9:12 PM
South Korean authorities seized 17,500 pills since last August containing the powdered flesh of fetuses and babies that were smuggled in from China to be used as Viagra-like performance enhancers. The capsules are made in northeastern China by chopping dead babies' bodies into small pieces and dried on stoves before being turned into powder. Twisted myths of the medical powers of dead babies have been around in parts of China for eons...but these pills contain "super bacteria" that is hazardous to human health:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/seworld20120507-south-korea-seizes-smuggled-humanflesh-chinese-pills
Thousands on Japanese marched over the weekend to celebrate Japan switching off the last of their country's 50 nuclear reactors, making Japan without electricity from nuclear power for the first time in 4 decades:
http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-march-japan-shuts-off-nuclear-power-071425811--finance.html
This sounds like a classic example of a software engineer forgetting to turn off a debug switch in shipped production code--Apple's latest update to OS X includes a horrible programming error that reveals the passwords for material stored in their encryption technology. Passwords being stored in clear text in such a high-profile operating system because of a debug switch being left on...some people are going to be in huge trouble for this!
http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/apple-engineering-mistake-exposes-clear-text-passwords-lion-192511
Nice summary of the Oracle vs. Google trial outcome today. The Judge threw out most of Oracle's lawsuit before this, so the only thing the jury had to decide on was the Java APIs and their documentation. The jury found that Google did not infringe on the Java documentation, so that issue is out. The jury couldn't decide on the Java APIs, so Phase 2 of the trial begins, but if the Judge finds that the Java APIs fall under fair use laws (like the courts in the European Union have already decided), then Google will have won on every point in the lawsuit:
http://www.androidcentral.com/oracle-v-google-laymans-edition
Yahoo's new CEO has claimed to have a degree in computer science ever since he worked at PayPal, but his degree was actually in accounting. Speculation is that he'll be fired quite soon and morale is even lower now at Yahoo. The article has 5 other examples of CEOs who lied on their resumes, including former RadioShack CEO who claimed he had degrees in theology and psychology when he dropped out of school after 2 semesters...he was fired right away:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/yahoos-ceo-saga-fake-degrees-and-boardroom-battles-192575
Microsoft buried in all of the mountains of Windows 8 information released that Windows 8 won't be able to play DVDs! Windows has supported DVDs for a long time, but the Windows 8 team mentioned as an aside that Windows 8 cannot play DVDs:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/windows-8-wont-be-able-play-dvds-192567
Sprint's CEO took a $3.25 mil pay cut after shareholders complained about his high pay and the high costs Sprint is paying to carry the iPhone:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprints-hesse-takes-325m-pay-cut-after-iphone-cost-complaints/2012-05-07
The iPad is dominating the world's tablet market, partially due to the huge drop in Kindle Fire sales. iPad sales went from 55% of the global tablet market in the 4Q 2011 to 68% in the 1Q of 2012. Amazon's sales plummeted from 17% of the 4Q 2012 market to just *4%* in the 1Q of 2012! Apple was helped by the January gift giving season in China (for the New Year, while the Kindle Fire is only available in the U.S. and the Christmas season dominates the U.S. market:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/ipad-share-of-tablet-market-jumps-kindle-fire-slumps-192434
On the flip side, Android made HUGE gains in the global smartphone market at the expense of the iPhone. Android had 49% of the global smartphone market in the 4Q of 2011 and was up to 61% in the 1Q of 2012. The iPhone went from 41% in the 4Q of 2011 to 29% of the global smartphone market in the 1Q of 2012. In both quarters Android and the iPhone had 90% of the global smartphone market, so Android's gains came at the expense of Apple:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57429192-93/android-reclaims-61-percent-of-all-u.s-smartphone-sales/
Gamers who play on Apple's iOS devices spend 5x more than gamers on Google's Android platform:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/study-ios-gamers-spend-5x-more-android-players/2012-05-07
Edgewater claims that its WiFi3 technology that uses 3 channels on a single wireless AP provides 50x the throughput of a single-channel WiFi AP:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/ctialive/story/edgewater-claims-50x-performance-improvement-wifi3/2012-05-06
Carl Icahn sure is good at making money--he sold $250 mil in LightSquared debt holdings for 60 cents on the dollar when he paid just 40 cents on the dollar to buy that debt a few months ago:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/lightsquared-icahn-sells-holdings-company-keeps-battling-default/2012-05-06
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/seworld20120507-south-korea-seizes-smuggled-humanflesh-chinese-pills
Thousands on Japanese marched over the weekend to celebrate Japan switching off the last of their country's 50 nuclear reactors, making Japan without electricity from nuclear power for the first time in 4 decades:
http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-march-japan-shuts-off-nuclear-power-071425811--finance.html
This sounds like a classic example of a software engineer forgetting to turn off a debug switch in shipped production code--Apple's latest update to OS X includes a horrible programming error that reveals the passwords for material stored in their encryption technology. Passwords being stored in clear text in such a high-profile operating system because of a debug switch being left on...some people are going to be in huge trouble for this!
http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/apple-engineering-mistake-exposes-clear-text-passwords-lion-192511
Nice summary of the Oracle vs. Google trial outcome today. The Judge threw out most of Oracle's lawsuit before this, so the only thing the jury had to decide on was the Java APIs and their documentation. The jury found that Google did not infringe on the Java documentation, so that issue is out. The jury couldn't decide on the Java APIs, so Phase 2 of the trial begins, but if the Judge finds that the Java APIs fall under fair use laws (like the courts in the European Union have already decided), then Google will have won on every point in the lawsuit:
http://www.androidcentral.com/oracle-v-google-laymans-edition
Yahoo's new CEO has claimed to have a degree in computer science ever since he worked at PayPal, but his degree was actually in accounting. Speculation is that he'll be fired quite soon and morale is even lower now at Yahoo. The article has 5 other examples of CEOs who lied on their resumes, including former RadioShack CEO who claimed he had degrees in theology and psychology when he dropped out of school after 2 semesters...he was fired right away:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/yahoos-ceo-saga-fake-degrees-and-boardroom-battles-192575
Microsoft buried in all of the mountains of Windows 8 information released that Windows 8 won't be able to play DVDs! Windows has supported DVDs for a long time, but the Windows 8 team mentioned as an aside that Windows 8 cannot play DVDs:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/windows-8-wont-be-able-play-dvds-192567
Sprint's CEO took a $3.25 mil pay cut after shareholders complained about his high pay and the high costs Sprint is paying to carry the iPhone:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprints-hesse-takes-325m-pay-cut-after-iphone-cost-complaints/2012-05-07
The iPad is dominating the world's tablet market, partially due to the huge drop in Kindle Fire sales. iPad sales went from 55% of the global tablet market in the 4Q 2011 to 68% in the 1Q of 2012. Amazon's sales plummeted from 17% of the 4Q 2012 market to just *4%* in the 1Q of 2012! Apple was helped by the January gift giving season in China (for the New Year, while the Kindle Fire is only available in the U.S. and the Christmas season dominates the U.S. market:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/ipad-share-of-tablet-market-jumps-kindle-fire-slumps-192434
On the flip side, Android made HUGE gains in the global smartphone market at the expense of the iPhone. Android had 49% of the global smartphone market in the 4Q of 2011 and was up to 61% in the 1Q of 2012. The iPhone went from 41% in the 4Q of 2011 to 29% of the global smartphone market in the 1Q of 2012. In both quarters Android and the iPhone had 90% of the global smartphone market, so Android's gains came at the expense of Apple:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57429192-93/android-reclaims-61-percent-of-all-u.s-smartphone-sales/
Gamers who play on Apple's iOS devices spend 5x more than gamers on Google's Android platform:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/study-ios-gamers-spend-5x-more-android-players/2012-05-07
Edgewater claims that its WiFi3 technology that uses 3 channels on a single wireless AP provides 50x the throughput of a single-channel WiFi AP:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/ctialive/story/edgewater-claims-50x-performance-improvement-wifi3/2012-05-06
Carl Icahn sure is good at making money--he sold $250 mil in LightSquared debt holdings for 60 cents on the dollar when he paid just 40 cents on the dollar to buy that debt a few months ago:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/lightsquared-icahn-sells-holdings-company-keeps-battling-default/2012-05-06