Technology News and Gadgets Updates: 01/21/11

Friday, January 21, 2011

Apple makes iPhone 4 screws tamper-proof

Apple Inc is giving a whole new meaning to locking your phone with its new screws.

In line with its infamous philosophy of maintaining absolute control over its products, sources said US Apple stores are replacing screws on iPhone 4s brought for servicing with tamper-proof screws to prevent anyone else from opening the device.

Kyle Wiens, chief executive of iFixit, a prominent Apple repair and parts supplier, said the purpose of the new screws is to keep people out of the iPhone and prevent them from replacing the battery. He said he noticed in November that screws were being switched.

"If you took your car in for service and they welded your hood shut, you wouldn't be very happy"," he said, comparing it to shutting owners out of their iPhones.

iFixit, based in San Luis Obispo, California, has become famous in the technology world for performing "teardowns" of Apple devices, often within hours or minutes of a new product launch. The company promotes repair to cut down on electronic waste that goes to landfills.

According to two people with first-hand knowledge of the practice, when a customer brings an iPhone 4 into a US Apple store for repair, tech staff swap out commonly-used Phillips screws, with which the device is shipped, and replace them with so-called "Pentalobe" screws. Customers are not told about the switch, these people said.

Google preparing to launch its own Groupon

Google is preparing to launch a service, Google Offers, that will notify subscribers about deals in their area - the search giant's Groupon competitor, according to social and digital media news website Mashable.

"We have the documents to prove it. The service will send a daily e-mail notifying subscribers of deals in their area, in much the same way other group buying sites like Groupon and Livingsocial already do," a report by Mashable said.

When reached for comment by Mashable, Google responded by confirming the existence of Google Offers but also noting they are still testing the programme and reaching out to businesses.

It is worth remembering that Google recently attempted to purchase Groupon outright for the lofty price of USD 6 million, but was rejected. "One of our sources has sent us a confidential fact sheet straight from the Googleplex about the company's new group buying service," it said.

"Google Offers is a new product to help potential customers and clientele find great deals in their area through a daily email," the fact sheet says.

The Mountain View, CA-based company's Google Offers looks and operates much like Groupon or LivingSocial.

Users receive an e-mail with a local deal-of-the-day. They then have the opportunity to buy that deal within a specific time limit (we assume 24 hours). Once enough people have made the purchase, Google Offer is triggered and users get that all-too-familiar USD 10 for USD 20 deal for that Indian restaurant you've never tried, it said.

Apple under fire from Chinese environmental groups

Three dozen Chinese environmental groups are accusing Apple Inc of not responding to concerns about pollution and health problems at factories that supply it with components.

The report released Thursday ranks Apple at the bottom of more than two dozen tech companies in its responsiveness. The criticism comes as the company begins to open stores in China and push further into the Chinese market.

Apple has been trailed by safety concerns after several workers for Foxconn Technology Group, which makes iPhones and other gadgets for Apple, killed themselves in southern China last year.

Dozens of workers for another contractor, Wintek Corp., reported being sickened by chemicals used in making touch screens for Apple and other companies.

An Apple spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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First ever PC virus was created in Pakistan

Floating around in the vast universe that is YouTube is an interview with an unsung pioneer of the digital age. The chat, on a programme called ‘Morning with Farah’, was first aired on Pakistani channel ATV (it’s not clear when, though the video was uploaded in June 2008).

A thin, balding man sits dressed unremarkably in a dark suit and tie. “You fixed America!” Farah tells him. “They always claimed to be the biggest protectors of copyright. You showed them up to be the biggest violators.” The man smiles. “Definitely.”

It was 25 years ago that this balding man, Amjad Farooq Alvi, then 24, and his brother Basat, 17, both based, of all places, in the unlikely tech hub of Lahore, created the first virus to hit the personal computer. Called © Brain, it spread like wildfire, igniting an inglorious era of crashing computers, lost data, millions of frustrated and bewildered computer users, and, of course, the $16.5-billion computer security industry.

Throughout ‘Morning with Farah’, there is a distinct undertone of nationalism. A caller into the show, (Mubashir from Karachi) asks: “I am not sure whether or not this is a matter of pride that it was in Pakistan that the first computer virus was written. What do you think?” he asks Alvi.

Oh, absolutely. Rest assured that it is a matter of pride,” replies Alvi, who currently runs a telecom company in Pakistan with his brother. “The intention was not destructive. We created the virus to protect our intellectual property and keep track of who was copying our software.”

© Brain was certainly not the first computer virus — such programs had been known to exist since at least the early 1980s. But it was certainly the fastest-spreading at the time, helped along by the growing popularity of the personal computer, famously named, just a few years earlier, as TIME magazine’s ‘Man of the Year’. Well, the “intention” of such geeks has undergone a sea change over the past 25 years, says Jagannath Patnaik, Director, channel sales (South Asia), Kaspersky Lab India. “In the early days, virus writers were mostly young college students or geeks who wanted to prove their technical ability ... however, over time, they started smelling money in it and virus writing today is a big, underworld business,” he says.

The Alvi brothers’ virus was relatively harmless — all it did was change the ‘volume label’ of the disk (essentially renaming it). But for the surprised and astonished user who was tech-savvy enough to dig deeper, the program also had a message hidden in it: “Welcome to the Dungeon © 1986 Basit & Amjad (Pvt) Ltd”.

Google to ride busy holidays

Google Inc is expected to report a 22 per cent jump in fourth-quarter revenue thanks to a busy holiday season, though it will face questions about long-term growth when it unveils results on Thursday.

Shares of the world's No.1 Internet search engine underperformed the market in 2010 but have gained roughly 6 per cent in the past three weeks as investors anticipate that Google will benefit from healthy online advertising spending.

"Any kind of pickup in activity in e-commerce should translate into strong search advertising," said Yun Kim , analyst at Gleacher & Company .

Looking farther ahead, its money-making efforts outside of its flagship search business may prove increasingly important to investors.

Google, which is facing increased competition from social networking giant Facebook and iPhone maker Apple Inc , has embarked on a recruiting and acquisition spree, adding more than 3,500 employees to its payroll in the first nine months of 2010 and buying dozens of companies.

In October, Google gave investors what it said was a "one-time" peek at some of its businesses beyond search, showing that it was generating $2.5 billion in revenue from display advertisements on an annualized run rate, and $1 billion from its mobile business.

That update helped reassure investors that the company's efforts to diversify revenue beyond search advertising were bearing fruit, and Google's shares jumped roughly 10 per cent following the earnings conference call in which the company gave (disclosed) the figures.

While Google's Android smartphone software has emerged as one of its most successful new initiatives, the company has yet to find its footing in social networking. Last year, Facebook displaced Google to become the most visited Web site in the United States, according to Experian Hitwise.

Google tried unsuccessfully to acquire Groupon, an online coupon site with strong social networking features, for $6 billion in December, according to media reports.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S expect Google to generate net revenue, which excludes fees that Google pays to partner Web sites, of $6.06 billion in the fourth quarter, with earnings per share of $8.09, excluding certain items.

Google has beaten Wall Street revenue expectations for the past five consecutive quarters, missing profit targets once in that period.