Distro Issue 99: Inside the Nike+ Accelerator

Back in March, 10 companies descended upon the Nike+ Accelerator in Portland, Oregon, with the aim of building devices that would integrate with the athletic outfit's line of fitness gadgetry. In a brand new issue of our weekly, we step inside said venue after three months for a glimpse at Nike's formula for fueling the quantified self. Eyes-On takes a look at a quite dapper Ricoh point-and-shoot, Hands-On fondles Nokia's latest Lumia and IRL offers up another pair of our daily items. So pull up a comfy chair and grab a cup of tea, because the latest issue is here for your end of the week perusal.

Distro Issue 99 PDF
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Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, others urge for greater U.S. gov't transparency

Close to two-dozen technology firms, including AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo,?have signed a letter to the U.S. government urging greater transparency?in the wake of the National Security Agency's PRISM?spying scandal.

Read this

PRISM: Here's how the NSA wiretapped the Internet

The National Security Agency's "PRISM" program is able to collect, in realtime, intelligence not limited to social networks and email accounts. But the seven tech companies accused of opening 'back doors' to the spy agency could well be proven innocent.

Since former NSA contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked a number of documents that detailed how the U.S. government and its foreign allies were spying on their citizens, many technology companies have tried to distance themselves from claims of collusion and cooperation.

The letter [PDF], which can also be read below, calls on the Obama administration to allow companies to disclose exactly how many government requests for customer and subscriber data that Internet providers, telcos and Web-based companies are handed.

Google first began this trend in early 2010, and others followed suit. Microsoft became?the latest firm to join the trend earlier this year?after pressure from privacy groups.

But companies are not allowed to disclose the full amount of?National Security Letter "gagging orders" handed down by federal authorities. Instead, they are only permitted to report the number range.

The letter also calls for the government to allow these technology firms, and others, to detail how many requests made under Section 215 of the Patriot Act?? which demands all "tangible things" including business records and private user data?? as well as under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and other related statutes that currently prevent these companies from publishing these figures themselves.

The group also calls for Congress to pass laws that force the U.S. government to report these figures accurately without having to first seek permission from the FISA court.

Also, the companies have launched a group petition on the White House's "We The People" platform.

The coalition includes other technology firms but also civil liberties and privacy groups?? such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), among others.

"Democracy demands accountability, and accountability requires transparency," Yahoo general counsel Ron Bell said in a blog post on Thursday.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zdnet/BTL/~3/1G0hBzEzVO0/

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Moody's raises US outlook to 'stable' from 'negative'

markets

Luciana Lopez Reuters

8 hours ago

Moody's Investors Service on Thursday raised the U.S. sovereign outlook to stable from negative and affirmed the country's triple-A rating, citing steady growth despite reduced government spending.

The rating agency's move eased the threat of a cut to the world's biggest economy.

Moody's said the federal government's debt trajectory is on track with criteria the rating agency previously laid out, even without further budget measures from Washington.

The economy is growing moderately, but it is still "progressing at a faster rate compared with several Aaa peers and has demonstrated a degree of resilience to major reductions in the growth of government spending," Moody's said in a statement.

The U.S. budget outlook has brightened in recent months, alleviating some of the pressure on policymakers for more fiscal compromises.

On May 14, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said the U.S. federal budget deficit is shrinking at a faster pace than expected, and forecast this fiscal year would end with the smallest shortfall since 2008.

"We feel that we have enough information on the debt trajectory at this point to make a conclusion even without information on any possible further actions in Washington," said Steven Hess, Moody's lead U.S. sovereign credit analyst.

Even the possibility of further debate on raising the U.S. debt ceiling this year - allowing the government to keep borrowing money - is unlikely to hurt the rating, Hess said.

"We think that they will raise the debt ceiling, as they always have in the past," he said. "But even if there's some delay, we're not too concerned about that affecting the government's ability to service its debt."

Analysts said the affirmation means the U.S. sovereign rating could be safer now for years to come.

"We are still running sizable deficits but they are not getting worse," said Guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

"Barring a nuclear event or the re-emergence of the debt ceiling problem, this drastically reduces the chance of a U.S. downgrade in the next couple of years," he added.

Last month Fitch also affirmed the U.S. sovereign AAA rating. But that agency kept a negative outlook, saying still-elevated debt levels leave the country vulnerable to shocks without more deficit reduction.

Standard & Poor's rates the country AA-plus, with a stable outlook. S&P cut the rating in August 2011 after a bruising round of debt ceiling debates in Washington raised fears of political dysfunction.

In addition, Moody's affirmed the Aaa senior ratings of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Banks and the Federal Farm Credit Banks, which the agency considers to be directly linked to the rating of the U.S. government.

While the stable outlook means the agency is unlikely to cut the U.S. sovereign rating in the medium term, Moody's noted that could change in the future.

"Without further fiscal consolidation efforts, government deficits are anticipated to increase once again over the longer term," the Moody's statement said.

The outlook covers the next couple years or so, Hess said. After that, he added, "a triple-A rating is not guaranteed forever."

Additional reporting by Pam Niimi and Richard Leong.

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SAP warns China's slowdown is hurting software sales

By Maria Sheahan

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German business software maker SAP AG trimmed its sales outlook for this year, warning that a slowdown in China was prompting companies across Asia to put investments on hold.

China's growth rate slowed to 7.5 percent in the second quarter, the ninth quarter in the last 10 that expansion has weakened, in a setback for companies betting on a continued boom in the world's second-biggest economy.

"The slowdown in China is now also impacting the tech industry," co-Chief Executive Jim Hagemann Snabe told journalists on Thursday.

That was having a knock-on effect to other companies in the region. Companies in Japan, Australia and New Zealand, particularly, have become more hesitant about investing, Snabe said.

SAP's biggest competitor, U.S.-based Oracle, last month blamed Asia and Latin America for its disappointing software sales and subscriptions.

The company cut its outlook for revenue growth from software and software-related services to at least 10 percent in 2013, excluding exchange-rate fluctuations, compared with a previous forecast for 11-13 percent growth.

In the second quarter, its software sales to customers in Asia-Pacific Japan dropped 10 percent at constant currencies, the second quarter in a row of double-digit declines, after rapid growth last year.

Including exchange-rate effects, sales were down 17 percent.

Snabe said he expected business in Asia-Pacific to recover, though it was hard to predict when. "We will continue to invest in Asia-Pacific," he said.

Shares in SAP were down 2 percent at 56.53 euros by 0913 GMT, in a flat market.

"It's only in the short-term that they may face difficulties, given the negative economic environment and the bottleneck in investments in the SAP client base," said Frank Niemann and Tobias Ortwein, analysts at Pierre Audoin Consultants.

"In the long term, it's a good story with more innovation likely to come."

SWITCH TO CLOUD

SAP, whose software helps companies manage supplies, human resources and customers relations, is reducing its reliance on traditional business software to become a major player in cloud computing.

The company reiterated that it expects 2013 operating profit to rise to 5.85-5.95 billion euros ($7.7-$7.8 billion) at constant currencies, from 5.21 billion in 2012 as it contains costs and banks on growing demand for cloud-based services.

SAP has launched a cloud-based version of its HANA tool, which helps companies analyze large quantities of data quickly and competes with Oracle's Exalytics product, as well as a new version of its Business Suite software running on top of HANA, which it started offering in mid-May.

It has spent billions of euros to buy Internet-based computing companies Ariba and SuccessFactors and battle IBM and Oracle as well as nimbler rivals like Salesforce.com Inc and Workday Inc for market share.

"We have about 30 million cloud users now, which gives us by far the largest subscriber base in the cloud," Snabe said, referring to the global market.

In the short term, customers' switch to cloud computing will hurt revenue growth because payments for cloud-based services are made in installments rather than up-front in full, but that effect is expected to even out in the long run.

In the three months through June, SAP's software and software-related service revenue grew 10 percent to 3.35 billion euros, the slowest growth rate in five quarters and a little below the 3.41 billion euros analysts had forecast.

Second-quarter operating profit was also up by 10 percent at constant currencies, at 1.22 billion euros, broadly in line with expectations.

($1 = 0.7637 euros)

(Corrects spelling of analyst's name in 11th paragraph)

(Additional reporting by Natalia Drozdiak; Editing by Erica Billingham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sap-warns-china-slowdown-hurting-software-sales-054900344.html

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108 Years of Legendary Herman Miller Design in 108 Seconds

How did iconic furniture like the Eames side chair become iconic? What about the Noguchi table, or countless other classic pieces of the modern era? The answer is through the legendary design firm Herman Miller, whose history you can see illustrated in 108 seconds in this short video.

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Source: http://gizmodo.com/108-years-of-legendary-herman-miller-design-in-108-seco-825791787

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Android 4.3 build for Nexus 4 leaks

Build JWR66N has made its way out into the wild for the LG-made Nexus

Update: Check out our hands-on video with the new version of Android on the Nexus 4.

A few weeks after Android 4.3 leaked for the the Google Play edition Galaxy S4, today we're seeing the same pre-release build — JWR66N — leaking out online for the Nexus 4. The unofficial firmware comes to us from Jeff Williams on Google+, who bought his Nexus 4 on Craigslist from a Googler, only to find it running the pre-release software. With a little help from the Google+ community, IRC users and XDA, Jeff was able to create a system dump and backup of the ROM. Currently the radio and bootloader are missing from this package — word on the forums is that they'll be provided at a later date.

The files can be restored through TWRP ?(TeamWin recovery) if you know what you're doing, giving you a working version of Android 4.3 ahead of the official release. Though with any leaked pre-release firmware of unknown origins, we'd advise caution if you decide to put this firmware on your own device, as unknown bugs and other nasties may be lurking. (What's more, the official 4.3 launch is probably less than a week away.)

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Verizon Galaxy S4 VRUAME7 Official Changelog Published

Verizon has finally published the changelog for their latest OTA update for the Galaxy S4 "VRUAME7". It turns out that they did indeed do much more than just patch root and further lock down the bootloader. Verizon produced a long list of "enhancements" that include. Touch recognition in VZ nav app, Battery Consumption for Group Play App, Stability in Story Album and Camera App, Hovering In Email Application, and Charging Status When Removed From Charging Pad.

Bug fixes include the repair of calendar user interface dialog dismiss issue, Occasional ISIS Mobile Wallet Activation Issues, Bluetooth connectivity with Ford sync issues, Occassional cases of garbled text when viewing videos (?), Instances where extremely large font was displayed in email, Notification alert issues when sound and shot selected in camera, Occasional issues of screen not waking up in cases of incoming calls.

Some capabilities were removed such as Tag buddy popup when a new photo is opened, The premium SMS popup during ISIS wallet activation, warning popup when transferring pictures to device/SD card. Some capabilities were added such as a new icon was added to indicate "more" items in the Notification Panel, Clear instructions regarding Smart Scroll, Wifi quick on off toggle, Secure boot status in about phone in the settings menu, and a new version of the SHealth application.

There were a few other feature that were added you can see the full changelog here. If you have not received this update I would suggest holding off until it has been rooted and a bootloader exploit has been found if you like Roms and Mods. There is currently a large bounty for the methods that will hopefully draw in some developers who would not ordinarily work on Verizon devices!

Source: http://www.droidforums.net/forum/android-news/248903-verizon-galaxy-s4-vruame7-official-changelog-published.html

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