2012 looks bright for ARM, even as competitors drop off
From Ars Technica: Review: Republic Wireless and its $19/month cell service
I hope the best for this cell phone start up, Republic Wireless. $19/month is hands down best price for unlimited voice AND data… granted they want you to use Wifi as much as possible…
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Republic Wireless is an upstart taking on some of the biggest behemoths in American industry—the major cell carriers—armed with WiFi as its main weapon. Republic keeps costs low by encouraging the use of WiFi on cell phones, though customers can still access 3G voice and data services, if needed. Though the service has some drawbacks, including a high startup cost, the previously limited service no longer has formal limits on usage, and it could pose a serious challenge to the standard carrier contract.
Did we mention it costs only $19 a month?
from Ars Technica
From Ars Technica: Parcel Gamer wants to share used game profits with publishers
While I think this could save the used games market, I also shudder at the thought that the game publishers will effectively get paid more than once if this happened… I’m torn…
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At the heart of the great used game debate are legitimate fears—on both sides of the divide. Gamers are worried about their right to buy and sell games they legally bought without technological hindrance or lost content. Publishers are afraid new game sales are unsustainable when cheaper, functionally identical used versions are available mere days after release. Meanwhile, major retailer GameStop rakes in what’s estimated to be billions of dollars from the used game market.
Is there a better way? Mike Kennedy seems to think so. He’s setting up a new used game trading site called Parcel Gamer that he thinks can satisfy both publishers and gamers, Â while also undercutting GameStop’s high-margin business model.
from Ars Technica
From DailyTech Main News Feed: “Angry Birds” Maker Says Piracy Isn’t All Bad, Can Generate Business
Intriguing thoughts… Rovio, by the way, is Angry Birds maker…
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Rovio CEO Mikael Hed said piracy can create a larger fanbase
From Engadget: Pirate Bay founders lose final appeal in Sweden, prison looms on the horizon
It looks like Pirate Bay‘s legal drama has finally come to a close in Sweden, where the Supreme Court today turned down the site’s final appeal. At the center of the case are the file sharing site’s founders — Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström — who have been battling Swedish prosecutors for quite a few years now. After being convicted of facilitating copyright infringement, the trio was initially sentenced to prison. They appealed the ruling in 2010 and, though they failed to overturn it, managed to see their 12-month sentences reduced by between two and eight months. Today, though, their final attempts were shot down, with the Court’s dismissal. The fines and prison terms remain the same: ten months for Neij, eight months for Sunde and four for Lundström. There’s also a fourth co-founder involved, Gottfrid Svartholm, who has been absent from several hearings. Under today’s ruling, his original 12-month sentence will stand, and the four men will have to pay a total of $6.8 million in damages. Because the case has dragged on for at least five years, however, there’s a chance that the sentences could be reduced by 12 months (bringing them down to zero), as is common in the Swedish legal system. The decision on this matter, however, remains with the court. TorrentFreakreports that at least one defendant intends to appeal to the European Court of Justice, though the results wouldn’t have any effect on Sweden’s decision.
from Engadget
From Gizmodo: How NASA Solved a $100 Million Problem for Five Bucks [Video]
A few years ago, back when the Constellation Program was still alive, NASA engineers discovered that the Ares I rocket had a crucial flaw, one that could have jeopardized the entire project. They panicked. They plotted. They steeled themselves for the hundreds of millions of dollars it was going to take to make things right. More »
from Gizmodo
From Ars Technica: Fake Windows updater targets government contractors, stealing sensitive data
Two security companies today released a joint report describing an ongoing series of attacks against government contractors that have been occurring since at least early 2009. According to the vendors Seculert and Zscaler, attackers are sending firms phishing e-mails with fake invitations to conferences, often in the form of PDF files that exploit flaws in Adobe Reader. The file installs what the vendors call an “MSUpdater” Trojan that poses as a legitimate Windows Update process. In reality, the Trojan is a remote access tool that can steal information from a company’s network for as long as the breach remains undiscovered.
“Foreign and domestic (United States) companies with intellectual property dealing in aero/geospace and defense seem to be some of the recent industries targeted in these attacks,” the report states, without identifying specific attack targets.
from Ars Technica