Microsoft to spill more Windows 10 details on Jan. 21

Microsoft is readying to pull back the curtain even further on its next version of the Windows operating system.

The Redmond, Wash., software titan plans to hold a second event on January 21 to talk about Windows 10. The event, titled "Windows 10: The next chapter," is expected to focus more on the consumer experience, according to a person familiar with the company's plans. The unveiling of Windows 10 in September was focused more on business applications and experiences.
Windows 10 represents a potential spark for Microsoft after the tepid reaction garnered by Windows 8, which was the first to introduce the Live Tile system that deviated from the traditional desktop experience. While a bold move by the company, it alienated people who were used to the classic Windows user interface. The new OS is expected to bring back some familiar elements while still pushing the software into new ground.

Windows 10 promises to bring back old favorites like the Start button and Recycle Bin, as well as boot up directly into desktop mode. At the same time, the new operating system will be more tightly integrated into Microsoft's mobile operating system, the Windows Phone platform.

Microsoft surprisingly opted to skip a number with Windows 10, omitting version 9, prompting many theories.

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Sony to enter China gaming market with PlayStation 4, Vita

Sony will follow Microsoft's Xbox One into China with the launch next month of its PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, the company confirmed Thursday.

The PlayStation 4 console will be available on January 11 for 2,899RMB (about $468), while the handheld PlayStation Vita will go for 1,299RMB.

Sony sold 13.5 million PS4 consoles outside of China between its release last year and the end of the third quarter.

Until earlier this year, console gaming had been banned in China for nearly 15 years. The government once argued that console gaming would hurt children and would therefore not allow it. However, the move was viewed by some critics as a way to keep non-China-based companies out of the potentially profitable market, since other forms of gaming, including free-to-play online titles, have been available.

After lifting the ban on console gaming earlier this year, Microsoft was first to make the move into China. Under the country's laws, foreign companies that want to deliver a console to China must at least form a joint venture with a China-based company. Microsoft, which released the Xbox One in September in China, partnered with Shanghai Media Group subsidiary BesTV to handle the launch and distribution of its console.

Sony has been required to sign a similar deal to distribute the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in China. Sony opted to partner with China-based Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development to form two joint ventures. The first, Sony Computer Entertainment (Shanghai) will handle hardware distribution, while the other, Oriental Pearl Culture Development, will take care of software licensing.

Sony has so far signed up 70 third-party software developers, including 26 based in China, and will also create its own games. China has, however, been clear that it won't take kindly to violent games or anything it deems unsuitable, so actually getting games approved may prove difficult.

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Google News to close up shop in Spain in response to new law

Google plans to discontinue offering Google News in Spain in response to newly passed legislation that imposes fees on content aggregators for using local publishers' content.

The search giant announced in a company blog post late Wednesday that it will disable the service and remove Spanish publishers from Google News on December 16 before a new copyright law takes effect in January. The announced closure is the latest skirmish in the long-running war between Google and European newspaper publishers.

The so-called "Google tax," which was passed in October, requires aggregator services that post links and excerpts of news articles to pay a fee to the Association of Editors of Spanish Dailies, an organization that represents the Spanish newspaper industry. Failure to do so could result in fines up to €600,000 ($750,000).

"This new legislation requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not," Richard Gingras, head of Google News, wrote in the post. "As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable."

Jeremy Malcolm, senior global policy analyst at digital-rights advocate Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in a blog post that "it is hard to see what value this has achieved for the press in Spain or for Spanish (and Spanish speaking) Internet users."

The EFF is also concerned about the "broader trend" of the erosion of the right to link. Another part of the new Spanish law, for example, places "criminal liability on website operators who refuse to remove mere links to copyright-infringing material," Malcolm said. Part of the same trend is the "right to be forgotten" rule in Europe, Malcolm noted.

"It's time for Europe to turn back from this misguided path of Internet content regulation before more damage to the open Internet is done," he said.

Other European countries have pursued similar fees from Google in recent years with mixed results.

Germany passed legislation last year that allows publishers to charge search engines and aggregators for using any content beyond headlines, but Google asked publishers to opt in without requiring the fee, which some did. After a two-week experiment, German news giant Axel Springer scrapped a plan last month to restrict Google access to some of its content when traffic to its sites plummeted, according to Reuters.

In 2012, Google settled a legal dispute with Belgian newspaper publishers that accused the search giant of copyright infringement over its practice of linking to French- and German-language Belgian newspapers. After Belgium courts sided with a Belgium newspaper publisher and ordered Google to remove the links in 2011, the Web giant agreed to partner with the publishers on a range of initiativesto increase their revenue, including paywalls and subscriptions.

A Google representative said the company was "incredibly sad" to announce the closure of Google News in Spain but said the fee was unsustainable because the company derives no revenue from Google News.

"Despite these changes, we'll continue to work with Spanish publishers to help them increase their readership and revenues online," a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

Read CNET Espanol's take on the development here.

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FBI official calls Sony attackers 'organized,' 'persistent'

Few companies could have prevented the cyberattack that devastated Sony Pictures, the FBI said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on cybersecurity and the finance industry.

"[T]he malware that was used would have gotten past 90 percent of the Net defenses that are out there today in private industry and [would have been] likely to challenge even state government," said Joe Demarest, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's cyberdivision. His comments were officially confirmed later by the FBI.

Demarest on Tuesday told a cybersecurity conference the FBI couldn't yet determine who was behind the attacks on Sony. Demarest's comments today align with those by Kevin Mandia, CEO security forensics company Mandiant, which Sony hired to investigate the attack. In an internal memo to Sony Picture's CEO Michael Lynton, Mandia called the attack "unprecedented" for which neither Sony Pictures or "other companies could have been fully prepared." The emails were first reported Saturday by Reuters.

A group calling itself the Guardians of Peace breached Sony Pictures' computer systems on November 24. The group leaked financial documents, unreleased movies, confidential information about employees and celebrities, and details on the internal workings of Sony's computer security department. It also destroyed Sony's computer hard drives.

Circumstantial evidence had indicated North Korea could be behind the cyberattack, including similarities in the malware used by North Korea against South Korean media companies and banks in 2013.

North Korea, which has denied allegations of its involvement, expressed support for the hack over the weekend.

"The hacking into Sony Pictures might be a righteous deed of the supporters and sympathizers with the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea]," a spokesman for North Korea said.

Demarest said the FBI has determined the attack was "organized," "certainly persistent," and it's "level of sophistication is extremely high," according to The Hill.

"Wow," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, The Hill reported.

An internal Sony email leaked to Variety by Sony employees on Monday said FBI officials are expected to meet with Sony Pictures staff members today to discuss how they should manage the leak of their personal information, which included Social Security numbers.

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