UK News
Fisker recalling 239 Karmas to fix battery fault
Luxury electric vehicles maker Fisker Automotive is recalling 239 Karmas plug-in hybrid sports cars to fix a battery problem that could result into fire.
In a report filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fisker admitted that there was a possibility that hope clamps in some cars were not properly positioned, which could lead to a coolant leak and fire.
Admitting the fault, the luxury car maker said, "If coolant enters the battery compartment, an electrical short could occur possible resulting in a fire."
Apple, Samsung saw rise in their mobile hardware shares; LG, Motorola & RIM suffers fall
While Apple's and Samsung saw their US market shares increasing in the three months to November 11, LG, Motorola and RIM suffered continued to decline.
According to market research firm ComScore, Apple's market share in the US jumped the most from the previous three months, i. e. 1.4 per cent, to grab 11.2 per cent of the market share. With that much share, the Cupertino, Calif.-based gadgets maker stood at fourth position.
Google+ may gain more than 400M users by end of 2012
Growth of Google+ has really stepped up during recent weeks, and the new social networking service may more than 400 million users by the end of 2012, a self-appointed “unofficial statistician” of the service said.
Paul Allen, founder of Ancestry. com, said that Google+ has gained as many as 625,000 new users per day over the recent weeks, and move at that rate it should have more than 400 million users by the finish of next year.
Anonymous posts larger database containing Stratfor clients’ personal data
Hacking group Anonymous on Thursday posted a database containing personal information about hundreds of thousands customers of Texas-based global intelligence firm Stratfor.
Last week, Anonymous hacked the computer security of Startfor and slipped away with personal information about its corporate clients such as the U. S. Army, U. S. Air Force, and Miami Police Department, along with anyone who ever subscribed to the intelligence firm’s newsletters or website.
Samsung still dominates US mobile phone market: fresh figures show
While popular gadgets maker Apple is stretching its reach, rival electronics manufacturer Samsung is leading supplier of mobile phones in the US, figures compiled by market researcher ComScore revealed.
According to ComScore, 25.6 per cent of US mobile subscribers in the quarter to November 11 had Samsung handsets, while Apple handsets accounted for only 11.2 per cent.
Flurry Analytics: 6.8 million people activated their Apple and Android devices on Christmas Day
According to mobile metrics firm Flurry Analytics, as many as 6.8 million people activated their Apple and Android devices on December 25, the Christmas Day --- with the figures marking a more than two-fold increase from the 2.5 million devices which were fired up on the same day in 2010.
As per Flurry Analytics - which keeps track of activity from 140,000 apps -, during the days prior to Christmas, the daily activations of the Apple iPhones and Android-based handsets touched nearly 1.5 million.
Nintendo 3DS sells over 4mn units in Japan; first paid DLC title announced
In an announcement just before Christmas, Enterbrain - which publishes the Japanese magazine Famitsu - revealed that the sales of the Nintendo 3DS in Japan had crossed the `4 million' mark; with 500,000 units of the device having been sold during the Christmas week alone!
The Nintendo 3DS witnessed a rather rough start, both in critical and financial terms, with the rather tepid customer response to the device - which was launched in Japan in February - resulting in a plunge in the stocks for the game company in July.
New ‘Spire’ tool brings Siri to jailbroken iOS 5 devices
Developers Grant Paul and Ryan Petrich have come up with a new tool called `Spire,' which is capable of successfully porting the Apple iPhone 4S' Siri personal assistant to other `jailbroken' iOS 5 devices.
Police rescues woman, child from hostage situation, thanks to Facebook
Sandy police has confirmed that it had arrested 33-year-old Troy Critchfield on suspicion of holding a woman and her 17-month-old son captive at a residence for nearly five days.
As per documents filed with the Salt Lake County jail, the woman, whose identity hasn’t been released, posted a message on social-networking site Facebook pleading for help. In the message, she said that the feared that she would be ‘dead by the morning’.
Boxee releases final desktop version
Boxee, the inventor of Boxee Boxes that that stream live videos to TV sets, is releasing newest 1.5 update for PCs and Boxee Box devices.
The update is being tested by select Boxee Box owners with plans to roll out a public beta in January, but Windows, Mac and Linux-based PC owners can download the newest build starting today.
The latest version of the software brings various improvements to the interface of the entertainment hub.
Kindle Fire hacked to run Android 4.0
The team behind XDA-developers has posted a video showing how they successfully hacked Amazon's Kindle Fire and installed Android 4.0 (codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich) on it.
It is the first time that the Kindle Fire has been showed running a tablet version of Android, and not its customized version of Android 2.3 (codenamed Gingerbread), which is smartphone version of the Google's mobile operating system.
The innovative folks at XDA-developers have called it "pre-alpha", apparently because it technically works, but it is extremely buggy.
AT&T searching for new direction after failed T-Mobile merger
After the failure of the proposed $39 billion merger deal with T-Mobile, Dallas, Texas-based AT&T is now mulling back up plans to look for ways to expand its extremely crowded spectrum.
While AT&T had pinned its hopes on the T-mobile merger for relieving a chunk of its spectrum, the failed merger has now left both the concerned companies searching for solution that may underscore a new fruitful direction.
Google’s musical holiday-themed doodle for Christmas
With Christmas being yet another calendar-marking day for Google to celebrate with a Google Doodle, the occasion was rejoiced by Google with a musical holiday-themed doodle, boasting interactive flashing lights and the ‘Jingle Bells’ tune.
The Christmas Google Doodle, which the Internet search giant brought on its search page as an early present for Christmas, unfolded itself with multi-hued lights in a square shape. The Internet users’ random click on the lights replaced the six-letter word G-O-O-G-L-E with items underscoring the holiday theme.
24 attorneys general support proposed graphic cigarette warning labels
Twenty-four attorneys general from across the US have voiced their support for proposed graphic cigarette warning labels like a picture of diseased lungs and a sewn-up corpse of a smoker.
The Attorneys general from twenty-four states, including Alaska, Arizona, Ohio, Illinois, Idaho, California, Connecticut, Utah, Maryland and Washington, filed a “friend of the court” brief last Friday with the US Court of Appeals in Washington in support of the Food & Drug Administration's challenge of a lower court ruling in the case.
Mozilla to get nearly $300M a year from its renewed deal with Google: report
Mozilla will reportedly get nearly three times as much for making Google its default search engine in its Firefox browser.
According to AllThingsDigital, Google will now pay the non-profit organization behind the open source web browser $300 million per year over the next three year to remain the default search engine in Firefox.
Previously, Google was paying just $100 million per year.
BBM Canada sues RIM over use of BBM name
Toronto, Canada-based radio & TV industry group BBM Canada dragged Research In Motion (RIM) to court, accusing the BlackBerry-maker of breaching its BBM trademark. BBM Canada is opposing RIM's use of the "BBM" shorthand mark for its BlackBerry Messenger service, saying it would mislead customers.
The radio & TV industry group said it filed the suit against RIM after its several attempts to resolve the issue through talks failed.
NPD Group: 27% of photos and videos now captured on smartphones
According to the findings of a recent survey conducted by NPD Group, smartphones are fast emerging as a preferred choice for clicking pictures and shooting videos; with over one quarter - 27 percent, to be precise - of the photos and videos in the US now being shot using smartphones.
Third-party e-reader app Wattpad now available for use for Kindle Fire owners
The owners of the new Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon will henceforth be able to use the third party e-reader app, Wattpad, to read e-books on their tablet; with the online retail giant no longer hiding the competitor's app in the Kindle Fire's Amazon Appstore.
Software update for Kindle Fire promises several improvements
Online retailer Amazon has issued a software update for its Kindle Fire to address problems like unreliable scrolling, inept apps and coldness of touch navigation.
The newly released update improves the responsiveness of touch navigation and the swiftness of actions on the tablet. Thus, users will now be able to load webpages swiftly in the tablet's Web browser.
The software update also adds some new features like the one that allows Fire tablet users to edit what shows up in their "carousel" of recent apps as well as content displayed on the devise's home-screen.
Facebook agrees to improve privacy policy
Social networking giant Facebook has finally agreed to make required improvements to its privacy policy, Irish Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes announced.
The Data Protection Commissioner said that Facebook would make more than a dozen improvements to its privacy policy within the next six months.
It may be noted here that Facebook stores all user data and operations outside the UUS and Canada in Ireland.