Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – June 13, 2013

Android’s Biggest Threat Isn’t Malware, It’s Lost Phones – Security people are, by and large, a bit of a dour lot. It’s not their fault, but their industry focuses on all the bad things that could happen to you—many of which you’ve never worried about before. That’s why it’s surprising to hear a security researcher tell me that not only is Android malware protection not a big deal, but that mobile security is a huge success story.

Google: We’re No NSA Stooge and We’ll Prove It If the Feds Let Us – Google has asked the U.S. Department of Justice for permission to publish the number of national-security information requests it receives from the government.

New Android Phone? Check Out These 14 Essential Hints and Tips – If you’ve just purchased an Android phone, congratulations. By going Android, you’ve opted for raw functionality over simplicity, for customization over absolute user-friendliness. Android is a powerful platform, but only for those who take full advantage of all its tricks.

This quad-core Android PC-on-a-stick weighs in at $62 – The QC802, a quad-core mini PC with 2GB RAM and 8GB Flash, can be snapped up for a cool $62, or $70 with shipping. The device is powered by a Rockchip RK3188 Cortex A9 SoC (1.6 Ghz) paired with an ARM Mali-400MP4 GPU.

Google Cloud Print arrives on Android – Google’s Cloud Print has landed on Android, bringing official support for the wireless printing system to smartphones and tablets.

Report: Video gamers really do see more detail – Hours spent at the video gaming console not only train a player’s hands to work the buttons on the controller, they probably also train the brain to make better and faster use of visual input, according to Duke University researchers.

Yahoo to issue inactive mail accounts to other users – Yahoo is resetting email accounts that have not been used for at least 12 months and issuing them to other users. The company said in a blog post that it was freeing up the dormant email IDs to give its current and new users the opportunity to sign up for “the Yahoo! ID they’ve always wanted.”

Google Launches Google+ Dashboard for Businesses – Google this week rolled out a new Google+ dashboard that lets businesses manage their online presence across many of its online properties.

Apple’s moving 9-minute ad about apps changing lives – Apple, not content with just one ad that tries to explain its ethos, now releases a longer movie about how its apps transform societies.

NSA surveillance retrospective: AT&T, Verizon never denied it – Blanket denials from Microsoft, Google, and Facebook — and efforts to clear their names — are the opposite of what AT&T and Verizon did in response to reports saying they opened their systems to the National Security Agency.

Apple fires back at DOJ with actual e-mail from Jobs – Justice Department presents a draft e-mail it said proved collusion, but Apple responds with e-mail actually sent that contained different content and tone.

15 iOS 7 Features Cribbed From Other Platforms – Apple’s new iOS borrowed plenty of features from its competitors – but that’s what competition is all about. See what the other smartphone firms got to first.

Facebook may be changing the server business for ever – A new data center in Lulea, Sweden, is an exemplar of the good Facebook is capable of. It is trying to do for hardware what Linux did for software. And it may be succeeding.

Security:

How secure is the National Security Agency? – We know that there’s no such thing as a completely secure computer system. Is the NSA the nation’s largest security risk of them all?

Google uncovers phishing campaign targeting Iranians – Web giant says it has identified a significant spike in phishing activity originating from within the country just days ahead of presidential elections.

iPhones can auto-connect to rogue Wi-Fi networks, researchers warn – Security researchers say they’ve uncovered a weakness in some iPhones that makes it easier to force nearby users to connect to Wi-Fi networks that steal passwords or perform other nefarious deeds.

Apple iOS 7 beta bug allows attackers to share private photos – A flaw in iOS 7 gives attackers the ability to quietly go through a user’s camera roll to delete pictures or, worse, share them with others — even if the device uses a lock screen.

Crack 99 admin gets 12 years in jail for $100 million of software piracy – How much jail time can you serve for software piracy? Quite a bit, apparently. A Chinese national has been sent up the river for 12 years for running a website that distributed more than $100 million worth of pirated apps.

Company News:

Google: UK politicians demand tax investigation – The search giant should be investigated by the UK tax authority HM Revenue and Customs over its approach to paying taxes in the UK, says a report by a parliamentary watchdog.

Metia launches Modern Web Analytics app for Microsoft Windows 8 devices – Metia Group, a leading international digital marketing agency, has developed a new website analytics app for the Windows 8 platform. The new app – called Modern Web Analytics – uses the Google Analytics API to allow users to analyze traffic to their websites using any Windows 8 touch or desktop device, including Microsoft’s Surface family of tablets. Modern Web Analytics is free to download from the Microsoft Windows 8 marketplace here, or learn more about it at the Modern Web Analytics web page.

Red Hat Announces OpenStack-powered Product Offerings to Deliver on Open Hybrid Cloud Vision – The new offerings include Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform, a solution that serves as the foundation for advanced cloud users who are seeking to build an OpenStack-powered cloud, and Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure, a comprehensive offering designed to support organizations on their journey from traditional datacenter virtualization to OpenStack-powered clouds.

HP ties knot with Google, as Whitman talks up customers – Hewlett-Packard on Tuesday said it has begun to integrate its hardware and management systems with Google Apps.

Apple sees chance to compete with Office on the Web – Apple on Monday, almost as an afterthought, announced it was working on browser-based versions of its iWork productivity applications, a move one analyst said challenged Microsoft’s Office behemoth.

Facebook copies social rival Twitter, adopts hashtags – Starting today, Facebook users can start to use Twitter-like hashtags

Clearwire’s board backs Dish takeover proposal over Sprint – Wireless broadband provider’s board recommends shareholders accept Dish’s bid, which is $1 a share greater than a rival bid by majority owner Sprint Nextel.

Webopedia Daily:

SSL – (pronounced as separate letters) Short for Secure Sockets Layer, a protocol developed by Netscape for transmitting private documents via the Internet. SSL uses a cryptographic system that uses two keys to encrypt data − a public key known to everyone and a private or secret key known only to the recipient of the message. Both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer support SSL, and many Web sites use the protocol to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card numbers. By convention, URLs that require an SSL connection start with https: instead of http.

Games and Entertainment:

Gaming: No Longer a Boys’ Club? – The gaming glass ceiling has officially been shattered: According to a new report, adult women represent almost half of all video game players.

We made a game in only 20 minutes with Microsoft’s Project Spark – Project Spark is the most intriguing game Microsoft brought to E3, because it really isn’t a game at all—it’s a toolbox for making your own games and sharing them with others.

Hands-on: Super Mario 3D World scratches an all-too-familiar itch – The latest Mario platformer isn’t groundbreaking, but it’s all in good fun.

Google Chrome now lets you Cube Slam your friend’s face – Google has announced the latest in its Chrome Experiments, an in-browser game called Cube Slam that lets you slam a small cube into your friend’s face (or a bear’s face, if you’re so inclined). While this isn’t the first game of this nature we’ve seen, this is arguably one of the most enjoyable, bringing a bit of air-hockey like game play to Chrome.

Nvidia’s Shield launches this month for $349, is it a must-own gaming device? – Being able to take top-of-the-line PC games with you on the go sounds like an enticing prospect, but is dropping $349 on a Shield as enticing of a prospect?

The Elder Scrolls Online will place console and PC players on different servers – Bethesda and its parent company Zenimax Online has confirmed that when The Elder Scrolls Online is released in Spring 2014, the Xbox One and PS4 versions will be limited to their own servers. PC and Mac versions will share their servers (known as a megaserver).

Off Topic (Sort of):

The Trajectory of Television—starting with a big history of the small screen – From surrogate storyteller to high-def streaming infotainment, TV has come a long way.

High Heels Were Popular Among Men Before Women – The first high heel wearers are believed to have been Persian horseback warriors sometime around the ninth century. The extended heel was reportedly developed specifically for riding, to keep the rider’s foot from slipping out of the stirrups. It also helped to hold the rider steady when standing up in the stirrups and shooting arrows. (suggested by Michael F.)

Next-generation wireless networks: From Gigabit Wi-Fi to white space – Wireless technology is evolving on all fronts — in personal, local and wide area networks — and in some surprising directions. Here are the latest developments in Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, white space radio and more.

Measuring the narcissism of Facebook and Twitter users – A new study out of the University of Michigan measures the connection between narcissism and social networking site use. Guess what? It is growing.

Hands-free tech doesn’t help with driver distraction says researchers – As mobile technology increases, so does the trouble it causes on the road when drivers engage with the devices. The powers that be have been pushing auto makers to implement systems that prevent or limit the use of devices in their car, with the NHTSA being particularly vocal about it on June 7.

To kill, cheetahs use agility and acceleration, not top speed – Researchers have used gadget-laden collars to record cheetahs’ movements in the wild. They found that cheetahs succeed not because they are the fastest animal on land but because of their incredible acceleration and unmatched turning speeds. (suggested by Michael F.)

Man jailed in China for making rubber alien – A man called Mister Li posts images of a rather unconvincing alien on the Web. He is sent to prison for disturbing public order.

Today’s Quote:

“Our government … teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”

–      Justice Louis D. Brandeis

Today’s Free Downloads:

Microsoft Security Releases ISO Image June, 2013 – This DVD5 ISO image file contains the security updates for Windows released on Windows Update in June 2013.

BrowsingHistoryView 1.32 – BrowsingHistoryView is a handy and reliable application designed to view your browsing history from multiple browsers at once. The software includes in the report details such as: visit time, visit count, user profile and the web browser that was used to access that webpage. BrowsingHistoryView features support for the following web browsers: IE, Firefox, Safari and Chrome.

IE Asterisk Password Uncover 1.7.2 – IE Asterisk Password Uncover allows you to view passwords hidden with asterisks in password fields in web pages and ActiveX controls. Comes in handy when you have forgotten your passwords.