Facebook report shows where and how often it blocked illegal content

 

Facebook's plan isn't a secret: Mark Zuckerberg wants to connect the world, be it through the website proper or a buzzy, expensive mobile messaging app. Breaking down communication barriers also means some of the company's millions of users bump against local laws because of what they post, and Facebook's second government transparency report offers a look at just how often that happens.These days, you can't think of online censorship without thinking of Turkey. The Erdogan government just recently undid a country-wide ban on Twitter, but still hasn't reinstated access to YouTube... despite what the courts have said. Between July and December 2013, Facebook restricted access to 2,014 bits of content because they ran afoul of laws that prohibit "defamation or criticism of Ataturk or the Turkish state." Think that's bad? India was the leader in content restrictions with 4,765, again because users shared things that criticized "a religion or the state." India's population is vastly higher than Turkey's though, so it's no surprise they've got more restrictions under their belts. But! If we look at the ratio of content restrictions to monthly active users in those countries (roughly 33 million in Turkey and 100 million in India), then Turkey seems like the most censorship-friendly country on the list. That's probably not a surprise to the people who live there.

DirecTV's Genie DVR extenders clip the cord with a wireless version

DirecTV's Genie DVR setup will serve up to eight rooms in your house (four at once) but what if you're trying to get TV outside, or in a room that's not already wired? It's not the most common situation now, but if that's an issue, DirecTV is matching the wireless set-top boxes coming from Dish and AT&T with one of its own. The Wireless Genie Mini just needs power (and a wireless bridge connected to the main DVR) and it's ready to stream live or DVR'd TV. It's been available as a test in several markets for a few months now, but now anyone in the US can get one for $99, and if you already have the bridge, there's no need for an installer to come out. We liked the Genie system when we reviewed it and thought it was a good competitor to Dish's Hopper DVR system -- we'll see if this year's battle over wireless boxes helps guide any customers to one service or the other.

HTC One (M8) for Sprint is using Harman/Kardon speakers

HTC's affair with Beats ended a while back, but is the smartphone maker courting another popular audio company? Harman/Kardon is a hi-fi company that makes anything from headphones to car audio and it seems that Sprint's HTC One (M8) has BoomSound speakers manufactured by just that company.

It seems that units sold by Sprint already have the speakers in them, but HTC hasn’t closed the deal completely, which is why the company isn't bragging about the special speakers just yet.

 

Harman/Kardon option in the Settings menu of a Sprint HTC One (M8)

XDA Developers user Rydah805 posted a screenshot featuring a Harman/Kardon option in the settings menu. We'll have to wait until HTC closes the deal to find out if it has any plans to use H/K speakers on other smartphones, especially other One (M8) phones.

LG's Odin chip to soon go into mass production

More than one year after rumors about LG entering the chipset businessstarted coming the company's 8-core Odin chip is about to enter mass production. As you may remember, the chipset will be based on ARM's big.LITTLE architecture with four Cortex-A15 cores using and four low-powered Cortex-A7 cores. The whole thing should utilize 28 nanometer manufacturing process

According to reports in the Korean media, even though the SoC isn't too far away from entering mass production, the LG G3 won't be rocking it. In fact, rumors have it LG is intends to use Odin to power its more budget offerings like the L-series.

LG is said to be partnering with TSMC, the same chip maker who is working on the Apple's A8 processor. Odin is rumored to be available in both quad-core and octa-core versions. The quad-core version of the chipset will allegedly pack an ARM Mali-T604 GPU. The octa-core one on the other hand, is said to sport ARM’s latest Mali-T760 GPU.

Later last year, the first benchmarks of the octa-core version of Odin surfaced. They suggested the chipwas quite a performer, even though it was clocked at low speeds - 1GHz maximum.

Samsung extends tablet market share to 23%, Apple still leads

According to a report in ZDNet Korea, Samsung increased its tablet market share to 23% in the first quarter this year. Unnamed senior executives from the Korean giant reveal that it shipped 14 million tablets during Q1.

The above sales number is higher than the one from the previous quarter by 200,000 units. This is hardly a surprise as the company introduced the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro lineup and the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 in early January during CES. Samsung sold a total of 40 million tablets in 2013.

Samsung’s latest share of the tablet market is still lagging behind Apple and the 30% it commands thanks to the iPad family. The Korean company aims to overtake its Cupertino-based rival this year by moving as many as 100 million tablets.

The manufacturer plans to achieve the feat by introducing tablets to just about every price range – from entry-level devices like Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite, all the way to fully loaded full-size models like theGalaxy Note 12.2 LTE. The recent launch of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 family is yet another indication of the strategy at work.

Lenovo to out $130 Golden Warrior S8 octa-core smartphone

Promo shots of the upcoming Lenovo Golden Warrior S8 smartphone have emerged out of China, and what's more impressive than its octa-core MediaTek chipset is its alleged price of just $130.

Even for the typically low-overhead Chinese manufacturers, it's quite a low price to pay for a Gorilla Glass 3-covered 5.3" display of 720p display, 16GB of expandable memory, 2GB of RAM, 13MP/5MP camera combo, and 2,000mAh battery. By the looks of it, it even has dual-SIM support.

   

Furthermore, the 1.4GHz MediaTek octa-core processor inside the Golden Warrior is of the company's recent "true octa-core" outing - the first of its kind that runs all eight cores simultaneously, rather than just four at a time.

Perhaps the only ding on the device is that it runs a somewhat dated Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS, but if the incredible price turns out to be true, it becomes a relative non-factor. Unfortunately, it's unlikely the Golden Warrior S8 will see life outside of China, but here's hoping Lenovo will release a capable low-cost variant for the Western market, should it prove successful at home.

Samsung Galaxy S5 also region-locked, here are the details

Just like the Galaxy Note 3 before it, the Samsung Galaxy S5 packs a region lock. To get rid of it, Galaxy S5 customers need not only to activate, but also make a cumulative calls over 5 minutes in their region before transferring and using it overseas carriers.

Back in November last year, Samsung issued a statement detailing the locks. The phonemaker stated that the region lock stems grey market imports. The 5 minutes of voice calls have to be made using a SIM card from a carrier from the designated region.

Here is what's stated on the European Galaxy S5 box:

European Model: This product should be activated with a SIM card issued from a mobile operator within Europe. (as defined EU/EEA, Switzerland and the following Non-EEA countries Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.M), Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, Serbia and Vatican City.) To use SIM cards from other regions, a cumulative call over five minutes must first be made with the SIM card from European operators.

Countries in the European Economic Area (EEA):

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania , Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK, Switzerland, Croatia