Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » août 3, 2010

BetaNews.Com (5 non lus)

Microsoft's Bing Maps ties into the open source OpenStreetMap community

Publié: août 3, 2010, 11:50pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Microsoft's Bing Maps unveiled a host of new features and functions this week, including the public beta of a revamped user experience with new visuals and dynamic map labels, and a handful of new Bing Map Apps submitted for the King of the Maps competition. One of the newest apps now ties Bing Maps into the OpenStreetMap community, the online map comprised entirely of free and open geographic data, edited by users in the fashion of Wikipedia.
"We've taken the OSM data as is, created tiles to fit our tile schema and are hosting it on our Windows Azure [Content Delivery Network]," Chris Pendleton said in the Bing Maps community blog. "This means, pure OSM data coming down at screaming fast speeds from the massive Windows Azure infrastructure built out to support globally distributed applications…like Bing Maps."
Bing Maps started using Windows Azure CDN in 2009 to deliver its image tiles, which amount to more than 2 petabytes of (256 x 256) aerial photographs. The tiles are cached across the Content Delivery Network so when a customer requests a map, the nearest Content Delivery Network node can compile the tiles and send them back quicker for rendering.
The new OpenStreetMap layer can be found in Bing's Maps App Gallery, Once loaded into your Bing Maps, it can then be selected in the "Map Types" menu.
According to OSM's most recent data, it has 283,810 active users, who have uploaded 1,848,893,082 GPS points to the map.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Microsoft - Bing - Bing Maps - Wikipedia - OpenStreetMap
RIM: No back door into encrypted BlackBerry messages for any government

Publié: août 3, 2010, 8:51pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Tuesday, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion confirmed that it will not provide a backdoor into its encrypted messages for the purposes of local government surveillance, despite the demands of certain countries.
Since 2007, Research in Motion has had difficulties building a BlackBerry service in India, due to the Indian Ministry of Telecommunications' demands for an unencrypted e-mail messaging system. The Ministry expressed concern that the BlackBerry messaging system could serve as a method of communication for dissidents who want to be untraceable.
Indeed, the system is viewed as a security risk not only in India, but also in the United Arab Emirates and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said it would suspend BlackBerry Messenger, email and Web browsing services beginning on October 11th if RIM does not provide a solution for local messaging control. State-run operator Saudi Telecom followed by banning BlackBerry Messenger.
In Late July, India's Ministry of Home Affairs and Department of Telecommunication said "If they don't follow our guidelines, we will have no option but to ask them to stop their operations in India."
RIM issued an official statement responding to the threats on Tuesday, which provided a bulleted list of why the company cannot concede to the governments' demands.
"The BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers is based on a symmetric key system whereby the customer creates their own key and only the customer ever possesses a copy of their encryption key. RIM does not possess a 'master key', nor does any 'back door' exist in the system that would allow RIM or any third party to gain unauthorized access to the key or corporate data.
The BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers is purposefully designed to exclude the capability for RIM or any third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances. RIM would simply be unable to accommodate any request for a copy of a customer's encryption key since at no time does RIM, or any wireless network operator, ever possess a copy of the key. The BlackBerry security architecture was also purposefully designed to perform as a global system independent of geography. The location of data centers and the customer's choice of wireless network are irrelevant factors from a security perspective since end-to-end encryption is utilized and transmissions are no more decipherable or less secure based on the selection of a wireless network or the location of a data center. All data remains encrypted through all points of transfer between the customer's BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the customer's device (at no point in the transfer is data decrypted and re-encrypted)."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Saudi Arabia - United Arab Emirates - BlackBerry - Research In Motion - Encryption
Skype founders launch mobile subscription music service

Publié: août 3, 2010, 8:17pm CEST par Ed Oswald

By Ed Oswald, Betanews

Skype, Kazaa, and Joost creators Janus Friis with Niklas Zennström launched Rdio on Tuesday, aiming to offer an inexpensive way to provide unlimited streaming music from mobile phones. In addition, the service would allow users to save music to their device for offline listening.
The service costs $4.95 per month for desktop-only access, and $9.95 monthly for both desktop and mobile use. The company has about seven million songs in its database, and unlimited streaming. Users can select songs to be synced to their devices for online listening, or download copies of the song to keep at a cost of 99 cents per track.
Deals have been struck with the four major record labels -- EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group -- and several independent outfits to bring content to the service.
Rdio uses Facebook and Twitter to discover and introduce users to the music their friends are listening to. This is where the service says it differentiates itself from its counterparts. "The social nature of Rdio means you can discover new songs every time you visit Rdio," CEO Drew Larner said.
Mobile versions of the software are available for Android, Blackberry, and iPhone.
Friis and Zennström's service has now come ahead of Spotify, whose launch here in the US is still up in the air. According to press reports, negotiations with record labels are still ongoing and it says that the service should go live by the end of this year.
That service allows for free listening to its catalog of music via its desktop app, however users would need to register for a premium account to use Spotify on mobile phones or download music for offline listening. The company currently only has licenses to operate in seven European countries.
Rdio is taking another track though, and that is through a completely fee-based service. Such a service seems to be more palatable at least here among the US record labels, which may be the reason why Rdio was able to beat Spotify to the market.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Rdio - Janus Friis - Spotify - Niklas Zennström - Skype
RIM debuts its first slider, BlackBerry 6 device: Torch 9800

Publié: août 3, 2010, 5:44pm CEST par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

AT&T and Research in Motion Tuesday morning officially debuted the new BlackBerry Torch, the first BlackBerry to use the portrait slider form factor and the first device to launch with BlackBerry 6 OS.
After many months of unofficial reports and spy camera shots of the device, today the Torch officially went live. It features the standard BlackBerry keyboard hidden under a 3.2" capacitive touchscreen similar to the Palm Pre. It has 512MB of RAM and 4GB of built-in memory expandable via microSD, a 5 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, and 802.11 b/g/n. The wireless radios inside include UMTS: 2100/1900/850/800 MHz, and GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900MHz.
While the form factor is certainly a point of interest for the device, most of the new functionality in the Torch is derived from BlackBerry 6. The new OS comes with a redesigned homescreen and notification system, a new Webkit Browser, universal search bar, universal inbox integrated with BlackBerry Messenger and social networks, and a new media player. RIM has been gradually showing off the new features included in BlackBerry 6 OS for several months, and finally gave the completed feature walkthrough today.
"BlackBerry 6 is the outcome of RIM's ongoing passion to deliver a powerful, simplified and optimized user experience for both touch screen and keyboard fans," said Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO, Research In Motion. "Following extensive research and development to address consumer needs and wants, we are delivering a communications, browsing and multimedia experience that we think users will love, and we are thrilled to debut BlackBerry 6 on the amazing new BlackBerry Torch smartphone."
The BlackBerry Torch 9800 will be available through AT&T on August 12 for $199 plus a two-year service agreement. After initial exclusive availability on the Torch, BlackBerry 6 OS will be available as an upgrade for the Bold 9700 and 9650, and the BlackBerry Pearl 3G.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Research In Motion - BlackBerry - Mike Lazaridis - BlackBerry Torch 9800 - Smartphone
Report: US wireless carriers looking to replace credit cards

Publié: août 3, 2010, 5:10am CEST par Ed Oswald

By Ed Oswald, Betanews

Three national wireless carriers are teaming up with Discover and Barclay's on a pilot program which aims to enable consumers to use their smartphones as payment devices, sources have told Bloomberg News Service. AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile are planning to test the functionality in select markets.
Little is known about the potential service other than one of the pilot cities being Atlanta, and that the venture is currently searching for an executive to head up the new company. In any case, it could shake up the entire retail industry.
Currently, credit card companies hold a lot of power over retailers as their sheer popularity force their adoption. In turn, so called "swipe fees" -- the cost attached to processing each and every transaction -- has become a real issue. Thus, if mobile payments are offered at a lower cost, its adoption could be quick especially considering three of the four major wireless providers are supporting it.
Users would hold their phones near a payment device, which would then likely be paid through their cell phone bill. The service sounds a lot like what has been already available to consumers in Scandinavia for nearly a decade, but has seen little use elsewhere.
Discover's move to partner with mobile carriers may be an attempt to get a leg up on its competition. Larger providers Visa and MasterCard also have plans for mobile payment services, and have already begun offering "contactless" payments through NFC chips.
NFC -- or "near field communication" -- is a chip that sends out a low power wireless signal to a reader with a small set of information, in this case credit card data. The chips can be easily embedded into just about any electronic device because of their extremely small size.
According to research by the Boston Federal Reserve, the cost to add the technology to each handset would run about $10 to $15. New systems to process these transactions would cost retailers about $200, it added.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Verizon - Credit card - Visa - MasterCard - AT&T