China is to require all of its mobile-phone users to register their details with cellular providers or lose their connection. While all prepay users already register personal information with their operators for billing purposes, the new requirement from the Chinese Ministry of Information could affect hundreds of millions of pay-as-you-go users.
According to reports, the government has instated the edict to cut telephone fraud and illegal SMS services, which distribute forbidden content, including pornography. The new rule is expected to come into force before the end of this year, with users who fail to register eventually seeing their cell phone service cut off. Concerns have been raised that the government intends to use the edict to stop antigovernment sentiment distributed via mobiles.
The company says that manufacturing facilities in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China, will be inspected by a group "dedicated to ending sweatshop conditions in factories worldwide."
A group calling itself Evil Shadow Team reportedly hacked into Microsoft's online store in India, stealing usernames and passwords of the site's customers.
The Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 S6500 could make its debut at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, according to a leaked promotional image.
The space agency powers down its last System Z machine, years after IBM stopped selling them for the mathematical calculation jobs for which NASA originally bought them.
