Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday: When should you buy a smartphone?

In this edition of Ask Maggie, CNET's Marguerite Reardon offers some advice on getting the best deal on a smartphone this holiday season.

It's that time of year again when Americans give thanks, stuff themselves with turkey and mashed potatoes, and hit the stores in search of the holiday season's best deals.

But is Black Friday really the best day if you're looking for a smartphone? That's a good question considering that more people are expected to shop online this Cyber Monday than visit brick-and-mortar stores on Black Friday, according to American Express. Still, not every category of product gets equal billing in terms of deep discounts on Cyber Monday. So it may pay to start the shopping earlier rather than later if a smartphone is on your shopping list.
In this edition of Ask Maggie, I offer some advice on how to plan your smartphone buying strategy this holiday season. I also offer some insight on the best Apple iPad Black Friday deals. For a list of the top 25 tech deals for Black Friday, check out CNET's round-up.

Searching for the best smartphone deal

Dear Maggie,
I really need to get a new smartphone. My current Android smartphone is on its last legs. I know Black Friday has some great deals on smartphones. But I really don't want to wait in line over night or fight the crowds in the wee hours of the morning to shop on Black Friday. So my question is this: Can I wait until Cyber Monday and still get a great deal? Or should I suck it up and brave the Black Friday madness for a new phone? Can I get Black Friday prices online? Also which phone will I get the best deal on?
Thanks,
Lazy and Cheap Dear Lazy and Cheap,
There's definitely a lot of hype around Black Friday. But the truth is that you have to be careful in assessing what's truly a good deal and what's not. Sometimes the supposed hot Black Friday deal is not much different from the regular price or a promotion that has run earlier in the year.

Still, depending on the smartphone you're interested in buying, the holiday season can be a great time of year to buy a new device. But if getting the best deal possible is your goal, you may not want to wait until Cyber Monday, according to a recent report from the Christian Science Monitor, which examined the Black Friday deal archives of DealNews for the past two years.
According to the DealNews data, Thanksgiving is actually the best time to purchase a smartphone. The article notes that about 42 percent of all the deals for cell phones on Thanksgiving in 2012 received an Editors' Choice from DealNews, whereas only 31 percent of cell phones deals listed on Black Friday were worthy of this award. (Keep in mind that most of these Thanksgiving deals were for Android devices and not iPhones, which if there are any deals on them tend to run on Black Friday.)

That doesn't mean you still can't get a good deal on a new device on Monday. There are some deals that will run only on Cyber Monday. And most websites will be offering free shipping. Still, I would recommend that you start checking out websites now. Some big retailers, like Walmart and Best Buy, as well as Amazon, have already begun posting deals online all week.
For example, Amazon has been offering new deals since Sunday on its "deal hub" website. The Amazon deals only last a short time until supplies last. New deals will be running through the Black Friday weekend and into Cyber Monday. To make sure you get a good deal, you'll have to keep an eye on this site.
If you have your heart set on a particular device, you may still have to brave the Black Friday masses. Stores like Best Buy, Walmart, and Target are offering "door buster" deals that are meant to get shoppers into the store so that they will hopefully buy a bunch of other stuff they hadn't intended on buying. But you may want to check online early on Thanksgiving to see if advertised in-store deals will be offered online. CEO of Walmart.com US Joel Anderson said that some items that go on sale in stores Thursday evening will be available online in limited quantities Thanksgiving morning.

What's the best smartphone deal out there this Black Friday season?
The most attractive smartphone deals I have seen so far are for the Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung's latest generation of the Galaxy S series of smartphones, which usually costs $199 to $249 with a two-year carrier contract.
Target is offering the Galaxy S4 for $40 with a two-year contract. Staples is offering the Samsung Galaxy S4 for a penny in select stores with a two-year contract on either Verizon Wireless or AT&T. Best Buy is offering the device for free with a new two-year contract on AT&T, Verizon Wireless, or Sprint. And Walmart is offering the S4 for $99, but it's also offering a $100 gift card on select smartphones, including the Galaxy S4, with a tw- year contract on either AT&T, Verizon Wireless or Sprint.
Other smartphones are also included in Walmart's $100 gift card deal. And on these other devices you can actually make money by way of Walmart store credit. These include the Samsung Galaxy S3 from Verizon, which Walmart is selling for 97 cents with a two-year contract, the Moto X for $49 on AT&T, Sprint or Verizon with two-year contracts, and the Samsung Galaxy Mega on AT&T, which goes for $79.
Even though Walmart is offering some online deals, and will likely unveil some deals on its website early on Thanksgiving day, the $100 gift card door-buster offer is only available in stores. The gift card is for future purchases and can't be used with the purchase of the device. And of course, it's a gift card and not cash. So keep that in mind as you plan out your strategy.

Another phone you might want to consider is the HTC One, which is selling for $30 at Best Buy with a two-year carrier contract.
It's also worth noting that in order to get any of these super deals from Walmart, Target, Staples, Best Buy or Amazon, you must sign a two-year carrier contract. It's somewhat unclear as to whether these deals are good for all customers signing up for a two-year contract or if they're limited to new subscribers. For example, I know many of the deals that Sprint is offering for Black Friday and Cyber Monday only apply to new Sprint subscribers.
As for the in-store discounts, the deals may not be offered in every store. So you may want to check ahead with your local retailers ahead of time.
One other thing to keep in mind as you shop for a new smartphone is that the device itself is a relatively inexpensive piece of the total cost of ownership of a smartphone, especially when you consider the cheapest smartphone service plans on AT&T or Verizon will still cost you at least $1680 over two years before taxes and fees. So even though you may save $100 or $200 on the device, it's not that much when you look at how much it will cost you to own that device over two years. And so far, I haven't seen any of the major carriers or retailers offer any Black Friday or holiday deals on the monthly service fees for these services.
Good luck! And happy Thanksgiving!

iPad deals for Black Friday?

Dear Maggie,
I know there are lots of Black Friday deals on Apple iPads. But what about the newer iPads, like the iPad Air and the iPad Mini with retina display? Are there any deals on those devices?
Thanks,
Jenny Dear Jenny,
I've got some good news for you and some bad news. The good news is that there are quite a few deals on the iPad Air. This thinner version of the full-sized iPad sells for $500 from Apple without any special discounts. Best Buy and Target will both be offering the iPad Air at a discount. At Best Buy the 16GB iPad Air with Wi-Fi will sell for $450. And at Target the same device will sell for $480, but with a $100 gift card, the price drops to $380.

Apple's iPad Air.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Now for the bad news. There aren't likely to be any deals on the iPad Mini with retina display, considering that this device just hit stores, it makes sense that there aren't discounts yet on that device.

But if the mini size is what you desire and your wallet can't afford the newest model, there are lots of great deals on the older iPad Mini. Walmart is likely your best bet for Black Friday deals on the original iPad Mini. It has the first-generation iPad mini for $300 and with a $100 gift card that takes the price down to $200. And since this is one of Walmart's door buster product, it will be guaranteeing that the device will be in stock for customers who show up at stores between 6pm and 7pm on Thanksgiving.

I hope this helps. And good luck with your holiday shopping.
Ask Maggie is an advice column that answers readers' wireless and broadband questions. The column now appears twice a week on CNET offering readers a double dosage of Ask Maggie's advice. If you have a question, I'd love to hear from you. Please send me an e-mail at maggie dot reardon at cbs dot com.

Oh look! New Lumia 525 quietly boosts Nokia's low end

The update to Nokia's popular budget smartphone makes an unassuming debut. Too bad it may not come your way anytime soon.

The Nokia Lumia 525.

(Credit: Nokia) Nokia is boosting its bet on the budget side of the smartphone business.
The smartphone maker quietly released the details of the Lumia 525, an upgraded version of its original low-end Lumia 520, which debuted in February during Mobile World Congress.

For Nokia, it's a continued push to the low end, which has brought it some success in many international markets. In contrast, the company has struggled a bit in the high-end segment, particularly in Western markets.

The Lumia 525 offers double the RAM at 1GB, the company's trademark colorful -- and interchangeable -- covers, and more special effects for its camera.
The phone doesn't appear to be headed to the United States -- at least not right away. A list of the local product pages include countries in Africa, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. Not included are North America, Europe, and South America.

Steve Ballmer's replacement needs to make this phone call

If Microsoft's outgoing chief executive had listened to Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's incoming CEO would have a much easier go of it.

Ray Ozzie (left), at that time the chief software architect at Microsoft, and CEO Steve Ballmer speak at the D: All Things Digital conference shortly before Ozzie's departure from Microsoft in 2010.

(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET) Once Microsoft's board of directors announces the name of the company's next chief executive, get ready for nonstop kibbitzing.
"Sell this business. Buy that startup. Hire! Fire! Go mobile. Go big. Go east. Go west."
Something like that. When it comes to offering free advice, there's no shortage of tech analysts and know-it-all columnists eager to retail today's conventional wisdom for prime time. And given that we're talking about Microsoft, seemingly everyone is going to have an opinion about what the new boss ought to do.

Amusing, but all part of a sideshow. The person soon to inherit Steve Ballmer's job will know how to tune out the talking heads while the more immediate need is to pick up the phone to talk to the super-smart people out there who can help. When that time arrives, the first call ought to go out to Ray Ozzie. It's too late for the outgoing boss, but the incoming boss at Microsoft ought to listen carefully to what Ozzie has to say.
 
Peering into the future
For years, Ozzie tried to steer Microsoft into a post-PC future, predicting the emergence of Internet services and Internet devices.
But his prophecies fell Cassandra-like on deaf ears.
For those not familiar with his resume, Ozzie made a big mark with his invention of Notes, a 1990s-era collaborative groupware application that was revolutionary for the time. IBM later paid more than $3 billion to buy Lotus in order to get the program -- really big money in those days -- as well as to bring along Ozzie. Without Notes, Lou Gerstner would have never bothered with Lotus, which was getting clobbered in the market by -- you guessed it -- Microsoft.

Ozzie subsequently launched a startup called Groove that Microsoft acquired in 2005. He took over for Bill Gates as Microsoft's chief software architect the following year. Before his official move into the job, Ozzie tried to get Microsoft to modify its Windows-centric view of the world in a 5,000-word memo outlining Microsoft's shortcomings as well as the potential opportunities in the Internet 2.0 age. It's worth a read. The headline was Ozzie's insistence that Microsoft get involved in the shift toward services and service-based software, riffing on what we now refer to as cloud computing.

Products must deliver a seamless experience, one in which all the technology in your life 'just works' and can work together, on your behalf, under your control. This means designs centered on an intentional fusion of internet-based services with software, and sometimes even hardware, to deliver meaningful experiences and solutions with a level of seamless design and use that couldn't be achieved without such a holistic approach.

Reading that passage in 2013, you wonder why the message landed on deaf ears. But Microsoft was a big bureaucratic company and not everyone necessarily was ready to pull in the same direction.

Even when we've been solidly in pursuit of a common vision, our end-to-end execution of key scenarios has often been uneven -- in large part because of the complexity of doing such substantial undertakings. In any large project, the sheer number of moving parts sometimes naturally causes compartmentalization of decisions and execution. Some groups might lose sight of how their piece fits in, or worse, might develop features without a clear understanding of how they'll be used. In some cases by the time the vision is delivered, the pieces might not quite fit into the originally-envisioned coherent whole.

By 2010, Ozzie had had enough. Before clocking out, however, he gathered his thoughts for another long memo, this one optimistically titled "Dawn of a New Day." It's politely written but still a blunt indictment of a "PC-centric/server-centric" Microsoft that inexplicably dawdled over while Google and Apple went on to capture big leads in technology's hottest growth businesses.
"Certain of our competitors' products and their rapid advancement and refinement of new usage scenarios have been quite noteworthy," he said, noting that "their execution has surpassed our own in mobile experiences, in the seamless fusion of hardware and software and services, and in social networking and myriad new forms of Internet-centric social interaction."
Ozzie also put Microsoft on notice: stop making things hard on users.

"Complexity kills. Complexity sucks the life out of users, developers and IT," he said. "Complexity makes products difficult to plan, build, test and use. Complexity introduces security challenges. Complexity causes administrator frustration."

Again, he proved prescient. Microsoft eventually grokked what Ozzie was talking about and pledged itself to a future that was going to be all about devices and services. Two years after Ozzie had left the company.

NSA logged online porn habits of Muslim 'radicalizers' -- report

The targets' appetite for sexually explicit material means their reputations can be undermined on charges of hypocrisy, according to a document released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

 

National Security Agency buildings.

(Credit: NSA)
The National Security Agency monitored and spotlighted the online pornography practices and financial misdeeds of six Muslim "radicalizers" so that their authority could be undermined by showing hypocrisy, according to a new report.

The "radicalizers appear to be particularly vulnerable in the area of authority when their private and public behaviors are not consistent," the Huffington Post reported Tuesday, quoting from an October 3, 2012, report released after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked it.

Vulnerabilities included using donations for personal expenses, charging exorbitant speaking fees, and "viewing sexually explicit material online or using sexually explicit persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls," the document said.
"Some of the vulnerabilities, if exposed, would likely call into question the radicalizer's devotion to the jihadist cause, leading to the degradation or loss of his authority," the document said.
The government didn't deny the surveillance. Shawn Turner, director of public affairs for National Intelligence, told the Huffington Post in a statement:

Without discussing specific individuals, it should not be surprising that the US government uses all of the lawful tools at our disposal to impede the efforts of valid terrorist targets who seek to harm the nation and radicalize others to violence.

However, the electronic surveillance has triggered concern among those who fear the NSA will abuse its online data-gathering power. In the 1960s and 1970s, the NSA spied on Martin Luther King, Jr., two senators, Muhammad Ali, and journalists from the New York Times and the Washington Post.
"This report is an unwelcome reminder of what it means to give an intelligence agency unfettered access to individuals' most sensitive information," American Civil Liberties Union Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement Wednesday. "One ordinarily associates these kinds of tactics with the secret police services of authoritarian governments. That these tactics have been adopted by the world's leading democracy -- and the world's most powerful intelligence agency -- is truly chilling."
 
Update, 11:20 a.m. PT: Adds comment from the ACLU.

The National Security Agency in about 1950

(Credit: NSA)

Why Xbox One, PS4 price cuts aren't coming until 2015

Thanks to massively successful launches and finely tuned hardware, Sony and Microsoft have the luxury of waiting to begin dropping their prices.

Those holding out for a cheaper next-gen console come next year may need to reconsider their timeline for taking the plunge.

This month's PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launches have given Sony and Microsoft a definitive and reassuring answer to the demand question mark looming over high-end living room gaming. That means that unless one starts to aggressively undercut the other, we aren't likely to see our options decrease in price until well into the devices' life cycles.

"You would certainly cut the price of hardware because there is a demand issue," said Colin Sebastian, an interactive media analyst with Baird Research. "GameStop has 30 million PowerUp Rewards members who are active gamers, and we're only predicting sales of 6 million total units," he added of combined Xbox One and PS4 sales and the amount of growth 2014 holds.

At launch, that demand issue is nowhere in sight. When Sony debuted the PlayStation 3 in the US in November of 2006 -- for an unappealing $599 and a year after Microsoft released its Xbox 360 -- it sold a paltry 197,000 units in the first two weeks. Sony would go on to cut the price of its console eight months later. Fast-forward seven years and the change is eye-opening: Sony sold 1 million PS4 units in under 24 hours in the US and Canada.

And it's not alone in that success. Microsoft's Xbox One launch -- albeit in 13 markets worldwide -- may not have been as strong as Sony's the week prior, but it too saw sales of more than 1 million units and far surpassed those of the Xbox 360. Both consoles are now sold out at all major retailers.
While these launches have been a celebratory moment for the regaining health of console gaming, the one issue all fence-sitting consumers must now grapple with is when to make the next-gen dive. Unfortunately, because Sony and Microsoft have had such blockbuster launches this time around, it's very unlikely the Xbox One or PS4 will see a discount at the usual six- to eight-month mark favored by makers of struggling systems.
 
Game console price cuts by the numbers
"The two new consoles will likely not have official price drops until spring 2015, at the earliest," Matt Matthews, a game industry analyst who writes for Gamasutra, forecast in an interview with CNET.

That falls in line with history. The Xbox 360, launched in November 2005 to warm reception, didn't see a price drop until August of 2007, and even then it was only $50 on its middle-tier model and $20 on its low- and high-end models. The Nintendo Wii, on the other hand, launched at $249 in November of 2006 and didn't cut its price for nearly three years due to the strength of its sales; the Wii ended up outselling its competitors by tens of millions of units and broke December sales records after its 2009 price cut.

Sony set an especially important precedent when it too waited roughly a year and a half to discount its PlayStation 2, doing so in May of 2002 by $100 and selling a then-record 690,000 consoles the following month.

That puts console discounts for systems with healthy launches on a standard 18- to 20-month cycle, excluding the Wii due to its reasonable initial price. The only deviations from this are with consoles that have poor debuts and lackluster sales in the immediate months post-launch. The GameCube was facing extreme competition from the PS2 -- resulting in Nintendo discounting it from $199 to $150 six months in -- while Microsoft was attempting to force its way onto the gaming mainstream with its initial Xbox and turned to a $100 discount six months after launch to make inroads in that goal.
Other examples of launch hurdles pairing with the early onset of price cuts are the Wii U and the PlayStation 3, devices that were both plagued with lackluster sales and poor launch lineups that forced their makers to move more aggressively and earlier. Nintendo eventually caved 10 months after its Wii U launch and discounted the console by $50 in an attempt to improve sales momentum into the holiday season.

And only eight months into the PS3's life cycle, Sony was forced to discontinue its unfavorable 20GB model and cut the price of its 60GB model by $100. That substantial move helped it push more than double the number of units monthly, but it meant that Sony was then losing even more money on each console sold, ultimately adding up to a $3.3 billion loss after two and a half years.

Video game console price cuts are governed by demand. Looking at sales histories of the previous generation, it's easy to see why the Sony moved faster and more aggressively on discounts and introducing new models.

(Credit: Wikia)

All of this illustrates that when it comes to the PS4 and Xbox One, we're seeing two of the most well-received console launches in gaming history. Both systems' midnight events went off without a hitch; day one sales clocked more than 1 million units; and each platform is offering consumers improved hardware and software at a more reasonable price point than the previous generation. To call the launches and Sony and Microsoft's preparedness for their respective moments successful would be an understatement.

Granted, Sony is grappling with thousands of units -- less than 1 percent of PS4s it claims -- that are experiencing what users call a "blue light of death" during startup, while Microsoft has just publicly acknowledged a disc drive issue that it's aiming to quickly snuff out. But those issues are easily addressable and nowhere near the disasters with the Xbox 360's "red ring of death" hardware failure and the shortage crunch Sony ran into with its PS3 launch.

Even Microsoft with its Xbox One at its higher price point of $499.99 is not projected to make a drastic move with regards to price if it can even remotely keep up with Sony's cheaper alternative.
"On the Microsoft side, it would take dramatically low sales -- around 50,000 per month in the US -- for them to consider a real price drop," Matthews said. "That happened to Nintendo's Wii U this summer, and I think Microsoft isn't likely to be as stoic as Nintendo in this regard."

With Sony, Matthews noted that it has traditionally announced its last few price changes at August's GamesCom in Germany. Pending Sony's rebuttal to any potential Microsoft price cut that could dramatically hasten the race to the bottom, that standard will likely stick around. "The nearest point at which that makes sense is August 2015, so I wouldn't expect a price drop until then," he said.
Microsoft declined to comment on console price cuts or sales strategy, and Sony did not respond to requests for comment.

Of course, that doesn't discount the possibility of a retailer price drop in the realm of 10 percent. That's happened before with the PS3 and Xbox 360 as soon as four months after launch, and will likely come from major players like BestBuy and Walmart rather than from more gamer-oriented retailers like GameStop.

"Retailers will use certain products to drive traffic," Sebastian noted of major retailer discounts. "That's very different than an MSRP cut. Next holiday we can expect these consoles to be at the same price," he added.
 
Bundles are the next best bargain
While hard price cuts in the realm of $50 to $100 are likely off the table for 2014, that doesn't rule out the next best bang for one's buck: bundles. With console exclusives Infamous: Second Son and Titanfall coming to the PS4 and Xbox One respectively in March, both systems' platforms will be more rounded out and therefore more ripe for Sony and Microsoft to incentivize potential buyers.

 

"I would expect Sony and Microsoft to let those exclusives try to move hardware on their own first, during midyear," Matthews noted, saying by October we may see Infamous or Titanfall bundles. "If there are midyear bundles, I would expect them to consist of launch titles, not new titles."
"You get to titles like Titanfall in March and Destiny in June and they [Sony and Microsoft] expect those to be drive titles for next-gen platforms," Sebastian said. By timing bundles against those big-name releases, Microsoft and Sony can beef up the pull to play new games, and push more units, by throwing in free titles.

Still, a Killzone: Shadow Fall or Ryse: Son of Rome bundle, alongside the availability of games like Infamous and Titanfall, could make a March purchase the perfect time to jump in, especially for those who were holding off both in hope for a potential price cut and due to the systems' lackluster launch lineup.
 
The Kinect question

 

 

  (Credit: CNET)

That brings us to the Kinect, one of the more pertinent debate fixtures on the plate for those who have yet to declare their allegiance to the PS4 or Xbox One. After all, Sony was only able to achieve the price of $399.99 by unbundling its less expensive -- yet less capable -- motion sensor and selling it for $60. If Microsoft did that, it could likely boost sales and offer a true point of differentiation from its higher-end model in the absence of rolling out consoles with smaller hard drives, which is nearing an impossibility at this stage given that games must be installed on both systems' HDDs.

"I am still not ruling out the possibility that they will consider a Kinect-less version in 2014," said Matthews. "That would lower the price of entry to Microsoft's system, but would also fracture the baseline hardware that developers can count on. For that reason, I'm not sure they'll pull the trigger on a Kinect-less Xbox One, but it should be considered."

Fracturing that baseline, though, is exactly what makes Sebastian apprehensive to expect a Kinect-less Xbox One anytime in the near future. "Microsoft thinks that capability is integral to the platform," he said.

That means Microsoft is willing to play the long game with motion control, even at the expense of pushing fewer units. By unbundling the devices, Microsoft would be signaling to developers that its vision for the Xbox-centered entertainment hub -- equipped with voice and motion control -- could crack under the pressure to wrack up more sales.

Although Microsoft conceded to criticism and had to repeatedly ensure gamers that the Xbox One would in fact work without the Kinect plugged in, unbundling the two devices would seem to be counterproductive to Microsoft's overall plan. Back in August, Microsoft Corporate Vice President Phil Harrison said in response to an unbundling question posed by CVG, "Xbox One is Kinect. They are not separate systems. An Xbox One has chips, it has memory, it has Blu-ray, it has Kinect, it has a controller. These are all part of the platform ecosystem."

If you're still on the fence about the next-gen consoles going into Black Friday and the holiday season, there are three important points to consider: History and launch success tells us that neither the Xbox One nor PS4 are projected to sell poorly enough to warrant price cuts within the first 12 or even 18 months; bundles are on the horizon, though all but certainly reserved for launch titles until next fall; and Microsoft unbundling the Kinect to reach an Xbox One price of $399.99 is an extreme long shot that would come with little benefit to Microsoft or developers.

So while there are a lot of reasons to hold off on making the move to next-gen console gaming, waiting for price cuts should not be one of them.

Fiber-optic cables could be the key to NSA snooping

The NSA may have employed an old-school spy technique -- updated for the Internet age -- to gain access to data from tech giants like Google and Yahoo, reports The New York Times.

Detail of an internal "NSA presentation slide" published by The Washington Post. The sketch shows where the public Internet meets the private cloud maintained by Google, and points out that the data within the cloud is unencrypted (though Google is now working to encrypt such information).

 
(Credit: The Washington Post) 

  In October, a report surfaced that the US National Security Agency secretly accessed data from tech giants like Google and Yahoo, by way of intercepting the unencrypted traffic flowing between each company's data centers. Specifically, it's believed the NSA tapped into the fiber-optic cables that connect those data centers. The New York Times reported Tuesday that these cables, which aren't owned by the Internet companies, are easy targets for interception. The largest such fiber-optic cable provider -- an under the radar Denver-based firm called Level 3 -- may have had something to do with the government's infiltration tactics. "Fingers have been pointed" at Level 3, reported the Times, citing three unnamed sources.

Level 3, which provides both Google and Yahoo with cables, was specifically mentioned in the Times report. Other companies that own fiber-optic cables include Verizon Communications, the BT Group, and the Vodafone Group.

To be sure, it's not yet known if Level 3 was a willing participant. When asked if the company gave US or foreign government agencies access to Google and Yahoo's data, Level 3 gave the Times an indirect response: "It is our policy and our practice to comply with laws in every country where we operate, and to provide government agencies access to customer data only when we are compelled to do so by the laws in the country where the data is located."

Level 3 did not immediately respond to a separate request for comment from CNET. We will update this story when we hear back.

Tapping fiber-optic cables is just a modern spin on an old spy game. As early as the days of the telegraph, spies have set up shop near communications companies. Since then, the government has tapped other kinds of traffic, from long-distance phone to satellite.

News broke of the NSA and British counterpart GCHQ's efforts at intercepting data center traffic when The Washington Post reported details of a project called MUSCULAR. Both Google and Yahoo have taken steps to encrypt the information that moves between its data farms. The Post's was only the latest in over half a year of surveillance revelations, since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden first leaked details of the government agency's activity.

In the wake of those revelations, tech companies have been quick to maintain their innocence in the situation. Last week, in a blog post announcing Yahoo's attempt to catch up on encryption, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said, "I want to reiterate what we have said in the past: Yahoo has never given access to our data centers to the NSA or to any other government agency. Ever."

Apple preps shoppers for Black Friday

The company jumps on the very large bandwagon to offer discounts on some products starting at midnight Friday.

 

Apple will join the countless number of retailers looking to score some cash on Black Friday.
The company on Tuesday sent out e-mails and published a page on its site teasing its Black Friday "shopping event." Apple didn't say what kind of deals it plans to offer customers.

If history is to be our guide, Apple's Black Friday event should offer discounted pricing on everything from Macs to iPads. The company's discounts usually aren't major, with Apple typically sticking to around $101 off Macs and $41 to $61 off iPads.

As in previous years, Apple's deals are being offered only on Black Friday. Online shoppers will get access to the discounts starting at midnight on Black Friday. Apple's retail stores will also offer the discounts for that day.

Surprise! The $179 Moto G hits the US early

CNET talks to Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside about his hopes for the low-cost Moto G, and why the higher-end Moto X is like a Corvette.

Moto G makes its debut in the US.

(Credit: CNET)
Motorola Mobility apparently couldn't wait for its low-cost Moto G to hit the States.
The Moto G went on sale in the US on Tuesday, available only in the GSM variant and unlocked on Motorola.com for $179 without a contract.

The surprise launch comes well ahead of the company's previously planned target of getting the Moto G out in the US by January. Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside told CNET that early demand for the phone has been strong overseas. The company was able to ramp up the manufacturing process faster than anticipated, and it was able to get the Web site up faster, allowing for the early release of the phone. By launching now, Motorola also takes advantage of the holiday shopping season.
That doesn't take away from its plans for the first quarter. Motorola's carrier and retail partners will launch the Moto G in January, just in time to take advantage of the traditionally strong prepaid market early in the year. While Verizon Wireless has committed to selling the Moto G for its prepaid brand, Woodside said the LTE-less phone would get "broad distribution" with multiple partners. (He declined to name names.)

"We were always gearing up for a big first quarter, but we think we'll have success this quarter as well," Woodside said.

Moto G is the low-cost brother to the more ambitious Moto X, which is primarily sold in the US and stands out because customers can tweak how the device looks with different colors and accents.
The Moto G, however, could end up selling better because it already has a broad array of partners around the world, and the phone's price tag is attractive given the quality of the device.

The flagship Moto X smartphone.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Woodside declined to comment on sales volume of the Moto X, but he did note the challenges that come from building a brand from scratch.
"It's like launching the Corvette for the first time," he said. "It takes a little while for people to know what the Corvette stands for and to decide if it's right for them."

Regardless of the sales, Woodside understands that positioning the Moto X for success is a long game. He said the Moto Maker capability has helped spur interest in the device, and noted that nearly 1 million people visited Motorola's Web site to tinker with the customization tool. Even if that interest doesn't translate into immediate sales, it does build awareness. He said anyone hardly visited the Motorola site before Google took it over.

Neither the Moto G nor Moto X are sold in China, a result of the Chinese government's ban on Google services, which flow into its phones. Woodside wouldn't close the door on Motorola phones making a comeback in China -- they previously had a strong position in the market, and the brand still holds some sway there -- but he said there were no plans to pursue that region.

As for the future of the Moto X franchise, he said the next step in customization will be the color, finish, and material of the phones. Ultimately, he would like to offer consumers the ability to choose their own screen size, processor speed, and memory, but he said there are a lot of complications and a lack of standards to make it all work. The company is only beginning to create those standards now.
Motorola's Project Ara is the company's push to get to that ultimate goal, but Woodside's comments suggest that's still a long way off.

As for more immediate possibilities, Woodside talked about tablets, noting that "it is always something we're looking at," but said that the company wouldn't put out a product unless it could put a different spin on it.

"There's some exploration, but nothing we can talk about right now," he said.
Lastly, Woodside weighed in on the possibility of Motorola creating a Nexus phone. He is open to working with his parent company's Android team, and doesn't believe it crosses a line for Motorola to participate. But for now, it doesn't appear as if Motorola is in the running for a Nexus device.
"That's something that's more a conversation for (Android, Chrome, and Google apps chief Sundar Pichai)," he said.

Google Glass developers: We're still flying half-blind

If the product is ever to appeal to mainstream users, software developers say, it's up to Google to offer more leadership -- or more access.

 

Google Glass developers gather for the launch of the Glass Development Kit, but they say there's still work to be done on the headset.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
Ever since developers got their hands on Google Glass earlier this year, software coders have clamored for greater access to the programming internals of the controversial headset. Google accommodated them this week -- albeit to the sound of muted applause.

To be sure, Google's Glass Development Kit (GDK) does fill in a key puzzle piece that had been missing from Google Glass. Yet many developers are worried. They say that in the absence of more leadership or more access from Google, they're being asked to figure out the final picture on their own -- knowing that it might change by the time Glass gets mass produced.
The Glass Development Kit preview released by Google opens up many of the options that had been absent from the developer's toolbox. Previously, developers had only been able to code for Glass' limited Mirror API.

Google has relied on third-party developers who own the $1,500 headsets to further app development, while internal development at the company has focused on making sure that the new software platform functions properly. When Google first announced Glass, the hope was that a vibrant development community would emerge and create the kinds of consumer applications which would extend Google Glass' appeal beyond the technophile crowd and into the mainstream.
Given that Glass represents a major shift in wearable computing from the nerdy realm of adventurous hackers to the common consumer marketplace, Google has been cautious about giving developers too much access to the hardware too soon.
 
\Many but not all doors open for Glass developers
The Mirror API access was a compromise that encouraged developers to build for Glass when it arrived on their doorsteps last spring, but without giving them too much power. The GDK, which Google is quick to caution is a "preview" and not the full GDK that eventually will be distributed, gives developers access to many Glass features that had been walled off -- but not all of them.
"Now all that's remaining is for Google to build an actual app store, and for developers to build better apps" with the GDK, said Jonathan Gottfried, a developer evangelist at Twilio and developer who built early Twitter apps for Glass.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they went with the Google Play Store," he said.
Brandyn White, a 27-year-old Glass developer and self-described lifelong computer hacker who founded a consulting company that specializes in how computers interpret the world through camera lenses called Dapper Vision, has been working with Google and on his own to build the kind of better apps that Gottfried described.

"As the device gets more personal, it's less about killer apps, and more about the personally awesome app."
 

--Brandyn White, Google Glass developer

White has focused his attention on how Glass can be used to help the visually impaired.
"For me, the most important thing is context. Take a grocery list," said White, who's also earning his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Maryland. "Glass should recognize things at the supermarket," telling you when it sees something on your list without having to actually show the list to you.

"You want it to be a non-annoying friend; you want it to add value," he said. Glass needs more of those kind of apps, he said.

Word Lens translates text seen through Google Glass into your language, as demonstrated at a hackathon for the newly released Glass Development Kit.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

White cited apps like the translation app Word Lens pictured above, which are essentially interface-free interactions filtered from the real world through Glass to the person wearing it. Like its Android and iOS siblings, Word Lens on Glass replaces large font words on signs with words in your language. But it can't translate smaller print, even though its smartphone siblings can, because the Google Glass camera doesn't zoom in enough.

It's likely that current Google Glass hardware is more of a prototype than what consumers will get sometime in 2014, when Google has said Glass will be available to purchase. Think of it as the original Chromebook prototype, or the Nexus line of Android devices: It's a hardware guideline for the final product.

Nevertheless, White said that the hardware is perfectly usable in its current state. "The hardware team has everything figured out," he said. "The software is so much harder. [The Glass software team] has to think long-term, and legacy with Android."
White said that "80 percent" of Glass code is taken straight from Android.
 
Glass developers left to fend for themselves
He added that the GDK is not inadequate for developers, but that it could offer so much more. That, White said, is where Glass developers are taking the lead over Google's own team.

"The GDK is very small, it's very useful, but I think a ton of features got left on the floor," said White.
One of those restrictions appears to have been enacted to keep privacy advocates at bay. Google does not allow or encourage facial-recognition apps, severely limiting science research, said Vivienne Ming, the chief scientist at tech employment firm Gild, and a visiting scholar at the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at the University of California at Berkeley.
"What I'm most fundamentally interested in is this idea of maximizing human potential," she said. "We could do expression recognition, and use it to teach autistic children how to recognize expressions." Another helpful scenario she described for facial recognition would be to help Alzheimer's patients remember people that they know they ought to recognize, but have forgotten.
That doesn't mean that facial-recognition apps for Glass won't be available. You just won't be able to install them through the MyGlass catalog until Google changes its policy. But since Glass is based on Android, and Android has built a lot of its success off of having multiple app stores, it stands to reason that there will be more options for getting Glass apps than the official Google distribution point.
 
Not waiting for Google to lead
Even now in these formative Glass days, there is already at least one other option besides MyGlass. White and a partner have built Weariverse.com as a place where Glass hackers and owners can share and install scripts directly to Glass.
Another big piece of the puzzle will be how Google decides to implement app sales. Currently, there's no viable business model that Glass app makers can rely on, said Winnie Tong, who built the photo filter app Glasstagram last summer, but has since stopped developing for Glass because of her day job.

"Right now there are no viable business models, which makes starting a startup very difficult," she said.

Vivienne Tong hopes to use her medical research in combination with Google Glass to improve the lives of people.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Geographic tagging in photos is another potential problem for Glass, she said. She attempted to write an app that uses real-time GPS coordinates and photos to help you remember where you left your car in a parking lot, but stumbled on the up-to-10-minute GPS location update delay built into Glass.
The GDK lets app developers tap into real-time location, she said, "except that geotags on photos still have an up-to-10-minute delay."

There are other issues that have yet to be resolved on the hardware side. Complaints about battery life are common among developers, and Glass accessories such as $85 mono earbuds and eye shields are in the works. How Google plans to integrate prescription lenses with Glass is another issue that the company is working on.

Google and its army of Glass developers have made impressive leaps in creating a Glass ecosystem of apps and real-world use cases out of what had previously been left to the realm of science fiction, but there's yet to be a single killer Google Glass app.

That may never happen, said White, because of Glass' wearable nature. "As the device gets more personal, it's less about killer apps, and more about the personally awesome app," he said.
The difference between killer app and personally awesome app could be as simple as Word Lens translating written words you see as you read them. The puzzle pieces have been dumped on the table, but Google's leaving it up to developers more than ever before to complete the picture.

Black Friday deal week: Manic Monday

Lots of great deals, including dirt-cheap cloud backup and a $50 touch-screen Nook e-reader with GlowLight.

This is going to be a crazy week. Already over the weekend I've seen a Dell laser printer with Wi-Fi for $29.99 (already sold out), a 16GB iPad Air for $449 (also sold out), and so on. Stores are really taking this "early Black Friday" thing to heart, so the deals are coming fast and furious -- and, unsurprisingly, selling out quickly.
That's why I'm going to devote this week to as many sweet deals as I can find, starting with this one:

Cheap e-reader

(Credit: Barnes & Noble)

I first spotted this yesterday, so I don't know how much longer the sale will be in effect (it may very well end this morning) or what kind of supply is left.
That said, Best Buy has the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight for $49.99 shipped (plus sales tax where applicable). That's half off the regular price of this popular 6-inch e-reader.
And while you're waiting for it to arrive, check out Sharon Vaknin's "Ten most useful Nook tips and tricks," including checking out library books for free (one of my favorite activities).

Cheap cloud backup

I guess I should hyphenate properly: that's cheap cloud-backup. Don't want anyone to think this is about backing up cheap clouds.
Backblaze is a backup service similar to Carbonite and Mozy, offering continuous, automated backup of all your data. It affords unlimited space, and its client software (available for Windows and Mac) will automatically sift through your hard drive to find photos, music, documents, and other critical data, thus eliminating a lot of the typical backup hassles.
For a limited time, AppSumo is once again offering a one-year Backblaze subscription for $25. Regular price: $50. (After you click through, scroll down to see the details.)

Feel the Payne

Game time! If you passed on Max Payne 3 when it debuted last year, your patience has paid off: Amazon has Max Payne 3 (Win) and Max Payne 3 Season Pass for $6.99. The latter gives you access to all the add-on content packs.
While you're at it, why not grab the BioShock Triple Pack for $14.99? It includes all three games in the incredible series, including the recent BioShock Infinite.

An embarrassment of flash-drive riches

Staples is really rocking the deals this week. Those two examples I gave you up top? Both were from Staples. Consequently, this one is likely to sell out right out the time I finish typing this sentence.
But maybe not. While supplies last, Staples has the SanDisk Cruzer Blade 32GB USB 2.0 flash drive for $9.99 with free ship-to-store, plus sales tax. I don't believe I've ever seen a 32GB drive for under 10 bucks.
Update: Unsurprisingly, this is already sold out. Here's a close second: Newegg has the PNY Attache 2 32GB flash drive for $12.99 shipped.
Of course, I have to ask: Does anyone still use these things?

Roku box for a Chromecast price

Hey, you. Yeah, you -- the last guy on the planet who doesn't have a Roku box. DealFisher once again has the refurbished Roku HD streaming media box for $34.99 shipped. That's the same price you'd pay for a Google Chromecast -- but the box does so much more. This is an older model, yes, and it's limited to 720p streaming, but it still gives you access to nearly every streaming service there is. For 35 bucks!

 

Restaurant offers 50 percent discount for turning off phone

A restaurant owner in Israel has had enough of cell phone chatter and mute couples staring into their phones during dinner. So he's offering an incentive.

The sublime tomatoes at Aziza restaurant in San Francisco. I felt guilty taking this picture.

(Credit: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)  
Look your lover in the face. Tell him or her why they're the best, most gorgeous, most intelligent, inspiring person you've ever met.

Then dig into your mackerel or your malloreddus.
That's how a romantic meal should go. Instead, these days, the obligatory phones lie on the table like needy puppies. Within moments, the lovers' eyes are buried in them, as if this were a table for one.
One restaurateur in Israel has decided that, rather than ban cell phones, he will offer an incentive so great that it makes your average Black Friday bargain seem like robbery.
Jawdat Ibrahim, owner of the Abu Ghosh restaurant in an Arab village outside Jerusalem, is offering a 50 percent discount if everyone at the table turns off his or her cell phone.
As the Associated Press hears it, Ibrahim got tired of the married or the loving sitting in silence. Why, sometimes they were so grossly engrossed that they didn't even eat. They asked him to reheat their food.

What has happened to our world when we prefer to Snapchat rather than sample perfectly cooked snap peas?
Ibrahim explained his feelings to the AP: "Technology is very good. But just when you eat, just especially when you are with your family and your friends, you can just wait for half an hour and enjoy the food and enjoy the company."
Of course you can't. You have to Instagram and tweet a picture of your starter. You have to check in on Foursquare. You have to post "Date night with Kasi The Office Librarian!" to Facebook.
And shame on you if you forget to inform your Google+ followers.

What's remarkable is Ibrahim's apparent generosity. A 50 percent discount suggests an assault on his margins -- which, in most restaurants, are markedly thin.
Last year, LA restaurant Eva offered its customers a 5 percent incentive to leave their cell phones at the door.

Recently, another LA restaurant, Bucato, banned cell phones in order to prevent what it called "Gastro ADD."

Some New York restaurants, such as those owned by famed chef David Chang, ban the use of phones to take food porn. San Francisco's sublime La Ciccia is another that discourages phone use, albeit politely.

Ibrahim says he tried to encourage customers to leave their phones at the door, but this proved too complex.

His plaintive generosity has caused, he said, almost every customer to take him up on his offer. It's also brought in some new customers.
Perhaps the discount, then, is merely excellent publicity.
It's sad, though, that people have to be bribed to do something that their souls might tell them is the human thing to do.
But we began to sell our souls to technology a few years ago. In fact, we gave technology 50 percent of our selves just to take our souls away.

I'm ready for my closeup: Yahoo's push into big media.

By hiring Katie Couric, Marissa Mayer makes a sharp turn toward her mission of entertaining us. It's only the latest move in Mayer's plan to bring Yahoo into the bright lights.

It's official. Katie Couric is a Yahoo.
Mayer announced Monday that the former ABC News personality will join Yahoo, with the title of "global anchor." The announcement follows hints of the move stretching back to this summer that ratcheted up with a flurry of reports in recent days.

The move is perfectly aligned with chief executive Marissa Mayer's apparent vision for the company.
Under Mayer's leadership for more than a year, Yahoo initially emphasized businesses like mail, search, and other tech-focused products getting a fresh coat of paint, as well as making a bigger push in mobile. Mayer's most headline-grabbing move since taking up the CEO post in Juy 2012 was the $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr.

But how much of that broke new ground? Many of the efforts effectively dusted off Yahoo products that had grown musty after years without a dedicated refresh, and even the purchase of Tumblr smacked of a Internet old-timer grasping at the shiniest thing fascinating young people at the moment. Combined, they were Mayer's blitz to turn Yahoo into a stronger competitor to Google and Facebook for advertising dollars.

Now, with the hiring of Couric and David Pogue, Mayer is spelling out how Yahoo will deliver on the mission she's been broadcasting as Yahoo's fundamental goal: entertain us.

She's turning her attention to an ad realm that is growing more than any other, and, luckily for Yahoo, everyone is still trying to figure it out.
 
The first year
Yahoo's decision to bring in Mayer as CEO last year augured well for some promising elements of Google's cutlure to come with her. Yahoo stood to benefit by borrowing some of the search giant's dedication to engineering, swiftness and spirit of clear-eyed innovation that sparks extraordinary tech projects as easily as it kills off ones that aren't really working.
She had her work cut out for her. In the first quarter of that year, Yahoo's revenue rose a single percent to $1.07 billion, as a 4 percent decrease in display advertising revenue offset an 8 percent increase in search revenue. The company had moved rapidly through CEOs in recent years, including Carol Bartz, who was ousted as CEO in 2011 after less than three years of trying to turn around the company.

Mayer's first order of business was to improve Yahoo's core products. Search and Yahoo Mail got some much-needed attention, and Mayer stressed the need to make mobile the company's top priority. Then in May, Yahoo confirmed its $1.1 billion takeover of Tumblr, bringing Yahoo a younger demographic, and refashioned photo-sharing site Flickr after it lost ground to upstarts like Instagram.
In the process, Yahoo's media bent fell to the wayside.
 
That's entertainment!
In recent months, many of the rumblings at Yahoo have been in the realm of media and content. The high-profile poaching of Couric is just the latest example of Mayer's trying to bring the company into the bright lights. "At Yahoo, we are investing in bringing our users the absolute best content and video experiences available -- and this is just the beginning!" wrote Mayer, in a blog post announcing Couric's hiring.

Couric is best known for co-hosting the "Today Show" on NBC for 15 years before anchoring the "CBS Evening News" for five. Now, she hosts a weekday talk show on ABC, "Katie," and she will continue to front the show even with her new role at Yahoo. Couric will be "the face of Yahoo news" and shoot features for the company's homepage, Mayer said in the blog post.
The move comes after other splashy announcements the company has made in building out its team of media talent. In October, the company announced that David Pogue, the long-time The New York Times columnist, would join Yahoo to head up consumer tech coverage, writing columns and shooting online video.

AllThingsD has also reported that American Idol host Ryan Seacrest has also been in talks with Yahoo about content ideas. Seacrest's production company has apparently been discussing "interesting business opportunities" with the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company, according to Kara Swisher. (For what it's worth, should Seacrest shoot any on-camera work for Yahoo, it wouldn't be his first foray into online video. One of Seacrest's first on-air gigs was for the little Web site you're reading right now.)
 
The stakes
Yahoo's partnerships with high-profile figures like Couric are mutually beneficial. While Yahoo may not be the peerless gateway to the Internet that it once was, the number of eyeballs that check it out is still profoundly big: 800 million users a month. Yahoo offers a huge audience and, under Mayer's watch, a significant amount of creative freedom.

The figures Yahoo has recruited are recognizable ones -- the kind of people with a built in base of fans that have already made following these people part of the "daily habit" that Yahoo so wants to be a part of. And much of this strategy revolves around short bites of shareable video.
Video advertising is the most promising ad market on the Web. Researcher eMarketer earlier this year forecast that video ad spending would more than quadruple from 2011 to 2017, making it the fastest-growing format of digital ads throughout that time period.

However, Mayer still has a lot to prove. Her strategy thus far has turned around a couple measurement of Yahoo's relevance -- traffic and stock price, as examples -- but Yahoo has yet to demonstrate clear momentum in revenue or profit. In the most recent quarter, the company posted GAAP revenue of a little over $1.13 billion, a five percent decrease from that time last year.
Video advertising on the Web is still burgeoning, and it works in Yahoo's favor that no one player has figured it out yet. Google may be the universal leader on search ads, for example, and YouTube has no peer in subscription-free online video, but it's still figuring out how to make money from video ads.

Others like Yahoo were wise to this opportunity already. AOL has been aggressively refashioning its video scope, another Web giant that is rebuilding itself after a slip from the Internet's pantheon. The company has been steadying its revenue by transforming to an ad-driven digital-media operation under Chief Executive Tim Armstrong, exemplified by last month's agreement to buy Adap.tv, a video-ad marketplace platform, for $405 million after a $315 million takeover of The Huffington Post in 2011. The company posted strong third-quarter earnings, with revenue of $561.3 million, beating Wall Street's estimates of about $549 million.
Like the rest of Yahoo under Mayer, it looks like her entertainment push is asking the world for wait-and-see.

Amazon: Who says Black Friday can't start early?

The online retailer is already offering what it calls Black Friday deals on everything from electronics to fitness equipment.

Black Friday is still several days away, but that hasn't stopped Amazon from offering early deals.
Amazon's site is now listing Black Friday deals as part of the company's "Black Friday Deals Week." Similar to its offers in the past, Amazon is selling electronics, toys, books, and other products at reduced prices until the "limited supply" dries up of a particular item.

As of this writing, one deal of the day is a Samsung Galaxy S3 for $260 off contract. Sales are available in a number of categories, Amazon said that new items will be added "as frequently as every 10 minutes" each day this week

Zuckerberg says US 'really blew it' on surveillance programs

Facebook CEO criticizes government's data collection programs as lacking transparency.

Mark Zuckerberg believes the United States "really blew it" on surveillance programs that have drawn intense criticism as lacking respect for citizens' privacy.

"I think that these things are always a balance, in terms of doing the right things and also being clear and telling people about what you're doing," the Facebook chief executive said in an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week" that touched on a range of issues. "I think the government really blew it on this one. And I honestly think that they're continuing to blow it in some ways and I hope that they become more transparent in that part of it."

The National Security Agency's tactics in vacuuming up phone, e-mail, and other Internet communications have come under scrutiny since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden began releasing classified documents this year about the agency's activities.

After several Internet companies were reported to have given the US government direct access to its servers, Zuckerberg issued a categorical denial in June saying that Facebook "ha[s] never received a blanket request or court order from any government agency asking for information or metadata in bulk, like the one Verizon reportedly received. And if we did, we would fight it aggressively."

On a separate note, Zuckerberg was sympathetic of the challenges faced by HealthCare.gov, the government-run online health insurance marketplace that has been plagued by technical glitches.
"You know, sometimes stuff doesn't work when you want it to," he said. "We've certainly had plenty of mistakes and things that haven't worked the way that we want to. The right thing here is just to keep on focusing on building the service that you think is right in the long term."

Zuckerberg, who has also been campaigning for changes to US immigration law, also said "there are a lot of misconceptions" regarding the legality of 11 million undocumented persons in the country.
"A lot of them came here because they just want to work," said Zuckerberg, who recently launched a new political action group, FWD.us, that focuses in part on expanding the H-1B visa program. "They want to help out their families and they want to contribute. We definitely should make it so that they can, so that there's a path for them to come into the country legally as well."

NSA slapped malware on 50,000+ networks, says report

The US National Security Agency placed malicious software on more than 50,000 computer networks around the world, says a report based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

A new slide culled from the trove of documents leaked by Edward Snowden shows where the NSA placed malware on more than 50,000 computer networks worldwide, according to Dutch media outlet NRC.

The NSA management presentation slide from 2012 shows a world map spiderwebbed with "Computer Network Exploitation" access points.
Like all the NSA slides we've seen so far, this one is unlikely to win a Powerpoint beauty pageant anytime soon.

Not that this should distract anyone from the profoundly disturbing implications of this US government malware map that's being reported by a Dutch news agency -- an outlet to which the US government gave a "no comment."
Translated from Dutch:

The American intelligence service -- NSA -- infected more than 50,000 computer networks worldwide with malicious software designed to steal sensitive information.
Documents provided by former NSA employee Edward Snowden and seen by this newspaper, prove this.
(...) The NSA declined to comment and referred to the US Government. A government spokesperson states that any disclosure of classified material is harmful to our national security.

An NSA Web page that outlines the agency's Computer Network Operations program describes Computer Network Exploitation, or CNE, as a key part of the program's mission and says CNE "includes enabling actions and intelligence collection via computer networks that exploit data gathered from target or enemy information systems or networks."
In late August, The Washington Post reported on the NSA's "hacking unit" called Tailored Access Operations (TAO).
The Post wrote:

According to a profile by Matthew M. Aid for Foreign Policy, it's a highly secret but incredibly important NSA program that collects intelligence about foreign targets by hacking into their computers, stealing data, and monitoring communications.
(...) Dean Schyvincht, who claims to currently be a TAO Senior Computer Network Operator in Texas, might reveal the most about the scope of TAO activities.
He says the 14 personnel under his management have completed "over 54,000 Global Network Exploitation (GNE) operations in support of national intelligence agency requirements."

This is one letter away from being exact.
On the NSA's network ops page, there is no program with the acronym GNE -- only CNE and,

Computer Network Attack (CNA): Includes actions taken via computer networks to disrupt, deny, degrade, or destroy the information within computers and computer networks and/or the computers/networks themselves.
Computer Network Defense (CND): Includes actions taken via computer networks to protect, monitor, analyze, detect, and respond to network attacks, intrusions, disruptions, or other unauthorized actions that would compromise or cripple defense information.

Across the newly published slide top and bottom a stripe reads, "REL TO USA, AUS, CAN, GBR, NZL."
These are the  so-called Five Eyes nations -- the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand -- that share intelligence.
Last week, the very same Five Eyes nations moved to oppose the United Nations' anti-surveillance, right-to-privacy draft resolution called "The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age."
Security researchers online are speculating that telecoms were the most likely targets for the malware.

Only 50k milware installations globally? Must be restricted to the telcos, ISPs, banks, etc that allow for bulk collection.
-- the grugq (@thegrugq) November 23, 2013

They may not be too far off the mark.
NRC cites an example of Britain's NSA counterpart, GCHQ, being found to use spoofed LinkedIn pages to install surveillance malware on target computers in Belgium telecom, Belgacom (translated):

One example of this type of hacking was discovered in September 2013 at the Belgium telecom provider Belgacom.
For a number of years the British intelligence service -- GCHQ -- has been installing this malicious software in the Belgacom network in order to tap their customer's telephone and data traffic.
The Belgacom network was infiltrated by GCHQ through a process of luring employees to a false Linkedin page.

NRC concludes its article by telling us that the Dutch government's intelligence service has its own hacking unit, but that it's prohibited by law from engaging in the type of operations that the CNE slide suggests the NSA carried out.

Xbox One and PlayStation 4: Facial recognition shootout

Both the Xbox One Kinect and PlayStation 4 camera can log you in on sight, but which next-gen console does it better?

The list of similarities between the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 is long. Both systems were released in the same month after years of development, both offer many of the same apps and games, and both can use proprietary camera technology to log users in via facial recognition.
One big difference is that the Xbox One includes the Kinect camera in its $499 purchase price, while the PlayStation camera is an additional $59, on top of the $399 console.
Of course, neither of these systems are intended to secure your account -- this isn't a form of biometric security. It's more a convenient way to easily log in to different user accounts, as well as a cool show-off feature to impress your friends.

Adding a hat threw off the PlayStation camera.

PlayStation 4
On the PlayStation 4, users must create "face data" by offering different angles of one's head to the camera in a predetermined order. You can repeat the process later, in a different room, with different lights, or other variables, to give the system more data to work with.
In initial testing, the PS4 recognized me easily, just after I stepped into the view of the PlayStation camera. So far, so good.

But, lacking any other registered faces, the PS4 also started logging other people in as me, basically anyone who looked even slightly similar, including people as disparate as how-to writer Dan Graziano and David Carnoy.

We later created face data for Grazanio and Joe Kaminski, who works in the CNET Labs. After that, the system correctly identified each of us, even if we all jumped in front of the camera at once.
Wearing a hat proved especially tricky for the PS4. When I stood side by side with David Katzmaier in front of the PlayStation camera, the system identified him as "Dan Ackerman," and didn't recognize me at all.

The Xbox One Kinect camera had trouble recognizing me without my glasses.

 
Xbox One
With a camera system that is not only included by default, but also more sensitive and powerful (at least on paper), the facial recognition log-in is intended as the primary way users get access to their custom dashboards and profiles on Xbox One.

The setup process is much simpler, with no posing or moving around to different spots in the room, a time-consuming process required by the original Xbox 360 Kinect. Once I created/imported my Xbox Live profile, the system recognized me almost every time I got near it, even when just casually walking past, greeting me with an onscreen welcome message. That added me to the list of recognized players at the very top of the main dashboard screen, but to actually log in, I would have to take the controller and hit the home button.

The main difference between the two systems is that the Xbox One is always keeping an eye out for known users, and it experienced none of the false positives we saw with the PS4.
Wearing a hat was no problem for the Xbox One but when I removed my eyeglasses, I was recategorized as a "guest" until I put them back on.

Surprisingly, going clean-shaven didn't faze either console.

 
No beard, no problem
For one last test, I went all the way and shaved my trademark graying hipster stubble, to see if the game consoles could recognize me clean-shaven. To my surprise, both systems logged me in immediately. Apparently facial hair is easier to account for than eyeglasses or a hat. The takeaway: if you're worried about entering a mustache-growing contest for fear it will interfere with gaming, you're in the clear.
 
Putting the console cameras to the test
How successful were both facial recognition systems when we put them to the test by creating a profile, then trying to log in under a series of changing variables? The results are below.

Xbox One vs. PlayStation 4 facial recognition test
	Xbox One	PlayStation 4
Standard facial recognition	Pass	Pass
No eyeglasses	Fail	Pass
Wearing a hat	Pass	Fail
Clean-shaven	Pass	Pass

 
Conclusion
The cameras used by both the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 are imperfect, but considering the ease of use and the overall success rate when used without our tricky variables, it's a big step forward over the proto-version of this feature that was eventually shoehorned into the previous generation of consoles.
The ability to sign into your next-gen game console just by standing (or sitting) in front of it is one of those clever show-off features that will impress friends and family, and once you get used to it, it's hard to imagine logging in any other way. Just remember to take off your hat first.

Memory makeover: DRAM days numbered as Japan eyes MRAM

DRAM has been around a long, long time. Is MRAM the next big memory thing?

Everspin Technologies MRAM product.

(Credit: Everspin Technologies)
A Japan-U.S. alliance is targeting a replacement for DRAM -- a longstanding staple of computer hardware.

More than 20 Japanese and US chip-related companies are joining forces to develop mass-production techniques for a next-generation chip technology called magnetoresistive random access memory, or MRAM, according to a report in Nikkei's Asian Review.

Players in the new research push include Tokyo Electron, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Renesas Electronics, Hitachi, and US memory giant Micron Technology.

The companies "will dispatch a few dozen researchers" to Tohoku University in northern Japan, according to Nikkei. The effort at Tohoku University will be led by professor Tetsuo Endoh. Development will begin in February.

With MRAM, data is stored by means of magnetic storage elements instead of as electric charges or current flows.

The Nikkei report characterizes MRAM as having one-third the power consumption of DRAM with 10 times the capacity and 10 times the writing speed. (More on MRAM here.)
All this makes it, in theory, a perfect match for next-generation smartphones and tablets.
Whether those claims actually manifest themselves in a commercial product remains to be seen, though. Commercial mass production is targeted for 2018, the report said.
The storage industry is a dust bin of failed ventures promising new, radical storage technologies.
But wait. There is a Chandler, Ariz.-based company, Everspin Technologies, that already markets a MRAM product.
Here's how Everspin describes their MRAM.

Everspin Technologies is the leading developer and manufacturer of magnetic RAM (MRAM)...Everspin's MRAM is the industry's fastest non-volatile memory...[MRAM has] SRAM read/write cycle time, unlimited read/write endurance, [and is] non-volatile for greater than 20-years...Everspin has established an MRAM intellectual property portfolio of more than 600 active patents and applications, many of which are fundamental and essential for MRAM technologies.

Will memory giants follow suit? We've got until 2018 to find out.