Anonymous says Facebook attack was never real

(Credit: illustration by James Martin/CNET)

Don't worry Facebook users, the sky is not falling--you'll be able to update your status and post those Occupy Wall Street photos tomorrow.
Members of Anonymous fed up with reports that the online activist group is going to take down the social network said today that the threat is not real and was the work of one lone member without any support from others in the group. They said it doesn't make sense to shut down a site they use to get their message out.
"Anonymous is a movement we don't take kindly to when people try to (expletive) it up. Our movement relies on communicating with people around the world so we can help one another," a statement posted to Pastebin today said.
"One skiddy queer chap named Anthony [last name redacted] from the US in Ohio decided to take it upon himself to have some lulz with creating an imaginary opfacebook and pawning it off as a legit anon op," the statement said. "Despite us telling this mate several times we did not support his op, he continued to push his agenda for lulz. This op is phony but he continues to say it's an anon op."
The statement then provides an address, phone number, and other information ostensibly belonging to the individual named. (We've chosen not to include his last name in this post.)
"If you are against how we communicate on facebook, twitter, and anonops for example then you are against anonymous and become our enemy since you are trying to disrupt our movement," the statement says. "Because of this we decided to social the Opfacebook skiddy and hack him. Give this wanker a call and tell him what a piece of rubbish he is."
A woman who answered the phone number listed in the statement for the alleged provocateur confirmed that someone with his name lives there but said he was not home and wasn't involved with Anonymous. No doubt she'll be getting a lot of prank calls this weekend.
Anonymous sources and people familiar with the group have previously told CNET that the campaign against Facebook was the work of a rogue member and not a legitimate threat.
This case brings up the difficulty of dealing with a movement that lacks leaders and whose members are all nameless and faceless. If Anonymous can be anyone and no one is identified then no one is accountable for anything and anyone can take an action in the name of Anonymous. Some kid in his parents house in Ohio can make a threat that causes a media frenzy and public panic for naught.
Meanwhile, some threats made by Anonymous members can pose all-too-real risks to human life. Members of Anonymous in Mexico canceled a threat against the Zetas drug cartel after the return of an Anonymous member who was kidnapped. The message that innocent people would die if Anonymous exposed any information on cartel associates also played a part in that decision.
Learning to pick your battles is wise.

Apple gives most of its top execs $60M bonuses

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

It's bonus season at Apple.
A flurry of new filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show Apple's top executives getting bonuses with big payouts that hinge on them staying with the company through the end of 2016.
The company on Wednesday doled out 150,000 shares each to most of its senior vice presidents, short of recently-minted SVP Eddy Cue, who received a slightly smaller 100,000-share bonus, and design guru Jonathan Ive, who is an SVP, but does not fall under the SEC's section for directors, officers, and principal stockholders. That works out to just over a $60 million payday to those who got the 150,000 shares, with Cue's cut coming out to a little more than $40 million, all based off today's closing price.
Those who got the 150,000 shares will reach 50 percent vesting come June 21, 2013, with the other 50 percent fully vesting on March 21, 2016. The filings show that 25,000 of Cue's shares vest on September 21, 2014, with the rest vesting two years later. With all of these, the bonus is contingent on the executives continuing to work at the company.
"Our executive team is incredibly talented and they are all dedicated to Apple's continued success," said Apple spokesman Steve Dowling in a statement. "These stock grants are meant to reward them down the road for their hard work in helping to keep Apple the most innovative company in the world."
Though Cue's bonus is less than the others, it's his second major bonus in the past few months. Cue was awarded 100,000 restricted stock units when he was promoted to SVP status at the beginning of September to oversee Apple's iTunes Store, iCloud, iAd, and iBookstore. Cue, who is a 22-year Apple veteran, helped create the company's first online store in 1998, and Apple's iTunes Music Store in 2003--the latter being the business that would become the foundation for the App Store and iBookstore, places where Apple sells other digital goods.
Here's a full breakdown of the bonuses by executive:
Bruce Sewell -- 150,000 shares, 50 percent vest on June 21, 2013, 100 percent on March 21, 2016
Jeffrey Williams -- 150,000 shares, 50 percent on June 21, 2013, 100 percent on March 21, 2016
Philip Schiller -- 150,000 shares, 50 percent on June 21, 2013, 100 percent on March 21, 2016
Peter Oppenheimer --150,000 shares, 50 percent on June 21, 2013, 100 percent on March 21, 2016
Robert Mansfield -- 150,000 shares, 50 percent on June 21, 2013, 100 percent on March 21, 2016
Scott Forstall -- 150,000 shares, 50 percent on June 21, 2013, 100 percent on March 21, 2016
Eddy Cue -- 100,000 shares, 25 percent vest September 21, 2014, 100 percent September 21, 2016.

 comment from Apple.

Motorola Xoom 2 tablet is thinner, faster with better specs

Motorola plans to only release the tablet in the United Kingdom and Ireland for now

Motorola plans to release a follow-up to its Xoom Android tablet in November, but only in the United Kingdom and Ireland for now.
The Xoom 2 is the same basic size as the original, with a 10.1-inch widescreen display, and follows a familiar tablet formula of thinner, lighter and faster. It packs a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor compared with 1 GHz in the original Xoom, and it's 10 percent lighter and 33 percent thinner. Other specs include more than 10 hours of battery life, a 5-megapixel camera in the back, a 1.3-megapixel camera in the front, 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage. It will retail at £379.99.