LinkedIn hit as China clamps down on dissident talk

Business networking site LinkedIn appeared to have been blocked in some parts of China, the company said. No explanation was given for the move, which LinkedIn is still investigating.

However, it comes amid a renewed clampdown on internet discussion groups and micro blogging sites by authorities in Beijing. Shortly before the site went offline, one user set up a forum, discussing the idea of a "Jasmine Revolution" in China. The phrase has been used to describe the popular revolts taking place across Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and several other countries. Over the weekend, a number of pro-democracy demonstrations were held across China, with police making a handful of arrests. The protests are thought to have been organised in response to calls made on the website Boxun.com, access to which is banned inside mainland China. Shortly afterwards, a LinkedIn user named Jasmine J created a group called Jasmine Voice. In one posting, they wrote: "OMG, some pro-democracy fighters really did something here after the triumph of Eygpt." However, the message does not appear to be strongly for or against a Chinese revolution. "The revolution here means turn the Chinese political system into multi-party democratic election and separation of the three powers. Who need this?" wrote Jasmine J. At this stage, there is no evidence that the Chinese authorities were responsible for disrupting access to LinkedIn. However, in a statement, company spokesman Hani Durzy said: "This appears to be part of a broader effort in China going on right now, involving other sites as well."Some users in China reported that their access to LinkedIn had been restored during Friday.

'Jasmine' blocked

China already exercises strict control over what citizens can view online, with many websites and politically sensitive subjects blocked. Authorities appear to have increased the level of filtering in response to the wave of popular uprisings across the Midde East. Searches for the word "jasmine" are now blocked on the country's most popular website, Sina.com. Internet users inside the country reported that some sites were also blocking information on Jon Huntsman, the US ambassador to Beijing.

Mr Huntsman was seen attending one of last weekend's pro-democracy rallies. Campaign group Reporters Without Borders criticised the escalation in Chinese net censorship, accusing the authorities of trying to stamp out "all forms of freedom of expression". In a recent speech, Chinese president Hu Jintao stressed the need to "build a socialist social management system." He added: "Unhealthy practices that could harm people's rights and interests must be corrected resolutely."

Motorola hit with lawsuit over Xoom name

Xoom Corp., a San Francisco-based money transfer company has filed a trademark suit against Motorola over the use of the name “Xoom,” which is the name Motorola has chosen to call its first Android tablet around the world.The company claims to have actively used the name for its Website since 2003 and has an “incontestable” trademark on it.

“Through this long online use accessible via computer and mobile devices, Xoom’s trade name and the XOOM products have become associated exclusively with Xoom,” read the company’s complaint. “Until [the] Defendants’ adoption of the Xoom brand without authorization from Xoom, Xoom to its knowledge was the only entity using the name or mark for online product offerings.”

Much of the complaint appears to center around Motorola hogging the word “Xoom” in search engine searches, making it difficult for customers to learn about Xoom Corp’s financial services. Does it have merit? Well, maybe. It’s very possible that people could search for the Xoom financial site and end up finding Motorola or vice versa. This will get more confusing if Xoom chose to make an Android app. However, we’ll let the courts hash this one out. We wonder how long it will be until GlobalXoom.com and MobileXoom.com sue Motorola. This would never happen if branding specialists knew how to spell.

iPad 2 lands in thinner body with spec bump and cameras, SD slot and higher resolution display are out

The Apple rumors game can be a volatile thing. Just as we'd heard about last minute alterations to the Apple TV before it hit the market, we've gotten word from sources that the iPad 2 slated to be announced next Wednesday will be sans a few of the features we'd previously reported. Notably, that SD card slot and higher resolution display won't make it into the new model (the latter we'd been hearing rumblings about for a little while). What's the cause of the switch? Well our sources weren't crystal clear on the exact reasons, but the gist of what was explained to us centered around vague "engineering issues" which may have forced some changes at the eleventh hour. It's worth noting once again that these sources have been dead right on specific Apple plans and specifications for unannounced products in the past, and we have no reason to believe these changes are due to anything more than legitimate engineering decisions made close to launch.

So what will we see on March 2nd? We're hearing it's most likely a thinner, spec-bumped variation of the original iPad with a screen size and resolution identical to the current model. More RAM (512MB) and a more powerful CPU (the A5) are expected as well. It's also a pretty safe bet the tablet will be sporting at least one camera up front -- though if some of those case mockups we've seen tell us anything, expect a shooter around back too. It's also almost guaranteed that we'll see the next version of iOS (number 5 in all likelihood, along with its SDK for devs), and an expansion of Apple's cloud services (that part is a little... foggy right now). Of course, that will perfectly set up Apple's announcement of the iPhone 5 in June, which is when iPad owners can likely expect to be using the new software. Regardless, we'll have the goods come next week, so stay tuned!

Apple removes MobileMe from online store, discontinues retail boxes

Apple today notified resellers that it has discontinued the retail box version of MobileMe, shifting entirely to digital sales. Existing stocks of boxed MobileMe can continue to be sold while their supplies last.

Since the boxed MobileMe products contain only an activation code and promotional materials, the offering of a physical MobileMe product has primarily been used to provide in-store visibility for the service.

Apple is reportedly working on an overhaul of its MobileMe service, potentially looking to shift to a free offering that would provide users with "digital lockers" for housing their music, photos, and videos. Consequently, the discontinuation of boxed MobileMe products could be paving the way for a sell-off of existing stock and a brief period of digital-only sales before transitioning to a free service.

Apple's North Carolina data center has been the subject of considerable speculation regarding potential cloud-based offerings. Apple acknowledged at yesterday's shareholder meeting that the center is not yet open, but should be opening soon to support MobileMe and iTunes. Five times larger than Apple's existing primary data center in Newark, California, the North Carolina center will offer significantly expanded infrastructure for the company that could support the rumored cloud-based services.

Apple also appears to have entirely removed MobileMe from its online store, both as a standalone product and as bundled with new Macs. Apple had previously offered a $30 discount on MobileMe when purchased with a new Mac, but that offer is no longer available.

Apple continues to offer a 60-day free trial of MobileMe, but given that it has just become substantially more difficult to actually purchase MobileMe directly from Apple, it appears that Apple may indeed be shifting it to a free service sometime within the next two months.