Tech News Week Review: Anthem Hack, Ransomware, Mobile Payments, Xiaomi, Micromax

Chinese State-Sponsored Hackers Suspected in Anthem Attack - Bloomberg Business: "(Bloomberg) -- Investigators of Anthem Inc.’s data breach are pursuing evidence that points to Chinese state-sponsored hackers who are stealing personal information from health-care companies for purposes other than pure profit, according to three people familiar with the probe. The breach, which exposed Social Security numbers and other sensitive details of 80 million customers, is one of the biggest thefts of medical-related customer data in U.S. history. China has said in the past that it doesn’t conduct espionage through hacking.   The attack appears to follow a pattern of thefts of medical data by foreigners seeking a pathway into the personal lives and computers of a select group -- defense contractors, government workers and others, according to a U.S. government official familiar with a more than year-long investigation into the evidence of a broader campaign...."

How Ransomware Works, and Why You Should Be Afraid | MIT Technology Review: ".... It is hard for malware to spread on mobile devices, because most people download software only from official app stores. Simplocker is typically spread through downloads of apps from pornography websites. The best way to keep ransomware off your computer, experts say, is to follow best practices by keeping software updated, using antivirus and other security software, and being careful about where you click and what you install. Backing up data on a separate hard drive or using a cloud service could save you from being held for ransom if an infection does occur. “Ransomware could be just a minor nuisance if people could just restore the data from the backup,” says Lipovsky. However, like other security researchers, he is resigned to discovering many more cases of ransomware in coming months. “Even though the advice is quite simple, lots of people don’t listen to it.”

New Technologies Shake Up Old Money | MIT Technology Review: "... “The smartphone is the catalyst for a lot of change in this industry,” says Dana Stalder, a venture capitalist with Matrix Partners and a former eBay and ­PayPal executive now on the board of Poynt, which recently introduced a smart credit card terminal. Venture capitalists invested over $2 billion in payment technology firms between January 2013 and June 2014, according to the data tracking firm CB Insights...."

How Smartphone Brands You've Never Heard Of Are Taking Over India And China: "domestic brands like India’s Micromax and China’s Xiaomi have manufactured relatively good smartphones that retail for less than $200. In India, for example, Canalys estimated that nearly a quarter of the smartphones sold in the fourth quarter cost less than $100, while 41 percent were between $100-$200. Xiaomi’s latest Redmi Note 4G costs 999 yuan (about $160); its popular Redmi sells for only about $100 in India."

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Social Media Star, How You Can Be One (video)

Social Media Star: Here’s How You Can Be One: Video - Bloomberg:
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Social Media Star Andrea Russett and DigiTour CEO Meredith Valiando Rojas discuss social media stardom on “Market Makers.” (Source: Bloomberg - Sept 11, 2014)

Branson: Hat's Off to Apple, Mobile Payments Are the Future: Video - Bloomberg:
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Billionaire Sir Richard Branson, chairman and founder of Virgin Group, comments on Apple's new products. He speaks with Trish Regan on "Street Smart." (Source: Bloomberg Sept 10)


Wall Street Journal
Yahoo Faced Big US Fines Over User Data
Wall Street Journal
Yahoo made the threat public Thursday after a special federal court unsealed 1,500 pages of legal documents from a once-classified court battle over ...
US threatened massive fine to force Yahoo to release data - Washington Post

The next 7 days are crucial for Apple consumers
USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — There you were, thinking we were past the Apple hoopla stirred up by the company's iPhone and Apple Watch unveilings ...
Apple's future - The Economist
'Aye Yi iPhone!!' When Servers Crash and Apple Sales…Soar! - Fox Business
iPhone 6 pre-orders overwhelm Apple, quickly sell out - Fortune


CNN
Can the Apple Watch take off as a fashion accessory?
CNN
"As soon as the Apple Watch is available I will be adding it into my life, but ... Unfortunately for Apple, most people will only wear one watch. ... Apple Watch can avoid the stigma of a Bluetooth headset -- or even Google Glass. ... But if any technologycompany has a chance of stealing precious wrist real ...
Apple Legitimizes The Smartwatch Category: Part 1 Style And Social Acceptance - Forbes


Times of India
Apple Pay Tips To New Era Of Fully Digitized Money
Forbes
The new Apple Apple Pay system though is quite interesting and it is too ... as financial institutions recognize that they face challenges from technology ... despite a strong attempt to pioneer digital wallets by Google Checkout. ... you could exchange them for dollars only within the Amazon marketplace.

Google lets college students borrow a Chromebook
Jon Fingas
If you brought a big, conventional laptop with you to college, you're probably regretting it right about now. It's not fun to lug a heavy machine and.

Wondering what it cost Apple to give away that U2 album to every customer?
Ben Lovejoy
To release U2's album free, Apple paid the band and Universal an unspecified fee as a blanket royalty and committed to a marketing campaign for the ...

Facebook Takes Down Page Showing How to Use a Female Condom
Rebecca Rose
At the University of Chicago, Patty Fernandez runs an organization called Tea Time and Sex Chats. "What we do is talk about sexual health [and ] ...

Shocker: HHS Obamacare Technology Has Yet Another Glitch
Sarah Hurtubise
There's yet another problem with technology the Obama administration is using to approve health insurance plans for Obamacare regulations, The ...

How Much Value Can Apple Watch Create?
Nitin Gulati
With its ambitious series of announcements earlier this week, Apple ... on these new applications of interactivetechnology, distinguished chiefly by a ...

Apple Watch 'too feminine, looks like it was designed by a student'
IBNLive.com editor@ibnlive.com
Berlin: Apple's long-awaited smartwatch looks "too feminine" and its design will not stand the test of time, luxury giant LVMH's watch guru has told ...

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New Moto Products LIVE; Microsoft Android Patents Worthless?

Join Lauren Gellman, Director of Product Marketing, and Steve Sinclair, VP of Product Marketing, for a first look at the new portfolio of Moto products.  They will be answering your questions live Friday, September 5, 2014,  at 1:30 PM CT -  time conversion. Mark your calendars and post your questions using #askmoto 

@Motorola: join us at 1:30 PM CT on Sep. 5 for our "First Look" live Q&A (post questions now using #askmoto). The details: http://bit.ly/1BdRi2Q

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It is estimated Microsoft gets $2 billion (US$) a year from its Android patents, but a recent analysis in wake of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce's disclosure of what patents Microsoft claimed, questions the value of Microsoft's patents--

M-Cam specifically tried to answer the question of whether Microsoft owns proprietary rights to Android OS, and whether the giant software maker was unfairly taxing Android device makers....The most damning part of the M-Cam report, however, was the revelation that more than 40 of the 65 commercially viable patents had actually been preceded by other companies, and that Microsoft had failed to cite them in its patents filings as required by law. (source infra)

What Lies In Store For Microsoft's Android Patents? - Microsoft Corporation | Seeking Alpha: "...Hitherto, only Motorola has ever successfully challenged Microsoft in court regarding patent demands. Motorola won 16 of the 17 patent suits it had filed before the Germany Federal Patent Court. Microsoft's only victory in the case was in regard to U.S. Patent No. 6,370,566 for ActiveSync. All other Android manufacturers have usually elected to pay whatever Microsoft demanded from them, due to the fear of heavy litigation costs. After all, patent trolls cost the U.S. economy nearly $30 billion per year... With the Microsoft's Android patents no longer a secret, you can expect to see more disgruntled Android manufacturers taking Microsoft to court instead of simply putting up and paying up like they've always done...."


TODAYonline
Groups Accuse Apple Supplier of Labor Violations
New York Times
The allegations involve employees at a factory in the eastern China city of Suqian that is owned by Catcher Technology, a Taiwan company, and that ...


Wall Street Journal
Apple Watch to Allow Mobile Payments
Wall Street Journal
Apple also is expected to add the wireless technology to the next versions of its iPhone, people familiar with the device said, potentially simplifying the ...


CBS News
Even If You Use Apple's Two-Step Verification, Your Photos Are Still At Risk
Huffington Post
But as Michael Rose at TUAW, an Apple news site, noted on Tuesday, ... Google,Facebook, Twitter and Apple are among the companies that offer the ... I'm a technologyreporter who takes my online security very seriously, and I ...
Apple's iCloud woes come just as it doubles down on the cloud - Washington Post
How and Why to Turn On Two-Step Verification for Your Apple, Google, and Yahoo Accounts - Yahoo Tech
Apple security breach causes investor panic, stock slide ahead of iPhone 6 launch - ZDNet


Modern Readers
Apple stock plunges amid celebrity hacking, ahead of purported iWatch announcement
Washington Post
More quantifiable was the downward lurch Wednesday that pushed the market value ofApple down by $26.1 billion. That's the price tag USA Today ...

Google Hires Leading Researcher to Build a Quantum Computer | MIT Technology Review: "Google is about to begin designing and building hardware for a quantum computer, a type of machine that can exploit quantum physics to solve problems that would take a conventional computer millions of years...."

Amazon, Microsoft may invest in Cyanogen to better compete with Google - Silicon Valley Business Journal: "...The report said that Cyanogen is planning a large Series C round of funding. It has raised about $30 million to date from investors who include Andreessen Horowitz, Tencent, Benchmark and Redpoint Ventures. The company faces the usual challenges of startups that are built on open source software that is supported by enthusiastic developers. It would likely need to find services and apps that it can charge for on top of CyanogenMod. But if it is acquired by a handset maker like Microsoft or Amazon, it could become an important differentiator from makers of other Android-powered devices."

Chromebooks: Going offline to compete | ZDNet: ... quite a few apps work offline; there's even a section in the Chrome Web Store that makes them easy to find. This improvement, coupled with the fact that like PCs and Macs users are rarely offline, make Chrome work like most platforms. Google isn't content with this, and recently mandated that legacy packaged apps must go away by the end of the year, and will get kicked out of the store...

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