Showing posts with label Lifestyle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lifestyle. Show all posts

Online note service Evernote latest firm to get hacked



Yet another company has fallen victim to a hack, with attackers breaking into systems at Evernote, maker of a Web-based note-taking application used by about 50 million people.


The company said in a security notice that some user data had been accessed and that Evernote was requiring all users to reset their passwords. Apparently, though, no sensitive financial info was stolen, and no user content was affected:


"In our security investigation, we have found no evidence that any of the content you store in Evernote was accessed, changed or lost," the company said in the statement, which was e-mailed to users and posted online. "We also have no evidence that any payment information for Evernote Premium or Evernote Business customers was accessed."


What was accessed, the company said, were usernames, e-mails addresses associated with Evernote accounts, and encrypted passwords. The company emphasized in the notice that "the passwords stored by Evernote are protected by one-way encryption. (In technical terms, they are hashed and salted.)"


The notice goes on to walk users through the password-reset process and to give tips on how to create an effective password.


Evernote is just the latest company to suffer at the hands of hackers. Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter have all been victimized recently. And of course there were the high profile hacks at The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal that helped prompt President Obama to sign an executive order on cybersecurity.


There has been speculation that the Chinese military was behind the hacks at the newspapers -- though the Chinese government denies this -- and that the Apple, Facebook, and Twitter hacks may have been the work of Eastern European cybercriminals.


In a statement sent to CNET, an Evernote representative said the breach of the company's systems "follows a similar pattern of the many high profile attacks on other Internet-based companies that have taken place over the last several weeks." The rep also addressed our question about what Evernote is doing to reassure current and potential users about the safety of its products. Here's the rep's statement in full:



Our operations and security team caught this at what we believe to be the beginning stages of a sophisticated attack. They are continuing to investigate the details. We believe this activity follows a similar pattern of the many high profile attacks on other Internet-based companies that have taken place over the last several weeks.


At this time we believe we have blocked any unauthorized access, however security is Evernote's first priority. This is why, in an abundance of caution, we are requiring all users to reset their Evernote account passwords before their next Evernote account log-in. We are actively communicating to our users about this attack through our blog, direct e-mails, social media, and support. This simple step of users creating strong, new passwords will help ensure that user accounts remain secure.


As you point out, attacks like this are becoming more commonplace for all Internet-related companies and services. Evernote's ops and security team ensures we are using the latest and strongest security protocols. In addition, the team continuously and aggressively monitors for unusual activity patterns. This allows us, as was the case in this instance, to catch new and novel attack types as soon after they begin as possible.




Update, 10:45 am PT:
Adds statement sent to CNET from Evernote representative.


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What's up with the sun? Plenty.



High-resolution image of a sunspot taken at the Sacramento Peak Observatory of the National Solar Observatory in New Mexico.


We're currently in the midst of what scientists say is the sun's 11-year solar weather cycle and it's making for quite the show. Over the last few months, NASA and the European Space Agency have been recording solar flares as they erupt, tracking solar storms that send charged particle's in Earth's direction at roughly 1.8 million miles per hour. In case you were tempted to do the math, radiation from solar flares make it to Earth within eight minutes.


What's more, the frequency of the storms is expected to increase and reach its peak later this year in a weather cycle referred to as Solar Cycle 24. The latest eruptions came during a 48 hour stretch between Feb. 19 and Feb. 20 when solar magnetic fields formed a couple of gigantic sunspots estimated at more than six Earth diameters across. So far, we've experienced relatively few disruptions but scientists are far from giving the all clear sign. In fact, some researchers believe that the aftermath of a solar superstorm might cause temporary blackouts and put one in 10 satellites out of action.


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Google testing new navigation design borrowed from Chrome



Google tests a new navigation system for its services that dumps the controversial black bar.

Google tests a new navigation system for its services that dumps the controversial black bar.



(Credit:
Google Operating System)


Google is testing a new version of its home page that eliminates the controversial navigation bar that has sat atop its services for two years, the company said.


The version now being tested requires users to click a grid icon borrowed from Chrome OS for links to Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, and other products. The design, which was first spotted by blog Google Operating System, appears to be in an early stage of testing -- screenshots show the grid icon includes a redundant link to Google search, even when accessed from the search page.


"We're always experimenting with the look and feel of our home page," a Google rep told CNET.


If it tests well, the grid would replace the prominent black bar that has served as the company's site navigation tool since 2011. The nav bar has always polarized design-minded users: Some like the unified look it brings to Google products, while others think the interface could be improved. Among those who think that: Google itself, which has eliminated the navigation bar in the past only to bring it back later.


In November 2011, Google moved its list of services into a drop-down menu that descended from the Google logo. But some users criticized the move for making those services harder to find, and the experiment was dropped six weeks later.


A similar criticism might be levied at the new design, which buries the services under an icon in exchange for a cleaner overall look. And with the company putting greater emphasis on Chrome OS this year than ever before, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to see elements from the operating system migrating into more and more Google services.


The test hasn't shown up for us yet. For more pictures, check out Google Operating System.


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Tim McGraw samples new system to sell album in a status update



Tim McGraw turns to Facebook to sell his latest album.



(Credit:
Screenshot/Jennifer Van Grove)

Country singer Tim McGraw wants you to buy his album -- on Facebook. Tuesday, the recording artist became one of the first people to try out a new system for selling through status updates on the social network.

McGraw's team used e-commerce platform Chirpify to encourage Facebook fans to type "buy" in the comments section of a post to instantly purchase a special edition of the star's "Two Lanes Of Freedom" album.

The in-stream album sale marks the start of Chirpify's foray over to Facebook. Chirpify was founded in 2011 and initially started by turning tweets into instant transactions. The Portland-based company has since expanded to include support for selling on Instagram, and is now working on perfecting buying through Facebook comments.

"Chirpify is enabling in-stream commerce by comment on Facebook for select top tier brands and musicians before a wider rollout and official launch," Chirpify Chief Executive Chris Teso told CNET.

Chirpify integrates with Facebook so that social network users need only type "buy" -- but only "buy," and nothing more -- in the comments section on a for-sale post to grab the item offered. The transaction is a one-step process if the person is already a Chirpify user.

Though novel, Chirpify's in-stream approach to e-commerce will likely be a little too avant-garde for most social networkers, especially those who want to avoid the process of signing up for another service. Thankfully, the company has the help of notable celebrities such as McGraw, Kat Von D, and Green Day to help it acclimate people to the idea of spending via tweet or Facebook comment.

[via Digital Trends]

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Ubuntu Touch OS heading to slew of smartphones, tablets



The Ubuntu Touch home screen on a tablet.



(Credit:
Ubuntu/Canonical)



The Ubuntu Touch operating system is being ported to more than 20 types of smartphones and tablets.


The developer preview of the Linux-based OS was released for the Galaxy Nexus and
Nexus 4 smartphones and
Nexus 7 and
Nexus 10 tablets last week.


And developers are working to port the OS to a far greater range of devices, including the Asus Transformer series, HTC One handsets, the LG Optimus 4x HD, the Motorola Xoom, the Samsung Galaxy Note and S series, and Sony Xperia phones. They're also working on ports for the Nexus S and Nexus One devices.


The work to adapt the OS is being carried out as part of the Ubuntu port-a-thon initiative to get the developer community to bring Ubuntu Touch to a wider range of hardware.


"We want to port Ubuntu Touch to all kinds of devices," says the porting guide for Ubuntu Touch.


"If you have experience in porting code to Android devices or are generally knowledgeable in terms of porting, working with the kernel and other core bits and pieces of a distribution, this might be interesting to you."


The ports are at various stages of progress and though the OS reuses some of the drivers and other hardware compatibility code used by Android, it will likely take some time to get each port in working order.


Users have been warned not to use the developer preview as their primary OS, and the preview's release notes highlight various issues when running on Nexus devices.


These included problems when using the OS with some 3G and 4G networks, such as CDMA and LTE, and the possibility that the Nexus 4 would refuse to boot if the battery was drained.



This story originally appeared on ZDNet under the headline "Ubuntu Touch prepped for 20+ smartphones and tablets."

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'Brave' nets Pixar its seventh Best Animated Feature Oscar



Pixar's 'Brave' won the studio's seventh Oscar for Best Animated Feature Sunday night.



(Credit:
Disney/Pixar)



Although it didn't earn the critical acclaim of "Toy Story 3," "Up," or "Ratatouille," Pixar's 2012 film "Brave" joined those three hits, as well as three other Pixar predecessors, in winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.


Beating out fellow nominees "Wreck-it Ralph," "Frankenweenie," "ParaNorman," and "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," "Brave" became the seventh Pixar film to nab the Oscar since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences began awarding the honor in 2002. No other studio has won as often.


"Brave" followed the story of Princess Merida, the rebellious daughter of King Fergus and Queen Elinor, who desperately wants to seek out her own path in life. An expert archer, Merida flouts a cherished custom and chaos befalls the kingdom. In order to defeat the curse, she must be brave and utilize her archery skills.


Visual Effects


The other major technical Oscar, for Best Visual Effects, went to "Life of Pi." Beating out nominated competition from "The Hobbit," "Marvel's The Avengers," "Snow White and the Huntsman," and "Promethus," "Life of Pi" featured visual effects from the firm Rhythm & Hues. Unfortunately, reported The Independent, the effects firm declared bankruptcy just a few days ago.


'Life of Pi' won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.



(Credit:
Fox)



"Life of Pi" also scored three other Oscars, including Best Director, for Ang Lee, and Cinematography, for Claudio Miranda.


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Indigo brings Siri-like assistance to Android for free (Hands on video)



Indigo brings the functionality of the iPhone's Siri to Android and Windows Phone 8, letting you sync the account across all your devices.



(Credit:
Andrew Hoyle/CNET)


BARCELONA, Spain--Want to challenge Siri to schedule every aspect of your busy life but don't want an iPhone? Great news for you then as Artificial Solution's Indigo service brings similar functionality to Android, Windows Phone 8, and your Web browser. Better yet, it's completely free.


Indigo works in much the same way as Siri; ask it your question and it will use its various channels -- Web searches, a built-in catalog of commands, and, also like Siri, Wolfram Alpha information -- to perform the required task.


The usual requests of "What is the weather doing in Barcelona this week?" are handled perfectly well and it's also able to create appointments, open apps, and dictate and send e-mails or post statuses to your social networks of choice. Unlike Siri, though, Indigo is available across multiple platforms and also lets you use one account to sync across them all.


The benefit of this is that if you begin creating an appointment on your Windows Phone device then switch to your
Nexus 10 Android tablet, your previous requests will already be there waiting for you. You can then finish off your searches without going through all the previous stages. Just think of it like updating a document in Google Docs and loading it up on a different machine.


The app itself looks neat and simple and was mostly accurate at recognizing words, even with the excessive background noise of the Mobile World Congress crowd.


It's coming soon to the Windows Phone 8 and
Android app stores and will be available through your Web browser, too. Artificial Solutions also explained that it's working with "major TV manufacturers" to integrate it into their TV's smart functions, although didn't have concrete times as to when to expect it. I'd also like to see it come into
cars, letting you perform all your essential smartphone tasks without taking your eyes off the road -- Artificial Solutions didn't indicate that this is on the horizon as yet, though.

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No more working from home for Yahoo employees, says report



Yahoo's focus on mobile apparently requires its employees to stay in the office.


ATD is reporting that CEO Marissa Mayer let it be known yesterday -- via a memo to employees from HR head Jackie Reses -- that come June, any existing work-from-home arrangements will no longer apply.


"To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side," reads the memo, as published by ATD's Kara Swisher, to whom it was leaked.


Swisher reports that the change has rankled some workers who say they were hired with the understanding that their work locale would be flexible.


But perhaps they should have seen this coming. Last July, not long after becoming the struggling tech icon's new CEO (and not long before touting Yahoo's focus on mobile), former Googler Mayer announced that food in Yahoo's URLs Cafe in its Sunnyvale HQ would thenceforth be free. Changes to the layout of the Yahoo buildings and individual employee work areas were also begun, to, as Swisher reported at the time, make them more "collaborative and cool."


Cool? Perhaps. But the new policy apparently strikes some as anything but, and that could be important in an industry where competition for workers can be fierce (not to mention an era when telecommuting is becoming more and more accepted). Swisher quotes an unnamed tech executive as saying, "Our engineers would not put up with that. So, we'd never focus on it." And she quotes an unnamed Yahoo worker as calling the move "a morale killer."


Still, Mayer is not alone in thinking that having workers in the same place can lead to casual exchanges that in turn can lead to breakthroughs for products. Steve Jobs thought this true as well.


We've contacted Yahoo for comment on the memo and will update this story when we hear back. In the meantime, here it is in full:



YAHOO! PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION -- DO NOT FORWARD

Yahoos,

Over the past few months, we have introduced a number of great benefits and tools to make us more productive, efficient and fun. With the introduction of initiatives like FYI, Goals and PB&J, we want everyone to participate in our culture and contribute to the positive momentum. From Sunnyvale to Santa Monica, Bangalore to Beijing -- I think we can all feel the energy and buzz in our offices.

To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.

Beginning in June, we're asking all employees with work-from-home arrangements to work in Yahoo! offices. If this impacts you, your management has already been in touch with next steps. And, for the rest of us who occasionally have to stay home for the cable guy, please use your best judgment in the spirit of collaboration. Being a Yahoo isn't just about your day-to-day job, it is about the interactions and experiences that are only possible in our offices

Thanks to all of you, we've already made remarkable progress as a company -- and the best is yet to come.

Jackie




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Watch: How to make a peanut butter sandwich in space



Chris Hadfield shows how to make a peanut butter and honey sandwich on the International Space Station

Chris Hadfield shows how to make a peanut butter and honey sandwich on the International Space Station.



(Credit:
Video screenshot by CBSNews.com)


Everything is more interesting in space. Even the lowly peanut butter sandwich becomes fascinating when the person making it is an astronaut and the "kitchen" is the International Space Station.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield takes you on a culinary tour of the cosmos in this simple and entertaining video.




Hadfield has made headlines several times during his current stint as commander of the ISS.


He was the mind behind "Mixed nuts in space." He demonstrated how to clip fingernails in space without inhaling them. And, of course, there was his Earth-to-space duet with fellow Canadians the Barenaked Ladies.

Commander Hadfield obviously knows his way around a camera, about as well as he knows his way around an interstellar PB and honey sandwich.



This story originally appeared on CBSNews.com.
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Facebook puts old photos on ice



Facebook's data center in Prineville, Oregon.



(Credit:
Facebook)


Facebook will preserve your aged photos using the tried-and-true freezer method, as billions of photos are headed for colder climates: a "cold storage" unit at Facebook's Prineville, Oregon data center.

Yesterday, the social network opened up the in-construction building to members of the media to demonstrate how it plans to make room in the fridge for the more than 350 million new photo uploads it sees each day, but still keep distant memories alive for revisiting.

Facebook currently houses 240 billion photos, a massive collection that consumes 7 billion petabytes per month. The cold storage process takes into account a photo's lifecycle to transfer a "cold" photo, or one that's transitioned from active moment to old memory, to a more efficient cold storage server.

The company plans to have the first of three 16,000-square-foot cold storage data hubs functioning by fall, according to The Oreganian. The paper paid a visit to the new data center yesterday and said the building is currently just a frame and a concrete pad.


Last month, Jay Parikh, Facebook's vice president of infrastructure, explained that the company's process for storing photos was too inefficient to support the active storage of billions of photos. The new cold storage rack, which will keep cold photos on ice, has eight times the storage capacity of a normal server, but consumes a quarter of the power.

In essence, the specialized units have been designed to let Facebook freeze photo memories and thaw them out when need be.

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Microsoft to back Oracle in Java case against Google -- report


The legal war between Oracle and Google has been rather muted for the last several months, but there could be a major new twist in the case.


Reuters has reported that legal representatives for Microsoft told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a briefing yesterday that it would support Oracle.


We reached out to Oracle to confirm, but the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based corporation declined to comment.


Not many more details are available at this time, but it would seemingly line up with Microsoft's other patent-related lawsuits against Motorola Mobility, now a Google subsidiary.

To recall, Oracle originally sued Google in 2010 over copyright infringement related to the use of 37 Java APIs used on the
Android mobile operating system.




Google argued they were free to use because the Java programming language is free to use, and the APIs are required to use the language. Oracle tried to make the case that Google had knowingly used the APIs without a license from Sun Microsystems, which was bought by Oracle in 2010.


But last spring, a federal jury at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco sided with Google on nearly all of the copyright claims as well as on all of the patent disputes.


At this point in the case, Oracle is working on an appeal after a federal judge rejected the Java owner's motion for a new trial. The two parties also met several times last summer to discuss damages.


In one instance, at a case management hearing in June, Oracle's legal team explained that it filed a stipulation in which Google was asked to pay $0 in statutory damages (in reference to the nine lines of code in the rangeCheck method and the test files) in order to move proceedings along faster as it works toward an appeal.


This story originally appeared at ZDNet under the headline "Microsoft teaming up with Oracle against Google in Java case?"

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Apple: Employee computers were hacked in targeted attack



Apple's Cupertino campus.



(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)


Apple today said it too was targeted as part of the string of hacking efforts on companies and news agencies.


The iPhone and
Mac maker today told Reuters that hackers targeted computers used by its employees, but that "there was no evidence that any data left Apple."


In a statement, Apple said it discovered malware that made use of a vulnerability in the Java plug-in, and that it was sourced from a site for software developers.


Apple blocked Java from some of its Macs late last month using its XProtect antimalware tool and citing security vulnerabilities.


Reuters says Apple plans to release a security update later today to protect user computers. CNET has reached out to the company for additional information and will update this post when we know more.



Apple joins a list of companies including Facebook, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, as targets of a group of hackers believed to originate from China.


A report Monday by The New York Times claimed that an "overwhelming percentage" of the cyberattacks on U.S. corporations, government agencies, and organizations all came from an office building in Shanghai with ties to the People's Liberation Army, information that remains unconfirmed and flatly denied by Chinese authorities.


The hack itself was months long, includding an attack on The New York Times that included the theft of corporate passwords of Times employees, as well as spying on personal computers. Apple says only "a small number of systems" were infected by the attack before being isolated.


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Burger King Twitter account hacked, defaced





Burger King's hacked Twitter account (click to enlarge).



(Credit:
Screenshot by Steven Musil/CNET)



The Twitter account associated with the fast-food chain Burger King was suspended after an apparent hacking that defaced the page with messages that the account had been sold to rival McDonald's.


The @BurgerKing account name was changed today to "McDonalds" and the Golden Arches' familiar logo was added to the page, as was a message that the account had been sold to McDonald's "because the whopper flopped."

The page has since been taken down, but images of the defacement are still visible on Web cache.


Before the feed's suspension, hackers posted messages to Burger King's some 83,000 followers that included racial epithets.


The online hacktivist collective Anonymous appeared to take responsibility for the hack in a tweet that mentioned a new operation dubbed #OpMadCow, although it was not immediately clear what the aim of that campaign was.




CNET has contacted Burger King and will update this report when we learn more.

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The making of Bungie's Halo successor: Destiny



Halo's Master Chief watches over Bungie headquarters in Bellevue, Wash.



(Credit:
Bungie)


BELLEVUE, Wash.--Halo, the multibillion-dollar-grossing video game franchise, set an incredibly high bar for its creator, Bungie, to meet with its next title.

"After Halo, a bunch of us thought, 'What comes next?'" Bungie co-founder Jason Jones told a group of journalists visiting Bungie's Bellevue, Wash., headquarters Wednesday.

Jones and Bungie's leadership, who sold the company to Microsoft in 2000 and then spun it out of the software giant in 2007, wanted to find a project worthy of the groundbreaking work in Halo. They wanted to come up with not just a new game, but a new model for gaming, something that could change the way gamers play.

Jones thinks Bungie's Destiny is exactly that. Destiny is something of a first-person shooter with bits of massively multiplayer online role-playing gaming mixed in. Bungie, which has kept mum about the title while gamer sites fulminated for the last two years about what it might be, is beginning to rev up the hype machine for its next title.

Eric Hirschberg, the chief executive of Activision, which will publish Destiny, said the game defied typical genres, giving it a new one -- "shared-world shooter." Even so, there are plenty of parallels with the Halo franchise, particularly that you're still shooting up aliens. Players guard the last city on Earth, while exploring the ruins of the solar system, moving from Mars to Venus, in order to defeat Earth's enemies.

One of the big differences this time is that the game is a persistent online universe, where players come across others, matched to their skills. They're encouraged to work together to rout evil, visit new worlds, and earn rewards.

"This is one of those areas (collaborating with strangers) where I was most skeptical," said Hirschberg, whose company has also published such franchises as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.


Bungie concept art for its next game, Destiny.



(Credit:
Bungie)

But gamers don't have go through the awkward dance of hooking up in a lobby before setting out on their adventure. They naturally come across allies and, if Bungie and Activision succeed, feel entirely comfortable teaming up with complete strangers to set out on the next adventure. While Bungie didn't share how those interactions come about, it could be similar, perhaps, to the wildly popular indie title Journey for the Playstation 3, which did away with the premise of playing with your friends in favor of encountering others randomly.

"It almost feels scripted," Hirschberg said.

Gamers also will be able to play solo. But Bungie Chief Operating Officer Pete Parsons said the goal for Bungie is to get gamers working together.

"If you want to do it yourself, that's totally OK," Parsons said. "We want to slope the floor and prove to you that there are a bunch of cool things you can do with others."

One thing gamers won't be able to do is play Destiny without an Internet connection, a bold move for the console gaming crowd that expects to be able to play offline. Even so, Activision has no plans to charge subscription fees to play the game. And while he wouldn't talk about a release day, Hirshberg told analysts on the company's earnings call earlier this month that the new Bungie game was not factored into the company's 2013 guidance, implying that the game won't likely arrive until 2014. It will be available on both the
Xbox and Playstation platforms.

Bungie showed no game play during the presentation and gave little detail about how far along the development actually is. Instead, executives talked in sweeping themes about the new universe Bungie created, while highlighting production art, engineering details, and some of the music in its plans for its first post-Halo effort.

It's not just the first time Bungie has talked about the new game; it's really the first time Bungie has given a glimpse into its post-Microsoft life. Two years ago, the company moved from Kirkland, Wash., to an old movie theater and bowling alley in the Bellevue Galleria retail complex. It rebuilt the site, adding a theater, a fireplace, and a climbing wall. Bungie also added a motion-capture studio dubbed Spandex Palace, as well as a massive production floor where 280 of the companies 360 employees work on game development and design.

It's one of those new-age workplaces, where every desk has wheels, so that teams can be reconfigured on the fly as problems or opportunities emerge. The floor has a neon blue glow and is eerily quiet as the crew develops Destiny. Nothing on the floor is more than 6-feet high, so that everyone can see where the action is, where they might be needed. "This is a great space for making a great universe," Bungie's Parsons said.


The main production space at Bungie's Bellevue, Wash., headquarters.



(Credit:
Bungie)

There's little doubt, when you walk in the door at Bungie, that this is the company that Halo built. A giant Master Chief, the hero of that series, stands watch in the hallway. And a massive trophy case, brimful of awards for the Halo series, with a few other titles sprinkled in, greets every visitor.

The company is focused solely on Destiny now. The Halo franchise is now entirely handled by Microsoft Studios. And Bungie has cast its lot with Activision.

Last year, the Los Angeles Times dug out details of the deal with Activision from a legal dispute between the publisher and Call of Duty developers Jason West and Vincent Zampella. Activision's contract with Bungie, unsealed in that suit, calls for Bungie to develop four "sci-fantasy, action shooter games," under the code-name Destiny, released every other year, starting in the fall of 2013. The deal also called for Bungie to release four downloadable expansion packs every other year starting in the fall of 2014.

Under the terms of that contract, which may have been modified since it was unsealed, Bungie was to receive royalties of 20 percent to 35 percent of operating income from the game. Activision was also to pay Bungie $2.5 million a year in bonuses between 2010 and 2013 for meeting quality and budget milestones. And the deal called for Activision to pay Bungie $2.5 million if the first Destiny game scores 90 or higher on GameRankings.com.

The executives didn't address the unsealed contract, except for a few passing quips during a question and answer session. But there's little doubt that much is riding on Destiny for both companies.

And Bungie is putting its resources, much more considerable now with its Activision partnership, behind the new title. Its audio director, Marty O'Donnell, is working with Paul McCartney on the music for Destiny. O'Donnell played a few of the pieces recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London with a 106-piece orchestra and a choir of more than 40 singers.

O'Donnell, whose music is as responsible for the tone of Halo as the graphics and gameplay itself, gushed about collaborating with McCartney. Rather than dictate the way a piece should work, McCartney has shared ideas with O'Donnell and left it up to him how the final arrangements should work.

"He said, 'Some of my melodies, some of your spooky bits, it's going to be great,'" O'Donnell said. "So far, he's been really happy with it."



Bungie Audio Director and Computer Marty O'Donnell



(Credit:
Bungie)


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Facebook pic of toy mortar leads to armed cops raid



The picture as it appears on Driscoll's Facebook page. Yes, that's a toy mortar.



(Credit:
Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)


When you make your Facebook profile picture that of Action Man (aka the British G.I. Joe), it can be a clue to your fascination with fantasy.


It also suggests that if there's a toy mortar in the background of the picture, that, too, might actually not be entirely real.


Please try telling that to the five carloads of police who raided Ian Driscoll's house in Tewkesbury, England, armed with guns and a search warrant.


"The Action Man looked a bit like me, so I decided to put it as my Facebook picture. I didn't even notice the mortar in the background," 43-year-old Driscoll explained to the Daily Mail.



The image offered more clues as to the mortar's unreality. There was a TV remote control by its side. It offered what some might call scale and perspective.


Sadly, perspective is not always something the police embrace with anything other than loaded arms.


"It's tiny and quite clearly a toy. I can't stop laughing. I think it's hilarious," Driscoll told the Mail.



More Technically Incorrect



The police did manage to see the funny side, but only after reportedly telling him that he was lucky he was at home, otherwise they would have been forced to break down his front door.


They didn't even seem to have considered that this profile picture had been up for a month.


It isn't clear which wise "friend" of Driscoll's contacted the police to tell them of his arms cache. It might have been polite of this person to at least own up to the marginal over-reaction.


A representative for the Gloucestershire police told the Mail: "We are sure that the community would rather we acted quickly on information given to us of this nature, in case it had turned out to be a weapon."


Many will be glad of the police's confidence in this matter. Perhaps a phone call to Driscoll might have obviated the necessity for a raid.


Still, it is heartening that he has stood his ground and continued to make believe that he is really Action Man.


The profile picture, with mortar in the background, is still on his Facebook page today.


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Hot calendar app Tempo crushed by demand



Buzzy calendar and scheduling app Tempo, which made a splashy launch yesterday, is recovering after being overrun by new users.


"We are excited but overwhelmed by the demand," Raj Singh the founder and CEO of Tempo wrote in a post today.


Shortly after the app went live, Tempo was forced to close down new sign-ups, incensing would-be users and leading to a bevy of negative reviews in the App Store.


Singh now says the company is changing how it lets users access Tempo and its features while it works on getting everything up and running. That includes once again letting people register (something that earlier threw up error messages), as well as connect their calendars, address book, and e-mail account to the software.


The only thing the service won't do as quickly is cull through e-mail to find relevant messages, a key feature that Singh says is experiencing delays.


Tempo is a spinoff from SRI International, the same place where Apple's Siri was conceived. The software is designed to improve the way people accomplish common business activities on their phones, from conference calls to getting driving directions to meetings.


The demand issues are not the first for a productivity app on Apple's platform in recent days. Mailbox, an e-mail application for Gmail, quickly racked up a more than 700,000 user long wait list to get access to the app, which relies on servers to add lists, reminders and notifications beyond what Google already offers. That service has been experiencing sync issues, with some users reporting being unable to access their inbox.


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Microsoft closing in on 'write once, run anywhere,' says CFO




For years, write once, run anywhere has been the dream of many developers and -- whether or not they knew it -- customers who have wanted to share the same apps across different screens.


Microsoft is getting closer to making that dream a reality, Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein told attendees of the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference during a Q&A session on February 13.


Klein was asked about Microsoft's plans to address the
tablet and phone market with device form factors ranging from 4 inches to 13 inches and beyond.


"We've done a lot of the hard work in the developer platform," Klein said. "We are well set up to respond to demand as we see it" with different-size form factors, he said.


Klein's response echoed that of Windows CFO Tami Reller, with whom I spoke recently. Reller also made a point of saying that Windows 8 was designed from the outset to run on smaller and bigger screens at different resolutions, and that it's the underlying app platform/app model that enables this.


This new "we'll see what customers want" in terms of screen size is a markedly different message from Microsoft officials than just a year ago, when Microsoft execs pooh-poohed the advantage of smaller screen sizes for Windows devices that could act as both creation and consumption platforms.


Klein did note that it's not operating systems that matter in the end; it's more the common experiences -- apps and services like
Xbox Live, Skype, SmartGlass -- that are what really matter to consumers. That said, it's the evolving underlying application programming interfaces (APIs) that will be what enables developers of these apps and services to get closer to cross-platform nirvana.


"We are getting closer and closer every day to write once and run anywhere," Klein said.


Microsoft is forging ahead on attempts to solve this problem, as a recent job post made plain, noting that Microsoft is attempting to unify further its Windows Phone and Windows development platforms and APIs. (The post has since been removed from the company's Careers site because the post was filled.)


"We are looking for a highly motivated and technically strong SDET (software development engineer in test) to help our team bring together the Windows Store and Phone development platforms," the job post read. To make this happen, Microsoft is "bring(ing) much of the WinRT API (application programming interface) surface and the .NET Windows Store profile to the Phone." The ultimate goal: "(T)he code you write for Windows Store apps would just work on the Windows Phone and vice versa."


The "Blue" Windows and Windows Phone updates that Microsoft's Windows client and Phone teams are building are expected to include new APIs and core-level changes that will help increase commonalities between the two platforms, according to my contacts.


In response to questions outside the realm of multi-size-screen support, Klein had nothing new to say about when/whether Microsoft will make Office available on iOS.


When asked about what Microsoft has learned from the Surface launch -- starting back in October when the company made available the Surface RT -- Klein said the company came to understand that users need to touch, see, and play with the Surface. Building awareness alone isn't enough, he acknowledged. Klein also said updates that Microsoft is making to the Surfaces based on user feedback are going to go back into the
Windows 8 and Windows RT operating systems and will benefit the entire ecosystem.

This story originally appeared on ZDNet under the headline "Microsoft CFO Klein: We're ready for devices of all sizes."

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Intel confirms it's building an Internet TV service and box



Erik Huggers, head of Intel Media, speaks at the AllThingsD media conference.



(Credit:
Screenshot by Shara Tibken/CNET)

A lot has been written about Intel's TV push, but the company has largely remained silent -- until today.

Erik Huggers, the head of Intel Media, joined Walt Mossberg onstage at AllThingsD's media conference to confirm that Intel will be introducing an Internet-based TV service and box this year.

Intel will be providing the hardware and services directly to consumers, and the box will come with a camera that can detect who is in front of the TV. Huggers declined to provide many details -- including the service's name and programming partners -- but he said the service will allow users to watch live TV, on demand, and other offerings.

"For the first time, we will deliver ... a new consumer electronics product that people will buy from Intel through a new brand," Huggers said.

He said the set-top box will be be powered by an Intel chip (obviously) and noted that Intel is working with the entire television industry to figure out to to distribute live television, "catch-up TV," on-demand, and other services via the Internet.

"Ultimately we think there's an all-in-one solution," Huggers said.

While Intel hopes to revolutionize the TV industry, the service will resemble current cable offerings in some key ways. For one, don't count on saving money with Intel's new offering. Huggers noted Intel's push isn't a value play and won't cut a user's television bill in half.

In addition, users won't be able to pick and choose certain channels but will likely subscribe to bundles curated by Intel's team.

"What consumers want is choice, control, and convenience," Huggers said. "If bundles are bundled right, there's real value in that. ... I don't believe the industry is ready for pure a la carte."


Intel in late 2010 pitched Smart TV devices as a key new area for its processors, but it shut down its digital home group a year later.



(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)


Intel's history in the TV industry has been rocky. It was early to push Google TVs and other smart TVs, with its processors powering a Sony Google TV and a Logitech Google TV set top box. However, such products flopped, and Intel shuttered its TV business in late 2011 after failing to gain much traction.

Huggers, meanwhile, joined Intel that same year following stints at the BBC and Microsoft. During his time at the BBC, he was on the executive board and served as director of BBC future media and technology, overseeing the company's online push and other initiatives. And during his time at Microsoft, Huggers worked in various digital media areas.

While Intel stopped pushing its processors for use in smart TVs, the company clearly didn't give up on the market entirely. Huggers noted that Intel has been building its media business for about a year.

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Holograms of Holocaust survivors let crucial stories live on





A hologram of Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter interacts with onlookers during a demonstration of the New Dimensions in Technology project. (Click to enlarge.)



(Credit:
USC Institute for Creative Technologies)


Pinchas Gutter has told his story many times. Of the horrors of childhood in the Warsaw Ghetto. Of being ripped away from his parents and 10-year-old twin sister the day the family arrived at Poland's Majdanek concentration camp, never to see them again. Of barely surviving a brutal Nazi prisoner "death march" away from front lines and allied forces. Of his liberation in 1945.

The story never loses its power, its agony, or its moments of hope. Only this time it's not the 80-year-old Gutter who's telling his tale, but a Princess Leia-like full-body holograph of him. Gutter's digital representation is a product of New Dimensions in Testimony, a high-tech initiative to record survivors' first-person accounts for interactive 3D exhibits that live on long after the storytellers have passed.





I think it's going to be considerably more engaging and immersive and moving than if they're just up there on a video screen.
--Paul Debevec, USC Institute for Creative Technologies




"The effect that it gives is a lot more that that person is there in the room with you than that person was filmed some time ago somewhere else," says Paul Debevec, a professor of computer science at USC and associate director of graphics research at the school's Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT). "I think it's going to be considerably more engaging and immersive and moving than if they're just up there on a video screen."


USC is teaming with the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, and design firm Conscience Display, to develop installations that let students and others converse with the hyper-photorealistic life-size digital versions of the survivors. Viewers ask questions, and the holograms respond, thanks to Siri-style natural-language technology, also developed at USC, that allows observers to ask questions that trigger relevant, spoken answers.




Pinchas Gutter answers questions about his life on an ICT light stage surrounded by high-speed cameras and multiple LED lights positioned just so. (Click to enlarge.)



(Credit:
Paul Debevec/USC Institute for Creative Technologies)



The project relies on light-stage technology developed by ICT to record interviews using multiple cameras for high-fidelity playback. ICT has been creating digital versions of people with its Light Stage systems since the year 2000, but researchers are significantly enhancing the technology for the survivor project.

"Everything that we're doing is getting retooled and to some extent reinvented specifically for recording the testimony of a survivor," Debevec says, "to do it in a way that when we project it holographically, it's a very absolute literal playback of exactly the way they said it, exactly the way they looked when they were doing it."

Most notably, the USC team is building a Light Stage system that can for the first time holographically record a full body, and do so with more spatial and angular fidelity than the smaller facial-recording system the team has built and used for the project so far.

"It's the kind of project that really inspires you to push everything that much further, because it's such valuable content that we'll be recording," says Debevec, whose institute has contributed to such films as "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Avatar."




Stephen Smith

Stephen Smith, executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, stands next to a light stage used to capture Pinchas Gutter's interview in 3D. (Click to enlarge.)



(Credit:
Michele Zousmer)


Recently, in an auditorium at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, the project's team demonstrated their efforts with sometimes wrenching footage of Gutter in 2D, and at a scaled-down size in holographic 3D. Once ICT's technology is ready, the survivors' interactive digital doppelgangers will appear full size in 3D.

Debevec acknowledges that even the most advanced technology can't replicate the experience of hearing a survivor's account in person. But as this aging population dwindles, so do opportunities for in-person testimonials in schools, museums, and the like. New Dimensions in Testimony aims to record survivor stories in a way that future generations can best relate to.


Gutter -- who was born in Lodz, Poland, and now lives in Toronto -- was just 7 when the war erupted. The project team filmed him in 3D as he told his story in front of a green screen on Light Stage 6, a dome lit by more than 6,000 LEDs that measures 26 feet in diameter and looks like something the minds at NASA might think up. Stephen Smith, executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation, asked Gutter hundreds of questions and will likely interview the additional survivors picked to participate in the project.

Those survivors will likely spend even more time on Light Stage 6. Whereas seven high-speed cameras captured about 3 hours of Gutter's testimony, future interviewees will be recorded for up to 12 hours with 50 high-definition cameras.

"Some of them will be zoomed in on their face, some of them will be zoomed in on their hands, and a lot of them will be covering the entire body, seated, head to toe," says Debevec, who imagines the holographic technique eventually being applied to scientists, political leaders, and other public figures of note.


Not like the Tupac hologram
The New Dimensions in Testimony project might evoke memories of rapper Tupac Shakur performing at a music festival from beyond the grave, but there are some key technological differences.

Holographic Tupac appeared courtesy of stacked 2D images projected onto a thin and nearly invisible screen. Holographic Gutter and other survivors will be projected into open space to create an even more heightened sense that they're actually present. Audience members, depending on where they're sitting, will be able to see the virtual survivors from different vantage points, as they would any real person sitting in a chair on-stage.



"If you're sitting [at] the front, you see that person from the front. If you're sitting to the right, you'll see them to the right," Debevec says. "Even as you just shift in your seat and move your head back and forth... the viewpoint will shift then, too, appropriately, and you'll get an effect called motion parallax, which is even a more strong and visceral sense of the three-dimensionality than you get with binocular stereo."

The project comes at a crucial time.

Approximately 500,000 Holocaust survivors remain worldwide, with about 120,000 of those residing in the United States, according to San Francisco's Tauber Holocaust Library and Education Program. Their average age is estimated to be 79.

"We lose many of our survivors every year," Debevec says. "We definitely feel the sense of urgency and that realistically it's going to be now or never."


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Apple's reportedly testing curved glass for 'iWatch'



Is Apple eyeing an iWatch?

Is Apple eyeing an iWatch?



(Credit:
Sarah Tew and Christopher MacManus/CNET)



Like hands a clock, rumors that Apple is developing a Dick Tracy-like wristwatch have come around again.


The New York Times reports today that Apple is experimenting with wristwatch-like iOS devices that sport curved glass. The advantage of the "iWatch," as some have labeled it, is said to be in the company's expertise with curved glass.


The smart wristwatch notion isn't exactly groundbreaking: A lot of smartwatches, fitness bands, or some hybrid of the two, were talked up last month at
CES. Some of those devices include the long-awaited Pebble wristwatch, which made its debut at the conference, and the 007-inspired Martian Passport Watch.




Rumors of Apple working on just such a device have been circulating for months. A report from a Chinese blog last December held that Apple had partnered with Intel to develop an iOS wristwatch that would be Bluetooth-enabled and sport a 1.5-inch OLED screen.


Apple encouraged wearing previous versions of the
iPod Nano on wrists in 2011, with manufacturers selling watchbands that could be attached to the Nano to wear it as a wristwatch. However, Apple bumped up the size of the iPod Nano last year, leading to speculation that it was developing a wearable computer of its own.


CNET has contacted Apple for comment and will update this report when we learn more.

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