Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

• Computer Sales in Free Fall - WSJ.com

  • The personal computer is in crisis, and getting little help from Microsoft Corp.'s  MSFT +2.21%  Windows 8 software once seen as a possible savior.
  • world-wide shipments of laptops and desktops fell 14% in the first quarter from a year earlier. That is the sharpest drop since IDC began tracking this data in 1994 and marks the fourth straight quarter of declines.
  • not only has Windows 8 failed to attract consumers, but businesses are keeping their distance as well.

• Verizon CEO: 50% of our wireless traffic is video - FierceWireless

  • Video accounts for 50 percent of Verizon Wireless' (NYSE:VZ) network traffic today and by 2017 the carrier estimates video will make up two-thirds of all traffic over the network

• Can you find me now? How carriers sell your location and get away with it | The Verge

  • the second kind of data also includes your location, determined by the nearest cell tower whenever your phone checks in with the network, providing roughly a hundred data points each day. It’s the same data law enforcement uses if they’ve got a warrant out — but it belongs to the carriers, and as long as your "personal" data is stripped out, they’re allowed to sell the anonymized data to whoever they want.

• CBS joins Fox in considering subscription-only model | Internet & Media - CNET News

  • Another television network has joined the broadcaster backlash following last week's court decision upholding Internet TV company Aereo's right to stream broadcast TV without paying retransmission fees
  • Last week, a federal appeals court in New York upheld a lower court ruling in favor of Aereo, which uses tiny antennas to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals that it then streams over the Internet to its subscribers' Internet-connected devices. Broadcasters, including ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox filed two lawsuits against Aereo for infringing on their copyrights by streaming their broadcast content without paying retransmission fees.

• Next to Use 3-D Printing: Your Surgeon - WSJ.com

  • Surgeons are finding industrial 3-D printers to be a lifesaver on the operating table. This technology, also known as additive manufacturing, has long produced prototypes of jewelry, electronics and car parts. But now these industrial printers are able to construct personalized copies of livers and kidneys, one ultrathin layer at a time.

• Shodan: The scariest search engine on the Internet - Apr. 8, 2013

  • Unlike Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), which crawls the Web looking for websites, Shodan navigates the Internet's back channels. It's a kind of "dark" Google, looking for the servers, webcams, printers, routers and all the other stuff that is connected to and makes up the Internet.

  • hodan runs 24/7 and collects information on about 500 million connected devices and services each month.   

       

      It's stunning what can be found with a simple search on Shodan. Countless traffic lights, security cameras, home automation devices and heating systems are connected to the Internet and easy to spot.   

       

      Shodan searchers have found control systems for a water park, a gas station, a hotel wine cooler and a crematorium. Cybersecurity researchers have even located command and control systems for nuclear power plants and a particle-accelerating cyclotron by using Shodan

• Move Over, Apple and Google: Apperating Systems Are Taking Over Your Phones | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

  • Facebook Home makes its own big changes to the default Android experience. Most significantly, it buries most Android apps several clicks away from the home screen, meaning they are less likely to be used — or even discovered — by consumers. Facebook content and advertisements, meanwhile, will get top billing, appearing even when a user has the phone or tablet locked
  • These system tweaks could mean a big loss of revenue for Google

• Fingerprint Scanners, Voice Unlock Coming to Your Smartphone? - Mobile Phones / Smartphones - Technologist

  • Strengthening smartphone security using biometric devices might just be the next big innovation for manufacturers.
  • According to the Telegraph, Apple could be adding fingerprint recognition to the circular Home button on their phones on either the iPhone 5s or the iPhone 6.

• YouTube Won't Put Your Video Back Up, Even If It's Fair Use, If It Contains Content From Universal Music | Techdirt

  • YouTube now admits that, when it comes to some videos that contain content from certain "partner" companies, it won't repost those videos, even if the video uploaders file a counternotice and show that they're relying on fair use. YouTube claims that it will still keep some of those videos blocked due to "contractual" obligations:
  • Universal Music made a strange claim that it had some sort of contractual agreement that allowed it take down videos like Megaupload's. YouTube quickly came out with a statement denying this, but the situations described in McKay's post certainly raise serious questions about this, and clearly suggest that YouTube has made at least some deals that effectively wipe out fair use for some users. I assume it will surprise next to no one that the key example that led McKay to discover this situation... also involved Universal Music

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.