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Dell announces that it's going private, assisted by $2 billion loan from Microsoft
The rumors were true. Dell has announced that it will go private, assisted by a $2 billion loan from Microsoft. The full deal between stockholders, Michael Dell and investment firm Silver Lake is being valued at around $24.4 billion. The exchange, which has been in the works since August, will involve a $2 billion loan from Redmond, as well as debt financing from other companies involved. According to the press release (included after the break) Mr. Dell will continue as CEO if the move goes through, adding his shares and additional capital. Update: Microsoft has issued a statement about the funding deal with Dell: "Microsoft has provided a $2 billion loan to the group that has proposed to take Dell private. Microsoft is committed to the long term success of the entire PC ecosystem and invests heavily in a variety of ways to build that ecosystem for the future."
Dell debates going private, Microsoft to pay billions to help make it happen?
The rumor mill's been running at full bore for about a week now, with unnamed sources explaining that Dell wants to become a private company, perhaps because of its recent lackluster financial performance. Today, the volume of those rumors has gotten louder. Both CNBC and the Wall Street Journal report that Microsoft's looking to help buy out the PC maker, paying a grand chunk -- between $1 and $3 billion -- of the price to buy out Dell's publicly-owned shares. According to Reuters' sources, Michael Dell and his cohort have formed a committee to evaluate any such deals or offers, but naturally, any other details about Microsoft's (or anyone else's) involvement are few and far between. We've reached out to both Microsoft and Dell for comment, and we'll update our post here as we learn more.
Breakfast Topic: Does it bug you when others watch you play WoW?
Does it bug you when other people watch you play WoW? At our house, kids grow up using a computer in an open family area. Keeping an eye on what they're doing and who they're doing it with is a natural part of walking from one room to another. My son took this in stride; to this day, he narrates and comments on whatever he's doing, even yelling downstairs (now that's he's over 18 with a computer of his own in his room) when something's funny or surprising. My daughter, on the other hand, is more protective of her privacy. She adores showing off her progress and creations, but only when she's ready -- and you'd better brace for a prize-winning scowl if you should approach before then. In this day of streaming game sessions, many players are perfectly content to let perfect strangers watch their every in-game move. The horror! I can't imagine enjoying that. Streaming for charity? Negator. Streaming a new character? No, thanks! Immersion is more my style. Unless I'm on TeamSpeak with rest of the gang, I want to sink into the sights and sounds of the zone -- on my own. Do you have your own private retreat for playing WoW, or do you play in a shared space? Does it make you uncomfortable when other people watch you play WoW? Does it bug you to have to turn your attention outward and talk to people outside of the game when you're trying to play, or do you chatter freely with everyone around you, both in game and out?
Storyboard: Private party
Ms. Lady and I were in the midst of roleplaying in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it was going well. As it so happened, this particular bit of roleplaying involved her pureblood Sith lord doing the Sad Sith Dance and singing the accompanying song. Explaining why this was a logical step in the scene would require a whole lot of explanation of the characters involved, and I don't think you really want to read me waxing poetic about my characters for a thousand words. (If I'm wrong, please, do tell. It'd certainly make for several weeks of easy-to-write columns for me.) It's enough to know that there is a Sad Sith Dance and accompanying song. The important point is that just like the song says, voices carry. When said Sith was exiting the cantina, he found that there was a small crowd of people on the upper floor, people who hadn't said anything but could have very well been listening in. And that brings to mind the issue of privacy in roleplaying, something that you both strive for and try to avoid at once because of the nature of the interactions.
Gliph launches new Cloaked Email service that'll hide your real email address from prying eyes
Gliph, an online and mobile service that lets you send text messages anonymously, has expanded its offerings to include a new Cloaked Email service. As its name implies, Cloaked Email lets you hide your real email address when you send and receive email from someone that you don't know. It's a terrific way to protect your email from marketers and other ne'er-do-wells who want to add your address to spam email lists. The Cloaked Email service uses aliases for your real email address and acts as a relay between your real email account and the recipient of your email. This architecture lets you cloak your email, but still keep the convenience of using your normal inbox to send and receive emails. It's perfect for those situations when you are forced to enter an email address on a website or when you need to communicate with strangers via a service like Craigslist. How it works First, you need to sign up for the Gliph service and download the app to your iPhone. If you want to send a cloaked email, you must login to the web app or launch the mobile app and select "Send New Cloaked Email" to get started. The email interface includes your standard email fields so you can add in your recipient, a subject and a message body. There is no support for attachments at first, but you can earn the ability to use attachments by inviting others to join Gliph. Once you're done composing your email, you can hit send, and the email will be sent using your cloaked alias. When the recipient responds to your email, the message will go to the Cloaked Email address, which will then forward it to the inbox of your real email account. What happens next is the feature that sets Gliph apart from a service like Craigslist which hides your email when someone contacts you about a post, but doesn't hide it in subsequent emails. When you respond back using your normal email client and your real email account, Gliph takes that email, strips out the header information with your real email address and sends it using your Cloaked Email alias. Even though you are sending and receiving emails using your real email account, the recipient never sees your actual email address thanks to Gliph. First Impressions I've been testing the service for a short time and can confirm it hides your email as advertised. I was able to send and receive Cloaked Emails using my gmail account, and the recipient couldn't find a trace of my real email address anywhere in the conversation. We even checked the email header information and it contained only the cloaked email account information. The relaying of emails through Gliph's cloaked email service was also speedy. I sent an email, and it arrived in the recipient's inbox in less than a minute. Of course, I was likely only one of a handful of people using the service, so this fast transmission may slow down as more and more people start using a Cloaked Email address. One of the strengths of Gliph's Cloaked Email is its convenience. Once you sign up for Gliph, it is extremely easy to send and receive Cloaked Emails because the service uses your regular email inbox. You don't have to check another account or log into to another service to keep track of a conversation. It's all there in your inbox for you to view and archive. This ease of use means that I will likely to continue to use the service. The biggest drawback I encountered involved sending the initial email. To send someone an email using your Cloaked account, you have to use the Gliph web app or mobile app to send the first email. You can't setup your Cloaked Email address as an alias in your email client, so you must launch the app if you want to start a conversation. You can, however, provide your cloaked email address to others, who can use it to send an email to you via Gliph's service. Conclusion Overall, I was impressed with the Cloaked Email service. It was very effective at hiding my email address from others. I also appreciated the convenience of being able to use my regular email inbox to send and receive cloaked emails. The Gliph text messaging service and Cloaked Email are both free. All Gliph users get one free Cloaked Email address and can earn more cloaks by inviting users to join the service. If you are interested in checking out Cloaked Email, you will need to claim a Gliph as shown in this video and then download the iPhone app from the iOS App Store. Show full PR text Gliph's Cutting-Edge Cloaked EmailTM Protects Email Privacy PORTLAND, August 14th, 2012 – Gliph, a one-of-a-kind mobile and web app, today announced the availability of Cloaked Email, a new and innovative method for protecting the privacy of users' email addresses. Cloaked Email allows users to both send and receive email using their normal email client, while keeping their real email address a secret. Email sent to the forwarded to users' real email addresses. When the user replies, their real email address is automatically replaced with the cloak address. This design is perfect for situations like Craigslist communications and transactions, where users often prefer to keep their real-time identity under wraps. "We're excited about how Cloaked Email provides Craigslist users in particular with a new tool to protect their anonymity," said Rob Banagale, co-founder and CEO of Gliph. "We all have situations where we'd prefer to keep our actual email address private. Cloaked Email makes this convenient for everyone." In addition to general privacy protection, Cloaked Email offers Gliph users a new layer of protection against potential data breaches. By registering for a website or newsletter using a Cloaked Email address instead of a real one, Gliph users can limit their exposure to breach or attack. "As we've seen with the recent attacks against Blizzard, Yahoo and Stratfor, unfortunately, data breaches are becoming a problem for everyone," said Nicholas Asch, co-founder and CTO of Gliph. "From major gaming companies to global intelligence service providers, it just doesn't pay to use your real email address if you can avoid it." Each Gliph user is given one free cloak when they sign up for Gliph. Additional cloaks can be earned by inviting new users to the service. After five successful invites, email attachments are automatically enabled on all past and future cloaks. About Gliph Gliph is an award-winning digital identity platform featuring mobile and web applications that provide a secure way to send messages and protect personal information. Protecting private data and messages using AES-256 encryption, Gliph sets a new standard for consumer privacy and information management. Gliph is available for free on the App Store (https://gli.ph/iphone); the Android Marketplace (https://gli.ph/android); and as a mobile web app (https://gli.ph/m). For more information, visit https://gli.ph.
Boeing, SpaceX win NASA 'space taxi' funding race (updated)
NASA has reportedly picked Boeing and SpaceX as the two companies to receive primary funding for the "Commercial Crew Program." The news was reportedly leaked to NBC News' Jay Barbree, but all parties involved have refused to comment until NASA makes the official announcement later today. While Boeing and SpaceX are likely to take home the bulk of $1 billion in funding, Sierra Nevada has been picked as the "standby" candidate -- with a mandate to step in if either primary partner fails. If true, then it means that Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has been cut out of the race entirely -- although disappointment is easier to take if you're a billionaire... we've heard. Update: NASA's confirmed its picks, with back-up choice Sierra Nevada picking up $212.5 million, while Space X and Boeing got $440 million and $460 million, respectively. To celebrate, SpaceX's crafted another stargazing video -- it's right after the break.
Microsoft fights back against Xbox Live account threats, begs you to update your security settings
Redmond's console gaming network may not have suffered a breach of security comparable to last year's PSN fumble, but that doesn't mean it hasn't braced for impact. According to Xbox Live General Manager Alex Garden, Microsoft has made great strides in account security by taking legal action against sites who share phished usernames and passwords, enacting two-step login verification for untrusted devices and pushing fresh security updates to devices. Even so, Garden says that many of Xbox Live's account protection measures rely on member profiles being up to date, and heartily encourages users to make sure their security information is accurate. Get the word directly from the horses mouth at the source link below.
EA: lack of official Battlefield 3 servers due to rentals
Battlefield 3 players recently noticed that all of DICE's official servers for the game appeared to be unavailable, and they wondered: What's up with that? What's up with that, EA says, is that the game was too popular. DICE runs a number of official servers, but those servers can also be rented by players, and if too many players rent official servers, they can appear to be unavailable. But EA and DICE say they want what's best for players, so DICE will keep an eye on the policy, and "will reserve a percentage of servers for players who prefer to connect through DICE-hosted servers."The publisher hopes that will answer player concerns. And if not ... free XP? Starting tomorrow through Sunday, Battlefield 3 is hosting another double XP weekend for all ranked servers and matches, with players earning twice as much experience as usual. This special weekend isn't a direct response to the server concerns, but hey, free points are free points.
Calyx Institute to create ISP that keeps customer traffic private, away from prying governmental eyes
Wouldn't it be nice if we were free to surf the web free from fear of having our traffic monitored and emails scraped by the NSA? Well, if Nicholas Merrill has his way, we won't have to rely on anonymous browsers or proxy servers -- we'll have a new ISP built from the ground up to protect customer privacy. A non-profit, the Calyx Institute, will run the ISP that'll employ end-to-end encryption on web traffic, plus encrypted emails to prevent anyone other than the user, including the ISP itself, from seeing people's internet activity. Because of this structure, Calyx, quite literally, won't be able to comply with governmental requests to obtain customer traffic data under the Patriot or Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Acts. The best part is, such online privacy may cost as little as $20 a month, and Merrill has hopes to provide a similarly secure VoIP service at some point as well. Of course, the venture will only be possible if Merrill can raise the $2 million needed to get it going -- which is why he's pitching the idea to venture capitalists in Silicon Valley and the general public through crowd-sourced funding site IndieGogo. Want to help out? Hit the source below to make a donation.
Givit makes private video sharing from iOS quick and easy
There are plenty of video sharing services online these days -- from the enormously popular YouTube to Apple's own video integration with Twitter, it's quite easy for almost anyone to upload and share video with the public. But Givit's CEO Greg Kostello, who previously worked for both Apple and NeXT, has a different goal in mind: He wants to take on video sharing in the private arena. Givit, as we saw at CES this week, isn't about uploading a video from your iPhone or iPad for the world to see. Rather, it's about uploading a video, and then sending it out to a limited list of your friends, family, acquaintances or co-workers, for only them to see and respond to. On first glance, the app is almost just a messaging service, and in fact, Kostello showed me an example video where he asked his team a question, and each of them were able to respond to the video from their own place and time. The biggest benefit of Givit appears to be that it's easy to share and interact with a video once it's uploaded, and Kostello points out that the company is really trying to have a universal experience -- whether you're on any iOS device, a PC or a Mac, or any Android device or other tablet (the company is introducing an Android app here at CES this week), you can hit the Givit site or download an app and use the service easily. The iOS version even integrates with your address book (though there's no iCloud integration -- yet, says Kostello), so once you've got a video in the system, sharing it with your friends and family in a secure way is as easy as just choosing their names from a list and hitting go. Even if they don't use Givit, they'll get an email saying there's a video waiting for them, and they'll just need to hit a link to open up a browser and see it. Unfortunately, there is one big hitch: Users who see your shared videos will need to register with Givit. Kostello says this is more of a security concern than anything else -- you can't truly share private videos unless you know who's watching, so if you send a nice birthday video off to your aunt, she'll have to sign up for the Givit service before she can actually see it. It's not like YouTube, where there's just a URL that's obscured from the public. Here you're more aware of who has seen your video, and they must go through a quick registration to ensure only they can see it. But once users are registered, they can see any videos that have been shared with them, and even respond to those videos with text comments or even video replies. Kostello says that while his company can't see what the videos are that are uploaded (they are private, after all), they're noting that about half of them are recorded with a mobile and/or iOS device, and about half come from PC video files, which means they were either taken with a webcam directly, or edited and then uploaded. Anecdotally, Kostello says just simple video blogs are a big part of the service, as videos of users kids' playing sports, then shared with family and friends. He's seen businesses (including his own) use the service as well, and he even tells one story of a military family with a brother serving in Qatar, who used the service to send video both to and from the soldier away from home. Skype, says Kostello, often means you need to be in both places in the world at the same time, but a service like Givit means families can see and respond to shared videos on their own time. Currently, Givit is free to use, but in the next month or so, Kostello says they'll announce plans for monetizing it. He says ads probably aren't a part of the equation, since all of the shared videos are still users viewing their own content, but instead Givit will likely charge for premium services, like more room to save videos, and possibly other features. There will always be a free service there, says Kostello, similar to Dropbox, but heavy users will be asked to pay. Givit seems like an interesting solution to the issue of sharing videos privately with a smaller group. There are services out there that will do this already, but many of those make it hard to specify exactly who can see the video, and ensure that's what happens. Once it's set up, Givit's a quick and easy way to post a video, and make sure that only the people you want to see it can do so.
Paul Allen-backed Stratolaunch Systems promises flexible, low-cost access to space
When Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, legendary aerospace designer Burt Rutan and private spaceflight proponent Elon Musk team up on something, folks are bound to pay attention -- especially when they're promising nothing short of a "revolution in space transportation." At the center of that ambitious goal is a new company backed by Allen, Stratolaunch Systems, and a massive new aircraft to be designed and built by Rutan's Scaled Composites. If all goes as planned, it will be the size of two 747s (with a wingspan greater than the length of a football field), and it will be able to carry a 120 foot long rocket built by Musk's SpaceX to an altitude suitable for launch into orbit. Stratolaunch hopes to do that for a "fraction" of the cost of current launches, and it intends to eventually send everything from satellites to manned capsules into space. As you might expect, however, all of that is still in the early stages. According to Spaceflight Now, Stratolaunch currently employs around 100 people (it says it plans a "significant ramp-up"), and complete details on the aircraft itself remain a bit murky (intentionally so, according to Allen). Flight testing is currently slated for the "2015 timeframe," though, with the first launch expected a year later. What's more, while it's not clear how much Allen plans to invest in the project, he has managed to attract some other big names to the project; former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin has joined as a board member, and Gary Wentz, a former chief engineer at NASA, will serve as President and CEO. Head on past the break for a teaser video of what they have planned.
Mango kills Microsoft's always-on location tracking, makes good on letter to House of Representatives
Remember all that iPhone tracking hubbub back in April? Sure you do -- you probably also recall Apple's denial, the subsequent Senate hearing, and the rest of the fiasco's dramatic fallout. Amid the ballyhoo, Microsoft stepped out to admit that its Windows Phone also collected location data, but quickly promised to knock it off following the next scheduled update. According to ChevronWP7 collaborator Rafael Rivera, Windows Phone 7.5 cinches it: Mango "no longer sends location data prior to being granted permission to do so." Redmond previously told the US House of Representatives that it only collected location data if a user expressly allowed an application to send it along -- a claim which Rivera debunked last week, noting that simply launching the camera application captured and transmitted "pin-point accurate positioning information." The big M maintains that the collected location data was anonymous, and that it shouldn't have been sent at all unless the user allowed it. Either way, Microsoft's chapter in the big location tracking blunder of 2011 seems to be at a close, squaring the firm with Congress, its developers, and hopefully its customers.
Spotify users get a 'private listening' mode, Facebook account still required
It may not be addressing complaints from those bemoaning the need for a Facebook account in the first place, but Spotify is now at least giving folks an easy way to listen to what they like without broadcasting it to their friends. That comes in the form of a new "private listening" mode, which can easily be turned on and off at will -- the other option is to unlink your Facebook account completely. Hit the link below for details on both options.
Google+ to require that profiles be visible to all, will boot private profiles after July 31st
Don't want anyone searching for you on Google+? No problem! Just leave your profile marked as private and Google will punt your page from the cloud after July 31st. If you still want your profile around come August, you'll need to mark it as public before that deadline. You can still keep most of your personal details under lock and key, limiting access to specific elements to yourself, your Circles, extended Circles, or anyone on the web -- Google does require that your full name and gender be available to everyone, however. Want your social network profile to be forever visible to you and you alone? MySpace is still around. For a little while longer, at least.
Sega's online Pass hacked, 1.3 million user passwords stolen
Let's bid a bitter welcome to Sega, the latest entrant to the newly founded club of hacked online communities. Sega Pass, the company's web portal, suffered a breach of its defenses on Thursday, which has now been identified to have affected a whopping 1.29 million users. Usernames, real names, birth dates, passwords, email addresses, pretty much everything has been snatched up by the malicious data thieves, with the important exception of credit / debit card numbers. We'd still advise anyone affected to keep a watchful eye on his or her banking transactions -- immediately after changing that compromised password, of course. In the meantime, Sega's keeping the Pass service offline while it rectifies the vulnerability; it'll be able to call on an unexpected ally in its search for the perpetrators in the form of LulzSec, a hacker group that boasted proudly about infiltrating Sony's network, but which has much more benevolent intentions with respect to Sega. What a topsy-turvy world we live in!
Codemasters website hacked, 'tens of thousands' of personal accounts compromised
This must be the season of the hacking witch as we've now seen yet another company's online security walls breached. Independent UK games developer Codemasters, responsible for titles like Dirt 3 and Overlord, has reported that its website was hacked on the third of June, exposing the names, addresses (both physical and email), birthdays, phone numbers, Xbox gamer tags, biographies, and passwords of its registered users. Payment information wasn't compromised, but when you consider that almost everything else was, that feels like hollow consolation. For its part, Codemasters says it took the website offline as soon as the breach was detected and a subsequent investigation has revealed the number of affected users to be in the tens of thousands. Those who might have been affected directly are being emailed with penitent apologies, while the rest of us are being pointed to the company's Facebook page while its web portal is kept offline.
Apple patent application reveals an LCD with switchable, privacy-protecting viewing angles
Don't you hate it when the guy next to you on the subway is looking over your shoulder, watching you screw up in Fruit Ninja? Well, Apple could have predicted your discomfort -- back in November 2009, before the iPad was anything more than a unicorn, the company applied for a patent on an LCD display with adjustable viewing angles, explicitly designed to "shield the display away from unintended viewers." According to the filing, the display would include steering modules made of liquid crystal material, which aim the so-called scattering modules that sit on top of them. The top layer then redirects the light, making it possible to narrow down and alter the viewing angle. The patent specifically calls out cellphones and laptops, paving the way for discreet displays on MacBooks and iPhones, though the broad phrase "other portable electronic devices" leaves plenty of room for iPads and iPod Touches. No word, of course, on when or if Apple will secure this patent and if so, what devices might incorporate such screens. We may just be seeing this concept go public now, but it seems consumers could use this even more today than they did back in the fall of '09, when all they had to worry about was a stranger squinting at their 3GS' 3.5-inch screen.
Researchers display evidence that iOS 4 records all your travels, again (updated)
If you didn't already think your smartphone knows too much about you, here's a handy reminder. A duo of UK researchers have uncovered a potentially worrying (and oddly enough, undocumented) feature in iOS 4: it asks your iPhone to record your location constantly, then timestamps that data and records it for posterity. The trouble with this unsolicited location tracking is that the hidden file that holds the data -- consolidated.db -- is relatively easy to uncover and read, making any desktops you've backed your phone up to and the phone itself even bigger privacy dangers than they would usually be. Some extra digging revealed this behavior has been known about for a good while (see Courbis and Alex Levinson links below), though mostly by people involved in computer forensics. Additionally, restoring a backup or migrating to a new device keeps the data logging going, which the researchers point to as evidence that what's happening isn't accidental. See a couple of visualizations of the extracted results on video after the break. [Thanks, Tom] Update: The original text of this article was updated to reflect that this was already a known issue, albeit in limited circles. The ability to easily visualize the data is new.
SpaceX reveals plans for world's most powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy
SpaceX promised something big, and it's now delivered. The company today revealed its plans for the Falcon Heavy, which promises to be the "world's most powerful rocket." Just how powerful is that? SpaceX says the 22-story rocket will be able to carry satellites or spacecraft weighing over 53 metric tons (or 117,000 pounds) into low earth orbit, which is nearly twice what the Space Shuttle is able to carry. What's more, this isn't just a far off promise. SpaceX says the rocket will be "ready" sometime next year, and the first test flight is planned for 2013. The rocket's sheer size isn't it's only selling point, though -- it also promises to drastically reduce the cost of sending things into space, with each launch expected to cost "only" $100 million. Head on past the break for a taste of what's in store.
Sprint's Total Equipment Protection app searches out lost Androids and BlackBerrys
Joining AT&T and Verizon in offering some software-based data security for owners of its handsets, Sprint is today introducing its Total Equipment Protection app. Funnily enough, it uses the same Asurion software as the aforementioned other carriers, which would be why its functionality mirrors them so closely. With the TEP app, you'll be able to track your phone via a web interface, force it to sound an alarm even if muted, lock it, and finally wipe your contacts (which can later be restored once you get your handset back). The app itself, compatible with Android and BlackBerry devices, is free, however you'll need to be signed up to Sprint's Total Equipment Protection program, which costs $7 a month. You'll find more details in the press release after the break.
