The Category5.TV Newsroom

Here are the stories we're following for the week of Tuesday March 31, 2015

Confidential information about 31 of the world leaders were accidentally emailed to the Asian Cup organizers in Australia.

The passport numbers and Visa details of 31 world leaders were accidentally emailed to the organisers of the Asian Cup in Australia.

The passport numbers and Visa details of 31 world leaders were accidentally emailed to the organisers of the Asian Cup in Australia before the G20 summit in Brisbane in November.

Those affected included US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A worker at the Australian Department of Immigration sent the list by mistake.

The message included the 31 world leaders' dates of birth but not personal addresses and other contact details.

The breach was said to be the result of "human error", with the sender forgetting to check the auto-fill function in Microsoft Outlook's email service before hitting send.

According to the officer, both the sender of the email and the recipient had deleted it within 10 minutes of it being sent, and the Asian Cup football tournament organisers said they did not believe the email was accessible or stored on their servers.

The department decided there was no need to alert the G20 attendees, clearly indicating that they don't understand how email works.

Source: www.bbc.com

Sent to us by: Roy W. Nash

AT&T are the 'big brother' of ISPs.

AT&T maintains affordable pricing for gigabit Internet service by monitoring everything you do online to sell the information to the advertisers.

If you have AT&T’s gigabit Internet service and wonder why it seems so affordable, here's the reason—AT&T is boosting profits by rerouting all your Web browsing to an in-house traffic scanning platform, analyzing your Internet habits, then using the results to deliver personalized ads to the websites you visit, e-mail to your inbox, and junk mail to your front door.

In a few select areas including Austin, Texas, and Kansas City, Missouri—places where AT&T competes against the $70-per-month Google Fiber—Ma Bell offers its own $70-per-month "GigaPower" fiber-to-the-home Internet access. But signing up for the deal also opts customers in to AT&T’s “Internet Preferences” program, which gives the company permission to examine each customer’s Web traffic in exchange for a price that matches Google's.

AT&T says Internet Preferences tracks "the webpages you visit, the time you spend on each, the links or ads you see and follow, and the search terms you enter.” This helps AT&T serve ads targeted to each user based on that person’s interests. And advertisers are willing to pay more when they know their ads will be shown only to the people most likely to be interested in their products.

Because AT&T can see almost everything you do online, no matter what websites you visit, the company may be in even better position to serve targeted ads than even Google and Facebook. While Google apparently doesn't impose anything similar to Internet Preferences on its fiber Internet, the company's cable service is delivering targeted TV ads based on its customers' viewing history.

Source: arstechnica.com

Sent to us by: Roy W. Nash

Future Shop closed all its Canadian stores on Sunday to the surprise of even their staff.

Best Buy has announced that it is closing its Canadian subsidiary, Future Shop, and converting 65 of its 131 stores into Best Buy outlets.

US consumer electronics chain Best Buy has announced that it is closing its Canadian subsidiary, Future Shop, and converting 65 of its 131 stores into Best Buy outlets.

As a result of the move, 500 full-time jobs and 1,000 part-time jobs will go, the retailer said.

Future Shop, Canada's biggest electronics brand, had been owned by Best Buy since 2001.

After the changeover is completed, Best Buy will have 192 Canadian stores.

Analysts say the move will rationalise Best Buy's offer in Canada and get rid of duplication. Best Buy and Future Shop outlets are often found in close proximity, they say.

Source: www.bbc.com

Sent to us by: Roy W. Nash

A brand new, high-end modular gaming mouse is available for pre-order through crowd-funding, and its unique design will put it on any serious gamer's shopping list.

A new style of gaming mouse is about to take the world by storm. It uses magnetic parts that snap on and off so you can customize your mouse to suit the way you play.

A new style of high-end gaming mouse is about to take the world by storm.

It's called the James Donkey 007 mouse, and it's made to be very customizable with magnetic parts that snap on and off so gamers can build an ergonomic mouse that suits the way they play.

With an Avago A9800 chip, 8400 dpi sensor and OMRON switches tested to 20 mil clicks, the 007 in a league with the best gaming mice out there.

With the new James Donkey 007, you can easily remove and replace magnetic components [such as], which not only changes the outward appearance of the mouse, but also the electronic functionality of that switch. This unique design makes up to 54 configurations possible.

The James Donkey team are making the moulds now, and are well on their way to raising the funds for the first production run. For a limited time you can order the 007 for just $41, and bulk orders are also available.

Visit our shortlink at cat5.tv/007 to support the campaign and get your hands on this innovative high-end gaming mouse.

Source: www.pozible.com

Legacy Roku devices are about to be deprecated and it may be time to upgrade.

Roku is cutting off support for their older devices.

For some time now, older Roku streaming players--those made before May 2011--have not been able to benefit from the many improvements that have made to the Roku OS. This means customers with legacy devices are not able to experience important new features that deliver the great streaming experience Roku wants for its customers, and soon they will be cutting off development for those devices entirely.

While consumers with legacy devices will continue to have access to channels that have already launched on those devices, going forward, Roku will no longer launch any new channels, update existing channels, issue firmware updates or provide developer support for channels that run on these older devices.

Since this is the case, legacy Roku devices will soon be crippled since channel developers and content providers will have no way to make updates to their channel's software.

That said, due to the nature of Roku's platform, new content from channels still operating on legacy hardware will continue to be updated, such as new episodes of Category5 TV. However, as services evolve and grow, channels may break and no longer function.

Current-generation Roku players and Roku TV models are not affected.

If you're using a Roku manufactured before May 2011, you can visit cat5.tv/roku to purchase a current-generation system and continue to receive the best experience possible from your Roku device.

The change will take effect on May 30th.