China has now its own satellite navigation system called Beidou. Beidou is an alternative to Global Positioning System (GPS) and it is providing location, timing and navigation data. The purpose to the project that started at 2000 is to make China’s military independent from foreign technology, in this case US government’s GPS. Beidou has now ten satellites and another six will be added in 2012. Beidou currently covers China and surroundings, with this six additional satellites it will cover most Asia and by 2020 and with 35 satellites will have global coverage. Alternative systems are Russian Glonass and European Galileo. Beidou is compatible and interoperable with the other systems. The entire Beidou project will cost $25 billion by 2035.
Pentagon approves the use of Android by DoD officials
Pentagon has approved the use of Android by Department of Defense (DoD) officials. DoD officials can now use Android only version 2.2 and only on Dell hardware. Also, DoD employees will still use BlackBerry in addition with the Dell Venue that can now use. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has certified Android Dell Mobile Security and can be used on defence networks. Pentagon chose Android because it is open source and DoD tech guys can modify it to department’s needs. Another reason was the fact that Apple tracks iPhone users with the build-in GPS chips and apparently they don’t want that. This is a big Android win against Apple.
India orders internet companies to remove offensive to Indians content
According to a court in New Delhi, big Internet companies will have to remove all content that is offensive to Indians from their websites. All content must be removed by February 6 and report their progress on January. Companies ordered to purge themselves are Google, Facebook, Microsoft, YouTube and 21 more. Indian government is trying to monitor and control electronic information. Special units have already been set up to monitor social networking websites. They are mostly concerned about images, altered images of politicians and religiously sensitive images.
Iran government websites on local server
Most of Iran government websites, about 90 percent, are moved and are now hosted on local server instead of foreign-based hosting providers. Iranian officials said that data was at risk and could be accessed at any moment. With this move they will reduce the cyber attacks and prevent affections from malicious software. In my opinion, all government websites of every country should be hosted on local servers. Iran was forced to do that because a malicious software named Stuxnet affected several computers and centrifuges used in its nuclear programme. Iran launched a special police unit to fight cyber crime, both hackers and crime committed on social networking websites like Facebook.
An Android Backdoor without permissions
Thomas Cannon, a security expert have developed an app that can install a backdoor in Android smart phones. The app does not exploit any security holes and it does not require any permissions. The app is able to give a remote shell to an attacker and allow him to execute commands on the device. The attacker could be anywhere in the world and execute the commands remotely. The app is not an exploit, it uses Android as it was designed to work. The app in a clever way can establish a two-way communication channel and it works on all Android versions from 1.5 to 4.0 (Ice cream sandwich).
Clinical trials of HIV vaccine will start on January
Canadian researchers have created a vaccine and they believe that it can prevent HIV. They will start clinical trials on humans in January as it is approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Researchers can’t be sure if the vaccine works before the trials but they are positive. Even if it is, it will take about five years for the vaccine to go on the market. The SAV001 vaccine uses dead HIV-1 virus and it is altered genetically to be non-pathogenic. The number of people with HIV at the end of 2010 was 34 million according to the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS. The number is increasing year by year and this vaccine gives hope in both HIV-positive and HIV-negative people.
IBM predicts the near future with 5 in 5
IBM predicts five innovations that can change the world within five years. The following five predictions can transform the aspects of our lives and make earth a smarter planet. This year predictions are people power will come to life, you will never need a password again, mind reading is no longer science fiction, the digital device will cease to exist and junk mail will become priority mail. Those five innovations are this year’s predictions from IBM. Some of their predictions come true, including two of the last year 5 in 5. The one that I vote for is the first one, people power will come to life. This one will help us gather energy from everywhere and will result in a much greener place to live.
Microsoft wants the death of Internet Explorer 6
There are hundreds of articles and blog posts that mention the obvious, Internet Explorer 6 is the least secure web browser. People, through ignorance or not understanding the risks, still using this old and insecure web browser to surf the Internet. Microsoft is aware of that and it tries to make people understand the risks of using the decade old browser and the need to upgrade their web browser. This is the last year that Microsoft allows its users to use IE6 and in January it will force them to update it. XP users will be updated to IE8 and Vista users to IE9. There is a website that shows the countdown of Internet Explorer 6 usage which is now about 8.3%. The purpose of that site is to watch IE6 usage drop to 1%.
Someone gave $1.6 million for Apple’s founding contract
The founding contract for Apple Computer were signed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne on 1976. They signed the contract on April’s foolsday and I bet that at least one of you thought that they started this huge company as a prank. Apple’s contract was estimated to be sold for $150.000 at a Sotheby’s auction but everyone surprised when Eduardo Cisneros paid a total of $1.6 million to get that contract. The auction value is $1.3 million but if you add the taxes and auction house tags, the actual paid amount is $1.594.500. There are no many documents that can be valued that high, even that one was estimated much lower.
The life of Steve Jobs in an hour
Apple is one of the largest companies in the world and its founder, Steve Jobs, has passed away. This BBC documentary shows the life of Steve Jobs in an hour. The title of the documentary is “Steve Jobs – Billion Dollar Hippy”. No one could believe that a college dropout can manage to be a billionaire. Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, is telling stories of Apple and Steve Jobs. Some stories are very familiar to most of you but there are some stories you never heard. Some people think that Steve Jobs’ only company was Apple and this is not the truth, he also Founded NeXT and hi is the co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios. If you want to learn more about Steve Jobs and his life, you must see this BBC Documentary.