The New York Times has said today that they will be limiting reader comments to 2000 characters on their news articles.

Previously, the limit was at 5000 characters.

Says the company of the move:

We've had one of the highest character limits known to humanity for a long time. We've gotten feedback from readers and frequent commenters, as well as internally, that our character limit is too high, that maybe we should force people to be a little more succinct. 5,000 is a lot. That's not a comment, that's an article.

It is hard to disagree with that logic.

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Huawei, the largest Chinese mobile phone-network maker, has launched its latest tablet this week, the 7-inch MediaPad.

The MediaPad will run the upcoming Android update, Honeycomb 3.2.

CEO Ren Zhengfei says the company will continue to expand into smartphones and tablets as revenue from its traditional businesses sees slower demand.

By expanding, the company hopes to triple their annual revenue to $100 billion within the next 10 years.

The device will run on a dual-core 1.2GHz SnapDragon processor with a WSVGA display that packs 217ppi, higher than the iPad 2's 132ppi.

MediaPads also weigh just 0.85 pounds, are 10.5mm thick and have dual cameras, HDMI-out, HSPA+, Wi-Fi and BlueTooth 2.1.

(Pics via Cnet)




(Pic shows 3.1, but be reminded, 3.2 isn't available yet)

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K Computer achieve's a world-beating 8.162 petaflops.

A collaborative effort of Fujitsu and RIKEN, the K Computer is part of the High-Performance Computing Infrastructure (HPCI) initiative led by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). The system is currently in its configuration stage, featuring 672 computer racks equipped with a total of 68,554 quad-core central processing units.

It is a wholly-made in Japan supercomputer, from the R&D steps to the development of the processors and ongoing assembly. The system took first position on the 37th TOP500 list announced today, marking the first time since 2004 that a Japanese supercomputer has made it to the top of the list.

The TOP500 ranking list is updated twice per year since 1993. The K Computer's processing speed was measured by the LINPACK benchmark program, clocking up to 8.162 petaflops (petaflop == 1 quadrillion floating-point operations per second). Fujitsu and RIKEN aim to begin shared use of the supercomputer by November 2012. When it is completed in 2012, it is designed to achieve LINPACK performance of 10 petaflops.

Completed, it will feature more than 800 computer racks (like the rack seen to the right of this text.) In addition to its phenomenal computation performance, the system also recorded high standards with a computing efficiency ratio of 93.0%.

It is intended to be used in a wide variety of computational science fields, impacting research in fields ranging from meteorology, disaster prevention, medical science and global climate change models.

Michiyoshi Mazuka, Chairman and Representative Director, Fujitsu Limited

"I am delighted that we were able to achieve this result, made possible through the tremendous efforts of all involved, despite the impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake. In particular, I am sincerely grateful to our partners in the Tohoku region for their commitment to delivering a steady supply of components, even though they themselves were affected by the disaster. Bringing together hundreds of thousands of components to quickly launch such a massive-scale computing system—which would have been nearly impossible using conventional technologies—requires an incredible level of reliability. I believe that this reliability is truly the pinnacle of Japanese manufacturing."

Ryoji Noyori, President, RIKEN

"I would like to express my deep gratitude to everyone, beginning with our colleagues at our development partner Fujitsu Limited, who worked so valiantly on the construction of the K computer even under the severe conditions following the Great East Japan Earthquake. It is wonderful to be able to share the joy of this moment with them. I very much believe that the strength and perseverance that was demonstrated during this project will also make possible the recovery of the devastated Tohoku region. As we move forward to complete this project by next June, we will maintain our firm commitment to the maintenance and operation of the system, and I hope to see wonderful results when we begin to make the world's top performing supercomputer available to users around the world."

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Microsoft is allegedly porting current Zune HD apps to its Windows Phone 7 smartphone OS line.

The news comes via the latest Zune Insider podcast and transcribed here:

The apps that we have built internally for Zune [HD], we're actually looking at porting those over to Windows Phone. Right now, our focus for the app team is, more apps for Zune [HD]. Zune [HD] owners would like to hear that there's more stuff coming. So that's definitely the case.

Microsoft announced earlier this year that it would be ending the physical Zune line, with the HD being the last of the company's media players.

"Zune" as a brand will live on as software in WP7, Xbox Live and on the PC.

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Starting July 7th, Verizon will move to tiered data plans, and to no one's surprise, the plans are expensive.

DL says the plans will be as follows:

2GB – $30/month
5GB – $50/month
10GB – $80/month

Packages with wireless tethering add 20GB for $20:

4GB – $50/month
7GB – $70/month
12GB – $100/month

Overages of your plan will cost you $10 per each GB over the limit.

In comparison, AT&T's tiered plans cost $15 for 200MB (biggest ripoff in history), $25 for 2GB and $45 for 4GB.

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HP has now begun selling a wireless mouse than connects to the computer via Wi-Fi, eliminating the need for Bluetooth or RF.

The HP Wi-Fi mobile mouse connects to Windows 7 computers through adhoc, meaning the mouse should not ruin the connecting PC's ability to connect to access points.

Currently, most wireless mice connect via built-in Bluetooth hardware or via dongles.

HP says the new mouse has 9 months battery life per two AA batteries.

The mouse is on sale for $50, available now.

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Leaked Nokia N9 press photos posted by PocketNow ahead of tomorrow's announcement.

Nokia's N9 is expected to be announced tomorrow at CommunicAsia 2011 in Singapore. The MeeGo-powered device was expected to feature a QWERTY slider, but instead the pictures show a very slim in bright pink, blue and black. No specific hardware information is available yet.




Pic Source: PocketNow

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LinkedIn, the professional social network that has seen strong growth in the past few years might have its first legitimate competitor.

BranchOut, an app on Facebook that does everything that LinkedIn does, saw its userbase jump from 32,000 to just over 900,000 (and growing) in the last week, following the addition of job listings on the front page.

The app originally launched in August 2010 with $24 million in venture funding but saw extremely stagnant growth as developers worked out designs and core features.

LinkedIn recently IPOd to huge demand, with a public offering price of $45 which quickly traded up to $123 on its first day.

Since then, however, LinkedIn has fallen to $60 a share as traders and investors cool to the idea of the social network.

(Pic via BI)

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Eizo Nanao, the popular Japanese computer display maker has announced their DuraVision FDH3601 36.4-inch display this week.

Making the display important is the fact that it has 4Kx2K resolution (4096x2160).

Current "Full HD" 1080p monitors and TVs have a resolution of just 1920x1080.

Furthermore, the DuraVision is LED-backlit, has 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 700cd/m2 brightness, two DVI-D ports, two DisplayPorts (HDCP) and an EcoView Sense sensor, meaning the display will turn itself off given certain parameters.

Set for release on September 7th in Japan, the display has an expected life of 2 years (if on 24/7) and will cost a slight fortune at $36,000.

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Hackers are given deterrent sentences.

Two men who allegedly targeted music artists including Dr Dre and Lady Gaga have been handed down prison sentences by a court in Germany. The pair targeted e-mail accounts to mine for personal information and other content which was then leaked online.

Details that the hackers are alleged to have stolen from music stars also include private banking information and personal communications. The investigation into the activity began when music industry investigators were alerted to a larger number than usual of pre-release (even unfinished) music tracks leaking onto the Internet, and at earlier dates than expected.

Anti-piracy teams narrowed down their search to Germany and alerted local authorities to the activity. The men were found guilty of copyright theft and computer intrusion. One of them was also found guilty of an extortion charge. They had allegedly profited from selling stolen pre-release tracks for up to $1,000 each.

To get the data they wanted, the hackers used phishing e-mails and also sent trojans disguised as music tracks. They then accessed the e-mail (and other) accounts of music artists and stole a large amount of personal and commercial content.

Deniz A (known as DJ Stolen), was given a prison sentence of 18 months, and the other man, Christian M (known as CCE) received a suspended 18 month sentence for the crimes.

Last year, rapper and hip-hop producer Dr Dre (real name Andre Young), revealed to VIBE that somebody had actually hacked into his e-mail accounts.

He told VIBE: "I'm not mad at the fans. I'm mad at the person that leaked the sh*t. I have no idea how it got out. It's not even worth looking to see who did it. It happens. The most painful part about it is that I'm passionate about what I do so people should hear it in the right form...Somebody actually hacked into our emails, so that made our red flags go up. We're in a new age and that's a sign, 'Wake up motherf*cker.' You have to be more careful with your sh*t. That's all there is to it. I know what's up now."

The track leak he was referring to at the time was a collaboration with Jay Z called "Under Pressure". The rough cut was clearly unfinished with the only notable part of it being Jay Z's verse. After the leak, Dr Dre was frustrated at how unfinished the track was before it was leaked to the public, angered that he "didn't even get a chance to finish it." His response to a question on the incident can be seen in the video below.

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) alleges misuse of copyright law in case involving third-party Xbox 360 memory cards.

The digital rights and privacy advocacy group filed an amicus brief with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on Wednesday. In the filing, the EFF urges the federal court to block Microsoft Corporation's attempt to thwart a competitor offering memory card products for the Xbox 360 games console.

The Redmond-based software giant is in the midst of a court battle with Datel Holdings, a British company that lists memory cards products for the Xbox 360 system among its line-up. At the heart of Microsoft's challenge is an assertion that end-users (yes, the gamers) violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) if they use third-party cards with the Xbox 360.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that the DMCA was created in the late '90s to address unauthorized access to copyrighted material by non-paying customers, and not as a weapon for a company to thwart competition in the free market or as a way to police users' behavior in regards to property they have bought.

The EFF warns that if Microsoft prevails in this argument, it could have far-reaching consequences in the consumer electronics market. It would effectively allow Microsoft to control the Xbox 360 aftermarket, and would make it acceptable for consumer electronics companies to put in place technological protection measures (which you cannot break legally under the DMCA) that have the primary goal of eliminating competition (and limiting consumer choice) instead of protecting copyrighted material from unauthorized access.

The filing reads: "Microsoft's section 1201(a) claim against Datel amounts to nothing more than an attack on its own paying customers. Not only is this interpretation inequitable, it contravenes the plain meaning of section 1201(a), ignores Congress's expressed intent, and runs counter to the long-standing doctrine of intellectual property exhaustion."

"When correctly interpreted, section 1201(a) prohibits something else altogether: digital trespass upon intellectual property by outsiders who have no authority to 'unlock' a copyrighted work without 'breaking into' the work through circumvention. In other words, section 1201(a) protects copyright owners' ability to demand and receive payment before granting the authority to decrypt, descramble, or otherwise circumvent the technological protection measures preventing access to their works."

The EFF points out that what Microsoft is effectively looking for is the Court to grant it the exclusive rights to sell any and all Xbox 360-compatible memory cards, controllers and handsets.

In the filing, the EFF gives several examples of how the DMCA is misused in other areas of the consumer electronics industry. One such example is how increasingly, mobile phone manufacturers sell phones equipped with technological protection measures that lock consumers to a particular service provider, meaning they are subject to often inflated prices for service.

It also brings up a case where a Nikon photo encryption system was broken to allow owners of Nikon cameras to use competing photo editing software to manipulate their photos. In both cases, breaking the technological protection measures could be argued as being in violation of the DMCA, despite the fact that neither specifically protect against unauthorized access to copyrighted content.

You can download the EFF's Amicus brief PDF from here.

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The Business Software Alliance (BSA) hopes this time the U.S. Congress can bring Data Breach law to a national level.

News of major data breaches at some of the world's largest online services has been plastered all over the headlines this year. Some of the high profile cases include Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN) and SEGA's ongoing investigation of a data breach that affects over one million people.

Other attacks of an even more serious nature have targeted the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Lockheed Martin in the United States and the European Union. However, what the BSA is really concerned about is how consumers will react to data breaches in systems run by the likes of Sony, and how it will effect confidence as industry and commerce moves even further into cyberspace than ever before.

The rise of cloud computing, for example, is promising for both enterprise and home customers as a low cost solution for all kinds of data computing and mass storage. The BSA is concerned that after the PSN hack saga and the increasing number of attempts to acquire consumers' personal information, a lack of confidence in data security could hurt the emergence of cloud-based services.

The BSA, and members of both houses of the U.S. Congress, believe that two things should be required of companies possessing personal information of citizens. Firstly, the information should be strongly protected by data encryption solutions, so that if there is a mass breach (such as a stolen database), it will become extremely hard or impossible for the attackers to decipher the information.

Secondly, the firm in question should be bound by law to make the breach publicly known, especially if users' personal information is at significant risk.

Last Wednesday, BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee to push for Data Breach legislation to the passed on a national level. "This is now the fourth Congress to consider data breach legislation," said Holleyman. "The time to act is now. The need is clear, as are the solutions."

The hearing was set to discuss draft legislation introduced by Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade. The draft bill (which you can download here) states its goal is to, "protect consumers by requiring reasonable security policies and procedures to protect data containing personal information, and to provide for nationwide notice in the event of a security breach."

Holleyman endorsed the key provisions of the bill.

He testified: "The bill requires organizations that hold sensitive personal information to implement reasonable security procedures, taking into account an organization's size, the scope of its activities, and the costs involved. It creates incentives to adopt strong security measures by promoting the use of technologies such as encryption, which render data unusable, unreadable, or indecipherable to thieves if they manage to steal it. And it requires notifying consumers when there is a significant risk of identity theft, fraud or unlawful activity."

He also pointed out that over 2,500 data breaches have been recorded since 2005, and pointed out that in the procrastination of Washington on this issue, individual states have already stepped up to mandate notification in the event of a data breach.

In 2002, a California data breach law was enacted (went into effect in July, 2003) that required firms to report a breach of unencrypted data to possibly effected users (although it allowed delays in notification if law enforcement determined it would stifle an investigation.) Most other U.S. states that have enacted data breach rules have followed California's example. A number of bills have been proposed at the national level, but none have been successful so far.

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Across Russia, GPUs are being increasingly used for raw high-performance computation needed in research.

Moscow State University is upgrading its Lomonosov system (shown in picture) with NVIDIA Tesla GPU's. The upgrade will push the Lomonosov system into the world's faster supercomputer lists, comprised of 1,544 NVIDIA Tesla X2070 GPUs and an equal number of quad core microprocessors.

The upgraded system will provide up to 1.3 petaflops of peak performance, which will put it among the fastest in the world and easily the fastest in Russia.

"Our research requires enormous computational resources, and we need to deliver this performance as efficiently as possible," said Victor Sadovnichy, academician, Rector of Moscow State University. "The only way for us to achieve these twin goals is with a hybrid GPU/CPU based system."

The University system is used for research that requires staggering amounts of computational power, such as climate change models, ocean modeling, the formation of galaxies and post-genomic medicine.

Also in Russia, the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod (NNSU) and the Scientific and Educational Center of Parallel Computing at Perm State University are exploiting the high performance per watt promise of GPU technology.

The Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics uses the computing power of 192 Tesla C2050 GPUs for research in the fields of atomic energy. The NNSU utilizes NVIDIA's proprietary CUDA programming GPGPU solution, and plans to upgrade its system to 500 teraflops by 2012.

"There is a staggering potential for GPU/CPU-based systems hybrid solutions to help us address a great number of scientific challenges such as studying living systems, bio-photonics and computational mathematics," said Victor Gergel, Dean of the computational mathematics and cybernetics department at NNSU, director of Scientific and Research Institute of Applied Mathematics and Cybernetics.

"In cooperation with NVIDIA, NNSU is able to give more of our students and researchers access to computational resources that will significantly increase the pace of their work."

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Buying the company for an undisclosed amount, Google has confirmed it has purchased DVR and CE Extender company SageTV, which will be immediately integrated into GoogleTV.

SageTV's digital recording software allows users to run media centers for video/audio/picture playback and "its Placeshifter software lets users watch TV on any device with a high-speed Internet connection."

Reads the site of the acquired company:

Since 2002, we've worked to change the TV viewing experience by building cutting-edge software and technology that allows you to create and control your media center from multiple devices. And as the media landscape continues to evolve, we think it's time our vision of entertainment management grows as well. By teaming up with Google, we believe our ideas will reach an even larger audience of users worldwide on many different products, platforms and services.

SageTV has shut down its site, minus the splash page talking about the acquisition, but the founders of the company said all current SageTV software and set-top box owners will have nothing to worry about in terms of ongoing support for their products.

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Although unconfirmed by Sony, it appears an updated model of the PS3, CECH-3000B, is coming soon.

The CECH-3000B will cut power consumption to 200W from 230W and slash weight to 5.73 lbs from 6.6 lbs.

Sony's updated console will still have a 320GB HDD, remove LED lamps and include "external changes to the power and eject buttons," says Andriasang.

It is unclear what those changes are, however.

Sony will ship the updated model when current stock is depleted, at the same price point as current units.

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