Channel

Rooting Android phone bypasses Google Wallet security; just one of many remaining flaws

KevinFogarty — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:57:18 +0000

Google was quick to correct a flaw in Google Wallet that would let strangers delete your login, type in their own and take over accounts Wallet was supposed to guard. Data stores are still insecure, rooting the phone bypasses all Wallet security.

Throttled iPhones help AT&T show how hard it is to drive smartphone customers away

KevinFogarty — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:38:22 +0000

Customers weren't thrilled when unlimited iPhone data plans ended, but none complained too much. Verizon got more expensive, but transparently. AT&T went with manipulation and cloaked accusations of data hoggery to push customers to tiered plans, or toward Verizon.

MegaUpload takedown didn't slow pirate downloads, just moved them offshore

KevinFogarty — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:16:10 +0000

Between 30 percent and 40 percent of all file-sharing traffic went through MegaUploads until it was shut down. Since then the number of files being downloaded has remained steady, but from different sites, many of which use data centers in the EU or Asia rather than the U.S.

Symantec may have tried to bribe hackers, but definitely betrayed its own customers

KevinFogarty — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:02:22 +0000

Anonymous is laughing it up at Symantec's reputed attempt to bribe hackers to not release source code. Symantec calls it extortion. That question is trivial compared to the reality that Symnantec broke trust with its customers and left them at risk for six years following the hack.

Can Netflix survive as an independent, or will Verizon sink it like Napster?

KevinFogarty — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:23:22 +0000

Netflix faces tough competition for its cloud-based TV- and movie-content-streaming service: carriers who not only have deeper pockets to pay for content, but own the wires and customer Internet accounts, too. Can Netflix survive? Or is it this decade's Napster?

Cisco: Playing fair with streamed 'net content will crush EU hopes for decent broadband

KevinFogarty — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:55:20 +0000

A Cisco executive speaking at the company's European user conference this week, criticized net neutrality provisions in the EU's new privacy regulations. Big companies won't be able to afford the investment in good broadband if they're forced to give customers what they paid for. Duh.

Bad news about cloud computing: it doesn't exist; Good news: New tech makes it easier

KevinFogarty — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:54:24 +0000

Would you rather buy expensive technology that gets a lot of buzz or one that gets less buzz but is the technology that makes the sexier approach possible?

Online marketplace offers low, low, low prices on stolen Web traffic

KevinFogarty — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:07:07 +0000

If you're into malware or selling dodgy schemes through deceptive advertising, the new site offering to sell traffic stolen from other sites might be a good source of business. But, if you're legit, it's a good way to contact people guaranteed to already be mad at you.

Massive SOPA/PIPA protest shift momentum in Senate, but not enough

KevinFogarty — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:08:17 +0000

The massive protest and letter-writing campaign organized by Reddit, Google, Wikipedia and a host of civil rights and Internet-openness advocates changed at least 13 senators' votes from 'yes' to 'no' on Internet-censoring PIPA, but majority is still 'yes' or 'undecided.'

Biggest sites extend SOPA protest to try to stop Senate's Internet-censoring PIPA

KevinFogarty — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Some of the web's largest sites plan dramatic displays to mark their opposition not to the just-shelved House SOPA bill, but to the still-viable, still dangerous Senate effort at Internet censorship, the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA)

New options to waterproof your smartphone?

KevinFogarty — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:03:32 +0000

There were two companies at the Consumer Electronics Show pitching carriers and phone makers on essentially the same product: a plastic-ish coating applied as a vapor to coat ever surface, inside and out. One, Liquipel, will do it for consumers who send in their phones.

12 effective habits of indispensible IT pros

IDGNS staff — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:08:44 +0000

Ditch the slackers, take on dirty work, do it with data -- here's how to get the inside track on a highly rewarding career in IT

Death of SOPA may be only big victory for individual rights online in 2012

KevinFogarty — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:38:31 +0000

SOPA's assumption of guilt provisions were outrageously unconstitutional, but didn't emerge from a vacuum. In 2012 it seems as if cops, marketers, social networkers, service providers or anyone else with a use for private data claims the right to take it, or just the ability.

Overhyped trivia overwhelmed the few real innovations at Consumer Electronics Show

KevinFogarty — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:12:06 +0000

The Consumer Electronics Show always generates a blizzard of hype, endlessly repetitive announcements of world-changing new products and a few real gems. This year's hype/news ratio is worse than usual, but it's not always obvious why, or what real innovations got buried.

Best mobile data platform: New CES gadget? Or penknife you started carrying as a kid?

KevinFogarty — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:59:40 +0000

I used to think adding LEDs, lasers, USB flash drives and other digitized add-ons was gratuitous and anomalousuntil I realized how many people carry one without thinking about it and that having data with you without having to remember is the key to real mobile computing.