Techno-politics

Amazon Cloud Services Cleared for Government Use

Amazon Cloud Services Cleared for Government Use

Amazon.com Inc has been given a security clearance by the U.S. government that will make it easier for federal agencies to use its cloud computing services. Amazon Web Services, known as AWS, was certified to operate as a cloud service provider for three years under the government's new FedRAMP program. The accreditation ...

Senate: Apple Paid No Taxes on $74 Billion in Revenue

Senate: Apple Paid No Taxes on $74 Billion in Revenue

Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to testify before a Senate subcommittee Tuesday to refute charges the company paid no taxes on tens of billions of dollars in overseas income. The Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is expected to release findings Tuesday claiming Apple didn't pay taxes on at least $74 billion ...

U.S. Air Force Will Save $50 Million Over 10 Years via iPad Deployment

U.S. Air Force Will Save $50 Million Over 10 Years via iPad Deployment

The U.S. Air Force is expecting to save a serious amount of cash as a result of deploying 18,000 iPads. With the iPads brought in to replace heavy, paper-bound flight manuals, a spokesman for the Air Force's Air Mobility Command has said that the deployment will save $750,000 per year on fuel alone and "well over $50 ...

Apple Overwhelmed by Police Demands to Decrypt iPhones, Creates Waiting List

Apple Overwhelmed by Police Demands to Decrypt iPhones, Creates Waiting List

Apple receives so many police demands to decrypt seized iPhones that it has created a "waiting list" to handle the deluge of requests, CNET has learned. Court documents show that federal agents were so stymied by the encrypted iPhone 4S of a Kentucky man accused of distributing crack cocaine that they turned to Apple for ...

3D Printing is Way Scarier Than Plastic Guns

3D Printing is Way Scarier Than Plastic Guns

Ever the publicity hound, Sen. Chuck Schumer, who obviously has no idea what additive manufacturing actually is, came out big and strong against "stomach-churning” 3D printed plastic guns last week. “Everyone’s seen the movie ‘In The Line of Fire,’ where one of the great bad guys, [played by] John Malkovich, ...

Senator John McCain Pushes to End the Cable Bundle

Senator John McCain Pushes to End the Cable Bundle

Arizona senator John McCain, introduced legislation that would force cable operators and other TV providers to split up their so-called programming bundles and instead offer TV shows in smaller, more affordable packages and as a la carte channels. His legislation, called the Television Consumer Freedom Act, also would ...

DOJ: We Don’t Need Warrants for Email, Facebook Chats

DOJ: We Don’t Need Warrants for Email, Facebook Chats

The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI believe they don't need a search warrant to review Americans' e-mails, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and other private files, internal documents reveal.  Government documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and provided to CNET show a split over ...

Syrian Internet Back After 19-Hour Blackout

Syrian Internet Back After 19-Hour Blackout

The internet in Syria appears to have returned after a nationwide blackout knocked the country offline for more than 19 hours.  Monitoring company Renesys noted signs of activity at around 14:30 GMT (17:30 local time) on Wednesday.  Local state-run media had reported earlier that a "fault in optical fibre cables" was to ...

Jon Rubinstein Joins Board of Qualcomm

Jon Rubinstein Joins Board of Qualcomm

According to sources close to the situation, well-known tech exec Jon Rubinstein will be joining the board of Qualcomm, the San Diego-based chipmaker that has gotten a big boost of late for its role in the explosion of mobile devices.  Rubinstein is an interesting and logical choice for Qualcomm, having been a high-profile ...

Senate Passes Bill Letting States Tax Internet Purchases

Senate Passes Bill Letting States Tax Internet Purchases

The Senate sided with traditional retailers and financially strapped state and local governments by passing a bill that would widely subject online shopping — for many a largely tax-free frontier — to state sales taxes.  The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 69 to 27, getting support from Republicans and Democrats ...