Tylw Bin Laden claim for Xmas Day attempt_298

Bin Laden, who has a $US50 million ($A55.46 million) bounty on his head and has been in hiding for the past eight years, last made a public statement four months ago when he was quoted on September 25 by SITE Intelligence Group monitoring service as urging European countries to pull their forces out of Afghanistan.

The authenticity of the audio statement could not immediately be verified but Al-Jazeera said the voice was that of bin Laden.

“The message that was conveyed through the (attacked) plane of the hero Umar Farouk (Abdulmutallab) is to stress earlier messages delivered to you by the heroes of the 11″ September attack on the United States, he said on Sunday’s broadcast.



Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up a Northwest Airline flight on Christmas Day but he was thwarted by fellow passengers who pounced on him.

Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has claimed the botched Christmas Day bombing of a US airliner and threatened further strikes on US targets, in an audio statement broadcast on Al-Jazeera television.


“That (message) is, that America should not dream of security until we enjoy it as a reality in Palestine,” he added.

Bin Laden claim for Xmas Day attempt
January 24, 2010

AP

Edited: 02月 28th, 2010

Owku Asian nations launch tourism offensive_211

ASEAN Tourism Association chairman Felix Cruz says the initiative will promote travel to multiple destinations in Southeast Asia.

He said it could be a tool to fight poverty for its poorer members.

ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.


International tourist arrivals fell by an estimated 4.0 per cent in 2009, it said in its World Tourism Barometer.

The UN World Tourism Organisation said last week that international tourist arrivals should increase 3.0 to 4.0 per cent in 2010 after a difficult year.



The campaign will target visitors from markets such as Australia and India, as well as further afield in Britain, Hong Kong and North America, the ASEAN Tourism Association said in a statement.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has rolled out a new tourism campaign with the slogan “Southeast Asia: feel the warmth.”

The campaign, launched at an industry forum in Brunei on Monday, is focused on a new promotional website SoutheastAsia.org.

Pehin Yahya, Brunei’s minister of industry and primary resources, told delegates that the region offers “tremendous opportunities” to visitors including ecotourism and culinary experiences.

Asian nations launch tourism offensive
January 25, 2010

AFP

Edited: 02月 28th, 2010

pqim Apple sheds light on App Store approval proce

Beyond the Google Voice dustup, however, we now have a broader understanding of how the App Store works. First of all, it’s a monstrous administrative challenge. Apple says it receives 8,500 new applications and updates to existing ones every week. There are 40 people responsible for reviewing every application submitted and each app gets reviewed by two people. Eighty percent are approved as submitted with no changes necessary, and 95 percent of applications are approved in two weeks or less. In total, since the App Store was opened last year, Apple says it has evaluated 200,000 apps and updates.

“From time to time, AT&T has expressed concerns regarding network efficiency and potential network congestion associated with certain applications, and Apple takes such concerns into consideration,” the company told the FCC.

First, Apple says Google Voice was not rejected, it just hasn’t been approved, and that AT&T was not consulted in that decision at all. AT&T told the FCC the same thing in its own response to the agency’s questions Friday.

AT&T said much the same thing back in May when the application’s Wi-Fi-only mode created a stir when it finally made it to the App Store.



“We’re covering new ground and doing things that had never been done before. Many of the issues we face are difficult and new, and while we may make occasional mistakes, we try to learn from them and continually improve,” Apple’s Friday statement reads.

But, Apple said in its response letter that while AT&T is not consulted regarding submitted applications, that hasn’t stopped AT&T from complaining about apps it doesn’t like.

Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She’s also one of the hosts of CNET News’ Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she’s a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica. 


Apple sheds light on App Store approval process

It’s been over a year since Apple inaugurated its App Store, but we finally have a sense of how the approval process works.

For the controversial or otherwise special cases, Apple has established an App Store “executive review board.” While there’s no mention of how many members there are, we do know it’s made up of senior management responsible for the App Store who meet weekly to determine review process policy as well as take a look at applications that “raise new or complex issues.”

Apple has been reluctant to publicly discuss how developer-created applications get approved, but the federal government forced its hand by sending an official query regarding the rejection of Google Voice several weeks ago. On Friday, Apple answered a series of questions posed by the FCC regarding the App Store and its evaluation policies, and there were several interesting revelations.

Updated at 3:50 p.m. PDT.

The things the reviewers check for when apps are submitted: buggy software, apps that crash too much, use of unauthorized APIs (Google, apparently, excepted), privacy violation, inappropriate content for children, and anything that “degrades the core experience of theiPhone.”

Apple has started in recent weeks to acknowledge the often confusing and frustrating process that the App Store had become for developers and consumers, including some public communication from Apple Chief Marketing Officer Phil Schiller to developers and a blogger. But this is the first real look at how the process works.

If you do the actual math, the task is sort of mind-boggling. Forty people looking at 8,500 apps and updates during a regular five-day work week comes out to approximately 212 apps per week. But since each app gets evaluated by two different people, that doubles the load to 424 apps per week, or about 85 apps per day. Assuming a standard eight-hour workday (which, let’s be honest, is probably not what these employees are getting away with), that comes out to each member of the App Store team reviewing an app every six minutes. So, it’s understandable that some apps that violate the rules might accidentally get by the reviewer.

Apple is also obligated by a contract with AT&T as its exclusive carrier in the U.S. to weed out apps that allow iPhone owners to make VoIP calls without AT&T’s express permission, or any that violate the carrier’s terms of service. This included SlingPlayer Mobile, which was rejected by Apple and only allowed to use the iPhone’s Wi-Fi and not its 3G cellular signal. Apple says in the letter that the Sling app, which allows video content from a set-top box to be watched remotely, was rejected “because redirecting a TV signal to an iPhone using AT&T’s cellular network is prohibited by AT&T’s customer Terms of Service.”

Edited: 02月 27th, 2010

Wnnz Apple adds antiglare to 15-inch MacBook Pro_5

Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to record music using a Macintosh. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. He currently runs The Loop. You can follow him on Twitter @jdalrymple.


Apple on Tuesday added an antiglare upgrade option to its 15-inch MacBook Pro line of notebooks.

The option of an antiglare display has already been available on the 17-inch MacBook Pro. The 13-inch counterpart continues to offer only a glossy display.

(Credit:Apple)

Apple adds antiglare to 15-inch MacBook Pro

First reported by AppleInsider and confirmed for CNET by Apple, the antiglare display is a $50 upgrade via Apple’s online store.

The glossy versus antiglare debate has been ongoing since the glossy version was first introduced on notebooks. For some, it’s a matter of aesthetics or eye strain. And then there are creative professionals who maintain that color is more accurate on an antiglare display. Others say it doesn’t really matter.



Edited: 02月 27th, 2010

khbv Apple Stock Price Hits Record_31

Google (GOOG), based in Mountain View, California, rose $4.39 to $622.87 on the Nasdaq. The shares have doubled this year.

Software downloads for Apple’s devices grew 51 percent in December from the previous month, according to research firm Flurry Inc. That signals that sales of the iPhone and iPod Touch jumped during the holiday season. The iPhone has less than 1 percent of the total global market, giving it plenty of room to grow, said Brian Marshall, an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech Inc. in San Francisco.

Apple Stock Price Hits Record

By Kelly Riddell and Nick Turner

Apple rose $2.57, or 1.2 percent, marking the sixth straight day of increases. The shares have more than doubled this year, compared with a 61 percent rise for the S&P 500 information-technology index.



The 51 percent increase in downloads compares with 22 percent for Android, Flurry said. Downloads for the iPod Touch, a device that offers many of the iPhone’s features without the phone, soared more than 1,000 percent on Christmas Day, compared with previous Fridays in December.


"Apple downloads continue to grow at staggering rates," said Peter Farago, a spokesman for San Francisco-based Flurry. "IPod Touch devices must have flooded the market over Christmas."

"Despite the enormous success of the iPhone since inception in July ‘07, we strongly believe the device is still in its infancy," he said today in a report. Marshall, who recommends buying Apple stock, expects the shares to reach $260 within the next year.

(Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. (AAPL), maker of the iPhone and Macintosh computer, climbed to a record $211.61 on the Nasdaq Stock Market today, following a report that sales of its devices may have surged over the Christmas holiday.

The download volume for Apple is more than 13 times larger than for Android, according to Flurry data. Android application downloads increased 93 percent on Christmas Day.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, offers more than 100,000 applications on its iTunes online store, giving its phones and media players an edge over rivals. Google Inc., whose Android operating system runs phones made by Motorola Inc. (MOT) and HTC Corp., has about 12,000 applications.

‘Staggering Rates’

Edited: 02月 27th, 2010

7jlc Apple sheds light on App Store approval proce

The things the reviewers check for when apps are submitted: buggy software, apps that crash too much, use of unauthorized APIs (Google, apparently, excepted), privacy violation, inappropriate content for children, and anything that “degrades the core experience of theiPhone.”

“We’re covering new ground and doing things that had never been done before. Many of the issues we face are difficult and new, and while we may make occasional mistakes, we try to learn from them and continually improve,” Apple’s Friday statement reads.

Updated at 3:50 p.m. PDT.

Apple sheds light on App Store approval process

It’s been over a year since Apple inaugurated its App Store, but we finally have a sense of how the approval process works.

Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She’s also one of the hosts of CNET News’ Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she’s a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica.


“From time to time, AT&T has expressed concerns regarding network efficiency and potential network congestion associated with certain applications, and Apple takes such concerns into consideration,” the company told the FCC.

Apple is also obligated by a contract with AT&T as its exclusive carrier in the U.S. to weed out apps that allow iPhone owners to make VoIP calls without AT&T’s express permission, or any that violate the carrier’s terms of service. This included SlingPlayer Mobile, which was rejected by Apple and only allowed to use the iPhone’s Wi-Fi and not its 3G cellular signal. Apple says in the letter that the Sling app, which allows video content from a set-top box to be watched remotely, was rejected “because redirecting a TV signal to an iPhone using AT&T’s cellular network is prohibited by AT&T’s customer Terms of Service.”

AT&T said much the same thing back in May when the application’s Wi-Fi-only mode created a stir when it finally made it to the App Store.

But, Apple said in its response letter that while AT&T is not consulted regarding submitted applications, that hasn’t stopped AT&T from complaining about apps it doesn’t like.

Beyond the Google Voice dustup, however, we now have a broader understanding of how the App Store works. First of all, it’s a monstrous administrative challenge. Apple says it receives 8,500 new applications and updates to existing ones every week. There are 40 people responsible for reviewing every application submitted and each app gets reviewed by two people. Eighty percent are approved as submitted with no changes necessary, and 95 percent of applications are approved in two weeks or less. In total, since the App Store was opened last year, Apple says it has evaluated 200,000 apps and updates.

Apple has started in recent weeks to acknowledge the often confusing and frustrating process that the App Store had become for developers and consumers, including some public communication from Apple Chief Marketing Officer Phil Schiller to developers and a blogger. But this is the first real look at how the process works.

For the controversial or otherwise special cases, Apple has established an App Store “executive review board.” While there’s no mention of how many members there are, we do know it’s made up of senior management responsible for the App Store who meet weekly to determine review process policy as well as take a look at applications that “raise new or complex issues.”

Apple has been reluctant to publicly discuss how developer-created applications get approved, but the federal government forced its hand by sending an official query regarding the rejection of Google Voice several weeks ago. On Friday, Apple answered a series of questions posed by the FCC regarding the App Store and its evaluation policies, and there were several interesting revelations.



First, Apple says Google Voice was not rejected, it just hasn’t been approved, and that AT&T was not consulted in that decision at all. AT&T told the FCC the same thing in its own response to the agency’s questions Friday.

If you do the actual math, the task is sort of mind-boggling. Forty people looking at 8,500 apps and updates during a regular five-day work week comes out to approximately 212 apps per week. But since each app gets evaluated by two different people, that doubles the load to 424 apps per week, or about 85 apps per day. Assuming a standard eight-hour workday (which, let’s be honest, is probably not what these employees are getting away with), that comes out to each member of the App Store team reviewing an app every six minutes. So, it’s understandable that some apps that violate the rules might accidentally get by the reviewer.

Edited: 02月 27th, 2010

Kbhp Apple Stock Price Hits Record_31

‘Staggering Rates’

The download volume for Apple is more than 13 times larger than for Android, according to Flurry data. Android application downloads increased 93 percent on Christmas Day.

The 51 percent increase in downloads compares with 22 percent for Android, Flurry said. Downloads for the iPod Touch, a device that offers many of the iPhone’s features without the phone, soared more than 1,000 percent on Christmas Day, compared with previous Fridays in December.

Google (GOOG), based in Mountain View, California, rose $4.39 to $622.87 on the Nasdaq. The shares have doubled this year.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, offers more than 100,000 applications on its iTunes online store, giving its phones and media players an edge over rivals. Google Inc., whose Android operating system runs phones made by Motorola Inc. (MOT) and HTC Corp., has about 12,000 applications.

Software downloads for Apple’s devices grew 51 percent in December from the previous month, according to research firm Flurry Inc. That signals that sales of the iPhone and iPod Touch jumped during the holiday season. The iPhone has less than 1 percent of the total global market, giving it plenty of room to grow, said Brian Marshall, an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech Inc. in San Francisco.

Apple Stock Price Hits Record

By Kelly Riddell and Nick Turner


Apple rose $2.57, or 1.2 percent, marking the sixth straight day of increases. The shares have more than doubled this year, compared with a 61 percent rise for the S&P 500 information-technology index.

(Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. (AAPL), maker of the iPhone and Macintosh computer, climbed to a record $211.61 on the Nasdaq Stock Market today, following a report that sales of its devices may have surged over the Christmas holiday.

"Despite the enormous success of the iPhone since inception in July ‘07, we strongly believe the device is still in its infancy," he said today in a report. Marshall, who recommends buying Apple stock, expects the shares to reach $260 within the next year.

"Apple downloads continue to grow at staggering rates," said Peter Farago, a spokesman for San Francisco-based Flurry. "IPod Touch devices must have flooded the market over Christmas."



Edited: 02月 27th, 2010

Etkc Apple says it’s not to blame for ‘exploding’

The European Commission also issued a warning using its rapid-alert system, Rapex, which warns of dangerous consumer products.

Last Tuesday, in response to a European Commission investigation into accusations of overheating and exploding iPhones, Apple referred to its internal investigation, saying, “We are waiting to receive the iPhones from the customers.”

Apple says it's not to blame for 'exploding' iPhones

Apple’siPhone may be the darling of the mobile-phone industry right now, but some users in France aren’t singing its praises, claiming that the device explodes or cracks without warning.

Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to record music using a Macintosh. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. He currently runs The Loop. You can follow him on Twitter @jdalrymple.


However, after conducting an internal investigation into the cause of the broken touch-screen glass, Apple denies that there is an underlying iPhone flaw. In fact, Apple said that in all cases it investigated, some kind of force was applied to the iPhone, causing the glass to break, according to a BBC report Friday.

The investigation’s findings don’t mean much to France’s Frank Benoiton, a consumer who said his wife’s iPhone cracked, and it “was not dropped and experienced no unusual shock,” he told the Associated Press.

“The iPhones with broken glass that we have analyzed to date show that in all cases, the glass cracked due to an external force that was applied to the iPhone,” Apple said in a statement cited by the BBC.

France’s trade minister declined to comment on a meeting with Apple about an investigation that the country’s consumer protection agency is conducting into the reports, according to Bloomberg.



(Credit:Apple)

As part of its investigation, Apple also looked into complaints of the iPhone battery overheating but again said it found no problems. “To date, there are no confirmed battery-overheating incidents for iPhone 3GS, and the number of reports we are investigating is in the single digits,” according to the statement.

Edited: 02月 27th, 2010

1app Anti-India protest erupts in Kashmir_331

Chanting “Down with India” and “We want freedom”, the protesters blocked a highway passing through Kalampora, a village 35km south of Srinagar, as they waited on Sunday for authorities to hand over Mir’s body, said police officer Farooq Ahmed. Srinagar is the main city in the Indian portion of Kashmir.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, where most people favour independence from Hindu-majority India or merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan.


The seizure included one machine gun, 200 grenades, 10kg of explosives, including RDX, more than 2,000 bullets, four wireless radio sets and hundreds of improvised explosive device connectors, Ahmed told AP.

A local resident, Shabir Ahmed, said on Sunday army soldiers fatally shot local businessman Mushtaq Ahmed Mir during Saturday’s search operation.

Since 1989, more than a dozen rebel groups have fought Indian rule in the Himalayan region, split between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety.

Colonel Vineet Sood, an army officer, denied the protesters’ accusation and said Mir was hit by bullets when suspected rebels fired at Indian soldiers.

Also on Sunday, security forces recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition hidden in two empty plastic water tanks in an orchard in Mamoosa, a village nearly 45km northwest of Srinagar, said Farooq Ahmed, a top police officer.



“It’s a major seizure in several years,” he said.

More than 68,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict.

Anti-India protest erupts in Kashmir
January 25, 2010

AP

Edited: 02月 27th, 2010

jozh Android’s Spread Could Become a Problem_113

The more wireless service providers behind Android, the greater the likelihood of one-upmanship. Carriers and handset makers are already competing on the look and feel of their Android devices and have begun encouraging third-party developers to tailor applications to work better on their phones, and not those made by others.




As many as 20 phones based on Android are likely to be released this year, and Gartner (IT) analyst Ken Dulaney expects to see 40 more devices in 2010. "There’s a lot of horsepower behind it," he says. Android’s share of the mobile operating system market is expected to skyrocket to 14.5% in early 2012 from 1.6% in the first quarter, he estimates. That would make Android the world’s second-most popular mobile operating system, behind the current leader Symbian.

Yet as Android is woven into more phones, developing add-on tools and games and other software-based features for it may become more difficult. "We are very careful about not splintering the code," says Eric Heiser, director of business development at Kyocera Communications, one of the manufacturers that plans to build Android into devices next year. "That’s definitely a concern, that’s something Google (GOOG) has been talking about every day." What’s more, the widening variety of Android devices could have the unintended consequence of confusing consumers and diluting its brand appeal.

A result could be so-called splintering of software code, where developers work on multiple versions of software, rather than contribute collaboratively to a single project. So if programmers want software available on more than one or two phones, they’ll have to build multiple versions of it. In the past, developers who wanted to write for such systems as Java and mobile Linux had to create dozens of iterations of a single app if they wanted it adopted widely.

Possible Splintering of Software Code

Manufacturers, carriers, and developers have grown more concerned about the prospects for Android amid news that the operating system is being adopted by a who’s who of wireless players. Motorola (MOT), Samsung, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint Nextel (S) are just some of the companies that have recently become big supporters, joining the ranks of early adopters HTC and T-Mobile USA, owned by Deutsche Telekom (DT). PC giant Dell (DELL) and Sony Ericsson are working on devices based on the operating system.

Android's Spread Could Become a Problem

For the mobile-phone software Android, popularity may carry a high price tag. The operating system created by a Google-led consortium is being adopted by a growing number of mobile-phone manufacturers and wireless service providers.

Edited: 02月 27th, 2010