Cost of modified game consoles: 10 years in prison

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Ahleen
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If you’ve got the know-how on modifying the Wii, Xbox or Playstation, well, good for you. Just don’t try modifying it so it can play pirated video games.

But if you did – and there’s nothing I can do to stop you – I suggest you better be careful or you’ll end up like this fellow.

Matthew Crippen, a 27-year-old college student from Southern California, is in a very big trouble because of trying to save a few bucks by making his game consoles play pirated video games.

He has been arrested on federal charges but was released Monday night after posting a $5,000 bond according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

According to an article from AP, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents got a tip from the Entertainment Software Association and were able to conduct a search on Crippen’s home in May.

If convicted, Crippen will face a 10-year imprisonment, having been indicted on two counts by a federal grand jury. His arraignment is scheduled on August 10.

So a word of advice? Saving is a good thing, but saving money by buying counterfeit or illegal stuff? Don’t bother. Chances are, karma (or whatever you call it) will come knocking at your door and you’ll be paying a whole lotta money in return, one way or another. J

Source: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090804/ap_on_hi_te/us_socal_video_game_arrest

Google CEO leaves Apple board

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Ahleen
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0

Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO has been on Apple’s board of directors since August 2006. Times have changed however, and competition slowly arose between the two companies as Google develops products that rival Apple’s.

Today, Apple Inc. said that in order to avoid potential conflicts of interest, Schmidt would have to recuse himself from “portions of the company’s board meetings”.

“Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board,” Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, said in a statement.

Google’s products (besides their search engine of course and thier apps) include their Android operating system used in mobile devices that compete with the iPhones.  Another product that would potentially be a competitor to Apple is Google’s free Chrome-based operating system which can rival the Mac systems.

The most controversial and recent issue involving the two companies however is Apple’s rejection of Google Voice and other third-party apps that use it in the App Store. Last Friday, FCC has sent a letter to Apple, Google and AT&T, the iPhone carrier in the U.S., seeking more info about the rejection.

Hmmn, I have a pretty strong feeling that we will be hearing more about this issue in the next couple of days, don’t you think so?

Source: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090803/ap_on_hi_te/us_apple_google_ceo

Patch for critical iPhone bug released

By
Ahleen
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0

An iPhone software patch is now available to fix the critical bug that makes your device susceptible to secret attacks by hackers.

On July 30 in the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, researchers Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner showed the audience how to break into iPhones by sending computer code via the phone’s SMS system. They said that the phone’s users cannot detect that it is receiving the malicious code. They had already warned Apple about it on July 18.

Miller and Mulliner found the flaw while they were looking for vulnerabilities in the SMS communications system. They said they wanted to go public because they wanted to warn iPhone users of the risk, as well as pressure the iPhone maker to fix the flaw.

Users of iPhone can now download the patch onto the computer using iTunes and install it on their devices by connecting it to their computer.

“There’s a real urgency for people to update their iPhones because of this wave of publicity. The race is on between those fixing the vulnerability and attackers seeking to exploit the issue,” Joris Evers, a spokesman for No. 2 security software maker McAfee Inc.  said.

Source: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090731/wr_nm/us_iphone_security

Fake ATM at Defcon discovered

By
Ahleen
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0

If you ever have plans on doing an Ocean’s Eleven kind of thing, and you want to do it with a fake ATM, and you want to succeed, make sure that (a) You don’t plant your fake ATM right beside the security office and you (b) don’t do it at Defcon (for cryin’ out loud!).

But clearly, somebody did plant a cash machine just by the security office at Defcon 17 held at the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas last July 31. And of course, to no one’s surprise, their very brilliant plan failed.

The fake ATM was really made up. It came complete with a functional screen, a card reader to skim data and a PC inside. Lots of people placed their cards in it, got an error message and just moved on to look for a working machine.

So how was it discovered? One of the attendees of the security conference noticed that the glass over the camera was too dark – meaning it would have been impossible for the camera to capture any decent image. And so, the attendee used his flashlight to peer through the glass, expecting to see a camera, or at least the insides of the ATM. But instead, all he saw was a PC which clearly meant something bad.

Police were immediately called to the scene and the fake ATM is now forever gone.

So again, if you don’t want your efforts wasted, don’t copy whoever thought of this scam coz they clearly aren’t the brightest kind. 😉

Source:http://www.semiaccurate.com/2009/08/02/moron-tries-scamming-fake-atm-defcon/

Ruling for Tenenbaum given

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Ahleen
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0

After three hours of deliberations, the jury has made its decision. Convicted pirate Joel Tenenbaum, was ruled to have willfully infringed copyrights and was made to pay a sizeable amount.

The  Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), an organization that represents the major record labels’ intellectual property rights, and the media companies were awarded $675,000 USD. That’s $22,500 for each of the 30 songs he admitted to sharing.

Tenenbaum plead guilty to illegally sharing 30 tracks through Limewire and other P2P clients on July 30 and was given a ruling by Judge Nancy Gertner that he is liable for copyright infringement a day after.

“I’m disappointed, but not surprised, but I’m thankful that it wasn’t much bigger, that it wasn’t millions,” Tenenbaum said, via Arstechnica.

Yep, I guess he should be grateful that his ruling isn’t like that of Jammie Thomas-Rasset where the jury has awarded the RIAA $80,000 for each of the 24 unauthorized tracks shared via P2P.

RIAA also gave a statement regarding the ruling.

“We are grateful for the jury’s service and their recognition of the impact of illegal downloading on the music community. We appreciate that Mr. Tenenbaum finally acknowledged that artists and music companies deserve to be paid for their work. From the beginning that’s what this case has been about. We only wish he had done so sooner rather than lie about his illegal behavior.”

So you guys, if you don’t have at least $22,500 stashed somewhere, better think twice on sharing those tracks… or those unauthorized ones anyway. 😉

Source: http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/18683.cfm

FCC demands answers from Apple

By
Ahleen
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2

For all of you going crazy wondering what mysterious standards and processes does Apple employ in choosing the applications they would allow in their App Store, you can start smiling now.

The company’s way of choosing which apps to approve has been a subject of controversy ever since their app store was launched a year ago and has made consumers and developers alike, very curious.

Just last week, one developer got very disappointed because Apple didn’t even bother to explain why his voice app (VoiceCentral) was pulled out after it was approved and on the App Store shelves for four months.

Well, it seems like the guys from U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are even more curious and has written to Apple, AT&T and Google questioning them about this issue.

So, first off:  the letter to Apple.

In a letter sent last Friday, the agency asked primarily why Google Voice has been rejected. The FCC also wanted to know which related applications have been rejected along with it, and what role did AT&T (if there was) may have played in the decision.

The FCC digs deeper too. Now they also want to find out what other applications have been rejected and for the company to provide major reasons for rejecting applications. Apple also is to describe the approval process, and say what percentage are turned down.

Google Voice, a VoIP service lets users set up one phone number and like their other phone numbers to it. It can also control which phones to ring depending on the time of the day, etc. There are rumors that AT&T may be behind the rejections because they might have been fearing competition.

AT&T also received a letter from FCC. PCWorld reports that the letter to the company also pretty much covers the same ground. An additional question asks whether there are any devices on AT&T’s network that are allowed to Google Voice or other apps that have been rejected by Apple.

The last of trio, Google, received a different letter. FCC asked about any communications with Apple about Google Voice and for Google to name other apps from Google and what these apps are for. Lastly, FCC wanted to find out about Google’s standards for choosing apps for their own Android mobile platform.

Well, it won’t be long now and we will have the answer very soon because the agency has specifically asked the three companies to have their replies by August 21. Keep posted guys!

Source: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20090801/tc_pcworld/fccquestionsappleovergooglevoice

Nissan’s electric car available next year

By
Ahleen
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0

The Nissan Leaf is pure battery electric vehicle priced as a C-segment car. (Credit: Nissan)
The Nissan Leaf is pure battery electric vehicle priced as a C-segment car. (Credit: Nissan)

If you’re one of the green guys and by that I mean, you love mother earth (and not the other type of green 😉 ) this car’s for you.

This weekend photos and details of the Leaf were released by the company to satiate your curiosity. It is pure battery electric vehicle that uses a laminate lithium-ion battery pack with an output of over 90 kilowatts.

With a drive motor putting out 80 kilowatts of power, Nissan’s electric car can rival the performance of a gas-powered car. But in terms of operation costs, you’ll definitely be able to save more both in energy and maintenance when you use this car as there are fewer moving parts.

Aesthetically speaking, the Leaf doesn’t look to bad either. It has four doors and a hatchback and definitely looks very slick. You’ll never say no its cost too because although Nissan hasn’t announced a definite price, the company assures consumers that this will be affordable, pricing it as a C-segment car.

The Leaf uses regenerative breaking and when using a quick charger, it takes about 30 minutes to get the battery pack up to 80 percent. Pretty fast huh? For full recharging using a 200-volt source, it would take 8 hours to recharge.

And the icing on the cake? An onboard computer that is connected to a data center which receives diagnostic info from the car, a list of local recharge station, shows charge level and range, and of course, provides entertainment for passengers.

Pretty cool huh? And best of all, you don’t have to wait that long coz they will start production on 2010. 🙂

Source: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10301570-48.html

British hacker faces extradition

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Ahleen
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0

E.T. phone home?

A British hacker who has an obsession with unidentified flying objects seemed to think sci-fi movies aren’t enough so what did he do? He decided to break into 97 military and NASA computer systems to look for evidence about UFOs.

Gary McKinnon will be tried in America and if convicted, he may be facing a 70-year sentence. He has been appealing in the British judicial system to avoid extradition to these shores. His lawyers had argued that McKinnon should not be extradited because he suffers from Asperger syndrome, and could be at risk for psychosis or suicide if sent to United States, an article from EmaxHealth says.

People with Asperger syndrome have difficulties in social interaction, show restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests.

The 43-year old man doesn’t deny that he had hacked into the computers in 2001 and 2002 but he claims he has no intention whatsoever to compromise US security – he just wanted to find secret info about UFOs.

His hacking efforts which started February of 2001 to March of the following year however, caused significant disturbances such as the hack that knocked seven hundred computers at a New Jersey naval station offline immediately after the 9/11 incident.

McKinnon was first issued a warrant in October 2001 and extradition efforts began in late 2004.

Source: http://www.betanews.com/article/British-hacker-will-be-extradited-to-US-for-trial/1249035677

Funny or Die app soon on iPhone

By
Ahleen
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0

Get ready to laugh your socks off! A mobile app for comedic video site Funny or Die will soon be available for your iPhones.

To those who are unaware of this site, Funny or Die is website founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s production company, Gary Sanchez Productions that features original and user generated comedy video content. It also shows exclusive materials from a number of famous contributors as well as a Funny or Die Team (FOD Team) that creates original mat for the site.

Babelgum, a web content platform, announced yesterday that they have an exclusive deal with Funny or Die to allow videos on mobile apps like the iPhone.  The contract would last for two years.

The license agreement also allows Babaelgum to integrate Funny or Die videos into the comedy channel of Babelgum apps as well as feature a section dedicated to FOD on its online comedy channel, CNet reports.

Alhough Babelgum hasn’t yet revealed when they will submit the software to Apple, be sure to keep a lookout for in the App Store.

Source: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10300059-233.html

U R UNDER ATTCK: Text messages can attack smartphones

By
Ahleen
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0

In the Black Hat security show, researches demonstrated on Thursday how a smartphone can be “forced” to visit a malicious URL or install an app without the owner’s knowledge.

John Hering, chief executive of Flexilis which provides software that protect mobile phones from attact, said that the vulnerability affects phones that were misconfigured by the OEM so that they can accept any messages sent through WAP Push. He further said that users should only accept WAP Push messages from trusted parties such as their mobile phone operators.

He and Kevin Maheffey, Chief Technology Officer at Flexilis, are releasing a free tool – “Fuzzit” – so you guys can test whether your mobile is vulnerable and fix the issue.

Oh, and so far, the vulnerability only seem to span on Windows Mobile devices (including HTC, Motorola an d Samsung). The researchers said they haven’t determined yet whether the iPhone or other devices are also vulnerable.

No need to panic though, Microsoft as well as carriers were already notified and now have their hands full working on fixes. 🙂

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10300536-245.html?tag=mncol;txt

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