Items tagged with USA
It should strike no one as a surprise at this point that the US and China have a bit of a strained relationship when it comes to trust. Both have accused each other of cyber offenses, and likewise, neither has much faith in the products it sources from the other. Post-Snowden, the situation has only become worse. That leads us to this point, where China is demanding that American companies that sell software products to Chinese banks must hand over their source code to be reviewed. And, it gets even better. China also wants these same companies to begin using Beijing-sanctioned algorithms in lieu of their preferred algorithms. Flickr: Yves Doutreligne This all boils down to the absolute lack...
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The nimble fingered folks at iFixIt got their mitts on one of Apple's refreshed iMac models, so naturally the first thing they did was put it on the operating table for a full dissection. Before cracking the 21.5-inch iMac open, however, they discovered an interesting tidbit. On the back, sitting below the FCC stamp and various other certifications, it says that this particular model was "Assembled in USA." Apple isn't moving its manufacturing operations to the U.S. entirely, because if the company did that, you can bet there would be plenty of fanfare and ballyhooing coming from Cupertino. But the real reason we know this is because there are new iMacs in the wild that still say "Made in China,"...
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Can there ever be enough Wi-Fi in the sky? Conventional wisdom says "no," and it's a good thing, too. Gogo, the company responsible for providing in-air Internet to the vast majority of U.S. domestic flights, is doing everything it can to provide similar services in Canada. The goal here is to provide seamless connectivity service between U.S. and Canada for both commercial and business aviation, and considering just how many flights there are between the two nations each day (not to mention those flights to Alaska that spend most of their time in Canadian space), it's probably a goal worth pursuing. Announced this week, Industry Canada has issued Gogo a subordinate license for Canada's air-to-ground...
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It's no surprise to anyone that Apple is doing well, but it may be surprising to many that the company is doing better financially than its own home country. Latest figures from the US Treasury Department show that the country has an operating cash balance of $73.7 billion, while Apple's most recent postings show a balance of $76.4 billion. Apple's good news comes at a critical time for the U.S.: the US House of Representatives is currently languishing over a coming vote on a bill to raise the country's debt ceiling, which will allow it to borrow more money to cover spending commitments. If the current limit of $14.3 trillion is not extended, the federal government could find itself struggling...
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Netflix just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and better and better. Cable TV isn't going anywhere soon, but when it does, it will have Netflix to thank for pushing it out of the way. Netflix, and NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution today announced an expanded license agreement through which Netflix members can instantly watch a selection of broadcast series from the NBC television network and – for the first time on Netflix – content from some of NBC Universal's popular cable channels. The deal includes prior season episodes from NBC, USA, Syfy and Saturday Night Live re-runs, and the new content will be available for viewing starting next week. The exact details of what's...
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No wonder the Pentagon is bracing for all manners of cyber warfare. Late last week, officials reported that the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service saw some of their computers "shut down" after a virus attack overwhelmed them. Reportedly, the virus stemmed from an invasion at the Marshals Service, with an FBI spokesperson noting that it was just one of several agencies "facing similar issues."Technicians disconnected the Marshals system from the Justice Department's computer system in order to proactively prevent any further spreading, though Marshals spokesman Nikki Credic insisted that "at no time was data compromised by the virus." She also stated that the origin of the bug and its type were...
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NEW YORK (AP) — With e-book sales exploding in an otherwise sleepy market, Random House Inc. announced Monday that it was making thousands of additional books available in digital form, including novels by John Updike and Harlan Coben, as well as several volumes of the Magic Treehouse children's series. Random House CEO Markus Dohle said in a statement that "more people everyday are enjoying reading in the electronic format and Random House wants to extend our reach to them with more of our books." The publisher already has more than 8,000 books in the electronic format and will have a digital library of nearly 15,000. The new round of e-books is expected to be completed within months; excerpts...
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On Thursday Comcast announced a 250 GB cap for their broadband service. We applauded the fact that they finally gave some transparency to their "hidden" cap, which had always snagged a few users, without telling them exactly how much their use should be, but then we realized: where's the meter? Time-Warner Cable is currently trying out metered service in Beaumont, TX. Their caps are lower, but they do provide one thing: a page you can go to in order to check your usage. And what's interesting is the response you get if you ask Comcast about any plans for a meter: Charlie Douglas, who is Director of Corporate Communications for Comcast's Online & Voice Services, and who wrote us back...
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Shipments of computers for personal use jumped by 14.6 percent worldwide in the first quarter, well above prior estimates of 13.2%, according to market research firms IDC and Gartner, and reported at Digitimes. The market in the USA had a weak showing compared to other areas of the globe, but still clocked in with a respectable 3.5% year over year growth. And the term "personal computer" is really starting to mean something now. We're likely to continue to move from a computer in every house to one in every lap for the foreseeable future. As with previous quarters, much of the growth came from the notebook markets, and in particular the consumer notebook segment in retail environments....
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It's another market, ruggedized laptops. And since Dell is still in full recovery mode, given the opportunity, why not enter it? The Latitude XFR D630 is basically a Latitude D630 in full body armor built to withstand extreme temperatures, falls, moisture, dust, and more. Dell isn't really breaking any new ground here. Panasonic has been doing its Toughbook thing for a while now, and neither is Dell trying to beat Panasonic with lower prices. At a starting price of $3,899, that's more than the lowest-priced configuration of the Panasonic Toughbook CF-30, the Latitude's closest equivalent. So why rugged and why now? Is Dell "tough enough?" It's certainly pricey enough, but while it's...
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Researchers at MIT have developed chip architecture that runs on 70 percent less voltage than a conventional processor. The savings in power consumption would have profound effects on the battery life you could expect from portable devices. They may even require only movement and body heat to power chip-enabled sensors and communication devices. "It will extend the battery lifetime of portable devices in areas like medical electronics," said Anantha Chandrakasan, a professor of electrical engineering at MIT. "When you look at the digital processor, the fact is that we may be able to reduce the energy needed by 10 times."Better circuit design and batteries have already led to smaller, more-mobile...
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After nearly a quarter-century of retail business, it seems that CompUSA will officially close their doors for the last time in early 2008. This news follows an attempt started earlier this year to reorganize the chain and make it more efficient. The timing of this announcement couldn't have been worse for any of the employees of the company who survived the early 2007 restructuring.Here a little snip:“Consumer electronics retailer CompUSA said Friday it will close its stores after the holidays following sale of the company to an affiliate of Gordon Brothers Group, a restructuring firm.CompUSA operates 103 stores, which plan to run store-closing sales during the holidays.Privately...
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It is rather ironic that the country that initiated the commercial Internet phenomenon is now near rock bottom in terms of broadband connection speeds, as compared to other industrialized nations, according to a report by the Washington-based CWA (Communications Workers of America). Yes we are talking about the United States, which claims a median speed of just 1.97 Mbps. The state of Iowa is one of the more deprived regions at 1.2 megabits. With worse speeds still are the states of Alaska, Wyoming, and West Virginia. On the bright side, those who live in Rhode Island are a bit more fortunate with 5.01 megabits. Even the states of New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts may have something to...
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CompUSA is expected to close over half their stores over the next couple of months, dumping their least profitable stores in favor of the top performing ones. Over the next 60 to 90 days, they plan to close 126 stores total, leaving 103 stores left in the US and Puerto Rico. "The company, which is closing stores as part of a cost-cutting and restructuring effort, said that five Bay Area stores -- the ones in Pleasanton, Concord, Emryville, Vacaville and San Mateo will be shuttered. It was unclear whether additional California stores will close. The Dallas company said it would get a $440 million cash capital infusion as part of its realignment...
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