News Stream

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March 20th, 2013
01:20 PM ET

Witness to a cyber takedown

South Korea has been on heightened alert after a suspected cyber attack on major media outlets and banks.

But what is it like to experience a computer outage that may in fact be a cyber attack?

I talked to Seoul resident and KBS employee Luke Cleary about the massive computer outage in South Korea.

Cleary was among the first to tweet a screengrab of what the outage looked like.

"First I thought it was just my computer, and slowly we started to realize other people in the office were being affected as well," says Cleary.

March 14th, 2013
01:47 PM ET

Pressing issues for President Xi

You can officially call him "Mister President" now.

Xi Jinping has taken the title from Hu Jintao, completing the country's leadership transition. It comes four months after Xi became General Secretary of the Communist Party.

Political commentator and columnist Frank Ching says, "I think Xi Jinping knows that the main problems of China are domestic. When he first became the party leader back in November, he came out and met the international press. He gave a speech and said not a word about foreign policy. It was all domestic. So I think that's where the emphasis is going to be."

The question is where to start.

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Filed under: China
March 12th, 2013
01:04 PM ET

How data stopped SARS

10 years on, SARS survivor Cathy Kong is still haunted by the outbreak.

Outside the Amoy Gardens housing estate, her former home and site of the biggest community outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong, Cathy tells me how she used her willpower to cast the virus away.

“I talked to the virus,” she tells me. “I talked to the disease: ‘go away, go away.”

The SARS outbreak killed 780 people and infected over 8,000 more. It crossed borders and triggered an international health scare.

A decade ago this week, the World Health Organization first named SARS - the deadly virus that would infect 29 countries before it was finally contained four months later.

And, looking back, what was the most indispensable tool that ended the outbreak?

According to Dr. Isabelle Nuttall, WHO Director of Global Capacities Alert and Response, it was data.

FULL POST

March 6th, 2013
02:29 PM ET

One in a million: The plight of Syria's refugees

The United Nations says more than one million Syrians are now refugees. That means nearly one out of every 22 citizens have fled for safety.

The news come as the country approaches the second anniversary of its civil war.

The U.N.'s refugee agency tweeted this picture after announcing the alarming new number. It says, "Meet Bushra, the millionth registered refugee from Syria."

The sign in her hands says, "One in a million." It's a reminder of the many, many others who share her desperate situation.

She also holds a small child. The U.N. says around half of the refugees are children. Most are under the age of eleven. It's hard to imagine the things they have seen and experienced in their young lives.

As Syria's deadly conflict grinds on, more and more people are making the difficult decision to seek shelter in another country. The UNHCR notes, "They arrive traumatized, without possessions and having lost members of their families."

The U.N. estimated there would be 1.1 million refugees by the end of June. But more than 400,000 Syrians have fled their homes since the start of 2013. And it's only March.

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Filed under: Arab Unrest • Data
March 1st, 2013
05:00 PM ET

How do sinkholes happen?

Sinkholes happen fairly often in Florida. But rarely do they occur with such drama.

A 36-year-old man is presumed dead after a sinkhole suddenly opened beneath his bedroom Thursday night. The victim's brother says the crash of the collapse sounded like a car driving through the house.

The sinkhole in suburban Tampa was originally reported to be 100 feet (30 meters) across. An engineer says that is actually the diameter of the safety zone, while the sinkhole is about 20 to 30 feet across.

Sinkholes can suddenly happen when bedrock dissolves but the surface stays intact. The void eventually collapses.

Authorities in Florida currently believe this one happened naturally, meaning the rock was probably eroded away by groundwater. Sometimes manmade situations, such as water main breaks, can be responsible.

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Filed under: Weather
February 28th, 2013
02:17 PM ET

Making a call on what’s next in mobile

Inevitably, I met a booth babe with a t-shirt that read, “Call Me Maybe.”

I’m at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona - home of fine food, football and phones with the biggest mobile industry gathering of the year.

Why am I here? Our world is changing fast. We are at a critical inflection point as desktop computing shifts to mobile, and smart mobile devices become more and more ubiquitous. We are ushering in a new digital era where everyone will be on the move and always connected.

The change is happening so fast, blink and you may miss it. It’s already challenging the authority of established computing giants like Microsoft and pre-smartphone era stalwarts like Nokia.

Chinese tech firms Huawei and ZTE are chipping away at the authority of BlackBerry. Open-source operating systems are emerging as players in the race for mobile OS supremacy. Messaging apps like WhatsApp are stealing revenues away from network providers.

So I’m here to determine what’s happening and try to anticipate what’s next before reality slams me in the face.

So, here goes. These are the three top emerging mobile trends I’ve picked up here in Barcelona:

FULL POST

February 28th, 2013
08:25 AM ET

Day 3 at MWC

Most top tech brand showcase their latest products at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Of course, one big name is missing. Apple never attends shows like this.

And it feels like other companies are starting to follow suit.

The Verge's David Pierce says it feels like Samsung is starting to pull away. He notes that the Galaxy S4 will come out in two weeks in New York, though it did announce the Galaxy Note 8 in Barcelona. HTC unveiled its flagship phone last week. Google executives are in attendance, but the company does not have booth and announced its new Chromebook last week. And Pierce feels Nokia fell flat, failing to announce anything big.

So is the Mobile World Congress going the way of Las Vegas's Consumer Electronics Show?

Pierce says, ""There's a lot here but it seems like a show like this, and even CES, they're becoming traditional trade shows again where it's industry people coming to getting to know each other and make deals. There's a putting green upstairs just for making deals. It seems like, in a sense of big consumer show where we see the really exciting stuff, it's starting to slow or at least lull."

And there are many movers-and-shakers at MWC. Check out our Day 3 highlights below:

Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley

PayPal President David Marcus

BlackBerry's Vivek Bhardwaj, the man behind BB10 OS

Plus, a fun look at how FC Barcelona reaches its fans through apps!

February 27th, 2013
10:10 AM ET

Day 2 at MWC

As you might imagine, mobile phones are front and center at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. We've already highlighted Nokia's big push with cheaper phones.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop also hinted the company is looking to launch a tablet. He told Kristie Lu Stout, "We're considering what's the right way to enter, if we were to enter. How do we differentiate in that market. How do we as confidently stand up with a tablet as we do with the Lumia smartphones. We want to make sure we understand all of that."

Three of the biggest new products at the show this year are tablets. They are the latest offerings from Hewlett-Packard, Samsung and Sony.

HP is back in the tablet market with the 7-inch Slate 7. But CNNMoney's Adrian Covert says, "(It) is not a premium-grade tablet, nor a remarkably cheap device."

Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 takes aim at Apple's iPad Mini. Covert calls the Galaxy Note 8 "fast and speedy." But he notes that while 8 inches is small for a tablet, it's huge for a phone. It is still  unclear if the phone-enabled version will be sold in the U.S.

Covert says Sony's Xperia Tablet Z could be the best tablet at the Mobile World Congress. And at 10.1 inches, it is also one of the biggest.

Among our other Day 2 highlights:

Discussing the rise of Chinese smartphones

Nvidia's Project SHIELD and its new vision for gaming on the go

Sitting down with Greg Sullivan, Microsoft's Senior Marketing Manager

February 26th, 2013
02:43 PM ET

We're at the Mobile World Congress

News Stream is at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. It's the mobile industry's biggest event of the year.

In the coming days, we will speak to the biggest names in the business, as we look for the software and gadgets that will dominate our lives in the years ahead.

On Day 1, we talked to Google's Matias Duarte. He's the Director of Android User Experience. And his description of the latest OS is both awesome and slightly scary.

Duarte says, "We've been rolling out amazing, powerful new features that are almost like a superpower. Like Google now with Jellybean. Your phone is actually your companion. It knows what you want to search for before you do and can offer that information."

February 19th, 2013
05:45 PM ET

Chinese military accused of cyber espionage

A new report claims China's army is behind some of the world's most prolific computer hackers.
U.S.-based cybersecurity firm, Mandiant, says it tracked hacking activity to an area near Shanghai. Specifically, to a building used by a secret division of the Chinese military.

Mandiant calls the hacking group APT1. The report includes details about the methods used by APT1 to target its victims. It concludes the group operates with support from the Chinese government.

The company's vice president Grady Summers welcomed other researchers to scrutinize the data in the report. He said, "These accusations are not at all baseless. They are very well-rooted in fact, and very prudent actually."

China has questioned the evidence in the report. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei also denied allegations of hacking. He argues that China is a frequent victim of cyberattacks originating from the United States.

Summers concedes that hacking happens from all corners of the Internet. But he says, "We're stating very clearly that this is asymmetric, that China is attacking the U.S. on a scale like we've never seen before."

Mandiant counted 141 victims of APT1 over six years. Of those, 115 were based in the United States.


Filed under: General
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