Why facebook does not get success in China

Facebook said last week it was contemplating re-entering China, the world's second biggest economy, after being blocked nearly three years ago. 

Few foreign internet companies have succeeded in China. EBay Inc, Google Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Yahoo Inc and most recently Groupon Inc form the list of notable online players who have failed to gain traction in the fast-growing nation of 1.3 billion people. It's actually a bit late for Facebook," said Hong Kong-based CLSA analyst Elinor Leung, who added that the market was already quite saturated with local players such as Sina Corp, Renren Inc, Kaixinwang001 and Tencent Holdings.

 Facebook first launched its Chinese interface in 2008 but was blocked by Beijing in mid-2009 following deadly riots in the western province of Xinjiang that authorities say were abetted by the social networking site.

Almost half of China's 500 million internet users use social networking sites, government data showed in January. The dominant players among China's social networking sites (SNS) are Renren and Sina Corp, which is attempting to turn its highly popular microblogging service, Weibo, into a full-fledged social network.

China's SNS space is more crowded and competitive than the U.S. with multiple large and established players all investing for long-term growth," said Joe Chen, chief executive of Renren, which would become a direct competitor with Facebook should the US giant enter the market. 
Facebook will enter a much more competitive market with a significantly different culture, business environment and other characteristics than what it has previously experienced in the global market," Chen added. Analysts agreed.

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13000 websites are blocked by Pakistan, for vulgarity

Pakistani authorities have blocked 13,000 "obscene" websites and are taking more steps to prevent the spread of such materials through the Internet.A ministerial committee and a sub-committee had been formed to look into the matter. Khan expressed concern at what he described as the "rapid spread of obscene websites" and said the government currently has no mechanism to block all these websites. 

After a string of cases were filed in courts across Pakistan against blasphemous and pornographic contents on the internet, authorities last year began blocking websites. Earlier, authorities had blocked popular portals like Facebook and YouTube but the move was criticised by civil society groups. Following protests, authorities began selectively blocking only pages that contained blasphemous and pornographic materials.

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Google add WEBRTC to chrome in browser voice and video chat

Chrome's Dev Channel version now has WebRTC, a technology Google acquired in 2010 and open sourced last year that uses Javascript APIs (application programming interfaces) and HTML5 to give browsers native, real-time communications capabilities.


Google has built the WebRTC technology into a test version of Chrome to let the browser run voice and video chat applications within the browser interface.Building industry-leading voice and video capabilities into the browser makes it easier for web developers to incorporate real time communications in their apps.


WebRTC, which is also being supported by browser makers Mozilla and Opera, is being considered for standard status at the W3C and the IETF. Companies like Polycom, Vonage, Vehix.com, Semens and PCCW are developing browser-based applications using the technology, according to Enbom.


[WebRTC] includes the fundamental building blocks for high quality communications on the web such as network, audio and video components used in voice and video chat applications," reads a description. "These components, when implemented in a browser, can be accessed through a Javascript API, enabling developers to easily implement their own RTC web app.


Google acquired WebRTC when it bought Global IP Solutions in 2010 and released it as open-source code in mid-2011. With WebRTC, developers will be able to create voice and video chat applications that execute inside the browser, without users needing to install plug-ins, according to the technology's website.

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Now Firefox 10 available for download

Mozilla on Tuesday released the latest version of its Firefox browser. In addition to allowing users to run full-screen apps, Firefox 10 offers the following enhancements:

 The forward button is now hidden until you navigate back.
Most add-ons are now compatible with new versions of Firefox by default.
Anti-Aliasing for WebGL is now implemented.
CSS3 3D-Transforms are now supported.
Mozilla also made some HTML5 changes and noted two bug fixes. The company said that it has fixed a Java-related crash, which Mac OS X users experienced in earlier versions, as well as a crash related to moving bookmarks. Firefox 10 is available immediately as a free download.

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Apple iphone application includes hidden tethering

An iPhone developer has acknowledged that a recent update to one of his apps includes the hidden ability to tether the smartphone to a laptop, circumventing carrier fees for the service.

By tethering a smartphone to a laptop, users can share the phone's cellular connection to the Internet with a notebook. Carriers typically levy additional fees for the service: AT&T, for example, charges customers an extra $20 per month for tethering an iPhone, although as part of the deal it also boosts the allowed data usage from 3GB to 5GB.

Although QuasiDisk is billed as a "simple file manager and file viewer" that lets users load files, documents and photos from a third-party FTP server or sync data with a remote device using Apple's own iCloud, it also can be used for tethering, Simpson said in his instructional video.

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Facebook Promotes Timeline Movie Maker

Now Facebook released Timeline Movie Maker app in which user's photos, videos and other Facebook activity to create a short personal video.

Apps like Timeline Movie Maker help users see how personal Facebook is to them. When users visit TimelineMovieMaker.com, they can connect the app with their Facebook account. If users do not have Timeline enabled, they will be prompted to do so. After a few minutes of processing, the app produces a video including photos, videos, check-ins and status updates in the same format as the promotional video Facebook used to debut Timeline at f8. Users can change the music or swap photos if they want, then share the video with friends.

Timeline will be mandatory for all users within weeks, but users have been able to opt in since December.During this period, Facebook has taken steps to lead users to discover the new profile through their friends rather than giving the impression the social network is forcing another unwanted change on them.
 

The app is another example of the unique tactics the social network is using to promote its redesigned profile and part of a new trend of collaboration. The company is showing maturity as it prepares to file for an initial public offering that could raise at least $5 billion for the company. 

Recent reports suggest Facebook could seek to raise $5 billion, lower than the previously rumored $10 billion. By setting a low float, the company could debut above its initial price as Groupon did in November. Zynga, on the other hand, reached for a larger amount in December and only crossed its initial price on Monday

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Now Apple world's No 1 PC vendor

Apple is out-shipping traditional PC vendors by a wide margin on the back of strong iPad sales, a marketing research firm has found.

 In the fourth quarter, Apple became the leading worldwide client PC vendor by shipping more than 15 million iPads and 5 million Macs, representing 17 percent of the total 120 million client PCs shipped globally in the fourth quarter, according to Canalys
"We're going through the biggest shift the PC industry has seen in 20 years. It's very difficult to grow in the classic PC market when all of the growth is coming from iPads," Steve Brazier, CEO of Canalys,

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Unemployment hits 5 million mark in Spain

Unemployment in Spain passed the five million mark in the last quarter of 2011, official figures show.

The National Statistics Institute said 5.3 million people were out of work at the end of December, up from 4.9 million in the third quarter.

The rate rose from 21.5% in the third quarter to 22.8% - the highest rate in nearly 17 years.

Spain already has the highest jobless rate in the 17-nation eurozone and is expected to slide back into recession.

The 22.8% rate is more than twice the average unemployment rate of the eurozone, which stood at 10.3% in November, according to data released earlier this month.


The Spanish figures show more than half of all 16-24 year-olds in the country are jobless - 51.4% compared with 45.8% before.


Spain's new ruling Popular Party conservative government has pledged labour reforms to try to imporve the jobs market.



Spain has struggled since the property bubble burst in 2008.


In the years between 2004 and 2008, the average house price in Spain rose 44%, Construction represented about 16% of GDP by the end of the boom, and the unemployment rate was down to 7.95%

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O2 apologised for technical problem

O2 has apologised for a technical problem which caused users' phone numbers to be disclosed when using its mobile data. The company said it normally only passed numbers to "trusted partners". A problem during routine maintenance meant that from 10 January numbers could have been seen by other websites.

"We investigated, identified and fixed it this afternoon. We would like to apologise for the concern we have caused," the company said.

The Information Commissioner's Office had said that it would speak to O2 "to better understand what has happened".

In a blog post the company said: "We are in contact with the Information Commissioner's office, and we will be co-operating fully."

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Google + now allows nicknames

Google has relaxed a requirement that real names be used for making a Google+ profile, allowing people to use nicknames or pseudonyms.



Google said it would also allow maiden names and names in non-Latin scripts.The search giant would, however, ask people to provide proof that they are known by that alternate name.



The proof may include a reference in a news article or a link to a blog with a "meaningful following."
Google+ rival, Facebook, requires real names. Some social networks have been reluctant to permit alternate names, arguing that real names improve trust.

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No plans to bring down Facebook on 28 Jan

A Twitter account linked to the hacker group Anonymous denied that the group had released a video calling on the public to launch a cyber-attack on Facebook.

An online war has begun between Anonymous, the people, and the government of the United States," the video narrator says."While SOPA and PIPA may be postponed from Congress, this does not guarantee that our Internet rights will be upheld.

The video called on supporters to download a tool that launches denial of service attacks on targeted websites, and said that if enough people joined the effort, it could bring down Facebook, even though it has over 60,000 servers

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Google plans to 'Combine' your user data

Google is planning to rewrite its privacy policy to grant it explicit rights to "combine personal information" across multiple products and services. Previously, it had only implicit rights to do so.

Beginning March 1, the activities and data of a Google user who is signed in will be used to provide a "simpler, more intuitive" experience for users across all the Google services, according to a post on the Official Google blog.

For instance, Google searches may take into consideration context of searches based on the user information and activities, such as knowing that an import car buff would want "Jaguar" the car rather than the big cat of the same name, a video in the post explains. And auto-correct may suggest spellings when a user is typing in Google Docs or Gmail based on prior content they have created.


"It may even be able to tell you when you'll be late for a meeting based on your location, your calendar and local weather conditions," the video says. "All of which means we're not just keeping your private stuff private. We're making it more useful to you in your daily life too."
The changes will roll out along with modifications to the company's privacy policies and terms of service. Google's 60 privacy policies for its different services are being rolled into one uber privacy policy that the company said is designed to be simpler and easier to understand. The terms of service are also being rewritten and consolidated.


In some cases, such as for financial services like Google Wallet, a product may be regulated by industry-specific privacy laws and require detailed descriptions of our practices," the FAQ says. "In others, like Chrome, we simply wanted to explain our privacy practices specific to those products in more detail. In these cases we chose to keep product-specific notices rather than clutter up the main Privacy Policy

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Facebook wants ceglia to pick up $84k in leagl fees

Facebook lawyers have asked a judge to order Paul Ceglia to pick up more than $84,000 in legal fees.

Ceglia, the man who claims a contract with CEO Mark Zuckerberg entitles him to a 50 percent stake in the social network, was fined $5,000 earlier this month over delays in making his e-mails available in his case against Facebook. He was also ordered to pay reasonable attorneys' fees.

Facebook also asked Leslie G. Foschio, the federal magistrate for Buffalo, N.Y., to order Ceglia not to file any additional "non-responsive papers or pleadings

 in the case" until he pays the fees.

Ceglia's lawyer, Dean Boland, told the Los Angeles Times that he had not had time to study the filing but indicated he felt the lawyers' rates were excessive. Facebook's chief counsel in the case, Orin Snyder, charged $716.25 an hour, while his most junior associate charged $337.50 an hour, the Times reported.
"If we feel it ought to be modified, we will respond accordingly," Boland told the newspaper. "Cleveland and Buffalo are pretty identical demographically, and I can tell you that no lawyer would survive in the city of Cleveland charging that much an hour because no one would be able to hire him."




Ceglia was ordered to hand over his e-mails account and passwords last August. After he failed to do so, Facebook filed a motion requesting an order compelling him to do so. That hearing also revealed that Ceglia's attorney at the time, Jeffrey Lake, was told by Ceglia that he wouldn't comply with the order.
Lake soon withdrew from the case, becoming the latest in a string of attorneys who stopped representing Ceglia since he initially filed a lawsuit against Facebook and Zuckerberg in 2010. Ceglia claims he and Zuckerberg entered into a contract in 2003 to design and develop the Web site that would ultimately become Facebook--a company now with an estimated value of $100 billion.

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40 million people in protest against SOPA and PIPA campaign

In protest against SOPA, Mozilla announced more than 40 million people were reached.around 30 million people in the U.S. use Firefox's default start page, which reached the lion's share of users; and the social media messages Mozilla sent out were retweeted, shared, and liked by more than 20,000 people.As a result of Mozilla's campaign, 360,000 e-mails were sent to senators and members of Congress, 1.8 million people went to mozilla.org/sopa to learn more about the antipiracy laws, and 600,000 went on to visit the Strike Against Censorship page that is hosted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fowler said
Other major Web sites also launched informational and take-action campaigns. Google redirected users to sign a petition being sent to Congress and the Senate that more than 7 million people signed. Wikipedia completely blacked out its English language site and provided information for people to protest SOPA and PIPA.
It's likely that this isn't the last that U.S. legislators will hear from these protesters. "The debate is far from over," Fowler wrote. "Keep the pressure on and make sure your elected officials understand the nuance of the issue and the importance of protecting the open Web."

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Phone hacking: Jude Law, Lord Prescott and Sara Payne get payouts

 Law's phone was hacked repeatedly between 2003 and 2006

Jude Law and Lord Prescott are among the latest people given payouts over phone hacking by the News of the World.

Actor Law received £130,000 ($200,000) and his ex-wife Sadie Frost £50,000. The ex-deputy PM got £40,000, the High Court was told.


Sara Payne, mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah, and Shaun Russell, whose wife and daughter were murdered in 1996, were given undisclosed sums.


News International apologised in court but said it would not comment further.


As details emerged of the latest 36 cases, lawyers said most people pursuing damages had now settled out of court.



In a statement issued after the hearing, Law said: "I was suspicious about how information concerning my private life was coming out in the press.


"I changed my phones, I had my house swept for bugs but still the information kept being published. I started to become distrustful of people close to me."


In total 16 articles were published containing Law's personal information. His personal assistant Ben Jackson was also awarded £40,000, while his public relations consultant Ciara Parkes got £35,000.



Law's phone was repeatedly hacked between 2003 and 2006. Frost said she had distrusted him because journalists always knew where she would be, the court heard.

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Source code of Symantec stolen in 2006 Hack

2006 security breach led to the theft of source code for some of its flagship products, backtracking on earlier statements that its network had not been hacked

2006 security breach led to the theft of source code for some of its flagship products, backtrackThe security software maker, which had previously blamed the theft on a third party, acknowledged that hackers had infiltrated its own networks. The hackers obtained 2006-era source code for Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security, Norton SystemWorks (Norton Utilities and Norton GoBack), and PCAnywhere, the company said in a statement.

"Upon investigation of the claims made by Anonymous regarding source code disclosure, Symantec believes that the disclosure was the result of a theft of source code that occurred in 2006," a Symantec representative said in a statement.

The software maker said that due to the age of the exposed source code, most Symantec customers are not in any increased danger of cyberattacks as a result of the code's theft. However, the company said users of its remote-access suite PCAnywhere may face a "slightly increased security risk," and that the company is in the process of notifying those users of the situation and providing them a remedy to protect their data.ing on earlier statements that its network had not been hacked.

A hacker group calling itself Yama Tough and employing the mask of hacktivist group Anonymous in its Twitter avatar said in a tweet Saturday that it would release 1.7GB of source code for Norton Antivirus today.

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