Apple Faces Lawsuit Over App Purchases, 'Child Exploitation'

A lawsuit filed against Apple alleges that the company does not do enough to prevent unauthorized purchases of applications by children and claims such lack of action makes for "unlawful exploitation" of children.

The lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit is Garen Meguerian of Phoenixville, Penn., who says application purchasing policies not only exploit children, but parents' wallets, allowing the company to rake in millions of dollars in extra gains.

Megurian claims the current policy allows children to makes purchases on their parents' accounts without permission. Now he's suing Apple for a number of things, including unjust enrichment and breach of contract.

This isn't the first time someone has raised an eyebrow about Apple's purchasing policy. Congress began pressuring the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the policy last year after a story was released about an 8-year-old girl who purchased $1,400 in applications.

FBI shuts down Internet poker sites

Reporting from New York and Los Angeles—

A thriving online poker industry catering to Americans but operating from abroad to evade U.S. gambling laws could be wiped out by criminal charges against top executives in the business.

Eleven people, including the founders of the three largest poker sites open to U.S. players, were charged by a federal grand jury with bank fraud, money laundering and violating gambling laws. The government also is seeking to recover $3 billion from the companies.

The FBI had shut down two of the sites, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, by Friday evening and were working to do the same with the third, Absolute Poker. Online visitors were greeted with a message saying, "This domain name has been seized by the F.B.I. pursuant to an Arrest Warrant," and an enumeration of federal anti-gambling statutes and penalties.

An estimated 8 million to 10 million Americans play poker online for money; thousands of them earn their living on the sites, according to a players advocacy group.

Congress tried to shut down the industry by enacting an anti-gambling law in 2006, but most sites found ways to work around the vaguely worded measure. Since then other members of Congress have proposed bills to legalize Internet gambling, but they have failed to reach a floor of either chamber.

In the community of players, news of the indictments unsealed Friday in federal court in Manhattan landed like a bombshell.

"Everyone's in panic," said David Tuthill, a 22-year-old in Las Vegas who makes his living playing online and in casinos. "Everyone sort of knew in the back of their minds that a day like this was possible — and maybe even inevitable — but it's really just shocking now that it's here."

Two of the 11 defendants were arrested Friday morning in Utah and Nevada. Federal agents were said to be working with Interpol to capture defendants located overseas.

None of the companies responded to requests for comment.

Prosecutors alleged that after the 2006 law was passed the sites disguised deposits from their customers by describing them as payments to fictional online merchants.

After banks started to crack down on this practice, some of the companies turned to other institutions, including small, struggling American banks, to process payments, the indictment says.

"These defendants concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits," Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement.

The 2006 law did not directly outlaw online poker sites, but instead barred businesses from taking payments for "unlawful" online gambling, leaving the definition of what is unlawful to others.

After the law was passed, the largest site used by American players, PartyPoker.com, shut down its U.S. operations. But other companies thought they would be able to navigate the law by arguing, among other things, that poker is a game of skill and consequently could not be categorized as gambling.

There also was a widespread belief that by moving operations outside the United States, they would escape the eye of American authorities.

Full Tilt Poker, which was founded in Los Angeles, moved to Ireland after the law was passed.

"They thought — and for five years they were right — that no one would go to the trouble of going overseas to try to bring them back to this country," said Chuck Humphrey, a Colorado lawyer specializing in online gambling.

PokerStars, the largest of the three companies, is located in Britain's Isle of Man. Humphrey, who has done legal work for PokerStars, estimated that the company makes $500 million a year from its American customers. Absolute Poker, the smallest of the three, is based in Costa Rica.

In March, Wynn Resorts and Caesars Entertainment made moves into the online poker space, with Wynn pairing up with PokerStars to back federal legislation to regulate and tax online gambling. Last month, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Rep. John Campbell (R-Irvine) introduced a new attempt at federal regulation of online gaming.

A number of states also have taken up the issue and last year a ban on Internet poker in the state of Washington was upheld by courts.

I. Nelson Rose, a Whittier Law School professor and expert in gambling law, said states have been struggling to reconcile the legal gambling that is available at casinos in many states with the illegality of gambling online.

"Gambling has become a part of everyday life," Rose said. "Nearly every state has commercial gambling, most have casinos and nearly all have lotteries. But the laws are trailing behind."

Anthony Cabot, a Las Vegas lawyer who works with online gambling sites, said that the companies are likely to aggressively fight the charges on many of the same grounds that they have been fighting in state courts.

"This is the opening shot — but I think they without exception have their legal arguments in hand," Cabot said. "This is really just an opportunity to finally vet the question as to whether their operations have been compliant."

For the millions of poker players, the most immediate concern has been what will happen with all the millions of dollars they have in their online accounts — and the time they spent playing online.

"Now, I'll be playing more darts, I guess," said Scott Harker, 43, a technical writer in Ohio who has been playing since the late 1990s.

"It's really sad to see it go," he said. "But I think it'll come back eventually."

Apple releases IOS 4.3.2 to fix Comodo SSL breach

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Apple has released IOS 4.3.2 for the Iphone 3GS, Iphone 4, Ipads and third and fourth generation Ipod Touch devices.

Apple made a number of fixes with IOS 4.3.2 including fixing blank or frozen Facetime calls and international 3G connections on the Ipad, but most of the update addresses security issues. Top of Apple's list was to issue a fix that mitigates the Comodo SSL vulnerability that occurred last month.

One of Comodo's affiliate registration authorities was compromised, resulting in the fraudulent issuance of SSL certificates. Apple's IOS 4.3.2 blacklists those certificates that were fraudently issued. A similar security update for Mac OS X users was also released by Apple at the same time.

Apple issued two updates to Webkit, the rendering engine behind its Safari web browser, to stop hackers from running code if the user visits a maliciously crafted website. A similar security hole has been patched in the libxslt library and an update to Quicklook will protect against dodgy Microsoft Office files that might try to use the software to execute code without the user's knowledge.

At this point Apple has yet to release IOS 4.3.2 for its CDMA Iphone 4, but it will be surprising if Apple waits too long to issue some sort of update to at least blacklist dodgy Comodo SSL certificates.

Although the list of features and fixes might sound a tad sparse, Apple's IOS 4.3.2 weighs in at 666MB, so the devil must be in the details.

Apple poaches Microsoft cloud computing guru

Macworld UK - Apple is planning to expand its data center infrastructure and has poached a leading Microsoft executive to help it achieve this aim, according to reports.

According to the Data Center Knowledge website, Kevin Timmons - previously Microsoft's general manager of Datacenter Services - will take up a leadership position at Apple in the coming weeks.

Microsoft has confirmed Timmons' departure from the company, saying he "has decided to pursue other career opportunities and is no longer working at Microsoft".

Microsoft did not specifically mention what these "career opportunities" entailed. But Dave Ohara, who has worked in data centers at Apple and Microsoft, stated that Timmons was going to move to Microsoft.

However, Ohara said that Timmons was not going to replace the late Oliver Sanche, who was Apple's top data center executive but died suddenly last year.

Though it is unclear what position Timmons will take at Apple if the reports are correct, speculation about Apple's cloud computing plans is already in full swing. Last week Macworld reported that Apple had bought up 12 petabytes of storage from Isilon Systems.

According to an insider at Isilon, Apple plans to use this storage space to manage the video downloads of its iTunes customers. This is not the first time that Apple's ambitions to move into the video-streaming space have been rumoured - last month a Morgan Stanley analyst claimed that the company was working on a Smart TV prototype.

Data Center Knowledge also points out that Apple is planning to build more data centers in Europe and the U.S. Timmons has experience building data centers in Chicago and Dublin for Microsoft, reportedly delivering the projects on time and on budget.

Lebanon - Tripoli - Golden

This is a old gold street having thousand years of history, do not look casually hung windows, that are all genuine hard currency - gold, you walk into a store, the clerk will give you a small tray which like a domestic bakery, and then you have to do is take down your favorite ornaments on his tray, over the last election, said the pay is the weight on the electronic, haha, Chinese seems to be calculated on the g In my view that the Arab women with a black veil that buy up only by the number of pounds to calculate it!

Official Biography of Steve Jobs to Be Available in 2012

Soon we will be able to know more about the biography of Steve Jobs. It turned out that his official biography will be published in early 2012.

The book has the title of iSteve: The Book of Jobs. It is written by Walter Isaacson, who is known to be famous biographer as well as the managing editor of Times and former CEO of CNN. Although we do not know much about the book’s contents, Isaacson managed to get access to the family of Steve Jobs, Apple as well as Steve Jobs, himself. The book will be published as well as distributed by Simon & Schuster.

It will be the fourth biography of Isaacson, which follows Einstein: His Life and Universe, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, as well as A Biography.

No doubts it will be a landmark books about the greatest innovators of the world. Like with Benjamin Franklin as well as Einstein, Walter Isaacson is revealing a story about revolutionary genius.

Steve Jobs is very secretive especially when it comes to his personal life. But still some of the details about his past were disclosed in unauthorized biographies, like The Second Coming of Steve Jobs as well as iCon: Steve Jobs. But both failed to paint a complete picture. It is hoped that we will be able to get concrete answers to questions that remained unresolved about the life of Steve Jobs. Moreover, it is hoped that we will get even new insights into how the Apple’s CEO runs such a valuable technology company.

How to Pan-Roast Garlic

Pan-roasting garlic can be accomplished using crushed garlic or garlic cloves, depending on your taste preference and how quickly you want the garlic to cook. Crushed garlic can take about 20 minutes to roast on a stove top, while garlic cloves will cook in about five; however, the cloves will also be boiled and softened before going into the pan. While the crushed garlic recipe can be used as a base for a dressing, the clove recipe can be served alongside main dishes and as a spread.

Instructions

things you'll need:

• 10 garlic cloves or 4 whole garlic bulbs
• Garlic press
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  

Pan-Roasted Crushed Garlic

• Peel and crush 10 garlic cloves using a garlic press. Remove any stray bits of skin and manually chop any large clumps of garlic.
• Put the crushed garlic into a small skillet. Add 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil, stirring to make sure the ingredients are well mixed.
• Cook the mixture over low heat for about 20 minutes. Keep close watch over the garlic and stir frequently, as cooking times vary. The garlic is caramelized when it is browned and soft.

Pan-Roasted Garlic Cloves

• Remove the garlic cloves from the 4 garlic bulbs. Do not peel. Place in a large saucepan with 6 cups of water.
• Place the saucepan on a burner set to high heat. Bring the water to boiling. Reduce the heat to low and cover the saucepan. Simmer until the garlic cloves are tender, approximately 15 minutes.
• Drain the water from the saucepan. Rinse the garlic with cold water and drain again.
• Peel the garlic cloves. Combine them with the vegetable oil, sugar and salt in a large skillet over medium high heat until glazed and golden brown, about five minutes.