Ever wondered why the stock Android browser isn’t Chrome? We all certainly have, and now Google have gone and released Chrome Beta for Android. Over time it will become THE Android browser, but for now it is only available for devices running Ice Cream Sandwich. We will try it out when we get our hands on such a device, but for now we will read this review from TechCrunch and enjoy Chrome Beta on PC.
Facebook has filed for its IPO, and crashed the website of the Securities and Exchange Commision. The filing explains that the site has over 483 million daily users and made a profit of $1bn last year. Madness? I think so. I would buy shares, but I’m not a multi-billionaire like Zuck.
Facebook is expected to finally go public this week, with an expected IPO of up to $100,000,000,000. While this isn’t really news in itself, the imminence of the big day has led many people to ponder as to what the stock symbol of Zuckerberg’s baby will be. We have compiled a short list of likely candidates, but feel free to suggest your own in the poll below.
PS: FACE is already taken by Physicians Formula Holdings, Inc., but they are only valued at $40,818,000. If Zuckerberg wanted their symbol, he could just reach into his pocket and come out with a cosmetics company, so we aren’t ruling that out just yet.
Techland takes a look at the new Nintendo Network, Nintendo’s new online service for the 3DS and Wii U. Will it be enough to take on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, or will Nintendo continue on their downward spiral?
Rovio have announced that Angry Birds, our runner-up for Best App of 2011, will launch on Facebook on February 14th (aka Valentine’s Day) having already conquered every other platform under the sun. In the announcement that Time said was sure to kill office productivity, founder Peter Vesterbacka explained that the game would be free to play, but with premium content such as the Mighty Eagle available for the 40% of users who are expected to be willing to pay for such madness. Leaderboards will also find their way on to the Facebook version, cueing mass bird-flinging wars in the Digixav offices.
How will you spend your Valentine’s Day this year? Crushing pigs or with that special someone? Watch the video below to get a teaser of the game and then make a decision. Just don’t forget how angry these birds can get.
Google announced today that anybody old enough to have a Google account may now upgrade to their Facebook-killer of a social network Google+. This is something that we at Digixav have been waiting for since launch, so we hurried over when we heard the news and made ourselves a page. We will do the odd hangout to make podcasts and have lively tech debates and we will find a way for our posts to go into your feeds if you want to put us in a circle. So, if you actually use G+, head on over to our page and +1 us or something. You know you want to.
If you are on O2 or any MVNO that uses their network such as Giffgaff or Tesco Mobile, now is the time to be worried. It has emerged that the network is sending mobile numbers in plaintext to every website you visit as part of the header data. This could potentially allow sites to collect these numbers and do all kinds of things with them. Lewis Peckover has created a page to check for and display such information, and so far only O2 and their MVNOs have been displaying the number. Peckover says on the site:
To answer some questions and responses I’ve seen – no, it’s not anything client-side. O2 seem to be transparently proxying HTTP traffic and inserting this header. Another annoying feature of O2 is that they interfere with the responses from servers too. They downgrade all images and insert a javascript link into the HTML of each page. I’ve talked to customer service about this lovely feature several times, but they never have a clue what I’m talking about, let alone any idea how to opt out/disable it.
We don’t know why this is happening, but until O2 fully understand the problem of why this sensitive data is so easily accessible and how to solve it, be careful of any suspicious sites that may pop up. If you are not on O2 but still see your number in the header, let us know or tell Peckover on Twitter.
Update: Which? Magazine contacted the Information Commissioner’s Office, who had this to say:
Keeping people’s personal information secure is a fundamental principle that sits at the heart of the Data Protection Act and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. When people visit a website via their mobile phone they would not expect their number to be made available to that website. We will now speak to O2 to remind them of their data breach notification obligations, and to better understand what has happened, before we decide how to proceed.
Update 2: O2 have confirmed that this happened over their 3G and WAP networks due to accidental routine maintenance on January 10th. They have reported themselves to Ofcom and released this statement/Q&A.
O2 mobile numbers and web browsing
Security is of the utmost importance to us and we take the protection of our customers’ data extremely seriously.
We have seen the report published this morning suggesting the potential for disclosure of customers’ mobile phone numbers to website owners.
We investigated, identified and fixed it this afternoon. We would like to apologise for the concern we have caused.
Below is a set of Q&As, to answer questions we’ve been receiving. If you have further questions, do leave them in the blog comments and we will do our best to answer as many as possible.
Q: What’s happened with O2 mobile numbers when I browse the internet on my mobile?
A: Every time you browse a website (via mobile or desktop), certain technical information about the machine you are using, is passed to website owners. This happens across the internet, and enables website owners to optimise the site you see. When you browse from an O2 mobile, we add the user’s mobile number to this technical information, but only with certain trusted partners. This is standard industry practice. We share mobile numbers with selected trusted partners for 3 reasons: 1) to manage age verification, which manages access to adult content, 2) to enable third party content partners to bill for premium content such as downloads or ring tones that the customer has purchased 3) to identify customers using O2 services, such as My O2 and Priority Moments. This only happens over 3G and WAP data services, not WiFi.
Q: How long has this been happening?
A: In between the 10th of January and 1400 Wednesday 25th of January, in addition to the usual trusted partners, there has been the potential for disclosure of customers’ mobile phone numbers to further website owners.
Q: Has it been fixed?
A: Yes. It was fixed as of 1400 on Wednesday 25th January 2012.
Q: Which of my information can website owners access?
A: The only information websites had access to is your mobile number, which could not have been linked to any other identifying information we have about customers.
Q: Why did this happen?
A: Technical changes we implemented as part of routine maintenance had the unintended effect of making it possible in certain circumstances for website owners to see the mobile numbers of those browsing their site.
Q: Which customers were affected?
A: It affected customers accessing the internet via their mobile phone on 3G or WAP services, but not WiFi, between 10th of January and 1400 on Wednesday the 25th of January.
Q: Which websites do you normally share my mobile number with?
A: Only where absolutely required by trusted partners who work with us on age verification, premium content billing, such as for downloads, and O2’s own services, have access to these mobile numbers.
Q: The Information Commissioner said he is investigating – what are you doing as part of this?
A: We are in contact with the Information Commissioner’s Office, and we will be co-operating fully. We have also contacted Ofcom.
Megaupload, the supposed file-sharing site of choice for the likes of will.i.am and Kanye West, has been shut down by US officials today as part of one of the largest criminal copyright cases in history. Unscrupulous founder Kim Schmitz, aka Kimble, Kim Dotcom and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, has been arrested at his New Zealand mansion along with 3 other executives among allegations of:
The Department of Justice complaint states that the site is responsible for over half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners and that Dotcom’s team, including CEO Swizz Beatz, are guilty of $175,000,000 in criminal proceeds. Could this be the last we see of Kim Schmitz?
The plot thickens, however, as, in retaliation to the takedown, Anonymous have done their thing and brought down the websites of the Department of Justice, Universal Music, the RIAA and the MPAA in protest. Get your popcorn ready, as this is going to get interesting.
Many websites are blacked out today to protest proposed US legislation that threatens internet freedom: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). From personal blogs to giants like WordPress and Wikipedia, sites all over the web — including Digixav — are asking you to help stop this dangerous legislation from being passed. From 1pm GMT today, Wednesday 18th January 2012, we will black out for 12 hours as part of the largest protest in internet history.
Action needs to be taken against SOPA and PIPA.
Please watch the video below to learn how this legislation will affect internet freedom, and sign up below to let the US know how you feel about the bills.
Thank you.
Here at Digixav we were just alerted to the existence of Wordle, a free site that creates a kind of tag cloud for absolutely any site on the internet with an RSS or Atom feed. The results can be pretty funny, as you will see below.
Give it a go on your favourite sites and have a look at the results. We like it, and we’re sure you will too.
Digixav 
