Telepathy isn’t real. You can’t read minds with nothing but the tools you were born with. But add a little bit of wiring and that starts to change. Scientists have now managed to get two lab rats to think in-sync with just a little augmentation. More »
Google Play Books has been on a slow world tour that hasn’t given Asia much love. Google is addressing that regional deficit in grand fashion today by launching its digital bookshop in India. The collection includes the expected blend of local and international titles, although the Books expansion is almost more important as a milestone for Google’s overall content strategy in the country — it’s the first instance of anything besides Android apps reaching India’s Google Play Store. In an appropriate (if not necessarily intentional) pairing with the launch, Google has also pushed out a worldwide update to the Books app for Android that lets readers filter books by type and identifies place names on the existing page. The news will still be happiest for those eager to read in Rajkot, but there’s a little for seemingly everyone at the source link.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Google
Source: Google Play
China is routinely accused of launching concerted hacking campaigns against the US, many of them reportedly tied directly to the army’s Unit 61398 in Shanghai. If you believe the Ministry of Defense’s spokesman Geng Yansheng, however, just the opposite is true. Along with claiming that China would never hurt (or rather, hack) a fly, he asserts that the Ministry and China Military Online sites faced an average of 144,000 hacking attempts per month from foreign sources in 2012, 62.9 percent of which allegedly came from the US. The Ministry’s man stops short of leveling cyberwarfare charges, although he notes the US’ recent plans to expand and formally define its cyberwar strategy. There’s some ‘splainin to do, he argues. While there isn’t a formal US response, we suspect that neither side is an innocent dove here — China is just the most recent to cry foul.
Filed under: Internet
Via: Reuters
Apple’s iCloud portfolio of various streaming and syncing services has existed for two years. And in those two years, Apple still hasn’t been able to keep it from regularly fucking up. It happened again today! More »
Whether it was inspired by the recent Instagram craze or not, Vimeo’s new “Looks” have a pretty good chance of being welcomed with open arms (and eyes) by the video creators on its well-known platform. In partnership with Vivoom, the company announced today that it’s bringing over 500 visual effects to the service as part of its Enhancer toolbox, giving folks the ability to easily add some flavor to their own video productions straight from a web browser. Furthermore, Vimeo’s made it possible to preview these filters in real-time, as well as letting them be somewhat customizable by implementing various editing options, such as trimming and adjusting the intensity of each one. Vimeo also says the novel feature will be able to make recommendations based on “technical analysis of the user’s video and social data,” — in other words, the more you use it, the more likely it is to learn your very own visual preferences.
Thanks to Vivoom’s 16-year experience in the video effects field, Vimeo tells us it only expects the current Looks selection to grow and deliver more of the “highest quality effects,” adding that the main goal is for each and every user to “find what’s best for their personal needs.” Speaking of which, all Vimeo account holders can play with the new Looks at no cost for the next 90 days, although the company wasn’t quite clear as to what we can expect after that period comes to an end.
Update: Vimeo has reached out to let us know that following the 90-day trial, the Looks will cost 99 cents each.
Filed under: Internet, Software
Source: Vimeo
The Chinese government has accused the US of a torrent of hacking attempts, blaming hackers in the United States for nearly two-thirds of all cyber-terrorism made against the country. The Chinese Department of Defense and the Chinese military have together faced 144,000 hack attempts per month on average, the country’s Ministry of Defense said today, with spokesperson Geng Yansheng citing US IP addresses as the telltale giveaway for who was responsible.
Responding to a question about the supposed 61,000-plus strong cyber-terrorism squad China had reportedly gathered together to conduct internet espionage against the US, Canada, UK, France, and other countries, as well as extract trade secrets, Geng argued that China itself was just as much a victim. He claimed that over 1.7m attempts to crack Chinese government sites were observed in 2012 alone, and that attacks from the US accounted for 62.9-percent of the incidents.
Ironically, given the Chinese ministry’s apparent reliance today on IP addresses to blame US-based hackers, it’s only little more than a week since it dismissed suggestions that such identifiers were foolproof evidence. Back on February 20, a Chinese spokesperson blamed spoofed IP addresses for the country being falsely accused of making its own hack attempts.
According to Geng, the US’ pre-emptive plans for cyber-warfare – part of the response to various incidents around newspapers, American companies, and other organizations – “are not conducive to the joint efforts of the international community to enhance network security.” The Chinese government supposedly hopes that the US be “made to explain and clarify” its aggressive stance, the spokesman continued.
China has been named as the number one risk for cyber-attacks worldwide by various reports and investigations, with suggestions that both the Chinese military and local companies have been targeting foreign networks in an attempt to extract industrial secrets, among other things. In January 2012, the US government bolstered its Cyber Command division with new teams to go on the offensive when needed in the face of online warfare, as well as to defend essential and corporate systems within the country.
[via ZDNet]
China accuses US of systematic hacking is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Mobile internet access? Yeah, that’s pretty popular in China, but according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, household access is on the rise, too. The country says it will be expanding FTTH connections by 35 million households in 2013, putting 4M broadband connections (or faster) in over 70 percent of Chinese households. The announcement is part of China’s 2013 broadband initiative, which aims to expand connectivity across the nation, including rural areas and schools. By the end of the year, China can expect to have 180,000 new 3G base stations and 1.3 million new WiFi hotspots. Check out the MIIT’s full (and machine translated) announcement at the adjacent source link.
Filed under: Internet
Via: TechCrunch
Source: MIIT
This week, tourists (and at least one reporter) visiting North Korea began accessing the web directly from their smartphones, through the country’s Koryolink 3G network. Associated Press journalist Jean H. Lee has been tweeting from Pyongyang since Monday, though she didn’t get around to detailing the service until yesterday. Her tweet, “Hello world from comms center in #Pyongyang,” is believed to be the first to come through the new wireless data service, which can be activated for the princely sum of €75 (about $100). From there, data rates range from €150 for 2GB to €400 for 10 gigs, according to a DailyNK report. (Those tariffs should come as no surprise to DPRK visitors, who often shell out thousands for week-long tours that include meager accommodations and constant monitoring.)
The Koryolink network, which was built in cooperation with Egypt’s Orascom Telecom, marks a radical shift in policy for North Korea, which also recently began to allow tourists to enter the country with their own cellphones — previously, visitors were required to hand over the devices upon landing in Pyongyang. With the exception of approved users (certain government officials, we presume), North Korean residents remain offline, however. For those authorized, access may be pricey, but considering that connectivity can provide peace of mind to travelers and their families at home, a data-enabled SIM seems a worthwhile acquisition for anyone visiting one of 3G’s famous final frontiers.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Internet, Mobile
Source: AP, DailyNK, Jean H. Lee (Instagram)
ISPs in the US are just getting around to enforcing a “six strikes” policy against illegal P2P sharing, but France is now contemplating a crackdown on the streaming and direct downloads of pirated content. Hadopi, the government organization behind the country’s existing “three strikes” law, released a new report that proposes websites take a page from YouTube’s book and actively monitor content by using recognition algorithms and the like to take down things that are presumed illegal. If a site weren’t to cooperate after a round of warnings, it might face penalties including DNS and IP blocking, domain name seizures and even financial repercussions that involve having their accounts with “payment intermediaries” (think PayPal) suspended. As for enforcement of this potential government mandate, the dossier posits that it could lean on internet service providers instead of hosting services, which according to EU law, can’t be forced to conduct widespread surveillance. For now, these suggestions aren’t being made policy, but Hadopi is mulling them over.
[Image credit: keith.bellvay, Flickr]
Filed under: Internet
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Hadopi (1, translated), (2, PDF)
Wikipedia has long been pushing for access to its communal knowledge among those who can’t afford the latest technology, going so far as to strike deals with carriers to deliver free mobile web viewing. It’s set to expand that reach to those for whom any advanced cellphone is out of the question. In part through the help of a Knight News Challenge grant and South Africa’s Praekelt Foundation, the non-profit’s Wikipedia Zero effort will offer its content through SMS and USSD messages in the next few months. Curious users will just have to send a text message to get an article in response, with no web required at all. It’s a big step forward for democratizing online information for those who may not even have access to a smartphone, although we’re curious as to how it will handle large articles; we can only imagine the volume of messages when trying to look up the known universe.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile
Via: The Verge
Source: Knight Foundation, MediaWiki
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