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iPad OS Upgrades for a Price, Facebook Private Addresses Go Public

by Warren Riddle on March 31, 2010 at 11:33 AM



Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines....
  • The iPad arrives in just a few days, and Apple is apparently trying to reveal a few unattractive contract specs inconspicuously while the media is occupied with the grand public unveiling. According to the iPad licensing agreement, owners will be eligible to receive one free OS upgrade, but will be forced to pay for any subsequent upgrade downloads. [From: Wired]
  • Privacy officially died last night on Facebook, as some private members' e-mail addresses mysteriously became publicly available. The site did manage to resuscitate its protective measures after approximately 30 minutes, but it hasn't yet addressed what caused the troubling security lapse. [From: Gawker]
  • A U.S. judge has made a sweeping ruling that could completely shut down at least one prominent search engine for the BitTorrent file-sharing system. Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that Torrentbox, Podtropolis and isoHunt (which hosts 30 million unique monthly visitors) provide "an unlawful avenue" to illegal content, and that the sites must remove any material that infringes on copyrights. [From: Wired]
  • Folks who hate lugging various clunky items around in their pockets are getting closer to the glorious day when iPhones will officially make keys and wallets obsolete. According to Mobile Crunch, more than 1,000 Starbucks locations are now allowing customers to pay for their goods via the Starbucks Card Mobile iPhone app, which displays a scannable QR code. [From: Textually]
  • The ramifications of Google's recent exodus from China to Hong Kong are beginning to materialize, as the search engine's access to various sites has been blocked. Yahoo! is also apparently under siege in the nation, as well, as the e-mail accounts of various journalists were reportedly hacked within the last few weeks. [From: FOX News]
  • George Hotz, the infamous iPhone hacker known as Geohot, recently demonstrated a PS3 OS vulnerability that could enable him to do "whatever" he wants with the console. To block the vulnerability, Sony is now issuing a security update (for non-slim models) that will prevent people from installing alternate operating systems, which had previously been allowed. [From: The BBC]

Tags: apple, bittorrent, coffee, facebook, filesharing, Geohot, google, ipad, iphone, isohunt, morningxtra, podtropolis, starbucks, top, torrentbox

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