NSA Chief to talk at hackers' conference in Vegas

NSA Chief to talk at hackers' conference in Vegas

Las Vegas - The head of the US National Security Agency has faced Congress and presidents in the past, and isn't expected to budge from the position that his mission is to stop terrorists and that his agency's surveillance program is critical, even amid a room full of hackers Wednesday at a conference in Las Vegas.

 

Army General Keith Alexander has been unapologetic during recent public appearances about the NSA collecting "metadata" to, in his words, "connect the dots" and "go after bad guys who ... hide amongst us to kill our people."
"Our job is to stop them without impacting your civil liberties and privacy," Alexander told a July 18 audience at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. "We don't want another 9/11."
Alexander has said his agency's ability to dip into what he characterized as a "virtual lockbox" and compare collected email and telephone data helped thwart 54 plots against targets in the United States and some 20 other countries.
He pointed to a failed plot in September 2009 against the New York City subway system that he said could have been the worst terror strike in the US since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Another example he offered was a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange.
At Aspen and at a June 28 appearance before the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association in Baltimore, Alexander said his agency dipped into the metadata database fewer than 300 times in 2012.
He insists it wouldn't be physically possible and is "flat not true" that the spy agency is listening to people's phone calls and reading their emails.
But the Black Hat conferees that Alexander will face Wednesday are a skeptical and tech-savvy bunch - attuned to news about former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden leaking classified documents last month and the conviction on Tuesday of US Army Private Bradley Manning on 20 espionage, theft and other charges that could get him life in prison for giving military secrets to WikiLeaks. Manning was acquitted of the more serious charge of aiding the enemy.
"We're hoping he'll be addressing current issues head-on," said Meredith Corley, spokeswoman for the 16th annual Black Hat conference at Caesars Palace. Alexander's keynote speech was expected to draw most of the 7,000 registered attendees, Corley said.
At Aspen, Alexander unveiled measures including a "two-person rule" to thwart leaks like the disclosures by Snowden, a former computer systems administrator in Hawaii now living at a Russian airport while he seeks asylum in several countries. The rule would require two people to be present when key national security information is accessed or moved.
Alexander also talked in Colorado and Baltimore about creating a 4,000-person "Cyber Command" of offensive and defensive teams - both to protect Defense Department systems and launch cyberattacks against enemy networks under White House orders.
"We've got to have this debate with our country," the eight-year NSA chief said in Aspen. "How are we going to protect the nation in cyberspace?"
But, "there is risk in having a debate on a national security issue," he added. "The adversary will learn what we're trying to do."
NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines in Washington, DC, declined Tuesday to provide advance word about Alexander's speech in Las Vegas. Vines wouldn't say whether a conference that attracts cyberspace explorers could serve as recruiting ground for the NSA.
But the spy agency chief's comments are expected to spur lively discussion among government workers, corporate systems analysts and freelance hackers both at the Black Hat events, and at DefCon, a somewhat more counter-culture conference that opens later this week, also in Las Vegas.

Sony, Panasonic to jointly develop the next-gen optical disc

Sony, Panasonic to jointly develop the next-gen optical disc



Tokyo, Japan - Sony Corporation and Panasonic Corporation announced today that they have reached an agreement for a joint venture to develop a next-generation optical disc for professional digital data storage.
The synergies from the partnership are expected to capitalize on the technologies held by both respective companies and result in the development of an optical disc with a recording capacity of at least 300GB by the end of 2015.
The key feature of optical discs has always been to keep them protected against the environment, such as dust and water resistance, and also immune to severe changes in temperature and humidity within the environment where they are stored. Both Sony and Panasonic have earlier invested into and developed products such as the Blu-ray™ format, but realize now that optical discs will need to accommodate much large volumes of storage in years to come given the expected future growth in the active market.
One of Sony’s previous ventures was to commercialize a file-based optical disc archive system in September 2012, which was a system housing twelve optical discs as a single, high-capacity storage solution. The total range of storage capacity was anywhere between 300GB to 1.5TB.
Similarly, Panasonic has developed its ‘LB-DM9’ series of optical disc storage devices, which offers a 90 magazine capacity, with a total storage space of 180TB. These devices are capable of rapid data transfer performance of up to 216MB/S, which utilizes an indigenously developed changer system along with RAID technology to deliver these results.
The increasing need for archive capabilities has been from rapidly-growing industries such as motion pictures and broadcasting, as well as cloud data centers which have exploded in popularity following the evolution in network services. Both Sony and Panasonic have a proven track record in developing Blu-ray Disc™ format technologies and this partnership augers well for the future.
In recent years, there has been an increasing need for archive capabilities, not only from video production industries, such as motion pictures and broadcasting, but also from cloud data centers that handle increasingly large volumes of data following the evolution in network services. Both Sony and Panasonic have a proven track record in developing Blu-ray Disc™ format technologies, and by actively promoting the adoption of a new standard for next-generation high-capacity optical discs, they intend to offer solutions that preserve valuable data for future generations.

Microsoft losing money on Surface tablets

Microsoft losing money on Surface tablets



Seattle, Tue Jul 30, 2013 - Microsoft Corp's Surface tablets have yet to make any profit as sputtering sales have been eclipsed by advertising costs and an accounting charge, according to the software company's annual report.
The two tablet models, introduced in October and February to challenge Apple Inc's popular iPad, have so far brought in revenue of $853 million, Microsoft revealed for the first time in its annual report filed with regulators on Tuesday.
That is less than the $900 million charge Microsoft announced earlier this month to write down the value of unsold Surface RT - the first model - still on its hands.
On top of that, Microsoft said its sales and marketing expenses increased $1.4 billion, or 10 percent, because of the huge advertising campaigns for Windows 8 and Surface. It also identified Surface as one of the reasons its overall production costs rose.
The Surface is Microsoft's first foray into making its own computers after years of focusing on software, but its first attempts have not won over consumers. By comparison, Apple sold almost $24 billion worth of iPads over the last three quarters.

Facebook nears $38 IPO price for 1st time

Facebook nears $38 IPO price for 1st time



New York - Facebook's stock came within pennies of its $38 IPO price for the first time since its rocky initial public offering more than a year ago.
Shares of Facebook Inc. rose $2.18, or 6.2 percent, to close at $37.61 on Tuesday. The stock hit $37.96 in afternoon trading.
The world's biggest online social network has been on a roll since it reported stronger-than-expected earnings on July 24. Investors are especially upbeat about its fast-growing mobile advertising revenue.
Facebook's ability to grow mobile revenue was one of the biggest concerns in the weeks leading up to its IPO last year. Investors were worried that its ad business was not moving to mobile gadgets as quickly as its user base.
Facebook now derives 41 percent of its ad revenue from mobile advertising.

Plant-eating dinos regrew teeth

WASHINGTON: Long-necked plant-grazing dinosaurs that roamed the Earth 150 million years ago evolved a nifty way of fixing broken teeth. They just grew new ones, said a US study Wednesday.

Scientists analyzed the fossils of two of the largest herbivores known to have lived in North America -- Diplodocus and Camarasaurus -- and found they grew fresh smiles every six weeks or so.

They carried several spares, much like human adult teeth that descend after baby teeth fall out, said the research in the journal PLoS ONE.

"A nearly 100-foot-long (30-meter) sauropod would have had a fresh tooth in each position about every one to two months, sometimes less," said researcher Michael D'Emic from Stony Brook University in New York.

"Effectively, sauropods took a 'quantity over quality' approach to making teeth, opposite the approach taken by large animals - mammals - today."

Scientists can discern tooth formation in long extinct creatures by studying the lines of deposition of tooth dentin, a layer beneath the enamel.

Camarasaurus had as many as three "baby teeth" lined up in each tooth socket at any one time, and replaced its teeth every 62 days, the study said.

The Diplodocus tooth sockets held up to five replacement teeth and one functional tooth. Each tooth was replaced every 35 days.

Scientists say this ability came in handy because the lumbering dinos ate huge amounts of food, and gnawing on trees and hard grasses all the time would have caused heavy wear and tear on their chompers. (AFP)

Google gets deeper into hardware with new tablet, TV gadget

SAN FRANCISCO: Google Inc on Wednesday showcased a new-generation, slimmer Nexus 7 tablet that the Internet search company hopes will expand its presence in consumer hardware, and ensure that its online services remain front-and-center on mobile devices.

The latest Nexus 7, featuring a Qualcomm Inc Snapdragon processor and a higher display resolution, on July 30 will be priced at $229 for a basic version with 16 gigabytes of storage. The original year-old tablet started at $199 for an 8 gigabyte version.

Sundar Pichai, head of Android and Chrome software, said on the sidelines of an event to launch the tablet that the Internet company would make a profit off the new product. The first-generation Nexus 7, which marked its initial foray into mobile electronics, was financially a break-even product for the company, analysts have said.

"The new Nexus 7 is designed so that it's profitable for all the people involved. Retailers, us, everyone included," Pichai told Reuters.

Also on Wednesday, Google revived an earlier attempt to get into online video streaming with the introduction of the "Chromecast" -- a two-inch $35 gadget that will plug into the back of televisions and let users stream YouTube and Netflix videos via their smartphones.

The announcements come a week before Google's Motorola division is expected to unveil the Moto X smartphone in New York. The Moto X represents the first phone Motorola has developed since it was acquired by Google for $12.5 billion in May 2012, and is central to relaunching the venerable brand into a highly competitive mobile market.

Google and other traditionally non-hardware companies such as Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp have begun making inroads into mobile devices as consumers increasingly access the Web on the go. It introduced its first tablet in June 2012, hoping to replicate its smartphone success in a hot market presently dominated by Amazon's Kindle Fire, Apple Inc's iPad.

Google, which gets the lion's share of its revenue from online and mobile advertising, wants the aggressively priced Nexus tablets to be a hit as more users would mean increased exposure for its ads.

Its Nexus line, which include smartphones and tablets made by partners like Samsung Electronics and HTC, also serve as references for manufacturers across the globe adopting its Android mobile software system.

THE NEXUS Q RETURNS?

On Wednesday, Pichai told reporters that, since its launch, the Nexus 7 line alone has accounted for greater than 10 percent of all Android tablets sold.

The company was on track to see 70 million total Android tablet activations in 2013, versus a pace of about 10 million at the end of 2012, he said.

Its new Chromecast gadget, however, will employ a stripped-down version of the Chrome operating system, now used primarily for laptop computers.

The device, which will be sold from Wednesday, invited comparisons to the short-lived "Nexus Q", which also promised to stream consumers' digital music and other content directly to their home entertainment systems. But Google indefinitely postponed the launch of the Q before it went on sale last year, following a spate of negative reviews.

Chromecast will allow users to employ their smartphones almost like remote controls, letting them play and control video applications without using a traditional remote.

"The Nexus Q was part of our effort to do the same thing. We didn't launch that, but a lot of learnings," Pichai told Reuters after the event. "Nexus Q was all about how you send content, so that was an inspiration for this." (Reuters)

Space art eyes creativity in tech at Smithsonian

WASHINGTON: The familiar exteriors of astronauts' spacesuits often hide all of the ingenuity and mechanics that are built inside the suits, which were first imagined as ``wearable spacecraft.''

Now a new art exhibit, ``Suited for Space,'' opening Friday at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, highlights the creativity behind the suits that allowed humans to explore the moon and aspire to fly farther from Earth.

X-ray images and photographs show the suits in intricate detail, said space history curator Cathleen Lewis. The museum's X-rays are the first such images ever created to study, conserve and research the nation's spacesuits.

``You don't realize what a complex machine these are,'' Lewis said. But the X-rays of Alan Shepard's Apollo spacesuit and a 1960s prototype ``allow visitors to see beyond what is visible to the naked eye, through the protective layers of the suit to see the substructures that are embedded inside.''

The exhibition traces the evolution of the spacesuit from the early high-altitude test flight suits of the 1930s to the dawn of the space age with Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle missions.

While technology drove much of the suit design to maintain an airtight barrier to the vacuum of space and to protect from solar radiation, fashion aesthetics of the time also played a role, Lewis said. The original Mercury seven astronaut suits were unique from all others with a silvery coating to introduce America's space explorers to the world.

``NASA had a demand to create the astronauts into a whole new corps, a non-military corps. So here was an opportunity to dress them in a new uniform ... that evokes sensibilities of that Buck Rogers imagination,'' she said. ``All of these guys, the engineers, they grew up on science fiction. They fed it with their ideas, and they were consumers of it at the same time.''

Curators are working to find ways to preserve spacesuits because some materials are decomposing, discoloring or becoming rigid some 50 years after they were created.

The spacesuit show is traveling to 10 cities, moving next to Tampa, Florida, Philadelphia and Seattle through 2015.

Two companion exhibits at the National Air and Space Museum also highlight 50 artworks of about 550 new items added to the Smithsonian's growing space art collection over the past decade. They include portraits of astronomer Carl Sagan and astrophysicist Neal deGrasse Tyson, and a photograph of first female shuttle commander Eileen Collins by photographer Annie Leibovitz.

The museum's art collection includes 7,000 paintings, drawings, prints, posters and sculptures. Curators have been working to add more contemporary and conceptual art over the past 10 years.

Chief Curator Peter Jakab said art helps people reflect on aerospace achievements and the humanity imbued in each machine.

Albert Watson, a photographer known for his portraits of celebrities, such as Steve Jobs, and of fashion, took a break in 1990 to photograph spacesuits and other artifacts. More recently, he donated two large-scale prints of an Apollo glove and boot to the museum.

Watson said he was captivated by the thought of suits that traveled in space and came back covered with moon dust.

``When you deal with celebrities every day or super models every day and fashion people every day, there is always a nice escape to go into still life,'' he said. ``As a child, I loved science fiction. I always remember arguing with my father about rocket ships. He said man will never go into space, he said, because what goes up must come down.''

The museum also has acquired a sculpture by Angela Palmer that evokes 46 different earth-like worlds that have been discovered by NASA's Kepler Observatory. The piece, entitled ``Searching for Goldilocks,'' involves 18 sheets of glass marked with circles for each star with an orbiting planet.

It refers to ``Goldilocks'' planets that might support life. They range from 132 light-years to about 4,300 light-years away.

``If you have a look, you can stand there looking from Earth, as if you are the eye of the telescope,'' she said. ``Or you can go to the back of the sculpture, and you can be thrown back towards Earth _ 4,300 light years straight back down.''

Software experts attack cars, to release code as hackers meet

Software experts attack cars, to release code as hackers meet
BOSTON: Car hacking is not a new field, but its secrets have long been closely guarded. That is about to change, thanks to two well-known computer software hackers who got bored finding bugs in software from Microsoft and Apple.

Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek say they will publish detailed blueprints of techniques for attacking critical systems in the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape in a 100-page white paper, following several months of research they conducted with a grant from the U.S. government.

The two "white hats" - hackers who try to uncover software vulnerabilities before criminals can exploit them - will also release the software they built for hacking the cars at the Def Con hacking convention in Las Vegas this week.

They said they devised ways to force a Toyota Prius to brake suddenly at 80 miles an hour, jerk its steering wheel, or accelerate the engine. They also say they can disable the brakes of a Ford Escape traveling at very slow speeds, so that the car keeps moving no matter how hard the driver presses the pedal.

"Imagine what would happen if you were near a crowd," said Valasek, director of security intelligence at consulting firm IOActive, known for finding bugs in Microsoft Corp's Windows software.

But it is not as scary as it may sound at first blush.

They were sitting inside the cars using laptops connected directly to the vehicles' computer networks when they did their work. So they will not be providing information on how to hack remotely into a car network, which is what would typically be needed to launch a real-world attack.

The two say they hope the data they publish will encourage other white-hat hackers to uncover more security flaws in autos so they can be fixed.

"I trust the eyes of 100 security researchers more than the eyes that are in Ford and Toyota," said Miller, a Twitter security engineer known for his research on hacking Apple Inc's App Store.

Toyota Motor Corp spokesman John Hanson said the company was reviewing the work. He said the carmaker had invested heavily in electronic security, but that bugs remained - as they do in cars of other manufacturers.

"It's entirely possible to do," Hanson said, referring to the newly exposed hacks. "Absolutely we take it seriously."

Ford Motor Co spokesman Craig Daitch said the company takes seriously the electronic security of its vehicles. He said the fact that Miller's and Valasek's hacking methods required them to be inside the vehicle they were trying to manipulate mitigated the risk.

"This particular attack was not performed remotely over the air, but as a highly aggressive direct physical manipulation of one vehicle over an elongated period of time, which would not be a risk to customers and any mass level," Daitch said.

'TIME TO SHORE UP DEFENSES'

Miller and Valasek said they did not research remote attacks because that had already been done.

A group of academics described ways to infect cars using Bluetooth systems and wireless networks in 2011. But unlike Miller and Valasek, the academics have kept the details of their work a closely guarded secret, refusing even to identify the make of the car they hacked. (reut.rs/NWOPjq)

Their work got the attention of the U.S. government. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has begun an auto cybersecurity research program.

"While increased use of electronic controls and connectivity is enhancing transportation safety and efficiency, it brings a new challenge of safeguarding against potential vulnerabilities," the agency said in a statement. It said it knew of no consumer incident where a vehicle was hacked.

Still, some experts believe malicious hackers may already have the ability to launch attacks.

"It's time to shore up the defenses," said Tiffany Strauchs Rad, a researcher with Kaspersky Lab, who previously worked for an auto security research center.

A group of European computer scientists had been scheduled to present research on hacking the locks of luxury vehicles, including Porsches, Audis, Bentleys and Lamborghinis, at a conference in Washington in mid-August.

But Volkswagen AG obtained a restraining order from a British high court prohibiting discussion of the research by Flavio D. Garcia of the University of Birmingham, and Roel Verdult and Baris Ege of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

A spokeswoman for the three scientists said they would pull out of the prestigious Usenix conference because of the restraining order. Both universities said they would hold off on publishing the paper, pending the resolution of litigation. (See FACTBOX by clicking)

Volkswagen declined to comment. (Reuters)

The poison pill in India's search for cheap food

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Nearly a decade ago, the Indian government ruled out a ban on the production and use of monocrotophos, the highly toxic pesticide that killed 23 children this month in a village school providing free lunches under a government-sponsored program.

Despite being labeled highly hazardous by the World Health Organization (WHO), a panel of government experts was persuaded by manufacturers that monocrotophos was cheaper than alternatives and more effective in controlling pests that decimate crop output.

India, which has more hungry mouths to feed than any other country in the world, continues to use monocrotophos and other highly toxic pesticides that rich and poor nations alike, including China, are banning on health grounds.

Although the government argues the benefits of strong pesticides outweigh the hazards if properly managed, the school food poisoning tragedy underlined criticism such controls are virtually ignored on the ground.

According to the minutes, the 2004 meeting conducted by the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee, the Indian government body that regulates pesticide use, concluded that: "The data submitted by the industry satisfies the concerns raised...Therefore, there is no need to recommend the ban of this product."

The minutes of the meeting can be read here: cibrc.nic.in/248rc.doc

Government scientists continue to defend the pesticide, and insist the decision to not ban it remains good.

Just weeks before the school tragedy in Bihar state, the Indian government advised farmers via text message to use monocrotophos to kill borer pests in mandarin fruits and rice, records on the agricultural meteorology division's web site show.

"It is cost effective and it is known for its efficacy ... some even call it a benevolent pesticide," said T. P. Rajendran, assistant director general for plant protection at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

"I can say that pesticides currently permitted in the country are safe provided they are used as per specifications and guidelines. We have exhaustive and detailed guidelines. They need to be followed."

A senior official directly involved in the decision-making on pesticide use said: "You have got to understand that all pesticides are toxic but they are essential for maintaining or increasing agricultural production.

"Can we afford to lose 15-25 percent of output? One cannot afford to lose such a large percentage of agricultural produce. The answer lies in judicious use."

The official declined to be identified.

The WHO has cited a 2007 study that about 76,000 people die each year in India from pesticide poisoning. Many of the deaths are suicides made easy by the wide availability of toxic pesticides.

15 PAGES OF REGULATIONS

In the school tragedy, police suspect the children's lunch was cooked in oil that was stored in a used container of monocrotophos.

The Indian government has issued 15 pages of regulations that need to be followed when handling pesticides - including wearing protective clothing and using a respirator when spraying. Pesticide containers should be broken when empty and not left outside in order to prevent them being re-used.

But in a nation where a quarter of the 1.2 billion population is illiterate and vast numbers live in far-flung rural districts, implementation is almost impossible. For instance, monocrotophos is banned for use on vegetable crops, but there is no way to ensure the rule is followed.

According to the WHO, swallowing 1,200 milligrams - less than a teaspoon - of monocrotophos can be fatal to humans. In 2009, it called for India to ban the product because of its extreme toxicity.

"It is imperative to consider banning the use of monocrotophos," it said in a 60-page report. "The perception that monocrotophos is cheap and necessary, have prevented the product from being taken off the market" in India.

WHO officials say the school tragedy reinforces the dangers of the pesticide.

"We would advocate that countries restrict, ban, or phase out...those chemicals for which they can't ensure that all aspects of use are safe," said Lesley Onyon, WHO's South-East Asia regional adviser for chemical safety. "If they can't ensure safety, it's our policy to say that these chemical or pesticides shouldn't be used."

Indian government officials refuse to address the WHO's findings directly.

"We have to take decisions depending on our need, our priorities, and our requirements. No one knows these things better than us," said the government source.

NATIONAL PRIORITY

For India, providing more food to its people is a national priority. According to the World Bank, nearly 400 million people in the country live on less than $1.25 per day.

Nearly half its children under five are malnourished.

The Bihar school where the children died was participating in the government's midday meal program, aimed at giving 120 million school pupils a free lunch - both providing nutrition and encouraging education. India is also close to implementing an ambitious plan to provide cheap food to 800 million people.

Central to these efforts will be higher crop yields and managing costs.

According to government officials and manufacturers, monocrotophos is cheap and is also a broad spectrum pesticide that can only be replaced by four or five crop- or pest-specific pesticides. Even similar pesticides are much more expensive.

A 500 ml monocrotophos bottle sold by Godrej Agrovet, a subsidiary of Godrej Industries, is priced at 225 rupees ($3.75), while an alternative, Imidacloprid, in a bottle of 500 ml produced by Bayer, costs 1,271 rupees.

Monocrotophos is banned by many countries, including the United States, the European Union nations, China, and, among India's neighbors, Pakistan. Sri Lanka only allows monocrotophos use for coconut cultivation.

One of the two companies that argued against the ban on monocrotophos in 2004 halted production five years later under pressure from the public in its home country, Denmark.

Cheminova, a unit of Auriga Industries, said it stopped producing monocrotophos in India in 2009 and converted its plant to produce a low-toxic fungicide.

"We decided to phase out monocrotophos because with many alternative products, we could not see any reason to have such a toxic product in a country like India," Lars-Erik Pedersen, vice-president of Auriga Industries, told Reuters in Copenhagen.

"It was a big decision because it is one of the best-selling products in India," he added.

The other manufacturer that made a presentation at the 2004 meeting was United Phosphorus, currently the biggest producer of the pesticide in the country.

Managing Director Rajju D. Shroff told Reuters that monocrotophos was "very harmless," and hinted calls for a ban were aimed at helping multinationals sell more costly alternatives.

"Companies want to sell new pesticides. If they have monocrotophos, farmers will not change to new, expensive ones," said Shroff, who attended the meeting as the head of the Crop Care Federation of India, a position he still holds.

NOT MOST TOXIC

Historically, India appears reluctant to ban pesticides. Monocrotophos isn't the most toxic pesticide used in the country, according to the WHO's classifications. Phorate, methyl parathion, bromadiolone and phosphamidon, all classified as extremely hazardous, are likewise registered for use.

And endosulfan - a substance so nasty the United Nations wants it eliminated worldwide - was banned only by a Supreme Court order in 2011. The decision came a few months after the chief minister of the southern state of Kerala, the top elected official, went on a day-long hunger fast to demand the ban.

According to media reports, over 1,000 people were killed and hundreds born deformed because of indiscriminate aerial spraying of endosulfan in Kasargod, a Kerala district.

Both production of monocrotophos and demand in India was higher in 2009/10 than in 2005/06, according to latest available government data. It accounted for about 4 percent of total pesticide use in 2009/10 and 7 percent of production.

Its share in total sales is about 2-3 percent now, according to the Pesticides Manufacturers & Formulators Association, which says it represents the industry on a national basis with over 250 members.

The Centre for Science and Environment, a leading environmental NGO in India, says the state of pesticide control in the country is deplorable and companies have great influence.

"The story on the ground is abysmal, it's very disappointing," said Amit Khurana, program manager in the CSE's food safety and toxins unit.

"People still do not know how much of pesticide is to be used, which pesticide is to be used for which crop. The biggest influence for a farmer is the sales representative of the company ... so there's this sense of gross mismanagement at that level."

The government has tried to introduce legislation for "more effective regulation of import, manufacture, export, sale, transport, distribution and use of pesticides" but the bill has languished in parliament since 2008.

India is no stranger to the dangers of pesticides. Besides the thousands killed each year, the country suffered the world's worst industrial disaster when lethal methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide plant in the city of Bhopal in 1984, killing nearly 4,500 people.

But in the fields of rural India, pesticides like monocrotophos continue to be widely used.

"I have been using it for the last 10 years, I have a very good experience," said Gaiyabhu Patil, a 56-year-old farmer who has just finished spraying monocrotophos on his 15-acre cotton crop in the western state of Maharashtra. "It is cheap and effective."

Anil Dhole, a pesticide vendor in Koregaon, a district town southeast of Mumbai at the center of a sugarcane and cotton growing region, said few of his customers took health warnings seriously.

"Many farmers don't take the necessary precautions while applying the pesticide. We do inform them about its toxic nature, but they take it casually," he said "Farmers don't even bother to cover their noses." (Reuters)

Google Glass to be used to explore filmmaking

LOS ANGELES: Beauty is in the eye of the Google Glass wearer. At least that's what the Internet search giant hopes a handful of young filmmakers will discover.

  

Google is enlisting film students from five colleges to help it explore how its wearable computing device can be used to make movies.

The $1,500 Google Glass headset is already being used by 10,000 so-called explorers.

The device resembles a pair of glasses and allows users to take pictures, shoot video, search the Internet, compose email and check schedules.

As part of its experiment, Google will lend each school three pairs of Google Glass.

The participating schools are American Film Institute, California Institute of the Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Southern California.

Google Inc. says it plans to share an update of how students are progressing sometime after school resumes in the fall.

The company says the schools will explore how to use Glass for documentary filmmaking, character development, location-based storytelling and ``things we haven't yet considered.''

Norman Hollyn, a professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, said students will be encouraged to use Glass to tell stories incorporating the first-person point of view.

He said one model that students might follow is one explored in the film, ``Timecode,'' by director Mike Figgis, which uses four cameras to capture four different people simultaneously.

Students will also be encouraged to try to use Glass's data overlays as a way of revealing elements of a story. At least two short films are expected to be done by the beginning of next year, he said.

``We're kind of looking at it as, `How can we push this to tell stories rather than just sit on a cool Disneyland ride and broadcast that out to people?''' he said.

``This excited us in a lot of ways.''

Glass users can shoot video in ``720p'' high-definition quality by issuing voice or touch commands.

Google has already shown off a few examples of how people are using the device, such as tennis pro Bethanie Mattek-Sands preparing for Wimbledon and physics teacher Andrew Vanden Heuvel taking his class on a virtual field trip to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. (AP)

Asus Fonepad

Asus Fonepad
The Fonepad (not to be confused with the Padfone, also from Asus) has more modest ambitions

Design
At first glance it's a solid looking piece of kit, with a heavy glossy black plastic bezel surrounding the seven-inch screen. The back is brushed aluminium so it looks almost as classy as an iPad mini, though the metal doesn't do much to keep the weight down, tipping the scales at 340g.
Features and performance
The touchscreen offers a resolution of 1,280x800 pixels which equates to 216 pixels-per-inch, and puts it in front of the iPad mini in terms of pixel count. It certainly looks sharp enough, with wide viewing angles, and it works very well as an e-reader, but the brightness settings don't allow it to get particularly vivid – which might help with the battery. The supplied Asus Splendid app allows you to tweak the vividness and temperature of the colours though this seemed like more of a gimmick than a practical tool.
The single-core processor is clocked at 1.2GHz and backed by a full 1GB RAM. It's not in the same league as the Nexus 7's quad-core powerhouse but while it may not be super-fast, it's powerful enough for most tasks, even HD gaming, at a pinch, though it got a little bit jerky on occasion with Real Racing 3.
There is a 1.3-megapixel camera mounted on the front for video calls, which is arguably a much better investment than a five-megapixel camera on the back that hardly anyone will bother to use.
The good-sized 4,270mAh battery keeps things running for longer than you might expect. And if you need more, there's a power management feature in the settings that turns off wireless networks when it's in standby or reduces the screen brightness depending on which app you're using.

APPS RUSH

APPS RUSH
Wrestle and stamp your friends with some of the new apps in store this week

Launch Ticker iPhone
Tech entrepreneur and investor Jason Calacanis has signed up plenty of subscribers for his Launch Ticker service, which aggregates facts about big technology news stories each day. This is its official app, which wraps all those stories up with additional sharing features.

Diamond Street iPhone
An inventive tour-guide app, based on the book of the same name. You walk around London’s Hatton Garden jewellery quarter using the in-app map, with audio stories, sounds and images triggered by your location. More than one hour of audio is included, as well as four short films viewable when in range of a Wi-Fi network.

Way of the Dogg iPhone/iPad
The double-g gives you a clue about the star of this mobile game: It’s Snoop Dogg’s latest spin-off. Described as a ‘rhythm-action combat adventure’, it blends beatings and beats as you battle through 14 levels to the strains of Snoop’s hits. And if you doubt this chances on the App Store, ponder this: His last app, Snoopify, is currently making him $30k a week from virtual sticker sales alone.

Despicable Me: Minion Rush iPhone/iPad
This is Gameloft’s official game for the Despicable Me movies, putting you in the shoes of scampering minion for this Temple Rush-style endless runner. You’ll be leaping, sliding and dodging obstacles and enemies, while earning (or buying) power-ups and costumes to boost your chances.

Avengers Alliance iPhone/iPad
Avengers Alliance started off as an official Facebook game from Marvel. Now it’s crossed to iOS, although it’s a standalone game rather than synchronizing with its parent. It stars 28 Marvel heroes doing battle across more than 60 missions, with player-versus-player features coming soon, once people have practiced their skills.

Volvo debuts self-parking carA car that parks

Volvo debuts self-parking carA car that parks
 itself may sound like the work of science fiction, but they could be on the streets within two years.
Volvo has developed a car with sensors that safely interact with pedestrians, kerbs and other vehicles, allowing a driver to get out at the entrance to a car park and instruct their car to find a parking space by itself.
The driver would then be able to recall the car using a mobile phone app, although it is thought the car would only operate with compatible parking spaces.
The features could be included in the Volvo XC90, which will not be fully unveiled until the end of 2014.
Audi has also developed similar technology, while Volvo said it would incorporate auto-braking technology for cars that detect pedestrians and large animals.

First 3D printer hits UK high street

First 3D printer hits UK high street
The first ever 3D printer to be sold on the UK high street hits shelves last week with a price tag of £700.
Electronics retailer Maplin becomes the first major retailer to stock the technology in-store.
The self-assembly Velleman K8200 can construct three-dimensional plastic objects up to a maximum size of 20 x 20 x 20cm from computer designs.

Table tablet the next big thing

Table tablet the next big thingIf we all start carting these around on the Tube, rush hour could soon be even more of a squash.
But after years of ever-smaller gadgets, the world’s largest tablet could soon be the new tech must-have.
The table-top PC serves as a Monopoly board and can be used for games of air hockey – with players sitting at either end.
The 68cm (27in) Lenovo Horizon will also plug into your TV box or games console but comes at the suitably sizeable price of £1,499.99.
When flat, the device operates in ‘Aura’ mode, a Lenovo-created interface for playing games with friends and family.
And when in its upright position, it runs Microsoft’s Windows 8.
The Horizon is designed for sharing, with a diagonal, ten-point touchscreen that can be laid flat and used by three or more people at a time.
It comes with preloaded games software and an accompanying range of specialised controllers – a joystick attached with a suction cup, strikers that slide like air hockey paddles and an ‘E-dice’ that works with board games such as Monopoly.
The touchscreen also has a one-terabyte internal hard drive. However, the Horizon has received mixed reviews. PCmag.com said that at 18 pounds, the device could hardly be considered a tablet.
“Aside from the novelty, there are few reasons to recommend this system over a traditional all-in-one desktop,” it concluded.

Better sound from your smartphone

GADGET OF THE WEEK
Better sound from your smartphone

When V-Moda introduced its Vamp headphone amplifier last year, it won over critics and fans by offering richer, more lustrous sound.
But the Vamp worked only with the iPhone 4 and 4S, which limited its usefulness. Aiming for greater versatility, V-Moda created the Vamp Verza, for iOS as well as Android devices.
In a nutshell, the Vamp bypasses a device’s digital-to-audio converter and runs music through its own high-fidelity processor. The result is noticeably better sound with clear vocals and firmer bass. The amp also has a lithium-ion battery that can provide power to your smartphone.
The original Vamp cradled an iPhone in a case with a dock, making it a single unit. The updated Vamp Verza has no case, just a strong rubber band and some micro-USB cables to connect the amplifier to any device, even a Mac or PC.

New tests back concept for particle physics: CERN

PARIS: Tests at the world's biggest collider have provided the most exhaustive confirmation to date of the Standard Model, a four-decade-old conceptual framework for fundamental particles, CERN said on Friday.


Physicists at two giant underground laboratories straddling the French-Swiss border have given the most accurate measurement yet of a change in a particle called a Bs.

New measurements showed that out of every billion Bs particles, only a handful decay into smaller particles called muon, and they do so in pairs, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said.

"Because the process is so rare, it is an extremely sensitive probe for new physics beyond the Standard Model," it said in a statement issued in Geneva.

"Any divergence from the Standard Model prediction would be a clear sign of something new."

CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) smashes sub-atomic particles together in a circular tunnel, where four laboratories use ultra-sensitive monitors to record the debris that tumbles from the collision.

The Standard Model, conceived in the 1970s, is the chief vehicle for understanding the basic particles and forces that make up the Universe.

In a historic discovery last year, the LHC uncovered a particle believed to be the elusive Higgs Boson, which explains mass.

Still missing from the Standard Model are explanations for gravity and the enigmatic stuff called dark matter and dark energy, which account for most of the cosmos and whose existence is inferred from their impact on ordinary matter.

The Bs tests were made by the LHC's CMS and LHCb labs.

"It's precisely for measurements like this that LHCb was built," said the lab's spokesman, Pierluigi Campana. "This result shows that we're really putting the Standard Model to the most stringent test yet at LHC energies, and so far it's coming through with flying colours."

The research was presented on Friday at a European conference on high-energy physics in Stockholm, CERN said.

In other work put forward in Stockholm, European and Japanese scientists confirmed two-year-old evidence that an elusive elementary particle, the neutrino, transits from one state to the other - from a muon neutrino to an electron neutrino.

Physicists beamed muon neutrinos across nearly 300 kilometres (185 miles) in Japan. They found that the beam, on its arrival, had more electron neutrinos in it than at the start, proving that a transformation had taken place. (AFP)

Apple software developers site hacked

NEW YORK CITY: Computer and software giant Apple said Sunday that it took its software developers' site offline after it was hacked, warning that personal information about them may have been stolen.

 
"Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website," Apple said in a statement.

Although sensitive information was encrypted, "we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers' names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed."

World economy loses up to $500bn to cybercrime every year

WASHINGTON: Cybercrime costs the global economy between $100 billion and $500 billion annually, according to a study released Monday which acknowledged more data is needed for precise estimates.


The study by the security firm McAfee and the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the US economy loses some $100 billion to cybercrime and cyber espionage, including loss of key business data and intellectual property.

The estimate is lower than some earlier reports which put the costs as high as $1 trillion, but study authors said it was a matter of narrowing the range of damage from cyber attacks.

"It will always be a range," said James Lewis, a CSIS scholar on cybersecurity and co-author of the report.

"The data is either sparse or distorted."

But Lewis said the report offers a better way to compare the cost of cybercrime to other types of risks such as drug trafficking or other types of theft.

"We believe the CSIS report is the first to use actual economic modeling to build out the figures for the losses attributable to malicious cyber activity," said Mike Fey, chief technology officer at McAfee.

"Other estimates have been bandied about for years, but no one has put any rigor behind the effort."

The report said the impact of cybercrime includes loss of intellectual property and confidential information; reduced trust for online activities; additional costs for security, insurance and recovery; and damage to reputations.

Lewis said the impact on business could translate into the loss of as many as 508,000 jobs in the United States, based on a government formula for the ratio of exports to US jobs.

"The raw numbers might tell just part of the story," he said.

"The effect of the net loss of jobs could be small, but if a good portion of these jobs were high-end manufacturing jobs that moved overseas because of intellectual property losses, the effect could be wide ranging." (AFP)

For the mobile Internet, tomorrow belongs to Asia

SINGAPORE: After five years of explosive growth sales of high-end smartphones have hit a plateau and the $2 trillion industry - telecom carriers, handset makers and content providers - is buckling up for a bumpier ride as growth shifts to emerging markets, primarily in Asia.

While carrier subsidies have helped drive sales of high-end devices in mature markets, the next growth chapter will be in emerging markets where cost-conscious users demand cheaper gadgets and cheaper access to cheaper services.

This year, the number of mobile Internet users in the developing world will overtake those in the developed world for the first time - growing 27 times since 2007, compared to the developed world's fourfold growth, according to estimates from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

"The center of gravity in the mobile ecosystem is likely to shift from the United States and Western Europe toward Asia," Mary Ellen Gordon, director at mobile advertiser Flurry Inc, said in an emailed interview.

That shift is a challenge to profit margins at the likes of Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics, which together sell half of the world's smartphones. Both companies announce quarterly results this week.

Samsung has indicated its second-quarter operating profit will fall short of estimates as demand for high-end smartphones slows. Apple is also exploring cheaper iPhone models that come in different colors to tap the mass segment, sources have said.

Neither faces any kind of crisis. But, industry experts say, many users in mature markets who want a smartphone already have one. European smartphone shipments grew 12 percent in January-March from a year ago, the slowest growth since IT research firm IDC started tracking the mobile market in 2004.

ASIA A DRIVING FORCE

Many of the new mobile users will be in Asia Pacific. The region will this year have more mobile Internet users than Europe and the Americas combined, the ITU predicts. And there's plenty of room to grow: fewer than 23 in 100 in Asia are mobile Internet users, versus 67 in Europe and 48 in the Americas.

"Asia will be the driving force of global growth for the next two decades," says Scott Lee, head of Asia at Appsnack, a division of U.S. based digital advertising company Exponential Interactive.

The catch: much of this growth will come from users of devices that are up to 10 times cheaper than those in the developed world. Cheaper components, easy and fast access to latest versions of Google Inc's Android operating system, reference designs from chipmakers and falling prices of the chipsets themselves are pushing this, says Frederick Wong, a portfolio manager at tech-focused eFusion Investment Ltd, who owns four smartphones.

China, the world's biggest mobile market - where only about a fifth of its 1 billion users are on 3G - has emerged as a fierce battleground for smartphones. Each niche has a different local challenger: Xiaomi, for example, offers phones which could be mistaken for iPhones at first glance, but which sell at less than half the price of an iPhone 5.

This presents problems for the bigger players.

"Our objective is to achieve a leadership position in the market," Lenovo Group Ltd CFO Wong Wai Ming told Reuters recently, "and therefore only being involved in a certain price range will not enable us to achieve that."

Even more cut-throat is India, the world's second largest mobile market, where the price of a low-end Android phone has halved in the past year to about $50, says Sameer Singh, Hyderabad-based analyst at BitChemy Ventures. By next year, he reckons prices will drop another $20, undercutting feature phones from Nokia and Samsung.

As the price points fall, more users will adopt smarter devices. Between now and 2017, eMarketer estimates China and India will account for more than 28 percent of new smartphone subscribers. India's share of the world's smartphone subscribers will triple.

MOVING AWAY FROM HIGH-BROW

This is already challenging existing players. Samsung, for one, is being squeezed at both ends of the market. While rivals at the lower end say it has cut prices on some models on a quarterly basis, others are challenging it at the high end with cheaper handsets with more or less the same specifications.

Indian handset maker Micromax, for example, this month released its Canvas 4 phone with features comparable to Samsung's Galaxy S3 and Note 2, but at up to half the price. "It's very hard for a company like Samsung to compete with these guys," noted Singh.

It's not just the prices of phones that are dropping. Tablet prices are actually falling at a faster rate creating across the region what Singh calls "a whole new category of Internet user."

Demand for tablets in the Philippines, for example, grew fourfold in the past year, according to consultancy GfK; prices across Southeast Asia during that period fell by a quarter.

Talmon Marco, CEO of Internet phone and messaging service Viber, says the shift from a standard phone to even the most basic device running operating systems like Android is like "moving from a great bicycle to an old leaking 1970s car. That car can still take you from New York to Chicago in a couple of days. The bicycle never will."

Whatever the quality of hardware or connection, a smartphone or tablet shares the same DNA - user interface, apps and access to an online store - which stimulates higher usage, Marco says.

"The spike in usage seems to happen when the user moves to a smartphone - any smartphone," he said. "These users are by far more active than users on a feature phone." Viber is seeing its fastest growth and highest usage in Vietnam, Pakistan, Myanmar and many African countries.

HOT APPS, ONLINE SHOWS

What's surprising those behind the services that ride on top of these networks is the speed of take-up - even if the networks aren't that good. In India, for example, 3G coverage is spotty and largely confined to bigger cities, said BitChemy's Singh.

When serial entrepreneur S. Mohan co-founded Bollywood streaming site Spuul in Singapore, for example, he expected India to be about five years behind the diaspora in more developed countries in using the service. "I was surprised by the timing in India," Mohan said. "I was told it would take longer to become aware about streaming, that there wouldn't be enough WiFi or 3G. But I found that if you have a smart device you were hungry for content."

In China, it's services like Tencent Holdings' chat platform WeChat, which has more than 300 million users, American Idol-like shows such as The Voice of China and games like online mahjong which are spurring demand.

But bottlenecks remain.

Poor network coverage or the high cost of 3G access relative to phone and SMS services still hold many users back. Last year, according to market research firm Euromonitor, 62 percent of all mobile phones sold in China were smartphones, but only 16 percent of subscribers had access to a mobile Internet connection.

The three carriers - China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom - typically dole out billions of dollars of handset subsidies to entice users to subscribe to their networks, dragging down profit margins.

Elsewhere, operators in the Philippines are experimenting with subsidies at the lower end, while in India the handset makers are trying to stimulate smartphone adoption. Apple offers installment plans for its iPhone, while Micromax bundles several free months of data together with a handset.

As the industry matures, phone and tablet makers will have to settle for smaller margins and lower prices, says Joe Nguyen, Singapore-based analyst at Internet metrics company comScore.

"At the end of the day these are utility devices much like the PC was." (Reuters

Google gets deeper into hardware with new tablet, TV gadget

SAN FRANCISCO: Google Inc on Wednesday showcased a new-generation, slimmer Nexus 7 tablet that the Internet search company hopes will expand its presence in consumer hardware, and ensure that its online services remain front-and-center on mobile devices.

The latest Nexus 7, featuring a Qualcomm Inc Snapdragon processor and a higher display resolution, on July 30 will be priced at $229 for a basic version with 16 gigabytes of storage. The original year-old tablet started at $199 for an 8 gigabyte version.

Sundar Pichai, head of Android and Chrome software, said on the sidelines of an event to launch the tablet that the Internet company would make a profit off the new product. The first-generation Nexus 7, which marked its initial foray into mobile electronics, was financially a break-even product for the company, analysts have said.

"The new Nexus 7 is designed so that it's profitable for all the people involved. Retailers, us, everyone included," Pichai told Reuters.

Also on Wednesday, Google revived an earlier attempt to get into online video streaming with the introduction of the "Chromecast" -- a two-inch $35 gadget that will plug into the back of televisions and let users stream YouTube and Netflix videos via their smartphones.

The announcements come a week before Google's Motorola division is expected to unveil the Moto X smartphone in New York. The Moto X represents the first phone Motorola has developed since it was acquired by Google for $12.5 billion in May 2012, and is central to relaunching the venerable brand into a highly competitive mobile market.

Google and other traditionally non-hardware companies such as Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp have begun making inroads into mobile devices as consumers increasingly access the Web on the go. It introduced its first tablet in June 2012, hoping to replicate its smartphone success in a hot market presently dominated by Amazon's Kindle Fire, Apple Inc's iPad.

Google, which gets the lion's share of its revenue from online and mobile advertising, wants the aggressively priced Nexus tablets to be a hit as more users would mean increased exposure for its ads.

Its Nexus line, which include smartphones and tablets made by partners like Samsung Electronics and HTC, also serve as references for manufacturers across the globe adopting its Android mobile software system.

THE NEXUS Q RETURNS?

On Wednesday, Pichai told reporters that, since its launch, the Nexus 7 line alone has accounted for greater than 10 percent of all Android tablets sold.

The company was on track to see 70 million total Android tablet activations in 2013, versus a pace of about 10 million at the end of 2012, he said.

Its new Chromecast gadget, however, will employ a stripped-down version of the Chrome operating system, now used primarily for laptop computers.

The device, which will be sold from Wednesday, invited comparisons to the short-lived "Nexus Q", which also promised to stream consumers' digital music and other content directly to their home entertainment systems. But Google indefinitely postponed the launch of the Q before it went on sale last year, following a spate of negative reviews.

Chromecast will allow users to employ their smartphones almost like remote controls, letting them play and control video applications without using a traditional remote.

"The Nexus Q was part of our effort to do the same thing. We didn't launch that, but a lot of learnings," Pichai told Reuters after the event. "Nexus Q was all about how you send content, so that was an inspiration for this." (Reuters)