In a conference call to press yesterday afternoon, the FCC announced that it will grant AT&T’s request to formally withdraw its application to acquire T-Mobile US. In addition, the agency will also release a 109-page report today that discusses what it found over nine months of reviewing the merger. In short, the FCC found that the cons of the deal outweighed the pros, and AT&T is likely to build out its LTE network regardless of what happens with the carrier’s buyout of T-Mobile. The report determined that the merger would create too many network inefficiencies and job losses, and whatever cost savings that would be generated by the deal wouldn’t be passed on to the customer.

While the FCC won’t pursue the draft order signed by Chairman Julius Genachowski mandating the merger be brought before a Federal judge, AT&T isn’t completely done. It’s become a great deal harder — its dealings with the Department of Justice are still looming, and in the meantime Reuters is reporting that the carrier’s in talks with Leap Wireless to sell some of T-Mobile’s assets — mainly as a last-ditch effort to still gain the support of both governmental agencies. So this saga is far from over, but opponents of the merger can still sigh a breath of relief. Follow the break for AT&T and Sprint’s official responses to yesterday’s decision.

AT&T’s official statement:

The FCC has recognized that it is required by its own rules to dismiss our merger application. This makes all the more troubling their decision to nonetheless release a preliminary staff report on the merger. This report is not an order of the FCC and has never been voted on. It is simply a staff draft that raises questions of fact that were to be addressed in an administrative hearing, a hearing which will not now take place. It has no force or effect under law, which raises questions as to why the FCC would choose to release it. The draft report has also not been made available to AT&T prior to today, so we have had no opportunity to address or rebut its claims, which makes its release all the more improper.

Sprint’s official statement:

Today the FCC released the results of its nearly eight month investigation into AT&T’s proposed purchase of T-Mobile. FCC Chairman Genachowski and the staff of the Commission have listened to the American consumer. Consumers are best served when competition is allowed to thrive. At Sprint we share this view and applaud today’s actions by the FCC.

The investigation’s findings are clear: approval of AT&T’s bid for T-Mobile would lead to higher prices for consumers, eliminate jobs, harm competition, and dampen innovation across the wireless industry.

These are the same conclusions which led the U.S. Department of Justice and a bi-partisan group of Attorneys General from seven states and Puerto Rico to sue AT&T, Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile in Federal Court in an effort to block the transaction.

Most importantly, these are the same conclusions reached by tens of thousands of consumers from across the country who have spoken out overwhelmingly against AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile.

Your precious printer might seem innocuous but, in reality, it could be a ticking time bomb just waiting for some hacker to trigger it. Oh, and we mean that not just figuratively, but literally as well — they could actually be caused to burst into flames by some ne’er-do-well half-way around the globe. Of course, the potential doesn’t end at remote arson, an attacker could easily gain access to a network or steal documents, and hijacking the lowly device would require little more than printing an infected file. So far researchers at Columbia University have only managed to exploit the hole on HP printers, but it’s possible (if not likely) that others are also affected. Most printers look for a firmware update every time they receive a job but, for some reason, they rarely check the validity of an incoming file. A fake upgrade could easily be attached to a file sent over the internet, directly to a device — no need to even trick anyone. Of course, HP isn’t very happy about this news. HP says it’s taking the issue very seriously and looking into the vulnerability, though, it says newer devices aren’t affected (a claim the researchers challenge). It’s working up a firmware update right now for certain flaws, but it’ll have you know that “no customer has reported unauthorized access.” For a lot more detail on the ‘what and how’ check out the source link.

SOURCE via MSNBC

Scientists have created a new software program that will automatically detect any image that has been modified in Photoshop. The software is now tuned to faces, but it will be able to flag any type of image, they say.

The application—created by Hany Farid and Eric Kee of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire—uses eight statistical parameters to detect real changes on the model, not general modifications like cropping or color adjustments. It can sniff geometric modifications like reshaped face features or body parts used to make models appear thinner. It will also detect texture changes, like smoothed skin.

They trained their program using input from 350 volunteers, obtaining an 80% accuracy. The first version of the software is tuned for faces, but the scientist claims that they can easily repurpose it to detect manipulations in any kind of images, such as those presented by scientists in research. Or, you know, the classic Apple rumor spy shots.

For now, they hope that advertisers would include the manipulation percentage next to the model faces and bodies, as a warning label to women who may fall into self-confidence problems that eventually may lead to anorexia and other eating disorders. That’s a great idea that is not coming soon enough.

SOURCE via NATURE

Apple Inc. is devising a new television, nicknamed the iTV, that not only hears your shouts and sees your gestures – but can understand them too. According to experts, the revolutionary new interactive sets may be available by late next year.

In a posthumous biography, the late Apple founder Steve Jobs had hinted at the new technology being developed, the Daily Mail reported.

“I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,” Jobs was quoted as saying.

“It would be seamlessly synched with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it,” he said.

In October it emerged that the US patent office had received details of an Apple device for ‘real-time video process control using gestures’. These gestures could be used, for example, to edit videos or transfer footage from the TV to a telephone.

The new TV is also likely to make it easy to access whole films from the Internet and watch them on the big screen, introducing powerful competition to pay TV firms and rival electronics manufacturers like Samsung.

Facebook’s privacy record has been shaky at best. But that’s about to change, thanks to today’s settlement with the FTC. From now on, all privacy changes have to be opt-in for users, instead of Facebook changing it for you. About time.

Facebook CEO Mark Zukerberg and the FTC have both issued statements about the settlement, which forces the social network giant to make significant changes to how it deals with the privacy of its users. The biggest change is that Facebook must give, consumers “clear and prominent notice and obtaining consumers’ express consent before their information is shared beyond the privacy settings they have established.” This is a direct result of Facebook’s 2009 privacy change that caused certain information that was supposed to be private being made public. Apperantly, the word “private” meant “private until we make a few changes and make sure the whole world see your vacation photos” to Facebook.

The FTC also singled out Facebook’s Verified App program since it didn’t actually verify the security of the apps it verified. Facebook also shared personal user information with advertisers after it promised that it would not share that information. And on and on; seriously, Facebook has been playing fast and loose with your personal information, and the changes the FTC are enforcing are past due.

Here are the changes Facebook must make:

The proposed settlement bars Facebook from making any further deceptive privacy claims, requires that the company get consumers’ approval before it changes the way it shares their data, and requires that it obtain periodic assessments of its privacy practices by independent, third-party auditors for the next 20 years.
Specifically, under the proposed settlement, Facebook is:

• barred from making misrepresentations about the privacy or security of consumers’ personal information;
• required to obtain consumers’ affirmative express consent before enacting changes that override their privacy preferences;
• required to prevent anyone from accessing a user’s material no more than 30 days after the user has deleted his or her account;
• required to establish and maintain a comprehensive privacy program designed to address privacy risks associated with the development and management of new and existing products and services, and to protect the privacy and confidentiality of consumers’ information; and
• required, within 180 days, and every two years after that for the next 20 years, to obtain independent, third-party audits certifying that it has a privacy program in place that meets or exceeds the requirements of the FTC order, and to ensure that the privacy of consumers’ information is protected.

To help achieve the goals put forth by the settlement, Facebook has created two new Chief Privacy Officers, Erin Egan and Micahel Richter. Zuck says he looks forward to working with the commission to implement the changes. Yeah, we look forward to it too buddy.

In a move that could very well be interpreted as exchanging one problem for another, Advanced Micro Devices has decided to stop focusing so much on the PC business and get its act closer together on the mobile front.

The Bulldozer disaster, as it is known in some circles, must have persuaded AMD’s leadership that the PC side of their business wasn’t flying very well and far anymore. Though everyone was expecting much from 8-core processors, the performance was, in the end, well lower than some of AMD’s own previous-generation chips.

Whether because of this or something else, it was reported that Advanced Micro Devices has chosen to distance itself from its competition with Intel. That is to say, it will focus less on processors for PCs and pay more attention to the mobile market. As such, it will probably start to customize its Fusion platform in such a way as to create tablet and smartphone chips.

“We’re at an inflection point,” said AMD spokesman Mike Silverman, according to a Mercury News report. “We will all need to let go of the old ‘AMD versus Intel’ mindset, because it won’t be about that anymore.”

If anything, 2011, with more than half a year of lacking an actual CEO, was a clear symptom that Advanced Micro Devices had to do something, and soon.

The company has a new leader now and, sure enough, the man took some fairly drastic measures, and that includes more than this latest change in direction, as well as a branded RAM project. The workforce also suffered, especially the PR and marketing departments (AMD axed large portions of each as part of its plan to cut total worldwide employee count by 10%).

The complicated thing about the focus on mobile is that ARM already has that well enough in hand, and NVIDIA just launched the Kal-El too. AMD may just be exchanging one headache for another with this.

We aren’t typically ones to geek out on furniture, but this warrants an exception to the rule. Phillips Collection has worked up a coffee table perfect for any BMW fan. From the side, the piece simply looks to be three tilted boxes, but view the table from above and it becomes clear that it’s actually a physical manifestation of the BMW M logo. Made from cold-pressed steel and powder coated in the exact hues used by the BMW go-fast division, the table is sure to last for years and years. If you want one as badly as we do, you’ll have to contact Phillips Collection for more information. Designer Jason Phillips is based in Greensboro, North Carolina and has crafted a number of innovative tables and chairs. You can check out his full portfolio by heading over to his Behance page.

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