Former Apple manager going to prison for selling secrets

In this Sept. 5, 2014 file photo, the Apple logo hangs in the glass box entrance to the company's Fifth Avenue store, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

While working as an Apple executive, Paul Devine owned a Porsche Cayenne and held $950,000 across several bank accounts. Only problem: He was getting kickbacks by illegally handing out secrets to Apple suppliers that helped them negotiate better deals with Apple, 9to5Mac and Mac Observer report.
Devine, a former Apple global supply manager, was sentenced last week to a year in prison and fined $4.5 million—a far cry from the 20 years he initially faced and the mere $1 million Apple said it hoped to recover when Devine was arrested in 2010.

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Perhaps the bribes he received were higher than initially thought, and he's helped authorities convict others in his scheme, 9to5Mac suggests. Indeed, two former directors of Jin Li Mould Manufacturing company were charged last year with bribing Devine; one was charged on 14 counts of giving Devine $387,600 in the US, Macau, Singapore, and China between 2006 and 2009, the Straits Times reports.
Ars Technica reports an interesting detail: Devine also sold secrets to would-be suppliers for whom an Apple contract "can be a make-or-break moment." Apple uncovered Devine's scheme by looking in the cached email of his company-issued laptop, Mac Observer notes.
Soon after, authorities found big bucks in several of Devine's offshore accounts and in cash-stuffed shoeboxes at his home. (More tech-world drama: Portland is suing to give Uber the boot.)

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Web inventor says affordable, protected access to Internet should be 'basic human right'

 
Tim Berners-Lee attends a news conference in London Dec. 11, 2014. (REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth)

The computer scientist credited with inventing the World Wide Web says affordable access to the Internet should be recognized as a human right, as a report showed that billions of people still cannot go online and government surveillance and censorship are increasing.
Tim Berners-Lee said Thursday the Internet can help tackle inequality — but only if it comes with the rights to privacy and freedom of expression. The Briton, who launched the Web in 1990, made the remarks as he released his World Wide Web Foundation's latest report tracking the Internet's global impact.

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The Web Index found that laws preventing mass online surveillance are weak or nonexistent in more than 84 percent of countries. It also said that almost 40 percent of surveyed countries were blocking sensitive online content to a "moderate or extreme degree," and that half of all Web users live in countries that severely restrict their rights online.
Almost 4.4 billion people — most of them in developing countries — still have no access to the Internet, the Web Index said.
"It's time to recognize the Internet as a basic human right," Berners-Lee said. "That means guaranteeing affordable access for all, ensuring Internet packets are delivered without commercial or political discrimination, and protecting the privacy and freedom of Web users regardless of where they live."
Denmark, Finland, and Norway were ranked as top overall, meaning they were best at using the Internet for economic, political and social progress. At the bottom of a list of 86 countries were Yemen, Myanmar and Ethiopia.
Berners-Lee was working an engineer at the CERN laboratory in Geneva when he proposed the idea of a World Wide Web in 1989.

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US commercial drone market set to explode

The Federal Aviation Administration‘s decision to allow four companies to fly commercial drones has the private sector buzzing over the possibility of expanded commercial drone flights in the near future.
One of the companies, Clayco, is planning to use California-based drone startup Skycatch to fly multi-rotor drones to survey its construction sites.

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Skycatch’s Head of Policy Gabriel Dobbs told FoxNews.com “this is a fantastic sign for all the players in the commercial UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] industry.”  Dobbs is in charge of working with federal agencies in the U.S. and abroad to craft policy for the next generation of UAVs.

"We’re going to see this commercial market explode in the United States within the next year."- Gabriel Dobbs

Dobbs’ company has been working with the FAA for nearly two years to get approval. Before this announcement, he saw a “huge bottleneck in the official use of drones in the U.S. because of the FAA's current ban on commercial drones and pending regulations.”
He added, “in spite of the regulatory obstacles, the future of drones is clearly bright … this new technology is simply too great for regulators to contain.”
While Skycatch provides the drones, its clients will operate the devices. “We go on site, we help with the training, but we’re going to see this commercial market explode in the United States within the next year,” he said.
To gain this exemption, Skycatch drones must fly no higher than 100 feet. “The exemption is nationwide which gives us flexibility to work on construction and other industrial sites around the country … but you do work with local air traffic control if you are close to an airport … the FAA will always be informed of our operations,” Dobbs said.
Companies like Amazon are looking to develop home delivery drones.
Dobbs, however, doesn't expect to see the home delivery drones anytime soon. "That's more of a PR gimmick these days, it will take some time before that's viable … but down the road, if the technology evolves and the regulations are right, we could see this become a viable use.

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Ford ditches Microsoft for its in-car software

Sync 3's apps screen. (Ford)

As automobiles become more like traveling computers than merely vehicles for commuters, Ford is switching gears. On Thursday the auto giant announced that it is dumping one of the world's biggest software players, Microsoft, aiming its next in-dash systems at consumers more addicted to smartphones than PCs.
An early champion of connected cars, Ford introduced its first Sync system back in 2007, partnering with Microsoft. Since then, Sync has been rolled out in various iterations in roughly 10 million cars worldwide, according to the company. Some of those systems have been simple, text-based displays that relied solely on a driver's connected smartphone to get directions and information. As the company's systems advanced, however, larger touch screens, more buttons, more voice controls, and more apps were added -leading to more features that consumers wanted but that they also found added layers of complexity.

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Now Ford is hitting the reset button for latest version, Sync 3, working with QNX, a Canadian software firm with deep roots in the automotive business and, coincidentally, owned by Blackberry, the company that originally spawned the smartphone revolution.
"The biggest thing is that we are continuing to build on the legacy we've established with Sync, giving consumers interactivity with their devices, safely," said Don Butler, Ford's executive director, connected vehicle and services, in an interview ahead of Thursday’s announcement.
In our discussion, Butler laid out some of the most significant changes Ford has been working on - from built-in navigation to brighter screens. Addressing some of the complaints from current owners, the company said the new version would be quicker to respond and offer improved voice recognition that will understand more natural language instructions: no more having to memorize specific commands. It will also feature bigger icons on its touch screen; an 8-inch display will be part of the full package.
Ford already boasts one of the most extensive list of in-car apps, including  Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, NPR One, SiriusXM Radio and iHeartRadio. Ford hopes the new system will make it even easier for iPhone and Android smart phone owners  to launch compatible programs in the car - and keep their hands off of their phones.
While Sync 3 will not include a built-in cellular connection as standard (luxury modeked in the driver's garage. You'll no longer have to download software to a USB drive or make a trip to the dealer just to update the infotainment features.
Ford was reticent about which car model will be the first to include Sync 3 next year, but the company did say it would finish rolling out Sync 3 across its entire lineup - from compacts to pickups - in the U.S by the end of 2016. That's an ambitious and momentous technology change for one of the biggest car makers in the world.
Moreover, Butler said Ford is committed to remaining agnostic and keeping its systems upgradable. Translation: The company is working with Apple on its CarPlay app, as well as with Google's Android Auto. So the new system should be compatible with those programs in the future.
So will the Ford deal resuscitate Blackberry? QNX already has embedded software in millions of vehicles, but this is a major win for the firm. (QNX has also helped with positively reviewed connected car systems like Uconnect in Chrysler and Dodge vehicles). But the days when "Crackberry" was a common colloquialism are long gone. Even Ford with its new QNX-based Sync 3 system will not (initially at least) support Blackberry apps in the dash. On the other hand, it won't be supporting Windows Phone apps either.

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Instagram now bigger than Twitter

Instagram just keeps on growing, on Wednesday announcing its monthly user base has soared past the 300 million mark.
That means the photo- and video-sharing service has added a whopping 100 million users in the last nine months alone, and is now bigger than Twitter, which at the last count a couple of months back had some 284 million users.

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Launched as an iPhone app four years ago, the service proved popular pretty much right away, hitting a million users in just a couple of months. In a year it had 10 million, and when the app landed on Android in April 2012, the buzz was loud enough for Facebook to drop a billion bucks for it.
Announcing the 300-million milestone on the Instagram blog, CEO Kevin Systrom wrote, “Over the past four years, what began as two friends with a dream has grown into a global community that shares more than 70 million photos and videos each day.”
The growth is great news not only for Systrom but for Mark Zuckerberg too, for it was very much the Facebook CEO’s idea to acquire the startup two years ago – a move that some speculated would actually ruin the app.
Zuckerberg’s push into mobile in recent years is certainly paying off, with growing ad revenue being delivered via Facebook Messenger (500m users), WhatsApp (600m), Instagram (300m), and Facebook itself, which has a colossal 1.35 billion users across all platforms.
Moving forward, Systrom says his service is set to introduce a number of new features in the coming days, including verified badges for celebrities, athletes and brands (sound familiar, Twitter users?).
The CEO said his team is also set to start deleting the spam accounts that it’s been deactivating throughout this year, which could affect some users’ follower counts.
“Most of you won’t see any impact,” Systrom wrote in his post. “If you’re one of those who will see a correction, you will receive a notification in the app directing you to additional information.”

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Taiwanese Navy showcases new ‘killer’ stealth warship

Taiwan’s Navy has released a video showcasing its first self-developed stealth missile corvette, the Tuo Jiang.
The highly-maneuverable 500-ton warship underwent sea trials last month, according to the South China Morning Post, reaching speeds of more than 38 knots.

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"The corvette will play the role of 'killer' to attack the enemy's vessel, as it can sail fast and get close to its target without being easily detected by radar," said Taiwan’s Central News Agency. The video, which was released on Wednesday, compares the corvette to American combat ship the USS Independence, according to the South China Morning Post.
Taiwanese media said that the new ship is part of an $800 million program to build between seven and 11 corvettes to protect against China’s aircraft carriers.
The Tuo Jiang is 198 feet long and 46 feet wide, with a range of 2,000 nautical miles. With a crew of 41, the ship will be equipped with Taiwanese Hsiung Feng II and Hsiung Feng III missiles.
Taiwan has been showing off its military hardware recently, according to the report, which highlighted the country’s large-scale military drill in September. The island is also developing its own ground-to-air missiles.

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Bitcoin now accepted on Xbox and Window

Xbox and Windows users can now add money to their accounts with Bitcoin, the mysterious cryptocurrency that has made waves in the last few years for presenting the first, arguably viable, decentralized currency to compete with government-backed systems. The option to buy Xbox credit with Bitcoin was noticed and posted to Reddit by user shafnitz and subsequently confirmed by a help page on Microsoft’s commerce site.
The move makes Microsoft one of the largest tech companies yet to embrace Bitcoin, following Dell and Newegg’s lead from earlier in 2014. Microsoft began to quietly support the currency in recent months by adding a Bitcoin converter to its search engine, Bing.
According to Microsoft’s help page, Bitcoin cannot be used to purchase products directly at this time, but rather must first be used to add funds to a Microsoft account, which can then be spent on games, music, and videos from the Xbox, Windows, and Windows Phone stores (though not yet on physical merchandise). Bitcoin transactions are non-refundable and currently only supported in the United States. No word has been given about plans to roll the feature out in other countries.
While supporters of Bitcoin are generally thrilled about the announcement, Oxford economic sociologist Dr.Vili  Lehdonvirta, speaking to TechRadar, cautioned against overestimating the announcement’s impact on the currency overall:
“Microsoft is the latest in a string of progressively larger firms to start engaging with Bitcoin. However, like many of the earlier adopters, my understanding is that Microsoft is not actually receiving Bitcoins itself, as it uses a partner that converts customers’ Bitcoin payments into dollars. This means that Microsoft itself will not be accumulating and thus spending Bitcoins, which somewhat limits the significance of this announcement. Microsoft is not entering the Bitcoin economy as such.”

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