In what amounted to little more than a botched robbery attempt, a man dressed in a white shirt and a white hooded mask crashed a stolen car through the front of an Apple Store in Greensboro, North Carolina.

A security guard described the man as white, and wearing a full "white ninja suit."

Nothing was taken from the store after the crash, and the guard says the ninja vanished from the scene immediately.

There was no other comment except to say that the car was a stolen Honda Accord from somewhere in the state and that the crash took place at 4:40 AM.

Permalink | Comments

---

UK communications regulator warns that growth of 4G will cause TV reception problems for some Brits.

Ofcom will conduct a research program to figure out just how many people are likely to be affected. Currently, it puts the estimate at about 3 percent of people in the United Kingdom, but says using filters will solve the problem in most cases.

The problem has arisen becayse the chunk of spectrum reserved for 4G communications is next to that used for broadcasting digital terrestrial television. The 800MHz band is due to be auctioned off in 2012 and 4G services are expected to roll out in the country shortly after.

Signals from base stations might disrupt television viewing for as many as 760,000 people to some degree, Ofcom has warned. The regulator is considering running a public educational campaign to alert viewers that they may be affected, and how to deal with it if they are.

Firms that win licenses for the 800MHz spectrum will have to contribute to the cost of the campaign.

For the vast majority of affected viewers, filters should easily solve the problems, but in very very few cases, viewers may need to find alternative ways to watch digital TV.

Permalink | Comments

---

Technology giant reveals new set of predictions.

Cisco has said that the proliferation of Tablet PC devices, smartphones and other gear will boost the number of Internet-connected devices to over 15 billion by the year 2015. This, in turn, will drive up Internet traffic to an astonishing 966 exabytes (one quintillion bytes) a year.

Consumer video content will dominate this Internet traffic. According to Cisco, by 2015, one million minutes of video content will be watched by Internet users per second. About 40 percent of the world's population will be online by that time, Cisco predicts.

If this outlook is correct, it brings up some worrying concerns that experts and industry insiders have warned about for many years now.

"What you are seeing is this massive growth in devices, the way devices are being used and are connected to the internet and what users expect them to do," said Suraj Shetty, Cisco vice president for global marketing.

"All this is putting a lot of pressure on the internet and the next generation internet faces issues handling not just the proliferation of these devices but how they are going to grow and be intelligent enough to be connected to you. The most important question we face is how to manage all this traffic intelligently."

At the very least, there is a need to push IPv6 adoption broadly. IPv4 was created in 1977, providing up to 4.3 billion addresses that could be used for widescale network communications. At the same that seemed like more than enough, but back in February, the last batch of IPv4 addresses were handed out by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.

"We are running out of IPv4 addresses and the adoption of IPv6 is going to be front and centre of everything for the next several years," Shetty told BBC News. "The implication for vendors like Cisco is that we have to come up with a platform that can help scale the internet to handle a lot of the traffic and to do it smartly. If you want to keep adding billions and billions of devices, the only answer is IPv6."

Permalink | Comments

---

Speculation has begun to crop up that Sony may be looking to buy Netflix or IMAX, two extremely high-profile companies, in an effort to boost revenue.

Reports claim Sony is already negotiating a bid for IMAX, but others believe Netflix would be an equally attractive acquisition.

IMAX, while a cash cow, would be hard to integrate to Sony's existing products (outside of Sony Pictures) whereas on the other hand Netflix better integrates into the PS3, HDTVs and other Web-connected devices that have become Sony's bread and butter.

According to merger arbitrage specialist Sachin Shah, Sony has:

A lot of cash on their balance sheet to put to work if they wanted to. They could do multiple deals and it could start becoming exciting for shareholders.

It's hard for me to believe that these guys have destroyed that much value in such a short time. Stringer really has to do something to revitalize the company. For Sony to continue to compete, they're going to have to start doing deals.

IMAX has a market cap of $2.4 billion while Netflix is significantly more expensive at $13.9 billion.

Permalink | Comments

---

comScore has posted new figures for U.S. smartphone market share and to no one's surprise, Android continues to surge at the expense of RIM.

Android jumped to 36.4 percent share for the quarter ended April 30th, from 31.2 percent share in the quarter before it.

Apple moved to second place with 26 percent share, up from 24.7 percent in the quarter before it.

RIM saw the weakest move, falling to 25.7 percent share from 30.4 percent.

Microsoft, who just released Windows Phone 7 during the period, fell from 8 percent to 6.7.

Overall, there were 74.6 million smartphone owners in the US for the latest period, up 13 percent from the previous quarter.

Permalink | Comments

---

Microsoft has confirmed that it will be killing off support for Windows Mobile 6.x phones starting on July 15th.

Developers can still create apps for the WM6 marketplace and users will be able to download them forever, or until the marketplace is shut down.

Those same developers are angry however, as Microsoft pulling support of the devices leaves little reason for users to download new apps if they will be upgrading their devices in the near future.

Some have questioned the move as recent data suggests WM6 is still selling better than new Windows Phone 7 devices, at least in the last quarter.

Says Microsoft:

App Submission and Management. On July 15, 2011, we will no longer be accepting new Windows Mobile 6.x applications or application updates. In addition, it will no longer be possible to modify prices, metadata, or other information. However, you will still be able to remove your apps by contacting support.

App Distribution. Even though app submission will stop on July 15, users will still be able to purchase and download your Windows Mobile 6.x applications through the Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

App Reporting. Sales and download reports will continue to be available for your Windows Mobile 6.x applications through the App Hub after July 15.

Developer Payouts. Developer payouts will continue to be processed in accordance with the provisions of the Windows Phone Marketplace Application Provider Agreement.

Permalink | Comments

---

Electronic Arts is just about ready to launch its own digital distribution platform, one that will rival Valve's popular Steam.

The new platform will be dubbed "Origin" and will allow customers to "purchase, download and keep track of their games."

EA's Origin store could launch with upwards of 150 titles including the new Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO, which is exclusively digital.

Additionally, the platform will add "Facebook-like social features," although it is unclear what those will be.

The official announcement is expected later today.

Permalink | Comments

---