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6 June 2012 | Reuters

Disney to stop some junk-food ads on kids’ TV, websites: sources

Walt Disney Co, owner of the ABC broadcast network and a suite of cable channels, will stop accepting some junk-food ads on TV programs, radio shows and websites aimed at children, according to sources with knowledge of the plan. Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger and first lady Michelle Obama plan to make an announcement on Tuesday in Washington, the sources said. The United States faces an obesity epidemic. Nearly one-third of U.S. children are overweight or obese, and a 2006 Institute of Medicine report said junk food marketing contributed to childhood obesity. The Disney move follows New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's announcement last week of a plan to ban sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces (about half a liter) in most restaurants, theaters, delis and vending carts throughout the city. The ban, also aimed at fighting obesity, would affect drinks equivalent to what McDonald's Corp calls small and has incensed food and beverage makers, many of which have agreed to voluntary nutritional measures. Disney plans to cut advertising during children's programming on its networks such as ABC and Disney XD or its kid-focused websites for foods that fail to meet minimum nutrition requirements, the sources said.

Original source

6 June 2012 | New York Times

Google issues new warning for state-sponsored attacks

Starting Tuesday, look out for an unusual warning atop your Gmail inbox, Google home page or Chrome browser. It will not mince words: “Warning: We believe state-sponsored attackers may be attempting to compromise your account or computer.” Google said it planned to issue the warning anytime it picks up malicious–possibly state-sponsored–activity on a user’s account or computer. How does Google know whether an attack is state-sponsored? It won’t say. “We can’t go into the details without giving away information that would be helpful to these bad actors, but our detailed analysis — as well as victim reports — strongly suggest the involvement of states or groups that are state-sponsored,” Eric Grosse, Google’s vice president of security engineering, wrote in a blog post. The announcement is timed just one week after security researchers discovered Flame, a massive, data-mining virus, had been spying on computers in the Middle East– predominantly in Iran– for at least the last four years. Researchers say they believe the Flame virus is sponsored by the same entity that commissioned Stuxnet, a virus co-sponsored by the United States and Israel, that destroyed thousands of Iranian centrifuges in 2010.

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6 June 2012 | University of Missouri School of Journalism

Apple, Amazon dominating US tablet, e-reader market, RJI survey shows

Two-thirds of U.S. adults now use at least one mobile media device in their daily lives, according to a national survey recently conducted by the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. The RJI survey found that news consumption ranks fourth among reasons people use mobile devices, behind interpersonal communications, entertainment, and Internet usage for information not provided by news organizations. Despite the large number of mobile device users, Roger Fidler, the program director for digital publishing at RJI, says that mobile news products do not appear to be replacing printed newspapers as quickly as was earlier predicted. The RJI survey interviewed more than 1,000 randomly selected respondents. The survey divided mobile media devices into four categories: large tablets, small tablets, e-readers, and smart phones. More than 21 percent of the respondents said they now use large tablets, a category of mobile devices that entered the market just two years ago. Results showed that Apple is dominating the large tablet market, with more than 88 percent of large tablet users owning an iPad, while Amazon is dominating the small tablet and e-reader markets. The survey also showed that smartphones and large media tablets are the two most popular devices for consuming news. Fidler says that news organizations should consider these numbers when targeting their audiences.

Original source

6 June 2012 | BBC News

Remote parts of Congo may soon get mobile coverage

Remote rural communities of Congo may soon have mobile coverage, thanks to an international collaboration. Pan-African telecom provider RascomStar-QAF, Viasat and UK-based ip.access plan to use small cells called femtocells to ensure coverage even in the Congo's rainforest. Femtocells are usually used to deliver a private signal in your home if it is outside the coverage area. The aim is to install 50 such mini base stations around Congo this summer. RascomStar, the company that operates Rascom-QAF1, the first satellite entirely dedicated to Africa, said it aims to expand the pilot into a larger-scale commercial launch in 2013, extending it to at least 10 other African countries. When the satellite was launched in 2010, one of the goals was to provide the African continent with mobile network coverage. But in many remote and rural parts, people are still unable to use mobile phones simply because of the lack of necessary infrastructure. Since mobile communications rely on airwaves to work, once transmissions hit a telecommunications tower, it is up to the wireless networks in the area to ensure coverage. But in Africa's remote corners, there are simply not enough of these towers. A UK company called ip.access agreed to supply femtocells - the smallest access nodes that exist - around Congo, with one gateway in the capital, Brazzaville. Each cell will then create a private wireless network in a particular area. A femtocell is easy to use - and the company says that it could be put up by someone with basic technical knowledge. This way, the femto solution would be much simpler and cheaper than having to build new towers and expensive base stations.

Original source

6 June 2012 | News and Tech

US papers accelerate website restrictions

From a standing start only two years ago, the number of newspapers with digital subscriber plans that include restrictions on the amount of information a non-subscriber can view online has mushroomed to more than 180, with dozens more scheduled to join the list by year-end. As of June 1, 186 U.S. newspapers had some sort of paywall in place. The latest to launch: Gannett Co. Inc.’s U.S. Community Publishing properties The (Nashville) Tennessean, Des Moines (Iowa) Register and Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., which rolled out their digital subscriber plans last Friday. That brings to 28 the number of USCP dailies with paywalls. Gannett execs earlier this year said they plan to outfit all 80 of the group’s papers with digital subscription strategies by the end of the year. Lee Enterprises, which said it will roll out paywalls across its 53 daily papers, is also slowly but surely expanding its initiative, recently putting plans in place at the Elko (Nev.) Daily Free Press and the Post-Star in Glen Falls, N.Y. Those papers join six other Lee papers in Montana and Wyoming that rolled out paywalls last year. McClatchy is also stepping up its digital subscriber strategies, last month saying it would over the next several months test initiatives at four dailies, including its flagship Sacramento (Calif.) Bee. Tribune Co., meantime, reportedly is eyeing subscriber strategies at the Chicago Tribune, perhaps by selling subscriptions to certain sections or features of the paper. According to Poynter.org, a dozen major U.S. publishers have paywalls in place in at least one of is properties.

Original source

6 June 2012 | Knight Center

Guatemala publishes first Braille newspaper in Central America

On Thursday, May 31, the first Braille newspaper in Central American was published in Guatemala, reported the news site CNN Mexico. The monthly publication Publinews Braille will be available at no cost in the offices of the Committee for the Blind and Deaf of Guatemala and will be available for 110,000 blind people, according to the radio station Emisoras Unidas. The publication is supported by businesses that have social responsibility programs such as the Meritorious Committee for the Blind and Deaf of Guatemala, reported the digital newspaper El Mirador.

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