Banking the Unbanked: How Mobile Wallets Can Become a Tool for Financial Inclusion

You can already see smartphones and virtual wallets being used to pay for things like taxis and food delivery. Recently though, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has published guidelines for Payment Banks. This could well help bring a vast section of the previously unbanked population of the country into the financial system, through the use of technology.

According to the RBI notice, the primary objective of setting up Payment Banks is to further financial inclusion by providing small savings accounts and remittance services to migrant labour workforce, low-income households, small businesses, and other unorganised sector entities and users Now that the RBI has released the final guidelines, companies can start to apply for licenses to create private banks, with the deadline for applications set for January 16.

These Payment Banks won't have a physical branch - instead, a "business correspondent" (such as a local retailer) can accept cash and add it to a user's digital account, and then accept cashless payments for his goods. These accounts could also - perhaps more importantly - be used for remittances from family members in other parts of the country.

The new Payment Banks cannot lend money or issue credit cards, but they can do a lot of things that the mobile wallets are not permitted to - for one thing, they can issue ATM and debit cards, and set up branches and ATMs. According to Amit Lakhotia, Vice President - Business at Paytm, this move by the RBI will have far-reaching consequences, and he believes that the adoption of new technologies in the country is not going to be a long process either - he feels that we will see changes starting in months, not years. "We have been working in this area for the last four to six years and this is a big move that the RBI has made," he says. "They [the RBI] realised that bringing about financial inclusion will require the use of technology."

OnePlus One Review: The New Mid-Range Smartphone King

The OnePlus One has been a global sensation thanks to its unbelievably low price and top-end feature set, earning it the nickname "flagship killer". OnePlus is the latest Chinese manufacturer to adopt a global brand identity and slick packaging in order to hit the big companies where it hurts - the price tag. In India, OnePlus will go up against the likes of Xiaomi and Huawei, which have made big splashes already.

The OnePlus One will only be available in very limited quantities and that too, via a single online retailer. Whether this is a marketing ploy or a genuine way to keep costs down, there is bound to be a lot of excitement and a lot of disappointment. There's also a new twist to the story: the device runs CyanogenMod, which is one its headlining features, but Indian users won't be able to receive automatic updates.

Look and feel:
The OnePlus One is handsome when seen head-on, with a sheer black front framed within a slightly curved metal bed. The three capacitive navigation buttons below the screen are barely visible when not lit up, and the earpiece on top is similarly subtle. The multi-coloured LED notification is invisible till it lights up. There's no branding, but we did notice that the Gorilla glass protecting the screen picked up a lot of grime.

The rear and sides of this phone are a different story - on the Sandstone Black model, which we received for review, all surfaces other than the front are coated in what feels like a very rough felt material. It's really unusual and frankly, not very pleasant. It feels rough in the hand, which is great for grip, but not for comfort. It causes a lot of friction in pockets and on cloth surfaces, and also picks up a lot of lint from pockets and bags. We can't be sure, but it also feels as though it will begin peeling off before too long. You'll really want to try this for yourself before you actually buy this phone. The rear isn't swappable, but you should be able to pick up a plastic or silicone cover if you later find you don't like it.

Specifications and software
Most of the OnePlus One's appeal lies in its hardware, and it isn't hard to see why. You'll have a very hard time finding anything else that delivers the same amount of power at this price level. It all begins with a top-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 SoC, which has four CPU cores running at 2.5GHz and an Adreno 330 GPU. That's matched with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage space (a 16GB model is available in other markets but not in India at launch time).

Usage and performance
We liked what we saw of CyanogenMod 11S running on our review unit. While not the most polished in terms of graphics, it definitely does give users a lot of control over the device's operating environment. We weren't huge fans of the blocky custom icons which weren't easy to tell apart, or some of the other custom visual elements.

However those are just minor niggles compared to the amount of joy we felt when we discovered each new thing that could be changed, enhanced and customised. It starts right at the splash screen animation, which you can customise. The list of things you can change is never-ending: the widgets and shortcuts on the lockscreen, the screen colour temperature, the appearance of status bar icons, the shortcuts in the notifications shade and the behaviour of each button, just to name a few.

Airtel Launches 3G Services in Odisha

Bharti Airtel on Monday said its high speed 3G services are available to customers in Odisha. With this, Airtel now offers a wide bouquet of mobile services to customers in Odisha, with its offerings spanning 2G & 3G services, a company release said.

Airtel is a major mobile operator in Odisha with over 8.5 million customers, it said. Airtel 3G will be available to customers in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Brahmapur, Keonjhar, Jajpur Road, Jajpur Town and Paradip, it said.

Airtel customers across these cities can now experience high speed 3G mobile broadband experience and enjoy buffer-free video streaming, high speed downloads, file sharing and transfers, online gaming and much more on the go.

Airtel 3G services will available at prices starting as low as Rs. 27 and customers can choose from a variety of simple and affordable plans, the release added.

Windows 8.1 Adoption Grows as Windows XP Falls

While Microsoft's latest Windows 8.1 iteration has been increasing its user base worldwide, the much older and still much used Windows XP version has been following the opposite trend in the market, highlighted in latest statistics for the month of November.

Notably, out of all the major desktop operating systems in the world, including Windows 8, Windows NT, Mac OS X 10.9, Mac OS X 10.10 and Others, Windows 8.1 stands at 12.1 percent in November, which is slightly lower than Windows XP's 13.57 percent, as per the latest report published by Net Applications. Windows 7 however, still dominates the PC OS market by 53.71 percent. Last month, Windows 8.1 was at 10.92 percent as compared to Windows XP's 17.18 percent. Notably, Windows XP dropped considerably by 17.65 percent whereas Windows 8.1 rose by 9.46 percent from November last year.

However, Windows XP is now likely to fall at a much faster rate given than seen in the recent past, with Microsoft having already ended the OS version's extended support in April this year. Windows Vista, which dropped down by 0.17 percent to 2.65 in November this year as compared to October, will have its extended support finished by April 2017 as per the Microsoft's Lifecycle page.

Now, Get Yourself the 'Ultimate Space Selfie'

Two UK researchers are sending dozens of family photographs to be clicked on the edge of space in what they call the "ultimate space selfie". The former PhD students from Sheffield, Alex Baker and Chris Rose, will send almost anything you want to space - and snap it there.

They have been sending up "payloads" to the edge of space, including a diamond ring, numerous promotional gimmicks, toy cars and newspaper front pages. They have also sent dozens of family photographs in what they call the "ultimate space selfie".

Since their first launch in 2011 the two engineers have developed a GPS tracking system to collect their payloads after they land and now charge businesses up to 4,000 pounds to send packages to space and back. They have even had talks with a funeral home about sending ashes into space, 'The Independent' reported. They also offer a do-it-yourself (DIY) kit for customers to launch their own space balloons for less than 500 pounds.

Sony E-Paper Smartwatch Revealed as Crowdfunded FES Watch

Last week, when Sony's plan of developing an e-paper smartwatch broke cover, the entire tech industry compared it to one similar flexible prototype E-Ink smartwatch project, named FES Watch. Now, it turns out that the FES Watch is actually company's secret project, according to Sony spokesperson. While speaking to the Wall Street Journal on Friday, the spokesperson confirmed that company has a project in development, called 'Fashion Entertainments' (FES), where it is studying how electronic paper can be used to make fashion products.

The FES Watch prototype is a smartwatch that is completely made out of electronic paper (including watch face and the wrist band), which is said to change its appearance based on user gestures. It comes with 24 different user selectable patterns. While there is no confirmation from Sony regarding the official release of the product, the Japanese crowdfunding project page notes that the supporters will be able to pre-order the smartwatch and receive it after May 2015.

A person involved in the project told WSJ that, "We hid Sony's name because we wanted to test the real value of the product, whether there will be demand for our concept."

MIT Engineers Have High Hopes for Cheetah Robot

It's a robot unlike any other, inspired by the world's fastest land animal and controlled by video game technology. The robot, called the cheetah, can run on batteries at speeds of more than 10 mph (16 kph), jump about 16 inches (40 centimeters) high, land safely and continue running for at least 15 minutes - all while using less power than a microwave oven. It's the creation of researchers at the Massachusetts of Technology, who had to design key elements from zero because of a lack of, or shortcomings in, existing technology.

 

That includes powerful, lightweight motors, electronics that control power for its 12 motors and an algorithm that determines the amount of force a leg should exert during the split second that it spends on the ground while running. That's the key to helping the robot maintain balance and forward momentum. An onboard computer organizes data from various sensors and sends commands to each motor.

"This is kind of a Ferrari in the robotics world, like, we have to put all the expensive components and make it really that instinctive," said MIT Professor Sangbae Kim, who heads the school's Biomimetic Robotics Lab that designed the robot. "That's the only way to get that speed."

Insight gleaned from the prototype could have real-world applications, including the design of revolutionary prosthetics, wearable technologies, all-terrain wheelchairs and vehicles that can travel efficiently in rough terrain much like animals do, Kim said. There are hopes the robot will be able to be used in search and rescue operations in hazardous or hostile environments where it's too risky to send a human rescuer.

Indian Telecom Networks Being Targeted by Regin Malware

Cybercriminals are using a new malware - Regin - to penetrate and monitor GSM networks in India and other countries including Pakistan, Brazil, Germany and Russia, security researchers have said. Regin is being used to target telecom operators, governments, financial institutions, research organisations, multinational political bodies and individuals involved in advanced mathematical/cryptographical research, they said. Security solutions firm Kaspersky Lab said some of the earliest samples of Regin appear to have been created as early as 2003.

"Regin is aimed at gathering confidential data from attacked networks and performing several other types of attacks ... attackers turned compromised organisations in one vast unified victim and were able to send commands and steal the information via a single entry point," Kaspersky said. This structure allowed the actor to operate silently for years without raising suspicions, it added.

"The ability to penetrate and monitor GSM networks is perhaps the most unusual and interesting aspect of these operations," Kaspersky Lab Director of Global Research and Analysis Team Costin Raiu said.

Although all GSM networks have mechanisms embedded which allow entities such as law enforcement to track suspects, other parties can hijack this ability and abuse it to launch different attacks against mobile users, Raiu added. Post attack, attackers could have access to information about which calls are processed by a particular cell site, redirect calls to other cells, activate neighbour cells and perform other offensive activities.

According to another security solutions provider Symantec, Regin bears the "hallmarks of a state-sponsored operation" and is believed to have been in use since at least 2008.

Nasa to Study Climate Change From the Sky

Starting 2015, Nasa will send five new airborne field campaigns to the skies to investigate how long-range air pollution, warming ocean waters and fires in Africa affect our climate. This is Nasa's second series of "Earth Venture" sub-orbital investigations, as Nasa began soliciting bids for these projects in 2007 at the behest of the National Research Council. The first series of five projects was selected in 2010.

"These new investigations address a variety of key scientific questions critical to advancing our understanding of how Earth works," said Jack Kaye, associate director for research in Nasa's Earth Science Division in the US.

"These innovative airborne experiments will let us probe inside processes and locations in unprecedented detail that complements what we can do with our fleet of Earth-observing satellites," he added.

These studies into several incompletely understood Earth system processes were selected as part of Nasa's Earth Venture-class projects. The five selected investigations are: Atmospheric chemistry and air pollution; ecosystem changes in a warming ocean; greenhouse gas sources; African fires and Atlantic clouds; and melting Greenland glaciers. Each project is funded at a total cost of no more than $30 million over five years.

New Chip Could Boost Data Speeds in Smartphones & Wireless Devices

Your smartphone and other compact wireless devices could soon receive data twice as fast, thanks to a tiny new inexpensive circuit developed by researchers. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin created the radically smaller, more efficient radio wave circulator that could be used in cellphones and other wireless devices.

The circulator has the potential to double the useful bandwidth in wireless communications by enabling full-duplex functionality, meaning devices can transmit and receive signals on the same frequency band at the same time. The key innovation is the creation of a magnetic-free radio wave circulator.

Since the advent of wireless technology 60 years ago, magnetic-based circulators have been in principle able to provide two-way communications on the same frequency channel, but they are not widely adopted because of the large size, weight and cost associated with using magnets and magnetic materials. Freed from a reliance on magnetic effects, the new circulator has a much smaller footprint while also using less expensive and more common materials.

These cost and size efficiencies could lead to the integration of circulators within cellphones and other microelectronic systems, resulting in substantially faster downloads, fewer dropped calls and significantly clearer communications. The team of researchers, led by Associate Professor Andrea Alu, has developed a prototype circulator that is 2 centimetres in size - more than 75 times smaller than the wavelength of operation.

The circulator may be further scaled down to as small as a few microns, according to the researchers. The design is based on materials widely used in integrated circuits such as gold, copper and silicon, making it easier to integrate in the circuit boards of modern communication devices.

"We are changing the paradigm with which isolation and two-way transmission on the same frequency channel can be achieved. We have built a circulator that does not need magnets or magnetic materials," Alu said.

Coffee With Pepper? Robot Sells Espresso Machines in Japan

Move over George Clooney, Nestle has employed a fleet of chirpy robots to sell its coffee machines in Japanese stores. The Hollywood heart-throb, who has become the global face of the Nespresso brand, has been given the elbow in favour of Pepper, a cheeky and chatty android, which its makers claim can answer customers' questions. 

"How do you enjoy coffee? Number one: An eye-opener coffee; Number two: A post-meal cup of coffee," Pepper asked a TV personality at a promotion event Monday.

The 120-centimetre (four-foot) tall robot has a human-like face perched on top of a white plastic body, with rollers and what looks like a tablet computer on its chest. The gimmick will eventually see 1,000 stores across Japan with their own Pepper, which makers say can understand up to 80 percent of conversations.

The robots will "help us discover consumer needs through conversations between our customers and Pepper," said a joint statement from Nestle and SoftBank, whose French arm Aldebaran developed the technology. Pepper, which was unveiled in June by SoftBank president Masayoshi Son, already sells mobile phones at SoftBank's 74 Japanese stores, where it has been used to collect customers' opinions.

Google Unveils 'Best Apps of 2014' Section on Play Store

Google has now made it slightly easier for Android users to find the top-rated apps of the year on the Google Play store, by published the 'Best Apps of 2014' section. The Best Apps of 2014 section on Google Play features 64 apps in total, including some popular apps like Shazam, TuneIn Radio, Uber, Skype Qik: Group Video Chat, and Secret. Also, not all the apps listed are free to download.

 

The list includes seven paid apps, namely Amazing World Atlas, Ultimate Guitar Tabs & Chords, Facetune, Afterlight, 7 Minute Workout Challenge, djay 2 and Over. The full list of apps is available to browse or download on the Best Apps of 2014 page. Notably, at around the same time last year, Google released the Top Apps and Games of 2013 list, a part of the company's users' choice awards.

According to Q3 data by App Annie, Google Play led the App Store in free downloads and got a major contribution from emerging markets. The App Annie Index: Market Q3 2014 report claims that Google Play downloads exceeded App Store downloads by around 60 percent in Q3 2014 as compared to the same time last year. The App Store however still generated more revenue than Google Play, and was ahead by 60 percent. The report also claimed that games saw big revenue growth in Q3 2014.

It is worth noting that Google in September also revealed the first set of Android apps for Chrome OS. The company announced four apps - namely Duolingo, a free language-learning app; Evernote, the popular note taking app; Sight Words, an app to help improve your child's reading skills, and Vine, for creating short, looping videos.

Indian Software Market Grows 10.7 Percent in H1 2014: IDC

Political stability and improving economic sentiments have helped the software market in India grow by 10.7 percent in January-June 2014 period as compared to first half of previous year, research firm IDC said Monday. The formation of a stable NDA government resulted in some amount of positivity in the market which reflected in IT investments by major verticals like banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), retail, manufacturing and e-commerce, IDC said in a statement.

The period also saw few of the big vendors closing major deals which were in the pipeline since early 2013 but did not materialise owing to economic and political uncertainties, it added. Though IDC did not disclose the size of the market in the first half of 2014, it had pegged the Indian IT software market at Rs. 10,913 crores in January-June 2013 period.

IDC expects the software market to grow at a stable pace in the next five years (2014-2018) with a healthy CAGR of 10.5 percent. Some of the areas which are expected to witness software uptake are mobile application development & mobile device management, security software, system software, analytics and engineering applications, IDC said.

In the January-June 2014 period, Microsoft led with 31.8 percent share of the software vendor market, followed by Oracle at 12 percent, SAP (6.5 percent), IBM(5.5 percent) and Synopsys (4.2 percent).

Intel to Power Next Generation Google Glass

The next generation of Google Glass will reportedly be powered by an Intel chip. Citing sources familiar with the matter, a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday said, "an Intel chip will replace a processor from Texas Instruments Inc. included in the first version of Glass", adding the refreshed eyewear will be released by next year.

While the report did not provide any details about the Intel chip apart from saying it would be power-efficient, it noted that the popular chipmaker has plans to promote the next generation of Google Glass (rumoured Google Glass 2) to companies such as hospital networks and manufacturers, according to one of the people.

Notably, Intel has been working hard to get into the wearable device space, apart from of course, its continued battle with ARM in the smartphone space. So far, it has also unveiled two consumer facing products - the MICA bracelet, and the Basis fitness and sleep tracker.

Intel also unveiled the Quark x86 micro-processor, the Edison board, and the SoFIA LTE mobile SoC, all of which have applications in Internet-connected devices and wearables.

In June Google, promoting its Glass for workplaces, had announced 'Glass at Work' certified partners for enterprise solutions to help businesses reach their goals.

Intel Acquires Canadian IT Security Firm PasswordBox

Intel said on Monday it has acquired PasswordBox, a Montreal-based identity management service that gives users a convenient way to log into websites and applications from any device without having to type or remember passwords. The purchase price for the privately held Canadian start-up was not disclosed.

The Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker said PasswordBox will become part of the Safe Identity organization within Intel Security Group that is focused on simplifying and strengthening security by delivering ideas that reduce the pain of having to memorize dozens of passwords. Earlier this year, Intel rebranded security software maker McAfee, which it acquired for about $7.7 billion in 2011, as Intel Security Group.

PasswordBox, founded in 2012, has already been downloaded 14 million times and this year it won best mobile app at CES - a huge annual consumer electronics tradeshow in Las Vegas. The tech start-up last year secured $6 million in a Series A venture funding round led by the OMERS Ventures. Intel's acquisition of PasswordBox is effective immediately and all 48 employees of the start-up are now a part of the Intel Security Group.

Samsung Galaxy E Series Tipped Again; TouchWiz UI Themes Leaked

Following Galaxy A series, the South Korean giant - Samsung - seems all set to launch the earlier reported new series with a single letter naming convention, the purported Galaxy E series.

Last week, two alleged Galaxy E series devices were spotted (via Sammobile) on Indian export/ import website Zauba. Listed as SM-E500F and SM-E700F, the smartphones are speculated to be the anticpated Galaxy E5 and Galaxy E7. While there are no details available about the SM-E500F, the SM-E700F is listed to be a dual-SIM device with 5.5-inch touchscreen. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A series is anticipated to add the Galaxy A7 smartphone soon, as the device has gone through FCC certification in the US.

The listing reveals that the Galaxy A7 will sport a 5.2-inch HD (1080x1920 pixels) display; a 64-bit 1.5GHz octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor; a 2 GB of RAM; a 12-megapixel rear camera; a 5-megapixel front camera; 16 GB of internal storage; Bluetooth; Wi-Fi; GPS; NFC; 4G LTE, and Android 4.4 KitKat. These specifications are completely in-line with previous GFXBench leaks. Notably, Samsung is yet to launch the Galaxy A3 smartphone unveiled in October, but it reportedly got delayed because of production issues. The Galaxy A7 handset that was much-leaked alongside the Galaxy A3 and Galaxy A5, has still not yet been announced - possibly another symptom of the yield issues.

Last week, a Samsung China listing revealed the pricing of Galaxy A5, which is CNY 2599 (approximately Rs. 26,000). The smartphone, which was also set to launch in November, is now being rumoured to launch in December.

New Tech Aimed at Boosting Efficiency of Internet-Connected Devices

Researchers are working on a new hardware that could improve the efficiency of Internet-connected devices. With the number of Internet connected devices rapidly increasing, scientists are starting a new research programme to reduce energy consumption of such devices. Led by the Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications (CEET) at the University of Melbourne, the programme will develop new hardware and cloud-based solutions to improve efficiency of energy consumption.

As more connected devices are used across the world through the Internet of Things, there is a need to address the energy demands that provide sensing, monitoring and control for a vast array of things, from traffic lights, to home appliances and building components. The associated increase in data processing and transmission will result in significant energy consumption.

Bell Labs Network Energy Research Programme Leader, Dr Thierry Klein, said effective collaboration with skilled specialists would be a key factor in solving future network efficiency issues.

"Efficiency and sustainability are already significant challenges for the telecommunications industry and this will only increase as more devices are connected and more data is moving around the network," said Klein.

Godus God Game Now Available for Free for Android

Not perturbed by the less than stellar response to Godus on Steam last year, developer 22Cans had launched its debut game on iOS earlier in the year and now on Android. For its release on Google's mobile OS, the studio has partnered with DeNA to publish the game on Google Play.

The game has you in the role of a god controlling a primitive village. Aside from shaping the land to allow for more habitable areas for your villagers, you'll bless your them with an abundance of crops or punish them with fire as you see fit. While you don't control their actions directly, as you would in a strategy game, your decisions affect the game world drastically.

The game had its origins on Kickstarter. It received a lot of attention due to the fact that it's the latest from Peter Molyneux, the creator of franchises such as Fable and Dungeon Keeper. He also made Populous, the very first god game ever to which Godus is the spiritual successor. Much like most games on mobile nowadays, Godus is free-to-play. The in-app purchases range from a surprisingly high Rs. 308.63 to an even more astronomical Rs. 6,184.38. These let you do a variety of things such as speeding up the shaping of the land to upgrades to allow for better resources.

Breaking News :- Japan to Open First Virtual School for Internet-Addicted Teens

Japan is to open the world's first virtual school to cater to the country's growing population of Internet-addicted teens who cannot function in the real world.

The Cybernation School on the outskirts of Tokyo whose motto is 'Your smartphone is your classroom!' will allow dropouts to complete their secondary education from the comfort of their bedrooms. The school, to be launched in April next year, has so far received more than 1,000 inquiries for its 300 places.

The school will allow students to create avatars to attend virtual classes, make 'friends' with classmates' avatars and have homework marked by teachers' avatars. Classes will consist of pre-recorded lectures streamed online and pupils will collect 'study points' that enable them to graduate after three years, 'The Times' reported.

In Japan, nearly 120,000 pupils refused to attend school for psychological reasons last year. Many of these are hikikomori, or recluses who struggle to form human relationships and retreat to an anonymous virtual reality online. According to government statistics there were 700,000 hikikomori in Japan in 2010.

Microsoft Buys Email Management App Acompli

Microsoft said Monday it was buying the mobile email management application Acompli, in a deal reported to be worth more than $200 million (roughly Rs. 1,239 crores).The deal gives Microsoft a startup helping people more easily manage their mail on handsets using Google Android or Apple iOS operating systems.

"In a world where more than half of email messages are first read on a mobile device, it's essential to give people fantastic email experiences wherever they go," said Microsoft vice president Rajesh Jha in a blog post.

"The Acompli team is passionate about this quest. Their app provides innovative ways to focus on what's important in your inbox, to schedule meetings, and work with attachments and files."

The price was not disclosed by Microsoft, but reported by the news website Re/code. Acompli's Javier Soltero said on his blog that the app "will become part of Microsoft's ambitious effort to reimagine productivity for the mobile era."

IBM Signs 10-Year Multi-Billion Cloud Deal With ABN Amro

IBM has signed a 10-year, multi-billion dollar deal to provide computer infrastructure services to Dutch bank ABN Amro running on its cloud systems, the U.S. information technology firm said on Monday.

The deal comes as the U.S. company is trying to gain momentum in the market for Internet-delivered services, known as cloud computing. IBM will provide fully managed services for mainframe computers, servers, storage and end-user computing as well as a help desk and other technical support. IBM did not disclose financial details of the deal. Last month, IBM said it had won a 7-year outsourcing contract from Germany's Lufthansa worth 1 billion euros ($1.25 billion, roughly Rs. 7,748 crores) that will see the U.S. company take over the airline's information technology infrastructure services division and staff.

In its latest quarterly results IBM reported a marked slowdown in business in September and abandoned its 2015 operating earnings target. IBM has failed to keep pace with a shift to cloud-based computing services from its established business selling computer consulting and software that customers run on internal computer systems.

US Supreme Court Divided Over Facebook Death Threats Case

The U.S. Supreme Court appeared conflicted on Monday over whether to uphold the conviction of a Pennsylvania man found guilty of making threatening statements to his estranged wife, law enforcement officers and others on social media. The nine justices, hearing an hour of oral arguments in a closely watched case testing the limits of free speech online, considered an appeal filed by Anthony Elonis, who served prison time for posting a series of statements on Facebook in 2010 after his wife left him.

The case touches upon the rise of social media and how people use it to express strongly held feelings. But the legal question is whether prosecutors needed to show Elonis' intent to threaten, or if it was enough for them to show merely that a reasonable person would have felt threatened. His Facebook posts, written in the form of rap lyrics, talked about killing his wife, knifing an female FBI agent and shooting schoolchildren. After a court granted his wife a protective order against him, Elonis posted: "Is it thick enough to stop a bullet?"

Some justices appeared concerned about a broad range of speech being criminalized, including ill-advised remarks by teenagers on social media and songs by rap artists such as Eminem known for violent imagery in their lyrics. Chief Justice John Roberts read aloud Eminem's lyrics from the song "'97 Bonnie and Clyde" in which the rapper describes dumping his wife's body in a lake.

Roberts asked whether Eminem could have been prosecuted. U.S. Justice Department lawyer Michael Dreeben said Eminem would not be prosecuted because of the different context.

Everyone knows Eminem is an entertainer and the comments were not made at a time when his wife had sought a protective order, Dreeben said.Other justices expressed concern about prosecutions undermining the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment free speech protections. Justice Elena Kagan said the government's proposed standard was "you should have known you were going to cause fear - and that's not the kind of standard we usually use under the First Amendment."

FBI Warns of 'Destructive' Malware in Wake of Sony Attack

The Federal Bureau of Investigation warned U.S. businesses that hackers have used malicious software to launch a destructive cyber-attack in the United States, following a devastating breach last week at Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Cyber-security experts said the malicious software described in the alert appeared to describe the one that affected Sony, which would mark first major destructive cyber-attack waged against a company on U.S. soil. Such attacks have been launched in Asia and the Middle East, but none have been reported in the United States. The FBI report did not say how many companies had been victims of destructive attacks.

"I believe the coordinated cyber-attack with destructive payloads against a corporation in the U.S. represents a watershed event," said Tom Kellermann, chief cyber-security officer with security software maker Trend Micro Inc. "Geopolitics now serve as harbingers for destructive cyber-attacks."

The five-page, confidential "flash" FBI warning issued to businesses late on Monday provided some technical details about the malicious software used in the attack. It provided advice on how to respond to the malware and asked businesses to contact the FBI if they identified similar malware. The report said the malware overrides all data on hard drives of computers, including the master boot record, which prevents them from booting up.

"The overwriting of the data files will make it extremely difficult and costly, if not impossible, to recover the data using standard forensic methods," the report said.

KitKat on 34 Percent of Android Devices; Lollipop Yet to Debut: Google

Google has updated its Google Play distribution data for the seven-day period ending December 1, revealing that Android 4.4 KitKat running devices are steadily rising and closing the gap on Jelly Bean-powered devices.

Sharing the distribution data of different versions of Android, Google reported that KitKat OS has a total share of around 34 percent (precisely 33.9 percent) of active Android devices that check into Google Play compared to the 30.2 percent reported at the beginning of November - an increase of 3.7 percent in roughly a month.

Interestingly, Google's latest Android build - Android 5.0 Lollipop - that was released in mid-October, and is now around for more than a month, is yet to make a cut into the chart. The Android Developers' webpage notes, "Any versions with less than 0.1 percent distribution are not shown," tipping that the Android 5.0 Lollipop despite of being rolled out to a bunch of devices has not yet reached the minimum mark. The Mountain View giant shows that Android Jelly Bean still powers the majority of Android devices, with the combined percentage of 48.7 percent - dropping 2.2 percent from November's 50.9 percent. The Android 4.1.x is seen on 21.3 percent devices, Android 4.2.x on 20.4 percent and Android 4.3 on 7 percent devices.

Android 4.0.x or Ice Cream Sandwich, in Google's December report, registered a share of 7.8 percent, down 0.7 percent from November. Android Gingerbread (v 2.3.3-2.3.7) and Android 2.2 Froyo's device distribution shares are 9.1 percent (down 0.7 percent) and 0.5 percent (down 0.1 percent) respectively in the latest report.

The OpenGL version, on the other hand, saw OpenGL 2.0 at dominating 72.2 percent, and OpenGL version 3.0 steadily rising to 27.8 percent.

Firefox 34 Launched for Android, Linux, Mac, Windows; Disables SSLv3

Mozilla on Monday launched the latest iteration of its Firefox web browser, bringing it to version 34 (specifically 34.0.5) for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android (34.0) platforms. The browser gains a number of new features in its updated version. It is worth noting that Mozilla Firefox 34 disables the SSLv3.0 for both desktop and mobile platforms after Google uncovered a security bug in the version back in October.

For desktop, Firefox 34.0.5 brings Firefox Hello WebRTC feature, through which users can make and receive calls in Guest Mode. TokBox, a Telefonica company, powers the feature.

Another talked about change made in the update is the browser's default search engine changing to Yahoo, following its recent collaboration with the firm. The Yahoo default search engine will however stay limited to North America region for now. As for regions such as Belarusian, Kazakh, and Russian locales, the default search engine has been changed to Yandex.

Other new Firefox features include an improved search bar (US English only), easy theme switching through 'Customizing' mode, improved recovery in case of browser crashes, and HTTPS usage in Wikipedia search for secure browsing. Several other changes have also been made in the HTML5 mode and for developers, apart from a couple of fixes, all of which which can be seen in the Mozilla Release Notes website.

As for Android users, the Firefox 34.0 introduces browser tab mirroring support for Chromecast, through which users can view the same browser tabs opened on their handsets on to their TV sets. The updated browser shares the similar HTTPS usage for Wikipedia search like its desktop version (US English only), alongside public key pinning support, a brand new first run experience, and a new Firefox browser theme. SSLv3.0 has been disabled for Android as well.

OnePlus One 64GB Model With Snapdragon 801 Launched at Rs. 21,999

The OnePlus One has been launched in India, priced at Rs. 21,999 for the 64GB version (Sandstone Black). Notably, no 16GB (Silk White) version will be made available in India. The smartphone is available via invites from Tuesday, exclusively on Amazon.in. The OnePlus One smartphone will be available for purchase only for users with invites, and India-specific invites for the Tuesday launch have already been through distributed through OnePlus and Amazon. A 10-day return policy by Amazon was also announced.

The company says the OnePlus and Amazon platforms have been integrated so that invites claimed by a OnePlus account can be used to purchase the '2014 Flagship Killer' on the Amazon OnePlus One page. Users can log onto oneplus.net/in to register their interest for a OnePlus One invite.
 
OnePlus said the India launch is the "next chapter" for the company, with an "entirely new team and model." The firm says the move will herald several firsts for the company, with the local chapter the first outside the company's headquarters to have a physical presence.

The firm added India will be the first region since the OnePlus One's launch in April in 17 countries where a localised service infrastructure will be in place, offering both walk-in and phone support to users. OnePlus reiterated the team in the country will be led by Vikas Agarwal, General Manager of OnePlus India.