NDM 36

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/mark-zuckerberg-starts-online-book-club-sells-out-amazon-9958091.html
Mark Zuckerberg starts online book club, sells out Amazon

• The founder of Facebook is encouraging the 30 million users of his site to join him in reading a new book every other week this year
• The page has already received over 122,000 likes
• Moises Naim’s The End of Power - was out of stock on Amazon by Sunday night.

The founder of Facebook is encouraging the 30 million users of his site to join him in reading a new book every other week this year, and to participate in literary discussions on his 'A Year of Books' Facebook page.

NDM 35

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864612/microsoft-still-believes-in-feature-phones-launches-29-nokia-215.html
Microsoft still believes in feature phones, launches $29 Nokia 215

• The screen measures 2.4 inches and the camera has a 0.3-megapixel resolution.
• Uses the Series 30+ operating system and has Bing Search and an Opera Mini Browser
• Maximum download speed of only 236.8kbps using Edge
• $29 price tag
• Phone’s stand-by time of up to 29 days

Launching a feature phone at the beginning of 2015 may seem strange, but Microsoft is convinced there is still a market for the Nokia 215 as a second phone and in parts of the world were electricity is scarce and budgets are small. Global mobile phone shipments increased to 459.5 million during the third quarter, including about 140 million feature phones.

I think that the mobile phone market has alot of potential smartphones are increasingly having more problems, battery life, memory, privacy. Whereas pior to smartphones life was so much easier with mobile phones providing you with the essentials you need. Can see people going back to mobile phones because of these problems I myself would like to move back to a mobile phone which has a long battery life, current smartphone only lasts afew hours before the battery drains. Maybe companys need to start investing in ways to tackle the battery problem like other companies are currently doing with wireless charging that can charge 10 times faster than a normal plug. 

NDM 34

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/01/driverless-cars-tested-uk-bristol-coventry-milton-keynes-greenwich
Driverless cars to be tested in UK

• Government funding of £19m will allow three separate trials to take place
• We’re looking to start our first trial with automated shuttles with members of the public in May
• Arup is to lead this project with Jaguar Land Rover and Ford contributing
• The trials in Milton Keynes and Coventry will be run by a consortium named UK Autodrive

Driverless cars are to be tested in all those locations in trials that will put the UK at the forefront of automated vehicle technology. Government funding of £19m will allow three separate trials to take place: one in Bristol, one in Greenwich and one split between Coventry and Milton Keynes. The trials, lasting from 18 to 36 months, will test different aspects of self-driving technology. All will take place away from public roads, though each is aimed at making automated vehicles on Britain’s roads a reality. The trials will use semi-autonomous cars that can drive themselves for periods of the time with a human driver behind the wheel

I dont think driverless cars have been mastered yet, new technology is always arising and in a few years time we will have better technology to test and create driverless cars. Currently Jaguar, Land Rover, Ford and Arup are participating in the trials that will be carried out in the UK over milton Keynes and Coventry 

NDM 33

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/31/dark-web-traffic-child-abuse-sites
Study claims more than 80% of 'dark net' traffic is to child abuse sites

• More than 80% of dark net internet traffic is generated by visits to websites offering child-abuse material
• Sites with paedophile material represent just 2% of the estimated 45,000 hidden services websites online at any one time
• Owen also claimed that drug-related sites like Silk Road and Agora accounted for 24% of hidden service sites but 5% of overall traffic

More than 80% of so-called “dark net” internet traffic is generated by visits to websites offering child-abuse material, according to a study of Tor “hidden services” websites conducted at the University of Portsmouth. Researcher Dr Gareth Owen analysed traffic to sites using Tor’s technology to hide their addresses from search engines over a six-month period, in an attempt to understand what kind of sites were most popular. The study focuses on websites using Tor’s technology to hide themselves, rather than the surfing habits of individual internet users using Tor’s anonymising features. The latter are not spending 84% of their time visiting child-abuse websites.

The 'dark web' a anomalous platform for criminals to buy and sell drugs, upload child pornography, sell their services for a hitman has reports that upto 80% of traffic monitored has come from visiting the child pornography section. Just shows how serious the dark web is and the government needs to invest more money in trying to tackle a way to track users down who use any of the dark webs services.

NDM 32

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/02/apple-lawsuit-storage-space-iphones-ipad-ios8-software-advertised-capacity
Apple faces lawsuit over storage space on iPhones and iPads

• Firm failed to tell consumers that iOS 8 software could take up as much as 23.1% 
• People who bought the law suit are seeking $5m (£3.3m) in damages and a trial by jury
• The defendant fails to disclose to consumers that as much as 23.1% of the advertised storage capacity of the devices will be consumed by iOS 8

Following complaints about the large amount of storage that Apple’s latest software iOS 8 takes up on its iPhones and iPads, the US tech firm is being sued for the alleged misrepresentation of the storage capacity of the devices. The suit is being brought on behalf of two Miami residents, Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara, who claim to have bought iPhones and iPads in the last year advertised with 16GB of storage but providing less to the user.

Many users are effected by this issues and has damaged apples public image. It is standard practice for consumer electronics manufacturers to advertise the total storage capacity of their devices without disclosing the amount taken up by the pre-loaded software.

NDM 31

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/25/playstation-xbox-down-lizard-squad-hack-christmas
PlayStation and Xbox facing issues after Christmas Day attack

• PSN Service was disrupted for a total of 6 days but only 4 days for Xbox Live
• DDOS - Disrupted Denial of Service sends packets of requests to the main server which then gets confused and crashes leaving users without the ability to access some features.
• Lizard Squad accepted mega uploads offer for 300,000 encrypted vouchers

Lizard Squad began on Wednesday by blasting Xbox Live offline with a DDoS attack that bombarded Microsoft’s servers with the digital equivalent of shrapnel until they ground to a halt. Then it did the same to Sony’s PlayStation Network.

I was personally effected by the actions lizard squad carried out but I do support the message they're trying to get across that big corporations don't invest money back into their services even though users have to subscribe to use the online features. Lizard Squad is known for DDOS attacks, a process that overloads the system until it shuts down. It has attacked several targets in the past including Twitch, EA Games, Destiny and World of Warcraft. This isn't the first cyber-attack that Sony had to face. Last month, Sony was attacked and it resulted to the dissemination of unreleased movies and celebrity personal information over the Internet. 

NDM 30

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/04/north-korea-fury-us-sanctions-sony
North Korea responds with fury to US sanctions over Sony hack

• US sanctioned 10 North Korean government officials and three organisations
• The US has described the sanctions as only the first part of its response
• It was the first time the US has imposed sanctions on another nation in direct retaliation for hacking an American company
• The cyber-attack on Sony’s computers led to the distribution over the internet of information on employees and unreleased films, as well as embarrassing in-house emails

North Korea has furiously denounced the United States for imposing sanctions in retaliation for the Pyongyang regime’s alleged cyber-attack on Sony Pictures. North Korea’s foreign ministry reiterated that it did not have any role in the breach of tens of thousands of confidential Sony emails and business files and accused the US of “groundlessly” stirring up hostility towards Pyongyang. He said the new sanctions would not weaken the country’s 1.2 million-strong military.

I think that North Korea were behind the attacks as they previously praised the hacks on Sony as a 'righteous deed' and described The Interview a comedy about the assassination of the North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un as an 'act of war'. Although the FBI has officially declared North Korea responsible for the cyber attack on Sony Pictures, a number of private security specialists have expressed doubt that the country was involved.