HUA HIN, Thailand - The new year heralds
the time of the tech show, and none comes with a
bigger bang than the Consumer Electronics Show in
Las Vegas, which opened on January 8. This year
more than 150,000 tech and gadget enthusiasts are
expected to pass through the doors of the
conference center during the four-day event. With
over 3,000 exhibitors in attendance, it provides
the best opportunity to get a glimpse of the year
to come in the technology industry.
Apple
is no longer present, believing it is above trade
fares, and Microsoft was largely absent, claiming
that its product news
milestones do not align with
the show's January timing. A record number of
automakers made an appearance at the show this
year, including Volkswagen's Audi, GM's Chevrolet,
Fiat's Chrysler, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Toyota's
Lexus, and Subaru; this highlights the growing
marriage between motoring and technology.
This year's array of new weird and
wonderful gadgets included brain-rattling
"motorheadphones", eye-sensing TVs, smart watches,
iPottys for toilet training, and a three-quarter
tonne mechanical spider. On a more serious note
the global leader in cellphone microchips,
Qualcomm Inc, announced improved smartphone
processors and an advanced Snapdragon 800 chip
that will enable handsets to play ultra-high
definition video and advanced gaming graphics.
The battle of the TVs continued as
manufacturers such as LG, Samsung and Panasonic
unveiled fancier, smarter, flatter, and larger 3D
and OLED (organic light-emitting diode) sets.
Cameras were also galore with new offerings from
Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm and Pentax.
The
traditional Microsoft keynote was missing but the
company did not miss the opportunity to showcase
its Surface hybrid tablet with Windows RT. A
punchier Pro version will have the full Windows 8
experience and beefed up hardware, it is due to go
on sale later this month.
A digital
smorgasbord of laptops, netbooks and tablets also
packed the exhibit booths as the tech industry
bounds full steam into 2013.
Security A wave of cyber-attacks
on US banks last year was previously blamed on a
rogue hacker group, but the US government has now
found another culprit; Iran. Several major banks
were targeted including Wells Fargo, JP Morgan
Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and HSBC. The
attacks involved inundating the banks' websites
with false traffic, known as distributed
denial-of-service attacks.
Security
researchers commented on the sophistication of the
attacks which, instead of targeting individual
machines, engineered networks of computers in
server data centers, greatly amplifying the
effects of the attacks. According to one firm, the
amount of bandwidth that flooded the websites was
very large, and much larger than in other attacks,
and in a sense unprecedented.
An unknown
group called the "cyber fighters of Izzad-din Al
Qassam" has claimed responsibility for the
attacks, stating that it was retaliating for the
release of a controversial video posted to YouTube
that mocked the Prophet Mohammad. The US
government believes that the group is a cover for
Iran retaliating for the Stuxnet, Duqu and Flame
cyber-attacks orchestrated by the US. However, it
has yet to release any technical evidence to
support the claim.
The concern now is that
hackers are hijacking cloud-based networks, often
leased out to private companies by larger ones
such as Amazon and Google. Vulnerabilities and
poorly maintained corporate cloud networks are
being exploited by hackers to create their own
cloud-based cyber-weapons which cause vastly
greater damage.
Industry A visit
by Google chief Eric Schmidt to North Korea drew a
reaction from the US government and the media.
Schmidt joined a delegation of nine individuals as
part of what has been called a private
humanitarian effort.
The Google boss urged
North Korea to end its self-imposed isolation and
allow its citizens to use the Internet, warning of
further economic decline unless it loosens its
grip on the web and mobile communications.
Naturally the search giant would also like to get
its fingers on a virgin market of 24 million
people, but one step at a time. Also on the agenda
was a plea to end nuclear and missile tests, which
have caused global tension and the imposition of
sanctions.
A US State Department spokesman
said "Frankly, we don't think the timing of this
is particularly helpful, but they are private
citizens and they are making their own decisions.
They are not carrying any messages from us."
Software Microsoft is in merge
mode and has realized that having two messaging
platforms is counterproductive. For that reason
the company is to ditch the 13-year-old Live
Messenger, previously known as MSN Messenger, in
favor of Skype, which it acquired in 2011.
Warnings to Messenger's 100 million users have
been sent out and the retirement date for the
platform has been set at March 15.
From
then on only Skype will be available, and users
will need to sign in to that instead; previous
contacts will be imported. Instant messaging has
come on leaps and bounds since the early days of
AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ, and software can
now be used for video calls, VoIP, and mobile text
messaging. Microsoft wants to harness this
functionality and have it all in one place, which
is Skype.
Martin J Young is an
Asia Times Online correspondent based in
Thailand.
(Copyright 2013 Asia Times
Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about sales, syndication and
republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
Security
