World news.. 06-18-2013 ScienceTechnology

Verizon could look at taking over a smaller player in Canada, such as Wind Mobile, and participating in a new wireless spectrum auction, the newspaper reported citing two industry sources familiar with the situation. (link.reuters.com/zas88t)

New entrants such as Wind, Mobilicity and Public Mobile have helped to drive down wireless prices in Canada, but have struggled to turn a profit.

The struggles of the new entrants have frustrated the Canadian government's hopes of having a fourth major wireless company in all parts of the country to compete with Telus Corp, BCE Inc's Bell unit and Rogers Communications.

What is your favorite tech device for the home?

Kohler's Numi toilet has a motion-activated seat and lid, deodorizing charcoal filter, multi-option bidet wand and air dryer, illuminated panels and foot warmer. And for the music lovers - built-in speakers play tunes via a (remote) docking station.

This sleek device by Netatmo takes air quality, humidity, and carbon dioxide readings, indoor/outdoor temperature, and even noise pollution. It also sends notifications in real time via your iOS, or Android smartphone, or tablet.

Designed by NASA scientists, the Airocide purifies toxins in the air that can worsen symptoms of asthma or allergies. Instead of filters, the device uses nanotechnology to oxidize pathogens at a molecular level via two catalytic reaction chambers. It's a bonus that Airocide looks like a piece of modern art, complete with discreet touch controls.

Mowing the lawn no longer requires killer triceps. The robot Husqvarna Automower does all the work for you, much like a Roomba for your grass. Plus, in the right light conditions, its solar panel can maintain a battery charge for lawns of up to 6,890 square feet.

hese days you're more likely to forget your house keys than your smartphone, so combine the two with CalypsoKey. It lives inside an iPhone case which, when you tap it to its corresponding access point, activates near-field communication technology and a dual-band RFID antenna - unlocking the door.

With this Oras Eterna smart shower, a green light indicates you beat the recommended two-minute splash and a red light shows you've showered beyond your share. A touch interface switches flow from showerhead to spout wash, and precise temperature adjustments ensure you won't scald or freeze.

More than 45,000 game industry professionals got their first look at Microsoft's Xbox One, which will retail for $500 starting in November, and Sony's PlayStation 4, which will sell for $400 this fall. But for players, the real focus at the show was on the next generation of games, especially the slew of exclusives lined up for each device. What's at stake is a piece of the global video-game market, which Newzoo video game analyst Peter Warman expects to reach $70.4 billion this year and grow to $86.1 billion by 2016. Warman forecasts that the number of gamers worldwide will reach 1.2 billion this year.

The latest crop of games features an upgrade in graphic fidelity that brings athletes like Miami Heat star LeBron James to life in 2K Sports "NBA 2K14" in photorealistic detail. Watching an "EA Sports UFC" match on Xbox One or PS4 is like seeing a live mixed martial arts pay-per-view, thanks to new technology.

Even the undead look better, as the zombies in Capcom's Xbox One exclusive "Dead Rising 3," an open world horror game, would scare the "walkers" of AMC's "The Walking Dead." The new consoles feature the processing power to create larger, more immersive open worlds for gamers to explore, as evidenced in Ubisoft's online open world role-playing game "Tom Clancy's The Division." The latest game in the Tom Clancy universe, which has sold more than 76 million games worldwide, is set in New York after a lethal virus has unleashed chaos.

But among a host of fresh-looking titles, there were several that stood out at E3 2013. "Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag" (Ubisoft, October 29, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One): Ubisoft is betting that gamers will love living a pirate's life this fall with this open world virtual Caribbean. Set in the turbulent 18th-century West Indies, the game lets players step into the boots of Edward Kenway and set sail for adventure across a huge map with more than 50 islands and locations to explore.

Gamers will interact with famous pirates like Blackbeard and Charles Vane as they contend with warring British and Spanish ships and armies and other privateers. Seamless gameplay allows the player to traverse the rooftops of a bustling Havana and then jump into the ocean to climb aboard the ship Jackdaw and escape.

The online search engine leader had planned to issue Class C shares as a dividend to investors. A shareholder, the Brockton Retirement Board, sued and claimed the plan gave the founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, added control without paying for it. Legal experts said the case would be closely watched in Silicon Valley, where high-tech companies such as Facebook Inc have adopted dual-class share structures, which allow a founder to retain control after taking a company public.

The settlement, which still needs court approval, ends the lawsuit that had been scheduled to go to trial on Tuesday in the Court of Chancery in Delaware, where Google is incorporated. The founders of Google would have had to testify. "We're pleased to have reached an agreement to settle this litigation," the company said in a statement.

"We've always believed our founder-led approach gives us the freedom to make long-term bets, like Android, Chrome and YouTube, that benefit consumers and shareholders alike."

The settlement, disclosed in a regulatory filing on Monday, will give holders of the new Class C stock a cash or stock payment if the value of the stock differs by more than 1 percent from the value of Class A shares, which have traded on the Nasdaq since its public listing in 2004.

The settlement also requires unanimous board approval to amend a "transfer restriction agreement" that requires Page and Brin sell Class B shares when they sell Class C shares. Google also agreed to a provision that would make it hard to amend the agreement without being sued by shareholders. "They're tying their hands," said Brian Quinn, a professor at Boston College Law School, noting that the agreement has teeth.

Google has had two classes of stock since it went public. Class A carries one vote each, while Brin and Page control Google through their holdings of Class B shares, which carry 10 votes each.

Few tourists would perhaps even notice the stone dragon stranded between buses in the middle of the road that marks the boundary of the City of London, the British capital's financial district and one of global capitalism's most dynamic engines. Yet to step into the City is to enter what has been described by Nicholas Shaxson, author of "Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World," as "an offshore island inside Britain."

Britain's role at the center of an empire of tax havens is under scrutiny this week, ironically, because British Prime Minister David Cameron has made tax evasion the central theme of this week's G8 meeting in Northern Ireland.

"Tax evasion and avoidance are issues whose time has come. After years of abuse people across the planet are rightly calling for action," says a British government briefing released ahead of the summit.

Cameron's initiative has thrust the spotlight on the UK's overseas territories and crown dependencies, an odd collection of colonial offcuts including the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda and Jersey. All are considered offshore hubs, and all benefit from close ties to the UK finance industry, pouring money into the City.

On Saturday, Cameron announced that 10 territories and dependencies had agreed to sign up to an existing convention on corporate transparency promoted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), saying: "It is important we are getting our house in order."

But campaigners, such as the Tax Justice Network's John Christensen, remain skeptical whether Cameron can accomplish anything that will meaningfully challenge the power of the tax havens.

The world's biggest aircraft lessor, a unit of General Electric (GE.N), became the second buyer to endorse a larger version of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, weeks after the lightweight jet went back into service after a three-month grounding.

Confirming a Reuters report, the GECAS subsidiary said it would sign up for 10 of the stretched 787-10 passenger planes, joining a $30 billion order haul that industry sources say Boeing is assembling to formally launch the jet on Tuesday.

And an influential German leasing company, Doric Asset Finance, little known outside the specialist world of aviation financing, splashed out on 20 Airbus (EAD.PA) A380 superjumbos worth $8 billion at list prices to anticipate rising demand.

Total orders on day one of the world's largest aerospace event swelled to more than $30 billion in three hours as heavy rain lashed the Le Bourget pavilions.

But, despite the early flurry, the number of orders this year was expected to be down on the last Paris show in 2011, GECAS chief executive Norman Liu told reporters.

"It is shifting to more of a wide-body story," he said, referring to long-haul jets seating anywhere from 200 people on small wide-bodies to 525 on the double-decker A380.

Doric, which is already involved in financing A380 jets for Emirates airline, the aircraft's largest operator, said its deal would be finalized in months, with deliveries to start in 2016.

"We see how airlines that do not yet have the A380 are interested in it and approach us and ask questions, which shows us that there is pent-up demand for this aircraft," Mark Lapidus, chief executive of Doric Lease Corp, said.

"If anything, we are perhaps under-ordering the A380."

It remained unclear whether Doric had already identified the eventual customers to whom it would rent out the planes.

Lessors have until now been reluctant to back the A380 because it is highly customized and expensive to convert.

The move is a boost for Europe's Airbus which has struggled to sell the model in the past year haunted by wing cracks, and had recorded no sales so far in 2013.

Boeing (BA.N) says airlines do not want to invest heavily in the largest jets above 400 seats, even though it originally defined the category with its 747, and would prefer to buy smaller planes built with new weight-saving materials.

"I think we fundamentally will not allow this scenario," Lukashevich told a news briefing, adding that calls for a no-fly zone showed disrespect for international law.

Lukashevich spoke before planned talks between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of a G8 summit in Northern Ireland which were expected to focus on the conflict in Syria that has killed at least 93,000 people.

Russia and the United States are trying to bring representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his foes to the negotiating table, but Moscow has criticized U.S. plans to arm rebel forces and to consider imposing a no-fly zone.

"All these maneuvers about no-fly zones and humanitarian corridors are a direct consequence of a lack of respect for international law," Lukashevich said.

In a 7-2 vote, the court said the voter registration provision of the 2004 state law, known as Proposition 200, was trumped by a federal law, the 1993 National Voter Registration Act.

The state law was strongly opposed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (Maldef) and Indian tribes. They said it deterred legal voters who did not have the required paperwork from registering to vote.

Nina Perales, vice president of litigation at Maldef, said the ruling "sends a strong message that states cannot block their citizens from registering to vote by superimposing burdensome paperwork requirements on top of federal law."

The ruling will affect three other states - Georgia, Alabama and Kansas - that have similar laws, and prevent others that may have wanted to follow suit from enacting legislation along the same lines.

Democrats say the measures, championed by Republicans, are intended to make it more difficult for certain voters who tend to vote Democratic to cast ballots.

While issuing its ruling, the court made clear that Arizona could still have other ways to assert its argument that it should be allowed to ask for proof of citizenship. That would be the subject of separate litigation, it wrote.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, who argued the state's case before the Supreme Court justices, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Federal law requires prospective voters to provide one of several possible forms of identification, such as a driver's license or a passport, but no proof of citizenship is needed. Would-be voters simply sign a statement saying they are citizens.

SCALIA FOR THE MAJORITY

In the Monday's majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia said the state law was preempted by language in the federal statute saying that states must "accept and use" a federal registration form. The state law ordered officials to reject the form if there was no accompanying proof of citizenship.

In outlining the limitations of the ruling, Scalia focused on the role of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), a federal agency that oversees changes to state voter registration procedures. The commission rejected the Arizona plan, prompting several justices to ponder during oral arguments in April why the state did not file a lawsuit challenging the decision.

Twelve years later, though, Webvan is rising from the dead - in the form of an online grocery business called AmazonFresh.

Four key Amazon.com Inc executives - Doug Herrington, Peter Ham, Mick Mountz and Mark Mastandrea - are former Webvan officials who have spent years analyzing and fixing the problems that led to the start-up's demise.

Kiva Systems, the robotics company that Amazon bought last year for $775 million in one of its largest-ever acquisitions, was built on ideas and technologies originally developed at Webvan and is a key part of the AmazonFresh strategy.

Even Webvan's old Web address, webvan.com, is now part of the Amazon empire.

"We had a lot of Webvan DNA in the room and we drew on that experience a lot," said Tom Furphy, who helped start AmazonFresh with Herrington and Ham before leaving to become a venture capitalist. "That was a good formula for building the business responsibly."

Amazon declined to comment for this story, or make any AmazonFresh executives available for interviews.

Former Amazon and Webvan officials say Amazon drew three big lessons from the Webvan debacle: expand slowly, limit delivery to areas with a high concentration of potential customers, and focus relentlessly on warehouse efficiency.

The opportunity for Amazon is huge. The grocery business in the United States generated $568 billion in retail sales last year, with online accounting for less than 1 percent, and it's among the last major retail sectors that the online giant has yet to tackle.

But the risks are large as well. Groceries are a notoriously low-margin business, and the aggressive expansion of discounters like Walmart has made the business even more cutthroat than it was in Webvan's day.

And competition in the online grocery business is heating up. FreshDirect and Peapod have been plugging away for years, while traditional grocery chains like Safeway also do online ordering and delivery. Walmart is testing its own fast delivery service in some markets in the United States now.

SLOW EXPANSION

AmazonFresh now serves Seattle and Los Angeles, and it plans to launch in the San Francisco Bay Area later this year. If these cities go well, Amazon is eyeing 20 new markets for 2014.

The social-networking site said the requests, relating to between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts, covered issues from local crime to national security.

Microsoft meanwhile said it received 6,000 and 7,000 requests for data from between 31,000 and 32,000 accounts.

Leaks by a former computer technician suggest the US electronic surveillance programme is far larger than was known. The firms denied the accusations, saying they gave no such access but did comply with lawful requests.

Several also called on the government to grant them permission to release data about the number of classified orders they received.

'Tiny fraction'

In an effort to reassure its users, Facebook lawyer Ted Ullyot wrote on the company's blog that following discussions with the relevant authorities it could for the first time report all US national security-related requests for data.

"As of today, the government will only authorise us to communicate about these numbers in aggregate, and as a range," he said. For the six months ending 31 December 2012, the total number of user-data requests Facebook received was between 9,000 and 10,000, relating to between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts.

"These requests run the gamut - from things like a local sheriff trying to find a missing child, to a federal marshal tracking a fugitive, to a police department investigating an assault, to a national security official investigating a terrorist threat," Mr Ullyot said.

"With more than 1.1 billion monthly active users worldwide, this means that a tiny fraction of 1% of our user accounts were the subject of any kind of US state, local, or federal US government request."

Mr Ullyot did not indicate to what extent the company had fulfilled the requests, but said Facebook had "aggressively" protected its users' data.

"We frequently reject such requests outright, or require the government to substantially scale down its requests, or simply give the government much less data than it has requested," he said.

Later, Microsoft also published information about the volume of national security orders during the second half of 2012, stressing that they had an impact on only "a tiny fraction of Microsoft's global customer base".

This month the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) banned Viber, another such tool, which like WhatsApp is hard for the state to monitor and deprives telecom companies of revenue from international calls and texts.

The kingdom appears to be making a greater push for more control over cyberspace as Internet and smart phone usage soars, in part due to strict laws that limit opportunities for people to mix in person.

"We have been communicating with WhatsApp and other similar communication platforms to get them to cooperate and comply with the Saudi telecom providers, however nothing has come of this communication yet," Abdullah Al-Darrab, governor of the CITC, told Arab News.

Al-Darrab said Viber was blocked last week for non-compliance, and that WhatsApp and Skype may be next on the list.

Asked when WhatsApp services would be blocked, the CITC chief said it was highly likely to be before the holy month of Ramadan which is expected to start on July 9.

The regulator issued a directive in March saying tools such as Viber, WhatsApp and Skype broke local laws, without specifying how.

Local media reported at the time that Saudi Arabia's three main operators Saudi Telecom Co, Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) and Zain Saudi had been asked to tell CITC if they were able to monitor or block such applications.

Mobile penetration was 188 percent by the end of 2012, CITC data shows. Saudi Arabia now has 15.8 million Internet subscribers and the average user watches three times as many online videos per day as counterparts in the United States, according to YouTube.