Hewlett-Packard faces $1bn lawsuit! Lost $3bn market value in a single day!!

Hewlett-Packard faces $1bn lawsuit! Lost $3bn market value in a single day!!

Hewlett-Packard tried to pull out of its $11bn takeover of British software firm Autonomy before the deal closed, according to claims in a $1bn shareholder lawsuit brought against the US computer maker.

HP’s chief executive Meg Whitman, her predecessor Léo Apotheker, the company’s former chairman Ray Lane and Autonomy founder Mike Lynch are among eight defendants named in the class action suit, filed at California’s San Francisco district court, which accuses those who oversaw the botched deal of conducting “cursory due diligence on a polluted and vastly overvalued asset”.

Whitman and Lane – who resigned as chairman in April after a shareholder revolt – are accused of ignoring damaging evidence from whistleblowers and hiding their full concerns about the Autonomy deal.

They allegedly employed “devices, schemes and artifices to defraud” shareholders into buying the stock, before eventually admitting HP had overpaid in November 2012.

The revelation of an $8.8bn writedown of HP’s book value, related to the Autonomy purchase, which came over a year after the acquisition was completed, wiped more than $3bn from the US company’s market value in a single day.

Millions hit by biggest ever internet slowdown as cyber-hackers drop 'nuclear bomb'

Millions hit by biggest ever internet slowdown as cyber-hackers drop 'nuclear bomb'

SpamHaus group under attack from cyber-vandals in Geneva
But other unconnected sites across the world have been caught in attack
Now, emails have slowed down as a result, expert claims


A bitter feud between two online companies has triggered the ‘biggest cyber attack in history’, slowing down internet services for millions across the world.

The row, between a group which aims to block unwanted emails known as ‘spam’ and a firm accused of sending them, has disrupted internet traffic on a global scale.

Five national cyber-police forces are understood to be investigating the attack, which is so large that experts believe personal banking and email services will soon be affected.

Millions of web users have so far experienced disruption to popular services such as film and TV site Netflix, along with longer than usual delays in loading websites.



The problems began when spam-fighting company Spamhaus – a not-for-profit group that aims to help block unwanted junk emails – black-listed Dutch company Cyberbunker earlier this month.
Cyberbunker is what is known as a hosting company, meaning it allows organisations to make their websites accessible on the internet by providing space on a server. 
The company’s website says it will host anything ‘except child porn and anything related to terrorism’.
Spamhaus, which has offices in London and Geneva, keeps a database of web servers which are known to be used for malicious purposes, such as sending spam mail for bogus products – such as fake weight-loss pills or Viagra – and earlier this month added Cyberbunker.
Spamhaus claims Cyberbunker has launched a huge ‘denial of service’ (DDoS) attack in retaliation by flooding its servers with internet traffic. 
This is like jamming a mailbox with hundreds of letters at the same time.
Professor Alan Woodward, a cyber security expert at the University of Surrey, explained: ‘If you imagine it as a motorway, attacks try to put enough traffic on there to clog up the on and off ramps.
‘With this attack, there’s so much traffic it’s clogging up the motorway itself.’ 
Matthew Prince, chief executive of internet security firm CloudFare, likened the move to a ‘nuclear bomb’, adding: ‘It’s so easy to cause so much damage.’

David Emm, a senior security researcher with anti-virus firm Kaspersky Labs, said the attack was slowing down the whole internet, adding: ‘It’s like if someone wanted to flood my letterbox with junk mail it would all have to go through the delivery office and that would have an effect on the delivery of other people’s letters.
‘If the mail is coming from all over the place it will have some impact on the wider delivery.’

Steve Linford, chief executive of Spamhaus, told the BBC the scale of the attack was unprecedented and powerful enough to bring down the Government’s computer system.


Mr Linford said he could not disclose more details as there were fears those involved may also come under attack. 

He added that several companies, such as Google, had made their resources available to help absorb the excess traffic.

Sven Olaf Kamphuis, who claims to be a spokesman for Cyberbunker, said in an online message that Spamhaus was abusing its position and should not be allowed to decide ‘what goes and does not go on the internet’.

He added: ‘We are aware that this is one of the largest DDoS attacks the world had publicly seen.’
Experts say such attacks are growing in power and are now six times larger than recent ones against American banks.

The Samsung Series 9 Ultrabook is out for sale! Makes Top Ultrabook Even Better!!

The Samsung Series 9 Ultrabook is out for sale! Makes Top Ultrabook Even Better!!

The Samsung Series 9 Ultrabook is a great example of an Ultrabook laptop — extremely thin, good performance and very sleek — but it’s been surpassed by other machines (such as the Microsoft Surface Pro) that boast full HD screens.

Now the Series 9 is catching up.

Samsung is upgrading the Series 9′s 13.3-inch screen to 1080p resolution (1,920 x 1,080), up from 1,600 x 900. With the extra pixels, users will be able to see more detail in photos, and HD videos will render at full resolution.

But, There is One catch: The Series 9 still doesn’t support touch, which will be more than a little disappointing for Windows 8 users.

Touch was likely omitted because it would require rethinking the best thing about the Series 9: its thin design. The form factor is still a remarkable 0.51 inch thick (the MacBook Air is 0.68 inch), and it weighs just 2.56 pounds.

The laptop ships with Windows 8 Pro, and it’s powered by an Intel Core i7 processor (up from i5) and 4GB of RAM (though you can add more when you buy it). Storage goes up to 256GB of solid-state memory. Battery life is rated at 8 hours.

The old Series 9 Ultrabook last year were suitably impressed that Samsung packed such a well-performing laptop into an lightweight design. With the better processor and increased resolution, the new Series 9 now more in line with today’s top ultra-thin designs.

The new Series 9 certainly has the price to match that status: $1,899.99 (for 4GB of RAM and 256GB of storage).

Whether or not that’s worth it depends on how much you value mobility, and whether or not you can live without touch for the next couple of years.

In addition to upgrading the Series 9, Samsung is also adding the option of 4G LTE capability to its ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T, its hybrid model that “transforms” from PC to tablet by removing the keyboard. That model starts at $1,599.99.

10 Best Free Proxy Websites to access Restricted Content on Internet

10 Best Free Proxy Websites to access Restricted Content on Internet

When you want to surf a website from a place where it's banned or you are not allowed to open it, the simplest way to reach out to that website is through a Proxy Server. There are thousands of Websites offering Proxy services as well as tools. Proxy Websites are the best way to bypass the restrictions and open the prohibited Websites.

Proxy Services are also popular for Anonymous Surfing, to bypass security, speed up access to resources etc. There are many websites claiming to be the best Proxy Services, but they are not.


1. Hidemyass:

2. Proxify:        

3. Newipnow:          

4. iBypass:          

5. Change IP Country:            

6. KProxy:                  

7. PageWash:            

8. Browser9:          

9. Anonr:                  

10. Megaproxy:          

11. YouHide

12.  KingSurfProxy

13.  TryCatchMe

14. Proxy Website

15. BlewPass

16. ProxEasy

17. NewIPNow

Grading iOS 6 Maps: pass or fail?

Grading iOS 6 Maps: pass or fail?

Almost as soon as Apple released iOS 6 users flocked to the new first-party (read:non-Google) Maps app and unleased a torrent of complaints (1, 2, 3) about it. There's no denying the sex-appeal of Maps' new photo-realistic and interactive 3D views, but would you trade transit and Street View data for it?

Generally, the biggest complaints are coming from users outside of the major metropolitan cities that iOS 6 Maps supports. For example, check out this screenshot of Bowling Green State University (as noted by @iOS6Maps) in iOS 5:

And then in iOS 6:

(Someone was so put off by @iOS6Maps Twitter account that it got it suspended. Hmmm...)

The other big complaints center around the iOS 6 Maps' lack of transit, Street View, POI data and sub-standard traffic reportage. Theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com is cataloging some of the more egregious failures in the new Maps.

In lieu of them, Apple focused on turn-by-turn navigation, 3D Flyover views and its own traffic data. Michael Degusta blogs that "Apple is risking upsetting 70% of the world’s population" with the feature removals, noting that 63 countries (representing a population of 5 billion+) will be without one or more of the Maps features previously available in iOS 5.

I'm still using my trusty iPhone 4, so my biggest complaint with iOS 6 Maps is that voice navigation isn't supported on the iPhone 4. You need an iPhone 4S or 5 for that. I've been using navigation in the TomTom app on my iPhone 4 for a couple of months, so it's not a hardware limitation. And TomTom includes a huge POI database from FourSquare. iOS 6's lack of navigation on the iPhone 4 is a classic example of planned obsolescence on Apple's part. It intentionally crippled Maps on the (two generation old) iPhone 4 to force users to upgrade.

To be fair, Siri also took a lot of criticism when it was released. It has since maturated into a flagship feature of iOS that many users find very useful. Apple's first-party Maps app is sure to improve over time -- collecting map data is extremely labor intensive and traffic data will grow via crowdsourcing -- but did Apple move too soon?

When Apple killed its YouTube app, Google was quick to respond. Danny Sullivan notes that after only a week, YouTube is the #1 free app in iTunes. So many have taken solace in thinking that Google will release its own Maps app for iOS (like it did with YouTube), but it's being cagey and won't confirm that a Google Maps app for iOS is coming.

City slickers are sure to dig the new 3D flyovers, but what about everyone else? What's your take on the new iOS 6 Maps? (Please note your locale in your comment.)

UPDATE: In June, Wired's Christina Bonnington noted that Google executive Jeff Huber confirmed in a comment on a Google+ post that the company would be releasing its own Maps app for iOS. Huber wrote, “We look forward to providing amazing Google Maps experiences on iOS.”

UPDATE 2: Apple has given this statement to AllThingsD regarding Map-gate:

Customers around the world are upgrading to iOS 6 with over 200 new features including Apple Maps, our first map service. We are excited to offer this service with innovative new features like Flyover, turn by turn navigation, and Siri integration. We launched this new map service knowing it is a major initiative and that we are just getting started with it. Maps is a cloud-based solution and the more people use it, the better it will get. We appreciate all of the customer feedback and are working hard to make the customer experience even better.
... and AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski notes that "the team assigned to the app is under lockdown right now working to fix it."

UPDATE 3: 9to5Mac claims that Google has been developing Maps for iOS for "years" and that a version of Google Maps for iOS 6 "has been submitted to Apple" and is awaiting approval.

Entire iPhone 5 shipment stolen from London O2 store

Entire iPhone 5 shipment stolen from London O2 store

Police want to question an O2 shop assistant over the theft of iPhone 5 handsets from one of the operator's stores in London.

Around 250 handsets, worth about £100,000, were stolen from the O2 Store in the Tandem Centre in Colliers Wood near Wimbledon at 1.30am this morning. The stolen devices included the store's entire stock of iPhone 5 smartphones that were due to go on sale at 9am the same day.

The arrival of the iPhone 5 on Friday generated huge queues outside Apple Stores in London and across the world. However, the number of buyers at shops run by networks such as Three were much lower.

Metropolitan Police want to speak to 23-year-old Usman Sethi of Ilford in Greater London, who works as an assistant at the O2 store. He was captured on CCTV footage in the shop in the early hours of Friday morning.

Sethi is an Asian man, 6'1" in height and a Pakistani national. Police believe he may be driving a grey Ford Mondeo.

O2 said that it had alerted the authorities to the theft of the handsets, which include other devices besides the iPhone 5 stock.

"We notified the police and are doing everything we can to help them with their investigation," a spokesperson for O2 said.

A quantity of cash was also taken from the safe in the store. In addition, police are looking to interview Sethi in connection with the theft on Friday morning of jewellery belonging to a family member. They are appealing for anyone who sees Sethi to call Merton CID.

Teenage texting champion wins $50,000 prize

Teenage texting champion wins $50,000 prize

17 year-old Austin Weirschke from Wisconsin won $50,000 at the National Texting Championship held in New York City.

The sixth competition of its kind, the tournament tested American entrants on their ability to text quickly and efficiently.

Sponsored by LG Electronics, the competition featured one device with a physical keyboard. Speed, accuracy and dexterity were all scrutinized through a number of tasks.

Some of the tasks were fairly simple; memorizing a message and then quickly typing it out; translating shorthand 'text speak' to standard English -- for example, TTYL (talk to you later), and others impeded the challengers by blocking their vision or tying their hands behind their back.

One round involved writing messages backwards more quickly than rival competitors, whereas in another, entrants had to type "Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are; up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky" while wearing vision-blocking headwear.

Weirschke, who won the competition last year, defended his title by typing a 149-character message in just 39 seconds, beating 10 rivals between the ages of 16 and 24. Since May, competition has been whittled down from over 100,000 entrants.

The teenager says the money will be used to fund his college education, and attributes his success to practicing with his mother, typing random phases and words, and texting friends. He defended his title but had close competition as 16 year-old New Yorker Kent Augustine lost out to the champion by only a few seconds in the final round.

The high school student plans to keep improving and return next year.