As you might have heard, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is working hard to ban those sets of tiny magnets after a handful of reports of them being swallowed by children who then require surgery to have them removed. But it turns out that companies like Zen Magnets and Buckyballs might still be able to sell their products if the magnets are sold individually. More »
Something startling happened over the weekend. It came and went in a flash, but the repercussions could, and should, be lasting. An unexpected and most unusual policy brief from the Republican Study Committee was released. (The RSC is a 165-member congressional policy review group.) Entitled Three Myths About Copyright Law and Where to Start to Fix It, the eight-page document is an astonishing declaration of revisionism, bristling with policy arguments that align with the most excitable rants of P2P advocates over the last 10 years. It is a devastating indictment of American copyright law.
Then, in less than 24 hours, the paper was rescinded. The committee’s Executive Director, Paul S. Teller, offered an obscure apology with no explanation. Of course the thing is easily available, and its message remains a permanent part of the conversational record, deletion be damned.
By arguing that the current iteration of American copyright law is broken in several respects, and by proposing extreme solutions, the rogue document debilitates the talking points of institutional copyright holders and their agencies such as the RIAA. Anyone who has been following the hardened rhetoric over what copyright should be in a copy-share digital world will be startled by the accusatory language and sharply reformist intent of this document.
Filed under: Internet
What began as a bill designed to protect the privacy of your digital life has been mangled at the behest of law enforcement agencies. CNET reports that if the revised Senate bill isn’t stopped before it goes to vote next week, 22 federal agencies will have warrantless access to troves of your private information. Let’s stop them. Updated below More »
RIM may be falling out of favor with certain government departments, but it’s not removing the earpiece or pocketing the shades just yet. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has granted the BlackBerry 10 platform FIPS 140-2 certification, which basically means data security and encryption are top notch throughout. All you need to know is government agencies, and others with confidential info, can brandish BB10 handsets without worry when they launch early next year. Another piece of good news for Obama — we’re pretty sure he’s due for an upgrade about now.
Continue reading That’s an affirmative on BlackBerry 10 security certification, sir
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, RIM
That’s an affirmative on BlackBerry 10 security certification, sir originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Nov 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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If you’re heading to the polls today or already have earlier this morning, it’s important that you take the time to be proud of yourself – but not with your smartphone’s camera. Laws across these United States prohibit photography in some locations and polling locations in some states will straight up confiscate your camera-toting device if you pull it out before or after voting. If you’re unsure of your state’s laws regarding photographic equipment, (including, yes, your iPhone), it’s better to just skip it – or just take a photo of your “I Voted” sticker instead.
An awesome website by the name of Citizen Media Law Project shows a chart with all of the laws regarding “Documenting the Vote” with your state listed plainly. In Minnesota we’ve got essentially no laws expressly forbidding cameras or video recording equipment, but “the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State strongly discourages voters from using cameras or video recorders in the polling place.”
Additionally, “a voter shall not reveal to anyone in the polling place the name of any candidate for whom the voter intends to vote or has voted” is a law on the books here in Minnesota. This could very easily be used against you if you’re photographing your ballot. If you’re thinking about letting everyone know who you’re voting for, please feel free to do so, but don’t do it INSIDE the place where you’re voting.
Interestingly enough, Google is once again encouraging YouTube users to video record their voting experience. Make sure you do so according to your state’s laws regarding recording. Better having voted than having recorded what you’d intended to vote!
Also please feel free to watch the following awesome video that shows the final battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, and let us know if you’re missing your favorite candidate in the video, too! Fiscal Cliff battle – fight!
Do not photograph your voting ballot today – it may be quite illegal is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The U.S. Government will now be looking into solutions for provisioning iOS and Android devices in addition to those featuring RIM’s BlackBerry OS, according to a new report from Reuters. That means RIM will no longer have the exclusive contract for smartphone devices at the U.S. Defense Department, though it will remain another option.
A posting for the Defense Information Systems Agency is looking for companies to submit applications detailing how they can provide software to monitor and enforce strict security measures required for sensitive defense-related operations. The potential size of any arrangement with the Defense Department is huge: it could span 8 million devices all told. But the DOD doesn’t mean RIM is left out in the cold; in fact, BlackBerry’s Mobile Fusion cross-platform, mobile device management solution is among the software solutions that could theoretically meet the needs of the DOD.
RIM said in an interview with Reuters that it will be offering Fusion as a potential solution for consideration. And while other organizations like the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have announced they’ll switch entirely to iPhone, BlackBerry still probably won’t be kicked out of the Pentagon altogether, at least in the immediate future. So while this is a blow, it isn’t a knock-out punch quite yet.
Ultimately, we’ll see how the contract gets awarded sometime in April, according to Reuters. That may give RIM a chance to sway decision-makers with new BlackBerry 10 devices, but it’s also possible Apple or Android could sway the DOD with their large, mature app ecosystems, which is apparently a key criteria for the U.S. government body.
RIM may be banking on the release of BB10 and new devices to rejuvenate the flagging brand, but the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) isn’t waiting around, opting to end their contract after eight years together. ICE stated that RIM “can no longer meet the mobile technology needs of the agency,” and that it intends to purchase over 17,000 iPhones for its personnel at a cost of $2.1 million. Android was also interviewed for the role, but the agency decided that currently, Apple’s closed ecosystem was the best choice, offering “reliable, mobile technology on a secure and manageable platform.” While this isn’t the first group (or likely, the last) to drop the Blackberry, we’re wondering if the remaining million government customers in
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Apple, RIM
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement drop Blackberry for iPhone, employees get early Christmas bonus originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Oct 2012 11:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
It’s not new that Facial Recognition does work: London had built an extensive security apparatus around that in recent years. There is also no question that the technology itself has become very reliable, but what’s new is that it has made its way to consumer products and service at a rate never seen before. Recently, Facebook has added facial recognition to automatically “tag” photos, which created more notifications, which ultimately create more user interaction and page views.
Recent smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 also has the ability to recognize people so that it’s faster to email/send them photos. Android devices can now auto-unlock using facial features (it works with photos too, so it’s not secure). But the point is that facial recognition is quickly becoming a technological commodity, which means that facial data may soon be readily available — which begs the question: how much control do you have over your facial recognition data? That’s why the FTC has stepped in with recommendations about how facial data should be collected, protected and used. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: US Immigration switches from Blackberry to iPhone, FTC shuts down telemarketing scammers posing as tech support ,
It has been reported by Reuters that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is switching from Blackberry to iPhone as the “standard-issue” handset for its employees. So far, about 17600 employees are scheduled to get an iPhone, a contract estimated at $2.1M according to the report (that’s a bizarre $119 per phone. Group discount maybe?).
RIM “can no longer meet the mobile technology needs of the agency”, says the federal agency. “The iPhone services will allow these individuals to leverage reliable, mobile technology on a secure and manageable platform in furtherance of the agency’s mission,” it adds.
RIM says that it still has 1M government customers in north America, but this switch demonstrates how urgent it is for RIM to come up with a new platform. Blackberry 10 (BB10) is not scheduled to hit the market before early 2013, and even after it arrives, this will be a difficult road for RIM.
We wonder if the US Immigration has evaluated Android, and if yes, what their conclusion was on that operating system. What do you think of this move? Are you surprised?
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: FTC Weighs on Facial Recognition Data and Services, Google profits leaked, miss lofty expectations, stock tanks 10%,
If you thought the BlackBerry platform was coming back simply due to their powerful contracts held with the US government, today’s announcement of the ICE drop might throw you for a loop – especially since they’re moving to the iPhone instead. This update comes from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who says BlackBerry “can no longer meet the mobile technology needs of the agency.” This government agency speaks for groups such as Homeland Security Investigations and has been using RIM‘s BlackBerry phones for 8 years.
The folks at ICE have let it be known that they’ve been analyzing both iOS for the iPhone and Google’s Android smartphone platforms and have come to the conclusion that Apple’s choices ring true for them. This is because, as they say, Apple’s tight controls of the hardware platform and the operating system on the iPhone work best with the government group’s own requirements for security. The agency made it clear that this change will be made soon and will span several organizations.
“[The iPhone will be used by a] variety of agency personnel, including, but not limited to, Homeland Security Investigations, Enforcement and Removal Operations, and Office of the Principal Legal Advisor employees.
The iPhone services will allow these individuals to leverage reliable, mobile technology on a secure and manageable platform in furtherance of the agency’s mission.” – US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
This will certainly not be a welcome bit of news coming up on the feeds of the Canadian company’s own BlackBerry 10 devices. With the BlackBerry 10 mobile operating system coming out early 2013, RIM will be making great strides to keep the groups they’ve already got attached to their company for BlackBerry’s business-oriented security features. Apple’s iPhone appears to have finally started chipping away significant bits of IT business here after the launch of the iPhone 5.
Have a peek at the timeline below to see how BlackBerry 10 has been evolving to get a better view of how RIM will handle the near future of the platform. Let us know if you plan on continuing to use BlackBerry through the future – or if you plan on adopting a BlackBerry 10 phone next year. ICE will not be joining that party, needless to say – but perhaps sometime in the future.
[via Rueters]
US Immigrations and Customs dump BlackBerry in favor of the iPhone is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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