Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook could splash up to $1bn on social mapping app specialist Waze, new leaks suggest, potentially ramping up the social site’s mobile functionality. The imminent deal, tipped in Calcalist, Ynet, and The Market, comes after a claimed six months of negotiations between the firms, and would echo Facebook’s billion-dollar Instagram acquisition by falling somewhere in the $800m-$1bn range, sources claim.

According to TechCrunch, the current hold up to closing the deal is where Waze will subsequently be based. Currently, the firm is predominantly located in Israel, though there have apparently been suggestions that it could move to the US, as per previous Facebook acquisitions of Israeli companies.

Waze was the subject of Apple acquisition rumors earlier this year, though if the reported Facebook timescales are true, that speculation was flourishing while Zuckerberg & Co. were already at the negotiating table. No Apple buy-out eventually occurred, though Waze functionality did end up baked into Apple Maps, the Cupertino firm’s homegrown alternative to Google Maps.

Neither Facebook nor Waze will comment on the deal rumors, though the two would make for a reasonable pairing. Waze offers turn-by-turn navigation on smartphones, using crowdsourced traffic and hold-up information to guide users around blocks and delays. Meanwhile, maps are updated by the community, and users share information like gas prices.

Waze already integrates with Facebook to help people find nearby friends, and given Facebook’s recent push – including Facebook Home – into making the most of its growing mobile audience, cementing that by baking Waze into its platform seems a realistic strategy. The social mapping service currently has more than 47m active users, it claims, more than doubling its userbase in less than a year.

Facebook buying Waze in $1bn social map deal tip insiders is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’ve already seen Sony take a stab at a Windows 8 hybrid in the form of the VAIO Duo 11, and now a clip has appeared on YouTube apparently showing an unannounced 13-inch Ultrabook slider with a 1080p Triluminos touchscreen display. Allegedly, the video is being used for training at UK retail chain Dixons, and in addition to repeatedly collapsing and opening the slim white and silver unit, the demonstrator plays around with a stylus in Microsoft’s Fresh Paint. There are a couple of text overlays near the end of clip, highlighting the “SurfSlider design,” backlit keyboard, ClearAudio+ and ActiveSleep tech, as well as its 10 hours of battery life. NFC is also said to be on board, along with an 8-megapixel camera with Exmor RS sensor, Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD. The incredibly grainy video is embedded after the break, and although we can’t verify its authenticity, we also can’t ally it to any known product.

Update: There’s also a handful of press images — we’ve included one after the break too.

[Thanks, Aiga and Christopher]

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Sony

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Source: YouTube, Notebook Review forums

The US Department of Justice and FBI can read your email, Facebook and Twitter messages, and other electronic content without needing a warrant first, government documentation reveals, in what’s being seen as another slap at due process and privacy. Internal guidelines from US Attorney offices in multiple locations and acquired by the American Civil Liberties Union apparently suggest that investigators need not go through regular legal channels to arrange search warrants to dig in American’s electronic communications. Instead, CNET reports, agencies are seemingly taking the easiest route they can to access email and messaging records, bypassing approval from a judge.

In one case, in Houston, the US Attorney’s office apparently acquired “contents of stored communications” from an ISP, identity unspecified, without a warrant. The US Attorney’s office in Manhattan issued guidelines to staff that it could achieve the same results with a subpoena rather than a full warrant.

It’s not the first time this year that investigative methods followed by US governments have come in for criticism. Back in March, a California court criticized the FBI for violating First Amendment rights by using so-called “National Security Letters”; by citing national security considerations, the FBI could bypass getting warrants in the traditional manner, and the subject of investigations would not be informed that their data had been shared.

Here, it’s the Fourth Amendment which privacy advocates like the ACLU argue the DOJ and FBI are trampling over. Digital information held by cloud services like Gmail, Dropbox, Facebook, or Twitter should be just as protected as a hard-drive physically located in a suspect’s home, they claim.

One confusing factor is that in many cases email and non-email digital content is treated differently. A 2010 ruling by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, US v. Warshak, left many of the big names in webmail – Gmail and Outlook among them – insisting full warrants for access to emails they store. However, while the Justice Department appears content to comply with that, it has proved less concerned with following full warrant procedures with files such as those stored in Dropbox or Google Drive, or direct messages and IM chat on Twitter and Facebook.

“We really can’t have this patchwork system anymore,” ACLU staff attorney Nathan Wessler concludes, “where agencies get to decide on an ad hoc basis how privacy-protective they’re going to be.” However, moves to pin down the exact legal expectations of the DoJ and FBI have met with opposition, and other proposals to heavily fine companies like Google who do not comply with wiretap orders are also underway.

DOJ docs reveal Facebook and email digging without a warrant is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Facebook will add video adverts to its newsfeed in July, sources claim, with the short clips automatically playing, albeit without audio, when social networkers check the site. Each video will last for no more than fifteen seconds, and users will have the option to choose whether or not they hear the accompanying audio, the FT‘s [reg required] insiders familiar with the promo plans claim, with potential early adopters including Coca Cola, Ford, and American Express.

The first of the adverts inserted into the news stream will automatically begin playback without the user having to click the play button, it’s said. However, if they choose to click to turn on audio, the clip will restart from the beginning.

Facebook will supposedly feature trial commercials from members of its advisory client council board, which also includes Unilver, Nestlé, and Diago. The social site established the group in mid-2011, with around twelve sitting members with which it experiments with potential monetization strategies.

In addition to defaulting to a volume-free experience, Facebook will also test the waters with a limited portfolio of ads. At least initially, the site will only show commercial video content from one advertiser in any one day; it will be charging brands “low $20s” per thousand views, whether or not audio was started, the insiders claim.

Although users may well be turned off by the new advertising content, the potential for strong returns may well prove too great for Facebook to resist. The company could see a $1.5m uptick in revenues each day when the system is rolled out, based on initial inventory, it’s said, on top of the existing income from standard image-based adverts.

[via The Inquirer]

Facebook video adverts tipped to autoplay in July is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

LG is mulling a return to the tablet market, Korean sources claim, with a new model tipped for release sometime in the second half of 2013, and potentially as early as Q3. Details of the speculated slate are in short supply, and according to Munhwa it’s uncertain whether LG will opt for Windows or Android to power its renewed attempt on the big-screen mobility ecosystem.

LG’s tablet ambitions were scuppered in 2012, when the company confirmed it would sideline its slate plans so as to focus instead on smartphones. Its Optimus Pad failed to gain traction, and fellow Android device OEMs pushed prices low to undercut Apple’s iPad.

Since then, however, we’ve seen Windows 8/RT arrive, as well as some success among Android devices, fueled in no small part by the low-cost Nexus 7 ASUS manufactures for Google. Meanwhile, we’ve also seen some movement in the high-end Android tablet world, with high-res options like Samsung’s Nexus 10 out-performing the iPad’s Retina Display in terms of pixel density.

That might pave the way for LG to use some of its display arm’s homegrown screen talents. Back at CES, LG Display showed off a 7-inch, 324ppi 1920 x 1200 tablet panel, among others, which seems ideally suited for a small tablet rival to the much-speculated iPad mini with Retina Display.

Of course, there’s not only Android to consider. LG could also opt for Windows 8 or Windows RT, joining a relatively limited market of tablets running Microsoft’s platform. Whether the potential rewards for taking on Microsoft’s own Surface are considered rich enough for LG remains to be seen, however.

[via TechEye]

LG tablet redux in 2013 tip sources is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.