China isn’t in a huge hurry get its own 4G network up and running, instead wanting to ensure the infrastructure is primed and enough compatible handsets are available before it launches. According to the head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Miao Wei, the country needs plenty more base stations — beyond the existing 220,000 TD-SCDMA bases and closer to 400,000 — before the government starts offering 4G licenses. China Mobile, the country’s largest mobile network, already plans to have over 20,000 TD-LTE base stations in operation by the end of this year, stepping up to 200,000 by the end of next year. This particular type of LTE hasn’t quite set the world on fire just yet — only two operators have launched TD-LTE services and a genuine handset for the network remains absent. Upgrading existing 3G stations is likely to take around three years, according to the official. At least it gives ZTE more time to get the MT73 readied for ICS — or perhaps Android 5.0.

SOURCE via PC World

A German government committee is proposing changes that could force search engines operating in the country to pay for using news excerpts. The plans involve setting up a department to charge royalties from sites that aggregate news feeds, and covers them for 12-months from date of publish. This isn’t the first country to attempt to protect publishers’ material, with the Newspaper Licensing Agency in the UK also performing a similar role. Before you hide your news blog from German eyes, the ruling will only affect commercial outfits.

Germany’s publishing executives have been pushing for such a move since a case in Belgium that saw Google News forced to stop excerpting articles. Unsurprisingly there is strong support from the industry, with 149 execs from the country already having petitioned the government with a “Hamburg Declaration on Intellectual Property Rights” proposal in 2009, and both the German Federation of Newspaper Publishers and Association of German Magazine Publishers also campaigning for change. Now that the committee has laid down clear plans, it remains to be seen if or how they will be implemented, but with the nation’s track record for pulling no punches where technology is concerned, search engines might have to prepare for a rapid change in policy.

SOURCE via Paid Content

We’re still waiting to see where HP goes with webOS, but according to the New York Times it will officially launch a cloud computing service that competes with Amazon Web Services in the next couple of months. HP Senior VP and General Manager Zorawar Singh is quoted saying the currently in beta service projects as an alternative to what Amazon has built with a focus on personalized sales and service and additional tools for third party developers, as well as a system of small data centers around the world. Throw in analytics based on technology it’s obtained by purchasing Vertica and Autonomy, and maybe Meg Whitman’s ship has something here, but we’ll wait until the next Netflix is running its operations from this cloud before declaring it on the same level.

SOURCE via New York Times

Scientists also believe they have detected a 9-year cycle for Arctic ice, in which sea ice extent grows for a few years, and then shrinks until the cycle starts again.

Joey Comiso, senior scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland found that the Arctic multi-year ice – ice that survives for several years – is shrinking by about 17.2 percent per decade. Multi-year ice extent, which is defined as areas of the Arctic Ocean where multi-year ice covers at least 15 percent of the ocean surface, is declining by 15.1 percent per decade. The perennial ice area – ice that survives at least one summer – is retreating by 13.5 percent with the extent pulling back by 12.2 percent. The research noted that sea ice area is always larger than the extent, which highlights the dramatic decline of sea ice core.

“The average thickness of the Arctic sea ice cover is declining because it is rapidly losing its thick component, the multi-year ice,” Comiso said. “At the same time, the surface temperature in the Arctic is going up, which results in a shorter ice-forming season. It would take a persistent cold spell for most multi-year sea ice and other ice types to grow thick enough in the winter to survive the summer melt season and reverse the trend.” The scientist speculates that perennial ice is not declining as fast as multi-year ice, as its decrease over the past three decades has opened new areas that can be covered by seasonal ice in the winter and some of that new ice was able to survive the summer.

NASA said that Multi-year sea ice hit its record minimum extent in the winter of 2008, when it reached a level of just 55 percent of what it was in the late 1970s. By 2011, the extent had grown back by 34 percent, but has dipped this winter to its second lowest extent on record, which covers 32 years.

SOURCE via NASA

No doubt we’ve all been in a situation where someone is talking loudly on their cell phone with little regard for those around them. But beyond throwing the offending person the filthiest look you can afford, or perhaps even asking them to keep their voice down, there’s not a whole lot that can be done. After all, it’s a free country, right?

Not content to just sit idly by and let his fellow passengers pollute the airwaves, one man took matters into his own hands and was recently caught in the act by NBC10. The man was a regular passenger on one of Philadelphia’s SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) buses and apparently grew frustrated with fellow passengers talking loudly on their cell phones. To remedy the situation, he purchased a cell phone jamming device. He would turn it on when fellow passengers used their phones and block them from receiving any signal.

The man, identified only as Eric, was spotted jamming people’s cell phones by an NBC10 employee who tipped off her colleagues. When confronted by NBC10 investigators, Eric said, “I guess I’m taking the law into my own hands, and quite frankly, I’m proud of it.” He later added that he doesn’t want to hear people talking on their phones in public. “A lot of people are extremely loud, no sense of just privacy or anything. When it becomes a bother, that’s when I screw on the antenna and flip the switch,” he said.

When asked if he knew what he was doing was illegal, Eric said that as far as he knew, “it’s more of a grey area.” However, despite what Eric might think, buying, selling, owning or using a device that jams cell phone signals is illegal because it presents a threat to public safety. When confronted with the possibility that he could be interfering with someone trying to call 911, Eric said he imagined if there were such a situation, he would be right in the middle of it and would act accordingly.

“Well, of course if there were such a situation on the bus, I imagine I would be right in the middle of it. And I would imagine that would be a very different situation, of course; I’d imagine I’d be dialing 911 myself.”

According to NBC10, shortly after they confronted Eric, he called them to say he had confirmed that his use of the cell phone jammer was illegal and would be disposing of the device.

Cell phone jamming isn’t a new concept but the fact that it can also interfere with other signals, such as police radios, means they’re not exactly common-place. In 2010, one Maryland prison installed a cell phone jammer as part of a test — the aim was to stop prisoners using cell phones to plan crimes happening outside of prison. However, even this move was considered controversial because of the risk of blocking signals areas adjacent to the prison.

SOURCE via NBC Philadelphia

Our master plan is slowly working, and soon every man and woman in our nation will own a smartphone. Pew Research Center reports that just under half of adult Americans, or 46 percent, own smartphones currently, meaning that smartphone owners now outnumber their feature phone counterparts by five percent. Pew polled multiple demographics to get its numbers, and there was growth across the board over the last nine months. Of particular interest is the rise in ownership in the study’s lowest income demographic — under $30,000 a year — which spiked 12 percent to 34 percent. Additionally, it showed that Android and Apple are neck and neck, with 20 and 19 percent market share of mobile owners, respectively, and Blackberry ownership declined from ten percent to six percent. The largest growth came from the 18-24 age group, up 18 to 67 percent. (Who do you think is doing all that checking in on Foursquare?). Of course, you know what they say about statistics, so head on down to the Pew Pew source for a full accounting and form your own opinion of what they mean.

SOURCE via PEW

Remember back in December when the International Trade Commission ruled on a Microsoft complaint from 2010 that Motorola’s Android products infringed on seven of its patents, siding with Microsoft initially on one of them? Since that’s so hard to forget, it probably comes as no surprise to hear that the ITC announced today it would review the decision in part, as Motorola noted in its press release at the time. Don’t expect a final ruling for another month or so (we’d keep that NFL Draft window clear if we were you), but if you’re looking for details, FOSSPatents has the notes on which segments are under review. Don’t worry if you miss a step though, we’ll be sure to let you know once it’s all over (hint: it will never, ever be over.)

SOURCE via Reuters

When our forefathers were amending the constitution for the fifth time, they probably didn’t have TrueCrypt-locked hard drives in mind. However, a ruling from the 11th Circuit Appeals Court has upheld the right of an anonymous testifier to not forcibly decrypt their data. The case relates to a Jon Doe giving evidence in exchange for immunity. The protection afforded to them under this case wouldn’t extend to any other incriminating data that might be found, and as such Doe felt this could lead to violation of the Fifth Amendment. The validity of the prosecution’s demands for the data decryption lies in what they already know, and how they knew it — to prevent acting on hopeful hunches. The prosecutors were unable to demonstrate any knowledge of the data in question, leading the 11th Circuit to deem the request unlawful, adding that the immunity should have extended beyond just the current case.

SOURCE via ExtremeTech

Across the globe today, Samsung is bringing a number of pushes to broaden NFC adoption. On the island of Japan, the company’s sealed a partnership with FeliCa Networks to implement its NFC-Secure Application Module chips in its mobile devices. Notably, the solution is ensures compatibility between Japan’s long established Osaifu-Keitai contactless payment services and the newer breed of NFC Types A and B which normally don’t play nice together.

The chips are touted has having “advanced security” to keep your funds in check, and are expect to hit “commercial deployment” set for 2013. Flying over to London, Samsung and Visa have unveiled the official NFC payment app for the 2012 Olympics, in their continued preparation for the event.

Despite the unveiling, the application (based on Visa’s PayWave) will officially debut for display at Mobile World Congress this week. This comes nearly ten months after the duo announced their plans to further establish NFC-based payment options for London and the event itself. Hit up the two press releases after the break for the full details on the announcements.

The California Attorney General has struck a deal with the world’s major app store opperators that will see new privacy policy standards put in place. Apple, Google, Microsoft, HP, RIM and Amazon have all agreed to require any software that uses personal information to provide a privacy policy that can be viewed in the store before an app is downloaded. The agreement will bring the various markets in line with the California Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires developers provide such a policy. In addition to providing links to the relevant documents in an obvious and consistent location, the companies will have to offer a simple way for users to report devs that violate the rules.

SOURCE via MacRumors