Google admitted that the company had mistakenly not deleted all of the data it collected from users throughout the UK, and as a result it breached an agreement to delete all the data by December 2010. The data may include emails and passwords that were collected through unencrypted WiFi networks from its Street View cars in cities all around the world in 2010.
Cash-strapped Finnish cellphone maker Nokia has decided to close its Salo handset factory plant in Finland as part of its restructuring effort that was announced by the company in June. The news comes right after we heard that Nokia was dropping its Meltemi platform project in an effort to cut costs, and also right after stating plans to lay off 3,700 employees in Finland and 10,000 employees worldwide.
The Total Recall Game just launched on Android and iOS to mark the upcoming feature film based on a remake of the 1990 movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger. The new movie is expected to have a different plot compared to the original, and the first-person shooter game will follow the same storyline as the remake.
Earlier this week we mentioned rumors of Facebook and HTC were reportedly working on a smartphone to debut sometime next year. Neither Facebook nor HTC confirmed it, and now we’re hearing that Mark Zuckerberg himself stated on Thursday’s earnings call that there’s actually no existence of a Facebook phone. He said it wouldn't make any sense for the company to launch its own smartphone.
Back in April, Samsung had revealed three of its new WiFi-enabled digital cameras, and now the cheapest of of the three—the Samsung NX1000—is finally now available to purchase. The budget-friendly, entry-level kit is complete with professional image quality and WiFi connectivity through the dedicated Smart Link Hot Key on the top of the camera. Of the three WiFi models that will be available, the NX1000 is the least expensive and most compact mirrorless camera.
Rovio recently gave us a big hint on the Angry Birds Facebook page that a level editor could be coming soon to the game. The Facebook post showed an image of a green pig with building blocks surrounding it, and the pig having thought bubbles illustrating how the blocks might be put together. The new rumor comes just a few weeks after reports surfaced of a new version of Angry Birds that would let users change sides and play as the green pigs.
The race is on between Apple and Google for best maps or realistic view solution, and today Google beat Apple to it with its new 3D city flyover features available now on iOS. Users should notice the Google Earth app on iTunes has been updated to version 7.0.0. The features were originally shown off at Google I/O before rolling out on Android late last month, and now iOS users will be able to see the same 14 regions including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Geneva, Rome and others.
Facebook is widening its “bug bounty” program, which was introduced last year as a way to reward researchers who find flaws in its public-facing systems. Now, the company is taking it a step further and offering to reward those able to spot and report holes in Facebook’s corporate network as well. According to a report from Bloomberg, Facebook security response chief Ryan McGeehan said: “If there’s a million-dollar bug, we will pay it out.”
Nokia has dropped the software project it had been working on that would be designed to compete with Google Android smartphones, according to Reuters. There had also been reports last month that Nokia was axing the Linux-based OS called Meltemi, and today Reuters’ sources say that the platform has been scrapped entirely as part of the company’s cost-cutting strategy, which involved 10,000 layoffs of Nokia employees.
Marketing agency Razorfish has taken the idea of a regular gumball machine and transformed it into an NFC-enabled prototype that takes quarters and spits out digital content for smartphones instead of gum. Once you’ve inserted the coins and twist the handle, you can hold your smartphone where the gumball chute is supposed to be to have that digital content delivered to your device.
Well, RIM really just can’t catch a break these days. The latest setback for the struggling company involves The New York Times’ decision to completely eliminate its downloadable BlackBerry application. A spokeswoman for the newspaper said that the decision to get rid of it really came down to app usage, and that the company wanted to direct its resources to where the highest levels of usage are found.
A robotic Russian cargo ship, Progress 47, was scheduled to dock at the International Space Station earlier this week, but failed to do so in testing its new automated docking system. The malfunction was not deemed as any major setback considering it had already docked so that it could unload supplies. The unmanned ship had separated from the orbiting laboratory and then tried to dock again with the new autopilot, which features smaller hardware components and was designed for better accuracy.
