LG Canada Announces Optimus Pad Tablet

There’s a new tablet in town. LG today announced the Optimus Pad tablet which is powered by Android and available via Rogers. Here’s the specs you need to know:

• It’s powered by Google’s Android 3.0 Honeycomb platform and the NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset
• It has a 3D camera which is a first in the tablet space. It’s 5MP as well.
• 1080p decoding for video with HDMI output
• It has a 8.9 inch screen
• HSPA+ with 14.4 Mbps speed

Sounds interesting. Pricing is set at $449.99 for a three year plan, a month-to-month plan for $649.99 or as a standalone purchase for $699.99.

Now if LG would send one my way to review it.

Gamers Crash Playstation Network [UPDATE]

Can it get any worse for Sony. After restarting the Playstation Network yesterday, the network promptly crashed:

Users logging on again for the first time are – unsurprisingly – asked to re-set their passwords, before being sent email confirmation of their new credentials. However, the sheer numbers of users trying to re-set meant that confirmation emails were flooding the ISPs, who were then throttling the email traffic – meaning that users were waiting quite a while for their confirmations, according to Sony. Meanwhile the huge numbers of users trying to log on at the same time caused sufficient chaos that the network had to be turned off  for 30 minutes at a time to allow the admin servers time to catch up with demand.

Logic says that after a month of no online gaming, that there would be pent up demand. That would lead to high traffic levels and thus any sensible human who was in charge of a network like this would beef things up. Clearly, Sony didn’t think of this and are now getting more bad press as a result.

Sucks to be them.

UPDATE: To add to the fun, Japan isn’t giving the the green light to a Playstation Network restart until they can prove that their security issues are solved.

Kodak Scores A Win Against Apple In Their Patent Fight

Eastman Kodak has scored a victory with an initial ruling from a U.S. International Trade Commission judge stating that the company has not infringed two Apple patents cited in a lawsuit filed last year:

Neither of the two patents in Apple’s case before the ITC were being infringed, and one of the patents is invalid, Judge Robert Rogers in Washington said yesterday. The judge’s findings are subject to review by the six-member ITC, which has the power to block imports of products that infringe U.S. patents.

That’s gotta suck for Apple’s iLawyers. But you have to keep in mind that this is just an initial ruling and is still subject to full ITC review. So this isn’t over just yet. Which is good if you’re a lawyer.

Playstation Network Boots Up In Europe And America

For those of you waiting to play Call Of Duty online with your peeps via the Playstation Network, you might get the chance to do so today as it is finally starting to come online after being hacked on or about April 20th:

Sony began restoring its PlayStation Network service in the United States and Europe on Sunday after shutting down the service almost a month ago due to a massive security breach affecting over 100 million online accounts.

Restored operations are mainly limited to online gaming, chat and music streaming services. Sony said it aimed to fully restore the PlayStation Network by the end of May.

Now if you live in other places like the Middle East and Canada, you’ll have to wait for a bit. Oh yeah, all you can do right now is play online games. You can forget about buying anything right now using a credit card. That means there’s still plenty of work to do. But at least if you can get online, you’ll get a free month of online time. That’s great for some, unless you’ve filed a class action lawsuit or something.

Facebook Hires PR Firm To Trash Google

You know, I’m really starting to dislike Facebook. The Globe And Mail reports that the social networking company hired a PR firm to trash Google:

Burson-Marsteller, a WPP-owned PR agency whose clients also include Microsoft, contacted national newspaper reporters and opinion-piece writers with a view to securing coverage on Google’s alleged use of personal information from Facebook and other social networks, but did not inform the journalists that they were acting on behalf of Facebook.

Details of an e-mail exchange between Burson-Marsteller and one individual were posted online before a reporter at the Daily Beast news website exposed Facebook as the agency’s client.

All parties have since admitted to the assignment.

It’s really rich for Facebook to trash Google for issues relating to personal information considering how much trouble they’ve gotten into recently. Of course they put their own spin on the situation:

Facebook denied that it intended to run a “smear” campaign over Social Circles, a little-known Google feature that charts connections between Internet users based on their profiles on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

“Instead, we wanted third parties to verify that people did not approve of the collection and use of information from their accounts on Facebook and other services for inclusion in Google Social Circles – just as Facebook did not approve of use or collection for this purpose,” Facebook said. “We engaged Burson-Marsteller to focus attention on this issue, using publicly available information that could be independently verified by any media organization or analyst. The issues are serious and we should have presented them in a serious and transparent way.”

It sounds like the politics of distraction to me. The fact is that Facebook wants everyone’s info even more than Google does because it can make a pile of cash from it. So with news like this, I wouldn’t take anything that Facebook says

Telus Gets The Samsung Galaxy S Fascinate 4G

I got a press release from Samsung this morning announcing that Telus would be getting the Galaxy S Fascinate 4G which is as you might have guessed a “true 4G” phone. More on that in a sec. Here’s the key specs:

• A front facing camera for easy video chat
• A 1650 mAh battery for long battery life
• Uncompromised web experience with Adobe Flash 10.1 for a rich browsing experience
• 5.0 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom
• Google Maps Navigation providing turn by turn voice guidance and new Google Maps in 3D. Available only on Android.
• Access to more than 150,000 free and paid applications from the growing Android Market, as well as the ability to store apps to the device memory card to free up phone space
• Expandable memory up to 32 GB (16 GB microSD card included)
• Seven home screens to customize with the widgets and apps for at a glance information and updates

As for that “true 4G” part, it will hit speeds of up to 21 Mbps. In my humble opinion, speed alone doesn’t make something 4G. After all, that’s the maximum speed that they’re talking about. I’d have to speed test it to death to see if this phone will actually do that in the real world. Few phones and the networks that they run on actually do.

The phone is available for pre-order now. Expect to spend between $99.99 on a 3-year ball and chain term to $529.99 for freedom no-term.

Are You A Facebook User? Your Personal Info Might Have Been Leaked…

Facebook users should take note. A recent report by Symantec says that your personal info might have been leaked to third parties. How is this happening? Well, there’s an app for that. Actually there’s about 100, 000 apps for that:

Symantec has discovered that in certain cases, Facebook IFRAME applications inadvertently leaked access tokens to third parties like advertisers or analytic platforms. We estimate that as of April 2011, close to 100,000 applications were enabling this leakage. We estimate that over the years, hundreds of thousands of applications may have inadvertently leaked millions of access tokens to third parties.

Well, that’s going to keep you awake at night. But you shouldn’t be shocked. After all, Facebook has proven time and again hasn’t had the best record when it comes to privacy. But back to the issue at hand. What do you do to stop your personal info from leaking? Here’s what Symantec recommends:

There is no good way to estimate how many access tokens have already been leaked since the release Facebook applications back in 2007. We fear a lot of these tokens might still be available in log files of third-party servers or still being actively used by advertisers. Concerned Facebook users can change their Facebook passwords to invalidate leaked access tokens. Changing the password invalidates these tokens and is equivalent to “changing the lock” on your Facebook profile.

I’m going to guess that there’s a lot of people changing passwords over the next few days.

I really wish that Facebook would get their act together when it comes to privacy.

Google Announces Chromebooks

Circle June 15th on your calendars because that’s when Google’s Chromebooks go on sale. What’s a Chromebook you ask? Here’s what Google had to say:

These are not typical notebooks. With a Chromebook you won’t wait minutes for your computer to boot and browser to start. You’ll be reading your email in seconds. Thanks to automatic updates the software on your Chromebook will get faster over time. Your apps, games, photos, music, movies and documents will be accessible wherever you are and you won’t need to worry about losing your computer or forgetting to back up files. Chromebooks will last a day of use on a single charge, so you don’t need to carry a power cord everywhere. And with optional 3G, just like your phone, you’ll have the web when you need it.

Made by Samsung and Acer, these notebooks are designed to go after the netbook market while also taking on Microsoft at the low end of the market. They will be available for order on Amazon.com and Best Buy’s online store on June 15. If you’re a business, you have an option of getting one along with technical support for $28 a month.

Someone from Samsung or Acer who happens to read this can feel free to pass one my way so that I can do a proper review of it.

Apple And Google Testify In Front Of The U.S. Senate

Apple vice president Guy Tribble and Google’s Alan Davidson spent the day in front of the U.S. Senate explaining mobile privacy, particularly as it relates to location tracking. This is why these hearings are being held:

Senator Al Franken, who chaired the hearing, said: ‘People have the right to know who is getting their information and how information is shared and used.

‘I still have serious doubts those rights are being respected in law or in practice. This is an urgent issue.’

Apple and Google, to nobody’s surprise have a different view:

Guy L. Tribble, Apple’s vice president of software technology, said its devices only gather and store location information about nearby cell towers and wi-fi hot spots.

The company, he said, ‘does not share personally identifiable information with third parties for their marketing purposes without our customers’ explicit consent … and Apple does not track users’ locations. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.’

Mr Tribble added that an upcoming software upgrade will encrypt location data on devices, Tribble said.

Alan Davidson, Google’s director of public policy for the Americas, said Google asks Android device owners whether they want to turn on location services.

‘If they opt in, all data is anonymized,’ he said.

The fact that they’re even in front of the Senate shows just how distrustful the public is of Apple and Google. Even though you should have no expectation of privacy in this day and age, here’s why you might want to care about this. For example, if a battered woman’s psycho ex-husband was able to find everywhere she’s visited in the last year by stealing her iPhone, that’s a problem.How about a simpler example. You have an Android phone given to you by your current employer and you take it with you to a job interview. Nothing wrong with that. But your employer if they were so inclined could figure out where you’ve been if they had an app for that.

Are these extreme examples? Perhaps, but I used to think that you could do anything with impunity on the Internet. Clearly that isn’t the case. One wonders how long before examples like the ones above play out in real life.

Microsoft Buys Skype For $8.5 Billion

After being rumored last night, it’s been confirmed that Skype has been bought by Microsoft for $8.5 billion:

The acquisition will increase the accessibility of real-time video and voice communications, bringing benefits to both consumers and enterprise users and generating significant new business and revenue opportunities. The combination will extend Skype’s world-class brand and the reach of its networked platform, while enhancing Microsoft’s existing portfolio of real-time communications products and services.

With 170 million connected users and over 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations in 2010, Skype has been a pioneer in creating rich, meaningful connections among friends, families and business colleagues globally. Microsoft has a long-standing focus and investment in real-time communications across its various platforms, including Lync (which saw 30 percent revenue growth in Q3), Outlook, Messenger, Hotmail and Xbox LIVE.

Skype will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices, and Microsoft will connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities. Microsoft will continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms.

It should be interesting to watch what Microsoft does with Skype. Will they actually continue to develop it, or will they eventually “replace” it with a Microsoft solution?

Time will tell.