A handful of top Federal Trade Commission officials have sided with Tesla over whether the car company should be able to sell its vehicles directly to consumers.
Three officials announced Thursday that they oppose laws in states, such as Arizona, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, and Virginia that ban carmakers from bypassing auto dealers and selling straight to customers.
"Many state and local regulators have eliminated the direct purchasing option for consumers, by taking steps to protect existing middlemen from new competition," Andy Gavil, Debbie Feinstein, and Marty Gaynor wrote in a statement. "We believe this is bad policy for a number of reasons."
Such a move is unusual for FTC officials, the three employees said that these views are their own and not necessarily those of any FTC commissioners.
The beneficial reasons the officials give for allowing direct car sales include bringing new technologies to the market, stopping "protectionist" state laws, and increased competition. They also say that with the advent of the Internet, the way people shop is different, therefore people should be able to buy cars in new ways too.
Over the past few months, Tesla has come up against new regulations in various states that ban the company from selling its Model S all-electric luxury sedan in their territory. In New Jersey, the ban went into effect on April 1. Despite not being able to sell its cars in New Jersey, Tesla still maintains a service center there for its Model S drivers.
"Regulators should differentiate between regulations that truly protect consumers and those that protect the regulated," the officials wrote. "We hope lawmakers will recognize efforts by auto dealers and others to bar new sources of competition for what they are -- expressions of a lack of confidence in the competitive process that can only make consumers worse off."
CNET contacted Tesla for comment. We'll update the story when we get more information.
Researchers have identified more malware at the Google Play store that secretly harnesses users' devices to perform the arduous computational process.
The malware, dubbed BadLepricon, was found masquerading as wallpaper apps that had hundreds of installs each, according to Lookout, a mobile security firm. Google promptly removed five such apps from the Google Play marketplace after being alerted to their presence, Lookout wrote in a blog post Thursday.
"These apps did fulfill their advertised purpose in that they provided live wallpaper apps, which vary in theme from anime girls to 'epic smoke' to attractive men," Meghan Kelly, a Lookout security communications manager, wrote in a company blog post. "However, without alerting you in the terms of service, BadLepricon enters into an infinite loop where -- every five seconds -- it checks the battery level, connectivity, and whether the phone's display was on."
As mobile devices get more powerful and sophisticated, malware authors are increasingly targeting tablets and smartphones to mine cryptocurrencies. The malware essentially turns the devices into a bot that uses a great deal of computer processor and battery power without the device owners' knowledge or consent.
If left unchecked, bitcoin miners can use up so much processing power that it burns out the device, Kelly warned. So to avoid a circumstance that would lead to the malware's discovery, BadLepricon checks to make sure the battery contains at least 50 percent of its capacity, it has Internet connectivity, and that its display is turned off.
The sophisticated malware also used a Stratum proxy that allowed the malware's author to easily change mining pools and anonymously control which bitcoin wallet receives the newly minted crypto-coins, researchers wrote. The malware also uses a feature called a WakeLock to prevent the device from going to sleep even if the display is turned off.
The discovery marks the second time in less than a month that bitcoin-mining malware has been found lurking on the Google Play marketplace. Antivirus provider Trend Micro reported last month that a pair of bitcoin-mining apps had been discovered at the store involved in the mining for various digital currencies, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin.
CNET has contacted Google for comment and will update this report when we learn more.
It's no secret that the National Security Agency is full of secrets. But, in a rare move, the White House disclosed Monday a bit more about how the NSA works.
In a blog post, White House cybersecurity coordinator Michael Daniel detailed when the NSA keeps security vulnerabilities under wraps and when it lets the public know they exist.
"Building up a huge stockpile of undisclosed vulnerabilities while leaving the Internet vulnerable and the American people unprotected would not be in our national security interest," Daniel wrote. "But that is not the same as arguing that we should completely forgo this tool as a way to conduct intelligence collection, and better protect our country in the long-run."
Earlier this month, news of the massive Heartbleed bug reverberated across the Internet showing how easily people's online data could be accessed. This particularly nasty vulnerability -- which has the capability to potentially extract people's usernames, passwords, and credit card information -- is said to have affected up to 500,000 websites, including Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and many more.
In his blog post, Daniel reiterates that the government had no knowledge of Heartbleed.
"While we had no prior knowledge of the existence of Heartbleed, this case has re-ignited debate about whether the federal government should ever withhold knowledge of a computer vulnerability from the public," Daniel wrote.
For the most part, the government discloses vulnerabilities, Daniel said. But there are times, he said, when it's beneficial to withhold knowledge of certain flaws. Those instances include collecting intelligence that could "thwart a terrorist attack" or "stop the theft of our nation's intellectual property."
Several government agencies have put together a set of principles they use when deciding whether to disclose vulnerabilities. If the government does decide to keep a security flaw secret, it goes through a series of questions about why it made that decision, including the possible risk, exploitability, and reach of the bug.
"There are legitimate pros and cons to the decision to disclose, and the trade-offs between prompt disclosure and withholding knowledge of some vulnerabilities for a limited time can have significant consequences," Daniel wrote. "This interagency process helps ensure that all of the pros and cons are properly considered and weighed."
Who needs a button anyway? Videos that play without prompt are paying off handsomely in the attention department for brands that operate Facebook Pages.
In September 2013, Facebook made the controversial decision to start automatically playing videos (without sound) in News Feed -- but marketers posting in video form likely aren't complaining. In the first three months of the year, brand posts with video noticed 58 percent more engagement -- meaning click-throughs, likes, comments, or shares -- than in the prior three months, according to Adobe's Social Intelligence report published late Monday.
Collectively, video plays from organic brand posts were up 785 percent over the year-ago quarter, and up 134 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013, Adobe found.
Adobe
Together, the stats mean that Facebook members are viewing more video from brands, and interacting more by liking and sharing video posts, which suggests that people are generally happier with video from brands, said Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst on Adobe's report.
Auto-playing videos in News Feed is part of Facebook's ongoing balancing act to give marketers and consumers what they want, Gaffney told CNET. The video-viewing factoids point to a potentially favorable trend for marketers that are looking for a free way to boost engagement and make up for lost reach as a result of changes to Facebook's News Feed, which, on the whole, have negatively affected their ability to reach their fan following on the social network.
Text-only posts from brands, however, seem to be on the losing end of Facebook's changes. Member engagement with text posts was down to about half a percent in the first quarter of 2014 from 1.7 percent one year ago, Adobe found.
Adobe's Social Media Intelligence report is based around anonymized, aggregated data gathered from 5,000 clients. The report looked at 260 billion Facebook advertising impressions, 226 billion Facebook post impressions, 17 billion referred visits from social-networking sites, and 7 billion brand post interactions such as comments, likes, and shares.
The report found that Facebook's advertising business continues to show solid growth, with ad impressions and ad clicks up 70 percent and 40 percent, respectively, year over year.
In a YouTube video, Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto thanks the Bitcoin community for donating to him. Screengrab by Dara Kerr/CNET
While Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto maintains he isn't the creator of Bitcoin, he has been able to make money from the cryptocurrency.
Sympathizers for the man have raised more than $20,000 worth of Bitcoin in an online fundraiser to help him "with medical bills his family is facing, any legal bills they may incur, or anything else." According to Bitcoin news service NewsBTC, a total of 47.5 bitcoins were donated.
In a YouTube video published Tuesday, Nakamoto thanked the Bitcoin community for all of its efforts to help him.
"Thank you very much for your support throughout this ordeal that I'm still fighting," Nakamoto said in the video. "I want to hug you, this 2,000 of you, who donated. I'm very happy, each one gives me a tick in my heart."
Nakamoto was the focus of a wacky saga that took place last month after a Newsweek magazine cover story alleged he was the mysterious and sought-after creator of Bitcoin. The news resulted in Nakamoto being stalked at his Temple City, Calif., home by reporters and then led to a comical slow-moving car chase in which he and an Associated Press reporter tried to outrun other journalists in pursuit of the story.
Members of the Bitcoin community were infuriated that Newsweek targeted Nakamoto, who they said was the wrong man. One of those members was entrepreneur and coder Andreas M. Antonopoulos, who arranged the online fundraiser for Nakamoto.
Antonopoulos wrote in a Reddit post last month that the donations were a small gesture to help "soften the damage caused by irresponsible journalism and to demonstrate the generosity and empathy of the community, which I know is huge."
After a month of fundraising, Antonopoulos concluded the campaign and handed over the bitcoins to Nakamoto. Antonopoulos also filmed and published Tuesday's YouTube video to prove that Nakamoto received the donation. In the video, Nakamoto reiterates that he is not the inventor of the virtual currency.
"I am not Satoshi Nakamoto," he said. "My name is Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, and, of course, if I was the creator, I would never use my real name. So from that point of view, I'm sure you guys would know, that Satoshi Nakamoto is not me."
The Facebook icon flag at the social network's Menlo Park campus. Facebook
At its F8 developer conference next week, Facebook is expected to present plans for a mobile advertising network, and in so doing turn on an additional revenue stream that could mint it billions more in mobile advertising revenue -- but not if Google and Twitter have a say in the matter.
A mobile ad network marries ad-serving technology to distribute inventory provided by advertisers across placements provided by publishers. Little is known about how Facebook's ad network will work -- the company declined to comment -- but presumably the product would pull from Facebook's unique and established strengths in mobile app advertising, which most certainly include the mobile app ad, the once unique-to-Facebook unit now being copied by both Twitter and Google.
Placing ads off the social network is a major undertaking that pits the 10-year-old company more squarely against rival Google, and, to a lesser extent, Twitter, which has a newly created ad network of its own powered by MoPub, a company it purchased for $350 million. But expectations should be tempered, especially now that digital advertising's buzziest companies are circling around the same honey pot.
A Google app ad promotes HotelTonight in mobile search results. Google
Facebook's opportunity is limited by the size of the app market, Gartner analyst Brian Blau cautioned in an interview with CNET. "I just sort of see this as [Facebook] filling in the holes of their ad platform as they march forward," Blau said. "The app business overall is not super gigantic."
Blau references the app business, or the market encompassing money spent on app downloads and in-app content, because this is the area Facebook, Google, and Twitter are targeting with a relatively new unit called the mobile app ad.
Facebook gave birth to the unit in August of 2012 as the "mobile app install ad" and offered mobile developers a way to promote app installs in Facebook's mobile News Feed. Just last week, Twitter followed suit with a "mobile app promotion suite" that developers can use to pitch downloads of their mobile apps on Twitter or via the mobile apps that use MoPub to serve their ads. Tuesday, Google entered the fray and announced plans to offer app install ads of its own in mobile search and YouTube.
Meanwhile, Gartner measured the total app store marketplace at $26.7 billion in 2013; it anticipates the market to grow to $35 billion in 2014, Blau said.
In essence, the bunch will fighting over developers who collectively advertised against a market of $26 billion last year. "How much advertising are you going to spend to make $26 billion?," Blau said. "You can spend a lot but it's going to start to eat into profit margins if you're looking at the market as a whole."
Facebook will be going after more of this market once it goes live with its rumored ad network, which will open up ad placement beyond its own properties for the first time.
In January, Facebook first confessed a tangible desire to show Facebook ads in third-party apps. The company said that it had started a test of a mobile ad network that would extend "Facebook's rich targeting to improve the relevancy of the ads people see, provide even greater reach for Facebook advertisers, and help developers better monetize their apps."
If the social network sticks with the mobile app ad as the unit it delivers to partners who turn to Facebook to monetize their apps, the company can significantly expand its mobile app ad audience beyond the 945 million people who use Facebook's mobile apps on a monthly basis. The ads already work in Facebook's mobile apps, so presumably they'll work elsewhere too.
Facebook said the ad type drove more than 145 million installs from Apple's App Store and the Google Play store in the first nine months of 2013. In October, Facebook changed the unit's name to the "mobile app ad" and expanded its purpose so that developers could target their existing users in Facebook's mobile News Feed and encourage them to take specific actions such a listen to a playlist, watch a video, or play a game.
Facebook mobile app ads Facebook
Mobile app ads are matched with Facebook's custom audiences tool, giving developers a precise way to find people who have downloaded their apps. If you've already downloaded the booking app HotelTonight, for instance, HotelTonight can run an add in your mobile News Feed nudging you to book a last-minute stay at a bed-and-breakfast within driving distance.
"I was skeptical of Facebook getting into mobile app install ads in the beginning, but it seems to be a really big source of revenue," he said. "I didn't imagine that people would respond to those types of ads as they have."
But even if they do work off the social network, Facebook is going head-to-head with the likes of Google and Twitter for just one sliver of the mobile advertising pie. And it would seem like Google's battle to lose. Though Google doesn't break out mobile ad sales, the search giant has a solid grip on the overall mobile ad market thanks to its AdMob ad platform. Google's portion of the worldwide mobile advertising market came in at nearly 50 percent in 2013, according to eMarketer.
Really, the mobile app ad, once Facebook's secret golden ticket, has created a gold-rush effect, but there's only so much money to go around.
Facebook has a massive advertising business that is growing and mobile is key to its continued success. The business ballooned by 76 percent in one year to bring in $2.34 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013 alone, with ads running in the mobile News Feed accounting for 53 percent of the pie. As Blau said, the mobile ad network would help fill in gaps in Facebook's platform and strengthen the mobile side of its business, but it's certainly not a smoking gun.
"Mobile app ads ... can't be their only target," Blau said. "They've got to move into location. That's the other holy grail of mobile; location, the connection between people and where they are."
The front desk inside building 16 at Facebook's Menlo Park campus.
For Facebook, the word for the first three months of 2014 is "more," as the social network delivered more of everything to its paying clients, specifically the things they really care about like clicks, impressions, and revenue, according to a report from Adobe.
Clicks on Facebook ads were up 70 percent year-over-year and 48 percent quarter-over-quarter, while ad impressions also grew 40 percent and 41 percent, respectively, Adobe found in its Social Media Intelligence report published late Monday.
In other words, more ads are going out and more people are seeing them, which should equate to more profit for Facebook and better results for advertisers.
Adobe
"With Facebook, what we saw is actually surprising," Adobe Principal Analyst Tamara Gaffney told CNET. "We saw that they were up in ad impressions, double-digits, quarter-over-quarter ... and that is against the typical slowdown that we would see."
The slowdown Gaffney speaks of is a usually observed negative seasonal change in spending between the fourth quarter, when budgets for advertising are highest, and the first quarter, which in turn affects impressions and clicks. Facebook's first-quarter results were opposite the expected, Gaffney said. She believes that Facebook's mobile in-app advertising efforts contributed to a significant portion of its gains this past quarter.
For retail sites, Facebook was also an increasingly important source of revenue as referral traffic generated $1.24 per visit, up 2 percent from the previous quarter and 11 percent from the same quarter last year. Other social networks such as Pinterest, Twitter, and Tumblr showed substantial year-over-year growth in revenue per visit, but quarterly declines, meaning they were less desirable platforms outside the hot holiday shopping seasons.
Adobe
"Facebook's revenue per visit is continuing to grow when everyone else's went down," Gaffney said. "That tells me that the paid media program for Facebook, for retailers, is more of a core to their buy, meaning that even when their budget is smaller, they're still buying on Facebook, whereas they probably stopped buying on some of the other social media networks as much."
The findings prove, at a pivotal juncture in Facebook's push to make more money from mobile products, that not only is Facebook's advertising business still growing, and impressively so, it is far and away the preferred and constant social option for retailers looking to convert referral traffic into revenue.
Adobe's Social Media Intelligence report is based on anonymized, aggregated data gathered from 5,000 clients using its marketing cloud product. The report looked at 260 billion Facebook advertising impressions, 226 billion Facebook post impressions, 17 billion referred visits from social networking sites, and 7 billion brand post interactions such as comments, likes, and shares.
The encouraging report comes ahead of the social network's quarterly check-in with Wall Street. For the first quarter of 2014, analysts are anticipating adjusted earnings per share of 24 cents on $2.35 billion in revenue, which would be good enough for 61 percent growth over the year ago quarter when total revenue was $1.46 billion.
Facebook closed Monday up nearly 4 percent at $61.24 a share. The company likely has Wall Street's attention on the heels of a report that it will soon unleash a mobile advertising network. In late January, Facebook began a small test with partners to show their advertisements in mobile applications other than Facebook. A wider release of the program would spell greater opportunity for Facebook in mobile, which, as of the previous quarter, had already grown to account for 53 percent of its overall ad business.
For 70 years, the waters off the island nation of Palau have hidden dozens of American planes shot down by the Japanese in World War II. Now a volunteer organization that's been hunting for the planes since 1993 has teamed up with some of the world's leading oceanographers and is applying the latest high-tech tools to the hunt. Illustration by James Martin/CNET
AIMELIIK STATE, Palau-- Pat Scannon glanced down at his waterproof notebook and prepared to read. Nearby, hovered around the stern of the Kemedukl, a 40-foot aluminum catamaran, the team responsible for finding a World War II torpedo bomber lost at sea waited for Scannon to start the flag ceremony for the plane's long-lost airmen.
In the second half of 1944, a TBM Avenger with a crew of three, flying with a Navy torpedo squadron, "took off from a fast attack aircraft carrier on a mission flying over the State of Aimeliik in the Republic of Palau," Scannon read, as part of a March 31 ceremony. "The crew was listed as missing in action and has remained listed as missing in action for the past 70 years."
No more. The Kemedukl, which takes its name from the Palauan term for the bumphead parrotfish, bobbed on the gentle sea, just 100 feet above the Avenger crash site. The bomber was discovered on March 24, barely 300 yards from the mangrove jungles of Aimeliik.
As team leader of the BentProp Project, Scannon fronts a volunteer group that makes annual expeditions to Palau, an island country about 1,000 miles east of Manila. His aim is to find as many as possible of the 217 US Navy, Marine, and Army Air Corps planes -- and the remains of the airmen aboard them -- lost during 14 months of fighting around Palau between 1944 and 1945. Since 1993, the project has found 36 American planes, and a few dozen Japanese aircraft.
The search for the Avenger and its crew lasted nine years.
On March 31, 2014, BentProp Project team leader Pat Scannon opened a flag ceremony directly above the wreckage of an American F6F Hellcat shot down by the Japanese in Palau in 1944. Later that day, Scannon would lead a similar ceremony above the wreckage of a TBM Avenger also shot down in 1944. Daniel Terdiman/CNET
"It's always exciting to discover a new crash site," said Scannon, a thin, 67-year-old dressed in cargo pants and a weathered ball cap, a red bandana tied under his full white beard and mustache. "But what it really means to me is that we've begun a process whereby the families of these missing airmen are finally going to get answers."
For years, BentProp had used a combination of deep research and a smattering of technology to find missing planes. But the easy discoveries had been made, and the aircraft still hidden in the Palauan waters were the hardest to find. Fortunately, the organization now has new partners in its hunt, two groups of expert oceanographers (plus a team of smart high school roboticists) with expensive gear like autonomous underwater vehicles that can go much farther than Scannon and his crew ever could. This highly effective yet impersonal technology is now helping to answer some of the most personal, human questions left from World War II.
Nine bloody operations
To all but serious World War II buffs, Palau's place in the Pacific War isn't well known. But the Micronesian archipelago of 250 islands was key to allied victory. Between March 1944 and May 1945, the US mounted nine separate operations there, at first attacking (and largely destroying) the Japanese sea and air fleets there. American fighters went on to take the airfield at Peleliu in a brutal 10-week campaign that cost 1,285 American and 11,000 Japanese combatants their lives. Controlling that airfield was vital to protecting the US flank in the Philippines.
The story of how BentProp found the Avenger begins in 2005, when, taken there by a Palauan, Scannon and a seven-member team found a wing in the thick mangroves at the edge of Aimeliik. Despite exhaustive, and admittedly inefficient, searches on land and in the nearby waters, the team failed to locate the rest of the plane. Their fortunes changed in 2014, thanks to new documentation, additional information from locals, deep research at the National Archives, and, as important, access to cutting-edge technology run by the science teams from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Delaware.
The tiny island nation of Palau is located about 1,000 miles southeast of Manila. Screenshot by CNET
But first some history on Scannon, who began his searches for American MIAs almost by accident. In 1993, he and some scuba buddies from Xoma, a Berkeley, Calif., biotechnology company he co-founded, traveled to Palau. Their goal was to be the first people to find the Japanese trawler that, in the summer of 1944, was the initial kill of then-Ensign George H.W. Bush.
That search was successful, and flush with excitement at being so close to history, Scannon began trolling the Palauan islands for other sunken World War II artifacts. If there was any doubt that Scannon, a doctor and a scientist, would devote a big part of his life, and substantial financial resources, to hunting for lost airmen he'd never known, two early successes cemented his resolve. In 1994, he returned to Palau armed with information about three missing B-24 Liberators that crashed during bombing raids in 1944. In just 48 hours, he found two.
At first working alone, and then with a few confederates, Scannon realized his annual efforts required more structure, particularly if he wanted the respect and cooperation of US military representatives tasked with investigating MIA sites and notifying family members. The work is slow, and on many expeditions, despite spending a full month in Palau, they don't find any American aircraft.
Sometimes, the discovery of a plane, such as that of the third Liberator -- chronicled in Wil Hylton's compelling 2013 book "Vanished" -- is due more to luck, and exhaustive research, than to the scientific method.
A poster for the P-MAN XVI expedition, on the wall of the meeting room at the Coral Reef Research Foundation in Koror, Palau, where oceanographers from Scripps and the University of Delaware debriefed each night about progress in the hunt for lost World War II airplanes. Scripps brought the poster as part of its STEM outreach program sponsored by the Office of Naval Research. Daniel Terdiman/CNET
In 2002, the BentProp Project became a formal organization. Now Scannon and other members, each of whom pay their own costs, return each year on what the group refers to as P-MAN (for Palau-Marine, Army Air Force, Navy) missions.
The monthlong 2014 expedition, dubbed P-MAN XVI, began March 15. By coincidence, it was at about that time that the world was getting caught up in the high-profile search for another aircraft presumed lost deep underwater, the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
The two veteran oceanographers were together running their own annual mission, a scientific effort started in 2010 and funded by the US Office of Naval Research, to track sea level rise, currents, and weather data in the Palauan islands. Terrill and Moline travel with fancy toys, most notably three remote environmental sampling units, $300,000 programmable underwater robots, known as Remus, packed with cameras and sensors, that are fantastic at surveying underwater environments. The robots also include a sophisticated side-scanning sonar system that generates imagery of the sea bottom, even when visibility is poor.
BentProp was familiar with side-scanning sonar, and had been towing a tethered device from a boat. But that approach was slow and inefficient. The Remus, said Moline, could be sent out on autonomous missions, methodically covering huge grids. "It was hard watching them work so hard at getting nowhere," Moline said of BentProp's efforts. "They'd see targets and dive those. They were not able to cover much area effectively."
It didn't take long for BentProp and the oceanographic teams to figure out they should join forces, and throw a Remus at the recovery problem. "Eric and I said, 'We could run a couple missions for you,'" Moline recalled in an interview in Palau in early April.
Scripps development engineer Myles Syverud helps collect a Remus autonomous underwater vehicle after a surveying mission. Daniel Terdiman/CNET
After both teams returned to the US following their 2012 Palau expeditions, they began serious talks about working together. Moline and Terrill secured additional ONR funding, with the goal of linking their scientific efforts to BentProp. They also brought on Michigan's Stockbridge High School -- and its robotics program -- as part of a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) educational program. In 2013, the groups converged on Palau, a set of specific airplanes in their sights.
The 2013 expedition was not a success. Since it found no American aircraft, BentProp on that occasion was unable to fulfill its core mission, which is to bring families of MIAs information about the fate of their lost loved ones. But the initial technology partnership led to the discovery of a sunken Japanese World War II float plane, and expanded in 2014 with oceanographers using a suite of technologies, such as 3D imaging sonar, LIDAR, advanced statistical modeling, and Autodesk 3D modeling software deployed on aerial drones. The 2013 effort, though, demonstrated "to BentProp and us that the interaction between the two groups would be beneficial," Moline said.
"Beneficial" may be an understatement. Within nine days of starting the 2014 expedition, the combined teams found the Avenger. Four days later, they discovered an F6F Hellcat fighter that BentProp had been seeking for at least 10 years.
Scannon was ecstatic. "To find two MIA sites in a single season is unprecedented in our experience."
'It's a blessing to know them'
For now the names of the planes remain out of the public eye. Notifying family members that their loved ones have finally been found is specifically not part of BentProp's purview. That job falls to the US military itself, and only after a meticulous recovery process by archaeologists and anthropologists from the Hawaii-based Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. Official notification can take just a few months if dental remains are in good shape, or an average of 18 months if DNA is required to make a match, according to Bill Belcher, a JPAC archaeologist and forensic anthropologist who is also a BentProp member.
As for the planes, once JPAC has excavated them, they remain US military property but are left where they've been for the last 70 years.
That's just fine with BentProp, which exists for one reason and one reason only: finding the MIAs, no matter if it takes a week or more than a decade.
"They're searching for people they don't even know, that they're not related to, and they respect them," said Jo Schumacher, whose uncle Arthur Schumacher parachuted in 1944 out of the doomed B-24 Liberator at the heart of "Vanished," and who was captured and executed by the Japanese. "It's just indescribable the amount of effort, and time, and love, that they put into finding family members. I can't even explain it. It's huge. It's a blessing to know them."
Casey Doyle agrees. His grandfather, Jimmie Doyle, was on that same B-24, and died when it crashed into the sea. But until BentProp finally found it, in 2004, the plane's fate was unknown. Doyle's father spent decades listening to whispers from family members that Jimmie was alive and had abandoned him and his mother. "The discovery meant so much to my father," recalled Casey Doyle, who joined BentProp to "lend a hand." "It has totally changed the foundation upon which all his assumptions of who he is and where he comes from are based upon."
'For the fallen'
The Avenger found on March 24 was part of a torpedo squadron that took off from an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific in the second half of 1944.
The plane, which had retractable landing gear and tail-wheel, could launch from land or a carrier, and had a crew of three: a pilot, a bombardier-gunner, and a radio operator-gunner. From 1942 to 1945, the Avenger was the US military's main torpedo bomber. For Scripps' Terrill, helping find the Avenger had special meaning: His grandfather was manager of the paint and body shop at the Grumman factory in Tarrytown, N.Y., where it was built. "That was kind of a cool feeling," Terrill said, sitting in a Koror office in early April.
On a sunny March 31, with Terrill and his Scripps team standing alongside those from the University of Delaware and BentProp, Scannon started the ceremony that marks the beginning of the slow, methodical process that one day will lead to the military formally notifying the families of the Avenger's crew that they've been found.
In the late afternoon, the three teams stood in shadow on the Kemedukl. Two oceanographers held three American flags, and to their left, two Palauans held their nation's flag. Then, in a series of crisp, tight moves, BentProp members Casey Doyle and Derek Abbey (both US Marines, though Abbey recently retired from the service) folded the flags into thick, taut triangles before handing them, one after another, to fellow team member, and former Navy lieutenant commander, Flip Colmer, who will ensure they are given to the families of the airmen.
BentProp team member and former U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Flip Colmer holds the three folded American flags at the end of the March 31, 2014, ceremony for the airmen of the TBM Avenger found last month. Daniel Terdiman/CNET
"The open flags are symbolic of the sacrifices made by these naval aviators in defense of our country, and also the consequent sacrifices of the families of this aircrew," Scannon said. "The joint folding of the American flag and the Palauan flag is also representative of the close partnership between the American people and the Palauan people in making this day possible."
Everyone aboard the Kemedukl remained silent, though several people had tears in their eyes, as Scannon closed the ceremony by reciting a passage from "For the Fallen," a World War I poem by Laurence Binyon: "They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old: / Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. / At the going down of the sun and in the morning / We will remember them."
The Recording Industry Association of America filed a lawsuit Thursday against MegaUpload and its founder, Kim Dotcom, just three days after the Motion Picture Association of America filed a similar lawsuit against the defunct file-sharing service.
Filed on behalf of record labels Warner Music, UMG Recordings, Sony Music, and Capitol Records in US District Court in Alexandria, Va., the lawsuit accuses MegaUpload of "massive copyright infringement" of music. A lawsuit filed in the same court Monday by the MPAA alleges that the site's administrators knowingly infringed on movie and TV show copyrights and encouraged others to do the same.
Those civil lawsuits come in addition to criminal charges filed against MegaUpload and Dotcom by the US Justice Department after the January 2012 raid on Dotcom's mansion near Auckland, New Zealand. US officials say he cost Hollywood studios and other copyright owners $500 million by encouraging users to store pirated videos, music, software, and other media and then share them with others.
Like the MPAA complaint, the RIAA's lawsuit accuses MegaUpload and Dotcom of actively encouraging users to infringe on the music label's copyrights.
"To ensure a vast and ever-growing supply of popular copyrighted content to which they could sell premium access, defendants paid users to upload popular content to Megaupload's servers," according to the RIAA's complaint. As evidence of the alleged copyright infringement, the lawsuit includes a list of 87 songs by artists such as Lady Gaga, Jay Z, and Pink the RIAA said it found on the site.
Dotcom's legal team criticized the lawsuit as misguided and baseless.
"RIAA, MPAA, and DOJ are like three blind mice following each other in the pursuit of meritless [copyright] claims and assault on [copyright] neutral cloud tech," San Francisco-based attorney Ira Rothken wrote in a tweet, adding that the case was an "an assault on cloud storage."
Dotcom, 40, was arrested during the raid on his mansion after the US handed down an indictment on criminal copyright violations and racketeering charges related to the operation of cloud-storage locker MegaUpload. Laptops, hard drives, and millions of dollars worth of cash, cars, and other possessions belonging to Dotcom were seized during the raid on his estate.
Dotcom, who faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, denies the charges and claims MegaUpload was completely legitimate and protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Dotcom is currently free on bail as he fight efforts to extradite him to the US to stand trial.
If you're like most people, including myself, you probably take tons of pictures with your smartphone. From trips out with our friends, to our lunch, to selfies, our handsets have become our main tool for snapping photos and capturing our lives.
Mobile manufacturers know this as well, and in a bid to keep their top-tier devices competitive, they pack tons of editing features into their cameraphones. Samsung's latest flagship, the Galaxy S5, is no exception.
And while its new camera tricks are nifty and useful, some of them aren't so intuitive to use. To help you get off on the right foot, I'll walk you through some basic steps to get the most out of the GS5's camera.
1. Check your defaults
Everyone has different tastes and styles when it comes to what they want out of a photo, and Samsung's default options may not be what you like. So be sure to check your default settings and tailor them to your preferences. Even if you don't consider yourself to be a serious photographer, it's good to dig into them anyway, so you know exactly what you're getting.
To access these settings, tap the little gear icon in the corner that appears on the camera's viewfinder. Then, scroll though the menu and tap the settings you want to turn on or off or adjust.
The GS5 camera settings, with the shortcut dash on the farthest left. Lynn La/CNET
For settings you anticipate changing frequently, you can keep shortcuts directly accessible on the viewfinder's dash. Just long-tap any of these settings and drag them to the dash. HDR and Selective Focus are already listed as shortcuts, but you can swap them out. You can have up to three settings, so make them count.
Some settings that Samsung turns off by default that you should note are recording Ultra HD video, and video stabilization. You might not want them on by default either, but keep this in mind.
2. Make the HDR toggle your friend
You've probably seen HDR, or High Dynamic Range, mode before on several smartphones, but the GS5 now has the option to toggle real-time feedback of what your HDR image would look like before you take a picture.
HDR combines several shots taken at varying levels of exposures and composites it into one image. This can result in really striking, almost surreal, photos that have great contrast.
With HDR, both Donald and the buildings outside his window are appropriately exposed. Lynn La/CNET
Sometimes, though, it can also create unnatural images that you might not like, so be sure to check by tapping on and off the HDR icon, which is represented by a little Venn diagram-looking icon. Once you like what you see, click the shutter.
3. Get to know the different photo effects
Third, familiarize yourself with photo effects. You can access some directly from the camera, nestled in the settings menu. It's indicated by the magic wand icon and you can preview what the filters will look like in real time. There are a number of effects to choose from (oil paste, cartoon, tint, and so on), but if you know you'll never use some of these effects, scroll to the end of the menu. Then, tap on "manage effects" and uncheck the filters you wish to hide.
Clockwise from left: The original cabbage photo, then applying the Pop Art, Light Flare, and Impressionists photo effects. Lynn La/CNET
Other effects can be applied after you click the shutter, which are accessible through the photo manager. Just go to your gallery, tap on the icon that has a Polaroid next to a pencil, and additional options will appear. Here, you can see a small "enhance" button. If you tap on that, your picture will be automatically edited and tweaked.
Near this circle is the wand icon that I mentioned before. Tap on this to view more filters like Pop Art, Impressionists, and Light Flare (this effect adds two lens flares to your picture and turns it into a low-budget J.J. Abrams movie).
4. Have fun with selective focus
Selective focus is a new GS5 feature that lets you change the focal point of your picture. By manipulating the depth of field, you can make pictures look more professional and even dramatic. We've seen this before in other handsets, like the Nokia Lumia 1020 and the LG G Pro 2, and it works the same way here. Because you have to turn this option on before taking a photo, it's good to have an idea about this feature while you're shooting.
To turn it on, tap the icon with the two human heads in the camera viewfinder. For best results, stand at most 1.5 feet away from the closest object. The object itself should also be at least 4.5 feet away from the background.
Tap on the object you want in your foreground, and click the shutter. It'll take a few moments for the handset to process. Afterward, head to your gallery. To initiate selective focus, click on the heads icon again.
With selective focus, you can choose to sharpen only a nearby object, the background, or the entire image. Lynn La/CNET
Three options will emerge: Near, Far, and Pan focus. Near will bring your closest object into focus and blur out everything behind it. Far sharpens only the background, and Pan puts everything in focus. When you're finished, tap Done to save your changes.
Remember that while these are four basic things to keep in mind to get the most out of your camera, there are tons more editing features packed inside this device,. This should be enough to get you started, but if you have additional tips or questions, let me know in the reader comments below.
Designer Todd Hamilton sketches out different possible versions of the iWatch. Todd Hamilton
Apple's rumored iWatch could be as much of a high-end fashion accessory as a high-tech gadget.
AppleInsider got its hands on a research note from KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is known for successful predictions on Apple products, that says two sizes of the device could be on consumers' wrists by this fall and certain models might cost upwards of several thousand dollars.
Kuo expects the reported iWatch casing and band to come in several different materials, which could mean some versions of the wearable would cost more than others. Kuo says the high-end version could be comparable to luxury watches and carry a very costly price tag.
Along with the price and launch predictions, Kuo believes the rumored iWatch will come in two sizes -- both a 1.3-inch and 1.5-inch display. The display is said to be flexible AMOLED with sapphire cover, which means the screen may be curved to mimic the shape of a user's wrist. Additionally, Kuo forecasts the wearable to carry a 200 to 250mAh cell battery that should power it for at least one day, which is longer than average for many smartwatches.
Samsung, Sony, ZTE, and other tech players have already unveiled their own smartwatches, so Apple is already fashionably late to this party. But the iPhone-maker could shake up the smartwatch market with a device that is different in both performance and design from its rival products.
Rumors about the purported iWatch have been flying over the past few months. Beyond having the reported ability to sync with iPhones and iPads, the device is also said to be able to serve as a health and fitness tracker by tapping into an iOS 8 app called Healthbook.
On Tuesday, Taiwan's Economic Daily News also reported that the wearable could be unveiled in the third quarter of this year with Apple aiming to produce a total of 65 million iWatches.
CNET contacted Apple for comment and will update the story with any further details.
The Dell Venue 8 Pro has been well received but Windows tablet numbers overall are small. Dell
When Intel announced its tablet numbers for the first quarter on Tuesday, it was clear that Android buried Windows.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said during the company's first-quarter earnings conference call that out of the 5 million tablet processors shipped "80 to 90 percent" were for Android and the rest Windows.
That leaves a pretty small number for Windows, underscoring the uphill battle Microsoft is fighting against Android and Apple in the tablet market.
"Windows tablet numbers in general have been pretty modest," said Bob O'Donnell, founder and chief analyst Technalysis Research.
The problem is, a pure Windows tablet experience doesn't have a lot to offer when compared with Android and Apple.
"Consumers using Windows want more of a PC experience. And they're going to get that from a device that has a keyboard," he said.
O'Donnell continued. "That's why you see the latest updates to Windows 8.1 are pretty much focused [on adding] keyboard [functionality]. The keyboard angle of a PC is so essential."
And how does Intel define a tablet? "The 5 million shipments (and 40 million full year target) does not include 2-in-1s. [Those] are reflected in [PC Client Group] results," said an Intel spokesman.
"The primary difference is, if it detaches, that's a tablet; if it just folds over, that's a 2 in 1," he said.
Indeed, that kind of 2-in-1 that folds over -- like the Lenovo Yoga -- is very laptop-like and a far cry from a tablet like an Apple iPad Air or Samsung Galaxy Tab 3.
Intel's PC revenue in the first quarter was $7.94 billion, down from $8.54 billion a year earlier. And global shipments of PCs have continued to fall, down 1.7 percent in the first quarter of 2013, according to Gartner.
On the other hand, the kind of devices that would be categorized as a tablet include the Surface Pro 2 and HP Spectre 13 x2, as both detach completely from the keyboard and can be used as a pure tablet.
Intel thinks it has a solution, though. The chipmaker will increase the amount it allocates to device makers to order to incentivize them to bring out more Intel-based tablets, Stacy Smith, Intel 's chief financial officer said Tuesday.
But the question is, how much of that money will flow to Android tablet makers and how much to Windows.
Turkey's prime minister seems to still be looking for a way to silence Twitter in his country, saying in a televised speech Saturday that the microblogging service is a tax evader and that his government will pursue it.
"Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook are international companies established for profit and making money. Twitter is at the same time a tax evader. We will go after it," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, according to a report by news agency AFP. "These companies, like every international company, will abide by my country's constitution, laws, and tax rules."
Twitter was banned by Erdogan's government last month in a runup to elections, but the ban was later lifted after Turkey's supreme court ruled that it interfered with free speech and individual rights. The court also ordered that a YouTube ban be lifted (with 15 videos to remain inaccessible), but so far the government hasn't stopped blocking that site.
The bans have to do with posted content critical of Erdogan's government. Recordings surfaced on Twitter that allegedly captured Erdogan and his son in corrupt activities, discussing how to hide large sums of money. Erdogan called the recordings "fake."
And YouTube was shut down after the appearance of a recording that allegedly caught government officials talking about how to justify air strikes against Syria. Turkey's foreign ministry said the recording was manipulated and was a "first degree threat to national security," according to Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency.
Erdogen said Saturday that the supreme court's decision on the Twitter ban "amounts to interference in politics" and advocates "commercial law of international companies instead of defending the rights of its own country and its own people."
AFP reports that Erdogen's remarks come a day after the court annulled a controversial clause in a law "giving the justice ministry greater control over the appointment of judges and prosecutors."
Earlier this week, Erdogen said the ruling on the Twitter ban "did not serve justice" and should be "corrected." And on Monday, Google announced that it had previously filed three petitions in Turkey in an attempt to overturn the YouTube ban, reportedly arguing that the block is "overbroad" and challenging it "based on freedom of speech."
In March, the White House issued a statement condemning Turkey's blockage of "access to basic communication tools." Press Secretary Jay Carney said, "We oppose this restriction on the Turkish people's access to information, which undermines their ability to exercise freedoms of expression and association and runs contrary to the principles of open governance that are critical to democratic governance." Carney also said the White House had conveyed its concerns to the Turkish government.
We've asked Twitter to comment on Erdogen's "tax evader" remark and will update this post when we hear back.
My local Chevy dealer -- Rydell Chevrolet -- in Los Angeles is one of the largest Volt dealers in the US. Brooke Crothers/CNET
The Chevy Volt is a good car, with marketing challenges. I asked GM about those challenges as it approaches the 60,000 units-sold mark.
Let me preface the interview with a brief explanation of the Volt and my own experience with the car.
The Volt, first introduced in December 2010, is a plug-in hybrid (or can be more technically described as an electric car with a range extending gasoline powered generator) that can go between 30 and 40 miles on battery. After that, a range-extender gas engine kicks in and adds another 300 to 350 miles.
I drive a 2013 Volt, which I lease relatively inexpensively (for $220 a month). I've had it for a little more than a year. It's easily the most impressive vehicle I've ever driven. Mostly because it's changed the way I think of the automobile. Miles are not measured out in gallons of gas but in energy consumed -- and gained.
Let me give a quick example.
Recently, I drove up into the Hollywood Hills. From my house, it's about a 15 minute drive to the base of the hills (small mountains, really) and another ten minutes to the top.
In battery mode, the power and speed the Volt delivers (completely silent) going up the steep hills is competitive with that produced by the (ear-piercing) Ferraris some Hollywood folk drive. Point: in battery mode, this car is not slow.
But if one goes up, one must come down. This is the beauty of the Volt. Going back down the hills to the freeway, I gained about 5 miles of battery power (because the car can regenerate energy). Then on the freeway it was battery power all the way back to my home.
This never ceases to amaze me.
But my positive consumer experience aside, I worry about the Volt. Would GM -- perish the thought -- pull the plug (pun intended) on the Volt because of meager sales? After about three years, it's sold just under 60,000 vehicles. I think it's safe to say that's not a ton of units.
My concern is markets other than Los Angeles. In the small community I live in, there are probably a half-dozen Volts including mine. And Volts -- as far as electric vehicles go -- are pretty common when driving around the city.
But go to other markets, like suburban Philadelphia or small towns outside of Los Angeles, and the Volt pulls a disappearing act. And even in Los Angeles these days you're more likely to see a (much more expensive) all-electric Tesla. And in places like Philadelphia (as in many other markets), the Toyota Prius is everywhere, with virtually no Volts to see on the road.
Now, I realize that the hybrid Prius is different from the Volt. But it's the mind share thing that worries me.
And about Los Angeles. Teslas (Model S) are multiplying like crazy here. In places like Beverly Hills, for example, the Tesla is replacing the Porsche Panamera as the vehicle of choice. And it's becoming more common everywhere in the city, as I said above.
With these concerns in mind, I asked Dora Norwicki, Volt marketing manager at GM, and Randy Fox, a spokesman for GM Electric Vehicle Technology, about the company's marketing strategy going forward.
Q: Do you have different marketing strategies for different regions? Norwicki: In general, yes and no. Not every dealer is certified to sell Volts. Only two-thirds of Chevrolet dealers sell Volts -- because of the electrical requirements and the tools required; and the special needs of the service. The dealer would have to make a conscious decision to opt in. So, that's the only way they would receive allocation of the car.
The fact of the matter is, the State of California is the most active in pursuing clean air and emissions and they have legislated quite heavily. And [California] incents their residents to purchase cars of this class. For example: High-Occupancy Vehicle [HOV] lane stickers (which apply to hybrids and electric cars with only one occupant); and the tax rebate that you get along with the federal tax credits are quite favorable compared to other parts of the country that have access to the car. [Editor's note: California will cut you a check for $1,500 if you buy or lease a Volt.]
So, I would say that is one of the key factors as to why you see so many in California. And the infrastructure is more developed with regard to charging stations.
Does weather have anything to do with marketing? Maybe something that affects East Coast sales, for example? Because battery life can be adversely affected by cold weather? Norwicki: There is a level of impact based on weather. But the customer controls what sells and what doesn't sell. What's' more prevalent on the East Coast is the sales of diesel engines and vehicles as opposed to electrics or hybrids -- that would be their alternative fuel vehicle of choice.
The infrastructure has probably the greatest impact as to why you see variances from market to market in terms of where certain types of vehicles sell and where they don't. No different than full-size pickups selling in Texas. They (pickups) don't sell particularly well in New York City.
What are the biggest markets for the Volt outside of California? Norwicki: Michigan. Illinois. And New York and New Jersey are also big markets. The Washington, DC-Baltimore area: the i95 corridor. And then you have pockets in Florida and Texas.
Is there a barrier to Volt sales in the sense that not everyone understands fully what the Volt is? In other words, some people who may be casually considering a hybrid or electric car may not know that it's different from a Prius hybrid, for example. And they may think it's just an expensive take on the Prius. The Volt starts at about $34,000. So, I'm talking about your average consumer, who may not know that much about hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and electric cars. Norwicki: It's an extended-range electric vehicle. It's a unique car in that sense. That fact that some people may not be familiar with the Volt technology is a function of whether they were interested in alternative-fuel vehicles available to them. If you're not in market, you're not likely to pay attention. Is it a little confusing to people? Perhaps.
My 2013 Chevrolet Volt in the California desert. Few, if any, Volts to see on the road outside of Los Angeles. Brooke Crothers/CNET
But how can you get a simple, easy-to-understand message to consumers about what the Volt is? Norwicki: One of our key messages is that our owners -- and we track them quite extensively -- on average go 900 miles between each fill-up. Which is an attention-getter and stops people in their tracks when they think about [that statement]. Most of our owners have told us that they spend very little time driving on gas. The majority of their travel on the Volt is in electric mode. So, to them, it is an electric vehicle. But should they decide to go outside its typical range, then [it] flips modes [to gas engine] and off they go. They don't need a second car or they don't need to worry that they're deviating from infrastructure that will allow them to plug in.
Fox: The situation that you're describing is exactly the challenge that we have. In order to communicate the message on how the Volt works, you can do that on the Web site, but if you look at a 30-second commercial, that's where it's challenging. And unless you've been in the market specifically looking at the Volt, the awareness is still something that we're working on.
What about TV ads? I don't see Volt TV ads these days. Norwicki:Generally speaking, the category isn't advertised on TV. You go where the target customer for your vehicle is. And oftentimes people that are drawn to specific categories of cars, alternative-fuel vehicles in particular -- those people do not view TV. They are online. They're in social media. But they are not typical TV watchers. So just because you don't see us on TV doesn't mean we're not advertising online and in social media.
If you advertise on TV, you'll increase awareness, but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll increase consideration. So, by targeting we can more efficiently use our marketing funds.
Is the Prius a Volt competitor? Norwicki: The Prius plug-in would be the most appropriate competitor. The original Prius, the hybrid, not so much. And you have to put everything in context. The Prius has been in the market for 10 years. And it's predominately sold, if I have my facts correct, in California. So, you have people who are more familiar because it's been in the market longer. The Prius plug-in is a relatively recent addition to their lineup. [Editor's note: The Prius plug-in has a range of 10-15 miles on battery-only power; the Volt has between 30 and 40 miles.]
Certainly, [Toyota has] the benefit, versus Volt, of brand awareness. So, unless you spend considerable amounts of money to get name awareness, it takes time.
What about the Tesla and the hold it has on the media mind share right now? Norwicki:Anything that helps the category is good. The enthusiast population is well aware of the difference in price points [between the less expensive Volt and pricey Tesla]. Definitely, it's on the high-end luxury side of the market.
Do you think the Volt has been successful based on the numbers? Norwicki: 58,000 Volts sold to date. That means we've outsold [individually] the [Nissan] Leaf, the Prius Plug-in, the Toyota Rav 4 EV, The Ford C-MAX Energi, The [Ford] Fusion Energi, The Focus EV, and the Telsa S. So, I guess in context, it is a lot. In the alternative-fuel space it's at the top, and we have been there for some time. Expectations need to be set. This is new technology and it's going to take time for people to understand that this vehicle could be for them. Certainly, California has embraced it and we're quite appreciative of that. And good word-of-mouth; the customer enthusiasm for this car is huge. And it's been on top of the pile in all of the Consumer Reports owner satisfaction ratings. And we're beginning to see consumers trading in their first Volts and getting a second one. And that's how it starts.
Is GM really serious about electric cars? Fox: In addition to the Volt, we have the Spark EV. That's pretty successful. And we've taken the extended range [electric] propulsion system to the Cadillac ELR. Then we have the e-assist strategy, some stop-start systems (in certain conditions, when the vehicle is stopped the engine will stop running to save fuel). And I think you're going to see more and more as the years go by.
About the Spark EV. Why is it sold only in California and Oregon? Norwicki: It's a limited-availability car sold globally. So, we have to share the available technology and production availability with other countries. To make sure we were actually able to grow our volumes, it made all the sense in the world to go where the infrastructure is. Like I said, not every state has charging stations, so much of the growth in the segment is going to be where the infrastructure exists and where the customer is and where the mind-set is to support that.
If you run into any problem with your Mac, there is a general set of steps and checks you can take to troubleshoot it. While these are not guaranteed to get you an answer or necessarily fix your system, they should at least get you closer to a solution.
First, generally characterize the problem by asking yourself what is happening. Notice any errors and behaviors, and other actions you are taking that lead up to the problem at hand. For example, if the system hangs, does this occur for about 30 seconds every time you boot, or does it happen at regular intervals, or perhaps is it random in nature?
In addition, ask yourself how long the problem has been happening, and whether or not it came about after any changes you made to the system, including software installs, upgrades, and changes to system settings.
With these ideas in mind, you can perform a number of tests to determine if the problem is hardware-related, or software-related, and in doing so hopefully narrow down the culprit.
Hardware troubleshooting
Remove peripherals
First unplug any peripherals you have, including printers, hard drives, extra displays, and scanners. Run your system with only the keyboard and mouse and with just one monitor attached, and see if this makes a difference. If so, then you can try swapping peripherals to different ports, or change the order in which they are attached to troubleshoot daisy-chaining.
Update peripheral firmware and drivers
Even if troubleshooting peripherals by unplugging or re-ordering them does not make a difference, still consider checking for and applying both firmware and drive software updates to the device. Check with your devices' manufacturers to see if there are firmware updates available, and install them. This is especially true if you have recently upgraded or updated your system software.
Run Apple Hardware Tests
Apple provides a test suite for all of its Mac systems, which will run a test on the RAM as well as check a number of different hardware sensors to ensure the system is running within voltage, amperage, and temperature tolerances. To access the tests, reboot your system with the D key held, or Option-D to load the tests form the Internet, and from there you can run and interpret the tests.
Troubleshoot power sources
Sometimes a system shutting down unexpectedly can be from faulty power adapters, so be sure you check the cabling and wall circuit you have yours attached to, and if troubleshooting the power adapter shows any problems, then consider replacing it.
Test your Wi-Fi signal strength
If your problem is with Internet connectivity and you are experiencing drop-outs, then you might be experiencing heavy noise or low signal in your Wi-Fi connection. Troubleshooting this will take time but can be done methodically by going to different locations and noting your connection's signal-to-noise ratio. By doing this, you can map out where noise may be coming from around your system, and adjust your environment accordingly.
Reset the PRAM and SMC
The only real hardware-based fixes you can do for your Mac, at least without opening it or getting it serviced, are to reset the Parameter RAM (PRAM) and system management controller (SMC). The PRAM can be reset by booting with the Option-Command-P-R keys held down, but resetting your SMC will require you to hold down a special combination of keys specific to your Mac's model.
Software troubleshooting
Boot to Safe Mode
If your Mac is having trouble with some third-party software, then you can boot into Safe Mode to see if doing so avoids the problem. Safe boot will load the system to a minimal boot environment, avoiding any nonessential software that potentially could be affecting the system. If the problem goes away in Safe Mode, then it is likely rooted in the main operating system as opposed to a configuration in your user account.
New user account
Try creating a new user account, or enable and log into the Guest account in the system. This will run all your system's same software, services, and installed programs under fresh user settings, and thereby help determine if the problem is account-based or rooted in the system. If the problem persists in your new or Guest user account, then this suggests it is system-wide and not an issue with your home folder. Therefore, performing steps like preference file deletion likely will not help.
Remove application preferences
If a specific application is giving you troubles and these problems are happening in just one account but not another, then you can try the classic approach to remove preferences for the program. Removing preferences can be done manually by going to the hidden Library > Preferences folder in your account and removing the associated .plist file for your program (found based on the developer name and program title, such as com.apple.TextEdit for Apple's TextEdit program), but can also be done using the OS X Terminal.
Remove temporary and cache files
Both OS X and applications running on it create temporary files and caches that, if corrupted, may lead to problems including hangs or the inability to perform specific tasks, and which can sometimes lead to crashes. If a specific program is causing problems, then you can try clearing the caches for it, or for the entire system, to see if this helps. While there are ways to do this manually, you can use the most up-to-date version of a reputable system maintenance tool like OnyX to access and remove cache files. Keep in mind these tools may be specific for a given version of OS X, but for the most part they will perform tasks like cache deletion just fine. After removing caches, restart your system to see if it's made a positive effect.
Check Activity Monitor
Open Activity Monitor and sort the various process lists by the %CPU, Memory, or Energy columns, to see if any program is regularly using up system resources. If one is persistently at the top of the list, then consider investigating it to see whether the activity seen is normal.
Check filesystem formatting
Use Disk Utility to both check the boot drive for errors, and to fix its permissions. To do this thoroughly, you will need to boot to the OS X Recovery partition and then use Disk Utility to verify and repair the hard drive. You can also run a permissions fix on the drive, to ensure system files are properly accessible. In addition to a full system permissions fix, you can reset the permissions on home folders in your user account, which will ensure programs, services, and anything else that runs under your account has proper access to the resources it needs.
Check the system console
The system console in OS X offers central access to system logs, and as such is a quick way to track down errors. While system and application logs can be somewhat cryptic, you can use some techniques to isolate messages and identify common errors that accompany the problematic behaviors you are experiencing. While console output can be difficult to interpret, if you see a repeating pattern then you can communicate this to technicians who might be better-equipped to help.
Reinstall OS X
While the idea of reinstalling an OS seems pretty invasive, Apple has made it almost seamless, where doing so will preserve your installed applications, settings, files, and other data you use. Performing a reinstall of OS X simply requires you boot into Recovery mode, and then select the option to reinstall OS X. This will simply replace all the core system files with fresh ones, which sometimes can be a quick fix for a damaged OS installation.
Sometimes you can search for a "Combo" updater for your version of OS X from Apple's Support Downloads Web site, but while this will replace system files, it will do so only for the subset of those changed by the update. To ensure all files are replaced, perform a full reinstall followed by installing the relevant combo updater, or simply run Software Update in the Apple menu.
Even if these steps do not fix the problem, you can make a note of whether or not they help isolate it. If the problem stops occurring, or shows specific behavior when you perform the steps above, then you can convey these to a technician or online help resource to get better insight on what to do next.
Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Be sure to check us out on Twitter.
Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. James Martin/CNET
Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is a polarizing figure.
In some circles, she's portrayed as a fiercely intelligent and loyal person who broke glass ceilings to become the first black woman to serve as secretary of state. In other circles, she's seen as a dishonest politician who allegedly orchestrated the US's role in the Iraq War, backed torture policies, and approved of warrantless wiretapping.
Yesterday, the cloud storage service Dropbox announced that it wanted to boost its international presence, so it appointed Rice to its board of directors. This announcement angered a slew of users. And, by Thursday, an online protest had fired up, demanding the company drop Rice or users will "drop Dropbox."
"This is deeply disturbing, and anyone -- or any business -- who values ethics should be concerned," reads a Web site dedicated to the Drop Dropbox movement. "Choosing Condoleezza Rice for Dropbox's Board is problematic on a number of deeper levels, and invites serious concerns about [CEO] Drew Houston and the senior leadership at Dropbox's commitment to freedom, openness, and ethics. When a company quite literally has access to all of your data, ethics become more than a fun thought experiment."
The site details its reasons why it believes Rice is not fit to serve on Dropbox's board. She "helped start the Iraq War" and allegedly lied about non-existent weapons of mass destruction, the site writes, and she was "involved in the creation of the Bush administration's torture program."
But the most worrisome aspect of Rice, as far as Dropbox users are concerned, was her alleged support and authorization of warrantless wiretaps, says the site.
"Rice not only spoke in favor of the Bush administration's warrantless wiretap program and expansive domestic surveillance program, she authorized the warrantless wiretap of UN Security Council members," the site says. "Given everything we now know about the US's warrantless surveillance program, and Rice's role in it, why on earth would we want someone like her involved with Dropbox, an organization we are trusting with our most important business and personal data?"
The site urges users to contact Houston and tell him to "drop Condoleezza Rice or we will #DropDropbox." Since the online protest started, hundreds of people have taken to Twitter with this "drop Dropbox" message for Houston.
For her part, it's unclear what Rice thinks about privacy for Dropbox. In an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday, she did say it was a major issue.
"As a country, we are having a great national conversation and debate about exactly how to manage privacy concerns," Rice told Bloomberg. "I look forward to helping Dropbox navigate it."
CNET contacted Dropbox for comment. We'll update the story when we get more information.
