LONDON: Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has revealed that the company is planning to bring its flagship Android tablet to the market in the next six months to rival Apple's iPad. "In the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality," Schmidt told an Italian newspaper. Android's recent sales surge has been driven by cheaper tablets such as Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble's Nook. Google's Nexus devices, though, are hi-tech flagship devices that often include technologies that even Apple can take years to catch up with, The Daily Mail reports. According to the paper, it is not clear whether Schmidt's comments specifically refer to an own-brand tablet, but tech insiders have interpreted Schmidt's comments as meaning Google will bring out a tablet equivalent to its own-branded Nexus Android phones. 
Nexus phones were the first phones to incorporate an NFC chip, used for wireless payments, a technology that other phone makers have since added, and which the current iPhone 4S still lacks. According to the report, the new tablet is already in production at Apple's Chinese suppliers. The screen resolution, reportedly equal to the sharp Retina display in iPhone, but much larger, could be a huge selling point for the tablet in a market crowded with similar screens.

Berlin Hacking Conference: Hackers could shut down train lines
Dec 31, 2011
SOURCE : ET AGENCIES 

BERLIN: Hackers who have shut down websites by overwhelming them with web traffic could use the same approach to shut down the computers that control train switching systems, a security expert said at a hacking conference in Berlin. Stefan Katzenbeisser, professor at Technische Universitat Darmstadt in Germany, said switching systems were at risk of "denial of service" attacks, which could cause long disruptions to rail services. "Trains could not crash, but service could be disrupted for quite some time," Katzenbeisser told on the sidelines of the convention. "Denial of service" campaigns are one of the simplest forms of cyber attack: hackers recruit large numbers of computers to overwhelm the targeted system with Internet traffic. Hackers have used the approach to attack sites of government agencies around the world and sites of businesses. Train switching systems, which enable trains to be guided from one track to another at a railway junction, have historically been separate from the online world, but communication between trains and switches is handled increasingly using wireless technology. Katzenbeisser said GSM-R, a mobile technology used for trains, is more secure than the usual GSM, used in phones, against which security experts showed a new attack at the convention. 
"Probably we will be safe on that side in coming years. The main problem I see is a process of changing ... keys. This will be a big issue in the future, how to manage these keys safely," Katzenbeisser said. 
The software encryption 'keys', which are needed for securing the communication between trains and switching systems, are downloaded to physical media like USB sticks and then sent around for installing - raising the risk of them ending up in the wrong hands.

Experts considering to develop an app for running a country
Dec 31, 2011
SOURCE: ET Bureau

LONDON: Britain's government says experts are considering developing a bespoke iPad app that would deliver key data straight to Prime Minister David Cameron's tablet computer. Officials said Wednesday that the idea is being discussed, though Cameron's Downing Street office declined to comment on the details. The Times of London newspaper reported the app could include statistics and information from government departments, real time news and Twitter updates. Cameron has previously discussed his affection for his iPad, but acknowledged he needed ``a little bit of help from someone in IT'' to set up the gadget. The British chief has frequently championed the country's technology sector and hailed the so-called Silicon Roundabout cluster of digital companies in east London.