Logging The Cyber World

Apple has been the target of a cyberattack similar to the one recently reported by Facebook, according to Reuters.

Reuters reported Tuesday that Apple says it was attacked by the same hackers that breached Facebook. The tech giant told the news agency that no data appears to be stolen and that a software tool will be released later this week.

Apple confirmed the security breach, but did not comment on reports that the hackers were also responsible for the Facebook attack and released this statement to CBS News

cbsnews.com

After some earlier teasing, LG Electronics fully detailed its Optimus G Pro Android phone today, a high-end model with 5.5-inch screen, LTE networking, and a quad-core 1.7GHz processor.

LG often sells its phones first in its home market of South Korea, and it looks like that’s the plan for the Optimus G Pro, too. But it’ll arrive in other areas, too, including North America and Japan in the second quarter of 2013, LG said in an announcement a week ahead of the Mobile World Congress show. That’s where the South Korean company will show off the phone and announced three lower-end L-series Android phones, the Optimus L7 II, L5 II, and L3 II.

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Scientists insist that a meteor that crashed in Russia had nothing to do with an asteroid that flew by Earth on Friday.

With a sonic boom, the 10-ton meteor exploded over Russia’s Ural Mountains, breaking windows, blowing out doors and sending hundreds of people to the hospital.

“So people were curious about this bright light, went to their windows to look out and then the sonic boom hit and shattered those windows. So, a lot of those injuries came from glass,” said Tellus Science Museum astronomer David Dundee.

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Tags: 1 billion users, 1bn user mark, facebook, facebook revenues, social networking

The company said Thursday that it had a billion users worldwide who logged into Facebook at least once a month. The number is all the more remarkable considering that Facebook was created only seven years ago and has doubled its user base in the last two years alone. It took McDonald’s about 40 years to attract a billion customers.

But what is the value of a billion? It is not the same for Facebook as it is for other companies.

At McDonald’s, for example, those billion customers all paid for their burgers and fries. Apple has more than 400 million customers on iTunes alone, who buy movies and music with their credit cards.

Facebook, however, does not make money directly from its billion users. It makes the bulk of its revenue by serving them advertisements based on the data they share about who they are, whom they befriend and what they like. And the company is under intense pressure today to make more money off them, more quickly.

More here NY Times

Tags: borehole, drilling ship, earth, Geology, Mantle

Geologists will try and tell you that it’s easier to explore the moon and Mars than it is to explore the Earth’s mantle. As a geologist myself, I think they’re full of it, but they do have a point that we don’t know a whole heck of a lot about what’s going on beneath our feet. To find out, an international team wants to drill into Earth’s mantle, 3.7 miles below the ocean.

The mantle, for those of you who were too busy hacking calculators or doodling to pay attention in middle school geology class, is the region of the Earth that’s below the crust (where you are right now) and above the core. The crust, then, is the bit that keeps us from getting to the mantle, and it can be anywhere from 20 to 30 miles thick underneath continents. Under the ocean, though, is where the crust is created, so it’s only about three miles thick, and much easier to get through.

Read More: Dvice

Tags: galaxy s3, phone launching, samsung, smartphone, Verizon

If you’re waiting to buy the Samsung Galaxy S III on Verizon, you’ll have to wait a few more days. Verizon has silently moved the phone’s launch date from July 10 to July 12, which is this Thursday.

Verizon didn’t give any reason for the delay, and it appears the postponement only affects the in-store launch. According to Engadget, preorders are still being fulfilled, and some of the blog’s readers have reportedly already received the device.

What may have happened is that the number of preorders was larger than Samsung anticipated, and stock intended for delivery to Verizon’s retail locations was redirected to fulfill preorders. Without the carrier’s confirmation, we just don’t know.

PC World

Tags: body germs, health, human bacteria, microbes, microbial zoo

For the first time, scientists have cataloged human germs, determining that more than 10,000 species of microbes can be found in and on a healthy person.

These bugs — mostly benign but occasionally causing illness — occupy just about every part of the body, living on the skin, in the stomach and intestines, up the nose (and every other other orifice), according to the Human Microbiome Project.

USAToday

Tags: android, handsets, ios, samsung, smartphone

Samsung (005930) Electronics Co. sold more than 40 percent of all Android mobile phones in the first quarter as the South Korean manufacturer became the world’s largest handset maker, research company Gartner Inc. said.

Global handset sales declined 2 percent to 419 million, dragged down by a drop in low-end handsets, Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner said today in a report. Smartphone sales rose 45 percent, the researcher said.

Samsung, which also makes screens and other hardware used in smartphones, has profited from its ability to offer devices running Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software at a wide range of prices. Android is currently installed on 56 percent of new smartphones, more than twice Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s share. The prospect of even cheaper Android models led customers in Asia to postpone purchases, the researchers said.

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Tags: box, cloud, dropbox, gdrive, Google, online storage

It only took Google six or so years to get its long-anticipated GDrive cloud storage service out the door and into general circulation, but it finally did happen on April 24.

What a relief. Now we can stop talking about the “planned” cloud service and just call it “Google’s cloud storage service.” To its credit, the company has a good sense of humor about this incredibly protracted project, publishing a blog post entitled “Introducing Google Drive… yes, really” to break the news earlier today.

Read at eWeek

Tags: 5GB Free, cloud, dropbox, gdrive, Google, storage solution

Cloud storage tools have grown to become a huge selling point for anybody trying to choose between Apple’s iOS and Android. With Google’s upcoming Google Drive the balance will lean in favor of Android’s daddy. With everybody pumped about the free 5GB available on Google Drive, reports claim that the new cloud storage tool will launch next week.

It goes without saying: it pays to have access to your data regardless of the gadget you’re using or the location you’re in. Dropbox has been a viable solution but once Google Drive will launch, this cloud storage tool is going to go down fast. And the launch date for Google Drive might be closer than imagined.

The news that Google Drive will launch next week comes from thenextweb.com that writes it got a draft release from one of Google’s partners on the cloud storage solution. Apparently Google Drive launches next week on Tuesday and it is going to burry Dropbox with some 5GB of storage for free.

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