June 2012

App Developers Who Are Too Young to Drive

This year, Apple opened up its developers event for the first time to 13- to 17-year-olds.

Apple supplied 150 teens with scholarships to cover the event's $1,599 entrance fee, arranged a student lounge with beanbag chairs and Skittles, and invited their parents to chaperone. The teens, or their parents, still had to sign Apple's customary nondisclosure agreements. "We used to think that inviting students as young as 18 years old was great," said Apple's marketing chief, Phil Schiller, in an interview last week. But he said Apple's iPhone and iPad software, called iOS, has lately attracted interest from an even younger group of developers. "We would get emails after the developer conference from students, 16, 15, 14 years old, saying I already have X number of apps in the app store. I'm a developer. Can I take part in this too?" he said.

Search results may deliver tainted links

Internet search results have surpassed e-mail as the main way cybercriminals attempt to victimize Internet users.

That's the upshot of an analysis of Web traffic from more than 75 million users on home and corporate networks conducted by Blue Coat Security Lab. Researchers found criminals are poisoning the search results consumers receive when searching on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search services — and at a rate four times more frequently than they are sending tainted links through e-mail. The end game in each case is to get you to fall for scams or to infect and take control of your PC. "Searching is at least as dangerous as going into your e-mail in-box and clicking on things," says Chris Larsen, Blue Coat's chief malware expert.

The Season of Broadcast Disconnect

If True Blood is a metonym for cable’s summer slate, broadcast’s goofy roster of empty-calorie fare puts one in mind of Count Chocula. It’s a sugary slurry of competition series and hook-up shows studded with the occasional marshmallowy nugget of drama. The networks’ summer offerings aren’t meant to serve as a meal; rather, they exist to sort of tide viewers over until it’s time for the autumn repast.

Networks look to clean up with nighttime soaps

Night after night, in households from Puebla to Pico Rivera, tens of millions of loyal viewers tune in to their Spanish-language telenovelas, gasping at the seductions and betrayals on tear-jerkers like "Abismo de Pasión" ("Abyss Of Passion"). Now network executives, desperate to capitalize on the addictive powers of the prime-time soap operas, are copying the formula with English-language versions, starring marquee names. In some cases, they're even borrowing the five-nights-a-week format. The telenovelas are only one network initiative to reach Latino viewers.

Mergers of European Mobile Carriers Expected to Grow

European mobile telephone operators are primed to enter a long-awaited phase of consolidation. As growth slows, and as the need to cut costs and pay out millions for new, faster networks grows, longtime rivals are joining forces in markets across Europe to reap the benefits of economies of scale. “You are going to see this happen more and more,” said John Delaney, an analyst in London at the International Data Corporation. “Fundamentally, there are too many network operators. Revenues are declining in the core services of voice and text, and the rise in data revenue is not making up for the shortfall.” European policy makers are supportive. Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for telecommunications, said that consolidation would help the Continent’s industry maintain its competitive position with rivals in the United States and Asia, where greater consolidation has allowed for faster adoption of new technologies. “Having a few pan-European operators that are strong in the cross-border market would not necessarily be bad for competition,” Commissioner Kroes said.

Vodafone Wins Backing For C&W Bid After Orbis Drops Opposition

Vodafone Group won shareholder support for its 1.04 billion-pound ($1.6 billion) takeover offer for Cable & Wireless after the target’s largest investor rescinded its opposition.

Vodafone won support from Cable & Wireless shareholders representing about 78 percent of the company, gaining enough acceptances to take it beyond a minimum threshold of 75 percent ahead of a shareholder meeting. Orbis Holdings Ltd., which owns 19.1 percent of Cable Wireless and earlier this year said the offer undervalues the company, today accepted the bid. Cable & Wireless rose as much as 8.5 percent in London. Vodafone, the world’s second-largest mobile-phone operator, will use Cable & Wireless’s fiber network to boost its fixed- line system in the U.K. and relieve the strain of surging data traffic on its own mobile-phone network as customers increasingly adopt smartphones including Apple’s iPhone and devices running Google’s Android.

Coverage of Scandal Dents Credibility of Pakistani TV News

Not long ago, judges and journalists were clearly on the same team in Pakistan, reveling in a shared crusade to expose the corrupt, hold the powerful to account and reshape the dynamics of a fragile democracy. Now, following a cascade of explosive scandals, they are at each other’s throats.

For a week, the country has been gripped by a drumroll of revelations: lurid corruption accusations against the family of the populist chief justice; dramatic television appearances by his billionaire accuser; angry judges threatening legal action against a major television station; and a leaked video exposing sham journalism at its worst. The drama is still unfolding. But few doubt that it has already wounded the integrity of the buccaneering Supreme Court chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who faces sharp criticism of his judgment that could threaten his job. And it has raised pressing questions for the burgeoning television news channels, which have acquired great influence in Pakistani public life but now face accusations of becoming an entrenched part of what is wrong with the country.

An E-Reader Revolution for Africa?

A vision of "one Kindle per child" for developing countries faces considerable challenges, including the cost of e-readers and making sure that kids actually learn better on the devices than with old-fashioned books. Africa is littered with well-intentioned technology programs that fail because devices don't get used, fall into the wrong hands or just can't find enough power to run.

An ongoing project called One Laptop Per Child, which started in 2005 with the goal of creating Internet-connected laptops for educating kids in the developing world, spent $30 million to make its own laptop with a long battery life. The group has sold more than two million laptops, today priced at $185 each, but it has run into competition from commercial computer makers as well as criticism of its mission amid the basic needs of people in the Third World. It is now working on developing a laptop with a tabletlike touch screen. Early results at Worldreader are promising, says Mr. Risher, 46, a former Amazon executive who has raised about $1.5 million for his two-year-old program from foundations, individual donors like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, publishers and Amazon itself. It has distributed 1,100 Kindles and 180,000 e-books to kids and teachers in Ghana, Kenya and Uganda.

What is America’s cyberwar policy?

[Commentary] Much has been learned about how Stuxnet functioned since it was first discovered more than two years ago by computer security experts. But the recent disclosure that Stuxnet was approved by both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama as a covert operation aimed at Iran sheds new light on a nascent U.S. offensive cyberweapons program that has largely existed in the shadows. Instead of forcing cyberweapons into deeper secrecy, the disclosure should prompt a more open and thorough policy debate about 21st-century threats and how they will be countered with American power. The world is awash in hacking, espionage, theft and disruption. Nations are struggling to defend their networks, but also building offensive cyberprograms designed to function as free-standing weapons or as adjuncts to conventional kinetic warfare. Stuxnet demonstrated that these weapons can be deployed to attack, although they also can be hard to deter and could invite retaliation that is nearly impossible to trace. President Obama said in his strategy document last year that the digital world “is a place where the norms of responsible, just, and peaceful conduct among states and peoples have begun to take hold.” Perhaps, but the digital universe is also spawning warriors, including those of the United States. An open debate would go a long way toward preparing the American people for what is certain to be decades of commitment and uncertainty in this new domain.

FCC asks about cell phone safety

For the first time in 15 years, the Federal Communications Commission took steps to reexamine safety standards for cell phones amid growing concerns about the health risks associated with radiation from mobile devices. At question is whether limits the FCC puts on radio frequency emission for cellular devices are outdated and do not take into account the use of new mobile technology and the amount of time users spend on devices.

The debate has drawn huge protest from the $170 billion wireless industry, which has lobbied the FCC and local governments against new standards and proposals for greater disclosure of health warnings. The FCC’s action was preliminary, with the five commissioners presented with a draft proposal to take up a review of its safety guidelines. The FCC will vote at an undetermined future date on whether to pursue an official investigation into the topic. The agency downplayed the significance of the action and said it believes current standards are safe.