Facebook

Facebook Inc said it erroneously disabled the personal account of a user named Isis Anchalee for about a day, an action the user claims was due to her name being spelt the same as the acronym used for the Islamic State extremist group.

Anchalee, a software developer in San Francisco, on Monday posted a screenshot of a Facebook log-in page that showed a message "Account disabled". She wrote to Facebook's Twitter page (@facebook), "why would you disable my personal account? MY REAL NAME IS ISIS ANCHALEE".

Anchalee said she sent Facebook her personal information three times to resolve the issue.

"Facebook thinks I'm a terrorist. Apparently sending them a screenshot of my passport is not good enough for them to reopen my account," Anchalee wrote on Twitter.

A researcher at Facebook responded on Twitter on Tuesday that her account was activated again.

"This was an error made as part of a fake account reporting process and we're sorry for the trouble it caused. It was not connected to the individual's name and her account has already been restored," a Facebook spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Many people with the name Isis - an Ancient Egyptian goddess of health, marriage and wisdom, have expressed concerns about the use of the acronym ISIS to refer to Islamic State, the group which claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.

An online petition on the issue calling for media to "stop calling terrorists (Islamic State) by our name" closed on 24 August with more than 56,800 signatures

Apple iPhone 6S, 6S Plus shipments surge after slow start in India

The smartphone maker shipped more than 413,500 of the latest iPhones in the first month of its launch to November 15, which is close to what Apple sold in the entire October-December quarter last year in the world's fastest-growing smartphone market.

Shipments of the new iPhones made up nearly 74% of Apple's total in the month and a half that began October 1, according to shipment data from Cybex Exim. Apple imported 562,500 iPhones between October 1 and November 15. That compares with 500,000 units it sold in the October-December period last year, its best quarter thus far.

"The initial momentum was not that strong, so Apple went in for a change and offered discounts on the new phones," said Tarun Pathak, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research. "But the overall demand for Apple iPhone still remains strong, thanks to the strong aspirational value attached to the brand." Research agencies estimate that sales for the quarter ending December may exceed 700,000 units.

Apple launched the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus in India on October 16 at Rs 62,000-Rs 92,000 depending on the memory and model, about Rs 14,000-16,000 more than in markets such as the US, Middle East, Singapore and Hong Kong. Apple admitted that the high prices may have discouraged buyers.

"We've adjusted some prices around the world for the launch of iPhone 6S and 6S Plus... Obviously when we increase prices around the world, it's normal to see some impact on sales rates," Apple's chief financial officer Luca Maestri said late last month on an earnings call about the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations in parts of the world including India.

The weak debut prompted a rethink by Apple and the announcement of a buyback programme offering discounts of as much as Rs 34,000 in early November, just before Diwali. That strategy seems to have paid off, said retailers and those in the trade.

"Our iPhone 6S and 6S Plus sales were very good primarily due to the buyback offer, which started a week before Diwali," said the chief executive of a leading retail chain in south India. "It started out slow but because of that offer, which we marketed very well too, we had a very good sale for Apple phones." The 413,500 iPhones shipped in the first month represents a trebling of the monthly average that Apple clocked for its fiscal year ended September.

During the fiscal year, the company shipped a record 1.7 million iPhones, or 142,000 units a month, to India.

"Apple has more reach now compared to last year, so they (Apple) would make sure that their partners have a level of inventory to manage demand," Counterpoint's Pathak said.

In line with the growing importance of India -- among the few growing markets in the world and that too at a scorching pace -- Apple has expanded distributors to five from two since the beginning of the year.

"Apple's strategy is simple," said Pathak. "They want to get as many people as possible onto their ecosystem in India and ensure deeper distribution reach within India. The platform stickiness of the Apple ecosystem will ensure that Apple's existing user base is going to be more robust in the coming one year." This includes the launch of Apple Music in India at a price of Rs 120 a month for individuals and Rs 180 for families (up to 6 users).

On an analyst conference call last month chief executive officer Tim Cook was positive about India's potential in the long run. Also, recent relaxations in retail policy could see the company opening directly owned stores in India.

the Finnish pocket computer that wants to take over the world

Three ambitious engineers from Finland are bidding to change personal computing with a new portable computer and operating system

 Solu is four inches wide and has an edge-to-edge touchscreen, but it’s not intended to be a mobile phone replacement.

computers, says entrepreneur Kristoffer Lawson, haven’t changed much in 20 years. It’s still a box, a screen and, if you’re using a desktop, a keyboardBut Lawson thinks that the era of cloud computing deserves its own kind of computing device. Portable, but more powerful than a mobile, designed to be plugged into any desktop screen and with a new kind of operating system that connects more fluidly to your contacts. And at a launch in San Francisco on 15 October, that’s what Lawson and the rest of the Solu team unveilSolu might look like a drinks coaster but don’t put your coffee on it; this is a four-inch wide block of curved, wood-encased computer with an edge-to-edge touch screen. Inside is a powerful 2.3GHz processor, battery and Wi-Fi capability. It can be used on its own or paired with a keyboard and a display up to a resolution of 4K. When paired in this way, the Solu acts as an input device instead of a mouse.

 

“This is something I’ve been thinking about for 15 years, but back then the technology that would have allowed us to do this would have been so complex and expensive – particularly the hardware – that it would have been impossible,” says Lawson in a disorienting Belfast-Finnish accent.

Lawson has been working on Solu’s hardware and operating system for the last 12 months, with a team that includes the former Nordic director of TMF Group Javier Reyes and Pekka Nikander, who founded IT security consultancy Nixu.

The team was, says Lawson, attracted to the leaping ambition of the Solu project: to disrupt the personal computing establishment. “When the challenge is big enough, the smart people will get inspired.”

Lawson draws directly on experience building Holvi, a simple online banking and accountancy service. Like banking, personal computing is a market that’s been dominated by major players like Microsoft and Apple for decades. The mobile revolution has given us computing power on the move, but the desktop staple – particularly the user interface – has remained unchanged.

Lawson’s biggest gripe with today’s computers is “how badly they use the internet as part of their whole experience”.

“Yes we have email but we’re still fighting with backups, hard drive space and downloading and installing applications,” he says. “The whole internet is not a natural part of the computer itself. If you run out of local resources, you’re screwed.”

With Solu, the hardware is linked directly to a cloud service the team has built, with data centres located in Finland. The cloud gives the user ability to scale up, while the local device acts as a smart cache with a capacity of 32GB.

The obvious comparison is Google’s Chromebook, but Lawson points out that this competitor “is basically just a web browser” and the “desktop experience is extremely limited”. Solu, on the other hand, is designed to work offline. Any changes made offline are synced as soon as the device goes online.