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Samsung Under the Gun for Alleged Anti-HTC Rumormongering April 17, 2013 
Taiwan authorities have launched a probe into charges that Samsung hired students to post disparaging comments about HTC online. If the false advertising accusations are upheld, Samsung and its local advertising agent could be on the hook for about $835,000. The complaints sprouted earlier this month when Internet users claimed that Samsung had contracted students to write online content attacking HTC and lauding Samsung.
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Google, EU Reach Meeting of the Minds April 15, 2013 
In an effort to appease European regulators, Google for the first time has agreed to make legally binding changes to its search results. The changes stem from a two-year investigation into whether Google abused its online search dominance in Europe. The changes will not force Google to amend its algorithm, but instead will require it to clearly label search results from its own properties.
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Konnichi-Whoops! Japanese City Accidentally Tweets About North Korean Attack April 12, 2013 
The official Twitter page for the Japanese city of Yokohama announced that "North Korea has launched a missile." This would be scary if true, but because it didn't actually happen, it's just kind of embarrassing. The tweet, which was sent out to 40,000 followers, had been drafted in case, you know, North Korea actually did attack. It had blank spaces to indicate the time of the rocket launch. The city deleted the tweet and apologized to its followers.
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Iran To Launch 'Islamic Google Earth' April 11, 2013 
Iran -- long irked by Google's mapping systems -- said that it will launch its own 3D mapping service, one liberated from the geographical inaccuracies and "Zionist" bent of Google Earth. The system will be an "Islamic Google Earth," according to Mohammad Hassan Nami, Iran's minister for information and communications technology.
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Competitors Ask EU to Rein In Google April 10, 2013 
Microsoft and Nokia are part of the coalition of companies that filed a complaint with EU antitrust regulators claiming that Google is using its Android mobile operating system to promote its own products and services. Made public Tuesday by lobbying group FairSearch, the action comes as European regulators are reportedly near a settlement with Google over concerns that it has abused its search dominance.
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Mali Kicks Off Internet Domain Giveaway April 09, 2013 
It was time to try something new. The western Africa nation of Mali, whose .ml domain current has fewer than 50 active websites, will let people around the world register .ml sites for free. Less than half of Mali has mobile phone coverage, and just 4 percent of the population is online. Nevertheless, it will give away its domain starting in July.
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France Implicated in Wikipedia Censorship Threat April 08, 2013 
Intelligence agents for the Direction Central du Renseignement Intérieur -- France's top intelligence agency -- were accused of censorship after threatening to arrest and charge a Wikipedia volunteer. The hubbub originated with an article that contains classified military secrets, according to operatives, and ergo is a threat to national security.
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A Slam Dunk for College Basketball Stats April 06, 2013 
The contact page of Ken Pomeroy's website, kenpom.com, contains all the standard fare -- a disclaimer, an email address, a note for subscribers. Below that, however, there is a brief note for media members, and it's telling. It starts normal enough, with Pomeroy insisting he is happy to do interviews or help with stories and so on.
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Pirate Bay Proxy Operator's Bank Account Seized April 04, 2013 
The Netherlands has had the damnedest time blocking The Pirate Bay. Taking a cue from the UK, as well as from Belgium and others, the Netherlands ruled last May that Dutch Internet service providers must block The Pirate Bay. Alas, the ruling didn't quite do the trick, as people began offering proxies that afforded users circuitous routes to the piracy hotbed.
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Baidu May Be Developing a Glassy Eye April 03, 2013 
Living up to its billing as the Chinese Google, Baidu, China's top search engine, reportedly is working on Baidu Eye, something that sounds a lot like Google's Glass. Worn like eyeglasses, the Internet gadget will be controlled by voice and will feature an LCD display that can recognize images. While these features are rumored to be up and running, the product's design and battery life are still works in progress.
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Apple Apologizes to Chinese Customers Following Media Beatdown April 02, 2013 
Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized Monday to Chinese customers over the company's warranty policy, adding that he would improve customer service in China, which is now Apple's second-biggest market. The apology may be linked to a mid-March television special that aired on "Consumer Rights Day," claiming Apple's Chinese customers were treated worse than their Western counterparts.
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Tibet-Documentary Filmmakers Draw Ire of Chinese Hackers April 01, 2013 
Members of a film crew working on State of Control, a documentary about Tibet, are convinced that the Chinese government is behind cyberattacks on their computers.
They've been faced with unknown parties taking external control over a computer's cursor; abrupt log-offs; at least one fried operating system; and DDoS attacks.
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The UK's Bloody Mad Blogosphere Battle March 30, 2013 
News surfaced last week that the UK was mulling an overhaul of press regulations. The legislation, born out of the phone-hacking investigation known as the Leveson Inquiry, is designed, among other things, to better regulate online media. Alas, while trying to account for more media outlets, the legislation never bothered to define what it considered a media outlet.
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Street View Creeps Through Post-Tsunami Japanese Ghost Town March 28, 2013 
Google Street View has had its share of intrepid adventures -- Antarctica, say, or Everest Base Camp. However, the Google Maps service has a sober side, too. Street View just unveiled startling images of Namie, a Japanese town firmly planted inside the evacuation zone described in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster.
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North Korea's 3G Experiment Might Be Over March 27, 2013 
North Korea's Internet liberation has hit a snag -- it's still North Korea. One month after announcing that it would grant tourists and visitors 3G Internet access, North Korea appears to have revoked its 3G services. Tourists reportedly no longer have 3G access. There is a chance that the 3G service is merely busted, but given North Korea's history, the consensus at the moment is that the plug has been pulled.
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US Judge Tosses Censorship Claims Against Baidu, China March 26, 2013 
At long last, China and the United States are on the same cyberpage. A U.S. district judge in Manhattan dismissed a lawsuit brought by activists who claimed that Baidu, China's largest search engine, should be punished -- along with China itself -- for censoring them on the Web.
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Beyond the Grave, Onto the Smartphone March 25, 2013 
A cemetery in Shenyang, the capital of China's Liaoning Province, will become, for lack of a better term, interactive. With mobile devices, people will be able to scan a quick response code on graves of people whose relatives have requested the feature. Scanning this code will allow visitors to learn about the person's life; they can also access a Web page where relatives and friends can upload photos or video.
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China's Great Big Holey 'Twitter' Net March 23, 2013 
A recent study by researchers at the University of Hong Kong suggests that China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo -- which boasted in February that it had surpassed 500 million users -- might be overrun by zombie accounts. The study, which looked at a random sample of 30,000 Sina Weibo accounts, revealed that 57 percent of users had nothing in their timelines.
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Holy Spirit, Batman! Superhero Story on Vatican Website Not a Hack March 22, 2013 
No, this isn't the Catholic Church's way of appealing to comic book fans. On Thursday, the website of the Vatican communications office and Vatican Twitter account ran stories on Batman. While some initially suspected hacking, Vatican officials are instead saying that there was an "internal system failure" caused by a non-native English speaker -- and apparent Batman enthusiast -- who posted the story.
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Seoul: Use of China Server in Cyberattack Fits Pyongyang M.O. March 21, 2013 
North Korea is the suspected perpetrator of a hacking attack that knocked out a trio of South Korean broadcasters and two major banks on Wednesday. South Korean officials in the capital of Seoul traced the attack to a server in China, something that meshes with previous attacks by North Korea.
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