Facebook Suspends New User-Data Feature

Facebook Inc. temporarily suspended a feature that gave external websites and applications access to its users' addresses and phone numbers, after some privacy advocates expressed concerns.

The pullback came just a few days after the social network announced the feature, which expanded the range of user data that developers could request from Facebook users to include more-detailed contact information.
But the mechanism triggered concerns from privacy advocates. "This is fairly personal information," said Justin Brookman, the director of consumer privacy at the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology.

Facebook said it plans to change how it asks users for permission to share their information with others, and will reinstate the feature in a few weeks. "We agreed with feedback—both external and internal—that the user interface could be improved," said a Facebook spokesman.

Facebook has been criticized in recent years for modifying its privacy rules to expose more of a user's personal data. Last fall, the Palo Alto, Calif., company introduced a new control panel that allows people to see which third-party apps and sites are accessing information about them and what kind of information is involved.

The social network lets external websites and apps access certain data about users through a system it calls the "open graph." Facebook users can log into other websites with their Facebook credentials, which allows them to bring along certain information about themselves and their friends, such as their name, photos birthdays and personal preferences.

In a post on its developer blog, Facebook said that address and phone information might be used by developers to speed up online tasks by Facebook users, such as sharing contact details with an e-commerce site, or signing up for alerts on a mobile phone.

Swiss banks: WikiLeaks unlikely to release data soon

WikiLeaks is unlikely anytime soon to make public material provided to it this week by Swiss bank whistleblower Rudolf Elmer , according to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and sources close to Elmer.

At a London news conference on Monday, Elmer, former chief of the office of the Julius Baer Bank in the Cayman Islands, handed to Assange what he said were two discs containing information on about 2,000 offshore banking clients.

Assange said WikiLeaks would treat the information provided by Elmer like "all other information" the website received, which would include public revelations. However, he said, before any of the material is released, "it could be weeks. It could be longer."

Assange indicated WikiLeaks and possibly media organizations would review Elmer's material before making it public. He said this would take at least "a couple of weeks."

Two sources familiar with the material said it was dense and not self-explanatory. One of the sources said the material contained a handful of names that might be recognizable.

Even in cases where names seemed familiar, the source said, there is no way to be sure from the material supplied to WikiLeaks of the identities of account holders and further investigation would have to be done to confirm the account holders' identity.

Samsung, Asian tech firms set to step up challenge to Apple

Nimble Asian technology firms led by Samsung Electronics appear well placed to slow the runaway success of Apple, as news of its visionary CEO Steve Jobs taking medical leave battered Apple's shares.

Jobs' latest medical leave, the third time since 2004, comes at a time when the world's most valuable technology firm faces the biggest threat from Google , through its Android mobile operating system, which has seen torrid growth as the preferred choice of both iPhone and iPad rivals.

Samsung, at the forefront of the long queue of rivals determined to halt Apple's runaway boom in smartphones and tablets, is seen as a key threat, and its shares jumped more than 3 percent to a record, partly helped by such expectations.

"There'll be no fundamental change in Apple but the news of Jobs taking leave could sentimentally hit Apple shares and offer investors an opportunity to take profits from its shares, which have risen so much recently," said Lee Seung-woo, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities.

"Then Samsung is the best alternative for investors seeking exposure to the tech sector as it's the most formidable threat to Apple for now."

Apple's surprise announcement -- made on a U.S. market holiday -- dragged its shares down more than 6 percent down in European trading on Monday. They are up 62 percent in the past 12 months on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Lenovo to Focus on Tablets, Phones for Growth

Lenovo Group Ltd. will form a new business unit focused on mobile Internet and "digital home" devices, it said Tuesday, as it continues pushing to expand beyond its core personal-computer business.

Lenovo's Mobile Internet and Digital Home Business Group will make tablets, smartphones and devices for other categories like smart TV and cloud computing, China's biggest PC maker by shipments said.

The world's fourth-biggest computer maker by shipments behind Hewlett-Packard Co., Acer Inc. and Dell Inc. has already joined other PC makers in launching mobile devices to diversify into new areas and boost margins. In May last year, the company launched LePhone, its first touchscreen smartphone based on Google Inc.'s Android operating system with a detachable Qwerty keyboard.

 Lenovo earlier this month also unveiled a hybrid notebook and tablet that combines a high-definition Android-based tablet, called LePad, with a keyboard base that enables the product to operate Windows 7.

Lenovo bought International Business Machines Corp.'s (IBM) PC business in 2005 to boost its business in developed markets, but in 2009 it announced restructuring measures to refocus on China and other emerging markets. The company's focus on mobile Internet comes as it is still also investing heavily to build its market share in emerging markets like Latin America, India and Southeast Asia. That effort and a greater focus on lower-price consumer products have pressured Lenovo's margins.

Lenovo said in November its net profit for its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30 rose 44% to $76.6 million from $53.1 million a year earlier, helped by strong growth in PC shipments.

Facebook new frontier in parent-teen relationship

Roughly two thirds of American teenagers are comfortable enough with their parents to have them as Facebook friends, according to a new study.

But 16 percent of students said befriending their parents was a precondition for joining the social networking site and 38 percent said they simply ignored friend requests from their father or mother.

"Facebook ... continues to be the new frontier in the ever evolving relationship between parent and child," said Kristen Campbell, of Kaplan Test Prep, which questioned 2,313 students, aged about 16 to 18, about social networking trends.

The study showed that 65 percent of teens "are not hiding and that is positive," said Campbell, an executive director at the company that develops college prep programs.

For many young Americans Facebook offers an opportunity to remain independent from their parents, according to Campbell.

"Even though parents are very involved and very active, Facebook allows young people to exert their independence," she explained. "They want part of their lives to be private."

In some instances, parents and their children decide to mutually keep their Facebook lives separate. Even though many teens ignore friend requests from their parents, 82 percent of teens report that their parents are either "very involved" or "somewhat involved" in their academic lives.

Campbell described Facebook as a natural step in being connected for a generation that has grown up with the Internet.

"This is a generation that's communicating electronically and now the lines of communication are open in new ways."

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Apple sales surge, IBM beats Street

Apple Inc smashed Wall Street's sales forecasts for the holiday quarter, the day after announcing its Chief Executive Steve Jobs would take

leave for medical reasons. Its shares rose after hours.

The following are immediate comments from investors and analysts:

ASHOK KUMAR, ANALYST, RODMAN & RENSHAW

"The only place where we saw some upside surprise was with iPad."

"It was very strong in near-term product momentum. For the 12-month horizon the operational risk is very limited because most of its new products will be upgrades."

"The unknown is what happens beyond this timeframe. Steve (Jobs) is the conductor so to speak. Yes, there's a deep bench at Apple but, it's only Steve that makes it bigger than the sum of its parts."

"You've very big egos at Apple. Steve is unique in that he can corral all these forces. I don't think there's another individual at Apple capable of that."

"For investors, the options are stark near term. There's no comparable company in the tech sector which is considered an alternative to Apple."

"You can't put it into IBM. IBM is a different beast. It's more of a beta story rather than an alpha story. It's not going to outperform. The lack of alternatives will keep investors in Apple."

RAJESH GHAI, ANALYST, THINKEQUITY

"As far as execution is concerned (chief operating officer) Tim Cook has been the guy leading the effort over there. He's in charge and I think they have pretty decent bench strength to help him execute on the plan."

"Longer term, Job's creativity and vision are going to be important and we'll have to see if anyone else can step up and provide that vision as far as products are concerned. But the stock really depends on what the company is going to do for the

next couple of years and I don't see any problem on that account."

Review: Nokia X5

Nokia may have been gaining more attention for its efforts in the newer version of the Symbian operating system (Symbian ^3), but that does not mean that it has abandoned Symbian Series 60 (3rd edition); the version that powers all the devices in its famed E series and a number of non-touch smartphones from the N series.

The company has been releasing handsets on the platform aimed at those who want a smartphone experience without having to mess with a touchscreen (yes, there are a lot of people like that), and the latest in that series is the X5.

Although marketed mainly as a music and messaging phone, the X5 is in fact a full-fledged smartphone packing in the same operating system that runs devices like the Nokia E72 and the more recently released E5. However, what really marks it out is its form factor. The X5 is squareshaped , with a 2.36 inch display that hides a full and surprisingly spacious QWERTY keypad. Like the similarly shaped Motorola Flipout, it has an undeniably ‘cute’ and compact look to it. But that does not mean that it is flimsy - it is very solid and feels good to hold, even a tad heavy for something so small.

And Nokia has managed to pack in a whole lot of goodies inside this pocketfriendly device. You get all the routine Symbian S60 goodies including free push mail, Ovi Store , Ovi Music , and even a view-only version of QuickOffice. In terms of connectivity, there is support for 3G , Wi-Fi , and Bluetooth although we were a bit surprised at the absence of GPS. In best Symbian tradition, the X5 is a wiz at multi-tasking (we ran four to five apps at the same time on it, and it handled them with ease) and has a battery that will comfortably see out almost two days before screaming “recharge.”

The display might be a tad on the small side, but has an accelerometer, which paves the way for some neat tricks - you can change tracks by shaking the phone, and even better, find out how many messages have come by holding down the volume key and giving it a shake at which the X5 will emit a knocking sound to show new messages (honestly, we think it is simpler to have a sound alert, but still the “shake to discover new messages” is kind of cool). And as this is a music phone, the sound quality is very good indeed, right up there with the best XpressMusic handsets.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Will India be able to launch world's cheapest laptop?

India’s ambitions to launch the world’s cheapest laptop hit a roadblock the second time since 2008, after the government failed to reach an agreement with the shortlisted vendors on cost for each laptop, people familiar with the discussions said.

Cost overruns, apart from disagreement on conditions of the contract led to the cancellation of original tender issued by the government last year for the $35 laptop project, officials told ET.

“Disagreement on the financial cost with the vendor led to the tender cancellation,” said a government official involved in the project. He requested anonymity.

This is not the first time that a low-cost computing project in India has hit snag. Three years ago, India’s then secretary for higher education RP Agarwal had announced plans to launch $10 laptop, which later turned out to be a storage device with 2 Gigabyte of storage capacity. With only 3-4% of nearly 1.2 billion currently exposed to some kind of computing device or Internet experience, India has been scrambling to find a way to increase the penetration of computers.

Announced by the minister for human resource development Kapil Sibal in July last year, the $35 laptop was designed together by engineers at India’s premier institutes—IIT and the Indian Institute of Science . At that time, Mr Sibal had said his department would work to bring the cost further down to $10 over next few years.

“The laptop components alone were costing the vendor Rs 5700 without taking into account the import duties and logistics. We were however planning to sell it at Rs 1500 per piece,” the government official added.