samazgor

Several months ago, Facebook acquired messaging startup WhatsApp for a whopping $16 billion, plus an additional $3 billion for its founders and small staff. On Tuesday, Facebook announced that in 2012 and 2013, WhatsApp lost a combined $192.8 million. (WhatsApp famously has no advertising, and its current revenue model is to make money off annual subscription fees.)

Facebook also disclosed for the first time how it arrived at that $16 billion purchasing figure: $15.3 billion of that was simply wrapped up in the nebulous accounting term: “goodwill.”

"We're the most atypical Silicon Valley company you'll come across," Brian Acton, a WhatsApp co-founder, told Wired UK in February. "We were founded by thirtysomethings; we focused on business sustainability and revenue rather than getting big fast; we've been incognito almost all the time; we're mobile first; and we're global first."

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Aurich Lawson

In our second day of the Ars UNITE virtual conference, we looked at just how broken cloud privacy is and asked what can be done to fix it. Response to our feature on the topic, “Taking back privacy in the post-Snowden cloud,” fell primarily into two camps: “Don’t use the cloud!” and “build your own!” (The latter which can be loosely translated as... “don’t use the cloud.")

It seems unlikely that Congress will act to fix the problems with cloud privacy, which include a gap between privacy laws in the US and other countries. That was a source of concern long before the Snowden revelations, and it predates the extra-territorial reach of US law enforcement and intelligence damaging trust in cloud privacy overseas. Long-time Arsian Kilroy240 expressed cynicism over any government involvement in a fix. “Other than minimizing cyber-theft (personal/corporate data, IP), what would the government gain by improving the security of the cloud?” the user wrote. “This would just make it harder for them to monitor data traffic—strictly because they are trying to ‘save us from the terrorists.”

Both in the feature comments and in the live discussion, we explored whether government could (and would) do anything to fix the cloud’s privacy and security problems—many of which government agencies created in the first place. Perhaps more importantly, what could be done absent their help?

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Plenty of Comcast and Verizon customers know just how bad Internet service was on major ISPs during the months-long battle over who should pay to deliver Netflix traffic.

But now we have more numbers on the performance declines, thanks to a new report from the Measurement Lab Consortium (M-Lab). M-Lab hosts measuring equipment at Internet exchange points to analyze connections between network operators and has more than five years' worth of measurements. A report released today examines connections between consumer Internet service providers ("Access ISPs" in M-Lab parlance) and backbone operators ("Transit ISPs"), including the ones that sent traffic from Netflix to ISPs while the money fights were still going on.

Netflix eventually agreed to pay Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and AT&T for direct connections to their networks, but until that happened there was severe degradation in links carrying traffic from Netflix and many other Web services to consumers. Connections were particularly bad between ISPs and Cogent, one of the backbone operators that Netflix paid to carry its traffic.

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Verizon and Motorola have always had a close relationship. The smartphones in Motorola's Droid line are typically exclusive to the carrier, and they helped make Verizon a heavy supporter of Android devices during a time where AT&T was the exclusive US carrier for the iPhone. Today's announcement is no exception. The Droid Turbo is a Verizon exclusive smartphone made by Motorola, and seemingly their most powerful. Its biggest selling point is its battery life, but before getting into specifics I've given an overview by laying out all the specifications in the chart below. 

  Motorola Droid Turbo Motorola Moto X (2014) SoC APQ8084 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805 with 4 x Krait 450 + Adreno 420 MSM8974 2.5 GHz Snapdragon 801 with 4 x Krait 400 + Adreno 330 RAM/NAND 3 GB LPDDR3, 32/64GB NAND 2GB LPDDR3, 16/32GB NAND Display 5.2” 2560x1440 AMOLED at 565ppi 5.2” 1080p Super AMOLED Network 2G / 3G / 4G LTE Listed as Category 4 2G / 3G / 4G LTE Listed as Category 4 Dimensions 143.5 x 73.3 x 11.2 mm, 176 grams (Black Nylon)
143.5 x 73.3 x 10.6mm, 169g (Metallic Red/Black) 140.8 x 72.4 x 3.8-9.9 mm, 144 grams Camera 21MP (5248x3936) Rear Camera with F/2.0 aperture, 2MP Front Camera 13MP Rear Facing, 1/3.06" CMOS size (Sony IMX135), 2.1MP FFC Battery 3900 mAh 2300 mAh, 3.8V, 8.74 Whr OS Android 4.4.4 KitKat Android 4.4.4 KitKat Connectivity 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, DLNA, NFC 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, DLNA, NFC SIM Size NanoSIM NanoSIM

It's interesting that this is a Verizon exclusive device, as it has significantly better specifications than the Moto X which is Motorola's current widely available flagship. Like many of the other recently released flagship phones, the Droid Turbo uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 805 with four Krait 450 cores at 2.7GHz and 3GB of LPDDR3 memory. The front of the device sports a 2560x1440 AMOLED display, which is also quickly becoming the norm for Android flagship smartphones. Above it is a 2MP front-facing camera capable of recording 1080p video, and below it lies three capacitive navigation buttons which is a departure from the on-screen buttons that Motorola has been using on their other devices for some time now.

The back of the device is home to the 21MP rear-facing camera which Motorola states is capable of recording 4K video at 24fps, with 1080p recording still topping out at 30fps. The design of the back is somewhat similar to the Moto X and Moto G, but it appears to be far less curvy. There's a great deal of branding, with a logo for Verizon, the Droid brand, and Motorola's. Even without those, it's would still be clear to anyone familiar with Motorola's style of hardware design that this is a Motorola device. The curved back, centered camera, and crosshatch pattern on the back are all reminiscent of past and current Motorola phones. However, there is no lip at the top for the 3.5mm headphone jack like on Motorola's other current devices.

The big point of differentiation is the battery capacity. Motorola has not stated the voltage of the battery, but states that it has a 3900mAh capacity and claims it will last up to 48 hours of usage. While there is always some degree of variance from a manufacturer's claims based on how a user uses their device, if the Droid Turbo approaches anywhere close to that claim in battery testing it will be very far ahead of competing smartphones with regards to battery life. 

One possible issue I noticed with Motorola's listed specifications is in the network section which classifies the device as supporting category 4 LTE. This may be referring to Verizon's network certification, but the Droid Turbo should be rated for category 6 LTE.

The Droid Turbo will come with two choices of materials. There is a metallic finish which comes in black or red, and is the lighter and thinner of the two variants. These will all have a 32GB capacity. The 64GB version will only be available in the Nylon Ballistic Black finish which is slightly thicker and heavier. It will be launching this Thursday for $199 and $249 for the 32GB and 64GB variants respectively on a two year term. 

"His eyes seem to follow me wherever I go." Vatican

Pope Francis took a stroll yesterday from the Vatican guest house apartment where he lives over to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences to unveil a bust of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The bust itself is rather Teutonically foreboding, but the most interesting bit of the unveiling came when Francis made a short speech to assembled members of the Academy. Though only a few paragraphs long (and currently available only in Italian; the translation below is unofficial), Francis's remarks focused largely on evolution—still a controversial doctrine in parts of the worldwide Christian church.

"When we read in Genesis the account of Creation, we are in danger of imagining that God was a magician, complete with a magic wand capable of doing anything," Francis said. "But he was not. He created beings and let them develop in accordance with the internal laws that He has given to each one."

He went on:

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One of the important consequences of Microsoft's new approach to updating Windows is that the company can deliver iterative, incremental improvements. This process has started already with the Windows 10 Technical Preview, and today at TechEd Europe in Barcelona, the company showed a few more small changes that will be coming soon.

Two improvements were demonstrated, and, in keeping with past work on Windows 10, they were designed to make the desktop experience better. The Aero Snap feature introduced in Windows 7 that enables side-by-side docking of desktop windows is being made better on multi-monitor systems.

In Windows 7 and 8, dragging windows with the mouse only supports snapping at the extreme screen edges; the internal edges between monitors don't "catch" the dragged windows (though the keyboard shortcuts can still be used to snap on all monitors). In Windows 10, snapping with the mouse will work on every monitor, making it much easier to snap on multimonitor systems.

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Adobe cares not for bullies, and on Tuesday, the company finally called out GamerGate participants for bullying.

On Tuesday, software maker Adobe took to its official blog to respond to a week-old brouhaha involving GamerGate, ultimately distancing itself from "bullying" associated with the anonymous hashtag.

One week ago, a post from the company's official Twitter feed launched Adobe into the GamerGate maelstrom, and today's post came "because it appears that our silence is causing more harm than good," Adobe wrote.

The post explained that Adobe had recently requested its logo be removed from an "advertisers" page at the Gawker media network. That fact had been perceived as a victory by apparent GamerGate supporters who'd asked companies to pull their ads from sites and magazines they had decried (known as "Operation Silent Nod"), including Gawker, whose editor Sam Biddle had posted tweets that had mentioned bullying. While Adobe's Tuesday post appeared to deny such a connection, it also mentioned last week's official (and unclear) tweet about the advertising issue.

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A compliant stream. imaqtpie

Streaming site Twitch is taking a hard line against users whose feeds include "sexually suggestive" outfits, according to the rules of conduct changes that posted Monday. "Nerds are sexy, and you're all magnificent, beautiful creatures, but let's try and keep this about the games, shall we?" reads the update.

Twitch states that gamers who stream themselves in no clothing, or sexually suggestive clothing including but not limited to underwear, lingerie, swimsuits, or pasties "will most likely get… suspended." Since the policy was implemented, Twitch has already banned one performer, according to Gamerheadlines: Rooster Teeth representative Meg Turney, who is "known for her high quality cosplay and saucy lingerie photos alongside excellent journalism for Rooster Teeth’s news show ‘The Know.’"

Twitch clarifies that even players who try to claim skimpy outfits or shirtlessness is due to the weather will still get banned. "If it's unbearably hot where you are, and you happen to have your shirt off (gents) or a bikini top (ladies), then just crop the webcam to your face," the company wrote. "If your lighting is hot, get fluorescent bulbs to reduce the heat. Xbox One Kinect doesn't zoom? Move it closer to you, or turn it off. There is always a workaround."

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Residents of a Hawaiian village threatened by lava have begun evacuating as the flow reaches the first property in its path.

This summer's news that deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was suing Call of Duty: Black Ops II maker Activision for inappropriate use of his likeness has the making of a nuisance lawsuit without much merit. A Los Angeles judge agreed with that assessment today, ruling that Noriega's lawsuit be dismissed with prejudice.

In his ruling [PDF], Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William H. Fahey noted that "Noriega's right of publicity is outweighed by defendants' First Amendment right to free expression." Fahey said Activision proved conclusively that Noriega was already known as a "notorious public figure," and that Noriega "failed to provide any evidence of harm to his reputation. Indeed, given the world-wide reporting of his actions in the 1980s and early 1990s, it is hard to imagine that any such evidence exists."

The ruling leaned heavily on reasoning laid out in a 2010 case brought against Activision by the band No Doubt, in which the group complained that its image was used in inappropriate ways in Guitar Hero. Unlike that case, here Fahey found that Activision's use of Noriega's likeness was "transformative," constituting "caricature, parody, and satire" that did not make up "the very sum and substance" of the work.

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Thirty years ago, India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was murdered in her garden. One of her aides saw everything.

YoungToymaker

In 2007, the FBI wrote a fake news story about bomb threats in Thurston County, Washington, and then sent out e-mail links "in the style of the Seattle Times."

The details have now been published by that very same newspaper, which today carries a story including outraged quotes from a Seattle Times editor. The FBI put an Associated Press byline on the fake news story, which was about the bomb threats in Thurston County that they were investigating.

“We are outraged that the FBI, with the apparent assistance of the US Attorney’s Office, misappropriated the name of The Seattle Times to secretly install spyware on the computer of a crime suspect,” said Seattle Times editor Kathy Best. "Not only does that cross a line, it erases it."

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We recently got to speak to some executives from the Android team about the upcoming Nexus 6, 9, and Android 5.0, Lollipop. We turned out a hands-on article and an interview post from the meeting, but some people wanted a transcript of the interview. So here you go!

This is the mostly raw transcript from our conversation with Google. We skipped the hands-on discussion because without the context of the device in front of you, it's not very useful. The conversation is with Dave Burke, VP of engineering for the Android platform and Nexus devices, Brian Rakowski, VP of product management, and Gabe Cohen, the Android team's group product manager.

Again, we've curated the important parts in this article, and this is just for people who want to dig through the whole interview. Enjoy!

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Two iPad Air 2 models posed perpendicularly, if you're asking. Sam Machkovech

Apple has trained us pretty well about what to expect from alternating years of iDevice launches. The year of the Big Upgrade is routinely followed by the year of an extra letter tacked to the end of the name.

Traditionally, Apple devotes its so-called "off" years to smoothing out prior iPhone or iPad issues while introducing respectable speed and spec boosts, even the occasional cool new feature. While we know better than to expect tablet revelations on an annual basis, now is a bad time for Apple to hit the snooze button. iPad sales are flattening, tablet/phablet competition is growing, and there's a looming sense—one we already had last year—of wonder on the device itself, of where, exactly, the default iPad form factor fits into our personal device portfolio.

It's good that in the face of all that, the iPad Air 2 really isn't a standard off-year release. It barely bends the external mold of its 2013 Air sibling, sharing most of the same dimensions and screen attributes, but it also takes the processing power and spec sheet we were happy to pay $500-plus for last year and jacks them up significantly. On top of everything, Apple reduces device thickness and weight even further for its latest iPad (and the company even improves the rear-facing camera, too).

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A young girl who escaped North Korea has spoken to the BBC about the violence and starvation she experienced when she lived there.

The Barents and Kara Seas, along with some of their ice. NASA

The cold winters in recent years have led some people to question the reality of climate change. But the winters have come at times where the global temperature was at or near record highs—so the issue was how the cold was distributed around the globe as much as anything else.

At the same time, there have been some suggestive hints that climate change may be influencing that distribution, at least indirectly, through the loss of Arctic sea ice. The idea was very preliminary, however, and it was difficult to get data that conclusively supported it. Now, a group of Japanese researchers found evidence that the loss of sea ice makes cold winters in Eurasia twice as likely as they would be otherwise.

The challenge of attributing cold winters to the loss of sea ice is that both of these phenomena show strong year-to-year variability. Thus, in order to tease out a correlation, you need long-term data on both. But we've only had accurate satellite measurements of sea ice since about 1980. If there is a connection between the two, it should show up in climate models if they're fed sea ice conditions that match those of the present. But climate models show strong variability in the winter weather they generate, which again makes determining any correlations very difficult.

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A hairdresser in Egypt says she is proving people in Egypt who think a woman who works as a hairdresser is not decent wrong.

Mike Mozart

The Federal Trade Commission has sued AT&T for promising unlimited data to wireless customers and then throttling their speeds by as much as 90 percent, the FTC announced Tuesday.

All major carriers throttle certain customers during times and places of congestion, as we've reported previously. AT&T seems to have earned the FTC's wrath by throttling customers regardless of whether they were trying to use their phones in congested areas, however. As we've also written, AT&T was throttling unlimited subscribers regardless of network conditions until July, when it changed its policy. Throttling was enforced once users hit 3GB or 5GB of data per month. AT&T still throttles customers but now says it only does so in congested areas.

The FTC's lawsuit in US District Court in San Francisco alleges that AT&T hit unlimited data customers with an "unfair mobile data throttling program" and that AT&T committed a "deceptive failure to disclose [the] mobile data throttling program."

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Public cloud services have become critical to much of our digital lives, but the privacy and security of these services has always been suspect. And today, the Snowden leaks and the revelations of NSA and GCHQ spying on cloud services have created a backlash internationally for US cloud providers.

How big of a concern is the privacy of the public cloud? And what can we do to make it more privacy-friendly and secure? Join us today at 2:30pm ET for a live discussion on those questions and others regarding the future of cloud computing.

Joining us for the live conversation will be:

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A new report was published today noting a drop-off in recent patent lawsuits. The data released by Unified Patents is the second recent indication that there may be a decline in suits following this summer's US Supreme Court decisions.

The Unified Patents data shows that the third quarter of 2014 saw 23 percent fewer patent cases overall. When looking only at litigation from patent trolls, which Unified calls "non-practicing entities" or NPEs, one sees a 35 percent drop.

Unified Patents

As with the earlier Lex Machina data, it's too early to determine the decline is necessarily tied to the Alice v. CLS Bank decision from this summer. In that decision, the US Supreme Court said that "do it on a computer"-style patents should be knocked out as too "abstract" for patenting.

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