Boot up: Apple's Secret Service call, Android's crucial summer, Twitter ads coming and more

US Secret Service agents escort Barack Obama. He didn't put the software on machines in an Apple store. Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters

A burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team

"Artist Kyle McDonald installed a program on computers in two New York Apple Store locations that automatically takes a photo every minute. Now his personal computers have been confiscated by the U.S. Secret Service."
Artist has bad idea. Has quality of idea forcibly demonstrated to him. Perhaps next time, ask first?

"The innocent-seeming "1 Tip" ad is actually the tip of something much larger: a vast array of diet and weight-loss companies hawking everything from pills made from African mangoes to potions made from exotic acai berries. Federal officials have alleged that the companies behind the ads make inflated claims about their products and use deceptive means to market them. "The take so far: at least $1 billion and counting. "The "1 Tip" ads are the work of armies of "affiliates," independent promoters who place them on behalf of small diet-product sellers with names such as HCG Ultra Lean Plus. The promoters profit each time someone clicks through to the product seller's site and orders a free sample. The sample, however, isn't always so free."

"This is a crucial summer for Android. It rose to prominence as the anti-iPhone, but has managed to unite Apple, Microsoft, and Research in Motion in a consortium of competitors who are trying to hit Google in its most vulnerable spot. "As [Andy] Reback related years ago, modern patent litigation isn't really all that different from a protection racket: you pay, or you get hurt. If Google wants to keep the Android miracle rolling, it's going to have to find a way to offer its own brand of protection before its partners opt for peace of mind over loyalty."
The question is, what?

Read it, and then write your own punchline.

"As Twitter raises even more money, it's getting more serious about making money. The service is set to start showing ads in users' "timelines" within the next month, following through on plans it has talked about for more than a year.
"Twitter is pushing a new ad product called "Promoted Tweets To Followers," set to launch by early August."
This will either go very well (nobody will notice them) or catastophically (everyone will notice them).

"The day would simply feel incomplete without a spicy rumor about the next iPhone, and today's is a spicy one indeed. According to a photo that surfaced on the web yesterday, the next iPhone iteration will be known as the iPhone 5, but the more interesting part is that the smartphone will pack dual cameras on its back, presumably for capturing 3D photos and videos."
Which a bit of playing with Photoshop reveals as fake. Isn't there a site where you can upload photos to see their fake-ness?

Fascinating, detailed read.

"From Brazil to France to Australia to India, new laws and platforms are giving citizens new means to ask for, demand or simply create greater government transparency. The open data movement has truly gone global, with 19 international open data websites live around the globe. This week, the world will see another open government platform go live in Kenya."
Amazing.

"Omar Khan, the Samsung CTO who was responsible for the rise of the GalTab and other Android-powered smartphones, is moving to Citibank to handle that company's global digital banking initiatives. He will be replaced by Nick Dicarlo and Gavin Kim in 'product and service spokesperson responsibilities for Samsung Mobile.'"
Techcrunch suggests this indicates a certain amount of "political infighting". Or, possibly, not a big enough raise?

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Whole of Government Accounts: the secret history

The Treasury prepare to publish the Whole of Government Accounts for the first time. Photograph: Cate Gillon/Getty

Today, for the first time ever, the government will publish the results of bringing together all of its accounts. This project is called the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA). The report will show the finances in the final year of Labour control - the financial year 2009-10.

It has taken over 10 years to bring together the accounts and report them publicly. The reasons it has taken this long have been largely secret.

Of course a project on this scale will take time. Big business frequently bring together the accounts of all their branches to give their overall company accounts. However the government is different as it is dealing with about 1500 bodies which is far in excess of what most businesses have to wrangle. The time consuming part of bringing accounts together is that exchanges of money between bodies in the same organisation need to be identified to avoid double counting.

But there is secrecy about why, in the 10 years of running this exercise, nothing has been published at all. This secrecy seem excessive given the project takes mostly public information from the annual accounts of each public body, and brings them together to form one set of consolidated accounts.

We can see exactly what HM Treasury, the department tasked with combining the accounts, has to deal with as they publish the excel sheets that each authority completes for WGA. We know that HM Treasury receives a balance sheet and a cash flow statement in an excel document from every public body, as the forms local authorities complete and the forms (excel) central government complete are available. You can also see two examples of completed forms from Lichfield District Council and Haringey Borough Council.

These balance sheets and cash flow statements are also published in the annual accounts, so have been publicly available for some time.

The Guardian has requested information on the Whole of Government Accounts project at various stages of its life.

The Whole of Government Accounts data is stored in the COINS database. But when COINS was published in June 2010 we observed that none of the WGA data was included. So we asked for it. This was rejected.

Then we asked for the audit report on the WGA. That was rejected too.

There was a round table discussion on the presentation of the WGA held in May. We were told that the media were not invited, however we have the list of invitees who were deciding the future of this project in the spreadsheet below.

Some of the secrecy might be because the project will report a new measure of national debt. Some might be because the full cost of public sector pensions will be exposed for the first time.

Some of the embarrassment might also be related to the costs of the private and public partnerships being included for the first time - to a limited extent, but still there.

If nothing else, the secrecy shows just how cautious the government is when bringing data together. Today we will see what they have to chosen to show.

Here is the data on who has a say over what is reported in the WGA, what would you like us to do with it?

Click on heading to sort

Department for Work and Pensions Foreign and Commonwealth Office Member of the Monetary Policy Committee, Bank of England Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Northern Ireland Courts Service Centre for Economics and Business Research Centre for Economics and Business Research Wandsworth London Borough Council Cardiff City and County Council The Financial Reporting Council DFPNI devolved administration contact Confederation of British Industry Office for National Statistics Member of the Monetary Policy Committee, Bank of England Southwark London Borough Council Department for Communities and Local Government Department for Work and Pensions Hackney London Borough Council Department for Communities and Local Government Office for National Statistics Confederation of British Industry Government Actuary's Department Department for Communities and Local Government Islington London Borough Council West Midlands Police Authority Export Credits Guarantees Department DoENU FD for devolved administration Department for International Development Department for Finance and Personnel - NI Department for Culture, Media and Sport Federation of Small Businesses Hounslow London Borough Council Office for National Statistics Higher Education Funding Council for England London Fire and Emergency Planning Association Confederation of British Industry Confederation of British Industry Treasury Solicitors Department Office for Budget Responsibility Government Actuary's Department Department for Energy and Climate Change

• DATA: download the full spreadsheet

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Boot-up: Apple's secret service call, androids ultimate summer, Twitter view come and more

U.S. agents accompany Barack Obama. He has put the software on machines in an Apple retail store. Photo: Jason Reed/Reuters
A burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the technology team
"Artist Kyle McDonald a program installed on computers in two New York Apple store locations, the a photo makes automatically every minute." "Now have his computers were confiscated by the US secret service."

Artist has a bad idea. Has the quality of the idea been violent to him. Perhaps you ask first next time?

"The innocent-looking"1 tip"display is actually the tip of something much larger: a variety of diet and weight loss companies hawking everything from pills, between African mangoes and potions made from exotic Acai berries produced." Federal officials have claimed that their products of companies map after the inflated claims about and make fraudulent funds use them to market. "Take this so far: at least $1 billion and counting."
The "1 tip" map independent promoters that ultra lean plus place them on behalf of small diet product seller named HCG are the work of armies of 'connected undertakings'. The promoters will benefit every time when someone clicks through on the ordered product seller Web site and a free sample. "The example, but not always so free."

"This is a crucial summer for Android." It rose to prominence as the anti-iPhone, but has managed to combine Apple, Microsoft and research in motion in a consortium of competitors trying, Google in its most vulnerable point taken. "Like [Andy] Reback years ago, modern related patent litigation is not really everything, what other than a protection racket: you pay or get hurt." "If Google wants to keep rolling the wonders of the Android, it will need to find a way, provide protection to the own brand before its partners for peace of mind over loyalty opt."

The question, what is?

Read it, and then write your own punchline.

"How Twitter raises more money, it is more serious about money to get." The service will show set to launch, which display in users "Timeline" within the next month after by using plans that it spoke for more than a year.

"Twitter is a new ad product called" promotes tweets, followers, "from early August press start."

This will either go very well (no one will notice them) or Catastophically (everyone will notice it).

"The day would simply without a spicy rumors about the next iPhone feel incomplete, and today is a spicy indeed." "According to a photo, popped up yesterday on the Web that next iPhone iteration will be known, as the iPhone 5, but more interesting part is that the Smartphone dual cameras on the back, is probably for the collection of 3D photos and videos pack."

It reveals a lot of games with Photoshop as a forgery. There is no a website where you can upload photos to see their fake-ness?
Fascinating, read detailed.

"From Brazil to France to Australia to India, new laws and platforms citizens provide new means to request, demand or create more transparency of the Government." The open data movement is truly global, with 19 international open data Web site around the globe live gone. "This week, the world see go live any other open government platform in Kenya." Amazing.

"Omar Khan, the Samsung CTO working Android-powered Citibank responsible for the rise of the GalTab and other mobile devices, the company's to handle global digital banking initiatives." He is replaced by Nick Dicarlo and Gavin Kim in ' product and the speaker responsible for Samsung mobile.' "

TechCrunch suggests that this a certain "political infighting" shows. Or may be not a big enough raise?

You can follow guardian technology Linkbucket on delicious.
Suggest links, day article on delicious.com with "Guardiantech"

View the original article here

Whole of government accounts: the secret history

The Ministry of finance is preparing to publish the entire government accounts for the first time. Photo: Cate Gillon/Getty
The Government today for the first time published the results of the merge all of their accounts. This project refers to the whole of government accounts (WGA). The report shows the finance in the last year of labour control, fiscal year 2009 / 10.
It took over 10 years, merge the accounts, and to report publicly. The reasons that this has taken long, were largely secret.
Of course, a project on this scale will take time. Big business often lead the accounts of all its branches with their entire company account type. The Government is however different, how it has to do that is make with about 1500 far beyond most companies need to argue. The time consuming accounts together to lead is that Exchange of money between the posts in the same organization are, must be identified to avoid double counting.
But there is secrecy on why, in the ten years of running this exercise anything at all was released. This secrecy seem excessive takes accounts of each public body in particular public project information and brings together to form a set of consolidated financial statements.
We can see, what exactly HM commissioned Treasury Department with the combination of the accounts, has with itself, as they publish the Excel sheets, each authority for WGA has been. We know, HM Treasury a balance sheet and cash flow statement receives public body in an Excel document from each, such as local authorities, forms are complete and full forms (Excel)-Central Government. You can also see two examples of completed forms of Lichfield District Council and Haringey Borough Council.
These balance sheets and cash flow statements are also in the financial statements, so that public have published for some time.
The guardian has requested details of the whole of government accounts-project at different stages in his life.
The whole of government accounts data are stored in the coins database. But when coins appeared in June 2010, we observed that none of the WGA data was included. So we asked for them. This was rejected.
Then we have for the audit report on WGA. She was to be rejected.
It was a round table discussion on the submission of the WGA in may take place. We were told that the media were not invited, but we have the list of invited persons, decided the future of this project in the table below.
Some of the secrecy may be, that the project will report a new measure of public debt. Some may be, that the full cost of the public sector are exposed for the first time pensions.
Could some fix to the costs of private and public partnerships, including is restricted for the first time - but still there refer.
If nothing else, shows the secrecy, the Government is how careful, when to bring data together. Today, we will see what they chose to have to show.
Here on the data a say over what is reported in the WGA, what would you like us so that has to do?
Click sort heading
Department for work and pensions foreign and Commonwealth Office-member of the Monetary Committee, Bank of England Department of environment, food and Rural Affairs Northern Ireland courts Service Centre for Economics and Business Research Center for Economics and business research Wandsworth London Borough Council Cardiff City and County Council the financial reporting Council DFPNI autonomous administration contact Confederation of British industry Office for national statistics member of the Committee on MonetäreDie Bank of England Southwark London Borough Council Department for communities and local government Ministry for work and pensions Hackney London Borough Council Department for communities and local Government Office for national statistics Confederation of British industry Government Actuary of Department Department for communities and local government Islington London Borough Council West Midlands Police Authority export credits guarantee Department DoENU FD of decentralised Administration Department for International Development Department for finance and human resources - NI Department of culture changing you the media and Sport Federation of small businesses Hounslow London Borough Council, Office for national statistics higher education funding Council for England London Fire and emergency planning Association Confederation of British industry Confederation of British industry solicitors Treasury Office for budget responsibility Government Actuary Department Department for energy and climate
• Data: download the complete spreadsheet
Data journalism and data visualizations of the guardian
• You are looking for the world government data with our gateway
• Search worldwide global development data with our gateway
• Flickr please send your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group
• Contact us at data@guardian.co.uk
• You get the data from A to Z
• More in the datastore directory
Follow us on Twitter •
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View the original article here