17 year old Mike Nieves from New York has a nice resume. AOL LLC alleged that the teenager broke into their databases with confidential information about customers and from December 24, 2006 until April 7, 2007 he continued infecting their servers with a malicious application that transfered data onto his computer.

AOL filed a complaint at the Criminal Court of the City of New York and the DA’s office alleged that Mike Nieves faces four felony charges and one misdemeanor charge after he was caught with computer trespassing, criminal possession of computer material and computer tampering. The teenager is under investigation for accessing systems that contained confidential data like customer billing records, credit card information or addresses, for infecting a call center in New Delhi, India, for an attempt to break-in a AOL customer support center, for a phishing attack against AOL staff that gave him access to over 60 accounts of employees and subcontractors and for logging in without permission into 49 AIM instant message customer service accounts.

The cost for AOL was $500,000 so far and they are still not sure if sensitive data was compromised or not, or if it was stolen. These are information that should be presented later in Court. Mark Rasch, managing director of technology at FTI Consulting Inc., commented a little on the case and I find what he said, really interesting : “AOL has had pretty good security over the years.” Do you guys think that for a very big company pretty good security is enough? Hell no! They should have had hardcore good security.

The case is still early and they are not sure if Mike Nieves tried to break into AOL computers to steal data for material gains or not. He said “I accessed their internal accounts and their network and used it to try to get my accounts back”. There is also the rumor that Mike Nieves is part of a bigger group of hackers focused on big companies only which I believe more. - ALEX ION

[Source : InfoWorld]

Apple iTunes is not going to open its gates to renting music, any time soon, and that is because Steve Jobs announced that there is no real interest in renting music : “People want to own their music”, he said. There seems to be lots of calls from the major music companies trying to convince Apple into renting music online, so they could rack more money from recurring income, but since Jobs said there’s little interest, I don’t think they will give in no matter what money they will see in the contracts.

Also, if we think that Apple is putting pressure on the big recording companies to drop the digital rights management (DRM) copy-protection, I don’t think they are interesting in renting right now. Apple has a deal with Emi Group Plc (3rd largest company in the business) to sell music without copy-protection which puts Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Vivendi’s Universal Music Group in a tough position if they won’t accept the new waves.

“We’ve said by the end of this year, over half of the songs we offer on iTunes we believe will be in DRM-free versions,” Jobs said. Let’s see what will happen next! - ALEX ION

[Source : Yahoo!News]

As a teacher controlling the kids during the exam is a pretty hard thing to do. They are very creative in finding new ways of hiding their notes, that school teachers may not be aware of. Remember banning the baseball caps, because the answers where written under the brim, it looks like the new phenomenon includes media players like iPods or Zunes as a cheating method. If you are familiar with them you will understand that it’s very easy to slip it into your pants and hide the wire under your shirt, the only thing that could give you in being the earbud.

Cheating the exams will NEVER stop, trust me, because even naked the students will find a way to hide their valuable informations. However media players are easy to cheat with. You record your lesson and name it like a popular song on your PMP and then you go to school where you need only a few minutes to start writing from the audio file. Too bad that when I did school we only had to find places to hide our crib notes. Not easy at all.

Mountain View High School was the first to ban the media players in school, when the school’s officials realized students were putting formulas onto their devices. If you think that many teachers from the older generations have a problem with technology (they don’t think of it as useful) it looks like a great way for them to protect the test’s accuracy. The Mountain View HS will not be the only one to take this kind of measures. Schools in Seattle, Wash also have a problem with media players. Similar cases can be found outside the United States, like Canada’s St. Mary’s College where cellphones and PMPs were banned this year or Australia’s University of Tasmania where iPods, electronic dictionary, CD players and spell-checking devices are all prohibited.

Cases at the Duke University in North Carolina that offered free iPods three years ago, part of an experiment to enhance learning, might be reasons for people not trying to cheat, with cheating incidents declining the last 10 years. “As teachers are thinking about how technology has corrupted, they’re also thinking about ways it can be used productively” said Tim Dodd, executive director of The Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University. - ALEX ION

The founder of the project “$100 laptop”, Nicholas Negroponte, announced the machine costs now $175, running Windows now along the open-source software. The project was launched for the schoolchildren from the developing countries like Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Pakistan, Thailand, Nigeria and Libya.

The nonprofit project One Laptop Per Child, needs orders for at least 3 million XO laptops to start the production. Quanta Computer Inc., a major producer of mobile computers agreed to take $3 profit per machine and to develop the white XO computer. The distribution service will cost $1. Even so, the XO computer goes up to $175.

The XO laptop supposed to use the open-source Linux for free, helped by the sponsors Red Hat Inc. But recently, Negroponte has disclosed that Microsoft is preparing a Windows version compatible with the XO computers. The software would cost an additional $3. The package contains the Windows Starter Edition and some of Microsoft’s “productivity” software.

Microsoft’s boss, Bill Gates questioned the success of the One Laptop Per Child project, because the XO machine wasn’t considered a decent computer. He proposed its own cheap computer, for the developing countries, priced at $400.

The One Laptop Per Child project will start the production in October 2007. We hope the machines will put a smile on some children faces, helping them to access the knowledge. - MIHNEA BOIANGIU

Flash based memory cards are becoming increasingly used and portable media manufacturers are already including these devices as ways of upgrading the built-in memory.

Even if 4 GB is the maximum available storage of the new device, smaller capacity (1 GB and 2 GB) are also available for the card. In addition to the Memory Stick Pro Duo compatibility, Sony’s new card can be used with notebooks too with little help from the ExpressCard adapter.

Offered at a price of about $150, the 4GB capacity MS-EX4G card will be available starting August together with the 1 GB ($60), 2 GB ($90) and the MSAC-EX1 Memory Stick Duo Express Card adapter ($80). - Marius TRUSCULESCU

Prepare yourself to get your computer a makeover with the stylish new products Philips just unveiled. A wireless keyboard and four new mice featuring gorgeous designs are now ready for your computers.

Offering a four-way scroll wheel is included in all the 4 new mice: 1 wireless notebook mouse, 2 wired desktop mice and a wireless desktop mouse. Additionally, the SPT5701 desktop set offers a wireless keyboard with a wireless mouse featuring a 7 month battery life due to the included power management.

As an extra feature the wireless keyboard is also equipped with drainage holes to avoid damage due to accidental spills of liquids. According to Philips, the new products will be available starting May 2007 in Asia Pacific and US. - Marius TRUSCULESCU -

The HDR-CX7, HDR-SR5 and HDR-SR7 three new AVCHD high-definition camcorders were announced today by Sony offering customers better ways to save their memories.

Being one of the smallest and lightest products on the market, the handycam HDR-CX7 offers up to 3 hours of high definition quality recording when equipped with a 8 GB Memory Stick PRO Duo card. A 60 GB worth of storage is available with the HDR-SR7 due to the built-in hard disk. With this there is enough space to save 22 hours of continous shooting… provided you have enough batteries. If you consider that none of the above cameras will work, there is the HDR-SR5 which comes with 40 GB (15 hours ) storage using a magnetic storage drive.

“Our models offer the added advantages of superior high-definition picture quality. With the widest range of consumer high-def models, we can satisfy the needs of virtually everyone” commented Linda Vuolo, director of camcorder marketing at Sony Electronics

Shipping in June the HDR-SR5, HDR-CX7 and HDR-SR7 camcorders will be priced around $1,100, $1,200 and $1,400, respectively. - Marius TRUSCULESCU -

NTT DoCoMo recently revealed details of their upcoming FOMA 904i mobile phone series meant as an upgrade to the previous 903i lineup. Benefiting from a gorgeous slim design all the five handsets in the series are definitely a pleasure for the eye.

But that is just the beginning as many functions come with the newly announced products. Functions like audio and video playback are included and customers also have the ability of downloading full length music files directly on the handsets. Another neat feature is the “2 in 1″ service that offers two mobile phone numbers on the same device and users can either switch from one to the other one or have them active both at the same time.

Details on the price are not yet available but the handsets will be available by the end of June so the waiting is short. - Marius TRUSCULESCU -

A recent Sony announcement lets us know of a new accessory for the PlayStation 3: the Eye USB digital camera. Intended to ship this summer, the PlayStation Eye offers modest performances with a resolution of 320×240 pixels (QVGA) @ 120 fps.

However, Sony decided to throw a built-in microphone with the product together with an additional software CD that allows some photo editing for the PS3 owners. The camera is designed to cope with the low light environment for a better image while playing and this is pretty neat considering Sony announced the Eye will play an active role in m
No details concerning the pricing have been made public yet. However you shouldn’t expect a serious overpriced product even if Sony is looking for ways to diminish the money it looses with every console it sells. - Marius TRUSCULESCU -

Philips has launched the new Philips X200 “Longneck”. Why “Longneck”? Because you can lift the display and the X200 looks like it has a neck. The extendible screen will offer a more natural viewing angle. This laptop is perfect for the travelers and not only. It has good resources and it is small.

The notebook is powered by the Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology with Intel Core Duo U2500 processor capable to reach 1.73GHz. The memory is enough - about 1GB ram and 100GB hard disk for storage. Other important features are the DVD ReWriter drive and the 1.3 megapixel built-in camera. Furthermore Philips X200 has 128MB Intel GMA 950 shared graphics and Wi-Fi. It comes with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium operation system.

The price you need to pay for the “Longneck” is £849.99 at Pc World. -MIHNEA BOIANGIU