Apple Pay is coming up short for many people who attempt to use the mobile payment service at the register.A survey from research firm Phoenix Marketing International found that 68 percent of respondents who have used Apple Pay had encountered an issue when making an in-store purchase.The leading compliant made by nearly half of respondents was that retailers’ sales terminals took too long to record a transaction. Other problems: employees who didn’t know how to process sales with the mobile wallet (42 percent); errors in how the sale posted (36 percent), like a transaction appearing twice; and out of service Apple Pay terminals (27 percent). Almost half of the Apple Pay users surveyed (47 percent) found that the particular store they visited didn’t accept Apple Pay although the retailer was supposed to support the service.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A slew of tech companies have joined privacy groups in calling for the U.S. government to reform its surveillance practices.An open letter from the tech industry and privacy organizations urges the government to not renew the provision in the Patriot Act that allows for the bulk collection of metadata. That provision, called Section 215, expires in June.“There must be a clear, strong, and effective end to bulk collection practices,” reads the letter, which was signed by the industry group Reform Government Surveillance, whose members include including Apple, Facebook, Google, Evernote, Twitter and Microsoft. Any data collection efforts need to protect user rights and privacy, the letter said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A majority of the Internet attack traffic in 2014’s fourth quarter originated in China, followed by the U.S., according to cloud service provider Akamai.China and the U.S. were the only countries where more than 10 percent of attack traffic originated, Akamai said in its quarterly state of the Internet report. The other top 10 nations each had less than 5 percent of the world’s attack traffic. Taiwan, for instance, came in third with 4.4 percent of the traffic.Still, the attack traffic coming from China was down compared to the third quarter, falling to 49 percent from 41 percent. Attack traffic coming from the U.S. also fell, decreasing to 13 percent from 17 percent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Facebook’s app for its F8 developer conference stole some of the show’s thunder by sending out, ahead of the event, a notification that revealed what products will most likely be discussed.“F8: Just revealed: Parse of IoT, Messenger as a Platform, and the Teleportation Station,” read the message, which several people posted to Twitter. The two-day conference starts Wednesday morning Pacific time.Parse is Facebook’s development platform for creating mobile apps. The message, if correct, implies that Facebook is entering the Internet of Things space, which aims to connect assorted devices to the Web.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Facebook’s app for its F8 developer conference stole some of the show’s thunder by sending out, ahead of the event, a notification that revealed what products will most likely be discussed.“F8: Just revealed: Parse of IoT, Messenger as a Platform, and the Teleportation Station,” read the message, which several people posted to Twitter. The two-day conference starts Wednesday morning Pacific time.Parse is Facebook’s development platform for creating mobile apps. The message, if correct, implies that Facebook is entering the Internet of Things space, which aims to connect assorted devices to the Web.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Facebook’s app for its F8 developer conference stole some of the show’s thunder by sending out, ahead of the event, a notification that revealed what products will most likely be discussed.“F8: Just revealed: Parse of IoT, Messenger as a Platform, and the Teleportation Station,” read the message, which several people posted to Twitter. The two-day conference starts Wednesday morning Pacific time.Parse is Facebook’s development platform for creating mobile apps. The message, if correct, implies that Facebook is entering the Internet of Things space, which aims to connect assorted devices to the Web.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The personal information found in health care records fetches hefty sums on underground markets, making any company that stores such data a very attractive target for attackers.“Hackers will go after anyone with health care information,” said John Pescatore, director of emerging security trends at the SANS Institute, adding that in recent years hackers have increasingly set their sights on EHRs (electronic health records).With medical data, “there’s a bunch of ways you can turn that into cash,” he said. For example, Social Security numbers and mailing addresses can be used to apply for credit cards or get around corporate antifraud measures.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Target has agreed to pay US$10 million in a proposed settlement to a class-action lawsuit stemming from its massive 2013 data breach.The proposal, which requires U.S. federal court approval, calls for individual victims to receive up to $10,000. As many as 110 million people were affected by the attack, which occurred during the holiday shopping season.The proposed settlement includes measures to better protect the customer data that Target collects, according to documents filed with the U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota. Target must develop and test a security program for protecting consumer data and implement a process of monitoring and identifying security threats. The company must also provide its employees with security training around keeping consumer data safe. After the settlement’s approval, Target would have five years to implement these measures.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Lyft has raised US$530 million in its latest funding round, and plans to use the money to beef up its IT staff, expand its footprint and boost existing services.Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten led the round. With the latest cash infusion, Lyft has raised a total of $862 million from investors. The ride-hailing company is now reportedly valued at $2.5 billion.Lyft, based in San Francisco, said Wednesday it will use the funding to increase its presence in the 65 U.S. cities where it operates and to expand to other markets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel lowered its revenue outlook for the first quarter and now expects to bring in about US$12.8 billion, down from its previous forecast of about $13.7 billion.Intel attributed the nearly $1 billion [b] downward revision to sluggish sales of business desktop PCs and lowered inventory levels across the PC supply chain. In particular, the “refresh rate” at which small and medium-size businesses are replacing Windows XP computers with newer ones has been slower than expected. Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP last April.Intel also cited “challenging” macroeconomic and currency conditions, particularly in Europe, for the revised outlook. Intel will update other financial expectations on April 14 when it reports first quarter earnings, but for now those prior expectations should be disregarded since they “have been withdrawn,” the company said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As concern grows about data collection by mobile apps, Apple and companies involved with its new ResearchKit software development framework for medical studies say users of the first five apps have nothing to worry about.Access to health data collected by the apps will be restricted to approved medical researchers and barred from commercial use, and the apps won’t delve into the personal contents stored on a smartphone, according to the companies.Sage Bionetworks, a nonprofit biomedical research organization in Seattle, handles collecting, de-identifying and storing of the health data gathered from the five apps developed with ResearchKit, Christine Suver, principal scientist, head of open science data governance at Sage, said in an email interview.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As concern grows about data collection by mobile apps, Apple and companies involved with its new ResearchKit software development framework for medical studies say users of the first five apps have nothing to worry about.Access to health data collected by the apps will be restricted to approved medical researchers and barred from commercial use, and the apps won’t delve into the personal contents stored on a smartphone, according to the companies.Sage Bionetworks, a nonprofit biomedical research organization in Seattle, handles collecting, de-identifying and storing of the health data gathered from the five apps developed with ResearchKit, Christine Suver, principal scientist, head of open science data governance at Sage, said in an email interview.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The development of self-driving cars could spur advancements in robotics and cause other ripple effects, potentially benefitting society in a variety of ways.Autonomous cars as well as robots rely on artificial intelligence, image recognition, GPS and processors, among other technologies, notes a report from consulting firm McKinsey. Some of the hardware used in self-driving cars could find its way into robots, lowering production costs and the price for consumers.Self-driving cars could also help people grow accustomed to other machines, like robots, that can complete tasks without the need for human intervention.Commonly used parts could allow auto mechanics to fix robots as well, said the report, released Thursday. Infrastructure like machine-to-machine communication networks could also be shared.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Strong interest in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus helped Apple sell more smartphones than Samsung in the fourth quarter of 2014.Apple sold 74.8 million smartphones globally during the fourth quarter, up from 50.2 million in the year-earlier quarter, according to Gartner. Apple’s decision to offer phones with larger screens paid off, the research firm said. U.S. and Chinese buyers are especially keen on the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, said Gartner, adding that demand for the phones is still strong in both countries. The larger screens also gave Apple customers a reason to replace their older phones.Samsung, by comparison, sold 73 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, down from 83.3 million in 2013’s fourth quarter. Samsung had held the quarterly sales title since 2011.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hewlett-Packard will purchase Aruba Networks to boost its wireless networking business, the companies announced Monday.HP will offer $24.67 per share, giving Aruba a $3 billion value. The deal is worth $2.7 billion taking into account Aruba's debt and cash.MORE: 8 ways to celebrate Raspberry Pi's 3rd birthdayBy buying Aruba, HP will be able to help businesses beef up their wireless networks to meet the demands of an increasingly mobile workforce, the companies said.This is HP's first major acquisition since CEO Meg Whitman announced last year that the company would split into two. One half will focus on enterprise products and the other well sell printers and PCs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hewlett-Packard will purchase Aruba Networks to boost its wireless networking business, the companies announced Monday.HP will offer $24.67 per share, giving Aruba a $3 billion value. The deal is worth $2.7 billion taking into account Aruba's debt and cash.MORE: 8 ways to celebrate Raspberry Pi's 3rd birthdayBy buying Aruba, HP will be able to help businesses beef up their wireless networks to meet the demands of an increasingly mobile workforce, the companies said.This is HP's first major acquisition since CEO Meg Whitman announced last year that the company would split into two. One half will focus on enterprise products and the other well sell printers and PCs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google’s venture arm has invested in Kobalt, a music publishing firm that counts Beck, Paul McCartney and the Foo Fighters among its clients.The US$60 million venture round also includes funding from the personal investment firm of Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell.Kobalt handles payment of royalties to singers and songwriters from streaming services like Spotify and video sharing sites like YouTube.Artists are concerned about how they’re compensated when people consume music via streaming services, Google Ventures managing partner Bill Maris told the Guardian newspaper. Kobalt’s technology can lessen musicians’ concerns about how they’ll get paid, he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google will continue to permit sexually explicit content to be publicly shared on Blogger, reversing a policy change it announced earlier this week.Instead of making blogs with adult content private, the search giant will “step up enforcement around our existing policy prohibiting commercial porn,” Google said Friday in a post on its product support page.On Tuesday, Google said it was adopting a more stringent stance in how adult content was shared on its blogging platform. According to the new policy, after March 23, blogs that displayed either sexually explicit images and videos or graphic nudity would be changed to private blogs. Access to these sites would be restricted to people who received an invitation from the owners. The content, however, would not be deleted. To keep their blogs in the public realm, owners had to delete the explicit videos and images.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple has been ordered to pay US$532.9 million after a U.S. jury found that its iTunes software infringed three patents owned by Smartflash, a Texas-based technology licensing company.That figure is less than the $852 million that Smartflash was seeking, but is still a blow to Apple. Smartflash said it was entitled to a percentage of sales from Apple devices like Mac computers, iPhones and iPads that were used to access iTunes.Apple tried to have the case thrown out, saying that it never used Smartflash's technology. Apple also argued the patents in question are invalid because previous patented innovations from other companies covered the same technology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Visa Europe is rolling out the security technology that Apple Pay uses to process payments, raising the question of whether the Apple mobile payment system will cross the pond in the coming months.By mid-April, Visa member banks in Europe will be able to process tokens, the company said Tuesday. This technology replaces a person’s credit card information with a random series of numbers called a token, which retailers send to a financial institution when a person uses a smartphone or wearable device to pay for merchandise. The technology is considered better at protecting a person’s financial data since it doesn’t transmit credit card details. Apple uses tokens to complete mobile payments made with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and its upcoming smartwatch.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Fred O'Connor