users’ computers, and is being described by the FTC as “a clear message” that privacy rules are inescapable.

“The record setting penalty in this matter sends a clear message to all companies under an FTC privacy order,” FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz said of the fine today. “No matter how big or small, all companies must abide by FTC orders against them and keep their privacy promises to consumers, or they will end up paying many times what it would have cost to comply in the first place.”

Google’s mistake had been to circumnavigate blocking systems in Safari to use its own DoubleClick cookie, exploiting a loophole in the browser to store a temporary file. In the process, however, it also allowed through more permanent cookies from the DoubleClick domain, contravening FTC privacy rules.

In a vote by members of the Commission, four voted in favor of the complaint and one against; dissenting Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch wrote that [pdf link] while he agreed that Google had broken rules, he could not accept “this consent decree because it arguably cannot be concluded that the consent decree is in the public interest when it contains a denial of liability.”

That uncertainty wasn’t enough to save Google from the fine, which works out to $16,000 per violation per day. However, Google made $22.5m in the space of less than five hours based on its 2011 full-year financial results.

More important is how this affects FTC and Google relations moving forward. Google had previously committed to a settlement in October 2011, following concerns about deceptive tactics and privacy issues in Buzz,  which along other things said it would no longer misrepresent data collection policies.

Google pays $22.5m in FTC Safari cookie fine is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week it’s been a real all-out brawl very much behind the scenes when it’s come to the FTC cutting down Google for their supposed privacy infractions with the Apple Safari web browser – and today they’ve spoken up. Google has sent out an extremely tiny statement to CNN which essentially has them refusing the idea that they did anything wrong as far as privacy is concerned with Apple’s Safari browser. In addition, CNN has gotten some confirmation of the privacy fine Google faces, though they’re currently unwilling to share their sources on the matter.

The fine you may already have heard of racks up to $22.5 million dollars USD – just a few hours work for Google, in other words. This information, again, comes from a source with knowledge of the settlement speaking with the news source mentioned earlier. This information is crowned by a lovely little blip you’ll see here, as spoken by a Google spokesperson earlier today:

“We cannot comment on any specifics. However we do set the highest standards of privacy and security for our users.” – Google

This bit of information does not do one whole heck of a lot for the credibility of either the FTC or Google’s claims in this case, but it does let us know that Google is, at least on the surface, trying to remain true to their claim to not be evil in the world of public privacy. Have a peek at our timeline below to check out what Google actually may have done to deserve this case and its outcome:

Google refuses wrongdoing vs Safari, privacy fine confirmed is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google has been in hot soup before due to issues of privacy, but its latest run in with the law seems to be pretty severe. A number of months ago, the search engine juggernaut was reportedly circumventing users’ privacy settings in Apple’s Safari web browsers by illegally sneaking cookies onto users’ computers. While these cookies gave users Google’s +1 button to recommend sites, it also allowed cookies from Google’s ad network DoubleClick to sneak in as well.

The fine for Google’s unlawful practices hasn’t been set in stone just yet, but according to the Wall Street Journal it’s likely to be around $22.5 million. Though that might seem like an awful lot of cash for us regular folk – Google reportedly made that amount of cash every five hours or so last year. However, it is also expected to be the largest penalty ever levied on a single company by the US FTC. Read up more about the case at the source link below.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung and Google reportedly planning to release software patch to keep Galaxy Nexus, Man in Japan sues Google over for alleged defamation over the autocomplete function,