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Xiaomi’s MacBook Air ripoff turns out to be a hoax 0 Luke Dormehl (8:37 am PDT, Dec 30th) Don’t worry: Xiaomi isn’t being this brazen with its Apple-inspired designs. Yet. Photo: Gizmochina The Apple blogosphere was ablaze yesterday with reports that noted Apple ripoff artists Xiaomi had reportedly come up with its most brazen copycat attempt yet: a MacBook Air-alike which looked indistinguishable from Cupertino’s offering, with the exception of a Xiaomi logo instead of an Apple one. Well, according to a spokesperson for the company, it turns out the picture is a fake.

“When the FBI made the announcement so soon after the initial hack was unveiled, everyone in the [cyber] intelligence community kind of raised their eyebrows at it, because it’s really hard to pin this on anyone within days of the attack,” Kurt Stammberger said in an interview as his company briefed FBI investigators Monday afternoon.

But in a letter Tuesday to the FCC, Google’s director of communications law Austin Schlick highlighted a potential positive for the company if Title II kicks in. As a regulated telecom service, Google Fiber would get access to utility poles and other essential infrastructure owned by utilities. The FCC should make sure this happens because it would promote competition and spur more investment and deployment of broadband internet service, Schlick argued.

‘While you were away’ works much like Facebook’s Timeline and is the first major non-chronological feature to hit Twitter. Back in November, the company said it would look at the ‘best’ tweets from your network since you last opened Twitter, and put them at the top of your timeline so you don’t miss them.

Vinnie Omari, a 22-year-old member of the group Lizard Squad, was arrested on Monday after British law enforcement agents from the South East Regional Organized Crime Unit raided his home. Omari confirmed the raid with the Daily Dot, and provided a photo of the search warrant he received.

How ‘Ethical’ Hotel Chain Marriott Gouges Guests in the Name of Wi-Fi Security

Still, some observers have raised questions about whether Project Zero does more harm than good if Google isn't flexible with its publishing deadline. Others argued that Microsoft had plenty of time to fix the bug, and Google was firm about its policy. "Project Zero's disclosure deadline... allows software vendors a fair and reasonable length of time to exercise their vulnerability management process, while also respecting the rights of users to learn and understand the risks they face." But it also added that "we're going to be monitoring the affects (sic) of this policy very closely."

The movie studios are not happy with these deviant subscribers as it hurts their licensing agreements. Previously entertainment industry sources in Australia complained bitterly that tens of thousands of Netflix “VPN-pirates” were hurting their business.

I suspect the rapid decline of Apple’s software is a sign that marketing has a bit too much power at Apple today: the marketing priority of having major new releases every year is clearly impossible for the engineering teams to keep up with while maintaining quality. Maybe it’s an engineering problem, but I suspect not — I doubt that any cohesive engineering team could keep up with these demands and maintain significantly higher quality.

At CES today, Google announced Google Cast for audio, which lets you play back sound from apps directly to speakers, sound bars, and A/V receivers. Sony, LG, and HEOS by Denon will be the first to offer “Google Cast Ready” products this spring, Google says.

So to review: This is the year that you’ll be able to get HBO on the Web, without paying for any other cable channels, and ESPN on the Web, with just a handful of other channels. Throw in a Netflix subscription and you’re probably looking at a $50-a-month video package (you’ll still need to pay for broadband on top of that) that might please a lot of people — that is, people who want to watch cable-TV programming but don’t want to sign up for traditional cable-TV bundles.

Merging AOL’s programmatic advertising technology -- the automated buying and selling of ads online -- with mobile video content can help Verizon catch up with AT&T Inc. (T) as wireless providers enhance their offerings. AT&T last year struck a $48.5 billion deal to acquire satellite TV provider DirecTV.

The first Broadwell chip to make it to market was Core M, also known as the Y series. Y-series chips are the slowest and least power-hungry chip based on Intel's flagship architecture—go any lower and you get into Atom territory. Today we're moving one more rung up the ladder to the U series, mainstream dual-core chips that use more power but introduce significantly faster CPU clock speeds and larger, faster GPUs.

In addition to the new Broadwell chips it's announcing today, Intel is also sharing a little information on "Cherry Trail," its new SoCs for Windows and Android tablets. The company has begun shipping them to its partners today. Cherry Trail will replace the Bay Trail Atom SoCs that ship in Intel-powered tablets, and while Intel isn't talking branding or specific SKUs, it's probable that it will continue to use the Atom name for Cherry Trail.

While Wojcicki has been open about her larger ambitions for 23andMe, none of that language is apparent in the marketing for its DNA test kits to customers—for sneaky but obvious reasons. Its privacy policy notes that it will share aggregated data to third parties (read: sell to pharma and biotech companies) for scientific research if customers sign a consent document. Wojcicki told the San Jose Mercury News that 85 to 90 percent of 23andMe's customers do.

Windows Phone market share fell to 3 percent in the U.S., down from 4.3 percent for the same period a year ago. In Europe’s five biggest markets (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain), market share dropped from 9.8 percent to 8.3 percent in November 2014. Only Germany saw an uptick in market share.

RT @Techmeme: The EFF's New App Is Android-Only, As Organization Calls Out Apple For "Outrageous"…

RT @Techmeme: The EFF's New App Is Android-Only, As Organization Calls Out Apple For "Outrageous"…

Yelp-hating Italian restaurant ups its one-star review discount to 50%

Meanwhile, Google has a black ribbon on its homepage and has pledged €250,000 (£195,000) via the Digital Press Fund to support the magazine.

The Prime Minister said today that he would stop the use of methods of communication that cannot be read by the security services even if they have a warrant. But that could include popular chat and social apps that encrypt their data, such as WhatsApp.

Apple saw an increase in its U.S. PC shipments during the recent holiday quarter, according to PC shipping estimates from Gartner. Apple shipped over 2.1 million Macs in 4Q14, up from 1.9 million Macs in 4Q13, marking an 11.5 percent increase. Though the company's shipments were up, its growth rate slightly trailed the overall market, resulting in a share of 11.7 percent down from 11.9 percent in the year ago quarter.

"The potential benefits are huge, since everything that civilization has to offer is a product of human intelligence....We recommend expanded research aimed at ensuring that increasingly capable AI systems are robust and beneficial: our AI systems must do what we want them to do," the letter said in part. A research document attached to the open letter outlines potential pitfalls and recommends guidelines for continued AI development.