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Don’t Buy an HP TouchPad to Run Android | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

August 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

So I hear thousands of people are buying HP TouchPads because they want to run Android on the tablets, an operating system which does not yet run on the TouchPad. Stop now. You must stop. If you’re buying a TouchPad in the hope that soon “TouchDroid” will have a great, stable, fast version of Android for it, you are falling into a major geek trap.

Never, ever buy a product based on a feature it doesn’t have.

I get questions all the time from people who want to buy stuff based on manufacturer promises that may never be fulfilled (or worse, based on Internet rumors of possible future features.) Someone emailed me today asking if I could absolutely guarantee that the Samsung Omnia 7 Windows Phone will get the next version of its OS, dubbed Mango. No. There are no guarantees. If you want Mango, wait until there are phones running Mango, and purchase one of them.

There’s a great 1980s song which goes, “Never had a doubt, never a doubt … promises, promises, why do I believe?” (And now that video is the best thing you’ve seen all day.) We want to trust. Promises are seductive.

But promises are also constantly betrayed, and not always by choice. Unexpected roadblocks pop up. Companies get sold. Things that once looked possible prove surprisingly difficult.

via Don’t Buy an HP TouchPad to Run Android | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

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Defendants’ “Completely Ineffective” Review Procedure and Failure to Rectify the Inadvertent Disclosure in a Timely Way Results in Finding of Waiver : Electronic Discovery Law

August 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Thorncreek Apartments III, LLC v. Vill. of Park Forest, Nos. 8 C 1225, 08-C-0869, 08-C-4303, 2011 WL 3489828 (N.D. Ill. Aug. 9, 2011)

The court held that privilege was waived as to inadvertently produced documents where defendants failed to take reasonable steps to prevent disclosure and failed to rectify the error in a timely way.  In so finding, the court cited defendants’ failure to conduct a final check before production, the failure of the process to protect any privilege (all privileged documents were produced), the nine months between production and discovery of the disclosure, and the failure to timely produce a privilege log, among other things.

Defendants had a three-step process to respond to discovery.  First, backup tapes were searched using agreed upon and court-ordered search terms.  The documents identified by the search were then placed by a vendor into an online database for review by defense counsel.  Following that review, documents released by defendants were placed in an online production database for plaintiffs to access.  It was intended that plaintiffs would have access to both responsive and non-responsive documents.  However, defense counsel was “‘under the impression’ that documents . . . marked ‘privileged’ . . . would be automatically withheld from the production database . . . .”

Nine months after production began (and at least two months after it ended), the inadvertent production came to the attention of defendants when plaintiffs attempted to use two privileged documents at deposition, to which defense counsel objected.  Following that deposition, defense counsel contacted plaintiffs’ counsel to inform him that certain privileged documents had been inadvertently produced.  Four months later, defendants produced a privilege log for the first time, which identified 159 documents that had been inadvertently produced.  No other documents were identified as withheld from production.  Thus, it was presumed that all documents identified as privileged during the review had been inadvertently produced.  Plaintiffs claimed that privilege had been waived and the parties were able to independently resolve their disputes as to all but six documents.

via Defendants’ “Completely Ineffective” Review Procedure and Failure to Rectify the Inadvertent Disclosure in a Timely Way Results in Finding of Waiver : Electronic Discovery Law.

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Twitter Co-Founders Announce New App to ‘Unlock Potential’ | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

August 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announced in June that he would step away from his day-to-day duties at Twitter in order to restart technology incubator Obvious Corp. Stone on Tuesday revealed the first, albeit vague, details of Obvious Corp.’s first project, an app called Lift.

In a post titled “Unlocking Potential,” Stone described Lift as an app “for unlocking human potential through positive reinforcement.”

“We love this software for what it does, and because we’ve tried it and it works,” he continued. “Our plan is to build something extraordinary together.”

Stone said Obvious will help Lift with strategy, design, funding, recruiting, and noted that Obvious will own stake in the app. Beyond that, information about Lift is scant; Stone didn’t provide any details about what the new app actually does.

via Twitter Co-Founders Announce New App to ‘Unlock Potential’ | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

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AFP: Google to settle US online drug probe for $500 million: NYT

August 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Google will pay $500 million to settle charges that it sold advertisements to illicit online pharmacies based in Canada, US justice officials announced on Wednesday.

The Canadian online pharmacies broke the law by selling prescription drugs to Americans without complying with US safety standards, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

The pharmacies used Google’s Adwords programs to target customers in the United States, and the Internet search giant allowed the ads to appear on its website from 2003 to 2009, it said.

Google first disclosed that it was under investigation in a May filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and set aside $500 million in anticipation of the results of the probe.

via AFP: Google to settle US online drug probe for $500 million: NYT.

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Dutch court bans Samsung Galaxy S, SII and Ace in Europe starting Oct. 15 – Computerworld

August 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A court in The Hague on Wednesday banned the shipping of three Samsung Galaxy smartphones to Europe as of Oct. 15, ruling that the company has infringed an Apple photo management patent.

The Samsung Galaxy S, SII and Ace were banned because Samsung infringes on Apple’s EP 2.058.868 patent, the court found. The patent is titled “Portable Electronic Device for Photo Management” and describes a way to scroll through a photo gallery using finger gestures on a touchscreen.

Samsung infringes the Apple patent by using Android 2.3 in the three phones, according to the ruling by Judge E.F. Brinkman. Android 3.x that is used for tablets does not infringe this patent. The patent issue can be fixed by updating the Android software on the phones to Android 3.x, Samsung said in court earlier this month and that point was also noted by the judge in the ruling.

via Dutch court bans Samsung Galaxy S, SII and Ace in Europe starting Oct. 15 – Computerworld.

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E-Discovery: 9 points impacting discovery costs | InsideCounsel.com

August 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Some of the important trends include:

Discretionary Cost-Shifting. While the federal rules are silent on who should bear the cost of retrieving “inaccessible data,” certain states (e.g. Texas) require that a judge order a party requesting inaccessible data to incur the cost of producing it. Other states (like California and Mississippi) give the judge the option to shift the cost of producing “inaccessible” ESI. Given that the retrieval and production of “inaccessible data” can easily run cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, the discretion (or obligation) to shift those costs can have a significant impact on the litigation budget.

The Meet and Confer. Some states (like New York and Delaware) have made the “meet and confer” the cornerstone of their methodology for managing e-discovery, while other states have abandoned the requirement altogether. Do not miss this opportunity to seize control of the e-discovery process. Skipping an early “meet and confer” may appear to save money and avoid the aggravation of dealing with the “unreasonable” opposition; however, more progressive literature on e-discovery suggests that the “meet and confer” actually saves costs in the long-run and helps insulates the parties against the risk of e-discovery “do-overs” and even more severe sanctions.

Safe Harbor. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e) forbids a court from ordering sanctions against a party who has destroyed potentially relevant ESI “as a result of the routine, good-faith operation of an electronic information system.” Although practitioners debate how “safe” the harbor really is in federal courts, several states have eliminated the “safe harbor” altogether. This means that litigation holds in state courts should be implemented as soon as litigation is reasonably anticipated.

Sanctions. It also is important to know what activities (or failure to act) will prompt the court in your jurisdiction to levy sanctions. Counsel should not assume (especially in states that don’t follow the federal rules) that state courts will levy sanctions in the same manner and for the same conduct as federal courts. This analysis will inform your discovery strategy and help insulate against the risk of state court sanctions.

via E-Discovery: 9 points impacting discovery costs.

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White House pledges new Net privacy approach | Privacy Inc. – CNET News

August 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A White House aide today previewed the administration’s forthcoming approach to Internet consumer protection, saying it will provide “privacy law without regulation.”

“Businesses that are engaged in responsible privacy practices today ought not to face any additional burdens,” said Danny Weitzner, associate administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) who’s on assignment to the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Weitzner suggested during a discussion at a Technology Policy Institute conference here that: “You can have stronger privacy law, clearer rules, clearer principles established in law, without the costs and downsides of a traditional regulatory structure.”

In December, the U.S. Commerce Department outlined proposals for how federal laws regulating companies’ data collection practices could be updated, but stopped short of specific recommendations for legislation. An administration-wide white paper is expected this fall.

Lawrence Strickling, the NTIA’s administrator (the agency is part of the Commerce Department) suggested to Congress in March that it should enact a “consumer privacy bill of rights” that would mandate broad privacy protections. Some possibilities–Strickling, too, avoided specifics–include requiring companies to describe the purpose for which they’re collecting data, and keeping it secure once collected.

via White House pledges new Net privacy approach | Privacy Inc. – CNET News.

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Will Android, Ubuntu Help Save HP’s TouchPad?

August 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The TouchPad iteration of HP’s (and formerly Palm’s) webOS is now considered DoA, despite showing promise in terms of hardware and software capability. After all, who would want to buy a device that doesn’t have a bright future in terms of official support and developer ecosystem? But recent developments in the smartphone and tablet hacking scene might just be the magic bullet that HP’s TouchPad needs.

Developers responsible for the custom CyanogenMod custom Android implementation are working on porting Google’s Android operating system to the TouchPad. Another team is working on porting Ubuntu Linux to the same hardware. Once either of these launches, the TouchPad would become more valuable than its current $99 street price. After all, $99 gets you an Android device running on high-end hardware. This certainly opens up possibilities, particularly when you compare the size of the webOS ecosystem (a few thousand apps) to Android’s (about half a million).

via Will Android, Ubuntu Help Save HP’s TouchPad?.

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RankMyHack lets hackers compete | TG Daily

August 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In recent months, long-time hackers have become just a little miffed with some of the new kids on the block and their automated DDoS attacks – script kiddies, they mutter, darkly.

And one UK hacker, Solar, has become annoyed enough to launch a new website aimed at separating the men from the boys.

RankMyHack does just what it says. Hackers – and around 700 have joined up so far – must submit evidence that they’ve actually carried out the attack they claim by planting a code somewhere on the compromised website.

“Up until now, when you met another hacker on an IRC or forum, there was no way to indicate if that hacker had any skills whatsoever, RankMyHack.com was built to give a clear indication of a hacker’s general abilities,” explains Solar.

“It also serves the purpose of tracking a hackers hacking achievements under their current alias, allowing for other hackers to quickly establish the calibre of hacker they are talking to.”

Points are scored for the difficulty of the hack, as well as the size of the website. There are bounties for racist sites, as well as for those belonging to universities, the military and governments.

Right now, Mudkip is top of the leaderboard with a claimed hack of the Huffington Post, followed by Blackfan for an attack on Google.

via RankMyHack lets hackers compete | TG Daily.

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Lenovo ThinkPad Honeycomb Tablet Up For Sale, Shipping Soon – The Washington Post

August 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Lenovo’s ThinkPad Tablet is meant for business types, but it just might be the best Honeycomb tablet available right now. It was announced late last month alongside the consumer-oriented IdeaPad K1 and the Windows version, the P1. Well, Lenovo is finally ready to take your credit card in exchange for a place in the shipping line. The tablet starts out at $499 for the 16GB, WiFi-only model and climbs to $669 for a 64GB flavor — 3G mobile broadband will not be available until October.

The ThinkPad Tablet comes dressed in appropriate digs; it looks like a ThinkPad tablet should. The lines are streight, the style all business, and there’s even a little red nub on the optional $30 active digitizer stylus. The rest of the tablet is a standard affair and built around a Tegra 2 platform. There’s a full size 3-in-1 SD card reader, full size USB host, micro USB port, mini HDMI, dual cams, and an IPS screen protected with Gorilla Glass.

via Lenovo ThinkPad Honeycomb Tablet Up For Sale, Shipping Soon – The Washington Post.

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