Google Privacy Policy changes outrage activists

Google has updated its privacy policy, replacing the individual agreements for each service like Gmail, Google+ and YouTube with a single policy that already has privacy advocates screaming. Although Google’s new terms of service – which will come into effect on March 1 – won’t involve collecting any more user information than is currently, it will allow the search giant’s various services to share that information between themselves, rather than keep it siloed. From Google’s perspective, that allows them to better tailor information to individual users; viewed from a different angle, it’s an even greater amount of data and inference one company knows about you.

Google says it will use the harmonized data to improve its services. Spelling corrections will get better, auto-suggestions will become more accurate – and potentially confused topics, like Jaguar cars or jaguar cats, will be less likely to frustrate – and altogether more intelligent mash-ups of data will be enabled, such as using your location, calendar and traffic data to warn you if you’re likely to be late to an appointment.

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However, privacy advocates have long been complaining about the extent of the data Google currently holds on each of its users, and this shift to collate that information has done nothing to assuage their concerns.

“Regulators globally have been calling for shorter, simpler privacy policies” Google points out, “and having one policy covering many different products is now fairly standard across the web.” The search company has also streamlined its language, in the hope that anyone who actually does read the new document – condensed down from around sixty policies to one – will stand a better chance of actually understanding it.

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Nokia sells 1.5 billionth Series 40 mobile phone

Nokia has passed a huge milestone with its Series 40 mobile phones. The mobile phone giant has announcedthat it has sold its 1.5 billionth 40 Series device. The magic 1.5 billionth device was a Nokia Asha 303 smartphone, and it was sold to a woman in São Paulo, Brazil. The Asha 303 is a touchscreen handset that also has a QWERTY keypad on it for typing and web surfing.

Nokia notes that the first mobile phone in the 40 Series was the Nokia 7110 back in 1999. None of the devices in the Series 40 range are considered true smartphones; Nokia refers to the latest devices in the range as “smartphone lite.” They sit in the area between smartphones and feature phones.

The latest of the 40 Series devices have Nokia Maps, Nokia Browser, and Web Apps along with Nokia Money and Life tools. Nokia is looking forward to the next billion in sales of the Series 40 devices. Part of the next billion in device sales will be pushed thanks to the recent purchase of Smarterphone OS that already looks better than Symbian.

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Samsung S-Pen stylus could show up in tablets next

Samsung is considering adding S-Pen digital stylus functionality to future tablets, borrowing the pen-input option from the Galaxy Note for larger models as it boosts data-entry methods. Asked whether Samsung saw the Galaxy Tab line-up expanding beyond mere finger control, ”I think a pen interface continues to make a lot of sense across a number of screen sizes, like the larger is more obvious of those” product marketing manager Ryan Biden told Laptop. “That’s about as specific as I can be without announcing a product.”

The Galaxy Note comes complete with a digital pen, using Wacom active digitizer technology to support handwriting, sketching and more precise touch control. Unlike capacitive styli, which mimic a point of finger contact and are thus relatively lacking in accuracy, the Samsung S-Pen is far more accurate; we found it was certainly good enough for casual note-taking in our Galaxy Note review.

Tablets offering active stylus support are rare, in the consumer market at least. HTC’s 7-inch Flyer was one example, though relatively inaccurate inking meant its usefulness as a notepad replacement was limited. More common are Windows-based tablets with digital pens, generally to accommodate the OS’ many UI elements that are uncomfortably small for finger-control. Apple’s Steve Jobs famously dismissed the input option, claiming that “if you see a stylus, they blew it.”

Samsung’s plans would seemingly run contrary to that opinion, however, as part of the Korean company’s attempt to create as many variants as possible to satisfy each users’ whims. No word on when we might see the first new stylus-toting tablets launch, though with Mobile World Congress fast approaching ita could well be there.

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O2 sharing phone numbers for mobile surfers (but not everyone)

UK carrier O2 finds itself embroiled in data protection controversy today, with allegations that the operator is revealing mobile users cellphone number to each website they visit on their phone. According to Lewis Peckover, buried in among the header data from each O2 visitor is a line revealing their own mobile number; he set up a site to show off just what O2 is including. However, while some O2 users are corroborating the claims, our own tests have failed to do so. Update: Temporary workaround after the cut.

We visited the site on a Galaxy Nexus using an O2 SIM and the carrier’s 3G network, and saw no evidence of the number registered to the account. The screenshot above shows exactly what data is being received by Peckover’s site.

Where his testing identified a line in the headers called “x-up-calling-line-id:” with the mobile number in international format, though, ours did not. A quick check of Twitter indicates we’re not the only one to see it too. O2 says, via Twitter, that “we’re checking this out with our internal teams as we speak. Once we’ve got an update, we’ll let everyone know.”

Some giffgaff subscribers – an MVNO using O2′s network – also report seeing their own number show up in the headers. Even inconsistent across users, though, the issue could be potentially very damaging to O2′s reputation; we’ll update when we know more.

Update: TNW is reporting that its own testing – using an iPhone on O2 – showed the account’s phone number in the header data.

Update 2: Pocket-lint has suggested a temporary workaround, which involves using an alternative APN for O2. Changing to the following settings seemingly prevents your number from being shared:

APN: mobile.o2.co.uk

Username: bypass

Password: password

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Apple planned poorly for iPhone 4S China launch Cook admits

A window coated in raw egg wasn’t the only thing Apple got when it launched the iPhone 4S in China earlier this month; it also got a wake-up call about quite how high demand for the new iOS smartphone would be. Appetite for the iPhone 4S was both “staggering” and “off the charts” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a financial results call yesterday, Businessweek reports, admitting that the company “didn’t bet high enough” on supplies of the handset.

“We thought we were betting bold” Cook said of the Chinese launch, which saw crowds build outside of official Apple stores. He also declined to comment on whether Apple would add a second carrier partner in the country, describing current operator China Unicom as “a very key partner” but dropping hints that more was afoot in the near future. “I’ve got nothing to announce today on an expansion there,” Cook dismissed, “but as I’ve consistently said, China is an extremely important market for us and we continue to look at how to grow it further.”

Although Apple’s launch of the Chinese iPhone 4S may have been successful in terms of sales, it was also marred by violence. The crowds waiting outside Apple stores became belligerent and threatening when told there was insufficient stock and that the stores themselves would not be opening; large groups of paid queuers had amassed, believed to be working for gray-market scalpers looking to resell the iPhone at a profit.

Apple announced a record $46.33bn in revenue for the last quarter yesterday, including the sale of 37m iPhones, 15.43m iPads and 15.4m iPods. Mac sales totaled 5.2m units.

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Apple planned poorly for iPhone 4S China launch Cook admits

A window coated in raw egg wasn’t the only thing Apple got when it launched the iPhone 4S in China earlier this month; it also got a wake-up call about quite how high demand for the new iOS smartphone would be. Appetite for the iPhone 4S was both “staggering” and “off the charts” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a financial results call yesterday, Businessweek reports, admitting that the company “didn’t bet high enough” on supplies of the handset.

“We thought we were betting bold” Cook said of the Chinese launch, which saw crowds build outside of official Apple stores. He also declined to comment on whether Apple would add a second carrier partner in the country, describing current operator China Unicom as “a very key partner” but dropping hints that more was afoot in the near future. “I’ve got nothing to announce today on an expansion there,” Cook dismissed, “but as I’ve consistently said, China is an extremely important market for us and we continue to look at how to grow it further.”

Although Apple’s launch of the Chinese iPhone 4S may have been successful in terms of sales, it was also marred by violence. The crowds waiting outside Apple stores became belligerent and threatening when told there was insufficient stock and that the stores themselves would not be opening; large groups of paid queuers had amassed, believed to be working for gray-market scalpers looking to resell the iPhone at a profit.

Apple announced a record $46.33bn in revenue for the last quarter yesterday, including the sale of 37m iPhones, 15.43m iPads and 15.4m iPods. Mac sales totaled 5.2m units.

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BlackBerry Porsche Design smartphone will set you back $2,350

Something makes you feel justified of a Porsche’s hefty pricetag when window shopping at your local dealership. But does this same mentality persist when viewing their new Porsche Design P’9981 BlackBerry smartphone? The device is set at $2,350, just enough to make a few jaws drop. We had recently seen it clear the FCC earlierwith an estimated amount of $2,000, but it has clearly broken that barrier. It’s hard to believe the P’9981 doesn’t have decent hardware specifications.

We’re used to seeing larger displays as in the Galaxy S II or iPhone 4S when it comes to the latest and greatest. But the Porsche Design, like the other BlackBerry QWERTYs out there, offers a 2.8″ touch screen with a 640×480 resolution. If you were to spend $2,400 on a smartphone, wouldn’t it make sense to ensure it has a decent camera? Its 5MP rear shooter most definitely can’t compete with a few others currently in production. People have even started bragging about a possible 12MP camera included in the Galaxy S III.

So what it boils down to is brand name. After all, someone that plans on purchasing a smartphone at such a price isn’t in it for the specs, but rather its uniqueness. It’s bound to turn some heads with the built-in leather battery cover and custom theme. The Porsche Design P’9981 is only available in the UK and Middle East for the time being, but should make its way to the US soon enough.

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Xbox 720 tipped for fall 2013 with AMD 6000 series GPU

The next generation Microsoft Xbox 720 has been tipped to be shipping in late October or early November complete with six times the power in an AMD 6000 series GPU under the hood. There’ve been reports from several sources saying the same set of details, the most recent confirmation coming from IGN’s source close to the project. Specifically it appears that the Xbox 720 will be using the AMD Radeon HD 6670 working with support for DirectX11, 3D and 1080p HD output, and multidisplay output.

The Radeon 6670 itself costs upwards of $79.99, so we’re likely not looking at an inexpensive device in the end here. That said, the Xbox 720′s graphics processing power because of this beast of a GPU will be six times the Xbox 360. Compared to the upcoming Wii U (as seen in some lovely hands-on videos back a few months here on SlashGear), the Xbox 720 will be set to have a 20-percent greater performance on the whole.

For those of you out there in the world of developing for consoles can expect kits for the system in August. Now we’ve just got to wait for the third PlayStation and we can have the whole three mouskateers in the ring for 2013! Which one will you be picking up given the information we’ve got currently? Not one whole heck of a lot of information is out there, but the names are all here!

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NASA releases videos of Sun’s massive M8.7 solar flare

We’ve been following the terrifying sounding but mostly harmless solar flare as summoned up by the Sun’s most recent solar storm as it hits the Earth in a dazzling display across the Northern half of the hemisphere. What NASA has posted in regards to the situation is not one, but two views of not the Earth, but the Sun as it flares up early this week. Photos of the aurora collection going on constantly for the past couple of days have been popping up across Flickr as well, a few choice slides provided for you here as well.

The first video you’re going to see is a lovely black and cyan/teal view of the Sun as viewed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory on the 22nd of this month. SDO’s view of what’s called the M8.7 Solar Flare is shown in the 131 Angstrom wavelength, a wavelength commonly used to view nothing less than solar flares on the regular. The flare itself, they note, began on the 22nd of January at 10:38 PM ET, peaked at 10:59 PM that same day, and ended at 11:34 PM.

The next video you may have seen still images of before as they’ve often accompanied stories surrounding the storm this week, it showing the recognizable orange Sun in all its glory. This video was also captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, this time in 304 angstrom. It was with this discovery that the world found that an Earth-directed CME, or Coronal Mass Ejection, was accompanying the flare.

Then from photographers appearing to mostly be in Norway we’ve got the Northern Lights flaring up like wacky waves of colorful fabulousness. Auroras galore from magnussveinsson, Runólfur Hauksson, Harpa Hrund,Sigurjón J. Sigurðsson, and Per Ivar Somby.

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Apple sold more iPads than HP sold PCs in Q1 2012

Apple reported record fiscal Q1 2012 earnings today with sales of its iPads and Macs well exceeding rivals’ sales of PCs. Specifically, the 15.4 million units sold of iPads alone already surpass HP’s worldwide PC sales of 14.7 million as well as Lenovo’s 12.9 million and Dell’s 11.6 million units.

For the first time, Apple has surpassed HP in both computer unit sales and revenues, making it the largest computer maker. Apple also isn’t fazed by the onslaught of cheaper tablets, such as the Amazon Kindle Fire. Instead, Apple said it would continue to “innovate like crazy” on the iPad, which will continue to threaten PCs.

Apple CEO Tim Cook reiterated the company’s belief that tablets will one day overtake PCs, citing IDC’s recent study that showed strong momentum with tablet sales already surpassing PC sales last quarter. Cook also emphasized that although iPad sales were having negative impact on PCs, it has not affected Mac sales.

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