bonch writes "A massive Android malware campaign may be responsible for duping as many as 5 million users into downloading the Android.Counterclan infection from the Google Android Market. The trojan collects the user's personal information, modifies the home page, and displays unwanted advertisements. It is packaged in 13 different applications, some of which have been on the store for at least a month. Several of the malicious apps are still available on the Android Market as of 3 P.M. ET. Symantec has posted the full list of infected applications."

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All of new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins' fresh ideas will apparently still be revealed to the company's board in a couple of weeks, but he's already dropped some gems in interviews with the Wall Street Journal and Reuters (update: and Bloomberg). First item on the agenda? Getting current users upgraded to the latest and greatest BlackBerry hardware. Citing internal statistics that indicate 80- to 90- percent of the company's customer base aren't running BlackBerry 7 hardware yet, it will work closely with US carriers to promote upgrades until the new BB10 devices hit later this year. There's no word on what the carrier deals include, but he hinted at device or preloaded app bundles. He also promised an LTE version of the PlayBook would arrive this spring, with LTE connected handsets also planned for the BlackBerry 10 lineup. Is that enough to turn around RIM's fortunes in the US, where he acknowledged the company is "a turnaround candidate"? We'll find out, but as obvious as the need to placate the already BBM-addicted may be, execution of the plan is everything.

Shocker! New RIM CEO targets existing BlackBerry users for upgrades originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Twitter announced it would withhold tweets country-by-country based on local restrictions, it said it was being more transparent. But some users disagree.

New submitter Required Snark writes "UC Davis researchers have found a mechanism where the sodium in sea water can cause uranium nano-particles to be released from nuclear reactor fuel rods. Normally the uranium oxide compounds composing the rods are very resistant to leaching into water. This could have serious consequences for the Fukushima disaster, since sea water was used for emergency cooling."

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St. Petersburg, Russia-based Andrey N. Sabelnikov says he is "absolutely not guilty" of participating in the creation of the huge spam network that Microsoft shut down last September.

Hackers are attacking sites and looking to expose information on European officials in response to the signing of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. ACTA critics say it's even worse than the Stop Online Piracy Act floated in the U.S.

MasterCard is all over the map when it comes to mobile payments. The credit company will partner with anyone, anywhere, anytime if it means getting new customers and making a buck on the deal. Its latest offering is called QkR, an Australian effort with support from the Hoyts chain of movie theaters and Commonwealth Bank. The initial trial run will be at La Premiere cinemas, where customers will be able to order and pay for food and beverages right from their seat with the QkR app. To initiate the transaction a you scan the QR code or tap the NFC tag attached to the arm rest, and a staff member delivers the trough of popcorn and kiddie pool of coke right to your seat. Now all we need is this sort of high-end treatment in American movie theaters. Check out the video after the break to see it in action.

Continue reading MasterCard's QkR mobile payment system enters trial in Australia

MasterCard's QkR mobile payment system enters trial in Australia originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The bean counters at Sony need to make up their minds on how they are pricing PS Vita games.

Windows 8 on ARM is coming along nicely, thank you, according to a couple of sources with whom CNET spoke.

This week's collection of games relies less on graphics and more on solid gameplay. If you don't mind simple graphics and just want a good pick-up-and play game, this is your collection.

New submitter MikeatWired writes "If you're like most people, you're annoyed by passwords. So who's to blame? Who invented the computer password? They probably arrived at MIT in the mid-1960s, when researchers built a massive time-sharing computer called CTSS. Technology changes. But, then again, it doesn't, writes Bob McMillan. Twenty-five years after the fact, Allan Scherr, a Ph.D. researcher at MIT in the early '60s, came clean about the earliest documented case of password theft. In the spring of 1962, Scherr was looking for a way to bump up his usage time on CTSS. He had been allotted four hours per week, but it wasn't nearly enough time to run the detailed performance simulations he'd designed for the new computer system. So he simply printed out all of the passwords stored on the system. 'There was a way to request files to be printed offline by submitting a punched card,' he remembered in a pamphlet (PDF) written last year to commemorate the invention of the CTSS. 'Late one Friday night, I submitted a request to print the password files and very early Saturday morning went to the file cabinet where printouts were placed and took the listing.' To spread the guilt around, Scherr then handed the passwords over to other users. One of them — J.C.R. Licklieder — promptly started logging into the account of the computer lab's director Robert Fano, and leaving 'taunting messages' behind."

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Israel announces plans to build national broadband network, increases fiber intake originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo says it's streamlining its online experience across multiple platforms. Here's what the company needs to do for it to work.

This cute, bendy little guy works not only as a smartphone hanger-upper, but also a stand, a charging base, and even a doorstop.

A newly unearthed e-mail exchange between Apple's Steve Jobs and Google's Eric Schmidt shows Jobs actively telling Google not to try to hire its employees, resulting in the firing of at least one recruiter.

Coded magnets could introduce new means of data transfer and user interfaces, indicates patent application uncovered by Patently Apple.

If Google+ and Google search aren't two different things, there's no conflict in emphasizing Google+ in search results. Right?

Instead of complaining about the FCC's decision to squash the T-Mobile merger and blaming the agency for raising prices, AT&T needs to shut up and move on.

The D-Link DIR-827 is a very good true dual-band router that needs a firmware upgrade so it can live up to its potential.

The bean counters at Sony need to make up their minds on how they are pricing PS Vita games.

CNET takes a hands-on look at the new Mog online music system in a BMW 650i. Relying on an iPhone, the Mog interface lets the driver choose from 14 million tracks.

An anonymous reader writes "A bit early, but just a reminder that January 28 is international Data Privacy Day in the U.S., Canada, and many European countries. Various events are being held around the globe: the head of the FTC opened a weekend forum on the topic by calling out Facebook and Google, the Ontario Privacy Commissioner is holding a symposium on 'Surveillance by Design', and of course Google recently announced they'll be tracking you more thoroughly in the future."

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New submitter Krazy Kanuck writes "The White House is running a story on their OSTP blog that Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra is stepping down after being appointed to the post by President Obama in 2009. There is some mention of him returning to his home state of Virginia, and the Washington Post suggests a possible bid for lieutenant governor."

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slew writes "This is a followup to this earlier story about 2 of 3 of Rambus's 'critical' patents being invalidated. Apparently now it's a hat-trick." There's something that seems unsavory and wasteful about a business environment in which a company's stock value "fluctuates sharply on its successes and failures in patent litigation and licensing." The linked article offers a brief but decent summary of the way Rambus has profited over the years from these now-invalidated patents.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

sighted writes "This week's huge solar storm will benefit future astronauts, thanks to the rover Curiosity, now on its way to Mars. The rover is equipped with an instrument that measures the radiation exposure that could affect a human astronaut en route to the Red Planet. Scientists are just starting to pore over the data from the blast of particles. Don't worry about the poor robotic geologist, though: 'No harmful effects to the Mars Science Laboratory have been detected from this solar event,' says NASA."

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Continue reading FCC Fridays: January 27, 2012

FCC Fridays: January 27, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint customers can download a bundle of Gameloft games, wallpaper, and other content all in one fell swoop.

Microsoft's Kinect motion control technology might be on laptops sooner than you think. Whether it makes sense...well, that's another story.

The European Commission OKs Sony's buyout of the Sony Ericsson brand, bringing us one step closer to Sony-branded mobile phones.

Beautifully crafted and artfully sculpted, Sony's Xperia S was one of the slickest smartphones we saw at CES 2012. Now it looks like it could arrive on AT&T.