| New Sony Online ToS Prohibit Class Action Lawsuits, Sony Not Sure It's Actually Legal Posted: 15 Sep 2011 08:16 PM PDT  They say you don't really know until you try. Sony, evidently, has taken that nugget of conventional wisdom to heart, as it's added a clause to its online terms of service that doesn't exactly have the firmest legal footing. In short, you can still break your lawyer out of cold storage and have a grand old time individually, but the second you bring in backup, you forfeit one very important tool: your rights.
"Any Dispute Resolution Proceedings, whether in arbitration or court, will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class or representative action or as a named or unnamed member in a class, consolidated, representative or private attorney general action," read a portion of the ToS, as discovered by Gamasutra. Granted, class action suits are still an option – provided, of course, that Sony opts to accept your invitation for a nice stroll through the law system's wonderful minefield. Otherwise, you're out of luck. That said, Sony's not entirely sure its scheme is, you know, allowed. "If the Class Action Waiver clause is found to be illegal or unenforceable, this entire Section 15 will be unenforceable, and the dispute will be decided by a court and you and the Sony Entity you have a dispute with each agree to waive in that instance, to the fullest extent allowed by law, any trial by jury," says another section of the ToS. Among other things, these ToS extend to Sony's beleaguered PlayStation Network, which was recently hit with – what else – a 77-million-person-strong class action lawsuit over the infamous outage that took place earlier this year. That suit, however, is free to storm Sony's gates as it pleases, seeing as the new ToS only apply to disputes after August 20. Regardless, do we have any law experts in the house? This one just seems sketchy on paper. But then, the same could be said of Justin Bieber's continued existence, and that passes legal muster for some reason. |
| Google+ Gets Its First Official APIs Posted: 15 Sep 2011 02:51 PM PDT  One of the missing pieces of Google+ for many users has been third-party tools, and those can't happen without official APIs. Today, Google has finally taken the first steps toward full developer API access. The public data API allows access to all the publicly available data on Google's social network. It's a welcome move from a developer's point of view, but there are many features not included in this release.
The availability of APIs is key to promoting the adoption of a service, and Google has been taking heat for waiting so long to get the ball rolling. This API release won't allow full read/write to Google+, but developers will be able to familiarize themselves with the tools and access any public profiles, posts, and images. More full-featured APIs will come later. Google is making the code libraries available in a number of languages including Java, Ruby, and PHP. Google has chosen to use OAuth 2 for secure data transfers. We can only hope this move means Google+ will soon launch to the public with a full API. |
| AT&T LTE Network Going Live This Sunday Posted: 15 Sep 2011 02:31 PM PDT  After months of testing, and a stealth rollout in Chicago last month, the AT&T 4G LTE network is officially going live this Sunday, September 18. The initial 4G footprint is going to be small, just five markets, but it will cover a total of 70 million consumers. AT&T expects to have 15 cities blanketed in 4G by year's end.
The cities included in this initial wave are Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Although users in those metro areas will still have very few LTE devices to choose from. Unlike Verizon, which has multiple LTE handsets, AT&T has no phones compatible with the new network. AT&T launched a data stick and a portable hotspot for the LTE network last month. The carrier has also started selling a massively overpriced Android tablet, the HTC Jetstream. AT&T's LTE network is expected to deliver speeds in excess of 10Mbps down and 2-5Mbps up. This is a substantial increase over the 3G HSPA+ network. Like Verizon, the AT&T LTE network is in the 700Mhz spectrum, but the two carriers' devices won't be compatible. |
| What's New in Microsoft Surface Version Two Posted: 15 Sep 2011 12:35 PM PDT 
In the world of tech, concepts come and go faster than poop through a goose. Sadly, some ideas with great potential fade into the realm of vapourware, or see their prime features rolled into already existing products. Worse than this, hardware and software that smacked of half-baked failure from the get-go are routinely green-lit by manufactures to be released on an unsuspecting, and soon to be frustrated, public. There are however, some concepts that both innovate and thrill those fortunate enough to experience them. Should these concepts be nurtured out of prototyping and released into the wild, wooly realm of the consumer, they stand a chance to change the way that we interact with our world on a daily basis. The Personal Computer is one such product. So too, whether you like it or not, was the iPad: While other tablets may have been around before hand, none had ever managed to capture the public's imagination or hard earned money in such a manner as to make it an ubiquitous part of our every day lives. While it may be coming in well under the radar, we've got a feeling that as it crops up in more and more locations over the next few years, the latest version of Microsoft Surface could have what it takes to be the next piece of computing technology to change the way we work, shop and live on a daily basis. 
Originally codenamed Milan, Surface first made the scene back in 2007. Targeted at customers in the hospitality, retail, military and entertainment industries, Surface was a computing platform that allowed for multiple users to interact and collaborate with one another by gathering around a 30 inch transparent tabletop containing a XGA DLP projector and five cameras set up to capture the reflections of infrared light cast by fingertips and specially tagged items and devices. Capable of registering 52 different touch points at once, Surface provided users of the device with 360 degrees of simultaneous collaboration and interactivity. This made it possible for a large number of individuals work, play and share content on a scale never seen in the computing world before. All of this sweet tech hit the street close to four years ago. What, you might be asking has the Surface development team done for the platform lately? From what Somanna Palacanda, Director of Marketing for Microsoft Surface says, quite a bit, actually. Speaking to us from his Seattle office, Palacanda explains that in terms of both its hardware and its software, the second iteration of Microsoft Surface has some significant changes in store for the platform's users. "With version one, our goal was to get Surface out to the developer ecosystem and ensure that they understand what it is to build applications that allow for people to interact from a 360 degree angle. This was a new paradigm from a developer perspective because it was no more mouse, keyboard and a single instance of touch. This was massive multi-touch", says Palacanda. "The goal with version one was getting the rich developing ecosystem of people who really understood how to build multi-touch applications that allow for people to approach it from different places. With version two, we said we want to scale this technology to the point where it will be massively adopted in the commercial arena. We looked to various different manufacturers that made hardware panels around the world, and we decided to partner with Samsung because they wanted a true partnership. So right from the LCD design and the architecture of the panel to the final end product we've collaborated very closely with Samsung to deliver this product to market. They are going to be the only manufacturer who will be allowed to develop this product and it will be a Samsung-branded product that will be distributed by the company's distributor network around the world." This partnership with Samsung, Palacanda explains, has given birth to a robust piece of hardware that features a number of significant features over the hardware seen with version one of the platform. This time out, the size of Surface's interface panel has been increased from 30 to 40 inches, and the five cameras used in the platform's last iteration have been replaced with a new technology Palacanda calls Pixelsense. "We're still delivering massive multitouch based on vision, but fundamentally what we've done is gone away from cameras that we had in the first version of Surface and and have actually now taken transistors that can see in the infrared spectrum and embedded them right into the pixels within an LCD panel" explains Palacanda. "This reduced the size of the device. It was a nine inch thick device before, but now we've been able to compress all of that with the innovation that we've done with the hardware into a device that's approximately four inches thick." This reduction in Surface's overall size made it possible for Microsoft into look to other ways that the platform could be oriented and used. Thanks to its new found svelte lines, the latest release of Surface can be set up and used flat with a set of table legs, just like the original flavour of the platform could. This time around however, in response to feedback from customers who have already deployed Surface in their business operations, the device is also wall mountable and can be mated to standard VESA hardware. The addition of these new orientation options presented the Surface team at Microsoft with a challenge: How to alter a massive multi-touch platform designed to be accessed from 360 degrees into one where the the users may only be able to access the device from a limited number of angles because it's been mounted on a wall. 
"In retail, having something that's horizontal might be expensive in terms of in-store square footage. So we've given them the option of mounting it on a wall. What we've done is built accelerometers right into the product. So the product will know automatically at what angle its being deployed and the software will respond to that. The other thing that we've also done is to ensure that this device is robust enough. Since Surface is being deployed in public environments, it needs to be tough. Because if you put a fragile LCD screen in there and somebody pounds it a little hard, then it's going to break the screen. So what we've done is deployed Gorilla Glass on top of this device. This particular piece of Gorilla Glass is the largest piece commercially available on the market today." When asked about what sort of protection this would afford the device in a real-world situation, Palacanda provided us with a point of reference he was certain we'd understand. "Say you're in the hospitality section of a hotel and you have a bottle of beer in your hand. If you dropped it from around 18 inches on to the screen, the screen would be fine because of the Gorilla Glass. If you spilled some liquids, we've also done some work to make sure that there's some protection for that too, so that the devices don't get damaged when they're deployed in a public environment." Microsoft? Samsung? If you're reading this, we'd like to see a little bit of that protective love thrown in direction of the rest of your products too. For all of the innovative technologies baked into it, Surface wouldn't be worth all the effort Microsoft and Samsung have exerted in developing it without having an identifiable market that could truly benefit from the device's presence in their day-to-day lives. Fortunately for the stakeholders, Palacanda explains that in the end, Surface is a technology that, while not everyone will own, everyone who comes into contact with it will benefit from. 
"Surface is designed for use by people who are in a public environment, say a mall, hospital or a school, museum or retail space. At the end of the day", Palacanda says, "they are our consumers. Given the advancement that Microsoft has been making in the whole arena of natural user interfaces we believe that people will immediately start using this because the learning curve is very small. That's the exciting part of it for us. When you think about it. Traditionally, it's only the employees of a bank or a hospital that interact with the technology. I think that one of the things that Surface does is it break those barriers down and allows people to start interacting with the technology". With more and more high value corporate clients such as the Royal Bank of Canada, Hard Rock Cafe and—of course—Microsoft Retail Stores across North America including Surface technology in their front of house operations on a regular basis, there's little doubt that we'll all soon have a taste of what this innovative technology has to offer. |
| TWiT.TV Hacked, Contains Malicious Code Linking To Java Trojan Posted: 15 Sep 2011 11:33 AM PDT  The Maximum PC Podcasts keep BS to a minimum while simultaneously supplying maxed-out levels of hijinks and information, but for you media-addicted types out there, one podcast a week might not fulfill your quota for listening pleasure. We understand if you turn to the excellent lineup of broadcasts put together by Leo Laporte and the awesome TWiT.tv team to catch up on your tech news, too, but you might want to pass on your regular visit to the TWiT.tv site this week; hackers have managed to slip some malicious code onto the site.
Graham Cluley at Sophos reports that the nefarious snippet is hidden in an iFrame at the top of the TWiT.tv website. The iFrame points to a sit that tries to execute a file named worms.jar that the Sophos software identifies as a Java Trojan. "The Java Trojan is normally associated with fake anti-virus attacks, and may also trigger a PDF-based vulnerability attack detected by Sophos as Troj/PDFJs-ST," Cluely writes. Fortunately for users, Google's onto the problem and is already warning that the site could harm your computer when it appears in search results, or if you try to surf to Twit.tv on Chrome. We've got no doubt that Leo and the stalwart TWiT.tv crew will have things fixed in a jiffy, but we just thought a PSA was in order. Just to be on the safe side, we didn't include any active links to the site. |
| Browser Extension of the Week: No YouTube Comments Posted: 15 Sep 2011 11:32 AM PDT  As anyone with an internet connection will tell you, YouTube is a treasure trove of entertainment and knowledge. Giggle inducing personal rants, drunken midnight confessionals, honey badgers, music videos, short films; you name it, and Google's video service can likely dish it up for free. Well, almost free. In order to enjoy the millions of free videos that YouTube has on tap, you'll also have to endure the oft-times tragically inane, sometimes troll-baiting, often gobsmacking viewer comments that come along with it. Unless of course, you decide to install No YouTube Comments, our Browser Extension of the Week.
When it comes to wiping YouTube user comments out of existence, No YouTube Comments is a laser guided smart bomb. Just install it, look up a video on YouTube and enjoy it without any prattle from the peanut gallery. If for some reason you feel like you'd like to have the option to turn YouTube's commentary features back on, the extension's developer has you covered. 
By downloading Doychin Atanasov's Button for No YouTube Comments, you'll be able to switch between the sometimes hateful chaos of the written commentary found on YouTube, and the peace and quiet of comment-free videos with the click of your mouse. Be sure to check back every Thursday for another edition of Maximum PC's Browser Extension of the Week. |
| Microsoft: ARM-Based Windows Server Isn't Coming Anytime Soon Posted: 15 Sep 2011 11:13 AM PDT  Microsoft's been tripping over itself to show ARM some love and develop a tablet version of Windows 8 that can run on the developer's low-powered processors. But don't think the giant in Redmond is smitten just because of all the batted eyelashes and blown kisses; Intel was busy showing off Windows 8 on a tablet at the IDF yesterday, and to top that off, Microsoft's VP of cloud and servers said that the company isn't developing an ARM-powered version of its upcoming Windows Server 8.
When VP Bill Liang was asked flat-out whether an ARM-based build of the operating system was in the cards, he didn't mince words – too much. "The answer in the short term is no," Liang said. Computerworld reports that he went on to explain that Windows Server running on ARM architecture just didn't hold much appeal for Microsoft right now. For one thing, the energy savings in an ARM-based version of Windows Server wouldn't be as apparent as they are in a tablet running an ARM-based version of Windows 8, because servers use a lot of power in other areas of hardware. "On a server, the chip is only one part of the power consumption," Liang explained. Another big issue: Windows server is built for a 64-bit architecture, whereas ARM processors top out at 32-bit. |
| Qualcomm Roadmap Reveals 2.5GHz Snapdragon Processors Posted: 15 Sep 2011 10:20 AM PDT  You know what really sucks about being locked into a two-year service contract with your wireless carrier? It's seeing all these new fangled smartphones come out, ones with features that weren't available when you jumped in. Bought a Motorola Droid X2? That's great, now the Droid Bionic is here, and it supports 4G LTE. Rocking a dual-core 1.2GHz processor? Awesome, except that tomorrow's phones will kick things up to 2.5GHz and four cores!
That's the top clockspeed Qualcomm's latest roadmap shows, according to Pocket-Lint, which was on hand at the chip maker's Innovation Qualcomm event in Istanbul. Qualcomm's roadmap was broken down into four sections, including an S1 class for mass market smartphones, S2 class for high performance smartphones and tablets, an S3 class for multi-tasking and advanced gaming, and an S4 class for 'Holy *&#%!' performance and next generation devices. The new S4 class chipset includes a next generation processor line built on a 28nm manufacturing process. These will include up to quad-core processing clocked at 2.5GHz along with a high performance Adreno GPU (dual- and quad-core), 1080p HD, 3G, and LTE. So how long do you have to wait for this crazy fast mobile processors to make it to market? Not all that long, actually. Qualcomm expects to have these chips in device makers' hands by the end of the year, so you should see 2.5GHz smartphones and tablets in early 2012. Battery life? We'll have to wait and see. Image Credit: pocket-lint.com |
| MOG Rolls Out Free On-Demand Music Service Posted: 15 Sep 2011 10:18 AM PDT  The Internet radio market is getting more cluttered and cut-throat seemingly by the minute these days, with new services popping up left and right and trying to lure PC users with their siren songs. MOG has evolved into a top choice of many listeners, but until now, only paid subscribers could tune in. That changed this morning, when MOG introduced a free version of its service that features, um, a refillable gas tank.
MOG's dubbed that gas tank "FreePlay," and it's a visual indicator to how much more free music you can listen to. Listeners will be able to top off the tank by exploring the MOG site and participating in social media and advertising-related activities, such as creating and sharing playlists. The advertising options aren't up yet, but MOG hopes to earn some money by, say handing out free music in exchange for watching a movie trailer. As we mentioned in the "How To Choose A Streaming Music Service" feature over at Maximum Tech, MOG brings a lot of interesting features to the table, including the 320Kbps audio quality (that's the best around), an on-demand 11 million-song-strong music catalog, a cool "Mobius bar" that allows you to fine-tune how much you'll hear from a particular artists, and excellent hardware support for paying customers. The free version will be ad-supported and web-only, but listeners will get 60 hours of promotion-free listening in order to whet their taste for the service. The free version went live today, so you can head over to MOG and check it out for yourself. |
| Add Intel to the List of Tech Giants Not Interested in HP's PC Business Posted: 15 Sep 2011 10:04 AM PDT  We're not aware of rumors suggesting Intel has any intention of going after Hewlett Packard's PC business, but just in case, the world's largest chip maker came out and set the record straight at its Intel Developer Forum. Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini views such a move as competing with his customers, and that's not something Intel wants to do.
"We like where we are in the ecosystem. We are a silicon-maker. As for competing with our customers, I don't see us going there," Otellini said, according to Fudzilla. HP's search for a buyer continues, and so far there haven't been any major leads. For awhile, Samsung was pegged as a possible buyer, but the company squashed those rumors back in August. That leaves HP in an awkward position with its customers, as it could take up to 18 months for something to materialize. "The biggest risk we see here is that the PC business could be in 'lame duck status' and its business could come under pressure with uncertainty and competitors taking advantage of it," said Shaw Wu, an analyst with Sterne Agee, according to CNet. Wu followed that up by saying "investor exasperation with the company is the highest we have seen in 13 years following the sector." Image Credit: icanhascheezburger.com |
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