Infamous hacking group Anonymous has hacked into and defaced the cached version of the Greek Ministry of Justice’s website apparently in protest against the signing of the controversial ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trademark Agreement) treaty by the Greek Government.

The website with both a written and video message warns authorities that it will take down over 300 media and ministry websites if it doesn’t reverse its course. The treaty has come under criticism due to the secretive way in which it was drafted and the effect it could have for users online.

Following the attack, the sight indicated that it was “Under Construction” but then was changed to display the warning message stating that its next target would be “all the media in Greece” which it would easily access with the correct usernames and passwords it has obtained.

The Greek police have since confirmed the incident and updated their Twitter account to say that its cybercrimes division’s investigation into the incident is already in progress.

In October 2011, Anonymous who is known mostly for their attacks on corporate and big business sites, targeted a web host that knowingly hosted child pornography.

Watch Anonymous’s video message after the jump.

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Joe Belfiore

Pocketnow.com has learned new details about the new Windows Phone 8 that include a number of features and themes that were accidentally revealed by senior vice president and Windows Phone manager Joe Belfiore in a video intended only for partners at Nokia. The Windows Phone 8 codenamed “Apollo”, is the next version of Microsoft’s mobile operating system that is scheduled for launch after the upcoming Tango update.

According to Belfiore, the overall theme of the Windows Phone 8 hardware ecosystem will be scale and choice in order to address one of the platform’s shortcomings in competing with Android and iPhone based devices’ specifications. More specifically, Windows Phone 8 will have support for multi-core processors and microSD card support will also be added.

NFC (Near Field Communication) will also be supported, with emphasis placed on the phone’s push into contactless payments. The “wallet experience,” as he calls it, will have the capability to be carrier-branded and controlled, either by a secure element on the SIM card or utilizing hardware. In addition, NFC will  allow desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones to share content.

Rather than just share a UI with the next generation desktop and tablet OS, Windows Phone 8 will use many of the same components as Windows 8, allowing developers to re-use most of the code when porting an app from a desktop to the phone. Belfiore specifically mentions that areas of heavy overlap include the kernel, networking stacks, security and multimedia support.

The Xbox Companion app, currently found on Windows Phones, will see a partner client on Windows 8 with Skydrive support promising seamless sharing of data between devices.

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With the launch of the Vodacom App Store in September 2011, the first multiple platform mobile operator application store in Africa, Vodacom is now giving local developers the opportunity to create applications of their very own and benefit from the Vodacom apps eco-system with the Vodacom Developer Programme.

Vodacom’s objective in creating its Developer Programme is to partner and collaborate with the South African developer community and give them the opportunity to actively participate in the service provider’s applications development and gain maximum access to consumers enabling the link between the two.

Once registered, the programme will provide the developer community with technical and commercial support, including training, workshops and innovation incentives. The local developers will have access to distribute their apps to South Africa’s largest mobile network customer base as well as their partners’ international presence . The exposure to international markets aims to increase the revenue potential for the developers through advertising and in the future, app sales revenue shares. It encourages local developers to develop new apps that are relevant to the South African market as well as the global environment.

Developers will receive commercial support with the placement of the app in the ‘featured’ section of the app store, a competitive revenue model, marketing support and app monetisation support. Further technical support will include training workshops, device lab support, onsite coaching, tools for app creation and mentoring for local startups.

Following the implementation of its Developer Programme, Vodacom Digital Media has also launched a competition in which developers are challenged to create the Coolest New App of the Month whereby one developer will be rewarded every month for achieving the Most Downloaded App.

For more info on the Vodacom Developer Programme and the competition click here. 

Sony Corp’s newly appointed CEO, Kazuo Hirai is promising to forge a new path for a company that once dominated the business of “filling free time with the creation of wildly popular consumer products” including Walkman music players and PlayStation game consoles.

The selection of the 51-year old Hirai on Wednesday marks the end of the leadership of Howard Stringer who as a British national was selected in 2005 as the first non-Japanese CEO of Sony. During his seven year reign, Stringer was unable to turn around Sony’s deteriorating electronics business. The leadership change has come at a critical moment with the combination of its market share being squeezed by the manufacturing accomplishments of Samsung Electronics Co., the unstoppable innovation and success of Apple Inc. and the steep ascent of the yen, which rose 30% against the dollar during Mr. Stringer’s time which hindered profit goals. Clearly, Sony needs someone to step in and make some drastic changes and Mr Hirai claims to be the man to make it happen.

Hirai, who will take up his position as CEO in April says that he wants to cut costs and shake up the corporate structure that he currently blames for preventing product innovations and keeping Sony anchored in the past in the wake of Apple and Samsung’s product development innovations. He rose up the corporate ladder with a record of tough cuts, most notably squeezing profits out of the company’s PlayStation game division four years after it reported a $2 billion loss. “I thought turning around the PlayStation business was going to be the toughest challenge of my career, but I guess not,” Hirai told The Wall Street Journal.

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Unilever’s offices in Switzerland are an example of what is known as ‘agile working.’ Agile working, based on the concept of ‘hot desking’, is a more expansive version of the office organization system where multiple employees share working stations in shifts. Agile working allows staff to work where and when ever they want as long as they get the job done. As you can imagine, in order to ensure that staff remain diligent, the space in which they work needs to be motivating, inspiring, varying and with ample room for productivity.

The brilliant work of award winning architectural and design firm Camenzind Evolution achieved just that. The large expansive space accomodates meeting rooms of different sizes and themes. Every area is adorned with a variety of seating styles in the working and recreational spaces including, tables and chairs, cubicles, large couches, benches and bar stools. Every space is completely different showcasing a sense of fun, innovation and creativity.

Some of the conference spaces are adorned with company brands like Ragu, Omo, or Heartbrand, while other spaces are given company mottos for inspiration.

All in the attention to detail, bright colours and boundless creativity, the Unilever offices are something to be admired and envied.

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As part of its ongoing commitment to cutting-edge software development for the MXit platform, Maxxor recently conducted an indepth survey of its core users. The research exercise was funded by Microsoft South Africa and the results provided some valuable insight into the preferences of MXit users and what apps they want to see available on the social network.

Kethan Parbhoo, Equivalent Programme Lead at Microsoft South Africa said, “We funded the research to help Maxxor understand its customers even better. The results will help Maxxor prepare a roadmap for future product development.”

Maxxor, a software development company, has been developing games for the MXit platform for more than two years and they’ve entertained well in excess of one-million MXit users with at least one of their apps to date. As Adrian Frielinghaus, Head of Online Games at Maxxor, explains, “One of the things we’re asking ourselves is, ‘What apps, besides games, do MXit users want?’ We ran a survey amongst our players and received an overwhelming response – almost 30,000 people completed a 30-question survey. That must be some kind of world record for mobile research, and the results offered us some unique insights.”

As it turns out, MXit users don’t care too much for news headlines.What they do care about is hooking up, having fun, and finding out what their favourite celebrity got up to last night. Therefore in order to appeal to this unique market, MXit app developers need to continually create content that amuses, entertains and connects its users.

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An image has surfaced that seems to be a design of the rumoured upcoming BlackBerry London prototype, a new class of device which RIM is calling a ‘Superphone’. From the image below, the new device appears very similar to the disappointing and poorly reviewed BlackBerry PlayBook, only a scaled down version, and is reportedly run on the new BlackBerry 10OS.

The device would be the first to run BlackBerry’s new OS, based on QNX, which RIM is hoping will revive the weakening BlackBerry line with a device that is ‘Hardware and platform, fused into one polished exerience.’ As for the hardware, while everything is purely speculation at this point, Texas Instruments’ OMAP5 and Qualcomm 1.5GHz dual-core chips are said to be being tested in the new Superphone.

This device is likely to launch only after two other models code named Laguna and Lisbon, which would arrive in the US, while the London would naturally head to the UK.

Read BandwidthBlog’s review of the BlackBerry Curve 9360. 

Source: The Next Web

Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo recently took the stage at the AllThingsD media conference held California on Monday to defend the company’s new censorship policies.

Last week, the social networking site announced that it would begin to censor tweets and/or users in specific countries to comply with local laws.  In addition to extensive media coverage, the decision sparked outrage among many Twitter users, who gathered under the hashtag #TwitterBlackout and pledged to boycott the service on 28 January.

However, as Costolo stood by the new policy, he argued that the policy would allow for greater freedom of speech among users on the platform rather than inhibit it. Previously, when a government demanded that Twitter remove a tweet or block a user for an offensive or illegal comment, access to that content would be blocked from the entire world. Now, Twitter can simply hide the tweet or user from that specific country only while allowing it to be available for all other users.

“There’s been no change in our stance or attitude or policy with respect to content on Twitter,” Costolo said. “What we announced is a greater capability we now have. Now, when we are issued a valid legal order in a country in which we operate, such as a DMCA takedown notice, we are able to leave the content up for as many people around the world as possible, while still operating within the local law. You can’t operate in these countries and choose the laws you want to abide by.”

Twitter has been very clear about this policy only being about different locations’ interpretation of freedom of expression and not a way to arrest the freedom of information flow. “We want to run Twitter as transparently as possible,” Costolo added. “This is the actual thoughtful and honest approach to doing this.”

Source: Mashable