globalnews

Thursday, 24 April 2014

Twitter: we don’t withhold content at a request

(Photo: AP)

By: Salma Tantawi

Twitter’s official account for global public policy announced via a series of tweets on Saturday that it does not withhold any content based on a mere request from a governmental official. This comes following controversies in Turkey over the suspension of three accounts which Turkish courts had ruled were in violation of the country's laws.

The social network states in its country withheld content policy that “Many countries, including the United States, have laws that may apply to Tweets and/or Twitter account content. In our continuing effort to make our services available to users everywhere, if we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity, it may be necessary to reactively withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time.” An authorized entity here means an official court rule, not just an official request.

Making some content country-withheld means that users living within a certain country will not be able to see such content. Even though the block can be bypassed by users, the action is usually taken based on an order to officially make certain twitter users profiles inaccessible.

Wednesday, 23 April 2014

Meet The First Gamer To Actually Finish 'World Of Warcraft'

Хирукo/Battle.net

Wonder what it takes to “finish” World of Warcraft? Look no further than Russian player Хируко, who has become the first to accomplish all 2,057 current achievements and earn all 21,995 achievement points in the massively multiplayer online game.

While other players have “beat” WoW before, he’s the only one to complete the game with all the recently released content such as the Mists of Pandaria expansion.

Хирукo/Battle.net

According to Kotaku, Хируко apparently also received a lot of Realm Firsts and maxed every class first on his server in a way that might upset some players. He achieved this by transferring to low population realms with his guildmates who killed other people in an effort to reach 90 as he played on several accounts at once. This won’t work again though, since Blizzard has announced Realm Firsts will be removed with the next expansion Warlords of Draenor.

Until that next expansion arrives with its new achievements, Хируко doesn’t have much to do in WoW except maybe take a break to smell the virtual flowers. According to the WoWProgress leaderboards though, the closest person to Хируко at the moment has 21,985 achievement points, so while he’s relaxing, other players still have time to catch up. What are you waiting for?

The Only Thing I Know About Apple TV Is There Are Some Amazing Engineers Working On Apple TV'

Two of the most influential, and plugged-in Apple writers in the world spoke for almost two hours on a podcast.

Mark Gurman, senior editor at 9to5Mac, was on John Gruber's podcast. Gruber writes the widely read Apple-focused blog, Daring Fireball. Gurman, meanwhile, has broken nearly every single major Apple story in the past twelve months.

They didn't spill many new details about Apple during the podcast, but there was one interesting nugget on the Apple TV.

Gurman said, "I know an Apple TV was planned for the first half of 2014," but it hasn't happened. Perhaps it was delayed, or pushed back. But with Tim Cook saying that Apple had new products planned across 2014, Gurman said, "something had to go wrong."

Gruber responded saying, "I wonder... maybe something slipped," or maybe Apple has something planned for WWDC, Apple's developer conference. They both thought that maybe Apple would introduce a new Apple TV at WWDC, but they were merely guessing, not reporting that they knew about an Apple TV coming.

Then, Gruber said, "The only thing I know about Apple TV is I know there are some amazing engineers working on Apple TV. Like, the type of engineers who there's no way that they're working on the Apple TV as we know it, the simple little up, down, right select thing. That there are some really good people on it."

He added, "whether it's coming this year or later, I don't know."

This isn't exactly earth shattering news, but it's another thing to add to the files on Apple TV. Clearly, Apple is trying to develop something new in the TV market and it has some of its best people working on it.

7 Questions Mark Zuckerberg Must Answer On Facebook's Earnings Call Tonight

It has been a huge quarter for Facebook. In the last three (fiscal) months the company has bought messaging app WhatsApp for $19 billion and virtual reality headset maker Oculus VR for $2 billion. It has opened the door for video advertisers, and begun carving out its messaging business into a separate app, Messenger. Lastly, the company has begun rolling out an off-Facebook advertising network.

At the same time, Zuckerberg has begun to outline his vision for the future of Facebook, "unbundling the big blue app."

But high drama isn't the same as good business, and Zuckerberg ought to answer these questions on his call with Wall Street tonight:

1. How much cash do you have left?

There have been two big deals totaling a value of $21 billion since the last call. But there was only $3.3 billion in cash on the balance sheet at the end of last year. The cash portion of the WhatsApp and Oculus deals totals a possible $4.7 billion. Facebook almost certainly doesn't have a liquidity problem, but nonetheless, the spending has been dramatic and investors need to see the cash management plan. Will it restrict Facebook's use of cash in the future?

2. How much is WhatsApp going to cost before it starts generating revenue?

Zuckerberg has been a hands-off acquirer, in the sense that he prefers to let acquisitions grow their user bases and perfect their products before they need to generate sales. WhatsApp has no intention of selling advertising in the next several years, its CEO has said. But that luxury won't last forever. Some guidance on whether WhatsApp — and its 500 million users — will be profitable or a sinkhole is appropriate.

3. Why have we not seen any video ads yet?

Autoplay video in the Facebook news feed is potentially one of the biggest needle-movers for Facebook revenue. Yet their launch has been delayed for nearly a whole year. What the heck, Facebook?

4. Do you actually know what you are doing with Oculus?

Until recently, Facebook's acquisitions had all been obvious fits with the existing company. When it acquired social location app Glancee, for instance, it turned into Nearby Friends, a newly launched location feature. Oculus, however, is a hardware product not a software product. It's a gaming device not a social device. And it's on a platform that does not link with Facebook. Of course, it's an impressive product that blows away anyone who experiences it. But being a good manager of a social network is not the same thing as being a good manager of a virtual reality platform. What's the plan for Oculus, and does it make sense?

5. How successful are the ads on Instagram?

Instagram hit 200 million users and is threatening to eclipse Twitter any day now. But we hardly see any ads on Instagram. That's great for users but lousy for EPS. Does this product show any signs of financial life?

6. Does the Messenger plan make any sense at all?

As far as we can tell, the Messenger app competes head to head with WhatsApp. If Messenger is successful, it might cannibalize WhatsApp. Currently, Facebook is forcing users to use Messenger by ending the message feature inside Facebook if they have the Messenger app. The ultimate goal is to make Messenger a standalone message platform outside Facebook. This sounds duplicative of WhatsApp at best, and competitive at worst. We need reassurance here.

7. How much is Internet.org going to cost?

Zuckerberg has said that to get the users Facebook needs to grow in the future, Facebook and its wireless carriers must connect the world, free of charge. This won't be cheap. It would be nice to see some numbers applied to the pipe dreams about drones, lasers and satellites.

IT'S APPLE EARNINGS DAY: Here's What Analysts Are Expecting

Getty Images/Justin Sullivan

Apple reports earnings Wednesday afternoon after the market closes.

We'll have full coverage of the results as soon as they're out.

Here, via Bloomberg, are what analysts are looking for:

Revenue: $43.6 billion
EPS: $10.16
iPhones: 37.7 million units
iPhone average selling price (ASP): $610
iPads: 19.7 million units
iPad ASP: $430
Macs: 4.03 million units
iPods: 2.99 million units
Gross Margin: 37.7%
Q3 revenue guidance: $38.1 billion

People (including ourselves) are getting impatient with Apple and Tim Cook. Apple's revenue growth has cratered and is now expected to be flat compared to a year-ago's sales.

Here are some big topics we expect to be addressed on the earnings call:

What happened to releasing new products? Apple hasn't released any new products this year. This is a bit of a surprise because a year ago Cook said new products would be delivered at the end of 2013 and all across 2014. Now, it looks like Apple is simply planning to release new products in the back half of the year.
How is China Mobile doing? The biggest move from Apple this year is the release of the iPhone on China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier. However, analysts have suggested that sales at China Mobile have been slow because China Mobile is still rolling out its 4G network, and because people are waiting for a bigger phone at the end of the year.
What's up with the iPad? It is expected to be flat on a year-over-year basis. Why has growth disappeared from the iPad so quickly and what can Apple do to change that?
When is Angela Ahrendts starting at Apple? She was hired to be Apple's retail chief last October, but has yet to start. When will she take over, and what can she do with Apple's retail operations?

One other thing to watch for: An update on Apple's dividend and buyback program. People are expecting it to be moderately increased.

It should be fun as always. We'll have everything as soon as it happens, so tune in at 4 PM!

British Criminals Are Using Drones To Steal Marijuana

The latest killer application for drone use seems to be in marijuana reconnaissance, reports ITPortal.

Criminal gangs in the UK's rural Shropshire County are reportedly using flying robots equipped with infrared cameras to spot hidden marijuana growing operations from the sky, then blackmailing the growers or downright stealing their crop from the house.

In the past, law enforcement has similarly used abnormal infrared heat signatures as a means of prosecuting marijuana cultivators, but these means are being used to a different end by criminal elements in search of drugs or money.

One of these fly-by-night marijuana thieves spoke to a local paper about what he does: "[Pot farms] are fair game. It is not like I'm using my drone to see if people have nice televisions. I am just after drugs to steal and sell. If you break the law then you enter me and my drone's world."

Drones are only getting more affordable and their use more widespread. The Pocket Drone, a Kickstarter project that successfully raised nearly a million dollars to bring small, affordable drones to the market, offers customers almost everything they need to get flying for $446.

Tom Watson, Shropshire area MP and chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drones, said, "It is no surprise enterprising criminals would want to get the upper hand in the criminal underworld by using drones

TV channel under pressure from military

ISLAMABAD- Pakistan's Defence Ministry has demanded that a prominent news channel be suspended after it reported that the country's powerful spy agency was behind the shooting of one of Pakistan's most famous journalists, a media regulator said today.

Hamid Mir, a veteran talk-show presenter, survived the attack after unidentified gunmen shot him multiple times in Karachi on Saturday. The channel repeatedly accused the military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency of being behind the shooting. The military has denied the accusation. Pakistan's electronic media watchdog said it had received a complaint from the Defence Ministry demanding the channel's license be suspended.

"Of course we are aware of the gravity of this issue and so the complaint is being dealt with at the highest level," said Fakhruddin Mughal, a spokesman for the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority.

"Rest assured, we are a neutral regulator and no matter who the complaint is from and who it is against, we will deal with the matter only as per the law and not under pressure from any organization or individual."

The shooting of a journalist anchoring Pakistan's top political news talk show has sent a chill through the journalistic community weeks after television anchor Raza Rumi was attacked in the city of Lahore. Rumi survived but his driver was shot dead.

Although Pakistani media have become increasingly vibrant in recent years, with stories exposing corruption or injustices appearing frequently on the pages of the country's many dailies, public criticism of the army or the ISI is largely a taboo