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Get ready for your Facebook friends to tell you they voted
The UK's General Election is this Thursday, and if marking a cross next to your preferred MP fills you with pride, Facebook will soon make it easier to tell your friends and family. The company is introducing a special "I'm a Voter" button at the top of Brits' News Feeds, prompting you to write a status update that explains you've been to the polling station. The feature has been used for the last three US elections and the Scottish referendum -- not only does it publicise your own vote, but it could also nudge other people that have forgotten the date or been debating whether to vote at all. Channel 4, meanwhile, has already pledged to suspend its regular programming on E4 in order to encourage young people to vote. Neither company can force you to take part, but it's hoped these sorts of initiatives will improve voter turnout and create a more representative election.
Canada vaguely hints it'll block Huawei from government projects, cites security concerns
After the hammering Huawei received from the US Congress, it was probably hoping to catch a break north of the border. Unfortunately for Huawei, Canada's government has obtusely hinted that it, too, would block the company from bidding to build its new secure network. Spokesman Andrew MacDougall said it would use national security provisions to avoid international trade laws, and when asked directly about the Chinese company, was quoted as saying "I'll leave it to you if you think... Huawei should be a part of a Canadian government security system." The telecoms business may think it can get around the any obstacles because it has a locally incorporated subsidiary -- but given the clout of those lobbying against it, it probably shouldn't get its hopes up. [Original image credit: The Canadian Press / Sean Kilpatrick]
India's prime minister reportedly working on giving free handsets to low-income families
We've seen companies like Microsoft help out low-income people by dropping prices on its hardware and software in the past, and now India's prime minister's allegedly taking a similar approach but with mobile handsets being the focus behind this nice gesture -- and better yet, at no cost whatsoever. Per the Times of India, sources have told the publication Manmohan Singh's got a plan in the works that'd bring one mobile device to "every family living below the poverty line," with said "Har Hath Mein Phone" scheme expected to be announced as early as next week. Notably, if all goes according to the purported plan, this would help over 6 million Indian families, most of which are currently lacking any sort of communication device in their household. There's still a few days until we find out whether the project is indeed real, for now let's just hope our friends in India don't experience some more power outages anytime soon.
Irish Prime Minister visits Apple's European headquarters
One week after Apple announced it would create another 500 jobs at its European headquarters in Cork, Ireland, the employees there got a visit from none other than Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny. The visit happened yesterday, reports MacWorld UK, and during that time Kenny was snapped chatting with Apple employees, though it's not known exactly what he talked about. There's no doubt the news of 500 new jobs pleased the PM, as Ireland is one of the EU countries most affected by the current recession. Apple's headquarters and plant in Cork is not only the home of all of Apple's European operations, but it's also an assembly point for the MacBook Pro. Apple's current plant in Cork was opened in 1980 and was the first non-US headquarters for the company. The location now employs 2,800 people who work in backend, supply chain and distribution operations for Europe. Apple plans to add the additional 500 jobs over the next 18 months.
How Steve Jobs missed knighthood in 2009
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has received a number of accolades over the years, but now The Telegraph is reporting that he missed out on an honor that Bill Gates received way back in 2005 -- an honorary knighthood. Jobs was apparently nominated for an honorary knighthood in 2009 by a senior Labour Party Minister of Parliament, who felt that "Apple has been the only major global company to create stunning consumer products because it has always taken design as the key component of everything it has produced. No other CEO has consistently shown such a commitment." The honor was, however, allegedly blocked by then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who had invited Jobs to attend the Labour Party's annual conference. Jobs declined to attend, either because he just didn't have the time to spare or because he didn't wish to be associated with a UK political party. As a result of Jobs snubbing the invitation and destroying a PR coup for the Prime Minister, the honorary knighthood was blocked by Brown. A spokesperson for Brown, who is no longer the Prime Minister, denied the snub but refused to discuss the incident further with The Telegraph. We can only hope that David Cameron, the current Conservative PM, is presented with a nomination for a similar honor for Jobs, and that this time Steve Jobs kneels before the Queen of England. [via MacStories, Gizmodo Australia]
Norwegian Prime Minister gets his hands on an iPad
While Apple has pushed the international launch of the iPad back by a month, from its original late April launch date to late May, it hasn't stopped some overseas customers from getting their hands on one. For example, Don McAllister, host of the resourceful ScreenCastOnline, picked up a couple of iPads during a vacation to New York that 'just so happened' to coincide with the iPad launch. If he intends on bringing home the iPad he's using in this picture, you can also count Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg as an international shopper. The picture belongs to flickr member Statsministerens kontor, which translates to "Prime Minister's office." Prime Minister Stoltenberg was in Washington DC this week attending the Nuclear Security Summit 2010, and is now in NYC. He may have plenty of time to explore the iPad, since his flight home -- along with hundreds of others bound for Europe -- has been cancelled due to the Icelandic volcano explosion. He told the Dagbladet newspaper that he's working remotely after an extended airport wait. The newspaper's headline translates as "Jens manages the land with iPad from New York." For the less patient who may be considering making the trek over to the U.S. for an iPad, do so with caution. Customs agents may prevent you from bringing the iPad home, depending on local regulations. For example, Israeli officials are blocking iPad imports over supposed WiFi concerns. "Tusen takk" to Nils & everyone who sent this in.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown commends U.K. game industry
[Flickr user Cory M. Grenier] U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently recorded a podcast -- yes, a podcast (mp3) -- which aired right before the kickoff ceremonies for the Global Investment Conference held in London on Monday. During the podcast, Brown commended the efforts of the U.K.'s game developers and publishers, stating, "we're leading the way in creative industries, by far the biggest producer of computer games in Europe." TIGA, the U.K. game industry trade organization, is hoping Brown's address is a sign of support for the game developer tax relief plan the group has been trying to push through parliament for more than two years now. Had they listened to Brown's other podcast, "The Uber1337 Video Game Talk Show," they would have heard a much stronger sentiment much earlier. [Via Edge Online]
CBC torrenting Canada's Next Great Prime Minister, DRM-free
Everyone knows you can find torrents from plenty of TV shows on the internet, but it's usually not seeded by the broadcaster. Taking a page out of mariposaHD's book, the CBC is putting a "high quality" DRM-free copy of Canada's Next Great Prime Minister online (no wonder they think HDTV has no business model) after it airs March 23. No idea yet if this is a one time thing or the start of a trend, but we applaud the Canadians for one-upping Her podcasting Majesty in getting with digital distribution. Hopefully, the reasoning behind selecting political leaders soliciting ideas for a better country via a reality TV show (and why the U.S. isn't), will also be answered.[Thanks, Sukhminder]
Mario more recognizable in Canada than Prime Minister
We're not sure if it's a testament to Nintendo's popularity or yet another sign of voter apathy, but a Harris/Decima survey found that more Canadians can identify a photo of flagship character Mario than they could current Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose held that post since January of 2006. (To be fair, that's less time than the Wii has been available in the territory.)Of course, this Nintendo-commissioned survey just happens to coincide with the release of Mario Galaxy. We don't think the game company's Canadian branch will be receiving a Christmas card from Harper this year. Then again, if Canadian politicians are looking to cater to the much-coveted gamer demographic, perhaps they should lobby to undo this last-minute Rock Band delay.[Thanks, Ninja-bot]
Mario for Prime Minister of Canada
Nintendo of Canada commissioned a survey (for bragging rights, perhaps?) to find out whether Mario or Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was more recognizable. The winner? Yep, our favorite plumber.In the cities of Toronto, Calgary (where Harper was a Member of Parliament), and Halifax, more people could identify Mario's picture than Harper's picture. On the one hand, it's not surprising that everyone seems to know Nintendo's icon. On the other hand, however, it's embarassing for the human race in general that we can identify more with a fictional (albeit lovable) character more than our world leaders.So, what did Nintendo of Canada have to say on the issue? The company's general manager Ron Bertram responded, "Canadian politicians are lucky Mario doesn't have his Canadian citizenship and could campaign for office." Oh, snap! Hear that, Mr. Harper? You may want to fire your campaign team and hire Nintendo's PR sector instead.[Thanks, Ninja-bot!]
Rootkit hack taps Greek prime minister's phone
In 2005, Greek authorities discovered a plot hatched and executed by unknown sources which allowed the tapping of wireless phones on the Vodafone network belonging to the country's Prime Minister and other top officials, making it one of the furthest reaching covert infiltrations of a government in history. A recent report from IEEE Spectrum shows that the tap was made possible by a 6,500 line piece of code called a rootkit, the first-ever to be embedded in a phone switch's OS. The complex hack took advantage of aging phone systems by disabling transaction logs on calls and allowing call monitoring on four switches within the teleco's computers, thus sending the call to another phone for monitoring (similar to a legal wiretap). The spies covered their tracks by creating patches on the system which routed the calls around logging software which would have alerted admins, and were only discovered when they tried to update their software. The case clearly exposes holes in call security amongst providers (due largely in part to outdated systems), and suggests the possibility that this kind of thing could easily happen again... to you![Via textually]
India announces plans to develop robot army
In an announcement that you can probably expect to be repeated by rival Pakistan in the next few days, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has claimed that his South Asian nation will be the latest country to pursue technologies for developing a robotic army. Singh's remarks came during the inauguration of a new building for the Defence Research and Development Organization, and were part of a larger speech outlining the country's future plans for military research, where he also mentioned interest in developing next-gen propulsion, camouflage, and precision guided munitions systems. Unlike South Korea's planned army of killbots (pictured), the Indian program is pretty light on specifics so far, although we do know that the impetus for the project comes from the realization that "trans-national actors and unconventional forces" pose a growing threat when compared to the risk of a traditional inter-state conflict.[Via Robot Gossip]
