Wireless Blog

A cyber mastermind from Slovenia who is suspected of creating a malicious software code that infected 12 million computers worldwide and orchestrating other huge cyberscams was arrested and questioned, police said Wednesday.

Leon Keder, a spokesman for the Slovenian police, did not identify the suspect. Keder told The Associated Press the man was released after police made sure that he could not tamper with evidence or leave Slovenia, but offered no details pending an investigation.

The FBI told The AP in Washington that a 23-year old Slovene known as Iserdo was picked up in Maribor in northwestern Slovenia 10 days ago, after lengthy investigation by Slovenian police, FBI and Spanish authorities.

His arrest comes about five months after Spanish police broke up the massive cyberscam, arresting three of the alleged ringleaders who operated the Mariposa botnet, which stole credit cards and online banking credentials. The botnet -- a network of infected computers -- appeared in December 2008 and infected hundreds of companies and at least 40 major banks.

Botnets are networks of PCs that have been infected by a virus, remotely hijacked from their owners, often without their owners' knowledge, and put into the control of criminals.

The Mariposa botnet, which has been dismantled, was easily one of the world's biggest. It spread to more than 190 countries, according to the researchers who helped take it down after examining it in the spring of 2009.

Jeffrey Troy, the FBI's deputy assistant director for the cyber division, said Iserdo's arrest was a major break in the investigation.

On Wednesday, the FBI also identified, for the first time, the three individuals arrested in connection with the case in Spain: Florencio Carro Ruiz, known as "Netkairo;" Jonathan Pazos Rivera, known as "Jonyloleante;" and Juan Jose Bellido Rios, known as "Ostiator.

They are being prosecuted for computer crimes. Officials said the Mariposa...

Sprint Nextel Corp. said Wednesday that it gained subscribers in its latest quarter, the first such gain in three years, as it continued to improve customer service and retention.

However, it continued to lose the most lucrative customers, those who sign two-year contracts, and posted a wider loss for its second quarter due to tax effects.

Sprint shares rose 6 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $4.90 in morning trading. In pre-market trading, shares were up as much as 10 percent before investors fully digested the numbers.

Sprint gained a net 111,000 subscribers in the April to June period, compared to a loss of 257,000 in the same quarter last year. It said it expects to keep adding wireless subscribers for the rest of the year, and reduce the number of contract customers who leave.

Sprint still lost 55,000 subscribers under its own brands -- which include Virgin Mobile and Boost -- in the latest quarter, but made up for that by adding 166,000 wholesale and affiliate subscribers, who buy access to the network through resellers.

It lost 228,000 contract subscribers, a figure much improved from the 991,000 it lost in the same quarter last year.

Sprint has been hemorrhaging subscribers nearly constantly since its 2005 acquisition of Nextel. That network, incompatible with Sprint's, is valued for its walkie-talkie-like push-to-talk function, but is poorly suited to smart phones, and more than a million subscribers have been leaving every year.

The rate of contract subscribers canceling service every month was 1.85 percent in the quarter. That was Sprint's lowest figure ever, though it's still higher than the corresponding figure at AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said the company had some help from the launch of its first "4G" phone, the HTC EVO, which can tap into Clearwire Corp.'s wireless broadband network for faster downloads in some areas....

Ecotality unveiled Tuesday what will be one of the first commercially available charging stations specifically designed for electric vehicles and plug-in electric vehicles.

Victorian doctors and nurses could be equipped with iPads while undertaking their hospital rounds in future, if a trial of wireless technology is successful.

Jeff Bezos isn't just confident you'll want a Kindle e-book reader. The CEO of Amazon.com is bracing for a future in which you'll also want ones for your kid heading to college, your spouse in a book club and perhaps even Grandpa.

Today Amazon is introducing two new Kindles. A WiFi-only version costs $139, and a $189 3G version (utilizing AT&T’s network, just like the last model) now includes WiFi. Amazon will begin taking orders Thursday and the new models will begin shipping Aug. 27 to customers in 140 countries.

The units are 21 percent smaller and 15 percent lighter, with a 20 percent faster refresh rate on its E Ink screen. The screen remains the same 6-inch size as the last two Kindles, though the company claims page turns are faster and contrast is improved. The internal storage on the device is now 4GB, and the battery life is now rated at a month with no wireless, and 10 days with wireless switched on. The company also announced plans for a UK-localized version at £109 and £149, respectively, as well as a UK e-book store.

The keyboard and five-way controls have been streamlined and altered slightly. New software features include an “experimental” Webkit-based browser. “I like building a purpose-built reading device. I think that is where we can make a real contribution,” said Jeff Bezos in the Wall Street Journal.

Today’s digital reading market is larger and more competitive than it was when Amazon unveiled the current generation of Kindle 17 months ago. The First Generation Kindle was released only in the United States on November 19, 2007. Although Amazon releases no sales figures, many analysts believe Amazon has sold over 3 billion units over the last 2.5 years. Apple’s iPad is believed to has sold about the same number of units — in 2.5 months.

Analysts estimate Amazon still is the largest player in the market, but it now includes rivals like Barnes & Noble Inc.’s Nook, which has waged a battle with Amazon over prices. On the high end of the market, Amazon must compete with multi-purpose tablet computers, in particular Apple’s $499+ iPad, which comes with Apple’s competing iBookstore.

In June, Barnes & Noble lowered the price of its Nook to $199, and Amazon lowered the price of the Kindle to $189 just hours later. The WiFi-only Nook is $149. Barnes & Noble released a Nook for Android application, competing with similar Android/iPhone/iPad apps released from Amazon.

Major e-book retailers include Amazon (with their Kindle and their ebook store), Barnes & Noble (with their Nook eReader and their ebook store), and Apple (with their iPad and their ebook store). Google is expected to enter the market later this year.

ABI estimates about 11 million tablets will ship by the end of 2010. Over the next 5 years, Wi-Fi-enabled devices will go from over 500 million in 2009 to nearly 2 billion in 2014, according to In-Stat.

Related e-book articles on Dailywireless include; iPad Subscription Model Rejected?, $150 Android Tablet, 2010: 11 Million Tablets, Kindle Books Outsell Hardcovers, Tablets To Cannibalize Netbooks?, Sony Cuts E-Reader Cost, Kindle’s 70% Solution, Google: King of all Media?, WiFi Nook: $149, Free Download for iOS 4 Ready , Starbucks: Free WiFi + Free Content, Kindle Announces 70% Royalty Option, Media’s Primordial Soup: Tablets, Scribd Does HTML 5 Magazines, Tablets, Tablets, Tablets, E-Magazines: Pay Once, Play Anywhere, The $99 Android Tablet, Barnes & Noble: Self Publishing this Summer, Apple Sells 1M iPads, Google Editions: World’s Largest Virtual Bookstore?, Google Tablet for Verizon?, Android Outsells Apple, Flash Support in Android 2.2, Battle of the eBooks, Dell Android Tablet for AT&T/T-Mobile?, Google Tablet: Android or What?, and Tablet Revolution!

Competition in Canadaa s wireless network took another twist this morning with the launch of Rogersa flanker brand dubbed Chatr and a confirmation that Mobilicity intends to make good on its threat to take the wireless giant to court.

Microsoft’s Street Slide is a new 360 immersive viewer similar to Google’s Street View and Microsoft’s Streetside. But Microsoft’s Street Slide enable users to navigate between immersive 360° panoramas, or “bubbles”. You can move from bubble to bubble with a coherent visual sense of the whole city block by sliding along the strip view of the street.

Microsoft’s Street Slide (above), combines the best aspects of the immersive nature of bubbles with the overview provided by a strip panoramas.

Street Slide’s panoramic view lets you slide along the facades. You can zoom back in to a classic bubble view at any time. A user can also flip the viewpoint to see the other side of the street, or turn corners onto new streets.

The wider view provided by Street Slide offers empty space on the screen below the image of the street. This space may be used to display the logos of businesses, or a map.

Microsoft says it’s being ported to mobile phones like the iPhone and presumably Windows 7 mobile.

Mok Oh, founder of EveryScape, a Cambridge, MA, startup that captures panoramic imagery of buildings inside and out, says Street Slide could make it easier for users to explore an area. EveryScape currently offers a panoramic image app developed using the Bing Maps software development kit.

Microsoft and Blue Line Innovations have announced a partnership designed to give consumers real-time information about their home energy use.

Though the Dell Streak took its inaugural bows on Telefonica's O2 network in the United Kingdom early last month, U.S. consumers are still waiting to get their hands on the hybrid tablet-smartphone. Despite a large volume of pre-orders on the company's web site, Dell has yet to announce pricing or provide a firm U.S. launch date.

The reason for the delay is that the Streak is the most successful pre-sale device that the computer maker has ever offered, according to Dell blogger Lionel Menchaca. "There are many pieces that need to fall into place to release a product like this, and the reality is that we need more time to work out some things," Menchaca wrote Monday.

Definitely a Need

Once Dell launches the device in the United States, the main question will be to what extent it impacts Apple's iPad sales, given that the Streak will offer similar features but be small enough to carry just about anywhere. IDC Research Manager Francisco Jeronimo expects to see the iPad and the Dell Streak successful in two different market segments.

The iPad will be the choice for people with "a clear preference for a bigger screen" who primarily wish to use their devices at home, Jeronimo said. However, another segment of users will be attracted to a smaller go-anywhere device that sports a screen large enough to view web pages in their natural form -- something they are unable to do on a smartphone.

"For these users, the Dell Streak will be a much more attractive proposition," Jeronimo said. "There's definitely a need on the market for a mobile device that falls midway between a netbook and a smartphone."

Unlike the iPad, the Streak will be able to place and receive calls as well as offer support for Adobe Flash 10.1 multimedia...