Verizon to slow down speeds for some unlimited data subscribers

A sign of Verizon Wireless is seen at its store in Westminster, Colorado April 26, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking

(Reuters) - Verizon Communication Inc's high speed wireless customers who subscribe to the company's legacy unlimited data plans might experience slower speeds starting Oct. 1, the company said on Friday.
The announcement comes as wireless carriers attempt to shift data-hungry subscribers onto tiered plans, which charge customers for individual data packages.
Verizon will slow services for the top 5 percent of data users who are on unlimited plans in places where the network is experiencing high demand, the company announced on its website.
The policy will impact customers who consume more than 4.7 gigabytes in a single billing period who are on unlimited plans and who have fulfilled their minimum contract terms and are subscribing to service on a month-to-month basis.
Users might experience slower speeds when streaming high-definition video or during real-time online gaming, the company said.
Customers on the company's tiered data plans will not be affected.
The policy is currently in effect for unlimited subscribers on the 3G network, but will be expanded to its 4G, higher speed network in October.
Verizon stopped offering unlimited data plans in 2012.
(Reporting by Marina Lopes. Editing by Andre Grenon)

info:  http://www.reuters.com

Cellphone unlocking bill clears U.S. House, heads to Obama

(Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation on Friday to give mobile-phone users the right to 'unlock' their devices and use them on competitors' wireless networks, something that is now technically illegal.
The legislation cleared the Senate last week. President Barack Obama said in a statement that he looked forward to signing the bill into law.
"The bill congress passed today is another step toward giving ordinary Americans more flexibility and choice, so that they can find a cell phone carrier that meets their needs and their budget," Obama said.
The lawmaking follows a 2012 ruling by the Library of Congress, the minder of U.S. copyright law, that effectively made phone unlocking illegal, even after the consumer completed the contract with its wireless carrier.
U.S. wireless carriers often tether, or "lock," smartphones to their networks to encourage consumers to renew mobile contracts. Consumers, for their part, can often buy new devices at a heavily subsidized price in return for committing to long-term contracts with a single carrier.
In December, major wireless carriers - including Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc, Sprint Corp and T-Mobile US Inc - struck a voluntary agreement with the Federal Communications Commission to make it easier for consumers to unlock their phones after contracts expire.
Under current law, someone who unlocks their phone without permission could face legal ramifications, including jail.
New legislation, welcomed by consumer advocates, reinstates the exemption given to mobile phones in the copyright law before the controversial 2012 ruling by the Library of Congress and calls on the officials there to reconsider the issue during its next round of reviews in 2015, potentially expanding the exemption to tablets and other devices.
"Today's action by the House moves us closer to alleviating any confusion stemming from the Copyright Office’s 2012 decision," Jot Carpenter, vice president of government affairs at the wireless association CTIA, said in a statement.

info:http://www.reuters.com

Facebook’s profit propelled by mobile

Once again demonstrating its mastery of the mobile computing wave, Facebook dazzled Wall Street on Wednesday by posting significant growth in revenue and profits for the second quarter, driven largely by ads shown in the news feeds of a billion Facebook users checking the service on their mobile phones.

Shareholders celebrated, sending the stock of the company to a record high in after-hours trading, reports nytimes.com.

But Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, wasn’t basking in what he modestly described as a ‘good quarter’. Instead, he was looking ahead to the next wave.

In a conference call with investors, Zuckerberg warned that the company would be spending heavily for years on newer services like private messaging, virtual reality and Facebook search without any near-term prospects of making money from them.

‘We think it is going to be years of work before those are huge businesses for us,’ he said.

‘I really can’t underscore this enough that we have a lot of work to do. We could take the cheap and easy approach and put ads in and do payments and make money in the short-term, but we’re not going to do that.’

Facebook, based in Menlo Park, Calif., said it had about 1.32 billion monthly users around the world in June, with more than a billion of those people using the service at least partly on mobile devices.

Revenue was $2.91 billion, up 61 percent from $1.81 billion during the same period last year. Net income was $791 million, or 30 cents a share, compared with $333 million, or 13 cents a share, a year ago.

The company’s operating profit margin hit a record 48 percent in the second quarter, reflecting increased cost efficiencies.

Mobile devices accounted for nearly two-thirds of Facebook’s revenue, which at this point mostly comes from ads shown on the Facebook website and apps.

However, the company is beginning to supplement that with ads on other sites.

info:cubancouncil.com

Apple, Samsung lose ground in cooling tablet market

Apple and Samsung have lost ground in the tablet computer market as growth cools in the once-hot segment.

The research firm IDC said on Thursday, reports The Straits Times.

An IDC survey said sales of tablets in the March-June period were 49.3 million, up a modest 11 percent from a year ago but down 1.5 percent from the previous quarter.

Apple, which popularized tablets with its iPad, remained the largest single vendor but its market share fell to 26.9 percent from 33 percent last year.

IDC’s survey showed Apple shipped 13.3 million iPads, above Apple’s own report this week showing 12.3 million sold.

info:The straits Times

Windows development set to be 'unified' by Microsoft

     

Microsoft's chief executive Satya Nadella aims to streamline Windows development

Microsoft has said work is under way to "unify" parts of its different Windows operating systems.

Chief executive Satya Nadella discussed the effort while briefing analysts following Tuesday's earnings update.
"We will streamline the next version of Windows from three operating systems into one single converged operating system for screens of all sizes," he said.
The firm also confirmed it had recently scrapped a new type of tablet.
"During the quarter, we reassessed our product roadmap and decided not to ship a new form factor that was under development," said Amy Hood, the company's chief financial officer.
Leaks had indicated that the firm had originally planned to launch the Surface Mini in May - a small tablet running the Windows RT system, a version of the OS designed for ARM-based chips.
Mr Nadella did not mention Windows RT during the conference call, instead referring to the three existing versions of Windows that would be merged as "one for phone, one for tablets and PCs, [and] one for Xbox".
However, as the tech news site Zdnet noted, that did not necessarily mean the firm was about to release a single variant of its operating system.
Rather, a single team is now working to deepen the links between Windows for PCs, Windows Phone and the Xbox OS, which are all based on the single Windows NT software core.

   

In May Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 3 but cancelled plans for another tablet

Universal apps Mr Nadella said one target was for developers to be able to write a single app that would adapt its layout and controls to suit whether it was being used on a phone, tablet, PC or games console.
"One of beauties of universal Windows app is it aggregates for the first time for us all of our Windows volume," Mr Nadella said.

Canonical designed a phone that could double up as a desktop PC

"An app that runs with a mouse and keyboard on the desktop can be in the store, and you can have the same app run in the touch-first [mobile devices].
"[It] gives developers the entire volume of Windows, which is 300 plus million units as opposed to just our 4% share of mobile in the US or 10% in some countries."
The move to "unify" the various Windows stores and developer platforms puts Microsoft at odds with Apple and Google, which are both pursuing separate strategies for app development on laptop/desktop computers and mobile devices - Apple with Mac OS X and iOS, Google with Chrome and Android.
But it does bring Microsoft closer to another OS developer, Canonical, which has promoted the idea of its Ubuntu system powering both phones and desktops. Canonical previously highlighted that one benefit of this strategy was that a handset could double up as a low-power desktop PC if it was plugged into a monitor and connected to a mouse.
It also paves the way for Microsoft to introduce its voice-controlled personal assistant, Cortana, to PCs. Mr Nadella mentioned the app several times during the call.
Microsoft has yet to discuss what new functions the successor to Windows 8 - codenamed Threshold - will offer, but one expert suggested the firm would at least find it easier to sell a more joined-up set of operating systems.
"Microsoft has had a real problem trying to educate the market about the differences between the different platforms its been running," said Chris Green, principal technology analyst at the Davies Murphy Group consultancy.
"So, given the issues it's had on that front, going down the one-size-fits-all approach is something it sees as much easier for the user base to comprehend."

info: http://www.bbc.com 

Tor Project makes efforts to debug dark web

 

 Security researchers claimed to have found a way to reveal Tor users' identities

The co-creator of a system designed to make internet users unidentifiable says he is tackling a "bug" that threatened to undermine the facility.

The Tor (the onion router) network was built to allow people to visit webpages without being tracked and to publish sites whose contents would not show up in search engines.
Earlier this month two researchers announced plans to reveal a way to de-anonymise users of this "dark web".
They were later prevented from talking.
Alexander Volynkin and Michael McCord - two security experts from Carnegie Mellon University's computer emergency response team (Cert) - had been scheduled to reveal their findings at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas in August.
However, a notice published on the event's website now states that the organisers had been contacted by the university's lawyers to say the talk had been called off.
"Unfortunately, Mr Volynkin will not be able to speak at the conference since the materials that he would be speaking about have not yet [been] approved by Carnegie Mellon University/Software Engineering Institute for public release," the message said.

 

The details of the "flaw" in Tor were due to be revealed at a conference in Las Vegas

Roger Dingledine, one of Tor's creators, subsequently posted a message to a mailing list confirming that he and his colleagues had "no idea the talk would be pulled".
But he added that the Tor Project - the organisation that provides free software to make use of Tor - had been "informally" shown some of the materials that would have been presented.
"I think I have a handle on what they did, and how to fix it," he added in a follow-up post.
"We've been trying to find delicate ways to explain that we think we know what they did, but also it sure would have been smoother if they'd opted to tell us everything.
"Based on our current plans, we'll be putting out a fix that relays can apply that should close the particular bug they found. The bug is a nice bug, but it isn't the end of the world."
Illegal activity link Tor was originally developed by the US Naval Research Laboratory and was later funded by the Electronic Frontier Foundation digital rights group, Google and the US National Science Foundation, among others.
It attempts to hide a person's location and identity by sending data across the internet via a very circuitous route. Encryption applied at each hop along this route makes it very hard to connect a person to any particular activity.
Its users include the military, law enforcement officers and journalists - who use it as a way of communicating with whistle-blowers - as well as members of the public who wish to keep their browser activity secret.
But it has also been associated with illegal activity.
The description given for the pulled talk itself noted that Tor "has also been used for the distribution of child pornography, illegal drugs, and malware".

 

 The FBI previously made use of a separate flaw in Tor to identify suspects

The researchers had promised to reveal how a piece of kit worth $3,000 (£1,760) could be used to "exploit fundamental flaws in Tor design and implementation" to reveal the internet address of its users and the computer servers used to host their hidden services.
"We know because we tested it in the wild," they added.
Christopher Soghoian, a tech expert at the American Civil Liberties Union, has speculated that the university might have feared the risk of a criminal prosecution or being sued by Tor users who felt their privacy had been violated.
"Monitoring Tor exit traffic is potentially a violation of several federal criminal statutes," he tweeted.
However, a spokeswoman for the university told the BBC: "We don't have anything further to add to the statement that was already released by the Black Hat conference."
Tackling Tor While the details of the alleged flaw have yet to be disclosed, there have been several reports of other efforts by authorities to overcome its protections.
German broadcaster ARD reported earlier this month that cyberspies at the US National Security Agency (NSA) were actively monitoring two Tor directory servers in Germany to scoop up the net addresses of people using them.
An alleged leaked list of GCHQ's hacking tools indicated that the agency had developed its own Tor browser.
And in 2013, the FBI acknowledged making use of a flaw in the Firefox browser help it identify Tor users as part of an effort to tackle child abuse images posted to hidden sites. That exploit has since been fixed.

info: http://www.bbc.com

Apple quarterly sales up 6%

Apple reported a small increase in revenues for its fiscal third quarter to June, to USD 37.4 billion from USD 35.3 billion a year earlier, in line with its earlier guidance.

The growth was driven by expanded distribution n China, where revenues rose 28 percent year-on-year to USD 5.3 billion.

Net profit rose to USD 7.7 billion or USD 1.28 per share from USD 6.9 billion or USD 1.07 per share in the year-ago quarter.

The gross margin was better than expected, at 39.4 percent versus 36.9 a year ago, reports telecompaper.com.

iPhone sales were up 13 percent from a year ago but 19 percent lower than the previous quarter at 35.2 million units. iPad sales fell 9 percent year-on-year and 19 percent sequentially to 13.3 million units.

Mac sales rose 18 percent annually and 7 percent from the previous quarter to 4.4 million. For the current quarter, Apple forecast revenue of USD 37-40 billion and a gross margin of 37-38 percent.

Info: wallpaperest.com

Google Doodle pays tribute to Zubir Said

Today’s Google doodle celebrates a Singaporean musical icon - composer Zubir Said.

The musician best known for composing Singapore’s national anthem was born on July 22, 1907, 107 years ago, in the town of Bukit Tinggi in Minangkabau, Central Sumatra.
Clicking on the doodle will take browsers to a page with search results relating to the famed musician.
The Google doodle does not appear for country specific sites such as for Russia and Denmark, but it appears on the global Google.com site.
This is not the first time Google has had Singapore-themed doodles. There have been doodles dedicated to Singapore’s National Day and the Singapore Arts Festival.
Zubir was asked to compose a song by Ong Eng Guan, Singapore’s mayor, for the re-opening of Victoria Theatre in 1958. Singapore achieved self-government in 1959 and the tune Zubir had composed, Majulah Singapura, was chosen as the national anthem.
Writer Muhammad Ariff recalled in an interview with the Straits Times that he helped Zubir tweak the lyrics of the song to reflect the way in which Singapore achieved independence, through peaceful negotiations rather than a bloody battle.
He added, ‘The original lyrics written by Pak Zubir (who was born in Sumatra) were patriotic, sounding as if we had won independence after a great war, like in Indonesia. We didn’t have that. We achieved self-government through roundtable talks’.
‘I had written two how-to books at the time, Let Us Hold A Meeting and Let Us Make Poems. So for the lyrics, I suggested, Let us the people of Singapore progress towards happiness together’.

info: Straits Times

Adventures With Technology: Hide and Track

Flickr/Paul Stainthorp

Last month, we made our first official call for pitches and it was a tremendous success. So many great ideas came across the transom. We commissioned 25 and we loved every single one.
We learned about the lost levels of Sonic the Hedgehog. And Gregg shorthand. And Eveleth, Minnesota. We remembered that Prodigy was a thing. And so were the New Kids on the Block. There was grief and solace, small heroism, big questions. This was one hell of a collection.
Now it's time for a new batch of your stories.
Let me remind you what we're looking for. We want adventures with technology. We want exciting stories—the kind that warrant telling your friends—about what it's like living with technology these days. We want you to be able to execute quickly, on a scale measured in days. You don't have to be at the center of the story, but someone should be.
(You can read the whole rationale and theoretical framework we're using here. Short version: These calls were inspired by Ann Friedman, David Edgerton, Rookie Mag, and a bunch of great radio shows.)
The new theme is Hide and Track, stories about slipping away from data, or taking control of it.
In "Hide and Seek," everyone hides and one person searches. Online, though, everyone's searching—and everyone's hiding. The default is increasingly that everything gets recorded.
There is the dark side. An unannounced engagement revealed by canny web ads. A website archived forever on the Wayback Machine, accessible only by a URL you know. Lying to your fitness tracking app. Secret profiles, insurance problems. You can't check the weather without a few dozen companies harvesting your IP address and trying to sell you something. We live without oversight only when we can throw the data hounds off the scent.
But the new state of affairs is not entirely dystopian. There's power in people choosing to aggregate their data. We can know the bacteria in our guts or the number of white blood cells in our bodies. We can track our steps and our calories. We can see precisely where our children are or how their caretakers are treating them. We can save or make money by making ourselves accessible and legible to the machines.
(I write this looking out on the northern California coast line, fog coming and going to hide or reveal an ocean. Maybe it is climactic, but there is a sense you can lay low out here, keep to yourself: live a full life but stay unfound, not universally public. Is there a place like this online?)
As always, pitches go to the absolutely fabulous Adrienne LaFrance (adrienne.lafrance [at] gmail.com). We're only going to take 20 pitches, and we suggest you get them in early. Based on the response from last time, we'll have met our quota of stories by the end of the week.

info: http://www.theatlantic.com

Researchers Target Low-Cost Avatar Technology

According to Ari Shapiro, a research scientist at University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, that technology is just around the corner.
“For me it is exciting to see what we now have," he said, describing a low-cost technology that may revolutionize social media. "Soon a lot of people will have the capability to model themselves very, very quickly for almost no cost.”
Demonstrating how the 3D avatar technology works at the school's Mixed Reality Lab open house, Shapiro gives attendee Jason Suh a quick body scan. Within minutes, Suh sees an avatar of himself moving around on a computer monitor.
“It was insane. Within a minute or so, they’ve got a copy of me, a 3D model of me, had me jumping and running," Suh said. "Since it’s an avatar of yourself, you can use it on like Facebook or something and personalize yourself — have a 3D model of yourself rather than just a profile picture.”
According to researchers, users will need the appropriate software, a computer and a scanner such as the Microsoft Kinect to get a 360-degree body scan to create the avatar. Since the process takes only a few minutes, users can change the look of the avatar every day.
The technology captures the person’s clothes, hair style and accessories such as glasses or a purse. The computer software then uses a variety of stored animations to make the avatar come to life.
Shapiro says 3D avatars can change the social media experience and make people feel more connected.
“So if you can imagine having a Facebook page where you have not only ... some information but your virtual character [speaking] the information, or some sort of social application where you and your friends and your family are shown as these avatars," Shapiro said. "So we believe that there’s a very interesting psychological effect that’s going to happen when people start seeing themselves and families and friends inside these simulations. We think it’ll be very powerful.”
While three-dimensional avatars created for Hollywood movies can cost millions of dollars, Shapiro says this type of avatar is much cheaper.
“We expect it’s going to be on the order of $10, $50, maybe $100 tops for a piece of software that can capture you and simulate you.”
Of course, there is a trade-off for the low price tag. For the moment, these avatars are missing some fine details such as dimples and the creasing of the eyes.
But Shapiro says as sensor technology improves, so will the quality. He is currently working on capturing the subtleties of movement and behavior — how a person walks, moves and socializes — in order to create 3-D avatars with personality.

info: http://www.voanews.com

Reimagining Education Through Technology

I didn’t know what to expect when I traveled to Malaysia for the very first time. I knew my mission: connect zero client technology — desktop solutions composed of a screen, a keyboard and a mouse that function entirely by remotely connecting to a central server — in rural and urban classrooms that had never been equipped with computers. But I never could have imagined just how life changing the process of executing that mission would be.

My journey to a particular school in the jungle of Sabah, the easternmost state of Malaysia located on the island of Borneo, started with a five-hour car ride down a dirt road. We then loaded all of our equipment onto long boats, on which we rode for another hour and a half, before finally reaching our destination. Upon arriving at the school I saw classrooms full of simple desks and chairs and dormitories with beds stacked three high, all protected by window bars. Why, you may be wondering? To keep away the orangutans.

All Malaysian children must attend school by government mandate, no matter where they live. So while my journey through the jungle seemed extraordinary to me, I quickly learned that it was commonplace for the children of Sabah.  Each week, they make the sojourn to school and stay overnight in dorms for a few days of instruction before returning home to their families.

As unfamiliar as such a trek felt to me, the things I experience as ordinary and familiar — access to desktop, mobile, virtual, ubiquitous technology — were entirely foreign to many of the children I met. Some had never seen a computer before, never moved a mouse, never typed on a keyboard. But they knew something about learning. They were so energetic and passionate about their studies, making the experience of bringing technology to their classrooms all the more meaningful.

As we began setting up zero clients, I knew we were doing something that would help satisfy the children’s curiosity about the world around them. It’s not that they weren’t already learning a lot. They have amazing teachers who follow regimented curricula, and Malaysia sets high standards of education for its people. In fact, investment in education is a top priority for its government. Bringing this technology into their classrooms would open more doors to information, teaching tools, digital capacity and enrichment for an excited group of kids, regardless of environmental and geographical conditions.

The children watched with great interest and anticipation as we connected their classrooms. We brought wiring and power resources with us to supplement the solar panels and generator the school already used for electricity. They had a satellite link that enabled an Internet connection as well. The connection was strong enough to support a remote server. The zero clients use only 15 to 20 watts of power each so we can power a lot of them; traditional computers would have demanded 200 watts per unit. Despite our low power needs, we faced some wiring challenges as we worked. The wires fried as we tested the system. We heard a beep and lost all power. Luckily, I had extra wire with me, and after this experience we made sure to bring it to all the other schools where we installed the zero clients.
The day the kids used the technology for the first time was the highlight of my trip. The technology come to life in the bright-eyed enthusiasm of the children.  The prototype development, the testing and re-testing, the rigorous steps required to beat out the competition in collaboration with Bitara Induk (an information and communications technology systems integrator) and VMware, all culminated in that instant. We had “passed the test” with a high score from The Ministry of Education, Malaysia.

I was fortunate to repeat my experience in the Sabah jungle at several other schools throughout Malaysia. By March 2014, our partnership afforded 25,000 zero clients across 1,250 rural and inland schools. It’s all part of the Malaysian government’s ambitious vision for preschool through university education called the Malaysia Education Blueprint, 2013-2025, which will ultimately have an impact on six million children at 10,000 schools. Among the key tenets of the plan is an investment in information and communications technology to improve educational outcomes, advance Malaysia’s competitiveness in the global market and bring about educational parity between urban and rural schools.

The success we’re seeing with the PCoIP-enabled zero clients across the country has exceeded the Malaysian government’s expectations. With minimal onsite IT setup or modification to the classroom environment, high performance computing and educational resources are being delivered across devices to enhance teaching and learning. Children from remote village schools are accessing the same digital resources as kids in urban areas, and they’re doing it through a centralized computing model that simplifies IT management and reduces hardware costs while enhancing data security.

No data live on the zero clients themselves, which is how they consume so little power and why public education administrators don’t have to worry about securing thousands of individual machines. Data stays in the data center and encrypted pixels are sent to zero clients via the PCoIP protocol, which decodes the pixels and create displays that resemble traditional desktops.

Currently, Malaysia is evaluating the potential to adopt the same model for digital classrooms on a national scale, which could make it the first country in the world to use PCoIP to empower an entire public school system with centrally managed desktops. Through this program, Malaysia is demonstrating the potential for bridging the digital divide between urban and rural schools in educational systems in other regions of the world. In fact, it’s caught the interest of neighboring countries in ASEAN — and beyond.

I’m profoundly honored and humbled to have had the opportunity to travel throughout Malaysia, and especially to spend time with school children and teachers in Sabah, alongside my newfound colleagues and friends at Bitara Induk. I look forward to embarking on similar missions throughout the world aimed at leveling the playing field and reimagining education with virtual desktop technology.

info:http://innovationinsights.wired.com

Technology, Aided by Recession, Is Polarizing the Work World

The American work force has been growing polarized for decades. On one end, there are highly skilled jobs like writing software or performing surgery, and on the other are service jobs like child care and cutting hair. The jobs in the middle, meanwhile, such as factory work, sales and bookkeeping, are shrinking — one of the reasons for the economy’s slow climb out of the recession.

Where did those jobs go? Part of the answer lies in Silicon Valley. It is no coincidence that many of those jobs entail the same repetitive tasks that computers, robots and other machines are uniquely suited to perform, from robots loading conveyor belts in factories to Kayak.com selling airline tickets.

A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows how the recession accelerated the displacement of these midwage jobs. As technology now encroaches on jobs that people assumed would always belong to humans, it is useful to consider those most affected by the job displacement so far: the young, the less educated and men.

A lot of economic research has focused on the polarization of jobs, notably by David Autor of M.I.T. He differentiates between routine tasks that follow well-defined procedures — the kind of midwage jobs that computers have become so good at — and nonroutine ones that require flexibility, problem-solving and human interaction.

Photo

The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange in July 2013. Stock trading is still done by humans, to some extent, but much more by computers than in past decades. Credit Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The new study, which analyzed data from the Current Population Survey from 1976 to 2012, illustrates that the recession had a disproportionately large effect on routine jobs, and greatly sped up their loss. That is probably because even if a new technology is cheaper and more efficient than a human laborer, bosses are unlikely to fire employees and replace them with computers when times are good. The recession, however, gave them a motive. And the people who lost those jobs are generally unable to find new ones, said Henry E. Siu, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia and an author of the study.

Young people and those with only a high school diploma are much more likely to be unemployed and replaced by a machine, he said. And to the authors’ surprise, men are more vulnerable than women.

“When you look at data, women who would otherwise be finding middle-paying routine jobs tend to be moving up the job ladder to these higher-paying brain jobs, whereas men are much more likely to just be moving from blue-collar jobs into not finding a job,” said Mr. Siu, who wrote the study with Guido Matias Cortes of the University of Manchester, Nir Jaimovich of Duke University and Christopher J. Nekarda of the Federal Reserve in Washington.

The changing demographics in the United States play a small role in the loss of midwage jobs, as do policies related to offshoring, unions and the minimum wage. But the study found that two-thirds of the decline in routine jobs is explained by a drop in the number of unemployed people who can get these jobs, and an increase in the number of people who had these jobs and lost them.

Continue reading the main story

Continue reading the main story

And the driver behind those shifts is technology.

“Over the very long run, technological progress is good for everybody, but over shorter time horizons, it’s not that everybody’s a winner,” Mr. Siu said. “Certain demographic groups like the young and less educated in another world would be doing fine, but in today’s world are not.”

The line between jobs that are considered routine and able to be done by a machine and those that require a human brain is a blurry one and becoming blurrier, said Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee of M.I.T., authors of “The Second Machine Age.”

“There are examples up and down the spectrum,” Mr. Brynjolfsson said. “It’s a process of scientific discovery. It’s not like we know exactly which task will be next to automate.”

Already, machines are learning to do certain jobs that once seemed confined to humans, from elder care to wealth management to art. The question is what will happen if these jobs also disappear.

info: http://www.nytimes.com

China's Huawei reports 19% jump in sales

 

Huawei has diversified into fast-growing sectors like smartphone manufacturing

Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei has reported a 19% jump in sales to 135.8bn yuan ($21.9bn; £12.8bn) for the first six months of the year.

It said it expects to make an operating profit margin of 18.3% for the period.
Huawei has traditionally concentrated on making telecoms network equipment, but has benefited by diversifying into fast-growing sectors such as smartphone manufacturing.
It is now one of the world's largest smartphone makers.
Cathy Meng, the firm's chief financial officer, said the firm "achieved quality and sustainable growth in our consumer business thanks to the increase of brand awareness and smart devices sales worldwide".
According to research firm IDC, Huawei shipped 13.7 million smartphones in the first three months of this year - making it the third-biggest smartphone vendor in the world.
Huawei did not give a breakdown of its latest sales numbers.
Continued growth Huawei has also been looking to tap into the market for wearable technology and introduced its hybrid Talkband smart device earlier this year.
Furthermore, China's investment in fourth-generation mobile network technology has led to a steady stream of revenue for the firm.
"Driven by increasing investments in LTE networks worldwide, Huawei has further solidified its leadership position in mobile broadband," Ms Meng said in the statement.
The firm's growth comes despite it coming under scrutiny in key markets in recent years.
In 2012, US politicians claimed that the company posed a security threat because of its alleged links to China's government and military.
The concerns over its association with the Chinese authorities have been driven in part, by the fact that the company's founder, Ren Zhengfei, was a former member of the People's Liberation Army.
However, Huawei has repeatedly denied those claims and has stressed that it is 100%-owned by its employees and founder.
Earlier this year, a report in the New York Times alleged that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had infiltrated Huawei's servers.
In response, China has demanded a clear explanation from the US government.

Info: http://www.bbc.com

Apple scolded by Europe over in-app purchase protections

Some parents have been shocked by charges for additional features in free-to-download games

Apple has been criticised by the European Commission for not offering any "concrete and immediate" plans to stop users being misled by "free" apps.

Many popular apps are free to download, but are designed to tempt users to pay for in-game enhancements - often allowing for quicker progression.
The Commission is now forcing Apple and Google, the biggest vendors of apps, to make the "true cost" of games clear.
But it singled out Apple for not making a commitment to change.
"Regrettably, no concrete and immediate solutions have been made by Apple to date to address the concerns linked in particular to payment authorisation," the Commission said in a statement.
"Apple has proposed to address those concerns. However, no firm commitment and no timing have been provided for the implementation of such possible future changes.

“Start Quote

Our own findings show that 95% of consumers never pay anything for free-to-play games”

Tiga UK games industry trade association

"CPC [consumer protection co-operation] authorities will continue to engage with Apple to ensure that it provides specific details of changes required and put its practices into line with the common position."

The Commission said national authorities had the option to take legal action against companies that were deemed not to be complying with Europe's guidance on free apps.

info: http://www.bbc.com

Microsoft calls end to Android Nokia X smartphones

                                              The Nokia X2 features an Android user interface that resembles Windows Phone

Microsoft is to stop developing Android-powered smartphones beyond those already available, the BBC understands.

Nokia X models will now become part of the Lumia range and run the Windows Phone operating system, although existing Android handsets will continue to be supported.
The move comes as Microsoft announced 18,000 job cuts across its workforce.
The tech firm acquired Nokia's handset division earlier this year.
Nokia unveiled its first family of Android phones at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona in February.

“Start Quote

Everybody was scratching their heads when the Android phones were unveiled in February”

Ben Wood Analyst at CCS Insight

The release of the smartphones, which were priced at the lower end of the market, was described as a "perplexing strategic move" at the time, given that Microsoft had its own mobile operating system, Windows Phone.

In an email to employees on Thursday, Stephen Elop, Microsoft's executive in charge of mobile devices, announced that Android handsets were being phased out.
"In the near term, we plan to drive Windows Phone volume by targeting the more affordable smartphone segments, which are the fastest-growing segments of the market, with Lumia.
"In addition to the portfolio already planned, we plan to deliver additional lower-cost Lumia devices by shifting select future Nokia X designs and products to Windows Phone devices.
"We expect to make this shift immediately while continuing to sell and support existing Nokia X products."

Microsoft had hoped the Nokia X would appeal to customers in emerging markets

Ben Wood, an analyst at CCS Insight, told the BBC the move was designed to drive sales of Microsoft's Lumia range, which has lagged behind handsets from competitors such as Apple and Samsung.
"Everybody was scratching their heads when the Android phones were unveiled in February," he said, adding that the decision had been made before Microsoft's takeover of Nokia.
However, Mr Wood said, phasing out the Android devices was a strategic decision, designed to "take the work Microsoft have done on the hardware [of Nokia X models] and drive the Lumia price points to much lower levels".

info: http://www.bbc.com

Microsoft closes Xbox TV production unit

Steven Spielberg is set to produce a live-action series based on the Halo video game

Microsoft's plan to compete with Netflix and Amazon by producing its own TV shows has come to an early end, as the firm announces 18,000 job cuts.

Xbox Entertainment Studio will close by the end of the year, Xbox chief Phil Spencer told employees in an email.
The studio launched to great fanfare in 2012, having secured Steven Spielberg to produce a spin-off of the military-themed sci-fi video game, Halo.
That show will go ahead, despite the studio's closure, Microsoft said.
Five other shows had been given the green light, and a further 11 were in development.
The majority were male-friendly titles, with ties to the company's major video game franchises, including Gears of War, Age of Empires, Fable and Forza Motorsport.
Only one had made it to air - Every Street United, a football-themed reality show, which debuted last month.
Documentary programme Signal to Noise and a second Halo spin-off, Halo: Nightfall, written by Prison Break creator Paul Scheurin, are already in production and will be not be cancelled.
Humans, a co-production with Channel 4 in the UK, is also expected to go ahead.
A remake of a Swedish series about humans living with robot servants, the eight-episode drama is scheduled to debut next year.
"Xbox will continue to support and deliver interactive sports content like NFL on Xbox, and we will continue to enhance our entertainment offering on console by innovating the TV experience through the monthly console updates," said Microsoft in a statement.
The closure comes against the background of major cuts at the technology firm.
Up to 18,000 jobs will go, the majority from its phone unit Nokia, which Microsoft bought in April.
The firm employs 127,000 globally, including 3,500 staff in the UK.

info:http://www.bbc.com

Androids make man and machine apart

A future in which it is difficult to tell man and machine apart could soon become reality, scientists say, after recent robotic breakthroughs in Japan.

But as the once-fantastical idea of wise-cracking android sidekicks takes form in laboratories and the gap between humans and robots narrows society faces ethical and legal complications as yet undreamed of, they warn.

“Already computers have surpassed human ability,” leading Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro said. “Robots will be very clever soon.”

Science fiction’s rapid slide towards science fact owes much to the likes of Ishiguro, who has an android copy of himself that he sends on overseas business trips in his place.

‘It saves me time,’ he smiled. “The upper torso and lower torso you can pack in two big suitcases. The head is very fragile it goes as carry on baggage.”

Robots already perform a wide variety of tasks in Japan they cook noodles, help patients undergo physiotherapy and have been used in the clean-up after the 2011 nuclear meltdown at Fukushima.

South Korea deploys jellyfish-terminating robots, while a robot with artificial intelligence able to analyze market trends has become a company director in Hong Kong.

One day, predict future-gazers, robots will perform all kinds of household chores, monitor the sick, and even serve up cappuccinos.

info: telegraph.co.uk

Japan became the GM of Microsoft mostaka Bangladeshi

 

Mostaka Shakil Ahmed

  

Saturday as the world's first Bangladeshi IT firm Microsoft's Global Business Support Division, has been appointed as general manager of the branch in Japan mostaka Shakil Ahmed.

Shakeel mostaka Jessore born. Sinhuya higher degree from the University of the computer is working at Microsoft for the past 14 years. Senior Director of the Asia Division of Consumer Support Microsoft was working in Japan. In addition, Microsoft's head office in Seattle, he served in various management injaniyarim departments.

During most of his life outside the country, but he is in constant communication with the country, and was expected to do in the future for Digital Bangladesh. Bengali version of Windows XP, Windows section Shakeel served time and was directly involved with. -  

 

info: www.japangovt.com 

The heat baked Robot!

Not only bread, cooking on the griddle baked baked cariye allows us to make the whole robot. Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists in the United States but it was a strange thing to think nirmanayogya robot.

The art of paper folding to create something aregami. The art of common sense the robot got the weirdest kind of electrical engineering and computer science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Daniel Rus. According to the data, and prints that can be removed in the construction of this kind of robots will be used in plastic, that began to change the size of the high-temperature step folding opener. The machine will be part of the energy for the transport of some metals.

At a seminar held in Hong Kong on year to auto mechanics and robotics robot plans is presented. Daniel Rus said, "Such a method has many dreams for our team. We'd like to create such a robot, which is able to play with your fur, your house will be able to delete.

Note that the initial stage of the plan is now. However, no one in this year's technology conference Rus and his team are expected to display a sample dream robot.

Info: http://www./beta/fullnews/bn/308717.html

Making Ethernet Cables - Tricks of the Trade

HOW TO MAKE AN ETHERNET CABLE Purchasing fully made Ethernet cables from the store can be quite expensive.  It is far easier to simply buy a box of bulk Category 5e Ethernet cable and then attach your own RJ-45 connectors to the cut ends of your preferred cable length.
	Bulk Ethernet Cable - Category 5e or CAT5e (You may also use Category 6 or CAT6 cabling which has higher performance specifications and is about 20% more expensive than CAT5.)
	Bulk RJ45 Crimpable Connectors for CAT-5e or Bulk RJ45 Crimpable Connectors for CAT-6
RJ-45 Crimping tool
There are two kinds of Ethernet cables you can make, Straight Through and Crossover. STRAIGHT THROUGH Ethernet cables are the standard cable used for almost all purposes. It is highly recommend you duplicate the color order as shown on the left. Note how the green pair is not side-by-side as are all the other pairs. This configuration allows for longer wire runs.
CROSSOVER CABLES - The purpose of a Crossover Ethernet cable is to directly connect one computer to another computer (or device) without going through a router, switch or hub.
	Here's how to make a standard cable: cut into the plastic sheath about 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the end of the cut cable. The crimping tool has a razor blade that will do the trick with practice.
	Unwind and pair the similar colors.
	Pinch the wires between your fingers and straighten them out as shown. The color order is important to get correct.
	Use scissors to make a straight cut across the wires 1/2 Inch (1.3 cm) from the cut sleeve to the end of the wires.
	Push the wires into the connector. Note the position of the blue plastic shielding. Also note how the wires go all the way to the end.
	A view from the top. All the wires are all the way in. There are no short wires.
	WRONG WAY - Note how the blue plastic sleeve is not inside the connector where it can be locked into place. The wires are too long. The wires should extend only 1/2 inch from the blue cut sleeve.
	WRONG WAY - Note how the cables do not go all the way to the end of the connector.
	CRIMPING THE CABLE ... carefully place the connector into the Ethernet Crimper and cinch down on the handles tightly. The copper splicing tabs on the connector will pierce into each of the eight wires. There is also a locking tab that holds the blue plastic sleeve in place for a tight compression fit. When you remove the cable from the crimper, that end is ready to use.
	For a standard "Straight Through" cable, repeat all steps and wire color order on the other end of cable. For a cross-over cable, the other end will have a different color order as shown by the crossover picture above.
	Make sure to test the cables before installing them. An inexpensive Ethernet cable tester does this quite well.

NOTE - The maximum cable length of CAT-5, CAT-5e or CAT-6 Ethernet cable is 328 feet or 100 meters.

Info: http://www.groundcontrol.com

Nokia X2 Android Smartphone launched

Microsoft has unveiled its first ever smartphone powered by Google’s Android operating system.
The Nokia X2 – the first handset produced under the Finnish brand’s name since Microsoft completed its acquisition of the company – is a budget device aimed at emerging markets and runs a version of Android visually similar to Microsoft’s own Windows Phone OS.
The handset may be powered by Android (and thus have access to a Microsoft-curated selection of Android apps) but Microsoft has stacked the device full of its own services – including Skype, Bing, OneNote, Outlook, OneDrive, Here Maps and Mix Radio.
The X2 is a follow-up to the X (launched in February) and features a 4.3-inch screen, 1GB of RAM and both front- and rear-facing cameras. It's expected to cost €99 (roughly 10478 Taka) when released in July.
The X reportedly sold well, becoming the top handset in Pakistan and the third most popular in India. However, cheaper Android devices have threatened the foothold of Nokia’s budget phones with their larger app stores and ecosystems - leading to the compromise of the X2, reports independent.co.uk.
Despite this, Microsoft says that Nokia-branded budget devices (including the Asha range) are still being positioned as an ‘on ramp’ to its pricier Lumia devices.
By creating a unified visual look for the X2 and Windows Phone, Microsoft will be hoping the transition from cheaper to pricier devices will be natural for new smartphone users – despite the fact that Windows Phone still lags behind its rivals in terms of apps and services.

Info: http://www./en/fullnews/bn/94023.html

CTO to be held in BD on Sept 8

A 3-day summit of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO) will be held in Dhaka from September 8.
Bangladesh government and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will jointly host the event.
Preparations for this global leading technology forum are underway in CTO office in South Africa, allafrica.com published the report on Tuesday.
The report said that the program will be held under the theme ‘ICTs for Development: From Access to Inclusive and Innovative Services’.
According to the CTO, key topics to be discussed during the 3-day event include building a sustainable ICT infrastructure, evaluating the benefits of e-commerce in emerging markets, mobile technologies, applications and value added services.
It will also include creating an efficient e-governance system, transparency and open government, cloud-based business process outsourcing and financing technological developments in the Commonwealth countries.
However, the CTO Forum is the premier ICT conference of the Commonwealth.

Info: cto.int

Hi-Tech Park, Star Computer to train 3000 youths

To build up the ICT skilled and efficient human resources Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park authority and local training institutes have arranged a number of   training programs on ICT.
According to a press release, under the training programs, total 3000 people will get the opportunity to have this training initially.
The opportunity will continue till 2016.
The local graduates and those who have the basic knowledge of computer are eligible to get the scholarship training through founded by Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority, the release added.
Star computer System Limited has been selected as a training service provider partner of Bangladesh Hi-Tech park authority to train the local youth on PHP (Web Design) and C#.NET (Software Development) which will help the youth to serve the IT industries as Web Developer and Software Developer.
Not only the professionals but also the unemployed graduates can apply for it. Priority will be given to the underprivileged and women who are under 30 are selected based on their merit.
The course duration is 2.5 month.  Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority and Star Computer Systems Limited will jointly award certificates to the participants who would finish the training successfully.
Interested candidates are requested to call at 01670181811, 0171141980 or contact Star Computer Systems Limited, Fattah Plaza, level 8, 70 green road, Dhaka. Registration is open for limited period of time.
ICT being considered as a tool to change the nation, change the economic growth of any developing country like Bangladesh.  ICT sector has the opportunity especially for the youth to change their fortune so does the country. And to clutch this opportunity the country needs skilled and efficient youth pool.

info: http://www.en/fullnews/bn/95367.html

Facebook launches Slingshot

DHAKA: Facebook has launched a photo-messaging app one week after accidentally releasing it on Apple's app store on Wednesday.
Known as Slingshot, the app's features include sharing photos and videos with friends and sending "reaction shots", reports the BBC.
It uses an unlocking mechanism, whereby photos received from friends must be unlocked by "slinging" a different photo back to the original sender.
Like Snapchat, all images are deleted once sent and users can scribble or type over their photos.
On the social media page for the app, the creators said: "With Slingshot, we wanted to build something where everybody is a creator and nobody is just a spectator.
"When everyone participates, there's less pressure, more creativity and even the little things in life can turn into awesome shared experiences."
The app is developed by Facebook's Creative Labs division, which has been tasked with creating new and innovative products.
Slingshot users do not need to have a Facebook account to sign up for the photo-messaging app. They can access the app with their mobile phone number and connect with friends in their phone's contact list, or they can connect via their Facebook friends' list.

http://www./en/fullnews/bn/93580.html

Google revenue sees 22% jump

Internet giant Google has reported a 22% jump in revenue during the second quarter period from March through June compared to a year earlier.
Revenue rose to $16bn (£9.4bn) and profits were up 6% to $3.4bn, said the firm in its earnings report.
Strong demand for Google's advertising helped boost revenues above expectations.
Google also announced chief business officer Nikesh Arora was leaving for SoftBank.
Mr Arora, who has been with Google for 10 years, will be temporarily replaced by Omid Kordestani, who who was Google's business founder and formerly led Google's sales team.
Shares in Google rose by about 1% after the market closed.

info:http://www.en/fullnews/bn/95327.html

NASA to roll out Space Launch System Rocket soon

The Stennis team will perform developmental and flight certification testing of the RS-25 engine

Mumbai: NASA is conducting different tests on Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will send humans to new destinations in the solar system. They installed on Thursday an RS-25 engine on the A-1 Test Stand at the agency's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

The Stennis team will perform developmental and flight certification testing of the RS-25 engine, a modified version of the space shuttle main engine that powered missions into space from 1981 to 2011.  The SLS's core stage will be powered by a configuration of four RS-25 engines, like the one recently installed on the A-1 stand.

"This test series is a major milestone because it will be our first opportunity to operate the engine with a new controller and to test propellant inlet conditions for SLS that are different than the space shuttle," said Steve Wofford, SLS Liquid Engines Element manager. "This testing will confirm the RS-25 will be successful at powering SLS."

Early tests on the engine will collect data on the performance of its new advanced engine controller and other modifications. The controller regulates valves that direct the flow of propellant to the engine, which determines the amount of thrust generated during an engine test, known as a hotfire test. In flight, propellant flow and engine thrust determine the speed and trajectory of a spacecraft.

Its controller also regulates the engine startup sequence, which is especially important on an engine as sophisticated as the RS-25. Likewise, the controller determines the engine shutdown sequence, ensuring it will proceed properly under both normal and emergency conditions.

"Installation of RS-25 engine No. 0525 signals the launch of another major rocket engine test project for human space exploration on the A-1 Test Stand," said Gary Benton, RS-25 rocket engine test project manager at Stennis.

The SLS is designed to carry astronauts in NASA's Orion spacecraft deeper into space than ever before, to destinations including an asteroid and Mars. NASA is using existing and in-development hardware and infrastructure, including the RS-25 engine, to the maximum extent possible to enable NASA to begin deep space missions sooner.

Testing of engine No. 0525 begins in the coming weeks on a test stand originally built in the 1960s for Apollo-era engines that helped launch the lunar missions. The stand has since been used for several major testing projects, and NASA spent almost a year modifying the structure to accommodate the RS-25 engine.

The SLS Program is managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, California, is on contract with NASA to adapt the RS-25 engines for SLS missions.

Info:http://www.deccanchronicle.com/140719/technology-science-and-trends/article/nasa-roll-out-space-launch-system-rocket-soon

The moon's underground caves could house astronauts

The moon's surface is home to a surprising number of "lunar pits" — and those pits may one day be home to astronauts.

NASA released a statement Thursday that the moon has as many as 200 lunar pits, and it hopes those pits will be able to shelter astronauts.

Since the pits aren't formed by asteroid or meteor impact, they're not technically craters, Vice explains. The pits are likely formed from parts of the moon collapsing over caves, widening underground to form larger, underground caves. The original caves, NASA says, were likely formed by ancient lava streams hollowing out the moon's underground channels.

"Pits would be useful in a support role for human activity on the lunar surface," Robert Wagner, an Arizona State University researcher and one of the scientists who discovered the moon's holes, said in a statement. "A habitat placed in a pit — ideally several dozen meters back under an overhang — would provide a very safe location for astronauts: no radiation, no micrometeorites, possibly very little dust, and no wild day-night temperature swings."

The pits, discovered by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, range in diameter from five meters to more than 900 meters. According to Wagner, the next step is to lower probes into the pits, since pits "cannot be explored very well from orbit." Once scientists have a better sense of what's inside the pits, they can take the next step toward setting up underground lunar bases.

info: http://theweek.com/speedreads/index/265013/speedreads-nasa-the-moons-underground-caves-could-house-astronauts