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Monday, January 27, 2014
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Infamous technology manufacturing giant Foxconn Technology Group is considering expanding operations to the United States. The Taiwanese company is a major supplier for Apple's iPhones and iPads, so speculation has already begun that a move to the States would further solidify the companies' already-strong relationship. Foxconn Chairman Terry Guo, whose company has more than 1 million employees, described the U.S. as "a must-go market." Foxconn has had more than its shares of regrettable incidents, including riots and suicides.


10:09 AM

Infamous technology manufacturing giant Foxconn Technology Group is considering expanding operations to the United States. The Taiwanese c...

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Bitcoin

The Silk Road is still claiming victims, today taking down BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem and Robert M. Faiella, a BTC broker, known as BTCKing or BTC-KinG. Police arrested Shrem, 24, yesterday at JFK airport and Faiella, 54, in Cape Coral, Florida. According to a release, the pair are charged with “conspiring to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.”


The DEA, IRS, and Manhattan U.S. Attorney stated that the pair were instrumental in selling about $1 million worth of BTC to Silk Road users which, according to the complaint, was used to buy and sell drugs. “Hiding behind their computers, both defendants are charged with knowingly contributing to and facilitating anonymous drug sales, earning substantial profits along the way,” said DEA Acting Special Agent in Charge James J. Hunt. From the release:


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From about December 2011 to October 2013, FAIELLA ran an underground Bitcoin exchange on the Silk Road website, a website that served as a sprawling and anonymous black market bazaar where illegal drugs of virtually every variety were bought and sold regularly by the site’s users. Operating under the username “BTCKing,” FAIELLA sold Bitcoins – the only form of payment accepted on Silk Road – to users seeking to buy illegal drugs on the site. Upon receiving orders for Bitcoins from Silk Road users, he filled the orders through a company based in New York, New York (the “Company”). The Company was designed to enable customers to exchange cash for Bitcoins anonymously, that is, without providing any personal identifying information, and it charged a fee for its service. FAIELLA obtained Bitcoins with the Company’s assistance, and then sold the Bitcoins to Silk Road users at a markup.

SHREM is the Chief Executive Officer of the Company, and from about August 2011 until about July 2013, when the Company ceased operating, he was also its Compliance Officer, in charge of ensuring the Company’s compliance with federal and other anti-money laundering (“AML”) laws. SHREM is also the Vice Chairman of a foundation dedicated to promoting the Bitcoin virtual currency system.

Authorities also noted that Shrem bought drugs from the Silk Road and was aware of its use as an illicit marketplace. The authorities made it clear it was Shrem and Faiella’s interactions on the Silk Road that was most interesting to the DEA and IRS. However, there is no way to tell at this point what this means for the legitimate BTC markets and where BitInstant exists in the gray area between legal and illicit exchanges. Shrem’s site, BitInstant, is currently down.





10:09 AM
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The Silk Road is still claiming victims, today taking down BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem and Robert M. Faiella, a BTC broker, known as BTCKin...

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CNN on Thursday became the latest media outlet to fall victim to hacking by the Syrian Electronic Army. The SEA hacked into and defaced various CNN social media accounts and blogs, the network's Catherine Shoichet reported. "Tonight, the #SEA decided to retaliate against #CNN's viciously lying reporting aimed at prolonging the suffering in #Syria," the SEA tweeted Thursday. "If you're a media person or media company, you ought to realize these guys are out to compromise you," said Chester Wisniewski, senior security adviser at Sophos.


9:39 AM

CNN on Thursday became the latest media outlet to fall victim to hacking by the Syrian Electronic Army. The SEA hacked into and defaced va...

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Screenshot 2014-01-27 12.07.26

T-Mobile has just announced that LG’s flagship G Flex smartphone, as well as the long-rumored Optimus F3Q, will be available starting February 5. Pre-orders for both phones open up today.


The G Flex is one of LG’s most hyped phones yet, with a curved, 6-inch OLED HD display, 13-megapixel camera, and a curved 3500mAh battery.


On T-Mobile’s Simple Choice Plan, buyers will pay 24 equal monthly payments of $28 alongside their monthly voice, text and data charges. T-Mobile throws in a 6-month membership with Netflix to sweeten the deal.


AT&T already put the G Flex up for pre-order on Friday, and Sprint’s pre-orders open up on January 31, but neither carrier has announced official ship dates or in-store availability.


T-Mobile’s promise of physical, available G Flex smartphones by February 5 could make a difference in the minds of consumers during this pre-order period.


Meanwhile, the Optimus F3Q will be available on the same February 5 date for $13/month.


This is the first official mention of the F3Q, although press shots and specs leaked out last week. As rumors suggested, the F3Q has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 4-inch IPS TFT display, and a 5-megapixel camera.


Both phones are available now for pre-order.





9:24 AM

T-Mobile has just announced that LG’s flagship G Flex smartphone , as well as the long-rumored Optimus F3Q, will be available starting Febru...

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adtile

Mobile ad startup Adtile is announcing a new ad unit today that offers a bit more fun and interactivity than standard mobile ads.


Founder and CEO Nils Forsblom told me that the company’s new Motion Ads take advantage of a smartphone’s GPS, gyroscope, motion coprocessor, accelerometer and digital compass on both Android on iOS. So instead of just tapping or watching a video, consumers are asked to shake, turn, and otherwise interact in their ads.


For example, Forsblom gave me a quick demo of a coffee shop ad that required the user to shake their phone, filling up a drink cup in the process. Once the cup was full, Adtile showed a map and a list of nearby stores. (Forsblom said the ad units are drawing on location data from Yelp, thanks to a new partnership between the two companies.)


This kind of interaction is common in games and other apps (including branded apps that are arguably a form of advertising), but I haven’t seen it in many mobile ads, nor in the various flavors of native advertising that keep popping up. Forsblom said that’s because “all of the pieces have to be done on native code.”


“Let’s be straight — advertising is not that exciting,” he said. “For better or for worse, it’s still images and app installs. This is really something that I think will make people play.”


I last wrote about Adtile in May 2013, when the company was still called TenFarms. At the time, the team was developing the Adtile platform, which allows users to tap on photos and other editorial content with the Adtile icon, bringing up related, interactive ads. Now the company has rebranded under the Adtile name, and Forsblom said it’s working with hundreds of publishers, with more on the waiting list.





9:24 AM

Mobile ad startup Adtile is announcing a new ad unit today that offers a bit more fun and interactivity than standard mobile ads. Founder a...

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passbook-passes

Soon enough you’ll be able to walk into a hotel, straight past the front desk and have your door open automatically for you without any extra effort required, thanks to a new pilot project by Starwood Hotels (via WSJ). Two hotels are debuting keyless entry via smartphones that have a companion app installed and can communicate via Bluetooth 4.0, one in Harlem and one in Cupertino, with both set to go live before the end of the first quarter of this year.


Notably, the tech doesn’t use NFC, but rather opts for low-energy Bluetooth, which is available on Apple’s latest iPhone models as well as on most contemporary high-end Android smartphones. The implementation by Starwood would deploy virtual keys via their smartphone app to hotel guests, which would allow the guests to then open their hotel room door simply by tapping or gesturing with their device once they arrive.


Starwood is bullish on the potential of the tech: CEO Frits van Paasschen told the WSJ that it believes this will be the “new standard” for hotel access, once it gets past the novelty stage. Of course, it has some potential limitations, like how to easily provision multiple keys for guests and their kids, as well as making sure that the tech is secure enough that patrons are comfortable with it. Plus, unforeseen parts of the check-in experience like arriving hours early are things that are often dealt with on the fly by the people manning the desk, so there will probably be a learning curve during the pilot process where this stuff is worked out.


Fixing check-ins is a priority for hotels because the check-in process, especially during times when a hotel is busy, causes a bottleneck, and is responsible for unpleasant experiences for both employees and customers. Introducing self check-ins and virtual keys alleviates those bottlenecks, and in the short-term at least, won’t replace the traditional check-in methods altogether. There’s the possibility that the whole thing becomes automated down the road (I’d argue inevitably, too) but for now it would work in tandem with real human staff.


Starwood wants to roll the system out at all of its W and Aloft locations by the end of 2015, so it’ll be interesting to see how this pilot goes. If any hotel chain can make it work, it’s Starwood, with its trendy, tech-loving demographic appeal, but it’s still very early days for this kind of tech. Others like Nymi envision a time when this kind of automatic entry is also tied to your heart rate, but first we’ll see if people like the idea of their phones giving them instant access to a clean bed and warm room after a day of travel. As with most new tech undertakings, it’ll probably depend entirely on how frustration free the experience is from the start.





8:55 AM

Soon enough you’ll be able to walk into a hotel, straight past the front desk and have your door open automatically for you without any extr...

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Screenshot 2014-01-27 09.37.48

Since hackers have poked holes in Snapchat’s relatively lax security, many have had their way with the image sharing service’s APIs, grabbing unread messages and doing things the app doesn’t traditionally let you do. This latest hack, Little Snapper, is far and away the cutest one yet.


UK-based animator and developer Wesley Hill, who goes by the name Hako on Github, has found a way to print photos you receive through Snapchat onto a Berg Little Printer, a internet-connected mini thermal printer that can be configured to print out updates from various news sources and social networks. In short Snapchat photos, which are meant to be ephemeral, become permanent.


With Little Snapper, you can capture unread Snapchat images, host the image for 45 seconds to give the Little Printer time to parse, and then print the picture. After you have a black-and-white print-out, Little Snapper deletes the image. According to the description provided by Hill, Little Snapper simply requires your username and password to access your account, and only received, not sent, images are printed.


If you have a Little Printer, a Snapchat addiction, and appreciate the decorating style of Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind, head on over to this landing page for the Little Snapper.





7:24 AM

Since hackers have poked holes in Snapchat’s relatively lax security , many have had their way with the image sharing service’s APIs, grabb...

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