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Ben Lovejoy

benlovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer who started his career on PC World and has written for dozens of computer and technology magazines, as well as numerous national newspapers, business and in-flight magazines. He has also written two novels.

He thinks wires are evil and had a custom desk made to hide them, known as the OC Desk for obvious reasons.

He considers 1000 miles a good distance for a cycle ride, and Chernobyl a suitable tourist destination. What can we say, he’s that kind of chap.

He speaks fluent English but only broken American, so please forgive any Anglicised spelling in his posts.

Connect with Ben Lovejoy

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Google privacy case looks set to go ahead in UK after Google’s dismissal attempt fails

Image: vosizneias.com

Image: vosizneias.com

Google today lost its attempt to have a British court dismiss a claim for breach of privacy in respect of dropping cookies in Safari even when the option was switched off.

Google has argued that the appropriate jurisdiction was the US legal system, where a similar case had already been rejected. Mr Justice Tugendhat at London’s High Court today rejected that argument, stating that he was satisfied there was a case to answer and that it should be heard in the UK.

I am satisfied that there is a serious issue to be tried in each of the claimant’s claims for misuse of private information.

The claimants have clearly established that this jurisdiction is the appropriate one in which to try each of the above claims.

Although Google was denied the right to appeal the ruling, it has said that it intends to attempt an appeal regardless.

We still don’t think that this case meets the standards required in the UK for it to go to trial, and we’ll be appealing today’s ruling.

In the U.S., the company was fined $22.5M by the FTC last July over the infringement of privacy.

Steve Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson says Google more innovative than Apple

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Walter Isaacson, author of the biography Steve Jobs, said in a CNBC TV interview that Google is now more innovative than Apple, and that while securing the China Mobile agreement was a big deal, it was less important than Google’s acquisition of Nest.

Google buying Nest shows an amazingly strong, integrated strategy that Google has to connect all of our devices, all of our lives … the Internet of things is actually real, there are these devices we’re gonna want to have and Google’s going to get ahead of that game […]

The greatest innovation today is coming from Google. Fadell was one of the team that created the iPod. He was very deep into the Apple culture … when Apple was so innovative … Now Tony Fadell is going to Google because he’s part of the Nest deal … 
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Take a virtual tour of Tokyo in 3D with new Google Maps imagery

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3d

Exploring cities in Google Maps or Google Earth can be a great way to get a sense of a place leading up to a planned trip, as well as a way to enjoy a vicarious visit to places you’re never likely to visit in person. Exploring Tokyo in Google Maps just got a whole lot more interesting thanks to 3D imagery just added by Google … 
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HP’s LTE Chromebook 11 to skip on 3G hardware, says chip supplier Altair

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Update: Best Buy is already listing the new model online for $379 (via Liliputing).

Reuters is reporting a claim by Israel’s Altair Semiconductor that HP will be launching a LTE-only Chromebook 11, with connectivity provided by the company’s chips.

“Our solution equips the Chromebook with a dependable and incredibly fast Internet connection,” said Eran Eshed, vice president of marketing and business development at Altair. “By focusing on 100 percent LTE and eliminating costly 3G components, we were able to help our partners lower the cost of this critical LTE connectivity feature” …

Google’s high end Chromebook Pixel is also LTE-only but the move for a more bargain-centric product has some folks scratching their heads….
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Rumored Samsung Galaxy S5 specs say both metal and plastic versions, as per iPhone

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The Samsung Galaxy S5, expected to be announced in March and released in April, will come in two variants, a higher-spec one in a metal case and a lower-spec one in a plastic case, claims SamMobile, citing an anonymous ‘insider.’

First, let’s get the most mysterious thing about the Galaxy S5 out of the way: Yes, it will come in both metal and plastic versions as has been rumored, with the metal version costing around 800 Euros and the plastic model coming in at around 650 Euros … 
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Amusing video depicts Google as a weary person answering dumb questions

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If you’ve ever cringed as you’ve watched someone type facebook.com into the Google searchbar, you’ll likely enjoy this two-minute video depicting how a human version of google might react to some common searches …

[protected-iframe id=”7d1b6c2c7bbc2a2d9319b5adafb8a7cf-22427743-13611283″ info=”http://www.collegehumor.com/e/6947898″ width=”600″ height=”369″ frameborder=”0″ webkitallowfullscreen=”” allowfullscreen=””]

No Flash? talk to College Humor and check out a classic, below in YouTube:

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Fewer than 0.01 percent of mobile apps will be financially successful by 2018, predicts Gartner

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If developers are finding it difficult to make money from apps today, things are only going to get tougher, according to a forecast by Gartner (via TechCrunch). Looking at the period through to 2018, Gartner predicts that fewer than one in 10,000 apps will be considered financially successful by their developers.

“The vast number of mobile apps may imply that mobile is a new revenue stream that will bring riches to many,” said Ken Dulaney, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “However, our analysis shows that most mobile applications are not generating profits.”

While this may not necessarily be a bad thing for major brands, who Gartner note may use apps to build brand recognition and product awareness, small developers have a much harder time getting their apps noticed, as consumers increasingly turn to recommendations and advertising to make their selections.

Gartner predicts that by 2017, 94.5 percent of apps will be free or freemium, suggesting that advertising and in-app purchases will become an increasingly important source of income. The company also expects browser-based apps to grow in popularity as the HTML5 standard matures.

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Need some images? Now you can keep it legal, with Google Images usage rights filter

usage

There’s a commonly-held myth that any image found in Google images is fair game for anyone who wants to use it. In reality, most images are copyrighted by default and usage generally requires permission – especially for commercial use.

Google’s Matt Cutts has tweeted that you can now filter images by usage rights. If you want to find images you can use commercially, for example, just do your search, click Search Tools and then select ‘labelled for commercial use’ from the pull-down.

It’s not immediately apparent how Google identifies the permissions associated with an image. We’ve reached out to Google and will update when we have a response.

Nvidia’s ARM Tegra K1 ‘superchip’ delivers Intel notebook graphics performance in mobile devices

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Nvidia made some pretty big claims when it launched its 192-core Tegra K1 mobile processor, notable among them that it would out-perform many of today’s PC chips. Benchmark results posted on the WCCFtech site suggest that the claims are true: a tablet with a Tegra K1 delivered GFX GLBenchmark of 60fps at 1080p, making it significantly faster than two basic Intel Graphics notebooks included in the comparison.

As you can see the only device included in the bench to beat the Tegra K1 chip was Nvidia’s own GT 740M; and seeing this is a full fledged dGPU with 45W TDP it doesn’t mean much. However for the target niche the Tegra K1 was actually created; it leads with a major gap. Scoring a rock solid 60fps in an off screen 1080p Benchmark it fares significantly better than the Tegra 4. The predecessor to this chip can only manage a measly 16fps so you can see for yourself how great a difference this is … 
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Google finally working on airfare search two years after ITA acquisition, claims no-frills airline

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Ryanair posts rise in profits

More than two years after Google acquired ITA and added travel search to its portfolio, the company is now actively working on an airfare search service, according to no-frills European airline Ryanair.

Well, it has a very basic search engine called Flights that operates somewhat like Kayak or Expedia or any of the other services out there but it now sounds like there is something more significant afoot.

Speaking to the Irish newspaper the Independent, Rynaair CEO Michael O’Leary says that it is working with Google on a new price comparison search for airline flights that will “blow everyone else out of the water,” and that the service is expected to launch in March. Ryanair is supplying its pricing information to Google to assist with the development of the service.

It should be noted that O’Leary is a PR master, not above seeking publicity by circulating stories which are not, shall we say, necessarily firmly grounded in established facts … 
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Samsung Galaxy S5 confirmed for April, new design, may have iris-scanner

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Galaxy S5 design needs to be different to the S4, says Samsung

Galaxy S5 design needs to be different to the S4, says Samsung

Samsung didn’t reveal much that was new in a fairly wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg, but exec VP of the company’s mobile division Lee Young Hee did tease a couple of things while confirming that the Galaxy S5 would be released by April.

The company is “studying the possibility” of including the iris-recognition security system we told you about last month. If Samsung succeeds, it would be a neat piece of one-upmanship on the Touch ID fingerprint scanner in Apple’s iPhone 5S, iris-recognition being both faster and more secure than fingerprints.

The company also said that it recognized that the design of the S4 wasn’t sufficiently different from the S3, and that we can expect something significantly different from the S5 … 
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The $50 smartwatch will be here by the summer, says Archos

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Photo: engadget.com

Photo: engadget.com

When a whole new category of technology arrives, you can usually rely on tech-heads to get excited about them even if the mass-market doesn’t. So far, though, smartwatches don’t seem to have made as much headway as many expected. When a confirmed gadget addict like me is left wondering why I’d want one, something somewhere is wrong.

But where functionality hasn’t persuaded many of us, perhaps price will. Archos is planning to launch a basic smartwatch in the summer for just $50, a price it may be hoping will lead people to stop asking ‘Why?’ and instead ask ‘Why not?’ … 
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Undeterred by Galaxy Gear failure, Samsung planning to launch more wearables

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Samsung’s entry into the world of wearable tech may not have been terribly successful, with dreadful reviews and reportedly poor sales, but the company seems undeterred, promising more wearables this year, reports re/code.

“2014 is actually going to be a really big year,” said Dennis Miloseski, head of studio for Samsung Design America. “We are planning some products around the launch of our flagship devices.”

Samsung’s US design team does appear aware that the company needs to work a lot harder on the aesthetics as well as the functionality … 
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Audio specialist Blue promises true hi-fi quality wireless audio by the spring

http://vimeo.com/83331745

I take the view that wires are evil: anything that can be wireless should be wireless. My iOS devices sync via wifi, my keyboard and trackpad are Bluetooth, I have Wemo-controlled lighting, Tado-controlled heating and love cloud services.

But there’s one thing in my living-room that still relies on a wire: the connection between Mac and hifi system. I tried a Bluetooth link, and the quality just wasn’t there. I quickly reverted to the 3.5mm cable that runs around the skirting board.

Enter microphone specialist Blue. The company is teasing a true hifi-quality wireless connection between digital devices and headphones (and presumably hifi systems) under the name Mo-Fi.

Where digital music technology has advanced, headphones have lagged behind. We’ve seen dramatic advances in the quality and convenience of digital music, yet headphones –designed specifically to bring us closer to sound— have failed to bridge the gap from hi-fi to mobile. Headphones are the last barrier between us and the audio trapped in our digital devices. What if we liberated our music from overhyped lo-fi to true mobile hi-fi? We can. Blue is offering the first sneak peek at CES 2014.

We’ll bring you more details when we have them.

Flurry of new Samsung tablets expected to launch tonight as specs leak

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Samsung has put up banners at CES for a new Galaxy Note PRO and Tab PRO, which it is expected to unveil tonight (photo courtesy of Engadget) – and thanks to leaked specs from the generally dependable @evleaks, we think we have a good idea what to expect.

The leak suggests that four new models will be launched, with 3G and LTE variants, in 8.4-, 10.1- and 12.2-inch sizes.

[tweet https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/420094062390431744]

The 12.2-inch NotePRO and TabPRO devices appear to be identical bar the S-Pen of the former. Specs are said to be a quad-core Snapdragon 800 2.3GHz processor for the LTE version, and Samsung’s own quad-core Exynos 5 Octa chip running at 1.9GHz in the Wifi/3G variant. Other specs are said to be identical for both versions … 
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Gamification could be the (expensive) way to get your kids to brush their teeth properly

SONY DSC

If you’ve ever despaired of getting your kids to brush their teeth properly without close parental supervision, Kolibree may have the solution: a smartphone-linked toothbrush that reports back to an Android or iPhone app how well they did, and creates family league tables to turn tooth-brushing into a competitive sport.

Engadget reports that the Bluetooth-connected toothbrush is equipped with an accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope. You calibrate it to the shape of your mouth first, and it uses this model – together with data supplied by dentists – to get a percentage score of how well each Kolibree user in the family cleaned their teeth.

It won’t, however, be cheap: each toothbrush will cost between $100 and $200, though family packs may make it a little cheaper. It’s expected to be launched in the summer.

Smartphone-controlled door lock market hotting up as Openways announces Okidokeys

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okidokeys

A company that makes smartphone-controlled door locks for hotels has announced its first home door lock system, going by the rather cringeworthy name Okidokeys.

Once fitted, you’ll be able to unlock your front door from your Android handset via Bluetooth. The locks are also compatible with RFID chips, allowing you to open them with a keycard or wristband in case your phone battery goes flat. As you’d expect from a hi-tech lock, you can also manage access and accounts online … 
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Pebble Steel smartwatch leaks: metal & Gorilla Glass version on the way

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Left: Pebble Steel. right: original plastic Pebble

Left: Pebble Steel. right: original plastic Pebble

If you like the functionality of the Pebble smartwatch but are less keen on the plastic finish, it looks like you won’t have long to wait for a metal version. We’ve seen a couple of leaks of the Pebble Steel, seemingly the exact same innards as the existing Pebble watch but with a stainless steel casing and Gorilla Glass.

There are said to be two versions, one in brushed stainless steel (shown alongside the original plastic version above) and a matte black one (shown below the fold) … 
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With T-Mobile? AT&T will give you $450 to switch … kind of

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Photo: Fox
Photo: Fox

AT&T has announced incentives worth up to $450 for T-Mobile customers who switch to their service. The move is being made in response to T-Mobile’s Uncarrier offers, after AT&T recently said that it too expected to move toward separating device and service charges.

Proving the old adage that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, the deal of course comes with strings. First, $250 of that is the maximum you’ll receive in return for trading in your existing T-Mobile handset. To get the full $250, you’ll need a recent handset in good condition – in which case you’d almost certainly get more selling it privately … 
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Kids tablet market gets interesting as Dreamworks and Fuhu team up for DreamTab

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dreamtab

If there was ever a dream team for a new kid’s tablet, DreamWorks and Fuhu has to be one of the hottest contenders for the title. The animated film maker and the company behind the Nabi range of children’s tablets told the NYT they are teaming up to launch a new 8-inch tablet at CES next week, expected to go on sale in the spring.

The tablet is expected to come with a mix of animated games and educational apps, and will include content that can interact with DreamWorks toys. DreamWorks claims the device will have similar power to an iPad and be treated like a cross between a tablet and a TV channel … 
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Samsung’s Knox smartphone security system could be breached by a children’s game – security researchers

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Samsung’s Knox security system, designed to allow it to compete with Blackberry for government and corporate business, contains a vulnerability that could be breached by something as simple as a children’s game, say security researchers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Knox is designed to provide a secure storage area in the phone for sensitive data, protected from apps installed outside it. The WSJ reports that an app installed outside the Knox container could be capable of recording all data communication taking place inside Knox – “even a relatively unsophisticated app, such as a mobile game aimed at children” … 
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Google giving away free music in its December Deals – tho’ apparently only in the U.S.

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us

Google Play is giving away free music with its December Deals, offering a mix of free downloads and free streaming. The tracks appear to be updated weekly, so there should be time to grab more next week.

It’s looking like the freebies may be US-only, however: when you visit the same page in the UK, you get the same promise in the header, but the listed tracks (which number five rather than ten) come up at their normal price … 
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The iPhone forced Google to start over … or not, depending who you believe

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The HTC Dream: the first Android handset to go on sale
The HTC Dream: the first Android handset to go on sale, a year after the iPhone

A pithy quote from a Google engineer working on Android on the day the iPhone was launched has been doing the rounds today.

As a consumer I was blown away. I wanted one immediately. But as a Google engineer, I thought ‘We’re going to have to start over.

The quote, attributed to Google engineer Chris DeSalvo, appears in Chapter 2 of Fred Vogelstein’s Dogfight: How Apple and Google went to war and started a revolution. It suggests that Google had to abandon a Blackberry-style smartphone in favor of a touchscreen one in direct response to the iPhone. This is seemingly supported by Android boss Andy Rubin reportedly saying in response to the webcast of the iPhone launch: “Holy crap, I guess we’re not going to ship that phone.”

There’s just one small problem with this version of events – it may not be entirely accurate … 
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