From Ars Technica: Reports identify Chinese grad student in hacks against Tibetans, others


Antivirus provider Trend Micro has released a research paper that links breaches against the computers of Tibetan activists and companies in Japan and India to a hacker in the Chinese underground.

An article published on Thursday in the New York Times later identified the intruder as a Chinese former graduate student who now “apparently” works for Tencent, China’s leading Internet portal company, according to online records cited by the news organization. It was one of the few times people investigating espionage-style malware attacks have put a public face on an alleged perpetrator.

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from Ars Technica

From AnandTech: Microsoft Talks Windows 8 Touch Experience on Windows 7 Tablets

Microsoft’s Jerry Koh and Jeff Piira gave some insight into the Windows 8 touch experience in yet another Building Windows 8 blog post yesterday. They talked specifically about the type of touch hardware that would be required for Windows 8-certified tablets – the touchscreens in Windows 8 and Windows on ARM tablets will need to recognize at least five simultaneous inputs, have good edge detection, and accurately register 95% of all touch input.

To ensure a decent experience on Windows 7 tablet hardware, the gestures needed for basic OS navigation require no more than two fingers, though tablets with limited multitouch capabilities may not be able to use apps or features that require more complex gestures. To compensate for tablet hardware with poor edge detection, Windows 8 can use a 20 pixel buffer around the screen to help register edge gestures, but the space used for the buffer cannot be used to register other touch input. Various sensitivity issues may also cause problems with individual taps, swipe to select, swipe and slide, and swipe from edge on Windows 7 tablets.

For more information, including specific Windows 7 tablets that Microsoft has used for internal testing, the full post is linked below.

Source: Building Windows 8 blog

from AnandTech

From Droid Life: Google Maps Update Brings New Navigation Menu, Quick Access to Contact Addresses, and Starred Destinations

A couple of weeks ago, Google updated Google Maps Navigation screens with bigger buttons and to be more car-friendly. Today, they updated the actual starting Navigation menu with a new layout to help complete the experience. You now have 4 big buttons to choose from when entering the Navigation screen, along with a list of recent destinations. If you swipe to the left, you get a list of locations that you have starred in Google Places for quick access. If you swipe to the right, you get a list of your contacts that have addresses attached. Seems minor, but man does this make sense.

Update:  Google also added in “preferred” mode of transit and gave higher resolution maps to phones with better displays.

Play Link

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cheers Jason and JW!

from Droid Life

From Engadget: Clarion’s Android-running Mirage IVI: a head unit that can play Angry Birds

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Remember the Clarion Malaysia IVI that was teased back in December? The company’s just unveiled the finished product, which you can call Mr. Clarion Mirage. The Android-running car stereo, head unit, erm, In-Vehicle Infotainment system is a hefty Double DIN unit, with a 6.5-inch display up front and plenty of tech packed inside. Intel’s embedded systems division Wind River supplied the customized version of Froyo, Navigon offered up a navigation engine and industrial designers Plextex helped design the hardware. The Clarion Mirage has USB and AV-out ports, an SD card slot and is designed to be as flexible as a smartphone: capable of playing back music and video, running apps from Google Play or working as a display repeater with consoles. There’s no official word on pricing or availability, but the scuttlebutt says it’ll arrive in Q4 of this year. We’ve reached out and will update if we learn more.

Continue reading Clarion’s Android-running Mirage IVI: a head unit that can play Angry Birds

 

from Engadget

From Engadget: Apple offers refund over Australian 4G iPad confusion

Confused over Apple’s liberal use of the 4G moniker? The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reckons you have a point and took those concerns to Apple Australia. The company has now responded to the country’s federal court, offering to contact — by email — everyone who bought the retina-screened slab and promise a refund if they felt misled over its connectivity capabilities. Apple will also amend its point of sale details to explain that while it can connect to 4G (LTE) networks in the US and Canada, it won’t connect to Australia’s own next-generation network offered by Telstra. Apple also thinks that the existence of HPSA capability — and its nebulous definition as either a third-generation or fourth generation network — in the Land Down Under meant it could still hold onto those 4G credentials.

 

from Engadget