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Leo's MBW pick?

For the first time, global average connection speeds have surpassed the 3 Mbps mark. Meanwhile, the demands of the mobile world are growing very fast, with data traffic doubling in the last year. The latest figures come from Akamai, which today published its quarterly State of the Internet report for Q1 2013.

People familiar with the company's plans say that Samsung intends to make significant announcements at the event. One reveal that isn't expected, though, is an Amazon-style divorce from Google that would replace the Google Play app and media ecosystem with another of Samsung's own creation. "The relationship [between Google and Samsung] is symbiotic," says one source. Persistent rumors and speculation have suggested that Samsung could effectively take ownership of Android, owing to its market share dominance across multiple market segments; it's a rumor that is said to have riled departed Android chief Andy Rubin into lobbying for Google's purchase of Motorola. While a breakaway could still happen eventually, don't expect it this year. The recent release of the Galaxy S4 Google Play edition only underscores that the companies are still working together. One source also suggested that there's no need for Samsung to fork Android, already having "hedges" in place — Tizen and Windows Phone — should the relationship with Google sour.

RT @Techmeme: We're Number 9! U.S. Slips in Internet Connection Ranking (@curtwoodward / Xconomy)

RT @Techmeme: We're Number 9! U.S. Slips in Internet Connection Ranking (@curtwoodward / Xconomy)

RT @Techmeme: Apple's iTunes brings in $3.9B in Q3, up 25% from 2012 (AppleInsider)

RT @Techmeme: Apple's iTunes brings in $3.9B in Q3, up 25% from 2012 (AppleInsider)

RT @Techmeme: Intel teases a new Haswell processor for thin, potentially fanless tablets (@starfire2258…

RT @Techmeme: Intel teases a new Haswell processor for thin, potentially fanless tablets (@starfire2258…

RT @Techmeme: Google Reader Died Because No One Would Run It (@mattlynley / BuzzFeed)

RT @Techmeme: Google Reader Died Because No One Would Run It (@mattlynley / BuzzFeed)

The scientists wanted to publish their paper at the well-respected Usenix Security Symposium in Washington DC in August, but the court has imposed an interim injunction. Volkswagen had asked the scientists to publish a redacted version of their paper – Dismantling Megamos Crypto: Wirelessly Lockpicking a Vehicle Immobiliser – without the codes, but they declined.

RT @davewiner: Dan Gillmor: The Bradley Manning verdict is still bad news for the press.

RT @salsop: I just pre-ordered @automatic to upgrade my @subaru with my @iphone. Check it out at .

The Motorola X8 is more than just a processor, more than just a system-on-a-chip. While the system is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chip, it also features completely independent cores that make possible features like the phone always listening to your wake up command.

"If you look at the X8 mobile computing system, it has a cluster of processors and then some separate elements of the system," said Iqbal Arshad, Motorola's senior vice president of engineering. The goal was to move away from a primarily CPU-based architecture to save power and do "intelligent, probabilistic computing," he said.

In a quick post or two to Google+, he showed off a video and photo sharing app that takes your locally stored phone files and displays them instantly to your TV. In his short clip, Koush records a quick 17-second video, jumps into the stock Android gallery, presses the “Share” button, and then chooses his Chromecast. The video that he just recorded begins playing almost immediately.

It was a confluence of magnificent proportions that led six agents from the joint terrorism task force to knock on my door Wednesday morning. Little did we know our seemingly innocent, if curious to a fault, Googling of certain things was creating a perfect storm of terrorism profiling. Because somewhere out there, someone was watching. Someone whose job it is to piece together the things people do on the internet raised the red flag when they saw our search history.

The FBI develops some hacking tools internally and purchases others from the private sector. With such technology, the bureau can remotely activate the microphones in phones running Google Inc.'s Android software to record conversations, one former U.S. official said. It can do the same to microphones in laptops without the user knowing, the person said. Google declined to comment.

RT @Techmeme: FBI Taps Hacker Tactics to Spy on Suspects (Wall Street Journal)

RT @Techmeme: FBI Taps Hacker Tactics to Spy on Suspects (Wall Street Journal)

There were culture clashes as well. Andy Rubin, who led Android operations for eight years at Google until this March, supported keeping Android as an open platform and opposed embracing Motorola more closely, people familiar with the matter said. Some Motorola workers who had developed close relationships with Google employees while working on products before the acquisition found their emails went unreturned after the takeover, the people said.

The group, known as APT1, was caught by a research project that provides the most significant proof yet that people are actively trying to exploit the vulnerabilities in industrial control systems. Many of these systems are connected to the Internet to allow remote access (see “Hacking Industrial Systems Turns Out to Be Easy”). APT1, also known as Comment Crew, was lured by a dummy control system set up by Kyle Wilhoit, a researcher with security company Trend Micro, who gave a talk on his findings at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas.

Remember Rockmelt, the social media Web browser that made a brief splash in 2010? Yeah, it took us a minute, too. But Yahoo hasn’t forgotten it—Sunnyvale just ponied up a cool “$60 to $70 million” (according to the Wall Street Journal) for what appears to be a pure play for the company’s tech team, including veterans from Netscape and OpsWare

RT @Techmeme: FBI pressures Internet providers to install surveillance software (@declanm / CNET)

RT @Techmeme: FBI pressures Internet providers to install surveillance software (@declanm / CNET)

Unlike the movies or today’s television, radio aired live. This was a key ingredient in the medium’s success. The taboo against transcriptions—prerecorded programs—proved so strong that until mid-century actors regularly delivered a second West Coast performance after their initial broadcast aired on the East Coast. Unions, fearful that recorded facsimiles of their members’ voices (or sound effects!) would put them out of work, negotiated agreements with broadcasters that made the rerun rare. Up until midcentury, for instance, programs regularly aired live repeats. The goal, surely pursued with excessive zeal, may have been to protect talent. But the result benefitted listeners, who almost always found fresh material.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the world's 19th-richest man, has acquired The Washington Post, long one of the country's most influential and prestigious daily newspapers, for $250 million in cash, the company announced today. "The purchaser is an entity that belongs to Mr. Bezos in his individual capacity and is not Amazon.com, Inc.," a press release issued by The Washington Post said. The purchase includes all of the papers The Washington Post owns (and their websites), including the Express daily, The Gazette Newspapers, the Southern Maryland Newspapers, but does not include Slate, TheRoot.com or Foreign Policy, which will remain with the Washington Post Company.