China's Xiaomi Hires Google Executive Hugo Barra

Vice president of Android product management Mr. Hugo Barra has announced he’s joining Android smartphone maker Xiaomi as vice president of its global team to expand the device-maker’s product portfolio and worldwide reach.

The news, which was first reported by AllThingsD, followed closely reports about a split between Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki. The reports suggest that Brin is now seeing another Google employee who was previously seeing Barra. The third Google employee has not been named. Barra tendered his resignation before the drama involving Brin unfolded.

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Xiaomi is one of a number of Chinese smartphone makers that have been gaining market share in China against foreign rivals like Apple and Nokia. Until recently, these Chinese companies seemed happy with their rising sales in China, the biggest smartphone market, but now companies like Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei seem intent on expanding internationally.

Mr. Barra said in a statement posted on a Google social networking service that he intended to help Xiaomi “expand their incredible product portfolio and business globally.”

“I’m really looking forward to this new challenge, and am particularly excited about the opportunity to continue to help drive the Android ecosystem,” he wrote.

“We wish Hugo Barra the best,” Google said in a statement. “We’ll miss him at Google and we’re excited that he is staying within the Android ecosystem.”

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Source: Android’s Hugo Barra Departs Google for China’s Xiaomi

New York Times Website Hacked by Syrian Electronic Army

Second time in this month The New York Times Web site was unavailable to readers on Tuesday afternoon after an online attack on the company’s domain name registrar. A hacker group calling itself the "Syrian Electronic Army" claimed responsibility.

Within minutes of the attack, the New York Times quickly set up alternative websites, posting stories about chemical attacks in Syria. "Not Easy to Hide a Chemical Attack, Experts Say," was the headline of one. The service was restored early Wednesday.

(More from Techtimes24: Facebook Global Government Requests Report for user data)

Source: Times Site Is Disrupted in Attack by Hackers

Facebook Global Government Requests Report for user data

Every year, Facebook gets thousands of requests from governments for access to its users’ data. According to a new company report, the tech giant has an easier time fending off requests from foreign governments than from U.S. law enforcement agencies

Image from facebook

Facebook's Global Government Requests Report, released on Tuesday for the first time, offered details on official requests from 74 countries.

Facebook said "We are pleased to release our first Global Government Requests Report"

The report details the following:

·         Which countries requested information from Facebook about our users

·         The number of requests received from each of those countries

·         The number of users/user accounts specified in those requests

·         The percentage of these requests in which we were required by law to disclose at least some data

The US made by far the most requests, asking for information on between 20,000 and 21,000 users. UK authorities requested Facebook hand over data on 2,337 users.

Report made to Facebook click

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Source: Global Government Requests Report

Hon Hei (Foxconn) sells Wearable Technology Patents to Google

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. released a statement today, saying that it has sold a portion of its patent portfolio to Google Inc., as part of its business strategy.

Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, a key Apple Inc. (APPL) supplier. Foxconn confirmed on Friday it had sold technologies to Google that generate "a virtual image and is superimposed on a real-world view," according to The Wall Street Journal.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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Foxconn said the patents were “commonly used in aviation and tactical/ground displays, engineering and scientific design applications, gaming and video devices as well as training and simulation tools”.

(More from techtimes24: MakerBot Digitizer 3D scanner released)

Source: Hon Hai Says It Sold Some Display Patents to Google

MakerBot Digitizer 3D scanner released

Summary: MakerBot Digitizer a desktop 3D scanner which allows users to scan objects and print them out has been developed by an American company, which goes on sale; it costs $1,400 (£900) and will be sent to those who order now in October.

MakerBot Digitizer takes around 12 minutes to scan an object up to eight inches (20.3cm) in height or diameter without any need for the user to learn any 3D modeling software or have any other special expertise. It works by training lasers on the object the user wishes to recreate to gauge its measurements. These measurements can then be sent to a 3D printer to print out, or uploaded to Thingiverse, a website for sharing 3D designs.

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MakerBot, which was acquired by Stratasys in June 2013, has risen to prominence with its 3D printing business. It currently has two 3D printers on offer: The MakerBot Replicator 2 and the MakerBot Replicator 2X.

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Here’s what you can do with MakerBot Digitizer;

·         The MakerBot Digitizer runs on our simple, yet sophisticated software that creates clean, watertight 3D models with just two clicks

·         Turn physical objects into 3D digital design files in approximately 12 minutes

·         You don’t need any design skills, 3D modeling, or CAD expertise to get started

·         The output is a standard 3D model file format (STL) and can be modified and improved in third-party 3D modeling programs, like Autodesk’s free software MeshMixer

·         MakerBot Digitizer works seamlessly with MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printers to let you make your freshly scanned models

·         Easily upload your scans to Thingiverse.com

(More from techtimes24: Another Mapping App Embark Acquires by Apple Inc.)

Source: MakerBot Digitizer Lets You Turn Objects Into 3D Models for $1,400

Another Mapping App Embark Acquires by Apple Inc.

Apple has purchased a small mapping company Embark Inc. that offers mass transit information, another in a long line of mapping-related acquisitions aimed at improving the Maps app it released for the iPhone last year to universal disdain.

Apple has confirmed to various news sites that it has purchased San Francisco startup Embark, the acquisition was first reported on JessicaLessin.com.

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Embark, founded in 2011, builds apps for mobile devices powered by Android and Apple’s iOS with information about transit systems in about half a dozen U.S. cities such as New York, San Francisco and Chicago. Its iOS apps are still available for download, but its Android apps aren’t, according to our checks.

(More from techtimes24: Yahoo Beats Google To top in U.S. Web Traffic)

Source: Apple Buys (Another) Map App, Embark

Yahoo Beats Google To top in U.S. Web Traffic

Summary: According to comScore Media Metrix Ranks Yahoo Tops Google in U.S. for Web Traffic in July

According to comScore's Media Metrix ranking released on Wednesday, Yahoo's sites had 196.6 million unique U.S. visitors while Google's sites -- which had held the top position for long -- received 192.3 million unique visits in July. The last time Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo surpassed Google’s traffic and topped the chart was in May 2011, and its web traffic increased 20 percent year-on-year in July, comScore data showed.

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Top 10 comScore's Media Metrix ranking;

1. Yahoo! Sites

2. Google Sites

3. Microsoft Sites

4. Facebook

5. AOL, Inc.

6. Amazon Sites

7. Glam Media

8. Wikimedia Foundation Sites

9. CBS Interactive

10. Turner Digital

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Source: Yahoo Tops Google in U.S. Web Traffic

Facebook announced a plan to make Internet more affordable by lowering the cost of data per megabyte

Summary: Facebook is set to announce an effort aimed at drastically cutting the cost of delivering basic internet services on mobile phones, particularly in developing countries, where Facebook and other tech companies need to find new users.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, announced the launch of internet.org, a global partnership with the goal of making internet access available to the next 5 billion people.

On facebook post "Everything Facebook has done has been about giving all people around the world the power to connect," Zuckerberg said. "There are huge barriers in developing countries to connecting and joining the knowledge economy. Internet.org brings together a global partnership that will work to overcome these challenges, including making internet access available to those who cannot currently afford it."

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The goal of Internet.org is to make internet access available to the two-thirds of the world who are not yet connected, and to bring the same opportunities to everyone that the connected third of the world has today. In order to achieve its goal of connecting the two-thirds of the world who are not yet online, internet.org will focus on three key challenges in developing countries:

1.       Making access affordable

2.       Using data more efficiently

3.       Helping businesses drive access

Half a dozen of the world's tech giants, including Samsung, Nokia, Qualcomm and Ericsson, have agreed to work with the company on the initiative, which they call Internet.org.

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Source: Technology Leaders Launch Partnership to Make Internet Access Available to All

Users of Google Maps for Mobile will now benefit from real time incident reports from Waze users

Summary: The Waze Map Editor will now include Google Maps Street View and satellite imagery as tools to make it easier to correct map errors reported by the community.

In a blog post from Google says “No one likes getting stuck in traffic. That’s why the Waze and Google Maps teams are working together to harness the power of Google technology and the passion of the Waze community to make it easier to navigate your daily life”

Real-time traffic reports from Waze app users will now appear on the Google Maps app for Apple iOS and Android. Meanwhile, Waze users will gain access to Google search and Street View. The updates to both services will be available today

For more information, visit the Waze blog

Skype will be added with Microsoft’s services and offerings with Windows 8.1

Microsoft purchased the video- and audio-calling Internet phone service “Skype”, which today has about 300 million users in 2011 Earlier this week, Microsoft added Skype to bundle into Windows 8.1

A number of Microsoft’s services and offerings also would be bundled with Windows 8.1, including search engine Bing, personal cloud-storage service SkyDrive, Web browser Internet Explorer (IE) and Xbox Music, Video and Games.

Source: Microsoft to bundle Skype

Security Researcher “Khalil Shreateh” posts Facebook bug report on Zuckerberg’s wall

Summary: A Palestinian IT Security Researcher Khalil Shreateh discovered a Facebook bug that allowed a hacker to post on anyone’s wall — even if they weren’t that person’s friend. Khalil has had his account disabled and been told he won't be paid a bug bounty after demonstrating a Facebook security vulnerability by posting an image into Mark Zuckerburg's timeline.

On blog post, Khalil Shreateh discovered a vulnerability that allows an attacker to post images into someone else's timeline, even though they're not in the target's friend list. Khalil tried to report the problem to Facebook's security account twice via the company's bug-disclosure and bounty program. The first time, Facebook security representative "Emrakul" couldn't see the results of Khalil's work – presumably because Emrakul wasn't actually friends with the person who Shreateh used as a proof-of-concept for the loophole. The second time around, Emrakul told Shreateh that his findings were "not a bug." Khalil, who doesn't appear to keen on taking "no" for an answer, did the next logical step: Used his loophole to post directly on Zuck's wall, likely hoping to stir the pot a bit and get a stronger acknowledgement of his findings.

Facebook software engineer Matt Jones took to Hacker News to offer a bit of an explanation behind Facebook's response and why Shreateh is out his minimum reward of $500 for the finding.

“To be clear, we fixed this bug on Thursday. The OP is correct that we should have asked for additional repro instructions after his initial report. Unfortunately, all he submitted was a link to the post he'd already made (on a real account whose consent he did not have - violating our ToS and responsible disclosure policy), saying that "the bug allow facebook users to share links to other facebook users". Had he included the video initially, we would have caught this much more quickly,” Jones wrote.

Source: facebook vulnerability 2013

Google has launched new program "Google City Experts"

Google City Experts is a new program introduced by Google to encourage more high quality local business rating and reviews on Google+.

The Google City Expert program brings together the most active users on Google Maps who write reviews and upload photos of local places. As a City Expert you will receive:

• Access to fun, exclusive events in their local areas
• Free custom swag
• Special online recognition

The program is currently limited to select cities in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Japan, and will reward users who have left at least 50 reviews to date, and who produce at least five new reviews each month.

Join now in Google City Experts

Source: Introducing Google City Experts!

USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced availability of the USB 3.1 Specification to increase SuperSpeed USB to 10 Gbps

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group today announced the completion of the USB 3.1 Specification which adds enhancements to enable SuperSpeed USB to operate at up to 10 Gbps. SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps uses a more efficient data encoding and will deliver more than twice the effective data through-put performance of existing SuperSpeed USB over enhanced, fully backward compatible USB connectors and cables. Compatibility is assured with existing USB 3.0 software stacks and device class protocols as well as with existing 5 Gbps hubs and devices and USB 2.0 products.

This latest release of the specification will be available today for download from the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) website.

Source: USB 3.1

Facebook Introduced Embedded Posts

In an attempt to boost its connection to current events and breaking news, Facebook is making the social network's public content more accessible to news outlets with the Wednesday release of embedded posts

Facebook software engineer Dave Capra said in a statement, “we are beginning to roll out Embedded Posts to make it possible for people to bring the most compelling, timely public posts from Facebook to the rest of the web.”

Embedded Posts let people add public posts from Facebook to their blog or web site. When embedded, posts can include pictures, videos, hashtags and other content. People can also like and share the post as well as follow directly from the embed. Only posts set to public can be embedded on other web sites.

Just put a hashtag(#) before the keyword of your facebook post. Same the following image

People can embedded posts clicking “Like Page” button

People also can embedded post clicking “Follow Page ” button

Every day, public figures, journalists and millions of regular people share their thoughts on what's happening around the world on Facebook publicly.  Anyone can get the opportunity to discuss with them by using embedded post

Source: Introducing Embedded Posts

Facebook has announced it is joining the mobile publishing game

Facebook is taking new steps to boost its engagement on mobile and tap into the growing gaming market, announcing Tuesday that it has launched a new mobile games publishing platform for developers.

Mobile Game Publishing

According to social network page Facebook's new pilot program is aims “to help small and medium-sized developers take their mobile games global. Through the program, we will work with select game developers and provide promotional support for their games in placements across our mobile apps.”

Launching a game on Facebook’s mobile platform, the social network noted, gives developers a chance to reach around 800 million monthly mobile users. The company has recruited Dan Morris, formerly of Electronic Arts and DeNA, to lead its mobile games partnership team. Facebook will "promote a game across a variety of channels" and then "share in the success of those games by participating in the revenue share," Morris says.

Facebook also announced the first 10 developer participants in the program. They are

·         5th Planet, Dawn of the Dragons

·         Brainbow Dr. Newton: The Great Brain Adventure

·         Certain Affinity, Age of Booty: Tactics

·         Dragonplay, Live Hold'Em

·         Gameloft, Kingdoms & Lords

·         KiwiGames Shipwrecked

·         Outplay Entertainment, Monster Legacy

·         Space Ape, Samurai Siege

·         WeMade Entertainment, WIND Runner

·         Gamevil, Train City

Source:  Mobile game publishing by Facebook

Everyone should know before buying Google’s Chromecast

What is Google Chromecast device?

Chromecast device is a Web media player, introduced by the Google. It  plug into a TV and allows users to stream video, share tabs from the Google Chrome browser, or play music from  Smartphone, tablet or computer on the big screen. Instead of playing physical content, like DVDs or Blu-ray disks, Chromecast uses the internet to pull content from web-based apps, Chromecast does not have a remote control included in the box it’s delivered with when buying it because it’s able to connect with any smart device.

How Chromecast works?

First you have to plug in Chromecast into your TV, plug a microUSB power cord (included in the box) into Chromecast to keep it powered up, and press the single physical button on Chromecast to send out a wireless signal that effectively says, “I’m ready to go!”

Features of Chromecast

Size: 72(L) x 35(W) x 12(H) mm

Weight: 34g

Video Output: 1080p

Connectivity: HDMI, Wi-Fi

RAM: 256k

Processor: N/A

OS: Chromecast

Apps that Chromecast can support

chromecast can only support four apps: Netflix, YouTube, Google Music and Google Movies. However, an upside to this is that Google is offering both new and existing Netflix users three free months of the service if they buy Chromecast.

How it price?

Apple TV is $ 99, and Ruku is $49-$99 where’s Google Chromecast only $ 35. Chromecast is available starting today in the U.S., and will come to other countries later.

Alibaba, The most popular Chinese e-commerce platform has introduced new platform Smart TV with Smart OS

Summary: Alibaba Tunes In China’s Internet TV Market with Smart OS

Alibaba is renowned for its e-commerce services — which gross more revenue than Amazon and eBay combine. Today the company has announced that it has developed a smart TV operating system and is working with a number of partners, including Cisco and Chinese manufacturers, to develop smart TVs, step-top boxes and services to run inside them.

Skyworth and Changhong are among the manufacturing partners that are building Alibaba-powered smart TVs. The first product will come from digital media firm Wasu Media. Although the company hopes that it’s smart TV OS will become “the nucleus” of Internet TV viewing in China

Source: Alibaba smart TV

Google has initiated a new form of advertising into Gmail

Summary: Gmail ads now appearing as emails into a new type of email popping up in the Promotions tab

Recently Google has upgraded gmail service by sorting emails into tabs. There are five types of tabs at this time; these are Primary, Social, Promotional, Update and Forum. It appears at the setting. Primary is for newsletters and correspondence; Promotions is for marketing offers and deals, such as Catch of the Day, Social is for updates on social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook.

However, users have been noticing a new type of email popping up in the Promotions tab: paid-for-placement advertising. These are in addition to the ad bar that shows up at the top of the page and column on the right-hand side when you open an email.

They are differentiated from regular emails by a shaded background and the word "ad" appearing below the sender's name; users can open them and read them like a normal email, with information on the promotion inside with links and videos. You have the option to forward to a friend or dismiss the ad; if you dismiss it, you won't receive that particular promotion again.

Source: Gmail ads now appearing as emails

Gmail’s new compose now offers a full-screen option

Summary: Gmail's new compose rolled out to everyone in March now it add new feature default full screen

When default full screen option is enabled, the compose window is centered in your inbox and expands to fit on your screen.  In addition, the formatting toolbar is on by default.  You can click on the expand button in the top right to switch to full-screen or set full-screen as the default by selecting Default to full-screen in the more options menu in the bottom right.

Some users have gotten used to, or simply prefer how Gmail worked before, because not everyone will like the new compose and reply windows, that’s a given fact. If you have chosen the new view but want to go back to the old experience, here’s what you’ve got to do.

•             Click “compose” at the bottom corner of the message panel

•             Click the “more” menu icon

•             Select “Temporarily switch back to old compose”

Google is flaunting the following features especially for these people:

•             Fast: You can write messages right from you inbox

•             Simple: redesigned with a fresh, sleek look.

•             Powerful: You can check e-mails while typing, lessen drafts for later, and even create two messages at once.

Source: Default full screen

Firefox OS 1.1 now available for Geeksphone devices

Betting on Mozilla's mobile operating system? There's a good chance, then, that you're kicking around a Geeksphone, one of the few devices known for running Firefox OS. Owners of the company's Keon and Peak handsets can now manually upgrade their devices to Firefox 1.1, which -- according to enthusiasts on the Geeksphone forums and Twitter -- speeds up boot times, patches an assortment of bugs and tacks on minor navigational and display improvements. Naturally, users interested in trying the build will have to download and flash it themselves.

Source: engadget