Asus Padfone mini 4.3

Asus Padfone mini 4.3 with quad-core Snapdragon 400, Android 4.3 launched

After much speculation, Asus' latest smartphone-tablet hybrid, the Padfone mini 4.3, is now official. Asus launched the Padfone mini 4.3 at an event in Taiwan. The device has been priced at 11,990 New Taiwanese dollars, which translates to roughly Rs. 25,000.
As of now, the Asus Padfone mini 4.3 will be available in Taiwan only, and there is no word on the availability of the latest Padfone in other regions. However, Engadget claims that the Padfone mini 4.3 is expected to be rolled out in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Russia, and Singapore.
The Asus Padfone mini 4.3, much like its predecessor the Padfone Infinity, comes with a tablet docking station, which in this case features a 7-inch HD (720x1280) Super IPS display. Like previous iterations, the smartphone fits into the tablet dock, powering the tablet with its hardware.
The Padfone mini 4.3 runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean out-of-the-box, and comes with dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) functionality, which makes it the first smartphone-tablet hybrid from Asus supporting dual-SIM.
It sports a 4.3-inch qHD (540x960) Super IPS display which boasts a pixel density of 256ppi. Internally, the Padfone mini 4.3 packs a 1.4GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 (MSM8226) processor along with 1GB of RAM. It sports an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and also includes a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. The Padfone mini 4.3 comes with 16GB inbuilt storage and can be expanded up to 64GB with the help of microSD card. Connectivity options on the Padfone mini include WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, AGPS, GLONASS and 3G.
The Asus Padfone mini 4.3 smartphone packs a 1500mAh battery, while the 7-inch tablet dock equips a 2200mAh battery. Interestingly, the smartphone can be charged by docking into the station. The Asus Padfone mini 4.3 will be available in Black, Pink and White colour variants.
In September, Asus launched the refreshed version of the Padfone Infinity.

Google opened its first ever data centres in Asia

Google has opened its first ever data centres in Asia as it looks to boost its growth further in the region.

The move comes as a growing number of people in Asia - which is home to more than half of the world's population - are getting connected to the internet.
Google said that having data centres in Asia will help it to provide faster and "more reliable" access to its tools and services to users in the region.
The two new centres are based in Taiwan and Singapore.
"The growth in Asia's Internet has been amazing," Joe Kava, vice president of data centres at Google, said in a blogpost.
"Between July and September of this year alone, more than 60 million people in Asia landed on the mobile internet for the first time. That's almost two Canadas, or three Australias.
"And this growth probably won't slow for some time, since the majority of people that have yet to come online also happen to live in Asia," he added.
The rapid speed at which internet users in the region have been growing, has turned Asia into a key market for internet firms.
China - Asia's largest economy - has more 500 million internet users, making its the world's biggest internet market.
Meanwhile, India - the world's second most populous country after China - has seen the number of users double to 200 million just in the last two years.
It took six years to achieve a similar growth in the US, according to Google.
The firm said it plans to invest $600m (£365m) in the long run in the Taiwan data centre - the bigger of the two facilities in the region.

Delhi High Court asks tax department to assess value of Nokia's Chennai plant

A court extended a hearing over local tax authorities' seizure of a Nokia factory by seeking information on the plant value, adding to concerns whether the company can transfer the property to Microsoft as part of the sale of its mobile phone business.
Nokia has offered to pay a 270 million euro deposit to authorities to unfreeze assets in a tax dispute, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The Finnish firm has been trying to free up the assets, particularly its Chennai factory which is one of its biggest phone-making plants, ahead of the sale of its mobile phone business to Microsoft.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the tax authorities to submit the value of the Chennai factory on Wednesday, when it is due to hear the case again, amid growing uncertainty about Nokia's exact tax liabilities in India.
A lawyer for the tax department said on Tuesday Nokia owed 78 billion rupees in tax payments.

The Times of India reported on Tuesday the tax department had informed the Delhi High Court that Nokia owned the authorities more than 210 billion rupees, which included penalty for a seven-year period beginning 2006.
The final sum of tax liabilities are not yet known. But in March, it was served with a tax demand of about 20.8 billion rupees for five fiscal years starting from 2006/07, according to a March 22 notice on the Delhi High Court website.
Nokia said it had not been served with any claim beyond that 20.8 billion rupee amount.
"In recent months we have seen and read about many claims from the tax authorities," the company said in a statement on Tuesday. "We feel they are without merit and will defend ourselves vigorously in court."
While Nokia has said it does not expect the dispute to affect its 5.4 billion euro deal with Microsoft, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014, a lengthy asset freeze could complicate matters by preventing the transfer of ownership in the Chennai plant.
Nokia has said it wanted the assets to be released by December 12.

Microsoft's Android royalty

Microsoft's Android royalty earnings under threat due to Linus Torvalds email

Microsoft's been enjoying some reportedly handsome royalty payments from Android device manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Acer and HTC, based on its patents. So far however, Google (through its Motorola Mobility subsidiary) has avoided paying a dime to Microsoft. A very recent ruling however, may just turn the tide back in Google's favour.

As noted by intellectual property expert Florian Mueller, a German court (the Federal Patent Court of Germany, BPatG) on Thursday said that elements distinguishing Microsoft's 'common name space for long and short filenames' FAT patent from prior art (which includes a Linus Torvalds email) did not satisfy the 'technicity' requirement under European patent law.

Mueller added that Microsoft will probably appeal this decision at the country's highest court, the Federal Court of Justice, BGH. According to Forbes' Tim Worstall, if upheld, the ruling has implications that are wider in reach than German jurisdiction, becoming applicable across the European Union. With the current unspoken aim to try and normalise patent rulings between Europe and the US, it could very well set the trend across the Atlantic as well.

This would mean that a large part of Microsoft's rather convenient royalty earnings from Android, at least those derived from the FAT patent, will cease to flow in to the Redmond giant's coffers - something Microsoft will obviously try to contest. According to an earlier report by analyst firm Nomura, Microsoft was estimated to be earning a cool $2 billion a year from Android royalty payments.

Microsoft officially doesn't break up the amount it receives in royalty payments in its records, but Worstall estimates based on the volume of sales of Android devices, it receives roughly the same amount in Android royalties as it does for its Windows Phone licences, if not more.

 

China hackers target European foreign ministries

Chinese hackers spied on the computers of five European foreign ministries over the summer, according to research from US security company FireEye.

The hackers sent emails with malware-ridden attachments purporting to detail a possible US intervention in Syria.
The company has not revealed which ministries were targeted but said the malware samples were meant for individuals involved in the G20 talks.
In total nine computers had been compromised, the company told the BBC.
Network reconnaissance The computers had been targeted in the run-up to the annual summit of the G20 group of nations - which includes China - in St Petersburg, Russia, in September, FireEye said. The talks were dominated by the civil war in Syria.
For a week in August, the researchers said, they had been able to monitor one of the 23 computer servers used by the hackers, which they have dubbed the Ke3chang group after the names of one of the files used in its malicious code.
During the week the malware had been observed in action, no documents had been stolen, they said.
"At that stage it appeared to be about network reconnaissance," senior FireEye researcher Narottama Villeneuve told the BBC.
Carla Bruni The Ke3chang group has been active since at least 2010, according to the researchers.
Traditionally it has targeted the aerospace, energy and manufacturing industries but they have also delivered malware to hi-tech companies and governments, according to FireEye.
In 2012 it used a London Olympics themed attack and a year earlier used emails purporting to show nude pictures of the then French president's wife, Carla Bruni, researchers said.
But in their latest attack "they appeared to be specifically targeting foreign ministries", Mr Villeneuve told the BBC.
"The hackers were based in China but it is difficult to determine from a technology point of view how or if it is connected to a nation state," he added.
Mr Villeneuve explained how he had gained entry to the hackers' server.
"When they shift infrastructure, the servers are open. I just happened to check the servers when they weren't secured," he said.
However the glimpse into the inner workings of the hackers' command and control centre was short-lived, lasting for just over a week.
Tensions between China and the West over cyber-espionage have been increasing in recent years.
In June the US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel accused Chinese hackers of accessing secret US weapons programmes.

"sympathise" button as an alternative to the "like" button developed by Facebook

Facebook has devised a "sympathise" button as an alternative to the "like" button for use in certain situations.

If a user selected a negative emotion from Facebook's list of feelings in a status update then the "like" button would change to "sympathise".
A Facebook engineer said at a company event that the button had been created as part of an internal project.
But he later went on to say there were no plans to launch it at the moment.
Facebook were holding a "compassion research day" where members of the public and researchers are invited along to "improve [Facebook's] understanding of the driving forces and benefits of compassion".
Hackathon In a question and answer session an audience member asked if Facebook had thought about changing the "like" button when it felt inappropriate in relation to what a user had posted, for example when someone had written that their parents had died.
Dan Muriello, a software engineer at Facebook, said another engineer had worked on a hackathon project "a while back" to change the "like" button to "sympathise".
It would not work for every post he said but if you tag a status with certain emotions from a fixed list then the "like" button would change.
"A lot of people were very excited. But we made a decision that it was not exactly the right time to launch that product. Yet," he said.
Facebook hackathons are events where the company's engineers get together and brainstorm new ideas.
Facebook Chat and the "friend suggester" facility both were developed from work at these events.