Network in the Sky
Solar-powered Google Balloons carrying routers connect with ground antennas

Bands of balloon travel with winds at an altitude of about 12 miles (20 km) — about twice as high as the level that commercial jet aircraft fly. Internet coverage is provided by balloons passing and handing off signals as they move from one continent to the next continent. The balloons cruise in the stratosphere — well above the level of local weather conditions. Mount Everest’s summit, is 8.848 km (29,029 ft).

Internet users on the ground attach a special Internet antenna to their home to pick up signals. The balloon routers provide the link from ground-based Internet Service Providers and individual Internet users in remote locations of the world. Two-thirds of the earth’s population, or about 4.8 billion people don’t have access to the Internet.

Project Loon begins testing this weekend for 50 home users in New Zealand.

We believe it’s possible to create a ring of balloons that fly around the globe on the stratospheric winds and provide Internet access to the earth below. Balloons present some really hard science problems, but we’re excited about the progress so far.

A guidance document has been developed by the FDA to assist medical industry manufacturers by identifying issues related to cybersecurity that manufacturers should consider in preparing premarket submissions for medical devices. The need for effective cybersecurity to assure medical device functionality has become more important with the increasing use of wireless, Internet- and network-connected devices, and the frequent electronic exchange of medical device-related health information.

The FDA warns that failure to maintain cybersecurity can result in compromised device functionality, loss of data availability or integrity, or exposure of other connected devices or networks to security threats. These, in turn, have the potential to result in patient illness, injury, or death.

Manufacturers are advised to consider cybersecurity during the design phase of the medical device, as this can result in more robust and efficient mitigation of cybersecurity risks. Manufacturers should define and document the following components of their cybersecurity risk analysis and management plan as part of the risk analysis required by 21 CFR 820.30(g)2 (Medical Device Quality System Regulation and Design Controls):

Identification of assets, threats, and vulnerabilities;
Impact assessment of the threats and vulnerabilities on device functionality;
Assessment of the likelihood of a threat and of a vulnerability being exploited;
Determination of risk levels and suitable mitigation strategies;
Residual risk assessment and risk acceptance criteria.

Cybersecurity Protocols/Security Capabilities
Limit Access to Trusted Users Only
Limit access to devices through the authentication3 of users (e.g., user ID and password, smartcard, biometric);
Use automatic timed user session log-offs appropriate for the use environment;
Employ a layered authorization4 model by differentiating privileges based on the user role (e.g., caregiver, administrator);
Use multi-factor authentication to permit privileged device access (e.g., to administrators, service technicians, maintenance personnel);
Strengthen password protection by avoiding “hardcoded” passwords (i.e., passwords which are the same for each device, difficult to change, and vulnerable to public disclosure) and limit public access to passwords used for privileged device access;
Where appropriate, provide physical locks on devices and their communication ports to minimize tampering;
Require user authentication or other appropriate controls before permitting software or firmware updates, including those affecting the operating system, applications, and anti-malware.

Ensure Trusted Content
Restrict software or firmware updates to authenticated code. One authentication method manufacturers may consider is code signature verification;
Use systematic procedures for authorized users to download version-identifiable software and firmware from the manufacturer;
Ensure secure data transfer to and from the device, and when appropriate, use accepted methods for encryption5.

Use Fail Safe and Recovery Features
Implement fail-safe device features that protect the device’s critical functionality, even when the device’s security has been compromised;
Implement features that allow for security compromises to be recognized, logged, and acted upon;
Provide methods for retention and recovery of device configuration by an authenticated system administrator.

The FDA also recommended guidelines on Cybersecurity Documentation.

Cybersecurity Documentation
The type of documentation that we recommend you submit in your premarket submission is summarized in this section. These recommendations are predicated on your effective implementation and management of the quality system in accordance with the Quality System Regulation, including Design Controls.6

In the premarket submission, manufacturers should provide the following information related to the cybersecurity of their medical device:

Hazard analysis, mitigations, and design considerations pertaining to intentional and unintentional cybersecurity risks associated with your device, including:
A specific list of all cybersecurity risks that were considered in the design of your device;
A specific list and justification for all cybersecurity controls that were established for your device.
A traceability matrix that links your actual cybersecurity controls to the cybersecurity risks that were considered;
To assure continued safe and effective device use, the systematic plan for providing validated updates and patches to operating systems or medical device software, as needed, to provide up-to-date protection and to address the product life-cycle;
Appropriate documentation to demonstrate that the device will be provided to purchasers and users free of malware; and
Device instructions for use and product specifications related to recommended anti-virus software and/or firewall use appropriate for the environment of use, even when it is anticipated that users may use their own virus protection software.

See also …
FDA.gov Medical Devices Content of Premarket Submissions for Management of Cybersecurity in Medical Devices – Draft Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff

The iTunes media player application developed by Apple Inc. to play AAC and MP3 formatted music recordings was released January 9, 2001. SoundJam MP, developed by Bill Kincaid and released by Casady & Greene in 1999, was renamed iTunes when Apple purchased it in 2000. In April 2003, Apple iTunes app version 4.0 introduced the iTunes Store for Macintosh computers. In October 2003, version 4.1 added support for Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

At Macworld 2003, Steve Jobs displayed new slide up on the huge screen before him. “We started about a year and a half ago to create a music store,” the Apple chief executive told Apple fans in the audience. “That meant we have to go and negotiate with the big five music companies. Now, before we did this I was reminded of a quote from Hunter S Thompson about the music industry.”

He looked up at the screen. In giant letters it read: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.”

Jobs read it out loud and then paused to let the slide’s final line appear: “There’s also a negative side.” Laughter erupted from the audience. “So I didn’t know what to expect,” Jobs added.

Historic event in which Steve Jobs introduced the iTunes Music Store, changing forever the way people get their music. “Rip, Mix, Burn” and Apple iTunes Music Store and new iPods introduced (elapsed time 05:01).

Fast forward to today and Apple is working to add streaming music to the iTunes Store, as it is losing ground to Pandora and Spotify. Google is also set to launch a streaming-music service as part of YouTube that would work on desktop and mobile devices. Both Apple and Google hope to release their streaming music services this summer. Apple’s service has been dubbed “iRadio” by the press.

In the Apple business model, the streaming music service would provide a quick way for consumers to buy a song they hear, potentially boosting download sales from iTunes. There would also be revenue sharing with record companies from new audio ads that Apple is planning to add to the free streaming music service.

Apple’s product would be connected to iTunes, and be available on mobile devices.

Apple is working to sign deals with Warner Music, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group and other music publishers.

In the midst of the Boston Marathon bombing attack and aftermath, some media reports stated that cell phone service was shut down to prevent remote cell phone detonation of any undiscovered bombs — as a security measure.

Cellphones are known to be used to detonate improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the Middle East. The trigger for a radio-controlled IED is controlled by the radio link established by devices such as cellphones.

Police officials and the wireless companies are reporting the cell phone service providers were not asked to turn off cellular service. AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless were actually working to augment cellular voice service in the area.

Also AT&T and Sprint requested that customers in Boston use text messages to communicate rather than call to free up lines for emergency personnel.

AT&T announced that it would extend the period of time that its temporary Wi-Fi would be setup for the Boston Marathon. AT&T provided free Wi-Fi to its customers at the start line of the 117th Boston Marathon in Hopkinton and at the finish line on Boylston Street. AT&T, the Official Wireless Provider of the 117th Boston Marathon, offered other free features to help athletes and spectators experience the 2013 Boston Marathon. With AT&T Athlete Alert, Marathon fans who wanted to track the progress of their friends and family, or their favorite elite runner, could get updates sent to their mobile phone or email, in real-time.

“Boston customers may have issues w/wireless voice & data service due to spike in network activity. Our Wi-Fi remains on at #BostonMarathon.”

– AT&T on Twitter

Two powerful bombs killed three people and injured over 140 people near the finish of the Boston Marathon at about 2:50 p.m. Monday.

“Verizon Wireless has been enhancing network voice capacity to enable additional calling in the Copley Square area of Boston. Customers are advised to use text or email to free up voice capacity for public safety officials at the scene. There was no damage to the Verizon Wireless network, which is seeing elevated calling and data usage throughout the region since the explosions occurred.”

– Verizon Wireless

Stay informed with news from The Cardinal’s Emergencies Behind the Scenes Facebook page — Facebook.com/CardinalEmergencies. Includes links to favorite public safety and emergency rescuers and product manufacturers and safety companies that have facebook pages. Submit your pictures or just stay up-to-date on with fire, rescue, EMS and police photo galleries. Please add your public safety photo to the wall album — go direct to the Arlington Cardinal Emergencies Behind the Scenes photos. For a list of all of The Cardinal Facebook fan pages, go to Arlingtoncardinal.com/about/facebook …

Google Glass is a wearable device like glasses that is planned to work with or without prescription lenses and sunglasses.

Google Glass is set for release next week for $1,500 to “winners” of its #ifihadglass contest (that’s “If I had Glass,” as a hashtag, which is now CLOSED). Google Glass gets data through Wi-Fi, or it can tether via Bluetooth to an Android device or iPhone. Google Glass uses a smartphone’s 3G or 4G data plan (via tethering) while while out on the streets. There is no cellular radio in Glass, but it does have a GPS chip.

Be very careful ladies, this is how guys might use Google Glass.

Official Google Release Demo: Want to see how Glass actually feels? It’s surprisingly simple. Say “take a picture” to take a picture. Record what you see, hands free. Even share what you see, live.

Google’s Sergey Brin reveals video-capturing, augmented reality glasses at Google I/O in San Francisco. The Google Glass Explorer Edition will be available via pre-order for conference attendees, cost $1,500, and ship in early 2013.

We believe technology should work for you — to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t.

A team within our Google[x] group started Project Glass to build this kind of technology, one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment.

Follow along with us at http://g.co/projectglass as we share some of our ideas and stories. We’d love to hear yours, too. What would you like to see from Project Glass?

– Google

Google official demo from April 12, 2012.

Glass “How to get one” CLOSED …
http://www.google.com/glass/start/how-to-get-one/

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Facebook is preparing to unveil a new version of News Feed — the flow of status updates, photos and advertisements its users see on the Facebook web page.

Facebook is attempting to stay relevant about one month after a Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project found that some 61 percent of Facebook users report taking a hiatus for reasons that range from boredom to too much irrelevant information to Lent.

Zuckerburg says News Feed is a personalized newspaper that should have a broad diversity of content. The personalized newspaper should have high quality public content from world-renowned sources, and should have socially and locally relevant updates from friends and relatives.

Designed for the way that users are sharing and trends expected.

Three features are focused for the design of Facebook …

(1) Rich stories — visual and engaging

(2) Your choice of different feeds by digging into any topic you want.

(3) A mobile-inspired consistent User Interface (UI).

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Apple still probably makes the most reliable technology products regarding computers, tablets, cell phones and music players; but their attention to detail and devotion to the user interface and quality user experience has faltered since the death of founder and CEO Steve Jobs.

Most notorious was the deletion of Google apps from Apple iPad and Apple iPhone. The built-in Apple map that replaced Google maps was a disaster. It gave people wrong directions, rendered distorted satellite views, mislabeled places, lacks the Google street view technology, and did not have the quality resolution at zoomed in satellite views — compared to Google’s map app. In fact, it doesn’t zoom in as close on satellite view. It also deleted the built in YouTube app. Initially there was a replacement YouTube app by Google, but many users complained it didn’t work as well as the original. Besides, it required several minutes for a download — especially frustrating for users who upgraded their iPhones from iOS 5 to iOs 6.

Eventually a Google map was released by Google for the iPhone and iPad, many people held back on upgrading their iPhones, or even held back on purchasing new iPhones until the Google map issue was resolved.

Especially with the Google map issue, Apple showed an extreme disregard for Apple customers. Apple showed a “Let them Eat Cake” attitude toward its customers, which revealed an arrogance that was punished by consumer response. Apple apologized, but it was too late. Steve Jobs motto was “Give the People What They Want” and even give it to them before they know they want it. Apple lately has even taken some things away.

Apple’s RSS screen saver on the Mac OS X operating system is an example of how Apple taketh away. The retired screen saver rotates news headlines from any news publisher that provides an RSS feed for their website. RSS Visualizer screensaver, which was available from OS X Lion and earlier, was dropped in the version of OS X Mountain Lion. Apparently, for no reason. It didn’t require any great overhead, and it didn’t require development to the next version of OS X. In fact, a workaround was discovered by finding the “visualizer.qtz” file in the library folder of a Mac with the older operating Mac OS X operating system and dropping the file into the library folder of a hampered Mac with the OS X Mountain Lion operating system. Why take something away? Every evolution of a product should provide more bang for the buck with more powerful and better-designed features. That was the whole theme of product introductions by charismatic Steve Jobs. Even some loyal Apple customers are tired of the way they are strung along by Apple, ie., experiencing a delay in availability of the latest and greatest features — obtainable only by cracking open their wallets. To outright take a feature away is just plain wrong.

OS X has had some quirks that show the development team just didn’t do their homework. Some files are suddenly unreadable in Mac OS X — accompanied by the message that the user doesn’t have the required permission to view the file — a local file on a local machine being operated by the top administrator/user of the particular machine. What?

Some of the problems with desktops may be the result of putting so much engineering talent on the development of the profitable mobile devices, to the loss of the desktop devices. Even the interface of the desktops have become more like the mobile devices. For example, the scrolling direction in the Mac windows on a desktop were reversed recently to match the direction and feel (touch control) of the mobile devices. The scroll bars are unnecessarily thin on the desktop, and their default is that the scroll bars are hidden. That’s not very intuitive for a user that has upgraded from an older Mac OS X operating system. Fortunately, users can configure the scroll bar to permanently display, and can change the directional control of the scroll bar, if they want. However, there is nothing intuitive from Mac OS X to help the user find out how to get the familiar features back. A smart user resorts to Google to search and see how someone else managed the problem.

Another cause for concern is related to fundamental concerns of Apple’s future by investors, and the effect on Earnings Per Share (EPS). A drop in EPS is expected to be the result of less profitable signs in manufacturing: the Apple iPhone 5 is expected to be less profitable than the iPhone 4S, iPad Mini is expected to be less profitable than the full-size Apple iPad, and future Apple iMacs are expected to be less profitable than older iMacs.

Another concern about profitability is related to a technology issue that could marginalize the app store. HTML 5 technology will permit more app-like functions and features in web browsers. For users, this could be great because there will be no more waiting to download an app to get access to functionality. If and when developers build feature-rich iPhone and iPad functionality on the Safari web browser using HTML5, developers can bypass Apple and the App Store.

Frameworks are developing work with HTML5-based technology to build web applications. DHTMLX Touch is one of the frameworks. DHTMLX Touch is an HTML5-based JavaScript library for building mobile web applications, and is not only a set of UI widgets, but a complete framework that allows developers to create eye-catching, cross-platform web applications for mobile and touch-screen devices. The framework is compatible with the major web browsers for mobile platforms. Applications built with DHTMLX Touch will run smoothly on iPad, iPhone, Android-based smartphones, and other popular devices.

In the near future businesses will be taking advantage of the popularity of tablets and use them for custom business applications — whether they are native apps download from the app store or a web app that bypasses the the app store. Businesses will find a way to build new custom tablet apps quickly and cost effectively. They will be able to avoid the cumbersome App-developing process of the Apple App store, and bypass expensive developers by creating their own apps with code-free app developing software. Businesses will also be able to quickly update and maintain versions of their self-created apps throughout their life cycle at low cost. The technology disruption will be similar to the introduction of desktop publishing that changed the course of printing press and publications providers in the 1980′s.

So the real question is, will Apple try to profit by jacking around their customers; or will Apple focus on the Next Big Thing?

On January 24, 1984, Steve Jobs introduced the first Macintosh at a shareholder meeting in Cupertino, California. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook acknowledged the anniversary during his company’s quarterly earnings call on Wednesday.

Apple Shareholder Meeting January 24, 1984 — The First Macintosh.

Graph Search will appear as a bigger search bar at the top of each page. When a user starts typing to search for something, Graph Search will make suggestions of searches users area looking to perform. Once a user selects the search it will return results on a page that a user can further customize and filter (for things like specific timeframes).

Facebook programmers have been working on the new search feature for about a year. The first version of Graph Search focuses on four main areas: people, photos (by location or topic), places and interests.

Read more on Digital-Lifestyle.com …

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Pittsburgh-based PNC said it believes the situation is an “access issue not an issue of account security” and said its website is “protected by sophisticated encryption strategies that shield customer information and accounts.”

PNC said it has “taken steps to block” the nefarious traffic and “maintain online and mobile banking access for the vast majority of its customers.” However, the bank said “in some cases” those countermeasures may have shut out a “small percentage of legitimate PNC customers for an extended period.”

U.S. banks in recent months have been responding to denial of service (DDoS) style attacks that can slow or even shut off online access for customers.

Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo have also been targeted in recent months.

Intel subsidiary McAfee issued a warning last month of a “credible attack” called Project Blitzkrieg, which is set for the Spring and involves Russian hackers targeting investment and national banks through fraudulent transactions.

A hacking board user named “vorVzakone” is reported to have been looking for recruits for a campaign against US banks, credit unions, and investment houses. The user claims to have made $5m from a similar job in 2008 and posted malware screenshots of the code to be used.

At first McAfee labs thought the user was a sting agent from a Russian security service, but after studying malware logs and other investigations, McAfee labs suspect that the threat may be real, and that Capital One, Fidelity, E*Trade, Charles Schwab, PayPal, Citibank, Wachovia, Wells Fargo are believed to be at risk.

See also …
sitedown.co

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Sprint began work on installation of new 4G antennas at Dunton Tower Apartments, 55 South Vail Avenue. The antennas are installed and then tuned for the area. They might cover an area of about three to four miles.

In cell phone and mobile technology lingo, 4G is the fourth generation of mobile phone mobile communications standards, and is a successor of the third generation (3G) standards. A 4G system provides mobile ultra-broadband Internet access, for example to laptops with USB wireless modems, to smartphones, and to other mobile devices. Conceivable applications include amended mobile web access, IP telephony, gaming services, high-definition mobile TV, video conferencing and 3D television.

The antennas and radios atop the high-rise are GSM-850 and GSM-1900 are used in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the United States and many other countries in the Americas. They operate in the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz radio frequencies, respectively.

GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is a standard set developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe protocols for second generation (2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile phones.
Further improvements were made when the 3GPP developed third generation (3G) UMTS standards followed by fourth generation (4G) LTE Advanced standards.

“GSM” is a trademark owned by the GSM Association.

Crane operator concentrates overhead during lift of Sprint 4G equipment to the roof of Dunton Tower (Over 25 more photos …).

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A stranger twist in the national conversation of preventing gun violence. There is technology that is closer to reality that will bring the capability to print guns with 3D manufacturing printers. Even if the software for gun templates was illegal, how difficult would it be to detect or regulate the distribution of the software to make guns?

Does the future mean guns can be made with 3D material printers? Downloading a gun design to your computer, building it with a three-dimensional printer that uses plastics and other materials, and firing it minutes later is closer to reality. No background checks, no questions asked. Sound far-fetched? It’s not.

3D printing, also known as Additive Manufacturing, is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital model. 3D printing is achieved using additive processes, where an object is created by laying down successive layers of material. 3D printing is considered distinct when it is compared to traditional machining techniques (subtractive processes) which mostly rely on the removal of material by methods such as lathing, cutting and drilling.

The next Kinko’s.

Forget your tool? Replicate a wrench.

Also in the first half of 2012, there were 1,791 requests from government officials around the world to remove 17,746 pieces of content. About 1,000 request per year were filed from 2009 to 2011. The first transparency report (2009) was released in 2010.

One particularly interesting report of political significance is the Google Transparency report for traffic — by country (google.com/transparencyreport/traffic).

The United States government holds the lead with the most User Data Requests at 7,969 — a recent sharp increase. The United States government also requests more Google user data than any other government. See User Data Requests for more data.

Google hopes that the Transparency Report and other similar efforts by by other website, such as Dropbox, LinkedIn, Sonic.net, Twitter will help keep the Internet free and open.

See also …
Transparency Report: Government requests on the rise

google.com/transparencyreport

Showrooming — that’s when shoppers use a store like Best Buy to browse for electronics or other products before they buy the items online at lower prices. Best Buy recently saw earnings fall 90 percent to $12 million in its most recent quarter, caused by restructuring charges and weak sales.

Best Buy is working to combat lost sales with a coordinated marketing drive with the introduction of Windows 8, including 45 exclusive Windows 8 computers and laptops designed with manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and AsusTek Computer Inc. About half of those computers feature touch screens, which are the ultimate with Windows 8 new shell and user interface based off Microsoft’s “Metro” design language. “Metro” is based on the design principles of classic Swiss graphic design, featuring flat colored “live tiles” designed to be a “sleek, quick, modern refresh” from the icon-based interfaces of Windows, Android, and iOS. The term Metro has been changed, at least temporarily, to “Modern UI” for developers and Windows 8 for consumers because of threatened legal action from Metro AG — a German retail cash and carry store.

The tiling uses gestures to control groups of apps. It involves horizontal sliding of tabs and unique picture password. These area passwords that involve touching or clicking on different parts of a picture instead of entering letter and number in a box.

Windows 8 will be pre-installed on almost all new PCs, but it’s dramatically different than previous Windows operating systems software — as in, not recognizable to previous windows. Best Buy spent 50,000 hours training its blue shirt staff members to show customers the ins and outs of Windows 8. The Geek Squad technical service staff has also created 12 two-minute tutorials available online, each explaining a different feature of Windows 8.

Some tech pundits believe the Windows 8 into will only give Best Buy a temporary boost. Price competitive pricing will be the store’s best bet.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Best Buy intends to match the prices of online retailers, including Amazon this holiday season. The details are not in fine print, but there have already been some price matches with Amazon on cameras at least. Store employees have said they will match prices of items sold by Amazon, but nothing official has come out from Amazon yet.

This weekend Best Buy features an “HP – ENVY 23″ Touch-Screen All-In-One Computer at the front of the store. HP ENVY 23 is one of a series of tablet PC laptops and touchscreen all-in-one . It has a Processor – 3rd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-3220 dual-core processor [3.3GHz, 3MB Shared Cache]

What started as a small issue affecting some instances of Amazon’s Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) in North Virginia, eventually became a full-blown outage of AWS.

Some services have gone down, come back up, and gone back down again in the past 36 hours.

Airbnb is an online service that matches people seeking vacation rentals and other short-term accommodations with hosts who have an unused space to rent, generally private parties that are not professional hoteliers.

Foursquare is a location-based social networking website for mobile devices.

Heroku is a cloud platform as a service (PaaS) supporting several programming languages. According to their Twitter account there API (Application Program Interface) was disabled and then set to read-only mode.

Heroku currently reports elevated error rates for both the production service and the development service. Many smaller services are affected by the outage.

GitHub is a web-based hosting service (social coding) for software development projects that use the Git revision control system — a distributed revision control and source code management (SCM) system with an emphasis on speed.

HipChat is an application service provider that launched in January 2010 that allows users — for a fee — to create and participate in chat room and send one-on-one messages with SMS. HipChat is market as a “Business Collaboration” service.

Minecraft is a video game for PC, Android, and iOS.

Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo collecting and sharing website.

Pocket (getpocket.com), previously known as Read It Later, is an application for managing a reading list of articles from the Internet. Pocket is available for the iOS, Android, and BlackBerry OS

Many other smaller or lesser known websites that use Amazon Web Services were also down. Amazon’s RDS database instances and Elastic Beanstalk were also down in North Virginia.

Amazon AWS Message About the Outage
22nd Oct 11:03 AM PDT We are currently experiencing connectivity issues and degraded performance for a small number of RDS DB Instances in a single Availability Zone in the US-EAST-1 Region.
22nd Oct 11:45 AM PDT A number of Amazon RDS DB Instances in a single Availability Zone in the US-EAST-1 Region are experiencing connectivity issues or degraded performance. New instance create requests in the affected Availability Zone are experiencing elevated latencies. We are investigating the root cause.
22nd Oct 12:53 PM PDT We have recovered a number of affected RDS instances and are working on recovering the remaining impacted RDS DB instances a single Availability Zone in the US-EAST-1 Region. New instance creation requests in the affected Availability Zone continue to experience elevated latencies.
22nd Oct 2:48 PM PDT We continue to work to resolve the issue affecting RDS instances in a single availability zone in the US-EAST-1 region. We have recovered the majority of the RDS DB instances in the affected AZ and are working to recover the remaining affected DB instances. RDS DB instances in other availability zones in the region are operating normally.

Customers with automated backups turned on for an affected Database Instance do have the option of initiating a Point-in-Time Restore operation. This will launch a new Database Instance using a backup of the affected Database Instance from before the event.

To do this, follow these steps:
1) Log into the AWS Management console
2) Access the RDS tab, and select DB Instances on the left-side navigation
3) Select the affected database instance
4) Click on the “Restore to Point in Time” button
5) Select “Use Latest Restorable Time
6) Select a DB instance class that is at least the same size as the original DB instance
7) Make sure “No Preference” is selected for Availability Zone
8) Launch the DB Instance and connect your application.
22nd Oct 3:51 PM PDT We are making steady progress in recovering the affected RDS instances in a single availability zone in the US-EAST-1 region. RDS instances in other availability zones in the region are operating normally. Customers with automated backups turned on for an affected Database Instance do have the option of initiating a Point-in-Time Restore operation as per our previous post.
22nd Oct 5:37 PM PDT We have recovered almost all of the affected Multi-AZ RDS instances and we are making good progress in recovering the remaining Multi-AZ and Single-AZ instances in the affected availability zone in the US-EAST-1 region. RDS instances in other availability zones in the region continue to operate normally.
22nd Oct 7:35 PM PDT We continue to make progress bringing the remaining RDS instances back on-line in the affected AZ. Customers can launch new database instances. RDS instances in other unaffected AZs in the region continue to operate normally.
22nd Oct 9:10 PM PDT We are continuing to bring the RDS instances back on-line in the affected AZ. As noted before, customers with impaired RDS instances do have the option to initiate a Point-in-Time Restore operation or launch new database instances. RDS instances in other unaffected AZs in the region continue to operate normally.
23rd Oct 12:09 AM PDT We continue to make steady progress in restoring connectivity to the remaining DB Instances in the affected AZ. As a reminder, customers with automated backups turned on for an affected DB Instance have the option of initiating a Point-in-Time Restore operation. This will launch a new DB Instance using a backup of the affected DB Instance from before the event. To do this, follow these steps:

1) Log into the AWS Management console
2) Access the RDS tab, and select DB Instances on the left-side navigation
3) Select the affected database instance
4) Click on the “Restore to Point in Time” button
5) Select “Use Latest Restorable Time
6) Select a DB instance class that is at least the same size as the original DB instance
7) Make sure “No Preference” is selected for Availability Zone
8) Launch the DB Instance and connect your application.
23rd Oct 2:25 AM PDT Our recovery process to bring remaining RDS instances back on-line in the affected AZ is continuing at a steady pace. Customers can launch new database instances. As noted before, customers with impaired DB instances do have the option of initiating a Point in Time Restore operation.
23rd Oct 4:00 AM PDT We are making steady progress bringing back remaining RDS instances back on-line in the affected AZ. RDS instances in other unaffected AZs in the region continue to operate normally.
23rd Oct 6:37 AM PDT We continue to make progress towards restoring access to the remaining DB Instances in the affected Availability Zone. The service continues to operate normally for the rest of DB Instances in the Region.
23rd Oct 2:53 PM PDT The RDS service is now operating normally. Some Single-AZ database instances could not be restored and are being placed in a “failed” status. We are in the process of contacting customers who own these instances that could not be restored. Customers with automated backups turned on for an affected Single-AZ database instance can initiate a Point-in-Time Restore operation as per the instructions provided before in this post. This will launch a new database instance using a backup of the affected database instance from before the event. We will post back here with an update once we have details on the root cause analysis.

See more on Amazon’s AWS status page …
status.aws.amazon.com

Fortune had reported that Apple would send out iPad mini invitations on Oct. 10, hold its event on Oct. 17, and start selling the new device by Nov. 2. Wrong so far.

Now there is a rumor that the Apple iPad mini will not have a cellular radio version — only a Wi-Fi version to keep the price down.

Apple often release great product, but doesn’t go all out — probably a great marketing design so that people who have money to burn will by — in this case — the Wi-Fi model, even thought they would rather have a cellular-capable iPad mini. Then when the cellular-capable iPad mini comes out in three-to-six months, they hand down the Wi-Fi only model and buy the new cellular-capable version. That means more sales for Apple.

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For those that might upgrade, there is one big detail that Apple shamefully does not reveal as it encourages users to upgrade: There is no Google maps app, and the new Apple map is much inferior. Some people have been totally surprised that their beloved Google Maps app and the YouTube app from Google are both gone. The YouTube app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store, but so far there is no new Google Maps app.

This update contains over 200 new features, including the following:

Maps
Apple designed vector based maps
Turn-by-turn navigation with spoken directions on iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (2nd and 3rd generation)
Real-time traffic information
Flyover for photo-realistic, interactive 3D views of major metro areas on iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPad (3rd generation), and iPod touch (5th generation)
Local search results with Yelp photos, ratings, reviews, and available deals
Siri integration for requesting directions and finding places along a route

Apple Inc.

There is no mention that the Google Maps app is no longer included. Of course, many people who stay informed with tech news websites already new about the lack of a Google Maps app.

Apple chose to drop Google and go with a new “Maps” app, a service Apple built in conjunction with GPS mapping company TomTom. According to an Apple Store employee, the reason is that Apple wanted to integrate the Tom Tom turn-by-turn functions and integrate map commands with Siri. They had no control of the implementation into the Google Maps app.

The first most obvious problem is the there is no Google Street View, and Apple’s 3D view is in no way an adequate substitute. Apple has not had any Apple street view cars driving around getting panoramic pictures like Google has been doing for years. This is a big deal for people looking to see what a neighborhood is like, whether they’re planning to buy a house or check the safety prior to a visit.

A second major problem is that the resolution of satellite views is greatly inferior to the satellite views on the Google maps app, and the Google maps app view zooms closer to the subject. In Hybrid mode which shows street names as well as a satellite image, the user has to zoom closer on the Apple map app before the street names are displayed.

A third major problem is that the satellite views are missing data or showing the wrong data. For example, Willis Tower in Chicago is still listed as Sears Tower, and the 3D flyover view doesn’t even show the actual Willis Tower because its not showing the correct location.

Wrong Building and Wrong Location and Wrong Name: The new Apple Map app shows the Sears Tower, which is now known as Willis Tower at East Wacker Drive and North Columbia Drive by the Chicago River (about 1.4 miles away).

A fourth problem is missing public transit information. There is no integrated bus, subway or train information that is crucial to people who are mobile and use public transportation.

A fifth problem is a low quality turn-by-turn 3D driving interface. There is no road speed or speed limit indicator. The ETA and “distance remaining” indicator is very small and unreadable in a driving situation in the top status bar.

A sixth problem is that the color coded traffic indicators (red/heavy, yellow/somewhat congested, and green/smooth sailing) that the Google maps app has are gone, too.

On September 25, 2012 Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is quoted saying that there are no plans for a new Google Maps for Apples App Store.

Part of the source of the problem is Google’s fault. Turn-by-turn navigation has been available for years on Android phones, as well as the ability to turn the onscreen map around to orient the map to what you’re seeing in the real world. Google wouldn’t license turn-by-turn navigation to Apple under the terms of the Google Maps API. Apple got huffy about that, and kicked the Google Maps app off of its home screen.

There are some rumors that a Google map app for Apple is in the wings, but it’s not confirmed. The new Google Map app for iOS 6 would have to be approved by Apple Inc. Meanwhile Google is enjoying the bad press that is hammering Apple.

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The new Myspace from Myspace on Vimeo.

Video from Myspace.com. This is Myspace. This is the new Myspace.

The social media website Myspace that dwindled after the skyrocketing popularity of Facebook, is hoping to make a comeback.

Myspace was founded in 2003 and was acquired by News Corporation in July 2005 for $580 million. Myspace was the most visited social website from 2005 through 2008 — surpassing Google in June 2006. Myspace was overtaken by Facebook in the number of unique worldwide visitors in April 2008. The U.S. takeover of unique U.S. visitors occurred in May 2009. In June 2009, MySpace laid off 30 percent of its U.S. workforce. An exodus of users had trouble with phishing and other security issues, and privacy issues.

Alexa Stats (live links)

Myspace.com (Sept. 27, 2012: 186 Worldwide, 119 U.S.)
Facebook.com (Sept. 27, 2012: 1 Worldwide, 2 U.S.)
Google.com (Sept. 27, 2012: 2 Worldwide, 1 U.S.)

In June 2011, Specific Media Group and Justin Timberlake jointly purchased the company for approximately $35 million from News Corp. According to Chris and Tim Vanderhook, major players in the purchase, MySpace’s new design now focuses on emerging artists who hope to be discovered. Exact details of the redesign and functionality have not been revealed, but the new MySpace is rumored to be more tablet friendly.

Welcome. This is Myspace.

We’re hard at work building the new Myspace, entirely from scratch. But we’re staying true to our roots in one important way—empowering people to express themselves however they want. So whether you’re a musician, photographer, filmmaker, designer or just a dedicated fan, we’d love for you to be a part of our brand new community.

Myspace has had a few makeovers since its decline, but not have sparked a significant interest.

Justin Timberlake, who starred as Sean Parker (entrepreneur and first president of Facebook) in “The Social Network” film has some fun with the crowd during celebrity practice rounds at the 39th Ryder Cup on Tuesday, September 24, 2012 (PHOTO CREDIT: Scott Tracy).

Justin Timberlake’s true-life character Sean Parker in “The Social Network” film about the development of Facebook may have been ‘life imitates art’ inspiration for Timberlake. Sean Parker has also launched Napster (music sharing), Plaxo (online address book), Spotify (music sharing), and Votizen (an online network of voters in the United States).

See also …
new.myspace.com

Whoah! Whoops! Minutes after buying the new Apple iPhone 5 at Chicago’s Michigan Avenue Apple Store, a man dropped his new phone on his way out the door. The Apple iPhone survived.

Word on the street and from is from a teardown shows that cracked screens will be easier to repair.

In this video, ifixit gives an overview of their major teardown findings, including the larger 4″ retina display, the A6 system on a chip processor, the Qualcomm MDM9615 chip, and updated lightning connector.

See also …
ifixit.com

Apple news event summary:

New iOS 6 available to older devices on September 19, 2012, and is pre-installed on the new Apple iPhone 5 and Apple iPod touch.

New Siri features include sports scores, fantasy football, movie recommendations, OpenTable, Facebook status updates.

Google maps is dropped and Apple now has its own map app with turn-by-turn directions, 3D navigation, Siri integration. Some criticism that transit information is not available as it is in Google maps. Some say it is not nearly as good as the former built-in Google map app. It’s not surprising that the Apple map app pales in comparison to the Google map app. Apple’s app will probably be high on fluff (e.g., 3-D maps) and low on getting the job done. A Google map app will hopefully be available soon.

YouTube is also dropped as the pre-installed app on iOS 6, but YouTube will be available from the App Store. Pre-roll ads are introduced with the new YouTube app. YouTube also hopes to make movies and TV shows purchased through the Google Play store available on the iOS app.

Facebook and Twitter is integrated in the Notification Center.

A new wallet app known as Passbook which can be used for movie passes, Starbucks cards, concert tickets, airline tickets and more.

New Apple iPhone 5
(from $199)

Pre-order online starting September 14.

Buy at your favorite Apple Retail Store
starting at 8:00 a.m. on September 21.

Available on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon

Apple iPhone is powered by a new chip, the A6, which is 22% smaller than the A5 but 2 times faster in processing and graphics.

Apple iPhone 5 is just 7.6 millimeters thin — 18% thinner than iPhone 4S.

Apple iPhone screen has been expanded to 4 inches diagonal with 1136×640 resolution and keeping the same pixel density as the iPhone 4/4S.

Home screen (new row of icons), Calendar iWork apps, iPhoto, Garage Band all tweaked for the new display.

“Ultrafast Wireless” tech supports HSPA+, DC-HSDPA and LTE standards — supported by Sprint, AT&T, Verizon.

Wi-Fi specs: 802.11n (2.4GHz and 5GHz), up to 150 Mbps.

New iSight eight-megapixel camera offers backside illumination, paired with a hybrid IR filter, five-elements lens with f2.4 aperture. A sapphire crystal lens for scratch resistance, dynamic low-light mode, which is claimed to be two f stops improved.

Camera and iPhone supports automatic panorama shots, which composes a 28-megapixel image, removes duplicate people, and uses image stabilization.

Video stabilization is also claimed to be improved.

New Lightning connector will have an adapter available ($29).

Apple iPod Touch
(from $299)

Apple iPod touch available in October — $299 for 32GB, $399 for 64GB.

The Apple iPod touch new design is similar to the iPhone 5 — adding the longer display and shrinking the thickness to 6.1 mm. The polished finish has been replaced with a matte finish.

A new camera sensor brings many of the improvements found on the iPhone 5, but is still held to five megapixels — lower quality than the latest and greatest iPhone 6 at 8 megapixels. The battery claim endurance is 40 hours of music playback, eight hours of video.

Apple Nano
($149)

The new Nano has a large display (2.5-inch multi-touch screen, with a Home button) and adding a new volume rocker. The design is 5.4mm thick — 38% thinner than its predecessor.

The Nano has a built-in FM tuner with live pausing, video playback, integrated Fitness tracking technology with Nike+ support, and a Bluetooth transmitter that allows streaming to wireless speakers.

The Shuffle stays the same ($49 for a 2GB unit). Additional colors are available.

No Apple iPad Mini Announced
An Apple iPad mini is anticipated with a 7-inch display. There is some speculation that the device will be released or announced on the anniversary date of the death of Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, October 5, 2011.

Apple iPads are now in 94 percent of Fortune 500 companies, with custom apps developed for GE Capital, Mayo Clinic and other companies.

Apple on Wednesday revealed that the new iPhone 5 will be in stores in the U.S. and several other countries on Sept. 21. As AP’s Haven Daley reports, the phone is thinner and lighter than the iPhone 4S and a third of an inch taller.

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On Twitter (@AnonymousOwn3r), a hacker identifying himself as the Security leader of Anonymous claimed responsibility shortly after the attack on Twitter said he hacked GoDaddy because: “I’d like to test how the cyber security is safe and for more reasons that I can not talk now.”

Some people are complaining to AnonymousOwn3r that music websites that anti-SOPA hackers are trying protect, have been shut down by the incident.

GoDaddy’s servers were offline and there is report that all websites registered through Go Daddy were down temporarily. At about 3:40 p.m. CDT many sites were back up. However domains that are forwarded were still not working until about 4:25 p.m. Some domain names are forwarded into other websites. Apparently the servers that perform forwarding at Go Daddy remained disrupted Monday afternoon.

Among major sites known to have been affected are CNET,

Go Daddy had minimal communication on their status via Facebook and Twitter.

Two Facebook messages from Go Daddy …

Update: Still working on it, but we’re making progress. Some service has already been restored. Stick with us.

So many messages, can’t get to you all… Sorry to hear all your frustration. We’re working feverishly to resolve as soon as possible.

From Twitter (twitter.com/GoDaddy) …

@mrmalibu We appreciate the support and hope to have all resolved soon. ^Cj

— Go Daddy (@GoDaddy) September 10, 2012

Some status update message via GO DADDY’S twitter account …

1:08 PM – 10 Sep 12 We appreciate the support and hope to have all resolved soon.

We would love to offer an ETA. Right now we are doing all we can to resolve as quickly as possible.

On December 25, 2011 (Christmas Day), Go Daddy lost a net 16,191 domains as a result of the SOPA ( the US Stop Online Piracy Act) boycott. However, on December 29 (the day of the proposed boycott), Go Daddy gained a net of 20,748 domains, twice as many as it lost that day.

On December 26, 2011, a Google bomb was started against Go Daddy to remove them from the #1 place on Google for the term “Domain Registration” in retaliation for supporting SOPA. This was then disseminated through Hacker News.

In March 2012 Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales stayed true to his word and transferred the popular online encyclopedia’s domain registry away from Go Daddy because of Go Daddy’s support of SOPA.

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