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• Thailand’s government contacts Facebook to get ‘unlawful’ content removed

  Posted: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 19:59:35 +0000

  
  The government of Thailand has contacted Facebook to request the removal of more than 10,000 of its pages that are deemed in breach of laws preventing the defamation of the country’s royal family.

  The government has also warned Facebook users in the country that they risk prosecution if they share, comment or even like messages that breach Thailand’s lese majeste laws. Information minister Anudith Nakornthap even went so far as to suggest that users who see offending content and do not act to delete it, could be in trouble,according to the Bangkok Post:

  Any user not deleting it may risk being prosecuted under the Computer Crime Act, because they will be seen as having a role in indirectly disseminating an unlawful message.

  A number of Thai citizens have been jailed following messages on Facebook and, earlier this week, a 61 year old man was given a 20 year prison sentence after being found guilty of sending SMS messages insulting Thailand’s queen despite concerns around evidence.

  Technically, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg could be prosecuted for illegal content published on the social network as website owners are held directly responsible for all content on their sites in the eyes of Thai law, as Mark Belinsky points out.

  Action against Zuckerberg would be unlikely however, given the significant public attention that such a move would cause, and Thailand is looking to work with Facebook with its removal request instead.

  Were Zuckerberg to be charged, his trial might run something like that of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, who is being prosecuted after comments insulting Thailand’s king were published on Prachatai, a Thai website where she is webmaster. Premchaipron is facing the possibility of a prison sentence of up to 80 years if she is found guilty.

  This is not the first time that Thailand has liaised with international tech firms over content. Access to YouTube was blocked in the country in 2006 after Thai authorities located 20 videos that were deemed offensive to the royal family. The site was unblocked after Google agreed to make the content unavailable to Internet users in the country.

  The rise in lese majeste cases this year prompted the United Nations Special Rapporteur to urge the government to look into amending its legislation to “harmonize [its] national laws with international human rights standards”.

  

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• iPhone 4S set to launch in Russia and Taiwan in coming weeks

  Posted: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:46:02 +0000

  
  With Apple determined to see its new iPhone 4S smartphone launch in more than 70 countries before the end of the year, consumers in Russia and Taiwan are tipped to be next in line to receive the handset, sources close to carriers in both countries have revealed.

  Russia’s Prime News Agency reports that sales of the iPhone 4S will begin between December 5 and December 21, citing Alexander Mali, president of major mobile retail chain Euroset. According to the retail chief, official Russian distributors MTS and VimpelCom will receive supplies of the new iPhone after December 4, with sales beginning a day after stock is received.

  In Taiwan, a telecommunication market source told the Central News Agency that the Apple handset is scheduled to arrive in “mid-December”, with only one of the three top telecom operators in the country allowing customers to register at retail stores to receive updates on the status of the device. As with previous official launches, preorders are expected to begin a week before the handset goes on general sale.

  The iPhone 4S launched in the US, Canada, U.K., Germany, France, Australia, and Japan on October 14 with first day sales topping one million units. Apple later announced that it had sold 4 million handsets over its launch weekend.

  

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• Microsoft considers building a data center in South Korea

  Posted: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 10:35:26 +0000

  
  Microsoft is considering the possibility of a data center in South Korea, after a senior company executive met with the country’s regulator, according to The Korean Herald.

  Jean Philippe Courtois, who is the president of Microsoft’s international business, discussed the potential investment and collaboration in the country when he met with Choi See-joong, chairman of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), earlier today.

  Microsoft is said to be “reviewing several options” to increase its presence and investment in Korea, with local reports suggesting that the US firm is exploring the possibility of building a data center in the country.

  Courtois is the second major figure from the international technology scene to visit the KCC of late. Earlier this month, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt visited Korea, during which he met with the regulator, and held meetings with Korean handset manufacturers to encourage the development of Android and grow the company’s presence locally.

  The Korean government will be hoping that, like Google — which announced an initiative to support local web talent in Korea – Microsoft will bring more investment and experience from the international the technology scene to the country.

  

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• iPhone 4S tariffs in India are as expensive as the phone itself

  Posted: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:52:16 +0000

  
  Apple enthusiasts waiting for the iPhone 4S to be officially launched in India got some welcome news when Aircel announced that it was bringing the device to the country on November 25, just 42 days after its international release, but the joy was quickly squashed when the phone’s stratospheric pricing was announced.

  Now, the carriers have announced special tariffs for iPhone 4S buyers in India, according to a Phone Mantra report. Before we get to the tariffs, however, here’s a primer on the telecom market in India.

  State of Tariffs in the Indian Telecom Industry

  Unlike in most other countries, phones in India on GSM carriers are sold separately from SIM cards. Customers are expected to pay the cost of the phones upfront, with no carrier subsidies, and then pop in a SIM card from any carrier of their choosing.

  Since the Indian telecom market is beset with competition from as many as ten carriers, calling and texting tariffs on both prepaid and postpaid connections are pretty low. ₹0.60 ($0.01) per minute is the standard rate for the more respected carriers like Airtel and Vodafone, and it only goes down from there.

  At that rate, 500 local and STD minutes would only cost ₹300 ($6) per month. Texting is even cheaper, with bonus cards costing as little as ₹50 ($1) buying you 1,500 text messages with a one month validity.

  The iPhone 4S is also sold carrier unlocked in India, and you can run it on any GSM network, but the official carriers offer discounted rates to entice customers to buy the device officially, rather than importing it from outside the country.

  Bharti Airtel’s iPhone 4S Tariffs

  Bharti Airtel has four prepaid and postpaid plans for iPhone buyers, ranging from ₹300 ($6) – ₹1,000 ($19). The cheapest plan, which is ordinarily priced at ₹600 ($12), gives you 500 minutes of local calling (no STD), 300 local and national text messages and 200MB of 3G data.

  

  The most expensive plan, which normally costs ₹2,000 ($38), provides 1,500 local minutes, 600 national texts and 3GB of data. The company notes that customers stand to save anywhere between ₹7,200 ($138) – ₹24,000 ($460) over the course of the 48 months that the plans are valid.

  Aircel’s iPhone 4S Tariffs

  While Airtel offers all four plans to every iPhone buyer, including those who buy the iPhone 4 or the iPhone 3GS,Aircel divides its plans even between the different iPhone 4S models.

  It offers just one plan for each variant of the phone, with the cheaper one being priced at ₹950 ($18) for the iPhone 4S 16GB and the more expensive one at ₹1,150 ($22) for the 32GB version (Aircel does not carry the 64GB version of the phone).

  

  However, Aircel’s plans can be significantly cheaper for heavy callers, with 3,000 and 3,500 local and STD minutes on offer on the two plans. They also provide 350 and 450 local and national text messages, and each plan bundles 650MB of 3G data. Customers stand to save ₹22,320 ($427) or ₹25,440 ($487) through the 50 percent discounted plans, according to the company.

  Comparison with Vodafone’s Tariffs

  While all of these plans may sound cheap to people reading this outside India, they aren’t particularly in a telecom market like India’s. In fact, Aircel and Airtel’s plans, though advertised as being subsidised, don’t seem to have benefited from a subsidy at all.

  For the sake of comparison, India’s third largest carrier Vodafone prices its plans at ₹500 ($10) per month for 500 local and STD minutes, 500 national text messages and 500MB of 3G data, with a ₹1,000 ($19) plan that doubles the bundled calls, texts and data. And those plans are without any subsidisation, free for all customers to sign up for.

  

  In fact, even for customers who decide to fork out ₹44,500 ($852) to purchase an iPhone officially from either Aircel or Airtel, it makes more sense to turn down the carriers’ own subsidised plans and opt for one from another carrier. As we mentioned before, the iPhone 4 and 4S are sold factory unlocked in India, so it is not necessary to stick with the carrier the phone was purchased from.

  

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• Smartphones, Steve Jobs and LED light bulbs all prove big in Japan in 2011

  Posted: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:45:56 +0000

  
  Smartphones show no sign of losing popularity in Japan where the mobile device type has been voted top of a consumer survey to identify the most popular products of the year.

  Steve Jobs and LED light bulbs are two of the more obscure items listed on the 2011 Hit Products in Japan report which, run by advertising firm Dentsu, is no ordinary consumer product listing. In it, Lady Gaga rubs shoulders with other ‘consumer products’ like the as yet unfinished Tokyo Sky Tree building, bread-making machines, a child actress, the Japanese women’s football team and chili oil.

  Tech products do not dominate the rankings as one might expect, but smartphones once again top the list, as they did last year, and tablet devices climbed four places to stand fifteenth overall.

  The tragic events of earlier this earlier year played a key role in shaping the remainder of the top 20 list, as Dentsu explains in a press announcement:

  The impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake which occurred on March 11 can be seen in the No. 2 ranking for LED light bulbs and the first-time appearance of several energy-saving and eco-friendly products. The high rankings for Tokyo Sky Tree, Nadeshiko Japan and AKB48 can be attributed to the way in which they lifted a weary nation’s spirits.

  Japan is famed for preference of its own products and culture, which makes Steve Jobs’ position as a new entry in seventeenth significant. The death of the Apple CEO was profoundly felt in Japan, where Apple’s iPhone 4S continues to sell well after KDDI joined Softbank as a vendor of the device.

  It is somewhat surprising to see that Twitter (which grouped with other microblogs in the survey) has dropped from number two last year to eighteenth this year. The service is widely used in Japan — as the company’s co-founder Jack Dorsey recently noted — but rather than Japanese people tiring of Twitter, it is more likely that its establishment as a mainstream platform has made it is less novel than other items on the list.

  Nonetheless, here is it is the list of top twenty consumer products, which were derived from a survey of 1,000 Japanese consumers taken in November – last year’s ranking for each product is in brackets.

  1. Smartphones (1)
  2. LED light bulbs (10)
  3. Tokyo Sky Tree (new broadcasting tower scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2012) (7)
  4. Nadeshiko Japan (the Japan women’s national football team who won the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany (TM) tournament) (-)
  5. AKB48 (48-member all-girl theater/idol group with its own theater in Akihabara, Tokyo) (18)
  6. Mana Ashida (a seven-year-old child actress, model, singer and celebrity) (-)
  7. Hybrid vehicles (16)
  8. Disaster prevention supplies and emergency food supplies (purchased in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake) (-)
  9. Electric and battery-powered fans (although most Japanese homes are equipped with air conditioners, many families bought and used electric or battery-powered fans instead to conserve energy in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake) (-)
  10. Digital broadcasting-equipped widescreen flat-panel TVs (4)
  11. Munchable (chunky) chili oil (3)
  12. Energy-saving home appliances (-)
  13. Lady Gaga (-)
  14. Automatic bread makers (-)
  15. Tablet information devices (tablet PCs) (19)
  16. B-grade local gourmet food (term used for inexpensive local food eaten in a casual setting; A-grade refers to expensive gourmet food eaten in a formal setting.) (11)
  17. Steve Jobs (-)
  18. Twitter and other microblogging platforms (2)
  19. Electric cars (-)
  20. K-pop music groups (Girls’ Generation, Kara and other Korean groups) (-)

  

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• China’s ‘water army’ of paid-to-post web commenters analysed in new report

  Posted: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 06:13:02 +0000

  
  A new report providing an insightful look into paid-to-post Internet commenting in China has been released, concluding that commenters post in large volumes with little interest in conversations.

  Battling the Internet Water Army: Detection of Hidden Paid Posters is a research paper developed by Canada’s University of Victoria and China’s Beijing University that looks at the culture of Internet users being paid to post comments online, known as the ‘Internet water army’ in China.

  The report is much welcomed as there is little research data concerning the publishing of fake comments and reviews online, known as astroturfing, in China. While the phenomenon is neither new nor exclusive to China, the rapid growth of the country’s online space has seen the practice increase significantly, as the report explains.

  On the Internet, the paid posters represent a new type of online job opportunity. They get paid for posting comments and new threads or articles on different online communities and websites for some hidden purposes, e.g., to influence the opinion of other people towards certain social events or business markets.

  The report speculates that college students and unemployed people are most likely to take paid posting assignments, most of which are set up by Chinese PR firms looking to increase awareness of their clients or carry out promotional campaigns. Although the strategy of employing users to post fake comments is highly unethical, it can be used with great effect as one cited example reveals.

  On July 16, 2009, someone posted a thread with blank content and a title of “Junpeng Jia, your mother asked you to go back home for dinner!” on a Baidu Post Community of World of Warcraft, a Chinese online community for a computer game.

  In the following two days, this thread magically received up to 300; 621 replies and more than 7 million clicks. Nobody knew why this meaningless thread would get so much attention. Several days later, a PR company in Beijing claimed that they were the people who designed the whole event, with an intention to maintain the popularity of this online computer game during its temporary system maintenance.

  They employed more than 800 online paid posters using nearly 20; 000 different user IDs. In the end, they achieved their goal– even if the online game was not temporarily available, the website remained popular during that time and it encouraged more normal users to join.

  Companies that recruit users as paid posters provide clear targets, with a management team working to scrutinise and validate each poster’s progress. Posters are paid based on the volume of messages published alone, so users work to give their comments the appearance of being genuine, to avoid being flagged or deleted by website admin staff.

  The report also suggests that Chinese websites are complicit in the process to some degree. In order to help minimise the loss of messages that are removed by websites, the paid posting services have a liaison team which maintains relations with leading websites. Sites can benefit from the surges in traffic and attention that astroturfing can provide, but they tread a fine line and constantly assure users that they do not tolerate promotional messages either.

  The conclusions were derived from a data set that assessed activity on popular Chinese sites Sina (552 users and 20,738 comments) and Soha (223 users and 1,220 comments).

  Paid posters typically pay less attention to conversation threads, and and are less likely to respond to comments than legitimate ones.

  

  Responses from users who paid posters are likely to come within shorter periods of time from those of regular posters.

  

  The report’s key findings are summarised by the researchers’ comments in a Technology Review article:

  Paid posters tend to post more new comments than replies to other comments. They also post more often with 50 per cent of them posting every 2.5 minutes on average. They also move on from a discussion more quickly than legitimate users, discarding their IDs and never using them again.

  What’s more, the content they post is measurably different. These workers are paid by the volume and so often take shortcuts, cutting and pasting the same content many times. This would normally invalidate their posts but only if it is spotted by the quality control team.

  The initial research was carried out manually, with the team identifying those that looked like paid posters based on their experience working on the job, but an automated detection program was also developed. The software was able to correctly identify 88 percent of the paid posters from the data set, and it could prove to be a key development in monitoring the growth of China’s water army.

  While the data provides a fascinating look into astroturfing in China, it is important to note that it has been conducted on a minute scale. Data from less than one thousand posters represents a small fraction of China’s 450 million plus Internet users; however it does still provide an important reference point for future research on the subject.

  

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• IBM to extend Indian presence with offices in 22 new cities by 2013

  Posted: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:48:55 +0000

  
  IBM opened three new regional branches in India today, to take the total number of its offices in the country to 18, according to a report by The Economic Times. The company plans to take that number up to 40 by the year 2013.

  In its quest to establish a presence in the most rapidly developing cities in the country, IBM has opened the new offices in Dehradun, Guwahati and Raipur, the capital cities of the states of Uttaranchal, Assam and Chattisgarh respectively. Guwahati is, in fact, the fifth fastest developing city in India and among the 100 fastest growing cities in the world.

  As a service provider, it is only natural for IBM to want to expand its operations in India, which is the most preferred back-end IT destination in the world, according to consultancy firm Everest Group.

  While the company would not disclose the number of people employed at the new offices, it outlined aggressive plans to expand to an additional 22 cities in the next two years, having already started operations in Ahmedabad, Coimbatore and Indore within the past year.

  In Guwahati, the company is partnering with the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to recruit talent from the institution and promote the growth of open source technologies. The company has a research lab in India, which is one of nine around the world, and employs over 75,000 people in the country.

  Headquartered in Armonk, NY, the company bowed out of the consumer PCs industry when it sold its personal computer division, including the Space-friendly ThinkPad line of notebooks, to Lenovo in 2005. One of the oldest companies in the USA, IBM turned 100 in June this year. It is ranked as the 18th largest company in the United States and the 7th most profitable by Fortune.

  

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• Facebook photo helps reunite lost man with family in the Philippines

  Posted: Thu, 24 Nov 2011 02:55:10 +0000

  
  Facebook has demonstrated its significance as a local communications channel after helping to reunite a missing elderly man with his relatives, despite the fact that no members of the family use the social network, according to the AFP.

  Luis Matias, who is 78 and suffers from memory loss, went missing for two weeks in the Philippines after he walked out of his home, was located after a photo of his wife searching for him went viral on Facebook, raising awareness of his disappearance in the local community.

  A street photography enthusiast, who goes by the name of Reddie Js, posted a picture of Matias’ wife in attempt to help with her search, after a chance encounter brought them together.

  Alongside the photo, he posted contacts details for Matias’ wife and a plea for help from his Facebook friends:

  I saw this old woman sitting by herself yesterday at the corner of buendia and roxas blvd yesterday. Surprised to see a bond paper pinned in front and back of her dress with a picture of a missing old man, i asked her about it and she said it is her husband who has been missing for two weeks now.

  I was touched by her integrity and pained to see her looking for him in that manner so i decided to help her too. I asked permission to post her picture here in fb to be shared by others as help for finding Mr. Luis Matias.

  Reddie Js’ Facebook post was shared almost 61,000 times, bringing new life and exposure to the search which got the attention of the media. Thanks to this increased awareness, he was located close to his home just two days after the post was published.

  The most fascinating part of the story is that, according to Matias’ daughter’s comments to the AFP, none of the family use or are even familiar with Facebook.

  We don’t even know how to use Facebook, but it was such a big help to us and we thank the person who took my mother’s picture and posted it

  My mother was overjoyed. She had almost lost hope that she would ever find him again.

  Earlier this week Facebook revealed how it is bringing people closer together — with the average degree of separation between users now 4.74 — and this example is proof that local communities are closely linked on the social network.

  

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• HTC feels the heat from Apple and Samsung, cuts quarterly revenue forecast by 23%

  Posted: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:40:29 +0000

  
  Taiwanese handset maker HTC has moved to warn investors that increased competition in the smartphone market and a hostile economic climate will affect revenues in the coming quarter, slashing estimates by as much as 23% as sales slow quarter-on-quarter for the first time in two years.

  Strong sales from Apple and Samsung has led HTC to predict its fourth-quarter revenue will be the same as it was in 2010, reaching around $3.4 billion. It previously issued guidance that it would see sales upwards of $4 billion.

  “Due to global macroeconomic downturn and market competition, the assumptions of 2011 Q4 financial forecast provided earlier are no longer applicable,” the company said.

  HTC has also noted it would reevaluate the purchase of S3 Graphics Co, after it lost its patent-infringement case against Apple earlier this week.

  Analysts have said that HTC’s reluctance to enter the low-end smartphone market and its familiar rounded designs have impacted its growth, although the company is now the number one smartphone maker in the US.

  HTC believes it will return to growth at the beginning of 2012, likely issuing warnings given the demand for Apple’s new iPhone 4S — which sold over 4 million units in its launch weekend — and the Samsung Galaxy S II, Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Note, all of which are tipped to drive smartphone sales for Samsung in the final quarter.

  

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• Dreamworks reportedly planning to enter China in 2012

  Posted: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:13:00 +0000

  
  Dreamworks Animation is reportedly preparing to launch a joint venture in China next year, according to government sources quoted by Chinese magazine Caijing.

  The company is said to be considering investing $2 billion over the next five years to form a Chinese operation to develop animation for the local market. Dreamworks is rumoured to be supported by a number of Chinese firms that are thought to include the Shanghai Media Group and China Media Capital.

  The venture, which would be based in Shanghai, is said to be close to being finalised, and it could officially open its doors as soon as January 2012.

  News of the reported joint venture comes less than three months after Dreamworks inked its first deal in China, through a partnership with YouKu, China’s leading video sharing site.

  YouKu itself has been busy agreeing deals with western content producers, having agreed a three year deal to bring 450 of Warner Brothers’ US film titles, including Hollywood blockbuster Inception, to its premium channels.

  

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