Miami hostage standoff leaves 7 people dead

MIAMI -- Seven people were shot and killed at an apartment building in
a Miami suburb early Saturday, including the suspected gunman who was
holding two hostages when a SWAT team moved in, police said.

The hostages were rescued unharmed, Hialeah Police Sergeant Eddie
Rodriguez told NBC News.

The standoff began on Friday evening during an argument between the
gunman and the husband and wife who ran the apartment complex. Their
bodies were among the six found after the SWAT team moved in on
Saturday morning, police said.
The gunman lived in a fourth-floor apartment with his mother, the
Miami Herald quoted the landlords' daughter, Shamira Pisciotti, as
saying.

The couple, 78-year-old Italo Pisciotti and 68-year-old Samira
Pisciotti, went to the unit to discuss a problem with the gunman, who
opened fire and killed them both, their daughter told the newspaper.

Three other victims were found shot to death in that building and one
was walking into a building across the street when the gunman shot him
from a balcony, police said.

The shooter was barricaded inside a fifth-floor apartment with the two
hostages when police negotiators made contact with him during the
night. The SWAT team swarmed in after the talks broke down about 2
a.m., the Herald said.

The apartment complex in the blue-collar, mostly Hispanic community
housed about 90 families.

Copyright © 2013, Reuters

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New Android, new Chromecast, old marketing tricks: Ars readers react

On Wednesday, Google held an event in San Francisco announcing a
couple of new products that proved interesting to Android and Apple
adherents alike. These included the revamped Nexus 7, Android 4.3, and
the Chromecast, a tiny dongle for your TV's HDMI port that pushes
music, photos, and videos from Android and iOS devices and laptops to
the...um...medium screen.

Ars sat down to run some benchmarks on the Nexus 7 as soon as we got
our hands on it, and Andrew Cunningham wrote up the results in The
2013 Nexus 7 performance preview: a huge speed upgrade in every way.
The benchmarks showed the newest tablet vastly outperforming the
original Nexus 7 as well as the Nexus 4, and coming close in
performance to the larger Nexus 10.

Storage, incidentally, was the most controversial part of the new
tablet. daneren2005 wrote, "I think the better storage performance is
the only thing I really care about in an upgrade. The Nexus 7
deteriorated so fast it was ridiculous and got extremely laggy when
approaching full. I'm hoping this version doesn't have these issues,
or at least not at the same level." charleski agreed: "Hmm. I was
planning to keep my old N7 since I mostly use it for reading. But
storage speed is the one thing that really bugs me about the original
model, and these improvements are quite enticing."

Digitali missed the old ways. "Still no SDCard storage? I love my
original one, but the lack of additional storage options is insane."
Chronoreverse didn't want to hear it, "You're never going to see
MicroSD storage in a Nexus device." But greenmky stepped in to offer a
more thorough response:

I'd prefer an SD card slot too, but considering the bang/buck that
Google offers with Nexus devices I've been willing to overlook it. I
don't keep that much music on hand, and on a tablet, the only reason I
use the space is for disc images for DOSBox or something. I don't
watch movies or TV on a tablet (would rather wait and watch on the
plasma/HT setup).

I really like SD cards (for media storage, Titanium Backup,
Photos, etc), but somehow I've ended up with a Nexus 7 / Nexus 4 combo
anyway.

My wife grouses about not having enough room for her music all of
the time on her Nexus 4. She's talked about getting another Android
device with MicroSD just for playing music. So far, it's just talk.

For my kids (age 7 and 5), however, an SD card slot is critical. I
load it up with episodes of My Little Pony: FIM and whatever else they
want to watch for trips, camping, etc. They load up the internal
storage with terrible insipid games and such :p

Devil's in the details

Verizon also announced it's Motorola Droid lineup this week, and while
the phones sounded awfully impressive, the specifics of the "Motorola
8X" chip that powers the lineup revealed decidedly average hardware.
Again, Andrew Cunningham took down the details in Motorola's "8-core"
X8 chip gives us a lesson in marketing-speak.

The deception made Doctor Hoot mad. "So your new 'flagship phone' has
a lower-resolution screen, a similar processor, and the same RAM as
the GSIII? Way to produce a flagship last year's flagship phone and
sell it for $199, Motorola. No wonder your market share is dropping."

ounkeo already hit the acceptance stage:

This is just the general problem with companies and manufacturers
in general. Nearly everyone inflates. The goal is to bedazzle ignorant
users. The fact that it works and you have users going on and on about
yet more pointless cores means it will continue to be done.

This has been happening in the PC market for a long time though
not quite as blatant as Motorola, Google, and Verizon. We had the
almighty Jiggahertz warz, the megapixie wars, the core warz. And
ignorant people lap it up.

Outside of Ars, pretty much any other blog comment section is
filled with "it doesnt haz 16corez...it is bad and useless."

Others joked about the offending 8 core chip. "Reminds me of the time
I went to a 'computer blowout' sale and saw vendors selling MP5, MP6,
and MP7 players," wrote RolandKSP.

And TerribleTony told us of his incredibly intriguing product: "I'm
working on a 36-core SoC design. 16 of the cores are 6510's, 10 ten
are Z80's, two are Hercules Graphics Adapters, two are FM synthesizers
I pulled off of old SoundBlaster Pro or Adlib cards (whatever I could
find at Goodwill), three are 8088s, and the remaining three are
actually people doing jobs it offloads to Amazon's Mechanical Turk."
Chrome...um...castic?

At Google's Wednesday event, a tiny little device called the
Chromecast. In her article, New "Chromecast," a $35 HDMI dongle to get
video streams to your TV, Casey Johnston took a look at Google's pitch
to get one of these things in every TV in every home. Ultimately, Ars
readers were enthusiastic, but some were skeptical that it would
really be a great at Google promised.

"Looks nifty, but no 5GHz Wi-Fi will be awful in any area with
congested 2.4GHz operation," Bob Loblaw posted. DOOManiac had another
idea: "I wish the thing had an IR port on it so you could
pause/play/rewind/ffwd using your remote instead of digging your
phone/tablet out again."

Ars of Ares thought the dongle's ultimate usefulness would come down to content:

I'm cautiously excited about this. I really dig connecting my PS3
to my phone via YouTube, so I'm fairly aware of the potential.

I do wonder about dev support though. It's great that they got
Netflix right out the gates, but that's kind of a given these days; I
already have five separate options to watch Netflix on one TV, how
many more do I need? HBO Go, on the other hand...

I hope they have some way of syncing the audio, but I sort of
doubt it. It would be awesome to have Google Music or Pandora playing
the same stream on multiple receivers and/or TVs throughout the
house—like the Nexus Q—but this little stick doesn't seem to be meant
for that. Hopeful, there...

They hit the pricing right out of the park. $35 is deep into
impulse territory!

outlaw2005 had no such reservations though. "I just ordered one for
each TV in the house. This is exactly what I was looking for."
You are where you eat

Towards the end of the week, Nathan Mattise brought us the story of a
programmer who kept being thwarted in his attempts to get a table at a
swanky San Francisco restaurant. To realize that fine dining dream,
the programmer built a bot to make online reservations—only to realize
that others were using superior bots for the same task. In Engineer
can't get decent dinner reservations, creates Urbanspoon-dominating
bot you can get the whole story of the eatery arms race.

psd sort of missed the point, but had a good DIY sentiment. "I'll tell
you where you can easily get a reservation—your own kitchen table!
Ditch the laziness, get off the keyboard and finally learn how to cook
gourmet meals for yourself! Start being self-sufficient for a change."

Happysin saw the future in this particular story: "This seems like the
natural beginning of agent-based life management. We've seen it in
Sci-Fi for years, but it would be great to tell your personal agent
that you want reservations as X place, and make sure to notify Y
person of the date when it's finalized. Then also manage things like
dentist and doctor scheduling, etc. Having an agent manage calendar
for things like that would be pretty great. You lose direct control
over parts of your schedule, but if it's set up properly, it shouldn't
be a problem."

But surely the restaurant would see something strange afoot. Right?
"'How come our only patrons are IT geeks?'" Stone joked as the
restaurant owners.

But FoneFreak spoke the voice of the common man (and woman): "I'll be
eating my Stouffer's Lean Cuisine and watching 'Rin-Tin-Tin' reruns on
antenna TV while these startup guys feast on braised peacock tongue
and in vivo monkey brains while they furiously blog about it in
real-time on invisible, holo-keyboards projected from a Google Glass
add-on dongle. *sigh*"
Copyright http://arstechnica.com

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Europe and China Agree to Settle Solar Panel Fight

BRUSSELS — The European Union's trade chief said on Saturday that a
deal had been reached with China to settle a dispute over exports of
low-cost solar panels that had threatened to set off a wider trade war
between two of the world's largest economies.
The settlement essentially involves setting a fairly high minimum
price for sales of Chinese-made solar panels in the European Union to
try to prevent them from undercutting European producers. Those
producers accused Chinese manufacturers of benefiting from enormous
loans from state-owned banks and other government assistance that
enabled them to charge prices that would otherwise be uneconomical.

"We have found an amicable solution that will result in a new
equilibrium on the European solar panel market at a sustainable price
level," Karel De Gucht, the European trade commissioner, said in a
statement.

The deal immediately met with ferocious criticism from the European
manufacturers that had filed the complaint, and it complicates a
similar dispute between the United States and China.

Mr. De Gucht's decision in June to carry out his threat to impose
tariffs on solar panels from China generated significant fears within
the union about retribution from China. Chancellor Angela Merkel of
Germany called for further negotiations to avoid harm to German
exporters. European importers of solar products from China also
opposed the tariffs.

At the time, Mr. De Gucht said he had been left with no choice but to
impose the tariffs since his investigators found a systematic effort
by Chinese companies to sell solar panels in Europe below the cost of
making them, a practice known as dumping.

On Saturday, officials at the European Commission said they could not
give details of the deal, including the price that Chinese exporters
would pay to sell their panels in Europe, until the arrangement had
been formally approved by the commission. But a European Union
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had not
yet been formally approved, said the two sides had agreed to a minimum
price of 0.56 euros per watt (74 cents), which would base any
potential surcharge on the amount of electricity generated by each
imported panel.

The European solar manufacturers who lobbied for tougher action
against the Chinese exporters on Saturday promised to sue over the
settlement.

The agreement "is contrary in every respect to European law," said
Milan Nitzschke, the president of EU ProSun, an industry group. A
minimum price of 0.55 to 0.57 euros was at the level of "the current
dumping price for Chinese modules," the group said in a statement.

The arrangement would cover exports from 90 of about 140 Chinese
exporters that were examined during the investigation, and that
represent 60 percent of the panels sold in Europe, the government
official said. Those 90 companies would no longer face tariffs that
were put in place in June. Chinese exporters that did not agree to the
terms will still face tariffs that are set to rise to 47.6 percent on
Aug. 6 from the current level of 11.8 percent, the official said.

The Chinese government hoped from the start of the trade case with the
European Union for a negotiated settlement instead of a legal battle.
This deal comes as a relief, said He Weiwen, the co-director of the
China-United States-European Union Study Center at the China
Association of International Trade in Beijing.

The European settlement with Beijing in some ways complicates a
similar dispute between the United States and China. The United States
Commerce Department imposed final anti-dumping and anti-subsidy
tariffs last spring on imports of solar panels from China. China
responded on July 18 that it was preparing to impose tariffs of more
than 50 percent on polysilicon, the main material for solar panels, on
imports from the United States and South Korea.

The United States began trying in early summer to arrange a
comprehensive deal among Beijing, Brussels and Washington that would
set new global trade arrangements for solar panels in exchange for the
removal of the American tariffs and the preliminary European tariffs.
But faced with a complex process in the United States for removing
tariffs once the Commerce Department has made them final, the European
Union pushed ahead with its own negotiations with China, a Senate aide
with detailed knowledge of the issue said on Friday.

"The administration has been doing the right thing on this, pushing
for talks and trying to get a joint settlement with Europe, but the
Europeans have not had the same attitude and instead are pursuing
talks with China independently of the U.S., which has stalled progress
on U.S.-China talks," said the aide, who spoke anonymously because of
the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative, which is part of
the White House, had no immediate response to the European deal, which
was announced shortly before dawn in Washington.

Solar panels represent more than 6 percent of China's exports to the
Continent, making them one of the largest Chinese exports to the
European Union. In 2011, Chinese exports of panels and their main
components to the European Union were worth about 21 billion euros or
$27.4 billion.

China grew from a tiny player in the global solar panel market five
years ago to the world's dominant producer now through a program of
enormous lending by state-owned banks and a wide variety of
manufacturing incentives by local and provincial governments. That has
allowed Chinese producers to drive down the price of panels by
three-quarters over the same period.

But Chinese manufacturers have expanded faster than the market, and
the largest of them now face severe financial difficulties.

James Kanter reported from Brussels and Keith Bradsher from Hong Kong.
Copyright http://www.nytimes.com/

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Google Asks Glass Developers To Start Working On Android-Based Apps Ahead Of Glass Development Kit Launch

It looks like Google is about to unleash a new wave of more powerful
applications for Google Glass. Currently, Glass developers can only
build apps that are essentially web-based services that talk to the
user's hardware through a set of relatively limited APIs. At its I/O
developer conference earlier this year, Google announced that it would
soon release its so-called Glass Development Kit (GDK), which would
let them build Android-based apps for Glass that can run directly on
the device.

So far, however, Google hasn't launched the GDK. Instead, Google today
encouraged developers who are waiting for the GDK to start working on
Android apps for Glass using the standard Android SDK (API Level 15)
to try out their ideas.

As Google notes, developers can use the SDK to access low-level
hardware to render OpenGL and use stock Android UI widgets, for
example. Developers can also access the accelerometer of Glass through
the SDK.

Glass, after all, runs Android 4.0.4, so it's a pretty well-known
platform for many developers. To help newcomers get started, though,
the company also released a number of sample apps (a stopwatch,
compass and level) today that highlight some of the things developers
can do with Android on Glass. Over the next few weeks, Glass team
member Alain Vongsouvanh writes on Google+ today, the team will also
use these sample apps to "demonstrate the migration path between a
traditional Android app and a full Glass experience."

For Glass to reach its full potential, developers need better access
to the device's hardware, so it's nice to see Google moving ahead with
this. It's still a bit of a surprise that Google hasn't released the
GDK yet. And the fact that it made today's announcement indicates that
it could still be a few weeks out. If you're a Glass developer,
though, now is probably a good time to start thinking about how you
would use Android on Glass.
Copyright Contains http://techcrunch.com/

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-Singer-songwriter JJ Cale dead at 74 after heart attack

Grammy award winning singer and songwriter JJ Cale, one of the most
versatile musicians of his era who played everything from rock and
roll to blues and jazz, has died after suffering a heart attack, his
official website said on Saturday.

Cale, who was 74, won a Grammy award in 2008 for "The Road to
Escondido," which he recorded with singer-songwriter Eric Clapton.


Born in Oklahoma City, Cale migrated to Los Angeles in the 1960s and
flourished. Rock legend Neil Young once described Cale as the best
electric guitar player he had ever seen other than the late Jimmy
Hendrix.

Cale's official website said he died on Friday night at Scripps
Hospital in La Jolla, California. There were no immediate plans for
memorial services, the website said.
Copyright Contains http://www.reuters.com/
(Reporting by Greg McCune; Editing by Vicki Allen)

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Apple Developer site hack: doubts cast on Turkish hacker's claims

A Guardian investigation has cast doubt on claims by a UK-based
Turkish researcher that he hacked into Apple's Developer portal, which
has been offline for more than a week.

Ibrahim Balic, who describes himself as a security consultant, claimed
on Sunday that he had discovered a number of weaknesses in the site at
developer.apple.com which allowed him to grab email addresses of
registered developers.

Apple took its developer portal offline on Thursday 18 July. On Sunday
it emailed developers warning that the site had been hacked and that
some of their details might have been stolen. It has not given any
more details of how the hack was carried out.

In all, Balic said he had been able to grab the details of 100,000
people registered on the site, and that he included 73 of them in a
bug report to Apple. He claimed that he exploited a cross-site
scripting (XSS) bug in the site, and noted 13 issues in a bug report
to Apple between 16 and 20 July.

However XSS attacks generally require the attacker — which in this
case would be Balic — to "infect" a page, in this case Apple's, with a
malicious piece of Javascript or HTML which would then be used to
extract data from a visiting user. If Balic's claim is correct, he
seems to have used the XSS exploits against his own system.

Balic offered to provide proof of his hack by sharing some details of
the file with the Guardian, and provided the emails for 19 people; the
Guardian also extracted another 10 from an email Balic put on YouTube
in which he apparently showed how he hacked the site. (He has since
made the video private.)

But attempts by the Guardian two days ago to contact 29 of the group
whose details Balic claims to have acquired found that seven of the
emails bounced — because the email is no longer operational — and not
a single one of the others has responded to a request to say whether
they are registered with Apple. Nor could any of the emails or names
be discovered online — which would be unusual for any active
developer.

Many of the emails also belong to defunct services such as Freeserve,
Demon and SBC Global — which makes it unlikely that they would have
signed up as developers, as that only became possible in 2008.

Graham Cluley, an independent security consultant, commented: "Many of
the names and email addresses either don't look like they would belong
to Apple developers, or appear to have left no footprints anywhere
else on the net." Of the set of 10 emails which appeared in the video,
he said: "It's almost as though these are long-discarded ghost email
addresses from years ago or have been used by Balic in his video for
reasons best known to himself."

Balic told iMore that the user information that he showed in a video
came not from an exploit against a developer portal, but from Apple's
iAd Workbench, for targeting advertising campaigns to users. He said
that a malformed web request to those servers containing just a first
name or last name meant he could get more data — including a full
name, username and email address for those users.

He then said that he wrote a script that generated "random" users to
get more account information wherever there was a match of some sort,
and used that to acquire the user details.

Balic did not respond to a request by the Guardian to explain why the
emails he had apparently collected were defunct or apparently
inoperational.

Apple refused to comment on the method used to hack into its site. It
would not comment on whether it has called in law enforcement over the
hack, or whether it has identified any suspects.

Even if the hack was not carried out by Balic, Apple has still been
the target of a significant attack. However, standard iTunes Store and
App Store accounts belonging to non-developers have not been affected.

The increasing delay in bringing its developer portal back online may
also create problems for Apple in its preparation for the launch of
iOS 7, the updated version of its iPhone and iPad software. It
released the third beta for the software on 8 July, and has generally
aimed for a fortnightly cycle of releases. That would imply that the
fourth beta should have been released last Monday 22 July – although a
year ago there was a three-week delay, from 16 July to 6 August,
between the releases of the third and fourth betas for iOS 6, the
current iPhone software.

The company meanwhile has set up a new "system status" page, which on
Friday morning showed that only two of its 15 developer systems — for
updating apps, and reporting bugs — are online.
Copyright http://www.guardian.co.uk/

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T-Mobile Announces “Unprecedented Deal” This Summer With Zero Dollars Down For All Devices

Hello back-to-school special offer from T-Mobile as the company announces an "unparalleled promotion" this summer as it drops the down payment price on its entire lineup of devices in stores nationwide to zero down.

This promotion allows both new and existing well-qualified customers to get the latest 4G LTE smartphones, tablets, mobile hotspots and feature phones at the upfront price of $0 down with monthly device payments. Still, there's a bit of a catch as T-Mobile has bumped up the price of the monthly payments to offset the lack of a down payment. So, it's a promotion and the idea of no down payment might entice the masses, but the warning is the increased monthly payment. For example, the iPhone 5 now sells for $145.99 down with 24 monthly payments of $21. With T-Mobile's promotion beginning tomorrow, the iPhone 5 will be zero down and $27 per month for 24 months. That's $144 thanks to the extra $6 per month which all but makes up for down payment T-Mobile isn't asking for with this promotion. It's funky math, but a promotion nonetheless. There's still some savings on devices like the HTC One, but by and large the savings aren't as "unprecedented" as T-Mobile would have us believe.

This limited time promotion begins tomorrow, July 27th and can be paired with company's newest offering: JUMP! (not required) for any customers wishing go to that route. T-Mobile's JUMP! upgrade program allows customers to upgrade their next device up to twice a year as soon as six months from enrollment.

    "The number of reasons not to switch to T-Mobile this summer is ZERO," said John Legere, president and chief executive officer, T-Mobile US. "This is a fantastic offer and we're making it easier than ever for customers to get the latest amazing devices. Adding Zero Down in addition to JUMP!, and Simple Choice with no contract is all about making wireless work for consumers and shaking up this industry."

The full press release follows below as well as a quick run-down on some of the smartphones and tablets being offered with this special promotion.

Screen Shot 2013-07-26 at 9.23.25 AM

Press Release:

    T-Mobile Promotes Unprecedented Deal This Summer – Zero Dollars Down for All Devices

    America's Un-carrier offers the ultimate promotion with the lowest upfront price on devices

    BELLEVUE, Wash. — July 26, 2013 — In time for back-to-school, T-Mobile US, Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) will drive an unparalleled promotion this summer, dropping the upfront price on its entire lineup of devices in stores nationwide to zero dollars down. With this promotion, new and existing well-qualified consumers and small business customers will get affordable and hassle-free access to the latest 4G LTE smartphones, tablets, mobile hotspots and feature phones at the upfront price of $0 down with monthly device payments[1].

    This limited-time promotion is available starting tomorrow, July 27, 2013. In addition to the promotion, customers also cantake advantage of T-Mobile's groundbreaking upgrade program, JUMP!™, which enables them to sign up to upgrade their phones when they want, up to twice a year as soon as six months from enrollment.

    "The number of reasons not to switch to T-Mobile this summer is ZERO," said John Legere, president and chief executive officer, T-Mobile US. "This is a fantastic offer and we're making it easier than ever for customers to get the latest amazing devices. Adding Zero Down in addition to JUMP!, and Simple Choice with no contract is all about making wireless work for consumers and shaking up this industry."

    The hottest devices of the summer at the lowest upfront cost combined with T-Mobile's Simple Choice Plan, unlimited data on a nationwide 4G network and no annual service contracts gives customers an opportunity that's tough to beat. The promotion will be available nationwide at participating T-Mobile retail stores, via customer care, and online at http://www.T-Mobile.com. A selection of the devices included in the promotion is as follows:

    Screen Shot 2013-07-26 at 9.23.25 AM

    

    JUMP!
    JUMP!, only from T-Mobile, offers customers the freedom to upgrade to a new device more frequently and affordably, and it includes handset protection that helps to protect against malfunction, damage, loss or theft – all for just $10 per month, per phone (plus taxes and fees). Customers can upgrade to a new phone, financed through T-Mobile's Equipment Installment Program (EIP), twice every 12 months after they've been in the JUMP! program for six months.[3] Simply trade in an eligible T-Mobile phone in good working condition at a participating store location. Any remaining EIP payments will be eliminated, and current customers can purchase new phones for the same upfront pricing as new customers, with device financing3 and a no-annual-service contract Simple Choice Plan.

    Simple Choice Plan

    T-Mobile's Simple Choice and Simple Choice for Business Plan start with a base rate of $50 per month for unlimited talk, text and Web with 500MB of high-speed data. Customers can get 2.5GB of high-speed data for $10 more per month per line or unlimited data for an additional $20 per month per line. Customers can add a second phone line for $30 per month, and each additional line is just $10 per month. There are no caps and no overages on T-Mobile's network, and no restrictive annual service contracts.

    When small business customers activate a new line or renew an existing line of service with a Simple Choice for Business plan (min. 500 MB data required), they can access T-Mobile's Business Extras bundle for added value. Business Extras customers with capable devices may opt into a free year of 24/7 remote IT support from a well-recognized, third-party service provider and a year of T-Mobile North American Flat-rate Data feature, allowing free monthly access to up to 150MB of overage-free, high-speed data across North America, including Canada and Mexico on our partner networks.[4] Other benefits include two free paper-to-mobile form conversions, waived activation fees, Business Care support, Wi-Fi Calling on enabled devices, and free Smartphone Mobile Hotspot on select rate plans.

    T-Mobile's 4G LTE Network
    T-Mobile's 4G LTE network now reaches more than 157 million people across the United States and is live in 116 metropolitan areas. T-Mobile remains on target to deliver nationwide 4G LTE coverage by the end of the year, reaching 200 million people in more than 200 metropolitan areas. In addition, T-Mobile's 4G HSPA+ service is available to 228 million people nationwide. By combining 4G HSPA+ and LTE network technologies, T-Mobile can provide customers with a strong, seamless nationwide 4G network experience[5].

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