Welcome to the Morning Briefing for 30th May 2012, where we highlight the tech stories from across the web that broke while you were sleeping and what we are watching here at techgeek.com.au.
Here’s what were watching:
- Yesterday, news was raging over this supposedly ‘China inserted’ backdoor in the Actel/Microsemi ProASIC3 military encryption chip. It was later said by Sergei Skorobogatov, the guy responsible for the discovery of the backdoor, that this vulnerability was actually inserted by the manufacturer, Actel, not the rumored China.
- Sony have added two new smartphones to their Xperia line. Both the new Xperia go and the Xperia arco S run Android 4.0, and promise to be ‘stylish, durable’ whilst also being resistant to dust and water. The Xperia go features 3.5″ display, 512MB RAM, 1GHz processor, and a 5MP camera while the Xperia arco S has a 4.3″ display, 1GB of RAM, 1.5Ghz dual core processor, and a 12MP camera.
- Zune is dead. Microsoft, yesterday, quietly announced that Zune will be no longer, and that the Xbox brand will now expand into movies, TV and music. This is just in time for the launch of Windows 8, with Microsoft saying that the new Xbox services will be integrated into the company’s new OS. With Microsoft ditching Zune for a better known name, clearly they are doing all they can to ensure Windows 8 is given the best chance.
- Finally, I got my hands on a Raspberry Pi! After spending a week attempting to get it to boot, I finally took some photos of the device for everyone here. Check them out! (The reason I couldn’t get the Pi to boot, was due to an issue in the firmware, which was updated mid-week last week.)