Symantec said that folks running its pcAnywhere utility were at an “increased risk” when it revealed that the company had been hacked and its source codes pilfered, and advised customers to stop using pcAnywhere for the time being. Sage advice, as a hacker with the handle YamaTough — who’s affiliated with Anonymous — helped do the deed and has now published the code for all the world to see. Apparently, the hacker and hackee had attempted to broker a deal for $50,000 to keep the code private, but neither side negotiated in good faith — YamaTough always intended to release the code, and law enforcement was doing the talking for Symantec to catch him and his hacking cohorts. The good news is, Symantec has released several patches to protect pcAnywhere users going forward. As for the stolen code for Norton Antivirus, Internet Security and other Symantec software? Well, the company’s expecting it to be disclosed, too, but because the code is from 2006, customers with current versions can rest easy.

SOURCE via Reuters

Dell’s teamed up with Fongo to offer Dell Voice, a VoIP app that’s available exclusively in Canada. It’s currently available for Android, iOS and Windows (Desktop), enabling everyone to shoot the breeze about Dustin Penner without charges. You’ll get a local phone number that’ll let you call all the big cities (and most of the smaller ones), caller ID, voice-mail, 911 service and long-distance calling for no additional charge. Call credit costs 2c per minute, with each call averaging out to 1MB of data. Canadians clutching to their BlackBerries will be relieved to know that the app will roll out on RIM’s handsets next month. And we just shrug off that sour grape and walk away.

SOURCE via Dell

Amazon has increased its presence in the streaming video market in a big way, striking a partnership deal announced Wednesday with Viacom to stream shows from Viacom properties including MTV and Nickelodeon. Amazon Prime members will have access to these programs as part of their membership, with access to over 2000 Viacom titles beginning immediately, with more to follow in the coming weeks.

The deal expands the total number of Amazon streaming titles to 15,000 and represents an increase in spending for such content.

“Users are showing more interest in bingeing on video — or watching a series from episode one to the end,” said Amazon director of video-content acquisition, Brad Beale in an interview related to the announcement. “Amazon will be expanding content offerings as customer demand increases. We’re going to continue working on adding more content to Prime.” However, he did add that “I can’t peg a particular budget number.”

That’s likely because Amazon is considering a massive increase. The company currently spends around 400 million on their streaming video licensing, compared to Netflix’s approximate 1 billion annual expenditures. Even so, Amazon streaming video customers doubled in size in the final quarter of 2011 compared to 2010. As Netflix continues to decline, access to shows like Jersey Shore could help tip the balance further, even if they may also result in diminished mental capacity.

SOURCE via Business Week

Out with the old, in with the new, eh? Yahoo certainly subscribes to that philosophy, as it’s already shuffled out Jerry Yang in favor of Scott Thompson as its CEO, and now the company will be adding four fresh faces to its board. Among those departing Yahoo is Roy Bostock — which ends his four year reign as Chairman of the board — who is perhaps most well-known for having a hand in turning down Microsoft’s money in 2008. With this most recent shuffling at the top, Yahoo’s down to just seven board members, but the search is on to find replacements for the departed directors. Who will be the lucky chosen ones? No one can say for sure, but given Yahoo’s declining status, whoever joins up will have their work cut out to get the company back on top.

SOURCE via USA TODAY

So far, 2012 has been quiet for Amazon’s all-you-can-eat video streaming service, but that could change soon as Reuters cites anonymous sources claiming the retailer will lock up a deal with Viacom (Paramount Studios, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike, etc.) soon. That would reportedly be one of the final steps to launching Prime Instant Video as a standalone service, just as Netflix had suggested in its last earnings report. With details still scarce it’s hard to say exactly what shape these competitors to the streaming crown will take, but between Amazon, Hulu, Redbox / Verizon, Google, whatever Apple may be up to as well as a fight from Sky and Lovefilm in the UK, it should be a very interesting year.

SOURCE via Reuters

Use more data, and win more prizes. It may sound counterintuitive, but that’s exactly what Russian operator MegaFon is offering to its subscribers, as part of a curious 3G promotion. It all began back in November, when the provider announced a rather straightforward contest: customers who downloaded the most data with their 3G modems would be awarded prizes worth up to one million rubles (about $33,000), including a $5,000 vacation.

According to Russian news site C News, MegaFon launched the campaign in order to showcase the expanse of its data network, which apparently covers more than 80 percent of northwestern Russia and offers speeds of up to 21Mbps. The promotion came to an official close on January 31st, with the coronation of a lucky winner who, over the course of a single week, managed to scarf down 419GB of data on the company’s 3G network.

MegaFon didn’t offer usage statistics on the second and third place winners, nor did it say what they won for their efforts, if you wanna call them that.

SOURCE via C News (Translated)

Yahoo may be sliding down the search engine totem pole, but the company is doing its best to climb back up, with a new space dedicated to apps. This week, Yahoo added a new “Apps” tab to its search page, giving users a new portal into both the Android Market and iTunes App Store. Results can be filtered by both price and category, with iOS and Android apps aligned in separate tabs. Once you select an app, you can download it by scanning a QR code, sending a download link to your handset, or by simply clicking through to iTunes or the Android Market. There’s also a “trending now” interface, as well as a full list of Yahoo user reviews, displayed directly within the page. Check it out for yourself, at the source link below.

SOURCE via Yahoo

On Thursday, Twitter said that tweet censorship will now only take place locally instead of globally. Prior to the announcement, the only way the company could operate in certain countries was to remove offending entries on a global scale even if the comments were not offensive or prohibited elsewhere.

“As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression,” the company said in a blog. “Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.”

Twitter has also created a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why. So far Twitter hasn’t been forced to censor a tweet, but if the need arises within a specific country, the company will attempt to let the user know, and clearly mark when content has been withheld. Exactly how Twitter plans to alert the public of censorship is unknown, but hashtags like #censored or #nuked # or #deadbird may be used.

“As part of that transparency, we’ve expanded our partnership with Chilling Effects to share this new page, http://chillingeffects.org/twitter, which makes it easier to find notices related to Twitter,” the company stated. “One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user’s voice. We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can’t.”

“The Tweets must continue to flow,” Twitter said with a capitol “T.”

In other social networking news, teens are now taking over Google+ (+ohsnos, or #ohsnos). Seeing a potential big business, Google has decided to throw open the doors to the 13+ crowd, or as Bradley Horowitz puts it, to help them “build meaningful connections online” while also providing “features that foster safety alongside self-expression.”

“Google+ Hangouts bring people together using live multi-person video, and the results range from heartwarming to awe-inspiring,” reads his blog. “However, we recognize that connecting face-to-face is special and serious, so if a stranger outside a teen’s circles joins the hangout, we temporarily remove the young adult, and give them a chance to rejoin.”

Google has also added a number of teen favorites to the community including +Big Time Rush, +Teen Vogue, +Victoria Justice, +Ashlet Tisdale, +GLEE, and more.

“Our newly launched Google+ Safety Center describes these and other changes in more detail, but our approach is straightforward: build awesome features that teens really want, encourage safe behavior through appropriate defaults and in-product help, and make abuse reporting tools easy to find and use,” Horowitz writes.

There goes the +neighborhood.

We all read reviews and check star ratings on Amazon before we buy stuff. We’ve already seen that companies sometimes write reviews themselves, and they’re easy to spot by the way they’re written. But there’s a new trend among some less trustworthy Amazon sellers: bribing customers to write favorable reviews.

Accorrding to a report by the New York Times a compnay called VIP Deals has been offering its customers a complete refund on their purchase — while still allowing them to keep the item — in return for a review.

The product in question is a Vipertek brand premium slim black leather case for the Kindle Fire — a fairly lucrative market given how many Kindles were sold over the holidays. VIP Deals have been selling the case for under $10 plus shipping (the official list price was $59.99). The New York Times explains what customers experienced:

When the package arrived it included a letter extending an invitation “to write a product review for the Amazon community.”

“In return for writing the review, we will refund your order so you will have received the product for free,” it said.

While the letter did not specifically demand a five-star review, it broadly hinted. “We strive to earn 100 percent perfect ‘FIVE-STAR’ scores from you!” it said.

Apparently VIP deals has no web site and uses a mailbox drop in suburban Los Angeles as a return address, and last week had received 4,945 reviews on Amazon for a nearly perfect 4.9 rating out of five. Since, Amazon has removed the product page.

Speaking to the New York Times, Anne Marie Logan, a Georgia pharmacist, said: “I was like, ‘Is this for real?’ ” she said. “But they credited my account. You think it’s unethical?” Just a bit, Anne. Just a bit.

There’s a lot to mull over in Facebook’s just-filed S-1. But one thing jumped out at us right away: the way it presented its corporate history in a timeline view—the same way it now presents users’ histories. It’s both an excellent way to present a long view of dense data, and a reminder of what the company is all about.