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.

Source: The Next Web

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.

At the launch of the new Windows Phone, rumoured to take place sometime in the 4th quarter of this year, Microsoft expects to offer 100 000 apps in the Marketplace. There is also likely to be support for app-to-app communication . A revamped Skype client that hooks directly into the OS, enables Skype calls to behave almost identically to regular calls with a camera app that Microsoft will allow OEM’s to customize.

The biggest news on the app front is likely the addition of native code support, which will enable more powerful applications as well as ease the porting of code from programs initially developed for iOS or Android

In terms of data management a highlighted feature by Belfiore is called DataSmart, a new data management system that will keep track of your downloaded data usage. This is achieved by the phone automatically connecting to Wi-Fi when in range.

Overall, it seems that the above changes are designed either to make the Windows Phone 8 run parallel with other platforms or make it more similar to Windows 8 for desktop. Either way, Microsoft is catching up.

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.

Based on his success with PlayStation Hirai was promoted in April 2011 to oversee the consumer-electronics division and by November, he tackled the difficult TV business, the cornerstone of Sony’s electronics unit which having failed to embrace the liquid crystal display, continued to make losses over a seven year period. Three months ago already, before his appintment as CEO, Hirai decided to cut the sales goals of the television group by half saying that Sony would “build only what he could sell”.

Included in his strategic goals is Hirai’s determination to teach the company’s 168,000 employees that past successes in manufacturing must be replaced by selling the harder-to-quantify “user experience.” Hirai continued ”We really need to buckle down and be realistic. I don’t think everybody is on board, but I think people are coming around to the idea that if we don’t turn this around, we could be sitting in some serious trouble.” Hirai is planing to have a news conference on Thursday.

Sony debuted its Tablet S in late 2011 to solid reviews however,  the device has yet to reach significant sales.

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.

Source: Stephen Searer for Office Snapshots

As rumours predicted, the company is looking to raise $5 billion with investment firm Morgan Stanley acting as lead underwriter with Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch and the Bank of America taking secondary positions. Should Facebook raise the money, it will be on the shortlist of the biggest tech IPOs in history.

The timeline puts Facebook’s public offering to hit the market in mid-May and now has to enter a mandated quiet period, so it could mean that it’s latest Timeline feature is the last new product users will see from the social network until that period is up.

In terms of actual numbers, Facebook reports that it has 845 million active monthly users. The company made $3.71 billion in revenue, with a cool $1 billion in profit in 2011 which had nearly doubled since 2010. This profit is also many times more than Google when they went public a while back – they “only” showed a profit of $106 million. Also – that $1 Billion dollar in profit was also the exact same number used by Justin Timberlake’s character ambitions in The Social Network, which showed the beginning of Facebook. Coincidence?

Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, owns 28.4% of the company, drawing a $483,000 salary, with a $220,000 bonus in 2011. Facebook credits Zynga with providing 12% of its revenue in 2011. But apparently Zuckerberg is looking to shrink his salary to $1 a year from 2013, just like Steve Jobs did…

Having faced some speculation about who exactly owns what, the SEC website has now presented some hard numbers from the S-1 filing. Co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg owns the most equity of anyone – his 1.1 billion Class B shares give him almost a 57 percent stake — about half of which he owns and half of which are owned by others but over which he exercises proxy voting authority. Class A and Class B shares are differentiated by their voting powers among other characteristics with the Class B shares being the most common. Zuckerberg also holds 42.4 million Class A shares which represents a 36.1 percent stake.

Facebook’s filing has stated that he will sell some shares in the IPO although it doesn’t specify how many.

What is also interesting is the many different people who have received stock options in Facebook during its startup years. New York Times reports that the artist David Choe, who painted Facebook’s first headquarters’ walls asked for stocks instead of cash as payment. That was one very smart move, and that stock might be worth $200 million when Facebook’s stocks go public later this year.

The Telegraph has reported that the documents also reveal that Facebook is under investigation by the SEC for transactions on the secondary market, casting new light on the company’s decision to suspend trading for three days last week which resulted in rumours of an imminent IPO being questioned.

The company will also be focussing on mobile in the future commenting that “We had more than 425 million MAUs who used Facebook mobile products in December 2011. We anticipate that the rate of growth in mobile users will continue to exceed the growth rate of our overall MAUs for the foreseeable future, in part due to our focus on developing mobile products to encourage mobile usage of Facebook.”

Sources: AllThingsD, The Next Web

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.

Perhaps the best news for mobile software developers is that MXit users don’t mind paying for apps as long as you give them exactly what they want. As Frielinghaus says, “This is precisely because MXit has spent years carefully grooming its users to buy virtual goods with virtual currency. This is made even easier by allowing them to easily convert their airtime into virtual MXit currency.”

In terms of user devices, as might be expected, MXit users mostly use Nokia and Samsung handsets but it is interesting to note that 11% of Maxxor’s MXit users own BlackBerries. This challenges some speculation that rapid BBM growth in the teen and youth market has been detrimental to the MXit platform. This is encouraging news for developers considering the iPhone and BlackBerry platforms, because MXit provides an ideal way to get an app to the front of the mass market queue. The Maxxor research explains exactly what sort of apps will prove successful.

Almost 75% of Maxxor’s surveyed users are accessing the web at least once a day on their mobile phones. In other words, the traditional MXit user is no longer trapped in a “walled garden”. Software developers need to realise that MXit is now part of a greater Internet experience for mobile phone users.

Watch the BandwidthBlog interview with MXit CEO Alan Knott-Craig.

Before you get started, you have to know that in order to buy content from the US iTunes store, you will need to buy iTunes vouchers. Your non-US credit card will not work with the US store, but luckily it is easy enough to buy vouchers through sites like WildTwig. But first you need a US iTunes store account:

How to Open Your US iTunes Account:

1) First off, you obviously need iTunes, and an internet connection.

2) Open iTunes, then go to iTunes Store on the left.

3) Make sure you are signed out of any iTunes account. Make sure the top right of the iTunes store states “Sign In”. If it is signed into another account, click on the account name, and click Sign Out.

4) Scroll to the bottom of the iTunes Store page, and click on the country icon. This can be any country’s flag.

5) Choose United States to see the US iTunes Store.

6) Right now you have a better idea of what content is on the US iTunes store. It is very important to do the following exactly – go to AppStore, and select any FREE app. I will repeat. Any FREE app.

7) You will then be asked to enter your iTunes Account details. Remember, even if you have an existing iTunes account, you have  to recreate one with a different email address. If you do not have multiple email addresses, it might be best to go create one in gmail, or hotmail or whatever free email service you want.

Click on Create New Account.

9) You need to fill in some details. Type in your name, surname, date of birth, etc.

10) On the next screen you need to provide payment details. But in order to have a US account, you need to work with vouchers, because your credit card from another country will probably not work. So under payment type, select “None”. If “None” does not appear, it means you did something wrong, but most probably did not click a free app.

Do not fill in any redeem code (we will get to that later).

Under Billing Address you have to use an actual US address. Our best bet is to use a prominent US Hotel as your address. So maybe according to Apple you might be living in the Ritz New York, or the Beverly Hills Hotel. Just copy the address and phone number. Verbatim.

11) Once you click next, Apple will send you a verification email. (If you set up a new email address, you will of course have to check that new email account.)

12) Check your inbox, and open the email from Apple. From there, click on Verify Now.

13) Once you click that link, you will be taken to a Apple webpage, where you need to reenter your new iTunes username and password. You will then be verified.

14) Once the webpage tells you that you are verified, head on back to iTunes, and open the iTunes store again. If you are signed into your new iTunes account, you can start downloading US iTunes apps.

If you are not signed in, it is simple. Click on the top right on Sign In, and use your new iTunes account details.

15) Remember, this account works with vouchers, with which you need to credit your account in order to buy apps. Before you do that, you can only “buy” free apps. If you want to download movies, series or music, you will also need to purchase vouchers. But don’t worry. we will show you how.

Buying iTunes US Vouchers:

So there you have it, now you can access the US iTunes store without any problems. Next up – how to load credit on your iTunes account.

We here at Bandwidth Blog don’t like to beat around the bush, so we get our iTunes vouchers from WildTwig or iEverything. Simply buy it right through their site, and give them an email address to send the Redeem Code to. Once you have the Redeem Code in your inbox, you have to go Redeem it either from your computer or your iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch:

Computer:

1) In iTunes, make sure you are signed into your US account. If you are not, sign out and sign in with the right account.

2) Click On “Redeem”

3) Go and type the Redeem code exactly into iTunes. Click on Redeem.

4) Your Account should now be credited with the amount you purchased.

On your iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch:

1) Open the AppStore

2) Click on Featured, and then scroll all the way to the bottom. Under Account, make sure you are logged into your iTunes account. If not, click on the account, and sign out. Then sign in with your US account.

3) Click on Redeem.

4) Enter your Redeem account exactly form the email your received. Alternatively, copy and paste the code.

5) You should get a notification that your account has been credited.

Now go ahead, and buy whatever content you want – apps, movies, TV shows, and music!

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