SpaceX Dragon Makes Fiery Re-entry, Watery Landing
SpaceX's Dragon capsule successfully undocked and deorbitted this morning after a historic launch and hookup with the International Space Station. The capsule completed its mission today, re-entering the Earth's atmosphere and splashing down in its general target area in the Pacific. (Elon Musk, SpaceX chief tweeted that the next version would "land with helicopter precison.") The craft was located after splashdown and is being recovered off the Baja Coast of California.
New Cyberweapon IXESHE Discovered
A new advanced persistent threat named IXESHE (pronounced I-Sushi) was recently discovered on the computer networks of Taiwanese electronics companies and several East Asian governments. The IXESHE campaign appears to have been underway since early 2009. According to a research paper by Trend Micro, IXESHE spread via infected PDF files that were sent to deliberately targeted employees. Once the APT infected a computer, the malware binary allowed unknown parties to remotely control and monitor operations. The spearphishing emails had titles such as "Discussion on Cross- Strait Maritime Cooperation," "The Obama Administration and the Middle East," and "China’s Charm Diplomacy in BRICS Summit."
Mobile News Reader Taptu Releases Web App Powered By HTML 5
News discovery and reader app Taptu just released a version of their reader app for the Web, powered by HTML5.
The web version of the news reader adds to Taptu's existing apps for iOS, Android, Nook, Blackberry and Kindle. Its creation was motivated by responses from its users, CEO Mitch Lazar told Fast Company. "Of all the requests we get regularly, the number one request has really been, 'Give us Taptu on the Web.'"
For Taptu, getting on the Web, is a break from tradition set by most newsreader apps, which tend to be mobile app focused, and in the case of Flipboard, only available on iOS devices. The Taptu Web app also prepares the company for a potential future in the versatile and cross-platform HTML5 as opposed to native apps. Though, for now, Taptu's focus won't stray too far from its mobile heritage. "If the market does move that way we'll be ready," Lazar said.
A little less like Flipboard, but a little more like Zite, Taptu's trump card is its search feature which throws up news stream suggestions based on word-search algorithms. Also, Taptu lets you "DJ your news" by mixing source streams within the app itself, as you might do with a Twitter list, or a Google Reader folder. Taptu is now porting those strengths to the desktop-accessible Web.
Up to 50 percent of Taptu's 800,000 readers are based in the U.S., home turf to other reader apps like Flipboard and Zite. 30 percent of Taptu's following is based in the company's base in the U.K.
ACTA Rejected In EU, As Google Faces Piracy Accusations
Today the Industry Committee, the Civil Liberties Committee and the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament formally registered their recommendations to not sign the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement ahead of a full EU vote in July.ArsTechnica points out it's the latest step in rejection of ACTA (which was designed by international bodies to protect assets of content creators with punitive measures, and ratified by President Obama in 2011), coming after national-level Dutch, Polish, German and Czech disapproval.
Meanwhile the RIAA has openly accused Google of failing to move dramatically against piracy-enabling websites linked through its search results, despite Google's recent moves to make its actions more clearly understood by adding Copyright Removal Requests to its Transparency Report. RIAA's EVP Brad Buckles has complained in a blog post that Google places "artificial limits on the number of queries that can be made by a copyright owner to identify infringements," and also "limits the number of links we can ask them to remove per day." The recording industry spokesbody is thus squarely blaming Google for merely linking to sites that then themselves link on to enable piracy of music.
Speaking at AllThingsD's D10 conference last night, Hollywood agent and head of William Morris Endeavor Agency Ari Emanuel made a number of controversial comments that similarly blamed Google for enabling piracy by not suppressing links to piracy-related search results. Faced with a question on the matter from The Verge's Josh Topolosky, Emanuel seemed confused and angered that this position was analagously compared to blaming the road a burglar drove down before burgling someone's house. Emanuel also point blank refused the notion that cable companies would unbundle content.
Earlier this month a study by North Carolina State University was the latest in a line of studies to show that piracy actually promotes sales of online content by showing torrented albums sold better than non-pirated peers. Also speaking at AllthingsD, Spotify's Daniel Ek noted that he expected his wildly successful online music streaming service, which generates reliable income for labels and may dissuade piracy due to its convenience and low cost, was blocked from entering the U.S. by inflexibility by record labels throughout a two and a half year process.
Cricket Wireless To Sell Pre-Paid iPhone Plans In The U.S.
Cricket Wireless has just become the first carrier to sell the iPhone in the U.S. as part of a pre-paid plan. Starting June 22, for $55 buyers of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S will have access to unlimited talk, texting, and data. The cost of the Cricket iPhone models are pegged at $150 less than the unlocked iPhone models sold by Apple, making it a sweeter deal for U.S. buyers reluctant to commit to one cellular network. While the Cricket pre-paid plan for the iPhone is a first for the U.S., pre-paid phones are much more common in international markets, which account for 60% of Apple's sales. Leap Wireless, which owns and sells phones though Cricket, has been selling phones of all kinds on pre-paid plans for about 10 years now, using a flat-rate, pre-paid, unlimited access model. Cricket also sells contractless access to broadband.
Virgin Galactic Space Crafts Get FAA Approval For Rocket-Powered Test Flight
The U.S. Federal Aviation Authority has granted Virgin Galactic's aircraft builder, Scaled, a permit to test launch vehicles using rocket motors. Two spacecrafts, the Spaceship Two and WhiteNightTwo have been approved to fly free, carrying the full weight of a rocket motor on board--the motor and craft have previously been tested independently. According to Virgin, Spaceship Two is the first human-carrying vehicle to receive such approval. This news comes just as another historic moment for private space flight winds down--over the last week,SpaceX's Dragon capsule successfully launched and docked with the ISS in spac, becoming the first privately built rocket to do so. As of this morning, Dragon has undocked and begun its journey back to Earth.
Online Advertising Rises Past 20% Of Ad Spending In Europe
The advertising industry seems somewhat resistant to the economic woes in Europe right now--it rose 0.8% in 2011. Online ads seem to be growing best with 14.5% year-on-year growth, while passing the €20 billion annual total for the first time. Considering that the entire European ad industry was worth about €100 billion in 2011, that means one in every five ads was seen online, with video ads being a particularly robust area of growth. The trend is likely to continue considering the growing integration of computing tech into daily lives, particularly when mobile, and may be one reason that Facebook is said to be working on a smartphone.
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