communication

Facebook has successfully fought a subpoena trying to seek access to the account of a beauty queen who died after falling from the 12th floor of her ex-lover's apartment, CNET has learned.

A federal judge in California yesterday rejected a attempt from representatives of the estate of Sahar Daftary to gain access to her Facebook account.

Her mother is hoping to show a Manchester, U.K., coroner's inquest that Daftary, a onetime Face of Asia beauty contest winner, did not commit suicide when falling from the apartment of property developer Rashid Jamil in 2008.

But U.S. Magistrate … Read more

In 1988, when President Reagan signed a video privacy bill into law, computer users were sipping bandwidth through the tiny straws of 2400 bps modems, IBM was selling mainframe databases for over $200,000, and musician Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" was topping the charts.

Well, it turns out that politicians are no better at prognostication than the rest of us are. The clutch of lawyers and their aides on Capitol Hill failed to anticipate the rise of Netflix and Facebook, and their well-intentioned but brittle video privacy law is now at odds with modern … Read more

After more than 25 years since the passage of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), Sen. Patrick Leahy is hoping to get the out-of-date privacy law up to speed by introducing a new bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee today, according to Ars Technica.

The key component of this new bill is that law enforcement officials would no longer have the ease of freely being able to read people's personal e-mail and online communication -- they'd need a warrant first. As the law now stands, police are allowed to get individual's private correspondence by simply asking e-mail … Read more

You might know HP's Spectre product best as a home for the company's high-end, high-concept laptops. With the SpectreOne, announced today, HP brings an all-in-one PC into that fold. The question is whether its features match its high-price.

HP says the SpectreOne will begin at $1,299 when it launches in the U.S. in November. In addition to the stylized design, the SpectreOne includes a non-touch, 23.6-inch, 1,920x1,080-pixel display, a touch pad, and near-field communication (NFC) technology, dubbed HP TouchZone. It also has no built-in optical drive.

The touch pad makes HP the second … Read more

Though it's increasingly less certain that near field communication (NFC) will appear in the iPhone 5, it's a technology that's built into a lot of high-profile products already. So, what is it exactly? And how relevant is it today?

What is NFC? NFC is a short-range wireless connectivity technology that uses magnetic-field induction to enable communication between electronic devices in close proximity. (Faraday's law: any change in the magnetic environment of a coil of wire will cause a voltage to be induced in the coil.)

NFC can operate in three modes, according to an NFC whitepaper: … Read more

Will the iPhone 5 support mobile payments via NFC? A report out yesterday from the folks at AnandTech says no.

Alleged photos of the iPhone 5's assembly posted by Taiwan-based blog Apple.pro pointed to a part that not seen in previous photos. The dimensions of the part reportedly matched those of certain NFC chips, leading to speculation that the mystery component could be an NFC chip.

The addition of electronic ticket organizer Passbook to iOS 6 also fueled rumors that the new iPhone would let users make mobile payments using near-field communications.

But AnandTech has discounted both of … Read more

Apple has won a patent that adds another piece to the puzzle of mobile payments via near-field communications.

Dubbed "Motion based payment confirmation," the new patent details several ways to help the user confirm that a mobile transaction has actually been completed while using a mobile device like an iPhone or iPod.

One method points to a graphical element on the screen that the user can move to confirm or decline a transaction. Another method cites the use of an accelerometer to sense movement of the device and move the graphical element in response.

Artwork in the patent … Read more

The iPhone 5 will sport the usual home button, front camera, and a currently unidentified component that could be an NFC chip, according to AppleInsider.

Scouring photos posted by Taiwan-based blog Apple.pro (English translation), AppleInsider discovered a part that had not appeared in previous photos. The size of the part has lead to speculation that it could be a chip for near-field communication, or NFC.

Positioned next to the front camera, the square part matches the size of other NFC chips, such as the one made by NXP, AppleInsider noted. Of course, the photos by themselves don't prove … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission has approved four separate deals that will transfer wireless spectrum to Verizon Wireless, including the $3.9 billion deal between Verizon and a group of cable operators.

The approved deals will allow Verizon to get nearly 20 megahertz of Advanced Wireless Service spectrum from SpectrumCo, a joint venture that includes cable operators Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and BrightHouse, as well as AWS spectrum from cable operator Cox Communications.

The agency also gave the green light to transfer spectrum licenses from prepaid provider Leap Wireless. In addition, it OK'd the transfer of wireless spectrum licenses between … Read more