The Internet - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification ("The End of History")

" ... Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.... "

" ... I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy. For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?... " Read More …. "The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…5 - Integrity That May Surprise…

Have you seen innovation and invention in the past decade that required thinking out of the box of an old reality? Indeed, you have. I can't tell you what's coming, because you haven't thought of it yet! But the potentials of it are looming large. Let me give you an example, Let us say that 20 years ago, you predicted that there would be something called the Internet on a device you don't really have yet using technology that you can't imagine. You will have full libraries, buildings filled with books, in your hand - a worldwide encyclopedia of everything knowable, with the ability to look it up instantly! Not only that, but that look-up service isn't going to cost a penny! You can call friends and see them on a video screen, and it won't cost a penny! No matter how long you use this service and to what depth you use it, the service itself will be free.

Now, anyone listening to you back then would perhaps have said, "Even if we can believe the technological part, which we think is impossible, everything costs something. There has to be a charge for it! Otherwise, how would they stay in business?" The answer is this: With new invention comes new paradigms of business. You don't know what you don't know, so don't decide in advance what you think is coming based on an old energy world. ..."
(Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)


German anti-hate speech group counters Facebook trolls

German anti-hate speech group counters Facebook trolls
Logo No Hate Speech Movement

Bundestag passes law to fine social media companies for not deleting hate speech

Honouring computing’s 1843 visionary, Lady Ada Lovelace. (Design of doodle by Kevin Laughlin)

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Entrepreneur launches first Africa-designed smartphone

Google - AFP, 29 December 2012

Verone Mankou displays the tablet he invented in the offices of his
 company, VMK, in Brazzaville on January 31, 2012 (AFP/File, Guy-
Gervais Kitina)

BRAZZAVILLE — A Congolese inventor has unveiled what he says is the first African-designed smartphone.

Verone Mankou, 27, told AFP that the so-called Elikia, which means "hope" in the local language, went on sale the day before in the Republic of Congo.

Mankou, head of the company VMK, said the Android-powered device was on sale in only in Congo for now, but he planned to launch it in other countries.

The phone was initially due to go on sale in October but its launch was delayed "because of an explosion in demand," he said.

Though the phone is Congolese by design, it is manufactured in China. It costs about 130 euros ($170) -- a considerable sum in this central African nation.

The phone has a 3.5-inch touchscreen, 512 megabytes of RAM and a 650-Mhz processor. Its camera is five megapixels, and it also comes with GPS and Bluetooth.

Mankou last year designed what was billed as Africa's first tablet computer.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Pakistan 'Provisionally' Unblocks YouTube

Jakarta Globe, December 29, 2012

Related articles

Islamabad. Pakistan provisionally unblocked access to the popular video-sharing website YouTube on Saturday after taking measures to filter blasphemous material and pornography, officials said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in September ordered the blocking of YouTube after the US-based website refused to heed the government's call to remove a controversial anti-Islam video.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Saturday notified all Internet companies to "immediately unblock/restore complete YouTube website provisionally till further orders."

Weeks of protests in Pakistan over the crudely made "Innocence of Muslims" film saw more than 20 people killed and caused serious damage in major cities.

Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Twitter that the decision to allow access was due to huge public demand, and that the telecom regulator would install a firewall to maintain a block on unseemly content.

"There was a great demand to unblock YouTube from all sections of society... expect the notification today," Malik said.

"PTA is finalizing negotiations for acquiring a powerful firewall software to totally block pornographic and blasphemous material," he added.

The Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK) confirmed they have also received the notification and welcomed the announcement.

ISPAK Convener Wahajus Siraj told AFP that when the ban first came into force, Internet video traffic in Pakistan plummeted by up to 30 percent.

"It is a good development because many people, especially students and institutions, were using YouTube for education, and were facing difficulties as alternate websites were not as good," he said.

According to PTA there are 2.1 million Internet subscribers in Pakistan.

Agence France-Presse

Court appeal of dissident Vietnam bloggers is rejected

BBC News, 28 December 2012

Related Stories

Nguyen Van Hai (centre) is a
vociferous critic of the government
An appeals court in Vietnam has upheld the sentences of two prominent bloggers jailed in September for "anti-state propaganda", a lawyer has told the BBC.

The court ruled that the sentences and convictions of writer Nguyen Van Hai and former policewoman Ta Phong Tan should not be overturned.

Nguyen Van Hai and Ta Phong Tan received 12 and 10 years in jail respectively after a brief trial.

In a separate development, another top blogger has been arrested.

Le Quoc Quan, one of Vietnam's best-known dissidents, was arrested on Thursday on charges of tax evasion, state media reports say.

Mr Quan was detained as he took his children to school in Hanoi.

He has been jailed before, and had recently complained of being under surveillance and harassment.

Vietnam's communist rulers have opened up the economy, but suppress political opposition and ban private media. All newspapers and television channels are state-run.

Fearful

The case of Nguyen Van Hai, also known as Dieu Cay, has attracted international attention and was recently highlighted by US President Barack Obama.

Nguyen Van Hai's lawyer Ha Huy Son told the BBC Vietnamese service that the appeal failed because the court's judgement did not fully reflect the arguments presented on his client's behalf at the hearing.

Ta Phong Tan has been praised by campaigning groups for her work in exposing official corruption.

In June her mother committed suicide by setting herself on fire in front of government offices in protest over her continuing detention.

Le Quoc Quan writes a popular
blog exposing human rights abuses
The pair were found guilty of posting political articles on a banned website called Free Journalists' Club, as well as posting articles critical of the government on their own blogs.

A third blogger, who pleaded guilty, had his sentence reduced from four years to three.

Meanwhile the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that Le Quoc Quan was being held for tax evasion.

He was treated in hospital in August after being beaten up by men he believed were state agents.

The dissident was so fearful of being assaulted again since the August incident that he had reportedly begun carrying a golf club for self-defence.

Le Quoc Quan was detained in 2007 for three months on his return from an American government-funded fellowship in Washington.

He writes a popular blog exposing human rights abuses and other issues not covered by the state media.

In an interview with the Associated Press news agency in September, he said that he and his family and staff had received frequent warnings from the authorities.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Acer ready to roll out US$99 tablet PC

Wan China Times, Chan Tzu-hsien, Wang Chung-yi and Staff Reporter 2012-12-24

Acer's ultrabook Aspire S7. (File photo/China Times)

After a previous setback, Acer, Taiwan's leading PC maker, is staging a comeback in the tablet PC market. Acer reportedly will roll out a tablet model at an incredibly low US$99, which will be contract-produced by Compal and utilize MediaTek chips. The tablet targets the emerging markets in Southeast Asia and the business opportunities of Chinese Lunar New Year in Chinese communities.

An Acer manager revealed that at an internal kick-off meeting earlier this month, Acer's ranking officials already passed the message to the chiefs of the company's overseas units, asking them to explore the reaction of channel players in various markets. The message received especially warm reception in Southeast Asia, where Acer holds a decided advantage in its channels. Backed by the reputation of Acer's brand and the low-price strategy, the new product is expected to enjoy good sales, notably in the educational market in South East Asia.

An insider revealed that the model measures 7" in size and runs on the Android operating system, with its supply chain including Compal and MediaTek. Shipments of the model are expected to start from the first quarter of 2013, at the earliest. Wire services reported on Dec. 21 that Acer's new tablet PC, dubbed ICONIA B1, has passed the certification of the US Federal Communications Commission. In addition to Southeast Asia and mainland China, the model, which is furnished with MediaTek's double-core processor, will also target the US market.

Acer shipped 2 million tablet PCs in 2012. C.T. Wang, Acer chairman, proclaimed recently that in 2013 the company's shipment of table PCs will pick up considerably. It turns out that the new low-price model may enable the company to achieve that goal.

C.T. Wang also noted that most of the tablet PCs to be shipped by Acer in 2013 will feature the Android operating system, whose cost is much lower than Windows 8.

Industry insiders noted that Acer will rely on full cooperation from its supply chain in order to realize profits from the US$99 model. As a result, Acer carried out a personnel reshuffle at its global logistics center for computer products, appointing new chiefs who are good at communications with suppliers.

Compal has set a high shipment goal of 6-8 million tablet PCs in 2013. Industry insiders said that Compal has secured orders of 3 million tablet PCs from Amazon for 2013 and may obtain orders of 1-2 million units for the US$99 tablet PC from Acer.

ASUS joined hands with Google in rolling out Nexus 7, priced at US$199, which has carved out a considerable market share, thanks to its high performance-price ratio. In response, Apple has launched iPad Mini, in order to tap the medium-level market. Acer will roll out the ultra-low model, in order to secure its presence in the table-PC market.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Tajikistan orders Twitter ban

Yahoo – AFP,  22 December 2012

Tajikistan has ordered local Internet providers to block Twitter, one
 of more than 100 sites including popular Russian-language social
 networks starting next week, an industry representative told
 AFP Saturday.

"The (government) communications service has sent Internet companies a huge list of 131 sites that must be blocked in the country from Monday," said Asomiddin Atoyev, the head of the Tajik association of Internet providers.

"The list includes social networking sites that are actively used by Tajik Internet users including government officials," Atoyev said.

Among the blocked sites are Vkontakte, or In Touch, and Odnoklassniki, or Classmates, the most popular social networking sites in Russia with many users in the ex-Soviet Union, and Mail.ru, an email service.

"We don't understand the criteria for drawing up the list and what they are pursuing. The communications service does not give reasons in its letter for blocking the sites," Atoyev said.

No official at the communications service was available for comment on Saturday.

The Central Asian country bordering Afghanistan lifted only this month a ban on Facebook, which was blocked from late November for almost two weeks on the order of the same state-run communications service.

The service said it blocked Facebook because of a "deluge of lies" and "insults to the head of state and government members."

But after urging from the United States, the authorities unblocked Facebook in December, saying they had been carrying out "preventative technical" work.

Several news sites, including regional portals Fergana.ru and Centrasia.ru and Russia's state-owned news agency RIA Novosti, have been blocked in Tajikistan for months.

Local media in Tajikistan avoids criticising President Emomali Rahmon, who has led the country since 1992, fearing government checks and closure of their publications.

Tajikistan, the poorest ex-Soviet country, has a population of around eight million people, of whom around one million work in Russia, often as labourers. The money they send back home accounts for 40 percent of the country's GDP.

The country will hold presidential elections next year and many fear the authorities will tighten control on the Internet.

"The next presidential elections will be held in Tajikistan in November 2013, and this will bring even more harsh control of Internet resources and independent media," predicted the head of the National Association of Independent Media of Tajikistan, Nuriddin Karshiboyev.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

MIT researchers discover a new kind of magnetism

Experiments demonstrate ‘quantum spin liquid,’ which could have applications in new computer memory storage.

MIT News, David L. Chandler, MIT News Office, December 2012

MIT physicists grew this pure crystal of herbertsmithite in their
 laboratory. This sample, which took 10 months to grow, is 7 mm long
(just over a quarter-inch) and weighs 0.2 grams.Image: Tianheng Han

Following up on earlier theoretical predictions, MIT researchers have now demonstrated experimentally the existence of a fundamentally new kind of magnetic behavior, adding to the two previously known states of magnetism.

Ferromagnetism — the simple magnetism of a bar magnet or compass needle — has been known for centuries. In a second type of magnetism, antiferromagnetism, the magnetic fields of the ions within a metal or alloy cancel each other out. In both cases, the materials become magnetic only when cooled below a certain critical temperature. The prediction and discovery of antiferromagnetism — the basis for the read heads in today’s computer hard disks — won Nobel Prizes in physics for Louis Neel in 1970 and for MIT professor emeritus Clifford Shull in 1994.

“We’re showing that there is a third fundamental state for magnetism,” says MIT professor of physics Young Lee. The experimental work showing the existence of this new state, called a quantum spin liquid (QSL), is reported this week in the journal Nature, with Lee as the senior author and Tianheng Han, who earned his PhD in physics at MIT earlier this year, as lead author.

The QSL is a solid crystal, but its magnetic state is described as liquid: Unlike the other two kinds of magnetism, the magnetic orientations of the individual particles within it fluctuate constantly, resembling the constant motion of molecules within a true liquid.

Finding the evidence

There is no static order to the magnetic orientations, known as magnetic moments, within the material, Lee explains. “But there is a strong interaction between them, and due to quantum effects, they don’t lock in place,” he says.

Although it is extremely difficult to measure, or prove the existence, of this exotic state, Lee says, “this is one of the strongest experimental data sets out there that [does] this. What used to just be in theorists’ models is a real physical system.”

Philip Anderson, a leading theorist, first proposed the concept in 1987, saying that this state could be relevant to high-temperature superconductors, Lee says. “Ever since then, physicists have wanted to make such a state,” he adds. “It’s only in the past few years that we’ve made progress.”

The material itself is a crystal of a mineral called herbertsmithite. Lee and his colleagues first succeeded in making a large, pure crystal of this material last year — a process that took 10 months — and have since been studying its properties in detail.

“This was a multidisciplinary collaboration, with physicists and chemists,” Lee explains. “You need both … to synthesize the material and study it with advanced physics techniques. Theorists were also crucial to this.”

Through its experiments, the team made a significant discovery, Lee says: They found a state with fractionalized excitations, which had been predicted by some theorists but was a highly controversial idea. While most matter has discrete quantum states whose changes are expressed as whole numbers, this QSL material exhibits fractional quantum states. In fact, the researchers found that these excited states, called spinons, form a continuum. This observation, they say in their Nature paper, is “a remarkable first.”

Scattering neutrons

To measure this state, the team used a technique called neutron scattering, which is Lee’s specialty. To actually carry out the measurements, they used a neutron spectrometer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Md.

The results, Lee says, are “really strong evidence of this fractionalization” of the spin states. “That’s a fundamental theoretical prediction for spin liquids that we are seeing in a clear and detailed way for the first time.”

It may take a long time to translate this “very fundamental research” into practical applications, Lee says. The work could possibly lead to advances in data storage or communications, he says — perhaps using an exotic quantum phenomenon called long-range entanglement, in which two widely separated particles can instantaneously influence each other’s states. The findings could also bear on research into high-temperature superconductors, and could ultimately lead to new developments in that field, he says.

“We have to get a more comprehensive understanding of the big picture,” Lee says. “There is no theory that describes everything that we’re seeing.”

Subir Sachdev, a professor of physics at Harvard University who was not connected with this work, says that these findings, which have been anticipated for decades, “are very significant and open a new chapter in the study of quantum entanglement in many-body systems.” The detection of such states, he says, was an “exceptionally difficult task. Young Lee and his group brilliantly overcame these challenges in their beautiful experiment.”

In addition to Lee and Han, the work was carried out by J.S. Helton of NIST, research scientist Shaoyan Chu of MIT’s Center for Materials Science and Engineering, MIT chemistry professor Daniel Nocera, Jose Rodriguez-Rivera of NIST and the University of Maryland, and Colin Broholm of Johns Hopkins University. The work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.




"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) SoulsReincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold FusionMagnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism, Higgs Boson), Entanglement"Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around"DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version) 

Gangnam Style passes 1bn views on YouTube

South Korean rapper Psy's song has broken a Guinness world record and is the most liked video in the history of YouTube

guardian.co.uk, Charles Arthur, Friday 21 December 2012

Gangnam Style has passed 1bn views on YouTube and is also the most
liked video ever on the website. Photograph: Lee Jin-Man/AP

It's spawned a new dance style, parodies, copies and a fascination with things Korean – and on Friday afternoon Gangnam Style, the video by the South Korean singer Psy became the first ever to break a billion views on YouTube.

The song – an ironic comment on the rich socialites living in the Gangnam area in central Seoul, the south Korean capital – also had its title added to the Collins Dictionary as one of the phrases of the year (along with omnishambles and fiscal cliff).

The K-pop (Korean pop) song and particularly its video – with its "horseriding" dance – has made 34-year-old Psy an international star who has since performed with Madonna, broken a Guinness World record for the most liked video in YouTube history, and inspired flashmobs: one is scheduled for new year's eve at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin where hundreds of thousands could turn up.

Described by Reuters as "chubby", the South Korean singer had released five studio albums, but had never had a hit in the west until Gangnam style was released on 15 July.

Progress was slow until on 28 July, the video was shared on the social site Reddit – and remarked on by Robbie Williams on his personal blog. At that point it took off, and in late November passed Justin Bieber's Baby as the most-watched video of all time. Ranked second, Baby has a mere 813m views.



Friday, December 21, 2012

Dutch impound Steve Jobs superyacht over unpaid bill

France24, AFP, 21 December 2012 

The yacht ordered by Apple's late founder Steve Jobs and designed by
 French Philippe Starck's Ubik company at the De Vries shipyard in Aalsmeer
 on October 29, 2012. Steve Jobs' Dutch-built superyacht has been impounded
in Amsterdam because of a dispute between the late Apple founder's estate
and designer Philippe Starck over an unpaid bill, a Starck lawyer said Friday.

AFP - Steve Jobs' Dutch-built superyacht has been impounded in Amsterdam because of a dispute between the late Apple founder's estate and designer Philippe Starck over an unpaid bill, a Starck lawyer said Friday.

"The yacht has been impounded," Rotterdam-based lawyer Roelant Klaassen, who represents French designer Starck's Ubik company, told AFP.

"There is some unfinished business, namely two invoices which were issued by Ubik last summer after Mr Jobs died," he said.

Amsterdam court bailiffs seized the 70-metre (230-foot) long yacht following a request from Starck's lawyer.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the Apple
Worldwide Developers' Conference in
San Francisco on June 6, 2011. 
The Venus reportedly cost over 100 million euros ($130 million) to build and was only unveiled in October, just over a year after Jobs died.

Jobs' estate says Starck should be paid a percentage of the overall cost of the project, which took over five years to complete, while Starck says he should be paid a fixed nine million euros for his contribution, Klaassen said.

Klaassen said he was in contact with a Dutch lawyer representing the Jobs estate, Gerard Moussault.

"Hopefully we will come to an interim agreement with regard to security," Klaassen said.

Moussault declined to comment on the matter when contacted by AFP.

Jobs' family, including widow Laurene Powell Jobs and their three children Reed, Erin and Eve, was supposed to take charge of the yacht in the United States.

Klaassen said he had seen documents that show Jobs and Starck were "very close in the period that the design was made and the building proceeded".

"That's one of the reasons there was no formal agreement on the job," he said.

"The most important thing for everyone is that the vessel can sail at a certain moment and hopefully funds will be paid into the account of the lawyers of the estate which can then be used as security," Klaassen said.

"Apparently the vessel will be loaded on another vessel to be shipped to the States, I think to California."

The aluminium-hulled yacht was built by Royal De Vries shipbuilder's in Aalsmeer, just south of Amsterdam, with interiors designed by Starck.

The bridge features a control panel made up of an array of seven iMac computers.

Starck said last year that he was working on the yacht, which was mentioned in Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, who died on October 5, 2011. He said it was "sleek and minimalist", with teak decks.

Related Article:


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Instagram Not Selling Photos, It Says After Backlash

ABC News, Joanna Stern, Dec. 18, 2012

In January Instagram's Terms of Service will include new advertising
and photo usage legalese. (Joanna Stern)

Instagram has heard the mass outrage (including the celebrities') in response to its new terms of service, and says it will clear things up.

After confusion over its new Terms of Service, which implied Instagram might sell photos to advertisers, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom responded this afternoon ina blog post. Systrom said that he and the company are "listening" and that they plan to "modify specific parts of the terms to make it more clear what will happen with your photos."

The part that most users will be happy to hear? "It was interpreted by many that we were going to sell your photos to others without any compensation. This is not true and it is our mistake that this language is confusing. To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos. We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear."

He also said he wants to clear up the confusion about Instagram's intent to put anyone's photos in ads. "The language we proposed also raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement. We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we're going to remove the language that raised the question."

Systrom does say advertising will make its way to Instagram's platform and that the company would like to "experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram." Instagram was purchased by Facebook in April for $1 billion; the company has not been profitable.

But while today's battle may be over, the backlash and the distrust of Facebook as Instagram's owner will likely continue. On Twitter it quickly became known as "Instagate." Many took to blaming the new policy changes on Facebook.

"In fact, the real lesson here isn't about the legal implications of Instagram's terms of service — it's about how little we trust Facebook to do the right thing," Nilay Patel, the managing editor of the tech site The Verge and a former patent attorney, said in an article.

Ultimately though, "Instagate" might have been a good reminder for users of just how quickly companies can change their policies and the awareness they should have of them. "It's a good reminder for users in an age of the personal cloud to understand just what vendors can do with their content and how they choose to monetize," Michael Gartenberg, research director at Gartner Inc., told ABC News. "I suspect very few users bothered to read Instagram's original terms of service and therefore the 'new' terms simply made them aware just what they agreed to."


Instagram was bought by Facebook in April 2012

Related Article:


Tuesday, December 18, 2012

US judge rejects Apple bid to ban Samsung gadgets

Deutsche Welle, 18 December 2012


Apple has failed to convince a US court that Samsung smartphones must be banned from the US market due to patent infringement. The judge has found the technology at issue doesn't drive people's buying decision.

Apple's request for a permanent injunction against Samsung smartphones was turned down because it was not in the public interest to deprive US consumers of the South Korean products for "non-core features" covered by Apple patents, Judge Lucy Koh said in her ruling late on Monday.

In August, Apple was awarded $1.05 billion (780 million euros) in damages after a US jury had found that Samsung copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad.

However, Judge Lucy Koh, presiding over the District Court in San Jose, said the infringing components constituted just limited parts of Samsung's complex, multi-featured products.

"First and most importantly, Apple has not been able to link the harms it has suffered to Samsung's infringement of any of Apple's six utility and design patents," she added.

Apple sought a sales ban on a total of 26 Samsung products, including the firm's flagship Galaxy S smartphones and its tablet computer model Galaxy Tab 10.1. The US technology giant and its South Korean rival are locked in a series of patent infringement lawsuits all over the world, in their fight for supremacy in the global mobile phone market.

While a US Court in August ruled in favor of Apple, two separate rulings by courts in Japan and the Netherlands dismissed Apple's claims of patent infringement.

uhe/hc (Reuters, AFP, dapd)
Related Article:


Iran's Supreme Leader Joins 'Zionist' Facebook

Radio Free Europe, December 17, 2012

In step with the times? A photo from the "Khamenei.ir" Facebook page
shows  current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (with glasses) behind Islamic
Republic of Iran founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (front with white beard).

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is arguably one of the world's most-wired authoritarian leaders.

Already active on microblogging site Twitter, social network Google+, and photo-sharing network Instagram, Iran's supreme leader has now joined Facebook -- which has been blocked by Iranian authorities and demonized as a "Zionist" instrument and a tool of "softwar" against the Islamic republic.

The "Khamenei.ir" Facebook page, which was launched on December 13 and publicized on the supreme leader's Twitter account, has so far been liked by more than 3,000 users.

The Facebook debut is the latest move by Khamenei's media-savvy Internet team, which spreads his "ideas and personality" in several languages in cyberspace. The team is also behind Khamenei's sophisticated Khamenei.ir website, which is available in 13 languages.

Khamenei's Facebook page is likely to stir up controversy and raise eyebrows among the millions of Iranians who must access Facebook through antifiltering tools and proxy servers.

Iranian journalist Hadi Nili says the Islamic establishment uses different means to spread its message and reach out to supporters around the globe.

"For the same reason that Iran launches the English-language PressTV or a Hispanic TV station for Spanish speakers or Arabic channels," Nili says, "it uses Facebook and Twitter, which are cheap and easy to use."

Nili believes Khamenei's page is more likely to attract foreign viewers than Iranian Facebook users, who might not give it such a warm welcome.

Many of Iran's Facebook users access that social network to connect with each other, discuss taboo issues such as state censorship or news related to the suppressed opposition movement, or engage in online campaigns in support of political prisoners.

During 2009's antigovernment street protests, activists used Facebook to publicize amateur YouTube videos and other materials that documented the brutal state crackdown they faced.

Those activities are seen as a threat by Iranian officials, who have already targeted a number of activists over their Facebook posts. Blogger Sattar Beheshti, who last month died in custody, was reportedly arrested over his Facebook activism.

Technicians monitor data flow in the control room of an Internet service
provider in Tehran in 2011.
​​
Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, an Iranian official with the state-run body in charge of online censorship and computer crimes, said earlier this year that posting materials on Facebook that are considered immoral, contravene sacred Islamic principles, or disrupt security and peace is considered a crime.

Khamenei's Facebook page so far has just four posts -- including a photograph of a young Khamenei walking behind Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran (pictured above). The posts have received positive comments but also criticism targeting Khamenei and his state policies, including online censorship.

"Praise to Khamenei, Death to those against velayat-e faqih ("guardianship of the jurisprudent")," writes one supporter in a reference to the notion of "guardianship of the jurisprudent" under which Khamenei rules.

Another praises Khamenei for joining Facebook, which he says could be a venue for reaching out to Iranian youth. He notes, however, that the page should be unblocked inside Iran.

"God willing, by removing the filtering from this site and the presence of more officials, and accepting the conditions of the youth, the path for the country's future could become bright," he says.

There are more calls for an end to state filtering on Facebook.

"Is [Ayatollah Khamenei] also using antifiltering?" one user asks sarcastically.

"...You've done a great service to Iran and that is the spread of corruption, prostitution and lies," writes another.

It's not clear whether the Facebook page's administrators will allow such comments and criticism to appear on the page in the future. Criticism of Khamenei -- who holds ultimate political and religious authority under the Iranian Constitution -- is considered a "red line" in the Islamic republic, and those who cross it can end up in jail.

"Can we insult here?" asks one user who appears to be referring to the charge brought against those who have been jailed for challenging Khamenei.

-- Golnaz Esfandiari
Related Articles:

U.S. clicks on rumored Facebook site by Iran leader - New

Iran sacks cyber police chief over blogger's death

Iran 'suspends death sentence' against web programmer


This YouTube grab shows Sattar Beheshti. Iran sacks
cyber police chief over Sattar's death. 


"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) SoulsReincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa, Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) (Text Version)  

“…  I want you to watch some countries. I don't have a clock [this statement is Kryon telling us that there is no time frame on his side of the veil, only potentials]. I'll just tell you, it's imminent [in Spirit's timing, this could mean as soon as a decade]. I want you to watch some countries carefully for changes. You're going to be seeing changes that are obvious, and some that are not obvious [covert or assumptive]. But the obvious ones you will see sooner than not - Cuba, Korea [North], Iran, of course, and Venezuela. I want you to watch what happens when they start to realize that they don't have any more allies on Earth! Even their brothers who used to support them in their hatred of some are saying, "Well, perhaps not anymore. It doesn't seem to be supporting us anymore." Watch the synchronicities that are occurring. The leaders who have either died or are going to in the next year or so will take with them the old ways. Watch what happens to those who take their place, and remember these meetings where I described these potentials to you. …”

Saturday, December 15, 2012

iPhone 5 hits China but Apple fever seen to be cooling

Want China Times, Xinhua 2012-12-15

Staff show the black and white iPhone 5 models at a store in Wuxi,
Jiangsu province. (File photo/Xinhua)

Apple on Friday officially released the iPhone 5, the latest version of its iconic smartphone, in its second-largest market of China. The highly anticipated debut, three months later than the product's initial launch in nine countries and regions, is widely expected to boost Apple's sales in the fourth quarter as well as its share price.

Customers can order the new iPhone through Apple's online store and its retail outlets, and also buy it from resellers and stores of operator partners China Unicom and China Telecom.

Yet unlike the release of the previous iPhone 4S, no long lines of customers were seen outside Apple's seven official retail stores in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. The cheerless scenes were partly a result of the reservation system that people buying the iPhone 5 off contract must use, a move Apple applied to avoid the chaos seen with earlier iPhone launches.

When the iPhone 4S hit China on Jan. 13 this year, big crowds of customers and scalpers queued for hours or even overnight for the official release at Apple's official outlets in Shanghai and Beijing. A store in Sanlitun in downtown Beijing did not even open that day after scuffles broke out among the crowd. Hours after its release, Apple halted iPhone 4S sales at its retail stores due to "supply problems and chaotic crowds."

More customers, however, swarmed to China Unicom and China Telecom stores this time to buy subsidized iPhone 5 models with contract plans for fast 3G networks.

Although the iPhone 5 could still become a popular product, Chinese consumers' fever for the latest model has cooled as it offers few exciting upgrades from the earlier model. "The iPhone 5 boosts no big innovations and is not very different from the iPhone 4S," said a woman surnamed Lou at an Apple store in Beijing's Xidan shopping street. "I might wait for the next model," the iPhone 4S user added.

"The iPhone 5 is undeniably a good product. However, among the high-end smartphone category, it has a smaller screen and few bright spots, but has a high price," said Wang Yanhui, secretary general of the China Mobile Phone Alliance.

Smartphones with bigger screens or lower prices from Apple's chief rival Samsung and local phone makers in China are eating away at Apple's market share.

Apple slipped out of the top five spots in China's smartphone market for the third quarter of 2012, according to research firm Canalys. Samsung maintained the top spot, with a 14% share in shipments while Apple ranked sixth with an 8% share.

Meanwhile, unlike other brands, Apple has been locked in talks with China Mobile, the country's largest mobile operator with 703 million subscribers and 80 million 3G users, for years and is yet to reach an agreement to offer iPhones compatible with China Mobile's homegrown 3G network.

The widespread disappointment over the minor product upgrade and fierce market competition has dragged Apple's share price down 25% from its record high of US$705.07 in September.

Apple's stock price will not get an effective boost unless it shows signs of unveiling products with major innovations, said Wang.