French Arrest Hacker Who Targeted Obama Twitter Account

A 25 year old Frenchman who used the online persona HackerCroll has been arrested after hijacking US President Barack Obama's twitter account.

“This individual spread information about a dozen American personalities, notably Barack Obama, on specialist blogs,” Adeline Champagnat, head of the French office against online fraud, said.

HackerCroll appeared to be driven by the challenge and apparently acted alone in his quest to gain access to the accounts. No sensitive information was allegedly targeted.

“He thinks he is good at this, and he is,” Ms. Champagnat said.

The French were tipped off by the FBI according to this Globe and Mail article.

Offer-Based Ads In Your Mobile Apps?

Here is something to be on the lookout for! GIGaom is speculating a wave of in app offers as the result of the acquisition of Tapjoy by Offerpal Media.

Offerpal specializes in the kind of pitches that have quickly become very popular on social networking sites such as Facebook as a way to generate revenue and enable users to enhance the gaming experience. A casual gamer who accepts a trial offer from Netflix, for instance, could be rewarded with extra levels, while a fan of a mafia game could get a weapons upgrade by taking a survey.


Tapjoy delivers a related service for mobile developers looking to monetize their apps. The company offers free content or in-game upgrades to users who agree to download additional applications.

 I suppose it was inevitable, I just hoped it wouldn't happen so soon.

Is Voice Recognition Back? For Real This Time?

CNN technology writer John D. Sutter has compiled a case for why we should be taking voice recognition seriously. It's a story that has been written many times over the past few decades, but Sutter or at least some of the sources he's tapped believe that this time it might really stick. I'll admit that that it's a technology that has always been of interest to me and that the phone systems that I've used of late seem to be excellent at recognizing numbers and specific commands. The advancements of voice recognition technology. in particular applications that are aimed at cell phones and smartphones, is really looking like we may finally have a keeper.

"If you compare us to human performance, we are rapidly closing the gap," said David Nahamoo, IBM's chief technology officer for voice research.

Check out Sutter's article!

Google Street View Demystified

Ever wonder how that wonderful Street View technology worked? Here is the secret compliments of Google Japan...enjoy!



Note: Found via Gizmodo

Facebook Considers Panic Button

The BBC is reporting that Facebook exec's are in discussion with Britain's Home Secretary Alan Johnson regarding the Facebook luring and murder of a British teen by a known paedophile. "I emphasised that including the Ceop abuse reporting button on their site has the potential to transform child protection - and that the company should put this above all other considerations," said Johnson.

Facebook exec's say they are considering the option of a Panic Button but also defend their current measures saying:

"This innovative system has been developed by analysing millions of reports submitted over the years and testing ways to continually improve our system. 

"The system effectively handles all manner of potential abuse we see on the site, ranging from the common minor breaking of the rules, such as embarrassing pictures, to the extremely rare serious matters that are quickly escalated to law enforcement."

I like the idea as long as it is used as intended. Education is also a powerful tool.

Study Expects Mobile App Boom... Realy?

I don't think you have to be a genius to predict that mobile app development is going through the roof! It does however take some amount of thought to predict the magnitude of the explosive growth, but on the other hand the study quoted here was commissioned by an app store so take these numbers with a grain of salt...

According to the BBC:

"A study done for Getjar, the world's second biggest app store, said the market will grow to $17.5bn (£12bn) in the next two years. 

The study claimed downloads would climb from 7bn last year to 50bn by 2012 - a 92% year-on-year increase."

Big numbers!!!

Twitter Upgrades But No Monetization Plans Revealed

The hype around an announcement by Twitter founder Ev Williams at South by South West (SxSW) was that the company was going to announce it's plans for monetizing it's service but well all was said and done the actual announcement was viewed as underwhelming, with some attendees bailing before the key-note address was over.

"What Mr. Williams did announce is a Twitter expansion called @Anywhere. It allows users to log into other websites using their Twitter accounts, so they can tweet a link to something interesting without having to actually go to the Twitter site. Those third-party sites will highlight names and businesses that use Twitter and, when the mouse scrolls over them, a window pops up showing the user's account and latest activity there.

“Imagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo! home page,” the blog post announcing the change said."

As an avid user and Twitter fanboy, I don't really care how they make money as long as they are able to keep the doors open without selling their souls and invading my screen space.

Source: CBC

Sony Takes On Wii With Motion Controller Of It's Own

Sony announced today the introduction of PlayStation Move, a motion sensing controller reminiscent of the Nintendo Wii's nunchuk or the handle of a light saber without the cool glowing laser part. Sony isn't hiding the fact that they have Nintendo in their sights either "The migration path from the Wii household to the PlayStation 3 household is a pretty natural path, partly because of the experience that you can get on the PlayStation Move, but also because of the content that we find on PlayStation 3," says Peter Dille, senior vice-president of marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment.

The PlayStation Move is set to debut this fall and the precise price has not been released but it is thought that a bundle including one controller and PlayStation Eye will retail for under $100.

Read more: CBC Technology

YuuGuu Screensharing Via Instant Messenger

Running a little behind this morning so I thought I'd simply share with you an interesting take on screensharing for collaborative working online. YuuGuu is different from services that you may be familiar with such as GoToMeeting and WebEx, in that the work is done for you via your instant messenger client. No software to download, and support is given for all of the major IM platforms such as Yahoo, MSN, AIM, and GTalk. Have a look at a more detailed description by WebWorkerDaily.

iPad Delayed Slightly In US, 9 Other Countries Will Get Theirs In Late April

The Wi-Fi version of the iPad will be released in the U.S. on April 3rd with the 3G version coming later in the month according Apple. "Both versions will be available in late April in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K., Apple said in a statement. The device will be available in other countries later this year, the company said."

The device ranges from $499 to $829 U.S. depending on the model chosen but outside of the U.S. prices will be announced in April closer to the launch dates.

"The tablet can run all iPhone apps and boasts up to 10 hours of video battery life. Apple also announced Friday that the iPad will include 12 new apps designed for the device's larger screen."

Source: CBC