Vodafone’s letting some customers escape contracts, but it doesn’t have to
Vodafone’s introducing changes to out-of-plan charges this August, and it’s giving customers who could be particularly affected by new pricing an opportunity to ditch their contract without penalty. The carrier’s revised pricing model is pretty simple: come August 10th, every multimedia text you send and every minute you’re on the phone beyond your monthly allowance will add 45p to your bill. In some use cases, like video calling a friend on a rival network, the new flat rate will be cheaper; but, in several more instances, 45p is higher than the charge currently in place. For most customers, the changes are likely to go unnoticed, but in a strangely altruistic move, Vodafone is reaching out to those at risk of being negatively affected and giving them the option to exit their contract, no questions asked.
We say altruistic because Vodafone is under no obligation to offer customers this out, since the changes to out-of-plan charges aren’t the concern of telecoms regulator Ofcom. As you may be aware, Ofcom introduced rules last year that meant customers on any mobile network could bail on their contract scot-free if the monthly cost of that agreement was increased during its term. Vodafone has to obey those regulations, of course, but it’s also the only major carrier in the UK that doesn’t include an inflation clause in its contracts. An acceptable caveat under Ofcom’s rules, the inflation clause allows pricing to rise mid-contract, but only once a year in line with the Retail Price Index (currently 0.9%).
As part of its “fixed-price promise,” Vodafone has decided to take the spirit of Ofcom’s regulations and extend it those who’ll be most impacted by the impending changes to out-of-tariff charges. The provider is looking at the last three months of activity on every customer’s account, and essentially recalculating their bills as if the new pricing for over-allowance charges was already in effect. All customers with revised bills that would see them out of pocket by more than the Retail Price Index are being contacted by SMS and informed that since their usage history puts them at risk of higher bills, Vodafone’s giving them until July 28th to walk away from their contract.
All credit to Vodafone here, because while the move might inspire brand loyalty, it doesn’t make much business sense. Not only is Vodafone passing up free money by letting customers who regularly exceed their allowances leave, but the option is also open to abuse. For example, let’s say you’re four months into a new, £50-plus per month iPhone 6 contract and Vodafone profiles you as an at-risk customer. Well, you can jump ship, handset and all, with no repercussions. Vodafone hopes the people it’s reaching out to won’t dump their contracts, of course, because a smaller subscriber base is the last thing you need when you’ve just launched a new broadband offering for existing customers.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
Via: The Register
Source: Vodafone
Hackers used Google Drive to attack Tibetans
Tibetans and pro-democracy activists in China are often the victims of cyberattacks, but a public campaign to educate people against blindly opening email attachments has been a big success. Unfortunately, as Motherboard reports, this has had the knock-on effect of forcing hackers into being a lot smarter with their subterfuge. Since would-be victims are now wary of opening attachments, nefarious types are now using Google Drive as a trojan horse with which to breach targeted systems.
The research was carried out by CitizenLab, the University of Toronto’s research group that studies the intersection of human rights and digital communications. As it lays out in this blog post, the scam works like this: a hacker sets up an email address that’s similar to a legitimate advocacy group, like the International Tibet Network. They even go so far as to include the mundanities of the ITN’s postal address in the signature to ensure it looks legitimate.
Then, they’ll send the victim a message containing a PowerPoint deck that, on the surface, pretends to be displaying useful information that’s been stored on Google Drive. In fact, the Lab believes that the documents are “repurposing material from legitimate presentations” to better dupe users. Since .PPS files aren’t displayed properly on Google Drive, users would then be tempted to download the file that otherwise appears genuine.
Hidden inside the file is a vulnerability codenamed CVE-2014-4114 which has been found in all versions of Windows since Vista. Unfortunately, the Lab has found that the weakness has a very low detection rate, so your antivirus system isn’t going to catch it should you mistakenly click the link.
CitizenLab can’t speak with any authority as to who could possibly want to disrupt and attack Tibetan and pro-Democracy activists in China, but we can probably all guess. The report does, however, point to an AlienVault study that suggests that the creator of the strain of malware used in the attacks works for a Chinese security firm. The piece concludes that this shift in tactics is concerning since the methods are getting more sophisticated in the face of public education campaigns, but hey – at least it shows that the project is working.
[Image Credit: Getty]
Filed under: Internet
Via: Motherboard
Source: CitizenLab
Stephen Elop out at Microsoft as it merges OS and device teams
Stephen Elop, the former Nokia CEO who helped engineer Microsoft’s acquisition of that company’s mobile arm, will soon be leaving Microsoft. The software giant announced a management restructuring this morning which lists Elop as one of three executives who will be out the door after a “designated transition period.” At Microsoft Elop served as the executive vice president of the Devices and Services group, but now operating system head Terry Myerson will be leading that division as part of a new Windows and Devices Group. The company says it’ll be “focused on enabling more personal computing experiences powered by the Windows ecosystem.” It makes sense for Microsoft to unite its OS and devices teams, especially since the company is banking on Windows 10 being a platform for just about every device. While Elop talked big once he rejoined Microsoft, Windows Phone is still a struggling platform that’s mainly thriving in the low-end arena. Perhaps with new management, Microsoft can figure out a way to make more people pay attention to its mobile offerings.
[Photo credit: Pau Barrena/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Filed under: Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
The new ‘Metroid Prime’ is made for the New 3DS
It’s been eight years coming, but Nintendo has a new Metroid Prime game. However, it’s a little bit unusual — at least that’s what a lot of people (including us) took away from the teaser trailer revealed during E3. The controls look pretty “Metroid”, but where’s Samus? Why are there multiple (albeit color-coded) stocky protagonists? And what the exactly is Metroid Prime: Blast Ball? Armed with questions, 20 minutes playtime on the aforementioned sporting spin on Metroid, we talked (with some translation help) to Nintendo’s Kensuke Tanabe, who heads up development on the Prime series.
What is Metroid Prime: Federation Force?
Kensuke Tanabe: The last game in the Prime series was in 2007. It’s been a while. When I heard about the New 3DS, with the C-stick, it would be ideal for a shooter. I thought: “It’d be great to have a Prime title to launch alongside the new hardware.” In Metroid Prime 2, we included multiplayer, but here we wanted to focus on the co-op aspect. But then, if we have four “Samuses”, that would be odd. And that’s where the Galactic Federation came in. Controlling the game, and in terms of how it feels, it feels like a Metroid Prime game.
“We tried to create a balance with these load-outs that would decide your role in a squad, similar to a role-playing game, with wizards, warriors and healer”
However this time there’s a “load-out” system: players start with a basic mech [the controllable robot suit in Federation Force] But before a mission starts, you can choose what weapons to load into it. There are certain powerful weapons you can bring, like a “super missile” which comes with a heavy weight penalty. We tried to create a balance with these load-outs that would decide your role in a squad, similar to a role-playing game, with wizards, warriors and healers. [As you play, you can collect] mods for these mechs. Even if you fail in a mission, you’ll receive some of these upgrades.
That makes the game sound easier, or at least pretty forgiving. Is aimed towards younger players?
KT: It’s not that we’re directly aiming at a younger audience. In Japan, first-person shooters lack the popularity of other regions. That’s where Blast Ball comes into it… reducing the skill barrier to get into the game for beginners or gamers not typically interested in first-person shooters. That said, the main story will certainly not feel easy!
So it’s not two games?
KT: Federation Force is the focus of the game, while Blast Ball forms a part of the Federation’s the training. Instead of complicated tutorials, it’s an enjoyable way to teach the controls, how to play the main game and to generally improve the skills of beginners.
“If I’m honest, we did look into a Wii U version”
A lot of fans may have been hoping for a Wii U version. Why did it come to the 3DS?
KT: The idea to develop a new Metroid Prime title came along with the New 3DS, with controls suited to the title. Ideally, the plan was for the game to arrive alongside the hardware but, well, it’s a little late! If I’m honest, we did look into a Wii U version. However, we had to consider the resources it would take, what teams to devote for a Wii U game. [It’s worth noting that Nintendo tasked developers Next Level to make the game. The team’s previously worked on both Mario Strikers and Punch-Out!!]
The character design and atmosphere of the trailer seems a little bit different to prior Prime games. What happened?
As far as character design goes, the 3DS screens are relatively small. This means there’s limitations to where cameras can be placed. A tall character or enemy could be difficult to be display, while a stockier character, like the mech, fits the hardware and fits the game better. It makes it better to play. I’ll admit, I thought at the start that it might lose the seriousness of the Metroid Prime series and become a little comical, but once I played it, I believe it delivers on the feel of the other game.
Why hasn’t there been a co-op mode until now?
KT: We tried to fit a multiplayer Metroid game into the DSi, but the power of system was lacking – it didn’t quite work as expected. But with the 3DS we had the power to make that capable.
Is there a specific part of Metroid Prime: Federation Force that you love?
KT: I love all of it! But compared to prior games where you played alone, now you’re fighting alongside others. That offers a different kind of sensation. I’m looking forward to people enjoying Metroid this way. (Oh and of course, you can still play it alone.)
Is there any co-op modes in any other games you’ve particularly enjoyed?
KT: To be honest, while I’m a game maker, I don’t play games that much. I don’t know that many games. Who knows, maybe there are some concepts that overlap. [There’s a pause in conversation] Ah! But there is one thing: I love Splatoon. Now that’s interesting. Even mid-development, it was already fun. The artwork, music, it doesn’t even feel that much like a Nintendo game. My three daughters all take turns playing it all the time.
This interview has been translated, condensed and edited.
The NHS wants to give wearables to hospital patients
To cut costs and improve patient care, the NHS is looking to technology more than ever before. Under its latest proposals, Britain’s healthcare service wants to introduce free wi-fi across all of its hospitals, giving doctors and nurses the ability to use tablets on the wards. The hope is that this will reduce paper waste and speed up administrative tasks, giving staff some extra time to visit their patients. It also opens up the possibility for patients to wear wearables, such as skin sensors. Patients with diabetes, for instance, could then be monitored around the clock to help doctors spot early signs of deterioration.
Last November, the NHS promised to give Brits online access to their GP records by 2015. The roll-out is now underway and today, the NHS is committing to an expansion that will add records held by hospitals, community, mental health and social care services by 2018. NHS England’s National Director for Patients and Information, Tim Kelsey, promises that “soon” every citizen will also be able to register for a GP, book appointments and order prescriptions through nhs.uk. In addition, the NHS wants doctors and nurses to have digital access to critical medical information anywhere in England by 2018. The scheme would then be expanded to include information from all NHS funded services by 2020.
If nothing else, these proposals represent a shift in how the NHS wants to operate. It’s not known for its speedy adoption of new technologies, but upper management seems to have realised that to keep services running smoothly, the NHS needs to change its tune.
[Image Credit: JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images]
Filed under: Wearables
Via: Wareable
Source: NHS
iOS and OS X Security Flaws Enable Malicious Apps to Steal Passwords and Other Data
A team of six researchers from Indiana University, Georgia Tech and Peking University have published an in-depth report exposing a series of security vulnerabilities that enable sandboxed malicious apps, approved on the App Store, to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data stored in other apps, including iCloud passwords and authentication tokens, Google Chrome saved web passwords and more.
The thirteen-page research paper “Unauthorized Cross-App Resource Access on Mac OS X and iOS” details that inter-app interaction services, ranging from the Keychain and WebSocket on OS X to the URL Scheme on OS X and iOS, can be exploited to steal confidential information and passwords, including those stored in popular password vaults such as 1Password by AgileBits.
“We completely cracked the keychain service – used to store passwords and other credentials for different Apple apps – and sandbox containers on OS X, and also identified new weaknesses within the inter-app communication mechanisms on OS X and iOS which can be used to steal confidential data from Evernote, Facebook and other high-profile apps.”
The different cross-app and communication mechanism vulnerabilities discovered on iOS and OS X, identified as XARA weaknesses, include Keychain password stealing, IPC interception, scheme hijacking and container cracking. The affected apps and services include iCloud, Gmail, Google Drive, Facebook, Twitter, Chrome, 1Password, Evernote, Pushbullet, Dropbox, Instagram, WhatsApp, Pinterest, Dashlane, AnyDo, Pocket and several others.
Lead researcher Luyi Xing told The Register that he reported the security flaws to Apple in October 2014 and complied with the iPhone maker’s request to withhold publishing the information for six months, but has not heard back from the company since and is now exposing the zero-day vulnerabilities to the public. The flaws affect thousands of OS X apps and hundreds of iOS apps and can now be weaponized by attackers.
Apple Maps Vehicles Begin Surveying England, Coming to New Orleans Next Month
Apple’s fleet of vehicles collecting street-level mapping data has arrived in the United Kingdom as planned, with the first verified sighting in Solihull, England, approximately two hours northwest of London. While camera-equipped fifth-generation Dodge Caravans have been used to collect mapping data in the United States, Apple appears to be using second-generation Mercedes-Benz Vito vans in Europe.
Apple Maps van driving in Solihull, England in June 2015
Apple confirmed earlier this month that it is driving vehicles around the world to collect data to improve Apple Maps, and the mapping imagery is almost certainly being used to create a Google Maps “Street View” competitor. Apple Maps vehicles are also taking photos of businesses and storefronts in major metropolitan areas to replace current imagery provided by third-party sources such as Yelp.
The cities and regions where Apple Maps vehicles will be driving in England through July:
East of England
Essex (Brentwood, Epping Forest), Hertfordshire (Broxbourne, Dacorum, Hertsmere, St Albans, Three Rivers, Watford, Welwyn Hatfield)
Greater London
Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, City of London, City of Westminster, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, WandsworthSouth East
Kent (Dartford, Sevenoaks), Surrey (Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Spelthorne)West Midlands
Birmingham (Sutton Coldfield, Perry Barr, Erdington, Ladywood, Hodge Hill, Yardley, Edgbaston, Hall Green, Selly Oak, Northfield), Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Staffordshire, Walsall, Warwickshire, Worcestershire
Apple has also updated its Apple Maps vehicles website with a new list of locations where it will be collecting data between July 1 to July 14, with notable additions including New Orleans and unmapped areas in Santa Clara County. Apple may also be at least temporarily finished collecting data in multiple states it has canvassed over the past several months, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Hawaii.
(Thanks, Stephen!)
TWC is threatened with the first Net Neutrality lawsuit
It’s been less than a week since the net neutrality rules came into force, but they’re already being used to slap the ISP that everybody loves to hate. According to the Washington Post, Commercial Network Services is about to file a complaint against Time Warner Cable for holding its video traffic to ransom. CNS runs SunDiegoLive, a site hosing webcam streams across San Diego, which is popular with the military crowd whenever a US Navy vessel comes into port. As far as CNS is concerned, TWC has been charging unreasonably high rates to let these videos get through the internet without being throttled into dust.
It’s believed that the complaint, which will be submitted to the FCC in the near future, will ask the commission to decide if TWC is right to charge CNS for access. For its part, the internet provider says that it’s happy to share and swap traffic for other ISPs, provided that they reciprocate with similar “free peering” on their end. CNS, on the other hand, is described as an “edge provider” that isn’t entitled to the same sort of connection goodies that the big boys get. There’s no way to tell how the FCC is likely to rule, but given Time Warner’s horrible reputation, we’re fairly sure we know where most people’s sympathies lie.
[Image Credit: Getty]
Filed under: Internet
Source: Washington Post
Two questions with legendary ‘Mega Man’ creator Keiji Inafune
Keiji Inafune co-created Mega Man in the 1980s — and the rest, as they say, is history. He’s led a storied career in video games ever since, building franchises such as Dead Rising and Onimusha. Inafune currently heads up his own studio, Comcept, where he’s finishing production of Mighty No. 9, an action platformer that raised $3.8 million on Kickstarter in 2013. But, more on that later. One of the truly surprising announcements to come out of the Xbox showcase at this year’s E3 was ReCore, a new IP from Inafune that features a woman in an arid world of robots that carry glowing, mysterious cores. The Xbox conference revealed a trailer, a spring 2016 release window and not much more. We sat down with Inafune at E3 and asked him two questions: one about ReCore and the other about the state of creativity in the video game industry. He had plenty to say.
Regarding ReCore
As some people may know, I really love robots. Pretty much all of my games have some type of robots in them. With ReCore, the theme I wanted to write was human versus robots. This world is — there were humans before, but now, there are none. There are a bunch of robots in this world already and the players will wonder, “Why are they here? Who made those robots?” Probably humans, but they’re not here anymore. Also, the core in those robots, they’re a different technology than the robots themselves.
So there’s a huge mystery between what happened to the human race, where the robots come from and ‘”what is the core?” This is kind of the overall theme, the mystery of this world. That’s something that I wanted to write.
Regarding the state of video game creation
The way I see it, there are two walls blocking the creative of the game industry. One, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but the mobile games are getting huge. People, when they make games, they have to think about business. Making mobile games is easier on the business side, so people tend to go toward that side.
Another one is, it’s getting really hard to start a new IP nowadays. Myself, I’m getting ReCore out, which is a new IP. That’s nice. But, with all of the announcements happening at this year’s E3, we don’t see too many new IPs happening. It’s almost all sequels or some kind of spin-off or existing IP. I’m not saying that’s something bad, to make sequels, but it also kind of stops people from thinking new things about games. They want new creative and new creative tends to happen more when you make a new IP. So, hopefully this can change from here on, so the game creators will have more opportunities to make new IP and make new creative. That’s what I’m hoping for.
IT glitch sees 600,000 RBS payments go missing
RBS has just stepped into another IT nightmare. The company, which owns the Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest, Coutts and Ulster Bank, has admitted that 600,000 customer transactions weren’t completed last night. It hasn’t revealed the exact nature of the problem, referring to it only as “an issue with our overnight process.” The electronic mishap means a large number of customers haven’t had direct debits and credit applied to their accounts — the sort of transactions that people normally use to make important payments, like household bills. The banking group says sorting its customer’s balances is now a top priority and that delayed payments will be processed “no later than Saturday.” That’s quite a wait, although the larger question is how such a technology-centric failure was allowed to occur in the first place. Shouldn’t there be fail-safes for these sorts of situations?
We have fixed the underlying issue, and are working flat out to get these payments updated for affected customers no later than Saturday 2/4
– RBS Help (@RBS_Help) June 17, 2015
[Image Credit: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Source: BBC, Twitter (RBS)
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