US FTC Defends Decision Not to Sue Google After Antitrust Probe

Three US Federal Trade Commission members said on Wednesday they regretted the inadvertent release of part of an agency report about its probe of Google Inc as the company continues to face antitrust scrutiny from European authorities.

The document, which was at the centre of a report by The Wall Street Journal, indicated that key staff members at the FTC were in favour of suing Google for allegedly breaking antitrust law. The agency settled with the search and advertising company in early 2013.In a statement the commissioners - Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, Julie Brill and Maureen Ohlhausen - defended the final outcome.

"Contrary to recent press reports, the commission's decision on the search allegations was in accord with the recommendations of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, Bureau of Economics, and Office of General Counsel," the commissioners said.

The agency said that it regretted the release of the documents, which were confidential and should not have been included in a response to a Freedom of Information Act request."We are taking additional steps to ensure that such a disclosure does not occur in the future," the commissioners said.

The release came as European antitrust regulators decide their next steps in a four-year investigation of Google.

For More Details:-
RMP Infotech
Web: www.rmpinfotech.in

Microsoft Office to Be Free for Devices Smaller Than 10.1 Inches

Microsoft on Wednesday confirmed that it has plans to make the "core editing and viewing experience free" on Office free for devices sporting screen size less than 10.1 inches.

The company's move is in-line with its recent releases of the Office app for iOS and Android, which also offer core features such as editing and viewing for free.

Announcing the news, Kirk Koenigsbauer, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Office Division, in a blog revealed the news and said, "Currently, we are also using screen size to delineate between professional and personal use. Based on our research, we are classifying anything with a screen size of 10.1 inches or less as a true mobile device: You're probably using it on the go, when it's not practical to use a larger computing device such as a PC or a Mac. You probably aren't using a mouse or a keyboard, instead navigating via touch interface."

"It's probably not a "pro" category tablet that is used for design or presentations. On these devices, the core editing and viewing experience is free, until you get to those premium, subscription features," he adds.

The company clearly stressed that it has plans to offer its Office productivity suite to a broader audience and offering it for free certainly allows Microsoft to achieve the goal. "Offering a free, basic mobile app exposes more people to the innovations we're bringing to mobile. Our goal is to make Office and other Microsoft services available on small screens to the broadest population of mobile users-and in less than a year, we've already seen more than 80 million downloads of Office for iOS," it said.

For More Details:-
RMP Infotech
Web: www.rmpinfotech.in

US Urges Companies to Do More to Fight Cybercrime

Cybercrime is probably the biggest risk facing companies across the world, and they need to do more to help governments tackle the problem, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin said on Wednesday."Each of us must recognise this risk is perhaps the most pressing operational risk of our time," she told the CityWeek conference in London.

Financial services firms were making substantial investments in reinforcing their resilience to cyber-attacks but they needed to embed this resilience into their existing business units rather than grafting improvements on top of them, she said.

"Such an approach creates multiple levels of defence," Raskin said.Shorter term "fixes" included sharing information within the sector, focusing on security of third party vendors used by financial service firms, and engaging in a "proactive preparedness effort", she said.

But the risks went far beyond financial services, she added.

Cyber-threats undermined freedom of expression and hampered global economic recovery, and governments needed to ensure international legal principles that respect state sovereignty and human rights apply to conduct online as well as offline, Raskin said.

"We now need to develop consensus around ways to respond to this threat," she told the conference.

For More Details:-
RMP Infotech
Web: www.rmpinfotech.in

Cabinet Approves Rs. 4,500-Crore National Supercomputing Mission

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday approved the launch of the visionary Rs. 4,500-crore National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) aimed to steer India into the league of world class computing power nations.

The centre said the mission will be implemented and steered jointly by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) over a period of seven years.

"These supercomputers will be networked on the National Supercomputing grid over the National Knowledge Network (NKN)... Academic and R&D institutions as well as key user departments and ministries would participate by using these facilities and develop applications of national relevance," an official statement said after the cabinet meet.

The NKN is connects academic institutions and R&D labs over a high speed network.

As per the government, implementation of NSM across 70 high-performance computing facilities will bring supercomputing within the reach of the scientific and technology community in the country and provide "significant qualitative and quantitative improvement in research and development" in science and technology.

For More Details:-
RMP Infotech
Web: www.rmpinfotech.in

Turn Your Phone Into Any Musical Instrument With This Cool Accessory

Kickstarter of the Week is a column which looks at a new crowdfunded project each week that you can back on sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We've seen that some of the coolest new developments in recent times - such as the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, and the Pebble smartwatch - have come out of the world of crowdfunding instead of the big companies. We're on the lookout for the potential game-changers, but we also try and point out fun projects that might be cool to back.

Of course, the project you back might not get funded, and even if it does, it might not ship. With that caveat in place, we're still fans of the concept, and that's because it has led to so many interesting new gadgets.

One such gadget is the Artiphon INSTRUMENT 1, a cool accessory that can turn your iPhone or iPad into any musical instrument.

The device looks like a guitar's neck, and it is a MIDI compatible accessory that will work with apps like Garageband (it connects to your device via the lightning cable) and will work with MIDI tools such as ProTools on your PC or Mac, connected via USB. You can strum it like a guitar, play it like a piano, use it to play drums, whatever you want. The simple design lends itself to multiple uses, and since it comes with built-in speakers, the audio won't come from the speakers on your mobile, but right from under your hands.

For More Details:-
RMP Infotech
Web: www.rmpinfotech.in

Android Installer Vulnerability Affecting 49.5 Percent of Devices: Report

Security researchers at Palo Alto Networks claim to have found a vulnerability in Android versions ranging from v2.3 (Gingerbread) to v4.3_r0.9 (Jelly Bean) that allows attackers to gain full access to compromised devices. The bug pertains to the fact that in vulnerable versions of Android there are no checks at the time of installation of whether an app's permissions actually match those advertised to the user during installation. The vulnerability only affects apps installed from third-party app stores.

Palo Alto Networks says the vulnerability, which it is calling Android Installer Hijacking, is of the 'Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTTOU)' type, and allows attackers to mask the permissions of an app being installed between the check page (which lists the permissions) and the actual installation of the apk file.

Essentially, the system service PackageInstaller on affected devices does not verify the apk file at the time of installation, only prior to displaying the permissions - this means the app installed can have different permissions from what are shown. This could allow access to user data including passwords.

The firm says as of Google's March 2015 Android distribution numbers, affected devices account for roughly 49.5 percent of active Android devices. Palo Alto Networks adds that back in January 2014 when it discovered the vulnerability, which it is calling Android Installer Hijacking, the security flaw affected 89.4 percent of active Android devices.

For More Details:-
RMP Infotech
Web: www.rmpinfotech.in

Nasa's Asteroid Redirect Mission Sets Sights on Mars

Under its ambitious Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), Nasa will test a number of new capabilities by the mid-2020s needed for future human expeditions to deep space, including Mars.

In a statement, Nasa also announced that it has increased the detection of near-Earth asteroids by 65 percent since launching its asteroid initiative three years ago."The ARM will provide an initial demonstration of several spaceflight capabilities we will need to send astronauts deeper into space, and eventually to Mars," said Nasa associate administrator Robert Lightfoot.

For ARM, a robotic spacecraft will capture a boulder from the surface of a near-Earth asteroid and move it into a stable orbit around the moon for exploration by astronauts, all in support of advancing the nation's journey to Mars.

The option to retrieve a boulder from an asteroid will have a direct impact on planning for future human missions to deep space and begin a new era of spaceflight.The agency plans to announce the specific asteroid selected for the mission no earlier than 2019, approximately a year before launching the robotic spacecraft.Nasa has identified three valid asteroids for the mission so far: Itokawa, Bennu and 2008 EV5.

The agency expects to identify one or two additional candidates each year leading up to the mission.

For More Details:-
RMP Infotech
Web: www.rmpinfotech.in

EU Antitrust Regulators to Open Extensive Probe Into E-Commerce

European Union regulators plan to open a year-long extensive investigation into e-commerce as part of efforts to do away with barriers and boost cross-border trade in the bloc, the EU's antitrust chief said on Thursday.

European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said she decided to launch a sector inquiry into e-commerce trade because a number of barriers were hampering the growth of online sales as well as signs that some companies may be deliberating blocking such trade.

"It is high time to remove remaining barriers to e-commerce, which is a vital part of a true Digital Single Market in Europe," Vestager told reporters. She will put forward her proposal to the Commission in the coming weeks, with the inquiry scheduled to end in mid-2016.

For More Details:-
RMP Infotech
Web: www.rmpinfotech.in

Apple and Beats Developing Streaming Music Service to Rival Spotify

In what would be the biggest change to its music strategy in years, Apple is pressing ahead with a sweeping overhaul of its digital music services that would allow the company to compete directly with streaming upstarts like Spotify.

Almost a year after agreeing to pay $3 billion for Beats, the maker of hip headphones and a streaming music service, Apple is working with Beats engineers and executives to introduce its own subscription streaming service. The company is also planning an enhanced iTunes Radio that may be tailored to listeners in regional markets, and, if Apple gets what it wants, more splashy new albums that will be on iTunes before they are available anywhere else, according to people briefed on the company's plans.

In a sign of how important Beats is in reshaping Apple's digital music, the company has made a musician a point man for overhauling the iPhone's music app to include the streaming music service, as opposed to an engineer. Trent Reznor, the Nine Inch Nails frontman who was the chief creative officer for Beats, is playing a major role in redesigning the music app, according to two Apple employees familiar with the product, who spoke on the condition they not be named because the plans are private.

Perhaps most telling for Apple is what its new streaming service will not have: a lower price than rival services.

For More Details:-
RMP Infotech
Web: www.rmpinfotech.in

Nasa's Opportunity Rover Completes 11-Year Mars Marathon

Nasa's Opportunity Mars rover has become the first human-made vehicle to complete a marathon on another planet - a feat accomplished in a record time of no less than 11 years.

Opportunity passed the 26-mile (42-kilometer) mark Tuesday after approximately 11 years and two months traveling the Martian terrain, where it surpassed scientists' original expectations for a mission lasting just several months.

The solar-powered robot, which landed on Mars' Eagle Crater in January 2004, completed the marathon in the course of a 153-foot (46.5-meter) drive.

"This is the first time any human enterprise has exceeded the distance of a marathon on the surface of another world," said John Callas, Opportunity project manager at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

During its mission, Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit - now defunct - have discovered wet environmental conditions on ancient Mars, some of which are mild enough to have been favorable for life.

"This mission isn't about setting distance records, of course; it's about making scientific discoveries on Mars and inspiring future explorers to achieve even more," said Steve Squyres, Opportunity principal investigator at Cornell University.

For More Details:-
RMP Infotech
Web: www.rmpinfotech.in