Google steps up and fixes Verizon data plan gaffe

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ComputerWorld:

The LTE Chromebook Pixel was originally sold with a free two-year mobile broadband plan from Verizon — 100MB per month, with the option to purchase more data on a pay-as-you-go basis as needed. But as I reported yesterday, Verizon stopped honoring the plans halfway through that two-year term. Customer support agents for the carrier have been telling Pixel owners they weren’t aware of any two-year commitment, despite clear online documentation to the contrary.

Google fixed the problem with a $150 gift card.

Beware the IMSI catcher

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Newsweek:

Call it the “IMSI catcher” war, with the acronym standing for International Mobile Subscriber Identity. Every device that communicates with a cell tower—mobile phone, smartphone or tablet—has one. What StingRay (manufactured by Florida-based Harris Corp.) and its competitors do is act like a cellphone tower, drawing the unique IMSI signals into their grasp.

Samsung and its lawyers fined $2M for leaking details of Apple/Nokia patent deal

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9to5mac:

A court has fined lawyers Quinn Emanuel and Samsung a total of $2M for misusing confidential details of a patent deal struck between Apple and Nokia.

The documents were supplied by Apple to Samsung’s lawyers purely so that it could see that Apple was telling the truth about its patent deals with other companies. The documents were marked “for attorney’s eyes only” and were not to be revealed to Samsung executives.

Typical.

The origins of Apple’s “Go, you chicken fat” song

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[VIDEO] First things first, have you seen Apple’s “Strength” commercial? The catchy song is called “Chicken Fat”. The singer is Robert Preston, perhaps best known as the star of the movie The Music Man.

Turns out, the original Chicken Fat song was created as exercise background music for school kids. Go to the original post for Apple’s commercial and the original song.

How fast is your DNS?

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Have a web site? The time it takes for your page to load can vary widely, depending on the DNS lookup speed of your hosting service.

SolveDNS collects lookup speeds for a variety of hosts, built an easy to read chart. Amazing how big a range there is in lookup time.

Apple’s HealthKit through the eyes of a registered nurse

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Apple loves to disrupt things. The iPod and iTunes disrupted the music industry. The iPhone disrupted the telecommunications industry. And so on.

Next up? The electronic medical records model, something that effects everyone who has any sort of health care.

Weekend rollup

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This is a new feature we’re adding for Monday morning. We’ll post the weekend rollup first thing Monday morning as a convenience for folks who don’t get the chance to check the weekend Loop posts.

Susan Kare video, tells stories about her early Mac icon design work

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[VIDEO] Susan Kare revolutionized iconography. She created many of the icons (and fonts) that defined the Mac.

If the thought of the early days of the Mac fill you with nostalgia, I suspect you will love this video as much as I did. You might also enjoy this post, from a few months ago, sharing Kare’s notebook.

DDoS ransom attacks steadily increasing

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New York Times:

For several months, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been investigating a wave of so-called denial-of-service, or DDoS attacks, against web start-ups. In each case, attackers knock their victims offline using a flood of traffic and refuse to stop until victims pay their ransom in Bitcoins.

Among the businesses targeted in the initial wave of attacks were Vimeo, the video-sharing company; Meetup, a company that connects groups offline; Basecamp, a project management software company; Bit.ly, the link-shortening service; Shutterstock, the stock photography agency, and MailChimp, the email marketing provider. In nearly every case, the amount demanded was typically low, in the $300 range. And in some cases, one security consultant said, the victims paid the ransom.

Yahoo loses prime real estate on iOS 8 weather app

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Yahoo currently provides the data that powers the built-in iOS weather app. That is about to change.

The situation Yahoo finds itself in is due to a very crafty deal engineered by former Yahoo board member and Weather Channel CEO David Kenny, who has essentially shoved Yahoo off the key smartphone to be replaced by a new offering that he has been developing since he took over the weather news and information service last year.

Lego Fusion scans your bricks into a virtual world

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Build a 16×16 facade, including a door. The Lego Fusion app (iOS and Android compatible) scans the facade and imports it into a virtual world. Build on your facade inside the world and defend it from attack.

Amazon’s complex plan to make the Fire Phone a key player

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There’s been a lot of talk over the past few days about Amazon trying to buy developers by giving them $5,000 to build an app for the Fire Phone, up to a max of $15,000 for three apps. When I first heard this story, I thought Amazon’s plan was misguided, that they’d lay out a ton of money to buy their way into undisciplined relevancy, with an indiscriminate copy of apps that are available on Google Play and other Android app stores. Sort of a “me too” strategy.

But that’s not quite right.

Supreme Court decision reining in “on a computer” patents

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The Supreme Court yesterday handed down a decision in a landmark case, known as Alice Corp v CLS Bank. Here’s a link to the decision.

In a nutshell, Alice Corp was issued a patent for a computer implemented payment system. CLS Bank argued that the patent was invalid because it took an existing system and simply implemented “well known” steps on a computer.

Why New York is battling to keep Airbnb out of the city

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Airbnb and Uber are two darlings of disruption, adored by one segment of the population (their users) and despised by the people they disrupt.

If something goes wrong—a party breaks out, somebody gets robbed, the cops show up, someone slips and falls—it’s not the tenant, or some sharing-economy guru in Silicon Valley, who’s going to be held responsible. It will be the owner’s problem. That’s why at the first hint of Airbnb usage, Podziba explains, “I tell them to do what I did: Get surveillance cameras. Hire a private investigator. And do the necessary steps to get them out.”

Apple TV brings you a World Cup highlight machine

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Traditional television is static. Here’s your list of channels, watch what you like. If you have a DVR, you can time shift your shows, record them to watch later. On-demand offers another level of time shifting and access to a library of content, some of which you have to pay for. DVR and On-demand extend the traditional TV model, making it a bit more dynamic.

Apple TV and its WatchESPN app take this one step further.

Elon Musk on the importance of colonizing Mars

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[VIDEO] CNBC did a short interview with Elon Musk (see the original post) that I found interesting. Though the questions asked were simplistic, Musk’s responses were telling, gave a sense of his seriousness of purpose. There are plenty of critics out there, but there’s no denying his talent. If he says he’s going to put a human on Mars by 2026, I believe him.

US patent office cancels Redskins trademark registration, says name is disparaging

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Washington Post:

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the Washington Redskins trademark registration, calling the football team’s name “disparaging to Native Americans.”

Obviously, this case could have huge implications. It is expected that owner Dan Snyder will appeal the decision.

Inside Amazon’s house of ambition

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Ever wondered how Amazon really works? The linked article gives you an insider’s look at all the moving pieces that work together to let you buy practically anything you’d ever want. Interesting article, but not a puff piece. Good stuff.