As the Amazon Kindle Fire gets ready for a retail release by the end of the month, rumors are already spreading about the Kindle Fire’s successor: a tablet Amazon is reportedly considering as its flagship device.

Very little is known about the unannounced tablet at this point, but rumors suggest it will be better equipped to take on Apple’s iPad 2 featuring a 8.9-inch screen and Google’s Android OS. It will also likely be called Kindle Ice based on the company’s recent acquisition of amazonkindleice.com, kindleice.com and similar domain names.

Fusible reports that numerous domain names were scooped up by Amazon before it announced the Kindle Fire tablet. But once the device became publicly known, Jeffrey Casserino of Syracuse, New York began registering domain names linked to Kindle including those using the word “ice.”

But based on the WHOIS information for kindleice.com, Amazon gained control of Casserino’s domains on Friday, November 4. There’s also no indication of how the company retrieved the domains: was it by legal threat or did the online retailer fork out cash to Casserino?

Yet whether Amazon will call its next tablet Kindle Ice or some other Kindle derivative, the gadget is rumored to arrive in early 2012. Let’s just hope Amazon doesn’t use “Ice Ice Baby” to promote the tablet if it does indeed settle on “Kindle Ice.”

Mini me? Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg talks with Charlie Rose of PBS about Google+, Steve Jobs, game development and more in a 54-minute interview.

Unlike Amazon and Apple who are considered respected partners, Facebook founder and CEO Marl Zuckerberg recently acknowledged in an interview that Google is indeed a rival, labeling the new Google+ social network as the search engine giant’s “own little version of Facebook.” He made this comment while talking with Charlie Rose in an exclusive interview which aired Monday night on PBS.

“People like to talk about war,” he said. “There are a lot of ways in which the companies work together. There are real competitions in there, but I don’t think this is going to be the type of situation where there’s one company that wins all the stuff. Google in some ways is more competitive. When I look at Amazon and Apple, I see companies that are extremely aligned with us. We have a lot of conversations with people at both companies trying to figure out ways in which we can do more together.”

“We’re focused on doing one thing incredibly well,” added COO Sheryl Sandberg who also took part in the interview. “If you look at other companies, all of these companies are doing a lot of different things but we’re still, as we grow, doing exactly one thing.”

As if proving Zuckerberg right in regards to his “own little version of Facebook” comment, Google announced on Monday that it added Google+ Pages to its social networking site, allowing companies and other entities to set up shop just like they do on Facebook.

“For you and me, this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world,” said Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering. “And by adding them to circles, we can create lasting bonds with the pages (and people) that matter most.”

Numerous companies and popular brands have already created pages including Macy’s, Angry Birds, Toyota, Pepsi, Good Morning America and more. Organizations can create their Google+ Page by heading here.

As for the PBS interview, the Facebook founder/CEO, COO and Charlie Rose cover 54 minutes worth of topics spanning Zuckerberg’s experience with Apple’s Steve Jobs, going public with Facebook, the Chinese government’s block of the social website, and even why Facebook will never be a games developer. To watch the full interview, head here.

Version 16 comes with Aeolus Conductor, which creates and manages cloud instances; Spice USB, which provides file sharing and audio messaging for virtualized desktops; as well as an integrated GNOME 3.2 and KDE 4.7 desktop. Developers get support for Perl 5.14, GCC Python Plugins and D2.

“The open source community sets a new bar for technical excellence in the creation of this release,” said Jared Smith, Leader, The Fedora Project, in a prepared statement. “Fedora 16 combines the newest advancements in open source virtualized and cloud computing environments with significant under-the hood-improvements – all while continuing to improve the operating system’s usability. The Fedora Project’s commitment to advancing free and open source software is absolutely reflected in what the community delivered in Fedora 16.”

The big news for Fedora is that the OS has arrived in the cloud age and allows users to control cloud instances via a new web-based UI. There is also HekaFS, a cloud version of GlusterFS.

SOURCE via Fedora Project

Apple is touting Siri as the most important feature of the iPhone 4S, but will older iPhones ever get a chance to meet the robotic assistant?

When Apple announced the iPhone 4S, Siri was hailed as one of the biggest and most important features. However, if you thought she might someday make her way to the iPhone 4, or even older models of the iPhone, it looks like you’re going to be disappointed. Apple has said it has no plans to bring Siri to older iterations of the phone. How could you?!?

Michael Steeber reports that someone he knows contacted Apple via a bug report with the suggestion that the company offer iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation users the option to upgrade to a ‘special’ build of iOS 5 that would include Siri for a fee of $19.99. This would avoid developers illegally hacking Siri onto devices other than the iPhone 4S, Steeber’s friend told Apple. However, it seems Apple is not interested in making an extra $20 from iPhone 4 users. Steebler says his contact got the following response from Apple:

Engineering has provided the following feedback regarding this issue:
Siri only works on iPhone 4S and we currently have no plans to support older devices.

Though it’s a bit disappointing to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, we can’t say we weren’t expecting such a response. If Siri is being touted as one of the iPhone 4S’s best features, it stands to reason that Apple wouldn’t want her heading to other, older devices. Still, all is not lost. Siri may not be arriving on the iPhone 4 (or iPod touch) in any official capacity, but there are ways of getting her to play nice with older devices.

Though HP just this week offered developers a discount on TouchPads, it seems the future of webOS is still uncertain. Newly appointed CEO Meg Whitman has said that the company is still at a loss as to what to do with webOS. Speaking to a room full of HP employees, Whitman said it’s not immediately obvious what the company should do with the mobile OS it acquired last year. The Verge reports that Whitman was speaking at an all-hands meeting last night, apparently scheduled to make a decision on webOS. However, it seem the company will be putting off the decision once more.

“It’s really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision,” the Verge cites her as saying, adding that a decision on the fate of webOS would come in the next three to four weeks. Whitman said part of the reason for the delay was that she needed to first decide whether the company was going to sell or spin-off its personal systems group (the company ultimately decided to hang onto its PC business). While she offered no clue as to what her thoughts on webOS might be, Whitman did say that if HP decides to keep it, it’s going to do it “in a very significant way over a multi-year period.” Whitman conceded that this would be a very expensive proposition but assured assembled employees that “HP can make that bet.”

The news follows HP’s decision to offer webOS developers 32GB TouchPads for $150 each in an apparent attempt to keep them sweet. However, there has also been reports that HP plans to sell the OS off to the highest bidder. Reuters this week reported that the company wants to sell webOS in order to recoup some of the money it spent acquiring Palm. HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion in April of last year. At the time, HP was excited to acquire the webOS platform and then-CEO Mark Hurd was quoted as saying webOS was the reason for the purchase. Reuters this week cited sources that said Bank of America Meryll Lynch is advising the company on potential buyers. Interested parties are rumored to include Amazon, RIM, IBM, Oracle and Intel.

Embrace the awkwardness guys, as long haul flights are going to be even kinkier than just the earth-shaking toilets. Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary is contemplating the development of apps that would allow passengers to play games, watch movies, gamble or even watch porn while they fly.

Speaking to the Sun newspaper, O’Leary, who is known for suggesting whacky ways to make money from his airline, said that he hopes to launch an in-flight web service that mimics the pay-TV services offered in hotels. O’Leary specified that customers would be using their own mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets, for viewing or engaging with these services, which would offer views movies, games, gambling apps and even porn.

“I’m not talking about having it on screens on the back of seats for everyone to see. It would be on handheld devices,” he said. “Hotels around the world have it, so why wouldn’t we?”

The plan could take more than a year to get off the ground because of the costs associated with getting its planes broadband-ready. However, this is not the first time the topic of porn on planes has come up. Back in 2008, flight attendants voiced their concerns over the growing trend of in-flight WiFi. The worry was that with internet access, passengers might watch adult content to pass the time while they fly.

That said, considering the fact that people can bring their phones, laptops, MP3 players and as many books and magazines as they like on board, it seems silly to think anyone desperate enough to want to look at porn during their flight would use the in-flight WiFi to do so. They could just as easily bring a DVD and laptop on board and watch for free.

SOURCE via The Sun

An Eastern European clickjacking ring has been busted by American Law enforcement, stopping an organization that allegedly affected more than 4 million computers and scammed $14 million.

The scheme, concocted by Estonians Vladimir Tsastsin, Timur Gerassimenko, Dmitri Jegorow, Valeri Aleksejev, Konstantin Poltev and Anton Ivanov of and Russian Andrey Taame, involved the creation of a fake agency that contracting with online advertisers. They received a small fee every time an Internet user visited their website. In order to maximize their payoff, they distributed malware called DNSChanger which infected unwitting Internet users’ computers and reconfigured DNS settings so that users would be redirected to the advertiser’s sites if they clicked links generated by search engine results..

For instance, users who clicked a link to the Internal Revenue Service were redirected to H&R Block. Users who clicked links for iTunes were sent to www.idownload-store-music.com. Though the total of computers affected worldwide is near 4 million, around 500,000 American computers were affected. Individual Internet users were not themselves robbed by the ring – though if they purchased H&R Block’s services, they were definitely robbed; Zing! – however, the malware does prevent infected computers from downloading security updates, leaving the vulnerable to other infections.  The FBI has posted a handout for people who suspect their computer may be infected.

SOURCE via Weird