Linked List: February 26, 2014

Wednesday, 26 February 2014

Android Police Shows Early Prototype of Google Watch Made by Motorola Last Year ★

Yikes. No wonder they sold the company.

The Fingerprint Scanner on the Samsung Galaxy S5 Will Be Accessible by Developers ★

Darrell Etherington, writing for TechCrunch:

It’s not yet clear exactly how Samsung stores and transmits its own fingerprint information to apps and services, but even opening up use of the scanner itself and fingerprint activity to third-party devs already marks a considerable departure from Apple’s approach. Samsung already announced a partnership with PayPal to allow fingerprints to enable payment verification for making purchases, and even that offers a fundamentally different philosophical take on how to use biometric information.

Maybe this is the right way to go. But how come so many people lost their shit over the clearly more-secure iPhone fingerprint sensor, and there’s not a peep about Samsung’s? Where’s the letter to Samsung from Senator Al Franken?

The Right Way to Ask for an App Review ★

So not only is Threes an amazing iPhone game, they prompt for App Store reviews in a classy way too. Let’s reward this.

Where Did Mt. Gox’s Bitcoins Go? ★

Joshua Brustein, writing for Businessweek:

How did the once-largest Bitcoin exchange lose hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of the digital currency?

Two words: transaction malleability. A hacker can tinker with the code that makes a Bitcoin transaction happen, so that it looks like it didn’t go through. The person who was supposed to receive a payment then asks again and, in Mt. Gox’s case, is paid again automatically. Mt. Gox has acknowledged this was happening. It seems that someone has been slowly bleeding it for months, leaving it without the funds to pay out legitimate withdrawals. But with the company being pretty tight-lipped about it for now, that’s only the best theory.

Like I tweeted last night, you’d be better off just flushing hundred dollar bills down a toilet — at least you’d understand what’s going on.

Samsung Reportedly Tried to Suppress a Film Critical of Its Safety Record ★

Catherine Shu, writing for TechCrunch:

The film, which premiered earlier this month at the Busan International Film Festival, is a fictionalized story about Hwang Yu-mi, a 23-year-old Samsung plant worker who died from acute leukemia in 2007. The film’s lead character, based on her father Hwang Sang-ki, wages a legal battle against a large tech conglomerate called “Jinsung” that very closely resembles Samsung (the film’s title is based on one of the company’s mottos). The names in the film were changed in part to avoid legal action by Samsung. A South Korean court ruled in his favor, finding that Hwang Yu-mi’s leukemia may have been caused or exacerbated by continuous exposure to hazardous chemicals at Samsung’s semiconductor plants.

On Feb. 5, online newspaper NewDaily Biz posted an article about Another Family. As reported by The Verge, the publication’s president, Park Jung-kyu, allegedly then told NewDaily Biz’s editors to delete the piece and ordered them to text apologies to the Samsung executives who had complained.

Steve Perlman Demonstrates and Explains pCell at Columbia ★

Compelling demo, that’s for sure.

File This One Under ‘No Shit’ ★

Salvador Rodriguez, reporting for the LA Times:

Following Facebook’s acquisition of messaging service WhatsApp last week for $19 billion, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said he would not hesitate to sell his company’s messaging service for that much money.

“I work for the shareholder. Standard answer. If somebody comes to me with $19 billion, I would definitely sell it. I would recommend to the board to take it,” Chen told CNBC.

That’s like asking someone, “If you won the lottery, would you cash the ticket?” (BlackBerry’s market cap is about $5.5 billion.)

Reuters: Google Lobbies to Allow Google Glass While Driving ★

Dan Levine, reporting for Reuters:

Google is lobbying officials in at least three U.S. states to stop proposed restrictions on driving with headsets such as Google Glass, marking some of the first clashes over the nascent wearable technology.

Some eight U.S. states are considering regulation of Google Glass, a tiny computer screen mounted in the corner of an eyeglass frame. Law enforcement and other groups are concerned that drivers wearing the devices will pay more attention to their email than the road, causing serious accidents. [...]

Google Inc has deployed lobbyists to persuade elected officials in Illinois, Delaware and Missouri that it is not necessary to restrict use of Google Glass behind the wheel, according to state lobbying disclosure records and interviews conducted by Reuters.

How could it possibly be safe to use Google Glass while driving a motor vehicle?

‘That Is Totally Going to Happen in Real Life’ ★

Mike Wehner cooks up some fresh day-old claim chowder on the Samsung Galaxy S5. (Via John Moltz.)

Adventures in the Use of the Present Tense ★

Agam Shah, writing for PCWorld, “Qualcomm Overtakes Apple With Eight-Core, 64-Bit Mobile Processor”:

Qualcomm has leaped ahead of Apple in 64-bit mobile chip development with its first eight-core Snapdragon 615 chip for mobile devices, which has integrated LTE and 4K video rendering capabilities. The Snapdragon 615 will go into high-end smartphones and tablets, which should become available in the fourth quarter, a Qualcomm spokesman said in an email.

OK, then.

Apple Files Appeal in E-Book Antitrust Case ★

Deepti Hajela, reporting for the AP:

Apple filed papers on Tuesday telling a federal appeals court in New York that a judge’s finding it violated antitrust laws by manipulating electronic book prices “is a radical departure” from modern antitrust law that will “chill competition and harm consumers” if allowed to stand.

@N Twitter Account Has Been Restored to Its Rightful Owner ★

Josh Ong, reporting for The Next Web:

Many of you have been following with interest Naoki Hiroshima’s tale of how he was extorted into giving up his valuable @N username on Twitter. The good news is that Hiroshima is back in control of the account.

As for why it took so long for Twitter to return the account to Hiroshima, what I’ve heard is that they didn’t want to interfere with the investigations by legal authorities. It feels like a “finally” situation, but real investigations take time and need to go by the book.