Hasta La Gadget!

A Congress committee will today publish the results of an 11-month investigation into ZTE and Huawei and the alleged risks these companies pose to US national security. Somehow, Reuters has already gotten hold of a draft of the report and, judging from the conclusions that have now been made public, it’s anything but diplomatic. The document accuses both Chinese manufacturers of refusing to cooperate with the US’s investigation, of failing to properly explain their ties with the Chinese government, and – at least in the case of Huawei — of being the subject of “credible allegations” of “bribery, corruption, discriminatory behavior and copyright infringement.” Many details seem to have been reserved for a longer, classified version of the report, but the Intelligence Committee’s chairman, Mike Rogers, has already appeared on 60 Minutes to tell Americans to “find another vendor” rather than do business with either company – a stance that could potentially affect their handset sales as well as their telecoms infrastructure operations.

In response, ZTE has complained that it “should not have been the focus of this investigation to the exclusion of the much larger Western vendors” and says it “profoundly disagrees” with the findings. A Huawei spokesman has described the Congress report as a “baseless” attack that will “recklessly threaten American jobs and innovation.” Indeed, it published the same arguments in greater depth three weeks ago, when it was clearly anticipating (and no doubt dreading) today’s headlines.

Filed under: Cellphones

Huawei and ZTE ‘cannot be trusted’ in the US, says Congress report originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Oct 2012 03:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ready the spandex and decide on a name for your alter ego, because come October 16th, you’ll have the chance to fight crime from the comfort of your computer. On that date, the “Connected To The Case” website goes live with the aim of crowd-sourcing tips from its users to help the cops solve active investigations. You’ll use your Facebook login for access, as the service pulls data from your profile to prioritize cases with which you might have a connection. Morgan Wright, CEO and Chief Crime Fighter of Crowd Sourced Investigations, told us its system looks at five key areas when digging for pertinent triggers: “date, location, time, relation and demographics.” It then uses that data to tailor notifications of unsolved crimes based on — for example — proximity to your school, or where you used to work. Rest assured that you control the privacy settings, and if you’ve got useful info to share, you can do so anonymously.

Law enforcement agencies can register to include their cases from today, with the initial roll-out targeting the US. The plan is to expand first to other English-speaking countries, with foreign language support in the future to build a global network of internet do-gooders. Including data from other social networks is also in the pipeline, starting with Twitter and later, Foursquare and Pinterest. A smartphone app is also on the agenda, so get your detective devices ready — we can be heroes, if just for one click.

Continue reading Connected To The Case to use Facebook for crowd-sourced crime solving

Filed under: Internet

Connected To The Case to use Facebook for crowd-sourced crime solving originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve ever been in a situation where you’re not sure whether you should spring for the AppleCare Protection Plan warranty, European officials think that you’re not getting all the facts to make an informed decision. European Union Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding wrote to EU countries to ask them to check whether Apple retail stores are providing buyers with the right to a minimum two-year warranty for Apple products.

Reding says that Apple does a good job advertising that all of the company’s products come with a one-year warranty, but they fail to bring up that consumers are actually entitled to a completely-free two-year warranty under European Union law. “These are unacceptable marketing practices,” says Reding.

Apple has already paid a fine to Italy for similar practices last year. They were required to pay up 900,000 euros ($1.16 million) because they misled consumers by advertising that its products came with a one-year warranty over the two-year warranty that was set by law. Instead, Apple was encouraging sales of its AppleCare warranty extension.

Apple didn’t comment on the situation other than directing people to their EU statutory warranty page, where it states that EU law covers defects in the product starting at the time of delivery, while Apple’s one-year warranty and AppleCare cover defects after the buyer receives the device. Either way, Reding is pushing for a Europe-wide investigation into the matter, and is urging all 27 member states to investigate.

Apple facing investigation in Europe over AppleCare is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s a story that we hoped we’d never have to report. Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on Earth’s Moon, has died at the age of 82 after complications from heart surgery three weeks earlier. His greatest accomplishment very nearly speaks for itself — along with help from fellow NASA astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, he changed the landscape of space exploration through a set of footprints. It’s still important to stress his accomplishments both before and after the historic Apollo 11 flight, though. He was instrumental to the Gemini and X-series test programs in the years before Apollo, and followed his moonshot with roles in teaching aerospace engineering as well as investigating the Apollo 13 and Space Shuttle Challenger incidents. What more can we say? Although he only spent a very small portion of his life beyond Earth’s atmosphere, he’s still widely considered the greatest space hero in the US, if not the world, and inspired a whole generation of astronauts. We’ll miss him.

[Image credit: NASA Apollo Archive]

Filed under: Transportation, Science, Alt

Pioneering astronaut Neil Armstrong dies at 82 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Aug 2012 15:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Recall Fisker’s latest fiery episode last week that left the front left quarter panel of a Karma hybrid EV burnt to a crisp in a Woodside, California parking lot? As promised, the company has completed its investigation with Pacific Rim Investigative Services Group into the scene, reporting that it’s “located the ignition source to the left front of the Karma, forward of the wheel, where the low temperature cooling fan is located.” As such, Fisker has decided to issue a full-on recall of the unit, although it’s currently unclear if this and it affects all Karmas on the road. That said, Fisker is also stressing “that the incident was not caused by the Lithium-ion battery pack, new technology components, engine component packaging or unique exhaust routing of the Fisker Karma” — naturally, the usual suspects for these types of accidents that keep plaguing the fledgling automaker. At least its new CEO Tony Posawatz is extremely qualified to handle the task at hand — after all, a few weeks ago he was Volt-maker, GM’s, Vehicle Line Director. Hit up the press release after the break for details about the investigation and its findings.

Update: When asked about whether the recall affects all Karma models currently on the road, a representative simply (and promptly) replied to us stating, “yes” — well then.

Continue reading Fisker completes investigation of latest Karma hybrid EV fire, issues vehicle-wide cooling fan recall

Filed under: Transportation

Fisker completes investigation of latest Karma hybrid EV fire, issues vehicle-wide cooling fan recall originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Aug 2012 15:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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