New Technology News

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Dogecoin, the virtual currency that was named after a silly meme but has been described as a potential successor to Bitcoin, was successfully hacked for the first time today, with Dogewallet users losing an estimated 21 million Dogecoins. The incident was confirmed by Dogewallet in a Reddit post after users reported disappearing Dogecoins on Doges.com’s forum. We’ve emailed Dogewallet to see if it has additional information beyond what its shared so far.

Dogewallet has promised to fully refund all lost coins and has temporarily shut down its site.

Each Dogecoin is currently worth about US$0.00057. Together, the stolen Dogecoins are the equivalent of about $12,000, which is not a massive amount, but still a loss for users who spent a lot of time accumulating the virtual currency.

In its Reddit post, Dogewallet said that they are “currently looking at logs and have found thousands of attempts to hack our systems.” The hacker gained access to Dogewallet’s filesystem and modified its send/receive page to send coins to a static address.

The incident is a reminder that all online wallets are vulnerable to hacking.

“We’re incredibly sorry to all users who lost funds from the attack. Please use offline wallets as online wallets are meant for new users who aren’t using them as storage of coins. Offline wallets are more safe and secure than any online wallet due to possible attacks that can originate from anyone, anywhere,” Dogewallet posted on Reddit.

testfinaltechnews

Such Hack. Many Dogecoin. Very Disappear. So Gone. Wow.

9:39 PM

Unknown

Dogecoin, the virtual currency that was named after a silly meme but has been described as a potential successor to Bitcoin , was successful...

It’s a holiday, which means it’s time to fill a post with meaningless reflections on things you thought were interesting about 2013. Try to be comprehensive, but don’t rack your brain.

After all, it’s extremely unlikely anyone is near a computer today, let alone scanning the tech blog sites for fake news masquerading as a thought piece.

Start off with something like: “So what happened this year?” You know, just to kick things off.

Begin with how 2013 was the year in which being viral trumped being true, since you’ve read it somewhere else over the last few days and it’s a controversial topic right now.

Segue into how certain sites have mastered the art of capturing reader attention while at the same time providing little lasting value. Assert your opinion about how that is likely to change or continue on into the future. Either one is right.

You won’t believe the joke you’ll make about an Upworthy-esque headline.

Talk about how getting fired for Tweeting is the new getting fired for blogging… and how with Medium, Ev Williams has maybe created the most perfect vehicle for allowing stupid people to write stupid things that will get them fired.

Don’t forget to talk about how 2013 was the year in which we as a society — and by society you mean people like yourself with few real interests — became aware of something happening in a place we barely knew existed, thanks to the power of social networks.

Opine about how it was also the year in which we all rallied around a cause thanks to social marketing, leading to a barrage of half-hearted, sympathetic Tweets.

mobile phones

Mention something about how big mobile was this year. Talk about it in terms that people who got excited about “The Internet” in 2000 might understand.

Throw in something about tablets.

Discuss what the teens are doing, and how what the teens are doing impacts the way marketers think about what marketers do.

(Somewhere in there, toss in an amusing personal anecdote.)

Even if you don’t think it’s true, write at length about how 2013 redefined the way that we thought about wearable computing and how sensors are making us smarter, fitter, happier. Guesstimate that trend will continue for years to come.

It’s doubtful people are still reading, but write a saccharine ode to how technology as a whole is improving the lives of people in ways that were totally unexpected, even just 12 months ago.

Express excitement for the prospect of what is to come, and wonder aloud what kind of things will be on next year’s Year In Review. End with kind tidings for whatever holiday people might be celebrating and add a vague nod to the upcoming change in calendar year.

Photo Credit: asenat29 via Compfight cc and jfingas via Compfight cc

testfinaltechnews

The 2013 Year In Review In Review

1:08 PM

Unknown

It’s a holiday, which means it’s time to fill a post with meaningless reflections on things you thought were interesting about 2013. Try to ...

AdEspresso, a startup offering Facebook ad tools for small and medium businesses, is announcing that it has raised its first outside funding, a seed round of $500,000.

The company focuses on ad optimization, namely finding the most effective combination of text and images for your ads. It says that customers upload possible images and text for the ads, then AdEspresso will test out different combinations and track the performance based on metrics like clicks, leads, and sales. For example, the company says it could tell an advertiser, “”This picture for Female from 18 to 24 is performing 40% worst than your campaign’s average. Stop displaying it now!”

The idea of testing and optimizing different ad “creative” isn’t new, but CEO Massimo Chieruzzi said there aren’t many companies offering a product targeted at SMBs advertising on Facebook. Similarly, he acknowledged that there are plenty of social ad companies out there, but he said most of them aren’t really direct competitors (he mentioned Qwaya as one).

AdEspresso spun out of an Italian ad agency but has moved to Silicon Valley to participate in the 500 Startups incubator. The company says it spent about a year developing the product before launching an open beta six months ago, and it’s on-track to sign up 5,000 advertisers by the end of 2013, with nearly $900,000 in ad spending managed so far.

While there’s still more work to be done on the product, the biggest item on the AdEspresso to-do list is probably making money — Chieruzzi said he’ll be implementing a business model that charges customers between $49 and $299 a month based on ad spending (customers can also use the product for free if they spend less than $2,000 a month). He also said that while AdEspresso is now headquartered in Mountain View, he plans to keep the technical team in Italy.

The funding, meanwhile, came from 500 Startups, Atlantic Capital Partners, and various angel investors including Richard Chen and Armando Biondi.

testfinaltechnews

AdEspresso Raises $500K To Make Facebook Ad Optimization Easy For Small Businesses

12:09 PM

Unknown

AdEspresso , a startup offering Facebook ad tools for small and medium businesses, is announcing that it has raised its first outside fundin...

Chances are that if you’re reading this, you didn’t recently buy an iPhone in Taiwan. As it happens, that may be for the best — according to a Wall Street Journal report published earlier today, Apple has been fined NT$20,000,000 by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission for attempting to influence iPhone sale prices. That may sound like a lot, but the reality is considerably less dramatic — that figure only works out to about $667,000. The price tag for further noncompliance raises the stakes a bit more though, as Apple would have to shell out an additional NT$50 million (~$1.6 million).

Pretty soon we’ll be talking about real money.

As the story goes, Apple insisted on signing off on iPhone pricing plans for three of Taiwan’s largest telecom companies — Chunghwa Telecom (far and away the biggest of the lot), FarEasTone Telecommunications, and Taiwan Mobile. Under Taiwanese law, those companies should be free from any sort of corporate interference once they have purchased the rights to distribute said iDevices from Apple, which sadly doesn’t appear to be the case.

The WSJ’s report goes on to note that Apple has the option to appeal the commission’s decision, but at this point there’s no word if the company plans to avail itself of that option. I’ve reached out to Apple for comment, but seeing as how it’s Christmas, I’m not holding my breath for a speedy response.

Now if we’re being honest, this isn’t the first time a major smartphone player has been caught playing hard and fast with Taiwanese law. Samsung has also been party to its share of legal imbroglios in Taiwan in 2013, as it kicked off the year by getting slapped with a NT$300,000 (roughly US$10,389) fine for running ads claiming that its Galaxy Y Duos smartphone had an autofocusing camera with a flash. It didn’t. Samsung also came under fire later that year for crafting a astroturfing campaign that saw paid flacks attack Taiwanese competitor HTC’s products online.

And the kicker? The campaign probably wasn’t even necessary. I’ll gladly admit to being a fan of HTC’s wares, but there’s no denying that company is still facing its share of financial woes.

If we’re being totally honest, the sorts of fines that get levied on these tech titans are unlikely to cause any lasting shift in behavior. Let’s not forget that Apple has something like $150 billion (probably much more) tucked away neatly in its cash reserves. Naturally, Samsung too is well-equipped to absorb regulatory fines as it gets hit with them — revenues for the chaebol as a whole continue to account for nearly a fifth of South Korea’s GDP, with a considerable chunk of that coming from its lucrative (and prolific) consumer electronics division. Let’s consider that Samsung astroturfing case again. As Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt adroitly pointed out when this all went down, the NT$10 million fine doesn’t amount to much more than a rounding error when you consider that Samsung’s 2012 marketing budget weighed in at a whopping $5.3 billion.

Did the whole rigmarole actually work? Who knows. What is clear though is that some very prominent companies seem to think it’s easier — and perhaps more lucrative — to say sorry and take a (very) mild financial drubbing than it is to play by the rules in the first place. They might not be wrong.

testfinaltechnews

Apple Slapped With $667K Fine For Trying To Influence Taiwanese iPhone Prices

11:08 AM

Unknown

Chances are that if you’re reading this, you didn’t recently buy an iPhone in Taiwan. As it happens, that may be for the best — according to...

Image (1) FestivusPole.jpeg for post 346749

Maybe it’s the ham and biscuit brunch talking, but here’s something we’ve never done: an open thread. To celebrate our new Facebook commenting system, I’d like you all to start sharing what you’d like to give the world this Christmas. Is it your start-up? Is it a new hardware project? Is it a great idea? An event you’re planning? Share it here and let’s have a nice, free-for-all Festivus of self-promotion/happiness/good wishes. I’ll keep my eye on this thread and follow up with you folks in 2014.

Happy Festivus!

[Image via the treasure trove called mitchoconnel.com]

testfinaltechnews

Open Thread: What Will You Give The World This Year?

10:38 AM

Unknown

Maybe it’s the ham and biscuit brunch talking, but here’s something we’ve never done: an open thread. To celebrate our new Facebook commenti...

Image (1) jailbreaker_560.jpg for post 335066

In a short letter to the jailbreak community, the Evasi0n group has announced they are refusing to distribute TaiG, an Chinese app store released alongside an iOS 7.x jailbreak. Users found that the app store contained hundreds of pirated apps.

Evasi0n said they “dropped the ball” and that the TaiG partnership was a mistake.

We terminated our relationship with them. We are very disappointed that they have decided to put up a cracked version of the jailbreak on their site that installs Taig. We did not give them any permission or source code.

They also reverse-engineered the software to assess how TaiG handled user privacy, finding that the software sent no private data and that the software sent unique identifiers in encrypted form. Noted home-brew app developer Jay Freeman confirmed that Evasi0n was to receive at least $1 million from TaiG although the actual sum was not disclosed.

The group has also announced that they are not accepting cash from TaiG:

There have been a lot of rumors listing various amounts we’ve been paid. We have received no monies from any group, including Taig. We will not be accepting any money. Our donations are being given to Public Knowledge, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure to help protect jailbreaking as your legal right.