Comcast subscribers suffer another Internet outage - Digitaltrends.com

A similar DNS-related issue caused Comcast subscribers on the East Coast to lose Internet connectivity one week ago.

For the second time in a week, Comcast customers found themselves unable to connect to the Internet. This time, it was Comcast subscribers in the Midwest who had to endure a Sunday evening without being able to use their Internet service. Portions of four states were affected: Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Minnesota.  The outage began around 8:30 PM on Sunday and lasted until around midnight. Comcast apologized for the problem through a customer service Twitter account.

Just a week before, on the eve of Cyber Monday, Comcast subscribers in areas in and around Washington, D.C. and Boston found they were unable connect to the Internet for several hours throughout the evening.

Both of the outages are blamed on glitches with Comcast’s Domain Name System (DNS), the system which translates IP addresses into their corresponding domain names. In both cases, users were able to reconfigure their Internet settings to use a alternative DNS settings — like OpenDNS or Google’s Public DNS, — in order restore connectivity. Comcast subscribers already configured to use different DNS settings were not affected by the outage. Cable TV and phone service were also unaffected.

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Google buys Widevine to beef up DRM - Fortune

GoogleTV, tablets and smartphones will all benefit from the technology to securely deliver video over the web.

Google (GOOG) added another little pickup to its holiday shopping list this weekend when it purchased a video DRM company called Widevine.  Widevine bills itself as a content delivery optimization and security company that focuses on bringing secure video on a wide array of platforms.

Google's YouTube subsidiary and GoogleTV are the most obvious benefactors of the new technology.  Both need to optimize the quality of their video broadcasts while ensuring that distribution partners know that their content isn't going to be repurposed by pirates.  At the same time, the video needs to be available on many different screens, from smartphones to computers to HDTVs.

In a statement, Google said,

The Widevine team has worked to provide a better video delivery experience for businesses of all kinds: from the studios that create your favorite shows and movies, to the cable systems and channels that broadcast them online and on TV, to the hardware manufacturers that let you watch that content on a variety of devices. By forging partnerships across the entire ecosystem, Widevine has made on demand services more efficient and secure for media companies, and ultimately more available and convenient for users.

Current Widevine customers include AT&T (T), Blockbuster, Netflix (NFLX), NBC.com (GE), Samsung, Telstra, Best Buy (BBY), DISH Network, LOVEFiLM and VUDU.  Google has promised to keep Widevine's existing agreements in place.

The technology won't just help GoogleTV and YouTube but it could also be used to secure and optimize teleconferences and VoIP communication.  It will also help to have Widevine's IP on board.

In a prepared statement, Brian Baker, CEO of Widevine, said, "For many years, Widevine has enabled consumers to access digital entertainment content. Through a combination of content protection and video optimization technologies, we've provided consumers with the highest quality Internet video experience while giving them freedom to watch on a variety of devices. With the recent growth of Internet video and network connected devices, it is increasingly important for technology to provide consumers with the capability to watch what they want, when they want, where they want.

"By working with Google, we are even further committed to the consumer Internet video experience and to the needs of content owners. Widevine will continue to supply the industry with leading video optimization and content protection solutions. We are excited to have access to Google's vast resources as we continue to improve our products, support our customers, and meet the future needs of consumers, content owners, service providers and device manufacturers everywhere."

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Rumor: Rumor: Apple Considering Norman Foster for New Campus Design - The Mac Observer

According to the latest word to come from the rumor mill, Apple is considering hiring Norman Foster to design its new campus on the Cupertino land recently purchased from HP. Mr. Foster is know throughout the world for his striking architectural designs, including London’s “Gherkin.”

El Economista (English translation) reports that Apple is considering linking its current Cupertino campus with the new facility via underground tunnels so staff can move between the buildings without crossing streets or having to go outside. The new campus will apparently be designed to be environmentally friendly as well.

Foster’s “Gherkin” with a little Apple touch

Apple recently purchased some 98 acres of land in Cupertino from HP with plans to expand its headquarters office space. The new land sits along Wolfe Road and butts up against an Apple land purchase from 2006.

“We now occupy 57 buildings in Cupertino and our campus is bursting at the seams,” Apple corporate spokesperson Steve Dowling said. “These offices will give us more space for our employees as we continue to grow.”

Apple isn’t saying who it plans to hire for the new campus design, nor has it said when it expects to start construction. Until Apple makes an official announcement, word that Mr. Foster is working with the company should be considered an unconfirmed rumor.

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Google launches eBookstore with choice of sellers and devices - Ars Technica

We expected Google to launch its upcoming e-book store before the end of the year, and the company announced Monday that the new Google eBookstore is now open for business in the US. Google is touting the "open" nature of its e-books by making them accessible to the widest array of popular e-reader devices, including the iPad, Nook, and Sony Reader. 

Google's new eBookstore works a little differently than other stores—at least when it comes to reading via computer. All purchased titles are kept in Google's cloud-based storage and accessed via a browser. When reading via an iOS or Android-based device, a dedicated app can download and cache titles for reading offline. And for devices compatible with Adobe's DRM-protected e-book formats—including Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook—PDF or EPUB files can be downloaded and transferred to your device using Adobe Editions software.

Those hoping Google meant "DRM-free" when it said "open" will be disappointed, though, as may users of Amazon's popular Kindle e-reader. "Currently, Google eBooks are not compatible with Amazon Kindle devices, though we are open to supporting them in the future," the company noted in a support document.

Google has also partnered with Powell's, Alibris, and participating members of the American Booksellers Association to offer rebranded Google e-books through their respective websites. "You can choose where to buy your e-books like you choose where to buy your print books, and keep them all on the same bookshelf regardless of where you got them," according to Google Books product manager Abraham Murray.

Google said that its library of over 3 million books is one of the largest in the world. "Hundreds of thousands" are on sale (similar to libraries from Amazon, Kobo, and Apple) while the rest are public domain titles available from the Google Books project.

The proposed settlement to sell e-book versions of copyrighted books hasn't yet received final approval from the courts, but the Google eBookstore puts all the technological pieces in to place so additional titles can be made available once it is. Some publishers worried that approval of the deal could create an e-book duopoly between Amazon and Google, but Apple's iBookstore and Barnes & Noble's Kobo-powered store have opened since it was originally announced.

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Julian Assange's Swiss bank account closed - The Guardian

According to reports, Scotland Yard had received the paperwork required to arrest Julian Assange over allegations in Sweden. Photograph: Lennart Preiss/AP

The international pressure on Julian Assange increased today after the banking arm of the Swiss post office announced that it had closed the WikiLeaks founder's account because he had given "false information".

"PostFinance has ended its business relationship with … Julian Paul Assange," the bank said in a statement.

"The Australian citizen provided false information regarding his place of residence during the account opening process."

It said that although Assange had given his residence as an undisclosed address in Geneva, he could offer no proof of being a Swiss resident.

WikiLeaks had advertised the PostFinance account details online to "donate directly to the Julian Assange and other WikiLeaks Staff Defence Fund," giving an account name of "Assange Julian Paul, Geneve".

A spokesman for the bank told the Associated Press the account was closed this afternoon, but added that there would be "no criminal consequences" for misleading authorities.

"That's his money, he will get his money back," he said. "We just close the account and that's it."

PostFinance is the latest institution to sever its ties with Assange and WikiLeaks. Last week, Amazon.com withdrew its hosting of WikiLeaks' cables site and the WikiLeaks.org domain was taken offline by Everydns.net. On Saturday, PayPal, which is owned by the auction website eBay, froze WikiLeaks' account, saying it was being used for "illegal" activity.

It was also reported this afternoon that Scotland Yard had received the paperwork required to arrest Assange over allegations of sexual assault in Sweden.

But the Metropolitan police declined to comment on the claim, attributed by Press Association to unnamed sources.

Swedish prosecutors have sent an international arrest warrant to the Met, seeking the extradition of Assange for questioning on allegations – which he strongly denies – of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.

Jennifer Robinson, one of his lawyers, said his legal team had heard nothing from the police to suggest that their client's arrest was imminent.

Assange, who is staying in Britain, has come under criticism from politicians in the US and around the world after his site started publishing excerpts from a cache of more than 250,000 secret US diplomatic cables last week.

Another of Assange's lawyers, Mark Stephens, yesterday denounced the extradition warrant as a "political stunt" and said his client would fight deportation to Sweden on the grounds that it could lead to him being handed over to the US, where senior politicians have called for him to be executed.

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