Google’s new Plus
social networking service attracted more than 10 million users within a week of its public beta. That is a remarkable number of people signing up for an unfinished social network when the field of options is already quite crowded.
Why would so many people flock to Google+? The one thing almost everyone that I know references is privacy and control, or at least the hope that it might achieve that end — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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The Florida-based file-hosting service Hotfile intends to file a lawsuit against Warner Bros for abusing its anti-piracy tool. Hotfile claims that Warner Bros deleted files from the file-hosting service to which it didn’t hold the copyrights. In addition, the movie studio allegedly deleted files from Hotfile without verifying the contents — via redwolf.newsvine.com
If you’re like most people, you give yourself high ratings when it comes to figuring out when someone’s trying to con you. Problem is, most people aren’t actually good at it — at least as far as detecting fake positive consumer reviews.
Fortunately, technology is poised to make up for this all-too-human failing. Cornell University researchers have developed software that they say can detect fake reviews (PDF). The researchers tested the system with reviews of Chicago hotels. They pooled 400 truthful reviews with 400 deceptive reviews produced for the study, then trained their software to spot the difference.
The software got it right about 90 percent of the time. This is a big improvement over the average person, who can detect fake reviews only about 50 percent of the time, according to the researchers — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Delivering his keynote address at this week’s annual CA Expo in Sydney, former Google CIO Douglas C Merrill added to the growing belief that punishing and demonising file-sharers is a bad idea. Merrill, who after his Google stint joined EMI records, revealed that his profiling research at the label found that LimeWire pirates were iTunes’ biggest customers — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Remember the days of sitting in class, copying down what your teacher scribbled on the board? Now imagine the frustration you’d feel if you couldn’t see that board? Now imagine the frustration you’d feel if you couldn’t see that board. That’s the situation San Diego State University student Jeremy Poincenot found himself in almost three years ago after contracting an extremely rare disorder called Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy. As Poincenot shares in the above video, he’d lost his love for the college experience due to his inability to fully follow what was going on in class. That is, until he connected with Note-Taker, an assistive technology that helps low-vision and legally blind students take notes in class as quickly and effectively as their fully-sighted peers
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
As hard as it may be to believe, it was just over two years ago that Research in Motion was still considered one of the premiere innovators of the smartphone industry.
Oh sure, the iPhone was considered to be much cooler than RIM’s assorted BlackBerry devices, but it didn’t have the same corporate email capabilities, it was only on one carrier and there was only one model of it. And besides, Google’s Android operating system hadn’t really produced any hit devices yet, so where else could non-AT&T smartphone users go?
Needless to say a lot has changed in the past two years. In this timeline we’ll take a look at how RIM fell from its peak in the spring of 2009 to where it stands today — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Eftel is on the road to becoming a wholesale aggregator for National Broadband Network (NBN) services, today announcing that it has signed a deal to take part in mainland trials with Dodo as its first wholesale customer — via redwolf.newsvine.com
downrightnow monitors the status of your favourite web services, combining user reports and official announcements to tell you when there’s service trouble. You can help! File a report here or on Twitter to let others know when you’ve encountered a bug or outage.
A striking number of Google+ accounts have been deleted in the last 24 hours as the new social network struggles with its community standards policy around real names — alienating and frightening the people it aims to serve — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Stephen Conroy was in the news again, and as usual, the topic was internet censorship.
It seems that three of our biggest ISPs — Telstra, Optus and Primus — have decided to voluntarily filter material related to child sexual abuse. In a bit of black eye to Conroy, they’re using a list of sites provided by Interpol rather than by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, specifically citing legal issues regarding the authority of the ACMA.
Everyone involved was quick to say that this is not censorship, despite it meeting every part of the definition of the term, and Conroy tried hard to spin this as a victory for his policy, calling it an interim measure while certain issues regarding the jurisdiction of the ACMA were worked out, i.e. the fact that it doesn’t have the legal authority to do what Conroy wants it to, and that the government doesn’t want to try changing the laws when they can’t do it without the cross-benchers’ support.
The lies can be this blatant, because after all, who’s going to stand up and argue against measures aimed at preventing child abuse? — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Australia’s Scoopon founders and group buying millionaires, Gabby and Hezi Leibovich, have settled a prolonged legal battle with group buying giant Groupon.
Groupon took the duo to court last year, filing cases in the US, New Zealand and Australia, after discovering that not only did the Leibovich’s launch a Groupon clone with Scoopon in Australia. but also purchased the Groupon.com.au domain name, registered the company name Groupon Pty Ltd, and attempted to register the Groupon trademark in Australia — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Internode has released commercial pricing for its National Broadband Network (NBN) services, although the company has indicated that the prices could rise because of NBN Co’s flaws
in its pricing model.
All of the services that the internet service provider (ISP) is offering over the NBN will be bundled with a telephone service, with $10 included call credit a month.
The cheapest Internode plan, which plods along at 12Mbps/1Mbps, costs $59.95 per month for 30GB. 1TB at that speed costs $149.95 per month.
For those who want to get the best NBN speeds, 30GB at 100Mbps/40Mbps will cost $99.95 per month, and 1TB will cost $189.95 per month — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Pentagon is asking scientists to figure out how to detect and counter propaganda on social media networks in the aftermath of Arab uprisings driven by Twitter and Facebook.
The US military’s high-tech research arm, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, has put out a request for experts to look at a new science of social networks
that would attempt to get ahead of the curve of events unfolding on new media — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The nation’s attorneys-general will discuss whether laws should be introduced to allow parents access to their children’s Facebook accounts and social networking sites, allowing them to legally breach their privacy — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Twitter could potentially generate revenue from becoming an online marketplace in addition to advertising, its current money-maker, the chief executive of the company said.
Dick Costolo, speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Colorado, said that the company is still seeing explosive growth, with over 200 million registered Twitter users sending one billion tweets every five days — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Dangerous malware links in Google’s search results will bring up a warning as Google combats Search Engine Poisoning. Google hopes to help searchers update their antivirus software as Cisco Systems reports phishing attacks are getting more dangerous — and profitable. An analyst warned, however, that hackers could exploit Google’s warning — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Autocorrect and autocomplete can be very helpful and very funny features in iOS, but you can take control over both by adding your own custom words and terms to the dictionary. Here’s how to do it — via Lifehacker
But were the site’s users all criminals hell-bent on destroying the movie industry? According to a report from Telepolis, a recent study found the reverse was true.
The study, which was carried out by Society for Consumer Research (GfK), found that users of pirate sites including Kino.to did not fit the copyright lobby-painted stereotype of parasites who take and never give back.
In fact, the study also found that Internet users treat these services as a preview, a kind of try before you buy
.
This, the survey claims, leads pirate site users to buy more DVDs, visit the cinema more often and on average spend more than their honest
counterparts at the box office.
The users often buy a ticket to the expensive weekend-days,
the report note — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Hackers who broke into the News Corporation network and forced its British websites offline claim to have stolen sensitive data from the company including emails and usernames/passwords.
All of News Corporation’s British websites were taken offline today following an attack on the website of tabloid The Sun, which earlier today was redirecting to a fake story about Rupert Murdoch’s death — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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