Gizmorama - October 8th, 2012

Good Morning,

The last story in today's issue is about the possibility of the global censorship of internet. This topic gets brought up quite a bit in the office here. Is it a good idea or a bad idea? Does it violate free speech? What do you think?

Read about this hot topic and enjoy the rest that today's Gizmorama has to offer.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Apple apologizes for Map app problems --*
CUPERTINO, Calif. - Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook apologized on the Apple website Friday for the company's Maps application, suggesting users seek replacement apps. Apple was "extremely sorry" for the frustration experienced by customers using the new mapping program that had glitches and inaccuracies, he said, suggesting they investigate other mapping applications available in Apple's App Store or even seek solutions on the Web from competitors Google and Nokia. Apple has called Maps a work in progress and Cook said the company was listening to user complaints. "Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world," Cook wrote. "We know that you expect that from us and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard." Apple users have used the Map app to search for 500 million locations since its debut as part iOS 6 two weeks ago, Cook said. A public apology is unusual for Apple and is a departure from its responses to problems in the past, The Washington Post said.


*-- African habitat for apes said disappearing --*
LEIPZIG, Germany - Suitable habitat in Africa for the continent's great apes such as gorillas, chimps and bonobos is experiencing significant decline, wildlife researchers say. In a survey across Africa, Eastern gorillas, the largest living primates, were found to have lost more than half their habitat since the early 1990s while habitats Cross River gorillas, chimps and bonobos have suffered considerable losses, scientists said. "Several studies either on a site or country level indicated already that African ape populations are under enormous pressure and in decline," Hjalmar Kuehl of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who helped organize the research, told the BBC. "But despite these expectations it is outrageous to see how our closest living relatives and their habitats are disappearing," he said. In western Africa forest clearance and hunting are destroying habitats while in Central Africa large regions of forest are no longer suitable for great apes because of extensive hunting to supply the trade in bushmeat, researchers said. "The situation is very dramatic; many of the ape populations we still find today will disappear in the near future," Kuehl said. "In an increasingly crowding world with demand for space, wood, mineral resources and meat, apes will continue to disappear."


*-- Reform urged for Russia's space program --*
MOSCOW - "Extreme measures" and sweeping reform are needed if Russia's space industry is to remain competitive, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos says. The remarks by Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin follow a recent string of failed launches and satellite malfunctions. "Unless we undertake extreme measures, the sector will be uncompetitive within 3-4 years," RIA Novosti reported Popovkin saying in a lecture to science and technology students. The failed launches are "only the litmus test," he said. "The root causes are much deeper and more important." Russian satellites could lose to foreign competition because per-capita productivity in the aerospace sectors of competing countries is two to four times higher, he said. "If nothing changes, we won't be able to sell [Russian space technology] in 2015, because Western equipment will be priced 33 to 50 percent lower," Popovkin said. Roscosmos ought to be converted into a space industry holding company that isn't under direct state control, he said, and there should be a fundamental shift in the state's focus from producing a final product to providing conditions in the private sector of the space industry conducive to success.


*-- Global censorship of Internet on the rise --*
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Internet censorship is increasing as authoritarian regimes attempt to impose more restrictions on online activism, a U.S. watchdog organization reports. Free speech group Freedom House said repressive laws, violent attacks on bloggers and government surveillance are among the biggest emerging threats to Internet freedom, CNN reported Friday. Freedom house analyzed restriction of access, content censorship and violations of users' civil rights in 47 countries. Iran, Cuba and China were the most repressive in terms of restricting Internet usage and freedoms, the group said. Authorities in China conduct the most sophisticated censorship efforts, Freedom House said, because major Web portals and social networking sites, even though not state-owned, must obey with strict government censorship rules or risk being shut down. Beijing's influence as an "incubator for sophisticated restrictions" has not gone unnoticed, the group said, with governments including Belarus, Uzbekistan and Iran following China's model for their own Internet crackdowns. "The findings clearly show that threats to Internet freedom are becoming more diverse," Sanja Kelly, a project director at Freedom House, said. "As authoritarian rulers see that blocked websites and high-profile arrests draw local and international condemnation, they are turning to murkier -- but no less dangerous -- methods for controlling online conversations."

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