Did Google Earth error send murderer to wrong address?

Dennis and Merna Koula.

(Credit:
CBS News.com Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

Sometimes, even after a murder conviction, some see reasonable doubt that the conviction was a righteous one.

Such is the case in the murder of Dennis and Merna Koula in La Cross, Wisc, a quiet community.

Their son Eric was found guilty and is currently serving two consecutive life-sentences for the murder of the wealthy couple.

It was Eric Koula who found the body. It was Eric Koula whose alibi didn't stand up. Eric Koula was broke.

Yet as CBS News' "48 Hours" reported, there are some inconsistencies that some can't quite put aside. They include John Christophersen, a special agent at the time with the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

It was said at the trial that Eric Koula treated his father as an ATM. There was a $50,000 check that he cashed right after his parents died.

It was a check from his father. Eric Koula had forged the signature -- something he claimed to have done many times.

But, as his attorney said at the trial: "What sort of an idiot would put a check in the bank the morning after they killed their parents, knowing that bank records are easy to get?"

To some eyes, the murder seemed like a professional hit. No valuables were taken. And there was no DNA evidence to implicate Eric Koula.

Moreover, there was another idea that investigators began to pursue at the time. A neighbor of the Koula's, Steve Burgess, freely admitted that he had received death threats. He was the president of a local bank.

More Technically Incorrect

And, as the CBS News investigation indicated (embedded, but there are some gaps in the audio), if you use Google Earth to locate Burgess' house, you get a surprise.

"48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant said: "In fact, when you Google Earth Steve Burgess' address...the zoom into the house goes to the Koula's house, not to Steve Burgess' house."

Police say they discounted the threatening caller, as they located him and he had an alibi. But then could that individual have hired someone to do any allegedly required dirty work, a person who used Google Earth to go to the wrong house?

This story brings to mind the even more recent case of the alleged murder of Rodrigo Diaz. His friends claim that his GPS had led him to the wrong house.

The owner of that house allegedly became annoyed or threatened by the presence of Diaz and his friends. This resulted in Diaz being shot in what lawyers for the accused, Phillip Sailors, say was a case of self-defense.

The jury in the trial of Eric Koula believed there was enough evidence to convict him.

Others look at the evidence they see on Google Earth and still have their doubts.

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LA Microsoft Store not mobbed, but Surface has a following

The Surface Pro

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

LOS ANGELES -- The launch of the Surface Pro at the Microsoft Store in LA's Century City was a relatively low-key affair compared with the debut of the Surface RT.

When I arrived just after 10 a.m. there was a small line (see photo). That said, both versions -- 64GB and 128GB -- of the
Surface Pro had sold out immediately.

Of course, no one would say how many units were set aside for first-day sales, and the lines didn't exactly snake around the Westfield Century City mall. So, it wasn't like a Depression-era run on a bank.

And back in October the lines were longer and the atmosphere a bit more frenzied when the Surface RT launched.

On Saturday, there was a small line outside the Century City Microsoft Store near Beverly Hills. The Surface Pro sold out immediately at the store.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

But like the RT rollout, there was a fixation on and interest in the product not unlike what's found at an Apple event. I saw more than a few customers glued to the device for 30 minutes or even an hour.

In other words, Surface has a following. An analogy I would use is the Chevy Volt. Recently in LA, the Chevy Volt is gaining ground, driven by a small but growing (and fervent) customer base.

And Microsoft Store sales reps know what they're talking about. A patient, focused rep gave me a long, hands-on explanation of the
Windows 8 touch interface and demonstrated a new touch-enabled paint app, among other apps.

Finally, note that there are other enticing touch-screen Windows 8 devices at the store, including the 2.3-pound Acer Aspire S7 and the HP Spectre XT TouchSmart. And that's good for Windows 8 overall.

Looking at the line from inside the store.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

The Surface Pro isn't the only cool Windows 8 device on sale at the Microsoft Store. The 11.6-inch Acer Aspire S7 touch-screen laptop is a tempting alternative to the Pro.

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

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Yelp CEO takes $1 salary

Add Jeremy Stoppelman, chief executive of business reviews site Yelp, to the list of CEOs who are willing to work for $1.

Stoppelman will take a $1 base salary for 2013, according to information in Yelp's 8-K document filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The itsy-bitsy take-home pay makes Stoppelman just like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, who have also preferred to work for just a buck.

Both Stoppelman and Chief Operating Officer Geoff Donaker reduced their base salaries to $1 for 2013. Stoppelman's 2012 salary was $300,000, according to public documents. The Yelp CEO made $220,000 in 2009, 2010, and 2011.

Of course, Stoppelman isn't working for free. Far from it. The chief executive's real payment for 2013 consists of 665,000 options that will vest at different rates.

One twenty-fourth of the 90,000 options Stoppelman was granted will vest each month for the next two years, which works out to be a relatively generous vesting schedule. When all 90,000 of those shares vest in 2 years, they'll be worth around $2 million, should Yelp's stock price remain stable.

Yelp's value, however, is a huge variable as share prices have bounced around between $14 and $32 a share since the company's initial public offering 11 months ago. Just this week, the reviews business bummed out investors when it reported a net loss of $5.3 million for the fourth quarter. Yelp's share price took an instant hit but recovered to close today at $21.85 a share.

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Top five Thunderbolt storage devices: Performance meets capacity

The Thunderbolt technology can be applied to a lot of things, but currently, the most popular use is in storage products. In this regard, it's similar to USB 3.0 but offers about twice the transfer speed, and you can also daisy-chain as many as five storage devices together using a single Thunderbolt port without degrading the data rates.

Despite the fact that now Thunderbolt has gone multiplatform, most Thunderbolt storage devices are geared toward Macs. And their pricing, while progressively getting lower since Thunderbolt was first introduced a few years ago, is still quite high when compared to USB storage devices. The good news is now most, if not all, Thunderbolt storage devices on the market come with a Thunderbolt cable included, which would cost another $50 if you had to buy one yourself.

That said, if you own a Thunderbolt-enabled computer -- especially a
Mac -- and need a superfast storage device for professional needs such as video editing or backups, Thunderbolt storage is worth the investment. The following are the top five storage devices of this type, designed for desktop use, that I have reviewed, sorted with the most recently reviewed first. This list will be updated on a regular basis as I review more of them.

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LaCie 5big Thunderbolt
Introduced at
CES 2013, LaCie's 5big Thunderbolt is the first five-bay Thunderbolt storage device that doesn't offer RAID 5. Instead, it's just a JBOD device that relies on Mac OS's software RAID to manage its internal drives. This is similar to the Pegasus J4 and hence offers only RAID 0 and RAID 1. Since this is a five-bay device, the best use of it is a dual-RAID configuration with two drives in RAID 1 for important data and the other three in RAID 0 for fast access.

The trade-off for the lack of RAID 5 support is the fact that the 5big Thunderbolt is comparatively affordable, with the 20TB version costing $2,200. The RAID 5-capable Pegasus R6 offers just 12TB at the same price.

In my testing, the 5big Thunderbolt offered excellent performance, making it one of the fastest storage device on the market. The 5big Thunderbolt also comes in a 10TB version that costs $1,200. Read the full review of the LaCie 5big Thunderbolt.

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WD My Book VelociRaptor Duo
The My Book VelociRaptor Duo is the second Thunderbolt drive from Western Digital, the first being the WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo. Unlike the Thunderbolt Duo, which uses energy-efficient WD Green hard drives, the new My Book uses two of the latest 1TB VelociRaptor hard drives in RAID 0 as its storage. In case you haven't heard, WD VelociRaptor internal hard drives are arguably the fastest and most reliable on the market. The result: the My Book VelociRaptor Duo is by far the fastest dual-bay Thunderbolt drive I've tested. This, plus the fact that a Thunderbolt cable is included, makes the My Book VelociRaptor totally worth its $850 street price.

And since the drive can offer top performance only when its two internal drives are set up in RAID 0, you should get two of them, daisy-chained together, for backup purposes. Read the full review of the WD My Book VelociRaptor Duo.

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Promise Pegasus J4 The Pegasus J4 is a somewhat smaller version of the LaCie 5big Thunderbolt above. This is because it uses 2.5-inch (laptop) drives, and while it's a four-bay device, it also doesn't support RAID 5. Instead, it also a JBOD storage device that relies on the Mac operating system to offer RAID 1 or RAID 0.

The advantage of the J4 is the fact that's very compact, just about the size of the
Mac Mini. It offered very fast performance in my testing, considering it supports laptop hard drives, which tend to be slower than desktop drives. Advanced users can also use it with solid-state drives (SSDs) for even faster performance. Read the full review of the Pegasus J4.

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WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo
The WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo is the first Thunderbolt storage device from Western Digital. The drive is basically the Thunderbolt version of the My Book Studio Edition II. It has two drive bays accessible from the top. Inside, you'll find two SATA hard drives of 2TB, 3TB, or 4TB each, so the Duo can offer 4TB, 6TB, or 8TB of storage space when formatted in RAID 0. In RAID 1, you'll have half of that.

The My Book is shipped with low-powered hard drives, an in my testing, it was the slowest Thunderbolt storage devices on the market, although still much faster than any other non-Thunderbolt external hard drive. What makes it one of the best deals, however, is its pricing. At $800 for 8TB, it's the most affordable among all Thunderbolt storage devices, in terms of cost per gigabyte. Read the full review of the WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo.

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Promise Pegasus R6
The Promise Pegasus R6 is the thoroughbred of the Thunderbolt standard. It's the first Thunderbolt storage device, and up to now it's still the fastest of its type. On top of that, it's one of the only two multiple-bay Thunderbolt storage devices (the other being the four-bay Pegasus R4) on the market that has built-in hardware RAID and therefore offers all types of RAID configurations, including advanced RAID setups such as RAID 5 or RAID 6. The device's six included hard drives are user-serviceable and can be hot-swappable in case failure occurs.

The negatives of the R6 include its high cost (about $2,200 for 12TB), and the noise and the vibration it generates during operation. But if you want something that's for now the be-all and end-all of Thunderbolt-based storage, this is the one. Read the full review of the Promise Pegasus R6.

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Looking for specs and pricing? Compare these storage devices head-to-head.

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Tesla rolls out remote app for Model S

Tesla's new app will let Model S owners view their cars' charging status.

(Credit:
Tesla)

When we reviewed the Tesla Model S, we came away very impressed by the driving character and the cabin electronics, but some features, common on other high-end or electric cars, were missing. Tesla made up for one of those features by making a smartphone app available that will let Model S owners view their battery levels.

These types of apps have become common for electric
cars; Ford offers MyFord Mobile for the Focus Electric and Honda has its HondaLink EV for the Fit EV. The electric car includes a mobile data connection, which owners can use to view everything from battery status to the car's location. These apps often include features such as remotely starting or stopping charging, if the car is currently plugged in, and locking or unlocking the doors.

Tesla's app does not seem to be as expansive in its utility as some. In a blog post, the company says drivers can monitor charging, start climate control, and honk the horn. The mobile data connection means that the app will work anywhere the phone has coverage, although if the car is parked somewhere with no mobile data coverage, the app will not work.

An image of the app released by Tesla also seems to show the car's location.

Tesla demonstrated one of the virtues of the Model S in its implementation of the new app, its ability to deliver software updates to the car remotely. Past updates have covered bug fixes and the addition of voice command.

The Tesla app is available for iOS and
Android.

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Zillow's new Digs app offers remodeling ideas, advice

Zillow Digs, the real estate aggregator's new app for home improvement information.

(Credit:
Zillow)

Online real estate listing aggregator Zillow launched an app today that aims to help home shoppers and home buyers with their home improvement projects.

Available for the
iPad and the Web, Zillow Digs is a free app designed to offer inspiration as well as information about remodeling projects. The free app lets users browse thousands of photos of bathroom, kitchen, and outdoor projects, as well as get estimates on the cost of the actual project based on the user's location.

The app also allows users to create, save, and share Pinterest-like boards containing their ideas and interact with other users who may have similar ideas. The app also offers connections to local industry professionals, such as architects, contractors, and designers.

"Tens of millions of home buyers shop for homes on Zillow each month, and home improvement is a natural next step for us in consumer empowerment and transparency of information to help people make smarter decisions," Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff said in a statement. This first-of-its-kind remodeling cost estimate algorithm was created by Zillow's industry-leading team of economists and data analysts who produce extensive housing data and research."

Founded in 2004 and launched as a Web site in 2006, Zillow has a sales and rental database on more than 110 million U.S. homes. The company's revenue comes from real estate professionals' subscription fees and advertising.

In 2008, the company launched Mortgage Marketplace, which lets prospective borrowers get quotes anonymously and lenders get leads for free.

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Hackers hit U.S. Department of Energy

The U.S. Department of Energy said that hackers have stolen personal data of its employees and contractors.

The U.S. Department of Energy has confirmed that its computer systems were hacked into last month. According to The New York Times, the federal agency sent around an internal e-mail on Friday telling its employees about the cyberattack.

"The Department of Energy has just confirmed a recent cyber incident that occurred in mid-January which targeted the Headquarters' network and resulted in the unauthorized disclosure of employee and contractor Personally Identifiable Information," the e-mail said.

The agency said that it is working to figure out the "nature and scope of the incident" but that so far it believes "no classified data was compromised." It's unclear which divisions within the Department of Energy were attacked or who was behind the hack.

The Department of Energy is in charge of much of the country's vital infrastructure, such as energy production, nuclear reactor production, and radioactive waste disposal. It has troves of classified and sensitive data that if leaked could be detrimental to the country's security. According to Reuters, the most highly classified information is stored on networks that aren't connected to the Internet.

The head of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano recently announced that she believes a wave of cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure is a serious possibility. Dubbing such an event a "cyber 9/11," Napolitano warned that cyberterrorists could take down the nation's power grid, water infrastructure, transportation networks, and financial networks.

While it doesn't seem like the January cyberattack on the Department of Energy compromised any data or infrastructure, it does show that hackers were able to breach the government's computer systems. In the e-mail, the agency said it is working to fortify itself against future attacks.

"Once the full nature and extent of this incident is known, the Department will implement a full remediation plan," the e-mail said. "The Department is also leading an aggressive effort to reduce the likelihood of these events occurring again. These efforts include leveraging the combined expertise and capabilities of the Department's Joint Cybersecurity Coordination Center to address this incident, increasing monitoring across all of the Department's networks and deploying specialized defense tools to protect sensitive assets."

CNET contacted the Department of Energy for comment. We'll update the story when we get more information.

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What was that BlackBerry commercial you just saw?

So did a clown just explode, or what?

(Credit:
BlackBerry)

Okay, so what now?

BlackBerry opted to go with the whimsical and fantastical with its Super Bowl commercial, showing what the new BlackBerry Z10
can't do instead of what it can do. To say it's a little strange would be an understatement.

Indeed, it's a bold choice, one that some would argue might be a little head-scratching. But it's one that BlackBerry Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben believes will turn some heads and get consumers primed for a launch that's still more than a month away.

"The Super Bowl is a big wake-up call saying BlackBerry is back," Boulben told CNET. "It says there's something worth checking out."

With the BlackBerry phones generally getting good reviews (read CNET's review here), much of the company's success will ride on how well it markets the phone, and how strongly the carriers support it in their stories and with their sales reps. There are many examples of companies that failed despite great products and services, and BlackBerry is looking to avoid their past mistakes.

Which is where the Super Bowl ad comes in. Boulben says the commercial is a one-off event to take advantage of the Super Bowl's massive reach. The commercial is basically everything Boulben has said he wouldn't do for the campaign.

The commercial offers an early glimpse at the Z10 before things get weird. After he starts using the phone, the new BlackBerry customer briefly erupts in flames, grows elephant legs, teleports himself with a colorful poof, and turns an out-of-control truck into thousands of rubber ducks. The tagline: "In 30 seconds, it's quicker to show you what it can't do."

The ad asks interested viewers to check out BlackBerry's Z10 Web site to find out more information about the features of the smartphone.

With so many splashy commercials filling the airwaves during the Super Bowl, BlackBerry wanted to do something different from the traditional ad showing off features such as the Z10's Hub or Peek. Boulben, however, said the testing on the commercial has been positive. He noted it would be a "one-off" spot unrelated to the rest of the campaign.

"We wanted to do something that breaks the conventions of the category," he said. "If you do a traditional commercial at the Super Bowl, it will fall flat."

While the Z10 has launched elsewhere around the world, and will debut in Canada next week, the U.S. will be among the last countries to get the phone, thanks in part to the more rigorous testing process that it undergoes here. So BlackBerry has to deal with keeping the interest level high until mid-March, which is roughly when the Z10 should arrive in carrier stories.

Boulben said that during the dead period, he will attempt to keep interest going through online campaigns, mobile ads, YouTube, and social networks. The company will seed devices to celebrities and other high-profile figure to build buzz for the products. The goal is to drive traffic to the BlackBerry Web site, and then on to the pre-registration pages run by the carriers.

BlackBerry won't start its full campaign, titled "Keep Moving," until the Z10 launches next month, Boulben said, noting that he wanted to maximize the impact of the ads by having the smartphone available to consumers. The campaign would be more traditional and highlight the practical advantage of the features found on
BlackBerry 10, he said.

BlackBerry would launch its campaign alongside the carriers, he said. But he wouldn't specify just how enthusiastically the carriers would support the new smartphones. He added that it was a good sign that the carriers came out during launch day to commit to the company, which is rarity in the industry.

"Behind the scenes, our teams and their teams are working night and day together," he said.

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Apple updates Java for Snow Leopard following blockage

Following another recent security issue with Java, Apple issued an update that added the latest versions to the system's browser plug-in blacklist to protect users from any potential threats; however, in doing so it silently blocked a number of people from accessing required Java content, such as banking and financial Web sites.

To manage this problem, if you need Java, then the latest version from Oracle (version 1.7.0_13) that was released yesterday should have addressed the security holes and get your system back up and running. You can download it for OS X Lion or Mountain Lion from Oracle at its Java Downloads page.

Unfortunately the Java 7 runtime is not available for those using
Snow Leopard, for which the latest version is Java 6. However, Apple has issued its own separate update to Java 6 for Snow Leopard to address the vulnerabilities in this version. The update, which should be available through its Software Update service, should run automatically or can be invoked by going to the Apple menu.

Given the stream of recent security issues with Java, if you don't need Java, then you might consider avoiding using it on your system, or at least be sure to disable the Web plug-in for it. While Java is a powerful and useful runtime that a number of programs use, the avenue for exploiting it is almost exclusively through the Web plug-in component of the runtime, so if you find you do need it installed, then you might at least consider disabling the plug-in in the Java Control Panel (or in Apple's Java Preferences utility for Java SE 6).

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Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or !
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.

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Crave Ep. 107: Madden NFL 13 predicts Super Bowl XLVII

Madden NFL 13 predicts Super Bowl XLVII, Ep. 107

Subscribe to Crave:

iTunes (HD) | iTunes (SD) | iTunes (HQ)

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Sorry, San Francisco. An annual Madden NFL Super Bowl simulation predicts the Ravens will trump the 49ers in the final seconds of Sunday's Big Game. Get on this, Vegas! And with "Star Wars" in the news, Crave asks if J.J. Abrams can pull off the impossible directing both "Star Wars Episode VII" and "Star Trek." Are you into it or not into it? Maybe a J.J. Abrams and "Star Wars"-themed musical will help you decide.

Crave stories:

- Student builds R2-D2 powered by Raspberry Pi

- Orbiting robot gas station gets closer to reality

- Creepy realistic vampire baby dolls are immortal

- Artists use real-time MRI footage to create music video

- Madden attempts to predict Super Bowl XLVII victor

- Forget Episode VII, watch 'JJ Abrams Star Wars -- The Musical'

- Crave giveaway: $200 shopping spree at KlearGear.com

Social networking:

- Stephen on Twitter

- Stephen on Google+

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Google reportedly gives EU antitrust probe settlement offer

Google was expected to submit a settlement proposal for the European Commission's antitrust inquiry by the end of January. And, it looks like the Web giant just made the deadline.

According to AllThingsD, sources familiar with the matter said that Google turned in a detailed proposal earlier today. However neither Google nor the EC are confirming whether a settlement proposal was definitively submitted.

When asked about the settlement offer, a Google spokesperson told CNET, "We continue to work cooperatively with the European Commission." The EC's press office has not yet responded to CNET's request for comment.

The EU's antitrust probe was opened in 2010 when European regulators asked the company to explain how it ranked search results and advertising after complaints of anticompetitive behavior from European businesses. Throughout the course of the inquiry, Google has been trying to settle. Google faces a fine of up to 10 percent of its global revenue, or about $4 billion, if the commission finds it has violated European antitrust laws.

This case mirrors a similar probe in the U.S. that was brought by the Federal Trade Commission and settled earlier this month. Under the FTC's settlement, a handful of companies may now choose to stop showing their results inside Google products like Google+ Local, Google Shopping, and Hotels. The search giant also agreed to voluntarily change the way it uses other Web sites' data.

Despite the EC and Google not being forthcoming about whether a settlement proposal was submitted today, inside sources did tell AllThingsD that the purported agreement looks very similar to the FTC's settlement. The main differences are that supposedly the EC agreement addresses better product labeling in search results but does not discuss patents.

Throughout both the U.S. and European Union probes, Google has denied any wrongdoing. In its agreement with the FTC, the company maintained its stance that it has done nothing wrong. According to AllThingsD, the EC settlement proposal will likely contain similar language.

Even if Google did submit a proposal today, it's still unclear whether the EC will accept it.

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iPhone users pay highest phone bills

iPhone users pay higher phone bills than other smartphone consumers.

(Credit:
CBS Interactive)

Rumors of a cheaper iPhone on the horizon may come as welcome news for fans of the device -- especially because iPhone users reportedly pay the highest monthly phone bills, no matter the carrier, according to AllThingsD.

Android, Windows, and BlackBerry users spend less per month to use their smartphones, according to data by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners that was acquired by AllThingsD. It seems that the higher costs come from carriers charging more for iPhone data plans and additional wireless fees.

"We think it has to do with their data plans and carriers, rather than their usage habits," CIRP co-founder Michael Levin told AllThingsD. "They are all on expensive data plans, unlike Android users, some of which are on prepaid or unsubsidized plans with regional carriers."

The data collected is from October to December 2012 and shows that 59 percent of the iPhone users surveyed spent more than $100 per month on their plan with 10 percent of those users spending $200 or more. Only 6 percent spent $50 or less. Conversely, 13 percent of Android users spent $50 or less and 53 percent spent more than $100. Both Windows and BlackBerry users spent even less overall.

Although the monthly cost difference between the four types of devices is slight, the highest costs are still skewed toward iPhone users. This may be because iPhones are more expensive devices and carriers have to shoulder that burden.

"Given the subsidies on iPhones, the carriers are working hard to make their money back during the course of the contract," CIRP's Josh Levitz told AllThingsD. "With the exception of perhaps the hottest Android phones, we think the subsidies on Android phones are lower, so the carriers make more money even with slightly lower per-subscriber revenue."

If Apple does indeed release a cheaper iPhone, it'll be interesting to see if carriers will also lower monthly charges for the device.

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Uber car service battles to stay in Colorado

Uber is headed toward another obstacle from city officials, and this time it's in Denver, Colo.

The state's Public Utilities Commission is proposing changes to the rules that regulate motor vehicle transportation, which could essentially shut UberDenver down.

The transportation startup announced today that it's going to fight to keep its service in the state. Uber has created a petition for Colorado residents to sign in support of Uber. The company is also urging locals to e-mail the state's governor, John Hickenlooper, and the chairman and director of the Public Utilities Commission.

"Since our launch five months ago, Uber has made great strides in creating a convenient, efficient, and classy transportation alternative in Denver," UberDenver's general manager, Will McCollum, said in a blog post. "Uber's technology platform has improved transportation options for thousands of Denverites, and has helped grow the small businesses of hundreds of our driver partners."

The proposed changes to the motor vehicle transportation rules include bans on sedan companies charging by distance, getting within 200 feet of a restaurant, bar, or hotel, and partnering with local sedan companies.

Since Uber's business model is based on providing private transportation to customers via smartphone apps, any of these potential rule revisions could end the company's Colorado service.

"These rules are not designed to promote safety, nor improve quality of service," McCollum wrote. "They are intended to stop innovation, protect incumbents, hurt independent drivers, and shut down Uber in Denver."

However, Denver isn't the only city that's had issues with the transportation service. Uber has also faced regulatory challenges from Chicago, Washington D.C., New York, and San Francisco. In November, a class-action suit was filed against Uber in San Francisco Superior Court claiming unfair business practices. The suit claims Uber has ducked all regulations that normally govern taxicab companies.

Some of these cities have ultimately decided, however, to allow Uber to continue running its service. The company scored a victory last month when Washington D.C.'s city council unanimously approved a legislative framework for "digital dispatch" transportation services. And regulators in New York City recently approved a one-year pilot program that allows New Yorkers to hail nearby street cabs using apps like Uber.

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Rdio rolls out six months of free streaming in 15 countries

Rdio announced today that it is offering the majority of its international customers the same deal that people get in the U.S.: six months of free music streaming.

The online music service lets users access its library of more than 18 million songs that come without ads or interruptions and can be listened to and shared across the Web, social networks, and mobile devices.

"The countries that will have free access to Rdio are the United States (where it's been free since October 2011), United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden," a Rdio spokesperson told CNET in an email. It is not yet available in Brazil or Germany.

According to PCMag, a Rdio spokesperson said that the expansion is meant to "attract international users and to heat things up competitively as we expect this will drive a lot more users."

Rdio launched in the U.S. in August 2010 as an alternative to other music streaming services. It has since rolled out its service to Facebook. Last October, Rdio founder Janus Friis launched the Rdio Artist Program, which is designed to give musicians better commission rates by removing the idea of payment-per-song that some other services use.

As of now, new users in the 15 countries that get the six months of free streaming can upgrade at any time to one of the service's subscription plans. In the U.S., the plans are $4.99 per month for unlimited Web streaming and $9.99 per month for unlimited Web, mobile, and offline listening. Prices differ by country.

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Nokia to offer paid upgrade to Lumia-only music service

Music+ will offer premium music options to subscribing Lumia owners.

(Credit:
Nokia)

A few months after jumping in to the free music streaming sector, Nokia is getting ready to give its Lumia-only service a jump-start with a premium upgrade.

Nokia Music+, an upgrade to the free Mix Radio service that Nokia launched last September, will offer Lumia owners unlimited skips and unlimited downloads, the Finnish handset maker announced in a company blog post today. The service also will offer higher quality streams, allowing downloads at eight times the existing quality.

The new service will also offer lyrics for users' mobile device and a Web app for home use.

"Nokia Music is great for discovering new music, and we've found that there's a core of users that want even more of it," Nokia vice president of entertainment Jyrki Rosenberg said in the post. "This is how Nokia Music+ came about."

The service is expected to roll out in the coming weeks with a price of around $3.99 a month.

The Lumia line helped turn around Nokia's fortunes in the fourth quarter, contributing to the handset maker's profit of 202 million euros ($269 million), a massive gain over the 1 billion euros the company lost during the same period in 2011. However, despite sales off 4.4 million Lumia units worldwide, revenue fell from 10 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 8 billion last quarter.

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The ultimate gall of a heartless iPhone thief

An object of desire?

(Credit:
CNET)

One should never expect justice in life.

The best one can hope for is poetry.

And yet, just once or twice, both manage to collide with a deliciousness that moves the soul.

Here is the tale of a teenage girl who had her iPhone stolen.

As The New York Times composes it, the girl had her
iPhone 4S ripped from her by a teenage boy in Brooklyn's notoriously difficult Prospect Park.

iPhone theft is rather popular in New York. Indeed, Mayor Bloomberg recently suggested that it's responsible for an increase in crime in the city.

Anyway, the iPhone-less girl collared a couple of policemen, but the miscreant was not to be found.

However, the thief then decided that he'd try to get some money for the phone. So he met a man on a Flatbush street -- as you do.

The man asked to take a look at the phone. Perhaps he wanted to see whether Siri was still inside.

Then, he ran off with it.

Yes, this is slightly poetic. But we've only just begun.

You see, the boy thief was not very happy. After all, he'd had his recently acquired property stolen. So he went off in search of a policeman to report the crime.

I pause for your sound effects.

Thank you.

More Technically Incorrect

The police reacted with unusual efficiency. They corralled both the boy and the man who had taken Siri from him. But they still assumed the boy was the victim.

Are you ready for verse three?

The phone rang. It was the girl trying to do a deal to get her phone back. The police realized something might be amiss here. This seemed to be a miss who actually owned the phone.

So they waited for her to arrive in Flatbush. She recognized the boy's sneakers. They were pink.

I pause for your further sound effects.

The police decided it was time to play Solomon. They would slice the phone in two if one party didn't renounce their claim to the phone.

No, wait. They asked both the girl and the pink-sneakered boy to unlock the phone with the PIN code.

You're already there, aren't you? Both the actual thieves were brought to justice -- the actual kind. And the girl got her phone back.

There are several morals to this story.

One, don't steal iPhones if you're wearing pink sneakers.

Two, if someone does unto you as you have done unto someone else, take it onto the chin. It will help you understand the feelings of others.

Three, if you're the kind of New Yorker who thinks they can always get away with it, well, you can't. Not always.

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Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week, readers wrote in with questions about managing contact images in Address Book, the lowdown on the rather negative community reaction surrounding the MacKeeper utility, and errors in gathering Application information in the System Information utility. I welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Managing the Recent section for contact images in Address Book
MacFixIt reader Lars asks:

Is there a way to get rid of the cache of "Recent" photos that appear in the left-hand column of the address book photo picking program? There seem to be so many "recent" photos in the app that I have a hard time finding what I am looking for. If you can help me delete that cache of photos it would be great.

Answer:
This can be done by selecting them and pressing the Delete key to remove them from the list. However, if this does not work you should still be able to clear the recent images by removing the contents of the following directory:

Users > username > Library > Containers > com.apple.ImageKit.RecentPictureService > Data > Library > Images > Recent Pictures

Question: The lowdown on the stigma surrounding MacKeeper
MacFixIt reader Janu asks:

I want to know, is it safe to use MacKeeper? Many of my friends are saying that it is malware.

Answer:
The issues surrounding MacKeeper stem from it starting out as a poor conversion from a utility called PC Keeper for Windows systems, one that didn't work very well on the Mac OS. This coupled, with rather aggressive (to say the least) marketing tactics and customer service, caused many in the
Mac community to avoid it and recommend that others do the same.

The software has been updated quite significantly since its initial versions and I've installed it without any problems on several systems. With regard to safety, any software package may contain bugs that can adversely affect a system. As a result, my stance on it is that MacKeeper is not the malware that some people describe it as, but whether or not it is necessary or beneficial -- or stable -- on any given computer is another matter.

MacKeeper ultimately offers many of the same features that are already available in other programs (many of which are free and arguably have used better coding). While I do not see a problem with the software itself, I don't necessarily recommend it for everyone.

My guess is that not all, but many, people in this community who are recommending avoiding or uninstalling MacKeeper are simply reiterating advice from others based on the software's poor initial track record, as opposed to truly testing and making an objective assessment of the latest versions of the software.

Question: Errors with gathering information in the System Information utility
MacFixIt reader Dany asks:

When I open System Information and go to Software > Applications, I get "There was an error while gathering this information". Can you help me to solve this issue, please? (iMac mid 2007 - OS X 10.8.2)

Answer:
Many of the features in the System Information tool rely on an intact index of the hard drive. The Applications list also relies on the "pbs" service, which reads application attributes and associated services they offer in OS X. Try opening the Terminal and running the following commands to clear these components so they'll be rebuilt, then restart the system and see if the problem persists (it may take an hour or so for the system to rebuild these services):

/System/Library/CoreServices/pbs -flush
mdutil -E /

---

Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or !
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.

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Updated Aereo app adds improved live TV streaming to Roku

The updated Aereo app on Roku makes it easier to watch live TV.

(Credit:
John P. Falcone/CNET)

The Aereo app on Roku boxes just became a much more potent alternative to traditional cable TV.

Aereo -- the Barry Diller-backed online video startup that streams local TV channels to multiple devices for a monthly fee -- had previously been available on Roku boxes, but it required an iPhone or
iPad to use as a remote. But the updated app, which went live on Roku earlier this week, allows viewers to use an onscreen navigation with the standard Roku clicker.

Disclosure: CBS, the parent corporation of CNET, is currently in active litigation with Aereo as to the legality of its service. As a result of that conflict of interest, CNET cannot review that service going forward.

That means Aereo subscribers with a Roku box (which retails for $50 to $100, depending on the model) can use it to access several live local over-the-air channels, as well as Aereo's cloud-based DVR (which allows 20 to 40 hours of recorded programming), for $8 per month. There are other payment options as well, including daily and yearly rates.

Currently, Aereo -- which pulls in local broadcasts from an array of tiny over-the-air antennas, and then streams those channels to its subscribers -- is only available in the New York City area. But the company has announced plans to expand to 22 additional cities in the U.S. later this year.

Aereo has also added its first cable channel to the lineup in the form of Bloomberg TV, the 24-hour financial news network. (Bloomberg is already available for free on the Web and via standalone apps.)

Aereo has raised the hackles of the broadcast networks -- ABC, NBC, Fox, and CBS are all suing the startup -- because it streams their signals without permission. (CNET is a subsidiary of CBS -- see the full disclosure above regarding our updated coverage rules.) Aereo also doesn't pay the per-subscriber retransmission fees that mainstream cable and satellite providers do. Those fees are increasingly important to the broadcasters' profit margins.

Watching 'White Collar' on WWOR in real time.

(Credit:
John P. Falcone/CNET)

Improvements such as the more robust Roku app and the service's expanded geographic footprint put Aereo squarely on the bleeding edge of the growing array of cable TV alternatives. Aereo's twist -- actual live TV -- offers a unique delineation from on-demand services like Netflix and Hulu. Aereo also bests other entrants in the over-the-air TV DVR space, such as Boxee TV and Simple.TV, by getting rid of the need to install an antenna. That's a huge hurdle for many would-be cable-cutters who either don't want to deal with the installation hassle, an unsightly antenna, or spotty reception.

But whether it's the beginning of a revolution or a flash in the pan remains an open question -- one that the courts will need to decide. In the meantime, the latest update addresses many of our major concerns from our initial hands-on.

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CBS claims Dish concealed AutoHop ad-skipping technology

Dish's AutoHop enable screen.

(Credit:
Dish)

CBS amended its lawsuit against Dish Network today, claiming the satellite TV provider misled the network about planned ad-skipping technology during contract negotiations in 2011.

The lawsuit is part of a legal battle between Dish and the major television networks that erupted last year over "AutoHop," which allows customers to skip commercials at the touch of a button. The networks, including CBS, which is the parent company of CNET News, contend that the technology threatens to undermine an industry that depends on advertising revenue to help cover the cost of their shows.

In its amended lawsuit, CBS accused Dish of fraudulently concealing material facts related to the feature during negotiations of their Retransmission Agreement. "Dish deliberately or with
reckless disregard failed to disclose" details of the planned service feature, CBS said in its 101-page filing (see below).

"Had Dish disclosed to CBS during the negotiations the material facts that it had developed AutoHop and intended to provide its subscribers with AutoHop, CBS would not have entered into the Retransmission Agreement on the terms set forth in the current agreement," CBS said.

CNET has contacted Dish and CBS for additional comment about the filing and will update this report when we learn more.

The networks filed lawsuits last May that sought to stop Dish from transmitting their programs in such a way that allows viewers to watch them without commercial interruptions, alleging copyright infringement and breach of contract.

Dish countered with its own lawsuit against the networks, claiming that the AutoHop feature doesn't infringe copyright because the technology doesn't alter the broadcast signal because the ads are not deleted from the recording.

In November, a federal judge rejected Fox Broadcasting's request for a preliminary injunction to disable the technology, which was introduced last year as part of a high-definition DVR called the Hopper.

CBS' Amended Counterclaims v. Dish Network by steven_musil

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U.S. government invites hackers to 'Civic Hacking Day'

A coalition of organizations, companies, and government agencies are hosting the National Day of Civic Hacking on June 1 and 2.

(Credit:
hackforchange.org)

The U.S. government is hoping that hackers can help make the nation a better place.

The White House announced today that it will kick off a "National Day of Civic Hacking" on June 1 and 2 and is inviting those with tech know-how to use their coding skills to improve communities across the country.

"Civic Hacking Day is an opportunity for software developers, technologists, and entrepreneurs to unleash their can-do American spirit by collaboratively harnessing publicly-released data and code to create innovative solutions for problems that affect Americans," a statement from the White House said.

The National Day of Civic Hacking was put together by a coalition of organizations, companies, and government agencies, which includes Random Hacks of Kindness, Code for America, NASA, Department of Labor, and the U.S. Census Bureau.

On Civic Hacking Day, different activities such as block parties, hackathons, and brigade meetups will commence across the country.

From Augusta, Ga. to Denver, Colo. to Detroit, Mich., the participating agencies will give hackers government data with coding challenges that are specifically targeted for helping local neighborhoods, cities, and states. Despite the government asking for the help of techies, anyone is invited to participate.

According to the event organizers, here are some of the benefits of getting involved:

Demonstrate a commitment to the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration.

Exercise a government's interest in using open data and technology, in partnership with others, to address your local community's felt needs.

Liberate open data that can inform better problem solving in every community.

Continue to collectively map a national innovation ecosystem and create new access points to that system.

Engage citizens in cities with little technology infrastructure to contribute to changing their community through open source, open data, entrepreneurship and code development.

Promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education by encouraging students to utilize open technology for solutions to real challenges.

Encourage large scale partnership and mutual understanding.

"This is an opportunity for citizens in every town and city across the Nation to roll up their sleeves, get involved, and work together to improve our society by cultivating an ecosystem for innovation and change," the White House statement said.

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