Google Takes on Tiny Doogle

doogle.co.za

Search engine giant Google is threatening a lawsuit against a tiny South African website named Doogle.

The legal fight may threaten the existence of the company, but has been a short term boon for Doogle, creating so much traffic for the site that it crashed last week. Andries Maree Van Der Merwe, 23, said the free job search site he launched two years ago to help unemployed people in his country find work had more than a million hits last Wednesday.

The Doogle site features the Os as eyes and includes the phrase “Doogle it.”

“That’s more hits than in the entire first year.  I can’t believe the site has gone international,” said Van Der Merwe. He is so encouraged by the show of interest to persevere in a potential legal battle to save his business and domain name, www.doogle.co.za.

Van Der Merwe said he received a letter last month from attorneys at Google threatening to sue him for copyright infringement because his name and logo have similarities to the popular search engine’s.  One South African newspaper columnist declared Google had crossed the line by “persecuting small companies just because their name sounds vaguely similar.”  Van Der Merwe’s story was soon went viral.

“I’m not giving up my name. Doogle is who I am. It’s my business. I registered the company and legally acquired the domain,” said Van Der Merwe.

He said after dropping out of high school and teaching himself to use computers while scraping by on a meager income selling newspapers, he started the company on a computer he bought from a pawn shop.  Since then he has begun to do software development and web site creation for other businesses, but he says his dream is for Doogle to become a successful enterprise.  He has expanded the site beyond employment posting to include vehicle, realty and other classified listings.

“I am going all the way to court if Google wants to go to court, but I hope there’s a better way to solve this,” said Van Der Merwe.

Van Der Merwe says his attorney has replied to Google’s letter denying the claims and offering to put a notice on his site distancing itself from Google.

A Google spokesperson told the Guardian newspaper she could not comment on individual cases, but said the company is “passionate about protecting the reputation of our brand.”

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

A photo taken with a Samsung Google Nexus 10 tablet shows up on Picasa

A photo uploaded to Picasa confirms the existence of a Google Nexus 10 tablet manufactured by Samsung.

Unfortunately, the photo doesn’t reveal much besides its resolution of 2,560 x 1,920 and the Android build number, which is JVP12C.

Could this be the long rumored high-resolution tablet that analyst Richard Shim was talking about a few weeks ago? We can know for sure, but it’s fairly logical to assume that the tablet gets its beef from the new dual-core Cortex-A15 Exynos chip by Samsung that resides in the just announced Chromebook.

Google’s Android event on October 29 is approaching ever so rapidly, so let’s hope the new tablet gets it announcement then, in addition to the almost certain 32GB Nexus 7.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

TSA agent steals iPad, busted using Apple’s tracking software

Despite the existence of GPS tracking applications for security, criminals still think they can get away with mobile devices.

Detailed extensively in an investigative sting operation conducted by ABC News, an Florida-based TSA agent named Andy Ramirez was caught with a iPad stolen from the security line at the Orlando International Airport. In an attempt to test the honesty of TSA agents at ten major airports around the United States, ABC News representatives “accidentally” left their iPad at the security checkpoint. Each iPad had a case that displayed the owner’s name and phone number. At nine of the ten airports, TSA agents correctly followed procedure and contacted the owner of the tablet. In addition, ABC News representatives tested sending checked bags containing cash and an iPad through security, but nothing was stolen from any suitcase at all ten airports.

Regarding the iPad that went missing, ABC News secretly filmed Ramirez handling the iPad at the security checkpoint. Two hours later, representatives used Apple’s Find My iPad application to track the location of the expensive tablet to Ramirez’s home.

Over two weeks later, ABC News sent reporter Brian Ross and a camera crew to Ramirez’s home. Catching Ramirez outside in his TSA uniform, Ross introduced himself and asked Ramirez about the missing iPad. Despite showing Ramirez the current GPS location of the iPad on another tablet, Ramirez denied that the iPad was located within his home.

Ross then used the Find My iPad sound feature that overrides the volume or silent setting on the tablet to activate a loud alarm. After hearing the tablet inside the home, Ramirez retrieved the iPad and blamed his wife for stealing the tablet. Ramirez said “My wife said she got the iPad and brought it home.” Ross disputed his claim by bringing up the footage taken at the security checkpoint, but Ramirez refused to answer any more questions and closed the door.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Ramirez was no longer employed by the Transportation Security Administration. Regarding the incident, a TSA representative stated that the organization has “a zero-tolerance policy for theft and terminates any employee who is determined to have stolen from a passenger.”

However, this isn’t the first time that a TSA agent has been busted for stealing electronics or other valuables from passenger luggage. In a similar case during February 2012, police at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport arrested 31-year-old Clayton Keith Dovel after using Find My iPad tracking to locate eight stolen iPads at Dovel’s home. Dovel was a TSA baggage inspector at the Dallas airport.

Also during February 2012, a 31-year-old, New York based TSA agent named Alexandra Schmid was arrested for stealing $5,000 in cash from a passenger’s jacket. After wrapping the cash within a plastic glove, Schmid was filmed taking the money into a bathroom to pass it off to an unknown person. Shortly after the incident Schmid was arrested for grand larceny. During July 2011, TSA agent Nelson Santiago-Serrano at another Florida airport was arrested after authorities discovered an iPad shoved into his pants. His arrest led to the discovery of $50,000 dollars of additional stolen electronics during his employment period with the TSA.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com