Apple to censer the word jailbreak in itunes

May 17, 2012 by

Apple has censored the word jailbreak in its itunes store and ibooks store. Now the word jailbreak comes up like this “j*******k”. At the moment it has only come to the US store according the MacRumors discussion boards, but we are in no doubt it will also reach the UK store soon. 

This issue was first reported by iOS hacker Planetbeing and then by  Shoutpedia.

This will do nothing to stop jail breaking, because those who see the need to jailbreak will continue to do so as long as they can continue to gain the extra benefits from doing so. 

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Facebook shares to get floated Friday

May 17, 2012 by

Facebook is preparing to go public Friday.  This could raise as much as $16bn (£10bn).  Bankers had to release 25% more shares due to the shear demand for them, this will push the initial public offering (IPO) stock price even higher so protentially valuing the company at $104bn after its flotation.

This will prove to be one of the biggest flotations that wall street has ever known, dwarfing Googles flotation in 2004, which raised a mere $1.9bn.

Commentators are asking whether Facebook can continue the momentum of growth it has previously enjoyed, due to a number of challenges that are emerging. The first potential problem comes from the fact that facebook is unable to make money out of mobile users who are growing day by day. Facebook also faces an increasing problem with advertisers becoming disgruntled with Facebooks restrictive policies in ways in which adverts can be displayed on Facebook, the evidence of this comes from General Motors who recently opted to pull its $10m (£6.3m) advertising contract with Facebook, who said their ad was not making enough of an impact, due to the way the is displayed on Facebook.  Its evident in order for Facebook to continue its growth in the future it needs to adapt on a number of fronts, whether it can pull it off only time will tell. 

 

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The EU has passed new laws to cap roaming charges by July 1

May 12, 2012 by

The European Parliament  has passed a new law to cap roaming charges across all EU member states,  these laws will come into effect from July 1 2012. The price of a mobile 1 minute call will drop from €0.35 to €0.29 from July. Text messages will also be reduced from €0.11 to €0.09 per message this year, dropping further to €0.06 in 2014. Mobile data users will also benefit, mobile data charges will drop to 70 cents per megabyte, then it will be reduced to €0.20 per megabyte in 2014. 

This new legislation according to European Commisioner Neelie Kroes’ Digital Agenda will benefit frequent flyers, families and business people, it could save business travellers up to 1000 Euros a year in some Eu countries. Kroes said in a statement that she is glad to have “ended the rip-off  familiar to anyone who has used a mobile phone by traveling abroad.”

 

 

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The Pirate Bay warns file sharers about the rise of copycat proxy websites

May 10, 2012 by

The Pirate Bay has issued a warning about the rise of copycat proxy websites that enable access to TPB since a UK court ruled in favour of banning TPB.

They stated in a Pirate Bay blog that “A lot of proxies in support of TPB are popping up, which is a good thing. But not all of these proxies are nice”

” We’ve noticed at least 3 sites that are tricking users to buying access or similar. We do not condone this behaviour, The Pirate Bay is a free service, take care and don’t get tricked”. Later on in the statement they stated that ,

“We want to encourage you to look for a reliable source on where to find a good proxy that works for you.”

All this even further adds fuel to the debate whether it was worth the UK high court while issuing a ban against The Pirate Bay in the fight against illegal file sharing.

 

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Virgin Media the first to implement the ban on The Pirate Bay

May 4, 2012 by

Virgin Media first in implement the ban on The Pirate Bay, the other internet service providers in the UK are expected to follow suit soon.

Anyone attempting to access the web site using Virgin Media will be confronted with a message stating that “Sorry, the web page you have requested is not available through Virgin Media”.  A Virgin Media spokes person has made a comment to the BBC stating that “As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media will comply with all court orders addressed to the company but we strongly believe that changing consumer behaviour to tackle copyright infringement also needs compelling legal alternatives, such as our agreement with Spotify, to give consumers access to great content at the right price.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17894176

This move to block isp’s will prove to be rather short sighted, because anyone who wants to download copyright content will do so either via another site or via another method.  Ironically web  traffic went up yesterday on the Pirate Bay following the media frenzy regarding the web site ban. A Pirate Bay spokes person for the web site said that yesterday we had 12 million more visitors yesterday than we ever had before, the spokes person goes on to say that we will actively fight the court ruling. 

 

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The Pirate Bay to be blocked by isps in the UK

May 2, 2012 by

It has been ruled  by the high court in England that the UK internet service providers such as Everything Everywhere, O2, Sky, TalkTalk, and Virgin Media must block access to the Pirate Bay web site within the next few weeks according to the Associated Press reports.The Pirate Bay over the years has been synonymous in relation to downloading copyright material.  The Pirate Bay has vowed to fight this decision. So far O2,TalkTalk and Virgin Media have agreed to comply with the decision. Bt has asked for a “few more weeks” to consider its response . There has been no comment from the other isps. But it is expected that all the six internet service providers will comply.This legal action was launched by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) over allegations that the web site infringes the copyright of UK musicians, which has resulted in a reduction of revenue for them over the years. This decision to ban this web site follows a ruling last year against Newzbin2, another file-sharing site.

The high court has been rather short sighted in its approach to this, because anyone who wants to download copyright content will do so either via another site, which there are many of or they will gain access to The Pirate Bay via a number of  alternative methods that are available. So consequently this court decision will amount to hardly nothing more than a token gesture in the fight against copyright infringement. 

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Microsoft goes into a strategic partnership with Barnes & Noble

April 30, 2012 by

Microsoft has decided to go into a strategic partnership with Barnes & Noble to combat the fierceness of the competition from the likes of Amazon and Apple. The new joint venture will concentrate on developing a Nook e-reader application for the new Windows 8 platform. Microsoft will invest $300 million in this venture and Microsoft will own 17.6% of the new company through its investment, the other 82.4% will go to Barnes & Noble.  

The new Nook e-reader application could prove to be a successful competitor to Apples ios ibooks app, if Windows 8 can do well in the new table market.

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